The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. On Devachan

[ 1 ] Eight days ago, we followed the human being through the various stages of the so-called spiritual realm, the Devachan. We saw how the human being’s destiny unfolds between two incarnations in this spiritual realm, the Devachan. We have seen that, depending on the degree of his development, a person is able to ascend higher and higher or remain longer and longer in the realms of this land of causes, in order to bring from this land of causes into this earthly world the capacities for ever higher and higher development. The actual causes lie in his work and activity in this spiritual realm. In this activity and creative work in the spiritual realm, for those whose sense has been opened and awakened to observe—even during incarnation—the spiritual conditions that constantly surround us, which I have described to you, for such people the three parts of the human being, whose destinies we have come to know, are always clearly visible before the spiritual eye. These three parts of the human being, of which I have spoken as gradually, as it were, shedding their earthly, physical covering—one in the so-called Kamaloka, the realm of desires and longings; the second in Devachan, or the realm of the spirit; and the third in the highest region of Devachan, where the true, deepest Self is able to develop and unfold, so that it may then return with increased power. These three parts of the human being constitute his so-called astral body—the body that encompasses all his desires, longings, and passions; everything that the human being shares with animals; everything that, so to speak, serves as the mediating link between his own spiritual nature and his sensual nature—all of this he casts off in the land of purification, in Kamaloka.

[ 2 ] And then he ascends into the realm of the true spirit, into the realm of the spirits, or into Devachan, to there also shed his second body—the body of the world of imagination, of the higher human faculties—which still chains him to the human realm and hinders him, so that, freed from the body, as it were, to linger—for a longer or shorter time, depending on the state of development—in the true, bodiless spiritual state. We call that body of the human being, which rises up to these highest regions of the spiritual realm and spreads its wings there to unfold itself, the “bearer of causes” or “causal body.” This causal body, which we preserve between two incarnations and which we bring with us time and again—this body, which constitutes the cause of what we have brought upon ourselves and which carries us from one incarnation to the next—is the one that dwells in the highest region of Devachan. The other is the one that resides in the second region of Devachan, which then descends into the realm of desires—and this is the astral body—before entering the physical body. Every human being possesses these three bodies within themselves.

[ 3 ] I have already spoken of the so-called aura; I have already said that the human being, as seen with the physical eyes, is enveloped in a cloud of light, in an oval shape, which presents the most varied light phenomena to those who are receptive to them. The size of this oval varies depending on the degree of development. It is small in those who are still at the lowest stage of spiritual development. There, the aura is merely a faint glow spreading around the body, but it grows larger and larger the more incarnations a person has undergone and the higher and more advanced the stage of development they have reached. Then this aura displays the most diverse light and color phenomena. This aura is threefold, and the perception of this aura can also be threefold.

[ 4 ] There are people with so-called “psychic vision” who are capable of seeing only what takes place in the astral realm. They perceive only as light phenomena what can also be observed in animals. They see the desires, cravings, and passions that live within a person in the form of light phenomena. Human beings can also rise above this realm. Then the imaginative body becomes visible to them—the higher possibilities of spiritual development—as a second, finer substance, as an aura that radiates through and permeates the first.

[ 5 ] And finally, there is that which spreads as an even finer substance within this second aura—something that is very weakly developed in people at the lowest levels, but becomes increasingly developed and manifests in a wondrous way in the great spiritual leaders of our culture. This is what carries over from incarnation to incarnation: the causal body. It is present even in the undeveloped human being, but only as a faint glimmer of light above the head. The more a person develops, the more it expands, becoming, as it were, a sun. And the more it illuminates and permeates the being, the more clearly one can perceive these three bodies as distinct—once the spiritual vision has opened.

[ 6 ] One can simply direct one’s gaze toward the astral world; one can use autosuggestion to block out everything belonging to the lower and higher spheres and focus one’s gaze solely on the astral aura. Then one sees only the instincts, desires, and passions as color manifestations before one’s eyes. If one then directs one’s attention to the imagination body, one sees the mental body. And if one directs one’s gaze toward the Eternal, toward the causal body, one sees the human being’s most radiant aura. This bearer of the causal body is visible only to those whose spiritual eye has been awakened in the highest regions of the spiritual world.

