The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Symbol of the Bee, Evolution on Earth, Kamaloka — Devachan, Immortality

[ 1 ] Last time, I spoke about the moment when the human being’s supernatural essence unites with what we call the “earthly body.” This union was made possible by the convergence of two essences—an astral essence and a physical one. Together, they are then subject to the laws of physics. Let’s take the example of a house. The condition of the house does not depend on its inhabitants. The condition of the house may depend on the temperature, the weather, and so on.

[ 2 ] I would have to tell you about [seven] mysteries of the world. Especially one that concerns birth and death. It is a sin to put these mysteries into words. Therefore, I can only speak of them to a certain extent.

[ 3 ] You will hear more about this in the fall. By then, a number of other things will have come to light, which I would like to put this way: Whether, after death, many a secret will be revealed to me; whether, once our physical shell has fallen away, I will be granted a wealth of insights that now remain hidden from us while we are still in our physical shells. The Theosophists have drawn the criticism that they treat these matters as if they were trying to divert attention away from the sensory realm toward the supersensory, as if they were attempting to distract people from immediate, active engagement, as if they wanted to divert people’s attention from the physical human beings among whom they live. But this is not correct. For only by taking things too simplistically can one arrive at this conclusion. We must not believe that, in the intermediate state, a human being possesses a wealth of knowledge that he or she did not possess before. From incarnation to incarnation, the being progresses in its development. Such progressive development of the human being existed in primeval times and will also exist in primeval times. However, it was something different in primeval times and will again be something different in future times. In the past, it was something that required passage through work in the cosmic worlds.

[ 4 ] We know that the people who live here now have lived on this or another planet in past lives. Throughout all these lifetimes, a person’s inner core absorbs something. Later, after going through this process, they have more than they did before.

[ 5 ] To illustrate this, here is the example of learning to write. We have now forgotten the difficulties of learning. But the ability to write has remained with us. We would not have this ability if we had not made the effort to learn. This is how it is in the human world, and this is also how it is in the cosmic world. The same is true during each individual incarnation. Human beings are in a constant process of learning. There are countless tasks to perform and countless experiences to be had. What remains from the efforts of learning is the result—a fundamental force.

[ 6 ] That is why there has always been—and still is—a symbol in all mysteries. This symbol was revealed to the initiates in its full meaning, particularly when the initiate had reached a certain level of advancement. He was then compared to the bees. The bee is the symbol of humanity itself. One need only understand this correctly, and then one will also understand immortality. The bee flies from flower to flower and carries back to the hive whatever it can use. But honey is what gives the beehive its meaning. Humanity, too, is like a bee that descends from the spiritual world—the beehive—into the various other worlds, gathering honey from them to then bring it back to the realm of the spirit, which is the soul’s home. Without what the soul has gathered from the outside world, the result of that gathering would never exist in the realm of the spirit. In the same way, human beings are compelled to bring back the honey they have gathered. If they did not gather experiences, they would be like a bee that merely lands on flowers without sucking their honey.

[ 7 ] Thus, Theosophy does not require people to remain ignorant of the world or even to turn away from it, but rather to grow together with and work in harmony with the physical world. A mature individual from this sensory world would not forget the temporal in the eternal, nor the eternal in the temporal. Everything in its proper place.

[ 8 ] We incarnate; we then live within these incarnations. But we want to remain the beings that we are. That is why we must raise the results up into the world of the spirit! The theosophical concept of immortality is one that calls upon us to absorb as much as possible into ourselves. If our being did not dwell in a body in which it can hear, see, and feel, it could never perform the works that must be done in the outer sensory world. In order to connect the things of our earth with us in this way, we need the senses. The experiences we require can only be drawn from physical existence through our senses. I have already mentioned the relevant Greek terms: nous aisthetikon, the lower mental faculty, and nous poetikos, the higher mental faculty.

[ 9 ] Today we are incarnated. We should do as much as we possibly can, according to our abilities, so that when we are incarnated again, we can do more and more for this Earth. Everything that occurs between two incarnations contributes just as much to one’s earthly development as what one does in this incarnation itself. In the intermediate states between two incarnations, we are placed in a heavenly existence so that we may learn to fulfill our earthly existence ever more fully. This is the basis for what you often find in theosophical books. It is often said there that nothing new occurs between two incarnations, but rather that only a process of assimilation takes place. We are created solely for our earthly existence.

