The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophy and Rosicrucianism IV

[ 1 ] Since our task today is to continue exploring the destinies of human beings through the spiritual world, it would be helpful if we first formed an idea of what is meant by the term “world” in the context of spiritual science.

[ 2 ] Our perception of the world around us depends on the abilities and senses we have to perceive it. If we had different senses, the world would be completely different to us. For example, if humans did not have eyes to see light, but instead had an organ through which they could, say, perceive electricity, then you would not perceive this room as bright and flooded with light; rather, you would see electricity flowing through the wires running through the room; then you would see it flickering, flashing, and surging everywhere. So what we call our world is dependent on our sense organs.

[ 3 ] Thus, the astral world is nothing other than the sum of the phenomena that a person experiences around them when they are separated from their physical and etheric bodies, and when they can use these inner forces to perceive what they otherwise cannot see. This is precisely the case when a person has shed the physical body and the etheric body. The organs of perception for the astral world are the organs of the astral body, analogous to the sense organs of the physical body. Let us now take a look at the astral world.

[ 4 ] The clairvoyant can perceive this astral world even while still in the physical body, using the methods we will discuss later. This astral world differs quite considerably from our physical world. To begin with, you can form an idea of what surrounds you in the astral world by recalling the last remnant of the clairvoyance that humans still possess from ancient times—namely, the dream life. You are all familiar with this dream life from experience, and you know it as a world of chaotic images. So where does the fact that human beings dream at all come from? We know, of course, that during this dream life in bed, the physical body and the etheric body lie there, while the astral body hovers above them. During full, deep, dreamless sleep, the astral body is completely lifted out of the etheric body; during dream sleep, threads of the astral body are still embedded within the etheric body, and through them the human being then perceives the more or less confused images of the astral world. The astral world is as translucent as dream images; it is as if woven from dreams. But these dreams differ from ordinary dreams in that these images are a reality—just as much a reality as the physical world. The nature of perception is very similar to that of dream perception: it, too, is symbolic. You all know, of course, that the dream world is symbolic. Everything from the external world that is taken in during sleep is symbolized in the dream. I will give you a few typical examples of dreams, and from these you will easily be able to see how a dream symbolizes a simple external impression.

[ 5 ] For example, in a dream you see yourself catching a tree frog. You can feel the slippery tree frog very clearly; when you wake up, you feel that you’re holding the cold corner of the bedsheet in your hand. Or you dream that you’re in a damp, dark cellar full of cobwebs; you wake up with a headache. Or you see snakes in a dream and realize upon waking that you have intestinal pain. Or an academic dreams a long story about a duel, from the initial altercation to the final showdown with pistols drawn: the shot rings out—and then he wakes up and realizes that the chair has fallen over. From the entire sequence of this last dream image, you can also see that the temporal relationships are entirely different. Not only is time, so to speak, constructed in reverse, but the very concept of time loses its meaning in the dream experience. In a fraction of a second, one dreams an entire life, just as our entire life flashes before our inner eye in the moment of a fall or drowning. But what is particularly important in all the dream images cited is precisely that they depict images of what caused them. This is how it is in the astral world in general. And we have reason to interpret these images. The same astral experience always appears as the same image; there is absolute regularity and harmony in this, whereas ordinary dream images are chaotic. Ultimately, one can find one’s way in the astral world just as easily as in the physical world.

[ 6 ] The astral world is woven entirely from such images, but these images are the expression of spiritual beings. After death, all human beings are themselves enveloped in such images, some of which are very rich in color and form. Similarly, when a person falls asleep, their astral body can be seen in flowing and shifting forms and colors. All astral beings appear in colors. If a person is capable of astral vision, they perceive these astral beings as a flowing sea of colors.

