Theos-Talk Archives (September 2001 Message tt00313)

Friday, September 28, 2001


RE: SECRET DOCTRINE and the ASTRAL PLANE


Dear friend:

I have examined and compared that which Mrs. Besant and
Leadbeater have said about the astral plane. In some details
they seem to contradict H P B's statements and those of the
Masters as found in MAHATMA LETTERS -- so I feel it leads to
confusion.

Since H P B was the one whom the Mahatmas designated to be Their
Messenger, I tend to trust her statements before others.

Here are some statements culled from various original
Theosophical literary sources which illustrate what I think to be
accurate views on the Astral Light and many of its strange
denizens.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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A S T R A L W O R L D & P L A N E



Astral Body

"Astral Body, or Astral "Double."	The ethereal counterpart or
shadow of man or animal. The Linga Sharira, the "Doppelganger."
The reader must not confuse it with the Astral Soul, another name
for the lower Manas, or Kama-Manas so-called, the reflection of
the Higher Ego."	T. GLOS p. 37


Astral Light


"Astral Light (Occult.). The invisible region that surrounds
our globe, as it does every other, and corresponding as the
second Principle of Kosmos (the third being Life, of which it is
the vehicle) to the Linga Sharira or the Astral Double in man.

A subtle Essence visible only to a clairvoyant eye, and the
lowest but one (viz. the earth), of the Seven Akasic or Kosmic
Principles. E. Levi called it the great Serpent and the Dragon
from which radiates on Humanity every evil influence. This is
so; but why not add that the Astral Light gives out nothing but
what it has received; that it is the great terrestrial crucible,
in which the vile emanations of the earth (moral and physical)
upon which the Astral Light is fed, are all converted into their
subtlest essence, and radiated back intensified, thus becoming
epidemics--moral, psychic and physical.

Finally, the Astral Light is the same as the Sidereal Light of
Paracelsus and other Hermetic philosophers...the workshop of
Nature and of all the Kosmos, spiritually as well as physically.

Physically it is the ether of modern science.

Metaphysically, and in its spiritual, or occult sense, ether is
a great deal more than is often imagined.

In occult physics, and alchemy, it is well demonstrated to
enclose within its shoreless waves...the realization of the
potency of every quality of spirit...

[It] asserts itself in the phenomena of mesmerism, in the
'levitation' of human and inert objects; and may be called the
ether from its spiritual aspect.

The designation astral is ancient, and was used by some of the
Neo-platonists...[ and the Martinists ]. Porphyry describes the
celestial body, which is always joined with the soul as
'immortal, luminous, and star-like.' The root of the word may be
found, perhaps, in the Scythic Aist-aer--which means star, or the
Assyrian Istar, which, according to Burnouf has the same sense
(Isis Unveiled I xxv-vi)."
THEOS GLOS 38


"...the existence of an imponderable, tenuous medium which
interpenetrates the entire glob, and in which all the acts and
thoughts of every man are felt and impressed...an enormous
hypnotizing machine is about..."Akasa"...the "Astral Light"--is
entirely beyond our control, we are at the mercy of the pictures
made in it and reflected on us...we are moved, without our
knowledge, by the impressions made in the Astral Light...as the
evil thoughts and deeds are the more material and therefore more
firmly impacted into the Astral Light, while the good, being
spiritual, easily fade out, we are in effect at the mercy of the
evil done." ECHOES 5-6


"Astral Light	The "soul of the world," [that out of which all
visible manifested nature proceeds]. The vortex of physical
life. The lowest differentiation of akasa or fine substance,
[out of which is spun and constructed every visible form and
invisible being]. The sphere of occult currents and the odic
force. The ether of occult science...The action of the Purusha
or spirit in the akasa produces the manifested universe...the
sphere of akasa nearest our physical earth...the playground of
unseen forces producing all the growths and movements and
evolution of the vegetable and other kingdoms. Etheric waves and
life currents in astral light.

Two aspects, the spiritual and the material [ looked at from
above, seen aright; looked at from below, all powers and
elemental beings and sights inverted ]. Mediums see upside down
and from below [ when influenced by its forces] liable to lose
mental grip...Clairvoyants and psychics, not possessed of occult
power or union with the Supreme, utterly untrustworthy. The
Initiate sees from above in the astral light [ true occultist
will never allow any astral power to overcome his intelligence ].

Astral light the abode of elementaries, nature spirits and human
elementals [ sphere of disintegrating "shells," spooks, earth
bound souls...]. The active residence of black magicians.
Dangerous because also the receptacle of mind forces and
conscious and subconscious thoughts. Weak persons pass into this
sphere unconsciously during sleep...The degrader of intelligence
and the soul.

Efficient comprehension of the astral light enables the seer to
understand all the workings of nature.

Theosophists inclined to dabble in mediumship and desiring
sight-seeing, should remember the statement of H.P.B. that some
of the highest occultists never look into the astral light at
all; they would not degrade themselves by passing into that
region. The sphere of evil thoughts and desires. Aim of the
student: to get rid of its influence. All men, save occultists,
influenced by it more or less.

One aim of Theosophy: to instruct men in coming age of psychism
to avoid astral influences. This is done by giving the real
philosophy of the Astral Light...Theosophists should carefully
study the doctrine, but not experiment in these regions.

