The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday I attempted to describe the states a person experiences when passing through the gate of death and arriving in the spiritual world. Let us briefly review the most essential stages once more. First, immediately after passing through the gate of death, a person experiences the departure of their world of imagination. The images and the powers of thought become objectified; they become like active forces that spread out into the world, so that the person initially feels everything they consciously experienced during their earthly life between birth and death moving away from them. But while—and this is a process that takes place over the course of a few days—the earthly life experienced through thought moves away from the person into the vast cosmos, a consciousness arises from within of everything the person has unconsciously experienced in the states of sleep during their earthly life. And this takes the form that the person now relives their earthly life in reverse, in one-third of the time.

[ 2 ] During this time, a person is actually very much preoccupied with themselves. One could say that during this time, a person is still quite intensely connected to their own affairs in earthly life. They are completely intertwined with what they have experienced—let’s say—during the various nights, that is, in their states of sleep.

[ 3 ] You can appreciate how, since human beings are essentially always going through their nocturnal experiences, they are left to their own devices. Just consider the one thing that emerges from the states of sleep during earthly life: dreams. These dreams are the very least of what human beings experience in sleep. But the rest remains unconscious. Only the dreams surface into consciousness. Yet these dreams—as interesting, as varied, and as rich in color as they may be—must be said to represent something with which a person is entirely on their own. Just think: when a number of people are sleeping in the same room, each can still have their own dreams. And when people then recount their dreams to one another—people who have slept in the same room—they will describe experiences as if they had been in entirely different worlds. During sleep, a person is entirely alone with themselves; they have their own world in sleep. And it is only by engaging our will within our organism that we share the same world in the same space with other people. If we were to sleep all the time, each of us would have our own world.

[ 4 ] But this world of our own, which we experience every night between falling asleep and waking up, is the world we will experience in reverse, in the years following our death, during a period spanning one-third of our lives. Admittedly, if we had nothing but this world, we would be entirely preoccupied with ourselves for two or three decades after death, once we have grown old. But that is not the case. Through what we experience there as our own affairs, we are nevertheless connected to the whole world, because in this world that each of us experiences individually, our relationships with numerous other people come into play—with all those people with whom we have somehow crossed paths in life.

[ 5 ] And so it is that, as we look down from this state in the spiritual world after death upon everything that people here on Earth experience—those with whom we have been connected in some way—we experience with them whatever is taking place in the earthly world. Therefore, when one attempts to reach the deceased using the methods that spiritual science provides in this regard—and this is indeed possible— one can certainly perceive how these departed souls, right from the very beginning of their experience of death, are able to intensely experience all earthly events through the other people with whom they lived here on Earth and who are still here on Earth. And so one may find that people, depending on the interests they shared with others—whether they discussed them together or lived through them together in a shared destiny—remain connected to all these earthly interests, take an interest in them, and indeed, because the physical body no longer poses an obstacle, form a much more enlightened judgment about these earthly experiences than people still on Earth. And simply by developing a relationship—a conscious relationship—with the dead, one can gain an extraordinary amount of insight from the dead’s judgments, even regarding earthly matters.

[ 6 ] But there is something else to consider here as well. One can see how, within the conditions of the Earth, there are indeed certain things that persist into the spiritual world—how, in a sense, something eternal is interwoven into our earthly experiences. It sounds almost—I would say—bizarre when one describes this world. However, I believe I am speaking here mostly to long-time anthroposophists, and I may therefore speak freely about these matters. To discuss such things in public today, for example, would of course be entirely out of place. When one seeks out ways to communicate with the dead, one may even find it possible to communicate with them using earthly words—to ask them questions and receive answers. Here we see the peculiar fact that the dead first lose the ability to use nouns in their language, while verbs remain in use among the dead for a long time. And in particular, the dead like to express themselves through words of emotion—through everything related to feeling and the state of mind. An “Ah!” or an “Oh!” as an expression of wonder, surprise, and the like is what the dead frequently use in their language. In a sense, one must first learn the language of the dead.

[ 7 ] That is not how spiritualists envision it, for they imagine that they can receive messages from the dead through the medium in ordinary earthly language. One can already tell from the nature of these messages that they stem from the subconscious states of the living, not from actual, direct communications from the dead to the mediums. For the dead are increasingly moving beyond ordinary human language, and after years, one can communicate with the dead at all only if one has, so to speak, mastered their language—which mostly consists of indicating what one wishes to express through simple symbolic drawings, and then receiving the answer in such symbolic forms, which, of course, are perceived as shadowy images.

