The Rudolf Steiner Archive

26. The Three Aspects of the World

[ 1 ] We can distinguish three aspects of the world that approaches us, the world in which we live: first, how it appears to us from the outside; second, how we perceive it within ourselves; and third, what it is like on the inside.

[ 2 ] Our sense organs convey to us the aspect of the world as it appears to us from the outside: the world of forms and shapes in inorganic nature, the mineral world; in animate nature, the plant world; in sentient nature, the animal world; and in thinking nature, the human world. From the outside, it presents itself to us as the world of perceptions, and we take in this world of appearances and perceptions through our sense organs. Our sense organs are the gateways through which the external world of forms gains access to us. If we did not have our sense organs, the world of forms would remain forever unknown to us—a mystery, an occult realm; it would not exist for us. People could only tell us about it and provide us with a description of it that was merely approximately comprehensible to us. But as long as we lacked our sense organs, we could never form a completely accurate conception of the external world of forms and figures. What we now take in through sight, hearing, touch, and smell and taste would then not exist for us. The external world would then remain hidden from us in darkness, and we could only sense it and, based on the descriptions of those who know it, form an approximate—but never an exact—picture of it. This world of forms would always have remained an occult world for human beings had their senses not opened up to perceive it. Their senses had to develop so that access to this external world would become possible for them.

[ 3 ] The perception of the sensory world is a stage in human development that humanity had not previously reached. There was a time when human sensory organs had not yet opened up to the outside world. At that time, human beings could not perceive the world of forms; they could not perceive anything outside themselves; they still lived entirely within their inner world, which was closed off from the external world. They lived a wholly inner life, as we still know it today through our own feelings.

[ 4 ] In this inner life we now find the second aspect of the world. Through the perception of the external world of forms with our sense organs, sensations arise within us. Just as we perceive the external world with our sense organs, so do we experience with our soul the impressions that this external world makes upon us. Through this process, the external world becomes our own inner world within our soul. To the extent that our soul and its faculties are developed, this inner world will come into our consciousness. The higher a person is in their development, the more strongly they experience this external world as an inner world within the soul; the more they have developed their soul’s faculties, the more varied their inner world becomes; the richer are the images of that world that arise within them; and the more orderly and harmoniously they permeate their inner being. To make the external world entirely their own, a person must have a strong, harmoniously developed, and well-structured soul—a fully developed soul organism. The more versatile a person’s soul life has become, the more diverse the external world will appear there in varied images. The more harmonious his soul is, the more beautifully the external world will be reflected in his soul. The external world then immerses itself in our soul and emerges there as a beautiful, harmonious, vibrant, and varied whole.

[ 5 ] While in waking consciousness a person focuses primarily on the external world and initially perceives it only as chaotic sensations arising within, he must learn to organize and regulate these chaotic sensory processes, to bring them into a conscious relationship with the external world, and to shape them into a harmonious whole. He must learn to bring the inner world of his soul under his control. Only then does it truly become their own, most personal world, in which they can live consciously and according to their own will. In the world of dreams, a person immerses themselves in their inner world. There, they are removed from the sensory world and are at the mercy of the chaotic whirlwind of their sensory world, which emerges within them as images. To the extent that their sensations become ordered, their dream images also become organized and meaningful.

[ 6 ] What has now become an inner world within his soul is the aspect of the external world as he perceives it. This stands in contrast to the aspect of perceptions, through which the external world presents itself to his senses.

[ 7 ] But the world also exists from another perspective—the perspective of how it truly is. This is the essential aspect of the world’s true being, as it is in its innermost core. A person arrives at this aspect when they continue along the path they have chosen. When sensations have arisen within him from clear sensory perceptions, and when he has brought these sensations into harmonious order and beautiful rhythm, then these sensations carry him back out into the world. They build a bridge from his soul to the world, and just as the world pours into him through his senses, so now his soul pours into the world through his thinking about the world. He pours his feelings into thought, and his thought penetrates the environment. Thus the chain is closed between the world and the human being and between the human being and the world.

[ 8 ] The world is outside; sensation is within the human being; thought is present in both. In thinking, the human being unites completely with the world. For thinking about the world and one’s own thinking form a single whole. Thus, humanity, with its perceptions, is rooted in sensory existence. Thus it grows by receiving impressions from the sensory world, which then organize themselves in the soul into feelings and images, take on a rhythm, and are transformed within the life of the soul. Thus it blossoms by reading, sensing, and hearing from these images and perceptions the thought of the world, which bears new blossoms in every thinking human being.

[ 9 ] All human beings are rooted in the same soil of the physical world of the senses and forms. It is the same world for everyone, the same soil from which all grow. And each individual human being draws forces from this common soil for their own unique development. The individual human beings are as numerous and diverse as the branches that spring from this single soil; each, in the life of its soul, processes the forces drawn from this soil in its own unique way. But when they reach their full bloom above, in the world of thought, they all form a great whole—a wondrous, undulating sea of blossoms—each blossom a reflection of the great, unified world-thought, and each complementing the other, fitting in as a link in the entire chain, as a jewel in a crown of jewels, as a wave in an ocean of thought.

[ 10 ] Below, a whole: the physical world. Above, a whole: the spiritual world. In between, the transformation of the lower into the higher through many individualities: the world of souls.

[ 11 ] The physical world outside, in its unity, is a reflection of the spiritual world. A reflection of the spiritual world is the human soul in all its diversity. The entire vast world outside becomes a unique little world within every human soul, and, emerging from all human souls in thought, becomes once again a great whole. Thus, the path leads from the cosmos through the microcosm, emerging from the totality of microcosms as a new, perfected cosmos.