Analogy: of the Lotus: roots in earth (physical world), stalk
in water (astral world), flower in the atmosphere (the spiritual
world).
(see VOICE p. 6-7)	SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION pp. 7, 12-13


"...astral light is difficult to define...It is not the light as
we know it, neither is it darkness...it was said to be a light
because when clairvoyants saw by means of it, the distant objects
seemed to be illuminated. But as equally well, distant sounds
can be heard in it, heavy bodies levitated by it, odors carried
thousands of miles through it, thoughts read in it, and all the
various phenomena by mediums brought about under its
action...[and it] must include [as a definition] a substance
easily imagined as imponderable ether which emanating from the
stars, envelopes the earth and permeates every atom of the globe
and each molecule upon it. Obeying the laws of attraction and
repulsion, it vibrates to and fro, making itself now positive and
now negative. This gives it a circular motion which is
symbolized by the serpent. It is the great final agent, or prime
mover, cosmically speaking, which not only makes the plant grow,
but also keeps up the diastole and systole of the human
heart...the Egyptians called it the Recorder; and in one aspect
it Yama the judge of the dead in the Hindu pantheon, for it is by
the pictures we impress therein that we are judged by Karma."
ECHOES 53-4


"As the Rosicrucians regarded the real as the direct opposite of
the apparent, and taught that what seems light to matter, is
darkness to spirit, they searched for the latter in the astral
ocean of invisible fire which encompasses the world; and claim
to have traced the equally invisible divine spirit, which
overshadows every man and is erroneously called soul, to the very
throne of the Invisible and Unknown God...That this astral light
permeates the whole cosmos, lurking in its latent state even in
the minutest particle of rock, they demonstrate by the phenomenon
of the spark from flint and every other stone, whose spirit when
forcibly disturbed springs to sight spark-like, and immediately
disappears in the realms of the unknowable...Everything
pertaining to the spiritual world must come to us through the
stars, and if we are in friendship with them, we may attain the
greatest magical effects. "As the fire passes through an iron
stove, so the stars pass through man with all their properties
and go into him as the rain into the earth, which gives fruit out
of that same rain. Now observe that the stars surround the whole
earth, as a shell does an egg; through the shell comes the air,
and penetrates to the center of the world." [Paracelsus] The
human body is subjected as well as the earth, and planets, and
stars to a double law; its attracts and repels, for it is
saturated through with double magnetism, the influx of the astral
light. Everything is double in nature; magnetism is positive
and negative, active and passive, male and female...When the
mesmerizer will have learned the grand secret of polarizing the
action and endowing his fluid with a bisexual force he will have
become the greatest magician living. Thus the astral light is
androgyne, for equilibrium is the resultant of two opposing
forces eternally reacting upon each other. The result of this is
Life. When the two forces are expanded and remain so long
inactive, as to equal one another and so come to a complete rest,
the condition is Death...The astral light alone, as the chief
agent in magic, can discover to us all secrets of nature. The
astral light is identical with the Hindu akasa..." ISIS I
xxv-vii


"...the astral world...It, being at once a photographic
plate...and also a reflector, has become the keeper of the
mistakes of ages past which it continually reflects upon us from
a plane to which most of us are strangers. I that sense
therefore, free as we suppose ourselves, we are walking about
completely hypnotized by the past, acting blindly under the
suggestions thus cast upon us." HPB quoted as Sage in
Conversations on Occultism, WQJ I 379-80



Akasa


"Akasa (Sk.)	The subtle, supersensuous spiritual essence which
pervades all space; the primordial substance erroneously
identified with Ether. But it is to Ether what Spirit is to
Matter, or Atma to Kama-Rupa. It is...the Universal Space in
which lies inherent the eternal Ideation of the Universe in its
ever-changing aspects on the planes of matter and objectivity,
and from which radiates the First Logos, or expressed thought.
This is why it is stated in the Puranas that Akasa has but one
attribute, namely sound, for sound is but the translated symbol
of Logos--"Speech" in its mystic sense..." [ see Vedic
Sacrifices]	T GLOS 13



[Akasa]	",...the invisible sky...the source of life, the
reservoir of all energy, and the propeller of every change of
matter. In its latent state it tallies exactly with our idea of
the universal ether; in its active state it became the Akasa,
the all-directing and omnipotent god...occult electricity; the
alkahest of the alchemists in one sense, or the universal
solvent, the same anima mundi as the astral light..."	ISIS I
xxvii


Ether


"Ether.	[ Often ]... confused with Akasa and with Astral Light.
It is neither, in the sense in which ether is described by
physical Science. Ether is a material agent, though hitherto
undetected by any physical apparatus; whereas Akasa is a
distinctly spiritual agent, identical, in one sense with the
Anima Mundi [ "Soul of the World"...Alaya...the essence of the
seven planes of sentience, consciousness and differentiation,
moral and physical. In its highest aspect it is Nirvana and in
its lowest Astral Light...esoterically...our higher Egos are of
an essence identical with It, which is a radiation of the ever
unknown Universal Absolute. Glos. 22-3 ], while the Astral Light
is only the 7th and highest principle of the terrestrial
atmosphere, as undetectable as Akasa and real Ether, because it
is something quite on another plane. The 7th principle of the
earth's atmosphere, as said, the Astral Light, is only the second
on the Cosmic scale. The scale of Cosmic Forces, Principles and
Planes, of Emanations--on the metaphysical--and Evolutions--on
the physical plane--is the Cosmic Serpent biting its own tail,
the Serpent reflecting the Higher, and reflected in its turn, by
the lower Serpent. The Cadeuceus explains the mystery [Glos 71],
and the 4-fold Dodecahedron on the model of which the universe is
said by Plato to have been built by the manifested
Logos--synthesized by the unmanifested First-Born--yields
geometrically the key to Cosmogony and its microcosmic
reflection--our Earth." T. GLOS 115-6


"The astral body is made up of matter of a very fine
texture...and has a great tensile strength, so that it changes
but little during a lifetime...[it] possesses [an] immense
strength, and at the same time possesses an elasticity permitting
its extension to a considerable distance. It is flexible,
plastic, extensible and strong. The matter of which it is
composed is electrical and magnetic in its essence...Having been
through a vast period of evolution and undergone purifying
processes of an incalculable number, its nature has been refined
to a degree far beyond the gross physical elements we see and
touch with the physical eye and hand.

