Question:
What do you know about the Astral plane and Astral Projection?
Response:
Not a lot, until I did some research! Here's what I found out.
The
Astral Plane, also known as the Astral World, is a plane of existence
postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, and esoteric
philosophers and mystery religions, and the term was popularised in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Theosophists and
Rosicrucians.
The
use of the term 'astral' (literally, relating to the stars) derived
from the concept that the stars were composed of a different type of
matter to that of the Earth, and that the human psyche is composed of
that same ethereal element - which is why the stars influence human
life: they are the intermediaries between earth and the Divine. Of
course, in fact we are all made of the same stuff as the stars: we
are, literally, star dust. Which is something of a 'wow' thought. But
anyway, returning to the astral plane...
Some
contend that the astral plane is the realm which the soul, in its
astral body, crosses both before birth and after death - a liminal
zone, populated by immaterial ('astral') beings, such as angels and
spirits, including, according to some, elemental spirits such as
faeries and sylphs, not all of whom are kind.
For
others the astral plane is the spiritual world where souls go after
death on Earth to continue to live out a non-physical life, which
latter understanding is conflated by some with the concept of
heaven/paradise/union with God.
For
yet others, the astral plane is where the souls of those who have
died work out the seeds of past karma, either through astral or
earthly re-/incarnations, until the soul is ready to move 'upwards'
and eventually attain unification.
Some
contend that there are sub-divisions or 'resonances' within the
astral plane (lower, higher, emotional-psychic, and mental-psychic)
and that the emotional plane corresponds to the Yetzirah (the third
of the four worlds of the Kabbalah Tree of Life, and to do with
formation), linked with the acquisition of powers and abilities and
to ritual magick.
My
preferred definition is that the astral plane is that subtle body of
reality which is beyond the etheric.
It
is said that the astral plane can be visited through such
means/experiences as astral projection, meditation, visions, near
death experience, and lucid dreams. It has been accessed by the
Dreaming of Australian Aborigines, and by Shamanism, and is
represented as the Duat of the ancient Egyptians, the Bardo of the
Tibetans, and the Baarzakh or Mithral of Islam.
Astral
projection, also known as astral travelling, is the projection of our
own astral body, often when the individual is lying relaxed or
asleep, transferring the field of consciousness from physical to
psychic, such that the astral body 'travels' to different places both
on earth and in the astral world - and can be seen by those who have
'the sight'.
On balance, I'd rather listen to the wonderful Joni Mitchell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY8JKPbnslo
Sources:
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