What we call the spiritual world is comprised of invisible forces of a highly intelligent nature that act through universal laws to form what we experience as “reality”. In order to understand how invisible forces behave and operate in performing a “creative process” we have to use a model as a means of conceptualizing them. Some people can get hung up on this because they mistake the concept or material model being used for the forces themselves, instead of maintaining the awareness that the model is used merely as a means of understanding how something works, because understanding is the prerequisite to utilizing these forces in being able to use them to create in a conscious manner. Universal laws form the very foundation for the “fabric of reality”, which means they’re “inherent” in every single aspect of reality, no matter what level or scale we’re examining or contemplating.

As many of you may know from reading my articles on spiritual sciences, I’m not going to try to tell you “what to think”, but rather approach this in a way that’s designed to teach you “how to think”. I’m not going to approach this from the perspective of ancient texts or established bodies of esoteric knowledge handed down to us by previous masters, but rather by describing them from a purely scientific perspective based on laws and principles. I’m going to “tie ideas together” rather than go into an in-depth explanation of each aspect that plays a part in forming a greater idea. This will provide you with the means necessary to investigate the different ideas on your own, so you can develop them in whatever way makes the most sense to you. We can only use what we first understand, so my only intent in the scope of this article is to shape a model that will facilitate a basic understanding of what the Astral Plane of Light is, what the difference between the Astral, etheric, and Akasha Fields are, and how to relate these ideas to the conscious and subconscious aspects of your own mind that you’re utilizing constantly in creating how you experience reality.

I’m going to use the model demonstrated in the Kabbalah Tree of Life to illustrate this because it provides a great model for understanding how our own mind works while also providing the tools necessary to begin using it in a more profound and precise way. For those of you who are not familiar with spiritual sciences, the Kabbalah, Tarot, Gematria, Sacred Geometry, and Planetary Archetypes of Astrology, all form different aspects of the same body of knowledge, where one can be used as a means of interpreting the other intuitively using the Law of Correspondences and Analogy. What we now call Quantum Physics is a modern day version of what used to be called Spiritual or Sacred Sciences, and is one of the few sciences that not only keeps the mind fully intact as a fundamental part of our material reality, but keeps it in the lead role in terms of what creates, maintains, and determines what we experience as reality. 

Fundamental Principles of the Mind and Reality

What’s called Universal Laws are what forms the very basis for constructing, holding together, and animating the physical world. There are seven basic universal laws, one of which is the “Law of Polarity”, which is where a single entity divides from itself to form twin aspects (represented by a triangle) that are polar opposites of each other. The interaction of these complementary opposites forms the basis for what we call “space-time” as a spatial construct that forms a “dimension”. One consolidated aspect of the mind regenerates itself to form a duplicate of itself as a mirror image that allows it to “perceive itself as another” and as a part of a greater whole. This is necessary as the means for “experiencing” itself as something specific. It divides in half forming into complementary aspects as a positive (masculine) and negative (feminine) part that appears separated and set apart from each other, while also forming the basis for a natural interaction that forms a joint experience of a shared reality. Whenever two things are combined, they give rise to a third. This idea is represented by the motif of a husband, wife, and child, where a man and woman form sexual union (combine energetically) to produce an offspring that’s a combination of both their traits in varying degrees, formed into a unique individual.

Even though the mind (soul) forms itself into two complementary opposites that we have come to call the conscious and subconscious, which are necessary as the means of creating, it still maintains itself as a whole or single entity which contains both complementary aspects “within it”. This can be understood by realizing that every person, man or woman, has both a masculine and feminine aspect to their nature, and create themselves and their life through the relationship formed between the conscious and subconscious aspects of their mind. These two aspects of the mind also directly correlate with the left and right hemispheres of the brain, which form different aspects of the same perception and work in tandem to create our experiences. This higher, single aspect of the mind, also called the “superconscious” or “universal soul” is formed out of what you can think of as an “archetypal matrix”. This matrix is formed out of different aspects of universal attributes, qualities, and characteristics that make-up our soul’s essence as our inner nature and moral character. Each aspect has been developed to different degrees and potencies, and as we move through various life experiences it requires us to use different parts of our character which are then developed in different ways based on how we go through these experiences.

