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    "num": 4,
    "slug": "03-chapter-iii",
    "title": "CHAPTER III.",
    "of": 12,
    "words": 6441,
    "text": "## CHAPTER III.\n\nKamaloka.\n\nKAmaloka, literally the place or habitat of desire,\nis, as has already been intimated, a part of the astral\nplane, not divided from it as a distinct locality, but\nseparated oflE by the conditions of consciousness of\nthe entities belonging to it. * These are human be-\nings who have lost their physical bodies by the\nstroke of death, and have to undergo certain purify-\ning changes before they can pass on to the happy\nand peaceful life which belongs to the man proper,\nto the human soul, f\n\nThis region represents and includes the conditions\ndescribed as existing in the various hells, purga-\ntories, and intermediate states, one or other of\nwhich is alleged by all the great religions to be the\n\n* The Hindus call this state Pretaloka, the habitat of Pretas.\nA Preta is the human being who has lost his physical body,\nbut is still encumbered with the vesture of his animal nature.\nHe cannot carry this on with him, and until it is disintegrated\nhe is kept imprisoned by it\n\nf The soul is the human intellect, the link between the Di-\nvine Spirit in man and his lower personality. It is the Ego,\nthe individual, the \" 1/ which develops by evolution. In the-\nosophical parlance it is Manas, the Thinker. The mind is the\nenergy of this, working within the limitations of the physical\nbrain, or the astral and mental bodies.\n\n84 THE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\ntemporary dwelling-place of man after he leaves the\nbody and before he reaches \" heaven. \" It does not\ninclude any place of eternal torture, the endless hell\nstill believed in by some narrow religionists being\nonly a nightmare dream of ignorance, hate, and fear.\nBut it does include conditions of suffering, tempo-\nrary and purificatory in their nature, the working\nout of causes set going in his earth-life by the man\nwho experiences them. These are as natural and\ninevitable as any effects caused in this world by\nwrong-doing, for we live in a world of law and every\nseed must grow up after its own kind. Death makes\nno sort of difference in a man's moral and mental\nnature, and the change of state caused by passing\nfrom one world to another takes away his physical\nbody, but leaves the man as he was.\n\nThe kamalokic condition is found on each sub-\ndivision of the astral plane, so that we may speak of\nit as having seven regions, calling them the first,\nsecond, third, up to the seventh, beginning from the\nlowest and counting upwards.* We have already\nseen that materials from each subdivision of the as-\ntral plane enter into the composition of the astral\nbody, and it is a peculiar re-arrangement of these\nmaterials, to be explained in a moment, which sepa-\nrates the people dwelling in one region from those\ndwelling in another, although those in the same re-\n\n* Often these regions are reckoned the other way, taking\nthe first as the highest and the seventh as the lowest. It does\nnot matter from which end we count, and I am reckoning up-\nwards to keep them in accord with the planes and the principles.\n\nTHE lNt>RAWXNG OP LIFE. 85\n\ngion are able to intercommunicate. The regions,\nbeing each a subdivision of the astral plane, differ in\ndensity, and the density of the external form of the\nkamalokic entity determines the region to which he\nis limited ; these differences of matter are the bar-\nriers that prevent passage from one region to an-\nother; people dwelling in one can no more come\ninto touch with people dwelling in another than a\ndeep-sea fish can hold a conversation with an eagle\n— ^the medium necessary to the life of the one would\nbe destructive to the life of the other.\n\nWhen the physical body is struck down by death,\nthe etheric body, carrying Prana with it and accom-\npanied by the remaining principles — that is, the\nwhole man, except the dense body — withdraws from\nthe \"tabernacle of flesh,\" as the outer body is ap-\npropriately called. All the outgoing life-energies\ndraw themselves inwards, and are \" gathered up by\nPrana,\" their departure being manifested by the\ndulness that creeps over the physical organs of the\nsenses. They are there, uninjured, physically com-\nplete, ready to act as they have always been; but\nthe \" Inner Ruler\" is going, he who through them\nsaw, heard, felt, smelt, tasted, and by themselves\nthey are mere aggregations of matter, living indeed\nbut without power of perceptive action. Slowly the\nlord of the body draws himself away, enwrapped in\nthe violet-grey etheric body, and absorbed in the\ncontemplation of the panorama of his past life,\nwhich in the death-hour unrolls before him, com-\nplete in ^very detail. In that life-picture are all the\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nevents of his life, small and great ; he sees his a\nbitions with their success or frustration, his efforts,\nhis triumphs, his failures, his loves, his hatreds; the\npredominant tendency of the whole comes clearly\nout, the ruling thought of the life asserts itself, and\nstamps itself deeply into the soul, marking the re-\ngion in which the chief part of his post-mortem ex-\nistence will be spent. Solemn the moment when\nthe man stands face to face with his life, and from\nthe lips of his past hears the presage of his future.