The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Popular Occultism IV

[ 1 ] Today we will describe the Devachan—specifically, the sum of the experiences a person has there between death and a new birth. One must not think that this world is located somewhere else in space. It is always around us. It is just that the ordinary person lacks the faculties to perceive the realities within it. One must also bear in mind that our language and our expressions are coined solely for the physical world. Therefore, the higher worlds can only be described through comparisons. Where there is an object in the physical world, one finds in Devachan the corresponding space as a void; and where there is nothing in the physical world, there is in Devachan something luminous, radiant, resonant, and so on. One could compare this to a photographic negative. The physical object would fit exactly into that hollow space. It is curious that this is true only for natural objects, whereas objects artificially formed by humans exist in Devachan as positives. Everything composed of solid mineral substances—including the mineral components of plants, animals, and human beings—exists in the first region of Devachan as a negative, as a hollow space. This is, as it were, the solid foundation of Devachan: the continent of Devachan. The counter-images of the physical-mineral realm thus form the continental region of Devachan.

[ 2 ] Everything here that is life—everything that makes plants and animals beings capable of growth—can be compared in Devachan to the ocean. This is the second region of Devachan. There one finds surging, flowing life. And there is great regularity in this flowing life, in these oceans of Devachan. One could compare it to the circulation of blood in the human body.

[ 3 ] The third region is the air, the atmosphere of Devachan. It contains everything that is called sensation and feeling here. Just as the wind blows here, so too can one perceive streams of pain there. Every calamity that takes place here in the physical world becomes audible. A battle, for example, appears to the clairvoyant perceiving in Devachan as a terrible thunderstorm that erupts in lightning, thunder, and gales.

[ 4 ] In the fourth region, one finds all the fruitful and valuable ideas that have ever been conceived by human beings. Just as the starry sky surrounds us here, so there one finds a marvelous stellar script. It can be read as what is known as the Akashic Records. All concepts linked to human actions are inscribed there for eternity and can be read. However, even greater inscriptions are found in Devachan. Every animal, every plant, and every crystal is based on a thought. All of this is engraved in Devachan.

[ 5 ] In the fifth region of Devachan, the human being discovers his true nature. “Tat tvam asi—that is you,” the great central tenet of Vedanta philosophy, resounds there.

[ 6 ] In the continental region of Devachan, the human being gradually overcomes the tendency to regard his own body as important. He learns to compare his own physical existence selflessly with all other physical existence. With each incarnation, the human being becomes a little more selfless. The first region of Devachan is the high school of this perfection. In the second region—the oceanic region of Devachan—the human being experiences the unity of all life each time they pass through it. Only gradually, with the emergence of the theosophical mindset, can the insight into the unity inherent in all things take hold. Even after a new incarnation, a faint sense of this flowing universal life remains with us. In the third region, in the atmosphere of Devachan, the initiate—and the human being between death and rebirth—perceives all suffering and all joy in the form of wondrous atmospheric phenomena, and in the sounds of lightning and storm. Because the human being is then outside these stirrings of the soul, he views them objectively and can recognize their full significance. Enriched by this insight, by this Devachanic experience, he then returns to a new earthly life. When a person has reached a certain point in his inner development, he regains the memory of his past earthly lives. This is merely a matter of development. Everyone will eventually reach this stage. Through the frequent repetition of Devachan experiences, their images become so deeply imprinted that the power of memory is sufficient.