The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. The Connections between Worlds and Beings

[ 1 ] Today we would like to discuss a few things that may fall outside the usual course of our reflections, but which will shed light on certain aspects of past lecture sessions from a different perspective. Today’s summary of remarks is intended to cast a clearer light on various points from what has been heard and what is yet to be heard. The topic to be discussed today is the hierarchical sequence of beings that exist in the world, ascending from human beings upward. We have already spoken of such beings on occasion in connection with the evolution of the Earth. Today they are to be considered in a somewhat different context, namely from the perspective of the qualities, tasks, and work of these beings.

[ 2 ] There is a certain complacency in today’s worldview, which consists in the fact that quite a few people do not wish to place any other entities between themselves and the Deity. It is so infinitely convenient to conceive of a mineral kingdom, a plant kingdom, an animal kingdom, and the kingdom of humankind, and then to ascend without further ado to the all-pervading God, of whom one believes one can have, in one way or another, a more or less accurate awareness or sense. True Spiritual Science does not have it that easy; it must interpose beings of the most varied degrees of perfection between human beings and what we can intuit as the divinity of the world. This sequence of stages has already been hinted at repeatedly. In Christian esotericism, they bear the names: angels, archangels, primal forces, powers, authorities, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim. These are nine different kinds of beings, with human beings at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Only when we look up, so to speak, beyond the realm of the seraphim do we begin to sense that which we address as the Deity.

[ 3 ] Do not think that it is meaningless and devoid of substance when it is said that it is a convenience of one’s worldview to simply ascend from human to deity without involving these entities. If people had not forgotten to study and acknowledge them, that aberration of materialism would not have arisen. For, in a sense, one can combine a kind of religious sentiment—a kind of vague, religious feeling—with the idea of ascending directly from humanity to the divine; but such an approach never allows for a true understanding of the world, nor can it ever be reconciled with a genuine picture of the world’s development. That is why humanity has now lost its understanding of the world; and that aspect of religion which is based solely on sentiment, on vague feelings, will always be open to denial in the face of materialistic mental images. Through the theosophical worldview, an understanding of the world is once again opened up by enabling people to learn something about these entities once more. And thus a point of reference is created to counter the denial of a higher world. People who today refuse to acknowledge this world are increasingly paving the way for the most shallow and devastating materialism. The materialists themselves are actually the victims; the real culprits are those who, out of convenience, want nothing to do with what exists between humanity and the Divine.

[ 4 ] Having thus far discussed the reason why we must speak of them today, we will now address the characteristics of these higher beings in a free, aphoristic manner. We will first consider the angels closest to human beings—the messengers of the Deity, the Angeloi. They differ from human beings primarily in the nature of their powers of perception and cognition. Human beings perceive and act within a world consisting of the four kingdoms of nature. Their actions take place among minerals, plants, animals, and human beings. This is the nature of their perception and their acts of will.

[ 5 ] Angels, who stand one level higher than human beings, differ from them in that the mineral kingdom does not exist within their sphere of perception. Their perceptual capacity begins with the plant kingdom and then extends to the animal, human, and angelic kingdoms—their own kingdom. The life of the angels unfolds within these four kingdoms. What human beings perceive as the mineral realm—as a filling of space—is, for these beings, an empty space, a void. If you recall what was described in my Theosophy regarding how human beings in Devachan perceive the mineral world—namely, also as a void—then you will have a rough idea of the perception of these beings, who live continuously in such a world. The mineral realm presents no obstacle to them; they can pass right through it; it holds no interest for them; it is a realm too subordinate for them. Their perception begins only with the plant world and extends up to their own realm. As angelic beings, they say to themselves, “I.”—Because these beings are constituted in this way, their activity will make something understandable to us that we already know. When a human being has passed through the gate of death, he first has the peculiar experience of a memory image.