The astral body is the guiding model for the physical one, and
all the other kingdoms have the same astral model. Vegetables,
minerals, and animals have the ethereal double, that this theory
is the only one which will answer the questions how it is that
the seed produces its own kind and all sentient beings bring
forth their like."	OCEAN 39-40


"The astral body has within it the real organs of the outer
sense organs. In it are the sight, hearing, power to smell, and
the sense of touch. It has a complete system of nerves and
arteries of its own for the conveyance of the astral fluid which
is to that body as the blood is to the physical. It is the real
personal man. There are located the subconscious perception and
the latent memory. which the hypnotizers of the day are dealing
with and being baffled by."	OCEAN 42



Astral Entities


Astral Entities .	Space full of them. Nearly all persons more
or less affected by them, though unseen. Study of them and their
actions, the work of many great minds of the past.

Elementals--the individualized nature's forces. Glos 111-2

Elementaries--the shells of the dead.	Glos 112

Effort of the student to prevent psychic influences. Dangers
resulting from attending spiritualistic seances, Real souls of
the dead not in the astral light.

Its denizens are largely the result of thought on the part of
human beings. Four kinds of "nature's spirits," called by the
Rosicrucians those of earth, water, air and fire [see Glos
111-2 ]. This refers to the intelligences behind all things, and
the true science of the spirit of the different conditions of
nature. Those four "elements" of the ancients were not really
elements as the term is now understood, but states of
matter--physical, liquid, gaseous, and etheric or fiery. The
laws governing these states are the expression of the
intelligences behind the astral entities. Ether part of the
astral light.

Materializations, spirit rappings, independent voice,
mediumship, obsession, possession all explained in Theosophical
literature.
(see ISIS i xxxvi)	SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION p. 17-18


"...intelligent beings are in most cases elementals, of which
there are some of very high grade but all of which are below the
human as to soul and conscience...The door once open to them,
others of any sort may just as well come in...many of them
[experiences of the questioner] may be the production of the
power of the person's own astral body, which has had some
education retained in itself in some other life and now only kept
back by Karma and environment. Such is the case with many
mediums who do strange things using their own astral senses and
members without at the same time knowing that such is the method,
just as a man might walk quite well in his sleep...the elemental
world acting with the inner principles of living men and with the
strong shells of gross persons and the astral bodies of those in
the astral world who are not wholly dead but live in the passions
and astral bodies, is able to "mold matter" in many strange ways
and to bring about phenomena of a remarkable character..."
W Q J FORUM ANSWERS 86-7


Elementals


"Elementals.	Spirits of the Elements. The creatures evolved in
the four Kingdoms or Elements--earth, air, fire, and water. They
are called [by many names]...Except a few of the higher kind, and
their rulers, they are rather forces of nature than ethereal men
and women. These forces, as the servile agents of the
Occultists, may produce various effects; but if employed by the
"Elementaries"--in which case they enslave the mediums--they will
deceive the credulous. All the lower beings generated on the
5th, 6th, and 7th planes of our terrestrial atmosphere, are
called Elementals...[names]..."	THEOS GLOS. 111-112


Elementaries


"Elementaries.	Properly, the disembodied souls of the depraved;
these souls having at some time prior to death separated from
themselves their divine spirits, and so lost their chance for
immortality; but at the present stage of learning it has been
thought best to apply the term to the spooks or phantoms of
disembodied persons, in general, to those whose temporary
habitation is the Kama Loka....Once divorced from their higher
triads and their bodies, these souls remain in their kama-rupic
envelopes, and are irresistibly drawn to the earth amid elements
congenial to their gross natures. Their stay in the Kama Loka
varies as to its duration; but ends invariably in
disintegration, dissolving like a column of mist, atom by atom,
in the surrounding elements."	THEOS GLOS p. 112


"Hundreds of classes of beings communicate from the astral plane
with the living through mediums and otherwise. Of this subject
the West does not know...Many degrees of elementals communicate.
These are all of no use to us, but harmful. Many of them are
used by black magicians who live in the astral world in their
kama rupas. They use the elementals, they live thus on the
living by absorption, and this is the great danger of all such
things. Some of them may be friendly, but unless you have the
means and sight of your own to tell which, no direction would be
of any use. Even while friendly they are injurious, for they
must use a part of you or some one for the work, and they thus
set up the likelihood of another not friendly using you the same
way..."
FORUM ANSWERS 98-99


Kama-Loka


"Kamaloka (Sk.).	The semi-material plane, to us subjective and
invisible, where the disembodied "personalities," the astral
forms, called Kamarupas remain, until they fade out from it by
the complete exhaustion of the effects of the mental impulses
that created these eidolons of human and animal passions and
desires...Hades...Amenti...land of Silent Shadows; a division of
the first group of the Trailokya (see Kamadhatu)."	T. GLOS
171-2



