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According to ancient wisdom Life emanates from the One Divine Breath. Its main feature is Motion that produces the universal ocean of Life and comprises all the changes that give shape to various planes and beings in cosmos. It also says that the current of manifestation flows from the center of the One Life to the circumference forming in this way three basic seats of life known as spirit, mind or soul and nature.

In the Theosophical Glossary, under “The Teaching of Emanation” HPB says that:

“The doctrine of Emanation was at one time universal. It was taught by the Alexandrian, as well as by the Indian philosophers, by the Egyptian, the Chaldean and Hellenic Hierophants, and also by the Hebrews (in their Kabala, and even in Genesis)….the Emanationist believes that nothing can be evolved – or, as the word means, unwombed or born – except if it has first involved, thus indicating that life is from a spiritual potency above the whole”.

Everything is under constant motion, polarity and change. This is an age-old tenet; the ancients called it Nitya Pralaya meaning constant change. Herakleitos said “everything flows, nothing stands still”. Quantum physics measuring a certain movement from various angles reaches the same conclusion. Consequently human consciousness being of a similar nature with its First Principle and the outcome of the combination of three currents – monadic, mental and physical (S. D .I, 181) - may move and transfer itself to other planes of consciousness, and this explains such phenomena as clairvoyance, clairaudience, telepathy and of course insight and spiritual vision.

It is under this very same law of motion and differentiation that man was formed himself from the spiritual down to the physical.

As Crosbie puts it in his “Universal Theosophy”, p.64

“The Real Doctrine is that man himself, as a spiritual being, descends from the level of spirituality or spiritual self-consciousness, step by step, through all stages of condensed matter. That he meets the ascending current of form of lower realms and when the most perfect form reaches its uppermost stage of development, man enters in it. It is only when this invisible man enters in its physical organ that mankind may exist. The soul increases its power from era to era by absorbing and spiritualizing the lower life of the universe.”

This transformation process of individual life from the spiritual to the physical is part of the Anthropogenesis of the Secret Doctrine and is called the Seven Root Races of humanity. Each Root-Race corresponds to an evolutionary stage carrying a variety of bodies, organs but also intellect.

“Occult philosophy teaches that the first human stock was projected by higher and semi-divine Beings out of their own essence”. ΙΙ 87

Man has always existed trying to perfect himself and to approach the image of the Heavenly Man to which he tends. Such an approach takes place during periods of evolution called Root- Races by the ancients and their duration on the earthly sphere is called a Round.

“Every “Round” brings about a new development and even an entire change in the mental, psychic, spiritual and physical constitution of man, all these principles evoluting on an ever ascending scale.” (S. D. I, 162)

The beings of the Second Race had an astral body and astral senses. The astral body precedes the physical body; that is one of the fundamental propositions of occult Anthropogenesis.

“There were four-armed human creatures in those early days of the male-females (hermaphrodites); with one head, yet three eyes. They could see before them and behind them.* A Kalpa later (after the separation of the sexes) men having fallen into matter, their spiritual vision became dim; and coordinately the third eye commenced to lose its power. . . . When the Fourth (Race) arrived at its middle age, the inner vision had to be awakened, and acquired by artificial stimuli, the process of which was known to the old sages. . . (the inner sight could henceforth be acquired only through training and initiation) …. The double-faced became the one-faced, and the eye was drawn deep into the head……he who keeps himself not in purity (who is not chaste) will receive no help from the “deva eye” (S.D. II, 295)

 “Now, as shown, we gather that man was not "created" the complete being he is now, however imperfect he still remains. There was a spiritual, a psychic, an intellectual, and an animal evolution, from the highest to the lowest, as well as a physical development — from the simple and homogeneous, up to the more complex and heterogeneous; though not quite on the lines traced for us by the modern evolutionists. This double evolution in two contrary directions, required various ages, of divers natures and degrees of spirituality and intellectuality, to fabricate the being now known as man. Furthermore, the one absolute, ever acting and never erring law, which proceeds on the same lines from one eternity (or Manvantara) to the other — ever furnishing an ascending scale for the manifested, or that which we call the great Illusion (Maha-Maya), but plunging Spirit deeper and deeper into materiality on the one hand, and then redeeming it through flesh and liberating it — this law, we say, uses for these purposes the Beings from other and higher planes, men, or Minds (Manus), in accordance with their Karmic exigencies.” (S.D. II, 88)

According to the Secret Doctrine contemporary man is the outcome of a series of transformations having started millions of years before our era that have culminated in the present day shape. Antediluvian races are an occult reality. Myths and epic poems of ancient peoples are an endless source of information concerning the appearance, features and contact of the mankind of the past.