\nFor a brief space he sees himself as he is, recognizes\nthe purpose of life, knows that the Law is strong\nand just and good. Then the magnetic tie breaks\nbetween the dense and etheric bodies, the comrades\nof a lifetime are disjoined, and — save in exceptional\ncases — the man sinks into peaceful unconsciousness.\n\nQuietness and devotion should mark the conduct\nof all who are gathered round a dying body, in order\nthat a solemn silence may leave uninterrupted this\nreview of the past by the departing man. Clamor-\nous weeping, loud lamentations, can but jar and dis-\nturb the concentrated attention of the soul, and to\nbreak with the grief of a personal loss into the still-\nness which aids and soothes him is at once selfish\nand impertinent. Religion has wisely commanded\nprayers for the dying, for these preserve calm and\nstimulate unselfish aspirations directed to his help-\ning, and these, like all loving thoughts, protect and\nshield.\n\nSome hours after death — generally not more than\nthirty-sifi, it is said — the man draws himself out of\n\nETHERIC CORPSES. 8/\n\nthe etheric body, leaving it in turn as a senseless\ncorpse, and the latter, remaining near its dense\ncounterpart, shares its fate. If the dense body be\nburied, the etheric double floats over the grave,\nslowly disintegrating, and the unpleasant feelings\nmany experience in a churchyard are largely due to\nthe presence of these decapng etheric corpses. If\nthe body be burnt, the etheric double breaks up very\nquickly, having lost its nidus, its physical centre of\nattraction, and this is one among many reasons why\ncremation is preferable to burial as a way of dispos-\ning of corpses.\n\nThe withdrawal of the man from the etheric\ndouble is accompanied by the withdrawal from it of\nPrana, which thereupon returns to the great reser-\nvoir of life universal, while the man, ready now to\npass into Kamaloka, undergoes a re-arrangement of\nhis astral body, fitting it for submission to the purifi-\ncatory changes which are necessary for the freeing\nof the man himself.* During earth -life the various\nkinds of astral matter intermingle in the formation\nof the body, as do the solids, liquids, gases, and\nethers in the physical. The change in the arrange-\nment of the astral body after death consists in the\nseparation of these materials, according to their re-\nsx>ective densities, into a series of concentric shells\n— ^the finest within, the densest without — each shell\n\n* These changes result in the formation of what is called by\nHindus the Y&tani, or suffering body, or in the case of very\nwicked men. in whose astral bodies there is a preponderance\nof the coarsest matter, the Dhruvam. or strong body»\n\n88 THE ANCIENT WISt)OM.\n\nbeing made of the materials drawn from one sub-\ndivision only of the astral plane; the astral body\nthus becomes a set of seven superimposed layers, or\na seven-shelled encasement of astral matter, in which\nthe man may not inaptly be said to be imprisoned,\nas only the breaking of these can set him free. Now\nwill be seen the immense importance of the purifica-\ntion of the astral body during earth -life; the man is\nretained in each subdivision of Kamaloka so long as\nthe shell of matter pertaining to that subdivision is\nnot sufficiently disintegrated to allow of his escape\ninto the next. Moreover, the extent to which his\nconsciousness has worked in each kind of matter de-\ntermines whether he will be awake and conscious in\nany given region, or will pass through it in uncon-\nsciousness, \"wrapped in rosy dreams,\" and merely\ndetained during the time necessary for the process\nof mechanical disintegration.\n\nA spiritually advanced man, who has so purified\nhis astral body that its constituents are drawn only\nfrom the finest grade of each division of astral mat-\nter, merely passes through Kamaloka without delay,\nthe astral body disintegratino- with extreme swift-\nness, and he goes on to whatever may be his bourne,\naccording to the point he has reached in evolution.