The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture XIII

[ 1 ] This lecture is intended to be a supplementary one, inserted among the others, that can shed light on certain aspects of the other lectures. Today we will discuss the workings and nature of the Devas.

[ 2 ] It is very difficult in the present day to speak of gods or devas, for the reason that even those people who still hold a positive religious viewpoint and still have faith in the gods no longer have a living relationship with divine-spiritual beings. This living connection to the gods—that is, to beings who stand far above humankind—has simply vanished in the course of the age of materialism. In particular, during the course of materialistic development, which took place from the turn of the 15th to the 16th century right up to our own time, this living connection with the gods has faded away. It makes little difference whether a person holds a Darwinian-materialist viewpoint or whether they still speak of the gods in a more or less religious manner. What matters far more is to awaken within oneself the awareness that one has risen from lower stages of existence and will continue to ascend to higher stages. One must feel that one has a kinship with everything—with what is below us and with what is above us.

[ 3 ] The doctrine of the gods was first systematized by Dionysius the Areopagite, a disciple of the Apostle Paul. However, it was not written down until the 6th century. Scholars therefore deny the existence of Dionysius the Areopagite and refer to the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, as if ancient traditions had only been compiled in the 6th century. The true facts can only be ascertained by reading the Akashic Records. The Akashic Records, however, teach that Dionysius truly lived in Athens, that he was initiated by Paul, and that he received a commission from him to establish the doctrine of the higher spiritual beings and to impart it to specially initiated individuals. Certain high teachings were never written down at that time but were passed down solely through oral tradition. The teaching about the gods was also imparted in this way by Dionysius to his disciples and passed on by them in turn. The direct disciple was then intentionally named Dionysius again, so that the last person to write down the teaching about the gods was one in this line, all of whom were named Dionysius.

[ 4 ] This doctrine of the gods, as presented by Dionysius, comprises three sets of three divine entities. The three highest are:

[ 5 ] Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones.

[ 6 ] The next stage includes the following:

[ 7 ] Lords, Powers, Authorities. The third level includes the following:

[ 8 ] Primordial Forces or Beginnings, Archangels, and Angels.

[ 9 ] Whenever the Bible says “in the beginning,” it refers to the primordial forces or beginnings. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”—that is to say: The God of the beginning, who stands at this level, created the heavens and the earth. — It was one of the primordial forces of the third division of the hierarchies.

[ 10 ] Above the Seraphim are divine beings of such sublimity that the human mind is insufficient to comprehend them. The third level is followed by the fourth hierarchy:

[ 11 ] Humans, as the tenth in the entire series.

[ 12 ] The names of the hierarchies are not proper names, but rather names for certain levels of consciousness in the Grand Universe, and beings progress from one level to the next. Eliphas Levi clearly recognized this and emphasized that these names refer to ranks, to hierarchies.

[ 13 ] The principle of church organization also traces back to the same Dionysius who compiled the doctrine of the gods. The ecclesiastical hierarchy was meant to be merely an outward reflection of the inner hierarchy of the world. This magnificent idea could only have been realized if the time had been ripe to understand all of this in its proper form. Dionysius had bequeathed to his students such a teaching about the Church that, had it been published, it would have represented a powerful, magnificent organization. At that time, efforts were made to pass on the teachings in such a way that the thread was never broken from one teacher to the next, who would then also carry on the name. That is why it is not at all surprising that as late as the 6th century, a Dionysius wrote down the teachings. However, these teachings could not gain widespread acceptance because humanity was not yet ready for them. Thus, they stand as a kind of testament.

[ 14 ] The further back we go in history, the more vivid people's conceptions of beings superior to humans have been.

[ 15 ] Now let us develop an understanding of how human beings—ordinary people in today’s average culture—encounter the gods. After death, a person first passes through the Kamaloka, the state in which they gradually detach themselves from the habits of earthly life and become free from desires. The stay in Kamaloka is essentially only at times terrible and gruesome in the early stages. Afterward, a person goes through that phase of Kamaloka in which they must purify themselves of the finer connections to the earthly world. This sojourn in the Kamaloka is not only important for the individual; as we shall see, the individual’s activities in the higher states of the Kamaloka can also be of use to the rest of the world. After the Kamaloka, the individual passes into the Devachan state, where they acquire everything necessary to build a new etheric body using the abilities they have developed. On the Arupa plane of Devachan, the soul must lay down everything it has acquired on the physical plane. That is why, in esotericism, the Greek priests called the soul a bee, the Arupa plane a beehive, and the physical plane a flower field.

[ 16 ] However, the human being need not remain idle in the higher realms. As he passes through the Kamaloka and the lower Devachan plane, it might seem that he has nothing else to do there but allow what he began earlier to come to fruition. But humans are not idle there either; thus, it is of significance for the entire world that they pass through these states.

