Astral Body
Astral Body is a subtle body that can serve as vehicle of consciousness. In her book Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky says:
The designation astral is ancient, and was used by some of the Neoplatonists. Porphyry describes the celestial body which is always joined with the soul as “immortal, luminous, and star-like.” The root of this word may be found, perhaps, in the Scythic aist-aer — which means star, or the Assyrian Istar, which, according to Burnouf has the same sense.[1]
H. P. Blavatsky used the term frequently to refer to the second principle in Man or linga sharira. However, she also applied this term in a more general way, saying that "there are various Astral Bodies".[2] For example, she wrote: "A more important kind of Astral Body is the Mâyâvî-Rûpa, or illusionary Body, and this is of different degrees."[3] She also talked of the astral body as being constituted by "the lower manas and volition, kama"[4].
Since the linga sharira cannot go far away from the physical body, it is to these other kinds of astral bodies that Mme. Blavatsky was probably referring in the following passage in Isis Unveiled:
In our sleep the astral body is free and can, by the elasticity of its nature, either hover round in proximity with its sleeping vehicle, or soar higher to hold converse with its starry parents, or even communicate with its brothers at great distances.[5]
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), xxv.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. 12 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, ???), 705.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. 12 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, ???), 706.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. V (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, ???), fn. 81.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 170.
Further reading
- Astral Body at Theosopedia