[ 8 ] I am describing this to you because I want to suggest that the deceased, even though he actually lives in the realm of sleep, still has far-reaching interests and already surveys the world. But we can be of extraordinary help to him in this regard. And it is, for example, a significant way to help the dead when we think of them with great vividness, when we send them thoughts that vividly depict what we have experienced with them. The dead do not understand abstract concepts. But when I form the thought: There was the road between Kristiania and a neighboring town; we walked there. The other person, who has now died, was walking beside me. I can still hear today how he spoke back then. I hear the sound of his voice. I try to recall the movements he made with his arms, the movements he made with his head. — If one imagines quite vividly and concretely what one experienced together with the deceased, and then sends these thoughts to the deceased—whom one brings to mind in a familiar image—then such a thought, as it were, floats or flows toward the deceased. And the deceased perceives this as a window through which he looks into the world. Not only do the thoughts we direct toward the deceased open up to them in this way, but an entire world opens up to them. It is like a window through which they look into our world.

[ 9 ] On the other hand, the deceased can experience what now lies in his spiritual environment only to the extent that he has already formed, while still here on earth, the thoughts about the spiritual world that are possible for human beings. There are so many people today who say: “Oh, why should we bother with life after death? We can just wait and see. Once we’ve died, we’ll see for ourselves what lies beyond death.” — But that is a completely untenable idea. One simply sees nothing after death if one has never given any thought to the spiritual world during one’s lifetime, if one has lived a purely materialistic life.

[ 10 ] I have thus indicated to you how the deceased lives during the period in which he relives his life in reverse, in accordance with what he has always experienced during his sleep states. During this time, the person—who has now left his physical and etheric bodies—feels himself to be within the realm of the spiritual forces of the Moon. We must be clear that everything that constitutes the bodies of the worlds—the Moon, the Sun, and other stars—insofar as they appear to the physical eye, are in reality merely the physical manifestation of the spiritual.

[ 11 ] Just as the individual human being sitting here on this chair is not merely the flesh and blood that we can regard as matter, but is soul and spirit, so too do soul and spirit live everywhere throughout the entire universe, throughout the entire cosmos—and not merely as a single, unified soul-spiritual being, but as many, infinitely many spiritual beings. And so, numerous spiritual beings are connected to the Moon, which we see only outwardly with the physical eye as a silver disk. We remain within their realm as long as we relive our earthly life in the manner described, until we have returned once more to its starting point. One can therefore say that we remain in the lunar realm for that duration.

[ 12 ] So while we are in this life lived in reverse, something does, however, intermingle with our entire existence, something that then reaches a certain conclusion when we emerge from the lunar realm after death. Immediately after we have shed the etheric body in the manner described, a few days after death, the moral assessment of our human worth emerges from these nocturnal experiences. We then cannot help but morally judge what we are reliving there. And it is very peculiar how things now unfold.

[ 13 ] Here on Earth, we have a physical body made of bones, muscles, blood vessels, and so on. Then, after death, a spiritual body is formed, composed of our moral values. A good person receives a beautifully radiant moral body, while a bad person receives a darkly radiant moral body. This takes shape during this descent. And that is actually only a part of what becomes attached to us, what now becomes our—if I may put it that way—spiritual body, for one part of what we now receive in the spiritual world as a spiritual body is formed from our moral values, while another part is simply “clothed” upon us from the substances of the spiritual world, if I may say so.

[ 14 ] Now, once we have completed the return journey—that is, once we have arrived back at the starting point—we must find that transition which I alluded to in my *Theosophy* as the transition from the world of the soul to the realm of the spirits. But this is connected with our leaving the lunar realm and entering the solar realm within the cosmos. Little by little, through the all-encompassing Being, we become acquainted with everything that lives spiritually and soulfully in the solar realm. We must be received there. Yes, we cannot enter there now with our moral body. In the coming days I will speak about the extent to which, precisely in this transition from the lunar realm to the solar realm, the Christ Being plays a leading role for humanity—a role that differs before the Mystery of Golgotha and after the Mystery of Golgotha. Today, let us describe the passage through this world more objectively. For we must, as it were, shed in the lunar realm that which we have attached to ourselves through our moral values. This represents something we leave behind, so to speak, as a sort of burden, so that we can now enter the solar realm as purely spiritual beings—where we truly see the Sun, not from the side it faces the Earth, but from the far side, where we see it entirely filled with spiritual beings, where we see it entirely as a spiritual realm.

