The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. Shaping Your Destiny in Sleep and Wakefulness

The Spiritual Nature of Language and the Voice of Conscience

[ 1 ] Let us consider today something that, in a certain sense, may serve as a complement to yesterday’s public lecture. Today I would like to take a closer look at the way in which human beings position themselves within that part of the world order that is connected to their own destiny—to what we in our circle have come to call karma. How, in fact, does this shaping of destiny take place in human beings? In order to answer this question in a way that is relevant to life—rather than merely theoretical—we must examine the nature of the human being in somewhat greater detail.

[ 2 ] People often speak of human life in such a way that they say: Human life is divided into these two distinct states of consciousness, waking and sleeping. But in doing so, they actually understand sleep only in the sense that they form the idea: During sleep, a person simply rests. — The scientific view generally assumes that conscious activity ceases when one falls asleep and then begins again; thus, even with regard to the organism, sleep is nothing more than a suspension of human activity for the purpose of rest. But sleep is not mere rest; rather, one must be clear that from the moment of falling asleep until waking, first what we call the astral body, and then the “I,” exist as truly essential entities separate from the physical and etheric bodies.

[ 3 ] Now, at the stage of development at which human beings currently stand in their earthly lives, they cannot attain direct awareness of what this “I” actually does, or what the astral body does, between falling asleep and waking up. But what these two do during that time is, for human life, at least as significant as waking life. The fact that the “I” and the astral body cannot develop any awareness of all the complex processes taking place within them during sleep stems solely from the fact that, at the present stage of earthly existence, the “I” and the astral body lack the organs necessary to perceive the events in which they are entangled. But these events do exist. And these events are experienced from the moment of falling asleep until waking, and they influence a person’s waking life, their conscious life.

[ 4 ] The best way to gain a clear understanding of how the experiences of the “I” and the astral body influence waking life is to look at the beginning of human life. We have done this on several occasions in other discussions. In a sense, during the very first stage of life, the human being, as a very small child, “sleeps” its way into earthly life. We should not speak here only of the time when the child is completely asleep—so that it is outwardly visible that the child is asleep—but rather of the entire period that cannot be recalled at all through ordinary consciousness. The child may indeed appear to be awake to an outside observer even during this time, but what takes place in the child’s consciousness does not take shape in such a way that it can be recalled later. And everything that the child experiences without later remembering it—all of that we can describe by saying: We are referring here to the time during which the human being falls asleep into earthly life.

[ 5 ] But what exactly emerges from this state of sleep at the beginning of human life on Earth? There are three things we must pay particular attention to if we are to understand how what the human being has brought down from his pre-earthly existence—what he now weaves into his physical existence in a way that is obscure even to himself, shrouded in the darkness of sleep—takes effect; these are three things that the human being must acquire in a different way than animals do. Animals either do not acquire these at all, or they are born with them to a greater or lesser extent.

[ 6 ] These three things are what we usually refer to in life in a way that is very one-sided. Only a small part of the whole is actually understood. The first is learning to walk. Human beings come into the earthly world as beings who cannot walk and who must first learn to walk. The second thing a human being must acquire is speech, and the third is thinking. We can observe in a child exactly how one sometimes precedes the other, but when considering humanity in general, we can say overall: A human being learns to walk, speak, and think—though thinking always comes after speaking. It is only through speaking that the ability gradually develops to hold onto in thought what is expressed in words. And it actually takes quite a long time before one can truly say: “The child is thinking.”

[ 7 ] But walking, in particular, is viewed as something very one-sided. After all, walking does not consist merely in the child learning to stand upright and, so to speak, setting its legs in a swinging motion; rather, it consists in the child learning to master balance—human balance in the world—completely, I would say: that one can stand anywhere without falling over; that one can thus position one’s body within the world, learning to control one’s muscles and limbs in such a way that the body’s center of gravity—whether we are standing or walking—falls in the right place. But this is still a one-sided view, for you must bear in mind that something extraordinarily important is also taking place here: namely, the differentiation of the legs and the arms.

[ 8 ] Animals use their four limbs in a uniform manner—at least as a general rule; when there are deviations, they can be explained very well—whereas humans differentiate their use. Humans need their legs to maintain balance and to walk, while the arms and hands become wonderful means of expression for their inner life and the instruments of their work in the world. It is precisely in this differentiation between feet and hands, arms and legs, that we find what is part of what is usually described in a one-sided way as “learning to walk.” This brings us to what, within the physical world, bears witness to what human beings acquire only during their physical life on Earth.

