The Rudolf Steiner Archive

25. Man's Life in the Light of Occult Science

Ladies and Gentlemen!

[ 1 ] In our time, theosophy is meant to be a deepening of our entire cultural life toward the spiritual realm, so that through the theosophical cultural movement, humanity may once again be made aware of the fact that underlying all of our physical, sensory life is the spiritual, the supersensory life.

[ 2 ] The entire theosophical worldview is based on two fundamental truths. The first fundamental truth is that our world—the one perceptible to our senses and our intellect—is underpinned by a supersensible, spiritual world. And the other fundamental truth is that it is possible for human beings to penetrate this supersensible, spiritual world.

[ 3 ] Very soon, however, anyone who adopts this theosophical worldview encounters resistance from some of our contemporaries and from those who claim that our science has moved beyond the prejudice that there is no supraphysical, no supersensory world beyond our physical world.

[ 4 ] Others come and say: Certainly, one may admit that there might be a supersensible, a superphysical world somewhere, but human cognitive powers—one’s powers of perception—are certainly not sufficient to reach such a world. The esoteric or theosophical worldview is intended to make people aware that, while the powers of cognition and the faculties that enable us to perceive the ordinary world around us certainly do not extend into the supersensible world, there are, on the other hand, powers slumbering within every soul which, when awakened, lead human beings into supersensible worlds. And if we wish to clarify, in the spirit of the theosophical worldview, the entire relationship of human beings to the supersensory world, we can best do so through a comparison that demonstrates that it is neither fantasy nor superstition when the theosophist speaks of otherworldly, distant spiritual realms, but rather that these spiritual realms exist just as our world exists.

[ 5 ] Let’s suppose we could lead a person born blind into this room. All around him is darkness and gloom, while around you objects appear in light, color, and brilliance. Everything that surrounds you—none of it exists for the man born blind. The moment we are fortunate enough to operate on this man born blind and restore his sight, light, color, and brilliance emerge from the darkness and gloom. The whole world is now filled with new qualities and realities. And why? Because a sense organ has been opened to him.

[ 6 ] Just as a physical organ is now opened to this person, allowing a profound experience to enter his soul—a new world flooding in—so, too, is it possible for spiritual powers of perception and soul capacities, which lie dormant within every human being, to be awakened, and for unknown worlds filled with spiritual realities and spiritual beings to flood into the human soul. We cannot operate on everyone born blind, but these dormant abilities can be awakened in every human soul, enabling the individual to enter the [spiritual] worlds surrounding him.

[ 7 ] Everything that the spiritual, esoteric, and theosophical movements have to say to people today stems from such higher insights.

[ 8 ] Now, today’s contemporaries—who believe they stand on firm scientific ground—will, for the most part, think that such a worldview will make us out of touch with reality, lead us away from the world, and alienate people from their immediate, practical lives.

[ 9 ] Today we will consider a topic that is particularly well-suited to demonstrating how esoteric science, or theosophy, is uniquely capable—based on its esoteric knowledge—of directly influencing practical life; how, precisely by revealing to us the forces and realities of the spiritual world, it becomes a useful tool for people to navigate life safely and effectively.

[ 10 ] We will trace a human life, a human life course from birth to death, from this theosophical or esoteric perspective, and we will see what practical insights this theosophical school of thought can offer us precisely for such a conception of life that directly addresses everyday life—that which surrounds us.

[ 11 ] We do not wish to speak of what theosophy can offer people in terms of knowledge that extends beyond birth and death; we do not wish to speak of repeated earthly lives; nor do we wish to speak, at least not initially, of the fact that theosophy addresses spiritual causes. We want only to consider the individual human life between birth and death—with all its joys and sorrows, with all its expectations and hopes, and with all the strengths we need to live this life as meaningfully as possible.

[ 12 ] Here we see the human being entering life. But you all know that when a human being enters life, he has already gone through an important, essential stage of life—namely, the stage he must undergo as a human embryo in his mother’s womb. There, they are enveloped by a protective maternal shell; there, they live within this shell. And what is birth, if not the act by which a human being, so to speak, sheds this protective maternal shell and steps out of it, so that their senses and their organism are freely exposed to the world and the elements?

