Astral Body = Psukhe; Mental Body = Noos

What is the development of the astral-body subsequent to its own stated "disintegration" occurring a few days after "death" (usually followed by disintegration) of the material body? [It hath commonly been reported by astral-projecters that "death" of the material body is marked by egress out of the material body the soul encased in an astral-body, which itself is not immortal but must within a definite time (usually a few days) disintegrate, although such "2nd death" must be marked by egress of a 3rd body (the mental-body) out of the astral-body. The sensations experienced (felt) leading into these egresses do not seem to have been described in the literature of astral-projection : a description of them would have to be derived either from (1) a memory recovered (retained) in a subsequent redincarnation into a material body, or (2) a description rendered by a soul occupying a non-material body during the process of being guided by a projected living assistant to the divine tranporters of the non-material-body-encased soul of the dead into the immaterial region (immaterial plane-of-existence) for the objective of praeparing for redincarnation into a material body, or possibly (3) a description acquired from a soul which is arriving into that immaterial processing-station by a soul which is in a later stage of the process of being praepared in the processing-station for redincarnation. The reason for a distinct 3rd possibility would be fact that loss-of-memory would appear most commonly to occur in the earliest state of the processing for redincarnation, so that an account (in order to be praeserved) of the sensation might have to be rendered by the new arrival (before losing memory) to a soul (who hath already lost such memory) who is already in a later stage of the process. The usual Bodish narrative (recited in the praesence of a newly-dead material corpse) is (in all available variants) lacking in any description of the sensations experienced by a soul taking egress out of the material body in an astral-body, as well of of the sensations experienced by soul taking egress out of the astral-body in a mental-body. These sensations can be easily surmised, however, to be those experienced by the astral-projecter while taking egress out of the material body, namely tingling, rippling, and vibration, which denote the emplacing (by deities praesent, whether noticed by the mortal or not) of a non-material body into the body about to be departed out of, in order to formulate such a structure for departure. Noticing by the mortal projecter of as`raya-s (rays) of the atman (soul), and of nad.i-s (filaments of the rays), in the manners experienced in (nad.i-activated) hat.ha (double-nad.i-countrebalancing) yoga and in other such variants of Kun.d.alini yoga would not seem to be recorded in the literature of astral-projection; even though the aequivalents of some of the kriya-s (the sorts involving tingling, but not the sorts involving automatic limb-movements such as automatic-writing) of buddha (awakened) Kun.d.alini yoga are indeed recorded by astral-projecters.]

This quaestion, left unanswered in the literature of astral-projection, is, however, provided with an answer in Meso-Platonic and also in Neo-Platonic psychic metaphysics. The psukhe, upon ascending as far as the sphaire of Selene (moon), is dissolved either into the solid mass of the moon (Meso-Platonic) into the atmosphaire of the moon, viz. in the form of mist (Neo-Platonic). [A mythic form of the mist would be the Norse (Eddic) Mist-kalb, where /kalb/ (calf) is cognate with Skt. /garbha/ (embryo), indicatng by this inchoate form a potentiality for transsubstantiation into a structure for the body of a foetus in the redincarnation.]

The Etruscan moon-goddess Lusna/Losna can be associated with mist :

"Losna is depicted ... with the boy Amukes (... who is the equivalent of the Greek Amykos) ... . ... Amykos was the King of the Bebryces" ("L").

The "Bebryces" were combatted by the son of heroine Elektra (GM 158.f). "Elektra's self withal, the Star-queen lovely-robed, shrouded her form in mist" (Diodoros Sikelos : Library of History 13. 54. 5 -- "E").

/Lusna/ is relatable to /luscus/, which is 'one-eyed, winking'.

"Electra could not bear the spectacle of Troy’s fall and blocked her eyes with her hands." (Ovidius : Fasti 4:149 sq -- "E")

"Losna may be the form of Her name in the dialect of Praeneste (Latin Palestrina)." ("L")

This word /palaistra/ 'wrestling-place' could suggest aequivalence with Atalante, the heroine who wrestled Peleus while he was "nude" ("M596"). "A nude Atlante must refer to ... her wrestling contest with Peleus" (DI, p. 17). Thus, Atlante came to have "a pierced maidenhead" (GM 141.d). With this piercing cf. the longodes ('spear-shaped') utensil of Elektra (Hyginus : Fabulae 192 -- "E").

Nude heroine Atalante's holding down of nude hero Peleus may a mythic form of a variant the Meso-Platonic doctrine of the psukhe's dissolving into the moon's interior, namely of the psukhe's (or perhaps rather psukhe's "husband" eros's) forcibly being held down by the lunar body.

"On the road from Andania towards Kyparissiai (Cyparissiae) is Polikhne [in Messenia], as it is called, and the streams of Elektra (Electra) and Koios (Coeus)." (Pausanias : Description of Greece 4:33:6 -- "E")

{/KOIOs/ is etymologically cognate with Skt. /S`ES.A/.} "Legend has it that King Indradyumna of Malava had a dream wherein he saw Purusottama Narasimha being worshipped in a Form over whose head the snake Sesa had spread his hood." ("ASJ") [Nara-simha is a man-LION god.]

As for Atalante and her husband Melanion, "Zeus changed them both into lions." (GM 80.l) [Certain mythographers misquoted Plinius concerning this, for he wrote that "lions vigorously punish lionesses for mating with leopards" (GM 80.5).]

"L" = "Losna" http://www.thaliatook.com/OGOD/losna.html

GM = Robert Graves : The Greek Myths. 1955.

"E" = "Elektra" http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheElektra2.html

"M596" = http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Munich%20596&object=Vase

DI = Eric M. Moormann : Divine Interiors: Mural Paintings in Greek and Roman Sanctuaries. Amsterdam U Pr, 2011. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=9rFtBOGTrbwC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=

"ASJ" = "Antiquities of Shri Jagannath " http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/04-07/features627.htm

Thus, the astral-body = psukhe. The mental-body [whereinto the consciousness of the dead is transferred (as also the projecter's consciousness can be) in order to travel further] = noo:s [which traveleth beyond the sphaire of the moon, even unto the sphaire of the fixed stars (as, in the Politeia/Republic by Platon) prior to redincarnation]. Travel beyond the sphaire of the moon must be undertaken only through the successive sphaires of the others of the 7 planets, these comprising the 7 as`raya-s of the atman (which is a faceted luminous feature located at the solar plexus, as is witnessed by exorcists in, e.g., the Holy Order of MANS) : therefore, it can be deduced that the rays of the soul of revealed to the consciousness in the mental body while trending toward the world of the multi-dotted causal-bodied deities (the ground of fixed stars being the source of such luminous dots, which cover the darksome bodies of such deities in the guise wherein their appear when they make visitation to the material-plane of waking-state mortals {as I have often witnessed from close-up, standing just inches from the full-sized resplendent bodies of such visitant deities}.

Redincarnation is known in the Bauddha system as 're-linkage' by means of a 'chain of dependent origination' consisting of 12 links; for these are the forged in vis`uddhi cakra (whereat is located the '12-storeied pagoda' of the Taoist microcosmic physiology). According to the Bauddha system, redincarnation cannot occur until the full chain of 12 is assembled. (Just where in the Antarabhava world such chains are assembled and stored is not apparently described in ordinary exoteric texts, however.)

[written June 2, 2012]