[ 9 ] The second thing he learns—by trying, by imitative trial and error, just as he does when walking and standing, when seeking balance, and when distinguishing his hands from his feet—the second thing he learns through this process is speech. And we can say: Speech is not entirely unrelated to walking, particularly not to the use of the differentiated hand. For it is well known how speech is connected to a very specific development of a brain structure, the left temporal lobe. But this is only the case for those people who primarily carry out the most important tasks of life with their right hand. Left-handers, on the other hand, have their speech center located on the right side of the brain. From this we can already see how the search for balance is connected to what is expressed in speech.

[ 10 ] And thinking then develops out of speech. Only through artificial means can someone born mute be taught to think. But for all those who are not born mute, thinking is something that develops out of speech.

[ 11 ] However, one can only truly grasp this peculiarity of human beings—which I have just summarized—by observing the transition from wakefulness to sleep that occurs later in life. For it is the case that the physical body and the etheric body are physically at rest in bed, while the “I” and the astral body have essentially separated from the physical and etheric bodies. But when we approach this astral body of the human being—as it is separated from the physical and etheric bodies from the moment of falling asleep until waking—using the methods of spiritual science, we find that this astral body essentially contains within itself the forces associated with the human being’s learning to speak. It is extraordinarily interesting to observe a person’s falling asleep and waking up while they are learning to speak as a child, and it is even more interesting to observe, in the case of anyone who learns to speak only as an adult, how the astral body is extraordinarily strongly involved in the process of learning to speak. For during the time when a person is in the process of learning to speak—and also later, when they use speech in the course of the day—the astral body carries with it the spiritual-soul elements contained in words and language, out of the physical and etheric bodies.

[ 12 ] If you can observe how a person speaks, how they form their words, how they give their words their distinctive tone of voice, if you can observe how they infuse their words with the power of their soul’s conviction, how they imbue their words with the soul experiences they are going through, then you can also observe how, as a person falls asleep, the astral body draws this spiritual-soul aspect out of the physical body and the etheric body and, in the sleeping state, retains precisely the aftereffect of the spiritual-soul aspect of speech in the spiritual-soul world, like a lingering resonance. You can also observe the word formations, the nuances of sound, and the persuasive power that a person is able to imbue in their words in the sleeping astral body. Of course, there is no vibrational force present there that is transmitted through the air; consequently, no physical vocal sound of speech is produced. But what emerges from the human mouth on the waves of words as a spiritual-soul element and is heard by the human ear—what is conveyed soulfully on the stream of speech—is carried out by the astral body as a soul-spiritual element into the spiritual world when the person is asleep. This is only seen more clearly when a child—or even an adult—is striving to learn a language, to first acquire it; but it takes place throughout one’s entire life: what we speak during the day is, in terms of its spiritual-psychic content, carried out by the astral body into the spiritual world at night. Thus we can say: It is particularly the emotional nuance of what is spoken that is carried out of the human being by the astral body during the night. This is a characteristic of the astral body.

[ 13 ] But now let us observe how the “I” behaves from the moment of falling asleep until waking up. At first, the “I” is, I would say, purely naturally bound to the system of limbs. Just as the astral body is bound to the chest and speech comes from the chest, in exactly the same way the “I” is bound to everything that a person does with their limbs—what a person does from waking until falling asleep, by taking this or that step, by performing this or that action with their arms and hands. Just as the astral body flows into every word and the soul element of the word withdraws during sleep, so the “I” is connected to every movement we make as we go to this or that place in the world while awake. The “I” is connected to every movement of the hand, to every act of grasping any object. But while, in the case of the astral body—because language is something so deeply connected to the soul—the actual soul aspect is given less attention, and one is less aware that something quite special from the soul is poured into language, when it comes to the connection between the “I” and the limbs, one is inclined to disregard entirely the fact that something soul-spiritual is linked to it. One simply regards walking and grasping with the hands as something—I would say—that occurs purely within a kind of physical mechanism that is supposed to be the human organism. But that is not the case.

