Mystical systems
Astral Plane
Direct answer
Astral Plane: The astral plane is, in Theosophical teaching, the plane of existence immediately above the physical, a world of emotion and desire entered in sleep, projection and after death.
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At a glance
- Also called
- astral realm, astral world, the astral, planes of existence
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Astral Body, Astral Projection, Theosophy, Silver Cord
The astral plane is, in Theosophical teaching, the plane of existence immediately above the physical, a world of emotion and desire entered in sleep, projection and after death.
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What is the astral plane?
The astral plane is the second of the seven planes that Theosophy describes. It is said to occupy the same space as the physical world but to be made of finer matter, so that the two interpenetrate. Emotions and thoughts take shape there as visible forms. Its inhabitants, in the books, include sleeping humans, the newly dead, nature spirits and forms created by human thought.
The plane is divided into seven levels, from a dark lowest region to a bright highest one. All of this comes from authors who said they observed it clairvoyantly, chiefly C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant. It has not been confirmed by any independent means.
On the tree of the hidden arts: Astral projection.
What sets Astral Plane apart
Leadbeater's plane is remarkable for its detail. He lists its human inhabitants, living and dead, its non-human ones, and its artificial ones, forms built by concentrated thought. He says sight there is not from one point but from all sides at once, so that a closed box is seen inside and out, and that the lowest of its seven levels overlaps the ground we walk on while the higher ones rise away from it. Later writers mostly simplified this to a single misty elsewhere.
- Position: second of seven planes, next above the physical
- Subdivisions: seven, from densest to finest
- Chief description: C. W. Leadbeater, The Astral Plane, 1895
- Forerunner: the astral light of Éliphas Lévi, described in the 1850s
- Said to be made of: emotional or desire matter, shaped by feeling and thought
- Source of knowledge: the authors' own clairvoyance, by their account
Often mistaken for something else: The etheric level in Theosophy is the finer part of the physical world; the astral plane is a distinct world above it, with its own matter and inhabitants.
The story behind Astral Plane
Éliphas Lévi wrote in the 1850s of an astral light, a universal medium that records every image. Blavatsky took over the idea, and Leadbeater's The Astral Plane of 1895 turned it into a geography with regions and inhabitants. Later occultists, the Golden Dawn among them, used the word for the inner world reached in visionary exercises, and popular writing now uses it loosely for any non-physical realm.
Why Astral Plane matters
Astral Plane is the stage on which projection is said to happen, and knowing who mapped it, and how, shows what the map rests on.
How to read Astral Plane
Practitioners speak of it as a place; readers can take it as a vivid picture of how moods and imaginings colour a shared world.
Astral Plane in practice: an example
A writer who says that grief hangs about a house as a grey cloud on the astral plane is using Leadbeater's picture of emotions as visible forms.
Where readings of Astral Plane go wrong
The plane is known only from clairvoyant claims. Nothing seen in a dream or vision should be taken as a report about real people or events.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- astral realm, astral world, the astral, astral plane meaning, planes of existence
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
See Astral Plane in your personal almanac
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Common questions
What is the astral plane?
In Theosophy it is the level of existence next above the physical one, a world of feeling and desire that people are said to visit in sleep and pass through after death.
Who described the astral plane?
The fullest description is C. W. Leadbeater's book The Astral Plane, published in 1895. He drew on Helena Blavatsky and on the earlier idea of an astral light in Éliphas Lévi.
Is the astral plane real?
It is a teaching of Theosophy and later occultism. Its only sources are people who said they saw it clairvoyantly, and there is no independent evidence for it.