[ 15 ] There it is, where we take everything that does not now belong to our moral values, but rather to that which the gods have allowed us to experience on Earth and which is useful for the universe—where we offer this to the universe as nourishment, so that the course of the universe may continue. Yes, it is truly so: if we were to view the course of the universe—you know, I’m only using this as a comparison; I certainly do not define the course of the universe as a machine—were to view it, by way of comparison, as a machine, then what we bring with us—after we have set down our burden in the lunar realm—would be, in the solar realm, like fuel that we supply to the course of the cosmos, just as fuel is supplied to a machine.

[ 16 ] And so we enter the realm of the spiritual world. For it makes no difference whether we say, “We enter the realm of the Sun, spiritually,” or whether we say, “We enter the spiritual world.” — There we now live as spirits among spirits, just as we live here on Earth as physical human beings among physical beings of the various kingdoms of nature. There we live among those beings whom I have described and named in my *Outline of Esoteric Science*. There we also live among those souls who have died before us or who are awaiting their coming earthly life. There we live as spirits among spiritual beings. These spiritual beings may be beings of the higher hierarchies; they may also be disembodied human beings living in the spiritual world. And the question arises: What do we do now? — We are now growing more and more into a worldview that is very different from the earthly worldview. When one describes this world into which we are growing, it sounds paradoxical again. But what else can one expect, other than that these things, which exist in a completely different world, sound paradoxical to earthly perception?

[ 17 ] As we truly live there—a spirit among spirits—just as we have everything natural before us and around us here on Earth, so too, when we live as a spirit among spirits between death and a new birth, we gradually have everything human before us. Here on Earth, we stand at a specific point in the earthly universe. We cast our gaze out in all directions and see what lies outside of humanity. We do not see at all what lies within humanity.

[ 18 ] Now you will say: What you’re telling us is foolish. Not exactly everyone, but the learned anatomists who dissect people in anatomical clinics after they have died—who practice anatomy—know the human interior quite well. They know nothing of it! For what one learns about the human being in this way is merely the exterior. Whether they ultimately view the human being externally from the outside of the skin, or whether they view it externally from the inside, it is all the same. Inside the human skin is not what anatomists extract in an external way; rather, there are entire worlds inside. In the human lungs, in every human organ, entire worlds are rolled up in miniature.

[ 19 ] It is truly wonderful what we see when we, say, admire a beautiful landscape. It is wonderful what we see when we gaze at the starry sky at night in all its splendor. But what lies within a human being—when we look at a person not with the physical eye of an anatomist, but with the spiritual eye; when we look at a human lung, a human liver—forgive me for naming all these organs—when we look at these organs with the spiritual eye—these are, in fact, worlds rolled up into one. Compared to all the splendor and glory of the outer rivers and mountains, of the earthly world—compared to all this outer splendor—there is a far greater, a more sublime splendor in everything that lies within the human skin, even if only as a physical organization. The fact that it is smaller than the seemingly vast world of space does not matter. If you survey what lies within a single alveolus, it is more magnificent than what lies within the mighty Alpine massifs. For what is within the human being is, in fact, the entire spiritual cosmos condensed into a single form. In the human internal organization, we have an image of the entire cosmos.

[ 20 ] We can also imagine this in a slightly different way. Just imagine, for my sake, that you have turned thirty years old and are looking deep within yourself—purely in a spiritual sense. In your memory, you recall something you experienced between the ages of ten and twenty. There, the external experience has become an inner image of the soul. In a single moment, you may survey a vast array of experiences you have gone through over the years. A whole world is woven together in the image of a single thought. Just think of what you sometimes experience when you hold within your inner life these small mental images of the far-reaching events you have lived through. That is the inner life you are experiencing there, derived from what you have lived through on earth. If, just as you look at your mental images of memories, you look at your brain, the interior of your eye—the interior of the eye alone is, after all, a whole world—and if you likewise look at your lungs and your other organs, these are not now images of experiences you have gone through, but rather they are images of the entire spiritual cosmos; they merely appear in a material form.