[ 6 ] It unfolds as follows: When a person dies, they initially have the sensation of growing larger and larger, and this process of growth is accompanied by the emergence of this memory image. When the image then fades, a kind of extract—like the fruit of the last life—remains. This forms a kind of germinative force for the development of the person in their next incarnation. It is a kind of ethereal, internally structured essence that remains with them as the essence of their experiences in the etheric body and that accompanies them through the eternities. If we further recall that, after passing through the Kamaloka, the human being takes this essence with them to Devachan—and that they are not idle there but have essential tasks to perform—then the activities of these beings, who stand on a higher level, will become quite understandable to us. A human being is not reincarnated until he can experience something new, until he can absorb a new fruit within himself. The Earth undergoes many transformations. And that is why it is incorrect for some to believe that it is unnecessary to return again and again. A human being can always experience something new, which he takes with him back into eternity.

[ 7 ] What, then, causes the changes to the Earth’s surface? Who is it that is working to reshape the Earth? How is it that, in a particular region, a completely different landscape of plant life and entirely different living conditions come into being? — Just as human beings on the physical plane continually alter the face of the Earth with physical forces—try, for example, to create a mental image of what it looked like three thousand years ago where Munich stands today—so you will be able to imagine that other changes must originate from the Devachan, for human beings alter only the mineral kingdom. And here again it is human beings themselves who are constantly reshaping the Earth from the spiritual realm. But they could not do so on their own. They would not know what the face of the Earth should look like, or what state it should be in. They can bring this about only under the guidance of higher beings. Those higher beings who guide and lead them are the beings we call angels. They deal with that aspect of the human being which exists in a different form during the stay in Devachan. They guide and lead the human being’s eternal Self. And because they extend, in their own way, down into the plant kingdom, they are able to bring about this transformation of the Earth.

[ 8 ] Now it is easy for us to see that these beings are always guiding, leading beings for the human “I.” They do not cease their guidance even when the “I” is reincarnated. The “I” is regulated and guided by such beings. Therefore, the naive belief that there is a being who protects the higher self is not without foundation. We know, however, that these beings, whom we call angels, were themselves still human beings on the Moon. They have evolved upward from human beings. You can easily understand this from the fact that human beings are on the path to becoming such beings themselves; and on Jupiter, they will be just that. Thus, that which is within the human being and is today striving toward a higher existence is on the path to becoming such a being. The human being will then be of the same nature as these angelic beings. Here we gain a deep insight into the development of the spiritual world. However, we must not regard the names we use as something permanent; they are merely ranks.

[ 9 ] When we now ascend in our contemplation to the archangels, we encounter beings who possess yet another faculty of perception and a different kind of activity. For them, even the plant kingdom is no longer of interest; it is no longer perceptible to them. Their perception begins only with the animal kingdom. That is their lowest realm; then come human beings, angels, and archangels. These are the four realms of these beings. Thus we may say that we look up to such exalted beings whose actions extend downward only as far as the animal kingdom. They live in the animal kingdom, the human kingdom, and so on. Their actions do not extend down into the plant kingdom. An earlier human consciousness knew these things. And here we can take a deep look into the inner life of earlier peoples and times. Just as our ancestors sensed the actions of the angels in the plants, so they sensed the actions of the archangels in the animals. That is why ancient peoples, such as the Egyptians, devoted a certain reverence to particular animals. This is an expression of human knowledge. Anyone who contemplates the remarkable forms of Egyptian animal worship will stand in awe of the profound wisdom of these people. It is no coincidence that they associated these animals with higher beings and with human beings. Let us remember how human life has always been intertwined with the life of animals, how progress on Earth is connected to animals—certain industries depend on them—and then we will understand what a deep foundation this reverence for animals had.

[ 10 ] What, then, is the task of the archangels? — Some people still speak today of a “national spirit”; but for most, this has become nothing more than a word, an abstraction. But people today no longer know much about the fact that a nation is actually guided by a real national spirit. This national spirit—to which the entire nation relates just as the human spirit relates to the human body—is an archangel. They are the tribal spirits. While angels guide and direct individual human beings through their incarnations, the archangels guide the lives of entire groups, of entire nations. Now we will understand: because the life of entire groups of peoples is deeply connected to the life of certain groups of animals, the Egyptians felt that the deity had assigned certain animals to them. In this they rightly saw the workings of the national spirit. They worshipped the power of the national spirit that had assigned the animal to them.