\nA less developed man, but one whose life has been\npure and temperate and who has sat loosely on the\nthings of earth, will wing a less rapid flight through\nKamaloka, but will dream peacefully, unconscious\nof his surroundings, as his mental body disentangles\nitself from the astral shells, one after the other, to\n\nSUDDBN DEAtH. S9\n\nawaken only when he reaches the heavenly places.\nOthers, less developed still, will awaken after pass-\ning out of the lower regions, becoming conscious in\nthe division which is connected with the active\nworking of the consciousness during the earth-life,\nfor this will be aroused on receiving familiar im-\npacts, although these be received now directly\nthrough the astral body, without the help of the\nphysical. Those who have lived in the animal pas-\nsions will awake in their appropriate region, each\nman literally going \" to his own place.\"\n\nThe case of men struck suddenly out of physical\nlife by accident, suicide, murder, or sudden death in\nany form, diflPers from those of persons who pass\naway by the failure of the life-energies through dis-\nease or old age. If they are pure and spiritually\nminded they are specially guarded, and sleep out\nhappily the term of their natural life. But in other\ncases they remain conscious — often entangled in the\nfinal scene of earth-life for a time, and unaware that\nthey have lost the physical body — held in whatever\nregion they are related to by the outermost layer of\nthe astral body; their normal kamalokic life does\nnot begin until the natural web of earth-life is out-\nspun, and they are vividly conscious of both their\nastral and physical surroimdings. One man who\niiad committed an assassination and had been exe-\ncuted for his crime was said, by one of H. P. Bla-\nvatsky's Teachers, to be living through the scenes\nof the murder and the subsequent events over and\nover again in Kamaloka, ever repeating his diaboli-\n\nTHE ANCIENT WlSDOIt\n\ncal act and going tlirough the terrors of his arrest\nand execution. A suicide will repeat automatically\nthe feelings of despair and fear which preceded his\nself-murder, and go through the act and the death-\nstruggle time after time with ghastly persistence.\nA wonian, who perished in the flames in a wild con-\ndition of terror and with frantic efforts to escape,\ncreated such a whirl of passions that, five days after-\nwards, she was still struggling desperately, fancying\nherself still in the fire and wildly repulsing all\nefforts to soothe her; while another woman who,\nwith her baby on her breast, went down beneath the\nwhirl of waters in a raging storm, with her heart\ncalm and full of love, slept peacefully on the other\nside of death, dreaming of husband and children in\nhappy lifelike visions. In more ordinary cases,\ndeath by accident is still a disadvantage, brought on\na person by some seiioias fault,* for the possession\nof full consciousness in the lower kamalokic regions,\nwhich are closely related to the earth, is attended by\nmany inconveniences and perils. The man is full\nof all the plans and interests that made up his life,\nand is conscious of the presence of the people and\nthings connected with them; he is almost irresist-\nibly impelled by his longings to try and influence\nthe affairs to which his passions and feelings still\ncling, and is bound to the earth while he has lost all\nhis accustomed organs of activity ; his only hope of\n\n■Notni\n■■Kaima.'\n\nssarily a fault committed in the present life. The\ns and effect will be explained in Chapter IX., oq\n\ncLiNamo TO fiARTtt. gt\n\npeace lies in resolutely turning away from earth and\nfixing his mind on higher things, but comparatively\nfew are strong enough to make this effort, even with\nthe help always offered them by workers on the as-\ntral plane, whose sphere of duty lies in helping and\nguiding those who have left this world. * Too often\nsuch sufferers, impatient of their helpless inactivity,\nseek the assistance of sensitives, with whom they\ncan communicate and so mix themselves up once\nmore in terrestrial affairs; they sometimes seek\neven to obsess convenient mediums and thus to uti-\nlize the bodies of others for their own purposes, so\nincurring many responsibilities in the future. Not\nwithout occult reason have English churchmen been\ntaught to pray: \"From battle, murder, and from\nsudden deaths Good Lord, deliver us.\"\n\nWe may now consider the divisions of Kamaloka\none by one, and so gain some idea of the conditions\nwhich the man has made for himself in the interme-\ndiate state by the desires which he has cultivated\nduring physical life ; it being kept in mind that the\namount of vitality in any given \" shell\" — and there-\nfore his imprisonment in that shell — depends on the\namount of energy thrown during earth-life into the\nkind of matter of which that shell consists. If the\nlowest passions have been active, the coarsest mat-\nter will be strongly vitalized and its amount will\nalso be relatively large. This principle rules through\n\n* These workers are disciples of some of the great Teachers\nwho guide and help humanity, and they are employed in this\nspecial duty of succoring souls in need of such assistancei,\n\n9^ tHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nall kamalokic regions, so that a man during earth'\nlife can judge very fairly as to the future for himself\nthat he is preparing immediately on the other side\nof death.