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Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and Oriental Occultism160
Your guide tells you that the particular plane is determined by the spiritual
progress and attainment made by the soul in its past lives (for it has had
many earthly visits or lives), and that it is practically impossible for a soul
to go beyond the plane to which it belongs, although those on the upper
planes may freely revisit the lower planes, this being the rule of the Astral
World—not an arbitrary law, but a law of nature. If the student will pardon the
commonplace comparison, he may get an understanding of it, by imagining
a large screen, or series of screens, such as used for sorting coal into sizes.
The large coal is caught by the first screen, the next size by the second, and
so on until the tiny coal is reached. Now the large coal cannot get into the
receptacle of the smaller sizes, but the small sizes may easily pass through
the screen and join the large sizes, if force be imparted to them. Just so in the
Astral World, the soul with the greatest amount of materiality, and coarser
nature, is stopped by the screen of a certain plane, and cannot pass on the
higher ones, while one which has passed on to the higher planes, having cast
off more confining sheaths, can easily pass backward and forward among
the lower planes. In fact souls often do so, for the purpose of visiting friends
on the lower planes, and giving them enjoyment and comfort in this way,
and, in cases of a highly developed soul, much spiritual help may be given
in this way, by means of advice and instruction, when the soul on the lower
plane is ready for it. All of the planes, in fact, have Spiritual Helpers, from
the very highest planes, some devoted souls preferring to so devote their
time in the Astral World rather than to take a well earned rest, or to pursue
certain studies for their own development. Your guide explains these things
to you as you pass backward and forward, among the lower set of planes
(the reason you do not go higher will be explained to you bye-and-bye),
and he also informs you that the only exception to the rule of free passage
to the planes below the plane of a soul, is the one which prevents the lowerplane
souls from entering the “plane of the sleepers,” which plane may not
be entered by souls who have awakened on a low plane, but may be freely
entered by those pure and exalted souls who have attained a high plane.