Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is a non-physical dimension of existence postulated by classical (particularly neo-Platonic), medieval, oriental and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions. This sphere is made of astral matter, a subtle form of matter which is said to be translucent and radiant.

General description

Mme. Blavatsky regards the astral plane as the second (counting from below up), the one that is immediately above the objective or physical, whether on the macrocosmic or microcosmic world.

This plane remains beyond the range of perception of a normal human being. In a note to Mme. Blavatsky's Esoteric Instructions it is said:

the Prâkitic astral plane is objective to clairvoyants and some animals; it needs development beyond that normal in the Fifth Race to reach the higher Prâkitic planes as objective; only the Adept can pass into the macrocosmic planes beyond the Prâkitic.

Sensitives, mediums, and clairvoyants can perceive it (go on here)

This is an "instinctual plane" for those beings that are limited to it, whether by nature or accident. Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

Astral Instinctual Consciousness. The consciousness of sensitive plants, of ants, spiders, and some night-flies (Indian), but not of bees. . . . On this plane is the consciousness of idiots. The common phrase, “he has lost his mind,” is an occult truth; for when, through fright or other cause, the lower mind becomes paralyzed, then the consciousness acts on the astral plane. The study of lunacy will throw much light on this point. This may well be called the “nerve plane.” It is cognized by our “nervous senses,” of which, as yet, modern physiology knows nothing. Hence it is that a clairvoyant can read with the eyes bandaged, with the tips of the fingers, the pit of the stomach, etc. This consciousness is greatly developed in the deaf and dumb. On this plane everything is reversed, reflected upside down.

The nature astral plane is regarded to be illusory and deceptive:

That which mediums see, hear, and sense, is "real" but untrue; it is either gathered from the astral plane, so deceptive in its vibrations and suggestions, or from pure hallucinations, which have no actual existence, but for him who perceives them. (KT, Glossary, "Mediumship")

Dream Plane

The astral plane is the dwelling of consciousness when a person falls asleep:

The instinctual mind finds expression through the cerebellum, and is also that of the animals. With man during sleep the functions of the cerebrum cease, and the cerebellum carries him on to the Astral plane, a still more unreal state than even the waking plane of illusion; for so we call this state which the majority of you think so real. And the Astral plane is still more deceptive, because it reflects indiscriminately the good and the bad, and is so chaotic.

According to Annie Besant

The astral plane is the region of the universe next to the physical, if the word “next” may be permitted in such a connection. Life there is more active than on the physical plane, and form is more plastic. . . . The word “next” is, however, inappropriate, as suggesting the idea that the planes of the universe are arranged as concentric circles, one ending where the next begins. Rather they are concentric interpenetrating spheres, not separated from each other by distance but by difference of constitution.

The spirit-matter of the astral plane exists in seven subdivisions, as we have seen in the spirit-matter of the physical. There, as here, there are numberless combinations, forming the astral solids, liquids, gases, and ethers. But most material forms there have a brightness, a translucency, as compared to forms here, which have caused the epithet astral, or starry, to be applied to them – an epithet which is, on the whole, misleading, but is too firmly established by use to be changed. As there are no specific names for the subdivisions of astral spirit-matter, we may use the terrestrial designations. The main idea to be grasped is that astral objects are combinations of astral matter, as physical objects are combinations of physical matter, and that the astral world scenery much resembles that of earth in consequence of its being largely made up of the astral duplicates of physical objects.

Further reading

• The Astral Plane by Annie Besant
• The Astral Plane - It's Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena by C. W. Leadbeater
• The Reality of the Astral Plane by C. W. Leadbeater