\n\nThe first, or lowest, division is the one that con-\ntains the conditions described in so many Hindu and\nBuddhist Scriptures under the name of \"hells\" of\nvarious kinds. It must be understood that a man,\nin passing into one of these states, is not getting rid\nof the passions and vile desires that have led him\nthither; these remain, as part of his character, lying\nlatent in the mind in a germinal state, to be thrown\noutwards again to form his passional nature when\nhe is returning to birth in the physical world.* His\npresence in the lowest region of Kamaloka is due to\nthe existence in his kamic body of matter belonging\nto that region, and he is held prisoner there until\nthe greater part of that matter has dropped away,\nuntil the shell composed of it is sufficiently disinte-\ngrated to allow the man to come into contact with\nthe region next above.\n\nThe atmosphere of this place is gloomy, heavy,\ndreary, depressing to an inconceivable extent. It\nseems to reek with all the influences most inimical\nto good, as in truth it does, being caused by the per-\nsons whose evil passions have led them to this dreary\nplace. All the desires and feelings at which we\nshudder find here the materials for their expression;\nit is, in fact, the lowest slum, with all the horrors\nveiled from physical sight parading in their naked\n* See Chapter VII., on \"Reincarnation.\"\n\nSOULS AS THEY ARE. 93\n\nhideoTisness. Its repulsiveness is much increased\nby the fact that in the astral world character ex-\npresses itself in form, and the man who is full of\nevil passions looks the whole of them ; bestial appe-\ntites shape the astral body into bestial forms, and\nrepulsively human animal shapes are the appropri-\nate clothing of brutalized human souls. No man can\nbe a hypocrite in the astral world, and cloak foul\nthoughts with a veil of virtuous seeming; whatever\na man is that he appears to be in outward form and\nsemblance, radiant in beauty if his mind be noble,\nrepulsive in hideousness if his nature be foul. Tt\nwill readily be understood, then, how such Teachers\nas the Buddha — to whose unerring vision all worlds\nlay open — should describe what was seen in these\nhells in vivid language of terrible imagery, that seems\nincredible to modern readers only because people\nforget that, once escaped from the heavy and un-\nplastic matter of the physical world, all souls appear\nin their proper likenesses and look just what they\nare. Even in this world a degraded and besotted\nruffian moulds his face into most repellent aspect;\nwhat then can be expected when the plastic astral\nmatter takes shape with every impulse of his crimi-\nnal desires, but that such a man should wear a\nhorrifying form, taking* on changing elements of\nhideousness?\n\nFor it must be remembered that the population—\nif that word may be allowed — of this lowest region\nconsists of the very scum of humanity, murderers,\nruffians, violent criminals of all types, drunkards,\n\nTHE ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nprofligates, the vilest of mankind. None is here,\nwith consciousness awake to its surroundings, save\nthose guilty of brutal crimes, or of deliberate per-\nsistent cruelty, or possessed by some vile appetite.\nThe only persons who may be of a better general\ntype, and yet for a while be held here, are suicides,\nmen who have sought by self-murder to escape\nfrom the earthly penalties of crimes they had com-\nmitted, and who have but worsened their position\nby the exchange. Not all suicides, be it under-\nstood, for self-murder is committed from many\nmotives, but only such as are led up to by crime\nand are then committed in order to avoid the ci\nsequences.\n\nSave for the gloomy surroundings and the loath*\nsomeness of a man's associates, every man here is\nthe immediate creator of his own miseries. Un-\nchanged, except for the loss of the bodily veil, tt\nhere show out their passions in all their native hide-\nousness, their naked brutality; full of fierce un\ntiated appetites, seething with revenge, hatred, long-\nings after physical indulgences which the loss of\nphysical organs incapacitates them from enjoying,\nthey roam, raging and ravening, through this gloomy\nregion, crowding round all foul resorts on earth,\nround brothels and gin-palaces, stimulating their\noccupants to deeds of shame and violence, seeking\nopportunities to obsess them, and so to drive them\ninto worse excesses. The sickening atmosphere felt\nround such places comes largely from these earth-\nbound astral entities, reeking with foul passions and\n\nTHE VARIOUS HELLS. 