[ 11 ] Now you might ask me, couldn’t you, whether one could conceive of a being that perceives the individual organs of a human being but cannot grasp the human being as a whole; it cannot conceive that these organs form a whole. So you might say: Certainly, perhaps human beings, with their present-day perception, do not directly perceive angels and archangels; perhaps they perceive what their organs—their ears, their eyes—are. Or we can imagine that angels perceive plants, animals, human beings, and angels; what, then, are their sense organs? — Perhaps human beings could perceive the sense organs of the angels? Where are they? — They exist and are perceptible to human beings. People simply do not know it. The sense organs of the angelic beings will become clear to you when I tell you that human beings themselves have two eyes for seeing the mineral world, but that they do not perceive it directly in themselves. The sense organs are there for perception, but they do not perceive themselves. This is how it is for the angels with the mineral world. Their sense organs are to be found in the mineral, physical world; but they do not perceive this world themselves. The sense organs of the angels are our gemstones. These are a mysterious instrument for the perception of the angelic beings. The organs are thus located within the mineral world. Just as human beings have a sense of feeling and a sense of touch, so too do these beings have a sense of feeling, which is expressed in carnelian, and their sense of sight in chrysolite. They do not perceive within the mineral world precisely because their sense organs are located there. We even find a vague awareness of this among ancient peoples; they attributed a specific effect to gemstones. This effect arises because the angels are present within them.

[ 12 ] What we call the “spirit of the people” is very real and present in what we refer to as the archangels. Now let us turn to the primal forces, which stand one level higher. What role do they play in the evolution of humanity? When we consider their capacity for perception, we must say that the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms do not exist for them. The human kingdom is what they perceive as the lowest kingdom. Their perception then extends across four kingdoms: the human kingdom, the angelic kingdom, the kingdom of the archangels, and their own kingdom. Thus, their influence still reaches down to humankind.

[ 13 ] We will now examine their deeds. Here again we have a term with which people associate nothing concrete: the spirit of an epoch, of a time. Every epoch has its own distinct characteristics. Let us consider, for example, our post-Atlantean era. The spirit of the age has changed over the course of five epochs. Among the Indians—after a twilight state of clairvoyance had just faded away and human beings stepped out into the physical world—this spirit expressed itself in the refusal to acknowledge the physical world, viewing it instead as maya. From that point on, we see the world being conquered by human beings, bit by bit.

[ 14 ] Among the Persians, in the second period, humankind becomes aware that the earth is a field for its labor; it sees that it must imprint its spirit upon the material world. It places itself as a servant before the benevolent spirit of Ormuzd; time overcomes the evil Ahriman.

[ 15 ] Then comes the third period, the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian era. Here, the spirit continues its work. The sciences emerge. Human beings no longer view the world merely as a field of labor, but seek its laws. The Egyptians discover geometry. The Chaldeans seek regularity within the outer cosmos in the movements of the stars. The world, in its material substance, is conceived as permeated by laws—that is, by the spirit.

[ 16 ] In the fourth period, the Greek era, humanity conquers yet another part of this other world through art. Greek art is special precisely because here humanity imprints its own “I-form” upon matter. Then a new epoch followed. And so we can proceed step by step; we would see how the spirit of the age changes. Just as the face of the Earth is transformed by the angels and the human “I” is guided by them, just as the peoples are guided by the archangels, so too are the successive epochs determined by the primordial forces. It is extraordinarily important to consider the beings who stand behind these processes.

[ 17 ] Human individuality is one thing; its activity under the influence of the spirits of the age is another. Let us consider Giordano Bruno. He alone did not accomplish what came to pass through him. Had he incarnated three centuries earlier or later, he would still have been a gifted individual; but, guided by the spirit of his time, he would have had to do something entirely different. The spirits of the age, which are the expression of these primal forces that reach down to human beings, place people in the places where they belong. You will understand their workings when you regard the individual human being as an instrument of these primal forces, as material for these spirits. Wherever people appear, whether in a position of great or small importance, they must be judged in this way, for to these primal forces, human beings are what minerals are to us. For anyone engaged in Spiritual Science, the question always arises: To what extent is this or that personality the material of the epochal spirits? — One gains a deep insight into the workings and weaving of evolution when observing how people are placed in their appropriate positions in the world.