Kama-Rupa


"KAMARUPA (Sk.). "...in esoteric philosophy, it is the
subjective form created through the mental and physical desires
and thoughts in connection with things of matter, by all sentient
beings, a form which survives the death of their bodies. After
that death three of the 7 "principles"-- or...planes of senses
and consciousness on which the human instincts and ideation act
in turn--viz., the body, its astral prototype and physical
vitality,--being of no further use, remain on earth; the three
higher principles, grouped into one, merge into the state of
Devachan, in which state the Higher Ego will remain until the
hour for a new incarnation arrives; and the eidolon of the
ex-Personality is left alone in its new abode. Here the pale
copy of the man that was, vegetates for a period of time, the
duration of which is variable and according to the elements of
materiality which is left in it , and which is determined by the
past life of the defunct. Bereft as it is of its higher mind,
spirit and physical senses, if left alone to its own senseless
devices, it will gradually fade out and disintegrate. But if
forcibly drawn back into the terrestrial sphere whether by the
passionate desires and appeals of the surviving friends or by
regular necromantic practices--one of the most pernicious of
which is mediumship--the "spook" may prevail for a period greatly
exceeding the span of those who are so anxious for its company.
In India these eidolons are called Pisachas, and are much
dreaded..."
T. GLOS 172


END OF PART I


========================================


PART II == BEGINS


Re: SECRET DOCTRINE and the ASTRAL PLANE, ETC...



Mediumship [ also Channeling ]


"Mediumship	A spiritualistic term meaning the characteristic of
one who gives himself up to psychic influences and becomes the
medium for their play. Medium is controlled by astral forces.
Many with psychic power not however mediums. Mediumship more
common that suspected. Does not always consist of seeing
clairvoyantly or being psychically controlled, but often
manifests in other ways. Drunkards and those unable to control
their passions, probably mediumistic. Mediumship overcome by
creating positively of character, and particularly by preventing
the mind from wandering and from general passivity of
disposition. Spiritualistic mediums, and those 'sitting' for
control, become disorganized nervously and physically in a short
time. Astral body is separated from the physical body and given
up to the mercy of the shells of the dead. Practice demoralizing
in every aspect. External forces rush in and the brain becomes
affected. Hence lying and falsifying generally...Part of the
work of the Theosophical movement to cure the world of mediumship
in all phases. U.S. a "hot-bed" of psychism, and philosophy
alone can cure the condition. Warning against being misled by
mediumistic communications instead of by interior intuition."
SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION p. 21


"The spiral movement is the double movement of the astral light,
one spiral inside the other. The diastole and systole of the
heart are caused by that double movement of the Akasa..."	WQJ
LETTERS p. 87


"...the astral light exists in all places and interpenetrates
everything...to be able to see as he sees in the light is not all
of the seeing thus. That is, there are many sorts of such sight,
e.g., he may see now certain airy shapes and yet not see many
others which at the same time are as really present there as
those he now sees. So it would seem that there are "layers" or
differences of states in the astral light...elementals are
constantly moving in the astral light--that is, everywhere.
They...show pictures to him who looks, and the pictures they show
will depend on great part upon the seer's thoughts, motives and
development. These differences are very numerous...pride must be
eliminated. So one must be careful of becoming even inwardly
vain of being able to see any such things; for, if that happens,
it will follow that the one limited plane in which one may be a
seer will be accepted as the whole. That, then, will be falsity.
But if recognized as delusive, because partial, then it remains
true--so far as it goes. All true things must be total, and all
totalities exist at once, each in all...No our bodies, and all
"false I" powers up to the individual soul, are "partial forms,"
in common with the energic centers in astral light. So it must
follow that, no matter how much we and they participate in each
other, the resulting view of the one Truth is partial in its
nature because the two partial forms mingling together do not
produce totality. But it intoxicates..."	WQJ LETTERS 79


"Everything has its double on other planes, the fact being that
nothing visible in matter or space could be produced without such
a basis...the reason why people are seen on the astral plane with
clothes of various cuts and color, is because of the thought and
desire of the person, which clothes him thus..."	WQJ LETTERS 96



Psychical Powers & the Astral Light


"...the senses include all the psychical powers so much desired
by those who study occultism. It does not at all follow that a
man is spiritual or knows truth because he is able to see through
vast distances, to perceive the denizens of the astral world, or
to hear with the inner ear. In this part of the human economy
that dark quality [tamas] is peculiarly powerful. Error is more
likely to be present there than elsewhere, and unless the seer is
self governed he gets no valuable knowledge, but is quite likely
to fall at last, not only into far more grievous error, but into
great wickedness...By proceeding from the near to the more
remote, we go forward with regularity and with certainty of
conquest at last..."in the first place, restrain thy senses."
GITA NOTES p. 97


"...One may see pictures in the astral light through the back of
the head or the stomach. In neither place is there any eye, yet
we see. It must be by the power of seeing...We hear often
through the head without the aid of the auricular apparatus,
which shows us that there is the power of hearing and of
transmitting and receiving sounds without the aid of an external
ear or its inside cerebral apparatus..."	(see Isis I xxxiv,
xxxvii)


"In thinking over these matters [one] ought to always keep in
mind the three plain distinctions of physical, psychical,. and
spiritual, always remembering that the last includes the other
two. All the astral things are of the psychical nature, which is
partly material and therefore very deceptive. But all are
deceptive..."	WQJ LETTERS 60



Personality and the Astral Plane -- Occultism, its Effects


" Every student of Occultism...arouses two sets of forces...the
other opponents are far more difficult to meet, because they have
their camp and base of action upon the Astral and other hidden
planes; they are all his lower tendencies and faculties, that up
to this time have been in the sole service of his material life.
By the mere force of moral gravity they fly to the other
side...and struggle against him. They have more efficiency in
producing despondency than anything else."	GITA NOTES, p. 18-19


"This place of dejection...is also the same thing as is
mentioned in Light on the Path as the silence after the
storm...in the astral world it is just the same. When one enters
there for the first time, a great silence falls, during which the
regulated soul is imbibing its surroundings and becoming
accustomed to them. It says nothing but waits quietly until it
has become in vibration precisely the same as the plane in which
it is; when that is accomplished then it can speak properly,
make itself understood, and likewise understand. But the
unregulated soul flied to that plane of the astral world in a
disturbed state, hurries to speak before it is able to do so
intelligibly and as a consequence is not understood, while it
increases its own confusion and makes it less likely that it will
soon come to understand.