95\n\n•\n\nunclean desires. Mediums — unless of very pure and\nnoble character — are special objects of attack, and\ntoo often the weaker ones, weakened still further by\nthe passive yielding of their bodies for the tempo-\nraiy habitation of other excarnate souls, are ob-\nsessed by these creatures, and are driven into intem-\nperance or madness. Executed murderers, furious\nwith terror and passionate revengeful hatred, acting\nover again, as we have said, their crime and re-\ncreating mentally its terrible results, surround them-\nselves with an atmosphere of savage thought-forms,\nand, attracted to any one harboring revengeful and\nviolent designs, they egg him on into the actual\ncommission of the deed over which he broods.\nSometimes a man may be seen constantly followed\nby his murdered victim, never able to escape from\nhis haunting presence, which hunts him with a dull\npersistency, try he never so eagerly to escape. The\nmurdered person, unless himself of a very base tjrpe,\nis wrapped in unconsciousness, and this very uncon-\nsciousness seems to add a new horror to its mechan-\nical pursuit.\n\nHere also is the hell of the vivisector, for cruelty\ndraws into the astral body the coarsest materials and\nthe most repulsive combinations of the astral mat-\nter, and he lives amid the crowding forms of his\nmutilated victims — moaning, quivering, howling\n(they are vivified, not by the animal souls but by ele-\nmental life) pulsing with hatred to the tormentor —\nrehearsing his worst experiments with automatic\nregularity, conscious of all the horror, and yet im-\n\ng6 THH ANCIENT WISDOM.\n\nperiously impelled to the self-torment by the habit\nset up during earth-life.\n\nIt is well once again to remember, ere quitting\nthis dreary region, that we have here no arbitrary\npunishments inflicted from outside, but only the in-\nevitable working out of the causes set going by each\nperson. During physical life they yielded to the\nvilest impulses and drew into, built into, their astral\nbodies the materials which alone could vibrate in\nanswer to those impulses; this self-built body be-\ncomes the prison-house of the soul, and must fall\ninto ruins ere the soul can escape from it. As in-\nevitably as a drunkard must live in his repulsive\nsoddened physical body here, so must he live in his\nequally repiilsive astral body there. The harvest\nsown is reaped after its kind. Such is the law in\nall the worlds, and it may not be escaped, Nor in-\ndeed is the astral body there more revolting and\nhorrible than it was when the man was living upon\nearth and made the atmosphere around him fetid\nwith his astral emanations. But people on earth do\nnot generally recognize its ugliness, being astrally\nblind.\n\nFurther, we may cheer ourselves in contemplating\nthese unhappy brothers of ours by remembering\nthat their sufferings are but temporary, and are giv-\ning a much-needed lesson in the life of the soul.\nBy the tremendous pressure ot Nature's disregarded\nlaws they are learning the existence of those laws,\nand the misery that accrues from ignoring them in\nlife and conduct. The lesson they would not learn\n\nTHE WORLD S ASTRAL DOUBLE. 97\n\nduring earth-life, whirled away on the torrent of\nlusts and desires, is pressed on them here, and will\nbe pressed on them in their succeeding lives, until\nthe evils are eradicated and the man has risen into a\nbetter life. Nature's lessons are sharp, but in the\nlong run they are merciful, for they lead to the evo-\nlution of the soul and guide it to the winning of its\nimmortality.\n\nLet us pass tc a more cheerful region. The sec-\nond division of the astral world may be said to be\nthe astral double of the physical, for the astral bod-\nies of all things and of many people are largely com-\nposed of the matter belonging to this division of the\nastral plane, and it is therefore more closely in touch\nwith the physical world than any other part of the\nastral. The great majority of people make some\nstay here, and a very large proportion of these are\nconsciously awake in it. These latter are folk whose\ninterests were bound up in the trivial and petty ob-\njects of life, who set their hearts on trifles, as well\nas those who allowed their lower natures to rule\nthem, and who died with the appetites still active\nand desirous of physical enjoyment. Having largely\nsent their life outwards in these directions, thus\nbuilding their astral bodies largely of the materials\nthat responded very readily to material impacts,\nthey are held by these bodies in the neighborhood\nof their physical