[ 14 ] What lies in every movement of the fingers throughout the day, what lies in every step we take to reach a place—this, too, contains a spiritual-soul aspect, just as the word contains a spiritual-soul aspect. And what is connected to our limbs, what is connected to our movements—the “I” takes this out of our physical and etheric bodies into the spiritual world as we fall asleep, now clearly linked to a specific spiritual-psychic aspect: namely, the fact that the “I” is unconsciously satisfied or dissatisfied at every moment between falling asleep and waking up — you will understand this better in a moment when I explain it further —; it is satisfied, to put it plainly but somewhat trivially, with whether the legs have moved toward this or that place and done something, or whether the arms have performed this or that action. Not only is the aftereffect of the leg and arm movements carried over into sleep, but satisfaction or dissatisfaction is also carried over. From the moment of falling asleep until waking up, it clings to the ego’s experience: Actually, you shouldn’t have gone there. Or: Actually, it was quite good that you went there. Actually, it was good that you did this or that with your arms. Actually, it was bad that you did this or that. — This is the spiritual-soul aspect that the “I” adds to what it draws from the human limbs into the sleeping state.

[ 15 ] And why is this the case? It is because the astral body, when it is transported into the spiritual world between falling asleep and waking up, is—according to the cosmic order governing human beings—actually destined to come into intimate contact, during this interval, with those beings who are described in my *Outline of Esoteric Science* as belonging to the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, the Archangels. For these Archangeloi beings feel a kinship with what we carry with us into sleep as the echo of speech. That is what they need; that is what they wish to experience.

[ 16 ] I would like to say: Just as we humans, in our physical earthly lives, depend on breathing—that is, on having oxygen around us—and therefore perceive oxygen as something beneficial, so too do the archangels, who are connected to the Earth’s interior, feel it is their need that human souls, when they sleep, offer them the resonance of what lies in their language.

[ 17 ] This is what is unique about human language: it is connected, through the state of sleep, to the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, the archangels. You will recall, if you bring to mind what I have said on various occasions in earlier cycles, that the archangels are, in fact, the genii, the guides, and the leaders of the vernacular languages. This is connected to that. The Archangels are the guides of the vernacular languages because—though this is expressed figuratively, it is nonetheless true—they literally breathe in what human beings convey to them through language as they fall asleep. But a shortcoming on the part of human beings immediately arises when they do not convey the right things through their language into the sleeping state.

[ 18 ] This is something that can be observed particularly within contemporary culture. Within this contemporary culture, there is actually very little of what is called idealism, and human words have gradually come to have only those meanings that refer to external, physical, material things. The concept of ideals—which, of course, presupposes a belief in the spiritual, for the ideal is spiritual—is fading more and more. People do not develop, in their waking state, the momentum, the inner enthusiasm for idealism. As a result, they actually talk only about things that exist in the physical world. Words are increasingly used to denote things that exist in the physical world.

[ 19 ] The fact is that in our time, even those people who are sometimes very fanatical in their desire to believe in the spirit more or less reject the spirit itself. They conduct spiritualist experiments in which they allow the spirit to manifest itself, because they actually only want to believe in the spirit if it can be material. But that is not a spirit that appears in a material glimmer of light or the like. Spiritualism is, in fact, the extreme form of materialism. People try to deny the spirit by accepting as spirit only that which enters the material world.

[ 20 ] So we are already living in an age where words do not well up from the soul in such a way that they take on an ideal momentum. And that is becoming less and less common. But if this ideal momentum is lacking—if, in other words, a person in the waking state is unable to speak not only of physical things but also of their ideals, to turn, as it were, toward that which belongs to the ideal, which lies beyond the physical world, which gives life goals that extend beyond physical life— if a person does not develop words for ideals in their everyday language, if language itself is not imbued with idealism—then it becomes extremely difficult for that person, during the sleeping state, to establish the connection with the Archangelic beings that is actually necessary for them, and then, in the sleeping state, no order enters into what is supposed to take place there between the human soul and the hierarchy of the Archangels. If this is the case—if a person has succumbed to materialism, does not cultivate idealism in their language, and their words have gradually come to be such that they speak very little of ideals—then earthly life flows by in such a way that, every night, if I may put it this way, the person actually misses the connection to the archangelic beings. Then it becomes difficult for them to be so intimately connected with the spiritual world that they can now also fully and vigorously experience life after death—from death to a new birth. By failing to incorporate idealism into their language, human beings weaken themselves for the life between death and a new birth.