[ 7 ] This source of causation, seen externally in its manifestation of light, presents us with a wide variety of appearances in different people. When you observe an undeveloped person—whether a Black person in Africa or even an undeveloped person in our own regions—a person who has formed few thoughts within himself, who is scarcely able to live in the realm of the imagination, who knows nothing of higher ideas or spiritual interests, and who lives solely in his animal instincts, in the satisfaction of his hunger and his physical well-being—then, if we set aside all other auras and look only at the causal aura, it appears to us as a more or less dark oval. This indicates that the causal body is still underdeveloped, that the true self still requires a great deal of work before it has fully developed. These are the people whose brown ovals reveal nothing but a few greenish or dirty indigo-colored streaks. These few streaks are the only indication of the causal body. This is the sight that fills the observer with sorrow, because it reveals to the one who can observe how much work we still have to do with undeveloped people. We can see how rays of light emerge within them when we impart spiritual culture to them.

[ 8 ] But even the lower spirit body—the body of imagination—of an undeveloped person still exhibits a brownish hue and a few distinct greenish areas, which alternate with reddish areas or with areas that have a bluish tint. These greenish and bluish areas become more and more frequent the more ideas have taken shape in the person in question. And then, when we examine such a person’s astral body, we are suddenly confronted by phenomena of a truly terrifying effect in the form of glaring, luminous colors; we are confronted by blood-red clouds that fill almost the entire astral body, surging chaotically within it. Only at the upper or lower edge of the oval do we see a greenish or indigo-colored tinge, which alternates with brownish hues, but also with all manner of formations that vary according to the different types of temperament. In angry people, we see red flashes darting through the astral body; in others, we see bluish-gray clouds.

[ 9 ] This is the aura of an undeveloped person. Next, we must consider the aura of a person at a higher level—that is, a person who has received a good education here in our region. In such a person, the causal body appears as a structure already endowed with more colors—a form permeated by beautiful colors. Specifically, these are shades of green, greenish-yellow, and yellow. These are the shades characteristic of Europeans. It is only because these colors extend somewhat further that the lower mental body becomes visible. And when we look at a person’s astral body, it generally appears somewhat similar in form to the astral body of an undeveloped person. The only difference is that the colors have different nuances. The undeveloped person has blackish colors; the more developed a person is, the brighter the colors become. They are illuminated from within; they attract the gaze and exert a pleasant effect on the beholder.

[ 10 ] And when we turn to the highly developed spiritual human being—one who has cultivated higher spiritual abilities within himself and who has already devoted himself to a spiritual life throughout many incarnations—then the astral body also appears in entirely different forms. It no longer appears interwoven with cloud-like formations, but rather radiates from within against a blue background. The background of the causal body has a more or less light or dark bluish hue, and the eternal human being shines into it. The purer and nobler he develops in the spiritual realm, the more he reveals the coloration of the spiritual. From within, we see a beautiful golden-yellow radiance that transitions into rosy-red rays, which in turn give way to beautiful bluish-violet rays. The causal body is permeated by rays, expanding more and more and assuming ever greater dimensions. The adept rests in the midst of this causal body, which fades from golden-yellow rays on the inside to violet rays on the outside, so that he is surrounded by this flood of light, enclosed by it, and can become so large that he often exceeds his human form by ten, twenty, or thirty times in length from top to bottom.

[ 11 ] These are the causal bodies of the great leaders and guides of humanity. And whoever then looks into the imaginative body of ordinary people will still find forms there, but will find that they have become luminous, sparkling, and radiant from within. We may well conclude that this stems from the fact that what such people will and feel is shaped by the spirit and spiritual faculties. These are the faculties that reveal themselves to the spiritual eye when it observes its surroundings. In it, one can see what is transitory and what is enduring.

[ 12 ] All the bodies I have mentioned—namely, the astral body, which appears to shimmer with reddish hues—are completely lost in Kamaloka and Devachan. In the lower regions of Devachan and the astral realm, the finer parts dissolve. The human being loses whatever lower, sensual qualities he possesses. The astral body can dissolve completely in Kamaloka and follows only the causal body, the spirit body, into Devachan.