attractions. They are mostly dis-\nsatisfied, uneasy, restless, with more or less of suf-\nfering according to the vigor of the wishes they\ncannot gratify; some even undergo positive pain\n\nfrom this cause, and are long delayed ere these\nearthly longings are exhausted. Many unnecessa-\nrily lengthen their stay by seeking to communicate\nwith the earth, in whose interests they are entan-\ngled, by means of mediums, who allow them to use\ntheir physical bodies for this purpose, thus supply-\ning the loss of their own. From them comes most\nof the mere twaddle with which every one is familiar\nwho has had experience of public spiritualistic\nstances, the gossip and trite morality of the petty\nlodging-house and small shop — feminine, for the\nmost part. As these earth-bound souls are gener-\nally of small intelligence, their communications are\nof no more interest (to those already convinced of\nthe existence of the soul after death) than was their\nconversation when they were in the body, and — just\nas on earth — they are positive in proportion to their\nignorance, representing the whole astral world as\nidentical with their own very limited area. There,\nas here :\n\nIt is from this region that people who have died\n^vith some anxiet>' on their minds will sometimes\nseek to communicate with their friends in order to\narrange the earthly matter that troubles them; if\nthey cannot succeed in showing themselves, or in\nimpressing their wishes, by a dream on somu friend,\nthey will often cause mtich annoyance by knocbings\nand other nDi.>;i;.s, directly intended to draw atten-\n\nVIOLENT GRIEF. 99\n\ntion or caused unconsciously by their restless efforts.\nIt is a charity in such cases for some competent per-\nson to communicate with the distressed entity and\nlearn his wishes, as he may thus be freed from the\nanxiety which prevents him from passing onwards.\nSouls, while in this region, may also very easily\nhave their attention drawn to the earth, even al-\nthough they would not spontaneously have turned\nback to it, and this disservice is too often done to\nthem by the passionate grief and craving for their\nbeloved presence by friends left behind on earth.\nThe thought-forms set up by these longings throng\nround them, beat against them, and oftentimes\narouse them if they are peacefully sleeping, or vio-\nlently draw their thoughts to earth if they are al-\nready conscious. It is especially in the former case\nthat this unwitting selfishness on the part of friends\non earth does mischief to their dear ones that they\nwould themselves be the first to regret ; and it may\nbe that the knowledge of the unnecessary suffering\nthus caused to those who have passed through death\nmay, with some, strengthen the binding force of the\nreligious precepts which enjoin submission to the\ndivine law and the checking of excessive and rebel-\nlious grief.\n\nThe third and fourth regions of the kamalokic\nworld differ but little from the second, and might\nalmost be described as etherealized copies of it, the\nfourth being more refined than the third, but the\ngeneral characteristics of the three subdivisions\nbeing very similar. Souls of somewhat more pro-\n\ngressed types are found there, and although they\nare held there by the encasement biiilt by the activ-\nity of their earthly interests, their attention is for\nthe most part directed onwards rather than back-\nwards, and, if they are not forcibly recalled to the\nconcerns of earth-life, they will pass on without very\nmuch delay. Still, they are susceptible to earthly\nstimuli, and the weakening interest in terrestrial\naffairs may be reawakened by cries from below.\nLarge numbers of educated and thoughtful people,\nwho were chiefly occupied with worldly affairs dur-\ning their physical lives, arc conscious in these re-\ngions, and may be induced to communicate throuj^h\nmediums, and, more rarely, seek such communica-\ntion themselves. Their statements arc naturally of\na higher type than those spoken of as coming from\nthe second division, but are not marked by any\ncharacteristics that render them more valuable than\nsimilar statements made by persons still in the body.\nSpiritual illumination does not come from Kama-\nloka.