Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Seven Planes....


Lessons in Theosophy


Lesson 7, Planes of Existence
(Physical, Astral, etc.)



      Theosophy teaches that there are different planes of reality in the universe, such as the physical plane, the astral plane, etc. There are a total of seven planes of existence.

      The seven planes of existence, from the highest to the lowest, are:
  • Adi Plane
  • Anupadaka Plane
  • Atman Plane
  • Buddhic Plane
  • Mental Plane
  • Astral Plane
  • Physical Plane
      Various — and sometimes confusing — naming systems are used in Theosophical literature. Here is a chart.




      The first naming system (Adi, Anupadaka, etc.) in the first vertical column is from Sanskrit. The second naming system (Mahaparanirvana, etc.) is from Buddhism. The third system (Divine, Spiritual, etc.) was devised early in the 1900's by Theosophical writers, to be more easily used and understood by English speakers. These Lessons In Theosophy will use the names in the first column. (The name Nirvana is retained, and used along with Atma, as the word Nirvana is more well-known in the Western world.)

      There are seven Planes, each with seven sub-planes, making for a total of 49 sub-planes. Note that the very bottom sub-plane is that of the solid objects in our universe, the next highest is the sub-plane of liquid objects, and the next highest is the sub-plane of gaseous objects.



---

      A human being is considered to have parts of their total being existing on different planes simultaneously. For example, It is understood that people live in physical bodies, yet their emotions are said to exist on the astral plane, and their mental abilities are said to exist on the mental plane. The different aspects all exist simultaneously, each only a part of the total being that is a human.

      Other aspects of a human being are called the Monad, Atma, Buddhi, the Manas, etc., each on a different Plane of Existence. The aspects will be explained in detail in Lesson 11.

      Here is a chart showing the triple-aspects of both the Logos, and a human being, taken from the book Man Visible and Invisible.




      See also the charts The First Principles of Theosophy, page 166,page 200, and page 305.

      The triangles in the diagram may be confusing. The upper triangle, the manifestations of the Logos, will be explained in Lesson 19.

-- The Adi Plane --

      The Adi Plane is the first plane. It is the plane where the Logos resides.


-- The Anupadaka Plane --

      The Anupadaka Plane is the second plane. It is the plane where the seven Dhyani-Chohan reside. The Anupadaka plane of existence is also where a person’s Monad resides.

