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)
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For further reading on the Astral Plane:
- Powell, A.E., The Astral Body (online)
- http://www.theosophical.ca/AstralBodyByPowell-A.htm
- Powell, A.E., The Astral Body (hardcopy)
- http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=128
- Leadbeater, C. W., The Astral Plane, It's Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena
- http://www.anandgholap.net/Astral_Plane-CWL.htm
- Leadbeater, C. W., The Inner Life “Remembering Astral Experience” pages 266-272
- http://www3.igalaxy.net/~nick/theosophy/il-257.htm#266
- Leadbeater, C. W., The Reality of the Astral Plane
- http://www.tphta.ws/TPH_REAP.HTM
- Leadbeater, C. W., Invisible Helpers (online)
- http://www.anandgholap.net/Invisible_Helpers-CWL.htm
- Leadbeater, C. W., Invisible Helpers (hardcopy)
- http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=152
-- 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
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