Afterpants: Nether Regions Pt.5 (Astral Planes)

Normally, I don't do 2 parts in one day but...why not?

The 5th episode of Nether Regions is the fairly famous "Astral Planes" about which religious scholars from many faiths have written.

I covered a couple of these (under a different names) but let me be frank when I say that basically, the Astral Planes (AP) are what we here at Afterpants consider the totality of the underworld.

Different philosophers from different places have different opinions as to exactly "how many?", "what they're made of?" and "who lives there?" as well as a host of other questions such as "how do you get there?", "why would you want to go there?" and "Are there magical underwear that I can put on to help me?"

At Afterpants, we would say..."of course there are magical underwear you can put on to help you." But we recommend you choose a pair that adequately reflects your intent.

If you put on regular boxers...maybe not so much.

If you put on boxer briefs with marvel characters...you might have a little more luck

but if you get underpants with outer space scenes or ghosts on them...you're defs headed in the right direction!

ok..so Astral Planes:

You got your Kabbalah version:

10-11 different worlds all corresponding to a different aspect of Yahweh

Want a little more Eastern? Why not try Futomani for a guide to the stellar realms?

This represents all of the outer realms and the governor kami of each!

It is used for divination!

You got your Roman/Greek Pagans:

They were thinking it's more like "oh the stars are made of aether..." whatever that is...

You got your Hermetics.

"The astral plane is "union with the divine" Basically it's where god lives and if you get there

then you have achieved reunion with the divine.

Rosicrucian; (pretty much Hermetics with livelier colors!)

Islam (7 big big heavens!) (Which I covered "briefly" (c wut I did there?) here)

There's the classic Dungeons and Dragons Astral planes:

(Which is a quite brilliant amalgamation of several religious ideals on the topic)

And one of my favorites....The World of Warcraft cosmology:

(New Addition) Aztecs...13 heavens...very carefully researched...

So the AP are basically everywhere, spiritually, magically NOT in the world.

The wiki on the topic was succinct in saying "Once the telescope established that no spiritual heaven was visible around the solar system, the idea was superseded in mainstream science."

What I'm saying is that there ARE other worlds...other planes of existence etc....but humans

pretty much gave up a powerful magical resource when they stopped believing in them!

Anyway...so take your pick...any of them are lovely...we would suggest you choose one with a broader appeal than merely 1 school of thought.

Personally we believe that "the stairs go down" like, and all these realms are in fact, in the underworld!

This is how we see it!

Afterpants gives the Astral Planes a whopping 4 Hellbriefs out of 5!