      The Anupadaka Plane is also know as Parinirvana. (see chart)


~~~


      The Adi and Anupadaka Planes are such high levels of consciousness, it has been said that the human mind cannot comprehend what existence these Planes must be like.
      [The Adi Plane and the Anupadaka Plane] “...will not be touched by the majority of mankind in this evolution at all — two planes which are mere names for us, names conveying no definite meaning, so high are those spheres beyond our loftiest imaginings. These are that which is spoken of as Paranirvana [Anupadaka] and that which is still higher, Mahaparanirvana [Adi]. What these states are we cannot even dream. [There are] seven stages of the Cosmos. Humanity as a majority is to conquer and occupy five of them, and some of humanity’s children will reach to the yet higher that remain; but for the bulk of our race its evolution is within the five-fold universe [the five planes below Adi and Anupadaka].” (Annie Besant,The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 86 online or page 118 hardcopy)


-- The Atma (Nirvana) Plane --

      The Atma Plane is the third plane. It is where our Atma resides. Life on the Nirvanic Plane is described in Lesson 5.

      The chart on The First Principles of Theosophy, page 305, describes the Atma Plane as the location of a human’s spirit.


-- The Buddhi Plane --

      The Buddhi Plane is the fourth plane. It is where our Buddhi Principle resides.
      [The Buddhic Plane is a “place”] “...which man shall occupy ere the Manvantara closes, that region which is now open to the waking consciousness only in the last stage of discipleship that I spoke to you about yesterday; into this the Seventh Race of men shall climb and this shall occupy. In that extended consciousness there is no separation that divides man from man; each knows himself to be one with others; feels as they feel, thinks as they think, knows as they know - a consciousness that stretches out to embrace myriads; and then the brotherhood of man becomes an accomplished fact. There the essence of things is seen, and not only the appearances; there realities are seen, and not only phenomena. The one Self is recognised that lives in all; hatred is for evermore impossible to the man who knows.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 112 online or pages 148-149 hardcopy)
      The chart on The First Principles of Theosophy, page 305, describes the Buddhi Plane as the location of a human’s intuition.


-- The Mental Plane --


      The Mental Plane is the fifth highest (or third lowest) plane. It is further divided into the Upper Mental Plane and the Lower Mental Plane. The Upper Mental Plane is where our causal body resides.

      The Mental Plane is divided into seven sub-planes. The upper three sub-planes of the Mental Plane are distinguished from the lower four sub-planes, and is called the “Higher Mental Plane,” or “Higher Manas.” The “Lower Mental Plane,” also called “Lower Manas,” is often referred to as “Devachan” in Theosophical literature.

      Note that the term “Lower Mental Body” is not used. It is simply called the “Mental Body” (an aspect of a human being at this level).

      The chart on The First Principles of Theosophy, page 305, describes the Upper Mental Plane as the location of a human’s abstract thoughts, and the Lower Mental Plane as the location of a human’s concrete thoughts.

      When a person dies, they become fully conscious in the astral body. After a certain time, the astral body disintegrates, and the person then becomes conscious on the mental plane. (C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, pages 139-140 online or hardcopy)

      The mental plane is also called Heaven. The phrase “Seventh Heaven” in English refers to the seventh and highest sub-plane of the mental plane.

      C. Jinarajadasa writes;
      “The seven sub-planes of the heaven world [the Mental Plane] form two great divisions; the three higher sub-planes make the higher heaven, and the four lower sub-planes make the lower heaven. The lower heaven world is also known as ‘Devachan’, the abode of Bliss, or the place of intense joy because in its four lower sub-divisions are found souls after death in conditions of happiness described in the various religions as ‘Heaven’. Here too are found those animals who, before death, became ‘individualized’, and attained to the stature of a human soul. On the lowest sub-plane live those men and women and children in whom affection predominated in the character when on earth (however limited may have been its manifestation, owing to adverse circumstances), and they dwell in bliss for centuries in happy communion with those to love whom was the highest possible heaven of earthly dreams. On the next higher sub-plane are those who added to affection a devotion to some definite religious ideal; on the sub-plane above, the men and women who delighted to express their dreams of love and devotion in philanthropic action; on the fourth sub-plane are those who, with all these beautiful attributes, added philosophic, artistic or scientific interests to their soul's manifestations when on earth.

      “In the three higher sub-planes, in the higher heaven, ever live all the souls who compose our humanity. Here each lives as the ‘individuality’, as the totality of capacity and consciousness evolved throughout the long course of evolution. From here, as the individuality, each soul descends into incarnation, putting forth only a part of himself as the ‘personality’, to experiment with life on lower planes.
(1) On the highest sub-plane live the Adepts and their higher pupils;

(2) on that next below, the souls whose higher evolution is attested by their inborn culture and natural refinement when in earthly bodies;

(3) and on the third sub-plane are the vast majority of the 60,000 millions of souls who form the mass of our, as yet, backward humanity.” (C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, page 141 online or hardcopy)
      Here on the Physical Plane, we exchange ideas by having discussions through the use of language. This does not happen on the Mental Plane. Rather, thoughts are thrown like lightning bolts. Whole concepts, such as entire musical symphonies are transferred from person to person in an instant.
      “In the mental world one formulates a thought and it is instantly transmitted to the mind of another without any expression in the form of words. Therefore on that plane language does not matter in the least; but helpers working in the astral world, who have not yet the power to use the mental vehicle, must depend on ... [formulating] the thought in words.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 264online or hardcopy)
      Imagine, if you will, attending a lecture on the Mental Plane.
      “If in those far-off days [from now, when we become conscious on the Mental Plane,] there should be an orator and an audience, how different then would be the; oratory and how different would be the effect on the people. Instead of their hearing words, articulate sounds that reach the ears, and convey so imperfectly and inadequately but a small portion of the thought, they would see thought as it really is; thought springing out before their eyes radiant in color, beautiful in sound, exquisite in shape, and they would be spoken to as it were in music, they would be spoken to in color and in form, until the whole hall would be full of perfect music and perfect colour and perfect shapes. For that is the oratory of the future when men have conquered that higher plane of conscious­ness and of life. Do you think I dream? I tell you there are those today who can go to that plane of consciousness and know it and feel it and see it, who are behind the veils that blind the majority and shut out from their view the wider possibilities of life.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 110 online or page 146 hardcopy)
      The activites on the Mental Plane have a strong impact on our lives here on the Physcial Plane.
      "All the greatest intellectual thoughts come from [the Mental Plane down to us] through the astral. The mightiest mental agencies for helping man in the physical world today are being sent down from the [Mental] region by those who are able to function there. The disciples of the Masters are there in waking consciousness, working for the helping of man, working, for the raising of humanity; and every one who has passed those great portals of Initiation, about which ... I spoke to you, lives in that region working there for the helping of man. The disciple may work in the physical world; but he works far more in the higher and more effective region. There his greatest activities are carried on; there his furthest-reaching services are rendered. And when the majority of men rise to that region, how numerous will be the workers, how vast the congregation of the helpers! Only a few hundreds are functioning there today for the helping of the millions of mankind, and the work is imperfectly done because of the small number of the workers. But when the bulk of humanity rises there how swift will be the growth out of the lower stages in men. Mankind will be elevated with a speed that we can scarcely imagine today." (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 111 online or pages 147-148 hardcopy)
For further reading on the Mental Plane:

-- The Astral Plane --


      The Astral Plane is the sixth highest (or second lowest) plane. It is the plane where each of our Astral Bodies reside. The chart on The First Principles of Theosophy, page 305, describes the Astral Plane as the location of a human's emotions and impulses.

George Arundale wrote;
      “In the astral world exist temporarily all those physical entities, men and animals, for whom sleep involves a separation of the physical body for a time from the higher bodies. While we "sleep", we live in our astral bodies, either fully conscious and active, or partly conscious and semi-dormant, as the case may be, according to our evolutionary growth; when we "wake", the physical and the higher bodies are interlocked again, and we cease to be inhabitants of the astral world.” (C. Jinarajadasa, First Principles of Theosophy, pages 139-140 online or hardcopy)
      When a person dies, they become fully conscious in the astral body, and “live” on the astral plane, until they move on to a higher plane. Charles Leadbeater calls the Astral Plane
      “... the state into which man enters immediately after death — the Hades or under-world of the Greeks, the purgatory or intermediate state of Christianity....” (Charles Leadbeater, (The Astral Plane, It's Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena, Paragraph 1)
      The Astral Plane is where our auras, or astral bodies reside. Our auras have specific colors, which have specific meanings.
      “... we must familiarize ourselves with the general meaning of the various shades of color in ... [our auras, our astral bodies].” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible,paragraph 131 online or hardcopy)

      “...round every man there is visible to the trained eye ... what is called an aura, which shows the development of the mind, the nature of the character, which gives definite information as to the stage of advancement reached by the soul that dwells in that body, and as to the characteristics and attributes of that soul. Every one of you bears around him this record of his own state, the clearly seen evidence of the stage that he occupies in evolu­tion; round each one of you there is this atmos­phere that shows your thoughts, that shows your character, that is as legible to the trained eye as are the physical features to the physical eye, and is far more instructive as regards the character of the man.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 105 online orpages 138-139 hardcopy)
      The auras of children are of special interest. Here is some information on the auras of ahildren, and how we should act while raising our children.
      “...when a young child comes into the world and passes through the early stages of its growth, there is this peculiarity about its aura: it brings with it the karmic outcomes of its past, but a large number of the mental and moral tendencies that it brings over from the past are present in it in germ and not in full fructification. If you take the aura of a young child it is comparatively clean; its colours are pure and transparent, not dense and muddy and thick as they are in grown-up men and women; within that aura lie the germs of tendencies which may be developed. Some are good and some are evil. The trained eye, distinguishing these characteristics, might cultivate the good and starve out the evil by bringing suitable influences to bear on the child. If you want a healthy plant from a seed, you must take it and put it into good soil, and you must water it and let the sunshine play on it. All the essentials of the plant are in the seed, but all the plant is not yet in manifestation, and according to the soil that you give it, the care you take of it, the air that plays upon it, the sunshine that warms it - according to these will be the greater or the less development of the seed; it may be made to grow into great beauty or it may be stunted and dwarfed in its growth. So it is to a great extent with the little child. A child is born; it has in it the germ, say, of anger, of hot and passionate temper. Suppose that those around it are endowed with know­ledge and wisdom, they will know how to deal with it. It should never be allowed to hear an angry word, it should never be allowed to see a passionate action. Every one around it should be gentle and loving and self-controlled; and there should never be sent to the germ that is within the child the stimulating force of the anger of older people that is like a force to make it grow more rapidly, to intensify it and force it to fructification. You should take care that round the children there should be influences that will stimu­late all that is good, all that is noble, and all that is pure. And if you did that for every child humanity would go forward at a racing speed, whereas it goes forward with the gait of a cripple at the present time.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 105 online or pages 139-140 hardcopy)
      When we achieve the ability to see auras, all aspects of our life will be affected. Here are two small examples, the punishing of criminals and the killing of animals. (Other examples are to be found in the book.)
      “We shall not punish our criminals but cure them; we shall not slay them but educate them. We shall be able to see the very point at which help is needed; and there will be wisdom to reform instead of anger to punish. Not only will society change by thus working on the very natures of men, but the entire outside world will also change its appearance; all the animal world will come under the moulding power of man. He will no longer be a tyrant and oppressor as he is now; but he will be a helper and educator and teacher of the lower animal world. He will do what he was meant to do - be the helper and the trainer of the brute, and not its ill-user and its oppressor, as he so largely is today. I need not say that forms of cruelty will gradually fade away; no longer will animal blood stain the earth as it stains it so deeply now; no longer will animals fly from man with dread and horror, knowing him as enemy instead of recognising him as friend; for we shall be passing onwards towards a golden age when all living things shall love instead of hate.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 109 online or pages 145-146 hardcopy)
      The astral plane consists of seven sub-planes. There, people gravitate to, and spend time on the sub-plane that corresponds to their level of spiritual advancement. These sub-planes very from the Lowest, Hell, to the highest, “Astral Heaven”.
      “Numbering these subdivisions from the highest and least material downwards, we find that they naturally fall into three classes, divisions 1, 2, and 3 forming one such class, and 4, 5, and 6 another, while the seventh and lowest of all stands alone. The difference between the matter of one of these classes and the next would be commensurable with that between a solid and a liquid, while the difference between the matter of the subdivisions of a class would rather resemble that between two kinds of solid, such as, say, steel and sand. Putting aside for the moment the seventh, we may say that divisions 4, 5, and 6 of the astral plane have for their background the physical world in which we live, and all its familiar accessories. Life on the sixth division is simply like our ordinary life on this earth, minus the physical body and its necessities....” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible, paragraph 16 online or hardcopy)
      Leadbeater continues, writing about traveling from one astral plane to another. This refers to the experience after death, when we spend time on one plane, burn off the astral atoms that belong to that plane, which allows us to become conscious on the next higher astral plane. The process ends when we burn off astral atoms at the lower levels, allowing us to become conscious on the highest astral plane.
      “ ... while as [our post-death astral body] ascends through the fifth and fourth divisions it becomes less and less material, and is more and more withdrawn from our lower world and its interests.” (Charles Leadbeater, Man Visible and Invisible,paragraph 16 online or hardcopy)
There is no fatigue on the astral plane.
      “So far as we are at present aware the astral body does not appear to be susceptible to fatigue. The ordinary man while possessing a physical body naturally never has the opportunity of working for any length of time consecutively upon the astral plane, for his nights of astral work alternate with days of physical work. I knew, however, of one case of a man who, having the right to take a rapid reincarnation, had to wait upon the astral plane twenty-five years for the special conditions which he required. He spent the whole of this time in working for the help of others, without any intermission except the occasional attendance at classes held by pupils of our Masters; and he assured me that he had never felt the slightest sense of fatigue — that in fact he had forgotten what it meant to be tired.

      “We all know that excessive or long-continued emotion tires us very quickly in ordinary life, and since emotion is an expression of the astral, that may perhaps lead some to suppose that fatigue of the astral body is possible. I think, however, that it will be found that what is subject to fatigue is merely the physical organism through which everything in us which manifests on this plane must pass. What we call mental fatigue is a parallel case. There is no such thing as fatigue in the mind; what we call by that name is only fatigue of the physical brain through which that mind has to express itself.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 175 online orhardcopy)
      Our thoughts are actual objects, thought-forms that exist on the astral plane. Thinking bad thoughts and sending bad thought-forms can cause trouble.
      “...every one of you who generates an impure or revengeful or angry or sordid thought, sends out that thought into the world of society as a living force, as an active entity, which plays upon society, which is taken in by the weakest, by the most receptive, by the least developed, so that out of those thoughts of so-called respectable men there are scattered the seeds of crime through the lower masses of the people, and the sins of these which show out in actions belong very largely to the Karma of those whose thoughts have given them birth. That is not known as widely as it should be known. It is not believed as it should be believed. Every man who feels revenge sends out into the astral world a power for destruction; and when some weak creature comes along with a bad Karma behind him, and bad circumstances surrounding him, with impulses which are not under his control and passions which are stronger than his mind, these evil thoughts come down upon him, all these angry thoughts from men living in respectable conditions in society, and if he be stimulated by some wrong, maddened by some injury, these impel him to strike a blow which we call murder; though he holds the knife in his physical hand, the blow is largely struck by the thoughts of many men whose revengeful feelings are of the essence of murder, although they appear not in outward form. You will not get rid of crimes in the lower strata of society until you purify the thoughts of the higher classes, of those who are educated and can understand the nature of things. And when all this is seen and known, when the astral world lies open to men’s vision, there will be a new force available to help and to raise mankind; for men will no longer disbelieve in the power of thought, they will then appreciate their responsibility for the thoughts they generate, and will send out loving and helping influences instead of the degrading influences that go out so often today.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship,paragraph 104 online or pages 136-137 hardcopy)