[ 21 ] Understanding how these things work is, in fact, a fundamental part of life’s wisdom. Those who understand the significance of language that is devoid of idealism will ultimately gain the strength to advocate once again for the inclusion of idealism in human language. Even during our earthly life, we can observe that those who cannot draw the necessary strength from the archangelic beings during the state between falling asleep and waking up do not attain their true strength. We can say quite plainly, with regard to what language is meant to do for us as human beings during sleep: In order to receive this in the right way as a benefit for life, we must truly strive to possess such idealism that not only communication about everyday life flows into our words, but also the spiritual in the form of idealism flows into them.

[ 22 ] But this becomes even more evident when we now turn our attention to the sleeping state of the “I.” The “I” carries with it into the sleeping state feelings of satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding what the limbs have done. Just as the astral body is carried to the hierarchy of the archangels through the aftereffects of speech, so too is the “I” carried to the hierarchy of the primal forces, the Archai, the primal beginnings, through what it brings into the sleeping state as an echo of the daily activities performed by the arms and legs. From these primordial beginnings comes the power, first of all, to permeate the physical body in the right way, so that we not only will the good, but are also, to a certain degree, able to master the impulses of the physical body to such an extent that our physical body presents no obstacle to doing what we set as our duty or goal in the freedom of thought. We are free in thought. But we gain the strength to apply this freedom in life only when we carry into sleep the proper connection with the primordial forces, with the Archai,

[ 23 ] But how can we do that? Idealism connects our astral body in the right way with the archangelic beings. What connects our “I” in the right way with the primordial forces? Even if we, at first, remain unconscious during the night—the being from the hierarchy of the primordial forces has complete awareness of the matter, takes in what we have unconsciously experienced, and develops it into a distinct thought of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what we have done during the day. But what brings us into a proper connection with these primal forces—a connection such as we attain through the idealism of language in relation to the archangels?

[ 24 ] There is nothing else that can bring us into the proper relationship with the primordial forces in relation to our “I” while we sleep other than genuine, authentic, true love for humanity—unbiased love for humanity, universal love for humanity, and a genuine interest in every fellow human being with whom life brings us together—not sympathy or antipathy, which arise only from something we do not wish to overcome. Genuine, true love for humanity during the waking state leads us, in the proper way, into the bosom of the primordial forces, the Archai, between falling asleep and waking up. And there, while the “I” rests in the bosom of the Archai, karma—destiny—is formed. There the judgment arises: “I am dissatisfied with what I have done with my arms and legs.” And from what arises there as satisfaction or dissatisfaction, there emerges not only what applies to the time shortly after death, but also to the next earthly life; the power arises to shape destiny correctly, so that the things we have experienced in an earthly life—during sleep, in the “I,” in connection with the primordial forces—are truly balanced out.

[ 25 ] If you consider this, you will gain a clear insight into this remarkable connection between the “I” and destiny—karma. While we observe, so to speak, the astral body—how, when a person is an idealist, it offers speech as a sacrifice to the archangels so that the archangels may then guide the person in the proper way between death and rebirth—we see how the “I” weaves the fabric of destiny. There, karma is worked out in connection with the primal forces. And the primal forces, in turn, have the power to bestow upon us what we need—not only to pass through the time between death and rebirth, but also to arrive at our next descent into the earthly realm with such strength that, as small children, we can now—with the legacy of our previous earthly life—learn to walk in one way or another, learn to find balance, and learn to differentiate between our feet and hands, arms and legs.

[ 26 ] It is very remarkable to observe how, in a child’s transition from crawling to walking—as it first gains its balance—this effort reflects the way in which, during its last earthly life, the “I” correctly linked sleep to the primal forces through universal love for humanity. This is expressed in the process of learning to walk. One can trace this down to the finest details. One can see that when a child keeps falling over, it stems from the fact that in a previous life the child developed strong feelings of hatred toward humanity. There, the child merely came into contact with the primal forces but did not establish the proper connection with them, and it is precisely in this process of learning to walk—in the constant falling over—that the effect manifests itself. Anyone who were to cultivate a proper insight into this—who, for example, were to resolve: “I want to become a true educator by correctly observing children as they learn to walk”— whoever could carry this out would, from the way the child learns to walk, truly see an immense amount of what one, as a teacher or educator, must karmically balance—because it has been brought into this life from the previous earthly existence through insufficient human love, or love that was sufficient but misapplied.

