Theos-Talk Archives (September 2004 Message tt00426)

Sept 15 2004

Re: ASTRAL LIGHT and AKASA

Dear Friends:

Here are some definitions to help us understand the complex nature of the
"Astral World, and Astral body.

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ASTRAL BODY & LIGHT 


"...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


"...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


"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 existence of an imponderable, tenuous medium which interpenetrates
the entire globe, 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


"...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


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


"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  

		
"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



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	(see L on the P, p. 42)


"This place of dejection...is also the same thing as is mentioned in LIGHT
ON THE PATH as the silence after the storm...[ pp. 41-2, 54-6,] 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


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


ASTRAL LIGHT 


"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, [are] 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


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 (see S D I 93-96)


[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; [Fohat] 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...

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 (see VOICE OF THE SILENCE , p. 54)


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



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


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Best wishes,

Dallas


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> Who checked and verified there visions and pronouncements?


Regarding the "etheric double", for example, at least three 
different clairvoyants, independently. See quotes: