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Line 2: {{Other uses}} [[File:Oresme Spheres crop.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The astral spheres were thought to be planes of [[angel]]ic existence intermediate between earth and [[heaven]].]] The '''astral plane''', also called the '''astral realm''' or the '''astral world''', is a [[Plane (esotericism)|plane of existence]] postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, and [[Western esotericism|esoteric]] philosophies and [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mystery religions]].<ref name="G.R.S. Mead, 1919">G.R.S. Mead, ''The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tradition'', Watkins 1919.</ref> It is the world of the [[celestial spheres]], crossed by the soul in its [[astral body]] on the way to being born and [[afterlife|after death]], and is generally believed to be populated by [[angel]]s, spirits or other immaterial beings.<ref>Plato, ''The Republic'', trans. Desmond Lee, Harmondsworth.</ref> In the late 19th and early 20th century the term was popularised by [[Theosophy]] and neo-[[Rosicrucianism]]. Another view holds that the astral plane or world, rather than being some kind of boundary area crossed by the soul, is the entirety of spirit existence or spirit worlds to which those who die on Earth go, and where they live out their non-physical lives. It is understood that all consciousness resides in the astral plane.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Astral H.D.|last=Robinson|first=Matte|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2016|isbn=9781628924176|location=United States of America|pages=15–47}}</ref> Some writers conflate this realm with heaven or paradise or union with God itself, and others do not. [[Paramahansa Yogananda]] wrote in ''[[Autobiography of a Yogi]]'', "The astral universe . . . is hundreds of times larger than the material universe . . .[with] many astral planets, teeming with astral beings." (p.416) When Alice Bailey writes of seeing "Masters . . . upon the inner spiritual planes [who]. . . work with Christ and the planetary hierarchy," she refers to a vision she had of the unseen astral realm that these and countless other beings inhabit. Christ being in that realm, it is hard to construe it as a non-heaven.<ref>Alice A. Bailey, The Unfinished Autobiography, Lucis Publishing, 1951, pp. 37, 78, 140. Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, SR Fellowship publisher, 1968 edition, p. 416.</ref> | |||