Different traditions interpret it very differently.

Gnostic and Orphic streams may treat embodiment as imprisonment.

Christianity affirms incarnation and resurrection of the body.

Hermeticism can treat the body as both limitation and microcosm.

ACIM treats the body as a neutral learning device made by the ego but repurposable by the Holy Spirit.

Fallen perception

The body is used to prove separation.

Initiatory use

The body becomes instrument, discipline, and Temple.

Redeemed perception

Embodiment becomes transparent to Spirit rather than an identity opposed to Spirit.

Matter: Evil, Illusion, Symbol, or Veil?

• Is matter intrinsically evil?
• Is it unreal?
• Is it neutral?
• Is it divine light at its densest symbolic level?
• Is the problem matter itself or identification with it as separate and self-existing?

Matter is not an evil substance. The fallen material world is the perception of reality under separation, but matter can still become symbol, sacrament, and teaching device.