William Walker Atkinson - The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought Forms

The above question is frequently asked the student of occultism by someone who has heard the term but who is unfamiliar with its meaning.Simple as the question may seem, it is by no means easy to answer it,plainly and clearly in a few words, unless the hearer already has ageneral acquaintance with the subject of occult science. Let us commenceat the beginning, and consider the question from the point of view ofthe person who has just heard the term for the first time.

The dictionaries define the word aura as: "Any subtle, invisibleemanation or exhalation." The English authorities, as a rule, attributethe origin of the word to a Latin term meaning "air," but the Hinduauthorities insist that it had its origin in the Sanscrit root Ar,meaning the spoke of a wheel, the significance being perceived when weremember the fact that the human aura radiates from the body of theindividual in a manner similar to the radiation of the spokes of a wheelfrom the hub thereof. The Sanscrit origin of the term is the onepreferred by occultists, although it will be seen that the idea of anaerial emanation, indicated by the Latin root, is not foreign to thereal significance of the term.

Be the real origin of the term what it may, the idea of the human aurais one upon which all occultists are in full agreement and harmony, andthe mention of which is found in all works upon the general subject ofoccultism. So we shall begin by a consideration of the main conceptionthereof, as held by all advanced occultists, ancient and modern,omitting little points of theoretical variance between the differentschools.

Briefly, then, the human aura may be described as a fine, etherealradiation or emanation surrounding each and every living human being. Itextends from two to three feet, in all directions, from the body. Itassumes an oval shapea great egg-shaped nebula surrounding the body onall sides for a distance of two or three feet. This aura is sometimesreferred to, in ordinary terms, as the "psychic atmosphere" of a person,or as his "magnetic atmosphere."

This atmosphere or aura is apparent to a large percentage of persons inthe sense of the psychic awareness generally called "feeling," thoughthe term is not a clear one. The majority of persons are more or lessaware of that subtle something about the personality of others, whichcan be sensed or felt in a clear though unusual way when the otherpersons are near by, even though they may be out of the range of thevision. Being outside of the ordinary range of the five senses, we areapt to feel that there is something queer or uncanny about thesefeelings of projected personality. But every person, deep in his heart,knows them to be realities and admits their effect upon his impressionsregarding the persons from whom they emanate. Even small children,infants even, perceive this influence, and respond to it in the matterof likes and dislikes.

But, human testimony regarding the existence and character of the humanaura does not stop with the reports of the psychic senses to which wehave just referred. There are many individuals of the racea fargreater percentage than is generally imaginedwho have the gift ofpsychic sight more or less developed. Many persons have quite awell-developed power of this kind, who do not mention it to theiracquaintances for fear of ridicule, or of being thought "queer." Inaddition to these persons, there are here and there to be foundwell-developed, clear-sighted, or truly clairvoyant persons, whosepowers of psychic perception are as highly developed as are the ordinarysenses of the average individual. And, the reports of these persons, farapart in time and space though they may be, have always agreed on themain points of psychic phenomena, particularly in regards to the humanaura.

To the highly developed clairvoyant vision, every human being is seen assurrounded by the egg-shaped aura of two or three feet in depth, moredense and thick in the portion nearest the body, and then graduallybecoming more tenuous, thin and indistinct as the distance from the bodyis increased. By the psychic perception, the aura is seen as a luminousclouda phosphorescent flamedeep and dense around the centre and thengradually shading into indistinctness toward the edges. As a matter offact, as all developed occultists know, the aura really extends verymuch further than even the best clairvoyant vision can perceive it, andits psychic influence is perceptible at quite a distance in many cases.In this respect it is like any flame on the physical planeitgradually fades into indistinctness, its rays persisting far beyond thereach of the vision, as may be proved by means of chemical apparatus,etc.

To the highly developed clairvoyant vision, the human aura is seen to becomposed of all the colors of the spectrum, the combinations of colorsdiffering in various persons, and constantly shifting in the case ofevery person. These colors reflect the mental (particularly theemotional) states of the person in whose aura they are manifested. Eachmental state has its own particular combination formed from the fewelementary colors which represent the elementary mental conditions. Asthe mind is ever shifting and changing its states, it follows that therewill ever be a corresponding series of shifting changes in the colors ofthe human aura.

The shades and colors of the aura present an ever changing kaleidoscopicspectacle, of wonderful beauty and most interesting character. Thetrained occultist is able to read the character of any person, as wellas the nature of his passing thoughts and feelings, by simply studyingthe shifting colors of his aura. To the developed occultist the mind andcharacter become as an open book, to be studied carefully andintelligently.

Even the student of occultism, who has not been able to develop theclairvoyant vision to such a high degree, is soon able to develop thesense of psychic perception whereby he is able to at least "feel" thevibrations of the aura, though he may not see the colors, and thus beable to interpret the mental states which have caused them. Theprinciple is of course the same, as the colors are but the outwardappearance of the vibrations themselves, just as the ordinary colors onthe physical plane are merely the outward manifestation of vibration ofmatter.

But it must not be supposed that the human aura is always perceived inthe appearance of a luminous cloud of ever-changing color. When we saythat such is its characteristic appearance, we mean it in the same sensethat we describe the ocean as a calm, deep body of greenish waters. Weknow, however, that at times the ocean presents no such appearance, but,instead, is seen as rising in great mountainous waves, white capped, andthreatening the tiny vessels of men with its power. Or again, we maydefine the word "flame" in the sense of a steady bright stream ofburning gas, whereas, we know only too well, that the word alsoindicates the great hot tongues of fiery force that stream out from thewindows of a burning building, and lick to destruction all with which itcomes in contact.