[ 17 ] A person’s new incarnation has a purpose only if, in that new incarnation, the person encounters conditions that are substantially different from the previous ones. Normally, a person returns when the circumstances are so different that they find them completely new, so that they can build something entirely new. This occurs during the period of world history after the Sun has moved from one constellation to the next. For example, around 800 B.C., the Sun first stood in the constellation of Aries at the beginning of spring until about 1800 A.D. Now, at the beginning of spring, it stands in the constellation of Pisces. Two thousand six hundred years pass before it moves from one constellation to the next. During this time, conditions change quite thoroughly. Reincarnation is connected to these cycles. Over time, a human being is usually incarnated once as a male and once as a female individual. In a single incarnation, one is actually only half a human being. A male and a female incarnation belong together. Due to the vastly different physical conditions on Earth, a new incarnation is not without purpose. If, for example, a person’s incarnation took place during Homer’s time (the constellation of Aries or the Lamb, Jason, the Golden Fleece), then he experienced something entirely different back then than he would experience now.

[ 18 ] These incarnations would, in and of themselves, appear to be an entirely mechanical process. However, there is nothing external that is not brought about internally. One must get into the habit of speaking of the concrete spirit in all things, seeking it out, and seeing what is truly happening.

[ 19 ] When one looks at the flora and fauna of Europe, one can distinguish three belts in our world period: a western, a central, and an eastern belt. The eastern zone corresponds to the Slavic peoples, the central zone to the Germanic peoples, and the western zone to the Romance peoples. Materialists believe that people have adapted to their circumstances, but this is not the case. The peoples have created these physical conditions themselves. The national spirit first works in harmony with the soil, the plants, and the animals, into which it immerses itself. The soil of Western Europe has been prepared by the Romance peoples, that of Central Europe by the Germanic peoples, and that of Eastern Europe by the Slavic peoples. In this way, people first build the house into which they later settle. Now let us ask: When does humanity work on the outer configuration of the Earth? — Just as everything else on Earth is a destiny prepared by humanity itself, this is also partly the case here.

[ 20 ] In the Kamaloka, human beings are in fact engaged in influencing the animal kingdom. There, they work on what is called the transformation of species. Naturalists refer to the force that brings this about as the capacity for adaptation. Yet in all that which is called adaptation, the activity of human beings on the other side of existence is hidden. Everything that appears as transformation in the animal kingdom—everything that influences and alters animal instincts so that the animals may transform themselves—is brought about by human beings in the Kamaloka who are preparing for their next incarnation. There, human beings work on their own home for the coming incarnation. In the Kamaloka, human beings work on the fauna, and in Devachan on the flora. The transformation of the plant world is the effect of Devachanic forces. And the physical world, which also changes—the external conditions of nature—is influenced by the Arupa Plane [Upper Devachan]. There, human beings are collaborators in the realm of rocks, in the mineral kingdom of the Earth. One must possess some occult powers to be able to make such observations in the appropriate setting. It is no coincidence that miners, in particular, make such observations underground. The fact that Novalis was so well-versed in the occult is connected to the fact that he was a mining engineer.

[ 21 ] When one considers that human beings develop powers in the supersensory realms but do not yet possess full consciousness there, one understands that these powers are guided by higher beings—the Devas. A distinction is made between various levels of Devas: astral, rupamental, and arupamental. Astral Devas have the astral body as their lowest member, just as we have the physical body. The astral Deva, like human beings, consists of seven members. Thus, as its seventh member, it possesses a member that is higher than the Atma. The Devas are all structured according to the same principles as human beings. As a being evolves upward to the higher planes, it also gains conscious power over the corresponding lower planes. On the physical plane today, human beings control only the mineral kingdom. There, they can create something themselves. But they cannot yet create a plant or an animal. In the mineral kingdom, the composition is clearly laid out before them. At the next stage, he consciously brings forth the plant (fifth round), then the animals (sixth round), and finally, he consciously brings forth himself (seventh round).

[ 22 ] The beings we call Devas are capable of much more than the humans of the seventh round. They can make use of the realms that lie beneath their own world. For a specific purpose, they can briefly form the body they need. Thus, an astral deva can, if he wishes, incarnate physically for a specific period of time.

[ 23 ] We can only form certain ideas about the workings of the devas by drawing on the workings of human beings. To a certain extent, human beings are free and act at will. However, human beings do not act in harmony with one another; therefore, the various forces emanating from them must be harmoniously organized. A collective effect must result from what human beings do. This collective effect must be used for the benefit of the world. The beings who bring about this overall effect are the Devas. They also regulate collective karma. The moment people unite for any common purpose, they have a shared karma that binds them together and brings them together, creating a shared thread of karma.