[ 7 ] Now, this astral world has a peculiarity that seems strange to those hearing about it for the first time: everything in the astral world exists as a mirror image, and therefore, as a student, you must gradually accustom yourself to seeing correctly. For example, you see the number 365, which corresponds to the number 563. This is true of everything one perceives in the astral world. Everything that emanates from me, for example, seems to be coming toward me. It is extremely important to bear this in mind. For if, for example, such astral images arise due to illness, one must know how to interpret them. Such images occur very frequently during delirium, and people in such states may see all manner of grotesque faces and figures coming toward them, since in such pathological conditions the astral world is open to the person. These images, of course, appear as if things were rushing toward the person, whereas in reality they are emanating from them. Doctors must be aware of this in the future, because such phenomena will become increasingly common as a result of repressed religious longing. Such an astral vision also lies, for example, at the heart of the motif for the famous painting “The Temptation of Saint Anthony.” If you think all this through to its very end, it will no longer seem strange to you that time, too, runs in reverse in the astral world. The experiences of “dreams” already give you a hint of this. Recall the example just mentioned of the dreamt duel. Everything here runs backward, and so does time. Thus, in astral experience, one can trace the tree from the fruit first, then the blossom, and back to the seed.

[ 8 ] And so, even after death—which is the time of weaning—your entire life unfolds in reverse through the astral world, and you relive your life once more, moving from the end to the beginning, concluding it with the first impressions of your childhood. However, this process proceeds much more quickly than here in the physical world and lasts about one-third of your earthly life. You also experience many other things during this backward journey through life. Let’s suppose you died at the age of eighty and are now reliving your life back to the age of forty. For example, you once slapped someone, causing that person to feel pain at the time. Now, in the astral world, this sensation of pain also occurs, so to speak, as a mirror image; that is to say, you now experience the pain that the other person felt at the time because of your slap. And the same is naturally true of all joyful events as well. — And only then, once a person has relived their entire life, do they enter the heavenly world. Religious texts are always truths to be taken literally. If you keep what has just been said in mind, you will readily understand that a person can truly enter the spiritual world—and by the spiritual world is meant what the Bible refers to as the “Kingdom of Heaven” or “the Kingdom of the Heavens”—only after they have first relived their entire life in reverse, all the way back to childhood. And this, in truth, is the basis of Christ’s words: “Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” For it is precisely when a person has retraced their life back to the stage of childhood that they shed the astral body and enter the spiritual world.

[ 9 ] Now I must describe this spiritual world to you in narrative form. This realm of the heavens is even more different from the physical world than the astral world is. However, since one can, of course, describe everything only using terms taken from this physical world, it is even more true—than in the above description of the astral world—that all these descriptions must be understood only in a comparative sense.

[ 10 ] In this realm of the heavens, too, there is a trinity, just as there is here on Earth. Just as here we have the three states of matter—solid, liquid, and gaseous—and accordingly divide the Earth into the continents, the oceans, and the air, so too in the spirit world—though, as mentioned, only comparatively—can three such regions be distinguished; only the region of the continents is composed of something other than our rocks and stones. For what constitutes the solid ground of the spirit world there are the archetypes of all physical things. Everything physical has its archetypes, including human beings. To the clairvoyant, these archetypes appear as a kind of negative; that is, one sees the space as a sort of shadow figure, surrounded by radiant light. This shadow, however—corresponding, for example, to blood and nerves—is not uniform, whereas a stone or a mineral appears in the archetype as a uniformly empty space, around which a radiance of light can also be seen. Just as you walk on solid rocks on Earth, so do you walk there upon the archetypes of physical things. The land of this spiritual world is composed of these. When a person first enters this realm, they always have a very specific vision: this is the moment when they behold the archetype of their own physical body. There, they first see their own body lying clearly before them. For they themselves are, after all, spirit. In the case of a normal earthly life, this occurs about thirty years after death; and at that moment, one has the fundamental sense: “This is you.” — Based on this insight, Vedanta philosophy has coined the phrase “Tat tvam asi—That is you” as a fundamental principle of knowledge. All such expressions are drawn deeply from spiritual insight.

[ 11 ] The second region of the spiritual realm is the oceanic region. Everything that is life here in the physical world—that is, everything that possesses an etheric body—is like a flowing element in the spiritual realm. Flowing, surging life thus courses through the spiritual realm. It also gathers, as in a sea basin, like the water in the sea, or rather, like the blood that flows through the veins and gathers in the heart.

