astral

comparative more astral · superlative most astral

1. Relating to or resembling the stars; starry.

   Some Aſtral forms I muſt invoke by prayer, / Fram'd of all pureſt Atoms of the Air; [...]

   1669 June (first performance), John Dryden, Tyrannick Love, or, The Royal Martyr. […], London: […] H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1670, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 29

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   The first thing a visitor arriving by carriage from London would have noticed was that eighty-foot pole aimed at the sky, supported by huge struts near the base. Contrary to local rumors, it was not an instrument of divination but a towering mount for one of Cavendish’s telescopes. Upon renting the estate in 1785, he immediately sketched out a design for this impressive piece of equipment, a crucial adjunct to his plan to convert the upper floor of the house into an astral observatory, complete with a transit room for recording the positions of stars as they traversed the meridian.

   2015, Steve Silberman, chapter 1, in Megan Newman, editor, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, New York: Avery, →ISBN, page 27

   Synonyms: starly

2. biologyRelating to an aster.

   astral rays

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   astral sphere

3. fantasyComposed of ethereal material or non-physical (sometimes supersensible), and capable of sometimes separating from the physical body (as an astral body) to travel to other places or to other realms of existence (in or via the astral plane).

   "[I could] see her astral form sitting on the edge of her bed. She was waiting for me."

   2005 03, Harry Highstreet, The OOBE File, Harry, →ISBN, page 123

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   In the case of an inanimate body, […] when the physical object was broken the astral counterpart would also be divided; but it would not be possible to break an astral counterpart, and in that way to affect the physical object. In other words the act of fraction must begin on the physical plane. One could of course move a purely astral object by means of an astral hand if one wished, but not the astral counterpart of a physical object. In order to perform this latter feat it would be necessary to materialize a hand and move the physical object, when the astral counterpart would of course accompany it.

   1911, Charles Webster Leadbeater, Theosophical Talks at Adyar, page 194

   [He could] see her astral projection; she looked like a celestial being, holding her hand out to him. With relief rushing through his body, he called out to her, "I've got you angel, and I'm coming!" Hammering the gas the car took off[…]

   2011 October 11, Kristi O'Toole, Under the Moon, PublishAmerica, →ISBN

   [Other actions], such as the moving of solid articles, either by an astral hand projected to draw them towards her, or by using an Elemental; others by reading in the Astral Light, and so on. But the proof of the reality of her mission from those whom she spoke of as Masters lay not in these[…]

   2021 January 1, Annie Besant, Annie Besant, An Autobiography: Annie Besant, An Autobiography by Annie Besant: The Autobiography of Annie Besant, Prabhat Prakashan

plural astrals

1. parapsychologyA supernatural being from the astral plane.

   Now both of you sit there and wait for any guides to come to you, any astrals or people from that life to make themselves known to you.

   2009, David Wells, David Wells's Psychic Secrets, page 112