Astral body
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The astral body refers to the concept of a subtle body which exists alongside the physical body, as a vehicle of the soul or consciousness. It is usually understood as being of an emotional nature and, as such, it is equated to the desire body or emotional body. However, some philosophies conceive that the astral body is a body made of ether (the soul body), built by each individual during the current evolutionary stage (the Philosophers' Stone), which is said to give support to the desire (emotional) body during the astral projection. It is also believed by many, to me made up of billions of electrons.
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[edit] Interpretations
[edit] Neoplatonism
While Neoplatonists agreed as to the immortality of the soul, they disagreed as to whether the "irrational soul" was immortal and celestial ("starry", hence astral), or dissolved after death. Proclus combined both ideas by positing two subtle bodies or "vehicles" (okhema) intermediate between the Soul and the physical body. These were the spiritual (pneuma) vehicle which he considered mortal, and the astral vehicle which was the immortal vehicle of the Soul.
[edit] Theosophy
Blavatsky used the term "astral" to refer to the double (linga sharira) which was the lowest but one of the seven principles (immediately above the physical).
Later however, C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant (Adyar School of Theosophy), and following them, Alice Bailey, equated the astral with Blavatsky's Kama (desire) principle (the fourth of the seven principles of man, and called it the Emotional body (a concept not found in earlier Theosophy).
In this way, astral body, desire body, and emotional body became synonymous, and this identification is found in much of New Age and theosophically-inspired thought since.
The astral or emotional body here is understood as a sort of psychic body or aura that is made up of emotions, just as the physical body consists of matter. In occult thought, emotions are not just subjective qualia, but have an existence apart from the individual consciousness, and exist on a cosmic plane of existence, in this case, the astral plane.
[edit] Max Heindel
According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, the Desire body [1] is made of desire stuff from which human beings form feelings and emotions and also it impels to seek sense gratification. But while it is referred that the Dense (physical) body and the Vital (etheric) body are well organized, the desire body is said to appear to spiritual sight as an ovoid cloud extending from sixteen to twenty inches beyond the physical body; it is seen above the head and below the feet so that the dense (physical) body sits in the center of this egg-shaped cloud as the yolk is in the center of an egg. This desire body has a number of whirling vortices - since a characteristic of desire-stuff is to be in constant motion - and from the main vortex in the region of the liver, there is a constant outwelling flow which radiates toward the periphery of this egg-shaped body and returns to the center through a number of other vortices. It is said the desire body also exhibits all the colors and shades, which we know and a vast number of others unknown to physical sight, and those colors vary in every person according to his or her characteristics and temperament, and they also vary from moment to moment as passing moods, fancies, or emotions are experienced by the person.
His writings, called Western Wisdom Teachings, refer that the term "Astral body" - a vehicle made of ether (from the Vital body), which is lighter than air and therefore capable of levitation - was employed by the mediaeval Alchemists, because of the ability it conferred upon the one who has it to traverse the "starry" regions. The Astral body should not to be confounded with the Desire body: during the soul flights the desire body molds itself readily into this prepared matrix; when the individual returns to the physical body, the effort of will whereby he enters it automatically dissolves the intimate connection between the desire body and the soul body. The Astral body is also known as the 'Soul body', the 'Golden Wedding Garment', the 'Philosopher's Stone', or the 'Living Stone', spoken of in some of the ancient philosophies as the 'Diamond Soul' ("for it is luminous, lustrous, and sparkling--a priceless gem"), and will eventually be evolved by humanity as a whole.
[edit] Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner at first followed Theosophical jargon like astral and Devachan, but after he broke away from the Theosophical society to form his own movement, Anthroposophy, he also adopted a distinct terminology, replacing astral plane with "soul" and devachen with "spirit", and substituting the seven-fold model of man with a fourfold one (physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego). However his description of the "soul world" remained very similar to Leadbeater's description of the astral plane, and his definition of the astral body remained basically similar as well. Unlike Leadbeater however he placed little emphasis on the astral or soul level, being more interested in the evolution of the ego (the immortal spirit principle, not the psychological ego) and the spiritual hierarchies (see for example his Occult Science - An Outline).
