[The Pomegranate 15.

1-2 (2013) 250-272] ISSN 1528-0268 (print)

doi: 10.1558/pome.v15i1-2.250 ISSN 1743-1735 (online)
Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. Offce 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffeld S1 2BX.
The Transvaluation of Soul and Spirit:
Platonism and Paulism in H.P. Blavatskys Isis Unveiled
1
Christopher A. Plaisance
2
Independent Scholar
christopher.plaisance@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper in the doxographic history of Western esotericism examines
H.P. Blavatsky's use of the terms soul and spirit in Isis Unveiled.
Soul and spirit have been given great importance both in early
Greek thought and throughout the subsequent history of Western phi-
losophy, religion, and science, and uses of these terms are generally
bound up with the attributions of one Greek school or another. As Isis
Unveiled specifcally frames itself as a Hermetic work, it would be rea-
sonable to assume that Blavatskys early use of soul, spirit, and their
cognates in other languages would comport to the usage of the Alex-
andrian Hermetistswho phrased the relationship between the two in
terms of spirit being distinct from and inferior to soul, with spirit acting
as an intermediary substance which bridges the gap in the emanative
descent from the soul to body. However, Blavatskys use both of the
English and Greek terms (as well as their Latin equivalents) curiously
1. As this paper employs numerous non-English sources, a brief explanation
of my method of citation is required. Paraphrased Greek terms (generally presented
in the nominative case) are free from quotation marks, while direct quotes are natu-
rally contained within quotes. Similarly, translations that are quoted from published
translations are presented within quotation marks and parentheses, (example),
while original translations are simply in parentheses, (example). A special debt of
gratitude is owed to Aaron Cheak, whose assistance translating some of Paracelsus
more diffcult Early New High German passages was invaluable. A further debt is
owed to Edward P. Butler, whose reading of an early draft of this paper helped sug-
gest a deeper connection between Paul and the Stoa which was borne out by fur-
ther research. Additionally, thanks are owed to Clare Goodrick-Clarke, under whose
guidance an earlier version of this paper was composed. Finally, I would like to
thank Pomegranates reviewer, whose critique served to strengthen the papers argu-
ment and form.
2. Christopher A. Plaisance recently graduated from the University of Exeter
with an MA in Western Esotericism.
Plaisance The Transvaluation of Soul and Spirit 251
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follow an inversion of this usage. As such, the principal purpose of this
study is to examine her understanding of these terms, and of the sources
to which she appeals in an attempt to uncover how and why this trans-
valuation occurred. This is accomplished by frst examine Blavatskys
usage, and then those of the historical precedents, charting the semantic
shift from antiquity to that of Isis Unveiled.
Keywords: H.P. Blavatsky; Neoplatonism; New Testament; pneumatol-
ogy; Stoicism; theosophy.
Introduction
The writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (18311891), one of the
founders and principal exponents of the Theosophical Society,
3
can
be divided into two periods marked by a wide variety of doctrinal
and terminological shifts.
4
The frst is an Egyptian or Hermetic
phase, which began with her early attempts to initiate a magical soci-
ety in Cairo during 1872 and whose doctrines were epitomised by the
1877 publication of Isis Unveiled.
5
The second is an Indian or Orien-
tal phase, whose genesis lied in Blavatskys 1879 arrival in Bombay
and which reached its apogee in 1888 with the pressing of The Secret
Doctrine.
6
As Olav Hammer details, while Isis Unveiled describes itself
from the outset as a document of Hermetic philosophy,
7
its contents
can be accurately described as an attempt to synthesize the totality
3. While there exist innumerable biographies of Blavatsky written by members
of the Theosophical Society (and its subsequent splinter groups), Bruce F. Camp-
bells Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement (Berkeley: Uni-
versity of California Press, 1980) is the standard etic history. Further biographical
treatments of Blavatsky can be found in the following works: Joscelyn Godwin, The
Theosophical Enlightenment, SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions (Albany:
State University of New York Press, 1994), 277331; Wouter J. Hanegraaff, New Age
Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought, SUNY Series
in Western Esoteric Traditions (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998),
44282; Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Helena Blavatsky, Western Esoteric Masters Series
(Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2004), 120.
4. Godwin, The Theosophical Enlightenment, 2778; Hanegraaff, New Age Reli-
gion, 4523.
5. H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and
Modern Science and Theology, 2 vols. (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1988).
6. H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Phi-
losophy, 2 vols. (Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1999).
7. Blavatsky, vol. 2 of Isis Unveiled, vii: Our work, then, is a plea for the rec-
ognition of the Hermetic philosophy, the ancient universal Wisdom-Religion, as the
only possible key to the Absolute in science and theology.
252 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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of the late 1870s cultic milieu into a coherent religious philosophy
incorporating everything from Plato (424348 BC) to Paracelsus (1493
1541) to nineteenth-century Spiritualism.
8
Parallel with Renaissance ideas of the prisca theologia, Blavatskys
sweeping emic historiography seeks to construct a narrative in
which the golden thread of divine truth can be traced from the sages
of antiquity to her own work. And, as Isis Unveiled is largely a doxo-
graphic history culminating with the emergence of Blavatskys The-
osophy, it necessarily presents the extremely varied systems of the
philosophers being assimilated as in fundamental agreement with
one another.
9
However, in attempting to synthesise such a vast
amount of philosophical territory, problems of terminological incon-
sistency emerge. As the aforementioned shift from Blavatskys Her-
metic to Oriental phase engenders its own set of unique problems,
I will, in this study, focus solely on the early issues presented in Isis
Unveiledforemost of which are the terminological inconsistencies
surrounding her use of soul and spirit.
In examining Blavatskys usage of the terms soul and spirit
within Isis Unveiled, the scholar is faced with a knot of seeming con-
tradiction. It is that knot which I propose to unravel throughout the
course of this paper. Simply put, the problem is that what Blavatsky
says about the doxographic history of these two terms within West-
ern philosophy, religion, and science does not appear to comport to
the actual histories in question. In particular, as Blavatsky is keen to