[ 27 ] Here you can see how the materialistic view remains confined to the physical realm. The materialistic view describes how the human organism, like a machine, stands up, learns to walk, and so on. But everything physical is connected to something spiritual, and those who survey the entire process come to recognize that the child’s previous earthly life plays a role in the process of learning to walk. In other words, learning to walk is, in essence, the way in which a human being, upon entering a new earthly life, learns to master his or her physical body. And for those who have a complete understanding of the matter, learning to walk is not limited to being able to straighten one’s legs and raise the entire body upright; rather, it extends to the inner processes of the human being, including how the person gains inner control over their glandular activity and so on. For once the child has learned to walk—and even before that—it is not merely a matter of walking; it also depends on whether, let us say, if the child has a more phlegmatic or choleric temperament, or an excess of one emotion or another, they learn to control their glandular activity or fail to do so. This, in turn, is connected to what has emerged during sleep from previous earthly lives—whether out of universal love for humanity or a lack thereof—as the relationship to the primordial forces.

[ 28 ] From a materialistic perspective, one might say: A person rests while asleep. — But they do not merely rest. If they develop the right kind of idealism while awake, they carry into sleep the potential for the astral body to ascend to the hierarchy of the Archangels—that is, to enter into such a relationship with the spiritual world during sleep that the time between death and a new birth can be lived in the right way. Of course, if we do not live through this time correctly, we also carry weaknesses from it into our earthly life. But the way in which a person establishes the right relationship to the primal forces, to the Archai—that is what determines how we shape our next life. One can see, then, that universal love for humanity possesses a truly creative power. For what determines whether a person is strong and vigorous in a given life—able to place their physical body in the service of the soul and to master their physical body? It depends on whether they have developed love for humanity—something purely spiritual—in their previous life.

[ 29 ] You may recall how I have said in earlier lectures: The soul aspect of one earthly life finds its fulfillment in the physical aspect of the next earthly life, and the spiritual aspect of one earthly life in the soul aspect of the next earthly life. — But this is how the things I have just explained are connected.

[ 30 ] One cannot simply make a general claim that there is such a thing as fate or karma. One can say quite plainly: One sees how a person works on their karma. They weave it while sleeping, but they gather the material needed for that fabric while awake. For what they weave are the threads they must create out of universal love for humanity; or the threads that continually break and form bad karma for the next life—these are the ones woven from hatred of humanity. For when it comes to karma, the creative forces that matter most of all are love for humanity and hatred of humanity.

[ 31 ] Now, one must view this matter in the right way. It is, essentially, a convenient view of karma to say: “I am sick—well, that is my karma.” “This misfortune has befallen me—that is my karma.” — I’m not saying that this is particularly comforting as a piece of life wisdom, but it is a convenient theoretical view to fatalistically attribute everything to karma. However, this is by no means correct. For suppose you were to look not at this earthly life, but at the third one from now; then, in that third earthly life, you will be able to look back on this present one. Then you will say: “It is my karma.” — But what constitutes your karma points back to this earthly life; that is where it arose. In other words, there is karma that is constantly arising.

[ 32 ] We don’t have to attribute everything to the past. We must realize that facing karma in the right way leads us to say to ourselves: An illness that afflicts me now need not be the result of past spiritual weaknesses; rather, it may simply be an illness that has arisen on its own. But karma still applies. If an illness or misfortune befalls me in this earthly life, compensation will come—or this misfortune, this illness, may itself be the compensation.

[ 33 ] This means that one must always take the future into account when speaking of karma. One’s relationship to karma is such that one becomes unshakable in one’s recognition of universal justice—that is, one knows: Everything balances out, but not in such a way that one simply breaks the sequence of earthly lives with the present one and shifts everything onto the past.

[ 34 ] The person who knows that there is a balance actively engages with the karmic course of life’s events. But the essential aspect of the concept of karma is the spiritual attitude that arises from this understanding. And the spiritual attitude that must arise from this understanding of karma is this: when something—let us say, a misfortune—serves as compensation for a previous weakness of the soul, we find in it the reason to say to ourselves: If you had not experienced this misfortune now, you would have continued to harbor that weakness. If you look into the depths of your soul, you must say: It is right that this misfortune has befallen me, for through it a weakness has been eradicated, a weakness has been removed.

