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causticus"...according to occult philosophy, your astral body — the body of desires, emotions, imagination, and dreams — gradually attunes itself to whatever state of consciousness you favor in life. These correspond to different sub-planes of the astral plane, ranging from the uppermost sub-plane of creative imagination and love, down to the lowest sub-plane of unreasoning violent passions. Death is a complex process; first you shed your physical body, obviously, and then a short time after you shed your etheric body — the body of life energy — in what’s called the second death. At that point your consciousness and mental sheath are enclosed in your astral body, and it gravitates to whatever sub-plane on the astral corresponds to your habitual state of consciousness. If you spent the bulk of your life wallowing in unreasoning violent passions, well, that’s where you end up, and it’s not very pleasant. If you spent the bulk of your life oriented toward the upper astral sub-planes, that’s where you end up, and it’s a lot more pleasant.
This is also a temporary condition. After a while — time is difficult to measure there, as it’s subjective time — you shed your astral body, and rise to the lower end of the mental plane. It’s from there that you begin the descent into incarnation again, gathering a new astral body out of the raw material of the astral plane, a new etheric body out of the raw material of the etheric plane, and a new physical body likewise (the latter two, of course, with the help of your future parents).
The notions of heaven and hell found in mainstream religions are blurred and garbled versions of the astral plane encountered in the after-death state. The big differences, of course, are (1) where you end up isn’t a matter of punishment or reward, you simply gravitate to the level that corresponds to your overall state of consciousness; (2) it’s a temporary event, not a permanent destiny; and (3) you don’t get assigned to this or that state depending on whether you happened to belong to the right church, or prayed to the right god, or followed the right set of moral preachments."
This is also a temporary condition. After a while — time is difficult to measure there, as it’s subjective time — you shed your astral body, and rise to the lower end of the mental plane. It’s from there that you begin the descent into incarnation again, gathering a new astral body out of the raw material of the astral plane, a new etheric body out of the raw material of the etheric plane, and a new physical body likewise (the latter two, of course, with the help of your future parents).
The notions of heaven and hell found in mainstream religions are blurred and garbled versions of the astral plane encountered in the after-death state. The big differences, of course, are (1) where you end up isn’t a matter of punishment or reward, you simply gravitate to the level that corresponds to your overall state of consciousness; (2) it’s a temporary event, not a permanent destiny; and (3) you don’t get assigned to this or that state depending on whether you happened to belong to the right church, or prayed to the right god, or followed the right set of moral preachments."