In the T S, as well as out of it, we can see the same thing.
People are attracted to the astral plane; they hear of its
wonders and astonishments and like a child with a new toy in
sight they hurry to grasp it. They refuse to learn its
philosophy because that seems dry and difficult. So they plunge
in, and as M. Joti said...they then "swim in it and cut capers
like a boy in a pool of water." ... But for the earnest student
and true disciple, the matter is serious. He has vowed to have
the truth at whatever cost..."
GITA NOTES,. p. 32-4


"...under the great cyclic laws which govern us, periods arrive
even in the worst of ages when good examples of living imprinted
on the astral light cause effects ever increasing in intensity
until at last the "gods" [Gnyanis] before referred to begin in
distant spheres to feel the force of those good actions and to
return again to help mankind on the recurrence of a better
age..."	G N p. 92-3



Death and the Astral Form


'...[ Question ] about the disintegration of the astral body and
the length of time beforehand when it should be seen: not meant
to be definite as to years, except that I gave a period of two
years as a long one before the death of the physical body....five
years before the death of the physical, a clairvoyant has seen
the disintegration of the astral beginning...if the man is going
to die naturally (and that includes by disease), the corruption,
disintegrating or breaking up of the astral body may be perceived
by those who can see...Violent deaths are not included in this,
because the astral in such cases does not disintegrate
beforehand. And the way of seeing such a death in advance is by
another method altogether. Death from old age--which is the
natural close of a cycle--is included in the answer as to death
by disease, which might be called the disease of inability to
fight off the ordinary breaking-up of the cohesive forces." WQJ
LETTERS 115-6


"...there is no reincarnation for the astral monad, which is the
astral man; and, it being a theosophical doctrine that the
astral man does not reincarnate save in exceptional cases, she
(HPB) taught then the same thing as she did later." WQJ LETTERS
119


"So when the body dies the astral man is released, and as at
death the immoral man--the Triad [Atma-Buddhi-Manas]--flied away
to another state [Kama-Loka, and Devachan], the astral becomes
the shell of the once living man and requires time to dissipate.
It retains all the memories of the life lived by the man, and
thus reflexly and automatically can repeat what the dead man
knew, said, thought and saw. It remains near the deserted
physical body nearly all the time until that is completely
dissipated, for it has to go through its own process of dying.

It may become visible under certain conditions. It is the spook
of the spiritualistic seance rooms, and is there made to
masquerade as the real spirit of this or that individual.
Attracted by the thoughts of the medium and the sitters, it
vaguely flutters where they are, and then is galvanized into a
factitious life by a whole host of elemental forces and by the
active astral body of the medium who is holding the seance or of
any other medium in the audience.

>From it, as from a photograph, are then reflected into the
medium's brain all the boasted evidences which spiritists claim
go to prove the identity of deceased friend or relative."	OCEAN
p. 42


Cremation -- Its Value


"Cremation has no direct effect on any of the sheaths or
vehicles, but it must have the indirect effect of freeing the
astral from the influence of the material body and thus give the
astral a chance to more quickly dissipate. It has much less
effect on kama and the others above, and none on prana, for the
latter is ever present...From a sanitary point of view cremation
is of high importance, as it does away with injurious matter, or
matter in such a state as to be injurious to the living."
THEOSOPHICAL FORUM, Answers by WQJ, p. 102



Materializations


"A word employed by Spiritualists to indicate the phenomenon of
a "pure spirit clothing himself with a material form."...[or]
"form materialization."	(see Isis I 280-1, Glos 209)	ISIS I
xxxvi



MATERIALIZED SPIRIT.	Three explanations are offered:


"1st. that the astral body of the living medium detaches itself
from its corpus and assumes the appearance of the so-called
spirit; for one of the properties of the astral matter is
capacity to reflect an image existing unseen in ether.

2nd. the actual astral shell of the deceased--wholly devoid of
his or her spirit and conscience--becomes visible and tangible
when the condition of air and ether is such as to so alter the
vibration of the molecules of the astral shell that it may become
visible. The phenomena of density and apparent weight are
explained by other laws.

3rd.	an unseen mass of electrical and magnetic matter is
collected, and upon it is reflected out of the astral light a
picture of any desired person either dead or living...called by
H.P.B. a "psychological fraud"...this is the very explanation of
materialization that has been given by a "spirit" at a regular
seance, but it has never been accepted by the spiritualists
because it upsets their notion of the return of the spirits of
the deceased persons.

