The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] In the course of these lectures, we have spoken about the ascent of clairvoyant consciousness into the worlds where the true nature of the human being—which belongs entirely to the supersensible worlds—can be explored. And in the last few days we have attempted to show how the human soul, when it ascends beyond the threshold, first passes through the elemental world and then enters the spiritual world, and how this soul encounters what might be called the human being’s other self. One could also characterize this ascent in this way.

[ 2 ] At first, the human being lives within his physical body in the physical-sensory world. When he sheds his physical body—that is, when he leaves his physical body—he first lives in his etheric body and dwells there in the elemental world as his environment. As I said, tomorrow I will point out to those who might suspect contradictions how the terms used here relate to the terms in my *Theosophy*. In their etheric body, human beings live in the elemental environment. When the human being then also sheds his etheric body, he ascends into the truly spiritual world; this then becomes his environment, and he is in his astral body. In his astral body, the human being thus experiences his other self, which passes from incarnation to incarnation, and of which we have been able to emphasize that it is experienced as if one were, so to speak, a third party facing two other realities. Like a point-like being, one stands before what one might call one’s past self—that which one brings as memory into the spiritual world, and which one has thereby transformed into the spiritual by carrying it upward. And this past self then begins a conversation in the region where the beings of thought hold their spiritual conversations. Such a spiritual conversation begins there, and one must listen—as if newly born—in the spiritual world to what one’s own past speaks to the spiritual surroundings, and through this, as a being of thought, one matures and grows oneself.

[ 3 ] Now, there are various things to observe in this process of growing into the spiritual worlds. To ensure we understand each other clearly, let us first consider, so to speak, the ideal, normal ascent into the spiritual world—that is, an ascent that would occur in a soul that is free from any kind of disturbance. One might well say that such a soul hardly exists. That is why I endeavored not only to describe the spiritual path in general terms, but also to portray it as dramatically as I have done, because every soul starts from a specific point of departure, and therefore a normal, ideal ascent cannot actually exist. Every soul has its own individual spiritual path. Of course, this can only be demonstrated by showing, through individual souls such as Maria, Johannes Thomasius, Capesius, and Strader, what the individual ascent looks like for these specific souls. But let us set that aside for a moment. Let us consider what it would be like if a soul’s ascent could be a normal, ideal one—that is, if all the most ideal conditions were fulfilled for crossing the threshold, for ascending into the spiritual worlds. Then, when a person encountered their other self in the spiritual world, they would not be able to experience this as one might experience a photograph of oneself, but rather what is subjective in the physical-sensory world and in the elemental world—what lives within the soul in abstract subjectivity, what constitutes the soul’s powers: thinking, feeling, and willing—which we say we possess within ourselves—we no longer possess within ourselves. This thinking, feeling, and willing that we have in the physical world confronts us objectively when we encounter our other self in the spiritual world, and indeed as a triad. And I tried to portray this triad that one encounters—and toward which one must have consciousness within oneself, for this triad is oneself—in the figures of Philia, Astrid, and Luna. These figures are entirely real; they are present in the spiritual world as often as there are individual human souls. Once you have recognized them, you recognize them just as you know all grains of oats once you have become acquainted with a single grain of oats. But one must be clear that what is otherwise only a shadow image, a faint shadow image in the human soul, then, when one encounters one’s other self, confronts one as a living triad, as a truly differentiated triad, a triad differentiated into three beings. One is Philia, Astrid, Luna oneself. Yet these are nonetheless entirely independent beings of thought.

[ 4 ] And what one must then possess in the strengthened soul is the awareness that one is the unity of these three beings. One must also be aware that what is called thinking, feeling, and willing is a maya—namely, the shadow cast into the soul by these three. The pathological aspect of the soul could consist either in not recognizing oneself in the spiritual world as these three beings, in regarding these three as beings that have nothing to do with oneself, or in being unable to hold fast to the unity, but rather regarding oneself in such a way that one part of the soul is Luna, another is Astrid, and yet another is Philia. But to see this other self in its full triunity requires precisely a normal, ideal course of development of the soul, such as can scarcely be found in a human soul.

