Editing Subtle body (section)

== Western esoteric tradition ==
{{main|Body of light}}

The ''body of light'' is elaborated on according to various [[Western esotericism|Western esoteric]], [[occult]], and [[mysticism|mystical]] teachings. Other terms used for this body include ''body of glory'',{{sfn|Behun|2010}} ''spirit-body'', ''radiant body'',{{sfn|Mead|1919}} ''luciform body'', ''augoeides'' ('radiant'), ''astroeides'' ('starry' or 'sidereal body'), and ''celestial body''.{{sfn|Mead|1919|pp=34-35}}

The concept derives from the philosophy of [[Plato]]: the word 'astral' means 'of the stars'; thus the [[Astral plane#History|astral plane]]  consists of the [[Seven Heavens]] of the [[classical planet]]s.  The idea is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the [[afterlife]]{{sfn|Miller|1995|p={{page needed|date=January 2022}}}} in which the [[Soul (spirit)|soul's]] journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an ecstatic, mystical or out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in their body of light into 'higher' realms."{{sfn|Woolger|n.d.}}

[[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]] Porphyry and Proclus elaborated on Plato's description of the starry nature of the human psyche. Throughout the [[Renaissance]], philosophers and alchemists, healers including [[Paracelsus]] and his students, and [[natural science|natural scientists]] such as [[John Dee]], continued to discuss the nature of the astral world intermediate between earth and the divine. The concept of the astral body or body of light was adopted by 19th-century [[ceremonial magic]]ian [[Éliphas Lévi]], [[Florence Farr]] and the magicians of the [[Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn]], including [[Aleister Crowley]].