individualization until humanity is transcended and merged into divinity.
He is in no way affected by what we call birth and death; what we commonly
consider as his life is only a day in his life. The body which we can see,
the body which is born and dies, is a garment which he puts on for the
purposes of a certain part of his evolution.

Nor is it the only body which he assumes. Before he, the ego in the higher
mental world, can take a vehicle belonging to the physical world, he must
make a connection with it through the lower mental and astral worlds. When
he wishes to descend he draws around himself a veil of the matter of the
lower mental world, which we call his mental body. This is the instrument
by means of which he thinks all his concrete thoughts--abstract thought
being a power of the ego himself in the higher mental world.

Next he draws round himself a veil of astral matter, which we call his
astral body; and that is the instrument of his passions and emotions, and
also (in conjunction with the lower part of his mental body) the
instrument of all such thought as is tinged by selfishness and personal
feeling. Only after having assumed these intermediate vehicles can he come
into touch with a baby physical body, and be born into the world which we
know. He lives through what we call his life, gaining certain qualities as
the result of its experiences; and at its end, when the physical body is
worn out, he reverses the process of descent and lays aside one by one the
temporary vehicles which he has assumed. The first to go is the physical
body, and when that is dropped, his life is centred in the astral world and
he lives in his astral body.

The length of his stay in that world depends upon the amount of passion and
emotion which he has developed within himself in his physical life. If
there is much of these, the astral body is strongly vitalized, and will