82 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
consciousness. An animal group-spirit functions in a
spiritual body, which is its lowest vehicle. This vehicle
consists of a varying number of virgin spirits imbued for the
time being with the consciousness of the group-spirit. The
latter directs the vehicles built by the virgin spirits in its
charge, caring for them and helping them to evolve their
vehicles. As its wards evolve, the group-spirit also evolves,
undergoing a series of metamorphoses, in a manner similar
to that in which we grow and gain experience by taking into
our bodies the cells of the food we eat, thereby also raising
their consciousness by enduing them with ours for a time.
Thus while a separate, self-conscious Ego is within each
human body and dominates the actions of its particular
vehicle, the spirit of the separate animal is not yet
individualized and self-conscious, but forms part of the
vehicle of a self-conscious entity belonging to a different
evolution—the group-spirit.
This group-spirit dominates the actions of the animals in
harmony with cosmic law, until the virgin spirits in its
charge shall have gained self-consciousness and become
human. Then they will gradually manifest wills of their own,
gaining more and more freedom from the group-spirit and
becoming responsible for their own actions. The group-spirit
will influence them, however (although in a decreasing
degree), as race, tribe, community, or family spirit until each
individual has become capable of acting in full harmony
with cosmic law. Not until that time will the Ego be entirely
free and independent of the group-spirit, which will then
enter a higher phase of evolution.
The position occupied by the group-spirit in the Desire
World gives to the animal a consciousness different from
that of man, who has a clear, definite waking consciousness.