The Rudolf Steiner Archive

23. The Starry Sky Above Me, the Moral Law Within Me

[ 1 ] Theosophy teaches us that the processes between death and rebirth relate to the conditions of the cosmos. The soul is subject to a very important contrast: during physical existence we can allow changes to take place within ourselves, but not between death and rebirth. For example, between birth and death we had a certain relationship with a person, we experienced something together with a friend; now, after his death, we have learned something about him that we did not experience with him here on earth. How do we shape the relationship after death? How can we make our feelings toward him sympathetic or antipathetic? If we ourselves have already passed through the gate of death and someone follows us with whom we had a certain relationship in physical life, this must remain unchanged long after death, for after death we can no longer add anything new to the old existing relationship. We are subject to our own karma after we have entered the spiritual world. The moment of transformation of this karma only occurs in a new life; only in a new incarnation can it be balanced. A physically dead person cannot influence other physically dead people in the spiritual realm in the sense of changing their lives. But the living have the opportunity to exert an influence on those who have passed away.

[ 2 ] Let us take the following case, for example: Two people who love each other have different relationships to theosophy; one loves it, the other hates it. There is a spirit of opposition between the two souls. If human beings can speak of freedom of will, it is because the ego consciousness in the human soul goes much deeper than the astral consciousness, so that we often long for what we consciously hate in the depths of our souls. How can we help the dead? To do this, we must be connected to them through a spiritual bond. For example, we can help them by reading silently to them, we can unite ourselves warmly with them and send them trains of thought, ideas, and images into the higher worlds. Such acts of friendship always have a good effect. Reading aloud is also good if the person was too indifferent or too comfortable in their earthly life. We can indeed ease their suffering, even if we have no proof that they longed for it in life. We often experience that much blessing is sent out from the physical plane into the spiritual worlds, despite the enormous gulf that exists between life between birth and death and life between death and new birth.

[ 3 ] Many living people will feel that they are in close connection with the dead, and at the same time be aware that they themselves are helping the dead. The first souls with whom we come into contact after death are those with whom we had already established close relationships on earth; they cannot be those whom we did not know here. Earthly life finds an immediate continuation after death. The soul is in the objects it perceives, filling them.

[ 4 ] During the Kamaloka period, the etheric form of human beings expands more and more, so that its outermost boundary is encircled by the orbit of the moon. All human beings fill the same space enclosed by the moon's orbit; they do not get in each other's way during the Kamaloka period. After this period, we become inhabitants of Mercury, as we were previously inhabitants of the moon, then inhabitants of Venus, then inhabitants of the sun. Here we are dealing with a higher level of spirituality; the astral realm of the moon sphere has been overcome. Life on each planet depends on the state of soul acquired during the lunar period. Those who are moved by moral compassion live differently from egoists and open themselves to humanity. In particular, we will be able to establish relationships with those with whom we were already together in earthly life. The nature of these relationships will depend on the comfort and torment we have given each other. A person with little morality will become a spiritual hermit, while a moral person will become a sociable inhabitant of Mercury during the Mercury period.

[ 5 ] In the next period, during the Venus state, we will expand so far that we will fill the space to the outer limits of the Venus sphere. Those who were not religious, who did not absorb the eternal and divine within themselves, who were unable to form spiritual and emotional relationships with other human souls during the Mercury period, will also become hermits during the Venus period, while we will be sociable beings there if we were together with like-minded beings during the Mercury period and developed religious warmth among ourselves. Atheists will become hermits in the Venus period, monists will have to live in the prison of their own souls, so that one cannot approach the other. To be a hermit means to have a dull consciousness that does not encompass others; to be a sociable being means to have a bright consciousness that penetrates into others. Of course, human beings always ascend to the star worlds, but the more dimly they experience a region, the faster they race through the ages and thus come more quickly to reincarnation, for example, those who lived as criminals or idiots in their previous existence. The brighter the consciousness was in the star world, however, the slower the soul returns to incarnation. One must have become fully conscious out in the cosmos in order to be able to develop one's later physical brain. The next state is that of the sun dweller. It takes place about a century after the death of the human being. In the sun period, one has the opportunity to gain a certain relationship with all human beings. When a person has opened themselves to the Christ impulse, their soul is open to everyone. Since the mystery of Golgotha was accomplished, we can connect with the Christ impulse, the greatest spiritual force. But those who have not accepted the Christ impulse remain hermits even in the sun period.