The astral body will explain nearly all the strange psychical
things happening in daily life and in dealings with genuine
mediums...it explains apportation of objects without physical
contact, for the astral hand may be extruded and made to take
hold of an object drawing toward the body....All the instances of
clairaudience and clairvoyance are to be explained also by the
astral body and astral light...working at a distance as great as
the extension of the astral light or matter around and about the
earth."
OCEAN 43-44



Violent and Accidental Death


"Sudden deaths in war are not the same in effect as the killing
of a murderer or a wicked man...the criminal...who is full of
evil passion and who steps off into the other plane with a heart
full of passion and revenge, will linger of the other plane full
of those unsatisfied desires, and not overmastered, as is the
warrior, by a single strong idea [ engaged in the moving of
troops, the arrangement of batteries...and using the sword.
Their attention is almost wholly thus occupied, and when they are
suddenly killed it is with this idea of present attack and
defense fixed in their nature. ]"
WQJ FORUM ANSWERS 21



Reincarnation and the Astral Body


" (a)	Ordinary reincarnation in which there is no memory of the
old personality, as the astral body is new, and:

(b)	Exception as to astral body; but similarity of conception
to that of ordinary case, where the child retains the old astral
body and hence memory of old personality and acquaintance with
old knowledge and dexterity." [see PATH I 68, ISIS II 564-5, HPB
ART II 275-6 282-3 ]	W Q J LETTERS 250


"On the death of body, the Kama principle collects the Skandhas
in space, or at the rebirth of the Ego the Skandhas rush together
and assemble about it to go with it in the new life."	W Q J
LETTERS 250


"Child dying. Skandhas collecting, child's Ego going--left,
spark of life low; relatives about bed.

He enters by way the mind went out and revivifies the body.
Recovery.... This is the borrowed body.	W Q J LETTERS 251


"...a heavy storm arises, the rain beats, he feels himself
carried to the earth and in deep darkness. A resounding noise
about him. It is the noise of the growing plants. This is a
rice field with some sessamum in it. The moisture descends and
causes the expanding; sees around, all is motion and life.
Enclosed in a sphere of some rice, he bemoans his fate. He is
born in a Brahmin's house..."	[ see also WQJ ART I 508 ]	W Q J
LETTERS 253-4


"...H.P.B. then, as later, denied personal reincarnation. The
reembodiment of the personal astral--called "astral monad" in
Isis--never was taught and is not taught [ by the
Masters ]...Reincarnation of the "astral monad"--that is, the
personal being and the astral body--is not the rule but is the
exception; but reincarnation of the Individual or "spiritual
monad" is the rule and the doctrine..."	FORUM ANSWERS 80



Conception and the Ego


"At the time of conception the astral body--or model form--is
made and the potentiality of an Ego being enmeshed by the person
is created; the connection of the Ego with the body--by means of
the principle Manas--is made, in general, at seven years of age,
and from then on the Ego is involved or entangled in body. But
before such entanglement it was first caught and involved in the
passions and desires--or in the principle kama--which is always
the efficient or producing cause for the embodiment of the Ego.
This kama is known to form part of the skandhas or aggregates, of
which material body is one."	WQJ FORUM ANSWERS p. 47



Infant Death and Reincarnation


"...infants and those who are mere babes--have [no] Devachan,
but that they pass on at once to another human birth as soon as
the body of the baby is dead. They have accumulated no force for
Devachan; they have but in them the impulse for birth, and that
having been thwarted by death, it is continued by an immediate
search for another body, to be continued until a body is found
with sufficient vitality in its to allow the soul to go on with
its pilgrimage among men..."	THEOSOPHICAL FORUM, Answers by WQJ,
p. 103



The "Lives" or Skandhas


"...mother earth...is made up of a number of infinitesimal
"lives." Each of these lives is a sensitive point. Not only are
there microbes, bacilli, and bacteria, but these are composed of
others, and those others of still more minute lives.
These...make up the cells of the body, keeping ever within the
limits assigned by evolution to the cell. They are forever
whirling and moving together throughout the hole body, being in
certain apparently void spaces as well as where flesh, membrane,
bones, and blood are seen. They extend, too, beyond the actual
outer limits of the body to a measurable distance...Their action
[is] forced forward by the Life Energy--called Prana or
Jiva--...They are divided into two classes, one the destroyers,
the other the preservers, and these two war upon each other from
birth until the destroyers win...The body is considered...to be
the most transitory, impermanent, and illusionary of the whole
series of constituents in man...Ever changing, in motion in every
part, it is in fact never complete or finished though
tangible...(Nitya Pralaya, or the continual change in material
things, the continual destruction)...Hence there is no physical
cell, but the privative limits of one, the ideal walls and
general shape. The molecules assume positions within the ideal
shape according to the laws of nature, and leave it again almost
at once to give place to other atoms. And as it thus with the
body, so is it with the earth and with the solar system...This is
modern and also ancient wisdom. This is the physical explanation
of clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy, and mind-reading..."
OCEAN 35-37


Astral Associated with Physical Organ


"...the spleen is the seat of Astral or Vital air or life."
[ also HPB ART II 196 ]	W Q J LETTERS, P. 200



Astral Plane and Body and Disease


"All illnesses, diseases, and abnormalities of the body come
from astral planes. The physical cannot infect the astral. The
occult and the physical must never be mixed up."	[ see also WQJ
ART II 440-1 ] WQJ LETTERS 162



Astral Bodies of Animals


"Animals cannot have Manas so much developed, and so cannot be
self-conscious in the sense that man is. ["The animal has an
astral body that survives the physical form for a short period;
but its (animal) Monad does not reincarnate in the same, but in a
higher species, and has no "Devachan" of course. It has the
seeds of all the human principles in itself, but they are
latent." SD I 196 fn.] ... those who have learned about the
astral world know that human beings assume in the world the form
of animals or other things which they in character most
resemble..."	WQJ ART I 102


Chelaship and the Astral Plane and Nature


"Experiment and induction will confer a great deal of knowledge
about the inferior nature...but before knowing the occult,
hidden, intangible realms and forces--often called spiritual, but
not so in fact--the inner astral senses and powers have to be
developed and used. This development is not to be forced, as one
would construct a machine for performing some operation, but will
come in its own time as all our senses and powers have come. It
is true that a good many are trying to force the process, but at
last they will discover that human evolution is universal and not
particular; one man cannot go very far beyond his race before
the time."	GITA NOTES p. 134