[ 35 ] Anyone who wishes away such a misfortune—which serves as atonement for a previous weakness of the soul or transgression—is not truly adopting the perspective of full human dignity. In a sense, they are saying: “Oh, I don’t care whether I remain weak or gain a certain strength!” — But the one who views a misfortune in the right way is the one who says: If it is for a previous weakness, it is good that it has befallen me. For through this misfortune, I will feel that weakness I had, which may have manifested itself in a transgression. In this way, I will eradicate the weakness, and I will become strong again.

[ 36 ] And if misfortune comes as the first step in karma, the right attitude toward it is to tell oneself: If people were to experience only what they desire, they would actually become quite weak as a result of such a course of life. We might indeed live comfortably and happily in one or two earthly lives, because only what we desire would ever come our way, but in the third or fourth earthly life we would be completely paralyzed, both soulfully and spiritually, because no effort whatsoever would arise within us to overcome obstacles. After all, obstacles can only be overcome when the unexpected and the undesirable occur. But if one develops the right strength in the face of these obstacles and carries enough love for humanity into sleep, then what is woven by the “I” in conjunction with the primal forces—the Archai—as karma takes shape in such a way that the proper balance is achieved in the next earthly life.

[ 37 ] All anthroposophical truths need not be merely theoretical truths through which one gains knowledge; rather, they are all such that they merge into one’s mood, into one’s state of mind. And whoever does not allow them to become part of their state of mind has not yet fully grasped them; they have grasped them merely as theoretical truths. A proper understanding of karma, of destiny, leads precisely to this: that while facing life, a person becomes even more finely attuned to happiness and misfortune than they otherwise would be—they experience happiness and misfortune intensely— but they also find the possibility, within their soul, of attuning themselves, as it were, to the spiritual world in a way that arises not from a creed but from the observation of what the I and the astral body do while they are withdrawn from daily life. From the recognition of this, he enters into a state of mind in which it is essential to hold fast to cosmic justice. To understand karma means to view cosmic justice in the right way. It does not mean becoming indifferent to happiness or misfortune, to joy and pain, but it does mean placing joy and pain, happiness and misfortune, in their proper place in life.

[ 38 ] Now we can say: When one observes a person during their daily life, one actually sees only the “I” and the astral body as they act upon the physical body, and thus one knows only of the activity on the physical body, not of the spiritual-soul aspects within the “I” and the astral body. When I speak with a person, I pay attention to the words they say to me, and if I am a materialist, I explain it to myself as follows: the lungs, larynx, and so on are working, causing the air to vibrate, which strikes my ear, and so on. — But if I view the matter correctly, I see that what vibrates in what takes the form of words—what manifests itself in speech—is their astral body. And I then find, connected to this astral body, the human being’s kinship with the divine-spiritual world. I say to myself: If the astral body is within the physical body during waking hours, then it conceals itself in speech and similar activities. During the night, it participates in the life of the higher hierarchies. And in this same way, it is also the case with the “I.”

[ 39 ] Thus we may say: When a person sleeps, they are not merely resting for daily life. Rather, they are working in the spiritual world, just as they work with their physical body and speak here in the physical world. And just as materialism denies that the “I” and the astral body exist as real entities during sleep, so too must materialism acknowledge that it cannot comprehend the entire world. For what is the moral world to materialism? To it, the moral world is what a person sets as a goal in thought, but which has nothing to do with the world-creating forces. For those who truly and sincerely look into human life, the moral world order is that in which a person lives just as fully while asleep as they do while awake in air and light.

[ 40 ] There is one more thing that is essential to keep in mind. When we die, we leave behind our language—and the same applies to karma—we die, and throughout our lives we have been connected, in a correct or more or less imperfect way, to the world of the Archangels. This has been repeated in every sleep. Through the gate of death, we carry into the spiritual world that which the Archangelic beings have given us in sleep. There we can then find our way properly into the spiritual world, which is the Logos, which consists of the cosmic elements that find their reflection in the words of language; there we can find our way into the spiritual world for the life between death and a new birth.

[ 41 ] But it is not that simple. When we pass through death, we no longer have a physical body. What the archangels have given us from each state of sleep is sufficient to act upon and to utilize between death and a new birth. But when we awaken as physical human beings on Earth, we must once again immerse ourselves in the physical body. The archangels cannot provide us with that at all. Even higher hierarchies must be involved here: those beings whom I have referred to in my *Secret Science* as the Exusiai and the Kyriotetes. They must bring what we have initially attained in union with the archangels through the spirituality of language into the instincts and desires of the physical body, which otherwise resists us. There it then flares up as the voice of conscience. But as what we carry from sleep into the body flares up as the voice of conscience, what is present in the hierarchy of the Exusiai and the Kyriotetes—a hierarchy higher than that of the archangels—is at work within this voice of conscience.

