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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA .
GIFT OF

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Received Sept. 189.
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Accession No. 77362 . Class No. 98400
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 THE

HUMAN AURA .
BY

A. MARQUES , S. D.

PRICE , 40 CENTS .
LIBRARY
OF THE

UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO :
OFFICE OF Mercury, Native SONS ' BUILDING , 414 MASON STREET.

f
1
 THE
HUM
AURAN
A. .
3

THE

HUMAN AURA .

A STUDY

BY

A. MARQUES , S. D. ,
President Aloha Branch T. S. ,

Assisted by M. McElroy.

UNIVEASITY

.
“ My Doctrine is Not Mine But His That Sent Me." - John vii : 16.

SAN FRANCISCO :

OFFICE OF Mercury, NATIVE SONS' BUILDING , 414 MASON STREET.

 >

.
eft of2. Shim
Lbell
All Rights of Reproduction and Translation Reserved .

COPYRIGHT DECEMBER , 1896 ,

Entered Stationers ' Hall.

Seft 9
72362
 CAL

CONTENTS.

PREFACE, by Miss M. A. Walsh, v;

AUTHOR'S PREFACE, vii.

CHAPTER I. - INTRODUCTORY.'
Purpose of the Work, 1 ; Aura Common to all Things, even of Human Man
ufacture 2 ; Definition of the Aura, 3 ; Known to Antiquity, 4 ; Auras
of Roman Catholic Pictures and of Hindu Divinities, 4; Lost through
the Dark Ages, 5; Modern Increase of Psychic Faculties, 6; Aura as Seen
by Ordinary Seers, 7 ; Very Complex in Its Composition, 8; General En
umeration of Twenty -one Auric Subdivisions, 9 ; The Aura in Connec
tion with the Human Principles, 11 ; Man aa Decade, not only a Septen
ary, 12 ; Classification of Human Principles, Koshas or Sheaths, 14 ;
Agreement with St. Paul's Division, 15.
CHAPTER II . -DESCRIPTION .
Present Description Based on Direct Higher Optic Vision, Corroborated by
Psychic and Scientific Observation , 16.
§ 1. MATERIAL PORTION .
I. — Emanations and Manifestations from the Body, Exhaled Prana, 18 ;
Tatwic Currents Corroborating the Tatwa Theory, 19 ; Aura of
Plants 19 ;
a) Chromatic, Five Colored Lines Corresponding to the Elements, 20;
b) Geometrical Forms Traceable to the Vibrations of Elements , 22 :
Periodical Changes, 23; Exceptions, 25 ; Theory of the Pulse, 25;
Secret of Disease, 26 ;
2d. Magnetic Aura, 27 ;
3d. Caloric Aura, 29 ;
4th. Electric or Health Aura, 30; Protective against Disease, 30 ;
All Lower Auras Combine to Give aa Luminous Appearance to the Body, 31 ;
Are Affected by State of Health, 31 .
II.-Etheric Body or Double, 32 ;
III. - Pranic Aura, or Inhaled Prana, 33;
§ 2. PSYCHIC OR SOUL PORTIONS.
IV. - Kamic Aura, 34;
Thoưght Forms, 36;
 iv

V. - Psychic Aura, Lower Manas, 38;

Auric Colors and Their Import, 40;
Aura of Adepts, 44, 46 ;
VI. - Manasic Aura, 45;
$ 3 SPIRITUAL PORTIONS.
VII.-Buddhic Aura, 47 ;
VIII. —Atmic Aura or Auric Egg, 48;
$ 4. MISCELLANEOUS.
Shapes of Auras, 50; Aura of Perfected Man, 51 ; Various Other Manifes
tations, Sheaves and Volutes, 51 ; Gold Dust, 52; Influence of the World
Thought-Currents 52; Auras in Sleep and Trance, 53; Importance of Last
Thought before Sleep, 55; Aura after Death, 55.
CHAPTER III . - CONCLUSION .
Usefulness of the Study of the Aura, 57 ; Opinion of Paracelsus, 58; of Zo
roastrianism 58 ; of Mr. Sinnett, 58 ; Intermingling of Auras, 58; Trans
mission of Diseases through the Auras, 59 ; Mesmerism, 59; Knowledge
of the Aura Useful for Self-protection, 60;
1. Socially, 60;
2. Morally, 60;
a) against Disease Germs, 61 ;
3. Physically b) against Contacts, 61 ;
after Death, against Premature Burial, 62.
APPENDIX.
S. Aura of Plants, 63;
S. II .--Aura of the Magnet, 68;
S. III.--Practical Instruction for Sight Training, 71 ;
S VI.--Bibliography, 75.

1
P

PREFACE .
"
They who follow “ the path that leads thro' darkness up to God , ”
find on their way distinctive turning points. Thus, we realize that in
Theosophical literature another plane has been reached . The thought
leaders have passed from the proof of reason to the proof of clear vision ;
and experiments conducted by the inner perceptions now form a scientific
basis for a practical knowledge of transcendental, yet natural laws. The
London band of highly gifted and accu curately trained seers reveal to us
worlds invisible, objectify thought-forms and describe from actual observa
tion the nature and evolution of atoms, while here, at the Gates of the
Setting Sun, other students endowed with a rare combination of keen
inner sight and a scientific habit of mind, give to the world the results of
their work on the Human Aura, and that of plants, tracing the auric
correlations with principles and forces so cleary that all may understand.
For nearly half a century the existence of the aura has been known
even to the uninitiated ; students of psychic force have theorized upon it,
clairvoyants and sensitives have spoken of it familiarly ; nevertheless, the
general knowledge of this invisible part of “ self ” has been of a vague de
lusive character. A clear and well- classified study on the aura has, there

fore, become an imperative necessity to every student of man and nature,

and just such a study will be found in this work.
To-day we like theories, but we demand facts,—and facts this author
gives. Dr. Marques claims no authority save that of experience,-exper
ience confirmed by repeated experiments, the results of which have been
subjected to critical analysis. It has been my privilege to see a little of
that the method followed in this study by Dr. Marques, and I can truly say
the personal equation has been carefully eliminated, and a severe scientific
judgment passed upon every observation. No conclusion is forced, no dogma
formulated ; on the contrary, the author emphasizes the idea that the
work is tentative,-more a suggestion for further investigation than an
exhaustive and complete work in itself. But the book is really far more
than tentative, and the reader who hospitably receives its message will
 vi

find herein a synthetic conception of the aura , which will serve as a foun
dation and framework for all future building on the subject. Whoever
reads it will want to build, to investigate; he will want to verify and to
know for himself this unseen “ I” now objectified in form and color, with
all the links that moor it to dewdrop and crystal, to star dust and flower
petal, to light, sound, form and color, to the very central sun itself. As
he reads, consciousness deepens and expands, the sphere of microcosmic
energy, called man,, is better known: the insignificance of the visible, the
mightiness of the invisible, the power of human thought to change, to
build, to destroy, become realized facts. The listening ear catches echoes
of the soul's diapason evolving, even through discords, the “ lost chord ” of
a perfected humanity.
However, the Human Aura does not appeal solely to mystics and those
transcendently inclined, it has a very practical bearing upon the ills of life;
for it prepares the way to a medical system based upon the true nature of
the individual and his correlation with the planetary forces crystallized in
herb and mineral, and which are most closely akin to that nature. Apart
from the promise it contains of another special work on the matter, the
passage relating to Disease Auras merits thorough study. It is full of &

clews, which, carried out to complete development, will reveal the cause of
disease; and he who knows the true cause knows also the cure .
Moreover the “ Human Aura” gives the reason why of the cures effected by
the many schools of Mental Science, and the basis is laid for a rationalized
system of “ Mind Cure ', that all advanced thinkers will be able to under
stand, accept and practice.
Some will find
To all readers, therefore, this book carries a message.
in it words of might, quickening into active life latent powers; some will
find in it a key to unlock mysteries. May all find it a help in the aquisi
tion of true knowledge.
Marie A. WALSH.
November 14, 1896.
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

Before submitting the following essay to public appreciation, the writer

wishes to invite criticism , more on the substance than on the form . For
the obvious deficiencies of the latter, he begs to observe :
1st. That he is a foreigner;

2nd. That the essay was originally intended merely as a lecture to the
groups of Theosophists of the Aloha Branch, Honolulu, and of the Golden
Gate Lodge, San Francisco, who had made the request for it, and who in
sisted on its publication;
3d. That the printing of it in its present shape, has been hurried , the
writer having no time to attend to literary chiseling.
With this apology, the writer hopes that at least food for useful thought
will be found in the subject treated, and his earnest desire is that his efforts
may induce some one, better fitted than himself, to complete the study,
San Francisco, November 30th , 1896 .
है
 1

THE HUMAN AURA.

A STUDY .
[ Respectfully Dedicated to Those Who Can See, and to Those who,
Not Able to See, Yet Can Understand Intuitively.]

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY .
In an address delivered before the ALOHA BRANCH T. S. of
Honolulu, on the latest “Scientific Corroborations of Theosophy,"
occurred the following passage :
Inimate
Theosophy claims that we are, all of us, as well as all things animat
and inanimate, enveloped, surrounded, by a very complex, yet subtle, ema
nation, which to the clairvoyant eye) is not only luminous, but tinte :
with the most variegated colors, these colors indicating our constitution ,
our passions, our ideas. Of course, materialistic scientists--who are so
far from being gifted with clairvoyant vision, si ce materialistic tendencies
destroy psychic faculties, and who consequently cannot see any man's or
woman's aura—boldly denied its existence in toto. But here comes the
photographic camera--this little instrument that cannot lie (as an en
thusiast expressed it) and which has already revealed so many things which
were imperceptible even with the help of the microscope ani telescope,
this little fairy who has given us the picture of millions of stars, whose
light does not affect our vision or manifest through our other instruments-
the camera comes forward to certify to the existence of the aura. A sci
entist in Paris, Dr. Baraduc, after special study in the matter, has been re
warded by obtaining a series of beautiful photographs, which will soon be
published, and in which the auras of various persons are clearly imprinted,
with variations due to the tendencies or passir ns, ideas and emotions, of
the subject (Theosophist XVII, 182; Lucifer XVII, Oct. : T. Aust., 102.)
Moreover, I must not fail to add that quite recently, an American physician,
Dr. Gates reported in the Medical News; 1st, that the emanations of the liv
ing body, or auras, differ according to the states of the mind, as well as to
the conditions of physical health; 2d, that these emanations can be tested
by the chemical reactions of some salts of selenium ; 3d, that these reactions
are characterized by various tints or colors, according to the nature of tho
mental impressions; 4th, that forty different " emotion " products, as he calls
them , have already been thus obtained. Here is another confirmation by
scientific authority: Thus it will no longer be possible to sneer at The
osophy's scientific description of the human aura and its variations, which
show the spiritual man in his true nakedness for good or bad, justas Røntgen's
X -ray shows the nakedness of the skeleton. Now, admitting that there is
 2

a growing number of sensitives who can perceive this aura, there can
eventually be but one result. All hypocrisy and crime will be vain, when
man will be able to see every other man just as he really is, not as he tries
to appear ; and the world must, therefore, be on the eve of some psychical
revolution, as occultism intimates, and as the Bible predicted for the time
when “ men will rush to and fro and knowledge will increase ,” as it certainly
"

is the case nowadays .

The interest aroused by this statement led to a request for a
special lecture on the “ Human Aura ; " and what herein follows is
the outcome of the particular study made of all the available infor
mation, for the purpose of answering that request . Some of the
facts have been culled from Theosophical literature , when they
actually corroborated direct observations ; others are new and orig
inal , the writer having had the good fortune of being able to in
vestigate the subject with some very intelligent and educated per
sons, highly gifted both psychically and metaphysically, naturally
clairvoyant without being in trance or under hypnotic influence,
who had already devoted to the matter years of study and re
search .But while only the results of observations carefully re
peated , and verified according to the established scientific meth
ods, are here given, they must not be taken as authoritative ;
they are fully subject to correction , and especially to amplification.
And if they are at present made public, it is principally with the
hope that they may act as an incentive for future researches and
verifications, more systematic and complete, of a fascinating sub
ject, the full elucidation of which -- especially in what concerns
the Pranic Aura and its innumerable tatwic changes, and the
Kamic Aura with its emotional flashes, ever varying - would re
quire a whole life -time.
While nothing can be found on the subject in scientific literature,
in many of the early communications on Theosophy the idea was
often hinted at, in a general but very guarded manner, that all
objects in nature are surrounded by or exhale from their periph
ery a sort of vapor or cloud , constituting, as it were, their own
localized atmosphere , which is more and more extended and com
plicated as we pass on to more complex organisms, from mineral
up to man . Even artificial objects, made by man, emit auric
manifestations, since they are formed of natural molecules, which ,
as such, possess their inherent auras. Moreover, it is asserted by
 3

those who ought to know, that these manifestations of artificial

objects vary with the special character imprinted on them by their
manufacturer: thus , even books present a limited aura, which dif
fers, not only with the material , but also according to the language
used and the subject treated in the book.
In H. P. Blavatsky's standard Glossary, aura is defined : “ A
subtle , invisible essence or fluid that emanates from human and
animal bodies and even things ; it is a psychic effluvium , partaking
of both the mind and the body , as it is the electro-vital and at the
same time an electro -mental aura , called in Theosophy the akasic or
magnetic .” But , as a whole , much was taken for granted , and very
little , nearly nothing, was properly described , a kind of secrecy
even being observed in the matter, under the pleas : Ist, that as
the aura was visible only to a limited number of gifted persons , it
1

was better not to dwell on such a question of recondite but not

absolutely essential importance , that the majority could not verify ;
2nd, that although simple in appearance, it is in reality very com
plex , and contains some great mysteries which, in past ages, had
1 been deemed by all the occult schools as too sacred to be promis
cuously mentioned .
However, of late , the original reserve or secrecy seems to have
been withdrawn , and constantly more numerous are the bits of in
formation dropped in various later studies of psychical laws, culmi
nating in two distinct monographs on the “ Human Aura ," by Sin
nett ( Transactions London Lodge No. 18) and Leadbeater (Theoso
phist XVII , 134), and followed up in some of Mrs. Besant's latest
lectures. In his lastwork (" Growth of the Soul," 165 ) , Mr. Sinnett
goes even further, and boldly asserts that the “ study of man's
principles is really inseparately blended with the investigation of
the human aura. The higher vehicles involved in the constitution
of man-or in reference to which it may equally be said , and per
haps with greater accuracy , that man is involved in them-are act
ually visible to the astral senses and devachanic perception of
people whose clairvoyant powers are developed , and, as so visible,
are habitually described as the aura . ' '
Here, however , it must be well understood that, though ignored
scientifically, the idea of the existence of individual auras is no new
 4

revelation ; but the knowledge of it may well be said to have act

ually been lost in the night of time . In effect, while Para
celsus described it 300 years ago , under the name of personal
“ astral light," and while the old alchemists termed it the " sphere
of influence” of the person , * what we now call aura is found clearly
indicated in various forms of the arts of the remotest antiquity - in
India, Egypt, Greece , and even Yucatan and Peru . In the ruins
of these countries it is yet found exhibited on pictures and
statues, as a distinctive attribute of nearly all divinities and of
all holy, godly men. This recognized symbol of moral excellence
could not be ignored by tarly Christianity , and henceforth it has
always been found, in pictorial representations of Jesus-Christ,
the Virgin Mary, and all Catholic Saints -- not as an arbitrary
invention of the painter's imagination , but as a fact of nature.
The subject of the aura was even so well understood formerly that
four words were used to designate various of its forms; nimbus
and halo being applied to the disk or partial aura streaming from
the head of a divine being , aureola used for that which envelopes
the whole body (what we now term aura generally) , and glory for
a combination of both ; viz . , the aura with a distinct nimbus , either
circling around or shining over the head ; and it was considered
important for the correct significance of Christian iconography
not to use these words indiscriminately . In old Egypt the nim
bus , or head aura , seems to have been first attributed to the solar
god “ Ra,” and thence adopted for the Greek solar god “ Apollo ,'
though in these instances it may have been a simple allegory of
the Sun's splendor. But in India , in the caves of Ellora, can
to this day be seen the figure of Indranee , the wife of Indra, sit
ting with her infant Sun - god in her arms , and elsewhere exists a
picture of Krishna, nursed by Devaki, the heads of all the person
ages mentioned being in both cases represented as surrounded
with a golden halo, thus anticipating by several centuries before
(
Christ the favorite representations of the Catholic aureoled “ San
tissima Maria ," with her divine “ Bambino." Another picture ,
quite common in modern Greek and Roman Catholic churches , is
"

the “ Ascension ,” in which the whole figure of the floating Virgin

*In the Hindu literature, it is often referred to as the individual “ Akashic Sphere."
 5

is represented as surrounded by an oval or egg-shaped mist,

crowned by a dense , bright nimbus , making a full glory . Up to
the present day, in all Oriental-countries, India , China , Japan
representatives of every god, Buddha included , never fail to have
their adequate and symbolic auras or halos. As Surgeon - Major
Waddell says in his excellent new book on Thibet , “ The halo or
nimbus around the heads (of gods) is subelliptical , never acum
inated , * * * that of the fierce deities being bordered by flames;
then , an additional halo is often represented as surrounding the
whole body, this consisting of the six colored rays of light * * *
conventionally indicated by wavy gilt lines with small tremulous
lines alternating " (" Buddhism or Lomaism in Thibet, ” 357. )-As
will be understood later on , all these representations were based
on absolute physiological and psychic truths , well known to the
ancients .
Now, the very fact of this knowledge , attested by pictorial and
artistic evidence , as well as by traditions from remote ages , shows :
Ist. That the ancients were more familiar than we are to-day , in
our boasted civilization , with the intimate composition of the human
being and his manifestations on the higher planes , and had even
been able to ascertain that, in highly saintly , spiritual men, the
common aura grows so intensified and luminous as to become a
distinctive feature , an outward , special sign of their development.
2d. That in ancient times, down to relatively modern ages , ex
isted in much larger numbers than in the present century seers,
or people with what are now termed psychic powers, clairvoyants
able to see and sense on what we now call the astral plane, and
thereby capable of distinguishing the ordinary auras and their
supernormal , intensified manifestations. In fact, H. P. Blavatsky
affirmed that “ there must have been a period in the evolution of the
human race when the whole of humanity was composed of sensi
9 )
tives and clairvoyants.” (Trans . Blavatsky Lodge, I , 38.) But as
our modern races became more immersed in materialism through
the past dark, bigoted and ignorant Roman and medieval ages, this
sensitiveness , these psychic faculties , became gradually blunted
and obliterated , and were lost to the masses ; then, through the suc
ceeding psychic blindness, the knowledge of the human aura, even
 6