[ 5 ] If we consider what may exist, what can become real in the true sense, we must say: We have already pointed out that the beings known as Ahriman and Lucifer send their impulses into the physical-sensory world. We have encountered them, Ahriman and Lucifer, in the most diverse realms of the physical world. — But the human soul comes into contact with Ahriman and Lucifer to a much more intense degree, much more strongly, when it embarks on the path of clairvoyant consciousness. When it steps out of the physical world and attempts to penetrate the higher worlds, then Ahriman and Lucifer approach this human soul; then they attempt to accomplish many things with this soul. To gain some insight into the deeds of Ahriman and Lucifer in this realm, the following should be mentioned.

[ 6 ] The human soul is truly a rather complex entity, and as such, we possess within ourselves all sorts of things that contradict one another, that we cannot control, and that lie in the depths of the soul without our conscious mind having a proper understanding of them. I have already mentioned the following. When one enters the elemental world, the experience can be compared to the grotesque image of sticking one’s head into an anthill; that is, one plunges one’s consciousness into the elemental world in such a way that individual thoughts become distinct thought-beings, that they begin to lead an independent life, and one immerses one’s consciousness into this life. Now, for the clairvoyant soul, the following becomes apparent. Human beings always have certain things in their souls that they do not, so to speak, fully control, for which they have particular affections. In relation to such things—which are of such a nature that the human being is connected to them in a very peculiar way through their inner being—Ahriman unfolds a particular activity. There are parts of the human soul that can, so to speak, be detached from the whole of that human soul. Because the human being does not exercise complete control over such inclusions, Ahriman sets his sights on them. And through Ahriman’s unjust activity—which arises from his overstepping his bounds— then the tendency arises that those parts of the human etheric being and also of the human astral being which have a propensity to separate from the rest of the soul life and become independent allow themselves to be shaped by Ahriman, so that he gives them human form. Essentially, the situation with all manner of thoughts that reside within us is such that they can take on human form. When a person encounters this thought as a thought-being, when Ahriman has the opportunity to make such a part of the human soul independent, to give it human form, and one lives into the elemental world, then one faces this independent part of one’s being as one’s double. It is always a part of the human soul to which Ahriman gives the form of a human figure. One must simply realize that when one enters the elemental world, when one is outside one’s physical body, many things change in the overall circumstances. When one is inside one’s physical body, one cannot face oneself; but when one enters the elemental world in one’s etheric body, one can be inside it and yet see it from the outside, just as one sees one’s double. This is what is meant by the double. It is, in essence, if one speaks in substantive terms, a large part of the etheric body itself. While one retains a part of it, another part separates itself and becomes objective. One looks at it; it is a part of one’s own being to which Ahriman has given the form that one oneself possesses. For Ahriman attempts, so to speak, to force everything into the laws of the physical world. In the physical world, the spirits of form reign, and they share this dominion with Ahriman, so that Ahriman can indeed accomplish with a part of the human being what can be described as the shaping of a part of the human being into a double.

[ 7 ] This encounter with a doppelgänger is—relatively speaking—a basic phenomenon, and it can occur through specific subconscious impressions and impulses of the human soul, even if the person is not clairvoyant. The following may happen: A certain person may be a schemer, may have caused harm to various people through his schemes. He may have gone out once again and hatched some scheme. He returns to his apartment, perhaps enters his study; on his desk may lie papers containing the details with which he orchestrated the schemes, and it may happen to him—even though he may be cynical in his conscious mind—that his subconscious is nevertheless seized by those impulses of scheming. He enters his study, looks toward his desk, and lo and behold: he is sitting there himself. That is an unpleasant encounter, when one steps through one’s own door into the room and sees oneself sitting at the desk. But such things belong to the realm of what happens very often and what can then easily occur precisely when such scheming takes place. The one one encounters there is indeed the double, whom I have again attempted to portray in other works, in *The Guardian of the Threshold* and in *The Awakening of the Soul*. We know that this double is experienced by Johannes Thomasius, and it is connected to the peculiar development of Johannes Thomasius that he has the encounter with the double at the points where it is shown, because through the peculiar experiences he has had, Ahriman is able to shape a part of his soul in such a way that this part of the soul is substantially filled with selfish soul elements as part of the etheric body. Something like this occurs when the preconditions are created, as in the case of Johannes Thomasius. You can glimpse a little into the peculiar soul of this Johannes Thomasius through the four dramas. At the end of *The Guardian of the Threshold*, a certain point of development in the soul of Johannes Thomasius is also hinted at. Such a point of development can occur for many souls who seek the path upward into the supersensible worlds.