[ 13 ] However, if we wish to consider the effects of this external world on the human organs, we must understand that esoteric teaching does not regard this being merely as what the external senses of human beings perceive—what the eyes see, what the hands can grasp—but rather that, from a theosophical perspective, this is only a part of the whole human being. If physical science regards this one part of the human being as the whole person, then it is unaware of the life that lies behind it in the supraphysical realm.

[ 14 ] In esoteric science, we also speak of other garments, of a second garment; and you will immediately get an idea of what is meant by this second garment when we realize that spiritual science, just like physical science, is grounded in the fact that [in the world of the supermundane] the same substances are united by the same forces as out there in our surroundings of the seemingly lifeless world.

[ 15 ] There is a great difference between how these forces occur in a mineral and how they occur in a human being or in any living being at all. This living being consists of the same forces that exist out there in the inanimate world, in the mineral kingdom; they are so intricately woven together—so intricately—that this combination would immediately disintegrate within itself if there were not, at every moment of life, a force fighting against this disintegration of life. And this fighting force is the second body of the human being. We call it the etheric body or life body. And we say: Every living being has such an etheric body, which, between birth and death, prevents the physical substances and forces from following their own laws. Look at a crystal or another mineral. It has a form with which it presents itself to you. Through its chemical force, it remains as it is.

[ 16 ] No living being could ever remain as it is under the influence of these forces. This becomes evident at the moment of death. Why, then, does the living being become a corpse in terms of its physical body? Why does it die? [Because at the moment of death, the physical body has separated from the etheric body, or life body.] Then the physical body follows its own substances and forces, its own laws, and then it decays.

[ 17 ] However, the humanities are well aware of the objections that the physical sciences raise against the ether. But that is not what we are concerned with today. We simply want to outline, in broad strokes, how we are to view the body according to the teachings of esoteric science.

[ 18 ] So we have this second garment, which at every moment acts as a warrior within us against the decay of physical life. Then there is a third garment. One must picture this third garment as standing before the soul. If you imagine a person standing before you and [you] ask [yourself]: Isn’t there something about this person that is much closer to him than a large part of his physical body and than his etheric body? He would admit: Within the skin of his physical body, he has something that is closer to him than the physical body and the etheric body. There is something even closer, especially if they are a naive person, if they are a person in their natural state who has not yet been convinced through scientific study of what the inner human being—their blood, their nerves, their muscles, everything of which a human being is composed—looks like; these are their drives, instincts, desires, and passions. This is the body of sensation or imagination, which ebbs and flows. This body of sensation or imagination, the bearer of these desires and passions, is the third garment of the human being—the astral body, as it is called in theosophy for certain reasons.

[ 19 ] Humans no longer share this body with plants. They now share this body only with animals. Animals, like humans, have an astral body.

[ 20 ] [But what sets human beings—the crown of earthly creation—apart from animals is the fourth garment.] It is the sum of the forces that compel them to refer to themselves as an “I.” These abilities to identify oneself as an “I” imply more than many people realize.

[ 21 ] This “I”—or, as it is also called, “I am”—was, for example, referred to in Old Testament religions as the “unpronounceable name of God.” Why? Because it was said that everything—absolutely everything else that exists in our surroundings—when it speaks to or seeks to speak to our soul, does so in such a way that it speaks to our soul through the organs of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies.

[ 22 ] But that which flows through the world from divine beings requires no organ to come to life in the soul. It reveals itself to us indirectly within the soul. And when the soul says to itself, “I am”—recognizing its own existence—at that very moment, one rightly speaks of a drop or spark of the divine in the soul.

[ 23 ] Some might object: Then you Theosophists are turning human beings into gods when [you claim] that divine substances are contained within the “I.” Anyone who raises such objections might as well say: If we take a drop from the ocean and claim that this drop is of the same substance and essence as the ocean water, then we are claiming that the drop is the ocean. [Man’s innermost self is of a divine nature. It is a drop, a spark of the ocean, of the Divinity, and therefore man also partakes of the Divinity that flows through the world.] Just as the drop is a part of the ocean, so is man a part of the Divinity.