to science , gradually sank into oblivion , until the very idea of it ,

and its representations in religious pictures , got to be treated as
mere superstitions of “ ignorant ages.” So, this universal obscur
ation of psychic powers, in previous centuries , certainly explains
why, in the present age of “( enlightenment” -outside of the few
people whose eyes are, by exceptional evolutionary development,
susceptible of perceiving itso very little is yet known now of
the auric phenomena. It also explains another curious fact; viz.,
that apparitions , phantoms, ghosts, and other astral manifestations
were so much more common ages ago than they are now, outside of
spiritualistic circles -- not because the phenomena have grown less
frequent or humanity less “ credulous,” but because in this century
there have been fewer sensitives to sense them. In respect to
the aura, the matter has been aggravated by the fact that its ema
nations being invisible to the materialists , whose very education
tends to obliterate what they might naturally have of sensitiveness ,
they ridiculed and even condemned , as a damnable freak of imagi
nation , hallucination or dementia, the faculty possessed by " un
fortunate," “ ill-balanced” sensitives — as they were termed - of
seeing every object surrounded by some kind of luminous cloud , or
colored streamers emanating from various persons or things , or
colored flashes in correlation with musical sounds, or again of per
ceiving the whole of the atmosphere filled with beautiful, living,
quivering geometrical figures. It is true that, after deriding in
the most insulting manner the patient , honest, and valuable re
searches of Baron Reichenbach , in what he termed the odic fluid
and the odic lights (the lowest, most material of the auras) , mod
ern science did condescend to acknowledge electric and magnetic
emanations later ; and men like Sir B. Ward Richardson , M. D. ,
have gone so far as to suggest a material “ nervous ether ” and a
“ nervous atmosphere” (Asclepiad, X.37) . So it is now, in schools ,
a favorite amusement to test the sight of pupils by making them
observe and describe the effluvium of magnets and electrical in
struments closed up in dark rooms ; yet, outside of some bold
" Borderlander" scientists, science has not so far attempted to
read all the human emanations in the broad daylight.
But psychic faculties are rapidly growing more common , in con
 7

nection with intelligence and education ; and of late, it is an in

controvertible fact that outside of members of the Theosophical
Society, who are deliberately and steadily training themselves to
regain the lost powers — the number of truly healthy sensitive per
sons who can naturally distinguish and sense the auras and other
psychic colors and phenomena is daily increasing, especially in
America . Yet very many sensitives instead of realizing the value of
their gift, attribute their peculiar vision to a defect of the organs
of sight, and do not allude to it willingly, for fear of being ridiculed ,
while others consider it an ordinary phenomenon common
to all ; and not until their attention is called to the fact that this
vision of theirs is a supernormal gift do they apply themselves to
its study and development. I do not doubt that in any large audi
ence a number of persons can always be found who are thus gifted,
and could so testify, if they wished. Here, however, lies a difficulty :
with psychic sight, while the vision is natural , yet it is quite varied,
according to the evolutionary stage of the person , and consequently
the reports thereof may appear unreliable or too changeable. Thus,
at the first glance , ordinary psychics may see the whole of an
aura - invisible to ordinary sight - as a mere confused mass of mist,
or a uniform cloud of vapor , more or less luminous, more or less
colored, extending from 10 to 20 or more inches in all directions
from the body, sometimes with more or less defined edges, generally
fading off gradually into invisibleness ; many will see it as a kind
of brilliant shade , others as a luminous flame, this being merely the
total appearance, the general effect, of the mass of electro-magnetic
or odic emanations ; others again will descry this luminous cloud
as tinted with only one shade of color, the predominant one of the
personality, which may be violet or gold, or blue or grey ; some
will immediately distinguish colored subdivisions, or will recog
nize the aura as a cloudy playground for the chromatic kaleido
scope of Kama ; while a few , very sensitive , will even sense that
those various shades of beautiful colors are due to vibrations pro
duced by the special qualities , and express the various conditions
of the entity from whom they emanate. But few , indeed, are those
who can naturally discern higher than the kamic aura ; or if able
to do so, they only obtain a very faint impression . It is, there
S
A
R
I
M

3
 8

the complicated subject of the human aura , and " untrained sight
is generally useless for purposes of close comparison and exact 1

analysis ” ( Leadbeater) . In other words , while the faculty of grasp

ing or sighting the general aspect of the lower auric clouds is be
coming natural to a relatively large number of psychics, or, as
Mr. Leadbeater says , although this faculty is “often one of the
earliest evidences of the opening of a supernormal sense of sight”
in students who are striving to develop their powers, yet, in order
to distinguish the details and classify them , in order to separate
the various interblending matters and their shades , and sense them
as if they were alone , it does require more than ordinary psychism
or more than ordinary training. Hence , very fine, delicate , and
educated psychic senses are necessary to be able to study them
scientifically with any success . Then , aa closer examination of the
cloud reveals the fact, not only , as Theosophy teaches, that it has
several distinct components — consisting of matter of very different
degrees of tenuity , or belonging to different states or planes , yet H
intermingling as closely as oxygen and nitrogen do in the atmos
phere—but, furthermore , that these components are exceedingly
complex in their nature ; and this very complexity is only a
consistent consequence of that of man himself, in all his parts,
since nearly everything that goes to make man what he is will be
found manifested, represented or included in his aura. In fact,
occult writers go so far as to say that the aura is the true man .
Moreover , to all the above facts we must add another important
one : we know that the physical body is composed of myriads of
distinct microscopical lives ( Secret Doctrine 1 , 231), each one of
which is enveloped by or emits a separate , distinct tiny aura of its
own , which merges into that of its neighbors to make up a whole
effluvium representing the sum total of auras belonging to those
living entities in man's body . It is clear that this sum total must
mix up with the human aura proper and render it still more con
fusing to analyze ; then , again , every separate part of the body ,
and especially the hairs , show also distinct emanations ; so that ,
taking everything into consideration , the reader will more readily
realize the extreme complexity and difficulty of this study , which
must be a hopelessly insoluble problem to anything but a well
developed and well - balanced psychic sight .
 9

According to Theosophical authorities, the general phenomenon

designated as “ aura," in its generic or collective sense, includes
all the vehicles of the “ soul,” blended with certain radiations from
6
the three lower principles " which manifest themselves within the
area to which the higher vehicles extend around the body ; so that
each aura, if separated from the others, for scientific treatment ,
>)
must be thought of as conterminous with the others ” (Sinnett,
“ Growth ofthe Soul, ” 134). In a similar manner , in previous works ,
Mr. Sinnett , and after him Mr. Leadbeater , who merely copies him
on this point, both say “ that each of these various components
constitutes as it were , a distinct aura, and would , if all the others
were withdrawn, be seen to occupy the same space as the entire
mass. " Now from the observations known to the writer and from
the description that follows, this does not appear to be always or
absolutely correct ; or, at any rate, it is misleading, because the
various auras, though mutually interblending, interpenetrating at
their basis , near the body, appear to extend out each to aa different
length . As the sun is enveloped in a nebular egg which limits
the extension of the solar system , and in the interior of which, at
progressive distances from the center , revolve his various princi
ples or sacred planets , so the whole of man's system is included
in his Auric Egg ; and the auras of his various principles or
sheaths, while permeating each other mutually from the center
outwards — that center being probably the heart or the navel - grad
ually extend farther away from the body, the most material, Prana ,
being the shallowest and closest to the skin, and the most spirit
ual , the Auric Egg, reaching the farthest out.
From the information at present available to the writer , the fol
lowing enumeration seems to embrace the principal characteristics
of the auric subdivisions seen by the best scientific psychics , in
their order from the skin outward from the body :
1. A forest of vertical rays or striations of Electrical light, --
health lines,-coming from the material body, probably represent
ing the positive or solar Prana , and producing a sun-like illumin
ation around them , often the only aura seen by clairvoyants ;
2 , 3. A sort of ribbon -like permanent series of five horizontal
9

lines or stripes, one bright, colorless and four colored lines belona
 IO

ing to the Tatwic currents and correlated with the circulatory

system , each of these various lines being separated by fainter
intervals ;
4. Innumerable geometrical figures and festoons, running
through all the above ribbon lines , characteristic of whatever Tat
wic currents may be flowing at the time of observation, and there
fore connected with the phenomenon of respiration ;
5. One or more wavy , horizontal striations or radiations , em
anations of magnetic or odic light , also from the body, and prob
ably representing the negative or lunar Prana , producing a moon
like illumination above them , which blends with the preceding
one ;
6. A quivering emanation of caloric radiation ;
7. A reddish effluvium produced by the exhalation of the un
assimilated portion of the vital Prana ;
8. Independent of all the above , quite separate and distinct
from them , and at a variable distance from the material body, is
found the Double or etheric body , bordered by its own faint Pranic
Aura ;
Enveloping the whole of the preceding , and extend
9 , 10 , II .
ing beyond them, are seen the three permanent clouds of varying
shades of pink or red , violet or blue , and orange-yellow , compos
ing the aura of Kama, through which shoot all the shades and
flashes produced by ideas , emotions and desires ;
12, 13. Beyond this , another cloud of greenish hue , with a yel
lowish edge, belonging to the Lower Manas ;
14. Over all the preceding elements , as a kind of veil , one
general , uniform tint , the characteristic one of the Personality,
sometimes modifying the hues of all the lower colors. It has
been suggested that this might also be connected with the ruling
planet ;
15 , 16. Then another cloud of dark blue or indigo, with an
edge of bright silvery light , extending much farther than any of
the preceding , and belonging to the Higher Manas ;
17. Through all these various elements shoot and whirl vary
ing geometrical figures, very different from and not connected
with the Tatwic ones mentioned above ;
 II

18 . 19 . Then a cloud of indescribable , spiritual blue , with an

edge of glorious light, " the essence of spiritual gold light," char
acteristic of Buddhi ;
)
20. A general mist of “ golden dust," permeating through all
the other components, and many other as yet indescribable
manifestations ;
21 . Over and above and through all the preceding , the mys
terious zone of the sacred Auric Egg.
This , of course , must be taken as only a rough sketch, far from
exhaustive , a mere specimen of classification ; and no doubt Mas
ters distinguish in the various Auras yet many more subdivis
ions and many more shades of colors ; so that, having also
the key to the value and significance of each , it cannot be won
dered that they should thereby be able to read out the nature
and status , the past and the present of the entity to whom the
Aura belongs, as they would an open book .
Here , in order to make the description of the Aura ,-with the
various emanations mingled within it,-clearer to the ordinary
reader, it will be proper to say that, while the methodical study of
the question brings one immediately to recognize how its various
divisions are intimately connected with the composite nature of
man, as taught by Theosophy, and with the known septenary sub
)

divisions of his “ Principles,” it also soon leads the student to the

necessity of viewing these principles somewhat differently from
the enumeration ordinarily used in the earlier Theosophical
works .
But this view agrees perfectly with the change which of late is
apparent in our literature, - more especially since the publication
of the studies of Mrs. Besant—a change due to a more extended
knowledge of Theosophic concepts . The septenary principles
are no longer considered as basic component parts of the entity,
but instead, the tendency is towards the adoption of the Indian
system of classifying them as sheaths or Koshas . The Hindus
use exoterically a division in 5 koshas , which is mentioned in the
Secret Doctrine ( 1. 157) . But, a study of the Aura soon compels
one to admit the existence of seven such sheaths , the triadic entity
still being above and outside of them , thus making of the perfect man
 I2

a Decade instead of a septenary , and bringing him to the Pythag

9

orean complete or sacred number , ten .

Now, this appears to be also the occult classification ; and,
although H. P. Blavatsky was obliged to restrict herself publicly
on many points, yet in the Secret Doctrine, she does refer many
times to this decadic division , plainly enough to any one who
can read between the lines, and still plainer in the diagram
on the Planes (Secret Doctrine 1. 200 ). Thus , after reading
that the Monad is the “ emanating Spark from the uncreated
Ray, -a mystery (Secret Doctrine I , 571 ), we find that
“ viewed as ONE, it is above the seventh principle in Kosmos and
in Man , and viewed as a TRIAD " -man thus being ten numbers
in all— “ IT (the Spark) is the direct radiant progeny of the com
pound Unit of Deity” ( ibid. 573 ) ; then again we read that ac
cording to Pythagoras, the Monad of the Absolute " returns into
silence and darkness as soon as it has evolved the Monad of the
Triad, from which emanate in their turn , the remaining seven
numbers of the ten numbers which are at the basis of the mani .
fested Universe " ( ibid. 427) *** “ this figure ten , or unity with
in the zero, being the symbol of Deity , of the Universe and of
Man" (Secret Doctrine II , 581 ) . Elsewhere , it is said that this
Pythagorean Decade, representing the Universe * * * * “ pre
sented two sides or aspects to the student , it could be and was
first applied to the Macrocosm , after which it descended to the
Microcosm or Man ," so that " the purely intellectual, metaphysic
al or inner Science and the purely materialistic or surface sci
ence * * * * * could both be expounded by and contained in this
Decade" ( ibid. 573) . Furthermore , the fact that our Monad is
truly the triadic emanating Spark “ from the uncreated Ray" and
exists “ outside of the other seven principles", (or vehicles) is
plainly corroborated by the Stanzas themselves (VII , 5 ) : " the
Spark hangs from the Flame by the finest thread of Fohat, it
journeys through the Seven Worlds of Maya, it stops in the first
and is a metal and a stone , it passes into the second , and behold,
a plant, the plant whirls through seven forms and becomes a sac
red animal, and from the combined attributes of these, Manu, the
man , the thinker , is formed ;" and H. P. Blavatsky adds signifi
 13

cantly in her commentary : “ What is that Spark which hangs from

the Flame ? it is Jiva, the (human) monad in conjunction with
Manas or rather the aroma—that which remains from each per
sonality when , worthy-and hangs from ( Para ) Atma-Buddhi
Manas , the Flame , by the thread of life * * * In whatever way in
terpreted and in whatever number of principles the human being
is divided , it may easily be shown that this doctrine is supported
by all the ancient religions from the Vedic to the Egyptian , from
the Zoroastrian to the Jewish. In the case of the last mentioned ,
the Kabalistic works offer abundant proof of this statement.
The entire system of Kabalistic numerals is based upon the Divine
Septenary hanging down from the Triad , thus forming the Decade"
( Secret Doctrine, I. 238—239). Other quotations could be adduced,
(Secret Doctrine I. 333 , II . 463 ; Isis Unveiled II . 98, 171 ) but these
will suffice, if we add that ten being the true number of the Universe
it must by virtue of the Esoteric law " as above , so below ," be al
so that of man . But “ the ten being the sacred number of the
Universe , it was secret, esoteric,” (ibid. 360) , and this is why the
public use of it was not allowed when Theosophy was first given
out to a scoffing, incredulous world . It was however used in
the teaching of the Esoteric classes of the Theosophical Society ,
but given out only under a strict pledge of secrecy , which has
just been removed by the publication of the 3rd volume of the
Secret Doctrine, the times having apparently been found ripe for
less exclusive reserve . Consequently, as foreshadowed in the
first volumes of the Secret Doctrine ,—without entirely discarding the
use of the number Seven , which is decidedly the ruling one on the
lower, material planes , but not complete when spirituality has to
be taken into account, * _henceforth in the study of man , the old >

incomplete septenary classifications will have to give way to one

based on the Pythagorean sacred Decade . In this , the upper Three
or Triad , our true Individuality, will be reserved to the three
higher “ arupa” planes , while the lower Seven will naturally refer
only to the envelopes , which the Monad has to clothe himself with
* “ All the ancient Cosmologies based the whole of their mysteries on the number TEN , the
highest Triangle, 1--2—3, standing for the invisible, metaphysical world , the lower THREE and
FOUR , or SEPTENATE , for the physical realm .” (Secret Doctrine, 11 , 603).
 14

to penetrate through the seven “ rupa" planes of form and matter,

each envelope being made of the matter of the corresponding
plane, * - as follows :
1. 2. 3. or the Monad , Jiva or Higher Ego, three in one
>
one in three , the invisible divine Spark of the “ Stanzas"
emanation of the highest (para) Atma-Buddhi- Manas or
Universal Spirit :
4. (old 1 , Atma) Atmic Aura, Auric Egg, or highest immortal
vehicle, sheath, kosha or body ;
5. ( " 2.Buddhi) Buddhic or Nirvanic sheath ;{ Inhaled ex fabsorbed;
"
;
6. ( ” 3, Higher Manas), Higher Devachanic sheath ;
7. ( " 4, Lower Manas) Lower Devachanic or Psychic sheath ,
the personality ;
8. ( ” 5, Kama) Astral or Kamic sheath of passions and desires ;
9. ( ” 6. Prana) , Pranic envelope, vitality or life ;
10. ( ” 7, Sariras Linga, Etheric Body, or Double,
>

Sthula, Material , dense Body ;

>

In this classification, each lower sheath is the vehicle of the full en

tity clothed in its higher sheaths , and this agrees perfectly with the
direct observations of the Aura.t But all this seems to be farther
from , and more irreconcilable than ever with the Christian division ,
generally used by the Churches , of two parts only , Soul and
Body . St. Paul, however , who was an Occultist, went a little
further and admitted three divisions, Body, Soul and Spirit , and
*The justification of this theory of various sheaths can easily be undertaken : For Spirit, -or
the Ego, -to be able to plunge into matter and gather experience from each successive plane
or kind of matter , it cannot go unprotected , “ naked,” but it must clothe itself with matter be
longing to the plane into which it has to live for the time being. Thus , when ready for rein
carnation , the Ego first clothes himself, — or lines his Auric Egg, -with matter of the highest
tenuity, belonging to the highest spiritual plane; then starting down , he successively assumes
matter from the Manasic and Kamic, or Astral, planes; coming lower still, the physical body,
built upon its Etheric model , is finally crystalized in the midst of the eternal Auric Egg, whose
expansibility allows the full growth of the other bodies , and who thus contains always the en
tire man . Through these various coatings , the reincarnating Ego is enabled to obey the laws
of life and expansion in all his components and upon all planes , -Spirit, Soul and Bodies ,
each of which gradually develops , grows better defined for its ultimate purpose of accomplish
ing Nature's purpose , man's complete evolution .
fit will be well to repeat here that the numbering of the principles is a mere question ofmet
aphysical order, or better, of spiritual progress ; so, the strict enumeration of any one man
ought to be made according to the natural predominance of his principles between themselves.
In this century, the predominant and consequently first principles of the majority would prob
ably be Kama ; in many others, characterized by their superb assertion of personality , it might
be Lower Manas; in some , it might simply be Prana , or even the physical body, while in only
a small minority, it would be Higher Manas or Buddhi.
 15

this order can readily be made to match into the above decadic
one , if we allow subdivisions to each of the three, as follows:
Our « Spark " of divinity , or Triadic Monad , clothed in its Au
C
ric Egg or Incorruptible Body , corresponds to “ Spirit” as under
stood by St. Paul. In that which the apostle termed " Soul,”
which was avowedly in itself triadic , viz : spiritual , human and an
imal (the human one being itself further dual, higher and lower ,
mind and intellect ) , we can easily find our four middle Sheaths ,
Buddhic , Manasic , Psychic and Kamic ,—with their soul attributes ;
and his “ Body " is really our dense body crystallized , built upon
our subtle Etheric model , both being connected with the Soul ,
with i. e. , our four middle sheaths, by the Vitality ( Prana ) , which ,
in fact, permeates all the other principles , vivifying the whole
human total, In this wise , we easily dispose of the whole of the
sacred Decade into the Christian Triad . *
*All this will be still better shown on the annexed diagram of Concordances.
 CHAPTER II .