[ 42 ] So when we look around in the physical world and find that one person or another has developed their conscience to such an extent that their physical body acquires better impulses and better instincts, then—as a result of the idealism of their language—kyriotetes and exusiai have worked upon them in the proper way.

[ 43 ] And again, when a person, through universal love for humanity, enters into the proper relationship with the Archai—the primal forces—he works through his karma in such a way that, in his next earthly life, as he learns to walk, to maintain balance, in developing dexterity in the arms, in mastering the endocrine system, and so on—in the very earliest stages of childhood, when we “sleep our way” into earthly life and settle into the body. For we have earned the ability to work, so to speak, in union with the primordial forces, with the Archai, between death and new birth. But in order for human beings here on Earth to develop, in the right way, a subtle sensitivity and a keen awareness of their own actions, it is necessary that the hierarchy I have described to you in *The Secret Science* as the *Dynamis* work in conjunction with the *Archai*—that is, with beings of a higher hierarchy.

[ 44 ] If a person lacks universal love for humanity and a genuine interest in his human surroundings, he cannot establish the proper connection with the Archai. As a result, he forfeits the opportunity to weave his karma for the next earthly life in the proper way, and further earthly lives must follow through which he can make up for this. But for this earthly life, they also face the disadvantage that they have less and less of the strength to carry the judgments they form—whether satisfaction or dissatisfaction with what their legs and hands do—into the physical body. For we cannot do this on our own; we must come together with the dynamis in the right way through strengthened love for humanity. They then bring the power into our physical body in the right way, a power that carries out what is right. Otherwise, we break down, even though we recognize what is right.

[ 45 ] We can become free in our thoughts. However, in order to use that freedom properly in our physical lives, we must establish the right balance between waking and sleeping, because we must connect in the right way not only with the primal forces but also with the dynamis.

[ 46 ] The highest hierarchy—the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones—seeks to carry what we do out into the world. The Exusiai, Dynamis, and Kyriotetes bring what we grasp in thought from sleep, as a moral force, into our physical being. The Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, in turn, carry this out into the world, so that our own moral forces become world-creating forces.

[ 47 ] So if the Earth were ever to transition into the Jupiter state, and if our moral powers were to fulfill their proper functions during this transformation, the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones would, of course, only be involved if we provided them with the necessary information to do so. If, by becoming weaker and weaker, we thereby hand over destructive forces to them, then we are contributing to the destruction of Earth, not to the building up of Jupiter.

[ 48 ] You see, in anthroposophy, the structure of the spiritual world is truly not merely a matter of having names for individual levels; rather, one can gradually enter into the whole context of the world and gain an overview of the human being’s connection to the spiritual world in the same way that one otherwise gains an overview of the human being’s connection to the physical world. And this is what will in turn give people the true strength for a constructive life—when they find the way to understand their connection to the spiritual world in this manner, when they do not merely believe that sleep is there for rest, but come to the conviction that sleep is there to bring them into the proper relationship with the spiritual world amidst the aftereffects of physical life.

[ 49 ] Yes, it is true that human beings can deny the spiritual-moral world because, at this stage of earthly life, they are initially asleep to it. But a true science must emerge from this to reveal what human beings are missing out on while they sleep. For what they are missing out on is that which extends into earthly life as a heavenly existence. This is why human beings sleep—so that they can actually draw the corresponding strength from the spiritual world specifically for their physical life.

[ 50 ] Now, from this perspective, consider the connection between what I have attempted to outline for you today and my *Philosophy of Freedom*. There you will find that I have expressly emphasized that what matters is not the theory that the will should be free, but rather that thought should be free. Thought must precisely govern the will if one wishes to be a free human being. But in order for the will not to offer impossible resistance to free thought, a person must organize their life accordingly. We can liberate thought as human beings who have come into being in the physical world. We attain freedom of mind and will only when we establish the right relationship with the archangels for the mind, and the right relationship with the Archai for the will.

