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- This article is about a plane of existence. In the context of Unicode, astral characters consist of planes above the Basic Multilingual Plane.
The Barzakh, olam mithal or intermediate world in Islam and the "World of Yetzirah" in Lurianic Qabala are related concepts.
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[edit] History
Plato and Aristotle taught that the stars were composed of a type of matter different from the four earthly elements - a fifth, ethereal element or quintessence. In the "astral mysticism" of the classical world the human psyche was composed of the same material, thus accounting for the influence of the stars upon human affairs. In his commentaries on Plato's Timaeus, Proclus wrote;"Man is a little world (mikros cosmos). For, just like the Whole, he possesses both mind and reason, both a divine and a mortal body. He is also divided up according to the universe. It is for this reason, you know, that some are accustomed to say that his consciousness corresponds with the nature of the fixed stars, his reason in its contemplative aspect with Saturn and in its social aspect with Jupiter, (and) as to his irrational part, the passionate nature with Mars, the eloquent with Mercury, the appetitive with Venus, the sensitive with the Sun and the vegetative with the Moon."[3]
Throughout the Renaissance, philosophers, Paracelsians, Rosicrucians and alchemists continued to discuss the nature of the astral world intermediate between earth and the divine. Once the telescope established that no religious heaven was visible around the solar system, the idea was superseded in mainstream science.[7]
[edit] The astral plane and astral experience
astral projection, meditation and mantra, near death experience, lucid dreaming, or other means. Individuals that are trained in the use of the astral vehicle can separate their consciousness in the astral vehicle from the physical body at will.[8]In early theosophical literature the term "astral" may refer to the aether. Neo-Theosophy, as developed by Annie Besant, C. W. Leadbeater, and later Alice Bailey, makes the astral finer than the etheric plane but "denser" than the mental plane. In order to create a unified view of seven bodies and remove earlier Sanskrit terms, an etheric plane was introduced and the term "astral body" was used to replace the former kamarupa - sometimes termed the body of emotion, illusion or desire.[1]
According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, desire-stuff may be described as a type of force-matter, in incessant motion, responsive to the slightest feeling. The desire world is also said to be the abode of the dead for some time subsequent to death. It is also the home of the archangels. In the higher regions of the desire world thoughts take a definite form and color perceptible to all, all is light and there is but one long day.
In his book Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramhansa Yogananda provides details about the astral planes learned from his resurrected guru.[9] Yogananda reveals that nearly all individuals enter the astral planes after death. There they work out the seeds of past karma through astral incarnations, or (if their karma requires) they return to earthly incarnations for further refinement. Once an individual has attained the meditative state of nirvikalpa samadhi in an earthy or astral incarnation, the soul may progress upward to the "illumined astral planet" of Hiranyaloka.[9] After this transitionary stage, the soul may then move upward to the more subtle causal spheres where many more incarnations allow them to further refine before final unification.[10]
Astral projection author Robert Bruce describes the astral as seven planes that take the form of planar surfaces when approached from a distance, separated by immense coloured "buffer zones". These planes are endlessly repeating ruled Cartesian grids, tiled with a single signature pattern that is different for each plane. Higher planes have bright, colourful patterns, whereas lower planes appear far duller. Every detail of these patterns acts as a consistent portal to a different kingdom inside the plane, which itself comprises many separate realms. Bruce notes that the astral may also be entered by means of long tubes that bear visual similarity to these planes, and conjectures that the grids and tubes are in fact the same structures approached from a different perceptual angle.
[edit] In popular culture
- The Astral Plane is referred to in the songs "The Doorway" by Neurosis, "Gonna See My Friend" by Pearl Jam, "Mary Jane" by Megadeth, "Stormrider" by Iced Earth, "Over the Mountain" by Ozzy Osbourne, "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright, "New Invaders" by Iris, "Legend of a Mind" by The Moody Blues, "Forest of Legend" by Vektor. The two songs "Astral Plane" and "Astral Plane Pt Deux" by Morphine Machine are specifically about it. "Astral Plane" is the name of song on the debut album of Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and the astral concept informed the lyrics of Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. An early piece by the progressive rock band Yes was entitled "Astral Traveller".
- Rap artist Method Man references Astral Plane in the song 'Bring the Pain'. "I came to bring the pain, hardcore to the brain, let's go inside my Astral Plane". Parts of the song were also used for the chorus of rap artist Tupac Shakur's 'No More Pain'. Shakur studied and analyzed books about Telepathy and the supernatural as a teenager.
- The avant-garde heavy metal band maudlin of the Well created music, lyrics, and atmosphere that dealt predominantly with the subject of astral projection. The band tried to find music rather than compose it. This was done through practicing astral projection and lucid dreams, from which the band were purportedly able to "bring back" pre-existing music from the astral plane (as stated by Toby Driver in the liner notes included with the reissued Bath and Leaving Your Body Map).
- The American progressive metal band Mastodon constructed its fourth LP, Crack the Skye, as a concept album dealing with astral planes, with astral projection as a primary plot point.
- "Astral Planes" is the fourth addition to The Smashing Pumpkins 44-track album "Teargarden by Kaleidyscope."
- In the Marvel Universe, Doctor Strange has practiced astral projection since his inception in 1963. Illyana Rasputin [alias Magik] was able to astral project her own consciousness in New Mutants (Series 1) #15. Other mutants such as Professor X, Emma Frost, Jean Grey, and other powerful psychics, have access to the astral plane. Professor X imprisons the Shadow King on the astral plane. There are beings who live there such as Cassandra Nova. The Hulk is capable of seeing astral bodies.
