The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. The Relationship of the Self to the Other Elements

[ 1 ] The undeveloped person follows his instincts; the average person strikes a balance between them, refining and purifying them. This work is carried out by all of humanity. The “I” carries out this work on the astral body, which integrates itself into the human being as a higher entity. The astral body consists of two parts: one that the human being possessed before humanity entered into it; the other he has transformed into the spiritual self. A person in whose soul nothing occurs anymore that stirs passions and desires has transformed his astral body into the spiritual self. From the middle of the Atlantean era into the distant future, human beings must carry out this work through their “I.”

The formation of the Manas, or spiritual self, on the astral body,
the formation of the life spirit on the etheric body,
and the formation of the spiritual human being on the physical body is the work of the “I” and is systematically carried out by students of occultism.

[ 2 ] The refinement of the astral body through the acquisition of intellectual abilities is like the minute hand of a clock; the transformation of the etheric body through the refinement of the temperaments and moral abilities is like the hour hand of a clock. The most powerful impulses for moral change come from religions; they emanate from the great religious founders, and also through genuine art—an art in which the divine permeates sensory forms.

[ 3 ] The etheric body also consists of two parts: one that a person is born with, and the other that they transform into the life spirit. This is achieved through conscious, systematic spiritual work, which then becomes more firmly established than what is [inherited]. The effect of such work can then be applied to the physical body; this task is not the lowest, but the highest; it requires the strongest forces.

[ 4 ] The physical body is a structure full of wisdom that is less well understood by humans than the astral body. We know more about our instincts, passions, and desires than we do about how blood cells move. What do we know about the functions of the spleen, liver, gallbladder, and pineal gland? The latter was once active in clairvoyance; it will be restored to that capacity.

[ 5 ] It is not through anatomy, [not] by dissecting corpses, that a person will come to know their own body, but through inner contemplation, through mastery over the body. The first step toward this will be the transformation of the breathing process. Breath is the breath that, as it were, breathes into itself; that is why “Atma” means “spiritual human.” This “I,” with its bodies, is at the same time an imprint of the universe. With every stage a person reaches, their penetration into the cosmos expands.

[ 6 ] It is dangerous, and it is an easy way out, to speak of Theosophy as if it were the soul’s merging with the universe. Merging with the universe can only be achieved gradually through the deification of the human being.

The three fundamental aspects of the “I”:
the astral body, transformed into Manas or the mental self,
the etheric body, transformed into Budhi or the life spirit,
the physical “I,” transformed into Atma or the spiritual human.

[ 7 ] The “I” is not entirely easy to understand; it arises through work on the lower members, and must be trained to that end.

[ 8 ] After the Atlantean era, human beings began to work on the Manas. During the Lemurian era, it entered the physical body. Before that, only the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body existed. There was an intermediate stage lasting until the middle of the Atlantean period before work on the Manas could begin. Three stages were prepared to develop the ability to bring forth the “I”: the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. To the extent that the “I” is conscious, it works on the astral body within the intellectual soul. Just as a sword rests in its sheath, so does the feeling soul rest within the soul body. The “I” first imparts life to the feeling soul, the intellectual soul, and the consciousness soul within the astral body, and works on the spiritual self, the life spirit, and the spiritual human within the etheric body.

[ 9 ] In the Nordic druidic schools, there were nine aspects of the human being; in Egypt, there were seven. The Nordic students distinguished, within the astral body or Kama-Rupa, the sensory soul in the soul body, and within the higher Manas, the consciousness soul and the spiritual self.

[ 10 ] According to the sevenfold classification, five aspects have developed, while two—Budhi and Atma—are still in their embryonic stage.

[ 11 ] When a person falls asleep, the physical and etheric bodies remain in bed; the astral body, the “I,” and everything that develops through the “I” withdraw. Dreaming is an intermediate state in which the astral body is still connected to the etheric body in a certain way. Strictly speaking, the astral body should also be outside the body; however, one should not imagine this “being outside” in a literal sense. The astral body is drawn out along with its forces; this must be understood dynamically, not spatially. As long as the astral body is within the physical body, the person thinks and feels; all conscious activities take place through the eyes, ears, and so on. All of this subsides when the astral body withdraws; fatigue sets in, giving way to refreshment in the morning.

[ 12 ] Where, then, do the forces come from that strengthen and heal human beings? A person lies in bed with their physical [body] and etheric body; they are in a vegetative state when they sleep, while the soul returns to its higher, radiant home, the astral plane. For those who are not yet trained, all experiences are lost in a higher world. More highly developed beings then find themselves in a surging world of flowing sound formations. At first, silence reigns, but spiritual ears hear a new world of sound. It is possible to hear the interrelationship of the planets connected to our Sun. For those who observe the starry sky according to the Ptolemaic system, the stars appear to move. Divided into 360 degrees, each star moves one degree further relative to the others in one hundred years. Saturn moves 1,200 times as fast, Jupiter two and a half times as fast; Jupiter moves five times as fast relative to Mars, and Mars moves twice as fast as the Sun, Venus, and Mercury—from an occult perspective. The ratio of Mercury to the Moon is twelve to one.

[ 13 ] Depending on the speed of its motion, each celestial body produces a different tone; the resulting harmony is the music of the spheres or spherical harmony. These tones move and float in astral substances and forces. Just as we do not see the stars during the day, the soul departs from its home; at night, it returns there, to a blissful, comforting element. The soul plunges into the cosmic worlds that belong to the sun, and in their vibrations, the soul renews its strength.

[ 14 ] Paracelsus had the right term for this condition; he says: A peaceful sleep must always bring health; insomnia and insufficient sleep shorten one’s physical life.

[ 15 ] After death, only the physical body remains, and [it is] left to the dissolution of its matter and forces. The etheric body no longer works to counteract this dissolution. This state—in which the etheric body remains united with the deceased without the physical body—can last two to three days; it can last approximately as long as a person could endure without sleep. During this time, everything the person has experienced from birth until losing consciousness at death passes before their eyes. No pain or pleasure is associated with these memories; the images are objective, passing by as in a panorama. This is because the etheric body, through the “I,” has the ability to form memories; it is the bearer of memory. It is an experience that the etheric body is separated from the physical body after death.

[ 16 ] A finger contains muscles and nerve nodes; these nodes are immersed in the substance of the etheric body, much like inside a hollow sphere. When a limb falls asleep, we experience a tingling sensation. This stems from a partial separation from the etheric body. Hypnosis is dangerous because it can lead to a persistent tendency to force the etheric body out. For a brief moment, the etheric body can leave the physical body due to a startle, a fall, or similar events; if the person remains conscious during this, life appears as an image. This is proof [that] the etheric body mediates memory.

[ 17 ] When a person is freed from the physical body through death and enters the etheric body, they take with them an essence of life—an extract that joins the others like a new leaf, or a link in a chain. In this way, the “I”—the bearer of the causes of all future wanderings—is enriched.