[ 13 ] In the fourth region of Kamaloka, what we call human selfishness and human egotism is completely absorbed by matter. Whatever still binds one to the world is lost in the fourth region. The person senses the worthlessness of base self-interest and begins to realize that he must spread his wings, that he must come to understand what does not concern him. And when he then arrives in the realm of the spirit, his sensations, feelings, and ideas—which can be summed up by the word “self-interest”—have vanished. He has reached the stage where he can experience the “That is you!” and the “I am Brahman.” He can surrender the lower spiritual bodies to dissolution and carry his Self over into the higher realms of the spiritual realm, where it can unfold completely. Here, everything appears to the individual in its true form. Here, he himself appears as what he is, as that which is embodied.

[ 14 ] There, this bluish oval appears as the actual body of the human being, and within the bluish oval shines that which we must call the actual essence of the human being. A human being cannot yet possess this body. It is woven from the three finest substances of the spiritual realm, and these manifest themselves in their pure bluish hue. I expressly emphasize that this purely bluish hue can only be observed if one completely disregards everything else a human being possesses and considers only the spiritual aspect. Thus, the human being appears only in this bluish oval, permeated by his or her essence.

[ 15 ] This is what Platonic philosophy has called the so-called “being of light,” the sparkling, the radiant one. This is the same thing that the initiate Paul called the so-called “spiritual body.” This means nothing other than what we find here in the highest regions of Devachan. This ethereal blue body is woven from the finest substances of the spiritual realm, Devachan. That which radiates and sparkles within it does not originate from any of the worlds we have mentioned so far. What sparkles within this body comes from even higher worlds.

[ 16 ] Consider the earthly world, the astral world, and the spiritual world—the Devachan—and you have the three worlds within which human beings undergo their incarnations. They return again and again to develop new abilities there, which they then apply in the earthly world. These are the three worlds of which Paul speaks: the spiritual world, the world of the soul, and the world of the body. Everything in the physical body is woven from these three. When we enter the physical world, we wrap the physical shell around ourselves. We take substances from physical matter, from the physical world. We live in a particular world with the substances drawn from that world, so that when we descend from the spiritual realm, we first surround our true self with the body woven from the lower regions of the spiritual realm; this body then descends into the astral world and forms the astral body there. This astral body finally attracts physical matter, and then the human being becomes incarnated once again.

[ 17 ] But what expands within the truly blue spiritual body—within this sparkling form—does not originate from these three worlds. The true Self does not originate from these three worlds. That which is arranged in a blue oval is the highest, the finest, taken solely from the realm of the spirit. But that which incarnates—the Self—originates from even higher realms. It originates from humanity’s true divine homeland, from the regions that theosophists call the Budhi region and the Nirvana region. Humanity originates from these two regions.

[ 18 ] Within this spiritual body rests the essence of the human being—which existed before the human being began to incarnate, and which will exist again in other worlds when the human being ceases to incarnate. This is the true, eternal, heavenly, divine essence of the human being. It is what Giordano Bruno called the eternal monad, which passes eternally through all incarnations—the human being’s celestial self. This self now participates, in the manner described, in what is gradually taking shape. At first it radiates in a beautiful golden-yellow color; then it expands more and more, and in its outermost regions it takes on a violet-reddish color, depending on the various character traits that the human being has acquired, for all of this exerts its effects on the Self. In a person who has developed the qualities of pride or ambition in previous incarnations, we see how this golden, radiant part of the human being takes on an orange-reddish hue. This shows the effect that pride has had on the Self. And in other ways, other qualities reveal the influences that must be balanced. This is what has descended from even higher worlds to incarnate in our earthly world. This is what originates from Budhi and Nirvana; this is what we refer to as Atma-Budhi, that which is composed of the highest essence emanating from the divine Being itself.

[ 19 ] Last time I spoke about how, as a person passes through many incarnations, he gradually ascends into the three higher regions of the spiritual realm; that is to say, every person will have to spend a period of time—longer or shorter—in the first higher region between two incarnations. Even the undeveloped savage experiences a flash of his true self in the spiritual realm, and his stay in this realm grows longer and longer. And when the qualities of compassion—the higher spiritual qualities—are developed, he ascends to the second region between two incarnations. And when he then returns to our Earth, he has become what we call a messenger. Then he has become one who can speak of the world’s purposes; then he is one who, between two incarnations, has participated in the unveiling of the life impulses; then he knows why the animal, the plant, and the human being evolve. Then he knows how to speak about the Earth—where it came from and what will happen to it in the future—and he knows from experience how to speak about what theosophical wisdom reveals to us. When he has then come to become a so-called initiate—that is, during his incarnation—he knows from his own experience the nature of higher life and is able to recognize the good. Then, in his next incarnation, he ascends to the highest region of the spiritual realm, where those dwell for whom the causes of world events lie clearly before their eyes—even while they are incarnated in the earthly world.

