The Astral Light has been called by many other names - ‘the Aethyr Of The Wise’, ‘Akasha’, ‘Elan Vital’ and ‘the Orgone Energy’.
The astral can be considered as the energy double of the material. It is in one sense ‘the stuff that dreams are made of’. Dreams originate in other Sephiroth of the tree, either singly or in combination, but the ‘substance’ from which their images are made in the astral light, which is the energy of Yesod. It is the same substance that gives light and life to anything human kind imagine, whether visually or by using other senses.
The Astral Light - which is equivalent to the ‘astral plane’ - is the realm of astral projection or travel. Astral projection works through the combination of will and imagination, creating the required and appropriate imagery. These ‘come to life’ in the astral light of Yesod. Although the ‘quality of feeling’ may be different, the images created in visual imagination, day-dreams, night-dreams, guided fantasy or direct day dreaming are all - in terms of their relevance and their substance - identical with the images of astral travelling.
Books which describe astral travelling as a process of the ‘double’ leaving the body (usually through the top of the head and attached by a silver or gold cord) are actually describing the process of splitting the etheric double from the physical form and not astral travel. The process of separating the etheric double from the body is dangerous; astral separation is rarely, if ever, harmful.
Various groups, throughout human history, have concentrated their energies, will and imagination on various symbols or symbolic systems -both of magical and mystical emphasis - and have created ‘permanent’ astral planes - where the astral light has been imprinted with the symbols of a certain belief. While these are more collective than individual in character, it is through Yesod that an individual can make contact these ‘sub-planes’.
