The Astral Plane | Page 5

new forms of physical
matter we have to deal with the still more numerous and perplexing
subdivisions of astral matter. We must note first that every material
object, every particle even, has its astral counterpart; and this
counterpart is itself not a simple body, but is usually extremely
complex, being composed of various kinds of astral matter. In addition

to this each living creature is surrounded with an atmosphere of its own,
usually called its aura, and in the case of human beings this aura forms
of itself a very fascinating branch of study. It is seen as an oval mass of
luminous mist of highly complex structure, and from its shape has
sometimes been called the auric egg. Theosophical readers will hear
with pleasure that even at the early stage of his development at which
the pupil begins to acquire this astral sight, he is able to assure himself
by direct observation of the accuracy of the teaching given through our
great founder, Madame Blavatsky, on the subject of some at least of the
seven principles of man. In regarding his fellow-man he no longer sees
only his outer appearance; exactly co-extensive with that physical body
he clearly distinguishes the etheric double, which in Theosophical
literature has usually been called the Linga Sharîra; while the Jîva, as it
is absorbed and specialized into Prâna, as it circulates in rosy light
throughout the body, as it eventually radiates from the healthy person
in its altered form, is also perfectly obvious. Most brilliant and most
easily seen of all, perhaps, though belonging to quite a different order
of matter--the astral--is the kâmic aura, which expresses by its vivid
and ever-changing flashes of colour the different desires which sweep
across the man's mind from moment to moment. This is the true astral
body. Behind that, and consisting of a finer grade of matter--that of the
rûpa levels of Devachan--lies the devachanic body or aura of the lower
Manas, whose colours, changing only by slow degrees as the man lives
his life, show the disposition and character of the personality; while
still higher and infinitely more beautiful, where at all clearly developed,
is the living light of the Kârana Sharîra, the aura or vehicle of the
higher Manas, which shows the stage of development of the real Ego in
its passage from birth to birth. But to see these the pupil must have
developed something more than mere astral vision.
It will save the student much trouble if he learns at once to regard these
auras not as mere emanations, but as the actual manifestation of the
Ego on their respective planes--if he understands that it is the auric egg
which is the real man, not the physical body which on this plane
crystallizes in the middle of it. So long as the reincarnating Ego
remains upon the plane which is his true home in the arûpa levels of
Devachan, the body which he inhabits is the Kârana Sharîra, but when

he descends into the rûpa levels he must, in order to be able to function
upon them, clothe himself in their matter; and the matter that he thus
attracts to himself furnishes his devachanic or mind-body. Similarly,
descending into the astral plane he forms his astral or kâmic body out
of its matter, though of course still retaining all the other bodies, and on
his still further descent to this lowest plane of all the physical body is
formed in the midst of the auric egg, which thus contains the entire man.
Fuller accounts of these auras will be found in Transaction No. 18 of
the London Lodge, and in a recent article of mine in The Theosophist,
but enough has been said here to show that as they all occupy the same
space (which by the way they share also with the physical health-aura),
the finer interpenetrating the grosser, it needs careful study and much
practice to enable the neophyte to distinguish clearly at a glance the one
from the other. Nevertheless the human aura, or more usually some one
part of it only, is not infrequently one of the first purely astral objects
seen by the untrained, though in such a case its indications are naturally
very likely to be misunderstood.
Though the kâmic aura from the brilliancy of its flashes of colour may
often be more conspicuous, the nerve-ether and the etheric double are
really of a much denser order of matter, being strictly speaking within
the limits of the physical plane, though invisible to ordinary sight. It
has been the custom in Theosophical literature to describe the Linga
Sharîra as the astral counterpart of the human body, the word "astral"
having been usually applied to everything beyond the cognition of our
physical senses. As closer investigation enables us to be