Astral Substance is what makes up your astral body. Before incarnating into the physical body, the consciousness of the descending soul passes through the astral layers around Earth and collects various astral forces to build the astral body that will be used as a vehicle to incarnate into matter. The specific astral forces collected depend on the soul itself and its chosen life on Earth.
The Astral Substances or forces around Earth come from the surrounding planets. The planets are the physical bodies of some very large beings that have incarnated as planets. These beings have an astral body which is an expression of them in Astral Substance.
As stated earlier, consciousness expresses itself through various dimensions of light with Astral Substance being the lowest dimension of this light. While the light of the higher dimensions vibrates very fast, the astral light has been slowed down significantly so that the consciousness from the highest dimensions may incarnate into matter which vibrates slower. The dimensions of light come from the higher dimensions of consciousness and so this light is an actual expression of the higher consciousness (it’s just a slower vibration).
Earth is situated with surrounding planets which all have an astral body which is an expression of the being that has incarnated into the planet. These beings are sometimes called gods and the Ancient Greek, Roman and Hindu mythologies of the gods do well in depicting their personalities and interactions. As the human’s astral body is made up of the Astral Substance from each of these so-called gods, the interactions occur both within the individual human and between individuals and groups. The human-being collects Astral Substance from these so-called gods on the way through the lower dimensions of Astral Substance before incarnation. Depending on the positions of the planets in relation to Earth and each other the Astral Substances acquired will differ and hence the science of the horoscope.
So a consciousness (spirit) which has a high dimensional light body gradually descends into lower vibrations and gathers Astral Substance around the light body and then incarnates into the physical and energy bodies of the baby. The actual incarnation occurs at birth as this is when the being is brought into the 3rd dimension. During the pregnancy the spirit has a connection to the fetus and so is partially incarnated but its main substance is waiting in the higher dimensions. It is when the baby is born that the spirit has really begun its incarnation into the 3rd dimension. Although birth is indeed the beginning of the incarnated life it takes time for the various Astral Substances, light and consciousness to merge with the physical body. It takes a normal person about 28 years to incarnate all of the astral energies they have brought with them. In fact the incarnation process does keep on going for the entire life but it seems that 28 is the critical point. Before 28 years is reached it is almost impossible for a being to have incarnated all that it has intended to.
The spirit does not incarnate all of itself into the 3rd dimension and much of its higher energies and substance stay in the higher dimensions. The higher selves of all individuals reside in these higher dimensions and will never incarnate during earthly life. An exception to this rule is for the spiritual seekers who spend many years meditating, purifying and incarnating higher energies. In the past these beings have been few and far between because the purpose of life on earth has not been to incarnate these parts. Earth has had a very specific purpose which will be explained in detail in A New Mythology. Now however this purpose has been fulfilled and many are joining these spiritual seekers to raise the consciousness of the planet and to actually raise humanity into the 4th dimension. This is the reason for these websites and many other writings and spiritual teachings which have become available in the last 10-20 years.
When the baby is born, the astral body is very clear as the substances which make it up have come straight from the higher/more pure astral layers. The Astral Substances have characteristics as they are an expression of the beings which they belong to. The consciousness and higher-dimensional Light Body which has incarnated is therefore experienced through this astral body. If you shine a light through a colored lens, the light that comes out and is experienced on the other side is distorted by this lens as the color has been changed. This is how the baby experiences its higher light, through the astral body. It is still very clear and the higher light is still very clearly experienced albeit through the lens of the astral body. All the innocence, love and positive virtues of a baby are a result of the higher light shining through the astral body and into the 3rd dimension. The more specific personality characteristics are a result of the Astral Substances which make up the astral body. So the personality of the baby is a mixture of its Higher Self and the astral body (horoscope) as well as the instincts that are a part of the physical body and the forces from lower dimensions.
The Higher Self of the baby is an extremely sensitive and loving being. It has come from a place of absolute love, safety, wisdom, intelligence and sensitivity. Life on Earth is very different to the place of its origin. As soon as it is born a huge disconnection from its home occurs, leading to immense heartbreak, fear and need of nurturance. When the being feels nurtured and secure you can clearly see the higher aspects of its spirit. When it does not feel these things from its environment you will clearly see the pain and grief that the baby feels. Whenever this pain is felt by the baby the disconnection from the spirit’s essence (home) is increasing. The only treatment for this pain is for the astral body of the infant to begin to crystallize to shut out the pain which in effect shuts out the higher energies as well. When the baby was first born the astral body was like a colored lens but as parts begin to crystallize its like putting scratches on the lens which further distorts and blocks out the higher light. This is the formation of the ego. Every time the baby feels unpleasant emotions the astral body crystallizes further to block out the pain. Eventually the astral body has become a crystallized structure which successfully blocks out the pain of the spirit’s disconnection from its source.
Once the astral body has become crystallized to this point it is a fully fledged ego structure. This structure reacts to the World depending on its inherent astral forces or horoscope and the way its structure was formed as everything that is experienced becomes shadowed by emotional traumas and conditioning. The more emotional pain felt by the individual and the less nurturance, security and love received during infancy the more crystallized will be the ego structure and therefore the more distorted and blocked the incoming higher light from the Higher Self.
The astral body incarnates into the physical body through the chi body and the ‘chitta’ (explained later under Chitta) which are both greatly involved with the CNS (Central Nervous System) which includes the brain, spinal cord and all nerves running throughout the body. You feel emotions throughout the body because of this interaction. Your Heart Chakra is in the middle of your chest (within the Light Body); the emotions felt here in the astral body transfer into the chi/etheric body and then into the physical body through the nerves. When you feel broken-hearted you feel physical pain in the area even though the emotion is located in the astral body because of this interaction. The structure in the astral body can be seen and felt in the physical body as tension because the crystallized astral grasps the etheric which in turn affects the nerves in the area. The ego structure in the astral body always effects the flow of etheric/chi energy which in turn causes stress/tension in the physical body which leads to poor health, weakness and rapid aging of the physical body.
In ordinary individuals the ego structure created during infancy remains until death, being the base of personality through which life is experienced. At death the astral body leaves the physical and etheric bodies and begins to rise into higher dimensions. As this occurs the crystallized parts shatter under the pressure of higher vibration. Much of the shattered astral body goes back to where it came from and becomes as it was before the incarnation but some very crystallized chunks remain intact and stay on earth where they become etheric/astral parasites. This will be covered in detail under Entities.
Once the astral body has shattered the parts of the higher consciousness and light of the being that incarnated will go back to the higher dimensions from where they came. The spirit will see clearly once again, remember who and what it is and realize that the life it just lived was but a tiny (but very meaningful) experience on its journey throughout the Universe.