The Basic Individual Soul (continued)

The Basic Individual Soul (continued)

The basic individual soul is that immortal substance breathed into Adam by the Creator Himself:
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”
(Genesis 2:7, Greek Septuagint: καὶ ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ πνοὴν ζωῆς, καὶ ἐγένετο ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν – “and He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul”).

This breath (πνοή) is not mere air, but the very Spirit of God (πνεῦμα Θεοῦ).
Hence mind and spirit are not two, but one, as St Gregory of Nyssa (†394) teacheth:
“The soul is a living and intellectual substance, created by the breath of God, and by that breath united to the body.”

Modernism, that serpent of the nineteenth century, would cleave this unity, calling man “an animal without soul.”
We anathematize such error with the Council of Constantinople (381 AD) and the Lateran Council (649 AD):
“If anyone does not confess that the rational and intellectual soul is immortal and created by God, let him be anathema.”

The basic individual soul, therefore, is not a blank tablet, but a living mirror of the Trinity: memory, intellect, and will.
St Augustine (†430), De Trinitate IX-X:
“Behold the trinity of the mind: it remembers, understands, and loves – and this image is not severed from the Image it reflects.”

Wounds of the Spirit (formerly “Engrams”)

The soul, though immortal, is wounded by original sin and actual sins.
These wounds are not mere “memory traces,” but true spiritual lesions that obscure the divine image.

The Greek Fathers call them πάθη (passions) and λογισμοί (evil thoughts).
St Maximus the Confessor (†662) defineth them as “the unnatural movements of the soul contrary to its nature.”
St John Climacus (†649) listeth eight principal wounds: gluttony, lust, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, vainglory, pride.

Each wound is received when the soul, in a moment of pain or unconsciousness, receiveth a false impression that contradicteth truth.
Example:

• A child struck while hearing “You are worthless” receiveth a wound that later manifesteth as sloth or despair.
• A babe in the womb, hearing the mother’s despairing cry “I wish you were dead,” is imprinted with a mortal wound against the first dynamic.

These wounds are stored in the spirit as in a book, and are re-activated (restimulated) by similar circumstances.
St Gregory the Great (†604), Moralia in Job:
“The memory of past sins, if not healed by penance, becometh a goad that driveth the soul again into the same mire.”

Aberrations of the Soul

Aberration is the deviation of the soul from its natural orientation toward God.
St Thomas Aquinas (drawing from St John Damascene †749) defineth it as “a disorder in the appetitive powers caused by habitual sin.”

All aberration hath its root in these spiritual wounds.
The Council of Carthage (418 AD), confirmed by Orange (529 AD), teacheth that concupiscence itself is a wound of original sin, transmitted to every child of Adam.

The seven capital sins are but the outward manifestations of these deeper lesions:

1. Pride – wound of self-exaltation
2. Avarice – wound of fear of loss
3. Lust – wound against chastity
4. Envy – wound of comparison
5. Gluttony – wound of intemperance
6. Anger – wound of injustice received
7. Sloth – wound of despair or acedia

St Gregory the Great (†604) numbereth them thus, and the Church hath never departed from this order.

The Scale of Tones (Scala Affectuum)

The soul hath natural tones, from the highest seraphic joy to the lowest despair.
St John Climacus in The Ladder of Divine Ascent giveth thirty steps, but the principal tones are these:

• 4.0 – Serene love of God and neighbour (perfect charity)
• 3.5 – Joyful zeal for virtue
• 3.0 – Calm interest in divine things
• 2.5 – Boredom and tepidity
• 2.0 – Antagonism and covert hostility
• 1.5 – Anger and open hatred
• 1.1 – Covert fear and deceit
• 0.5 – Grief and despair
• 0.0 – Spiritual death (mortal sin)

These tones are not arbitrary, but observed in the lives of the saints and the damned.
St Benedict (†547) in his Rule observeth that the monk descendeth or ascendeth these steps daily.

The Character of Spiritual Wounds

Every wound containeth three elements, as observed by the Fathers:

1. A painful perception (somatic or emotional)
2. A false command or belief (“You are worthless,” “No one loves you”)
3. A moment of reduced awareness (pain, unconsciousness, fear)

These three, stored together, form a single lesion that later commandeth the soul against its nature.
St Maximus the Confessor calleth this a “passionate memory” that warreth against the nous (intellect).

Say “next” for Part 4 (Pages 46-60).