The souls of the dead have to cross the spheres I of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Each one of these planets is wrapped in an astral atmosphere. Astral atmospheres penetrate and interpenetrate each other without blending. All these atmospheres are related to the air we breathe.
THE MOON: When the soul enters the lunar sphere, it feels strongly drawn toward the place where the body is buried, and it wants to act exactly as if it had flesh and bones.
These souls sit down to have meals in their homes and feel the same physical needs as before.
MERCURY: When the soul enters the atmosphere of Mercury, it sees that the atmosphere is becoming clearer for it and all things appear even more beautiful I to it than before. Those souls which in life were never able to adapt to all the circumstances of existence then suffer unspeakably. Those souls full of pride and
haughtiness suffer because they want everybody to respect them, as in the past, for their money and lineage. But in the sphere of Mercury, souls are respected only for their saintliness and their wisdom. Souls which in life were humble, pious, and charitable feel happy in the sphere of Mercury.
VENUS: Later on, the soul enters the sphere of Venus. In this sphere, souls
again become child-like, and en- joy things as children do, playing in nature’s bosom.
In the sphere of Venus, we again become deeply religious and understand that all the religions of the world are pearls strung on the golden thread of divinity. In the
sphere of Venus we again become mystical and find delight in nature’s woods and mountains. We are happy.
Those souls which never had any kind of religion, materialistic souls, feel out of place there, like chickens in an unfamiliar barnyard. They suffer unspeakably.
Those who were delirious and fanatical about religious matters feel immense remorse for their evil deeds because they understand the harm which they did to others. They suffer unspeakably.
Some time afterwards the soul enters the Solar atmosphere.
THE SUN: In this atmosphere, we understand the oneness of lives; we
understand that the life which throbs within the heart is the same life that throbs within the very heart of each world that it remembers throughout space. In the sphere of the Sun we under- stand what Universal Brotherhood is, and we feel that we are a single great human family.
Those souls which were selfish experience deep remorse here in the Solar sphere, and great moral suffering. Those souls suffer the remorse for their evil deeds. In the Solar sphere, we see a brother in every face.
MARS: Later on, the soul enters the Martian sphere. In this sphere, we feel the longing to separate ourselves forever from the things of the material world. In this sphere we lead a life of mystical enchantment, and we feel the strong influence of Francis of Assisi, of Buddha. Here we feel that the life of each flower is our life. Then we long to withdraw from the material world forever.
JUPITER: Later, the soul enters the sphere of Jupiter. In this sphere, we understand that the religion we had on Earth was only a school which we had to go through. Here we give up that earthly religion, and then we enter cosmic conscience.
SATURN: In this life the soul becomes submerged much later in the sphere of Saturn and then floats delightedly among all the stars in space. It visits distant worlds and is submerged in an infinity full of in- describable music, of delightful orchestras which re- sound within the immense chorale of eternity, where only the true happiness of limitless space reigns.
Samael Aun Weor