DESCRIPTIVE.

We have thus cleared the way for a correct understanding of

what the various parts of the complex manifestation that goes
under the generic or collective name of Human Aura, do really
represent. Now, bearing in mind that some of those parts are
simply emanations , while others are Aeeting impressions , and
others again are true manifestations or portions of the Sheaths or
Principles themselves, directly visible on account of their overlap
ping the material body, “ which is the smallest of man's sheaths"
(A. Besant, Man and his Bodies) , it will be easier to undertake
their description as far as our present knowledge will permit.
Here , we must congratulate ourselves that the recent advances of
scientific knowledge render our task much easier now than it
would have been formerly. Our work being based on direct
higher optical and psychic observations, would have encountered
the same obstacles as did nearly all early Theosophical writings,
which had to be accepted on faith , i. e., on their mere plausibility,
by those who cannot proceed to verification for themselves .
Hence resulted much undeserved ridicule and unbelief. Thus , a
few years ago , outside of the authority of our Teacher, H. P.
Blavatsky , who so often mentioned it-because she could so thor
oughly see and interpret it herself ,—and outside of the testimony
of some gifted mediums who could , more or less, confirm her state
ments , the mere existence of the Aura could not have been proven
against the possible denial or incredulity of science , the more lib
eral exponents of which went only so far as to admit the existence
of a purely physical, -electro -magnetic - emanation around and
from our bodies. But then , the higher optic vision was yet un
suspected, and psychic testimony was decidedly not accepted by
official scientists , or was treated merely as the wild vagary of a
 17

diseased brain . At present, however, the situation is very differ

ent . Since the discovery of Roentgen's X ray, and of other phe
nomena related to it, science can no longer presume to deny or
deride natural or acquired psychic clairvoyance , because this one
discovery shows the possibility of the existence of persons gifted
with what may be termed true X ray psychic sight, capable not
only of supernormal, superphysical vision , but also of penetrative
perception through living bodies and various opaque substances ,
such , in fact, as it has been given the writer himself to meet and
test. Furthermore , the subject of the Human Aura itself can no
longer be doubted since Photography has come to the help of
Theosophy ; and new discoveries are daily confirming the first
(alluded to in the initial quotation) made by the celebrated Dr. IV
Baraduc, with whom will remain the honor of being the first pho
tographer of the Human Aura . Not only has this patient and
clever scientific experimenter just published a remarkable book, *
not only has he gone even so far as to announce to the scientific
world his claim of being able to reproduce the image or form of
mere thoughts impressed on the thinker's aura ,, but photography
of psychic planes is further confirmed :
I. By discoveries by a French physicist , Mr. G. Lebon , who e? v
states that “ dark rays which appear to be related to the invisible
rays of phosphorescence (X rays) are emitted by organized beings
in darkness , which allows us to photograph them ,” the “ dark rays”
of this “ dark ” light being precisely those self- same auras “ which
have been so long systematically and stubbornly repudiated by
the men of science who ought to have known best.” ( Lucifer,
XVII , I) ;
2. By some new and very interesting experiments of the well ‫ف‬
3 ‫سي‬
known savant , Colonel de Rochas , director of the French Ecole
Polytechnique .

Therefore we can now submit our description of the Human

Aura with more confidence, and—until each and every one can

*L'Ame Humaine, ses Mouvements , ses Lumieres et L'Iconographie de l'Invisible Fluidique.

Paris , G. Carre .
 18

verify the facts for himself, through his own developed powers , -
every student of Theosophy may henceforth take for granted and
fully accredit and accept the reports of those members of the
Theosophical Society who have the good fortune of being in a
position to make of this interesting subject a special study The
matter of classification alone , as attempted herein , is liable to
revision or modification .

$ 1. Material Portion.

I. EMANATIONS FROM THE PHYSICAL BODY , PRANIC Ex

HALATIONS .—When an observer with proper optic power first in
vestigates the subject of the Human Aura, as it is found near the
skin , he realizes the existence of a material , cloudy mist, which he
soon discovers to be, not at all a simple , but a very complicated mix
ture of various emanations still physical in their nature, though
very tenuous or etheric . He further finds that the cloud nearest
to the skin turns out to contain a system or border of changeable ,
microscopic, geometrical figures, which the human being carries in
common with all other beings and even things down to the min
eral , though , in the lower kingdoms, they are fixed, unchangeable.
As Theosophy teaches that form is the first material manifest
ation , so these figures — though belonging to Prana and to its el
emental subdivisions , qualified in Hindu physiology by the
name of Tatwas-do appear to be the lowest in order as well as
in size , whereby they are visible only to eyes endowed with a
magnifying faculty. After these figures are located, it becomes
apparent that they seem to run or flow on a vaporish ribbon
composed of various colored bands . Now , color follows form in
the order of kosmic manifestation ; so these colored bands , though
also belonging to Prana or the Elemental Tatwas, show a step
higher in life and evolution ; for instance, while the mineral man
ifests only one color or hue in connection with its rigid geomet
rical tatwic forms, these colors augment in number as soon as we
pass on to the next higher degree of the scale , the vegetable .
Following , and mixed up with these two portions of the lower auras ,
come a magnetic current and a caloric emanation characteristic of a
 19

more independent life as shown by animal combustion. Then fol

lows an electric effluvium , radiating like solar rays, showing the full
glory of material life. All this , of course , is independent of other
manifestations of a higher order, which also interpenetrate the above
and will be described in their proper place . It will now be in or
der to devote a cursory examination to each of these lower auras .
Ist . Tatwic Currents or Tatwic Aura.- This is a most pro
tean and complex manifestation . While it is the most material
of all our auras and the most easy to perceive, yet it has never be
fore been mentioned , so far as we know, probably because of its be
ing very difficult to analyse on account ofthe narrow field it embraces
and of the extreme tenuity of its components. The fact is, as al
ready intimated , that its study requires the faculty, seldom found
in ordinary observers, of magnifying astral objects or of perceiving
really microscopical dimensions . The following description is
therefore only tentative, and cannot, at the present stage , be fully
discriminative , though at any rate it offers an unexpected and
wonderful confirmation of the theory of the Tatwas.
The readers who are acquainted with an article by the writer
on the “ Auras of Plants,” published in Mercury (see Appendix) ,
will more readily understand the nature of this division of the
Human Aura. The study of vegetable auras teaches that each
leaf is bordered , as it were , and enveloped by a film of a very
tenuous , ribbon-like emanation, composed of several bands of
various colors, through which manifest the most graceful chains
of geometrical figures and designs , characteristic of the various
elements or Tatwas of Nature which happen to predominate in
each plant. In animals , this aura manifests itself in a little more
complicated forms : then, in man , it contains all of the others
since man represents all the lower kingdoms and something more
besides—with this difference also , that while the Tatwic Aura of
plants is permanent, unchangeable and shining with metallic hues ,
the human one changes or modifies its figures and the disposition
of its colors with the flow of the various currents of the solar ,
lunar and terrestrial Pranas, and its beautiful hues are prismatic
and belong to the psychic octave .
 20

The Human Tatwic Aura occupies around the body, just over
the skin , a width varying from one-eighth to one-half of an inch ,
and in this limited area it is plainly divisible into two distinct
parts , which shall here be designated the Chromatic and the Geo
metrical:

a) The Chromatic part embraces the whole depth of the Tat

wic Aura, whatever that may be, and is clearly subdivided into
five strips , ribbons or bands, sometimes equal , sometimes very un
equal in width , one of which is colorless , the other four being respect
ively blue , violet, yellow and red . These colored strips are per
manent , constant, though their hues may vary ; but their respect
ive position or order seems to be submitted to a kind of rotation,
although the blue and violet lines, and the yellow and red ones
generally seem to keep contiguous . At times, however , some par
ticular line or lines are duplicated , and occasionally the colorless
line is nearly invisible , or it is transformed into aa dark one . Each
band starts by a sharply defined line of denser color , and after
wards fades gradually away towards the line above , so as to blend
prismatically into it.
The most frequent combinations found by the writer, starting
from the skin , are as follows :

(1) Bright- colorless line, blue , violet, yellow and red ;

( 2) Bright colorless line , red , yellow , violet and blue ;
But many modifications have been observed, examples of which
follow :

( 3) Bright-colorless line, purple , blue, yellow, red ;

(4) Bright- line invisible, magenta-red , yellow, light blue and
light purple ;
(5) Bright-line invisible, dark red, dark blue, yellow, purple ;
(6) Dark line , red, yellow, blue and lavender-violet ;
( 7) Dark blue , very thin line of red , yellow, violet and a thread
of dark red ;
(8 ) Red , yellow , bright line , blue , yellow, red ;
(9) The same as above without the middle bright line ;
( 10) Orange -yellow, bright line , blue , orange- yellow and red ;
 21

( 11 ) Yellow, bright or white line, blue , line , bright orange-yel

low and red .
These colored lines seem to be ler ed from or to represent
the five Elements from which the human body is formed, and , ac
cording to the Indian works on the Mahabutas, would correspond
as follows :

Colorless line , or dark blue , Ether, Akasha, Sonoriferous Ether ;

Light blue or greenish-blue, Air, Vayu, Tangiferous Ether ;
Red in various shades , Fire , Tejas, Luminous Ether ;
Violet, on a silvery or
moonlight substratum , Water, Apas, Gustiferous Ether ;
Yellow or orange , Earth , Prithivi , Odoriferous Ether.
These five Elements also correspond respectively to the follow
ing of man's principles : Lower Manas, Prana, Kama, Etheric
Double and Material Body. Of course, esoterically , the Elements
are seven, not five, and so seven is also the number of the Tatwas
they give birth to. But, in this Round , the two higher ones can
not be sensed by our faculties and remain invisible , even in their
effects on our life -currents .
The tints of the colors in the ribbon-lines vary somewhat in
different individuals , according to the nature of the man ; their
intensity also, in any one person , changes from day to day , and9

also fluctuates with the operation of the lungs, deepening when

the breath is thrown out, becoming fainter at the inspiration .
Even the size or width of the whole chromatic ribbon follows the
same rhythm , expanding with the expiration , contracting when the
breath is taken in . The time of the day also seems to affect the
appearance of this aura , and so does the state of repose or fatigue
of the person .
Another remarkable fact is that musical sounds affect the Tat
wic Aura, inducing , by flashes as it were , appreciable changes in
its colored bands, or, at the very least, intensifying the existing
colors ; this effect is manifested , not on the bright-colored lines
>
themselves, but on the less intense “ intervals ” between them .
Thus certain violin notes have been noticed to change the bright
 22

colorless line—which is generally found the first over the surface

of the skin_into a dark reddish-brown one. Here , the influence
of musical sounds on these Tatwic currents is probably a kind of
mechanical , physiological one , of the same nature as that pro
duced by the same causes on the circulation of the blood and the
nervous fluid . The emotional influence of music on the Kamic
Aura - a description of which will follow — is quite of another nature .
But there can be no doubt also that emotions , or any thing affect
ing the material and ethereal circulatory systems , do also mechan
ically register a passing impression on the Tatwic colored bands.
b) The Geometrical part of the Tatwic Aura is composed of
currents of minute figures, which seem to run over and through the
chromatic or ribbon-like portion , assuming regular shapes, trace
able back, in all their modifications and combinations , to five
characteristic types , viz : the dotted circle (ellipse or ovoid) , the
simple circle , the crescent , the triangle and the square. This
portion represents the flow of the various life - currents of the Uni .
versal Pranas . This will be readily recognized by those who are
familiar with the grand theory of the Tatwas , and have studied
Rama Prasad's clàssical synopsis (Nature's Finer Forces). Ac
cording to this theory , each of the forces that give birth to what
we call the Elements , is animated by a peculiar mode of vibra
tion , producing in matter as pervaded by each of them, forms
represented as follows :
Akasha ,, Sound , O Dotted sphere, ellipse or egg - form ;
Vayu, Touch , C Circle ;
Tejas , Light , A Triangle ;
Apas , Taste , o Crescent or Lotus flower;
Prithivi, Smell , Square or Quadrangle ;
These last four forms are either simple or accompanied by a
central dot , hole or vortex , and each of their respective forms may
be direct or reversed, or modified by their combining with some
one or with several of the others , thus producing an unlimited
number of variations in tiny lozenges , rectangles , squares with
rounded edges, oblong and otherwise modified crescents , scallops
and wavy lines , inclined triangles and variously modified circles .
 23

A few samples of these combinations as found in the Human Tat

wic Aura are given in the accompanying plates , on a greatly mag
nified scale , so as to allow some clearness to the details.

MAGNIFIED SPECIMENS OF TATWIC GEOMETRICAL AURA .

Moletom
WIUZ

en
못육 을
foto
1000

TE

OV

NUAN

These figures are found in the geometrical part of the Human

Aura, just as they exist in the vegetable ; but while they are
stable in the latter, in man they are subjected to the periodical ,
everlasting changes of the universal Tatwic currents . Thus,
every twenty - four minutes, or in connection with the change of
the breath from one nostril to the other, they gradually modify
their shapes and dimensions ; they can even , at the appointed time ,
be seen pre-assuming the nature of the approaching current,
 24

squares , for example passing off into lozenges, circles into half
>

moons , triangles melting into wavy lines, dots appearing or dis

appearing, etc.
CHANGES AT HALF HOUR'S INTERVAL

From this To this .

视线

These figures, for the time, flow evenly and in continuous lines ,
weaving out, as it were, graceful designs , generally remarkable
for their perfection and regularity, though their general aspect
varies in different persons ; in a spiritual man , the outlines of
these figures are light and distinct, in a material man or in old
age, they are heavy and blurred . . When the flow is simple , each
variety of figure keeps running regularly in one and the same band
of color ; thus the triangles always run in the red band , or the red
color is always accompanied by triangles ; but the other figures
are not quite so faithful, though the Prithivi squares seem to fol
low the yellow ray and the Vayu circles the blue one . When ,
however, the figures are irregular in shape, size or distribution ,
if they are mingled many together of the same sort — as it seems
to happen more frequently with the Vayu circles and the Apas
crescents—then the design may occupy the whole or the greater
portion of the chromatic ribbon , irrespective of color . These ir
regularities would tend to show that the chromatic and the geo
metrical currents are not absolutely one and the same thing. But
it must be understood that the changes , variations and combi
nations of both are practically unlimited and may contain other
manifestations as yet unclassified .
The Tatwic geometrical currents appear to flow downwards on
the left side of the body and upwards on the right. The flow of
 25

both Tatwic currents gets interrupted when it meets with a cut ,

bruise or wound on the skin ; they then seem to heap up or bulge
along the margin of the wound , and the various geometrical figures
losing their regular sequence , are thrown into aa hopeless confusion.
The chromatic and geometrical displays of our Tatwic Aura
whatever form they may assume-seem to be , at any one time,
pretty nearly the same all over the body . Moreover, as the twelve
daily changes of breath-though governed by solar and lunar in
fluences—appear to follow the rotation of the zodiacal signs
in the heavens , there is reason to anticipate that further studies
will establish this fact, viz : that similar Tatwic manifestations
occur at the same moment in persons placed under the influence
of the same signs.. Yet, it is important to notice that there are
some limited parts of the body where the manifestations are al
ways different, these among others being the ears, the nose and
the forehead ; thus, whatever may be the figure prevailing else
where , Vayu circles can nearly always be found on the skin around
the ears , and a prominent dark blue tinge takes there the place of
the colored ribbons .

EAR . HAND .