~~~


For further reading on the Astral Plane:


-- The Physical Plane --

      The Physical Plane is the seventh plane. It is the plane where our physical bodies reside.


-- In Conclusion: The Seven Planes --

      Each of the seven Planes of Existence has its own attributes, and each Plane impacts upon humans in its own way. A solid foundation in understanding the different Planes is key to understanding more advanced Theosophical concepts. It is hoped that the reader will click on the links in the chart of any terms that need further explanation.

      C. Jinarajadasa, in his book First Principles of Theosophy, explains in detail the seven Planes of Existence. The book's fifth chapter, “The Invisble Worlds” (Jinarajadas's name for the Planes) offers an in-depth explanation:
The same book has a chart of the seven Planes on page 200:
      C. W. Leadbeater, in his book “Man Visible and Invisible”, talks about the seven Planes in Chapter II, “The Planes of Nature,” Plate II, “Planes of Nature,” and Plate IV, “Involution and Evolution”.
Next: Lesson 8, The Reincarnation Cycle
http://users.ez2.net/nick29/theosophy/lessons07.htm
REF LINK 
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Other Worlds...

Lessons in Theosophy


Lesson 6, Heaven, Hell,
Purgatory, Avichi, and Devachan



      Theosophy teaches that, after we die, our point of consciousness moves on to other planes of existence (before returning for another reincarnation). Some planes are “higher” than others, although the reader is cautioned not to think of the planes as geographically separate — all of the planes inter-penetrate each other, occupying the same space.


-- A Geography of the Invisible Worlds --


      “Suppose there exists a man who responds to the vibrations of the astral and mental worlds, and so can “see” them, and that he has also been scientifically trained in observation and judgment, what does he see? He sees a multitude of phenomena, which will take him long years to analyze and understand. The first and most striking thing will be that he sees, living in either astral or mental bodies, those friends and acquaintances of his whom he thought of as dead; they are not removed in space, in a far-off heaven or purgatory or hell, but are here, in the finer unseen extensions of this world. He will see the “dead” blissfully happy, mildly contented, bored, or utterly miserable; he will note that entities with these attributes of consciousness are localized to various sub-planes of the astral and mental worlds. He will observe how far from the earth’s surface these sub-planes extend, and so he will make for himself a geography of the invisible worlds.

      He will see that in the astral world, and in its lowest subdivision, live for a time men and women acutely miserable, and that that part of the astral world is evidently the “hell” described in all the religions; that a higher part of the astral world is evidently “purgatory”; and that a higher part still is the “Summerland” described by the communicating entities at spiritualistic seances. With a higher faculty of observation still, he will note a part of the invisible world where the “dead” live as intensely happy as each is capable of being, and he will note that this is evidently “heaven”, though in many ways radically different and more sensible than the religious imagination has conceived heaven to be. The mystery of life and death will be solved for him as he thus observes the invisible worlds. (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, pages 135-136 online or hardcopy)






      Note: The Mental Plane is the fifth plane, the Astral Plane is the sixth plane, and the Physical Plane is the seventh plane. All seven of the Planes of Existence are covered in detail in Lesson 7.

      Do not confuse Hell with Avichi.

      We will now take a look at these “invisible worlds.”


-- Hell --

      Hell is said to exist, although it is seen as different than the Hell of the orthodox religions. Here are the Theosophical views on five key issues regarding Hell.

1. Orthodox religions teach that Hell is eternal.
“Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” (Matthew 25:41)
“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:46)
      Theosophy, however, teaches that Hell is not eternal. First, there is no word for “eternal” in Hebrew.
      “The word ‘eternity,’ by which Christian theologians interpret the term ‘for ever and ever,’ does not exist in the Hebrew tongue — either as a word or meaning. Oulam, says Le Clerc, only imports a time when beginning or end is not known. It does not mean ‘infinite duration,’ and the word for ever in the Old Testament, only signifies a ‘long time.’” (H.P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, page 336 note online orhardcopy)

“... ‘eternal damnation’ ... [is not] eternal, but only, as in the original Greek of the New Testament, ‘eonian’, that is, for the period of an eon or dispensation. (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 348 online or hardcopy)
      “Eternal” would have been more accurately translated in the Bible as “aeon.” In Theosophy, Hell is seen as something that lasts for a while, but the person then leaves Hell, and moves on, to a better place.

      Another Theosophical teaching contributes to the idea that Hell is not eternal. As a person spends time on a particular sub-plane of the astral plane, they eventually burn off the vibrations of that particular sub-plane. That allows the person to rise up to the next higher sub-plane and spend time there.
      “The length of time depends upon the amount of matter belonging to that sub-plane which he has built into his astral body during physical life. He will necessarily remain upon that sub-plane until the matter corresponding to it has dropped out of his astral body.” (A.E. Powell, The Astral Body, page 120online or hardcopy)
      “The general principle is that when the astral body has exhausted its attractions to one level, the greater part of its grosser particles fall away, and it finds itself in affinity with a somewhat higher state of existence. Its specific gravity, as it were, is constantly decreasing, and so it steadily rises from the dense to the lighter strata, pausing only when it is exactly balanced for a time. (A.E. Powell, The Astral Body, page 120 online or hardcopy)
      Living in Hell, then, is this process: The newly-dead “floats” to his or her appropriate level in the after-life. Those who have lead a wretched life float down to the lowest astral level (Hell), waiting for the heaviest astral atoms to eventually burn off. This then frees them to float up to the next level. This burning-off of astral atoms continues, until the highest level (“Astral Heaven”) is achieved.

      Hell, therefore, is not a place of eternal damnation. It is a place of temporary residence.

