Spirit and Soul

 

ED.2014 acrylic/mylar 38x48

Spirit : God, monotheism, unity, the One, ego, heaven, transcendence, above, ascent, “superior” masculine, consciousness, rationality, light, fire, sun.

Soul: daimons, polytheism, multiplicity, the Many, Anima, Earth, immanence, dark, water, moon.

Spirit and soul are not like two substances; they are symbols, like yang and ying, representing two slants of life, two perspectives. It is as though spirit were a white light diffracted into many colors by soul’s prism, or as though soul’s colors were concentrated into one white light by the prism of spirit.

Spirit and soul are reflections of each other. Thus my lists of their attributes are not meant to be seen as oppositions  --  opposition is only one way in which the tension between spirit and soul can be viewed. Other ways are best expressed in the way the personifications of myth relate to each other.

From Daimonic Reality by Patrick Harpur