explicitly designate Isis Unveiled as participating in the Platonic and
Hermetic traditions, it would be reasonable to assume that her psy-
chology and pneumatology would be in line with the Platonists and
Hermetists of antiquity. However, this is not the case. Rather, we
fnd that her usage constitutes an inverted transvaluation of the Pla-
tonic/Hermetic model. This being the case, we are left to determine
whether or not Blavatskys transvaluation represents some manner
of creative misreading of the ancients, or if the genesis of her usage
can be charted to some other school of thought.
8. Olav Hammer, Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy
to the New Age, Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religions, 40 (Leiden:
Brill, 2004), 61.
9. Tim Rudbg, Helena Petrovna Blavatskys Esoteric Tradition, in Construct-
ing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism, ed. Andreas B.
Kilcher, Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism, 11 (Leiden:
Brill, 2010), 1634.
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It is my contention that the latter position is true, and that the
true source of Blavatskys transvaluation lies in Paul of Tarsus (ca.
567 CE) Christianized Stoic pneumatology. Given the depth of Bla-
vatskys anti-Christianitywhich is felt throughout the whole of Isis
Unveiledthis thesis necessitates a careful analysis both of the pre-
cise ways in which Blavatsky uses the terms in question, and the
ways in which their Greek and Latin predecessors appeared among
the Platonists and Paulists. I conclude that Blavatskys idiosyncratic
adaptions of Platonic and Hermetic terminological apparatuses rep-
resent a psychology and pneumatology that is essentially Pauline,
but which has been draped in a facade of Platonism and Hermetism.
While it is not entirely clear whether this situation is the result of mere
intellectual laziness or some mode of intentional deception,
10
the fact
remains that the doctrines presented in Isis Unveiled are decidedly
not what Blavatsky claims them to be. As we shall see presently, the
psychology and pneumatology presented in Isis Unveiled does not
belong to the Platonic tradition, but is rather more strongly shaped
by Pauline Stoicism and the transcriptional blunders of a novelist.
Blavatskys Use of Soul and Spirit
Soul and spirit are the regular English translations of the Greek
terms and respectively. Given the importance of early
10. Regarding this intellectual laziness, the most glaring example is the aca-
demic pretension and downright plagiarism which suffuses Isis Unveiled. The most
exhaustive documentation is Emmette Coleman, The Sources of Madame Bla-
vatskys Writings, in A Modern Priestess of Isis, by Walter Leaf, 35366 (London:
Longmans, Greek, and Co., 1895). Coleman sums up the situation (354), noting that
he discovered some 2000 passages copied from other books without proper credit,
and that while about 1400 books are quoted from and referred to in this work,
Blavatsky herself only appears to have read one hundred of those. The remaining
1,300 books quoted from were second-hand quotations from the works of a handful
of authors. In essence, what he demonstrates is that not only did Blavatsky blatantly
plagiarize the works of others, but that she also pretended to a breadth of reading
that she did not possess in the least. According to Coleman (3645), this intellectual
dishonesty resulted in the wholesale garbling of historical doctrines, a wealth of
misstatement and error in all branches of knowledge treated by her in Isis Unveiled,
mistakes and blunders of many varied kinds, as well as great contradiction and
inconsistenceboth in terms of internal and external cogency. What this means
for this study is that there is a distinct possibility that Blavatskys transvaluation of
soul and spirit was not the result of malice, but of simple academic dishonesty.
This ineptitude is clearly demonstrated in the following section dealing with the
Augoeides, where Blavatsky invents by accepting at face value a butchered tran-
scription and translation of a Greek passage found within a fantasy novel.
254 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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Greek thought in the subsequent history of Western philosophy,
religion, and science, uses of these terms are generally bound up
with the attributions of one Greek school or another. As Isis Unveiled
specifcally frames itself as a Hermetic work, it would be rea-
sonable to assume that Blavatskys early use of soul, spirit, and
their cognates in other languages would comport to the usage of
the Alexandrian Hermetists. Within the body of literature known as
the Hermetic corpus, the relationship between the two is such that
the is distinct from the and inferior to it.
11
Within the
corpus, we fnd a clear doctrine in which acts as an inter-
mediary substance which bridges the gap in the emanative descent
from the to (fesh).
12
However, Blavatskys use both of the
English and Greek terms (as well as their Latin equivalents anima
and spiritus) curiously follow an inversion of this usage. As such, the
principal purpose of this study is to examine her understanding of
these terms, and of the sources to which she appeals in an attempt to
uncover how and why this transvaluation occurred. To accomplish
this, for each term analysed, I frst examine Blavatskys usage, and
then those of the historical precedents, charting the semantic shift
from antiquity to that of Isis Unveiled.
As Blavatsky is aware that spirit and soul are commonly
made synonymous,
13
by non-technical readers, she provides a sec-
tion of preliminary defnitions at the books outset which seek to
clarify her usage. She tells us that spirit the immortal, immate-
rial, and purely divine principle in man while soul is the ,
or the nephesh of the Bible; the vital principle, or the breath of life,
which every animal down to the infusoria shares with man.
14
She
identifes the soul as the lower of the two, denoting it as the Astral
Soul, or the inner, fuidic body which is mortal; the spirit, how-
ever is immortal, and is identifed as the Augoeides, or portion of
the Divine Spirit.
15
Throughout the subsequent chapters of Isis
Unveiled, soul is continually variously identifed with the astral
11. Ernest DeWitt Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh: The Usage of , , and
in Greek Writings and Translated Works from the Earliest Period to 224 A.D.; and of
Their Equivalents , and in the Hebrew Old Testament, Historical and Linguis-
tic Studies, 2.3 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1918), 176.
12. Corpus Hermeticum: Tome I, Traits IXII, 3rd ed., edited and translated by
A.D. Nock and A.J. Festugire (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1972), X.13.
13. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:xli.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., 1:12.
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light of liphas Lvi (18101875) when used in the sense of a uni-
versal principle,
16
and the astral body when used to designate the
individual anthropic principle
17
specifcally noting that the des-
ignation astral is ancient and was used by some Neoplatonists.
18

