Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00343)

PART I


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

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Astral Body & Light

"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 (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..." 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)." 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..."
GLOS 172


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


[For more see part II ]
DTB