Astral body
Planes of existence Gross and subtle bodies | |
---|---|
Theosophy
| |
Full list 1. Mahaparanirvanic plane /Adi
2. Paranirvanic plane /Anupapaduka
3. Atmic plane
4. Buddhic plane 5 Causal/Intellectual plane
6. Emotional plane
7. Material-Ethereal plane
| |
Rosicrucian
| |
The 7 Worlds and the 7 Cosmic Planes | |
Thelema | |
Body of light | Great Work | |
Hermeticism | |
Hermeticism | Cosmogony | |
Surat Shabda Yoga
| |
Cosmology | |
Jainism | |
Jain cosmology | |
Sufism | |
Sufi cosmology | |
Hinduism | |
Kosas, Upadhis
| |
Buddhism | |
Buddhist cosmology | |
Gnosticism | |
Aeons, Archons | |
Kabbalah | |
Atziluth > Beri'ah > Yetzirah > Assiah Sephirot
| |
Fourth Way | |
The astral body is a
The idea is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the
The astral body is sometimes said to be visible as an
History
The classical world
The word "astral" means "of the stars", thus the astral plane, consisting of the celestial spheres, is held to be an astrological phenomenon: "The whole of the astral portion of our earth and of the physical planets, together with the purely astral planets of our System, make up collectively the astral body of the Solar Logos". There are "seven types of astral matter" by means of which "psychic changes occur periodically".[7]
The Modern Era
Such ideas greatly influenced medieval religious thought and are visible in the Renaissance medicine of
In the mid-nineteenth century the French occultist
Levi's idea of the astral was to have much influence in the English-speaking world through the teachings of The Golden Dawn, but it was also taken up by Helena Blavatsky and discussed in the key work of Theosophy, The Secret Doctrine. Levi seems to have been regarded by later Theosophists as the immediate source from which the term was adopted into their sevenfold schema of planes and bodies, though there was slight confusion as to the term's proper use.
Theosophy
Blavatsky frequently used the term "astral body" in connection with the Indian linga sharira which is one of the seven principles of human life. However, she said that "there are various astral bodies".[9] For example, she talked of one as being constituted by "the lower manas and volition, kama"[10] According to the Theosophical founder William Q. Judge "There are many names for the Astral Body. Here are a few: Linga Sarira, Sanskrit, meaning design body, and the best one of all; ethereal double; phantom; wraith; apparition; doppelgänger; personal man; perispirit; irrational soul; animal soul; Bhuta; elementary; spook; devil; demon. Some of these apply only to the astral body when devoid of the corpus after death."[11]
C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant (Theosophical Society Adyar), equated it with Blavatsky's Kama (desire) principle and called it the Emotional body. Astral body, desire body, and emotional body became synonymous, and this identification is found in later Theosophically inspired thought. The astral body in later Theosophy is "the vehicle of feelings and emotions" through which "it is possible...to experience all varieties of desire". We have a "life in the astral body, whilst the physical body is wrapped in slumber". So the astral body "provides a simple explanation of the mechanism of many phenomena revealed by modern psycho-analysis".[12] To this extent, then, the "astral body" is a reification of the dream-world self.
Post-theosophists
According to
However, the astral body (or "Soul body") must be evolved by means of the
]Many other popular accounts of post-Theosophical ideas appeared in the late 20th century.
According to
Fourth Way
"What is called the ‘body-Kesdjan,’ or, as they themselves later began to name this being-part of theirs—of which, by the way, contemporary beings know only by hearsay—the ‘Astral-body.’"[17] "At first on the planet itself the ‘second-being-body,’ i.e., the body-Kesdjan, together with the ‘third-being-body’ separate themselves from the ‘fundamental-planetary-body’ and, leaving this planetary body on the planet, rise both together to that sphere where those cosmic substances— from the localizations of which the body-Kesdjan of a being arises—have their place of concentration. “And only there, at the end of a certain time, does the principal and final sacred Rascooarno occur to this two-natured arising, after which such a ‘higher being-part’ indeed becomes an independent individual with its own individual Reason."[18] According to
Scientific reception
See also
References
- ^ Arthur A.Powell, Astral Body and other Astral Phenomena, The Theosophical Publishing House, London, England; Wheaton,Ill, U.S.A.; Adyar, Chennai, India, 1927, reprinted in 1954 and 1965, page 7, online July 2012 at http://hpb.narod.ru/AstralBodyByPowell-A.htm
- ^ Suki Miller, After Death: How People around the World Map the Journey after Death (1995).
