In a cave in the French Pyrenees, a shaman painted a figure with a bird’s head and a human body. The figure falls, arms outstretched, as if leaving its own shape behind. That image, painted around 13,000 BCE in the Cave of the Trois-Frères, may be the earliest surviving record of the astral body. The relationship between the astral body and mythology is that myths from every continent describe journeys of the soul outside the physical form, encoding practical knowledge of astral projection under the language of gods, heroes, and spirits. These stories are not mere allegory. They are the vocabulary through which generations of practitioners understood what it means to leave the body and return.
What Is the Astral Body? A Definition Rooted in Myth
The astral body is the subtle vehicle through which consciousness travels during out-of-body experiences. In Western esotericism, it is the second of four or seven bodies that compose a human being, positioned between the physical and the mental. The term “astral” comes from the Greek astron (star), because early Platonists believed this body was made of the same luminous substance as the heavens.
But the concept predates the word by millennia. Every culture that left a written or painted record has described a double that can separate from the flesh. The Egyptian ba was a bird with a human head that flew from the tomb. The Greek psyche was a breath that left the dying. The Norse fylgja was a guardian shape that walked ahead of its owner. These are not metaphors. They are the raw data of human experience, shaped into story.
Where Do Myths of Soul Flight Come From?
The oldest evidence comes from shamanic traditions. In Siberia, the Tungus shaman beat a drum to send his soul into the sky while his body lay still. The same pattern appears in the Amazon, where the ayahuasquero drinks a brew and travels to the spirit world. The shaman’s journey is the template for every later myth of the hero who descends to the underworld or ascends to the heavens.
The first written accounts appear in Egypt around 2400 BCE. The Pyramid Texts describe the king’s ba joining the stars: “He flies as a bird, he alights as a beetle.” The ba could move through walls, pass through the Duat (the underworld), and return to the body at will. The living practiced techniques to strengthen the ba through ritual and recitation, because a weak ba meant a vulnerable soul.
In Greece, Plato gave the myth its philosophical form. In the Republic (c. 375 BCE), he tells the Myth of Er, a soldier who died on the battlefield, watched his soul leave his body, and traveled with other souls to a place of judgment. Er returned to life with his memory intact. Plato used the story to argue that the soul is immortal and that our choices in life shape our fate after death. But he also described something his readers recognized: the sensation of rising above one’s own corpse.
The Hermetic texts of Roman Egypt (c. 100–300 CE) systematized these ideas. In the Corpus Hermeticum, the initiate learns to ascend through the seven planetary spheres, shedding each layer of the self until only the divine remains. The astral body is the vehicle for this ascent. The texts are explicit that this is not theory. It is a practice to be performed.
What the Astral Body Symbolizes in Myth
Myths use concrete images for the astral body because the experience itself is imagistic. The most common symbol is the bird. The Egyptian ba, the Greek psyche (often depicted with butterfly wings), the Hindu hamsa (the swan that separates milk from water) all point to the same quality: the soul can rise, fly, and see from above.
The second symbol is the shadow or double. In Norse myth, the fylgja appears as an animal or a woman who walks ahead of a person, visible only to those with second sight. If the fylgja is injured, the person falls ill. This is the astral body as a second skin, vulnerable and connected. The same idea appears in the Celtic anam cara (soul friend) and the Polynesian wairua, a spirit that can leave the body during sleep.
The third symbol is the light body. In Tibetan Buddhism, the sambhogakaya (enjoyment body) is a radiant form that appears to advanced practitioners. In Christian mysticism, the resurrected body is described as luminous and incorruptible. These are not different things. They are the same phenomenon filtered through different theologies.
The journey itself is always an initiation. The hero crosses a threshold, meets guides or obstacles, and returns transformed. In the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE), Gilgamesh travels to the edge of the world to find the plant of immortality. In the Odyssey, Odysseus descends to the underworld to consult the dead. In the Mabinogion, the Welsh hero Pwyll spends a year in Annwn, the otherworld. Each journey follows the same arc as a deliberate astral projection: separation, travel, encounter, return.
How Myths Informed Actual Practices
Myths did not just describe astral travel. They taught it. The Egyptian Book of the Dead (the Peret em Heru, “Coming Forth by Day”) is a collection of spells and maps to guide the ba through the underworld. The deceased recited these formulas to pass through gates, name the gods, and avoid traps. The same structure appears in the Tibetan Bardo Thodol (the Tibetan Book of the Dead, compiled in the 8th century CE but based on older oral traditions). It instructs the consciousness on what to expect during the 49 days between death and rebirth. The practitioner who memorized these texts during life could apply them during the bardo.