2. The idea that people who do not worship God will go to Hell.

      Some orthodox religions teach that we will go to Hell if we do not believe in a particular diety, a particular religion, or a particular religious ceremony. Theosophy teaches against these ideas. These ideas are seen as superstition, and Theosophy teaches that all superstition must be removed before Nirvana can be achieved.
      “...in order to gain ... tolerance, you must yourself first be free from bigotry and superstition. You must learn that no ceremonies are necessary; else you will think yourself somehow better than those who do not perform them. Yet you must not condemn others who still cling to ceremonies. Let them do as they will; only they must not interfere with you who know the truth- they must not try to force upon you that which you have outgrown. Make allowance for everything; be kindly towards everything.
      “Now that your eyes are opened, some of your old beliefs, your old ceremonies, may seem to you absurd, perhaps, indeed, they really are so. Yet though you can no longer take part in them, respect them for the sake of those good souls to whom they are still important. They have their place, they have their use; they are like those double lines which guided you as child to write straight and evenly, until you learned to write far better and more freely without them. There was a time when you needed them; but now that time is past.
      “A great Teacher once wrote: ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things.’ Yet he who has forgotten his childhood and lost sympathy with the children is not the man who can teach them or help them. So look kindly, gently, tolerantly upon all; but upon all alike, Buddhist or Hindu, Jain or Jew, Christian or Muslim.” (Alcyone, At The Feet of the Master, online or hardcopy)
      As a side-note, it has been said that we are not even asked which religion we belong to, when we take the initiations that lead to Nirvana. We must only show a minimun level of spirituality, and a record of service to others. Read the transcript of a Second Initiation.
      “You have transcended all superstition; you know that a man may find the light in any religion; you know that rites and ceremonies have no intrinsic value, and that all which is done by them can be done without them by knowledge and by will.... Will you seek to lift the darkness by spreading this gospel?”

      “ The candidates answered, ‘I will.’” (Charles Leadbeater, The Masters and the Path, paragraphs 803-805 online or pages 182-183 hardcopy)
      The superstition of eternal damnation causes trouble for the newly-dead.
      “...as men’s eyes are opened superstition becomes impossible. You do not know the mischief that superstition works on the other side of death. You do not know the misery and the terror that too many souls undergo when they pass from the body into the world which to them is unknown, and is crowded for them with all the imaginary terrors with which superstition dominated by pretended knowledge has peopled it; especially is this the case in the West where men talk about eternal hell, and tell people that after death there is no growth and no progress, that a sinful man is plunged into the lake of fire and brimstone, there to spend the countless ages of eternity without hope of salvation, without hope of escape. You cannot imagine what the effect of that is on souls passing into the other world through the gateway of death, and imagining that all this is, or even may be true, imagining that they may be victims of this horror that they have heard of from their ignorant teachers; great are the difficulties they have who help the souls on the other side, to gradually do away with the terror and to make them understand that law is everywhere, and that malice and malig­nity are not found amongst the ruling powers of the Kosmos.” (Annie Besant, The Path of Discipleship, paragraph 103 online or pp. 134-135 hardcopy)
      Orthodox religion teaches that God sends us to Hell as punishment. Theosophy teaches against this idea. God does not “punish” us. (We do it to ourselves.)

3. Theosophy teaches that Hell is mainly a place of unfulfillable desires.
      “The purely physical cravings of hunger and thirst no longer exist [in the astral world]; but the desire of the glutton to gratify the sensation of taste, and the desire of the drunkard for the exhilaration which follows, for him, the absorption of alcohol — these are both astral, and therefore they still persist, and cause great suffering because of the absence of the physical body through which alone they could be satisfied.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 175online or hardcopy)
      The stories of Tantalus, Tityus, and Sisyphus from Greek mythology describe exactly what Hell is, for those people who let desire run wild in their physical life.
      “You probably know the myth of Tantalus. He was a man condemned to suffer in hell eternal thirst, while water surrounded him on all sides, but receded from his lips as soon as he tried to drink. The meaning of this is not difficult to see, when once we know what the astral life is. Every one who leaves this world of ours full of sensual desires of any kind — as, for example, a drunkard, or some one who has given himself up to sensual living in the ordinary meaning of the word — such a man finds himself on the astral plane in the position of Tantalus.      “He has built up for himself this terrible desire which governs his whole being. You know how powerful the desire can be in the case of a drunkard; it conquers his feelings of honor, his love of his family, and all the better inclinations of his character. He will take money from his wife and children, will even take their clothes to sell them and obtain money to drink.
      “Remember that when a man dies he does not change at all. His desire is still as powerful as ever. But it is impossible to gratify it, because his physical body, through which only he could drink, is gone. There you have your Tantalus, as you see, full of that terrible desire, always finding that the gratification recedes as soon as he thinks he has it.
      “Recall also the story of Tityus, the man who was tied to a rock, his liver being gnawed by vultures, and growing again as fast as it was eaten. There you have an illustration of the effect of yielding to desire: an image of the man who is always tortured by remorse for sins committed on earth.
      “As perhaps a higher example of the same we can take the story of Sisyphus. You know how he was condemned always to roll a stone up a hill, and how, when he reached the top, the stone would always roll down again. That is the condition of an ambitious man after death, a man who has spent his life in making plans for selfish ends, for attaining glory or honor. In his case also death brings no change. He goes on making plans just as he did during life. He works out his plans, he executes them, as he thinks, till the point of culmination, and then he suddenly perceives that he has no longer a physical body, and that all was but a dream. Then be begins again and again, till he has learned at last that these desires are useless and that ambition must be killed. So Sisyphus goes on uselessly rolling the stone up the hill, till at last he learns not to roll it any more. To have learned that is to have conquered that desire, and he will come back in his next life without it; without the desire, but of course not without the weakness of character which made that desire possible.
      “So you see that conditions that seem terrible are but the effects in the other world of a wrong life here on earth. That is nature's method of turning wrong into good. Man does suffer, but what he suffers is only the effect of his own action and nothing else; it is not punishment inflicted upon him from outside, but entirely of his own making. And that is not all. The suffering he has to bear is the only means by which his qualities can be directed in the right way for his evolution and progress in another life. This was a point much emphasized in the teaching of the mysteries.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, pages 57-58 online or hardcopy)
      Hell, therefore, is not a place of eternal existence, it is a place of temporary residence. A person at this level burns off the coarse astral particles in their body, eventually allowing them to leave (rise to a higher sub-plane).

4. Hell as a place of heat and burning.

      It is a commonly-held teaching of orthodox religions that Hell is a place of heat and burning. Hell is not seen as a place of residence in the physical world, so this seems to be in error. However, consider the above idea, that Hell is a place of “burning desire”. It is this sensation of burning desire that causes all orthodox religions to descibe it as a place of physical burning. (The following idea, number five, also supports the idea of Hell as a place where subterranean scenes, i.e. “burning,” possibly volcanic activity, are visualized by the residents.)

5. Theosophy teaches that Hell is a place geographically below the surface of the Earth.

      In A. E. Powell’s earlier quote, the “specific gravity” of Hell, if you will, is mentioned. C. W. Leadbeater also mentions the “specific gravity” of Hell.
      “People find their own level on the astral plane, much in the same way as objects floating in the ocean do. This does not mean that they cannot rise and fall at will, but that if no special effort is made they come to their level and remain there. Astral matter gravitates towards the center of the earth just as physical matter does; both obey the same general laws.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 156 onlineor hardcopy)
      People of the lower astral sub-planes (Hell), then, generally reside below the surface of the Earth. This explains the orthodox religious teaching of Hell being below us (and Heaven being above). (As parts of the Earth are of great heat and pressure, this is also another connection to the idea of Hell as a hot place.)


-- Purgatory --



      Theosophy teaches the concept of Purgatory. Actually, Theosophy teaches that there are various levels of the after-life available to the newly-dead, from the lowest (Hell) to the highest (“Astral Heaven”). “Purgatory” is actually an area between the two extremes.

      Theosophy agrees with orthodox religion in that residency in Purgatory is temporary. As the corresponding astral atoms of that level are burned off, and, as the desires corresponding to that level are finally eliminated from the resident's psyche, the person rises up to "Astral Heaven."



-- Heaven --



      Theosophy teaches that Heaven exists, although it is different than the Heaven of orthodox religions. Theosophy teaches that there are two different levels that are referred to (actually, sub-levels of the seven main levels). One level (the so-called “Astral Heaven”) has been called Elysian, the Elysian Fields, and Summerland. Another group of sub-levels is called Devachan. Devachan is described in detail below.

      Theosophy teaches that, after death from the Earthly realm, the person spends time in “Astral Heaven.” The astral body then discintegrates (“the second death”), and the person moves on, to spend time in Devachan. Both “Astral Heaven” and Devachan have been referred to as Heaven, but Theosophy considers only Devachan to be the true Heaven.

