I recently had a question from a student, asking if I can explain more about the astral planes, which I talk about a little bit in my Akashic Record Reading Program.
This gave me the idea to write an article about the various beings that reside on the astral planes and how they fit into the spirit world in general. This is such an abstract topic, but in this article I hope to give you a basic “map” or guide to the spirit realm and the types of spirit you can encounter there.
What Are The Astral Planes?
There are thought to be 7 positive and 7 negative astral planes around our planet. When I say they are located around our planet, I actually see them more as an overlay of our physical world. They are a realm of existence that we can access. How do we access the astral planes? There are 3 ways:
1. Sleep (we access the astral planes when we sleep because the spirit disconnects from the physical body and goes exploring in the astrals)
2. Using substances. Some substances, natural and synthetic, allow us to access the astral planes when we take them. Cannabis and alcohol are two examples.
3. Psychic exploration. We can consciously connect with the astral planes when we develop our clair senses.
The Positive Astral Planes
We mostly access the positive astral planes when we sleep and this is where many of our dreams take place. Have you ever noticed that the landscape or backdrop to your dreams can sometimes seem to be the same one throughout multiple dreams? This is because you are visiting an actual location in the astrals.
We also access the positive astrals when we are developing ourselves psychically and aiming to connect with our guides.
There are lots of beings that belong in the positive astrals. Let’s have a look at some of them.
Spirit Guides
A common type of being for us to connect with when we’re accessing the astrals is our Spirit Guides. These are the beings who know you inside out. They have been with you since before you even incarnated here. They know your soul’s mission or purpose here, what you’re learning, what you’re good at, and what you’re not so good at. Sometimes we have known our current guides in our past lives.
The way I often describe the relationship between us and our guides is that we are down on the ground, in the forest of life, trying to find our way. Our guides on the other hand are standing on a mountain top, able to see us navigating through the forest. They know for example when we’re going down a dead end. They see the bigger picture whereas we sometimes can’t see the wood for the trees.
Most of us have between 4 and 7 guides and each one helps us with something in particular. We have one primary guide who is usually like the ‘spokesguide’ for the others. (This guide is usually the easiest one to connect with psychically.)
Sometimes if we have 7 or 8 guides (so, more than usual) it indicates that we have a temporary guide. Usually with our guides they come into our lives early on or from birth (in the case of the primary guide) and they stick around indefinitely. But temporary guides are guides who pop in for a short time only and with a specific purpose. To give an example, if someone is going through a divorce, a temporary guide might pop in for a few years to help the person heal, or to help them find their feet as a single person in the world again, or maybe even to help with dating or finding a new partner.
This is really quite common, so when I come across someone with loads of guides in a reading, I know that they have at least one temporary one.
The temporary guides can help us with lots of things, not just with a divorce or loss.
Let’s have a look at another type of astral being that is connected with the positive astral planes:
Guardian Angels
The purpose of our guardian angels is to protect us from harm, if it is not our time to cross over to the other side. Most people have 2-3 guardian angels. We usually have a guardian angel who looks out for our physical safety and one that looks out for our emotional & spiritual safety.
Most people receive guidance from their guides and protection from their angels. Occasionally a person can be more attuned to their angels than their guides, and receive guidance from the angels, too (but this is less common.) It is more common among those who have consciously created and maintained a relationship over time with their guardian angels, such as angel intuitives.
Elemental Spirits
Another type of spirit that is connected to the positive astral plane is the elemental. Elementals are nature guardians & spirits who represent the energy of the elements (water, fire, air and earth) and they protect natural locations. They can be found in forests, near bodies of water, in meadows and on mountains and hills. These spirits can also be found around people with a strong connection to nature and those who spend a lot of time outdoors and in natural settings. We can connect with the elementals but they tend not to have messages for us the way our guides do.
Other Spirits e.g. Deceased Loved Ones
On the positive astral planes we may also be able to access deceased loved ones (including deceased animal companions), ancestors and souls who are yet to be born to us, as children.
Deceased loved ones and ancestors are not stuck on the astral planes; I see it more as they are on the ‘Other Side’ or the afterlife (which is one step above the astral plane in terms of energy), and they can then project their energy or spirit onto the astral plane, where we can connect with it. So it’s like they need to come down a notch in terms of vibration to communicate with us, and we need to go up a notch and access the astral plane to connect with them. We’re both building one half of a bridge. Not all deceased spirits can do this, which is why it is easier to connect with some more than others.
Souls yet to be born to us can also connect with us from the astral planes, in a similar sort of way to the deceased loved ones. They too are on the other side. (We usually have pre-incarnation, soul-level arrangements with souls that we plan to bring into the world as our children.)
The interesting book ‘Spirit Babies: How to Communicate with the Child You’re Meant to Have’ goes into this concept in a lot of detail.
Now let’s have a look at the negative astral planes.
Anyone who has had a nightmare knows what it is like to visit the negative astral planes (because we visit them during nightmares and night terrors.)
We also commonly access the negative astral planes when we’re ill, for example, with a fever or delirious.
Several years ago, I read a super interesting book called ‘Proof of Heaven’. It was written by a neurosurgeon called Eben Alexander who had a near death experience. He contracted a rare illness and was in a coma for 7 days, and during that period, his neocortex shut down, which means that his brain was not functional at all. Yet Alexander describes visiting a series of ‘places’ during those 7 days that he should not have been able to perceive given the fact that his brain was not operational.
He describes visiting a low vibrational place in his book during his NDE and residing there for days – here are some descriptions from it:
(Note that what I believe he is describing is a lower negative astral plane)
“Darkness, but a visible darkness —like being submerged in mud yet also being able to see through it. Or maybe dirty Jell-o describes it better. Transparent, but in a bleary, blurry, claustrophobic, suffocating kind of way.
Grotesque animal faces bubbled out of the muck, groaned and screeched, and then were gone again. I heard an occasional dull roar. Sometimes these roars changed to dim, rhythmic chants, chants that were both terrifying and weirdly familiar…”
The main type of spirit that resides in the negative astral planes is the earthbound spirit.
I wrote about earthbound spirits extensively on my blog, so I won’t go into a lot of detail about them. They are basically the mental and emotional bodies of people who have passed away but not fully crossed over.
Here are some links:
Note that we can sometimes access the negative astral planes when we use cannabis or when we use ouija boards. A person will not necessarily access the negative astral plane every time they use cannabis, but it can sometimes happen with that drug.
More info here on both:
- The Downsides of Using a Ouija Board to Access Spiritual Guidance
- The Spiritual Risks of Cannabis Use & How to Protect Yourself
Note that if a person has repeated night terrors they usually have a portalway to the negative astral planes open in their unconscious mind; this can occasionally happen as a result of stress and trauma. It is possible to close these kinds of portalway by calling on a Divine being and setting an intention to do so.
Also note that the astral plane is separate from the Divine realm, which is where Divine beings such as Ascended Masters and Archangels can be found. The Divine realm is several steps up from the astral realm and a higher vibrational place, and I don’t recommend calling on Divine beings for guidance.
Here’s a piece on how to work with the Divine beings:
How to Work with Divine Beings for Emotional Freedom & Healing
I hope you enjoyed this guide to the spirit realm. If you’re interested in learning how to consciously access the positive astral planes to connect with the wise, benevolent beings that reside there (and bypass the negative astral beings, such as the earthbound spirit), you may be interested in my Intuitive Awakening Course.
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