A.E. Powell -- Theosophical Research -- 1927 The Astral Body And Other Astral Phenomena Vehicle of feeling, passion, desire and all emotional experience
Flashes of bright scarlet indicate sudden rage. Dull heavy crimson is selfish love — attractive but weighted with possession. Both burn through the astral body like heat through cloth and fade only when the emotion subsides.
One of the finest colours in the astral body. Pure rose denotes genuine affection freely given. When exceptionally brilliant and tinged with lilac it indicates spiritual love extended to all of humanity — characteristic of highly evolved persons.
Always found near the head. Dull ochre implies intellect turned to selfish ends. Clear gamboge is a higher type. Primrose yellow indicates intellect devoted to spiritual ends. Pure gold: philosophy and mathematics at their finest. The origin of the nimbus painted around saints' heads.
Dark clear blue indicates sincere religious feeling. Lighter, more luminous blue reflects broader spiritual aspiration. A wide belt of blue in the upper astral body is the mark of the genuinely devout individual — one who gives rather than takes from their faith.
Green demands careful interpretation. Grey-green slimy in appearance: deceit and cunning. Emerald green: versatility and resourcefulness applied unselfishly. Pale luminous blue-green: deep sympathy and compassion. Bright apple-green always accompanies strong physical vitality.
A large cone of bright orange rising amid the golden yellow of intellect signals pride and ambition tied to mental achievement — common in the scientific type. Frequently combined with irritability. Strong enough orange can overwhelm the subtler colours around it.
Heavy leaden grey arranged in parallel lines creates the impression of a cage — this is depression made visible. Livid grey is among the most hideous hues in the astral spectrum: it is fear. A shock of terror suffuses the entire astral body with grey mist, all light extinguished, the whole mass quivering like jelly.
A strip of lilac across the top of the astral body indicates spiritual aspiration — the highest quality visible in the ordinary astral vehicle. Found enveloping the head and upper body of the developed person. When combined with rose it marks genuine spiritual love for humanity.
Dull brown-red arranged in hard lines is avarice — one of the ugliest conditions visible clairvoyantly. The miser's astral body is almost entirely this colour. The purity of many nobler colours is dimmed when this hard brown-grey of selfishness taints the emotional field.
A distinctive and easily identified combination: murky brownish-green lit up with flashes of deep red or scarlet. Jealousy. Present in nearly every ordinary person who is "in love." The scarlet flashes represent anger at the perceived rival; the muddy green is the possessive distortion of affection.
The astral body is a vehicle composed of matter of an order of fineness higher than physical matter, in which feelings, passions, desires and emotions are expressed. It acts as a bridge between the physical brain and the mind. To clairvoyant sight it resembles the physical body surrounded by a continuously shifting aura of flashing colours.
Astral matter interpenetrates all physical matter completely. Every physical atom floats in a sea of astral matter filling every interstice in the physical world. This is the foundational principle of the astral plane: it does not exist somewhere else — it exists here, now, in the same space as the physical world but on a finer grade of matter imperceptible to ordinary senses.
The astral body contains matter from all seven astral sub-planes in varying proportions. This is essential: if any sub-plane were unrepresented, the man could not experience the desires corresponding to it. The proportion between sub-planes determines whether a person's emotional life is coarse or refined, earthly or spiritual.
In addition to ordinary astral matter the body also contains Elemental Essence of the third kingdom — this forms the Desire-Elemental, a semi-conscious entity that considers itself an individual and acts in its own interests. The Desire-Elemental will resist vigorously any attempt to rearrange or discipline the astral body.
About 99% of the astral particles are compressed within the periphery of the physical body, taking its exact form. Only 1% extends outward forming the aura. Yet this 1% is enormously significant: intense feeling expands it; spiritual development broadens it. The aura of a Buddha is said to have extended three miles in radius.
The colours which ceaselessly play through the astral body are the visible expression of feelings, passions and emotions in astral matter. Every known colour exists on the astral plane — and many entirely unknown to ordinary sight — each appearing as a higher, more luminous octave than its physical counterpart.