[ 8 ] Let us briefly summarize the situation regarding Johannes Thomasius. If we look back at *The Gate of Initiation*, we see Johannes Thomasius, so to speak, experiencing the higher world. But how does he experience it? One might well say: If one takes only this part of the dramas, “The Portal of Initiation,” and considers Johannes Thomasius within it, he does not actually get very far. He does not get beyond what one might call imaginative soul experiences, with all their one-sidedness and flaws. Everything depicted there consists of subjective experiences, with the exception of the scenes that do not belong to the plot—the prologue and the interlude before the eighth scene. But everything else there consists of Johannes Thomasius’s subjective imaginative experiences. Johannes does not go beyond this stage in “The Gate of Initiation.” This is also quite explicitly indicated by the fact that it is clearly described that in all scenes, with the exception of the two mentioned, Johannes is always on stage—which is, of course, quite difficult for the actor. And everything is conceived in Johannes’s soul as imaginative insight. Even if, at the end of *The Portal of Initiation*, Johannes Thomasius speaks all manner of words in the temple that have theoretical objective validity, it should be noted that in the various temples, some people speak words for which they are by no means ready, words they must first grow into. That is not the decisive factor; rather, one recognizes from the entire presentation that one is dealing here with the subjective imaginings of Johannes Thomasius.

[ 9 ] The matter continues in the “Examination of the Soul,” where a higher ascent is brought about by Johannes gaining impressions from earlier earthly lives—which is not merely imagination—where the matter extends into the objective world, where one is dealing with spiritual facts that exist as such, separate from the soul of Johannes Thomasius. In the “Trial of the Soul,” we step out of Johannes Thomasius’s subjectivity into the objective world. Thus, one can view these first two sections as Johannes Thomasius gradually detaching himself from his inner self and stepping out into the outer spiritual world. Precisely for this reason—because Johannes undergoes the first stage of the actual initiation during the “Trial of the Soul”—it was only natural that Lucifer should gain that tempting influence depicted at the end of the “Trial of the Soul.” And with that, in turn, was given what a soul such as that of Johannes Thomasius can undergo, and what is hinted at in “The Guardian of the Threshold.”

[ 10 ] In *The Guardian of the Threshold*, Johannes Thomasius is placed within the objective spiritual world, where—though still driven by his work—he initially confronts Ahriman more subjectively, absorbing from him the egoistic tendencies he develops in opposition to the divine world order. But then the objective experiences begin, in which Lucifer reigns. Here we are no longer dealing with merely subjective experiences, but with the representation of the spiritual world, detached from the human being, which is experienced in the spiritual realm just as the outer physical world is experienced in the physical realm. But Johannes Thomasius, so to speak, only then enters the objective spiritual world. Therefore, he can still bring with him all the possibilities of deviation of the human soul, above all the peculiar relationship to Theodora. One must only grasp this relationship as it is meant. One might say that Johannes enters this higher world with all the dross of the lower self, but he stands before the higher world. And if I were to describe the matter in rather crude terms, I would say: Johannes Thomasius falls in love with Theodora in an occult sense. — Thus, in the relationship between Johannes Thomasius and Theodora, certain impulses from the physical world are carried up into the higher world. Passing through all of this, Johannes Thomasius arrives at what is hinted at at the end of “The Guardian of the Threshold.” Johannes Thomasius arrives at an experience of the ordinary self, which belongs to the physical world and the elemental world, which one carries with oneself when one walks through the world as a human being, and of the other self, which one encounters when one enters the spiritual world. Both in the ninth image, the walk, and in the temple before Hilarius, Johannes Thomasius arrives at what one might call his inner sensing of both the one self and the other self. One notices, however, that Johannes Thomasius has not yet fully established order regarding the harmony between the ordinary self and the other self, that he lives back and forth between the two selves. If one considers that Johannes Thomasius stands at the end of “The Guardian of the Threshold” and thus at the beginning of “The Awakening of the Soul” like a soul that feels within itself the co-operation of the ordinary and the other self, then one will understand that there are many things in Johannes Thomasius’s soul that can, so to speak, be brought to the surface. The double is first brought to the surface by Ahriman. But something can also be brought to the surface from it in other ways.

