Human constitutionSimplifiedDefined by Blavatsky

Monad

Also: Jīva · Atma-Buddhi · Pilgrim

Greek monas, ‘unit’; Leibniz, then Theosophy as the immortal spark · MOH-nad

Blavatsky

Original sense

The monad is the immortal spark — Atma-Buddhi — which journeys through kingdoms of nature (the ‘pilgrim’) and only in the human stage adds Manas, self-consciousness. It is not a personality and has no memory of your childhood. Monads are numberless but finite for this manvantara; she claimed no new ones have entered humanity since mid-Atlantis.

The Monad is a ‘drop’ of the Ocean of Absolute Reality… it is Atma-Buddhi, not the personal soul.
The Secret Doctrine, on the pilgrimage of the monad

Her monad is closer to a cosmic spark than to a novelistic soul. The stories we tell about ‘my soul’s journey’ are, at best, the autobiography of Manas.

New Age

Later sense

A synonym for soul or Higher Self, often with a galactic origin (‘my monad is from the Pleiades’). Sometimes a hierarchical chart: monad, soul, personality, as in Bailey’s system, which is already a step beyond Blavatsky.

Typical use. Esoteric astrology, ‘monadic ray,’ starseed maps.

The drift

The core survived; the metaphysics was flattened.

A nearly impersonal spark of spirit was given a passport and a star-system. Bailey’s ray psychology, more than Blavatsky, is the bridge to that personalization.

Related terms

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