6. The Astral Body

©1999 Athene Bitting

VI

The Astral Body

and How It Affects the Physical Life

Questions

1. What is the purpose of the Astral Body?

It acts as a translator between the physical body and the higher bodies. You could say that the physical life is an expression of the Astral Body. This is a complex and many tasking organism. Among its duties/aspects are the shadow (dispenser of karma), archetypal patterns, the self-image, the spiritual landscape, and the conscious emotions.

Why do the Rosecrucians call it the Desire Body?

The Astral World is all about desire and repulsion. The Astral Body’s domain is emotion, habit, and emotional memory.

2. A. List the stages of the Astral Body’s life cycle.

1) The Mental Body delivers the Seed Atom of the Self [blueprint of the Astral Body] to the Astral World. The Seed Atom gathers Astral matter around it. At this stage it has no specific form.

2) Angelic Helpers work to extend the Astral Body into a physical incarnation. The Angels do most of the design work at this stage. The physical body is designed with a basic instinctive nature [the four F’s—feeding, fighting, fornicating, fleeing]. The first incarnation is blessed with intelligence, supply, clan mates, and choices in work. All the members of a Soul Clan enter first incarnation together in a group relationship. Karmic education begins with first breath. Thereafter we experience many lifetimes with short bits of R&R in between.

3) At the Third Degree of Initiation the karmic cycle is ended and the Astral Body dies.

B. What is it made of, and what is the source of this material?

Astral matter is a combination of fourth dimensional atoms and energies. These make up emotions, ideas, will force, Light, and sound. All feelings have solidity, texture, smell, music, and color.

3. A. How do Angels and Helpers interact with the Astral Body?

God is always orchestrating events to help uplift the evolutionary standard of the Astral World. Helpers are Astral entities (humans, animals, nature spirits) that give advice and encouragement. We can also help others in the Astral World when we wish to be of service.

Cords connect us to our helpers. They allow instant communication to take place. These cords or cables are easily broken and easily established through intention. Angels interact with the Astral Body through the Guardian Angel and through thought forms that they have implanted in the Mental Body. The cable that connects the Astral Body to the Guardian Angel is thick, strong, and impervious. It runs through the dimensions at the Soul level all the way down to the Etheric level.

B. How do chemical substances (drugs, food, toxins, healing remedies) affect it?

Harmful chemicals create holes in the Astral Body. Certain external remedies such as castor oil, salts, other oils & ointments, and poultices act as Astral conduits. In other words, they exchange energies between the physical and Astral dimensions.

4. What are the ways in which the Astral Body affects:

A. The physical body?

The Astral Body is not a shadow or vapor in the physical body. It is independent of it. Usually it appears to engage in several different activities at once, as it moves at roughly double or even more the speed of the physical world. It is connected to the physical life on many levels but most directly through the hormones and the solar plexus chakra.

The Astral Body controls the physical body through hormone stimulation. The solar plexus, which has also been called the autonomic brain, is the seat of the chakra by which the Astral Body communicates with its physical counterpart. By this means the Astral consciousness expresses wellness and emotion in the physical body.

B. The immediate environment?

The subconscious mind rules a person’s environment—the people in it, the experiences of the day, and the hidden motives behind one’s choices. This is an aspect of the Astral Body, but is only part of the whole.

It is always switched on and operating. It orchestrates the environment in two ways—yummy and icky. It allows good things into this life according to the belief system. Affirmations can change our faith to accept greater blessings. Yucky ordeals are brought through by the shadow aspect of the unconscious. This is to teach empathy.

C. The events of the future?

Because the Astral World vibrates at roughly twice the speed of the physical world, it can anticipate a possible future and appear to have future-time properties. In order to predict possible futures, you may use the Astral Body by taking the “bird’s eye view” position, by which the point of view looks down on a situation from far above.

5. Scrying Exercise: Astral Projection/Remote Viewing

Ask your Guardian Angel to guide and protect you through this experience. Place protective wards around your body to prevent Walk-Ins from using your body while you are out. Men experience this more tangibly, as though a second physical body were experiencing flight and the ability to stretch; men have a close connection between the Etheric and Astral bodies. Women experience this more emotionally, as though watching from behind a window; women more easily meld with another person’s feelings.