[ 11 ] I emphasize that I am not describing these things to comment on the dramas, but to use what is depicted in the dramas to portray real spiritual conditions and spiritual realities. When one considers human karma, the entire law of human destiny, one must say: In the human soul there is much karma that has been worked out, but also much that has not. — In one’s past earthly life, one has experienced many things that must be balanced out. There is much that has not yet been balanced, which lies, so to speak, unbalanced at the bottom of the soul—unbalanced karma. Every soul has such unfulfilled karma. Johannes Thomasius must bring a particularly large amount of unfulfilled karma to consciousness where his inner being splits into the ordinary self and the other self. And there, quite a great deal of unresolved karma separates itself off. That which separates itself off is something that every soul who gradually develops clairvoyance actually perceives as separate, often quite easily. A soul that does this is, of course, born—that is, enters physical existence through birth in such a way that it initially experiences itself with the qualities one has as a young person. One does not always find souls so inclined that one is made into an Arishnamurti. One enters the world just as natural children enter it for their own benefit and advantage, even if they later become clairvoyant personalities. Then, at some point, one can see a spark of insight—which is also karmically determined—into the spiritual worlds. But it often happens—and it is important that it happens—especially with the clairvoyant soul, when it has something extraordinarily melancholic in its mood, something tragic, that this clairvoyant soul then experiences a viewing of its own youth as an objective entity. A vision of one’s youth arises—a youth one has outgrown, of which one asks: What would have become of this youth, which is almost foreign to one, had one not entered into the spiritual, clairvoyant realms?—A kind of division within the human being truly takes place. One experiences something like a rebirth, and one looks upon one’s youth as upon a foreign entity. And in this youth lies a great deal of what one says cannot be worked out in this incarnation at all. There is much karma buried within it that must be worked out at a later time, or against which one must strive to work it out already now. There is much of such unworked-out karma in the soul of Johannes Thomasius.

[ 12 ] Such unresolved karma, such an experience as looking back on one’s youth as if it were another being, is something one experiences within oneself. Lucifer has access to such an experience; Lucifer can extract it; he can take a substantial part of the etheric body and, as it were, animate it with the unresolved karma. Then, under Lucifer’s influence, a shadow being emerges from it—a shadow being such as is depicted in the spirit of the young Johannes Thomasius. Such a shadow being is a real being; it is there, separate from Johannes Thomasius, only that it performs gruesome deeds because it actually contradicts the general world order. What is outside as a shadow being should be inside Johannes. This gives rise to what one perceives as the tragic fate of this shadow being, which lives outside in the elemental and spiritual world as a part of the etheric body. This, then, is the unresolved karma of Johannes Thomasius, made independent as a shadow being by Lucifer. The one who experiences such a thing—and this is an important, a significant experience—experiences it in such a way that he knows: because he has unresolved karma, he has incurred a kind of cosmic guilt; he has created a being that should not actually be outside, but within oneself. In *The Awakening of the Soul*, the other Philia brings this to Johannes Thomasius’s consciousness: that he has created such a soul child that, in a certain sense, has an unjustified existence out there. This is the peculiarity of ascending into the spiritual worlds: one encounters one’s own being, yet in spiritual objectivity this very being can confront one in multiplied forms. In the case of Johannes Thomasius, we have the most manifold multiplication. A part of his being confronts him as a doppelgänger, now another part of his being—for karma is an integral part of the human being—as the spirit of the young Johannes Thomasius.