The astral light is identifed both as the Platonic anima mundi
(world soul),
19
the sidereal light of Paracelsus,
20
and the ether
of Aristotle and nineteenth century physics.
21
The astral body
is similarly identifed with Platos mortal soul
22
and Paracelsus
sidereal body.
23
Spirit, then, is identifed not only with ,
24

but also the of Plato,
25
the Hebrew ,
26
and Godreadily
making spirit the highest principle.
27
These preliminary defnitions provide us with three points which
will serve as data for further analysis. One, Blavatsky, follows lin-
guistic precedent and uses soul as the English translation of the
Greek (and the Hebrew ) and similarly of spirit as
(and ). Two, she positions the divine spirit as being over and
above the astral soul. Three, her designation of the soul as astral
and sidereal, and the spirit as the Augoeides necessitates that
there is a hierarchical distinction between these two appellations.
Regarding the frst point, little more needs be said other than that it
is important to note that while Blavatsky makes tremendous seman-
tic changes to soul and spirit,she maintains an indelible iden-
tity between these terms and their regular Greek, Latin, and Hebrew
cognates. Given the fact that she is not presenting her psychological
and pneumatological doctrines as new, but rather as in line with a
whole host of historical sources, this is an important point to keep in
mind throughout this analysis. As the second and third points hinge
on the relationship between the two terms, it is there that our doxo-
graphic analysis begins.
16. Ibid., 1:158.
17. Ibid., 1:129, 181; Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:558, 592.
18. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:xxv.
19. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:227.
20. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled 1:xxv, xxvi, 64.
21. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:234.
22. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:277, 401.
23. Ibid., 1:208.
24. Ibid., 1:401.
25. Ibid., 1:xli.
26. Ibid., 1:181.
27. Ibid., 317; Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:90, 269, 496.
256 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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Middle and Late Platonic Sources
appears in extant Greek literature in the ffth century BCE,
and it continually used to denote wind and breath.
28
Other mean-
ings emerge in the intervening centuries, but the fundamental two
senses perdure. , on the other hand, originated cotemporally
but is prevailingly a vital term bound up with the idea of life.
29

It too gained further meanings in subsequent centuries, but continu-
ally bore the general senses of vitality and life. Blavatsky, during the
Hermetic phase of her career, regarded Theosophy as synonymous
with Platonism,
30
and it is with the Middle and Late Platonists (to
whom Blavatsky regularly appeals) that we fnd some of the earliest
systematic doctrines of the relationship between and .
In the Corpus Hermeticum (second-third centuries CE), man is consti-
tuted as a series of envelopes in which functions as a rari-
fed intermediary substance linking to .
31
In this system
is conceived of as a semi-material fuidic substance which
exists in the venal and arterial channels of the bodyconveying the
souls vitality to the body.
32
This idea of as an intravenous
substance responsible for transforming psychic vitality into physi-
cal motion is owed to Aristotle (384322 BCE),
33
but fnds its epitome
in Galen (129ca. 216 CE), who tells us that nerves are not flled with
blood, but with (psychic pneuma),
34
and that it is
that causes blood to move through the arteries.
35
In Platonic philosophy, however, the relationship between the
pneumatic substance and the soul is such that the is that which
comprises the souls vehicle. This doctrine that the incorporeal soul
is joined to the corporeal body by means of a pneumatic vehicle orig-
inates in the second century CE with the Chaldean Oracles, and from
28. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 13.
29. Ibid., 24.
30. Throughout the whole of Isis Unveiled, Theosophy is treated as identical with
orthodox Platonism, Middle Platonic Hermetism, and Neoplatonism.
31. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 176.
32. Corpus Hermeticum, X.13, 167.
33. Aristotle, Movement of Animals, edited and translated by E.S. Forster, in
Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, 440542, Loeb Classical
Library (London: William Heinemann, 1961), 703a915; Aristotle, Generation of Ani-
mals, edited and translated by A.L. Peck, Loeb Classical Library (London: William
Heinemann, 1953), 728a910, 736a34737a1, 737a15.
34. Galen, On the Natural Faculties, edited and translated by Arthur John Brock,
Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann, 1952), II.6.97.
35. Ibid., 2.8.120.
Plaisance The Transvaluation of Soul and Spirit 257
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Iamblichus (ca. 245ca. 325 CE) onward is part and parcel of Neopla-
tonic anthropology.
36
The Oracles describe the
(subtle vehicle of the soul)
37
specifcally indicated to be made from

38
which both allows the soul to descend into the body and
enables the theurgist to ascend () into the angelic and divine
realms.
39
Iamblichus describes the as (ethereal)
40

and specifcally notes that it is composed of (ether)
41
the Aris-
totelian element of the stars of which all superlunar bodies were
thought to be composed.
42
Proclus (412485 CE) too noted the ethe-
real nature of the , adding the adjective (astral).
43