      Heaven (both “Astral Heaven” and Devachan) have been described as places of rest, while Nirvana has been described as a place of great activity.


-- A. P. Sinnet's Astral Sub-Planes --

      A. P. Sinnet, in his book In the Next World, has listed specific characteristics for each of the seven astral sub-planes.


      These are not “planes” but concentric spheres
      “ ... it is desirable to remind the reader of the very definite way in which it is divided into sub planes. (Sub-concentric spheres would be a more appropriate phrase, but the usual term ‘plane’ is more convenient, though we should never forget that the whole astral region with all its subdivisions is a huge concentric sphere surrounding the physical globe, as much a definite appendage to it as the atmosphere, and carried with it in its movement round the Sun.)” (page 10)
~~ Level 1 ~~ (the highest level)

      Level one is populated with people who were true and good leaders while on Earth.
      “ ... because life on the higher levels of the astral plane involves the principle that people are drawn together by their real sympathies, — not as in physical life by karma, that often, down here, puts people into close relations with antipathetic entities, — the seventh sub-plane is a region to which those gravitate who have been in life rulers of men in one way or another, not merely by high social rank, but by virtue of characteristics that have given them sway over others either in industrial or political life. ” (page 11)
~~ Level 2 ~~

      Level two is populated with people who had heartfelt thoughts of devotion while on Earth.
      [The second astral plane] “ ... affords scope for genuine devotional feeling if that is the predominant element in any given character.” (page 11)
~~ Level 3 ~~

      Level three is populated with people who engaged in intellectual activity while on Earth.
      “ ... people in whom intellectual activity is the predominant characteristic are naturally drawn to the [third] sub-plane” (page 11)
      The ability to study on the third astral sub-plane seems unlimited.
      “ ... on the [third] sub-plane — the intellectual region — it seems possible for the literary student to help himself to copies of any book in existence down here, whether of ancient or of recent origin. And I believe that men of science on the [third] level can somehow make use of laboratories, though their new methods of research no doubt involve the use of faculties that generally supersede the necessity for using such instruments of research as they have been used to in the lower life. I know that they acquire knowledge concerning the constitution of matter, the mysteries of force, gravitation, and electricity that no instruments of ordinary research would help them to. And the vast spaces of the solar system and beyond become accessible, in some way we cannot here understand, to the investigations of the occult astronomer. That does not mean that superlative wisdom is poured into their consciousness in a flood. The new knowledge is gradually acquired as here by study and continuous effort, but it is acquirable in new ways for the full comprehension of which we who are interested in such work will mostly have to wait..” (pages 99-100)
~~ Level 4 ~~

      Level four is a place of happiness. People sometimes build themselves houses out of thought-forms, because they feel a need to have a house to “live in.”
      “The fourth sub-plane is the [lowest astral sub-plane] on which existence is altogether based upon the sensation of happiness, though its experiences are themselves subject to very great variety. The higher regions again are all conditions in which happiness is the background of consciousness, but in which different mental and moral attributes find their appropriate expression. ” (pages 10-11)

      “Frequent mention has been made of ‘houses’ in which those released from physical life find themselves on awakening beyond. Such houses are the thought creations of the persons passing on, or of those who have passed on previously and stand ready to welcome new arrivals. This detail requires further elucidation. As A. R. said, there is no “gravitational stress” on the astral plane. Anyone there can move about, upward or downward, by the mere effort of will. How about stairs in astral houses? Surely they cannot be needed! Nor are they needed, and yet the habits of mind brought over from physical life are so ingrained in the thinking of the newcomer in the next world, that he needlessly repeats conditions around him which resemble those he has been used to. And if a staircase seems to him a necessary adjunct to a comfortable home, his new home includes the staircase accordingly. Later on, if he works his way to higher levels than the fourth sub-plane, he will get altogether free of the physical life traditions. There are no houses, for instance, on the [first] sub-plane.” (page 97)

      [A man now on the fourth-level] “ ... seemed to be living in a house that was just exactly the kind of house he used to picture in imagination as the ideal house he would like to have. Of course this was a pleasant kind of thought-form he had unconsciously created. He also said he was beginning to have a curious sort of feeling, as though he were getting lighter. It was quite a pleasant feeling, and he thought he had been told that it betokened some impending change that would involve his translation to some superior condition. His house was a country-house with gardens and flowers, grass and trees, though they did not seem to want any attending to. He spent a great deal of time in the garden, thinking pleasantly of bygone times, and visited by people he had known — his father and mother amongst them. The time just glided by. There was no night, no sense of being tired. He had no wants.” (page 58)
      Here is another description of building houses out of thought-forms in a place called Summerland, another name for Astral Heaven.
      “In the summer-land men surround themselves with landscapes of their own construction, though some avoid that trouble by accepting ready-made the landscapes which have already been constructed by others. Men living on the sixth sub-plane, upon the surface of the earth, find themselves surrounded by the astral counterparts of physically existing mountains, trees and lakes, and consequently are not under the necessity of manufacturing scenery for themselves; but men upon the higher subplanes, who float at some distance above the surface of the earth, usually provide themselves with whatever scenery they desire, by the method that I have described.      “The commonest example of this is that they construct for themselves the weird scenes described in their various scriptures, and therefore in those regions we constantly find ourselves in presence of clumsy and unimaginative attempts to reproduce such ideas as jewels growing upon trees, and seas of glass mingled with fire, and creatures which are full of eyes within, and deities with a hundred heads and arms to correspond. In this way, as a consequence of ignorance and prejudice during their physical life, many men do a great deal of valueless work when they might be employing their time in the helping of their fellows.
      “To the man who has studied Theosophy and therefore understands these higher planes, one of their pleasantest characteristics is the utter restfulness and freedom which comes from the absence of all these imperious necessities which make a misery out of physical life. The dead man is the only absolutely free man, free to do whatever he wills and to spend his time as he chooses, free therefore to devote the whole of his energies to helping his fellows..” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, pages 233-234 online orhardcopy)
      People join religious congregations on the fourth sub-plane, as they did on Earth — with advantages and disadvantages.
      “It must always be borne in mind that the matter of the astral world is plastic in a high degree to thought. Thought there is an actually creative power, and thus there are regions of the fourth where the sustained thought power of all dwelling there, has created churches and chapels in which they continue to carry on such services as they have been used to on the physical plane. As the Roman Catholic community on the other side is of course a very numerous body, the Roman Catholic cathedral in which they renew their worship is, I am assured, an enormous building far exceeding in magnitude any similar structure on the earth's surface. Going to the opposite end of the scale, the little community calling themselves Plymouth Brothers, entertaining the belief, as I understand their state of mind, that they alone are destined to be saved, find their impressions duly realised, — as they think. They find themselves congregated together in something resembling a town beyond which they see nothing but an infinite waste. They continue, as in life, to hold meetings and preach each other dismal sermons, until, one by one, they get sufficiently bored, and so drift away and gradually acquire enlarged experience. Many of them may have been in ordinary life, no doubt, good and affectionate people, and then they would be exactly of the type suited to the devachanic condition, and would float off to that state of existence, when tired of their “Plymouth Brother” attitude of mind. The tardiness of their progress to loftier happiness would once more illustrate the fundamental principle that knowledge gained down here in advance, concerning the opportunities of the astral world, is enormously helpful in enabling people passing on to attain at once desirable conditions for which, in the absence of such knowledge, they would have to wait..” (pages 93-94)

~~


      The top four levels (levels one through four) are places of comfort. We now come to the lower three astral sub-planes ( levels five through seven), which are places of discomfort. These are often described as “Purgatory” and “Hell” in the world's religions.