[ 6 ] We must draw attention to something else. When a person appears to the clairvoyant with his aura during the lunar period, the clairvoyant sees that a core appears in the enormous etheric body, which appears in a cloud-like aura. This is equally dark on all sides and remains so during the Mercury period. During the Venus period, a light appears on one side of the cloud, and when we then look at the person as clairvoyants, we find that from that point on, if they were a moral, religious person, they were able to establish relationships with beings of the higher hierarchies. If the person was a good person, they live in spiritual contact with higher beings during the Venus period; if they were not good, they cannot recognize these beings and thus condemn themselves to the torment and pain of a hermit's life.

[ 7 ] Before the Mystery of Golgotha, in the first cultural epoch of the post-Atlantean period, the sun was such that the throne of Christ could be seen, as it were, on the sun's body. Those who were good in life encountered the being of Christ on the solar plane. During the Zarathustra period, Christ was already on his way to Earth, and human beings could not find him on the sun. Since the mystery of Golgotha, Christ has been united with the earth. If people on earth have not taken the Christ impulse into themselves, they cannot find Christ between death and a new birth. Once one has become a sun dweller and has woven the Christ impulse into oneself, one is confronted with a multitude of facts that we call the Akashic Chronicle of the sun. If one has not found Christ on Earth, one cannot read the Akashic Records on the Sun either. We can learn to read this writing if we have accepted the mystery of Golgotha with a warm heart on Earth. Then, on the Sun, we learn to read what Christ has been doing on the Sun for millions of years. According to our present circumstances, we are strong enough to become inhabitants of the Sun. Later we will reach Mars, then Jupiter and Saturn, then the world of fixed stars. Upon returning here, our etheric body will become smaller and smaller until we are so small that we can reincarnate in a new human germ.

[ 8 ] Until the time of the Sun, we are under the leadership of Christ. From then on, we need a guide to lead us from the sun further out into the cosmos. Lucifer now comes to our side. If we fall prey to him on the physical plane, that is bad, but if we have had the right understanding of the Christ impulse on earth, we are strong enough on the sun to follow Lucifer without danger. From then on, he ensures the inner progress of the soul, just as Christ has ensured our ascent to that point on this side of the sun. If we have acquired the Christ impulse on earth, Christ is the preserver of the soul on the path to the sun. Outside the solar circle, Lucifer is the leader in the cosmic universe; within it, he is the tempter.

[ 9 ] If we are equipped with the Christ impulse at the time of the Sun, Christ and Lucifer guide us as brothers. How differently the same words of Christ and Lucifer can be understood! The words of Christ are a wonderful guiding principle: “The divine spark lives in you; you are gods.” And Lucifer's great temptation: “You will be like God.” These are two identical statements, but they are the most terrible opposites! Everything depends on where man stands here: on the side of Christ or on the side of Lucifer.

[ 10 ] Theosophy gives us a significant understanding of the world. Something like knowledge must come to us in the physical body. Through Theosophy, we must acquire an understanding of Christ and Lucifer on Earth, otherwise we will not consciously enter the world space.

[ 11 ] Now the time is beginning on earth when people must become aware of whether it is Christ or Lucifer who whispers their words into our souls after death. We must learn to understand Christ in the right way in the life between birth and death, so that we do not have to wander through the worlds in a sleeping state from the time of the sun.

[ 12 ] Theosophy must also become meaningful to us in relation to the little things in life. It will become increasingly clear what life forces can be acquired between death and rebirth. People will be born with withered bodies because they have not prepared themselves to draw forces from the cosmos through their rejection of Theosophy. For the sake of the Earth's development, people must gain an understanding of Theosophy! To know that before this life you were in a spiritual world will make people happy once they have opened themselves to Theosophy. “The starry sky above me, the moral law within me” is what makes the world great. Man says to himself: What is my inner life, I have absorbed in the starry world; what I experienced in the world space now shines in my soul. You have evil impulses in your soul because during your starry life you did not try to absorb their forces and the spiritual forces of Christ. We must learn to become related to the macrocosm. Today, human beings can only guess and feel what happens between death and a new birth.

[ 13 ] They feel: In earthly existence, you live in your soul and harbor forces from the starry sky in your spirit. When human beings meditate on this sentence in the right way, it becomes a force of tremendous significance.