[ 13 ] But then a third obstacle stands in his way, for he is not capable of going through what Maria is going through. She is undergoing a relatively normal development. In the ninth image, Astrid and Luna appear to her—not in conjunction with the real Philia, but at least two soul figures do appear to her. This is a development that is relatively close to the norm. It would be quite normal if Maria were standing before the three soul figures and her entire thinking, feeling, and willing were so objectified that she perceived them as a unity. But such a normal development is hardly ever found. And I emphasize: what I have tried to characterize are real figures, so that these relationships are absolutely possible in reality. So a soul such as the one Astrid and Luna encounter—excluding the Philia, because the conscious soul and the intellectual soul are developed in a more regular manner in Maria than the sensory soul—such a soul is already undergoing a highly normal development. In Johannes Thomasius we have a development that deviates very strongly from the normal. There we first have the appearance of the doppelgänger. As Johannes Thomasius moves toward his other self, we have the appearance of the doppelgänger and the spirit of Johannes’s youth. All of this is multiplied in number, something that belongs to the other self, or rather appears, because the other self appears as the illuminator of these inner conditions. And because Johannes Thomasius cannot immediately approach this other self—if he were to approach it fully, all three soul forms would confront him, but he must pass through various things that rise up against him on the path to the other self—what is even closer to subjectivity also approaches him. This is the other Philia. The other Philia is also, in a certain sense, the other self—but the other self that still rests in the depths of the soul within and has not yet completely detached itself, that is connected to what most closely resembles the spiritual world here in the physical world, that is connected to the all-pervading love, and that can lead one upward into the higher worlds because it is connected to this love. In the form of the other Philia, a third entity appears to Johannes Thomasius on the path to the other self. If all three soul forms were to appear to a soul, this soul would, so to speak, have no obstacle at all. But as it is, the whole being of the human being can still objectify itself, project itself out into space, project itself out as a whole. This is the case when viewing the other Philia at the end of the second image in “The Awakening of the Soul.”

[ 14 ] I have now explained to you that as human beings immerse themselves in the elemental world—and certain characteristics of this immersion remain even when they ascend into the spiritual world—they must acquire the capacity for transformation, because in the spiritual world everything is in a state of transformation; there are no rigid, fixed forms there. Form exists only in the physical world. In the elemental world, there is mobility, the capacity for transformation. Linked to this, however, is the fact that, because everything is in constant transformation, confusion can arise when one encounters something essential. Everything is, after all, in constant transformation. If one does not keep up, so to speak, one confuses one thing with another. This is what happens to Johannes Thomasius, in that he first has the other Philia before him and then mistakes the doppelgänger for the other Philia. Such mix-ups occur with extraordinary ease. One must be clear that one must first work one’s way through to the true perception of the higher worlds, and that it is precisely because of this mutability that mix-ups can easily occur. And the way these confusions manifest is extraordinarily significant for the course a soul’s development takes. You recall that Johannes has an experience three times. The fact that Johannes Thomasius has this experience in precisely this way depends on the way he has become. The first experience is with the other Philia, the second time with the doppelgänger, the third time again with the other Philia. Here we have a triad of experiences. We are dealing with triads in the world in general. We must actively seek out these triads, because triads are always present. The fact that Johannes Thomasius has the other Philia before him twice, the doppelgänger only once, and commits this confusion once, is connected to what he has achieved. But it is also connected to who he is that he perceives this soul child, the spirit of the young Johannes, who is his creation—albeit brought about with the help of Lucifer—but who exists out there in the world. This is one of the most profoundly unsettling experiences of clairvoyant consciousness: finding parts of karma that are unbalanced, transformed by Lucifer into independent shadow beings in the spiritual world. One can find many such shadow beings that one has oneself, through one’s own unresolved karma and through Lucifer’s agency, caused to be transferred into the spiritual world. These experiences with the shadow beings correspond to the soul’s stage of development. Let us suppose that the situation were different for Johannes Thomasius. He would make a mistake twice, see incorrectly twice and correctly once, or see the doppelgänger twice and the other Philia once. But in the case of Johannes Thomasius, the situation is such that he is still too deeply entrenched in subjectivity. Maria already stands so firmly in objectivity that two soul forces confront her. Johannes must still strengthen his soul in such a way that what remains quite subjective confronts him: the enchanted weaving of his own being. This becomes objective. And with these words he also strengthens his soul, with the words: “Enchanted weaving of one’s own being.” And as this enchanted weaving of his own being rises up, drawing closer to the other self, Johannes stands before himself as a doppelgänger, as the spirit of the young Johannes, as another Philia. Johannes Thomasius would be of a different nature if he were to experience the Trinity differently, if he were, let us say, to make two mistakes and experience the doppelgänger twice. If that were the case, then Johannes would simply be a different person. If the matter were not exactly as it is depicted in *The Awakening of the Soul*, Johannes would not see a single spirit of the young Johannes, but many such spirits in the shadow realm. Imagine, in place of Johannes Thomasius, a Johannes who would make two mistakes or experience the doppelgänger twice; then there would have to be many spirits of the young Johannes, for then there would have to be many such soul children of Johannes. With these matters, we often touch upon the edge of great spiritual mysteries.