Shamans used myth to structure their journeys. The Yakut shaman of Siberia recited the epic of the first shaman before his own flight. The story provided the map. The drumbeat provided the engine. And if you have ever tried to project and found yourself stuck in your bedroom, you know why a map matters.
In the Western mystery traditions, the Chaldean Oracles (2nd century CE) taught theurgists how to “draw down” the soul from the stars. The practitioner visualized a ladder or a cord connecting the astral body to the physical, then ascended through the planetary spheres. The myth of Er was their manual.
How the Astral Body Compares Across Cultures
The closest parallel to the Western astral body is the Hindu linga sharira (the subtle body). In the Upanishads (c. 800–200 BCE), the subtle body carries the soul from life to life, surviving the death of the physical. It is composed of five sheaths (koshas), the outermost being the pranamaya kosha (the energy body). Yogis learn to withdraw the senses and project the subtle body through concentration. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (c. 400 CE) describe siddhis (powers) that include the ability to leave the body at will.
The Tibetan bardo is not a body but a state. Yet the bardo being (the consciousness in the intermediate state) possesses a “mental body” (yid lus) that can move instantly, pass through matter, and see without eyes. The Bardo Thodol warns that this body is easily frightened, because it is made of habit, not flesh.
The Greek eidolon (image or phantom) appears in Homer as the shade of the dead. In the Iliad, Patroclus’s ghost visits Achilles in a dream, asking for burial. Achilles tries to embrace it, but it slips through his arms “like smoke.” This is the astral body as experienced by the living: tangible in memory, intangible in fact.
The Norse fylgja is unique because it can appear to others while the person is still alive. A saga tells of a man who saw a woman walking ahead of his friend. He knew the friend would die soon. The fylgja is the astral body as omen.
These traditions disagree on details. They agree on the core: there is a part of us that can leave, travel, and return. The myths are the evidence.
Common Misconceptions About the Astral Body and Mythology
Misconception 1: The astral body is a New Age invention. The term “astral body” was popularized by the Theosophical Society in the late 19th century, but the concept is ancient. The Corpus Hermeticum uses astral to describe the soul’s vehicle. The Chaldean Oracles call it the “subtle chariot.” The word is new. The experience is not.
Misconception 2: Myths about soul flight are purely symbolic. Some scholars argue that shamanic journeys are psychological metaphors. But the practitioners themselves did not treat them as metaphors. They built their lives around them. The shaman who returned with knowledge of where the reindeer were hiding was not using a symbol. He was using information.
Misconception 3: Astral projection is dangerous because mythological demons will attack you. Many myths describe guardians at the threshold, but they are not demons in the Christian sense. They are tests. The Egyptian gatekeeper gods demand the correct password. The Tibetan wrathful deities are projections of the mind. The danger is not external attack. It is confusion, fear, and the inability to return.
Misconception 4: The astral body is the same as the soul. In most traditions, the soul is the eternal essence. The astral body is a temporary vehicle, like a car. You are not the car. You are the driver. The myths make this distinction clear: the ba flies, but the ka (life force) stays with the body. The psyche leaves, but the nous (intellect) remains divine.
FAQ
Is the astral body mentioned in the Bible? Not by name, but the Apostle Paul describes a “spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:44) and a man caught up to the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). The Book of Revelation is a visionary journey that follows the same structure as an astral projection.
What is the difference between the astral body and the soul? The soul is the immortal essence. The astral body is the vehicle the soul uses to travel outside the physical. In Hermetic terms, the soul is the driver; the astral body is the chariot.
Did Plato believe in astral projection? Plato described out-of-body experiences in the Myth of Er and the Phaedo. He argued that the soul can separate from the body through philosophy and contemplation. He did not teach a technique, but his students in the Neoplatonic tradition developed practices for “standing outside the body” (ekstasis).
The myths of the astral body are not dead stories. They are the accumulated testimony of every culture that took the experience seriously. The cave painter at Trois-Frères, the Egyptian scribe, the Tibetan lama, the Greek philosopher: they all described the same thing. The body lies still. The soul rises. The journey begins.
If you want to explore the practice behind the myths, start with our guide to astral projection techniques. For the terminology used across traditions, see the glossary entry on the subtle body. And for a deeper look at how one culture systematized soul travel, read our guide to the Egyptian ba and astral flight.