In undeveloped persons the colours are coarse, muddy and chaotic, their outlines blurring into one another. As a person develops emotionally, mentally and spiritually, the colours brighten, purify, and arrange themselves in clearly defined bands — until in the fully developed person the astral body is orderly, luminous and under complete control.
The particles of the astral body are always in rapid motion: the clouds of colour melt into one another, roll over each other, appearing and disappearing as the surface boils like violently heated water. Emotions do not replace each other — they commingle, producing complex blends. Only a practised clairvoyant can read the full meaning of a mixed field.
A sudden wave of strong emotion produces a characteristic display lasting only seconds before the body settles. Under intense affection: vivid vortices of colour glow with inner light; horizontal pulsing crimson lines cross the whole field; a film of rose covers the surface; and crimson clouds float throughout. Each such rush permanently adds a trace of that quality to the body — making it fractionally easier to feel that emotion again.
Higher versus lower colours: High unselfish affection and devotion belong exclusively to the highest (atomic) astral sub-plane and reflect into the causal body directly. Lower emotions find no expression there — they create gaps, not bad colours. Selfishness shows in the causal body as an absence of affection, not as a stain.
The astral body serves three essential functions: to make sensation possible; to serve as a bridge between mind and physical matter; and to act as an independent vehicle of consciousness and action in the astral world.
Kama — the fourth of man's lower principles — is the life manifesting in and conditioned by the astral body. Its characteristic is the attribute of feeling: in rudimentary form, sensation; in complex form, emotion. It is the principle of desire — that which is attracted or repelled by objects according as they give pleasure or pain.
Physical impacts strike the physical body and are conveyed as vibrations by Prana — but they would remain mere motion did not Kama translate the vibration into feeling. Pleasure and pain do not exist until the astral centre is reached. The centres of sensation are in Kama — not in the physical body. This has profound consequences for the after-death state.
The astral body is also known as the Kama Rupa (desire-form) and in older texts as the Animal Soul. Kama joined to Manas (lower mind) forms Kama-Manas — the rational but earthly intellect that imagines itself the real Self. This is what Buddhist philosophy calls the "heresy of separateness" — the root of the illusion of individual separation.
As a bridge, the astral body transmits vibrations in both directions: from physical sensory experience up to the mind, and from mental impulses down to the physical brain. It is principally developed by this constant passage of vibrations to and fro. The more refined the physical and mental life, the more capable the astral bridge becomes.
Every strong feeling or thought clothes itself in astral (and mental) matter, creating a temporary living form that exists independently in the astral world. These thought-forms have definite shapes and colours corresponding precisely to the nature of the feeling that generated them.
When a thought-form encounters another person's astral body, one of two things occurs: if that person's aura contains matter capable of responding to the thought-form's vibration, it enters and discharges its force — pressing along the line of least resistance and amplifying whatever corresponding quality already exists. If the aura contains no resonant matter, the thought-form rebounds with equal force directly back to its creator.
The ancient saying that "curses come home to roost" reflects this precisely. Evil thoughts directed at a highly evolved person cannot penetrate their astral body — they strike, find no response, and return devastatingly to the sender. The developed person's aura contains none of the coarse matter that would resonate with the curse.
Thought-forms can be strengthened and their life extended by repetition. This explains why persistent negative thinking creates a progressively more difficult emotional environment — each repetition reinforces and extends the independent entity living in the aura and continually pressing for re-expression.
The quality of the astral body is shaped by three factors during physical life: the physical life itself (food, drink, bodily habits), the emotional life (the feelings habitually cultivated), and the mental life (the degree to which mind governs desire). These are inseparable — it is impossible to make the physical body coarse while simultaneously refining the astral and mental.
During sleep the astral body withdraws from the physical and moves freely in the astral world, while remaining connected to the physical by an elastic cord of astral matter. In an undeveloped person the astral body drifts vaguely, guided by whatever desire-currents it meets. In a developed person it functions fully consciously, carrying out deliberate work on the astral plane.
