What is the Astral Plane?

This post is borrowed with permission from the blog, The Crystal Engineer.

In a certain sense, the astral plane can be thought of as the dream world. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is known as the bardos and is described as an intermediate or in-between state. It is a non-physical, or subtle plane of existence that is closely tied to the physical world. It is not constrained by space such as in the physical world and in the upper portions it is not constrained by time.

It is where we go when we dream. It is the first place we find ourselves when we die. We actually exist in the astral plane just as much as we do in the physical plane, it’s just that dreaming and dying are times when our consciousness is free to experience it without the constraints of the physical body.

The astral plane is also home to many different types of beings that can be surprisingly familiar, such as elemental beings known as gnomes, faeries, sylphs, and salamanders as well as countless others.