The Rudolf Steiner Archive

48. The Incarnation

1. Do you know how the soul came into the world?
2. Do you know how the soul leaves the world?
3. Do you know the difference between the Path of the Fathers and the Path of the Gods?
4. Do you know why that world is not full?
5. Do you know why, during the fifth offering, the waters begin to speak with a human voice?

[ 1 ] The three lower principles of the human being are held together and enclosed by the etheric body just as the three upper principles are by the auric body. It is the etheric body that prevents the physical cells from falling apart.

[ 2 ] Prana is only a part of Shiva, enclosed and thereby separated, existing on its own. Kama and Kama-Manas lie within the template of the etheric body, which is formed by the soul on its return journey to an incarnation by selecting from the general Rupa-Manas and Kama substance precisely those components that had constituted its Kama and Rupa bodies prior to its Arupa sojourn. Every soul has an Arupa sojourn, for it is only through this that it is a soul—that is, a causal body—namely, that the foundation for a selfless life of thought has been laid. Even the savage possesses the seed of this, and however small this seed may be, it grants him passage through the Arupa sphere, through Devachan. Our thoughts, building themselves up in mental substance, usually still have undefined, imprecise forms, because they have so many veils to break through and come into contact with them.

[ 3 ] Into the Arupa sphere, we take only their essence, their seed; there they sprout and begin to live their own lives. Before every new incarnation, a person must pass through the seed state—that is, through the Arupa sphere of Devachan. On the return journey, this seed must, through the magnetic force of its own former formations—that is, actions, feelings, and thoughts—clothe itself once more in the substance of which they were composed. The thought-image, now refined, finds in the astral sphere the forms and templates assigned to it by Lipika, the Lord of Karma, in accordance with eternal laws, and created by Lipika himself; through the Maharajas, the etheric substance is, as it were, supplied to these templates; they carry it here from all four winds. Thus is the lower personal sheath, the etheric double, fashioned, which now sinks into the physical body.

[ 4 ] By “Path of the Fathers” we must understand that world of our desires which still binds us through enjoyment itself; only when we have grown accustomed to viewing the three lower realms merely as a hall of learning and no longer demand anything from them are we ready for the Path of the Gods, which opens up life in the Spirit to us.

[ 5 ] Devajani, Pitrijani. As long as we still strive for selfish happiness, Devajani, that world cannot be fulfilled. Only when we renounce the fruits of our actions are we not bound to the world of the forefathers, the world of Kama. The action alone does not bind us.

[ 6 ] The first sacrifice: the division of the Unity into the Trinity. The second and third: the outpourings of the third Logos; the fourth: the infusion of life by the second Logos; the fifth: the material world is spiritually fertilized by the first Logos, humanity comes into being, the Word becomes flesh.