This idea forms what we call “3 aspects of One essence” (Trinity or Triad), where a single reality (light formation) is formed and maintained through the interaction of complementary opposites, which comes as conscious energy that spins in a spiraling motion as it moves perpetually between opposite poles of the same frequency, forming an electromagnetic field. This is the basis for “vibration” which forms as a quivering, pulsating movement of electromagnetic energy that forms an “idea” (pattern) into a spatial, 4-dimensional luminescent object. Energy moves in spirals, forming what we call an electromagnetic field, where a concentrated beam of light is split in two and one pushes away while the other pulls together, forming a spiral that’s never able to reconcile. This takes a single point and forms it into spatial shape that expands and contracts simultaneously creating “space” as the distance between them, while also moving back and forth in a rhythmic motion between two magnetically opposite poles (North and South, positive and negative). This forms what’s now called “particle-wave duality”, which is also commonly described through the model of energetic entanglement and superposition. This is a “fundamental” principle, which means it’s not only inherent in the very basis of what we perceive as reality, but in the “invisible field” where light is drawn forth (out of nothing) and used to build physical forms. It’s a basic function of “invisible forces” that accompany and maintain the physical world as the “medium” through which energy exists, propagates, and interacts as correlated frequencies.

Practical Understanding Using your own Mind

A real easy way to understand what astral light is and how it works to make something out of nothing, is by using your own imagination. This field of Astral Light can most easily be described as the “stuff of your mind” that you use every time you think, imagine, or visualize something. Take a moment to sit quietly, clear your mind of chatter, relax, and picture a “flower” (notice that a generic shape of a flower is formed). “The flower is purple, with soft velvety petals and a white center that’s shaped like a star”. Notice that as I say a word or use attributes to describe it, you form the image in your mind and then begin developing it by continuing to think about it. This “image” formed within your mind is made out of “astral light” (also called Primordial Substance). This light originates as a gas-like liquid that’s similar to nebula (in outer space) and has an almost ghost-like quality that starts off a neutral color (greyish) and then comes alive when you start enhancing it with attributes that give it distinct qualities. This same process and substance is what forms all your memories. Clear your mind again, and this time picture yourself coming home and walking in your front door, as you walk in what do you see? Notice that you can picture the rooms of your house perfectly in what seems like a transparent or translucent image. This transparent image appears in a similar way to a reflection on glass or a shiny object. Notice that the gas-like liquid substance you use to form these images comes out of “nowhere” and is formed into a complex image instantaneously. This is the same substance that you use to form thoughts into visual imagery and to replay memories over and over in your mind, changing them slightly every time you recall them.

The Fundamental Principle of “Will”  

What’s called the “Great Work” of alchemy, which involves acquiring an understanding of your own mind and soul to become “self-made”, constitutes being able to control the Astral Plane through the mental attribute of “will” which operates through the “imagination”. Each aspect of our 3-fold mind, regenerates as a single part with 3 aspects of its own that determine how it functions in performing a specialized function in creating, maintaining, and evolving an even greater whole. The higher aspect of the superconscious forms and contains the “seed”, formed out of principles in a latent state of potential, for the entire “life-cycle” of an individual that’s brought into formation (constructed out of vivified essence) on the lower planes as the “astral body”. The term “body” isn’t referring to our physical body alone, but to the entire reality our body is formed within as a central point of reference. This idea is represented by the Monad as a dot within a greater circle, by an egg with a yolk at the center, and a sphere spinning on an axis.

Each aspect of our mind exists on a different level and scale associated with that level and has 3 aspects that form a single operation in creating and maintaining that “level and scale”. This idea can be thought of as “fields that exist within greater fields” of a similar frequency, where smaller fields propagate out of larger ones and then interact with those fields as a means of “creating” material constructs, which can more appropriately be called “mental constructs”, because what we call the material world is being shaped by our mind through our ability to “perceive it”. This idea can also be thought of as a hierarchical structure of parallel planes (also called kingdoms) where the highest one contains the whole lower one within it, and each lower plane propagates out of the upper one as it’s offspring.

These hierarchical planes are also polarized with each other, where all movement, whether between a higher (invisible) and lower (visible) plane, or as an inner and outer aspect of the same plane function through polarity as an interaction with itself, where both planes are outgrowths of the same frequency (patterns). This is illustrated in the axiom, “as above, so below, and as below, so above, in the miraculous working of the one thing”. The lower plane of material reality is formed as a “reflection” and “projection” of the plane directly above it. This principle is illustrated in the geometric model of the “Tetrad”, as the same principle that first forms the Dyad as polar opposites on the same plane, and then regenerates as polar opposites on a higher (inner) and lower (outer) plane as mirror images of each other. In both cases it’s the same principle operating in forming what appears to us as a “single reality”.