Dreams fall into several distinct categories: (1) meaningless etheric brain activity during sleep, producing incoherent imagery; (2) real astral experiences partially recorded in the physical brain, often distorted in translation; (3) symbolic or allegorical communications from higher sources; and (4) precognitive or clairvoyant experiences on the astral plane carried back imperfectly into waking memory.
Mental development directly improves dream quality. When a man has achieved true mental concentration and control of the physical brain, a corresponding change occurs in his astral life — his dreams become vivid, well-sustained, rational, and sometimes instructive rather than incoherent.
Before sleep, a simple protective practice is to picture one's aura and will strongly that its outer surface solidify into a protective shell against outside thought-currents. The astral matter obeys the thought and forms the shell. The last thought held before falling asleep also has disproportionate significance — it sets the dominant vibration of the astral body for the entire sleep period.
At physical death the astral body is set free. The Desire-Elemental — the semi-conscious entity built from a lifetime of desires — immediately attempts to rearrange the astral body's particles by their specific gravity, sorting them into separate layers. This rearrangement progressively confines the dead person to one astral sub-plane at a time, moving from the densest upward as each layer is exhausted.
The seven sub-planes of the astral world correspond to distinct regions of experience after death. The denser sub-planes (7, 6, 5) remain close to physical reality — the dead can perceive the physical world around them, remain near familiar places and people, and are most easily contacted through mediumship. The finer sub-planes (3, 2, 1) are progressively removed from physical awareness.
The Seven Astral Sub-Planes-
Sub-Plane 7 -- Densest
Closest to physical. Misers, drunkards, sensualists, those clinging to physical existence. Grey half-conscious state. Also the "shell" — the drained astral remnant of a person who has moved on to higher planes, drifting without consciousness.
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Sub-Planes 6 & 5
The dead perceive physical surroundings: mountains, trees, buildings appear clearly. The dead here are still strongly aware of earthly life. Contact through mediumship relatively easy. Most séance communications originate here.
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Sub-Planes 4 & 3
Physical awareness diminishes rapidly. Contact through a medium requires special effort. Here the Spiritualists' "Summerland" exists — constructs of landscape, homes, cities created by collective thought. Red Indian hunting grounds, Valhalla, paradise gardens all appear on these levels.
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Sub-Planes 2 & 1 -- Finest
Physical world entirely invisible. Entities are deeply self-absorbed, creating their own surroundings from thought. Communication through mediumship nearly impossible. Those of high spiritual development, whose strongest desires were unselfish, pass quickly through lower sub-planes and spend most post-mortem time here before moving to the mental plane.
A man who actively resists the Desire-Elemental's rearrangement — who has understood this process before death and sets his will against it — keeps his astral particles intermingled as in life. Instead of being confined to one sub-plane at a time, he remains free of all sub-planes simultaneously, retaining full conscious mobility through the entire astral world.
The astral plane possesses properties entirely different from the physical. The most fundamental is that matter there responds directly and instantly to thought and emotion. A strong, sustained thought immediately clothes itself in astral matter. A landscape desired sincerely enough immediately manifests. This makes the astral world intensely creative for the developed, and potentially nightmarish for the undeveloped whose fears and obsessions manifest equally freely.
On the astral plane, suffering and emotional experience are both fully voluntary and completely under the control of the individual — once understood. To control physical pain by the mind is exceedingly difficult. But in the astral world, anyone can in a moment dissolve the suffering caused by a strong emotion simply by an act of will. The will has absolute dominion over astral matter. Conversely, for one who does not know this, the astral world amplifies every feeling to an intensity impossible in physical life.
The astral world contains vast numbers of non-physical entities: the dead at various stages of their post-mortem existence; nature-spirits and elementals; artificial thought-forms of various degrees of persistence; the astral bodies of sleeping humans; and a variety of other entities drawn in by specific emotional or magical conditions.
The Elemental kingdoms of the astral plane have a general bias of hostility toward man — caused, according to theosophical teaching, entirely by man's own historical indifference and lack of sympathy toward other living beings. Vast hosts of protean spectres advance threateningly toward the neophyte on the astral plane, but always retire or dissipate when boldly faced. Their reality is proportional to the attention and fear given them.
