Releasing the Astral Soul from the Cremated Remains

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Constitution of Man Series · 7 pages

From Isis Unveiled II, and one of the more particular pieces of reportage in this section. In Japan and Siam, she writes, there are two orders of priests: one public and dealing with the people, the other strictly private — never seen, their existence known to very few natives and never to foreigners, their powers displayed only on rare occasions of the utmost importance, in subterranean or otherwise inaccessible temples and before a chosen few whose heads answer for their secrecy. Deaths in the royal family or among high dignitaries of the Order are among such occasions.

The ceremony described is the withdrawal of the astral soul from the cremated remains, practised also in some of the most important lamaseries of Tibet and Mongolia. The context makes it intelligible: in Siam, Japan and Great Tartary it is customary to make medallions, statuettes and idols from the ashes of the cremated, mixed with water into a paste, moulded, baked and gilded — the Lamasery of Ou-Tay in Shan-Si being most famous for the work, with rich families sending the bones of their relatives to be ground and fashioned there. The adept's purpose in the rite is to facilitate the withdrawal of the astral soul, which otherwise, on this account, might remain stupefied within the ashes for an indefinite period.

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