There are innate powers within us inactive at the present time, which were however clearly expressed and used in the second Root-Race, where – as mentioned in the Secret Doctrine - the beginning of giants-Cyclops is to be traced. The third eye representing the sum of the astral senses as back then the semi-human nature was astral and not yet physical. Astral senses became latent when the physical ones grew up. Once humanity used to be in direct contact with the astral plane, just as today it is in direct contact with the physical. “The Shadow or Astral Man retires within and man develops a physical body” (Stanza V II, 109)

So, according to the esoteric law, except for our physical body there are other bodies that function as links between a former stage of life and consciousness and the one  following it and vice versa. Our physical body is preceded by a mould called astral which functions in two ways: it can turn the forcefulness of universal life into individual vitality and can also guide and preserve the ever changing physical form in its phenomenal solid state.

In his article “The Sheaths of the Soul”, William Judge gives a picture of the normal state and function of the Astral Body as one of such “sheaths”. He says:

“So during the long ages that have passed since the present evolution began in this solar system, the Soul has constructed for its own use various sheaths, ranging from very fine ones, near to its own essential being, to those that are more remote, ending with the outer physical one, and that one the most illusionary of them all, although appearing from the outside to be the truly real. These sheaths are necessary if the Soul is to know or to act. For it cannot by itself understand Nature at all, but transforms instantly all sensations and ideas by means of the different sheaths, until in the process it has directed the body below, or obtained itself experience above.”

Says the Catechism (Commentaries):

“It is from the material Worlds that descend they, who fashion physical man at the new Manvantaras. They are inferior Lha (Spirits), possessed of a dual body (an astral within an ethereal form). They are the fashioners and creators of our body of illusion.” . . . .

The body preceded the physical shape is called Astral Body. It is also called ethereal double, phantom, simulacrum, personal man, senseless soul, vital, etc. In Sanskrit it is called Linga Sharira, meaning model- body and mould. It is also called animal soul, Bhuta, elementary, spook, devil, demon. Some of these names refer only to the astral body when devoid of corpse after death. Bhuta, devil and spook are almost synonyms.
It is not only the mould of the physical but indeed the real physical body and can, under certain circumstances, function irrespective of its physical shell. The term Astral Body is used to denote that the essence of this form emanates from cosmic or astral matter and can be described as an electric or magnetic field. (Ocean of Theosophy).

The astral body is of a very subtle constitution compared to the physical one and it has a great tensile power, so it changes but little during life whereas the physical body changes all the time. It is flexible, plastic, extendable and strong. The matter that composes it is electric and magnetic in essence and exactly the same as the one used for the building of the world in the dim past when evolutionary process had not reached the point of producing man’s physical body. But it is not crude or gross matter. Having gone through an extremely lengthy period of evolution and enumerable purification stages, its nature has become far more perfect than the gross physical elements we see and touch with our physical eyes and hands. (Ocean)

HPB says that:  “The whole issue of the quarrel between the profane and the esoteric sciences depends upon the belief in, and demonstration of, the existence of an astral body within the physical, the former independent of the latter”. (S.D. II, 149)

And the occult teaching adds:

“The great Chohans called the Lords of the Moon, of the airy bodies. “Bring forth men, men of your nature. Give them their forms within. She (Mother Earth) will build coverings without.” (Stanza III, 12)

“The Pitris shoot out from their ethereal bodies, still more ethereal and shadowy similitudes of themselves, or what we should now call “doubles,” or “astral forms,” in their own likeness.* This furnishes the Monad with its first dwelling, and blind matter with a model around and upon which to build henceforth.” (SD, I, 248)

Once man used to be in direct contact with the astral plane of life, just as today he is in direct contact with the physical. He used to have astral senses which are what we now call clairvoyance, clairaudience, psychokinesis, psychometry, phenomena of hypnotism and mesmerism.
The reference to the one-eyed Cyclop and to Ulysses’ adventures is the allegory of human evolution.
Occultists believe that inherent psychic senses in the first human races wasted away when the outer senses grew and developed physically. To the student of esoteric symbolisms this statement does not sound like a speculation or a probability but merely as a phase in the law of evolution.