[edit] Samael Aun Weor
According to the doctrine of Samael Aun Weor the astral body is the part of human soul related to emotions, represented by the sephirah Hod in the kabbalistic Tree of Life. However, because it is stated that almost everyone in the world has yet to actually incarnate their human soul, in place of an authentic astral body, the common person only contains the kamarupa, or body of desire. In this sense, the kamarupa is considered the "lunar astral body," a body related to animal emotions, passions and desires, while the true human emotional vehicle is the solar astral body.[1]
It is through the lunar astral body that the common populace experiences dreaming and astral projection. The solar astral body is crystallized through the sexual transmutation of energies that occur by practicing sexual magic with a spouse. The process of forming this superior astral is said to be represented by the Biblical story of Benjamin. The solar astral body is the first mediator between the Cosmic Christ, Chokmah, and the individual human soul. The superior mediator between the Cosmic Christ and the individual soul is the causal body, Tiphereth.[1]
[edit] The Mother
The Mother sometimes refers to the astral body and experiences on the astral plane (see her Collected Works and The Agenda). In this context she also incorporates a lot of ideas from Max Theon. She uses the term "vital" rather than astral, and refers to exteriorisation, whereby one can move out from the physical into the vital ("astral"), and from there to successively higher bodies, twelve in all.
In contrast to theosophical and anthroposophical position, Barbara Brennan in her book Hands of Light distinguishes between the Emotional body and the Astral body. She sees these as two distinct layers in the seven-layered "Human Energy Field" or Aura. The Emotional body pertains to the physical universe, the astral body to the astral world. However the descriptions of both are similar, in that both consist of swirls of colour. (See links for illustration and more description)
[edit] New Age
New Age thought incorporates many theosophical ideas, including the concept of subtle bodies and planes of existence. While there is no consensus position, the general idea is that the Astral body corresponds to the astral plane which is sometimes also (ref?) called the 5th dimension.
The astral body is also widely understood here as the subtle body in which astral projection occurs (see Astral projection). This is one of several types of out-of-body experiences, or OBEs. The term "light body" is sometimes used in this context.
[edit] Artistic depictions
The emotional and/or astral body is usually drawn in terms of an aura or consisting of swirling colours. See illustrations in Man, Visible and Invisible and Hands of Light for examples of this. Other clairvoyants and visionaries have provided similar representations of the astral body; see Dora Van Gelder Kunz's The Personal Aura, and Barbara Y. Martin's Change Your Aura, Change Your Life.
[edit] Photographing
Kirlian photography yields images that resemble the depictions that clairvoyants have given of the etheric body, the spiky-looking energy field that extends a few inches beyond the surface of the human body; compare, for example, Leadbeater's Man Visible and Invisible, Chapter XX, "The Health-Aura." In 1980, American engineer and inventor Guy Coggins developed a refined type of aura photography that captures on film the larger cloud of color that visionaries have described and depicted as the aura or astral body.[2]
Prof. Lindgren states:
Alas my research in auras and aura photography, after considerable enthusiasm, has proven to be fruitless. I saw no auras and the aura camera proved only good for taking pretty and interesting NORMAL photographs which I entered in numerous photographic contests and shows. I had initially searched this field as a way to assist in healing of cancer patients and non-cancer pain patients. The research was not only a disappointment but a waste of precious time.
However, the search for the aura continues. "In small, one-man laboratories, psychic circles, healing sessions, and university parapsychological departments, scientists and psychics are searching for the elusive 'aura'. It is hoped that, within the near future, all individuals will be allowed, whether naturally or through some technological advance, to see, record, and study this inexplicable phenomenon."
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- 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.
- ----- Light Emerging: The Journey of Personal Healing, Bantam Books, 1993.
- Dodds, E.R. Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A revised text with translation, introduction, and commentary, 2nd edition 1963.
- 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 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.
- ----- 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.
- Walker, Benjamin, Beyond the Body: The Human Double, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1974, ISBN 0-7100-7808-0; Fitzhenry, Toronto, 1974; Arkana, 1988, ISBN 0-14-019169-0.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Samael Aun Weor (1953), The Seven Words, Thelema Press
[edit] External links
- The Seven Words Online book by Samael Aun Weor detailing the "Christification of the Solar Astral Body."
- Barbara Brennan on the Emotional Body
- Barbara Brennan on the Astral Body
- Astral Society
- Light Body - an integrative view
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