English
To begin with, we must always bear in mind that the astral plane—and this remark also applies to the more truly spiritual plane of which I shall have to speak later on—is a very different region for the departed souls of deceased humanity from that which it consti- tutes for the emancipated Higher Self of a soul, still incarnate, which by reason of occult development is capable of existing there during the temporary trances of the body to which it belongs. For the deceased personality, in most ordinary cases the will power 178 THE, GROWTH OF THE SOUL. which is an attribute of the spirit is inactive on the astral plane. That is practically reserving itself for expansion in the realm of spirit, and if we think of the soul that has passed away from earth as occupied with the interests and aspirations which during life have been directed towards the idea of an incorporeal state, we are think- ing of it as it will be when the spiritual plane is reached, and not as it is in the astral condition. For those who dic, the astral plane is in most cases the first stage of the world of effects, and is no longer a sphere in which spiritual causes can be generated. The higher aspects of the entity are in abeyance, awaiting the awakening later on, on the spiritual plane, and meanwhile the lower aspects that may be functioning on the astral plane are merely reverberating there with impulses already set going during the earth life. Thus it ensues that although on the astral plane, the soul working out its natural destinies is really in presence of oppor- tunities which, if it had all its wits about it, so to speak, would be full of interest, it is as a rule quite unqualified to make use of these. For example, the astral plane, which is co-extensive with the material plane of this earth life, is infinitely more subtle, elastic, and ethereal than the physical plane, so that the astral body, which is the vehicle of human consciousness on that plane as the physical body is its vehicle during incarnation, is capable of an easy and rapid translation from place to place under the influence of forces which its own occupant is capable of directing. The higher Ego of a living person on the astral plane may be able to control those forces, and THE ASTRAL PLANE. 179 thus pass at will almost with the rapidity of thought from one region of earth to another; but the spiritual will of the deceased personality on the astral plane, in the ordinary course of things, is dormant, as I have said, and consequently the astral consciousness does not know how to direct its own wanderings ; it becomes the sport of magnetic currents, which it has nothing to do with setting in motion. /mmedtately after death, indeed, its movements may be the consequence of currents set in motion by the last thoughts or desires of affection of its expiring incarnate life, and this con- sideration has to be kept in mind to explain much that occurs in connexion with visions of people dying at a distance presented sometimes to their surviving friends. But the power of directing its own movements would very soon be lost by the astral personality in most cases, and then it would drift about in rather an aimless way unless riveted to certain persons or places by very strong ties of attachment or emotion, pleasurable or painful. In reference to such attachments, and indeed with a view to the proper comprehension of the plane of Nature we are discussing, it must always be remem- bered that the astral region is not a remote, other world, far removed from our own either by character- istics or space. It is all about us, though invisible to common-place organs of sight. It is another aspect of the physical world, plus forces and inhabitants, of which the physical world knows nothing—material even in its nature, though its materiality is of a finer kind than that of the physical plane. 180 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. , What is meant by refinement of matter? Nothing is of greater importance in connexion with the study of the superphysical planes of Nature than a proper appreciation of the answer to that question. The habit of thinking of the liquid, solid, and gaseous states of such matter as the senses can cognise, is apt to be misleading here. In the occult significance of the term there is nothing more refined and ethereal in the lightest of the gases—hydrogen—than in the heaviest of the minerals. The atmosphere and the rocks are equally composed of matter on the physical plane, and to the senses qualified to apprehend the matter of the astral plane, that might appear as solid as gold or granite, though its presence would be unperceived in the most delicate balance, just as the balance itself, indeed, and the laboratory in which it might have a place might be unperceived, by a being with none but senses adapted to the phenomena of the astral plane. I have spoken already of the manner in which the matter of the astral plane is amenable to the influence of thought, sympathy, and will. It is in harmony with that condition of things that on the astral plane thought should be, as it is, much more naked and visible than with us, so that astral beings can see one another’s thoughts in a way which is wholly outside the range of incarnate experience. This is the explanation of a great many wonderful observations of “ spiritualism,” and of the exaggerated estimation in which spiritualists hold that plane of existence—the astral—with which they come most readily into relation. A being who can read their thoughts, and even read long forgotten THE ASTRAI, PLANE. 181 thoughts which occupied their minds at bygone periods, and thus show knowledge of incidents in their lives known only to themselves (as far as the physical plane is concerned), is easily exalted in their imaginations on that account to a place in nature not far removed from one of spiritual omniscience. Meanwhile, a person who has passed on from the physical plane, and is still entangled in the astral region, or even the Higher Self of a clairvoyant or mesmeric sensitive, functioning in the astral body, may be subject to delusive impressions arising from this very transparency of thought all around him. Impressions that are merely the echo of other thoughts will seem objective realities, and beyond this, the human consciousness, transferred to the astral plane either after death or in trance, will be in presence of innumerable phenomena, which are objective realities of that plane but are of so strange and unfamiliar a kind as to be wholly unintelligible, for on the astral plane we are not only in presence of-an order of matter peculiar to that phase of Nature, but of an order—or rather of many orders—of beings peculiar to that plane. Every region of Nature is teeming with life, and the experience of the ordinary world should prepare us to expect that on the astral plane, as here, the stage of Nature is peopled with others besides human beings. At least as voluminous and varied as the animal life of the earth is the psychic life of the astral plane. Swarming on that plane there are elemental beings of infinite variety which are sub-human, as measured on the scale of natural evolution, but are often endowed 182 THE GROWTH OF THE SOUL. with powers—just as many of the animals with us are endowed with muscular powers—transcending those of ordinary mankind. The control of these beings is one of the most momentous secrets of practical occultism, and the encouraging truth of the matter is that just because they are sub-human—if we take the spiritual potentiali- ties of man’s nature fully into account—they are all controllable for the human being who has completely evolved on the spiritual as well as on the astral plane. But it does not follow from this that every human being who passes after death on to the astral plane has either the power of dealing with them, or the know- ledge that enables him to realise who and what they are. Their mere presence around him is calculated to bewilder the unprepared intruder into their wonderful domain. He has to learn the exercise on the astral plane of the strength of his sfir1tual soul—and very gruesome experiences may be encountered during this process—for just as some of the animals of this world are ferocious in their bearing towards humanity, so on the astral plane many of the elemental beings are hostile to the human intruder seeking to acquire master- ship amongst them. Further researches on that head need only concern persons who are coming within measurable distance of the mysteries of initiation, but meanwhile it is desirable that the reader should realise as much as possible of the structure and general design of the astral plane, regarded as a region of Nature irrespective of the different conditions under which human consciousness may function there. THE ASTRAL PLANE. 183 Hitherto I have spoken of it as though it were a homogeneous territory, but that is merely because it is impossible to deal with all its characteristics in the same breath. Between the lower and the higher regions of the astral world there are enormous differences. These have to be studied in two aspects, that which they present to the soul set free from the body at death, and that which they wear for the competent observer gradually acquiring some of the characteristics of adeptship, who is enabled, by his spiritual advance- ment, to penetrate at will to any of those various sub-divisions, to pass from one to the other freely, to make use, for purposes connected with his work in this world, of forces that he may find on any region of the astral.