[ 51 ] But this is also true: We allow that which lives in language to go out into the night along with the spiritual-soul aspect. We also allow that which lives in our limbs to go out. The astral body and the “I” go out. The etheric body remains with the physical body. Thinking, which is bound to the etheric body, continues within the etheric body. But in our ordinary consciousness, we are unaware of how the etheric body thinks from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up, because we are outside of it. It is not at all true that we do not think while asleep; we think from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up. Thoughts flow continuously through our etheric body; it’s just that we are unaware of them. We only begin to be aware of them again when we sink into sleep; then the thoughts come alive once more in our consciousness. It is precisely because thoughts are so closely connected to our physical earthly life through the etheric body that we can be free in our thoughts. For we have been placed on Earth to become free. They can draw the power of freedom only from the spiritual world—the power of freedom in the mind, the power of freedom in the will.

[ 52 ] This is connected to the fact that human beings retain their actual basis of thought—the etheric body—throughout their entire earthly life. The etheric body does not depart into the cosmic world during earthly life. The astral body and the “I” do go out. Only when death occurs does the etheric body also go out. Then comes the review of one’s life over the course of one, two, or three days, during which a person surveys their entire life, much as I described yesterday in relation to imagination, the first stage of supersensible knowledge. What occurs after death under all circumstances is that the human being thus looks back on his past earthly life. But while the entire sea of thoughts that he has experienced—both asleep and awake—between birth and death is present, while these lie there in the first three days after death like a sea of interwoven thoughts, the cosmos immediately claims these thoughts for itself. They dissolve, and after two to three days the entire retrospective has dissipated into the cosmos. We say that the etheric body has also separated. In truth, the cosmos has absorbed the etheric body, taken it in. It has expanded more and more until it has finally been completely absorbed into the cosmos. There we are then, in turn, received—as the “I” and the astral body—into the bosom of the higher hierarchies. And only when we receive an etheric body once more can we descend into earthly life, can we continue the work of developing ourselves into free human beings. For the goal of earthly life is to make the human being a free human being. What lies in pure thought as the foundation for freedom can be bestowed upon the human being on Earth. For this reason, however, the etheric body remains connected to the physical body throughout the entire earthly life; that is to say, upon death it dissolves into worlds where freedom is not learned. Freedom is learned during earthly life; as you know, this occurs only during certain epochs of earthly life.

[ 53 ] Thus we can see that freedom is indeed closely connected to karma, for freedom has to do with what remains in bed, what remains connected to us even during sleep, what does not separate from us. Karma is woven by the “I” between falling asleep and waking up. Karma is woven apart from that part of the human being in which freedom resides. Nor does karma weave from free or unfree thoughts; rather, it weaves from the mind and the will. Thus, karma rises up from the depths of human nature, from the dreaming mind and the sleeping will. Into this we can pour—that is, set against it—that which lives in the freedom of thought, in pure thinking, in the ethical and moral impulses, as I have described them in *The Philosophy of Freedom*; these must lie in pure thinking.

[ 54 ] So everything really does come together. And it is so essential that one become increasingly aware of how, the further one advances in anthroposophy, the more all the details come together. Of course, when someone approaches any subject that represents this or that field, they may encounter contradiction after contradiction. It cannot be any other way, because in order to understand that things are as they are presented in a single field, one must view that field in the context of the whole. Otherwise, one judges like someone who judges a single planet and cannot understand why it moves this way or that: one must take the entire planetary system into account. And so, too, if one wants to know anything about the world and life, one must try to grasp the interconnection, the physical, psychological, and spiritual facts, and the details of the realms of reality.

[ 55 ] That is what I wanted to discuss with you today, now that the opportunity has arisen for us to gather together again in this branch. My aim was to help you sense the attitude that a person can develop toward karma—that is, toward cosmic justice—when they truly immerse themselves in anthroposophy. For what matters are the feelings we carry over into life, not merely a theoretical understanding. May you truly succeed more and more in making what anthroposophy gives you not merely the content of your thoughts, but the content of your soul—or, as is rightly said, the content of your heart. And the more we succeed in making anthroposophy the content of the heart for those who wish to understand it, the more we will also succeed in introducing anthroposophy more and more into general cultural and spiritual life. And we need this very much; otherwise, humanity will not be able to move forward with the old traditions, with the old ways. Try, more and more, to find the path of anthroposophy from the head to the heart. Anthroposophy will be well safeguarded in your hearts.