The Rudolf Steiner Archive

14. Influences of Other Worlds on Earth

[ 1 ] Last Saturday, we took a look into distant worlds. Today, too, it will be our task to do something similar, albeit in a slightly different way; today, as well, we want to delve a little deeper into spiritual realms. When I describe lectures such as today’s and Saturday’s as “intended for the advanced,” I am referring less to what is commonly called intellectual understanding. I mean a different kind of understanding that comes to us as we immerse ourselves more and more in the spiritual worlds—as we accustom ourselves, so to speak, to sensations and feelings that enable us to believe that there really is, in the world immediately around us, something like what we are discussing today.

[ 2 ] Studying theosophy leads people to develop a sense of spiritual worlds. Spiritual worlds and spiritual realities are all around us; we have emphasized this many times. As we go about our daily lives, we do not merely pass through the physical air; we are constantly passing through spiritual beings and realities. The first thing toward which a person rises when the gift of clairvoyance dawns within them are those spiritual worlds that are in some way connected to what the person perceives here with the ordinary physical senses—that is, things that are, so to speak, connected to the tangible; for everything the senses perceive is, after all, related to spiritual worlds. We know that our entire animal world, as it manifests outwardly, is underpinned by a sum of animal group souls. These live on the astral plane, and the one who acquires the gift of clairvoyance on the astral plane encounters them there as distinct personalities, just as a person encounters physical personalities here on the physical plane. They are truly distinct personalities. And to put it simply, one could say that on the astral plane one can become acquainted with group souls just as one does with human beings here. However, in certain respects these group souls differ from human beings here. They are—as strange as it may sound—wiser than human beings; their deeds consist of the wise arrangements of animal structures, but also of everything that lies within the practicality of the animal way of life.

[ 3 ] On the Devachan plane, the seer encounters a second type of being that is connected to plants. The plant-selves are on the Devachan plane. And in the higher regions of this Devachan plane, which we call Arupa, are the group-selves of the minerals. For all these beings, there are, so to speak, connections to the physical plane. Surrounding us are also the astral and Devachan planes, and surrounding us are all these group-selves. They thus have, one might say, tangible manifestations in the physical world.

[ 4 ] But whoever, as a seer, comes to know all these worlds—the Devachan plane, the Arupa plane—not only becomes acquainted with these beings but also with entirely different ones who do not manifest themselves so openly in the physical world, who also intervene in destiny in a certain way, though not as tangibly as is the case with the others. We find such entities of a most peculiar nature on the astral plane. These entities first reveal themselves through their effects—that is, solely through our experience of those effects. For example, where somnambulism occurs—in mediumistic individuals, in all states of subdued consciousness, and especially quite commonly on moonlit nights with a full moon—such beings swarm around us; but we perceive only their effects. It feels strange to us when we observe these beings clairvoyantly. It is as if they were reaching their hands in from far away—to use a rough comparison—as if you were in Cannstatt and had hands so long that you could work with them in Stuttgart. Then, here in Stuttgart, you would see these hands, the effect of the work; but to see the people themselves, you would have to go to Cannstatt.

[ 5 ] Physical beings of this kind do not, of course, exist, but astral beings do. We observe their effects on Earth; however, if we wish to come to know them as complete personalities in their own right, then we must seek them out in their true home, which is the Moon. These beings even possess a physical form there, albeit a very subtle one. They cannot be detected with a microscope. They do not grow very large, but they are well known to the clairvoyant. They do not grow larger than a seven-year-old child, and the peculiarity of these beings is that they have a terribly roaring voice; their roar is not an individual roar, but rather an expression of the climatic conditions on the Moon. Depending on whether it is a full moon or a new moon, these lunar beings roar or remain silent, and their influence extends all the way to Earth. As I said, human beings in particular are dependent on these beings; these beings are of great significance specifically for human life. And one comes to understand these effects by delving a little into what is called occult anatomy. We have, of course, often looked at human beings; today we want to examine them with regard to their humors.

[ 6 ] There are three types of fluids that we will consider today. First, the one called chyle, or the digestive fluid. Food passes from the stomach into the intestines and is absorbed by the human body through the intestinal walls. A second fluid is the one that flows through the lymphatic vessels, which run throughout the entire body. This fluid bears a resemblance to the white blood cells in the blood. The lymphatic vessels run parallel to the blood vessels in a certain sense; they are partly designed to absorb the chyme and transport it until it can enter the blood. Specifically, it is the protein substances and fats that are prepared in the lymphatic vessels to be transferred into the blood. Only sugars and sugar-forming substances are absorbed directly into the blood; they do not first pass through the lymphatic vessels. Thus, flowing through the body is a fluid that serves as a kind of transitional fluid between the chyle and the blood. A third fluid is the blood itself, which flows through the blood vessels and is constantly renewed through the respiratory process, the supply of oxygen, and so on. Thus, in these three fluids, we have three levels of the fluids contained within the human body. Chyle is, so to speak, the coarsest; lymph is finer; and the finest of the human fluids is blood.

