This section will assume an acceptance of the previous points made in this Section and in Section II.  Most importantly, it assumes and an acceptance of the following key points - that we have an Immortal Soul, that it reincarnates and that we have a True Will.

The Origin of the Soul.

No one knows where the soul came from, and due to the restrictions on our perceptions, no one can offer anything more than theories and fancies -- and ofttimes it is difficult to distinguish between the two.  The Temples position is that in the absence of concrete proof, it will venture nothing as fact.  However, it does offer the following mythic history (from "The Interpreted Genesis" -- q.v., Appendix A):

Our souls are the Secondborn, those continuously created by the Yther after the initial burst that created the Elohim.

And So We Incarnate.

So we have a soul.  The question that has plagued man for millennia is "What do we do with it?"  Since each soul has a nature (q.v., Section III.3 & II.4) it stands to reason that the evolution of the soul would deal with the maximization or realization of that nature.  Our physical evolution is not toward becoming a "lower" life-form, but rather towards reaching the limits of what a human being can be.  To achieve this, we incarnate (q.v., Section III.3).  The process of incarnation follows three stages: 1) locate a host; 2) bind oneself to the host; and 3) birth.  After these are life and the death, but those are separate issues.

The first step, locating a host, sounds fairly straightforward.  One's soul determines what needs to be done and finds a vehicle that would provide the best combination of genetic and possible environmental factors to facilitate the accomplishment of one's will.  I want to point out a small but significant word in the preceding sentence, "best".  I did not say -- as many New Age philosophies imply -- that it was the perfect match,  I said the best possible match.  Using physical evolution as our model, it isn't a question of the fittest, but the fit enough.  It would be highly egocentric to believe that all of reality is contrived for one's own convenience.  We may have some ability to manipulate events in the physical world from the spiritual, but to assume that we are capable of wholesale readjustments strikes me as grasping.  We take what is there and massage it into the best possible state and then utilize it.

Also, it stands to reason that a prime situation would be applicable to several souls evolution.  If several souls desire a specific vehicle, which one gets it?  It would be logical to assume that, unless there was some mediating agency (such as a deity in charge of monitoring incarnations), that it would be on a first to succeed basis.  If so, it would stand to reason that an older soul would be more likely to reincarnate than a newer soul.  This selection process is believed to occur during the first trimester of pregnancy.  During the second trimester, the incarnating soul begins to bind itself into the physical body.  This process is necessary for the proper development of the fetus into a child.  In the third trimester, the soul completes its integration into the fetus and has technically started its incarnation.  This division was adopted because of the development that the fetus undergoes during each trimester¹.  Finally, the incarnated soul is born.

Upon Birth, the incarnated soul becomes subjected to the curse of the Jealous Gods (q.v. Appendix A) and looses the direct link with their soul self (i.e., looses Knowledge and Conversation with their Holy Guardian Angel).  Also, the soul has minimal ability from this point on to influence events (imagine rearranging a room while bound and gagged).  However, due to the Gift of Lilith and Zagreus, we are able to reopen communications.

So How Do We Determine Our True Will?

Thus it is that we must ascertain our True Will.  There are many techniques and many traditions that exist to do just this.  The Temple has appropriated those that it feels are most efficacious towards attaining this goal.  It is also dedicated to extrapolating from these techniques the core essentials so that they can be divorced from their mythic trappings and those that are detrimental (or those that become detrimental) can be discarded.  Finally, the gauge for measuring one's adherence to one's Will (prior to gaining reliable Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel) is summed by the following verses from Liber AL vel legis (though by no means is this exhaustive):

These verses, especially II:9, make a strong case.  Life is meant to be joyous.  If you are in accordance with your Will, you will feel the Joy with which nothing else compares.

OK, So I Lived, Now What?

We all incarnate to fulfill our nature -- i.e., to accomplish our Will.  An incarnation does one of three things in regards to the Will.  One either successfully works towards this goal, works against it or makes no appreciable difference toward the accomplishment of one's True Will.

In the best of situations, one works towards the accomplishment of one's True Will.  Thus one fulfills one's true nature and moves closer to the ultimate goal of incarnation.  This is referred to as a Positive Incarnation (or more accurately, a Positive Significant Incarnation).  More often however, one will make little or no progress.  This is primarily due to the chains that the Jealous Gods placed upon us which create the separation between the spirit and the incarnated mind.  These are referred to as Insignificant Incarnations.

Finally, there are those incarnations that are enacted against the True Will.  These are referred to as Negative Significant Incarnations.  Where the Positive Incarnations build up the soul, strengthening it, the Negative Incarnation works against the very nature of the soul, weakening it.  A Negative Incarnation is a life lived in opposition to ones very nature and typically results in the either the dissolution of the spirit back into the Yther², or the exaltation of the ego to the point where it becomes a member of the "Black" Brotherhood (q.v. III.8).

The Nature and Components of the Individuation.

This portion is actually misnamed, for it implies a division that does not exist.  The incarnation is a whole.  Portions of it outlive others and recreate the shorter-lived parts, but the temporary portions cannot exist without the more permanent parts and as best we can determine, the permanent parts need the temporary ones.  Anyway, these divisions are admittedly artificial and they are offered only for the sake of convenience.

• The Body:  The meat.  When all else is gone, this portion is referred to as the corpse.
• The Spirit/Soul:  The (mostly) eternal reoccurring portion of the individuation.
• The Life-spark:  Energy provided by the spirit that animates the body.  Its glow is the aura.
• The Ego:  The interface between the soul and the body.  This is what becomes the "False Self" during negative incarnations.  It is that which dissolves upon the removal of the life-spark.
• The Memory:  A shared resource of the spirit and ego.  Upon the death of the body, memory continues to exist in both the spirit and the dissolving ego.
• Astral Self:  A remote extension of the incarnation involving every component except the body.  This may take on any form from a "body of light" to a Totem or Fetch.  Its form usually depends upon the situation and the tradition of the practitioner.

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Footnotes

1.  The Temple leaves the question of abortion up to each individual member.  However, as could be assumed from the above, it is opposed to abortion after the first trimester.  To abort the fetus after the first trimester would be to force the soul to go through the death process again -- analogous to killing any other incarnate being.  { Return }

2.  Appendix A.  { Return }