- ^ Dr. Roger J. Woolger, Beyond Death: Transition and the Afterlife, accessed online June 2008 at the website of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/PDF/RWoolgerTransition.pdf Archived 2016-03-26 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Powell, op.cit.
- ^ C.W. Leadbeater, Man, Visible and Invisible; Barbara Brennan, Hands of Light; Dora Van Gelder Kunz, The Personal Aura; Barbara Y. Martin, Change Your Aura, Change Your Life.
- ^ Dodds, E.R. Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A revised text with translation, introduction, and commentary, 2nd edition 1963, Appendix.
- ^ Powell, op. cit. page 9.
- ^ Chic Cicero, Chic C, Sandra Tabatha Cicero The Essential Golden Dawn, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2003.
- ^ Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. "Collected Writings vol. XII". (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House), 705.
- ^ Collected Writings vol. V (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House), fn. 81
- ^ William Judge, The Ocean of Theosophy 2nd Ed. TPH, 1893, Chapter 5, book online June 2008 at http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ocean/oce-hp.htm
- ^ Powell, op. cit. Ch.1 passim.
- ^ Currents in the desire body
- ^ Cf. Matthew 22:1–14
- ^ Cf. 1Cor 15:44 Archived 2011-06-06 at the Wayback Machine (concordance Greek/Textus Receptus): "It is sown a soul body [Gr. "soma" – body and "psuchicon" – psu(y)che – soul; mistranslated "natural body"]; it is raised a spiritual body (...)"
- ^ Samael Aun Weor (1953), The Seven Words, Thelema Press, archived from the original on 2016-04-07, retrieved 2007-03-18
- ^ All and Everything: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, CH 16 The Relative Understanding of Time
- ^ All and Everything: Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson, Ch 39 The Holy Planet Purgatory
- ^ Kenneth Walker, A Study of Gurdjieff's Teachings.
- ISBN 0-486-25551-4
Sources
- Besant, Annie, Theosophical Manual No. VII: Man and His Bodies, London, Theosophical Publishing House, 1914.
- Brennan, Barbara Ann, Hands of Light : A Guide to Healing Through the Human Energy Field, Bantam Books, 1987.
- Brennan, Barbara Ann, Light Emerging: The Journey of Personal Healing, Bantam Books, 1993.
- C. W. Leadbeater, Man, Visible and Invisible, London, Theosophical Publishing House, 1902.
- Kunz, Dora van Gelder, The Personal Aura, Wheaton, IL, Quest Books/Theosophical Publishing House, 1991.
- [Carl Edwin Lindgren]. 2005. Debunking Auras and Aura Cameras.
- Martin, Barbara Y., with Dmitri Moraitis, Change Your Aura, Change Your Life, Sunland, CA, Wisdomlight, 2003.
- The Mother (Alfassa, Mirra) Collected Works of the Mother.
- The Mother (Alfassa, Mirra) The Agenda
- Poortman, J.J. Vehicles of Consciousness; The Concept of Hylic Pluralism (Ochema), vol I-IV, The Theosophical Society in Netherlands, 1978.
- Powell, Arthur E. The Astral Body and other Astral Phenomena
- Steiner, Rudolf, Theosophy: An introduction to the supersensible knowledge of the world and the destination of man. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. (1904) 1970.
- Steiner, Rudolf, Occult Science - An Outline. Trans. George and Mary Adams. London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1909, 1969.
- Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter IV: The Constitution of Man: Vital Body - Desire Body - Mind), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3.
- ISBN 0-14-019169-0.
- Woolger, Roger J. (n.d.). "Beyond Death: Transition and the Afterlife" (PDF). Royal College of Psychiatrists. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-10-02.
- Yogananda, Paramahansa, Autobiography of a Yogi, Los Angeles, CA: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946, Chapter 43.
Further reading
- Walker, Daniel P. (1958). "The Astral Body in Renaissance Medicine". Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 21 (1/2): 119–33. S2CID 195058776.
- White, John (May 2018). "Enlightenment and the Body of Light". Journal of Conscious Evolution. 1 (1). Retrieved 2022-01-06.