The Effect of Esoteric Work on the Etheric and Astral Body

Esoteric work enables us to radiate light from the Ego which dispels the darkness. The esoteric work in fact increases the light from the Higher Ego, in the solar sphere, into the embodied Ego, in the terrestrial sphere.

The light of the Ego enters the etheric body and frees it from the necessity of remaining chained within the confines of the physical body. The etheric body expands, frees itself from the physical and breathes in the perceptions that expand in turn.

The light of the ego enters the astral body which becomes capable of conforming its organs, the lotus flowers or chakras, so as to experience progressively higher states of consciousness.

This happens to the extent that the light of the ego is able to purify the craving that pervades the astral body. The substance of craving in the astral body is thus rendered more subtle, more transparent, and so the astral body becomes able to expand into the cosmos, visiting the celestial spheres.

Craving in fact makes the desire substance of the astral body dense and viscous, and so it clings to the objects of the physical-sensible world. Lust makes the astral body incapable of passing through the objects of perception; it makes one identify with them.

To the extent that the substance of the astral body is refined, the astral body can expand into the cosmos and not remain restrained by the objects of the physical-sensible world.

The liberation of the etheric body from the physical body and the purification of the astral body from craving enables the disciple of esotericism to expand his perceptions beyond the earthly sphere. Both the departed and the elemental beings are thus perceived.

In particular, in each ceremony of the Temple Service, elemental beings are released into the spirit as they wait spellbound in substance.

The departed also approach whenever the Astral Temple opens and are present at the ceremonies in all transitions between what is sensible and what is super-sensible.

The saints likewise direct this process, being the paradigm of the departed, that is, being those who have gone before the path traced by Christ.

It is possible, therefore, to have a super-sensible relationship with the elemental beings, the departed and the saints insofar as the etheric body is not trapped in the physical senses, just as it is possible to purify the craving in the astral body. In fact, elemental beings are devoid of craving, the departed who have passed through kamaloka have purified themselves of craving, and the saints have already done so in life.

On the other hand, the esoteric work conducted in the secrecy of the Temple, acts like the transmutations of the alchemists conducted in a hermetically sealed laboratory. An expanded perception is thus accessed through the liberation of the etheric body outside the physical. The ordinary senses are refined in a super-sensible sense: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell are spiritualised.

It is by means of this spiritualisation of perceptions that we can go into the world and find the light to free it. This only begins as the light of the Higher Self pours more and more into the incarnate self on Earth.

Everything in our world is mixed between light and darkness. Since the industrial revolution and consumerism, darkness has also acquired the power to imitate divine creation, although its creations are objects that are subject purely to the laws of number, weight and measure.

The disciples of Western esotericism are "seekers of light", being heirs to the Religion of Light and having been given the task of redeeming darkness by illuminating it with the light of the I-Christ. Illuminated darkness becomes colour and then shining ever brighter, it becomes the new light.

But as the disciples of Western esotericism become capable of releasing light, they themselves radiate the light of the Ego into the world, like illuminating beacons in the darkness of materialism. They can shine so brightly that they change darkness into light and even infuse light into that which has no light because it was born of darkness.