All material objects are accompanied by an invisible field of energy that surrounds and encases it while also permeating and inhabiting it. This invisible field is what’s often referred to as an “aura” and when perceived intuitively or captured with a kirlian camera, appears as vitalized essence that’s similar to “nebula” and naturally displays the color associated with the active part of a frequency being displayed as a “mental state”. This phenomenon can also be thought of as electrified plasma that acts to organize light-essence into a gaseous, liquid-like formation that’s in a constant state of flux and flow as an evolutionary process of becoming. It takes on a shimmering luster that fluctuates moment by moment based on the state of mind which is being formed through a constant energy exchange with everything around it. This same principle of an invisible field coupled with a material object, is referred to nowadays as dark energy, dark matter, anti-particles, virtual twin particles, and is also what forms the “phantom effect” of DNA, where a field is emitted that contains the energetic (invisible) structure that the DNA is the genetic seed for in its mature and fully developed state. It’s this field that acts as the spatial map to order (select), assemble, and animate a material form that’s a mirror image of it.

Particles come “into existence” out of “nowhere” (quantum plenum or vacuum), and always come as polarized pairs called “twins”. In spiritual allegories, which always use symbolic language to illustrate spiritual principles, this idea is represented in stories about twin brothers or sisters, or as brother and sister (same genetic origin) who are also husband and wife who procreate offspring as their unification. One of the main mistakes made by those trying to understand the nature of the aether or astral plane and what makes it different from what’s called the Akashic plane, is that they don’t understand that all energy and planes of existence, no exceptions, are always “polarized” and have an upper and lower level that interact with each other in producing a third level as their unification. This principle also operates within the same level or plane (linear) as an inner and outer that combine to form a single reality as a coherent field of light. The Astral plane is divided into two levels as an upper and lower, that together form a “range” of vibration as a correlated frequency. The higher and more refined the vibration, the more “information” it contains, which means the higher level of the Akasha, associated with the higher conscious mind, contains all the information inherent in the lower plane, which it acts to inform, hold together in a cohesive manner, and facilitate all the activity of the lower plane as its administrator and director.

The Akasha of the Conscious Mind and the Astral Light of the Subconscious

The three aspects of the mind, each of which function on a different, yet parallel and cohesive level of the same mind, are called the Superconscious, Conscious, and subconscious, and combine on a fourth level as a coherent living field of consciousness in material form. If we look at the different functions of each aspect of the mind we can get a good idea of what the fundamental difference is in terms of understanding how the Astral Plane operates. Astral light is what I refer to as the “substance of the mind” that exists as a field or “medium” that transmits vibrating patterns as mental impressions (thoughts and memories) that don’t contain physical properties and are of a more subtle and refined nature. This is the plane where will, thought, and feelings are imprinted, projected and fluently transmitted, or more accurately stated, “infuse” and populate this plane, being present everywhere within it at the same time as a frequency or information as a wave-form, and is only “accessible” by those beings of a similar frequency, classification, and species.

The faculty of the mind used to create within this magnetic field is the imagination. The astral plane is called the “picture gallery of memory” because it absorbs, crystallizes, and holds thoughts formed as pictures, and is what makes a permanent record of all our actions as our soul’s memory. This field not only absorbs and records thought as memory, it also reflects the picture-memory back to us as an equivalent outer construct of light (reality) that allows us to experience the reality of our own thoughts. This is the most fundamental level of “karma”, which comes as the reconstitution of our own collective memory attained over a vast amount of time to form a coherent field of light, where we continue to “experience” our own creation, born out of our basic nature. All our thoughts, feelings, and natural behaviors are formed and evolve naturally out of our mental paradigm, which vibrates at a frequency unique to us, and is what allows each of us to experience the reality of our own making.

Our Higher and Lower Nature

All energy that’s organized into patterns of memory runs in “currents” that spontaneously propagate throughout the astral field and acts as a blind force that drives thoughts and mental processes in an unconscious and automatic way. This lower level of the subconscious is associated with the astral plane of the Earth and contains the memory of “instinct” and thoughtforms produced by humans out of an unconscious, emotional state. Instinct is formed as cosmic memory (patterns of activity) that’s only accessible to the species, type, and class that the memory pertains to and acts to inform with natural behaviors. This is very important to understand, because as humans we can only access, conceive, and utilize information that’s correlated to our mental paradigm, level of development, maturity, and ability to comprehend it intelligently. On the lower level of the astral plane, which we can think of as the girdle of the Earth’s atmosphere that forms the “collective unconscious”, we tend to live out of a primarily “reactive state”, driven by our emotions, where we function by repeating the same attitudes, mindset, and tendencies that we were conditioned with and that come as “natural behaviors” that are automatic in nature.

