The Astral Plane is one of the planes of existence available to the astral traveler. There are seven planes I can perceive, in total, and each has its own state of existence and particular peculiar properties. These are my personal experiences, and don't always fit with textbook descriptions found elsewhere. I didn't read them before I went there and so didn't know what to see, I suppose.
I like to think of the planes in layers, like a sandwich, though there are other seven-fold structures one could liken them to. I like the sandwich, because of the top bread and bottom bread. The bottom seems to be the darkness, the things that wreck us as human beings making us wish we didn't exist, and the top bread that incomprehensible substance that causes us to continue existing, and draws us out into the infinite, like two sides of the same coin.
For lack of a better paradigm I'll speak about these various planes as up and down, but they are not truly up and down, nor are they side-to-side. They are layered, with veils between them. I would say my perception of them is very much like one of those holographic pictures, where the picture changes depending on which way you hold it.
| Sandwich | Elements | Chakras | Colors |
| Bottom Bread | Water | Root | Red |
| Meat | Earth | Navel | Orange |
| Cheese | Fire | Solar Plexus | Yellow |
| Condiments | Air | Heart | Green |
| Lettuce and Tomato | Shape | Throat | Blue |
| Top Bread | Spirit | Third Eye | Indigo |
| Frilly Toothpick Garnish (The Inedible) | The Void (The Unknowable) | Crown (Over your Head) | Violet |
Lower Planes
There are two levels below the physical that I can perceive. I have not personally consciously investigated either one at length, so I cannot speak with any conviction as to what they hold.
They're not frightening for me, just different, and not particularly interesting. I don't feel that I can relate, if you will, or gain any new insight by visiting them at this time. I may change my mind some day.
Water
The first one I'm going to call the Bottom Bread. I am told this is the plane of is water, not fish just water. Think both growth and erosion, flow and stagnation, life giving in calm ripples and life denying in violent rushes, i.e. drowning, all things that water can be. Force in a kind of primordial sense. This is not from any book I've read, but from an individual I spoke to in the astral a very long time ago.
This plane is incredibly dark, and in my current state of being seems nearly impenetrable. To my mind this would be where the unanswered questions go. I don't know if I would call what I sense here negative energy if negative means evil. After all, I believe in a omniscient creator god whose creations all have equal value or they wouldn't have been created in the first place.
The best way to describe it would be regrets, base emotional responses, misconceptions, and the results of unfortunate decisions.
I think I may have entered this place accidentally as a youth. Then I called it the cacophonous noise, so many voices with so many questions, and so much pain. I had apparently imbibed too much alcohol and floated right up and out. I turned and was drawn against my will into the darkness.
I returned due to my mother's screaming at me to come back immediately, punctuated with several sound slaps to the face. Apparently her terror, and the demanding tone of voice it produced penetrated the darkness and noise therein. Needless to say, I don't really drink.
Earth
Next would be the Meat, this one just below us seems much darker than the physical plane. I've seen what I can only describe as animals when gazing upon it. The energy seems much slower, and thick like traversing through mud.
The feeling I get is that of being earth-bound. Of course, this may be due to what I've been told. There is a no sense of change or growth in the quasi-religious context. Quite the opposite of water, this seems to be more like inertia.
Middle Planes
Fire
Next is ours, the Cheese of the planes sandwich. We all know what this is about, the physical plane. The primary sense you get here is that of time, in my opinion, the rushing of time.
Only here is time a limited quantity, or a factor of any importance. Time, as a concept, does not seem to exist on most of the others. The exception is the astral plane.
Air
Above ours is the astral plane, the Condiments, it adds flavor. It appears to be a selective mixture of other planes, a kind of reflection of the collective consciousness. To my mind it is kind of a replica of physicality with some important additions.
Visually it is much dimmer, and oddly misty. I always feel as if I've come up in Scotland when I enter. It makes me think of the Arthurian legend, where the priestesses bring him through the fog to the Isle of Avalon (Isle of the Dead)
that normal, mortal men can't see to enter. They take him there to heal him, but he dies, or was he already dead and that's why he was allowed to pass?
The mist seems to clear after being there a while, or maybe I just land in the misty spots and go to places where it's not so misty. I also seem to always enter at nearly the same spot, like a waypoint, a Taxi Stand if you will.
Time does seem to exist on the astral, and by that I mean things happen in a sort of loosely linear fashion. It is not uncommon for them to happen again and again in a strange nearly infinite loop. For instance, the Romans liked to party in the earthly life, and still do in the astral plane. Time itself seems to have no impact on existence.
Some people say we go to the astral plane when we dream, others say it's where we go when we die. I don't know about either of those things. This is where I go to visit and learn new things.
Emotion and intuition seem to be the primary factors here. Communication is largely wordless, and higher emotions such as compassion seem to permeate one's being.
I think I may try to map out the Astral Plane as I know it. It sounds like a wonderfully interesting exercise and may help to shed more light on its relationship to the physical life.
The Higher Planes
Form
Next is the Lettuce and Tomato, it seems like a nice but unnecessary step, but for health purposes it's probably the best part of the sandwich for your health.
This is a plane of Form in a rather abstract sense. Think both geometry and archetypal forms. All that exists here is pure thought, from my experience. There appears to be no emotional sense, and no replication of physicality like on the astral, just clear thought, logic and the universal connection of things.
These forms, geometric and archetypal, seem to offer an odd kind of enlightenment simplifying the complex. You can juxtapose information or supposed bits of enlightenment you have imprinted on you from the physical life against these forms to see them with much more clarity. The forms are often enjoyable in and of themselves.
The existence of these geometries and broad thought forms, overarching truths in many ways, leads me to wonder why the recurrence of certain geometries exists in physical nature. Is there some deeper meaning, something regarding the flow of energy in physical structures that causes these forms to propagate?
The recurrence of archetypal forms also brings about the notion that there is some deeper truth that sits at the edge of the mind waiting to be uncovered. I honestly feel that I've missed something in my understanding of physicality. There is a sense of concreteness, and structure within the surface of chaos that seems important, but I haven't quite untangled my mind well enough about it to see where it fits.
Spirit
Now, the Top Bread, this seems to be pure spirit, no need for logic, form, or emotion in the undulating/unregulated earthly sense. These things don't seem to exist.
I can only attempt to describe pure spirit as notions of light, high energy, overflowing unconditional love, spiritual unity, deep knowing, understanding in the broadest sense, and peace in the broadest sense. These words really don't do justice to the experience, but they're all I have.
Beyond The Planes
Nothingness/The Unknowable
This is the frilly toothpick, inedible garnish bit. Nothingness would more accurately described as something that is incomprehensible to my current being. I would suspect this is where souls actually go when they die, but what do I know.
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