Hierocles (ffth century CE) as well described the vehicle as both
astral and pneumatic.
44
With the rediscovery of Neoplatonism in the Renaissance, the
theory of the vehicle re-emerges. Marsilio Ficino (14331499) saw the
body as linked to the anima by means of spiritusthe regular Latin
translations of and .
45
For Ficino, spiritus formed the
36. John Finamore, Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul, American
Classical Studies, 14 (Chico: Scholars Press, 1985), 1; Robert Christian Kissling,
The - of the Neo-Platonists and the De Insomniis of Synesius of
Cyrene, The American Journal of Philology 43, no. 4 (1922): 31830, 322.
37. The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary, edited and translated
by Ruth Majercik, Studies in Greek and Roman Religion, 5 (Leiden: Brill, 1989), fr.
120.
38. Ibid., fr. 196.
39. Ibid., ffr. 119, 1223.
40. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries: Translated With Introduction and Notes, ed. and
trans. Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon and Jackson P. Hershbell, Writings from the
Greco-Roman World, 4 (Atlanta: Society for Biblical Literature, 2003), III.14.132,
V.26.239.
41. Iamblichus, In Timaeum, in Iamblichi Chalcidencis: In Platonis diologos commen-
tariorum fragmenta, 106205, edited and translated by John M. Dillon, Platonic Texts
and Translations, 1 (Wiltshire: The Prometheus Trust, 2009), fr. 84.14.
42. Friedrich Solmsen, The Vital Heat, The Inborn Pneuma and the Aether,
The Journal of Hellenic Studies 77, no. 1 (1957): 11923.
43. Proclus, vol. 3 of In Platonis Timaeum commentaria, 3 vols., edited by Ernst
Diehl (Leipzig: Teubner, 19036), 195, 308.
44. H.S. Schibli, Hierocles of Alexandria and the Vehicle of the Soul, Hermes
121 (1993): 1111.
45. Marsilio Ficino, Platonic Theology, 6 vols., ed. James Hankins, trans. Michael
J.B. Allen, The I Tatti Renaissance Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
20012006), VII.6.1; Anna Corrias, Imagination and Memory in Marsilio Ficinos
Theory of the Vehicles of the Soul, The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition, 6
(2012): 88, 901.
258 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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souls currus (chariot)
46
or vehiculum (vehicle),
47
and was described as
aetherius (ethereal).
48
It was this ethereal spirit bestowed vita (life) and
sensus (sense) upon the body.
49
Drawing on Ficino as well as the late
classical Neoplatonists, Henry Cornelius Agrippa (14861535) simi-
larly conceived of a universal spiritus mundi (world spirit) that acted
as a transmissive medium through which the anima mundi acted
upon the material world.
50
And, as did his predecessors, Agrippa
identifed spiritus with Aristotles quintam essentiam (ffth element),
or ether, which was the means through which each occulta proprie-
tas (occult property) was conveyed from the stars into the elements.
51

Paracelsus too conceived of spirit as a mean between soul and body,
which conveyed astral infuences into mans terrestrial form.
52
Fol-
lowing Neoplatonic precedent, this spiritual intermediary manifests
itself anthropologically as the gestirnt leib (astral body), which
along with the elementisch (elemental) body comprises ein massa
gwesen sind und ein limus (one slimy mass of mud) which is man.
53

