a. (and sb.) [ad. L. astrālis, f. astr-um star: see -AL 1.]
1. Of, connected with, or proceeding from the stars; consisting of stars, starry.
1605. Timme, Quersit., I. iv. 14. Those things which are simply formall are astrall and spirituall.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., X. 501. There needs no fatal necessity or astral impulses.
1862. Rawlinson, Anc. Mon., I. vii. 139. The religion was to a certain extent astral.
1861. Sir F. Palgrave, Norm. & Eng., III. 331. Astral showers covered the heavens.
b. Astral spirits: those formerly supposed to live in the heavenly bodies, variously represented as fallen angels, souls of dead men, and spirits originating in fire.
1647. H. More, Song of Soul, Notes 143/2. Neither Astrall spirit nor Angel can prevail against one ray of the Deity.
1769. Wesley, Wks. (1872), III. 358. All his [Glanvill’s] talk of ‘aërial and astral spirits’ I take to be stark nonsense.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, I. viii. Who could … as the Alchymists professed to do … distil you an ‘Astral spirit’ from the ashes.
2. Star-shaped, star-like. Astral lamp: one resembling an Argand lamp, with the oil contained in a flattened ring, and so contrived that uninterrupted light is thrown upon the table below it.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. iv. § 5. Sometimes they [the Hairs] are Astral as upon Lavender.
1834. I. Taylor, Sat. Even., iv. 47. Shines only with an astral lustre.
1852. Hawthorne, Blithed. Rom., II. vi. 100. The glow of an astral-lamp was penetrating mistily through the white curtain.
B. sb. An astral lamp. Also attrib.
c. 1860. Whittier, Maud Müller, xlvii. The weary wheel to a spinnet turned, The tallow candle an astral burned.
1883. N. Y. World, in Glasg. Week. Her., 9 June, 8/3. An ordinary tin can … in which astral oil is sold.