[ 20 ] And then one reaches the region into which shines the structure of the higher worlds, the world of Budhi and the world of Nirvana. Just as Budhi shines into our spiritual world, so too does the highest of all things shine into it—the seeds of human Selves shine into it. These seeds are there and enter the third world to envelop themselves in the substance of the third region. You may ask: when a seer now enters the third region of the spiritual realm, can he still see human beings in their embryonic state? Yes, he can, for in this region what belongs to primeval times has long since ceased. There, the state lies open, as if it were happening now—the state in which human souls have currently begun to accomplish their development.

[ 21 ] What Jakob Böhme described has come to pass with humankind, when he said: If someone were to say to me: ‘Were you there when what you have told us about the beginning of earthly existence came to be?’ then I could say: ‘Yes, I was there.’ For his mind had long since been opened to the point where he could say that he had been there in the beginning, that he had truly participated in the creation of the world.

[ 22 ] What I have just described shows you that we are dealing with three worlds: the spiritual world, the astral world, and the earthly or physical world. But it also shows that there are even higher worlds, which are the true home of the human self. These three worlds, in turn, have themselves been created and formed; they, too, have emerged from a spiritual being. The sensory world has a different origin in the Spirit, and the astral world around us has its origin in the Spirit. But as we develop more and more toward the spiritual, we can explore the causes of things. We can investigate what, as spirit, underlies the astral world, and we can observe the highest region of Devachan. But as long as what shines in the buddhi does not shine upon us, we cannot speak of that which belongs to what we call the deepest truths of world existence. We cannot speak—and we have no power to do so—as long as we dwell in these three worlds, to speak of the cause of evil or the cause of imperfection. Within this world, we have evil alongside the good, and imperfection alongside the perfect. It belongs to this world. It is rooted in this world that evil is joined to the good and imperfection to the perfect. Answering this question requires recognizing the meaning of existence. There is a meaning to existence, to life, and to the entire process of becoming. One cannot recognize this if one remains merely within the three worlds. And the question is: Why, within the three worlds, is the good mixed with the evil, and the perfect with the imperfect?

[ 23 ] These three worlds were created from Nirvana and Budhi, and if we can look out into Nirvana and Budhi, we see how evil, as it were, lies within the design of the divine world order and springs forth from the good. Ultimately, all evil dissolves into the good. According to the teachings of all the great sages, the good is the true origin of the world. The world has its origin in the good. But how it does so, we cannot perceive within the three worlds. When we look beyond our circle of the three worlds—as I explained in the first few sessions—a mysterious script becomes perceptible to us at the boundary of these three worlds, as it were, emanating from Budhi. The Akashic Records appear. It is these that are also communicated to us from the outer world, which does not belong to our three worlds. They contain the destiny of every single human being and of all humanity. In these records are inscribed the deeds of human beings, and inscribed are the things that human beings themselves have entered into the book of guilt through their own lives. Why a person can become guilty in the succession of incarnations becomes clear only when one beholds what shines in from the other spheres, when one can read what is recorded in the Akashic substance. In it is written the law of karma.

[ 24 ] This law can be fully understood only when one knows how all that is evil and imperfect dissolves into the good, how even evil itself contributes only to the exaltation of the good. When the highest Self shines forth within a person, then the great law of cosmic justice is revealed, and the meaning of existence—the meaning of the world—is revealed to him. The world derives its meaning from beyond the three worlds, and a person fathoms this meaning of the world when he transcends the three worlds of Devachan. This requires humility. When a person has found his innermost nature, when he has found within himself the living spirit that originates from the other worlds, when the radiant spark has shone forth within him, then the origin of that radiant spark—and with it the reason for his existence—is also revealed to him. Then Budhi merges with that which lies above it, with that which is the meaning of the physical world. Then a person begins to know what belongs to the highest mysteries of existence—why a person is incarnated in this or that body.

