Transpersonal
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Astral Body
The Middle Emotional Body as it appears to clairvoyant perception; showing chakras.
[by Barbara Ann Brennan, Hands of Light].  Note the lines of energy flow and the chakras.

Energy-field body: The "Astral" Body

Expression of Consciousness: I-Thou emotions

Statement Consciousness makes: "I love humanly"
Consciousness is expressed in terms of sensations like physical pleasure or pain.

Expression of Health: loving: I love humanly

Expression of Disease: Desires to be superior; Blocks in Astral, dark forms, stagnated energy

Plane of existence: Astral Plane (equivalent to Psychic Etheric Plane)

"Objects have fluid form, light is radiated from objects rather than reflected off them; to travel, one has to concentrate on where one wants to go and stay focused on that place."

Chakra: 4th /Anahata

colour: Rainbow


Barbara Brennan on the Astral Body:

The Astral Level (Fourth Layer)

"The astral body is amorphous and is composed of clouds of color more beautiful than those of the emotional body. The astral body tends to have the same set of colors, but they are usually infused with the rose light of love. It extends out about one half to one foot (15 to 30 cm) from the body. The chakra are the same octave of colors as the rainbow of the emotional body, but each is infused with the rose light of love.  The heart chakra of a loving person is full of rose light on the astral level.

When people fall in love, beautiful arcs of rose light can be seen between their hearts, and a beautiful rose color is added to the normal golden pulsations I observe in the pituitary gland. When people form relationships with each other, they grow cords out of the chakras that connect them. These cords exist on many levels of the auric field in addition to the astral.  The longer and deeper the relationship, the more cords and the stronger they are. When relationships end, those cords are torn, sometimes causing a great deal of pain. The period of "getting over" a relationship is usually a period of disconnecting those cords on the lower levels of the field and rerooting them within the self.

A great deal of interaction takes place between people on the astral level. Great blobs of color of various forms whisk across the room between people. Some of it is pleasant and some not so pleasant. You can feel the difference. You may feel uneasy about someone across the room who is apparently not even aware of your presence; however on another level a lot is happening. I have seen people standing next to each other in a group pretending not to notice each other, when on the energy level there is a whole communication taking place with lots of energy forms moving between them. You have no doubt experienced this yourself, especially between men and women. It is not just body language; there is an actual energetic phenomenon that can be perceived.. For example, when a man or woman fantasize about making love with someone, say in a bar or at a party, there is an actual testing in the energy fields to see if the fields are synchronous and if the people are compatible."

from Barbara Brennan, Hands of Light pp.50-51

The following table presents some associations and correspondences with the middle emotional body; some of which are quite close, others very distant and abstract only.

Some correspondences regarding the Middle Emotional Body
Philosophy/Worldview Paradigmatic Approach Term Comments
Adyar Theosophy Subtle body Emotional / Astral Body Especially the higher sublevels of the emotional body (these are consiered as corersponding to the higher subplanes of the emotional/astral plane).
Rudolph Steiner Subtle body Consciousness Soul Steiner sees this as a spiritual faculty, by which man can attune to the Christ Consciousness.  According to Steiner this is the evolutionary goal of the present "culture epoch".  This faculty also makes up the higher part of the "ego" or Self-Consciousness.
R. Beesley Subtle body The Astral Body The first of the spiritual bodies, the first stage beyond the mundane.
Semnani (Latifa) Sufism "Abraham of your being" The heart - the pearl or embryo of the True Ego - colour red.
Hermetic Kabbalah Sefirot and Astrological Planet Hermetica Tifaret / Sun alternatively - Yesod / Moon Tifaret is considered intermediate between the lower and higher Sefirot. It is in the center of the Tree and hence is identified with the the ego-consciousness, or in Hermetic Kabbalah, the vision of the Holy Guardian Angel (i.e. the first glimpse of the Higher Self). Yesod is associated in Hermetic Kabbalah with the Astral Plane, the first movement beyond the physical/mundane raelities, which is also completely appropriate. He we see how difficult it is to make associations with hermetic systems of thought; they are so multi-faceted and at teh same time ambiguous that almost anything can be equated with anything.
C. G. Jung Psychology Intuition faculty One of the four ego-faculties - the opposite of Sensation. Not a subtle body as such
Da Free John Psycho-spiritual development Fourth Stage of Life (Devotional) Constitutes the turning away from the mundane, and contemplation of the Divine - the path of Bhakti.
Ken Wilber Psycho-spiritual development Biosocial, Centaur and Low Subtle These stages constitute the start of the Trans- arc; the moving away from the personal and into the transpersonal.
Eric Jantsch Evolution macrocosmic scale; or perhaps there is a dual movement, both forwards and back.


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page history
page created 6 December 1998
modified 26 February 1999
and again 4 September
converted to css format and javascript added 29 April 2000

content and html: M.Alan Kazlev
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subtle body icon © Martin Brofman

aura artwork © Bantam Books

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