[ 7 ] Now you know that blood is the outer, material expression of the “I,” that the “I,” so to speak, lives and pulsates in the blood. When blood flows through the body, it is not only matter but also the “I” that flows through every part of the body. But of the three humors, blood is the only one that is so intimately connected with one’s own spiritual being. It is blood that human beings will most readily come to master. Although very few people today have reached the point where their “I” is in control of their blood, human beings will increasingly gain influence over it.

[ 8 ] The ego has less influence on the lymph. Spiritual forces also pulsate through the lymph. It is precisely in the lymph that you have a fluid in which the beings—which were described to you earlier as lunar beings—exert their influence. This lymph pulses up and down within you, and within it pulsates the influence of these lunar beings in your body. There you can see what you have enclosed within your body! Another type of being that also influences the lymph are those whose true home is on Mars. These Martian beings, which become visible through clairvoyant observation, are in turn quite remarkable creatures. They possess a certain kind of language—a gentle speech that expresses, in a light and supple manner, what these beings wish to convey. When you encounter such Martian entities, they appear to you as beings whose faces bear the expression of their inner being, their soul. A malevolent entity has a malevolent expression on its face; if the Martian entity is good, then it bears that goodness as beauty on its face; its soul is evident on the surface of its physical form.

[ 9 ] These are beings the clairvoyant encounters when he penetrates as far as the Moon and Mars. He comes to know their deeds through the composition of the lymph and by observing whether it flows faster or slower. For under every soul experience, this lymph has a different nature. Temperament and character are linked to the nature of this lymph. And only those who become acquainted with these entities of Mars and the Moon can recognize what is truly happening within a person on the spiritual level underlying the lymph.

[ 10 ] The clairvoyant finds other beings in the same region where the group souls of plants reside—that is, in Devachan—beings who also exert their influence on Earth and upon whom the fate of human beings depends. Their true home is on Venus, where they are found in the Devachanic region. Their effects and actions are expressed through a profound influence on the chyle. Whether you eat one thing or another determines whether the good or evil beings of Venus will gain influence over you. There are beings who are good, gentle, and kind, who have already developed a high degree of religiosity within themselves, as it manifests here on Earth in Christianity. But there are also entities of evil character—predatory entities—who destroy everything, and between these two radical extremes, every possible stage is represented on Venus; they manifest their influence in human digestive juices.

[ 11 ] And now try to imagine how another celestial body, with its beings, interacts with the human body—with the entire human being. Consider how the human race is distributed across the Earth. In one region, people live on a certain kind of food; in another, a completely different kind of food grows. Depending on what a person takes in as nourishment, very specific beings make their presence felt within them. This accounts for the diversity of human character. In a person who eats something different from another person, the clairvoyant perceives entirely different influences from those beings, and now you can understand why, wherever the nature of the human being is approached from a spiritual perspective, emphasis is placed on what a person eats. What occultism suggests regarding food has been researched with these beings in mind. What occultism can offer us in terms of practical life depends on such complex matters.

[ 12 ] There are other entities as well that exert their peculiar influences on our Earth—though not as tangibly as the group souls—entities that the clairvoyant perceives when he rises to the Saturn existence. Their effects are to be found in the higher Devachanic world and exert a profound influence on human beings. This brings us to a chapter where we are no longer dealing with the life-forces, but with much finer things. When the clairvoyant examines these entities, they appear quite peculiar in themselves. For they are endowed with a magnificent power of invention; in fact, they are inventors at every moment of their lives. But they do not need to think about their inventions. They see, and as they see things, the thought occurs to them that they should be different, and they reshape them immediately. Thus, they are beings who are, in fact, engaged in constant revolutionary activity. Everything they see, they immediately transform in the most ingenious way; sensory perception is immediate, and so is intellectual invention. They want nothing to do with reflection, logic, or the like, but they transform everything immediately through sensory impression; in this, they are reformers and revolutionaries.

[ 13 ] These entities also exert their influence on our Earth. They creep into our inner being through our sensory perceptions. Through color, sound, smell, taste, the sensation of warmth—through everything that a human being perceives through the senses—the spiritual effects of these Saturn beings creep into him. They move through the world, and these beings exert their influence in abundance upon what you experience through your sensory perceptions. How dry and sober—indeed, how ridiculous—does the materialistic investigation of the ordinary anatomist seem! For along with the flash of light that penetrates the eye, the effects of such beings also penetrate. It is not unimportant to know such things for practical life. In fact, a person who does not know this is unaware of the very most important aspect of life. The worst—and under certain circumstances also the best, because they are the strongest—are the influences of the Saturnian entities, insofar as they make themselves felt through the sense of smell. Through smells, we constantly draw their effects into ourselves: there are smells through which downright infernal effects of these entities enter us. When a person knows something like this, they begin to grasp what they are doing to their fellow human beings when they force them to inhale all sorts of hideous perfumes. Through patchouli, for example, they grant the worst kinds of Saturn spirits access to people, and influencing fellow human beings through odors is one of the worst forms of black magic.