Human entities encountered on the astral plane include: the fully conscious dead functioning freely across multiple sub-planes; the semi-conscious dead confined to a single sub-plane by the Desire-Elemental's rearrangement; etheric shells — drained astral remnants of those who have passed on, drifting without consciousness and often mistaken for the actual dead person; and the astral bodies of sleeping or meditating living persons.
Non-human entities include the vast Elemental kingdoms — the Elemental Essence of the astral plane which enters into the composition of every astral body as the Desire-Elemental. Nature-spirits of various grades inhabit the astral plane, many associated with the elements. Some are drawn to human emotional emanations and will congregate around places of strong feeling — churches, battlefields, sites of intense joy or grief.
Astral shells are among the most commonly encountered and most misidentified entities. When a person has moved on from the astral plane to the mental plane, their drained astral body remains as a shell — still carrying the form, voice patterns, mannerisms and surface memories of the deceased. It has no genuine consciousness but responds automatically to any vibration that matches its patterns. The vast majority of séance "communications" that reproduce trivial personal details without deeper insight originate with shells rather than the actual surviving personality.
The mastery of the astral body — meaning the achievement of full conscious control over all emotional response — is identified as the central evolutionary task of this stage of human development. Not suppression of feeling but transmutation: every lower quality of the astral body is a coarsened version of a higher virtue. Anger, transmuted, becomes righteous will. Jealousy, transmuted, becomes protective loyalty. Fear, faced directly, becomes courage.
Centres of inflammation in the astral body — created by persistent worry, fear and annoyance — are to the astral body what boils are to the physical: not only acutely uncomfortable but weak spots through which vitality drains away and through which evil influences enter almost without resistance. The student of occultism must cultivate a state in which no personal feeling can be disturbed under any external circumstance.
The fully developed astral body presents a specific appearance: a strip of lilac across the top for spiritual aspiration; a cloud of brilliant yellow above and around the head; a broad belt of devotional blue below that; a wide belt of rose-affection across the trunk; and luminous green of adaptability and sympathy in the lower body. The colours are bright, clearly defined, the outline sharp and orderly — the entire vehicle conveying perfect control.
As a man advances, his astral body increasingly resembles his mental body until it becomes little more than a reflection of it in grosser matter. This indicates complete mastery: desires are entirely under the control of mind. Such a person is subject to occasional irritability and undesirable cravings — but these are surface disturbances immediately recognised and corrected, not forces that sweep the whole vehicle.
Astral senses exist in all persons but are latent in most. Two fundamentally different types of clairvoyance exist and must not be confused. The first is lower psychism: a vague massive sensation belonging to the whole vehicle, sporadic, uncontrolled, working through astral centres connected to the physical senses rather than through properly developed astral organs. This was the dominant form in the Atlantean period and appears spontaneously in many primitive or uncultured individuals today.
The second is higher clairvoyance: precise, voluntary, exercised through fully developed astral chakrams used as proper sense-organs. This comes only through deliberate development and produces reliable, controllable results.
Lower clairvoyance in space permits perception of astral entities and events at physical distances without regard to physical obstacles. Higher clairvoyance in time — sometimes called psychometry — involves reading the astral record impressed on objects, places or the astral light itself. The astral light retains impressions of all events that have occurred; a trained clairvoyant can read past and to some degree probable-future states from this record.
The development of astral powers without corresponding moral and mental development is consistently described as dangerous. The astral senses, opened prematurely or by forced methods, produce a condition in which the person perceives the astral world without the knowledge or discrimination to correctly interpret what they see — leading to systematic misidentification of entities, confusion between the real and the imaginary, and susceptibility to deliberate deception by astral entities who exploit the naive observer.
A.E. Powell describes his role as compiler and synthesiser, not original researcher. This volume draws primarily from Besant and Leadbeater, with supporting material from Blavatsky and related Theosophical sources, published between 1897 and 1925.
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