[ 21 ] If a person can unravel this, just as they can unravel their memories in their inner life because they have lived through them in their earthly life, if they can likewise unravel: What is contained in my brain, inside my eyes, inside my lungs? — then the entire spiritual cosmos opens up to them, just as a series of experiences one has gone through unfolds in the individual memories. As a human being, one is the embodied memory of the world. One need only give this proper consideration, and then one will understand what it means that, after passing through the states following death that I have described so far, the human being enters into the vision of the human being itself. The human being is a spirit among spirits. But what he now beholds as his world is the miracle of the human organism itself as a cosmos, as a whole world. Just as mountains, rivers, stars, and clouds surround us here, so too, when we live as a spirit among spirits, is the human being, in his wondrous organization, our surroundings, our world. We look out; we look—if I may speak figuratively—to the left in the spiritual world and to the right: just as there are rocks, rivers, and mountains everywhere here, so too is there the human being everywhere there. The human being is the world. And we are engaged with this world, which is actually the human being. Just as we build machines, keep accounts, make skirts, make shoes, just as we write anything here on Earth—just as we weave together what is called the substance of civilization and culture—so there, together with the spirits of the higher hierarchies and with disembodied human beings, we weave at humanity. We weave humanity out of the cosmos. Here on Earth, we are fully formed human beings. There, we plant the spiritual seed of the earthly human being.

[ 22 ] This is the great secret: that humanity’s heavenly task consists in weaving, together with the spirits of the higher hierarchies, the great spiritual seed for the future earthly human being. And each of us weaves—but on a vast spiritual scale within the spiritual cosmos—the fabric of our own earthly human being, whom we will become when we descend once more into earthly life. Our work is a joint endeavor with the gods on the earthly human being.

[ 23 ] When we speak of a seed here on Earth, we imagine something small that will eventually grow large. But when we speak of how the seed of the physical human being on Earth exists in the spiritual world—for the physical seed that develops in the mother’s body is only the image of this spiritual seed—when we speak of the spiritual seed, it is enormously large; it is a universe, and all other human beings are interwoven into this universe. One could say: All are in the same place and yet differ from one another in number. — And then it grows smaller and smaller. And we go through this process during the time between death and a new birth: first, as a vast universe, we form the spiritual seed of the human being we are to become. Then this spiritual seed becomes smaller and smaller; it folds its essence in more and more, and it is this seed that then creates its image in the mother’s womb.

[ 24 ] What materialist physiology believes in this regard is completely wrong. Materialist physiology believes that human beings, with their marvelous form—which I have just tried to sketch out for you—arise from the mere physical human germ. That is pure nonsense. For in this materialistic physiology, it is generally believed that the germ is the most complex form of matter. And the chemists—the physiological chemists—ponder how the molecule or the atom becomes increasingly complex, and that the germ is ultimately something quite complex. But that is not true at all. For the primordial germ is, in fact, chaotic matter. When matter becomes a germ, it dissolves precisely as matter; it is completely pulverized. The essence of the germ—and most of all the human germ, the physical human germ—lies in the fact that it is completely pulverized matter that no longer desires anything for itself. Precisely because it is completely pulverized matter that no longer desires anything for itself, the spiritual germ—which has long been prepared—can take up residence within this matter. It is precisely this pulverization that the physical germ matter is made capable of through conception. The physical matter is completely destroyed so that the spiritual germ can descend into it, and the physical matter can become the image of the spiritual germ that is woven from the cosmos.

[ 25 ] One can certainly sing great songs of praise for all that human beings on Earth can do for civilization and culture. I certainly will not speak out against these songs of praise, but I declare from the outset that, insofar as these songs of praise are reasonable, I agree with them entirely. But what is accomplished—I would say—in the heavenly civilization between death and a new birth, as the human body is prepared in the spirit, first woven in the spirit—that is a far more comprehensive, far more sublime, and far more magnificent work than all cultural endeavors on Earth. For there is nothing more sublime in the order of the worlds than to weave the human being precisely from all the ingredients of the world. Together with the gods, the human being is woven during the most crucial time between death and a new birth.

