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MAGIc AND THE QABALAH
THE ASTRAL PI.ANE
Deity is always thought of as being both Imrnanent: sacrificed in His
automatically builds up the images of the conditions of physical life.
Universe, and Transcendent: reigning supreme over all. . Esoteric leachlng declares that the astrb-mental realms interpenetrate the physical world and also extend spatially far beyond it. At the same time, it is stated (and this has been verlnea ty many seers), the substance ofthat plane is not physical substance as we know it, but one which exists in thal space-time continuum which has been given the popular name of the "fourth-dimension". This means that the matter of thi inner planes is _n$ Soverned by the same natural laws as the dense physical world, for, fike every other level of exis0ence, it has its own definite laws of being: if it is studied from the standpoint of these laws, then au its maniftstations and phenomena are seen to be as orderly as those ofthe physical world. For this reason the esotericist does not speak of the "supernormal", for he holds that there is but one supernatural aspect of all manifesation: the Logos from whom all Nature on all planes has its origin, and in whom all the observed sequences which we term "natural law'ieternally subsist.
From this standpoint, it is usual to refer to all manifestations of inner plane
activity as being "supernormal" but nol "supernatural". It *itt ue
observed that as evolution proceeds, much that is at present supernormal
will come into the category of normal whilst, at-the same time, the questing soul of man will reach out into the infinite immensities of creation and discover much more which will be studied and brought into the realms of the normaL rhere is no limit set to the range of marib mind except inability to go beyond a certain point at any given time, and this, 119 as it will be seen, is a constantly receding horizon. one of the most striking qualities of this super-physical realm is the amying pobility of is substance, and it is because of this that the practical work of the esoteric schools becomes possible. The tenuous subsance of the astral light will take any form which is impressed on it S the thought of sentient^beings of whatever grade; so there are built op itr tttir t"aTmyriads of imlges of all kinds. They divide naturally into two distinct qroups lccgrding to their background. one group hal as its background the physical unrld and its phenomena, whilst the oiher has the back[round of the spiritual realms beyond the astro-mental levels. It is one of the common jeers at spiritualism that the descripions of the 'bther side" which are given through mediums are so ..e'arthly" and commonplace, and one critic has gone so far as to say that the spiriiualists are "suburbanizing the cosmos,,. statement is true, but does not necessarily prove the unreliability -This of the seance room cornmunicators. According io the seers ..suburbariilatio-n" happens because the subconsciousnesJof the person who has left the physical, and now become a dweller on the aitro-mental levels,
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Immediately the astral substance takes shape around these thought forms, and the man finds himself among scenery very sirnilar to that which was around him in earth life. But since the subconsciousness has been built up according to the habitual thoughts and desires over many years, it will automatically build surrounding images which will reflect accurately the
character of the man. In this way the "summerland" and the ,.dark i spheres" and the "grey worlds", so common in spiritualist communications are built up in these finer levels. But not only are these relatively lower levels of the astral light built up into the paradises and hells ofthe discarnate dwellers therein, but they are also full of the swarming images built up S the thoughts of people still in the physical body, and in this way there exists on these inner levels a great body of linked thought both consciously, and unconsciously expressed by humanity. The 'tollective unconscious" of the Jungian psychologists is located here, and the whole of human thinking is done in the atmosphere and under the influence of this great thought-form. Now, because man has "bodies" of the substance of the astro-mental levels, it is found by observation that there is a very real unity of the race on these levels, and that, in very fact, no man is an island. The energy and life which is continually pouring into these inner realms, and from them into the physical world, comes from much higher levels, but manifests in these lower worlds as that energy which is knorvn as the "libido". So, for all life on both the astro-menal and physical worlds, this driving energy is affected and conditioned by the collective subconsciousness of the race. This applies also to the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, as well as to the curious halfiray state which lies between the gross physical world and the levels of the astral light. This linking level, the so-called "etheric plane" ofthe theosophists, is ofthe greatest importance as we shall see when we come to deal with it. Here we are concerned with the astro-mental levels which, in their higher aspects, are its controlling factors. The instinctive life of all the kingdoms of Nature is part of, and is controlled by, the energies ofthe inner levels directed by intelligences of all grades; intelligences which are themselves subject to the guiding direction of higher beings whose natural home is in the higher leveh ol the astro-mental world; those levels which are peopled from the spiritual realms which lie beyond them. These "group-spirits" as they are termed, form part of another aspect of the inner worlds. There is a curious pride and self-sufficiency which causes modern man to think of himself as being the only truly intelligent being in the universe, and even when considering the possibility of sentient life on other planets, he seems sure that such life