"A student of occultism after a while gets into what we may call
a psychic whirl, or a vortex of occultism. At first he is
affected by the feelings and influence of those about him. That
begins to be pushed off and he passes in to the whirl caused by
the mighty effort of his Higher Self to make him remember his
past lives. Then those past lives affect him. They become like
clouds throwing shadows on his path...They begin to affect his
impulse to action in many various ways. To-day his has vague
calling longings to do something, and critically regarding him
self, he cannot see in this life any cause. It is the bugle note
of a past life blown almost in his face. It startles him; it
may throw him down...He gets, too, a power and a choice. If all
his previous past lives were full of good, then irresistible is
the force for his benefit. But all alike marshal up in front,
and he hastens their coming by his effort. Into this vortex
about him others are drawn, and their germs for good or ill ripen
with activity. This is a phase of the operation of Karmic
stamina...Do you wonder that in the case of those who rush
unprepared into the "circle of ascetics" and before the time is
the ripe moment, insanity sometimes results ? But then that
insanity is their safety for the next life, or for their return
to sanity."	WQJ LETTERS 15


"...pushing their demands upon the law...For this at once
heightens their magnetic vibrations, their evolutionary ratio;
their flame burns more brilliantly, and attracts all kinds of
shapes and influences within its radius, so that the fire is hot
about him. And not for him alone; other lives coming in contact
with him feel this fierce energy; they develop more rapidly,
and, if they have a false or a weak place in their nature, it is
soon discovered and overthrows them for a time. This is the
danger of coming into "the circle of ascetics;" a man must be
strong indeed who thus thrusts himself in..."
WQJ LETTERS 50



Considerations of our Personal Consciousness
Living in our own self-made Psychic Nature.


"The whole world is animated and lit, down to its most material
shapes, by a world within it. This inner world is called Astral
by some people...though it only means starry; but the
stars...are luminous bodies which give light of themselves. This
quality is characteristic of the life which lies within matter;
for those who see it, need no lamp to see it by. The word
star...is derived from..."stir-an," to steer, to stir, to move,
and undeniably it is the inner life which is master of the outer,
just as a man's brain guides the movements of his lips...

The whole of "Light on the Path" is written in an astral cipher
and can therefore only be deciphered by one who reads astrally,
and its teaching is chiefly directed towards the cultivation and
development of the astral life. Until the first step is taken in
this development, the swift knowledge, which is called intuition
with certainty, is impossible to man..."	LIGHT ON THE PATH 33-34


"The senses spoken of in these four statements are the astral,
or inner senses...To see with the astral sense of sight is a form
of activity which it is difficult for us to understand
immediately...This arises from the fact that we move and live and
have our being in matter. Our knowledge of it has become
intuitive. With our astral life, it is very much otherwise.	L on
P, p. 35-6


"...our astral life...For long ages past, man has paid very
little attention to it--so little, that he has practically lost
the use of his senses...most often he denies it, and in being a
materialist becomes that strange thing, a being which cannot see
its own light, a thing of life which will not live, and astral
animal which has eyes, and ears, and speech, and power, yet will
use none of these gifts. This is the case, and the habit of
ignorance has become so confirmed, that now none will see with
the eyes not only unseeing, but without tears--the moisture of
life."	L on P 36-37


"To suffer either pleasure or pain, causes a vivid vibration
which is, to the consciousness of man, life...this sensibility
does not lessen when the disciple enters upon his training; it
increases. It is the first test of his strength; for he must
suffer, must enjoy or endure, more keenly than other men, while
yet he has taken on him a duty which does not exist for other
men, that of not allowing his suffering to shake him from his
fixed purpose...he has taken the first step to take himself
steadily in hand and put the bit into his own mouth; no one else
can do it for him."	L on P. p, 39



"The first four aphorisms of "light on the path" refer entirely
to astral development...The keenest enjoyment, the bitterest
pain, the anguish of loss and despair, are brought to bear on the
trembling soul, which has not yet found the light in the
darkness...until these shocks can be endured without loss of
equilibrium the astral senses must remain sealed."	L on P, p.
40


"The "medium," or "spiritualist," who rushes into the psychic
world without preparation, is a lawbreaker, a breaker of the laws
of super-nature. Those who break Nature's laws lose their
physical health; those who break the laws of the inner life,
lose their psychic health. "Mediums" become mad, suicides,
miserable creatures, devoid of moral sense; and often end as
unbelievers, doubters even of that which their own eyes have
seen. The disciple is compelled to become his own master before
he adventures on this perilous path, and attempts to face those
beings who live and work in the astral world, and whom we call
masters, because of their great knowledge and their ability to
control not only themselves but the forces around them."	L on P
40-1


"The condition of the soul when it lives for the life of
sensation as distinguished from that of knowledge, is vibratory
or oscillating, as distinguished from fixed...In sensation no
permanent home can be found, because change is the law of this
vibratory existence...an intolerable sadness is the very first
experience of the neophyte in Occultism. A sense of blankness
falls upon him which makes the world a waste and life a vain
exertion. This follows his first serious contemplation of the
abstract. In gazing, or even in attempting to gaze, on the
ineffable mystery of his own higher nature, he himself causes the
initial trial to fall on him. The oscillation between pleasure
and pain ceases for--perhaps an instant of time; but that is
enough to have cut him loose from his fast moorings in the world
of sensation. He has experienced, however briefly, the greater
life..."	L on P, p. 42-3