‫ و‬hogonale
‫ل‬H‫ا‬ogo
Oliott HERIOR

Furthermore , the forms of the geometrical Tatwic currents

are never exactly identical on both sides of the body, thus mark
ing the difference between the positive and negative forces and
conditions . Another and still wider difference exists between the
various fingers of each hand , the order of the colored bands, and
more especially the nature of the geometrical figures showing
some characteristic changes from one finger to the other ;* this is
probably due to the fact - taught by the wonderful Hindu occult
physiology—that, as the Tatwic flow arrives at the knot of the
wrists , it splits up into its component fractions of the five Tatwas ,
which then run separately into the five fingers: thus , at any time
* All this leads us to expect that future observations on the various parts of the body which
seem to form exceptions to the regular flow of the general Tatwic currents , ought to bring out
interesting discoveries.
 26

when the Akashạ happens to be predominant, the Akashic por

tion with its characteristic figures will flow along and to the tip of
the thumb, while the Vayu portion goes along the first finger, the
Tejas along the middle one, the Apas along the ring finger, and
the Prithivi along the little finger, these fractions re-combining
again into one current as they flow back to the wrist ; and simi
larly with the other four series . This peculiarity gives the Indian
occultist the power of knowing-by the variations and splitting of
the pulse vibrations , in combination with the finger auras—which
of the Tatwas is affected in a disease .
While in the Tatwic emanations can be traced even the idiosyn
cracies of the nation or race to which a person belongs, they also
indicate the state of health , and , in ladies, certain physiological con
ditions. In fact, every disease , nay every disturbance , is clearly
shown in various parts of the patient's aura.
In connection with this fact, Rama Prasad and other Hindu
psychologists reveal the great secret of occult medicine, when they
say that every disease is only a disturbance of the Tatwas ; and
this brings them to connect the colors of a disease with those of
the medicinal substance that can cure it . To act on a disease ,
the aura of the medicine must be—both in its Tatwic colors and
geometrical figures — as nearly homeopathic as possible to the colors
and figures in the patient's aura that are characteristic of the dis
ease . Therefore there can be no doubt that the efforts of the
medicine of the future will be directed to the study of all auras
and especially to the comparison between those of the remedy and
of the patient. However, this question opens such new and un
suspected speculations of immense interest to medical science,
that it would lead us too far for the present , though, ( D. V. ) it may
make the subject of a future essay .
It will now be in order to say that the most favorable parts for
the study of this complicated Tatwic Aura are those free from
epidermic hairs and not covered with clothes . As this aura is so
very narrow , the hairs , every individual one of which , it must be
remembered , has an aura of its own , only add to the confusion
and make it more difficult to distinguish what belongs exclusively
to the Tatwas ; while the clothes, which also have an aura of their
 27

own , hide the Tatwic layers entirely. Therefore the best place
to observe them may be said to be on the arms and hands , and ,
in a limited sense, on the fingers ; not at their tips , however, for
there again the aspect changes, since , as it was already noticed by
Reichenbach : “ flames ((the Electric Aura)) .... like streamers
of light , of relatively much greater intensity, flow from the points
of all the fingers in a straight direction from where they are
stretched ” ( Dynamics , p. 225 , 41 ) .
It must however be remembered also , that through all the Tatwic
currents, both chromatic and geometric , are constantly radiating ,
not only the straight vertical lines of the Electric Health Aura,
but also the horizontal flow of the Magnetic waves, the Caloric
fluid and the Pranic vapor, while the whole of this field is further
more enveloped and clouded over with the various lights and colors
of the Kamic Aura ; and this statement will explain how confused
and surcharged the whole appearance must be, how difficult to
study it accurately, and what patient observations such a study must
require , even from a seer whose astral senses are equal to cope
with the fearful complications that Nature delights to accumulate
in her works.
Here, before passing on to the next division , we must not
neglect to register that , at times , other figures than the small Tat
wic ones are also seen through the chromatic and geometrical rib
bons of Prana, larger, and not forming any continuous chain of
design , and--among others—separate , isolated lotus-flowers, stars ,
crosses, triangles or rectangles, etc. But whether these manifest
ations belong to that aura seems doubtful, as they might pertain
to some of the higher principles, the matter of which interpenetrates
the lower ones.
2nd . Magnetic Aura, (horizontal flow ) .- From a large num
ber of observations collected by the writer , this seems to be an
emanation of a faint, bluish-white hue, from which radiates a kind
of light which illuminates the parts permeated by it with a soft,
silvery- moonlight glow. Its intensity wavers and its quiverings
are connected with the pulsations of the heart . It has a rippling ,
wave-like motion and flows parallel to the skin , as near as one
third or one quarter of an inch , though it is also seen under the
 28

aspect of two or three distinct waves or flows, one over the other ;
in this case , the highest wave may reach to a distance of about
half an inch . These variations in depth are in proportion to the
sensitive state of life; and , in old age, this is the first emanation
to becoine deadened and dimmed . Under certain conditions its
flow is broken , interrupted , producing horizontal striations, this
being probably the reason why Mr. Sinnett intimates that this
Magnetic Aura (or “ Jivic” as he is pleased to call it) “ is the in
fluence under which the lines of the Electric Health Aura remain
radial in position when the health is good ;" and he quotes the
case of a person suffering from nervous prostration , in which the
more or less crumpled lines of his Health Aura were seen to
straighten out and become again parallel under the influence of
fresh “ jivic” (magnetic) energy poured into him by a mesmeric
operator. But the true action and properties of the Magnetic
flow are too mysterious and complicated to be yet positively de
scribed . Thus Mr. Sinnett asserts that “ besides keeping the lines
of the Health Aura combed out straight,” this emanation " seems
to be operative as a protection against the attack of disease germs,”
which clairvoyant sight can perceive as “ repelled, so to speak ,
by the outrush " of the Electric Aura . “ As long as those lines are
firm and straight and the jivic (magnetic) Aow continues steadily
at their basis , the body seems almost perfectly protected from evil
physical influences ; but, when this outrush becomes enfeebled
) )

through wounds, ill-health, over -fatigue or exhaustion , ” the mag

netic emanation is less energetic in repelling such attacks, and
it is probably under such conditions that disease germs generally
effect a lodgement in the system .” On the contrary , it would
seem that contagion or absorption of foreign influences is more easy
when this magnetic flow is very smooth , its smoothness coinciding
with sensitive passiveness or a negative condition . But Mr. Sinnett
very correctly states ( Aura , p . 14) “ that the flow of this radiation
>

is to some extent under the control of the will," so that magnet

izers use it extensively . The Theosophical authorities also say
that the dispersion of this force can be " prevented beyond the
limits of the aura , in such a way as to form around the body a
kind of wall or shell impervious to contagion or to any kind of
 7
29

astral or elemental influences, for a period of from ten to thirty

minutes, or as long as the effort of the will is maintained .” Thus ,
an occultist may pass with perfect impunity through the most in
fected atmosphere. This is done by merely inhaling a deep
breath and slowly breathing it out , intensely willing all the time
that a strong protective cloud of magnetism be thrown out over
the external limits of the aura, so as to tenaciously cling to it, and
>

the object will actually be accomplished, if the thought and will

are powerful enough.
There is a rather singular resemblance between the magnetic
current around the human body and the magnetic or odic fluid or
aura which is seen streaming out of the poles of magnets and from
some crystals , and which is well known through Baron Reichenbach's
valuable experiments ; so it has been suggested that it might be
the same kind of effluvium , only modified , individualized by the
human being ; at any rate, it is probably connected with what the
Indian Tantras qualify as the lunar or negative currents.
3rd . Caloric Aura . - Since the body of man is a heat-pro
ducing machine , there can be no wonder that this heat should ra
diate away and produce what Mr. Sinnett very improperly calls
the “ Jivic” aura , but which he correctly describes as something
(

“ somewhat resembling in its appearance and the character of its

pulsation , what heated air presents when seen in summer rising
))
from ground exposed to the sun's rays,” or rising from a clear
bright fire; " it may also be likened to the faint condensation ofvapor
due to the breath when perceived in an atmosphere barely cold
enough to render it visible , but just below the point at which it
would become completely invisible.” The Caloric emanation is
) )

stationary, and this enables the sight to distinguish it from the

flowing magnetic wave ; otherwise it would be very difficult to
recognize and separate the one from the other, since both occupy
nearly the same space. It causes, along the skin, a luminous , dis
tinct, transparent zone , which is sometimes described as colorless,
or bluish or yellowish, but which is generally of a light, though
material, reddish hue, varying in tint and density with the phys
ical condition of the body or its power for combustion , or with the
state of health or disease and with the nature of the combination
 30

produced by the elementary fraction of Prana absorbed by the

body .
4th . Electric or Health Aura, (vertical striations) .—This is
often the first thing that attracts the attention of a seer when
examining the auras near the body, through the various clouds
that intermingle at this place . It is a system of vertical striations
of variable length or alternately long and short , almost colorless
and reminding one of the sparks radiating from an electric arc .
light, or of the sun's rays,-of course translated to the astral plane .
As Mr. Sinnett adequately says, it can best be described as “ com
posed of an enormous number of straight lines radiating evenly
in all directions from the body," apparently emanating from the
pores of the skin . These lines seem to illuminate with a bluish
light the field through which they manifest. They have been
termed " Health Aura ” from the fact that ill-health seems to affect
the aspect and strength of this radiation : in ordinary conditions ,
its lines are all evenly separated one from the other, keeping as
nearly parallel as the position of the radiating part allows ; but,
wherever disease , general or local , affects the body, “ then the lines
in the neighborhood of the affected organs fall into confusion , cross
9

one another in all directions and present the appearance of being

all tangled together" (the Aura, Trans., London Lodge , No. 18 ,
p. 13) ; they are moreover unequal and broken, erratic and faint.
On the other hand , in health under certain mental stimulus, these
lines seem to stiffen, thus representing porcupine quills, bristling up
for the protection of the body , and this phenomenon is probably
connected with the bristling of the epidermic hairs under certain
emotions. These lines shoot out with varying force and to various
heights, from two to three inches on the hand , from four to ten or
twelve inches over the head, according to the vitality of the person
and to other circumstances . Thus , in the Sivaghama,-Science of
Breath ,-translated by R. Prasad (Nature's Finer Forces, p. 220) ,
the following are the lengths of the “ subtle Prana " that “ surrounds
the human body like a halo of light " : the natural length , from the
body to the circumference of this halo, is twelve fingers of the
man whose Prana is measured , at the time of the expiration of
breath , but it shrinks to ten at the inspiration , and lengthens out
 31

to eighteen in eating and speaking, to twenty - four in walking, to

forty - two while running , to sixty -five in matrimonial congress and
to one hundred in sleep . Then again, all these measures are re
duced in certain men ; eleven fingers in those who restrain their
desires ; ten in men always pleasant and hilarious ; nine in poets ;
eight in speakers ; seven in seers ; six in levitation , etc. This aura
is probably an emanation belonging to what the Indian Tantras
call the Solar or positive currents . It would be very interesting
to obtain regular , systematic observations of the variations of this
electric effluvium during various sicknesses .
Before dismissing this part of the subject, it is necessary to
state that , for a casual observer, all the lower auras intermingle
and combine so closely with each other that they produce one
general appearance, that of a luminous mist which illuminates the
outside of the body , and this light often constitutes the only thing
perceived by clairvoyants whose sight is not sharp enough to dis
tinguish any of the higher manifestations. At night, all these
material effluences increase in extension and brightness during
sleep , and their combination gives to the sleeper, in the dark , the
appearance of being bathed in a glowing, shining cloud , the up
shooting flames of which fluctuate over the whole body and present
a very interesting sight to the seer. This light is especially bright
over infants .
Another point that all the lower auras share in common with
the Tatwic currents, is that they all are affected by the state of
the health , which they indicate by changes in their appearance,
shades of color , density , etc. , so that their study must also be of
assistance to a knowledge of diseases . Even the mere state of
repose or fatigue of the person , can modify their whole aspect, a
fact already noticed by H. P. B.: “ Ask a good clairvoyant to de
scribe the (lower) aura of a person refreshed by sleep and that of
another just before going to sleep ; the former will be seen bathed
in rhythmical vibrations of life -currents, golden, blue and rosy ;
these are the electrical waves of life, ( Prana) ; in the latter person ,
these life currents are quite faded, while the whole of the Pranic
sphere is, as it were , in the midst of an intense golden orange (or
bright yellow) hue , composed of atoms whirling with an almost
 32

incredible and spasmodic rapidity, thus showing that the person

begins to be too strongly saturated with life;' in other words,
showing that relief for the physical organs must be sought for in
sleep , “ so that the exhausted nervous centers-especially the
sensory ganglia of the brain , —which refuse to act any longer
>)
on this plane,” should have opportunity to recuperate their strength
on another plane or Upadhi (Trans. Blavatsky Lodge, I. 58) .
II . THE ETHERIC BODY OR DOUBLE (formerly called Linga
Sharira, the first in the reversed order of occult classification of
man's Principles , though generally the second manifestation in
order of sight , after the material auras above described) .—The
Double or Etheric model is composed of four grades of etheric
matter, on which our physical body is formed and grows as a per
fect, densified duplicate, the two interpenetrating each other.
Therefore, this is not a simple emanation , as the auras previously
examined , but a real principle. However, here is not the place for
a description of the Double, which has been elaborately and inter
estingly treated in several of the recent Theosophical publications .
The only thing pertinent to say now is that , to a good sight , it is
clearly visible through the general aura as a perfect shadow, in
size and shape , of the physical body , which it permeates, an
etherealized copy of every part of it , including wounds and blem
ishes, and reproducing even all the colors of the man , though ordi .
nary observers generally see it merely as a shadowy mass of faintly
luminous, violet-grey mist, “ coarser or finer in texture as the
dense body is coarse or fine” ( Man and his Bodies) . It ordinarily
outlines closely the material shape ; yet, --
- and very strangely,
since it is well known that during life the Double cannot separate
itself absolutely from its dense copy , -- it has the faculty of throw
ing itself at times more on one or the other side, when it can be
viewed protruding, nearly to its full extent, from the body, either
preceding or following, though unable to rise above it on account
of being tied to it through the spleen ; and in such cases of sep
arate visibility , it clearly repeats , like a true shadow , all the move
ments of the person . When perceived with any tolerable dis
tinctness , the Etheric Double also presents a special auric border
of its own , about one inch in width , which contains a very faint,
 33

vaporish duplicate or photograph of the colors and geometrical

figures pertaining to the Tatwic auras , such as may exist along
the material body at the moment of the observation. Then again ,
through its matter will be seen reflected the flows of the blood
It has further the property of retaining
and of the vital fluid .
the impressions and scars of diseases and wounds which have
been cured and have , apparently , disappeared from the material
body. But the study of all these peculiarities in the Double is
more difficult even than the scrutiny of the other auras, on account
of the general faintness of this Principle , and of the overshadow
ing of the other auric manifestations.
III . INHALED PRANA, PRANIC AURA , VITALITY , SECOND
PRINCIPLE (starting from the the lower ones). Wehave already
seen that Prana , in relation to the human being, must be divided
into two portions, the “ inhaled ” and the “ exhaled ”, as also it can
be considered under two aspects, the Individualized Prana and
the Universal or recurrent Tatwic currents which merely run
through the body .. The first portion , the exhaled one, through
necessities of classification, has already been described ; we now
come to the individualized Prana. As we are told that the Etheric
Double is the vehicle of Prana,—that positive-negative solar force
which unites and gives vitality to all the Principles, -- so an ob
server, while studying the dense body physically, may notice the
circulation of this Prana , as it gets individualized in the shape of
human Prana : “ colorless, though intensely luminous and extremely
3 )

active in the atmosphere ," it is absorbed and transformed by the

astral spleen in a similar manner as the lungs absorb the air, and
thus becomes the source of all the special vital and electro-chem
ical phenomena in the body. For this purpose , it reaches the
material body through the Etheric one, in the form of a vapor
which has been described as “ a constant stream of particles of a
beautiful color," varying from pale rose to dark-reddish hues,
denser in material persons , “ flowing all through the body, and es
pecially along the nerves and muscles, just as the blood flows
in the vessels” ; part of this force forms the so-called nervous fluid ,
some of it is gradually absorbed by the body and some is ex
haled in a nearly unaltered condition , this superfluous, unabsorbed
 34

portion “ radiating copiously from the body in every direction ."

While the inhaled Prana ,-in healthy conditions -- assumes aa
clear reddish or lavender color, varying to blue , it becomes smoky
in ill-health and ashey-grey in a dying person . This aura acts as
a kind of veil over all the lower ones, and the unabsorbed portion
appears to melt into the golden radiation of the Electric Aura.

$ 2. Psychie or Soul Portions.

The auras we have so far noticed are the most material or phys
ical. They represent , in fact, the lower kingdoms of nature, the
Geometrical and Magnetic corresponding to the mineral , the
Chromatic to the vegetable , and the Caloric and Electric to the
the animal . But they may yet contain other features which more
extended studies will reveal ; thus, there seem to be manifestations
pertaining to the various chemical components of the body and
their auras , to the nature of the food ingested and its action , and
to special characteristics of the Etheric Body . But we must now
come to the part of the Human Aura which is concerned with
something more than material, bodily conditions ; we are reaching
the real man and the manifestations of his higher faculties.
IV . THE KAMIC AURA , ( Kama, Kama-rupa, Animal Soul,
true Astral Body , Third Principle) .—This is the manifestation of
the Kamic sheath of desires and passions, and therefore it is the
field on which all such ideas and emotions produce the outward
indication of their existence . If we reflect that , in this Fourth
Round of ours , Kama is still the predominant, the most developed
of our Principles, and that we really are yet under its full sway , we
will easily understand that the Kamic Aura must likewise be the
most developed of those above the mere material plane , and the
most prominent, important and interesting one to study on the
psychic plane , while it is also-next to the simple electro -mag
netic effluvia — the most easily distinguished by ordinary seers.
Its general appearance seems to be that of a colored, cloudy mass ,
interpenetrating the lower bodies and auras : “ The Kamic body of
a man whose thoughts are low and animal , is gross, thick, dense and
dark in color, often so dense that the outline of the physical body is
 35

almost lost in it, whereas that of an advanced man is fine, clear ,

luminous and bright in color ” ... and by thinking nobly , we
purify the Kamic body even without having consciously worked
towards that end ” (Man and his Bodies). However, whatever
may be the quality of the Kamic sheath , starting from the skin, it
always distinctly shines through the ribbon of the Tatwic Aura
and extends above this to about four inches from the body , thus
forming the Kamic Aura proper. It appears there to be ordin
arily subdivided into three zones of different colors, disposed from
the body outward in the following order : Pink or red, violet or
blue and orange-yellow, the red being more accentuated and pre
dominant right through in aa low material sensualist, while the other
hues prevail when the Kamic forces become more subdued, more
spiritual and purified Mrs. Besant correctly notices that , in a
man of gross type , the three above mentioned Kamic zones, dulled
in hue become dirty reds and greens and browns instead of
orange-yellow ( Lucif., XIX ., 69 ). But it must be well understood
that, whatever may be their tints , on the whole of these three
colored zones , as a background , are seen , constantly manifesting,
flashing and playing like the streamers of the Aurora Borealis , the
chromatic impressions of all our thoughts, passions, desires and
emotions, as also those of outside influences, such as sound, music,
etc. Our own voice and that of others must also affect our Kamic
Aura. Here, bearing in mind the intimate correlation between
sound and color, a digression must be allowed. Speech may be
defined : “ sounds imbued with a personal meaning, expressing
modes of the speaking entity.” Therefore, while affecting the
listener's aura , speech must also be intimately connected with the
aura of the speaker. In fact, it would seem only natural that, if
we knew how, the character, the moral as well as the physical status
of every person , could be sensed through the intonations of his
voice and the various characteristics—in sound , forms and colors
given out by his speech. In other words , as manifestations of his
thoughts, the special vibrations of a man's speech -- what might be
termed his personal equation of speech,—ought to induce on a
sensitive or trained hearer, impressions of the same nature as those
that the auric colors,—which are produced by the same thoughts
 36

and manifested on the Kamic Aura,—do on an educated seer.

