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The body of light, sometimes called the 'astral body' or the 'subtle body,' is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, posited by a number of philosophers, and elaborated on according to various esoteric, occult, and mysticism teachings. Other terms used for this body include body of glory, spirit-body, luciform body, augoeides ( radiant body), astroeides ( starry or sidereal body), and celestial body.
The concept derives from the philosophy of Plato: the word 'astral' means 'of the stars'; thus the astral plane consists of the Seven Heavens of the . The idea is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an ecstatic, mystical or out-of-body experience, wherein the spiritual traveler leaves the physical body and travels in their body of light into 'higher' realms."
Neoplatonism Porphyry and Proclus elaborated on Plato's description of the starry nature of the human psyche. Throughout the Renaissance, philosophers and alchemists, healers including Paracelsus and his students, and natural science such as John Dee, continued to discuss the nature of the astral world intermediate between earth and the Divinity. The concept of the astral body or body of light was adopted by 19th-century Éliphas Lévi, Florence Farr and the magicians of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, including Aleister Crowley.
Such doctrines were commonplace in mystery-schools, Gnosticism and Hermeticism sects throughout the Roman Empire, and influenced the early Christian church. Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians contains a reference to the astral plane or astral projection: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows."
The early Neoplatonist Porphyry (3rd century) wrote of the Augoeides, a term which is encountered in the literature of Neoplatonic theurgy. The word originates from Ancient Greek and has been interpreted as deriving from ᾠόν, meaning 'egg', or αυγή, meaning 'dawn', combined with 'είδηση', indicative of 'news' or 'a message', or with 'Eidolon]]', an 'idol' or 'reflection'. Thomas Taylor commented on Porphyry's use of the term:
Synesius, a 4th-century Greek bishop, according to Isaac Myer equated the divine body with 'Imagination' ( phantasia) itself, considering it to be "something very subtle, yet material," referring to it as "the first body of the soul."
Building on concepts described by Iamblichus and Plotinus, the late Neoplatonist Proclus (5th century), who is credited as the first to speak of subtle planes, posited two subtle bodies, vehicles, or 'carriers' ( okhema), intermediate between spirit and the physical body. These were:
Ficino describes this tenuous form as being of aether or quintessence, the fifth element, spirit, and says that it has a "fiery and starry nature." He also refers to it as the 'astral body,' intermediate between spirit and the body of matter.
Such ideas greatly influenced the Renaissance medicine of Paracelsus (1493–1541) and Servetus (1509/11–1553). John Dee (1527–1608/9), a student of Ficino, based his natural philosophy on Ficino and the Medieval optical theories of Roger Bacon, William of Ockham, John Peckham, and Vitello; according to Szulakowska "specifically for his ideas concerning the radiation of light rays and the effects of the planetary and stellar influences on the earth." Dee was also influenced by the Arabian philosopher Al-Kindi, whose treatise De radiis stellarum wove together astrology and optical theory, which inspired Dee's Propaedeumata Aphoristica. In Dee's system of Enochian magic, there were three main techniques: invocation (prayer), scrying (crystal-gazing), and Astral travel in the body of light.
Lévi's idea of the astral was to have much influence in the English-speaking world due to being adopted by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and by Aleister Crowley, who believed himself to be Lévi's reincarnation and promoted a number of ideas from his works, including his idea of the true self or True Will, much of his system of ceremonial magic, and his theories of the astral plane and the body of light.
Farr's writings, signed with the initials of her motto 'SSDD', studied the ten parts of a human being which she said were described in ancient Egyptian writings, including the Sahu, the elemental or astral body; the Tet or Zet, the spiritual body or soul; and the Khaibt, the sphere or aura, radiating from the Sahu, and symbolised by a fan. Farr wrote that the ancient Egyptian adepts "looked upon each body, or manifested being, as the material basis of a long vista of immaterial entities functioning as a spirit, soul and mind in the formative, creative and archetypal worlds." She described how the Khaibt forms a sphere around a human being at birth.
The occultist Israel Regardie (1907–1985) published a collection of Golden Dawn magical texts which state that "the whole sphere of sensation which surroundeth the whole physical body of a man is called 'the magical mirror of the universe'. For therein are represented all the occult forces of the universe projected as on a sphere..." Regardie connects the Sefirot of the Hermetic Qabalah Tree of Life to this sphere as a microcosm of the universe. The Kabbalistic concept of the Nephesh ('psyche') is seen as "the subtle body of refined Astral Light upon which, as on an invisible pattern, the physical body is extended."
Crowley explains that the most important practices for developing the Body of Light are:
According to Crowley, the role of the body of light is broader than simply being a vehicle for astral travel — he writes that it is also the storehouse of all experience.
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