[ 24 ] These, then, are the four bodies: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the body in which reside the powers that enable a person to say, “I am.”

[ 25 ] If a person were to take even a brief look at the facts of life, one could gain clarity about various aspects of life in relation to these different bodies of the being. One would soon see the difference between sleeping and waking. One would see that during sleep, only the physical and etheric bodies lie in bed. The astral body and the “I” are separated from the physical and etheric bodies, and because the astral body is the bearer of joy, pain, pleasure, and suffering—of all thoughts and feelings—the soul’s experiences descend into unconsciousness when the astral body is separated. Why is this the case? Where, then, is this astral body, where is this “I” during the night?

[ 26 ] It would be illogical if anyone were to say that a person dies every evening and is reborn in the morning. [This is the only way to make sense of it: when one understands that in the morning the “I” and the astral body merge into the physical and etheric bodies, and that the “I” and the astral body use the hands, the eyes, the ears, the entire physical body including the brain—using the physical body as a tool to be able to do everything.]

[ 27 ] The “I” is the spiritual essence of the human being, which in the morning immerses itself in physical life, and in the evening, when the person falls asleep, enters other worlds—spiritual worlds.

[ 28 ] “Why does the human being know nothing of these spiritual worlds?” one might ask. The reason the human being, at his present stage of development, knows nothing of these worlds is simply that this astral body leaves the physical body in the evening [and] the average person today lacks a spiritual organ of perception. But when these spiritual organs of perception—which are the dormant faculties of the soul—are developed, the soul perceives its surroundings at night. And what we have described as the spiritual world surrounding human beings is, at the same time, the world in which the soul dwells at night.

[ 29 ] This is an experience that every person goes through every day as part of the cycle of sleeping and waking. Death, however, involves a completely different experience. Then the physical body separates from the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, which remain together for a short while afterward. And because the physical body now separates from the etheric and astral bodies—because the warrior who was present from birth to death is no longer there—the physical body follows its own forces and laws and falls apart.

[ 30 ] We had to learn this in order to make the course of human life understandable, for from the perspective of spiritual science, at the moment of birth—physical birth—at the very moment the human embryo leaves the mother’s body, only the physical human being is fully born. What is initially exposed to the external elements is, at first, only the physical human body; for from a theosophical standpoint, we speak not of a single birth but of several births, and this concept of multiple births makes the course of human life fully comprehensible to us.

[ 31 ] We are referring first to a second birth in human beings, which occurs around the age of seven—or, more precisely, when a person goes through the process of losing their baby teeth. For many people, the idea of a second birth seems very strange.

[ 32 ] Just as the embryo remains in the womb until physical birth, so too is the human etheric or life body—the second layer of the body—enveloped until the change of teeth by an etheric sheath, the etheric mother, and only gradually, upon the change of teeth, is this etheric sheath pushed away from the human being.

[ 33 ] This may at first seem like a mere theory, but it is not. Only those who know that physical life is born at the moment of physical birth, and that the etheric body does not come into being until the teeth begin to fall out—and that only then does this etheric body freely face the world—can develop principles for the upbringing of a child. Now let us consider what follows from this: As long as the human embryo is in the womb, it does not come into contact with external light or external influences. This would be impossible, since otherwise the embryo would be destroyed. One must wait to expose it to light until the eyes have developed—until the human being is born. Any materialistically minded person can see this. But they are unaware that it is just as harmful for the spiritual human being to allow influences to flow into the etheric body that are not meant to enter until after the teeth have changed, when the etheric body is fully exposed on all sides. This means nothing other than that we must adjust our educational principles accordingly.

