The Rudolf Steiner Archive

14. The Human Cycle Through the Worlds of the Senses, the Soul, and the Spirit

[ 1 ] During the time of purification after death, a person will endure the burning fire of unfulfilled longing; pleasures will be experienced as longing, and satisfactions as burning longing. Reliving the past at three times the speed. The period of purification is not merely a kind of hell. Not only are one’s trials endured, but one also gains insight into how that deed had a harmful effect, impeding spiritual perfection. One will drag them along like stones tied to one’s body. This instills the urge to make amends for these things, to do something good for others. A tremendous urge of will then drives one back into the world to remove those millstones from existence. After this third of one’s past lifetime has elapsed, the astral body is shed, and an essence of the astral and etheric bodies is taken along. Only then does one enter Devachan, or the realm of the heavens. This is as if childhood, the moment of birth, were repeating itself. Then one enters the purely spiritual world. Here, experiences coalesce into abilities and character traits. This is the individual development between death and a new birth.

[ 2 ] For some, the experiences of the French Revolution are transformed into wisdom; others have simply moved on. Consider Penelope and her unraveling of the tapestry. Her experiences with her suitors are not transformed into character traits.

[ 3 ] The plastic development of the ear is part of music; the specific development of a part of the brain is part of arithmetic. A new archetype is thus constructed. This is linked to a certain sensation; it is bliss that finds its fulfillment in creation—this spiritual life and weaving within the spiritual archetype, the weaving into the essence of the etheric body’s substance—like the warmth felt by a hen as she lays an egg, and by the artist when he is ready to bring a painting to life on the canvas. There is bliss. Then the urge to overcome obstacles is also woven into it. These are two things: the new abilities and this urge are woven into the new incarnation. Reincarnations only make sense if there is something new on Earth to draw out something new. How very different was what a child learned in Greek and Roman times compared to today. Just as an artist might carry an image within them and feel an urge to bring it to life on canvas, so does the soul feel when it seeks to develop its new archetype and experiences the urge to achieve balance.

[ 4 ] So two forces shape the soul and guide it toward a family and a place where the soul can make amends. Perhaps it is not possible to balance everything right away. Eventually, the archetype becomes the image of perfect humanity. Karma is exhausted when everything is balanced.

[ 5 ] Other people live among us and, sooner or later, pass through the gate of death. Only after centuries, when circumstances have changed radically, do they reincarnate. Those who live together will be together in the spiritual world. The love between mother and child is initially instinctual; then a soul bond emerges. To the extent that it reaches the spiritual core, it continues in the spiritual world. The longing for love and friendship becomes more profound and conscious in the spiritual world. Thought is not the offspring of desire. The spiritual researcher weans himself from the craving for what he imagines to be the best form of the spiritual world. Then an objective picture emerges; truth is that which makes people happy.