The same level of experience found in the universe as a whole can be found within the human Soul as well. The same levels of "Being-ness", the same divine Hierarchies found in the "immaterial" etheric, astral and higher planes of the universe as a whole can be found within the human Soul as well. This realization of being a "MIRROR" of the Macrocosm is central to unfold the mystical process. This whole process circles around the magnetic axial pole of pure Being.
The principle of macrocosm and microcosm, which represents this mirroring of levels is the foundation of all the spiritual and metaphysical traditions. From the formation of stars, to the collapses of galaxies, from our humble meditation practices, to world affairs... Everything in the universe affects and resonates with everything else. In the same manner, our own spiritual practice and level of consciousness affect and resonate in all the Planes of existence in the universe... This is also a reminder that, however strange the universe may seem to us, we and it share one nature and one life.
The individual human being, then, is understood in mystical terms as a reflection of the whole universe, and the same levels we have traced in the universe as a whole can be traced in the Soul as well. This is another way of repeating what we have previously said, that our own level of consciousness projects outwardly the way we "see" and understand reality.
The universe and the spiritual Hierarchy are mirrored in us through many subtle bodies. We have, the biological or physical body - the etheric body, which is made of ether or life-energy - the astral body, which is the body of concrete consciousness shaped by the psyche (thoughts, feelings) - the mental body, which is the body of abstract consciousness perceived by pure awareness, which opens on realms of experience not bounded by space and time; and the spiritual or causal body named also the Light body, which is the root of consciousness and the innermost essence of the Soul. As with the levels of the macrocosm, each body can be seen as governing the body "below" it — that is, denser or more material than itself; thus, for example, the astral body is shaped and directed by the mental body, and in turn shapes and directs the etheric body.
Each of these parts of the Soul has its own nature and functions, and its own role in the awakening process. The physical body, for its part, is the body known to medical and biological science. It serves as the material foundation and instrument of the other parts of the Soul, enabling the Soul to perceive and act in the realm of material experience. Traditional lore assigns each of its parts to one or another part of spiritual symbolism; thus, for instance, each of the five fingers is assigned to one of the five elements.
The etheric body is usually divided, for clarity, into two parts. The first of these is the etheric double; this closely resembles the ordinary body of matter, extending out perhaps an inch beyond the surface of the skin, and provides the framework of subtle formative energies on which the material body is built. It contains a series of channels (the meridians of Oriental medicine) and energy centers, which have an important role in mystical work.
The second part of the etheric body is called the aura or, in another context, the Sphere of Sensation. This is a roughly egg-shaped field of energies surrounding the etheric double, extending out several feet from the physical body. It serves as the interface between the etheric body of the individual and that of the cosmos, and all the forces of the universe are reflected on its surface.
The astral body cannot be so easily mapped out in this kind of spatial language. A body of consciousness, it comes closer to the modem idea of "mind" than to that of "body," although neither of these too-rigid categories fits well anywhere in the mystical view of the Soul. The astral body can be thought of as a field of energy occupying roughly the same space as the aura, but constantly shaped and reshaped by patterns of thought and feeling. All images, words, and sensations affect this body, and are affected by it in turn; it interacts freely with the astral level of the cosmos, and with the astral bodies of other human and non-human beings. It contains most of those parts of the self we normally think of as "mental" or "inner"— intellect, emotion, imagination, will, and memory, the instruments of concrete consciousness — and it is also the basis for the individual personality.
The mental body can be thought of as the essential pattern of the Soul. It can be described as a subtle "body" only in a highly metaphorical sense, and cannot be located in a spatial sense at all. This body is the instrument of abstract consciousness — that is, thought that does not involve forms and images of the sort we perceive with our senses — and thus makes it possible to perceive the core ideas or structures of experience, which exist outside of space and time.
The Spiritual body, or Causal body finally, is the root of the Soul, the essence or "divine spark" around which all the other layers of the Soul are built up; it represents the point of contact between the human microcosm and that unity of Being that, in theological terms, we may as well call the unknown God. It can best be imagined as pure Being, without any other definition or quality. (Plotinus.com)