[ 34 ] However, up to the age of seven—precisely because only the physical body is exposed to external conditions—special attention must be paid to the development of the body in growing children, for by the time the teeth begin to fall out, all the forms into which the physical body must take shape have been established. And whatever is not predisposed in the body by this time—in terms of both gross and fine forms—is lost for the rest of a person’s life. The human being grows larger, but the forms that become larger are already laid down in their finest details by that point. Therefore, precisely during this time—when one cannot influence the etheric body—one must do everything possible to make these forms as good as they can be.

[ 35 ] We can only cite a few examples that will show how this is done. There is a word that, like a magic word, comes to the fore in the soul’s development during this period up to the age of seven—that is, until the teeth are replaced—and that word is: “imitation.” There is nothing as important for the development of the physical body as imitation. Everything—absolutely everything—that influences a person does so only through imitation. What the child sees in its surroundings affects the person through the senses. And not only physical things, but everything that takes place in the physical world—including the moral aspects the child observes around itself—also initially influences the physical form until the teeth are replaced.

[ 36 ] Imagine a child who, for seven years, has seen nothing but bad and evil things. This affects their physical body. It shapes the brain in such a way that these forms become particularly suited to serving as a special instrument for immoral behavior, and what was neglected to be taught to the child due to ignorance can no longer be remedied through education.

[ 37 ] “Imitation” is the magic word for influencing a child from the outside so that the child can see. You see, it’s a matter of understanding the word “imitation” in the most perfect sense.

[ 38 ] Let me give you an example that will show you that everything we show a child—everything we teach the child as principles—is imitated by the child.

[ 39 ] Let’s take a very good boy—a really quite good boy—who embarrasses his parents by taking some money from the cash register one day. This leads the parents to wonder: How is it possible that a boy we’ve raised this way would take money from the cash register? The child has stolen, the parents think. No, one says from a theosophical standpoint. It is precisely because he is a good boy that he did this. But what have you done? Day after day you did it; every day you took money from the cash box, and the boy saw it every day. He was supposed to do everything his parents do, and that is only right. That is why he took the money now, too. The boy was no thief; he didn’t want to use the money for himself—nor did he—he gave it to another boy. In fact, he demonstrated exceptional moral character precisely through this act. We must make it a rule to do only those things in the presence of children that the child could also do. What the child is not allowed to do must not happen in his presence.

[ 40 ] This is also very important for the physical development of the organs, and only spiritual science can provide the correct principles for this.

[ 41 ] You know that a muscle becomes more malleable when it is used properly. It is precisely at this age that everything must be shaped in a malleable way. The colors in the environment—whether red, blue, green, and so on—all have a specific, profound significance for the development of the internal organs, as far as the physical organs are concerned; and this is precisely where many mistakes are made. For, as you know, there are many people who speak of what used to be called “nervous children”—children who have a very restless disposition. They believe you must introduce green, blue, and dark colors into the environment to calm them down. Others have very calm children; they believe you must dress them in bright, red, and white clothes. The exact opposite is true, because it does not matter how the colors affect these children externally. What matters is how these colors affect the children’s inner being. For example, if you look at a red spot on a black background, you’ll soon notice that green lingers in your vision. This means that while you’re looking at red, your inner organism perceives green. And so, when a child is agitated and you introduce red into their environment, the red won’t affect the child the way you might think. And this is precisely what the child needs until their teeth fall out—that is, until the age of seven. Therefore, you should dress a restless child in red clothes, whereas, conversely, if a child is very calm—too calm, even lethargic—green, blue, and dark colors should be used.

[ 42 ] You have to listen to me very carefully. It’s very easy to raise the following objection, which comes up time and again. People then say to me: “Look, when I put a red shade on the lamp in the evening, it upsets me.” The answer I must then give to such a lady or gentleman is: “Yes, but you’re not a child whose baby teeth are falling out, are you?” Of course, one must not forget that, and one should bear in mind that different conditions apply for further development.

[ 43 ] Once the soul has left the etheric body, the task is to find the right activity for the child, and there are many aspects of life where a materialistic perspective is completely, completely off the mark.