Paracelsus identifes this astral body as the jnner Gestirne (inner
stars),
54
the sidus (star) of the innern himels (inner heaven), and
the siderisch geist (sidereal spirit)which wei was im gestirn
(knows what is in the stars), and imbues man with this knowledge.
55
Thomas Vaughan (16211666), drawing upon both Agrippa and
Paracelsus, serves as a fnal example of Renaissance Neoplatonic
views of the relationship between soul and spirit. Like his pre-
decessors, he conceived of a spiritus mundi that was the medium
46. Ficino, Platonic Theology, IX.5.2.
47. Ibid., XIX.4.3.
48. Ibid., V.13.14.
49. Ibid., XVIII.10.11.
50. William Newman, Thomas Vaughan as an Interpreter of Agrippa von Net-
tesheim, Ambix 29, no. 3 (1982): 12540, 128; Henry Cornelius Agrippa, De occulta
philosophia libri tres, edited by V. Perrone Compagni, Studies in the History of Chris-
tian Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1992), I.11, I.14.
51. Agrippa, De occulta philosophia, X.14.
52. F.R. Jevons, Paracelsus Two-Way Astrology: I. What Paracelsus Meant by
Stars, The British Journal for the History of Science 2, no. 2 (1964): 1401.
53. Paracelsus, Astronomia Magna, oder die ganze Philosophia Sagax der groen und
kleinen Welt, in vol. 12 of Smtliche Werke, 1406, 14 vols., edited by Karl Sudhoff
(Munich and Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 192933), 58.
54. Paracelsus, Paragranum, in Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohen-
heim, 14931541): Essential Theoretical Writings, 61296, ed. and trans. Andrew Weeks,
Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism, 5 (Leiden: Brill, 2008),
H.2.47.
55. Paracelsus, Astronomia Magna, 301.
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through which the soul of nature was diffused and moved its
body.
56
Similarly, he saw spirit as a mere enclosure or vestment
of the soul,
57
and as the celestial, ethereal part of manwhereby
we do move, see, feel, taste and smell, and have a commerce with
all material objects whatsoever.
58
Vaughan further identifes this
spirit with that part of man which Paracelsus calls the sidereal
man (homo sidereus),
59
as the (vehi-
cle and ethereal body) of the Platonists,
60
and as the thin aerial
substance which is the vestment wherein the Soul wraps her-
self when she descends and applies to generation.
61
liphas Lvi
too follows suit with his predecessors, theorizing that there exists
a lumire astrale (astral light) which is identifed as the envel-
oppe de lme (envelope of the soul) and the thr ou le fantme
sidral (ethereal or sidereal phantom).
62
The function of this corps
sidral (sidereal body) is to act as lintermdiaire entre lme et le
corps matriel (the intermediary between the soul and the mate-
rial body).
63
He further clarifes that this corps astral (astral body)
is that qui fait communiquer notre me avec nos organes (which
connects our soul with our bodies).
64
Thus do we see throughout the Neoplatonists of late antiquity, the
Renaissance, and early modernity a consistent and coherent doctrine
in which spirit functions as a transmissive intermediary substance
between soul and body. The spirit is identifed with the ether, and
owing to the fact that the stars are themselves ethereal bodies, the
spiritual portion of man is designated as star-like. While Blavatsky
56. Arlene Miller Guinsburg, Henry More, Thomas Vaughan and the Late
Renaissance Magical Tradition, Ambix 27, no. 1 (1980): 3658.
57. Thomas Vaughan, Anthroposophia Theomagica: Or a Discourse on the Nature of
Man and His State After Death, in The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist
(Eugenius Philalethes), 162, ed. Arthur Edward Waite (New Hyde Park: University
Books, 1986), 17.
58. Ibid., 40.
59. Ibid., 55.
60. Thomas Vaughan, The Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, and a Short Declaration of
Their Physical Work, in The Works of Thomas Vaughan, ed. Arthur Edward Waite (New
Hyde Park: University Books, 1986), 370.
61. Thomas Vaughan, Anima Magica Abscondita: Or a Discourse of the Universal
Spirit of Nature, in The Works of Thomas Vaughan, ed. Arthur Edward Waite (New
Hyde Park: University Books, 1986), 79.
62. liphas Lvi, vol. 1 of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, 2 vols. (Paris: Germer
Baillire, 1861), 208.
63. Ibid., 278.
64. Lvi, Dogme et Rituel, 2:109.
260 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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does make the same connection between the ether and the astral body/
light,
65
it is the soul, not the spirit, which is identifed as astral and
ethereal throughout Isis Unveiled.
66
This position that soul, then, is
the astral intermediary existing as the mean between spirit and body
is a complete terminological reversal of the entire history of Neo-
platonic usage. As the terms Blavatsky uses to describe the soul
astral, sidereal, etc.are Platonic in origin, her transvaluation
of soul and spirit is confusing, and necessitates that we inquire
as to whether there are historical precedents for this usage and if so,
why she overtly appeals to Platonic sources while covertly relying on
wholly different philosophies.
Stoic and Biblical Infuences
Outside of Neoplatonism, there are two schools of thought which
value as identical with God, the Stoic and the Biblical tradi-
tions. The Stoic position regarding the metaphysical dominance of
spirit has its roots in the Presocratic philosopher Anaximenes (585
528 BCE) who used and (air) as synonyms,
67
and held
that aer deum statuit (air is God).
68
Zeno of Citium (ca. 334ca.
262 BCE), the Stoic progenitor, identifed the Aristotelian ether with
God,
69
noting that God is both ardorem (fery) and is aether nomi-
netur (called ether).
70
Zenos successor, Cleanthes (ca. 330ca. 230
BCE) clearly maintained the aforementioned notion of unity between
and , specifcally identifying God with spiritus.
71
Thus,
while the early Stoics certainly did follow precedent and employed
the term to mean wind, they were certainly part of a tradi-
tion which said that God was .
72
Could the Stoic identifca-
tion of God with fery spirit be an unattributed source of Blavatskys
transvaluation? She does mention the Stoic conception of God as the
65. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:59, 185, 234.
66. Ibid., 588, 592.
67. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 74.
68. Cicero, De natura deorum, in De natura deorum, Academica, 2383, ed. and trans.
H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann, 1968), I.10.26.
69. Ibid., I.14.26, Cicero, Academica, in De natura deorum, Academica, 410659, ed.
and trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann, 1968),
II.41.126.
70. Cicero, De natura deorum, I.14.37.
71. Tertullian, Apology, in Apology, De spectaculis, 2229, ed. and trans. T.R.
Glover, Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann 1928), XXI.10.
72. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 112.
Plaisance The Transvaluation of Soul and Spirit 261
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Divine Soul (Spirit), but not in direct connection with her own
theology.
73
The identifcation of God with the spirit certainly does comport to
Blavatskys usage, but the Stoic insistence on the synonymy of spirit
and ether wholly runs counter to her use of ethereal strictly as an
appellation of the soul. The Stoic notion of fre, too, does not coincide
with Blavatsky, who makes mention of an astral fre
74
and notes
that the ether is both pure and impure fre,
75
both of which link fre
to the soul rather than spirit. Additionallyalthough not a Stoic per
sein the Hellenised Judaic philosophy of Philo of Alexandria (20
BCE50 CE), the logos, or nous, is equated on occasion also with the
Stoic pneuma.
76
In one instance, Philo specifcally identifes
(the divine spirit) as (rational and
intelligent).
77
This identity between and is further deep-
ened by Seneca (ca. 4 BCE65 CE), who tells us that ratio (reason)
is nothing more than the divini spiritus (divine spirit).
78
This
Philonic and Stoic unity comports well to Blavatskys contention of
synonymy between the two terms.
79
However, as Blavatsky does not
directly acknowledge the Stoa or Philo as sources for this idea, this
exegesis must retain a degree of uncertainty.
The Stoic identifcation between God and spirit having shown
itself to be inconclusive, we are left with the possibility of a bibli-
cal origin for Blavatskys transvaluation. As mentioned previously,
Blavatsky does follow precedent in identifying spirit and soul
with the Hebrew and .
80
Additionally, she twice identifes her
spirit with the of Paul of Tarsus (ca. 567 CE).
81
To under-
stand the connection between the biblical view of spirit with Bla-
vatskys, a brief examination of the former is required. Similar to the
Greek , originally bore the meaning of wind, and was
73. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:317.
74. Ibid., 137.
75. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:12.
76. John M. Dillon, The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220, rev. ed. (Ithaca: Cor-
nell University Press, 1996), 159.
77. Philo of Alexandria, Questions and Answers on Genesis, ed. and trans. Ralph
Marcus, Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heinemann, 1953), II.59.
78. Seneca, Epistles, 3 vols., ed. and trans. Richard M. Gummere, Loeb Classical
Library (London: William Heinemann, 191725), II.66.12.
79. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:xli, 401; Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2:112, 282, 284,
496.
80. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1: 181; Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled,2:362.
81. Ibid., 2812.
262 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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later extended to cover those of breath and spirit.
82
And, simi-
lar to the Greek , was used to designate the soul, that entity
which, residing in a living being, makes it alive,
83
which distin-
guishes a living being from inanimate objects.
84
However, distinct
from early Greek concepts of , the Hebrew understanding of
quickly took on a religious dimension, resulting in a composite
usage characterised as physical-religious-psychical as contrasted
with the psychical-vital use of .
85
And, while the early uses of
all four terms display a great degree of parallelism,
86
the Greek trans-
lators of the Septuagint subsumed the extra-Hellenic notion of the
spirit of God present in Old Testament uses of into ,
87