Thus speech must be auric colors materialized , and , in this line of
ideas , there must exist a splendid field of observation for students .
As Mr. Sinnett says : “ The Kamic Aura is the mirror on which
every feeling, every desire is reflected," and representing as it does
the animal soul in man , its appearance as a whole “ expresses to
those who comprehend its significance, the general status of the
lower sensual nature in any individual observed.” Then again
we read that “ Clairvoyants can see flashes of color , constantly
changing in the aura that surrounds every person , each thought,
each feeling thus translating itself in the astral world , visible to
the astral sight . Persons somewhat more developed than or
dinary clairvoyants can also see the thought forms (that accompany
the flashes) and the effects produced by the flashes of color among
the hordes of Elementals" (A. Besant, Karma) . These “ thought
forms" are projected with more or less force and definiteness, and
to a greater or lesser distance , according to the mental capacities
and positive character of the person ; their projection seems to
occur generally from the face, in the front part of the aura, but it
must also be added that certain Kamic flashes, representing
emotions more intimately connected with the essence of the Per
sonality, shoot right through Kama to the Psychic Aura.
Some very interesting " thought-forms” have been published in
Lucifer, ( September, 1896) ; yet they do not begin to exhaust the
subject, which is as unlimited as the powers of human thought
itself. It is not possible here , further than by the accompanying
specimen plate, to deal with this special topic, which would require
much more space and time than is here given to the whole of the
Aura ; but the writer hopes to devote another essay to it.
As it must readily be expected from their very character, the
difficulty in studying thought-forms is their sudden , often unex
pected manifestation and their ephemeral duration . Mr. Sinnett
accurately says : “ there is very little permanency about the mani
festations of Kama, its colors , (those that flash through its sub
stance , not the three permanent zones,) its brilliancy, the rate of
its pulsations are all changing from moment to moment; an out
burst of anger will charge the whole Kamic Aura with deep red
1

!
 THE HUMAN AURA-THOUGHT FORMS . ( Page 37)

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 37

( or scarlet) flashes on a dark ground ; a sudden fright (physical

or material terror,) will in a moment change everything to a mass
of ghastly , livid grey ," . « If the man els love, rose-red thrills.
through it ” ; the hues of all these manifestations changing , how
ever , with the nature of the emotion .
The specimens given in the plate refer to the following
thoughts :
Figure 1. Fear of detection , emanated from a guilty conscience,
the circles being bright rings spread out in aa mist of varying shades
of grey , pink and purple ;
Figure 2. A beautiful devotional thought, not deep but fervent;
soft and mellow lines in a bluish mist ;
Figure 3. Pity, reddish-violet cloud in the center, fading out
wardly to pale violet ; the rings are bright light, and the horns
dark pink shading off to light pink ;
Figure 4. Deception, an ugly but very characteristic form of
varying colors , generally steel or dark blue, appearing in a mist
of ashey pink ;
6
Figure 5. Sudden thought of “ how time has passed and is
fleeting away ”, showing the crescent horns of desire and regret,
the smaller one, inside being blue, the second yellow, and the
narrow one outside , white , in a colorless mist ;
Figure 6. Mental Fear, accompanied with a shrinking sensa
tion in the knees and stomach , bright balls in a mist of grey , pink
and yellow ;
Figure 7. Another form , physical Fear with anger , a black
and grey mist , with electrical flashes of explosive passion .
It is not here the place to say anything about the nature of the
Kainic sheath itself, nor about the formation from it of the Kama
rupa , that other copy of the body by means of which the initiated
man can travel out and manifest himself far away from his body,
nor tell of what happens to the Kamic envelope after death and
after the shedding of the Etheric Double. These points , which
have little connection with the present subject, will be found sat
isfactorily elucidated in various lạte publications , and especially
in Mrs. Besant's Man and his Bodies.
 38

v. PSYCHIC AURA , (Lower Manas, Semi-animal-human Soul ,

Personality , Fourth Principle ). After that which has been set
forth above, of Kama being yet the predominant principle with
the majority of our present humanity, what we now have to say
of the Psychic or Lower Manasic Sheath, will not be unexpected .
Although this ought really to be the most important of our
sheaths, since it represents the Personality ,—the mental man on
the lower plane, and although it is already more developed in our
fifth race than it was in the previous fourth race , yet it is very
far from the development it will eventually reach . Consequently
also , its manifestations as aura are generally less marked than
they ought to be . From the body outwards, the seer can follow
this aura , as it intermingles with the others; but it is ordinarily
so faint, its texture is so delicate and so overshadowed by the grosser
matter of the lower auras , that it becomes best visible over and
above the Kamic field, away from the body. There, it also pre
sents the appearance of a cloudy film , of a much higher and finer
matter than the Kamic one , not perceptible to all clairvoyants,
but easily distinguishable by those who can analyze it, as com
posed of two parts or layers : the first is of a green color , the in
tensity of which denotes the degree of development of this sheath
or principle , and therefore the status of the Personality ; the
other, or upper , outside one, being a sort of yellowish edge or
border, of a more or less light tinge, according to the intensity of
the lower portion . This aura extends to about six or seven inches
from the surface of the dense body. * But Mrs. Besant says:
“ There is one marked peculiarity about the mind-body (Lower
*All the measurements of the various parts of the aura herein given are taken from actual
observations , but, to show how accurately they confirm the old Hindu statements, the follow
ing quotation from a work on Yoga, will not be out of place:
“ At a distance of two finger- breadths (taken to be equal to half inches) from the tip of the
nose , horizontally, there is the Blue Akasha Tatwam
( Caloric Aura) ;
“ At a distance of four finger-breadths is the brown Vayu (reddish Pranic) :
66 66
six red Tejas ( Kamic zone) ;
66
ten green Apas ( zone of Lower Manas) .
16 << 60
twelve yellow Prithivi ( golden rim of the Psychic Aura ) .
“ After which , in deep contemplation, flashes out suddenly the sixth Tatwam , Chidakasam .
(silvery edge of the Higher Manasic Aura, ) which envelops the observer and everything else
with its Chitkala , the steady contemplator of which then sees only one mass of light .
(Vedanthavartikam , Th . X. , 409 ; see also Raja - Yoga Bhashya , Th . XVII. , 484) . It will be real
ized here that the instruction therein given means simply that the Yogi is to fix his contem
plation on various parts of his own aura .
 39

Manas), as its outer part shows itself in the Human Aura : it

grows, increases in size and in activtiy, incarnation after incarna
Lion , with the growth and development of the man himself ... if
we look at a very undeveloped person , we shall find the mind
body even difficult to distinguish .... it is so little evolved that
some care is necessary to see it at all : looking then at a more
advanced man . .
not spiritually, but in the faculties of the
mind , one who has trained and developed the intellect, we shall
>

find the mind-body acquiring a very definite development ...

it is a clear and definitely outlined object, fine in material and
beautiful in color, continually vibrating with enormous activity, full
of life, full of vigor, the expression of the mind in the world of the
mind . ” (Man and his Bodies , Lucifer, XVIII . , 124). In other
words, the Psychic sheath grows in outside appearance pari-passu
with the growth of the qualities of the mind. In form it does not ,
like the inferior sheaths, assume a distinct representation of the
physical man , but it is nearly oval in outline though interpenetrat
ing the lower bodies , and surrounding them with a radiant atmos
phere as it develops. It thus has the faculty of becoming a
very beautiful and glorious object with the growth of the higher
capacities of the mind . It is not necessary here to say more
about this sheath, merely adding that, as Lower Manas partakes
also to a great extent of the nature of the next lower sheath ,
Kama , so the Psychic Aura represents “ indeed the general
average of the aura below it, but it is much more than this , for in it
appear beams of spirituality and intellectuality which have no place
by on the lower level.” Most undoubtedly , if the flashes formed
the vibrations connected with any particular desire, are repeated
strongly and habitually in the Kamic Aura, they must set up in
the lower Manasic aura corresponding vibrations which produce
there a permanent tinge of the same color. In this aura , therefore,
may also be read some indications of the general disposition or
character of the person , his good and bad points , and through
currents in connection with this aura , are laid open to clairvoyant
vision the picture records of the past earth -life of the personality .”
(Leadbeater, Theos . , XVII., 138) . . . . . This Mr. Sinnett ex
plains by the fact that, as the Psychic Aura is formed of Akasha,
 40

it places the observer in subtle relation with the Akasic planes on

which are recorded all the events connected with that plane, and
consequently with all the actions performed by the Lower Manas
or Personality (see Trans. London Lodge , No. 18 , p. 17-18) .
Auric Colors and their Import. - Before passing to the descrip
tion of the higher auras , and since it is in the lower ones that
the chromatic manifestations--both physical and mental--are the
most numerous and important , it will be proper to say something
of the import of the colors seen in them. There is no country
where the symbology of color is better understood than in India.
Thus , even the statues of Divinities are there colored according
to the mystic , spiritual mood attributed to each of them , “ white
and yellow complexions typifying mild moods, while red , blue
and black belong to the fierce forms, though sometimes light blue ,
picturing the sky, means merely celestial ; generally the gods are
painted white , goblins , red, and devils, black, like their European
relatives” ( Surgeon -Major Waddell , Buddhism in Thibet, 337 ) .
The guardian angels of the four corners of the Universe are res
pectively : East, white ; South , green ; West , red, and North, yel
low . Unfortunately in India, the subject of colors , and their
true shades and meaning, are jealously guarded under exoteric
and very misleading blinds . The reason for this secrecy is the
power resulting from the true knowledge. For instance, in the
matter of the Human Aura, it is correctly asserted that -- for one
who knows--every color , every flash of light manifested in an
aura , during the waking state , has a special meaning, helping to
show what the man is , materially and morally ; to what degree or
development he has reached , and even what are his daily habits,
thoughts , passions and deeds. Thus, in an auric enquiry about
the nature of a man , character and intellectuality must be sought
for in the fourth and fifth (Masanic) auras ; the thoughts , desires
and passions in the third (Kamic), and the material , physical con
ditions in the second and first ( Pranic and Electro- Magnetic).
Furthermore , the general tint which happens to predominate all
over , indicates which of the Principles is the ruling one , either or
dinarily or at the time of the observation , and its fluctuations or
the intensity of its vibrations show the activity of the correspond
ing Principle .
 V

41

Many difficulties, however, beset the way to this knowledge :

a) It has been well said that , in the astral and mental planes
just as much as in the physical world , colors depend on the number
of vibrations that take place in a second ; and , the higher the
plane and the more elevated the thought or emotion on that plane,
the greater is the number of vibrations induced. Therefore, it
can be readily understood that the various colors and shades , in
their appearance and nature as well as in significance, differ very
greatly according to the plane and to the special aura in which they
manifest. Thus red , found in the Tatwic emanations of Prana,
9

must have an entirely different bearing from red found in the

Kamic or in the Manasic sheaths . Then again , while the colors
of Prana are the most material , they are already very unlike the
coarser prismatic hues known to physical eyes . Mr. Sinnett
conveys a correct idea about the peculiar importance of the
ultra rays of the spectrum , (Aura p. 20-21 ) , but he may also
be misleading, since he apparently wishes to confine the astral
colors to the invisible rays of those two ultra sides , the total num
ber of spectral colors being, according to him , fourteen instead of
only the seven known in Physics . But, while incomplete in this
respect, since, by following his own statement , the colors ought
to be twenty - one instead of fourteen (seven in the luminous part ,
and seven , invisible to the ordinary vision, in each of the caloric
and chemical zones) ; in reality the psychic or astral colors, seen
by clairvoyants , appear to be true astral octaves of th: physical
colors and their shades are further modified by the fact of their be
longing to a positive or negative current ( Rama Prasad , Theos .,
IX . , p. 541 ) , thereby indicating in the Human Aura the positive
ness or negativeness of any individual character (Olcott, Theos.,
XVII ., p. 142).
b) On the higher planes , the colors of the higher principles or
their auras , become still more ethereal , spiritual , delicate, inde
scribable ,-with " hues that no language can describe because
they have no place in the earth's spectrum ,” - so that it requires,
not only good psychic vision , but a well-trained student to prop
erly enuinerate or qualify those ineffable shades, and to attempt
to translate them into words , all the more so, since, according to
 42

Mr. Sinnett some are more truly “ sensed ” than perceived by or

dinary observers . It cannot, therefore, be surprising that so
much difference of opinion should have been expressed by differ
ent seers on the assignment of 'the various shades of color to the
mental or moral qualities they are supposed to betoken ; more.
over, the value and meaning of each chromatic sensation and its
apparent correspondence with character, seem to be modifiable
through the “ personal equation " of the observer, a factor very
difficult to estimate on the higher planes .. Consequently, as
Colonel Olcott very properly says, “ it'is too early yet to accept
without reserve any categorical identification of auric color with
>

phases of character ," and many years of study and experiments

by numerous observers will be necessary to attain positive results,
unless we are helped by Those who know.
There is, however, a perfect agreement so far, in the belief that
“brightness and tenderness of colors go with elevation and ideally
perfect human character ;". blackness and murky, greyish or
smoky clouds either with moral debasement, hatred, malice, disa
greeable feelings, or with melancholia and physical suffering;
blood - red with cruelty and savage passions generally, brown , red
and scarlet with anger, slimy,—not clear and bright-green with
deceit, treachery and selfishness (see Theos. , XVII . , 141 ). This
would explain the intuition of the artists who paint angelic entities
in an effulgence of light, while demoniacal characters are always
accompanied with black clouds and the lurid glow of red flames.
Mr. Sinnett conveys very similar ideas : “ we do not find” he says,
“ that the spectrum can be traced throughout the catalogue of
auric colors in any way that brings the two series into direct re
lations ;" yet, in a broad way, the auric colors could be classificd
as follows:
I. The middle tints of the spectrum , yellow and bright green ,
are suspected to be associated with strong vitality and also with
the “more active forms of intellectuality , corresponding to the
brightest light of the spectrum ;"
2. The lilac, blue and violet shades have to do with spiritual
characteristics , " certain unknown tints of the ultra-violet rays
being seen in the aura of persons gifted with high psychic attri
 43

butes associated with a noble, unselfish nature and true spiritual

aspirations ;
Red is directly connected with lower passions of various
kinds, especially with anger, though by no means every kind of
red ; for it must be remembered that “ the color indications of the
aura are more numerous than the seven tints of the spectrum,
and that every one of those has very much more than one signi
fication ,” so that in relation to red especially, while one kind may
indicate anger of a brutal and selfish type, another tint may
represent " noble indignation, and other clearer and milder shades,"
are directly “associated with the emotion of love, ” crimson with ani
mal love and delicate rose " with love in its loftier and purer as
pect ” " this rose being also mingled with brown when self
हैं
ish , or with dull green when accompanied with jealousy " (Lucif .,
XIX., 71 ). Various shades ofred can also be produced by sym
pathetic or by harsh notes of music. But “ psychic qualifications
associated with nothing but a groveling, selfish thirst for mys
terious knowledge, leading to black magic for base and evil pur
poses, are certainly indicated in the aura by the colors of the ultra
red ."
Again blue tints, which are ordinarily associated with religious
feeling, devotion , and even , in their finer shades, with very ex
alted spiritual tendencies, when deepened and darkened very mich
in tint, become indicative of a very narrow, self-involved nature,
and even ,-if murky and muddy, -of selfishness in its simplest
and most straightforward aspects . * Occult advancement shows
*A writer on Zoroastrianism , Mr. B. E. Unwala , confirms the above ideas in a general way ,
by saying : “ The Human Aura varies in colors according to the varying tendencies and men
tal, moral and spiritual development of each man , and according to the quality of the thought
evolved by him at every moment of his individual existence . Thus, the color of the aura of a
very vicious inan is entirely black , while that of a high Yogi is of a perfectly white color ; at in
termediate stages, it is of a gray, dusky, red , blue, yellow, or dusky-white color, according to the
degree of progress made towards spirituality . Thus the character as well as the thoughts of
any man can , by looking at his aura, be read by a Yogi .... . or seen by those who have de
veloped the clairvoyant faculty ” (Theost. , XVII . , 341). Further suggestions can be found in
another Hindu article: " The color of the physical man ,—that is to say the color of man's skin.
is not the real color of the man , nor is it proportionate to his spirituality . The real man is the
astral man , whose color is determined by his evolutionary progress. This color is , in one
sense, the aura of the man , and becomes perceptible only to psychic sight : the evolution
of man , -as that of all kinds of Jivas ,-is attended with the evolution of colors ” from
black towards white " black being the lowest, and the upward evolution being marked
by its passage to smoke and smoky violet, dark blue, red or smoky blue, yellow, and finally
white, which is the color of the perfect entity” “ the color of an entity on the astral
plane thus indicating his essence , his position in the scale of evotution ” (Colors, Theost . , XIV ..
592, -XV ., 112) .
 44

itself not only by colors, but also by the greater luminosity of the
aura, by its increased size and more definite outline.” For fur.
ther information on the knowledge possessed at the present time
in Theosophical circles on color significance, the reader is referred
to the tabulation made by Mr. Leadbeater ( Theos. XVII, 139,
also in pamphlet form published by the Indian Section T. S ),
which needs to be carefully verified, but wherein will be found a
most useful stepping -stone to a wide field of interesting and profit
able research .
In connection with the subject of colors, it must also be men
tioned that, outside of the general chromatic features of the various
auras, some certain parts of the body show special limited ema
nations of tints which appear to correspond more directly to the
peculiar principle with which that part is more intimately related .
For instance, dark blue is always found around the ears (as al
ready mentioned ) and over the lungs, green over the region of
the liver, red shading into orange below the stomach, yellow over
the crown of the head , orange, more or less yellowish, over the
feet and arms , etc. And these special, limited colors, while
throwing out a general shadow over all the auras in their circum
scribed areas , also vary in shade or intensity in different persons ;
but, of course, they can only be seen on the naked body.
Before closing with the subject of auric colors and their signi
ficance, it will be well to mention another curious feature of the
Human Aura : • Various observers have noticed that the aura of
an Adept is not only silvery bright and intense , radiating infin
itely farther into space than the aura of the ordinary man , but it
is constantly pulsating and arranging itself into geometrical fig
ures." Colonel Olcott , who writes this (Theos . XVII , 142 ),
seems to be rather dubious of the correctness of the fact; yet,
from the observations gathered by the writer, it appears that
these geometrical pulsations are not by any means confined to
the auras of Adepts , but are common property ; only in ordinary
people, they are so faint as to be nearly invisible , even to expert
seers , while in good moral persons of active intelligence, with ten
dencies towards occultism , they become quite apparent without
the owner having any pretension to Adeptship. These figures
 45

are described as isolated or irregularly distributed stars , crosses ,

circles , triangles , etc., which are seen through the colored matter
of the Kamic and Psychic auras, apparently formed out of the
substance of the aura itself, though their constant motion or vi
bration communicates to them a kind of dazzling appearance.
The import of these geometrical manifestations does not seem to
have yet been duly ascertained, though Colonel Olcott is prob
ably right about their being connected with Plato's aphorism that
“ God ever geometrises."
VI. MANASIC AURA. (Higher Manas, Lower Individuality,
Human Soul , Casual Body of Mrs. Besant, Karana Sarira of Sin
nett, Fifth Principle, sometimes improperly called the Auric
Egg ). The same difficulty which interferes with the observation of
the Psychic Aura , near the skin , is encountered in connection with
the Manasic Aura , and the best place to observe this clearly is
where it rises above the Psychic Aura. It is there described as
a vapory cloud of the most subtle indigo blue , the intensity and
shade of which depend upon the mental development of the per
son . It is ovoid in shape and extends to about 12 inches away
from the surface of the material body, and it is bordered by a
bright silvery edge, the brilliancy and intensity of which also de
pend upon that of the blue portion below it. Mr. Leadbeater
very properly remarks that “ it is not around everybody we meet
that this aura is to be distinguished," although it is latent even in
the lowest man , .... because, as Mrs. Besant explains : “ It fol
lows the law of evolution, and, in the average man, it is barely
distinguishable at all , even to the most expert seer , for it is a
1

mere colorless film (of subtlest matter), just sufficient apparently

to hold itself together and hold a re-incarnating individuality, but
no more . As soon , however, as a man begins to develop spirit
uality, or even higher intellect,” when he practices concentration
and exercises the power of thinking, a change occurs, the grow
ing individualized character rapidly showing itself in the enlarged
size, the brighter color and luminosity, and the greater definite
ness and clear outline of the Causal ( Manasic) Body , “ just as
the development of the Personality shows itself in the lower mind
body (Psychic Sheath ), except that the Causal body being the