~~


~~ Level 5 ~~

      Level 5 is a place of varied discomfort. It is a place where the newly-dead must come to terms with being entangled with undesirable thought-forms. They had surrounded themselves with these undesirable thought-forms while on Earth, and now they must go through the unpleasant task of separating themselves from the very thought-forms they created. Level 5 is just above the surface of the Earth.
      “ The [fifth astral sub-plane] lies just above the surface of the earth, and is still a region of varied discomfort, in which those whose personal characteristics are such as to require purification before they are qualified for existence on any of the superior regions, spend a time greatly varying in duration.” (page 10)
      Here is the case of G. R., from Sinnet's book. G. R. gave into excessive sexual gratification while alive, and is now plunged into such a world, against his will, causing him to feel continued (and inescapeable) disgust.
      [G. R.] “... describes himself as having been in life a man with a very ardent feeling for the other sex, though with refined tastes and habits. But he was now [in the after-life] plunged in the midst of the coarsest manifestations of that feeling. Without seeking the experience, he was drawn, sucked as it were, into the consciousness of a man of very gross nature and habits, and shared, though with loathing and disgust, his emotions as he gratified his desires. My friend was irresistibly tied to this man for a long time, till at last, with a horrified cry for help, he was enabled to break away, with a sense of extraordinary relief.” (page 19)
      G. R. relates another fifth-level story.
      “... I seemed to be surrounded by a peculiar cloud which seemed to obscure my sense of sight, a cloud of a reddish tinge; and it seemed to be drifting upon me, as far as I could judge. I did not appear to be the origin of it myself, and became conscious of an extraordinary sense of damp heat and that I was slowly drifting I knew not whither. How long I drifted I know not, but at last I found myself in a dense kind of fog. I became conscious of voices, at first dim and far off. Also aware of an acute, uncomfortable sensation of choking. All of a sudden the mist cleared away and I found myself in a room with a number of men and women. [The graphic sexual descriptions are ommitted, but the scene was one of very degraded debauchery.] I saw foul shapes of an extraordinary order floating round the room, one exactly like a large jellyfish. As it passed me it gave me an indescribable sensation of disgust and horror. I prayed to be delivered from this wretched condition ....” (pages 22-23)
      G. R. is then taken away from that horrible place, and a Guide gives him some good advice.
      “ ‘My friend, I have been permitted by my Master to help you. You must rest in this place for some little time. Remain patient. Do not long for those scenes that I have relieved you from.’ I thought at the time that was a strange remark, as I felt a powerful loathing for the scenes I had just left. He read my thought, for he went on to say: ‘You do not realise for the moment what this means, but those conditions will again recur, and unless you put them from you your sufferings will continue.’ ” (page 24)
      G. R. had not yet realized that it was his own desires that were transporting him to such a place. Only by removing those desires from himself could he escape.

      Sinnet gives a final analysis as to why this was happening to G. R.
      [G. R.] “ ... had great volumes of spiritual karma behind the unsatisfied passions of his last life. Moreover, I am inclined to believe that the disagreeable period described must have been to some extent traceable to unfulfilled tendencies of earlier lives. When he was finally free of all this, he ascended into lofty realms ....” (page 25)
~~ Level 6 ~~

      Level six is below the actual surface of the Earth. It is a place of suffering. This is a place of people who were cruel in life.
      [One man had to endure] “ ... a period of suffering on the [sixth] submerged plane of the astral world. He gave me an awful account of the torments he was undergoing. He was in the dim lurid light of the underworld, surrounded by horrible elemental shapes or creatures of the most loathsome aspect who were attacking him fiercely. He had lost all sense of time, but this seemed to have been going on for what seemed an eternity.” (page 36)
~~ Level 7 ~~

      Level seven is below the actual surface of the Earth. It is a terrible subterranean region of only the very worst specimens of humanity
      “ A part of the great sphere is actually immersed or submerged beneath the solid crust of the earth. That is a terrible region with which only the very worst specimens of humanity have any concern, after passing on from the physical life. Two sub-planes of the astral are thus underground — the [sixth] and [seventh]....”


-- Suicide --

      Suicide is not a sub-plane of the Astral Plane, but suicide needs to be mentioned here. Suicide is seen as against the Great Law, and causes trouble in the after-life.
      “The man who commits suicide runs away from school before the appointed lesson is learned; he is guilty of the great presumption involved in taking into his own hands a decision which should be left to the working of the Great Law. The consequences of so great a rebellion against nature are always of a momentous character. They are certain to affect the next life, and quite probably more lives than one. The circumstances surrounding a suicide immediately after death are the same as they would be for the victim of an accident, since both of them arrive upon the astral plane with equal suddenness. But there is the enormous difference that the man who dies by accident, not expecting death, is thrown into a condition of unconsciousness and usually passes through the lowest sub-plane without knowing anything of its varied unpleasantness. The suicide, on the contrary, has acted deliberately, and is generally painfully aware of much that is horrible and repugnant to him. He cannot be saved from the sights and feelings which he has brought upon himself; but he may often be helped to understand them, and may be inspired with patience, perseverance and hope by the good offices of some kind friend.

      “While fully recognising that suicide is a mistake, and a most serious one, we are not called upon judge our brother who commits that mistake. There is a wide difference between different cases, and it is impossible for us to know the various factors which enter into each, although every one of them is duly taken into account in the working of the law of eternal justice.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, pages 227-228 online or hardcopy)


-- Does All Pleasure Cause Us to Spend Time in Hell? --

      The question is sometimes asked, “Does all selfish desire, does allenjoyment on Earth cause us to spend time in Hell or Purgatory?”

      No. A small amount of normal desire is OK but an unhealthy, excessive pursuit of it is bad.
      “During incarnate life certain desires are in harmony with Nature's design. They leave no indelible traces on the astral vehicle unless they are allowed to dominate life and thought to an excessive degree. As in so many other ways, moderation is the keynote of health. It is almost as definitely possible to overdo asceticism as to overdo self-indulgence. But the astral vehicle of H. S. [one person given as an example in the book] was no doubt over-saturated with sexual desire, and it was by a very slow course of suffering that this unhealthy state of things was counteracted.” (page 46)


-- Do we burn off bad karma while in Hell? --

      No. Hell is a place to disentangle ourselves from negative thought-forms, not a place to burn off bad karma. The bad karma will be burned off in subsequent incarnations. These planes are only for the removing of entanglements with undesirable thought-forms.
      “ ... selfish pleasure, sought at the expense of incidental suffering to another, engenders bad karma of an unequivocal character, the effects of which will color the next physical life, while, independently of that, desires innocent in themselves, may be exaggerated in their intensity and allowed to dominate a whole life to such an extent that they are shed with very great difficulty on the astral plane after the death of the physical body. The process of shedding them may be so painful and protracted, as the story I have just been dealing with shows, that an account of it in any particular case reads like the description of a punishment; but that would not be a correct reading of it. The consequences of evil-doing on the physical plane, which have to be regarded, from one point of view, as its penalty, are worked out on the physical plane again in the next life. The intervening period is one the conditions of which ought to reflect the better side of the life just spent, rather than its worst. But for that better side to express itself the entity must not be weighed down by characteristics incompatible with existence on the higher levels of the astral world. It cannot get up to those higher levels till free of the characteristics which belong exclusively to the earth-life.” (pages 49-50)
      It is good to note that the conditions of Hell can stop at any time, whenever the person stops living with those self-generated thought-forms. (Time in Hell can be shortened.)
      “ ... the astral life is not the period appropriate, to the working out of karma. That is reserved for the next physical life, and when disagreeable or painful experiences are incurred on the astral they are to be thought of almost always as purifying processes qualifying the personality to reach restful and happy conditions. If anyone passes over steeped in desires of a kind incompatible with life on any of the higher astral levels, he must wear out those desires, subdue them or realise their worthlessness, before he can ascend to the higher levels. The attainment of such an attitude of mind may, as we have seen, be sometimes retarded to a painful degree, but in that case the protraction of the painful state should not be regarded as a karmic penalty. It automatically comes to an end as soon as the person concerned is emancipated from the characteristics that hold him back..” (pages 95-96)


-- Heaven Above vs. Hell Below --

      The section on Hell explains how Hell actually is a place geographically below the Earth. The explanation (with the idea of Heaven as an actual place geographically above the Earth) continues.
      “Some ... people tend to hover round their earthly homes [after death], in order to keep in touch with their friends of the physical life and the places which they know; others, on the other hand, have a tendency to float away and to find for themselves, as if by specific gravity, a level much further removed from the surface of the earth. The great majority of the denizens of the astral world spend most of their lives comparatively near to the surface of the physical earth; but as they withdraw into themselves, and their consciousness touches the higher types of matter, they find it easier and more natural than before to soar away from that surface into regions where there are fewer disturbing currents.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 155 online or hardcopy)

      “The average person passing into the heaven-life, for example, tends to float at a considerable distance above the surface of the earth, although on the other hand some of such men are drawn to our level. Still, broadly speaking, the inhabitants of the heaven-world may be thought of as living in a sphere or ring or zone round the earth. What Spiritualists call the summer-land extends many miles above our heads, and as people of the same race and the same religion tend to keep together after death just as they do during life, we have what may be described as a kind of network of summer-lands over the countries to which belong the people who have created them.

