The word נפש (nephesh) is used by Moses to designate, in general, the soul and the animating life of being, what esoterically is often referred to as the astral body, compared to the etheric or life body which has its base in vegetative life (plant kingdom).
This term for soul is translated as “winged fowl,” materializing what is a profound idea in Genesis. The problem of the materializing of the ideas of powers or of the various principles flowing from such powers, which is the very content of the first part of Genesis, is a pervasive one. It is true that the concepts used can be translated literally, that is, in a material context, but Genesis deals with first principles, with the ideas and laws of creation, not with any later material manifestation or outward form. However, the increasing limitation of the modern mind of man to the intellect and understanding, driven by the excitation of the sense-world, means that all super-sensible concepts will tend to be materialized.
The misunderstandings of the translators due to this materializing tendency can be seen clearly here. What is even more perplexing is the use of the term “fowl” for both עוף (owph) and for soul (nephesh). Where the first refers to an expansive movement (in this case, out of the universal fecundity of existence – “waters”), the second refers to the principle of a soul movement. For those who can only see sense objects where principles are spoken of, such will only be able to comprehend “fowl” or birds in both cases.
Genesis, through the symbols that make up the name for “soul,” expresses precisely what it is that constitutes the soul quality or element of life, and it is a tripartite element, reflecting the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul, as having a part that is function or movement from within without (partie naturante), the manifestation of that movement in terms of breath, speech (partie naturee) and underlying all this the very motivating principle of the soul, warmth, the basis of life and motion (partie naturelle).
Three distinct roots compose this important word…The first נפ presents the idea of an inspiration, an infusion, a movement operated from without, within: it is literally an inspiring breath. The second פה , which is only the reaction of the first, is attached to the idea of expansion, of effusion, of movement operated from within, without: it is literally the mouth, the expiring breath, the voice, the speech, etc…
The third finally אש, characterizes the principiant principle of which I have already spoken in v.1. of this chapter. It is fire, and that which is igneous, ardent, impassioned, etc.
Such is the hieroglyphic composition of the word נפש, the soul, which, formed of the three roots…, presents the symbolic image of a thing that the Egyptian priests regarded as belonging to a triple nature. This is known to be the idea of Pythagoras and Plato, who had drawn it from the Egyptian sanctuaries. Those priests, instructors of Moses, saw in נפ, the partie naturante of the soul, in פה the partie naturee, and in אש, the partie naturelle. From this elementary triad resulted a unity whose immortality they taught, according to all the ancient sages. (The Hebraic Tongue Restored, p. 51-52)
Alethia Eleutheroo 