“…for the first three and a half Root-Races, up to the middle or turning point, it is the astral shadows of the “progenitors,” the lunar Pitris, which are the formative powers in the Races, and which build and gradually force the evolution of the physical form towards perfection — this, at the cost of a proportionate loss of spirituality. Then, from the turning point, it is the Higher Ego, or incarnating principle, the nous or Mind, which reigns over the animal Ego, and rules it whenever it is not carried down by the latter. In short, Spirituality is on its ascending arc, and the animal or physical impedes it from steadily progressing on the path of its evolution only when the selfishness of the personality has so strongly infected the real inner man with its lethal virus, that the upward attraction has lost all its power on the thinking reasonable man.” (S.D. II, 109-110)

When mankind plunged into physical matter its astral senses became crystallized. Yet, those powers still exist like recorded memories and have been dormant but will be awakened in the future; the only difference is that self-consciousness, consequently morality will be developed first.

This latent memory and potentiality motivates the human beings to wish to communicate with the invisible, to foresee their future, to develop transcendent powers, to work miracles and magic. Astral senses will manifest again; it is a process in the becoming at present, that’s why there is such a blooming psychic activity and corresponding phenomena. Mankind is on the path of re-acquiring former states of life during which it had not yet been inspired by the power of Manas. In its perspective evolution it will regain the “lost paradise” having first become richer with the experience and wisdom it is presently gaining out of individual efforts and with the help of mind, karma and reincarnation.

According to William Judge, the Masters of Wisdom have not yet shown mankind practices for the development of the astral powers as they do not consider it mature enough for such use. This is the reason why the founders of the Movement, although they focused on psychic phenomena, looked into them and openly spoke about the laws under which man functions, yet they avoided giving practical instructions.

However, firmly insisting  that spiritual characteristics should be developed  they urged for self-knowledge based on the ancient method of Yoga as outlined in Patanjali’s Aphorisms and in the meditation practice HPB explained to her esoteric section.

In other words, when mankind gets rid of separateness, antagonism, selfishness; when mankind is no longer identified with the personal or whatever is considered personal, the astral senses and powers, known as siddhis, will be available again, under the precondition that such powers will not be misused or induced to others.

At this point rises the question “why should self-restraint be the rule in studying and developing psychic and spiritual powers?”.

We are told that, once, the third eye was a normal organ and that later on due to a gradual waning of spirituality…it became an atrophied organ…The main hurdle on our way to spiritual development is lust and attachment to the physical senses: sex, food, sleep, touch, sight, hearing, all of these confine power to the physical plane.

Here comes the story of Ulysses and his wanderings to depict in a symbolical way the way-faring of the soul or of the pilgrim in universe. His encounters with the Sirenes and the beautiful enchantresses (Circe, Calypso and Nausica) his struggle against the powers of sea (matter), all symbolizes man’s fall and his presence in the physical world. Of course it was not a sort of fall his soul was after but a phase in the evolutionary process. Ulysses’ return to Ithaca, a target he never forgot, with all the delay caused by temptations and shipwrecks, outlines the purpose of spiritual fulfillment, which is the return to our spiritual cradle having gathered experience earned through incredible personal struggle.

Additionally, Cyclop and all the other adventures symbolically insinuate the various evolutionary stages until man became the human being we know of today. Man used to have a Third Eye and all of the other astral senses before reaching his current state. In those times, the astral body could fly and move at great distances, his organs could reach out as far as  3-meters. That is the real personal man. In him lies the subconscious perception and latent memory handled nowadays by hypnotizers causing them confusion. The astral body comprises the real organs of the outer organs of senses, such as sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.

In the case of the average man who has not been trained in practical occultism or who does not possess such abilities from birth, the astral body cannot be extend itself for more than 10 centimeters from the physical body. Yet, there are some who, owing to practices they dealt with in former earthly lives, have the innate power to unconsciously project their astral body. Those trained through a long period of firm self-discipline with regard to their senses and their mind may be able to use their astral form at will. They are well aware of the occult laws. In any other case such activities may get out of control and easily bring about dangers as a result of applying powers of a nature unknown to them.

In her article “Occult or Exact Science” HPB comments on the psychic powers as following: “…regardless of what scientists will say… the Mental connection of the two senses i.e. of “sight” and “hearing” were a common occurrence in their time (in the past). The student of the Esoteric Teaching can easily guess that such phenomena signify the cyclic return of the human organism back to its original states, to the natural state of prediluvian humanity…”

Psychic Phenomena – a two-day meeting in May 2009