[ 44 ] One might—although those grounded in spiritual science should not do so—one might become sentimental when one looks at the many mistakes made in these fields and their consequences. One could cite many examples from the youth and life of a person who has become a great materialist, who denies everything else because he believes that everything arises from the combination of molecules and atoms. This is because this person did not receive the right toys in childhood that could help them visualize life. For example, if you give a child a toy that allows them to create an entirely new image in their mind by putting blocks together—thereby enabling them to combine elements—this leads to the formation of new forms. Any toy that stimulates the imagination is a proper toy. Such a toy provides the impetus for the child’s development. For example, give a healthy child a doll made from an old handkerchief—with two braids for legs, two braids for hands, and a pair of eyes drawn with ink. In the long run, the healthy child will most likely derive more joy from such a doll than from a real doll with real hair and beautifully painted cheeks, since such a beautiful doll—which is, after all, always quite hideous—is unable to stimulate the child’s creative powers, whereas if you give the child a doll made from a handkerchief, the child will see that it is not a human figure. That is where the imagination, that is where the fantasy must come into play. That is where inner plastic forms come to life—forms that must be brought to life—forms that remain untapped when one gives the child a toy that requires no use of the child’s fantasy or imagination. If you understand that, just as during the change of teeth, the child must develop plastically, you will find in Theosophy many guidelines for the entire process of education, all of which have a sound, deep foundation. We can mention only a few points here, for example regarding children’s nutrition and how the child is to be “shaped.”

[ 45 ] It used to be commonly believed that young children should be fed quite a lot of eggs. Yet the best principle for this age group is to absolutely not exceed the necessary protein requirement, because an excess of protein causes the child to lose its nutritional instincts—the ability to shape its own form. A child who is not given a lot of protein will ask only for what is healthy for him, and that is precisely what the child needs to develop his plasticity. What is contained in protein is something whose power enables the child to create forms that transcend himself, and as a result, sound instincts are not developed. Thus, overfeeding a child with protein stifles this power.

[ 46 ] This, then, is the care of the physical body—the body that is born first. Now, with the change of teeth, the etheric sheath withdraws, and the physical body and the etheric body are now present. Now the time has come to work with all one’s strength from the outside to develop the etheric body. We must therefore first clarify which forces the life body carries. Today we shall focus primarily on the spiritual aspect. This body is, above all, the carrier of memory, and it is also the carrier of worldly imagination. Everything that a person does not grasp through dry intellectual reasoning, but rather through imagery. Once we know and understand this, it becomes clear that at the very moment the etheric body is born, an education must take place that takes this into special account. This, then, is the second birth.

[ 47 ] [The third garment is now still surrounded by an outer shell, a protective covering.] This protective covering, the astral shell, is also withdrawn, pushed back, and shed later on, but not until around the age of fifteen, at the time of sexual maturity.

[ 48 ] In the fifteenth year, the third birth takes place, and everything that, prior to this birth, penetrates the astral body from the outside and exerts its effects—without realizing that it is still enveloped—acts in the same way that light would act upon a seed while that seed is still in the womb. Now, for the second epoch of human development—which extends from the change of teeth, that is, the seventh year, to sexual maturity around the fifteenth year—there is once again a specific path that we must follow. Here, too, there is a magic word that is just as important as imitation during the first seven years, and the word for this second epoch of life is “authority.”

[ 49 ] There is nothing that could ever replace, later in life, the immensely beneficial influence of proper authority during this stage of life. Just as everything around us up to the age of seven inspires imitation, so too do intellectual judgments have no effect whatsoever on a person between the ages of seven and fifteen. No moral principles can influence these young people. This is all a matter of the astral body, and that has not yet even been born. But if we look to the embodiment of ideals and present the child with the right kind of authority, then the right forces are awakened in the soul—forces that could not otherwise be attained later on. If only people knew how vitally important, how significant, proper authority is! This authority is something very important for a person in the course of their life between birth and death. And during this period between the loss of baby teeth and sexual maturity, all instruction and upbringing must be based on it. It is not enough simply to tell the child what is good; we must influence the child through authority. We must teach the child everything it needs to know through images, for only when the child has internalized the image of the various “whys” of nature will it be able, at the birth of the astral body, to receive everything it has hitherto seen in concrete forms as abstract concepts of the intellect.

