THE INNER ARTS · LESSON 5 OF 8 · 20 MIN
The Astral Body — Preparing to Travel
What practitioners mean by the astral, how to explore it safely, and why most of the work is in preparation and return.
The astral is the name the Western tradition gives to a realm of images, symbols and forms that lies between the physical world and the purely spiritual. Dreams, visions and many ritual experiences happen there. Practitioners speak of an astral body as the part of you that can perceive that realm, in the same way the physical body perceives the material world.
Whether this is a literal body, a metaphor for imagination, or both, is a question each practitioner must settle for themselves. The practice itself is the same either way.