The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Popular Occultism III

[ 1 ] Yesterday we spoke about the astral world. Today we will focus on human life after death in this astral world. We will describe the various states a person experiences after death. This will lay the foundation for understanding reincarnation and karma. We have seen that when a person dies, the following occurs: The physical body remains behind as a corpse. Whereas during sleep the etheric body remains connected to the physical body, at the moment of death the etheric body, the astral body, and the I depart. After death occurs, the entire earthly life unfolds before the soul of the departed in images, in all its details. This process lasts about three days until the next separation takes place, namely that of the etheric body from the astral body and the “I.” For this reason, occultists speak of two corpses. After some time, the etheric body remains behind as a second corpse.

[ 2 ] Once this second separation has taken place, the ability to remember ceases—though not forever—and a new state begins for the human being. What, then, is this state like? The human being now experiences himself in the world he enters every night during sleep. But this state after death differs greatly from the state of sleep. In theosophical books, it is sometimes described as if it, too, were a kind of sleep. But this is not the case. Rather, shortly after death, the human being has consciousness in the astral world. Nevertheless, the saying “Sleep is the brother of death” is entirely correct. This new state is called life in Kamaloka. As we have seen, during sleep the astral body works on the physical and etheric bodies to replenish their forces. This work suppresses a person’s consciousness during sleep and prevents them from perceiving the astral world. After death, the person is relieved of this work; they no longer need to eliminate fatigue, and therefore an awareness of the astral world dawns upon them. They had previously used this energy to rebuild the physical body. Now this energy is freed and exists as consciousness. The moment the astral body has nothing left to repair, it takes in the images of the astral world. This, too, shows why healthy sleep should be sought. Consider physical life here in this world: how everyone seeks to satisfy their senses. What a person enjoys is experienced in the soul, but the organ of enjoyment is physical. If a person takes pleasure in eating, it is the palate that the soul needs for enjoyment. After death, the longing for these pleasures lives on, but the organs of enjoyment are now missing. The soul thirsts for delicious food, but the organ for it is gone. The longing can no longer be satisfied. The soul is like a traveler who, consumed by burning thirst, searches in vain for water and finds no way to quench his thirst. This is not a permanent state; little by little, the longing fades. Various religions have described this state as a life in purgatory. And ancient painters have sometimes depicted it visually through blazing flames. Indeed: the soul suffers from a burning thirst. What follows is that the person experiences his final desires and relives his entire life in reverse, all the way back to his birth, when he had no desires yet. Afterward, the person enters Devachan. That passage in the Gospels points to this quite clearly: “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

[ 3 ] Step by step, a person must free themselves from everything that has bound them to the sensory world. Kamaloka is the state in which a person frees themselves from everything that chains them to the sensory world. It is entirely influenced by the sensory life one led in the physical world. If a person has been completely absorbed in the senses, their life in Kamaloka will be long and difficult. Usually, however, life in Kamaloka takes up one-third of the duration of one’s earthly life. In Kamaloka, one’s past life appears to the soul in the form of images—as beings that torment us. Here, everything is reversed: what was once a source of satisfaction now appears as deprivation. Intense sensuality gives rise to the sensation of hideous and chilling beings. Yet the burning thirst always remains. The more a person has detached themselves from physical life before death—that is, the easier their passing has been—the more easily they will wean themselves from the sensual world. This weaning will be most difficult for the suicide. For he is deluded: he does not consider that he forcibly brought about the separation from sensual life and that, therefore, an unspeakable craving for his physical body seizes him, holding him fast in the vicinity of the physical world. A similar experience, albeit in a milder form, befalls the one who has suddenly lost his life in an accident. Such a death, too, leaves behind a craving for the physical body, but later a balance is achieved in Devachan. When the soul has cast off its earthly desires, it enters the Devachan state.

[ 4 ] Spiritual science does not teach a turning away from life. The spiritual scientist may use the following analogy: The soul is like a bee that flies out into the fields to seek honey and bring it back. Here on Earth, the soul gathers the honey of life, which it brings to the altar of the Deity after death. Without life in the physical realm, the soul would never be capable of this. When a human being has incarnated and begins to see, he or she initially perceives things simply with the eyes. Gradually, spiritual enjoyment arises from this. Physical pleasure is transformed into spiritual enjoyment. The primitive being, who has undergone only a few incarnations, takes delight only in the variety of colors and the simplest sensory impressions. With each incarnation, the senses become more refined. If a person had never derived sensual pleasure from colors, they would never be able to rise to spiritual enjoyment. Therefore, sensual pleasure is a necessary detour. We should rejoice in the beauty of the sensory world. In a similar way, sensual love also gradually leads to the highest, purest, spiritual love. Every experience should be transformed by the soul and then carried up to the altar of spirituality. For nothing—absolutely nothing—is lost. Sensuality is the school without which humanity would never attain spirituality. The earth is not a vale of tears; it is a gathering place, and human beings are messengers sent forth—God’s angels, as the Bible says—to gather honey.

[ 5 ] Human beings are in a state of transformation. Think back to your childhood! How many ideas and concepts came your way, how much did you take in! And how your ideas and concepts changed between the ages of ten and twenty! The temperament undergoes a much more subtle transformation. A boisterous child will remain boisterous even in old age. Temperament is physically imprinted on a person. The choleric, the sanguine, the melancholic, and the phlegmatic each reveal themselves differently in facial expression, posture, and gait. However, the main point is not to acquire concepts; rather, a person must above all strive to be able to change something about their temperament. Such training was taught in the secret schools. The entire direction of one’s way of life was transformed in the secret schools. What mattered was a change of will.

[ 6 ] The spiritual relationships and bonds that a person forms here extend all the way to Devachan after death. Suppose two people form a close friendship; this friendship takes on an increasingly spiritual character. Yet physical life remains a certain obstacle. In Devachan, this friendship then finds its full and pure expression.

[ 7 ] Everything a person has drawn from earthly life is internalized, imbued with soul, and spiritualized. In this way, a person creates—right down into the body—an expression of what they have worked toward for their next incarnation. In the East, there is a saying: What you think today is what you will be tomorrow. — In this way, we work in each incarnation toward the next. Next time, I will describe what a person experiences in Devachan. This life in Devachan is not a dream state; the person does not sleep through the spiritual world. Their consciousness is far higher and more vivid than it is here. Everything appears in a brighter radiance. Their friends have not vanished there; it is simply a different kind of spiritual oneness—one that is much more intimate. Devachan is a far more real state than that of earthly life.