[ 15 ] From all that I have described to you, however, you can see that the path of the clairvoyant soul toward the true essence of the human being is a complex one, and that the human soul is a complex being. One approaches the true essence of the human being gradually as one ascends into the spiritual world, when one becomes a being of memory, a being of the past; that is, when the awareness arises within the human soul: You are not in the present now, nor do you have a future before you for the time being; you are what you have been, and you carry your past into the present. — One then continues to grow as a spiritual being in such a way that this past, that which one has carried up into the spiritual world, which one experiences spiritually oneself, begins a spiritual conversation with the surrounding spiritual world. One matures by listening to this conversation between one’s own past and the thought-beings of the spiritual world. But when one feels oneself thus immersed in the spiritual world, where one finds one’s other self, one always has a feeling, an experience, that can be expressed roughly in the following way. One feels: although you are now in the spiritual world, and although you can find your other self—by dwelling within your astral body in the spiritual world—as a spiritual being, you cannot yet find your very true being, that which you actually are, in this world. That of which your ego in the physical world is the shadow image—you have not yet found it, despite your ascent into the spiritual world. There, one gradually comes to recognize what kind of significant experience one must still undergo in order to find the true self, the true inner being still shrouded within this other self. Yes, the human being is complex and lies deep, deep down in the depths of the soul. And to truly reach the true self, one must go through many different experiences. We have described some of what a person must go through to reach their true self, which lives within them. To reach the true self, the following must still be experienced.

[ 16 ] We have emphasized how one enters the spiritual world through memory, how one initially has no new impressions but must allow what one has been to speak, how one, as a point-like being, must listen to the spiritual conversation between one’s own past self and the spiritual environment. This memory remains with one. It remains with one even between death and a new birth. What one has been is initially present precisely in the spiritual world. The memory of one’s sensory existence between birth and death remains firmly in place and persists within the soul between death and a new birth. But if one wishes, as a soul that has become clairvoyant, to penetrate to the true self, then one learns to recognize that a decision, a spiritual act, is necessary. And of this spiritual act it can be said that it must be the strong act of will to eradicate within oneself, to forget within oneself, to eradicate through an act of will the memory of what one has brought up into the spiritual world—what one has brought up as a memory of oneself—the memory of what one has been, in all its details. There one then arrives at that which can already shine in as a shadow even for earlier stages of clairvoyance and insight. There is, so to speak, a foreshadowing of what one experiences there in the spiritual world in the third picture of “The Awakening of the Soul,” where Strader stands at the abyss of his existence. But one stands at the abyss of existence in its true form only when one makes the decision, through free inner will, through an energetic act of will, to erase oneself, to forget. Fundamentally, all these things are also present as facts within the human being; the human being simply knows nothing of them. Every night one must unconsciously erase oneself in this way. But it is quite something else entirely to consciously surrender one’s memory-self to annihilation, to oblivion, to the abyss—to truly stand for a while in the spiritual world at the abyss of being, facing nothingness as nothingness. It is the most shattering experience one can have, and one must approach this experience with great trust. To go to the abyss as nothing, it is necessary to have the trust that the true self will then be presented to you from the world. And that happens. You know then, when you have brought about this forgetting at the abyss of being: Everything you have experienced so far is erased; you have erased it yourself. But from a world you yourself have not yet recognized—from a, I would say, super-spiritual world—your true self comes to meet you, a self that was merely veiled within the other self. — Only now, after having completely erased oneself, does one encounter one’s true self, of which the self within the physical world is the shadow image, the maya. For the true Self of the human being belongs to the super-spiritual world, and the human being, with his true Self—of which the physical self is a faint shadow—is situated within the super-spiritual world. Thus, an inner experience is the ascent to the super-spiritual world, the experience of a completely new world at the abyss of being, and the reception of the true Self from this super-spiritual world at the abyss of being. I wanted to place this description in your souls as a connecting bridge between today’s meditation and tomorrow’s. It is meant to occupy us in a certain way between today and tomorrow, like a link between today’s and tomorrow’s meditation. For, building on the words I have spoken today about the encounter at the abyss of being, we shall then continue speaking tomorrow.