Subtle Bodies.

Subtle bodies follow the ROYGBIV color spectrum rays of light frequency - much like our auras and chakras.


The Subtle Body in Theosophy

While the Eastern esoteric traditions emphasise a single subtle body (apart from the Vedantic concept of five koshas), in the West (beginning with Neoplatonism) the emphasis has often been on a series of subtle bodies or vehicles (okhema) of consciousness. This reached its most detailed and systematic account in the writings of C.W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant, who established the Adyar School of Theosophy. They described in detail the seven bodies, and established many of the themes that would be canonical in "new age" thought. The sequence of bodies or "vehicles" is as follows (from densest to most subtle):

1. Dense physical body
   
2. Etheric body
   
3. Astral or emotional body
   
4. Mental body (concrete mind)
   
5. Causal body (abstract mind)

Beyond the causal level are the atmic, buddhic, and monadic levels, but these pertain to the Soul or Spirit ("Higher Triad", "Monad") rather than the subtle body.In this worldview, the physical body is the densest, with the various subtle bodies being progressively more refined or spiritual. The subtle bodies exist alongside or within or around the physical, and have various characteristics and attributes.

Each "body" has its own aura and set of chakras, and corresponds to a particular plane of existence, as the individualisation so to speak of that plane. Thus the astral body is made up of the substance or matter of the astral plane, just as the physical body is made up of the elements of the physical plane, and so on with all the bodies.


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