Higher Self and Higher Ego

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, William Quan Judge · Confusing Words Series · 19 pages

Four quick definitions are given before anything else, and they carry the whole distinction: the Higher Self is universal mind in its macrocosmic aspect; the Higher Manas or Ego is individualised mind in its microcosmic aspect; the lower Manas or egotism is a ray from the Higher Ego and its alter ego; and the brain is the vehicle of the lower Manas, enthroned in Kama-Rupa. A foreword separates Self from Ego and, as elsewhere in these series, Christos from Chrēstos.

The Higher Ego is given an occult name — Archæus, the Ancient, that is Divine Wisdom or Buddhi-Manas — and is described as the sole bearer of all its alter egos on earth and their sole representative in the subjectivity of Devachan; imperishable, it is our true individuality, reincarnating and clothing itself in a new personality at each birth. The passage that follows is the file's most striking: that this noetic entity which allows us to think and gives us self-consciousness is not ours at all, but belongs to divine entities from higher and earlier worlds whose Karma was unexhausted when their world went into pralaya, and who purify themselves in the fire of human suffering in order to re-become the One Essence — and that we, their terrestrial reflection, may rise to their plane by purity of thought and deed. The warning that closes it is unqualified: personal immortality is conditional, and those who consistently ignore the behests of their Higher Ego run the risk of losing their soul.

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