"The most intense forms of suffering fall on such a nature [ one
near the door of knowledge ], till at last it arouses from its
stupor of consciousness, and by the force of its internal
vitality steps over the threshold into a place of peace. Then
the vibration of life loses its power of tyranny. The sensitive
nature must suffer still; but the soul has freed itself and
stands aloof, guiding the life towards its greatness...When one
of these subjects of Time decides to enter the path of
Occultism...the oscillation in which he lives is for an instant
stilled; and he has to survive the shock of facing what seems at
first sight as the abyss of nothingness. Not till he has learned
to dwell in this abyss, and has found its peace, is it possible
for his eyes to have become incapable of tears." L on P, p.
43-4


"The first 4 rules of Light on the Path are...curious though the
statement may seem, the most important in the whole book save one
only. [ p. 81 "The sacrifice or surrender of the heart of man,
and its emotions, is the first of the rules."] ...they contain
the vital law, the very creative essence of the astral man. And
it is only in the astral (or self-illumined) consciousness that
the rules which follow them have any living meaning. once attain
to the use of the astral senses and it becomes a matter of course
that one commences to use them...

The 4 rules stand written in the great chamber of every actual
lodge of a living Brotherhood.

1. Kill out ambition.
2.	Kill out desire for life.
3. Kill out desire of comfort.
4.	Work as those work who are ambitious.

Respect life as those do who desire it. Be happy as those are
who live for happiness. Seek in the heart the source of evil and
expunge it...	L on P 1-2 ]


"The man can chose between virtue and vice, but not until be is
a man...thus with the disciple, he must first become a disciple
before he can even see the paths to choose between. This effort
of creating himself a disciple, the rebirth, he must do for
himself without any teacher. Until the 4 rules are learned no
teacher can be of any use to him..." L ON P 46


"To have acquired the astral senses of sight and hearing; or in
other words to have attained perception and opened the doors of
the soul, are gigantic tasks and may take the sacrifice of many
successive incarnations. And yet, when the will has reached its
strength, the whole miracle may be worked in a second of time.
Then is the disciple the servant of Time no longer."	L on P 60


"The man who is strong, who has resolved to find the unknown
path, takes with the utmost care every step. He utters no idle
word, he does no unconsidered action, he neglects no duty or
office however homely or however difficult. But while his eyes
and hands and feet are thus fulfilling their tasks, new eyes and
hands and feet are being born within him. For his passionate and
unceasing desire is to go that way on which the subtile organs
only can guide him. The physical world he has learned, and known
how to use; gradually his power is passing on, and he recognizes
the psychic world. But he has to learn this world and know how
to use it, and he dare not lose hold of the life he is familiar
with till he has taken hold of that with which he is unfamiliar.

When he has acquired such power with his psychic organs as the
infant has with his physical organs when it first opens its
lungs, then is the hour for the great adventure...The man does
but need the psychic body to be formed in all parts, as is an
infant's; he does but need the profound and unshakable
conviction which impels the infant, that the new life is
desirable. Once those conditions gained and he may let himself
live in the new atmosphere and look up to the new sun. But then
he must remember to check his new experience by the old. He is
breathing still, though differently; he draws air into his
lungs, and takes life from the sun. He has been born into the
psychic world, and depends now on the psychic air and light. His
goal is not here; this is but a subtle repetition of physical
life; he has to pass through it according to similar laws. He
must study, learn, grow and conquer; never forgetting the while
that his goal is that place where there is no air not any sun or
moon...The man, having learned his lesson fully, casts off the
psychic life; having learned his lesson fully, casts off the
contemplative life, or life of adoration.

All are cast aside at last, and he enters the great temple where
any memory of self or sensation is left outside as the shoes are
cast from the feet of the worshiper. That temple is the place of
his own pure divinity, the central flame which, however obscured,
has animated him through all these struggles.

And having found the sublime home he is sure as the heavens
themselves. He remains still, filled with all knowledge and
power. The outer man, the adoring, the acting, the living
personification, goes its own way hand in hand with Nature, and
shows all the superb strength of the savage growth of the earth,
lit by that instinct with contains knowledge. For in the inmost
sanctuary, in the actual temple, the man has found the subtile
essence of Nature herself. No longer can there be any
differences between them or any half-measures.

In that inmost sanctuary all is to be found: God and His
creatures, the fiends who prey on them, those among men who have
been loved, those who have been hated. Difference between them
exists no longer. Then the soul of man...goes forth into the
world in which its actions are needed, and causes these actions
to take place without apprehension, alarm, fear, regret, or joy.

This state is possible to man while yet he lives in the
physical; for men have attained it while living. It alone can
make actions in the physical divine and true.

Life among objects of sense must forever be an outer shape to
the sublime soul,--it can only become powerful life, the life of
accomplishment, when it is animated by the crowned and
indifferent god that sits in the sanctuary.

The obtaining of this condition is so supremely desirable,
because from the moment it is entered there is no more trouble,
no more anxiety, no more doubt or hesitation."	Through the Gates
of Gold, p. 73-77


"Seated and hidden in the heart of the world and in the heart of
man is the light which can illuminate all life, the future and
the past. Shall we not search for it ?..."
Gates of Gold, p. 84


===================

Offered for consideration by DTB

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-----Original Message-----
From: I --n G ----d
Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 4:31 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Secret Doctrine - Destroyed And Then Created Again?

>:-) Hi - I wasn't very clear in my reply - when I said I was
going to look
in the Theosophical Glossary and the SD for "this subject" I
meant I was
going to look for information about what you said is called Nitya
Pralaya -
not for information about the Nature of the Astral Plane - I
wasn't clear at
all in my reply about what I meant by "this subject."

I feel that I understand the Nature of the Astral Plane pretty
well, though I
can't say for sure if my understanding is True - but I think
Leadbeater and
Besant present a very clear description of the Astral.