[ 24 ] In Russia, for example, there was the sect of the Duchobors (Spirit Fighters), who possessed a deep religiosity. They held theosophical teachings in a naive but very beautiful form. These people were driven out and now have no visible influence on the outside world. The materialists will say: What purpose did this serve? The Doukhobors have, after all, disappeared! — But all those who were united in the Doukhobor sect will be held together by a common bond in their next incarnations, so that they may later pour out what they have learned upon humanity. This is how groups that come together influence humanity in subsequent incarnations. The idea they lived by then flows back out into the world. The same idea can then be found again in such a group in a deeper form. For example, the Manichaean sect existed in the Middle Ages. The secret of the Manichaeans lay in their realization that in the future there would be two groups of people: the evil and the good. In the fifth cycle, there will no longer be a mineral kingdom, but instead a kingdom of the wicked. The Manichaeans knew this. They therefore made it their mission to educate people even now so that they could later become educators of the wicked. Within the Manichaean sect, periods of great spiritual deepening occurred time and again.

[ 25 ] We must distinguish between the individual wills of individual human beings and the forces behind them that unite these individual wills into a collective will. This is what constitutes collective karma.

[ 26 ] The Rosicrucians spoke of beings that belong to groups of people. The physical body belongs solely to each individual; the astral body, however, already belongs to a group. In one part of the astral body, one is connected to a group soul. What human beings are not yet capable of, the deva does today. The Devas are also still working on the human being’s astral body. The Devas cooperate even more closely with the work the human being performs today in the etheric body. We have seen that the human being’s forces are utilized in a part of the Kamaloka for the animal kingdom. But they are guided by the Devas. Then the human being is increasingly on the path to attaining Devachan.

[ 27 ] A special kind of deva is the planetary spirit, the Dhyan-Chohan beings, who have already attained the level that humans will not reach until much later. They are at the level that humans will reach in the sixth and seventh rounds. A planetary spirit plays an active role in the creation of the individual aspects of planetary evolution.

[ 28 ] Human beings are now active on the physical, astral, and Devachan planes. Everything is activity. What, then, is the significance of the planetary spirits for human beings in a particular state? The planetary spirits carried out the activities that human beings now perform on previous stages, on previous planets. What they absorbed back then, they now possess within themselves as wisdom. This enables them to become the teachers of the next planetary stage. Those devas who were active in the formation of the Earth were not yet able to recognize the laws; only the higher stage of wisdom could do so. Above the stage of wisdom lies the stage of will—the act of willing, the exertion of influence. The Spirits of Wisdom (Kyriotetes) and the Spirits of Will (Thrones) are the true guides of planetary evolution.

[ 29 ] In the time when human beings were still astral beings, before the Lemurian era, the Devas worked within them and already formed within them what would later manifest in them. Before the Lemurian era, an image of the human environment arose within the human being. Feelings of sympathy and antipathy, too, arose within him as images. This was something the Devas caused to arise within him. At that time, he was governed by the entire rule of the Devas. Then, to a certain extent, he assumed that rule himself. At that time, he was a serving member within the Devas’ dominion. Now, however, he is, to a certain extent, forsaken by God. Only in the part where he is not forsaken by God do the Devas still work within him. The chela consciously allows the world to come alive within him once more—the world that humanity came to know through images in the pre-Lemurian era. At that time, desires and passions appeared to human beings as auric formations; within them lived the thoughts of the Devas—but all within a deeply twilight state of consciousness. Now, after having lost all of this, human beings had to struggle to attain conscious perception of the external world. The further development of the chela consists in consciously reclaiming all of this. In doing so, the chela retains full consciousness. Mediumship, on the other hand, is a regression to earlier times.

[ 30 ] What a human being experiences on the physical plane is the framework of his or her creation, the foundation for the subsequent periods of development. Through contact with the outside world, the abilities develop within him or her that will later shape planetary activity, once the human being has become a planetary spirit.

[ 31 ] Through our words, we lay the foundation for the future planet. What we speak today will truly be there as a foundation, just as rocks and stones form the foundation of the Earth. Experiences are absorbed in one area so that they can be transformed in another. An individual is divine to the extent that it can exhale what it has absorbed. The devas become devas the moment they can give back what they have previously absorbed.

[ 32 ] Ancient wisdom is that which was absorbed in the past and is now being passed on. Therefore, it is theosophy, insofar as the gods themselves were once the teachers of humankind.

[ 33 ] Karma is the law. The Deva is the one who brings the law into effect. The angels of the cycle bring into effect the law under which groups of people live. The individual within a group acts instinctively. The Deva guides the collective soul; he is, in fact, the collective soul. The collective soul is not an abstraction, but a living spirit.