which resulted in the emergence of the Greek expression of an essen-
tially Hebrew idea in the designation , or holy spirit.
88
Still, it is not in the Greek translations of Old Testament literature
where we see the stark valuation of as something above and
beyond ; for this we look to Paul. As Troels Engberg-Pederson
notes, the importance of pneuma in Pauls thought can hardly be
overstated.
89
While Pauls use of is plainly kindred with
the Old Testament usage of , he almost never uses it to refer to
wind or breath. but rather continually and consistently uses it
in reference to the Spirit of God.
90
Neither is Pauls usage strictly
derived from Jewish sources. As is evidenced by his use of Stoic
terminology, his echoing of Stoic phrases, his bringing to expression
conceptions that would have been at home within Stoicism, his use
of Stoic topoi, metaphors, fgures and forms, [and] his use of Stoic
natural theology, Paul was clearly acquainted with Stoic philoso-
phy and seems to have drawn on it rather heavily in the develop-
ment of his own views.
91
Although it is clear that Pauls encounter
82. William Ross Schoemaker, The Use of in the Old Testement and of in
the New Testament (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1904), 134; Burton, Spirit, Soul,
and Flesh, 55.
83. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 62.
84. Ibid., 65.
85. Ibid., 712.
86. Ibid., 73.
87. Schoemaker, The Use of , 36.
88. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 170.
89. Troels Engberg-Pedersen, The Material Spirit: Cosmology and Ethics in
Paul, New Testament Studies 55, no. 2 (2009): 179197 (179).
90. Ibid., 187.
91. David A. DeSilva, Paul and the Stoa: A Comparison, Journal of the Evangeli-
cal Theological Society 38, no. 4 (1995): 54964 (563).
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with Christ and with Judaism shaped his theology to a great degree,
the parallelism between Paul and the Stoics cannot be ignored.
92
In Paul, we fnd a view of that is specifcally tied to
heaven and that it is a physical element (like heaven itself) that may
enter into and transform an earthly, physical bodya position
far more consistent with Stoicism than Judaism.
93
An illuminating
instance of this can be found in I Cor. 15:448 when Paul describes
Adam as a (living soul) with a (nat-
ural body),
94
and then portrays Christ as a
(life-giving spirit) with a (spiritual body). The
difference between the two is that Adam is (earthly) and
Christ is (heavenly).
95
A further example of this is seen
in I Cor. 2:145, where the (natural) man is described as
one who has not received (Gods spirit), and
is thus not himself (spiritual). This usage marks a
contrast between and [that] is wholly foreign to ordi-
nary Greek thoughtbeing the exact converse of the Platonic use,
which treats as inferior to .
96
As much as Paul seems to have drawn on the Stoa, the identity
is far from complete. For, although with the Stoa we do see
identifed with and God, we do not see the Pauline linkage of
and , or the treatment of the ensouled physical body as
the opposite of a heavenly, pneumatic one.
97
What we see in
Paul is at once complete transversal of the Platonic view as well
as a radical appropriation of the Stoa, in which is treated as
the incorporeal and divine faculty, while is the semi-corporal
and embodied faculty. For Pauls exaltation of the over
there is no observed previous parallel,
98
and it seems clear that this
must be the ultimate root of Blavatskys inversion. What is curious,
though, is that while she does refer to Pauls use of as par-
allel with her own twice,
99
uses that appear to comport themselves
92. Ibid., 564.
93. Engberg-Pedersen, The Material Spirit, 186.
94. While this phrase might be literally translated as body of the soul,
here carries more the connotation of natural or worldlyas distinguished from
the transcendent .
95. The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, ed. Michael W. Holmes (Atlanta: Soci-
ety of Biblical Literature, 2010).
96. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 191.
97. Engberg-Pedersen, The Material Spirit, 190.
98. Burton, Spirit, Soul, and Flesh, 206.
99. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2: 2812.
264 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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into a Neoplatonic context are legion. The fact, then, that her usage
is essentially Pauline, but is cloaked in a Neoplatonic facade seems
to be an unacknowledged consequence of her syncretic blending of
two terminological apparatuses which are not in agreement.
The Astral Soul and the Augoeides
We now come to the third point in this examination, Blavatskys
description of the soul as astral and sidereal while linking the
spirit with the Augoeides. Although Blavatsky uses the word as
a proper noun, in its original context was an adjective,
meaning luminous or light-like, and was commonly used in
combination with the now familiar descriptor , as well
as other adjectival compounds like (fery) and
(solar)all of which involve the suffx, meaning form or
type.
100
Among its earliest extant uses are those found in the
Chaldean Oracles, where the (luminous body)
is identifed with the pneumatic vehicle used by the theurgist to
engage in (theurgic ascent).
101
Galen, too, makes an early
explicit reference to the (lumi-
nous and ethereal body), demonstrating a further early second cen-
tury linkage between descriptions of the vehicle as pneumatic,
ethereal, and luminous.
102
Moving forward into the Neoplatonism of late antiquity, we
see the term intimately bound up with the theory of
the . Iamblichus describes the theurgists ability to receive
God as achieved by purifying the (lumi-
nous spirit),
103
notes the ethereal nature of this luminous spirit
104