"

IS IT
 46

higher vehicle , is naturally subtler and more beautiful, and perse

verance for good soon tells on this " (Man and his Bodies) .
Therefore, the more highly developed a person , the more. pro
nounced the Manasic Sheath becomes ; it then “ outshines all the
rest with startling brilliancy to observers, qualified to perceive it,”
and among other changes that it then undergoes , “ this vehicle
expands considerably in volume. ”. The result of this, as regards
the general, total auric aspect , “ is that the aura of such a person
expands also very greatly, acquiring at the same time an increas
ed precision of outline ; and whatever may be the magnitude of the
Manasic Aura, the others expand with it ; in this way the size of
an aura-using here the term in its collective application to all
seen together—is very much greater in the case of a person with a
highly-developed spiritual nature than in others where the Kamic
Aura is the measure of the rest ” (Sinnett, Aura) . “ In the case
of a man working on the plane of Adeptship, the sight of his
Manasic Aura becomes wonderful and lovely beyond all earthly
conception ," while “ in the aura of an Adept it so immensely
predominates over the aura of the Personality, that the latter
becomes practically non -existent," “ the Adept's aura being
one magnificent sphere of living light whose radiant glory no words
can tell." “ Any one,” says Mrs. Besant, “ who has ever seen
this sublime spectacle and compares it with the sight of individ
uals in all stages of development down to the colorless film of
the ordinary person , can never more feel any doubt as to the fact
of the evolution and progress of the re-incarnating Ego." But
the Adept's aura is a separate study , “ quite beyond ordinary
))
powers,” and rendered , as said by Mr. Leadbeater, all the more
difficult by the preponderant influence and peculiar characteristics
of the particular Ray the Adept may belong to.
It may be interesting to students to note here that it was the
“ şilvery edge” above mentioned as crowning the Manasic Aura ,
which originated the painter's conception of the hue of innocence
66

encircling the heads of Saints, " and we may also add that, accor
ding to R. Prasad , this edge is due to the prevalence of the Apas
Tatwam (Nature's Finer Forces, 163 ).
 47

83. Spiritual Portions.

VII . \ THE BUDDHIC AURA, (Buddhi, Spiritual Soul, Spirit

ual Body [of Mrs. Besant ], Sixth Principle ).-We rise here " into
7

a region so lofty, that it is well nigh beyond our treading,

even in imagination ” (Man and his Bodies) . In his article, al
ready often quoted , Mr. Leadbeater says that no information is
at present available about this high Aura. Mr. Sinnett says that
the highest component of the Human Aura which “ clairvoyance
short of Adeptship can penetrate, is the Fifth , * Higher Manas,
and even that one is not by any means seen at all around every
body .” Of course, the potentiality of the sixth aura “ resides in
every human being," but in the majority of mankind in this
Round , it is merely a germ , and consequently invisible ; it is only
in those cases where the higher self is evolved to considerable ac
tivity, that it would not be useless to attempt to discern its ema
nation within the denser clouds of the lower principles . It is de
scribed by those who can see it “ as of almost inconceivable deli
cacy and beauty, perhaps less a cloud than a living light,' " and
it is plainly divisible into two parts :
ist. Immediately above the silvery edge of the Manasic Aura ,
a zone or band of fathomless, spiritual blue , of a tint and nature not
realizable by any one who has not seen it ;
2d . Above this zone, a border or rim of glorious light, de )

scribed as the “ the very essence of golden light."

It extends above the Manasic Aura to a distance of seventeen
or eighteen inches from the skin over the top of the head ; it is
ovoid in shape , and the golden tinge of its border ,—the golden -

halo of the religious painter , and the " circle of light round our
heads” aş R. Prasad expresses it — is due according to this
writer , to the general prevalence of the Prithivi Tatwa, ( N.
F. F. , 163). In Initiates, this is the most glorious of all the
>
sheaths,” and through it " plays freely the living Atmic fire.”
*It is said that no ordinary seer can see above the Higher Manas , because seership is only
the intensification of the fifth plane faculties; consequently these faculties cannot reach above
their own sphere, and only Adepts can fully sense the Higher Planes, by transporting thither
their consciousness . But this statement does not seem to be rigorously exact, since the writer
is personally acquainted with persons whose psychic faculties are actually capable of distin
guishing plainly the Buddhic Aura and the Auric Egg, of course when they are sufficiently de
veloped to be visible at all .
 48

VIII . THE ATMIC AURA (Atmic Egg, Golden or Luminous

Egg, Human Hiranyagarbha, Karana Sarira or Causal Body of H.
P. B. , Essence of Man).-We reach here to the highest, most mys
terious and sacred of the components of the Aura, public mention
of which, before this year, had never been permitted by any occult.
school, " on account of its being too sacred ." * This is not the
place to state what the Auric Egg or Atmic Sheath really is, fur-.
ther than that , as said above, it is the absolutely permanent, im
mortal (Manyantaric) , and most intimate envelope of all immor
tal Monads, whether they be Globes , Devas or human beings ,
or still involved in the animal , vegetable or mineral kingdoms .
The Auric Egg of a tree is a beautiful sight to one who can per
ceive it. In the lower kingdoms this principle manifests within
Reichenbach's Odic emanations, which , as H. P. B. said, are
odic, “ but also something else .” In man it constitutes the sheath
which contains the indication of the Special Ray or Hierarchy
which each individuality belongs to, and, at death , this it is that
assmilates, stores up the essence of all the lower principles, the
“ spiritual aroma " of all that these principles , during the life of
each successive personality , have gathered that is worth preserv
ing. But, in so far as the Auric Egg in its relation to the human
aura is concerned , it will suffice to state that, although it does, at
all times , completely envelop the whole of the man , projecting
up to 22 or 24 inches over his physical head and several inches
below his feet, and though it is in reality the field or background
* The Rosicrucians knew fully well of the existence of the Auric Egg. But with them it
was unmentionable . They alluded to it by admitting that “ in the densest, crudest matter
there was yet a deposit or jewel of divine light, which gave to matter its possibilities of evolu
lution . " “ Unseen and unsuspected, because in it lies magic ( says H. Jennings in his Rosi
crucians, XXIII, 190], there is an inner magnetism or divine Aura or ethereal spirit , or possible
eager fire, shut and confined, as in a prison , in the body and in all sensible solid objects,
which have more or less of spiritually sensible life, as they can more successfully free them
selves from the ponderable material obstruction . Thus all minerals, in this spark of light ,
have the rudimentary possibility of plants and growing organisms, and likewise all plants.
have through it the rudimentary power of transmuting into locomotive new creatures, etc."
Thus according to the Rosicrucians , “ a spark of the original divine gold or light [lux] remains
deep down into the interior of every atom .” They also taught that this divinity is the Light
made manifest , the Second Light or Son , reflecting the glory of the First or Father, this sec
ond being “ the Anima Mundi, Light, Breath, Life, Aura or Sacred Spirit” [Ibid . XXXII, 313] ;
a spark of which constitutes the Aura of every object, this Aura being the eternal vehicle of
the Soul , as the Son or Second Light is the eternal vehicle of the Eternal All or Father.
Thus, years ago, did Jennings actually reveal, as near as could possibly be done at the time
the mysterious character, never plainly divulged by occultists, of the Auric Egg,
 49

upon which all the other auric manifestations show themselves , it

is rarely visible as a whole , except around individuals consider
ably developed. In that case it is seen as a well -defined , sharply.
edged oval or egg-shaped and faintly luminous shadow. The best
place to observe and study it is around and above the head and
shoulders, from the periphery of which it is seen first intermingling
with all the lower auras , then becoming, above them all , distin
guishable as a separate greyish -blue -violet, mysterious zone , which
has the property of absorbing the reflexion of the tint of whatever
may be the predominant lower principle in the person : thus it will
be verging into green if Lower Manas is preponderant, becoming
dark if it is Higher Manas, or accentuating the red in the violet
if Kama has the sway. The Auric Egg is composed of the high
est imaginable matter, of indescribable fineness ; this matter ,
though “ no matter" in the earthly sense , is characterized as pro
ducing on the seer the same impression of incommensurable
depth as the sight of the pure vault of the skies does on well
organized physical eyes. When at all perceivable, its general
size, shape and aspect being invariable , the legs and arms of
the person , in their movements of full extension , are seen to
protrude outside of this Auric Egg ; and when a person sits
down or doubles up his material body , this Egg does not also
double up , but merely follows vaguely the direction of the mo
tion, still remaining extended to its full length , but in an inclined
position . The Auric Egg of a perfected man is reported as the
most beautiful, wonderful, inconceivable , indescribable mass of
glorious mist , the very substance of which seems to be composed
of millions of tiny living geometrical figures of every conceivable
shape, throbbing in incessant pulsations , and in the center of it
can be distinguished in glowing ethereal colors the mysterious
five- pointed double star, characteristic of Adeptship ; and this
perfected Auric Egg constitutes the radiant, luminous Augoeides
of mystic parlance. As Mrs. Besant very beautifully says ; " If
the eye be fortunate enough to be blessed with the sight of one
of the Great Ones , he appears as a mighty living form of life and
color, radiant and glorious , showing forth his nature by his very
appearance to the view , beautiful beyond description , resplendent
 50

beyond imagination . Yet, what he is , all shall one day become”

if we try !

$ 4. Miseellaneous.

Shape of the Auras.- In addition to what has been hitherto

said about the shape or form of each of the various auras , a few
more remarks may prove interesting. It has been elicited
in the study of the “ Auras of Plants " (Appendix), that their
limited chromatic auras, which belong to the most material plane,
follow closely every form , every indentation of the leaves and
petals . In a similar manner , the lower auras of man , Prana ,
Double and Kama , border, and follow in shape , at their respective
distances , all the outlines of the body ; it is aa well ascertained
fact that the Kama- rupa , or body of desires, -as it is called in
connection with materializations.-- can even assume a perfect re
production of the material body. But the three highest auras
viz : those belonging to the higher planes , though still in the “ rupa
regions," affect simply the regular generic ovoid , they are all abso
lutely egg-shaped and follow interiorly the form of the Auric Egg ;
while the fourth - Lower Manas,-is the intermediate one, in
form as well as in nature, being the only one that , although ovoid
in form , still follows nearest the sinuosities of the dense body
and vaguely outlines, within the limits of its own extension , the
shape of the head and shoulders . This would tend to show that
the egg form , which is so common on the lower planes in all
kingdoms of Nature ,—in connection at least with the important
phase of reproduction ,-belongs to the highest idealization of
Divinity ; and this the Ancients , who knew more than we do , ex
pressed in the doctrine of the Orphic ' Egg and in the Indian
legend of Brahma springing out of the Mundane Egg , the Hiran
yagarbha, while the fact is now recognized as a scientfic law by
no less a scientist than Professor Babbitt in his theory of Atomic
Philosophy.
At any rate , this marked difference of shape may help to re
cognize the nature of any aura perceived; if delineating the phys
ical body, the aura or auras belong to the lower principles ; if as
 51

suming the egg form , they belong to the higher grades, with
this difference again that the highest,—the Auric Egg , —when
perceptible, has its margins always sharply defined, while the
Buddhic and the two Manasic are wavy or cloud - like, fluctuating
irregularly in outline and shading off into invisibility, as a flame
does. Thus, nevertheless, even where the Auric Egg is not dis
cernible, either of those next below it will still give the seer the
distinct impression of an ovoid shape , but not clearly delineated .
One more remark : The three sheaths whose form is perfectly
ovoid, are as nearly immortal , eternal , as the Triune Ego itself,
whom they accompany from birth to rebirth , through all its ex
istences , states and conditions, until the end of the Manvantara ,
when new forms, new bodies , will be assumed by the Ego. But,
before that time, the regular course of evolution , we are told , will
bring about a final simplification of man's sheaths in the following
manner : Kama , that is to say, all red , will be absorbed by the
green , Lower Manas, the purified personality ; Buddhi, pure yel
low , will become one with the higher Manas or indigo ; all the
yellow and orange of Prana will be absorbed by the Auric Egg,
which will then constitute the resplendent " body of light;" while
the Etheric Body , also purified and rendered incorruptible,-as
the resurrected body of the Bible , will remain as an outside pro
tection for the real , complete life within .
It will not be out of place here to mention that, taken as a
whole , in its present complex composition and aspect, the Human
Aura must appear to the eyes capable of appreciating its beauties ,
as very similar to the manifestations of the Aurora Borealis .
This brings us to mention a singular manifestation which takes
place over the heads of persons engaged in mental work, ap
parently when under the influence of inspiration or excitement.
At any rate, it is undoubtedly not connected with the Health
Aura . It takes the form of a kind of eruption or Electric dis
play, composed of striations not unlike threads of silvery gold
light, shooting upwards from the crown of the head to the height
of the Psychic Aura, more or less, and causing a brighter illumi
nation in the auric field which they traverse . Before they reach
their greatest height, they curve gracefully to the right and left,
 52

according to the side of the head they emanate from . This em

anation may persist so long as the person remains under the
same influence or stimulus, and its form has suggested the remark
that it was not unlike the flames that arise from the sun , in
certain solar explosions, and which have been called " sheaves
and volutes ."
Gold Dust -One more fact has to be mentioned here, which
was communicated by a most reliable and gifted observer . The
writer cannot yet presume to classify it , or to draw any inference
from it, but it is given in this place because, although apparently
emanating from the golden rim of Buddhi , it was seen permeat
ing all through the various auras, up to the very border of the
Auric Egg . This phenomenon , observed many times , was a
thick sprinkling of myriads of brilliant circular specks, so minute
that the observer could find no better definition for it than a
“ cloud of gold dust ,” each speck revolving spirally on itself, and
all of them simultaneously appearing to circulate through the
whole aura , filling it up so completely as to produce the impres
sion that this manifestation might perhaps be the most impor
tant of any seen .
Influence of the World Thought-Currents. —- Mrs. Besant very
ingenuously teaches us that “ a great deal of our thinking is not
our thinking at all , but the mere reception of the thoughts of
other people." (Lucif. XVIII , 127. ) In other words , often
times what we take as the working of our mind is merely a re
sponsiveness to the agglomerated thoughts of Humanity , which
constitute what , in Occultism , is termed “ World Thought-Cur
rents " ; these sweep : around the globe and affect those whose in
tellect is ready to respond to their peculiar vibrations . This is
confirmed by the study of the Human Aura , because , through
the two Manasic Auras , expert observers can clearly see the fleet
ing impressions produced by the general thought -currents : im
pressions which vary according to the receptivity of man's corre
sponding Principles . In a similar way , through the Kamic lay
ers, the world thought -currents can be noticed as intensifying ,
subduing or changing the ordinary substratic colors and produc
ing erratic flashes, which induce corresponding sensations in the
emotional part of man .
 53

It must therefore be very important to learn how to render one's

Aura independent of, and — when necessary - absolutely imper
vious to the wandering Kamic and Manasic influences that flow
through the Earth's Astral Plane.
The Aura During Sleep and Trance.— " Clairvoyant observa
tion bears abundant testimony to the fact that when a person
falls into a deep slumber, the higher principles in their astral
vehicle (Kamic sheath) , almost invariably withdraw from the
physical body and hover in its immediate neighborhood ... the .

