Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00341)

PART II

ASTRAL BODY & ASTRAL PLANE


Physical Death and the Astral Body
"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


[For more see PART II ]

Dallas




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


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


"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


"...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... [ 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



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



Psychic and Astral Plane Dependent Phenomena


Levitation and Apportation Forum Answers 59

Seance and Spirit Communications Forum Answers
77-8


Powers of the Astral Sphere, Astral Body, Mediums
Echoes from the Orient pp. 52-55.
Ocean of Theosophy pp. 35-44, 135-153.

Astral Travel WQJ ART I 324


Astral Organs WQJ ART I 325-6


Effect of Passions and Vice on "Permanent Astral"
WQJ ART I 526-8, 462,


Effect of Hypnosis and Insanity WQJ ART I 431, 556-7


Sleep and Dreams and Deep Sleep
WQJ ART II 453, 460-61, 560-1, 503-4


Curiosity and Dangers
WQJ ART I 348-9, 359-61, 431, 575, 610-11


Visions and Seeing in
WQJ ART I 347-9, 359-61, 610-11, II 503-4


Astral Shells WQJ ART I 510-11, 516-21, ii 467-69



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


"...you are not body, brain, or astral man, but that you are
THAT, and "THAT" is the Supreme Soul. WQJ LETTERS
116



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


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

i hope this will be found to be of some use

Dallas