The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Life and Death
The Great Guardian of the Threshold

[ 1 ] It has been described how significant the encounter with the so-called lesser guardian of the “threshold” is for the human being, in that he perceives in this guardian a supersensible being whom he has, in a sense, brought forth himself. The body of this being is composed of the consequences of the person’s own actions, feelings, and thoughts—consequences that were previously invisible to them. But these invisible forces have become the causes of their destiny and character. It now becomes clear to the person how they themselves laid the foundations for their present situation in the past. As a result, their nature is revealed to them to a certain extent. For example, there are certain inclinations and habits within them. Now he can understand why he has them. Certain blows of fate have befallen him; now he recognizes where they come from. He becomes aware of why he loves one thing and hates another, why he is happy or unhappy because of this or that. His visible life becomes understandable to him through its invisible causes. Even the essential facts of life—illness and health, death and birth—unfold before his eyes. He realizes that before his birth he wove the causes that were bound to lead him back into life. He now knows the essence within himself, which is developed in this visible world in an imperfect way and which can also only be brought to perfection in this same visible world. For in no other world is there an opportunity to work on the development of this essence. Furthermore, he realizes that death cannot, at first, separate him forever from this world. For he must tell himself: “I came into this world for the first time long ago because I was then a being who needed life in this world to acquire qualities that I could not have acquired in any other world. And I must remain connected to this world until I have developed within myself everything that can be gained here. I will one day become a capable co-worker in another world only by acquiring all the necessary abilities for this in the sensibly perceptible world.”—For one of the most important experiences of the initiate is that he learns to know and appreciate sensibly perceptible nature in its true value better than he could before his spiritual training. This insight comes to him precisely through his insight into the supersensible world. Anyone who has not gained such insight—and who therefore perhaps merely indulges in the notion that the supersensible realms are infinitely more valuable—may underestimate the physical world. But anyone who has gained this insight knows that without the experiences in visible reality, he would be completely powerless in the invisible realm. If he is to live in the latter, he must possess the abilities and tools for this life. But he can acquire these only in the visible world. He will have to see spiritually if the invisible world is to become conscious to him. Yet this vision for a “higher” world is gradually developed through experiences in the “lower” one. Just as a child could not be born with physical eyes if they had not formed in the womb, so too one cannot be born into a spiritual world with spiritual eyes unless these have been developed in the physical world.

[ 2 ] From this perspective, one can also understand why the “threshold” to the supersensory world is guarded by a “keeper.” For under no circumstances must a person be allowed to gain true insight into those realms before he has acquired the necessary abilities. That is why, at the moment of death, whenever a person—still incapable of working in another world—enters it, a veil is drawn over his experiences. He is not to behold them until he has fully matured for them.

[ 3 ] When the secret student enters the supersensible world, life takes on a whole new meaning for him; he sees in the sensory world the seedbed for a higher one. And in a certain sense, this “higher” world will seem incomplete to him without the “lower” one. Two perspectives open up before him: one into the past, the other into the future. He looks into a past in which this sensory world did not yet exist. For he has long since moved beyond the preconception that the supersensible world developed out of the sensory world. He knows that the supersensible existed first and that everything sensible has developed from it. He sees that he himself, before he first entered this sensible world, belonged to a supersensible one. But this former supersensible world needed to pass through the sensible world. Its further development would not have been possible without this passage. Only when beings with the appropriate abilities have developed within the sensory realm can the supersensory world resume its progress. And these beings are human beings. Thus, as they now live, they have emerged from an imperfect stage of spiritual existence and are themselves being led, within that very stage, toward the perfection that will then make them fit to continue working on the higher world. –And this is where the outlook into the future comes in. It points to a higher stage of the supersensible world. In this world, the fruits will be those that are formed in the sensory world. The latter, as such, will be overcome; its results, however, will be incorporated into a higher realm.