[ 26 ] And if yesterday I had to say: “In a certain sense, what we acquire here on Earth in the form of experiences and events is nourishment for the cosmos”—then we must now say: After we have preserved what we have gathered here in an earthly life as useful for the cosmos—as nourishment or fuel—and have given it to the cosmos, we then receive from the abundance of the cosmos all those substances from which we will in turn weave the new human being whom we will later take on. There the human being lives, truly and completely devoted to a spiritual world, as spirit. Their entire weaving and being is spiritual work and spiritual existence. This takes a long time. For truly—and this must be emphasized again and again—weaving that which the human being is is something truly immense and magnificent. And in the ancient mysteries, the human physical body was not without reason called a “temple of the gods.” This phrase has a profound meaning. One learns to feel the full, profound meaning of this word more and more the deeper one gains insight into the entire science of initiation—into that which takes place as the life of the human being itself between death and a new birth. But there one also lives in such a way that, I would say, one directly beholds the spiritual beings as spiritual beings. This takes a long time. Then another state sets in.

[ 27 ] What existed before was a state in which one truly perceived the individual spirit beings as distinct entities. One came to know these spirit beings, so to speak, face to face, by working with them. Then a state sets in where—I would like to say this is only figurative, but one can only use images for these things—these spiritual beings become increasingly indistinct, and a more general spiritual formation emerges. One can put it this way: a certain period between death and a new birth is experienced as living directly with the spiritual beings. Then comes a time when one lives solely within the revelation of the spiritual beings, as they reveal themselves to you. — I’ll use a rather trivial analogy. If you see a small gray cloud in the distance, you might take it for a small gray cloud; but as you approach it, it turns out to be a swarm of mosquitoes. You now see every single mosquito. Here it is the other way around. You perceive—at first as individual entities—the divine-spiritual beings with whom you work. Then you immerse yourself in this experience, so that you perceive the general spirituality—like the swarm of gnats as a cloud—where the individual entities fade into the background, and you then live, I would say, in a more pantheistic way within a general spiritual world.

[ 28 ] Now that you live in a general spiritual world, however, a stronger sense of self is emerging from within you than you had before. Previously, you were such that, in a sense, you were one with the spiritual world, which you experienced through its individualities. Now, you perceive the spiritual world, so to speak, merely as a general spirituality. But you feel stronger. The intensity of your own sense of self is awakening. And with this, the need for a new earthly existence slowly and gradually arises within the human being once again. With this awakening of the sense of self comes the need for a new earthly existence. I must describe this need to you as follows. Throughout the entire period I have just described to you—which spans centuries—once a person has passed through the initial phase in which they are still connected to the Earth, and from the point at which they have returned to their starting point, they are, in essence, primarily interested only in the spiritual world. He works upon humanity as a whole in the manner I have described to you. His interest lies primarily in the spiritual world.

[ 29 ] At the moment when the spiritual world, so to speak, blurs into one another in its individualities and the human being perceives the spiritual world in general, an interest in the earthly world awakens within him once again. This interest in the earthly world arises in a very special way. Namely, it arises in a specific, concrete way. One begins to take an interest in very specific people who are down there on Earth, and in turn in their children, and in their children’s children as well. Whereas one previously had only an interest in the heavenly realm, one now develops a peculiar interest—when the spiritual world becomes revealed—in certain generational lines. These are the generational lines at the end of which stand one’s own parents, who will give birth to one when one descends once more to Earth. But one develops an interest in one’s ancestors long before that. One traces the generational line down to one’s parents, and one does not merely follow it over the course of time; rather, when this state of revelation first sets in, one already sees the entire generational line unfolding before one’s eyes as if in a prophecy. There, looking through the generations—through the succession of human beings: great-great-great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, great-grandfather, grandfather, and so on—one sees before oneself, in human generations, the path one will take down to Earth. After first growing into the cosmos, one later grows into real, concrete human history. And then comes the moment when one gradually emerges from the solar realm once more. Of course, one always remains within the solar realm, but the distinct, clear, conscious connection dims, and one moves back into the lunar realm. And now, in the lunar realm, one finds the “package” that one has set aside—I can’t describe it any other way than with this image—that which represents moral value. One must now take this up.

[ 30 ] In the coming days, we will see how the Christ impulse once again plays a very significant role. One must incorporate the “package of destiny.” But as one incorporates this “package of destiny,” as one enters the lunar realm, while one’s sense of self has grown stronger and stronger, while one has become more and more of a soul inwardly, the fabric that one has woven into one’s physical body is gradually lost. The spiritual seed that one has woven oneself is lost; it is lost at the very moment when conception takes place on Earth for the physical seed that one is to receive here.