      “People find their own level on the astral plane, much in the same way as objects floating in the ocean do. This does not mean that they cannot rise and fall at will, but that if no special effort is made they come to their level and remain there. Astral matter gravitates towards the center of the earth just as physical matter does; both obey the same general laws. We may take it that the sixth sub-plane of the astral is partially coincident with the surface of the earth, while the lowest, or seventh, penetrates some distance into the interior.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 156 online or hardcopy)
      Astral atoms are described as having specific gravity, just as physical atoms do. The denser astral atoms are said to “sink” more towards the Earth, and the higher-level, finer astral atoms are said to “rise” to the top of the astral globe that interpenetrates our physical globe. Astral entities (dead people) gravitate to the level equal to the preponderance of their astral atoms, causing the “bad” people to “float” at a lower level, and vice versa.


-- Length of Time in the After-Life --

      The amount of time we spend in the astral and mental sub-planes differs from person to person
      “The length of a man’s astral life after he has put off his physical body depends mainly upon two factors — the nature of his past physical life, and his attitude of mind after what we call death. During his earth-life he is constantly influencing the building of matter into his astral body. He affects it directly by the passions, emotions and desires which he allows to hold sway over him; he affects it indirectly by the action upon it of his thoughts from above, and of all the details of his physical life (his continence or his debauchery, his cleanliness or his uncleanliness, his food and his drink) from below. If, by persistence in perversity along any of these lines, he is so stupid as to build for himself a coarse and gross astral vehicle, habituated to responding only to the lower vibrations of the plane, he will find himself after death bound to that plane during the long and slow process of that body’ s disintegration. On the other hand if, by decent and careful living, he gives himself a vehicle mainly composed of finer material, he will have very much less post-mortem trouble and discomfort, and his evolution will proceed much more rapidly and easily.      “This much is generally understood, but the second great factor — is attitude of mind after death — seems often to be forgotten. The desirable thing is for him to realise his position on this little arc of his evolution — to learn that he is at this stage withdrawing steadily inward towards the plane of the true ego, and that consequently it is his business to disengage his thought as far as may be from things physical, and fix his attention more and more upon those spiritual matters which will occupy him during his life in the heaven-world. By doing this he will greatly facilitate the natural astral disintegration, and will avoid the sadly common mistake of unnecessarily delaying himself upon the lower levels of what should be so temporary a residence.
      “Many people, however, simply will not turn their thoughts upwards, but spend their time in struggling with all their might to keep in touch with the physical plane which they have left, thus causing great trouble to anyone who may be trying to help them. Earthly matters are the only ones in which they have ever had any living interest, and they cling to them with desperate tenacity even after death. Naturally, as time passes on, they find it increasingly difficult to keep hold of things down here, but instead of welcoming and encouraging this process of gradual refinement and spiritualisation they resist it vigorously by every means in their power. The mighty force of evolution is eventually too strong for them, and they are swept on in its beneficent current, yet they fight every step of the way, thereby not only causing themselves a vast amount of entirely unnecessary pain and sorrow, but also seriously delaying their upward progress.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, pages 230-231 online or hardcopy)


-- Moving Through the Different Levels --

      The after-life is seen as a journey through different astral and mental sub-planes. A person gravitates to the astral level which corresponds to the type of astral atoms most numerous in their astral body. These astral atoms “burn off”, and the person then becomes conscious on the nest higher sub-plane.
      “The astral counterparts of the floor, walls and furniture of a room are all of the lowest type of astral matter, and consequently the man newly dead usually sees these counterparts vividly, and is almost entirely unconscious of the vast sea of thought-forms which encompasses him, because nearly all those forms are built out of combinations of the finer types of astral matter.

      “In process of time, as the consciousness steadily withdraws inward; the shell of this coarsest type of matter atrophies and begins to disintegrate, and matter of a somewhat higher type is as it were uncovered, and becomes the surface through which impressions can be received. Since this usually happens gradually, it means that the man finds the counterparts of physical objects growing dimmer and dimmer, while the thought-forms become more and more vivid to him, so that without necessarily moving at all in space, he finds himself living in a different world....

      “This then is what is meant by passing from one sub-plane to another — that the man loses sight of one part of the wonderful complexity which is the astral world, and that another part of it comes into his view. It is after all only a repetition on a smaller scale of what happens to each one of us as we pass from plane to plane. The whole astral world and the whole mental world are both of them around us here and now, yet so long as our consciousness is focussed in the physical brain we are blankly unconscious of them. At death the consciousness is transferred to the astral body, and at once we find ourselves seeing the astral part of our world, having lost sight of the physical. When later on we lose the astral body in turn, and live in the mental body, we are then conscious (though only partially) of the mental part of our world, and have altogether lost for the time both the astral and the physical.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, pages 243-244 online or hardcopy)
      Whithering away in old age is better than sudden death.
      “... there is reason behind the familiar old prayer of the Church: “From sudden death, good Lord, deliver us;” for though a sudden death does not necessarily affect the man’s position upon the astral plane in any way for the worse, at least it does nothing to improve it, whereas the slow wasting away of the aged or the ravages of any kind of long-continued disease are almost invariably accompanied by a considerable loosening and breaking up of the astral particles, so that when the man recovers consciousness upon the astral plane, he finds some at any rate of his chief work there already done for him.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 229 onlineor hardcopy)
      The after-life of children is shorter than an adult’s, in proportion to their physical life.
      “In the case of young children it is exceedingly unlikely that in their short and comparatively blameless young lives they will have developed much affinity for the lowest subdivisions of astral life; indeed, as a matter of practical experience they are hardly ever to be found in connection with that sub-plane at all. In any case, whether they die by accident or disease, their life on the astral plane is a comparatively short one; the heaven-life, though much longer, is still in reasonable proportion to it, and their early reincarnation follows as soon as the forces which they have been able to set in motion during their short earth-lives work themselves out, precisely as we might expect from our observation of the action of the same great law in the case of adults.” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 229 online or hardcopy)


-- Devachan --



      Devachan, also called the Lower Heaven, is the lower four sub-levels of the Mental Plane. (It is not a sub-plane of the Astral Plane.) This is where Theosophy says we spend most our time of rest between incarnations.

      (It is important to note that some Theosophical writers have also included the first three sub-levels of the Mental Plane in Devachan, but the three authors quoted here do not.)

      When a person dies, they become fully conscious in the astral body. After a certain time, the astral body disintegrates (the “second death”), and the person then becomes conscious on the mental plane.
      “... the ‘dead’ live in astral bodies in the astral world; ‘temporarily’, ... since after a period of time they finally pass on to life in the heaven world [Devachan].” (C. Jinarajadasa,The First Principles of Theosophy, pages 138-139 online orhardcopy)

      “After the second death [the dissolution of the astral body] when Ego is freed from the encumbrance of the impure remains of its last personality, consciousness slowly returns to it. As this happens it awakes slowly to find itself in a state or condition of unadulterated bliss: it is in surroundings where, and with those with whom, it would most have wanted to be. It is in the state known as Devachan, a blissful but purely subjective state: one quite private to the Devachanee. It is as a dream which no-one else can share.” (Geoffrey Farthing,After-Death Consciousness and Processes, Chapter IV)
      The different types of people gravitate to the four different levels of Devachan. Being affectionate and religious gets us into Devachan, but being philosophical and philanthropic gets us into even higher levels of Devachan. The higher the spirituality of the person (caused by these activities), the higher level of Devachan they spend time on.
      “The seven sub-planes of the heaven world form two great divisions; the three higher sub-planes make the higher heaven, and the four lower sub-planes make the lower heaven. The lower heaven world is also known as ‘Devachan’, the abode of Bliss, or the place of intense joy because in its four lower sub-divisions are found souls after death in conditions of happiness described in the various religions as ‘heaven’. Here too are found those animals who, before death, became ‘individualized’, and attained to the stature of a human soul. On the lowest sub-plane live those men and women and children in whom affection predominated in the character when on earth (however limited may have been its manifestation, owing to adverse circumstances), and they dwell in bliss for centuries in happy communion with those to love whom was the highest possible heaven of earthly dreams. On the next higher sub-plane are those who added to affection a devotion to some definite religious ideal; on the sub-plane above, the men and women who delighted to express their dreams of love and devotion in philanthropic action; on the fourth sub-plane are those who, with all these beautiful attributes, added philosophic, artistic or scientific interests to their soul's manifestations when on earth.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, pages 141-142 online or hardcopy)
      See also the chart on The First Principles of Theosophy, p. 136.

