OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF BLOOD

man and in the animal, of lifting up the life-substance The "life-substance" refers to the underlying essence that sustains biological life, often associated with the etheric forces. to the plane of feeling, so that in the life-substance may move not only fluids, but also that in it may be expressed all that is known as pain and pleasure, joy and grief. And here you have at once the essential difference between the plant and the animal; although there are certain states of transition between these two.

A recent school of naturalists is of opinion that feeling, in its literal sense, should also be ascribed to plants; this, however, is but playing with words; for, though it is obvious that certain plants are of so sensitive an organisation that they “respond” to particular things that may be brought near to them, yet such a condition cannot be described as “feeling.” In order that “feeling” may exist, an image must be formed within the being as the reflex of that which produces the sensation. If, therefore, certain plants respond to external stimulus, this is no proof that the plant answers to the stimulus by a feeling, that is, that it experiences it inwardly. That which has inward experience has its seat in the astral body In esoteric philosophy, the astral body is the vehicle of emotions, desires, and sensations, distinguishing sentient animals from non-sentient plants.. And so we come to see that that which has attained to animal conditions consists of the physical body, the etheric or vital body The etheric or vital body is the energetic blueprint that provides life and growth to the physical form., and the astral body.