Lying down or sitting so that you do not feel your body, focus your intention on (men) rising above your body, or, (women) going to a specific person or place. All Astral experiences are emotionally intense and have an immediate sense of reality.

6. Why and how does this work? What would be the most appropriate use of this technique?

The strength of your ability to focus determines the success of this exercise. The Astral Body connects to its destination through Astral markers. By knowing something about a person or place, the Astral Body can zoom in to the vibration of the target. This is usually utilized for communicating, but espionage services are using it for spying.

7. Draw or describe one of your helpers.

You know the drill by now! Remember and appreciate all the helpers that you have. record one of them by scent, color, symbol, ro description.

The Energy of Thought/Feeling

In the beginning, we were beings of Light undifferentiated within the boundless flows of energy and creative power. Then came the impulse for our separation and individuation—the process that we call spiritual evolution. Through our experience and being, the Light takes on a new layer of life and meaning. It gathers to itself endless rounds of possibilities and tides of resolve. Look into your own past, and see the past of the Infinite. Look to your possibilities and see you endless echoes of the universe embodied through your soul’s journey.

The Astral Body and the Astral World are comprised of a substance regarded in the Higher Realms as a compound of energies formulated from Light, sound, emotion, will force, and idea (focused thought energy). It is highly responsive to any influence, and in turn is very influential upon the physical and Etheric layers. You could say that it is the living plasma from which the physical experience is generated.

The new thought trend in society seems to move toward a harmonious partnership between the Astral and Physical worlds. This is an improvement from the Piscean model of will force alone ruling society’s behaviors. It was not only unsuccessful in creating the utopia that so many have hoped would happen, but it also damaged the people as a whole. As we continue to perceive the interaction between health, emotion, and environment as a holy triad of success, each necessary to the other, then we will eventually cease treating the symptoms and move to the release of the imprisoned causes of all social and physical malaise (each being related to the whole). The Astral Body cannot be discounted as the reason for all symptoms in the micro-society of your daily routine.

Let there be a harmonious and continuous bridge between your physical and Astral consciousness. Use any means available to strengthen this connection and to become the conscious creator of your own physical destiny, as a Light Wielder.

There are four tools which may be utilized in the shaping and reshaping of the Astral Body.

1. Music of any type has a “real-time” effect on the Astral Body. It also creates thought forms of varying power.

2. The spoken word has a less immediate but more permanent effect on the Astral Body. The rhyming words of a song or a poem have an especially sticky texture that can cause change. This is why it is very important to choose words carefully, and to be very selective in your choice of listening material. The Astral Body hears a command (whether or not it is intentional) and then proceeds to manifest it. For instance, if a person listens to many songs of unhappy love, the paradigm for his own love life will be created through his attention to the words of the songs. If such a person were to listen to songs of brilliance and dedicated love, the positive model would be impressed on his Astral Body.

This is why affirmations remain the most effective tool that a person can use in the reshaping of his Astral Body and his physical life.

3. Thought-pictures will be replicated or complied to in time and with repetition of thought. What we see (in the mind or on the physical plane), we perpetuate or create through our returning to these things in thought or expectation. A classic example is the sculpture of a distorted and painful face that Freud’s patient made and gave to the doctor; this sculpture preceded Freud’s death by mouth cancer within the space of a year. One could argue that the patient had a premonition of the doctor’s illness. One could equally argue that if the doctor had destroyed the sculpture as an affirmation of health, he may have been able to route the cancer.

4. Prayer and Meditation connect the lower bodies with the higher bodies, and create a column of Light, that transmits and receives energy and Divine Will into the lower mental, Astral, and physical bodies. Regular meditation and frequent prayer create a nimbus of positive energy that continuously serves to vitalize and transform the lower bodies.

Younger Souls are attracted to older Souls and their positive influence that can be impressed upon their own lives. Feelings are contagious shapers of the Astral and physical worlds. An older Soul must be strong to remain positive in the presence of a lower vibration. With resolve and understanding, let your good humor and patience lead you and your spiritual family toward a better existence.