The higher level of this same polarized field is the level referred to as the Akasha, or Akashic Plane, and pertains only to “humans” as a species and classification. This is because it’s governed by the conscious mind, which is creative and self-aware, and “creates” by thinking, reasoning, and making decisions. This is the realm of “archetypes and ideals” (gods of mythology) that the conscious mind uses to fashion ideas it wants to experience in the form of memory, that it then reflects into its own subconscious as a means of directing it in what to create. This is the “creative level” of the higher mind as opposed to the “automated level” of animal instinct. The memory formed and maintained as a permanent record on this level is formed by us as our own creation born out of masterful and creative use of our own imagination. This is why it’s called the “Book of Life” or “Hall of Records” formed as an eternal and permanent record of our  conscious, intentional creations made using our will.

Superposition, Energetic Entanglement, and Interference Patterns

On the upper strata of the Astral plane two or more objects (states) may occupy the same space without interfering with each other or losing their definition. On the lower level everything is formed and transformed through combinations, where we tune into and take on the ideas and opinions of others and use them as our own, without having created them. The upper Triad is represented by primary colors, while the lower Triad is formed as complementary colors produced by combining primaries. All activities of the lower mind are formed through a process of “cause and effect”, where you’re stimulated by an outside force of some kind that instantly shifts your state of mind causing you to respond in an automatic way. Our higher mind is “causal in nature” and produces the lower reality as an “effect” or reflection of its own thoughts about itself. On the subtle plane objects can readily change their outer appearance while their inner nature remains the same. This is the part of us that incarnates into different bodies while our inner core as our character remains the same (eternal) in each incarnation. This is the level of our “Higher Self” as our “Evolutionary Ego”, which creates, interacts, and witnesses the lower plane of the unconscious mind without ever “entering into it” and becoming it in nature.

The “same idea” (archetype) can present itself in an infinite number of ways and is why the gods of mythology were known to “shape-shift” or morph into the form correlated to the persons paradigm they were communicating with. On this level symbols, emblems, and signals are not arbitrary conventions of universal forces, but are “living beings” that have an independent existence of their own outside of a material body. This is why symbols and metaphors are used to explain and describe it. Nothing is fixed or crystallized on this plane and it’s always in the process of evolving into infinite variations of the same metaphorical idea. This is what forms the inner nature and character of a person incarnate in a physical body and is what ascends the body after death and reincarnates into another body. Our soul’s collective memory is accumulated through numerous incarnations and stages of development, and between lives is synthesized into a “single image” (paradigm) that forms the “karmic seed” for the next incarnation.

Our eternal soul grows and evolves itself by forming new combinations that develop new aspects of our character that are built up in an accumulative fashion and integrated into our existing memory to form a coherent whole as a vibratory frequency, called our soul’s “signature frequency”. In ancient Egypt this idea was represented by the Ankh, which was programmed with the collective memory of the soul and vibrated with the soul’s frequency, which formed the “key” necessary for entering the portal to higher dimensions. For those of you who are interested in “teleportation” currently being developed through quantum physics, you’ll realize this isn’t about “de-materializing our molecular structure”, transporting it to a distant location and then re-materializing it using the same substance, it’s about capturing the “signature frequency” of our “soul” (inner nature) and transmitting that to a different location (within the greater field), where it acts naturally to “reconstruct itself” into the same body based on “memory” as a ”time line” by drawing “essence” out of thin air (the atmosphere) that’s used to build the same physical body and outer appearance. It’s our mental state formed out of memory of our own making that forms our vibratory frequency, which also has a self-assembling mechanism inherent in it that operates through “resonance”.   

The higher level of the mind is holistic and singular in nature, and takes all experience accumulated during a particular lifetime and synthesizes it back into a single whole where it acts to evolve it. This is the level of higher consciousness, creativity, and individuality that’s independent of the lower plane, and is what acts to create the lower plane as a means of experiencing itself through its own mental construct. It’s on this level of the mind where when we concentrate on a symbolic idea a whole series of correlated ideas proliferate from it as possibilities for the same basic idea.

