THE ASTRAL WORLD/PART 7

 

CHAPTER VII.

SCENES OF THE ASTRAL.

WE are now vibrating on a very low subdivision of the lowest subplane of the Astral. You are conscious of a very unpleasant feeling, and an almost physical repulsion to the atmosphere around you. Some very sensitive natures experience a feeling of being surrounded by a dense, sticky, foul, foggy atmosphere, through which they must almost force their way when they visit these regions. It is akin to the feelings experienced by a high-minded spiritual person on the earth plane if he happens to enter a place inhabited by persons of a lewd, vulgar, depraved nature and character—this is magnified many degrees by reason of the astral laws.

It is no wonder that one of the old Egyptian writers, whose work survives on graven stone, said, some four thousand years ago: “What manner of foul region is this into which I have foolishly come? It is without water; without air; it is unfathomably deep; it has the darkness of the blackest night when the sky is overcast with dense clouds, and no ray of light penetrates their curtain. Souls wander hopelessly and helplessly about herein; in it there is no peace, no calm, no rest, no quiet of the heart or mind. It is an abomination and desolation. Woe is the soul that abideth herein!”

Looking around you, in the dim, ghastly light of this region, you perceive countless human forms of the most repulsive appearance. Some of them are so low in the scale as to seem almost beast-like rather than human. There are still lower forms on the subdivisions just below this one, but I shall spare you the disgusting sight. These creatures are disembodied souls in the astral body living on the low plane to which they descended when awakening from their very brief astral sleep.

If you will peer through the enveloping fog you will become conscious of the presence of the material world as a sort of background. To you it appears detached and removed in space, but to these creatures—these low souls—the two planes seem to be blended. To them, they appear actually to be abiding in the scenes and among the persons of the lowest phases of earth life. Even you find that you can see only the very low earth-scenes in the background—the higher scenes appear blotted out with great smears, like a censored newspaper page in war times. To these poor souls there is no earth world except these scenes which accord with their old desires.

But while apparently living amid these old familiar and congenial low earth-scenes these souls are really suffering the fate of Tantalus. For while they plainly see these scenes, and all that is going on in them, they cannot otherwise participate in the revels and debaucheries which they perceive plainly—they can SEE only—as for the rest they participate only vicariously. This renders the place a veritable hell for them for they are constantly tantalized and tormented by sights of scenes in which they cannot participate. They can exercise simply “the lust of the eye,” which is but as a thorn in the flesh to them. On all sides, on earth-life, they see their kind (in the flesh) eating, drinking, gambling, engaging in all forms of debauchery and brutality—and while they eagerly cluster around they cannot make their presence felt (under ordinary circumstances) nor can they participate in the scenes which they witness. The lack of the physical body is indeed a very hell to them under such circumstances.

The astral atmosphere of low dram-shops, pool rooms, gambling hells, race tracks, “free-and-easies,” brothels, “red-light” districts—and their more fashionable counter parts—are filled with these low astral forms of souls across the astral border. Occasionally they are able to influence some earth companion, who is so saturated with liquor, or overcome by drugs, that he is physically open to such influences. When they so influence him they strive to lead him into further degradation and debauchery, for, in so doing, they obtain a reflex-gratification, as it were. But I shall not dwell upon this subject—it is too loathsome.

In some instances the sojourn on this low astral sub-plane sets up such a strong desire for rebirth in the flesh among similar scenes that the poor soul eagerly presses forward toward reincarnation on a similar low plane. In other cases, I am glad to say, the experience so sickens and disgusts the poor soul that it experiences a revulsion and disgust for such things, in which case the current of its desires naturally carries it in the opposite direction and it is given the opportunity to rise in the scale of the Astral where its better tendencies are encouraged and a better rebirth finally results.

At the end, however, in nearly all cases “living-out” results in “out-living,” and even the lowest rises in time. Some few souls, however, sink so low as to be incapable of rising, and they meet the final fate (not of damnation) of annihilation. Even in these hells of the astral, however, the degraded souls are “punished not for their sins, but by them” as an old writer once forcibly stated it.

But this particular scene is not the only one on this sub-plane of the Astral—it has many counterparts. I cannot take time to show them all to you, or to describe them in detail. I can illustrate the idea, however, by stating that close to the scene you have just witnessed is another in which the actors are those miserly, money-loving souls, who have sold all their better nature for the mess of pottage of worldly gain. The punishment, by the sin rather than for it, is similar to that of the low souls in the preceding scene. They are tormented by the sight, but are tantalized by not being able to participate. The result is practically similar to that mentioned in the last case—some find desire increased, and others find disgust and nausea and thus seek the way to higher things.

There are hundreds of similar regions on the lower Astral, some of which are much higher, however, than those we have just considered. All of them serve as a Purgatory, or place of the burning-out of desires of a low kind—not the burning of material flames, but by the fire of the desire itself, as we have seen. This idea of burning away, or purging of the low desires, is found to permeate nearly all religions, and has its basis in the facts of the Astral.

Changing our vibrations and mounting to higher sub-planes we pass rapidly from scene to scene. You appear astonished to notice that many of these scenes seem to be set to scenery, like a great theatre. You notice with wonder the artificial nature of this astral scenery, and wonder at the fact that the people on these scenes seem to regard this scenery as natural and real, instead of make-believe. It all seems very shadowy and imperfect to you but very real to them. The secret is that the scenery is the creation of the minds of those taking part in the scenes, and those who have preceded them on this plane. It is all make-believe—a mirage, so to speak—but very real to those taking part in the scenes.

It is not the purpose of this little book to describe the chemistry of the Astral by means of which it is possible for the mind to build up scenery, etc., from the astral substance. To the advanced occultist, who has studied deeply the occult chemistry, the matter is as simple as is the formation of ice from water, which in turn was once steam—and at the same time as wonderful. The traveller on the Astral always will bear witness to the wonders of that plane, the scenery of which is all built up in this way, though he may not be able to explain the chemistry of its formation.

In this way, on the various higher planes of the Astral, including some of the comparatively lower planes, we find beautiful mountains and valleys, rivers and lakes, cities, towns, villages and country-land—in fact, all forms of scenery known in earth life. We also see buildings of all kinds, and all varieties of household utensils, implements, furniture, etc. All are built from the astral substance by means of the imaginative minds of the dwellers on those planes. To the visitor they seem most unreal—one can actually see through them, and on all sides of them at one time, as in the case of a transparent crystal. But to the dwellers on the Astral they are as solid and real as are their material counterparts— and no doubt regarding their solidity ever enters the mind of the Astral inhabitant.

And what is the purpose of all this theatrical make-believe of the Astral? you well ask. You will see in a moment, when I give you the key that unlocks the secret doors of the Astral life and its meaning.

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Life and Work on the Astral.