[ 18 ] Let us now ascend to the forces for which human beings, as such, no longer exist at all. We will then be able to form a different kind of mental image of what is involved in the development of the forces of nature. The lowest realm that comes into consideration for their perception is that of the angels. For these highly exalted beings, the angels are what the mineral kingdom is to us. We have already pointed out on other occasions the workings of these forces: everything that transcends the individual human being, everything connected with the affairs of our entire planet—these are the deeds of these beings. When we trace our Earth back to the time of its formation, and humanity along with it as a gradually emerging entity, we arrive at the primordial forces.

[ 19 ] But if we wish to consider the life and evolution of the Earth itself, we must go back to the forces. They have nothing to do with individual human beings, but rather with the evolution of the planet. We possess such forces within us in the form of the solar and lunar forces. We know that humanity as a whole is under the influence of these solar and lunar forces. If only the solar forces were at work—the warm, fiery, light-giving solar forces—human beings would develop rapidly, rushing through life in a single lifetime. The moderating force lies in the lunar forces; the lunar forces compel the human being into form. If they were to act alone, human beings would live only once, have only one incarnation; they would die and be mummified within their form. The Earth would be covered with statues. If only the solar forces were at work, human beings would also undergo only one incarnation, but in that single incarnation they would experience everything they would otherwise experience over countless incarnations.

[ 20 ] The interaction of these two forces creates the proper balance, so that human beings can continue to develop in the way they do. The Moon alone would have a mummifying effect. The Moon now governs a single incarnation; the Sun governs successive incarnations from the outside, while the angels work from within. Here we see the nature and interplay of the powers that are quite correctly described in the Bible as spirits of light or Elohim, who were there before the Earth was created. One of them is Jehovah, who compels human beings into form. In the workings and interplay of these forces, we see what is connected to the life of the entire planet. Here we have the opportunity to look deeply into what underlies the evolution of our world.

[ 21 ] However, we have also heard that certain entities always lag behind in their development. The present Powers were primordial forces on the Moon. However, there are certain primordial forces of the Moon that did not complete their task there and have come to Earth as primordial forces—forces that did not develop quickly enough, even though they had the potential to become Powers. The most prominent of these primordial forces—which could actually be of the rank of powers—is the entity commonly known as “Satan.” He is thus of the rank of primordial forces and could even be a power. Among the spirits who drive the world forward, this Epochal Spirit works against the others; he is a force on Earth that would have been appropriate for the ancient Moon and remains intimately interwoven with the forces of the ancient Moon. He is the master of all obstacles and hindrances that stand in the way of the advancing Epochal Spirits. You will understand what it means in the life of Christ Jesus that he first had to overcome Satan, the adversary of progress, precisely at the moment of greatest progress; for Christ wanted to lead human beings—humanity—a mighty step forward and first had to overcome this adversary as the hindering and disruptive force in evolution that the primordial forces of our Earth did not want to let move forward. Christian esotericism designates these unlawful primal forces as satanic powers. What is often referred to as providence manifests itself quite concretely, in specific instances, as a group of beings. Humanity would understand many things better if it could once again explore the connection between sensory phenomena and these spiritual beings. Everything that appears to us in the world is an expression of spiritual beings.

[ 22 ] For example, you know that the planets—the celestial bodies—perform certain movements around their own axes and around one another. Why does this happen? The Earth’s rotation on its axis did not always exist. Why did it come about? Because human beings, at their present stage of development, need the alternation between day and night, between sleeping and waking. The macrocosm is most intimately connected with the microcosm; life is regulated by the division of time. During the ancient Lunar Age, things were quite different. There was a completely different division of time, a completely different alternation between day and night, because the ancient Moon moved in a completely different way. The beings who now guide these movements have already prepared them in their own lives, for spiritual beings stand behind these movements; they are the deeds of spiritual beings. In these movements, human beings will one day recognize a profound wisdom.

