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171 ever, is likely to wear off in a little while—in ten minutes or a quarter of an hour—unless sustained by renewed thought directed to its maintenance. Coming now to the aura of the fourth principle, we begin to approach the region of those appearances which have to do with something more than bodily conditions even of the finer order. Keeping to proper occult nomenclature, this aura would be called the Kamic aura—that which has to do with the animal phase of man’s consciousness, and the appearance of which expresses to those who comprehend its signifi- cance the general state of the lower sensual nature in any individual observed. ‘This aura is the field of mani- festation, or the mirror in which every feeling, every desire, is reflected. From it, material, bodily form 1s given to the dark elementals which men create and set in motion by evil wishes and malicious feeling. It constitutes that astral body in which those who find themselves able to do so, travel about on another plane, while the physical body sleeps. As might naturally be expected, there is little permanency about its mani- festations. Its colours, its brilliancy, are all changing from moment to moment. An outburst of anger will charge the whole aura with deep red flashes on a dark ground, while sudden terror will in a moment change everything to a mass of ghastly livid grey. The highest component of the aura to which clairvoy- ance short of adeptship can penetrate, is the aura of the Higher Manas. It is not by any means around every person that such an aura would be seen at all. In some mysterious way, of course, its potentiality 172 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. resides in every human being, but except in those cases where the higher self is evolved to considerable activity, it would be vain to attempt to discern its emanation within the denser clouds of the lower prin- ciples. It is described by those who can see it as of almost inconceivable delicacy and beauty, perhaps less a cloud than a living light. But though rarely discernible in ordinary human beings, in those where the spiritual nature is very much the more powerful factor of the whole composition it simply outshines all the rest with startling brilliancy to observers qualified to perceive such phenomena. This aura is, in fact, the Karana Sharira, the vehicle of the consciousness on the Arupa plane of Devachan— the Higher Self for all practical purposes—if we respect- fully put aside for the present any attempt to examine the aspect of consciousness on the plane of Buddhi. The ‘‘ Carrier Body ’”’ is a term applied to it in some Indian books, meaning that it 1s the vehicle which carries over the consciousness of the individual from life to life. As the human being advances in evolution the Karana Sharira becomes larger, as well as more defined in outline—always maintaining the ovoid form, and has thus in some theosophic writings been spoken of as the “auric egg.’ This multiplicity of terms is confusing to the beginner, but all confusion disappears when the ideas concerned are rightly apprehended. When the physical body is seen set in the midst of its higher vehicles, these, overlapping it on all sides, present the appearance of an emanation, and from this point of view are spoken of as the aura; but in all THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES. 173 consideration of that subject it is well to keep hold of the fundamental thought that the aura 1s really made up of the higher vehicles extending over a larger volume of space than that occupied by the physical body. When people are closely massed together, the auras— the higher vehicles—mingle in a curious way and catch influences one from the other, unless they are specially managed with occult knowledge. Some of the principles are separable from one another during life, but from the explanations already given it will be seen that this conception in reference to them must not be pushed too far. At the lower end of the scale that the third principle—the Jiva—could not be separated from the Etheric Double, of which it is the very life. And though the Etheric Double, plus its Jiva, may under abnormal conditions be separated for a time from the physical body, such separation would mean the death of the physical body if prolonged beyond brief periods, and no such separation falls within the regular course of any occult exercise. Again, at the other end of the scale there is no possibility within the range of any conditions of spiritual elevation that we need talk about at present of separating the Buddhi principle from Karana Sharira. But the fourth and fifth principles are readily separable from their lower envelopes ; and the fourth (carrying with it the higher principles) does actually separate from the body even of ordinary non-psychic people in sleep. The separation becomes possible for occultists advanced in training to a certain degree as an act of will, or again, in cases where the training is still further advanced, the fifth 174 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUI,. principle—the true Ego or Higher Self—may be dis- entangled from the astral body (which in such cases would be left behind with the physical body). The soul is then said to be established in its Mayavi Rupa, the vehicle adapted to its manifestation on the lower levels of Devachan. ‘The character of these manifestations on the astral and Devachanic planes will be appreciated better when the regions of Nature in question have been more systematically examined. THE ASTRAL PLANE. 175 CHAPTER VII. THE ASTRAL PLANE. WHILE tracing out the manifold considerations that support the doctrine of Re-incarnation as the true explanation of the way Nature provides for the pro- gress and growth of the soul, I refrained from compli- cating the argument by more than a slight reference to the varied conditions under which consciousness is qualified to function on the various planes of existence it may reach during the protracted period intervening between two physical lives. But before it is possible to understand the opportunities of spiritual evolution that lie before us, it will be necessary to obtain a thorough comprehension of the different planes of Nature which, though all superphysical, are by no means all equally refined, elevated or spiritual in their characteristics. Indeed, that plane or region which is immediately in contact with the plane of physical matter, and of which the phenomena first become perceptible to the psychic senses of an ordinary clairvoyant, is not regarded as spiritual at all in the estimation of the occult student. One of the earliest and most pardonable mistakes of people who in one way or another acquire the privilege, or through the faculties of others obtain the opportunity 176 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. of investigating mysteries of Nature invisible to the physical eve, is the mistake of assuming that the realm ‘they are thus able to cognise is the whole spiritual realm—the “‘ other world ’’ of commonplace theological speculation. In this vast ante-chamber of the spiritual world the conditions of Nature are no less bewildering for those who first wake up in it, uninstructed, after death, than for those who may become qualified to observe its phenomena while still in physical incarna- tion. ‘This region it will be convenient to speak of by the name long familiar to the literature of European mysticism and occultism, and to call it the Astral Plane. The term is not particularly well chosen, as the region in question has nothing whatever to do with the stars, but it has become so time-honoured an expression that it is not worth while to set it aside now. The corresponding term in Oriental occultism is Kama-loka, the region of craving or desire, in which the conditions of existence are so imperfectly spiritu- alised that they have not yet been emancipated from the appetites of animal life. However, it will be better to speak here of the astral plane rather than of kama- loka because however deeply European occultism at the present day may stand indebted to the light from the East, an unnecessary stumbling-block is put in the way of European students who wish to assimilate the wdeas of Oriental philosophy when they are disguised in phrases derived from a language with which they are unacquainted. There is nothing in the teachings of Eastern Theosophy that need defy intelligible expres- sion in Western tongues. There is much indeed which THE ASTRAL PLANE. 177 may perhaps defy translation into speech at all. Probably for that matter Sanscrit, for those who can handle it as freely as we in this country handle English, is a better vehicle of metaphysical thinking than any European language as at present developed. But new words rise up to meet new necessities as thought itself develops, and at all events whoever truly understands the idea represented by any given term of Oriental philosophy as expressed in Sanscrit will be able to find the means of embodying that idea in his own Western speech. After all, as applied to the astral plane, the term kama-loka merely fastens on one of the attributes of that natural region. For human beings whose con- sciousness after death may be focussed on some of its lower levels, it may be a region of desire,—of unsatisfied desire if their affinities are still too much of the earlier earth to allow of their ascent to higher levels,—but it is also a region in which natural forces unknown to the physical life have free play and which for that reason we shall inadequately appreciate if we think of it merely by reference to its purgatorial aspect.