- In the DC/Vertigo Universe, the Astral planes are used for travel and magic by a certain number of individuals such as Doctor Fate, Zatanna, and Doctor Occult, though use of astral projection is mostly illusionary.
- In the standard Dungeons & Dragons RPG planar cosmology, the Astral Plane is a dimension coexistent with all others (or all non-elemental planes in some editions of the game), used as a means of transportation between planes.
- The Astral Plane is the final level of the computer game NetHack.
- The Apple II and PC video game Windwalker identifies the Astral Plane as a dimension through which a character called the Alchemist can summon demons, influence dreams and cause evil.
- The Astral plane is featured as a level in the video game X-Men Legends.
- The video game Psychonauts revolves around a young psychic named Razputin, who uses a form of astral projection to enter the minds of several in-game characters, taking him into mental worlds based on their memories, imaginations, obsessions, and even manias.
- The Astral plane as well as other planes of existence such as the etheric are featured prominently in the Deverry Cycle of fantasy books by Katharine Kerr.
- Parts of the parody poetry book An American Parody by Vince Chesner is said to have been written and inspired during visits to the Astral world.
- The Astral Plane is featured in the surreal 2000 comedy film The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz.
- It is a major part of the musical The True Story of the Bridgewater Astral League by The World/Inferno Friendship Society.
- It is featured in the television show Charmed, in which it is described as a realm of "spirits and energies" and a place where time does not progress.[11]
- Ghostbusters 2 visualizes what might happen if negative forces from the astral planes entered the physical plane.
- Do the Astral Plane is the name of a song by Flying Lotus
- In the horror film Insidious, a young boy after astral projecting and transcending into a part of the astral plane called "the Further", where tortured souls roam looking for a vessel to take over, most likely symbolizing hell, is left in a coma-like state, where his astral body is stuck in the astral plane.
- In the massively multiplayer online video game Allods Online, players traverse multiple layers of the Astral, the thin, chaotic void of energetic empty space between remnants of the planet Sarnaut. Players can use astral ships to travel between the dangerous astral space to large floating remnant islands, known as allods.
[edit] See also
- Archangels
- Bardo
- Barzakh
- Astral projection
- Celestial sphere
- Celestial spheres
- Chakra
- Esoteric cosmology
- Linga sarira (subtle body)
- Plane (esotericism)
- Pure land
- Takama-ga-hara
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b G.R.S.Mead, The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition, Watkins 1919.
- ^ Plato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee, Harmondsworth.
- ^ Quoted in; G.R.S.Mead, The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition, Watkins 1919, page 84 (Slightly adapted).
- ^ Frederick Copleston, The History of Philosophy Vol 2, IMAGE BOOKS 1993-1994.
- ^ The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: There are two states for man - the state in this world and the state in the next; there is also a third state, the state intermediate between these two, which can be likened to the dream [state]. While in the intermediate state a man experiences both the other states, that of this world and that in the next; and the manner whereof is as follows: when he dies he lives only in the subtle body, on which are left the impressions of his past deeds, and of those impressions is he aware, illumined as they are by the light of the Transcendent Self
- ^ Miguel Asín Palacios La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia [Muslim Eschatology in the Divine Comedy] (1919). Seyyed Hossein Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, University of New York Press, passim. Idries Shah, The Sufis, Octagon Press, 1st Ed. 1964.
- ^ Frances Yates - see;
- ^ J. H. Brennan, Astral Doorways, Thoth Publications 1996 ISBN - 978-1-870450-21-8
- ^ a b Paramhansa Yogananda (1946). Autobiography of a Yogi (Google books). The Philosophical Library, Inc. http://books.google.com/books?id=iN6fdZR6rXkC&pg=PA400&lpg=PA400&dq=Hiranyaloka+%2B+autobiography+of+a+yogi#v=onepage&q=Hiranyaloka&f=false. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
- ^ Paramhansa Yogananda (1946). "Autobiography of a Yogi". http://reluctant-messenger.com/yogananda/chapter_43.htm. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
- ^ The Power of Three Blondes
[edit] References
- Bruce, Robert, Astral Dynamics: A NEW Approach to Out-of-Body Experiences, 1999, ISBN 1-57174-143-7
- Buhlman, William, Adventures Beyond the Body: How to experience out-of-body travel. ISBN 978-0-06-251371-7
- Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Mysteries (Chapter III: The Visible and the Invisible Worlds), 1911, ISBN 0-911274-86-3
- Leadbeater, Charles Webster, The Astral Plane: Its scenery, inhabitants and phenomena, 1900
- Powell, Arthur E., The Astral Body and other Astral Phenomena
- Steiner, Rudolf, Theosophy: An introduction to the supersensible knowledge of the world and the destination of man. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. (1904) 1970
- Twitchell, Paul, "ECKANKAR - The Key to Secret Worlds" Eckankar, 2nd Ed. 2001. ISBN 1-57043-154-X
- ----- Occult Science - An Outline. Trans. George and Mary Adams. London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1909, 1969
- Tommaso Palamidessi, Come sdoppiarsi e viaggiare nei mondi soprasensibili, Vol. III, ed. Archeosofica, 1989.
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