THE SEVEN DIVISIONS OF THE ASTRAL PLANE

The astral plane can be divided into seven sub-planes which are also known as “the seven levels of the astral consciousness”.

IN ORIGINAL THEOSOPHY

In the genuine theosophical teaching, the following classification is given:

	SUB-PLANES
7	atmic or auric consciousness astral sub-plane
6	buddhic or spiritual astral sub-plane
5	manasic or mind astral sub-plane
4	kamic or desire astral sub-plane
3	pranic or psychic astral sub-plane
2	astral astral sub-plane
1	physical or objective astral sub-plane

And those names are in correspondence with the septenary structure taught by the original Theosophy:

And on each of these astral sub-planes, Blavatsky gave a short description about it:

1st division: physical or objective astral sub-plane

It corresponds with everything with the physical world that we know, however, in this sub-plane everything seen must be inverted when translated in terms of the physical plane. It's like the image inverted in a mirror.

2nd division: astral astral sub-plane

It is similar to the first division, but the objects are extremely tenuous, so to speak they are "astralized". And this plane is the limit to which the average and ordinary medium can usually reach, and beyond which he cannot go. For a non-mediumistic person to reach it, he must be asleep or in a trance, or under the influence of a laughing gas or some drug. And also when an individual is in a state of ordinary delirium, his consciousness usually accesses to this plane.

3rd division: pranic or psychic astral sub-plane

It is of an intensely lived nature. The lunatics are often in this state of consciousness and see the most terrible visions. And also when a person is in a state of extreme delirium can enter in this sub-plane. And also when the drunks have hallucinations (known scientifically as the Delirium Tremens) and popularly known as "they see pink elephants", but in reality they are not delirious, but perceiving the psychic astral sub-plane and interpreting it in their own way. And they can even go to the next plane, since the two overlap.

4th division: kamic or desire astral sub-plane

This is the worst and most terrible of the astral sub-planes, and it is the state of consciousness that is reached in the most acute cases of delirium tremens. And from here come the images that tempt men to incite them to commit all kinds of depravity, vices and crimes. And individuals of a weak nature or prone to those behaviors fall under their influence, falling into those vices or committing those horrendous crimes.

Here are scattered the seeds that cause the epidemics, the disasters and the general catastrophes of all kinds that occur on Earth. And men for years (even generations) by dint of creating subtle negative entities with their bad thoughts, emotions and actions, inevitably one day end up returning these manifesting in the physical world in the form of calamities. (Karma)

5th division: manasic or mind astral sub-plane

It is in this sub-plane that premonitions and dreams are given, and glimpses into the past and the future, as well as the reflections of the lower mind and of the objective and non-spiritual things. The mesmerized clairvoyant can reach this sub-plane and if he is good, he can still go to the next higher sub-plane.

6th division: buddhic or spiritual astral sub-plane

From this sub-plane come all the beautiful inspirations of art, poetry, music and high types of dreams, as well as flashes of genius. And from here we can catch reminiscences of past incarnations, although it is not possible to locate and analyze them.

7th division: atmic or auric consciousness astral sub-plane

The consciousness is in this sub-plane at the moment of death or in exceptional visions, remembering all the past events of your life in a flash.  The memory of this consciousness must be kept in the heart, "the seat of the spiritual soul" (Buddhi). Then it will remain there, although impressions of this state of consciousness cannot affect the physical brain.

(Blavatsky taught this classification to his Inner Group students at the meeting on 11-26-1890.)

IN THE NEO-THEOSOPHY

In the pseudo-theosophical teaching later invented by Leadbeater and Annie Besant, the following classification is given:

	SUB-PLANES
7	atomic or divine astral sub-plane
6	sub-atomic or monadic astral sub-plane
5	atmic or spiritual sub-plano astral
4	bhuddic or intuitional astral sub-plane
3	manasic or mind astral sub-plane
2	astral or emotional astral sub-plane
1	dense or physical astral sub-plane

(Note: they reversed the numbering but we will keep it as the original to facilitate the comparison.)