[ 50 ] It is essential for the child to understand how everything relates to the soul. You must teach this to them through images. If you show a child a butterfly chrysalis and demonstrate how the chrysalis develops until the butterfly emerges, and tell them that the immortal soul leaves the body just as the butterfly flies out of the chrysalis, that is how it enters the other world. Now, in our time, one might object: “But children don’t believe that!” — Do you know why they don’t believe it? Because the teachers, because the educators themselves don’t believe it. Now the materialistically minded person says: “So you’re demanding not only that the children believe it, but also that the teachers believe it!”

[ 51 ] Theosophy seeks to reveal once again how the soul continues to exist after it has left the physical body, just as is the case with the caterpillar and the butterfly. Yes, we will be able to believe in this again, and that is the most beautiful achievement of theosophy—that we see these matters not merely as an intellectual exercise, but that we once again have truths that can also be understood through feeling. When people understand this, faith is passed on to the child as well; and the more the child is expected to grasp of this, and the more one teaches the child about it, the better it is for the child to learn to understand it through imagination. It is quite different whether a child has experienced the mysteries of nature through feeling and thereby arrived at the abstract concept, or whether the child must first understand the dry concept, so that feeling does not come into play. And this feeling has its greatest effect on the development of the etheric body—and that is why special emphasis must be placed on it in education.

[ 52 ] In many parts of Europe today, there is a view that children should not be turned into memory machines. People say that children must learn to think. They are taught that Ix1=1 at a very early age, and children must also learn many other things soon after. But there is nothing worse than having to strain one’s pure intellectual faculties too early. First, a foundation of knowledge must be in place; only then can one assess what one knows. Today, children are taught history without understanding it, since they are not yet capable of judging cause and effect. The child must first have a sufficient number of thoughts, and when the child sees many things in their soul, they can make comparisons. If one knows only a little and begins to judge, one cannot compare, and [then] the person is foolish. There is nothing worse one can do for development during this [stage] of life—when our memory is truly meant to be enriched—than to fail to ensure that the child acquires the ability to compare, which enables them to judge more effectively. This is not yet recognized today, [and it has already led to terrible consequences]. Young people today pass judgment on everything, and we see articles appearing in newspapers written by young people whose astral bodies were only recently formed.

[ 53 ] If one understood how the laws work, one would know that it is only upon reaching sexual maturity—at this time—that the astral body is truly born, and that before this time, the child does not yet possess the ability to judge. The period from the change of teeth to sexual maturity should be guided by the following key concepts: “authority,” “image,” and “memory.” We could cite many examples here, but one thing is particularly essential: as soon as the astral body is born, the development of the emotional faculties and a person’s aesthetic sensibility come into play. Just as the physical body developed during the first seven years and the etheric body from the seventh to the fifteenth year, so now the astral body comes into play. If we wish to assess this correctly, we must gain clarity on many things, since during this period a great many images are presented to the soul. During this time, the individual must have good role models and ideals to strive toward. The magic word for this epoch of human development is: “emulation.” We must present these young people with images of significant men and women and make it clear to them what these people have done in the development of the world. And whatever is neglected during this time in cultivating a sense for beauty and art cannot be made up for later. With sexual maturity, what a person has, so to speak, inherited from previous generations, from the family, and so on, comes to the surface.

[ 54 ] Then, when a person has reached sexual maturity, when he has shed the astral body, the characteristics he has brought with him from previous lives come to light. Their shadows had already fallen upon the young child, but when we look at the essence, what emerges is that which transcends death and birth: individuality.

