Origin Late nineteenth to late twentieth century.
The aura layers are the subtle bodies said to surround a person, usually given as a series running from the etheric outward to the spiritual. The layered scheme in circulation today is largely Theosophical, assembled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Indian terminology and Western occult sources. The number and naming of the layers varies considerably between authors.
Facts
Origins
Origin PeriodLate nineteenth to late twentieth century. 2 Whose Classification This IsThe colour-coded layered aura is Theosophy's - principally C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant - recasting Indian subtle-body vocabulary in Western terms; the seven-layer schemes in circulation are later elaborations of it. 3 Overview
What Defines This GroupingConcentric "subtle bodies" said to surround the person, each assigned a level of experience and, in most schemes, a colour. The number and the naming of the layers differ from author to author; there is no fixed set. 1 Status
Standing as a Comparative CategoryA modern esoteric construction rather than an attested traditional doctrine. 1 Comparison
Cultural Origin Era of Origin Learn More
The Layers of the Aura
The aura layers are the subtle bodies said to surround a person, usually given as a series running from the etheric body nearest the skin outward through the emotional and mental bodies to the spiritual layers. Each layer is associated with a level of experience (the physical vitality, the emotions, the thoughts, the spiritual life), and, in many modern schemes, with a colour and a chakra.
The layered aura in circulation today is largely Theosophical, assembled in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by writers such as C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant, who drew on Indian ideas of the subtle body and gave them a Western, colour-coded form.
A modern subtle-body scheme
The atlas treats the seven-layer aura as a modern synthesis rather than an ancient doctrine: it draws on genuine Indian concepts of the subtle body but arranges them into a scheme shaped by Theosophy and the later New Age, and the reading of aura colours is a twentieth-century development. The claim that the aura is visible or measurable is not established by evidence.
The atlas gives each layer its level, its associations, and its place in the series. The chakras the aura layers are keyed to, and the koshas and nadis of the Indian subtle body they draw on, are treated in their own categories.
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Aura Layers
Sources
1. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought
2. The Theosophical Enlightenment
3. Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan
Kurt Leland, Ibis Press, 2016
4. Wikipedia: Theosophy (Blavatskian)
WikipediaTheosophy Blavatskian, Theosophical Society founding sentenceQuote, Theosophy Blavatskian, Theosophical Society founding sentence
Theosophy was established in New York City in 1875 with the founding of the Theosophical Society by Blavatsky and Americans Henry Olcott and William Quan Judge.
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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