And those names correspond to the modified septenary structure and taught by Leadbeater of the Solar System planes:

And about this new classification, Leadbeater gave the following explanation:

« The seven astral sub-planes form three worlds:

First Astral World

Formed by the 1° division: the dense astral sub-plane.

It penetrates to a certain depth inside the Earth. It is wrapped in darkness. The environment generates an unpleasant sensation as if one made its way through a viscous black fluid. In addition the dwellers and influences that are there are completely undesirable. The humans whose consciousness are attracted to that sub-plane are those who have low and rude desires (vicious, depraved, criminal, etc.).

Second Astral World

Formed by the 2°, 3° and 4° sub-planes.

It is like the physical world, but without the physical body, which implies that one no longer needs to eat food or drink water. The third and fourth sub-planes are becoming less material.

Third Astral World

Formed by the 5°, 6° and 7° sub-planes.

Here the inhabitants lose sight of the physical world and the earthly aspects. Most are almost unaware of the realities of the sub-plane, but live in imaginary environments, created in part by their thoughts, partly with collective thought.

This is how all kinds of cities, landscapes and places are found. These are in general beautiful though transient, and will last as long as the energy is sent to them. Visitors tend to wander between different scenarios, although if they prefer they can also build their own stage according to their fantasies.

The sixth sub-plane is especially the abode of the religious, selfish and unspiritual, and there creates the stage to worship the deity of their religion and era. We find paradise imagined by Christians, or Muslims, or Jews, etc.

The seventh sub-plane is especially the abode of intellectuals and scientists. Here they do not build imaginary creations, but use for purposes of study, almost all the powers of the entire astral plane, because they are capable of descending almost to the physical plane, following certain marked lines.

This way they can reach the astral counterpart of a physical book and extract the required data from it. Sometimes, they delay for a long time their departure to the celestial world because of the avidity with which they pursue lines of study and experimentation in the astral plane. »

(Based on “The Astral Body” by Arthur E. Powell, chap.16)

_ _ _

And as you can see, there are big differences in those two descriptions.

WHY ARE THESE DIFFERENCES IN THEOSOPHICAL TEACHING?

Because Leadbeater believed that Blavatsky’s teachings was wrong (which is not true since she was supervised by the Masters), and he decided to modify them based on his own psychic investigations, but he made many mistakes as I showed you in the numerous articles that I have written in this blog about that subject.

WHERE THE LOWER ASTRAL IS LOCATED?

In Christian education, it is considered that the bad and the negative is “down,” while the good and the positive is “up”. And that is why in the popular consciousness it is conceived that hell is below the earth while paradise is above the sky.

And when Leadbeater altered the original structure, he did it with that religious belief, and that's why he put the lower astral in the densest sub-plane. However, from an esoteric point of view, the original structure has more coherence, and now I will explain you why:

All the parts of the Creation have a role to play so that the Universe can exist and if God created the lower astral it is because also the lower astral has a function to play.

And the function of the lower astral is to help through its heavy vibration, to densify the energy so that it can be transformed into matter. Because if the lower astral did not exist, then the matter would be converted back into energy and the physical plane could not exist.

So the lower astral has an important role to play in the Creation, but we must not approach to it.

To give you an analogy, the lower astral is like the bile, which is a very powerful acid, which when used where it should be used, helps to keep the body alive by disintegrating the food that human feed, but when the bile goes out of its place, the bile begins to destroy the body itself.

(This function of the lower astral is more detailed in the article: the underworld) [later I will put]

Then it is logical that the lower astral is localized just before the two denser sub-planes that are the mold of the physical plane (as is taught in the Original Theosophy). Because the lower astral is like a magnet that attracts the energy down, densifies it and then sends it to the molds so that they transform it into physical matter.

STRUCTURE OF THE ASTRAL PLANE

And from the information that Blavatsky gave us, we can regroup the seven astral sub-planes in the following structure:

     -   The anteroom for the superior existence plane (The Kama-Loka).

     -    The higher astral.

     -    The lower astral.

     -    The mold of the physical plane.