[ 55 ] At the onset of sexual maturity, the astral sheath is pushed back, and the astral body is set free. And now there comes a time in a person’s life when other things take on greater importance. Now attention is given to education, to the power of judgment, and to a person’s sound judgment. But something else is even more important. What the human being has brought with them from their previous life emerges in a special way—what they wish to shape in this life between birth and death. During this time, the human being is not yet capable of viewing the external world objectively. But what enters the world is of a beautiful, ideal nature. [This nature, too, wants to emerge, and the question here is how this nature—insofar as it manifests as idealism—will approach life as hope.] This hope and this idealism reveal themselves in their true form between the ages of 14 or 15 and 21 or 22. During this time, everything that wants to emerge comes to the surface, even if it contradicts reality. These are all memories from a past life, combined with the new, fresh forces of the astral body. Woe, woe to those whose ideals of hope and expectation are dimmed during this time—to those who are told that a large part of these things will later appear merely as springtime hopes, that these are merely unattainable ideals and hopes. That is not what matters. What matters is not whether the ideals can be attained, but rather the forces that lie within them. These are the beneficial life forces which, if properly nurtured, make our astral body secure and steadfast for life. When we have these ideals, we create a strong third garment for ourselves, and there is nothing worse than failing to ensure that idealism can develop during this time, or opposing this idealism with a philistine attitude that seeks to crush it.

[ 56 ] For it is around the age of twenty that the true self within a person—which until then had been enclosed within its shell—is finally and fully born. And with this, the person enters the world in free interaction; thus, he has become a being who engages with the outside world in a state of absolute freedom.

[ 57 ] Only then is everything that was inside him gone. Now he must develop himself through refinement. This takes a long time—until the age of thirty-five. This is an important year in a person’s life. For those grounded in theosophical spiritual science, this thirtieth year is considered a turning point.

[ 58 ] If we consider the average human life, we will see that the thirty-fifth year marks the year in which everything inherent in a person comes to completion. By this point, he has acquired everything he was able to master. Toward the end of this thirty-five-year period, when a person’s time of learning and wandering is over, they begin to exercise their powers and abilities. But then those powers begin to wane again. At the age of thirty-five, the astral body—which until then had been in free communication with the outside world and in which everything that has been established is imprinted—begins to harden and regress. This continues until the age of forty. This is a crucial phase in human development, for this regression is one side of the matter—and the other side is far more important.

[ 59 ] At the very moment when the outer shell—the astral body—begins to recede, when the forces of the astral body are being consumed, at that very moment the core within the human being—the eternal core—is brought to the fore. If a person has been properly educated, this seed can develop all the more for the time after death. While the temporal aspect fades away, this eternal aspect within the human being grows. This becomes very evident in the fortieth year, when, following the astral body, the etheric body also begins to wither away. Just as it was with the astral body, so it is now with the etheric body, which has now begun to regress. We can see this clearly in many people who, around this time, recall many things they experienced as children—particularly from the ages of seven to fourteen—while they have completely forgotten many things they have experienced recently. These old memories return as the etheric body recedes.

[ 60 ] The final stage is when the physical body begins to decline. Broadly speaking, this is when the physical organs and the entire skeletal system begin to deteriorate. We do not need to describe this physical decline, but we point it out so that you can see what can actually be said specifically about this stage of life.

[ 61 ] Now, none of this is common knowledge anymore, but there were times, a very long, long time ago, when people knew all of this—when, for example, they knew that the thirty-fifth year marks the midpoint of life, and that only after this time, when one is fully at peace with oneself—and that is around the thirty-fifth year—only then is one mature enough to give to others, to share what one has in abundance. It is only after the thirty-fifth year that one has an abundance. Until then, a person must attend to the development of their physical form. So until their thirtieth year, a person is preoccupied with themselves. Once they have nothing left to do with themselves—only after the age of thirty-five, because that is when the physical body begins to decline—the forces that previously flowed into their physical body and spiritual body then flow out to influence their surroundings. In times when people had an inkling of these things, this thirty-fifth year was therefore considered so important. People were not considered capable of sound judgment until they had reached the age of thirty-five, when they had received all their forces. It was said that only then did a person become capable of sound judgment. Others were then expected to heed their judgment once they no longer had anything to do with themselves; and this judgment remained valid as long as the person retained their astral body. When the etheric body begins to fade, his judgment is not only authoritative in the sense that one should listen to it; rather, it is authoritative in the sense that one must accept it as something that applies not only to him but also to the community within which he finds himself.