[ 10 ] Our ancestors, however, had forms quite different from our own, and our descendants will again have forms quite different from those we have now. What we today call the physical body did not even exist during the Lunar Epoch. Nor will it exist in the epoch that will follow ours. What we call the mineral kingdom did not exist before the Earth and will not exist after the Earth. We must therefore be clear that what we call “intellect” is significant only within the context of our earthly evolution. Our human, personal intellect is something bound to this Earth of ours, just as our physical body is bound to the Earth. Only within a physical body such as that of the Earth does such an intellect have any significance. Our intellect corresponds to sensory things. It is the proper instrument for these sensory things.

[ 11 ] The entire form as you now perceive it will no longer exist once your physical senses cease to function and you shed your physical body. Many say that everything surrounding them is nothing more than an illusion. We construct what we perceive here through our senses based on our own ideas. It may also be said that everything that is not sensory reality is not reality at all—that it is an illusion—and that even the higher forms of reality, such as “Kamaloka” and “Devachan,” are also illusions.

[ 12 ] By teaching this higher reality, Theosophy not only helps people to comprehend a reality beyond death. We live with the physical things on our Earth. Our existence is linked to these things—first through feeling, then through knowledge, and through thought. We also experience pleasure and pain. Our soul engages with these things, forming ideas and concepts about the world. And it is within these ideas and concepts that human beings live. If you were merely passively influenced by things, had no memory, and forgot every time you saw a dog, then every other dog would be a new object to you. Without memory, you would be unable to build a bridge between individual experiences. Thus, we stand in the world as feeling and thinking human beings.

[ 13 ] We associate whatever evokes satisfying feelings within us with a single entity—the good—and whatever evokes unsatisfying feelings within us with the evil. Even when we no longer perceive the world through sensory impressions, our sympathies and antipathies remain. You cannot learn anything about the earthly world unless you are in your physical body with your sensory organs.

[ 14 ] But what develops from these sensory perceptions—the feelings and thoughts—are what remain. It is up to the individual to extract these from the physical realm. Master K[oot] H[oomi] told us that a person can become immortal if only they wish to. He did not say that a person is immortal under all circumstances, but rather that they attain immortality. A person does this by extracting the honey from the world and taking it with them into the spiritual realms.

[ 15 ] However, we cannot fully develop what we have experienced in a single incarnation. We are constantly prevented from fully developing this free power of our soul. In fact, the feeling associated with any object in the sensory world is something much greater, much more powerful than can actually be perceived in the sensory world. The astral body is the vessel that contains these feelings. However, they do not emerge in their full power. To the clairvoyant, every thought is a star that radiates its rays in all directions. Within this physical world, however, this star comes into being in a stunted form. The feelings should also develop in all directions, but they are held together by the physical shell like a plant in a crevice in the rock.

[ 16 ] After shedding the physical body, the human being then lives in the astral world, in Kamaloka. There, a balance must be established between good feelings and bad ones. That is the task of evolution. Only good emotions can move the world forward and guide it. The bad ones must be balanced out in Kamaloka. Nothing new occurs there. Higher emotions are those that Plato calls “enthusiasm.” They pass over into the higher world. The lower emotions remain in Kamaloka.

[ 17 ] Before we are initiated into the mysteries, we cannot form any concept of the world of feelings. What we have sown here takes root in the astral world. We reap the fruit of this in the astral world. All desires that have been developed, everything of this nature that exists, becomes visible to us on the astral plane.

[ 18 ] The myth of Tantalus, who suffers eternal hunger and thirst even though food is right before him, can teach us a lesson here. The water and food vanish just as he reaches for them. This is the intensification and correction that takes place on the astral plane. You can find this description of the astral world throughout the myths of various peoples. In Devachan, the harvest of what a person has sown on Earth takes place. In Devachan, a person becomes a regular star. We then return to a new life with corresponding moral principles.

[ 19 ] Now a few words about the relationship between Devachan and our present sensory world; in other words, let us ask: Can we look down from Devachan upon the souls who are incarnated here? The souls appear somewhat different. Only that which has already penetrated into Devachanic existence even within this physical life can be perceived by us in Devachan. Take, for example, a mother with two children. The mother dies. The Devachanic world is active in all three, but it is not a real experience for all of them. There is more Devachanic substance in the one who is more highly developed. Communication between a living person and one who is in Devachan is possible. However, it depends on us how much of Devachan we can perceive. Instruction regarding the higher worlds is given only in Devachan. A person can elevate themselves to the status of a master. However, nothing new can be learned during the interval between two incarnations.