	ASTRAL SUB-PLANE	CHARACTERISTICS
7	atmic or auric	Anteroom of the post-mortem trip
6	buddhic	Subtle higher astral
5	manasic or mind	Dense higher astral
4	kamic or desire	Subtle lower astral
3	pranic or psychic	Dense lower astral
2	astral	Subtle astral mold of the physical world
1	physical or objective	Dense astral mold of the physical world

And this structure also agrees with the fact that the different sub-planes of the astral plane are composed of the same substance that as it becomes densified, it takes different forms and properties (such as water that as it cools passes from steam to liquid and then to ice).

OBSERVATION

And if you ask: why do people who have died not dwell in the astral plane in general? (As is usually thought it) it is because the astral plane is only a transitional world for the human souls and it is not a world of residence for humans.

And in fact, the astral plane is the subtle counterpart of the Earth and therefore still part of the terrestrial world.

Instead, human souls will dwell in the following two worlds during their post-mortem stay between two reincarnations:

• Those who have something good to carry with them will reside in the divine world (Devachan). 
• And those who were very bad will reside in the intermediate zone (the Kama-Loka).

WHERE ARE THE ASTRAL SUB-PLANES LOCATED?

To facilitate the explanation, the astral sub-planes are drawn in the diagrams, placing them one above the other (as if they were the different floors of a building), the densest below and the subtler above.

But this representation induces the erroneous idea of thinking that the sub-planes are positioned "one above the other," when in reality the sub-planes interpenetrate with each other. In other words, taking up the analogy of the building, the floors would not be one above the other, but all the floors would be on the ground floor.

And in the same way the seven sub-planes of the astral plane are in reality occupying the same space as the physical plane.

Another way of illustrating this occult reality, it would be to imagine the sub-planes as the Russian dolls: one inside the other.

But with the difference that the dolls are hollow and the sub-planes are not.

And there they will surely ask:

How is that possible?

And the answer is because as the substance of each sub-plane vibrates at a different intensity, that allows that each sub-plane occupying the same space but “in another dimension.”

And that is why esotericism explains that the different planes of existence and their sub-planes are occupying the same space as the physical plane, but at other levels of vibration, which allows for "coadunation with each other but not in consubstantiality."

INTERESTING QUESTIONS

ABOUT THIS THEME

1. So if we are crazy it is because we have our consciousness connected to the third sub-plane?

It is the other way around, and by this I mean that when you are in a state of madness, you can more easily alter your state of consciousness and connect to the third astral sub-plane, which can sometimes cause you to start seeing images of beings and rare things. And since people usually do not understand what is happening to them, then they usually get even more delirious thinking that they are getting crazier when in fact they are perceiving images of the third astral sub-plane.

2. And in order to be creative, do we need connect to the sixth sub-plane of the astral plane?

No, but it can help you. And to give you an analogy, it is as if you were asking me if, in order to be creative, you need to connect to the Internet. And the answer is no, because you have your own creativity, but connecting to the internet can help you find ideas, and the same thing happens when you connect to the sixth astral sub-plane.

THE ASTRAL PLANE WILL HAVE A LOT OF IMPORTANCE IN THE MEDICINE OF THE FUTURE

For everything that is related to healing, the astral plane is very useful, and in the future humans will have to accept the existence of the astral plane. That does not mean that humans are going to project massively or live in the astral plane, but in some way, humans will develop the instruments to work with the astral plane. And this is because the astral plane can be very helpful for many things.

EXAMINATION

For example, from the astral plane one can investigate much better the physical plane. And this is exactly what the Masters do when they want to see the state in which a person is.

The Masters do not carry out their research on a physical level, but simply they scrutinize the astral body of the person, and for example: they observe the resonances that this astral body has, the colors it emits, etc. And in this way they know much more about that person than all the analyzes that medicine can do on Earth.

And that is why for a healer who wants to be better and more successful, he needs to perceive the astral plane (either by vision, intuition, inspiration or touch) because it is on the astral plane that are generated and live the most of the diseases, while its physical manifestation is only the projection that this astral disease causes on the physical body.

Instead, just above of the emotional plane is the mental plane, where the disease has no place because the constitution of the substance that makes up the mental plane, as well as the vibration in which its particles move, all this makes it is impossible that the disease exists there.