\n\nThe fifth subdivision of Kamaloka offers many-\nnew characteristics. It presents a distinctly lumi-\nnous and radiant appearance, eminently attractive\nto those accustomed only to the dull hues of earth,\nand justifying the epithet astral, starry, given to the\nwhole plane. Here are situated all the materialized\nheavens which play so large a part in popular relig-\nions all the world over. The happy hunting-grounds\nof the Red Indian, the Valhalla of the Norsemen,\nthe houri-filled paradise of the Muslim, the golden\n\nMATERIALISTIC ,«6AVENS. lO I\n\njewelled-gated New Jerusalem pf the Christian, the\nlyceum-filled heaven of the materiaiistic reformer,\nall have here their places. Men acui women who\nclung desperately to every \" letter thar.killeth\" have\nhere the literal satisfaction of their cravings, uncon-\nsciously creating in astral matter by their poMfcrs of\nimagination, fed on the mere husks of the world's\nScriptures, the cloud-built palaces whereof toey,\ndreamed. The crudest religious beliefs find here\ntheir temporary cloudland realization, and literalists\nof every faith, who were filled with selfish longings\nfor their own salvation in the most materialistic of\nheavens, here find an appropriate, and to them en-\njoyable, home, surrounded by the very conditions in\nwhich they believed. The religious and philanthrop-\nic busybodies, who cared more to carry out their\nown fads and impose their own ways on their neigh-\nbors than to work unselfishly for the increase of\nhuman virtue and happiness, are here much to the\nfore, carrying on reformatories, refuges, schools, to\ntheir own great satisfaction, and much delighted are\nthey still to push an astral finger into an earthly pie\nwith the help of a subservient medium whom they\npatronize with lofty condescension. They build as-\ntral churches and schools and houses, reproducing\nthe materialistic heavens they coveted; and though\nto keener vision their erections are imperfect, even\npathetically grotesque, they find them all-sufi&cing.\nPeople of the same religions flock together and co-\noperate with each other in various ways, so that\ncommimities are formed, differing as widely from\n\nI02 IHE ,ANi:;iE\\T WISDOM.\n\neach other as do similar commimities on earth\nWhen they are aUracted to the earth they seek, for\nthe most p^rt/'people of their own faith and coun-\ntry, chiefly &y natural affinity, dotibtless, but also\nbecause barriers of laug^uage still exist in Kamaloka,\nas may be noticed occasionally in messages received\nin spiritnalistic circles. Souls from this region often\n. take' the most vivid interest in attempts to establish\n,_ communication between this and the next world,\nand the \" spirit -guides\" of average mediums come,\nfor the most part, from this and from the region\nnext above. They are generally aware that there\nare many possibilities of higher life before them,\nand that they will, sooner or later, pass away into\nworlds whence communication with this earth will\nnot be possible.\n\nThe sixth kamalokic region resembles the fifth,\nbut is far more refined, and is largely inhabited by\nsouls of a more advanced tj-pe, wearing out the as-\ntral vesture in which much of their mental energies\nhad worked while they were in the physical body.\nTheir delay here is due to the large part played by\nselfishness in their artistic and intellectual life, and\nto the prostitution uf their talents to the gratifica-\ntion of the desire-nature in a refined and delicate\nway. Their surroundings are of the best that are\nfound in Kamaloka, as their creative thoughts fash-\nion the luminous materials of their temporary home\ninto fair landscapes and rippling oceans, snow-clad\nmountains and fertile plains, scenes that are of fairy-\nlike beauty compared with even the most exquisite\n\nSTUDENTS IN KAMALOKA. IO3\n\nthat earth can show. Religionists also are found\nhere, of a slightly more progressed kind than those\nin the division immediately below, and with more\ndefinite views of their own limitations. They look\nforward more clearly to passing out of their present\nsphere, and reaching a higher state.\n\nThe seventh, the highest, subdivision of Kama-\nloka, is occupied almost entirely by intellectual men\nand women who were either pronouncedly material-\nistic while on earth, or who are so wedded to the\nways in which knowledge is gained by the lower\nmind in the physical body that they continue its\npursuit in the old ways, though with enlarged facul-\nties. One recalls Charles Lamb's dislike of the idea\nthat in heaven knowledge would have to be gained\n\" by some awkward process of intuition\" instead of\nthrough his beloved books. Many a student lives\nfor long years, sometimes for centuries — according\nto H. P. Blavatsky — literally in an astral library,\nconning eagerly all books that deal with his favor-\nite subject, and perfectly contented with his lot.\nMen who have been keenly set on some line of in-\ntellectual investigation, and have thrown off the\nphysical body with their thirst for knowledge un-\nslaked, pursue their object still with unwearied per-\nsistence, fettered by their clinging to the physical\nmodes of study. Often such men are still sceptical\nas to the higher possibilities that lie before them,\nand shrink from the prospect of what is practically a\nsecond death — the sinking into unconsciousness ere\nthe soul is bom into the higher life of heaven. Poli-\n\n.