body , with its practically inseparable companion, the Etheric

Double , lying quietly on the bed while the Ego, in its astral or
Kamic body, floats with equal tranquillity just above it,” (Lead
beater, Dreams, 15 , Lucif. XVIII , 13 ,) unless the personality is
pretty well developed , in which case the Ego takes occasion of
this separation to start off in flights and visits of its own . Here
let it be said that the fact of this temporary separation makes more
intelligible the " inadvisability of suddenly waking a person from
deep sleep.” (Scott-Elliott, Trans. London Lodge , No. 21 , 8.) In
>

the case of sleep, therefore, the aspect of the general aura must be
expected to change considerably . The physical body, it is true,
still presents the lower auras of Prana, the electro-magnetic emana
nations especially being much wider and more intense , as it was
mentioned above in the proper section, probably for the purpose
of serving as a kind of protection for the body during the ab
sence of the higher principles . But all the other colors , the spir
itual ones, of the five higher sheaths will be more or less absent ,
since they accompany in his wanderings the Ego inclosed in the
Kamic sheath and enveloped by his Auric Egg. But we are also
told that, in such cases of separation , the aspect of this Kamic
sheath “ varies very greatly, according to the state of develop
ment reached by the Ego to whom it belongs ; in the case of an
entirely uncultured and undeveloped person , it is simply a float
ing wreath of mist, shapeless and undefined, receptive only of the
coarser, more violent Kamic vibrations, and it is unable to move
more than a few yards away from the body ; but, as evolution pro
gresses, it becomes more and more definite in outline and assumes
a more perfect image of the physical body it belongs to, and its
 54

receptivity to Kamic vibrations of a purer grade is also increased ,

while it can also leave the body and travel far away from it. '
(Man and His Bodies, and Leadbeater, Astral Plane, 18.) Then
again , “ much as the condition of the astral body during sleep
changes as evolution takes place, that of the Ego inhabiting it
changes 'still more ; where the former is nothing but a floating
wreath of mist, the Ego is practically almust as much asleep as
the body lying below him ; he is blind to the sights and deaf to
the voices of his own higher planes.” But this is not the place
to follow up what happens or may happen to the sleeping entity
or what may be its dreams ; the reader is for that referred to Lead
beater's Astral Plane, and also Dreams , p . 21. In the state of
trance , the aspect of the aura also changes considerably , and ,
moreover , a good clairvoyant can learn to discern the difference
between the conditions of the real trance , either natural or self-in
duced , of a Yogi, and those of mesmeric stupor produced by the ex
traneous influence of another person : in the first instance , the colors
of the lower principles-green , red , red-violet-disappear as well
as the blue of the Auric Egg, the entity has concentrated himself in
his Auric Egg, leaving behind in the body nothing but hardly per
ceptible vibrations of the compound yellow, orange and gold of
the Prana , with a violet flame streaked with gold rushing upwards
from the pineal gland in the head and culminating in a point . On
the contrary , in the case of a trance artificially induced by hypnot
ism or mesmerism , the whole set of principles are present , but the
Higher Manas and Buddhi are completely paralyzed , to the un
due advantage of Kama Manas , “ the red and green monsters in
)
us," who are indiscreetly intensified .
From what was said above about sleep , it will be easy to real
ize that, in the sleeping state , the various inferior sheaths of man
are “ left more unprotected by the Ego and his Auric Egg, and ,
consequently, they are more at the mercy of influences of vibra
tions from the outside currents which produce the ordinary
dreams.” But it is possible to protect one's self : any one who is
troubled by idle dreams, and wishes to avoid them, must , when
“ he lies down to rest , think intensely of the aura that sur
rounds him , and will strongly that the outer surface of that aura
 55

should become during his sleep, as it were , a shell to protect him

from outside influences ; and the auric matter will promptly obey
his thoughts, forming a shell around him that will exclude outside
thought-streams." ( Man and his Bodies.)
In connection with this, another point strongly brought out
in the investigations of the London Lodge T. S .; “ is the im
mense importance of the last thought in a man's mind as he
sinks to sleep ,” this being very similar to what all religions
tell about the last thought of a dying man and the importance
of guiding it. Yet, as Mr. Leadbeater says, “ this is a considera
tion which never occurs to the vast majority of people at all ,
although it affects them physically, mentally and morally. We
have seen how passive, how easily influenced man is during
sleep ; if he enters that state with his thought fixed upon high and
holy things, he thereby draws around him the elementals created
by like thought in others ; his rest is peaceful, his mind open to
impressions from above and closed to those from below, for he
has set it working in the right direction ; if, on the contrary, he
falls asleep with impure and earthly thoughts Aloating through his
brain , he attracts to himself all the gross and evil creatures who
come near him , while his sleep is troubled by the wild surgings
of Kama.” ... This gives us an unexpected and elegant explan
tion of the power and effect of the prayers recommended by all
religions before sleep, not as inducing supernatural protection,
but simply as a means of bringing the mind into proper chan
nels . Every student will therefore agree with Mr. Leadbeater on
the fact that “ all earnest Theosophists should make a special
point of raising their thoughts to the loftiest level of which they
are capable before allowing themselves to sink into slumber.”
(Dreams , Trans. London Lodge , No. 27 , 38.)
The Aura after Death . — It will be readily understood that
death produces an immediate great change in the Human Auras .
All the Higher Principles , together with the Auric Egg that en
velops them , disappear leaving the doomed material body with
only its lifelong and inseparable Etheric Double floating over it ;
the Caloric Aura gradually ceases with the disappearance of an
imal heat ; the Pranic Aura, which had begun to fade before the
 56

actual dissolution , turns to an ashey-grey light ; all the electric

emanations, already broken up during the sickness, cease ; the
magnetic flow alone continues, though in a sluggish and stationary
manner ; the Tatwic ribbons lose their color , leaving only dead ,
colorless lines , as in mineral matter, whereby it can be said that
the auric manifestation which remains around the body, is only
that which belongs to the dead material compounds, until decom
position sets in . Then the auric effluvium again becomes alive ,
and assumes the aspects and hues of the new lives that issue out
of death. Thus , the study of the Human Aura will bring out
new and more reliable signs of real death , because to a psychic
sight, the aura of a person in coma or cataleptic trance-however
well this may otherwise simulate death ,-will never be mistaken
for that of a body in which life is really and positively extinct .
It will be well however here, to state that this same study of the
aura also corroborates the teaching of Thosophy concerning the
fact that the Higher Principles may separate before death , and
as Isis Unveiled expresses it-many are the soulless persons ,
living sepulchres , that we elbow on the street , whose souls have
deserted them long before the hour of physical dissolution . And
so, in many persons , the Auric Egg and the other higher auras
may disappear completely , and therefore become invisible, long
before death .
 CHAPTER III .

CONCLUSION .

Having reached so far, we ought now to fully realize what the

Human Aura is , and fully appreciate the following beautiful and
concise summary :
“ The Soul, i. e. , the highest terrestrial Principle of the Human
Monad , instead of having its abode inside of the physical structure,
is of the nature of a nebulous aura , which not only permeates it,
but likewise surrounds it in every direction . It is as if the body
existed inside of an ovoid of tenuous mist , which held it alive and !
made it organic. This tenuous substance is living thought, like
the body of an Angel or God , and is capable of exercising powers
and functions of which we hardly imagine the existence." (Dr.
Wilder, the Soul , Lucif. X, 467.)
The study of the Aura will undoubtedly be pregnant with in
teresting knowledge for the Theosophist, leading him to a better
and deeper understanding of man's nature and composition ; and
it may not be out of place here , to express the hope that the
effort herein made to classify its various components may lead to
new photographic experiments , whereby each of them may be
fully elucidated and reproduced, in all their various manifesta
tions, at least in so far as the photographic gross matter will allow.
For ordinary readers, however, the next and last point to elu
cidate is the following: What may be the practical usefulness of
this knowledge ?—sufficient to justify the trouble of acquiring it ?
For instance-outside of the important bearing, above indi
cated , of the subject, on Medicine , which may be denied and ridi
culed for the present-scientists may consider it a light matter , very
interesting only so far as it may add some new proof to what is
already known of the fearful complication of man's constitution ,
or showing something more of the unending changes that happen
»

in the constant phenomena of what is termed " life, " or again ex

 58

emplifying the inexhaustible fertility of Nature's laws and mani

festations, even into the infinitely small . But still, they might
ask the question : Cui bono ?
Paracelsus opens the way to an answer : “ The vital fluid is
not inclosed in man , but radiates round him like a luminous
sphere, and it may be made to act at a distance ; in these semi
material rays the imagination of man may to produce healthy or
morbid effects; it may poison the essence of life and cause dis
eases , or it may purify it after it has been made impure and re
store health . ”
To this old and respectable opinion we may add what Zoroas
trianism thinks on the matter : “ The human Aura is the most
potent among all auras of existing creatures or things, as it carries
with it the active living force of human will—in other words , of
the soul- power of man . This aura exerts an influence , percepti
ble or imperceptible, on all the inaterial objects which it touches,
and especially on other auras." ( B. E. Unwala,, Theost. XVII ,
341. )
The Hindus firmly believe that the mere sweeping of a human
aura over an object can contaminate it. Now all this certainly
contains some intimation about the advantage of knowing the
nature and capabilities of the aura. But Mr. Sinnett expresses
it more happily still : “ When the physical body is seen in the
midst of its higher vehicles , these overlapping on all sides, pre
sent the appearance of an emanation, and , from this point of view ,
6
are well spoken of as ' aura ’ ; but, in all considerations of that
subject, it is well to keep hold of the fundamental thought that
the aura is really made up of the higher vehicles extended over
a much larger volume of space than that occupied by the physical
body. Therefore, when people are closely massed together, the
Auras (i. e . , the Higher Vehicles) mingle in a curious way, and
catch influences one from the other, unless they are especially
managed with occult knowledge.” (Growth of the Soul , 171.)
Thus, a harmonious gathering of people has been aptly termed
“ a happy intermingling of sympathetic auras." Then again ,
“ seers describe the magnetic effluences of two persons who are
in complete accord , as interweaving or becoming blended ; on the
 59

other hand, the 'spheres ' of individuals not in harmony have

been depicted as battling against each other, looking the while
like pillars of mist. " ( D. Gow, Unknown World , I, 184.) " One
man's aura may receive as well as repel another's aura
hence spontaneous friendships or antipathies which common
knowledge attributes to anything but the right cause. However ,
this interpenetration of the auras of different persons gives the stu
dent a fair idea of the interpenetration of worlds and of various
states or planes of matter, so often spoken of in the Secret Doc
trine. But, what is more , it also opens a new vista to the subjects
of the transmission of disease and of Mesmeric influence or Sug
gestion : “ The Atharva Veda has, we believe , an injunction
against coming within the distance of two cubits of a patient
suffering from certain diseases, because the maladies are likely to
be communicated to one ; this of course would mean that they
would pass through the two auras when they touched and inter
blended , and this would occur when the two individuals , each
with an auric envelope of one cubit's radiation, came within two
))
(Col. Olcott , Theost . , XVII , 142.)
cubits' distance of each other.”
In Zoroastrianism, three steps of interval between persons are
considered necessary to prevent all defilement.
In what concerns Mesmerism , the fact - mentioned above in the
part treating of the Magnetic Aura-of mesmeric passes having
the power to “ comb up ” and restore to their normal order the
disordered Electric or Health lines of a diseased person , while
explaining mesmeric cures and some facts of clairvoyance , also
shows the truth of this assertion , that “ it is through the auras
that the mesmerist controls his subject, and the tempter obtains
ascendancy over his victims.” (Unknown World, loc . cit.) Mes
merism is the faculty of imparting some of the currents of one's
own Pranic or Magnetic Auras into another person's body, and
the famous American seer , A. J. Davies, illustrated the process
in an interesting manner by giving in his autobiography a series
of diagrams , in which he tried to delineate the effect that mes
meric treatment produces simultaneously on the aura of the per
son submitted to it and that of the mesmerizer . He further de
scribed the mesmerist and the person mesmerized as surrounded
 бо

in the beginning by their own separate egg-shaped auras , which

gradually interpenetrated so that , by the time the subject became
entranced, the two auras were completely blended, the auras sep
arating again a little when the subject begins to speak clairvoy
antly . .

Spiritualistic literature offers abundant observations on the

Auras ; but it is to be regretted that they are not always scientifi
cally reliable. Thus, the writer remembers some interesting cases
referring to the auras of some evilly disposed or unhealthy per
sons described by clairvoyants as being like a decidedly greenish
vapor which caused sickness to sensitive individuals of the same
family by contaminating their own auras or apparently poisoning
the food that happened to pass through the hands of the ill-gifted
persons . But no information was given as to what part of the
aura this green vapor belonged , nor what kind of green it was
We may now conclude that--outside of many other consider
ations , and outside of its bearing on the art of healing,—the cor
-

rect knowledge or study of the Human Auras, by those who can

perceive and sense them , or who are willing to train themselves
for acquiring the proper power of vision , must lead to the following
practical results, quite sufficient to justify the undertaking of
that study, viz : Self-Protection under three aspects , socially,
morally and physically :
Socially, by enabling us to read more correctly the nature
and tendencies of the persons we come in contact with, thereby
becoming at once more prudent ourselves and more just , lenient
and charitable towards others ;
2nd . Morally, by day and by night, from the impingement
and the imponderable allurements of foreign, useless, vicious
ideas , thoughts , and temptations carried through the thought-cur
rents of the world ; and also against the subtle influence and
sway of conscious or unconscious mesmerists , who border on
black magic . A better understanding of the subject will further
lead to self-purification, and, through this , to a more rapid pro
gress for ourselves . Since every mental impression manifests on
the aura and changes more or less permanently its colors, impure
habits and thoughts must produce an impure aura ; and since
 61

also , the aura , taken as a whole, surrounds, envelops , and limits

our entire Entity,—which it separates, isolates from the outside
world ,—it is easy to understand that an impure aura, while
less pervious to good thoughts, will be more readily permeable
to evil . But the very effort of leading a pure life must tend to
purify the aura and thereby attract and absorb, as well as throw
out , pure influences; and this process must enable the internal
man to reach higher planes of thought and to help Humanity ,
while bettering himself.
3d . Physically :
a) Against the accession into the system of disease germs ,
this study leading to a better knowledge of the way to preserve
our physical health ; every derangement of life being indicated by
certain special impressions and colors in the various auras, the
knowledge of these indications would not only constitute a warn
ing to the sick , but also a sure guide to the choice of the most ef
ficacious remedy (consult R. Prasad, Theost . IX , 551 ) ;
b) Also , by showing what is best to be done against all ob
noxious influences, moral, psychic and physical, that are to be
met with wherever a crowding of people conduces to dangerous
intermingling of the individual auras ; this includes protection
against the influence of the world thought-currents , and against
what is known as Vampirism . As Mrs. Besant expresses it (Lu
cifer, XVIII, 222 ) : “ We often come in contact with people who
unconsciously vampirize their neighbors " —that is to say, “ who act
as a sponge, absorb and drain the vitality out of them ”. —and “ any
-

one who is sensitive and finds himself very exhausted by such a

drain ” -either from surrounding persons or when attending so
called “ seances” - " will do wisely to protect himself by the will
formation of an auric shell,” such as was mentioned above ;
c) Against some direful chances of after death, by bringing into
general use some more reliable signs of the positive cessation of
physical life, so as to prevent the horrid possibilities of prema
ture burial .
Here , however, it must be understood that the idea of self
protection through one's aura , in crowds, does not need to be
carried out too far nor too selfishly. In effect, while some evil
 62

may and will be absorbed , especially if our tendencies are pre

disposed to it, yet we may also meet with and absorb good , help
ful influences, as well as benefit others by the radiation of the good
in ourselves. It is a fact known to science that persons kept in
solitary confinement actually lose force - mental and physical
through not having contact with any other living magnetism.
Nature seems to have made it imperative that we should actually
exchange influences and improve by contact with our fellow
creatures ; and this may be one of the things that the Bible
meant , “ when God saw that it was not good for man to be
alone. ”" But the illustration of this fact , obtained through the
knowledge of the Aura, is also one proof more of how necessary
it is, for each of us, to try to live morally and unselfishly,
and how much responsibility each individual has unto the whole
race, since-merely through our living auras-we may , and we
actually do HELP or POISON all those who come near us .
 ARY
OF THE

TIVERSITY

LAUFORIA
APPENDIX .
I.

The Aura of Plants.

The following communication , now reproduced with emenda
tions , was published by Mercury (August, 1896) :
“ It has been the good fortune of the writer to meet with sev
eral members of the Theosophical Society gifted with high psy
chic faculties; one especially had a very vivid power of perceiv
ing microscopic forms and supernormal or psychic colors through
what the Hindus would probably call natural “ Taraka Siddhi,” >

or what H. P. B. would term seeing on “ the astralized astral .”

After studying very thoroughly with the lady , the Human Aura ,
whereby the writer was favored with the opportunity of satisfac
torily testing and verifying the accuracy of her sight , all her find
ings being in perfect accord with what the Theosophical authori
ties have made known on the subject through our literature—her
interest was directed towards the auras of non-human objects,
the verification of which we thought might lead to useful develop
ments . The result of our work is now submitted in the shape of
a first batch of observations , subject to correction, but the general
reliability of which is considered as sufficiently established , first by
the lady's correct perception of Human Auras , and second , by
)

the fact that, while she could not remember the details of her
own observations , yet after days of interval , she would accurately
repeat the description of any specimen submitted at random to her
analysis. Fourteen kinds of plants were examined with results
showing that every genus , and even every different variety of a ge
9

nus, has a most diversified and characteristic aura of its own .”