[ 4 ] This provides an understanding of illness and death in the sensory world. Death, in fact, is nothing other than the expression of the fact that the former supersensory world had reached a point from which it could not proceed any further on its own. A general death would have been necessary for it had it not received a new impetus of life. And so this new life has become a struggle against universal death. From the remnants of a dying, ossifying world, the seeds of a new one blossomed. That is why we have death and life in the world. And slowly, things merge into one another. The dying parts of the old world still cling to the new seeds of life, which, after all, sprang from them. This finds its clearest expression in human beings. They carry within themselves, as their outer shell, what has been preserved from that old world; and within this shell, the seed of that being which will live in the future takes shape. They are thus a dual being—one mortal and one immortal. The mortal is in its final state, the immortal in its initial state. But only within this dual world, which finds its expression in the physical-sensory realm, does he acquire the abilities necessary to lead the world toward immortality. Indeed, his task is to draw forth from the mortal itself the fruits for the immortal. So when he looks upon his being, as he himself has built it up in the past, he must say to himself: I have within me the elements of a dying world. They are at work within me, and only gradually can I break their power through the newly reviving immortal elements. Thus does the human being’s path lead from death to life. If he could speak to himself with full consciousness at the hour of death, he would have to say: “That which is dying was my teacher. That I am dying is an effect of the entire past with which I am interwoven. But the realm of the mortal has brought the seeds of immortality to maturity within me. I carry these with me into another world. If it depended solely on the past, then I could never have been born at all. The life of the past is concluded with birth. Life in the sensible realm is wrested from universal death by the new seed of life. The time between birth and death is merely an expression of how much the new life was able to wrest from the dying past. And illness is nothing but the lingering effect of the dying parts of this past.”

[ 5 ] From all this, we find the answer to the question of why human beings only gradually work their way from error and imperfection toward truth and goodness. Their actions, feelings, and thoughts are initially under the dominion of that which is transient and perishable. His sensory-physical organs are formed from this. Therefore, these organs and everything that initially drives them are themselves destined to pass away. It is not the instincts, drives, passions, and so on—nor the organs associated with them—that represent something imperishable; rather, only that which appears as the work of these organs will be imperishable. Only when human beings have extracted from the transitory everything that can be extracted will they be able to shed the foundation from which they have grown and which finds its expression in the physical-sensory world.

[ 6 ] Thus, the first “Guardian of the Threshold” represents the image of humanity in its dual nature, composed of both the transitory and the imperishable. And he clearly reveals what is still lacking before one can attain the noble, luminous form capable of dwelling once again in the pure spiritual world.

[ 7 ] The degree of entanglement with physical-sensual nature is made clear to human beings by the “Keeper of the Threshold.” This entanglement is expressed, first and foremost, in the presence of instincts, drives, desires, selfish wishes, and all forms of self-interest, and so on. It is then expressed through belonging to a race, a people, and so on. For peoples and races are merely the various stages of development leading toward pure humanity. The higher a race or a people stands, the more perfectly its members embody the pure, ideal human type, and the more they have worked their way from the physically transitory to the supersensory and imperishable. The development of humankind through reincarnations into ever higher forms of peoples and races is therefore a process of liberation. Ultimately, humankind must appear in its harmonious perfection. – In a similar way, the passage through ever purer moral and religious forms of perception is a process of perfection. For every moral stage still contains the craving for the transitory alongside the idealistic seeds of the future.

[ 8 ] Now, in the “Keeper of the Threshold” described above, only the result of time past appears. And of the seeds of the future, only those that have been woven into this past time are present there. But human beings must bring into the future supersensible world everything they can draw from the sensory world. If they were to bring only what has been woven into their counter-image from the past alone, they would have fulfilled their earthly task only partially. That is why, after some time, the “greater Guardian of the Threshold” joins the “lesser Guardian of the Threshold.” Once again, the encounter with this second “Guardian of the Threshold” will be described in narrative form.

[ 9 ] Once a person has recognized what he must free himself from, a sublime, luminous figure appears before him. It is difficult to describe this figure’s beauty in the words of our language. – This encounter takes place when the faculties of thinking, feeling, and willing have become so detached from one another—even in relation to the physical body—that the regulation of their mutual relationships is no longer carried out by them themselves, but by the higher consciousness, which has now become completely separate from physical conditions. The faculties of thinking, feeling, and willing have then become instruments under the control of the human soul, which exercises its dominion over them from supersensible realms. – This soul, thus freed from all sensory bonds, is now met by the second “Guardian of the Threshold,” who speaks something to the following effect:

