The Astral Plane | Page 2

sense, and I mean by it that the objects and
inhabitants of the astral plane are real in exactly the same way as our
own bodies, our furniture, our houses or monuments are real--as real as
Charing Cross, to quote an expressive remark from one of the earliest
Theosophical works. They will no more endure for ever than will
objects on the physical plane, but they are nevertheless realities from
our point of view while they last--realities which we cannot afford to
ignore merely because the majority of mankind is as yet unconscious,
or but vaguely conscious, of their existence.
There appears to be considerable misunderstanding even among
Theosophical students upon this question of the reality of the various
planes of the universe. This may perhaps be partly due to the fact that
the word "plane" has occasionally been very loosely used in our
literature--writers speaking vaguely of the mental plane, the moral
plane, and so on; and this vagueness has led many people to suppose
that the information on the subject which is to be found in
Theosophical books is inexact and speculative--a mere hypothesis
incapable of definite proof. No one can get a clear conception of the
teachings of the Wisdom-Religion until he has at any rate an
intellectual grasp of the fact that in our solar system there exist
perfectly definite planes, each with its own matter of different degrees
of density, and that some of these planes can be visited and observed by
persons who have qualified themselves for the work, exactly as a
foreign country might be visited and observed; and that, by comparison
of the observations of those who are constantly working on these
planes, evidence can be obtained of their existence and nature at least
as satisfactory as that which most of us have for the existence of
Greenland or Spitzbergen. The names usually given to these planes,
taking them in order of materiality, rising from the denser to the finer,
are the physical, the astral, the devachanic, the sushuptic, and the
nirvânic. Higher than this last are two others, but they are so far above
our present power of conception that for the moment they may be left

out of consideration. Now it should be understood that the matter of
each of these planes differs from that of the one below it in the same
way as, though to a much greater degree than, vapour differs from solid
matter; in fact, the states of matter which we call solid, liquid, and
gaseous are merely the three lowest subdivisions of the matter
belonging to this one physical plane.
The astral region which I am to attempt to describe is the second of
these great planes of nature--the next above (or within) that physical
world with which we are all familiar. It has often been called the realm
of illusion--not that it is itself any more illusory than the physical world,
but because of the extreme unreliability of the impressions brought
back from it by the untrained seer. This is to be accounted for mainly
by two remarkable characteristics of the astral world--first, that many
of its inhabitants have a marvellous power of changing their forms with
Protean rapidity, and also of casting practically unlimited glamour over
those with whom they choose to sport; and secondly, that sight on that
plane is a faculty very different from and much more extended than
physical vision. An object is seen, as it were, from all sides at once, the
inside of a solid being as plainly open to the view as the outside; it is
therefore obvious that an inexperienced visitor to this new world may
well find considerable difficulty in understanding what he really does
see, and still more in translating his vision into the very inadequate
language of ordinary speech. A good example of the sort of mistake
that is likely to occur is the frequent reversal of any number which the
seer has to read from the astral light, so that he would be liable to
render, say, 139 as 931, and so on. In the case of a student of occultism
trained by a capable Master such a mistake would be impossible except
through great hurry or carelessness, since such a pupil has to go
through a long and varied course of instruction in this art of seeing
correctly, the Master, or perhaps some more advanced pupil, bringing
before him again and again all possible forms of illusion, and asking
him "What do you see?" Any errors in his answers are then corrected
and their reasons explained, until by degrees the neophyte acquires a
certainty and confidence in dealing with the phenomena of the astral
plane which far exceeds anything possible in physical life. But he has
to learn not only to see