[ 62 ] In ancient times, when this was understood—when it was known that one who had reached this age no longer needed to add anything to his etheric body, since it was already in decline—at this age, a person could offer his judgment to the community council. In the times when this was known, when life was understood in this way, people organized their lives accordingly, and they spoke of something wonderful in those times when they sensed these things. It was said: Only when a person has reached that stage of life in which his physical body gradually decays, so that he no longer makes any demands and his time is running out—only then can one listen to him; only then is his judgment sublime. One can accept his judgment. Such things existed, and many were aware of them.

[ 63 ] I’ll just remind you of one fact. Just read the beginning of Dante’s Commedia. Then read how he describes what he experienced, where he writes that the most powerful experience of his life occurred in the middle of his life—that is, when Dante was thirty-five years old. That was when he underwent this initiation, which could be called the “initiation into the mysteries of existence.” And there is a secret training, an initiation into the mysteries of existence, in special schools—mystery schools—under conditions in which a person is never deemed ready to speak of the facts of esoteric science if they still have something to do with themselves, if they are not already on the downward path.

[ 64 ] If you consider all of this from the perspective of spiritual science, you will see that, on the one hand, there is a path along which the various bodies—the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body—develop, and a path along which these bodies regress; an ascending and a descending path. It is along the latter path, however, that the eternal aspect within the human being grows, that the source diminishes, and that the human being must then pass through the gate of death. Then the forces that have formed in a mysterious way within the sheaths come to the fore. And the more a person strives in his life to develop himself, and the more he applies theosophical views in the practical world, the better he has understood the true spirit of them.

[ 65 ] We have now seen that we have derived directly practical principles from these theosophical views, and yet there are a great many people who say: There are such strange people in the world who call themselves Theosophists, who claim such strange things about a world that [supposedly] still exists [but about which we can know nothing]. A reasonable person considers all this to be fantasy. — One can say all that, but we assume that such people will go so far as to say: Well, if you meet such a Theosophist and talk to them, they do seem to have a reasonable judgment on other matters. So let’s hear them out, even if they tell us something we can’t yet understand directly; perhaps there is something good in what these strange people claim, but it’s worth a try.

[ 66 ] One can use life itself as proof. One can use life to prove what is right. All this talking and debating is only partially effective, but it is not the right approach. Through debate, one can, in fact, prove anything one wants. It is the same with remedies. The healer believes that his remedy is the best. But someone else may come along and say that what he has is definitely better—that his remedy is, in fact, the very best there is. Then yet another person may come along and say, “None of this is worth anything,” and he proves it as well. Such discussions get us nowhere. The only way to make progress is by using the remedy. If this remedy helps, then it’s proven to be effective. If it doesn’t help, then it isn’t proven.

[ 67 ] If Theosophy is to have an impact on our lives, then life itself must be the proof of such things. Let people dare to place their lives under the facts that Theosophy speaks of. They will then see that people rise to a higher level, healthy in body and soul, and that they will develop more fully. You will see that life itself is proof of the truth of what theosophy has to offer, and if you place your entire life under the guidance of these views and facts, you will see that your whole life will unfold more beautifully. You will see that there is no need for our abilities and our hopes to fade away because of this. If we fail to prove to you the truth of our views, then they were not true for you. But we know that what we say is true. We feel and know that the temporal dies, that the eternal grows. We are moving toward the moments when we are to pass through the gate of death.

[ 68 ] Thus, Theosophy—the spiritual science—provides us with the means to intervene in a healthy way in our immediate, practical lives, and the lives upon which these influences have taken effect will provide the best proof of their truth. People today need this influence of theosophy in their everyday lives. And life becomes healthy, fresh, hopeful, and productive when a person understands, through the powerful forces of the Spirit that underlie everything, all that confronts them in the external world. Then everything will be a reflection of spiritual realities. Then, in all truth, Spirit will meet Spirit in the course of development, and when Spirit is kindled by Spirit in the course of evolution, then this development will truly move forward, upward—toward the salvation of all life, toward the salvation of all existence.