“If we consider now (in the Light of Nature) of Man, the Image of God, of his beginning, and of his eternal enduring being, and then of the breaking of his body, how body and Soul part asunder, and whither the Souls go, when the spirit of their breath does break in them, and the moving in the tincture of this world does cease, then we find the ground of the Unquietness of the Soul, when it is separate from the body, being unregenerated; frow whence lamentation and desiring arise; from whence then the Babel of Confusion has risen, so that many things have therefore been invented to ransom Souls. Many of which things have no foundation in the Light of Nature, but were rather invented for covetousness, and for a filling of the belly, and for deceit, upon which the antichrist kingdom is founded. From thence is a right Babel of Confusion come to be, out of which then also the fierce, cruel enmity and hatred has arisen.” ~Jacob Boehme
Body and Soul
It seems that what Boehme is saying here is that the body and soul (or spirit) were initially a single whole, but have been separated into two different things. Exactly what caused that to happen, he doesn’t say, but we know that the answer is man’s sinking deeper and deeper on the physical level into materialism, and moving further and further away from the spiritual. Yet despite this division, the body and soul remain connected in most of us. Only when someone commits a horrendous crime such as murder does the soul completely separate itself from the body and mind, leaving the person as a kind of spiritual zombie.
The Babel of Confusion
Even without a true separation of body and soul, nearly all of us have lost the ability to listen to the soul and hear only the limited intelligence of the mind. Unscrupulous people have taken advantage of that situation to make up tales of how the soul is lost, or how it may be regained. We have all read stories or seen movies in which a person sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for fame and glory. Such tales undoubtedly originate with those who are jealous of the success that others have. Others say that if you join a specific church or religion, your soul will be saved. None of this was taught in the ancient mystery schools. It isn’t necessary for the Devil to barter for souls, he gets enough of them by default.
The ancient schools, and a few modern ones, taught that the only way to get to Heaven and get out of the Babel of Confusion is to awaken and develop the spiritual faculties. This hasn’t changed. Some new schools of spirituality think such schools were overkill, and that simply desiring to be spiritual and meditating regularly will get you to heaven. O legitimate school has ever taught such a simplistic path to enlightenment.
Enmity and Hatred Have Arisen
It is true that this loss of communication between the mind and Soul has resulted in much enmity and hatred. We wage war against our brothers and sisters (all of humanity is our brothers and sisters,) we claim ownership of things that rightfully belong only to Nature, we take what is natural and good and turn it into things that are unnatural and unhealthy. We get diseases, and spread them to others. We feel we deserve something that others have, so we attack them and take it. This is not the way God wants us to Live. It is not the way we should want to live. If we make the effort to awaken and develop our spiritual faculties, and learn to communicate with them, we will leave the Babel of Confusion, and learn how to live together in peace, health, and harmony.