[ 25 ] Through higher insight, we can easily understand why a human being forms a spirit body around himself, why he envelops himself in an astral body. But now begins the mystery of earthly incarnation: why a human being is born into this family, in this country, among this people—why he is born there. We are familiar with very specific human seeds. Here begins that which is guided by beings of the highest order—beings whose very essence rests entirely in Budhi and Nirvana, the beings we call the Lipikas, who govern the physical existence of the world and who determine the Self’s birth into this or that family. This is something connected to the deepest meaning of existence. Only when a person has elevated themselves to the point of fathoming this meaning do the veils that obscure the answer to the question disappear: “How is it that a person is born into this body and, through this or that body, bears this or that suffering, this or that imperfection?”

[ 26 ] Through his physical existence, man is endowed with a specific fate, a specific destiny. This is one of the great questions of existence, one that is connected to the very meaning of existence, which is revealed when one knows the decrees of the Lipika, the Lords of Destiny. Christian esotericism has expressed this in a very beautiful way. Incidentally, you can find this mystery in every religion; one simply has to know how to read between the lines. The Christian religion, too, has spoken of the veiled nature of this mystery. You are familiar with the beings who dwell in the spiritual realm: angels or messengers. They have their task within the Devachan, within their spiritual realm. Because they have their task here—not beyond Budhi or Nirvana—their perceptions are bound to what takes place within the spiritual realm itself. But within the spiritual realm, the mystery of why this Self dwells in this physical body and that Self in that physical body is not revealed. That is why the Christian religion expresses this with the words: The angels veil their faces before the mystery of the Incarnation and say only, “Holy, holy, holy.”

[ 27 ] This is just one example of how one can find many things in the esoteric teachings of the major religious traditions, if only one knows how to read them. Thus, we have traced humanity’s path through the three worlds and have reached that boundary where, as it were, the destiny of these three worlds is inscribed in monumental script: this is the Akashic Records. What shines from this Akashic Record, as it were, from outside into these three worlds—when we are within these three worlds—appears to us much as when we look out into the starry expanse and see, as it were, a celestial script in the constellations; so, too, the Akashic Record appears to us as the firmament of the three worlds. It is the deciphering of this script that a human being comes to achieve when he is able to work his way up to the highest regions of Devachan.

[ 28 ] The initiates are able to read these Akashic Records, and when a person is able to read them to a greater or lesser extent, he becomes a participant in the destiny of humanity, then he becomes one of humanity’s spiritual leaders, who for centuries to come directs the forces and sends the spiritual currents that do not originate from the three worlds, but are sent into these three worlds from even higher realms.

[ 29 ] What a person experiences in the third spiritual world—what is called the so-called “delights of Devachan”—that which lives within us and flashes up when we spend the interim period between two incarnations in Devachan—let the task of the next few hours be to describe this precisely. I would like to explain why Devachan is called the “land of bliss,” why it is referred to as the heavenly region. This will be the focus of our next discussion.

[ 30 ] I would like to add that from the borders of this highest realm of Devachan, exalted Masters from Budhi and Nirvana send forth the great impulses for humanity—impulses that have an impact spanning centuries and through which they are the greatest guides in human history. They provide the impulses; they create from the mysterious realm—or, according to Christian esotericism, from that which before which the angels veil their faces. They are the Messiahs, the greatest of humanity’s guides. They are named after this realm from which they originate—from Budhi, they are called Buddhas; those who can teach what flows in from Budhi are therefore called Christs. Buddha, Christ—they are the ones who send the truths from the higher regions into our three worlds. Such a one knows the world. He knows what lies beyond the three worlds. There lies what we call the mystery of evil. This reveals itself at the boundary of Devachan. There one comes to know the meaning of the world—what I have called the “Word.” This is that which resounds with the mystery. That is why Christ is called the incarnate Word. That is why it is said: “All things were made through the Word.” That is why it is written in the Gospel: “All things were made through the Word.”

[ 31 ] This is the sixth stage, where humanity’s intentions and tendencies are determined. Therefore, because the one who sends the great and lofty impulses from this realm into human history—because he knows and must know the mystery that lies beyond the mystery of good and evil—it can be said that he knows more than the angels. Christian esotericism also expresses this by saying: “Christ makes the angels his messengers.” Whoever understands the Christian religion in its depths becomes a theosophist, and whoever is a true theosophist will desire to contribute to nothing other than the deepening of the core of truth in the great religions of humanity.