A deep dive into occultism, theosophy and spiritual practices will see you encounter the term astral body. But you won’t learn much about this obscure entity by doing a search on the know-everything Aquarian Age web.
Yogapedia states: ‘The astral body is a hypothesized spiritual counterpart to the physical human body that is said to exist on a different plane’.
Miriam Webster defines it (in theosophy) as ‘a subtle counterpart of the physical human body accompanying but not usually separated from it in life and surviving its death’.
The Free Dictionary states: The astral body as ‘the consciousness of the soul independent of the physical body in which it resides’.
Wikipedia states: ‘The astral body is a subtle body posited by many philosophers, intermediate between the intelligent soul and the mental body, composed of a subtle material. It is related to an astral plane, which consists of the planetary heavens of astrology’.
And Rudolf Steiner studies say: ‘Our astral body is our soul, which we experience as our thinking, feeling and will. It is…our personality, our personal self (and) is permeated by energies from the ‘fixed’ stars of the zodiac, and also from the ‘wandering’ stars (which today we call the planets)’.
It’s all old – Piscean Age – speculation and untested belief. To discern the facts new age researchers with the knowledge and expertise to investigate astral phenomena conducted astrological and psychological experiments. Here’s what they found.
Astral body fact-check
The astral body is a great reservoir of consciousness.
It’s made of astral substance, exists and functions on an astral plane, and is the mold of the physical form.
It’s composed of thought-cells and psychoplasm. (The physical body is composed of physical cells and protoplasm).
Thought-cells are organized states of consciousness.
It has an astral brain which serves the same function as the physical brain and astral senses that provide it with an assessment of its astral environment.
Your astral body
Research based evidence indicates that your evolutionary journey – all the events, thoughts and feelings you experience – is permanently recorded within your astral body.
As you live and learn thought-cells and thought compounds form, develop and arrange into its various structures.
Thought-cells express the intelligence and desire that accompanied their formation. Through evolutionary experience they gradually develop. Frequent thinking of a particular type causes new thought-cells of its type to be built into your astral body.
You have a thought-cell history and your astral body is where it’s saved in memory. You identify its thought content, which is vast, as your soul, unconscious mind or character.
Intelligence and ability develops through experience. It’s built into your soul so your astral body is the source of your natural aptitudes and ability.
The building of physical forms requires exceptional know-how and through experience your soul developed the ability to build more complex bodies in accordance with their genetic blueprints.
The coupling of your astral body with your physical body is achieved through the psychokinetic power of its thoughts. And this power possessed by not-conscious thought allows your soul to influence and control physical substance – mind controls matter.
Your astral body is impacted by astrological energies. They cause changes in its thought-cell activity which has a profound influence on your physical body and the trend of your conscious thinking.
Communication is the exchange of information. And the fundamental mechanism of information transfer from the astral plane of consciousness and desire to the physical plane of form and external appearance is electromagnetic energy. It’s generated by the cells of your physical body and facilitates a real-time exchange of information between your astral and physical self.
Your astral body or soul is your personal life-data recorder – your personal black box if you like. It permanently records all the events you experience and their psychological responses. Nothing is erased and the thought-cell structure of your astral body at the time of your birth is accurately mapped in your birth chart.
Your birth chart is a map of your astral body
Astral substance aka soul-substance or stellar substance is moved and molded by thought-energy so it presents problems as far as physical analysis is concerned yet it functions in response to known laws.
They’ve been determined by experiment and statistical analysis and permit the actual assessment of stellar vibratory rates as they apply to your astral body.
Its thought structure aka character is mapped in your birth chart. This map measures the strength and functional status of the various thought-cell groups and thought-cell structures that define your soul’s anatomy.
Your astral body has 12 zones which correspond to the 12 zodiac signs in your birth chart.
Aries corresponds to the head zone; Taurus to the neck and throat zone; Gemini to the hands and arms zone; Cancer to the stomach and breast zone; Leo to the heart and back zone; Virgo to the abdominal and intestinal zone; Libra to the limber and kidney zone; Scorpio to the bladder and rectum zone; Sagittarius to the hip and thigh zone, Capricorn to the knee zone; Aquarius to the calf and ankle zone; and Pisces corresponds to the feet and toe zone.
Each zone is a complex structure of thought-cells and your birth chart measures their strength and functional status at the time of your birth. See your chart’s sign power summary.
Thought-cell groups mapped by the planets pick up and receive the astrological vibrations of their markers and each planet by its sign location indicates the type of thought-cells associated with its zone and where its astral energies are received and transmitted.
Your power-significance thought-cell group, mapped by the Sun, is tuned to the astral frequencies radiated by the Sun and its sign location indicates the zone or region of your astral body where its vitalizing energy is received and transmitted; your aggressive thought-cell group, mapped by Mars, is tuned to the astral radiations transmitted by Mars and its sign location indicates the zone of your astral body where its energizing energy is received and transmitted; and your individualistic urge, mapped by Uranus, is tuned to the astral frequencies radiated by Uranus and its sign location indicates the zone of your astral body where its high-tension energies are received and transmitted.
Your astral body also has 12 distinct compartments where thought-cell data associated with experience is saved in memory.
These compartments are mapped by the houses in your birth chart.
Thought-cells aka cells of consciousness associated with your personality and physical body assimilate into compartment 1; those associated with money and possessions assimilate into compartment 2; those associated with private thinking, travel and close relatives assimilate into compartment 3; and those associated with your home and home life assimilate into compartment 4.
Those associated with pleasure, sex and creativity assimilate into compartment 5; those associated with work and sickness assimilate into compartment 6; those associated with marriage and partnership assimilate into compartment 7; and those associated with other people’s money and death assimilate into compartment 8.
Those associated with long journeys, philosophy and religion assimilate into compartment 9; those associated with honor, business and credit assimilate into house 10; those associated with friends and wishes assimilate into house 11; and those associated with restriction and disappointment assimilate into compartment 12.
Each compartment is a complex structure of thought-cells and your birth chart measures their strength and functional status at the time of your birth. See your chart’s house power summary.
Venus and your astral body
Thoughts and emotions are the foods which nourish your astral body. Its health and wellbeing is sustained by the thoughts you think. So it’s in your best interest to cultivate desires and thoughts that are harmonious and beneficial to its welfare.
Your social urge mapped by Venus in your birth chart is all about love and the giving and receiving of affection and your astral body is particularly responsive to the nourishment provided by your emotions and affection.
Its shape and texture is determined by your desires so its spiritual refinement is dependent on elevated thoughts, feelings and desires.
It’s in your best interest to divert or transmute any tendency towards hate, animal lust, selfishness or any destructive thought or feeling into a higher mode of expression.
Your astral body thrives on spiritual love that’s motivated by lofty aspirations and unselfish service and devotion to the welfare of others.
Your life experience replicates thought-cell activity. Discordant activity can be modified or changed. All it takes is know-how and effort which is rewarded with increased intelligence and ability.
Your astral self or soul is an information gatherer. You might view the physical realm as reality but it’s the soul’s invention and construct. Information belongs to the astral realm and within your soul is information that exists independently of the physical realm. And information is now replacing energy and matter as the common denominator for understanding biological life.
Words written by Elbert Benjamine and Lenora Conwell are scattered throughout this article on the astral body.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
