Subtle Body

The subtle body (corpus subtile, Sanskrit sukshma sharira, Arabic jism latif) is the term the esoteric traditions of the Mediterranean and Indic worlds use for a body that is neither the gross physical body of ordinary perception nor the disembodied soul of pure intellection but a third — an intermediate embodiment in a finer substance than the material one, the vehicle in which the soul appears in vision, ascends through the celestial spheres, and inhabits the imaginal world.

The Platonic ochēma (the “vehicle of the soul”), the Neoplatonic ochema-pneuma, the alchemical corpus glorificationis, the Sufi jism latif, the Vedic sukshma sharira, the Tantric subtle-body with its chakras and nadis — these are the principal articulations of the same structural concept across traditions. Corbin‘s [[corbin-spiritual-body-celestial-earth|Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth]] is the contemporary synthesis. For Jung the doctrine is load-bearing: the coniunctio of Mysterium Coniunctionis is the joining of spirit and body that produces a unio corporalis, a subtle-body embodiment that is the telos of the alchemical opus. See ochema-pneuma and mundus-imaginalis.

Relationships

• ochema-pneuma
• corbin-spiritual-body-celestial-earth
• mundus-imaginalis