HONEYSUCKLE, a narrow aura of about one -twelfth of an inch ,
composed, first of a bright line of light of the thickness of the tini
est hair , which seems to be a current flowing evenly along the
edge of the leaf; above this a thread of darkish red emanation
blending into a band of yellowish green ; through this general aura
runs a kind of border composed of exceedingly minute , narrow,
 64

linear figures, which appear to start from the rim of the leaf per
pendicularly to it, and run parallel to each other up to the outer
edge of the aura, with a curve at the top ; through the length of
these linear figures appear horizontal streaks of light, from four to
six streaks in each figure.
VIOLET LEAF , about one-eighth of an inch , first a bright light , 1

then a line of dark blue shading away into very faint light blue ,
all this following all the indentations of the edge of the leaf ;
above these lines aa scalloped or
semi-linear string or border of
O

Ao two rows of little purplish-red

figures, diamond-shaped (Apas
Prithivi) very regularly distributed so as to form two sets of
fourteen little diamonds over the space of each small lobe of the
leaf, then above these a crescented wave of dark blue mist shading
off into light blue .
PANSY, a very large aura for the size of the leaf, starting by a
little rim of light round the edge, then an emanation of yellow,
vlolet and blue, blended like prismatic colors, through which ap
pears a confused multitude of broken and superposed linear figures.
LAMB'S QUARTER, about one-quarter of an inch, first a dark
blue rim , lining the edge of the leaf, then a line of red fading into
a pretty orange-yellow, and afterwards into a lilac mist ; in the
lower colors are seen some very tiny figures like broken waves .
FEVERFEW , a wide aura of about the quarter of the whole di
ameter of the leaf, first a rim of light , followed by an irregular
chain of colorless , oval and triangular figures on a mist of yellow
ish purple, and above, a band of dark velvety purple, fading to a
light lavender.
Fig leaf, a grand aura - first, two
broken lines of light following the
indentation of the leaf, then innu
merable dots, grouping themselves
into geometrical squares ( Prithivi- Akasha), on a field of light pur
ple, followed towards the outer edge by a line of greenish yellow
light, above which a band of dark red , fading into dark pansy
purple.
 65

PEACH leaf, a very narrow and rather insignificant aura , be

ginning by a light line along the edge of the leaf, followed by a
purple mist through which is manifest a complicated system of
triangular figures impossible to describe without a drawing , and
very difficult to draw, unless with the aid of a photograph.
ORANGE leaf, aura nearly one inch wide, first an edge of light
following the rim of the leaf, then several rows of tiny geometri
cal figures, lozenge-shaped , of pink magenta , from which seems
to flow a clear aura of light magenta color, fading gradually away ;
different trees , however, gave auras differing very materially.
Rose leaf, every variety with a different aura ; one, a moss
rose, showed a line of brilliant metallic brick-red passing into two
shades of orange, the last being very faint; in this aura , all the
>

minute indentations of the leaf are reproduced and followed by

three distinct lines of light ; in another variety (the Castile) , the
aura was a large band, half an inch wide , of bright yellow, at the
basis of which existed a design of brilliant white parallel streaks,
swollen at their center and inclined towards the point of the leaf,
and accompanied on each side by' a parallel row of brilliant dots
on a field of lavender mist ; another variety again , the Jacquemi
not rose , offered a pretty design of interlaced “ tejas” triangles ,
covered with brilliant dots (Tejas -Akasha) .
ROSE petals presented the poorest of the auras examined , being
merely a faint reproduction of the colors of the petal, following
its form and fading out into nothing, with a faint shadow of out
line .
ROSE-GERANIUM leaf, a most beautiful and complicated aura of
about one-eighth of an inch ; so complicated , in fact, that the
А. B

D
KA
ZEN

accompanying cut had to be divided into two parts, the first, A

being intended to show the principal figures isolated, and the
other, B, being a very rough attempt at showing how those figures
are all crowded up together, although with the greatest symmetry.
 66

To describe this aura in words is a still more thankless task :

first a dark thread followed by a thread of colorless light, both
following all the indentations of the leaf; above these, four con
tinuous zigzagged lines , one of which , triple in itself, carries along
with it a double row of little circles, while another one is bristled
up with hair-like sparks ; then the whole ribbon of auric manifest
ation finishes on the outside , rather abruptly, by a bright light .
Now, on and through all these lines, as a background, are dis
persed the geometrical figures. The most prominent is the sin
gular column-like structure , which occupies, -- from its two angular
feet up to its phrygian -like cap crowned by a crescent,—the whole
of the breadth of the ribbon . Next, and alternating with the pre
ceding, comes a beautiful chain of lovely bluish- lilac and perfectly
regular lozenge- shaped bits of undulating emanation , containing
in their inside, with geometrical exactness, another smaller loz
enge with a dark spot or dot in its centre, all these shaded with vari
ous shades of color dininishing in intensity from the inside towards
the outside . The other figures are circles and half- circles with
circular dots at their centre , making of the whole design a most
bewildering combination of the characteristic forms of the Prith
ivi , Tejas, Apas and Vayu Tatwas. One more remark : the cres
cent over the top angle of the largest figure is itself formed by a
chain of the tiniest half -elliptic dots. The extraordinary richness
of this aura would suggest that the plant must be of much greater
importance and of a higher development than we can realize .
NUTMEG-GERANIUM , first a rim of dark, brilliant, metallic
blue , shading off into extremely light blue, then into a bright
metallic orange , this shading out
into light orange , the whole of
the space of this aura being fur
ther subdivided into the geome
trical border of five scalloped
shaped waves , one over the other, with triangular indentations
(Apas- Tejas ), the whole of the design apparently trying to re
produce on the tiniest scale the general form of the outline of
the leaf.
CHRYSANTHEMUM , a rather wide aura, the most interesting of
 67

those studied, after the two geraniums ; first, a silvery light around
the edge of the leaf, then a band of pink lilac , in which are seen
delicate tiny figures of an undulating form , putting one in mind
of a double scallop of the Tejas tatwa kind , outside of which runs
another band of pink lilac .
CARNATION , petal , a beautiful aura, one-tenth of an inch , first a
bright pink light along the rim of the leaf, above this several rows
of faint pink diamonds, oblongated towards the right, with a
square transparent hole or opening in the middle , on a general
lavender background ; above this a reddish-yellow band fading
away .
CARNATION , leaf, an exceedingly narrow aura , rather similar
to that of the petal , beginning by a light rim , then four distinct
rows of the minutest wavy greenish figures of diamonds , less
regular and less angular than those of the petal , these rows being
separated by a background of dark lavender , and above them a
yellowish emanation , fading into invisibility.
N. B.-All these auras were observed as they flow from the
edge of the leaves held perpendicularly before the observer. It
would seem that the more complicated is the outside form of the
leaf, the prettier, more complicated in design is the aura; it seems
also that the colors disappear with life, since the auras of dead
leaves consist merely of a grayish mist.*
It is of course too early to try to draw any conclusions from the
above findings; yet there certainly is a general indication that
the nature of the geometrical forms, seen in nearly all the auras ,
follows very closely , but with innumerable variations , the laws
and types mentioned by Rama-Prasad ( Nature's Finer Forces) ,
concerning the Tatwas and their combinations . Thus , in the
sweet-smelling leaves of the rose -geranium , in the fig and violet
leaves and petals of the carnations , we have a fine illustration of
the predominance of variously modified forms of the Prithivi, or
odoriferous tatwa, while in the spotted nutmeg-geranium the pre
dominant tejas form , on the scalloped waves , shows the working
* Here it must be understood that the accompanying cuts, which are greatly magnified , are
1 intended only to give some general idea of the aspect of vegetable auras . It is unnecessary to
say that no drawing can give a perfectly adequate representation of the exquisite pictures fur
nished by nature, not any more than it is possible to properly describe in words the fanciful
weavings of the microscopic geometrical figures and the delicacy of the colorea tints
 68

of color . In a similar way, various indications of the other tatwas

appear in other plants , so that it does not seem too bold to sug
gest that eventually the different beautiful colors and shades
existing in the auras of plants will be found correlative with the
various properties and essential chemical components of those
plants . It is the hope of the writer to be able at some future
date to publish further observations and comparisons between
the auras of flowers and minerals .

II .

The Aura of Magnets.

It will probably be of some interest, before bringing this study to

an end, to compare the above Plant Auras , as well as the corres
ponding tatwic parts of the Human Aura, with the most common.
ly known mineral Aura, that of the Magnet. Baron Reichenbach
was the first, about forty years ago , to discover that on and
through magnets, different forces are acting, which he termed
terrestrial Magnetism and Odic force, these last, from his
own description , including, -- with something else, -- what we
now call Tatwic currents , From direct experiments - the
scientific accuracy of which is now fully conceded - he first
ascertained that , to ordinary sensitive sight ,, the magnet
emits what he designated as flames and light, these emana
tions being afterwards subdivided by him into : I , incandes
cence ; 2 , flames ; 3 , threads , streaks and nebulæ ; 4 , smoke ;
5 , spark , and 6, colors ( see Dynamics, Ashburner's transla
1
tion). But these phenomena were visible to his experimenters
principally in dark rooms , very few having been able to see any
manifestation at all , even in a moderate light , probably because
he himself was groping aimlessly in the dark of incipient knowl
edge and did not know how to guide his helpers . Now , however,
more is known on the matter , sensitives are growing more nu
merous and better educated, and it has been repeatedly verified
that the Aura, or Effluvium , from a magnet can be seen both in
darkness and in full light ; so that it can be correctly , though
briefly , described as composed essentially of two principal parts :
 69

A.— An undulating current , running parallel to the surfaces of:

the metal and corresponding to the Magnetic, Caloric and Tat
wic horizontal currents of the Auras of Plants, Animals and Man .
In the magnet, this current can be subdivided as follows: first,
along the metal , a parallel zone of yellow light, deepening into
orange , through which exist a regular series of equidistant slant .
ing lines of a metallic white flame-like light ; then a second zone
of flowing, deep, dark blue , through which are seen interrupted,
broken lines of straight, short electric sparks , running parallel to
the sides of the metal ; and above these two, a third zone of flow
ing , metallic red , on the top of which runs a continuous border
>

of very minute , but regular triangular forms, of the same metallic

white light mentioned above in the first zone . Independently of
the effect, or appearance of parallel lines , produced on the sight
by the change of colors from one zone to the other, other continu
ous parallel lines , nine in all , but less distinct , are also distributed
within the space of the three colored zones ;

B.—Through all the above , and emanating vertically from the

metal , a general overlapping mist , rising far above the third , or
) )

highest colored zone ; this was first called “ flames” by Reichen .

bach, but afterwards better designated by him , as a “ thin lumin
ous veil , like a delicate , dawn-like flame" which corresponds to the
Human Auric Egg.
At the poles exist the same three colored zones, both sides be
 70

ing perfectly symmetrical in size, design and colors , though these

are rather fainter on the south pole ; and the same luminous veil
is also seen extending still higher and somewhat thicker, while
through its substance dart innumerable tiny spark-like lights,
similar to those which run through the middle blue zone . As
Reichenbach notices, the emanations of the south pole generally
seem less active and shorter than those of the north pole.
But the activity and brilliancy of the various parts of the mag
net's effluvia appear connected with and influenced by atmospheric
and other causes .
The above description is far from exhaustive ; yet it will suffice
to show that, in the magnet , emanations corresponding to the
middle and higher auras of man are absent , and also that , in the
horizontal zones, the manifestations of the tatwic geometrical fig
ures are far more rudimentary than in plants and animals , the
only well-indicated form being in fact the border of Tejas trian
gles over the red band. However, good astral sight further dis
tinguishes one more phenomenon , common to the aura of all
metals . This is that the whole breadth of the colored zones
is interspersed, at regular distances, by large , faint circular forms,
resembling wheels with their central knobs and spokes.
There is no doubt, however, that the emanations from mag
nets, though more complicated than the auras of simple metals,
are the most material of all similar manifestations, and conse
quently are the most easily perceived and described by natural
or untrained vision . Hence it can be said that the magnet's
aura is the first one to be studied , and that anyone to whom that
light is not natural , and who, by dint of trial and effort has been
able to see the hitherto invisible magnetic effluvium , is on a fair
road to master the sight of all the similar auras-tatwic and mag
netic-of living entities ,
 71

III .

How to Train the Psyehje Sight.

The most advantageous method of starting a training for the
purpose of perceiving psychic forms and colors seems to be as
follows :
Ist . In the dark , study the aspect of aa good horseshoe magnet,
either suspended in the air by a silk thread or placed on a sup
port with poles up, and vary the position of observation until a
faint luminosity is realized at the poles and along the edge of the
magnet;
2d . In the light, repeat the same process in view of perceiving ,
1

the Tatwic zones and their lines .

Here it must be understood that this vision can be obtained
artificially only through the action of the will and by a proper
focussing of the eyes , the perception of auras requiring a very
different focus from ordinary sight ; and this focussing is very
often - nearly always , in fact — different in each of the two eyes.
The attempt at focussing the sight must therefore be made, first
on each eye separately , and then on both combined. It may
happen that one eye only can be focussed to this special vision ,
or , when both are found available, if both focusses are not identi
cal , the act of looking with both eyes at one time may destroy
the psychic sight of the isolated eye .
It is important to master the faculty of seeing the magnet aura
in the daylight, because more complete details can thus be event
ually obtained than in the dark, and this is the only way to learn
how to perceive the Human Auras .
For the purpose of trying one's vision in the broad daylight,
take a good horseshoe magnet, and hold it perpendicularly in
front of you, either against the background of an open, outside
light, air or earth naturally illumined , such as can be obtained by
looking out from the inside of a room through an open window,
or against a near, inside back-ground , for instance a white or dark
wall , according to the nature of the student's sight. Then look
at the edge of the magnet with one eye only, and gradually ap
 72

proach it or slide it away from you , until you discern the best
focus of vision ; look steadily along the same point, until it dawns
on you that a kind of a quivering, narrow band of mist or vapor
flowing from the metal , prevents your sight from freely perceiv
ing the objects back of it, producing , in fact, a sort of refraction
of your visual ray . As soon as one realizes the existence on the
edge of the magnet of this current of vaporish mist,—which may
first be likened to the appearance of the heated air which arises
in summer time from hot fields, the first psychic visual victory
has been attained , and the perception of the other phenomena
connected with the aura, will only need time , perseverance and
practice ; and once the magnet is conquered , one may expect to
speedily obtain the sight of the beautiful and intricate Tatwic cur
rents around leaves and on the human skin . The flowing currents
may indeed at first be perceived only as differentiated lines of light
or vapor , more or less bright , but steady application will generally
bring out gradually the illuminating colors : then, if the student's
eyes are at all gifted with the power of perceiving microscopic ob
jects ,-power which Theosophy claims to be inherent with natural
psychic sight (see Sinnett's Aura ),— the perception of the Geom
etrical Figures of Organic Life will soon be obtained . * And
all this is the road, -difficult for all , impracticable for many , not
naturally gifted ,—which ultimately leads the student to the faculty
of discerning the higher, more subtle, but vastly more interesting
emanations which are usually termed the “ invisible radiations" of
the Human Aura.t
* In connection with the psychic faculty of perceiving microscopic objects, the San Fran
cisco papers recently announced, as a new discovery, that a scientist from Pasadena, Prof. F.
L. O. Roehrig, had found out that “ the human eye possesses HITHERTO UNOBSERVED visual
powers , namely, microscopic vision and double refraction of the rays of light , and certain sci
entific discoveries have already verified his assertion.” (S. F. Call, October 13, 1896.) As the
Professor is a valued member of the T. S. , we can venture to say that he has been training
himself on Theosophical lines, and that he merely discovered the manner of focussing his own
eyes so as to peer into the Aura of things - into that mysterious region which Science has just
been forced to acknowledge in connection with X-rays, “ dark light , invisible rays ofphosphores
ence ," and other " invisible radiations."

fThis is very prettily expressed by a French Theosophist : “ Il n'y a qu'un moyen de

s'assurer par soi-même (of the supernormal facts ), c'est de développer les sens astraux, mentaux
et spirituels. Il n'est pas très-difficile de développer les premiers (les sens astraux) dès
lors , on peut voir, toucher et entendre sur un autre plan . Il faut alors faire L’EDUCATION de
ces sens et traduire correctement ce qu'ils transmettent; ceci est plus long, mais alors l'on
sait , au moins, QUE L'ON N'EST PAS HALLUCINE."
" - (Le Lotus Bleu , VII, 271. )
 73

The above empirical method may also be supplemented at will

by the cautious practice of what the Hindus term the “ outer
method ” of the Taraka system of Raja Yoga . This is based on
the effort of discovering one's own various auras , and setting fix
edly one's contemplation successively from the lower portions
towards the highest. This, the student who has already obtained
the sight of the aura of a magnet, may first try by fixing his at
tention on that part of his own aura which lies at a distance of
4 breadths of his own fingers, horizontally from the tip of the
nose , afterwards passing on to the distance of respectively 6, 8 ,
10 and 12 finger breadths. The Hindu Taraka Yogi further prac
tice contemplation on the “ bright rays which are seen near the
tips of the eyes” or on “ the lustre of melted gold on the side of
the eyes or near them ." But the simple study of Auras does not
necessitate going su deeply into Yoga practices.
Thus it will be found that an immense field of study , of
intense ' interest , hitherto unsuspected and unexplored outside
of occult science, is stretching before the willing observer.
And it is to be hoped that the announcement of such pos
sibilities may induce those members of the Theosophical So
ciety , who are duly gifted, to contribute their share to the
extension of our knowledge by undertaking similar provings
and verifying those above described, which, at any rate ,
show what an endless mine of glorious forms and colors Nature ,
in her invisible planes , displays to the view of those who are gifted
with natural supernormal vision or with trained psychic sight.
- And if this essay proves a help to intending observers the most
cherished wish of the writer will be realized .
 A

?
 Bibliography.
The purpose of the present study being to complete and corrob
orate,-by the results of direct observations,-but not to super
sede, the anterior works on the subject , students who wish to com
mand all the information extant will do well to consult the various
articles published in Theosophical or scientific literature , not only
on the Aura, but also on Sheaths , Bodies, Principles, Vehicles of
Consciousness and other connected subjects, and particularly the
following works : *
Baraduc, Dr. , L'Ame Humaine; also Theosophist, Oct. , 1896 .
Besant (Annie) , Self and Its Sheaths; Man and His Bodies.
(Lucifer, XVII-XVIII) .
Blavatsky , H. P. , Transactions Blavatsky Lodge , I ; Isis Un
veiled, I , 168 , 281 , 432 ; II , 115 ; Secret Doctrine, I , 261 , 514 ,
)

538 ; II , 124 , 233 (old edition) , also Vol . III .

>

Leadbeater - Astral Plane, Devachan , Dreams; The Aura , The

osophist , XVII , 134.
)
Lebon , Gustave_Dark Light," Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci
ences, Cosmos ( May 23 , 1896) ; Scientific American , LXXV , 41 .
Marques, A. - Scientific Corroborations of Theosophy, Theoso
phist, October, 1896.
Mead , G. R. - Orpheus; Vestures of the Soul.
Rama-Prasad - Nature's Finer Forces; also Theosophist, Vol
umes IX -X .
Reichenbach , Baron -- Dynamics of Magnetism , Electricity, etc.
Scott -Elliott -- Vehicles of Consciousness ( Trans. London Lodge,
21).
Sinnett -- Aura, Trans . London Lodge, No. 18 ; Growth of the
Soul.
Sreenivas-Row, P .-- Commentary on Light on the Path, Theo
:sophist , VII , 53 , 113 , 192 , 260 , 321 , 392 .
Astral Body and Diseases , Theosophist , XVII , 199.
Augoeides , in Isis Unveiled , I , 218 , in Lucifer XVIII , 99 ;
* A11 the Books and Reviews herein mentioned, ci .. ‫ را‬1 ; . ‫ن‬ .. : ) ! the office of
MERCURI.
 76

Colors, in Theosophist , XI , 545 ; XIV , 592 ; XV, 110 ;

Hiranyagarbha, in Secret Doctrine I, 65 , 89 , 359 ; II, 470 ;
Odorigen, in Five Years of Theosophy;
Tatwas, in Transactions of Scottish Lodge, vol . II and III ;
Theosophist, VIII, 686.
Readers who could indicate other sources of information are
requested to kindly communicate them to the writer, who will
gratefully acknowledge the same, address care of Mercury, San
Francisco, Cal .,) or care of Alexander Fullerton, S. G. American
Section T. S., 5 University Place, New York .
ERRATUM , Page 39 , line 28, read " BY the vibrations connected ," etc.

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