\\CIENr\n\nIIOM,\n\ndcians, statesmen, men of science, dwell for a whilt!\nin this re^on, slowly disentangling themselves from\nthe astral body, still held to the lower life by their\nkeen and vivid interest in the movements in which\nthey have played so large a part, and in the effort to\nwork out astrally some of the schemes from which\nDeath snatched them ere yet they had reached\nfruition.\n\nTo all, however, sooner or later — save to that\nsmall minority who during earth-life never felt one\ntouch of unselfish love, <,f intellectual aspiration, of\nrecognition of something or some one higher than\nthemselves — there comes a time when the bonds of\nthe astral body are finally shaken off, while the soul\nsinks into brief unconsciousness of its surroundings,\nlike the unconsciousness that follows the dropping\noff of the physical body, to be awakened by a sense\nof bliss, intense, immense, fathomless, undreamed\nof, the bliss of the heaven-world, of the world to\nwhich by its own nature it belongs. Low and vile\nmay ha.ve been many of its passions, trivial and sor-\ndid many o£ its longings, but it had gleams of a\nhigher nature, broken lights now and then from a\npurer region, and these must r'pen as seeds to the\ntime of their harvest, and however poor and few\nmust yield their fair return. The man passes on to\nreap this har^'cst, and to eat and assimilate its\nfruit.*\n\nThe astral corpse, as it id sometimes called, or the\n\n\"shell\" of the departed entity, consists of the frag-\n\n■ Sec Chapter V., on \"Devachan.\"\n\nASTRAL CORPSES. ICj\n\ntnents of the seven concentric shells before de-\n. scribed, held together by the remaining magnetism\nof the soul. Each shell in turn has disintegrated,\nuntil the point is reached when mere scattered frag-\nments of it remain ; these cling by magnetic attrac-\ntion to the remaining shells, and when one after\nanother has been reduced to this condition, until the\nseventh or innermost is reached and itself disinte-\ngrates, the man himself escapes, leaving behind him\nthese remains. The shell drifts vaguely about in\nthe kamalokic world, automatically and feebly re-\npeating its accustomed vibrations, and as the re-\nmaining magnetism gradually disperses, it falls into\na more and more decayed condition, and finally dis-\nintegrates completely, restoring its materials to the\ngeneral mass of astral matter, exactly as does the\nphysical body to the physical world. This shell\ndrifts wherever the astral currents may carry it, and\nmay be vitalized, if not too far gone, by the mag-\nnetism of embodied souls on earth, and so restored\nto some amount of activity. It will suck up mag-\nnetism as a sponge sucks up water, and will then\ntake on an illusory appearance of vitality, repeating\nmore vigorously any vibrations to which it was ac-\ncustomed; these are often set up by the stimulus of\nthoughts common to the departed soul and friends\nand relations on earth, and such a vitalized shell\nmay play quite respectably the part of a communi-\ncating intelligence; it is, however, distinguishable\n— apart from the use of astral vision — ^by its auto •\nmatic repetitions of familiar thoughts, and by the\n\n!06 TillC ANXIEKT WISDOM.\n\ntotal absence of all originality and of any traces of\nknowledge not possessed during physical life.\n\nJust as souls may be delayed in their progress by\nfoolish and inconsiderate friends, so may they be\naided in it by wise and well-directed efforts. Hence\nall religions, which retain any traces of the occull\nwisdom of their Founders, enjoin the use of \"pray-\ners for the dead.\" These prayers with their accom-\npanying ceremonies are more or less usefiil accord-\ning to the knowledge, the love, and the will-powei\nby which they are ensouled. They rest on that uni-\nversal truth of vibration by which the universe is\nbuilt, modified, and maintained. Vibrations are set\nup by the uttered sounds, arranging astral matter\ninto definite fonns, ensouled by the thought en-\nshrined in the words. These arc directed towards\nthe kamalokic entity, and, striking against the as-\ntral body, hasten its disintegration. With the decay\nof occult knowledge these ceremonies have become\nless and less potent, imtil their usefulness has almost\nreached a vanishing-point. Nevertheless they are\nstill sometimes performed by a man of knowledge,\nand then exert their rightful influence. Moreover,\nevery one can help his beloved departed by sending\nto them thoughts of love and peace and longing for\ntheir swift progress through the kamalokic world\nand their liberation from astral fetters. No one\nshould leave his \" dead\" to go on a lonely way, un-\nattended by ln\\'ing hosts of these guardian angel\nthought -forms, helping them forward to joy.\n\n* >",
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