And if an astral entity carrying a disease tried to enter in the mental plane, it would be completely annihilated. In other words, as soon as you are completely attuned to the mental plane, then you will rejoice of full health.

But as long as in the astral body there is something that is not going well: either in the reception of an energy, or in the emission of an energy, or because of a karmic problem, or any other thing, then there can be a sickness.

So when you want to be really healed, take care also of the astral body and not only of the physical body.

(In other words, you also have to pay close attention to your emotional health and not only to your physical health.)

And that will be the challenge of the future medicine, because if the medicine only continues take care for the physical, then the future medicine will no be able to treat the diseases (no matter how sophisticated will be its techniques) because the root of diseases is on the astral plane and it is at that level that there is need to circulate, manipulate or release the energies.

Why is it so important to feel the astral body to heal?

Because it allows to have a deep medical scan of the patient and therefore will know in which places there are energetic blockages, physical damages, etc.

ASTRAL ANESTESIA

And another very important aspect of the astral plane in the medicine of the future is that through the management of the astral body, the depolarization of the physical body will be achieved, which will allow all types of anesthesia.

You already know that the nervous system works through electrical signals. What they still do not know is that changing the polarity prevents nerves from transmitting information to the brain.

And to depolarize it is required that the energy circulating in the patient stop flowing momentarily through the organ that is going to operate, and to achieve it is required to divert the energy to flow outside (instead of towards the organ) which will cause that the patient stops feeling in this organ.

It's a bit like if you turn off momentarily the nerve system locally in this place of the body.

HOW WERE THE DISEASES IN THE PAST?

When we observe the hidden history of humanity, we realize that in the first human races (when humans were still partially ethereal), diseases came mainly from the physical plane, because humans were barely forming their physical body of dense matter.

And all the health problems in these ancient ages came essentially from the fact that these races had a lot of difficulty in coupling with the physical plane, and the physical body of these ancient ages had great difficulty in constituting itself as it is now.

Currently the physical body is perfectly formed and can even function alone without the intervention of humans. But before it required the participation of the will of the soul so that the organs would work.

For example, now the physical body is perfectly constituted, and you can breathe without problem and without thinking about it. And also your digestive system can digest by itself without you having to make a particular effort in it.

In short, your entire body works impeccably without you having to guide it. But before, it was not like that, and you had to be directing the different functions of your body.

But now that all this has been acquired, the points of friction have gone up in order to place themselves in the astral plane.

Before, the friction with the soul was placed on the physical plane and diseases were much more torturous. Not because humans suffered more, but because these diseases caused ugly deformations, since the point of friction was precisely the physical.

And that is why some of these diseases led to the formation of monstrous humans, which were described in a fabulous way in the ancient mythologies.

HOW WILL BE THE DISEASES IN THE FUTURE?

Humans are going to suffer more and more from diseases that will come from the astral plane, and the medicine must absolutely take attention to the astral plane, because otherwise it will be increasingly relined, to the degree that the medicine will not find the reason of what will cause the diseases that will manifest in the future.

But as everything must be done in the due time, first the medicine will accept the existence of the astral plane in a future time, and this simply because of the increasing proliferation of the healers.

And the diseases becoming more and more enigmatic, and the healers getting more and more good results (since they will be working on the energy aspect). Medicine will be forced to investigate how the healers do it, and scientists will realize that there are true healers who have a real healing power over these new diseases, and therefore medicine will end up accepting that discipline, at the point that it will become a new science that will even be taught in universities.

(Master Pasteur, conference 11-07-87)

MY OBSERVATION

The development of antibiotics in the 20th century made some researchers naively think that diseases would soon be eliminated. But paradoxically in the 21st century and in spite of having much more profound knowledge (such as the study of genetics) and of having also much more advanced technologies, researchers are concerned that microbes become increasingly immune to the known antibiotics and fewer new antibiotics are discovered every year.

In addition, new diseases such as AIDS or mental degenerative diseases disconcert the science and the medical researchers fail to find an efficient cure.

So it seems that Pastor's prophecy is being fulfilled...