specifcally designating it as the

(ethereal and luminous vehicle).
105
Proclus as well, describes the
vehicle as the (luminous garment) of the
soul.
106
Macrobius (ffth century CE) introduces the Latin cognate,
100. Daryn Lehoux, What Did the Romans Know: An Inquiry Into Science and World-
making (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 124.
101. Chaldean Oracles, ffr. 11920.
102. Galen, vol. 2 of De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, 3 vols., ed. Phillip De Lacy,
Corpus medicorum Graecorum, v.4.1.2 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag 1978), vii.7.25.3.
103. Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, III.11.125.
104. Ibid., V.26.239.
105. Ibid., III.14.132.
106. Proclus, vol. 1 of In Platonis rem publicam commentarii, 2 vols., ed. W. Kroll
(Leipzig: Teubner, 18491901), 119.
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the luminosi corporis (luminous body) which proceeds down-
ward from the zodiaco et lacteo (Zodiac and Milky Way) to
imbue elemental man with astral attributes.
107
Later Greek Neopla-
tonists continually refer to the spiritual intermediary between the
soul and body as the with this precise wording
being found in the works of Syrianus (died ca. 437 CE),
108
Damas-
cius (ca. 458538 CE),
109
Simplicius (ca. 490560 CE),
110
and Olympio-
dorus (ca. 495570 CE).
111
Thus, the Middle and Late Platonic usage of shows itself
to be identical with , as an adjective intimately associated
with the pneumatic vehicle. Blavatskys usage, however, disagrees
with this signifcantly. The Augoeides, which, again, Blavatsky
treats as a noun rather than an adjective, is made to be identical
with the Divine Spirit which is ontologically prior to the Astral
Soul.
112
She repeatedly distinguishes the Augoeides as distinct from
the sidereal or astral body, noting the latters function as being an
intermediary between the former and the terrestrial body.
113
She
specifcally describes the Augoeides as a discrete spiritual being
who is at once identical with the Self, the Shining One,
114
the
,
115
and God.
116
What is more, in an echo of the previous sections
conclusion where it was determined that Blavatsky was cloaking the
Pauline distinction between and in Neoplatonic ver-
biage, we fnd that she continually describes this heterodox view of
the Augoeides as completely in accord with those of the ancient
Neo-platonists
117
and the Greek philosopher-initiates such as
107. Macrobius, Commentarii in Ciceronis somnium Scipionis et excerpta e libro de dif-
ferentiis et societatibus Graeci Latinque verbi, ed. Ludwig von Jan, Opera quae super-
sunt, 1 (Quedlinburg and Leipzig: Godofredi Bassii, 1848), I.12.13.
108. Syrianus, Syriani in metaphysica commentaria, ed. W. Kroll, Commentaria in
Aristotelem Graeca, 6.1 (Berlin: Reimer 1902), 86.
109. Damascius, vol. 2 of Damascii successoris dubitationes et solutiones, 2 vols., ed.
Charles mile Ruelle (Paris: Klincksieck, 1899), 255.
110. Simplicius, vol. 1 of Simplicii in Aristotelis physicorum libros octo commentaria,
2 vols., ed. H. Diels, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 9 and 10 (Berlin: Reimer,
188295), 615.
111. Olympiodorus, Olympiodorus: Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato,
ed. L.G. Westerink (Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1956), 16.2.
112. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1: 12.
113. Ibid., 1: 212.
114. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2: 318.
115. Ibid., 2: 495.
116. Ibid., 2: 496.
117. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1: 315; Blavatsky, of Isis Unveiled, 2: 495.
266 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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Porphyry and Plotinus
118
linking all of this with the daemonium of
Socrates.
119
What this seems to indicate is that for Blavatsky, the Augoeides
functions as a personal tutelary deity, similar to the Platonic
(personal daemon).
120
She describes this being as the self-
shining blessed vision resident in the pure light and as the God to
whom Plotinus was united six times during his lifetime.
121
This is
a far cry from the actual Neoplatonic use of as synonymous
with the ethereal, astral, and pneumatic vehicle of the soul. This
bifurcation between the astral soul and the Augoeides builds upon
the afore-analysed transvaluation of soul and spirit found in
Isis Unveiled, and doubles the confusion by taking two terms which
were both originally appellations of the and dividing them
between the two spheresan action which makes the meaning of
Augoeides completely separate from and incompatible with the
original . What, then, is the origin of this transvaluation?
As all of the extant Greek uses of comport to the Platonic
usage, the answer does not lie in antiquity, but forward in history.
With the Medieval shift from Greek to Latin and then to national
vernaculars in the Renaissance, the term disappeared even from Pla-
tonic texts, and is not found in any of the works of men like Ficino,
Agrippa, Paracelsus, Vaughan, or even early modern theurgists like
Lvi.
As such, we must look to uses of the transliterated augoeides
as it occurs in works which would have been available to Blavatsky
prior to the composition and publication of Isis Unveiled in 1877. As it
so happens, there is but one published work from that time period in
which the term appears, Edward Bulwer-Lyttons (18031873) book
Zanoni (1842), to which Blavatsky refers to throughout Isis Unveiled.
122

Bulwer-Lytton uses the term only once in Zanoni, with one of the
characters describing the subject of a theophany as, Soul of mine,
118. Ibid., 2: 115.
119. Ibid., 2: 284.
120. For detailed exposition on this concept, see: Plotinus, vol. 3 of Enneads, 7
vols., ed. and trans. by A.H. Armstrong, Loeb Classical Library (London: William
Heinemann, 196688), III.4.1ff.; Iamblichus, On the Mysteries, IX.1ff.; Apuleius, vol. 2
of De deo Socratis, in Opera omnia, 10269, 2 vols., ed. G.F. Hildebrand (Leipzig: Sum-
tibus C. Cnoblochii, 1842); John M. Rist, Plotinus and the Daimonion of Socrates,
Phoenix 17, no. 1 (1963): 1324.
121. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 2: 115.
122. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, 1:1, 17, 64, 72, 158, 286.
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the luminous, the Augoeides.
123
In the footnote to this passage, he
defnes the term as a word favored by the mystical
Platonists and follows this with a butchered quote from Marcus
Aurelius (121180 CE) purporting to include a reference to the word
.
124
Howeverin what must have been an action specif-
cally designed to thwart future scholarsBulwer-Lytton not only
mistranscribes but also wrongly cites the quote! The actual quota-
tion employs the term (true to its own), not ,
making Bulwer-Lyttons appellation to it a complete non sequitur.
125

