The Word Astral and its Meaning

The Word Astral and its Meaning - (746)

Introduction

This article is an attempt to outline what the word astral refers to in the world of esotericism and self-knowledge.

The Word Astral

The word astral comes from the Latin ‘astrum’ and the Greek ‘astron’ meaning star and according to many modern dictionaries astral means “of or having to do with the stars”. Even the word astral shares the first four letters of the word astronomy, which is the study of the stars. This meaning however seems not to correlate so well with the topic of astral travel and lucid dreaming.

It wasn’t until the late 1900’s that the word astral came to take on the meaning of “pertaining to suprasensible substances”. This meaning was introduced by the Theosophists, namely Madame Blavatsky to begin with, and was originally used to describe the substances that make up the higher dimensions of nature. A little later on it became widely used in the context of astral projection and lucid dreaming.

The word is also used to name a dimension of nature – the astral plane or astral world. Such a dimension is distinct to the physical world of three dimensions, and is a dimension with different laws to the physical and furthermore is a world that the human being can project his or her consciousness into and therefore visit.

Summary

The word astral was originally used to describe a suprasensible substance of which the things of higher dimensions where made of. It was later refined to take on a more specific meaning, which was the substance that constituted the astral world, which was considered to be lighter than the ether but denser than the mental plane.

Now days though astral still means the same thing though it when it is used it is most commonly used in relation to astral plane, astral body and astral travel. There was also some mention of the word astral light.

The articles to follow further explain what the astral is from the perspective of astral travel or projection.

End (746).

Comments

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