This is what forms the “plenum” (also called the void or vacuum) out of which polarized particles “pop into existence” with a “life-span”, and then disappear again, or transform by annihilating each other. The plane that we evolved the “many worlds theory” out of and the concept of multiple dimensions as the plane of “superposition”. This higher region is represented in esoteric sciences by the “sun”, and the lower plane of material reality and instinct by the “moon”, which doesn’t generate light of it’s own, but merely glows with the reflection of the sun’s light. On the Tree of Life the sphere of the Sun is Tiphareth, also called Ruach (Conscious Mind or Higher Self), which sits directly above Yesod, the sphere of the moon, and projects the image formed in the imagination into the lower, subconscious mind of Yesod, which represents our “etheric double”, used as the energetic blueprint for constructing the outer world of light.

Astral Light acts as a medium and substance of thought and vibration. As we concentrate on an idea we form an image of it mentally and vitalize it with sensation, causing it to begin vibrating at the frequency associated with the idea, and its vibratory signature is impressed on and in the astral light, where they’re incorporated into our astral body and built into our outer perception as an experience. While the outer situation or circumstances may vary considerably that we combine an idea with, the experience produced using it remains consistent. All ideas impressed in this astral medium are metaphorical in nature and act to bring us a particular type of experience that follows a distinct type of theme. Here we only design the material construct for bringing us a “particular type of experience” – the material form itself isn’t important or even significant, only the experience it serves to provide us with.

This plane is also called “Amenti” – Halls of Amenti – where the upper world forms the substrate for the underworld as an energetic matrix for ordering, organizing, and maintaining the physical world of effect. In ancient texts this is what’s referred to as the “underworld”, which is often represented by a rectangular foundation that has a series of wavy-lines running through it, symbolizing a frequency that functions as a current, on top of which (or out of which) the physical world of activity (Assiah) takes place. The upper is reflected downward (Tetrad) as a reverse image that forms the “underlying reality” out of which the material world is emanated. This is not referring to the “hell” of Christian mythology, but rather the etheric-double used as a form of blueprint and energetic field of organized information for ordering and assembling the material world as a vehicle for the soul to express and have its being as a way of experiencing itself. All of our experiences are simultaneously formed into a single memory as a holistic idea. This higher level of astral light is represented by “fire”, which is the element of “will” and the “spark” that electrifies plasma causing it to form.

The physical body and subconscious (Nephesh) is grounded in astral light in much the same way the body is grounded in matter. It’s the source of instinct and the “storehouse of race memory”, self-preservation, preditory lusts, and all emotional impulses that drive unconscious behaviors. The only memory contained permanently in the lower region of the Earth’s atmosphere is what’s born out of unconscious impulses driven by emotion that lacks creativity and individuality. This is the source of information and memory accessed through mediumship and channeling, attained by letting their mind go blank (subduing their conscious mind) while allowing instinctual forces, the astral remnants of those already deceased, or lost souls (suicides and murder) to inhabit their mind and use their will to have a “voice”. This is self-evident by the simple fact that all information supposedly “channeled” by a medium is only what has already been created and exists as a memory, and is never unique, novel, or inventive in nature.

The astral field of the subconscious forms a dynamic stream of thought, memory, and tendencies that reside below the level conscious awareness as a receptacle of instinct, race memory, and complexes formed out of internal conflict. It’s the strata of habit and automated processes conducted out of memory inherent in the collective unconscious, and “thinks” by replaying the same memories and internal processes over and over in a redundant and habitual manner, repeating more of the same kind and type of experiences in the present as the past. Our lower mind functions primarily out of a belief-system formed out of memory of various kinds, whether we were taught, watched and heard, or that came from actual experience. The Akasha of the higher mind is the aspect that “creates” memory that is then projected into the subconscious in the form of a picture or scene, which it uses in the same way it uses the memory of instinct. This level is the “designer”, producer, director, and audience of the lower level of reality. It creates “itself” not through animal instinct or conditioning, but through the “experiences” it attains through the physical forms it acts to construct. It’s not the form, but the one that inhabits and expresses through the form as a means of knowing who it is by way of the reality formed out of its own thoughts.

Dr. Linda Gadbois

Transpersonal Psychologist, Mind-Body Health Consultant, and Spiritual Teacher