[ 10 ] “You have detached yourself from the sensory world. You have earned your right to dwell in the supersensory world. From here, you can now work. For your own sake, you no longer need your physical body in its present form. If you had merely wished to acquire the ability to dwell in this supersensible world, you would no longer need to return to the sensory world. But now look at me. See how immeasurably exalted I stand above all that you have already made of yourself today. You have reached your present stage of perfection through the abilities you were able to develop in the sensory world while you were still dependent on it. But now a new phase must begin for you, in which your liberated powers will continue to work upon this sensory world. Until now, you have redeemed only yourself; now, as one who is liberated, you can help liberate all your companions in the sensory world. Until today, you have striven as an individual; now integrate yourself into the whole, so that you bring not only yourself into the supersensory world, but everything else that exists in the sensory world. One day you will be able to unite with my form, but I cannot be a blessed being as long as there are still the unblessed! As an individual who has been liberated, you might wish to enter the realm of the supersensible even today. But then you would have to look down upon the still unredeemed beings of the sensory world. And you would have separated your destiny from theirs. But you are all connected to one another. You all had to descend into the sensory world in order to draw from it the powers necessary for a higher realm. If you were to separate yourself from them, you would be misusing the powers that you were able to develop only in communion with them. Had they not descended, you would not have been able to do so either; without them, you would lack the powers necessary for your supersensory existence. You must also share these powers, which you have attained with them, with them. I therefore deny you entry into the highest realms of the supersensible world until you have used all your acquired powers for the salvation of your fellow beings. You may remain in the lower realms of the supersensible world with what you have already attained; but at the gate to the higher realms I stand and bar your entry as long as you still possess powers that have remained unused in the sensory world. And if you do not wish to apply your own powers, others will come who will apply them; then a high supernatural world will absorb all the fruits of the physical world; but the ground with which you were intertwined will be taken from you. The purified world will evolve beyond you. You will be excluded from it. Thus, your path is the black one, but those from whom you have separated yourself walk the white path.”

[ 11 ] Thus, the “great guardian” of the threshold makes his presence known shortly after the encounter with the first guardian has taken place. The initiate, however, knows exactly what lies ahead if he succumbs to the temptations of a premature sojourn in the supersensible world. An indescribable radiance emanates from the second Guardian of the Threshold; union with him stands as a distant goal before the beholding soul. Yet there is also the certainty that this union will only be possible once the initiate has expended all the powers that have flowed to him from this world in the service of the liberation and redemption of this world. If he resolves to follow the demands of the higher being of light, then he will be able to contribute to the liberation of the human race. He offers his gifts upon the altar of sacrifice for humanity. If he prefers his own premature ascent into the supersensible world, then the current of humanity will sweep past him. For himself, he can no longer gain any new powers after his liberation from the sensory world. If, however, he places his work at humanity’s disposal, he does so by renouncing any hope of deriving anything further for himself from the realm of his future activity. One simply cannot say that it is a given that a person will choose the white path when faced with such a decision. For this depends entirely on whether, at the time of this decision, he is already so purified that no selfishness whatsoever allows the temptations of bliss to appear desirable to him. For these temptations are the greatest imaginable. On the other hand, there are actually no particular temptations at all. Here, nothing appeals to selfishness. What a person will receive in the higher regions of the supersensible is not something that comes to them, but merely something that emanates from them: love for their fellow human beings. For everything that selfishness demands is by no means lacking on the black path. On the contrary: the fruits of this path are precisely the most complete satisfaction of selfishness. And if anyone desires bliss solely for himself, he will most certainly walk this black path, for it is the one suited to him. – Therefore, no one should expect the occultists of the White Path to provide instructions for the development of one’s own egoistic self. They have not the slightest interest in the bliss of the individual. Let each person attain that for themselves. Accelerating that process is not the task of the White occultists. Their sole concern is the development and liberation of all beings who are human and fellow beings of humankind. Therefore, they provide only instructions on how to develop one’s powers to contribute to this work. They thus place selfless devotion and a willingness to sacrifice above all other abilities. They do not outright reject anyone, for even the most selfish person can purify themselves. But whoever seeks only for their own sake will, as long as they do so, find nothing among the occultists. Even if the occultists do not withhold their help from him, the seeker himself deprives himself of the fruits of that assistance. Therefore, whoever truly follows the instructions of the good secret teachers will, after crossing the threshold, understand the demands of the great Guardian; but whoever does not follow these instructions must not even hope that he will ever reach the threshold through them. Their instructions lead either to the good or to nothing at all. For guidance toward selfish bliss and mere existence in the supersensible world lies beyond the bounds of their task. This task is designed from the outset to keep the student away from the supraterrestrial world until he enters it with the will to devoted cooperation.