[ 12 ] And third, there is the airy realm of the spirit world, which is formed by all passions, instincts, feelings, and so on. You perceive all of this up there as external sensations, just like the atmospheric phenomena here on Earth. All of this sweeps through the atmosphere of Devachan. As a seer, you can thus perceive in the spirit realm what is being suffered here on Earth and what kind of joy prevails here. Every passion, every hatred, and the like has the effect of a storm in the spirit realm. A battle, for example, has the effect that the seer experiences a thunderstorm in the Devachan world. Thus, the entire spiritual realm is permeated by both wondrous joys and terrible passions. And so one can also speak of spiritual ears. When you have advanced far enough to have gained insight into this Devachan world, then these surging phenomena can be seen and heard by you, and what is thus heard is the harmony of the spheres.

[ 13 ] This is how we have characterized the spiritual realm up to this stage. But there is still a fourth realm in Devachan. So far, we have seen:

[ 14 ] There is, however, something in human life that cannot be found in the external world, and the spiritual content of this constitutes the fourth realm of Devachan. This realm includes every original idea, right up to the creative genius. Everything that is original—that is, everything that a person creates in this world, thereby enriching it—all these archetypes constitute the fourth region of Devachan. With this, we have concluded the description of the lower regions of Devachan.

[ 15 ] In addition, there are three higher realms, which, however, a human being can reach during this life only through higher initiation—that is, only the initiate—and which, after death, are perceptible only to more highly developed individualities. But when such an advanced initiate is able to enter this next higher realm of Devachan, what does he experience there? First of all, something that is referred to in esoteric science as the Akashic Records. Everything that happens in the world and has ever happened is preserved as an impression in a subtle substance that is imperishable. I would like to illustrate this for you with an example: I am speaking to you now; but you would not hear me if my voice could not set the air vibrating. Thus, everything I say is expressed here in the air through subtle forms of movement. These forms of movement naturally pass away; but in that subtle, spiritual substance that we experience when we enter that higher world, everything that occurs here is imprinted, and it remains eternally. Every word, every thought, everything that has ever happened in humanity can be read in this Akashic Record. This requires either initiation or that moment when a person, after death, enters this realm of Devachan—that is, when they have developed to the point where, after death, they are able to perceive this realm of Devachan, which is, after all, a high realm. Then they can look into the past. This Akashic Record is a record in which everything that has ever happened is preserved. It is not actually a record in the physical sense, but rather consists of images. For example, you see Caesar in all the situations of his life; not what he actually did, but the inner impulses that led him to his actions. These Akashic images possess a high degree of vitality, and if one does not know how to interpret them correctly, they can be the cause of great delusions. For example, they are a source of many spiritualistic aberrations—namely, when an Akashic image appears during séances. For example, if you quote Goethe and the Akashic image from November 25, 1797, appears and provides you with information regarding a question: it answers it in the way Goethe would have answered it at that time, had the question been posed to him on November 25, 1797. — Only someone with a deep understanding of the spiritual world can discern whether such a case involves reality or mere phantoms. From such descriptions, you can gain an insight into what these higher realms of the spiritual worlds look like.

[ 16 ] The first experience, then, is the perception of one’s own body; all other experiences originate from this one. At that moment, a person feels a strong sense of liberation from the physical bodies, for it is indeed the blissful moment when he has shed even the last of the bodies—the astral body. Just as a plant wedged in a crevice would experience bliss if it were set free, so this feeling of bliss becomes a fundamental sensation for human beings. This bliss then permeates and transfigures the feelings that were previously experienced in a more earthly manner—for example, those of friendship, which may have undergone certain transformations here and which are deepened and purified on the other side. The mother’s love for her child also undergoes such a purification, and vice versa: the originally animalistic feeling of connectedness, which had already become a moral one here, unfolds in Devachan into an even higher moral power. All bonds formed here on Earth are deepened in the spiritual realm, interpenetrating one another. Through love, human beings already here on earth work their way up from the narrowness of selfishness into the all-encompassing experience of the world. There, however, nothing is closed off from one another or separated; one works for the other, for work is also there the element that sustains, nurtures, and unites the souls, while love is the inexhaustible source of all life.