[ 14 ] I could tell you about long periods in history when intrigues were carried out at certain courts by those who understood these effects and used scents to gain influence and power. For a long time, there have been schemers who, more or less consciously, have ruled through such means. Such magical methods have often played an important role in history. An example from recent history might be of interest: A minister at a small European court wrote a memoir-like book about his time in office. He knew nothing of all these things, but in his naive way he describes very vividly how such matters played out at the small court in question, where a sensational catastrophe had unfolded at the time. There was a woman there who understood all the arts of influencing people through scents. And whenever the minister appeared before the queen in question, all manner of perfumes would assail him, and he knew he had to leave, for she understood something of scents. Through this experience, it became clear to him that something was afoot. He knew nothing of the occult. Anyone who reads such chapters as an occultist can see deeply into how effects are exerted upon people.

[ 15 ] And now, starting from here, let us consider a little how occultism relates to the true understanding of reality. People will have to shed ever more light on immediate human life from an occult perspective. It would be disastrous for humanity if people were to continue for much longer practicing such a pseudoscience in which one seeks to find the truth through dissection. The truth one can find through anatomy is the most distorted kind of truth. These insights, in particular, will never be of practical use, and they will bring disaster upon humanity unless they are counteracted by spiritual insights. And we are, after all, in the midst of a deluge of materialism; it creeps into legislation and everywhere else, exerting an immense influence. The church and religion are intolerant in a way they never were before. How intolerant materialistic medicine is today! They won’t burn their opponents, of course, but they do something else. They want to spare themselves the bad reputation that burning carries. They therefore ensure that people cannot even do what they used to be burned for. Today, opponents don’t even get the chance to sin. Burning was certainly a terrible thing, but at least before, people could still do what they were later burned for!

[ 16 ] People do not realize this because their thoughts do not last long enough for them to draw connections between one thought and the next. But it is important that people regain sound thinking through spiritual insight. Take another example: I have told you that fats and proteins pass through the lymphatic vessels, while sugar enters the blood directly. The “I,” as it manifests itself in our time, is the bearer of pure combinatory power—of egoism—since, in our European culture, it is primarily focused on utility. Anyone who observes life will be able to discern the major role that sugar plays in human life. Precisely where selfishness reigns most strongly—namely in its refined forms, where it appears as scientific criticism, where it manifests itself purely intellectually—there, too, you will see diabetes everywhere within this mysterious context! However, you must not think that the individual afflicted by it should be viewed from this perspective. The individual does not live as an isolated entity. And you must also come to realize that it is not so easy to help the individual. Imagine a person living in a swampy area: he can only recover once he leaves that swampy area. One must take into account that a person lives within his environment.

[ 17 ] And that is why, above all, we must realize that we have to become selfless, for Theosophy is here for the whole of humanity. It is very important to understand this thoroughly. Only when people increasingly resolve to dedicate their efforts to all of humanity will there be an atmosphere in which the individual will be liberated. If an individual innocently develops diabetes, this is not an indication of the general understanding correctly described in Theosophy. Diabetes is linked to the prevalence of selfishness.

[ 18 ] You can cast a critical eye over two quite different regions of Europe. Look at the peasants in Russia, where a sense of self is only just beginning to emerge, and at England, where a strong sense of self prevails. This is not meant to be a criticism, merely an observation. And now look at sugar consumption; how much more sugar is consumed in England than in Russia. Now, one or the other might say: So, what should we do? Must we—because it is the right thing to do—advise a person to eat less sugar so that they may become selfless?—The truth is not that simple. People would prefer fixed rules that apply to all circumstances—a kind of set course of action. There are people who, due to their emotional and spiritual constitution, tend to lose themselves easily in a devout form of devotion. This is a good thing; it helps them attain the highest bliss of knowledge. But this must have a counterbalance: such people must eat a lot of sugar. To keep them firmly grounded on earth, they must be given plenty of sugar. Others, on the other hand, are constantly seeking to assert their own selves; they are the opposite of a devotional nature. For them, one might advise asceticism in the consumption of sugar. Thus we see that, through theosophy, we must acquire the ability to become well-rounded, rather than being quick to pass judgment based on abstraction.

[ 19 ] Thus, through today’s discussion, you have once again become acquainted with other kinds of entities that are intimately connected to our lives. If you feel even a little apprehensive about all the worlds you’ve heard about here, if you perhaps think it would be better not to know anything about them, consider that this is the same as an ostrich burying its head in the sand—because these things are indeed there! And you can never free yourself by closing your eyes, but only by getting to know these things. If you organize your life in such a way that, starting from the “I,” you become increasingly the master of your bodies, then you will drive all these entities out of your life. Knowledge and truth are the means to becoming free. And true is what is written in a religious text: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”