This being the case, what we uncover is that Blavatsky has taken
a term which is authentically Neoplatonic, claims to use it in the
normal way, but covertly uses it in the completely unhistorical and
contrived sense of a novel. More than anything else we have seen,
this introduction of the term Augoeides into the Theosophical lex-
icon by Blavatsky evidences the laziness of the method by which Isis
Unveiled was compiled. For, it is obvious that no effort was made to
track down Aurelius original quote in context. Rather, as Coleman
demonstrated, like so many other references in the work, this evi-
dences the fact that Blavatskys source material often consisted of
second-hand quotations that may or may not have been accurate.
While this can occasionally be done in a way that goes unnoticed,
here the error of Blavatskys bad research methodology is blindingly
obvious.
123. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company,
1888), 12930.
124. The footnote reads verbatim: a word favored by the mystical
Platonists, , ,
, , ,
MARC. ANT., lib. 2.The sense of which beautiful sentence of the old philosophy,
which, as Bayle well observes, in his article on Cornelius Agrippa, the modern
Quietists have (however impotently) sought to imitate, is to the effect that the
sphere of the soul is luminous, when nothing external has contact with the soul
itself; but when lit by its own light, it sees the truth of all things and the truth cen-
tered in itself, Ibid., 130.
125. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, in Marcus Aurelius, 1345, ed. and trans. C.R.
Haines, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930), 9:.12:
, ,
, ,
(The soul is a sphere truly shaped, when it neither projects itself towards any-
thing outside nor shrinks together inwardly, neither expands nor contracts, but
irradiates a light whereby it sees the reality of all things and the reality that is in
itself).
268 The Pomegranate 15.1 (2013)
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Conclusion
In examining the ideas of and relationship between soul and
spirit in the early Hermetic writings of Blavatsky, the over-
arching conclusion is that there are two strata: the overt presenta-
tion of her ideas and terms as stemming from one source, and the
covert reality of these having a different origin. Regarding our three
points of investigation, it became immediately clear that Blavatsky
uses soul as the English translation of the Greek , the Latin
anima, and the Hebrew . Likewise, she uses spirit in place of
the respective Greek, Latin and Hebrew terms , spiritus, and
. In employing the Greek terms, in particular, she directly appeals
to the Platonists, and gives the distinct impression that her usage of
the terms is connate with theirs. However, analysis indicates that
her usage represents a complete transvaluation, giving the Neopla-
tonic meaning of to , and vice versa. Additionally, while
presenting the Neoplatonic doctrine of the , she rightly applies
the English translations of the term , astral and side-
real, to the vehicle (which, again, she has made into the soul itself
rather than the souls pneumatic envelope), but divorces this from
the appellation augoeidestransforming what is historically an
adjective relating specifcally to the vehicle into personal tutelary
God who is above and beyond the astral body.
While Blavatsky certainly never explained her reasons for making
these semantic alterations to the established uses of the terms, some
conclusions can be drawn. In the frst instance of Blavatskys essen-
tially Pauline usage of spirit presented as if it were Platonic, the
situation is muddled by the fact that Isis Unveiled displays what
Hanegraaff describes as obsessive anti-Christianity
126
so strong
that Carl Jackson suggest a more ftting title for the book would
have been The Horrors of Christianity Unveiled and the Excellences of
Hinduism Praised.
127
Why then, since Blavatsky was so overtly hostile
to Christianity, does her pneumatology rest on the reformations of
Paul? What appears to be the case is that while Blavatsky was very
familiar with the Bible, she was not nearly as conversant with the
texts of Platonism as she leads her readers to believe. As we have
already seen through Colemans analysis of Blavatskys sources, she
routinely pretended to erudition she did not possess. This allows us
126. Hanegraaff, New Age Religion, 450.
127. Carl T. Jackson, The Oriental Religions and American Thought: Nineteenth-
Century Explorations (London: Greenwood Press, 1981), 160.
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to rule out creative misreading as a means through which her trans-
valuation of soul and spirit occurred. For, as Harold Bloom tells
us, for creative misreading to occur, there must frst be a profound
act of reading that is a kind of falling in love with a literary work.
128

With Blavatsky, it is painfully obvious that there was no such deep
reading of the ancient Platonists, but rather an eminently superfcial
reading of secondary sources and second-hand quotations.
In this way, I think it is reasonable to conjecture that she began
her investigations into Platonic philosophy with Pauls attributions
of soul and spirit already entrenched in her mind. Thus, rather
than encountering Neoplatonism as such, she did so through a Pau-
line interpretative lens, assimilating Plato into Paul rather than seeing
the vast differences in each. As she was acutely conscious of her own
anti-Christianism, she could hardly acknowledge her vast debt to
Paul, and so (consciously or unconsciously, we cannot say) cloaked
his words in a Platonic guise. The bifurcation of the Augoeides
from its cognate term astral seems to follow suit. As Blavatsky
does not directly reference any instance of the term from antiquity,
andunlike a great many Greek technical termsonly uses the Eng-
lish transcription, it is reasonable to assume that she frst encoun-
tered it through Bulwer-Lytton. Following a pattern similar to the
soul/spirit inversion, she then covered this gap in her knowledge
by presenting Bulwer-Lyttons idea as if it were one of great antiq-
uity. In summation, what appears to be the case is that Blavatsky
continuallyand perhaps even systematicallymisrepresented her
uses of specifc terms as being Platonic when her words actually
pointed to biblical or fctional sources. While this kind of behaviour
is the very height of intellectual dishonesty, it does ft well within the
greater context of disingenuous appropriations of historical material
within Theosophy and the New Age.
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