[ 23 ] There is profound wisdom in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun—this so-called orbit—and humanity will one day recognize that something immensely significant is taking place within it. Do not be surprised that I say “so-called.” What is taught in schools today about the way the Earth moves around the Sun is merely the result of a mathematical calculation. It is not absolutely true at all. This explanation will also take on entirely different forms one day. Even from a historical perspective, people could learn that this is not the case. There is something quite peculiar about the Copernican system. He based his view on three principles, of which modern science has accepted only two, while the third has been swept under the rug. In reality, the Sun is hurtling at great speed through space toward the constellation of Hercules. A movement such as is usually described is only simulated by the fact that the planets move along with it. The Earth’s true orbit forms a helical path. What is called the obliquity of the ecliptic is the line of gravity between the Sun and the Earth. People have forgotten that, in the course of a year, the Earth rotates once around the axis of the ecliptic, and this rotation combines with the helical motion. Copernicus still distinguished between these two things, but people no longer do so. The motion along the ecliptic has been disregarded. Thus, it does not correspond at all to the facts to say that the Earth revolves around the Sun. In reality, a helical motion is at work.

[ 24 ] If this spiral were a straight line, progress would have to be immensely faster; the Earth would have to travel its course at an immense speed, and that is precisely what humankind could not endure.

[ 25 ] If the Earth were truly to traverse those distances that it would cover in a straight line, then human beings would have to live just as long. However, this movement has been wisely diverted by the guiding spirits. Absolute progress is delayed by this different kind of movement. You can see how profound the wisdom of the cosmos is; this wisdom is the expression of the guiding spirits. We have regulators of our evolution, embodied in the angels and archangels. The forces that act from incarnation to incarnation, driving humanity forward so that it cannot become mummified—these are the regulators of Jupiter’s future orbital periods. Such spirits, who stand above humanity and govern its life, are therefore also called “spirits of the orbital periods,” because their deeds will later find expression in the orbital periods of the celestial bodies. In the way the stars move today, you can see the results of what higher beings did back then, and in humanity today, you can already discern the future orbital periods. An immense spiritual life enters the celestial realm when we learn to view it in this way.

[ 26 ] Today we should consider only those characteristics of these entities that extend all the way up to the forces. We can form a mental image of the outer form as an expression of the inner. When what is said here once again fills the hearts of people, many things will change. We have now reached an abysmal low point in scholarly education. External progress does not go hand in hand with spiritual life; the latter would be heading toward an abysmal low point were it not for such truths becoming known, were science not illuminated by them. People no longer know where to turn with their materialistic science. A psychology book was recently published; one must not assume that such a book has no impact simply because the author is still unknown. It explains that the law of conservation of energy also applies to the soul, and that the soul’s inner phenomena consist solely of a transformation of food. He says, more or less: “For ten years now, it has been known with certainty that what is called the law of conservation of energy is identical to the effects of the nervous system; for it can be demonstrated that everything a person absorbs in the form of energy through food corresponds exactly to the work he performs. Since it can be precisely demonstrated that the situation in humans is exactly the same as elsewhere in the world, a spiritual being cannot possibly exist. We are dealing solely with a transformation of food into energy, which is then released back into the external world.”

[ 27 ] That is a very clever conclusion. One might just as well say: Two people standing in front of a bank are counting the money being brought in and taken out; the amounts are equal; therefore, there are no bank employees. - But aren’t bank employees still necessary to take care of everything? The view of that psychologist and a large part of what passes for science today are on the same level. Anyone who forms a mental image of the matter can imagine where a spiritual culture that thinks so narrowly would lead. It is necessary to possess spiritual knowledge, for it is the sole true impetus for the development of humanity. If human beings do not look beyond appearances, the world cannot be understood. One must arrive at the great, comprehensive laws—the interconnections between beings and worlds.