      For further reading on Devachan:


-- Upper Mental or “Higher Heaven” --



      There is one more level, the Upper Mental or “Higher Heaven.”
      “At the end of Devachan, the mental body, the last remnant of the Personality, is cast aside, and the Ego is once more fully himself, with all his energies, in the higher heaven.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 164 online or hardcopy)
      This Ego is called the “Reincarnating Ego” in Theosophical literature.
      “After a period, brief or long, dimly conscious or fully aware of the process of rebirth, the Ego once more puts down a part of himself into incarnation to become the new Personality.” (C. Jinarajadasa, The First Principles of Theosophy, page 164 online or hardcopy)
      It is the “Reincarnating Ego” that exists from incarnation to incarnation. It is the Ego which reinarnates.
      “Let us consider the case of an ego ... [who is resting in the higher part of the mental plane, between incarnations]. Since the death of his last physical body he has been drawing steadily inwards, first into his astral and then into his mental vehicle, and at the end of the heaven-life he has cast off even the latter.... He then rests for a certain period on his own plane.... Then he begins once more to turn his attention downwards and outwards....” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 340 online or hardcopy)


-- Heaven vs. Nirvana --

      Some people are surprised to hear that Theosophy teaches both Heaven and Nirvana. To some, the two concepts may be contradictory, but Theosophy says they are not, that they are completely complimentary. Devachan (Heaven) is seen as a place of rest between incarnations. Nirvana is seen as a place to go to after incarnations have stopped. Also, Nirvana is not seen as a place of rest, but a place of great activity.


-- Avichi --

      Theosophy teaches both Hell and Avichi. Some religions teach they are the same, but Theosophy distinguishes the two. In Theosophy, Hell is seen as an unhappy place where people spend time between incarnations.

      Avichi is different (and much worse). Our goal as humans is to achieve Nirvana by reaching a minimum level of spirituality. The day will come when some people are so far behind in their progress that further study on Earth is futile. These people are also seen as interferring with the rest of humanity still having a chance at Nirvana in the remaining time:
      [There are those] “... who will drop out of this evolution in the middle of the fifth [root race]. This dropping out is precisely the aeonian (not eternal) condemnation of which the Christ spoke as a very real danger for some of His unawakened hearers — the condemnation meaning merely the decision that they are incapable as yet of the higher progress, but not implying blame except in cases where opportunities have been neglected. Theosophy teaches us that men are all brothers, but not that they are all equal. There are immense differences between them; they have entered the human evolution at various periods, so that some are much older souls than others, and they stand at very different levels on the ladder of development. The older souls naturally learn much more rapidly than the younger, and so the distance between them steadily increases, and eventually a point is reached where the conditions necessary for the one type are entirely unsuitable for the other.

      “We may obtain a useful working analogy by thinking of the children in a class at school. The teacher of the class has a year' s work before him, to prepare his boys for a certain examination. He parcels out the work — so much for the first month, so much for the second, and so on, beginning of course with what is easiest and leading gradually up to what is more difficult. But the boys are of various ages and capacities; some learn rapidly and are in advance of the average, while some lag behind. New boys, too, are constantly coming into his class, some of them barely up to its level. When half the year has run its course, he resolutely closes the list for admissions, and declines to receive any more new boys.

      “That took place for us at the middle point of this fourth [root race], after which the door was shut for passage from the animal kingdom into the human, save for a few exceptional cases, which belong, as it were, to the future; just as you have a few men attaining adeptship, who are not belated remnants of the moon's adepts, but people in advance of the rest of humanity. In the same way there are a few animals at the stage of individualization, which the generality are expected to reach at the end of the seventh round. On the next planet an arrangement will be made by which these exceptions will have the opportunity of taking primitive human bodies.

      “A little later the teacher can already clearly foresee that some of his boys will certainly pass the examination, that the chance of others is doubtful, and that there are yet others who are sure to fail. It would be quite reasonable if he should say to these last:

      “‘We have now reached a stage when the further work of this class is useless for you. You cannot possibly by any effort attain the necessary standard in time for the examination; the more advanced teaching which must now be given to the others would be entirely unsuited for you, and as you could not understand it you would be not only wasting your own time but would be a hindrance to the rest of the class. It will therefore be better for you at once to transfer yourselves to the next class below this, perfect yourselves there in the preliminary lessons which you have not thoroughly learned, and come back to this level with next year's class, when you will be sure to pass with credit.’

      “That is exactly what will be done in the middle of the fifth [root race]. Those who cannot by any effort reach the prescribed goal in the time which remains will be put back into a lower class, and if the class-room doors are not yet open they will wait in peace and happiness until the appointed time. They may be described as lost to us , lost to this particular little wave of evolution to which we belong; they are no longer “men of our year” as we say at College. But they will very certainly be “men of the next year” — even leading men in it, because of the work that they have already done and the experience that they have already had.” (Charles Leadbeater,The Inner Life, pages 182-183 online or hardcopy)
      When the time alloted for our use of Earth ends, the whole system will move to another planet. The animals will move up to being humans, the plants to being animals, etc. We humans will move on to Nirvana.

      The humans who did not make it to Nirvana will be held back, and join the new humans (our present-day animals) in the next world. It is as if they “failed” a grade in school, and were held back to repeat that grade.

      There is good news and bad news.

      First, the good news: In the Theosophical system, there is hope for everyone who fails the “Judgement Day” that causes humans to repeat another world-period as humans. This is exactly the Judgement Day of the world's religions, but Theosophy teaches that such people have another chance, while the world's religions do not.
      “It is of these [people in Avichi] that Madame Blavatsky speaks in such vigorous terms as ‘useless drones who refuse to become co-workers with Nature, and who perish by millions during the manvantaric life-cycle.’ (Secret Doctrine,iii, 526.) But note that this ‘perishing” is merely from this “manvantaric life-cycle,’ and that it means for them delay only, and not total extinction..” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 184 online or hardcopy)
      Now for the bad news: It has been said that the remorse these people will feel at being held back will be just as horrible as anything described in the world's religions. Theosophy teaches it behooves us to endeavor to achieve Nirvana in the required time, to avoid this horrible fate.
      “... after the completion of the great cycle: either a long Nirvana of Bliss (unconscious though it be in the, and according to, your crude conceptions); after which — life as a Dhyan Chohan for a whole Manvantara, or else 'Avitchi Nirvana' and a Manvantara of misery and Horror as a ---- you must not hear the word nor I — pronounce or write it. But 'those' have nought to do with the mortals who pass through the seven spheres. The collective Karma of a future Planetary is as lovely as the collective Karma of a ---- is terrible. Enough. I have said too much already.” (H.P. Blavatsky, The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett,paragraph 18 online or page 171 hardcopy)
      The following is from a passage that states every Initiate must enter Avichi as part of one of the Initiations, a horrible experience that causes some Initiates to collapse, and fail the the Initiation.
      “Avichi ... means 'the waveless,' that which is without vibration. The state of Avichi is not, as has been popularly supposed, some kind of hell, but it is a condition in which the man stands absolutely alone in space, and feels cut off from all life, even from that of the Logos; and it is without doubt the most ghastly experience that it is possible for any human being to have....” (Charles Leadbeater, The Inner Life, page 195online or hardcopy)
For further reading on Avichi:
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