[ 31 ] But now one is still in the spiritual world oneself. The spiritual seed of the physical body has already descended; one is still in the spiritual world oneself. Then a profound sense of deprivation sets in, a strong feeling of loss. One has lost the spiritual seed of the physical body. It is already down below. It has reached the end of the line of generations that one has witnessed. One is still up here. The sense of deprivation makes itself felt with great intensity. And this deprivation now draws together from all over the world the appropriate ingredients of the world ether. After one has already sent the spiritual seed of the physical body down to Earth and has remained behind as a soul, as an “I,” and as an astral body, one gathers etheric substance from the world ether and forms one’s own etheric body. And with this etheric body that one has formed, one then unites—roughly in the third week after conception has taken place on Earth—with the physical germ that has formed in the manner described following the spiritual germ.

[ 32 ] “But before one unites with one’s own physical germ, one still forms one’s etheric body in the way I have described. And woven into this etheric body is the ‘package’ I spoke of, which contains one’s moral worth. This is now woven into one’s I, into one’s astral body, but also into the etheric body. This is then brought together with the physical body. And this is how one carries one’s karma with one onto Earth. One first left this behind in the lunar realm, for one would have developed a bad, a corrupted physical body if one had taken it with one into the solar realm. The human physical body only becomes individual through the etheric body permeating it. The physical body of every human being would be identical to that of another human being, for in the spiritual world, human beings weave absolutely identical spiritual seeds for their physical bodies. We become individual precisely according to our karma—according to how we must weave our “package” into the etheric body, which then, while we are still in the embryonic state, individually shapes, constitutes, and permeates our physical body.

[ 33 ] In the coming days, of course, I will have to add a few more details to what I have outlined for you regarding the human being’s journey between death and a new birth. But you have seen that the human being undergoes rich experiences there, that a great experience takes place: how we first merge into the cosmos, and how we then form humanity anew from the cosmos in order to enter a new earthly life.

[ 34 ] There are essentially three things we experience here. First, we live as spiritual souls among spiritual souls. It is a genuine experience of the spiritual world. Second, we live within the revelation of the spiritual world. The individualities of the separate spiritual beings are, so to speak, blurred; the spiritual world reveals itself to us as a whole. We then approach the lunar realm again, but there our sense of self awakens—which is already the preparation for our earthly sense of self. While in the spiritual world we become conscious as a spiritual self and do not yearn for the Earth, we now begin, during the period of revelation, to yearn for the Earth and to develop a strong sense of self that is already inclined toward the Earth. And the third stage is when we have entered the lunar realm, when we have surrendered our spiritual seed to the physical world, and we draw together the etheric matter from all the heavens to form our own etheric body. Three successive stages: true life with the spiritual world; life in which one already feels oneself as an egoistic “I” within the revelations of the spiritual world; life in the gathering of the world ether.

[ 35 ] Once a human being has entered their physical body, these images come into being. These images turn out to be something truly astonishing. We see the child. We see it before us in its physical body. It is developing. Indeed, the development of the child is the most wonderful thing we can witness in the physical world. We see how it first crawls, how it finds its balance in relation to the world. We observe it learning to walk. An immense amount is connected to this process of learning to walk. It is a complete immersion into the world’s state of balance. It is a genuine placement of the entire cosmos within the three spatial directions of the world. The very fact that the child is just now finding the correct human state of balance within the world—that is the first marvel.

[ 36 ] This is a humble, earthly reflection of what humankind has endured over many centuries while living as a spirit among spirits. One develops a deep sense of awe for the world when one views it in such a way that one sees the child, at first clumsily flailing its limbs about, and how it gradually becomes more coordinated. Yes, this is the aftereffect of the movements we have performed as spiritual beings among spiritual beings over the centuries. It is truly a marvelous thing to see, in the child’s individual movements and in its search for balance, the earthly aftereffects of the heavenly movements that are performed purely spiritually as a spirit among spirits. This is, after all, what regularly happens with a child. If it happens differently, it is somewhat abnormal. It can also happen, but actually, the child should first learn to walk, first learn to find its balance, and then speak.

[ 37 ] And now, through imitating language, the child begins to settle into its surroundings. But with every sound, with every word formation that develops within the child, we have a simple, earthly echo of that experience we have when the experience of the spiritual becomes a revelation, coalescing, as it were, into a unified mist. There, the individual beings of the world—which we previously experienced as separate entities—become the World Logos. This mist is, in fact, the World Logos. And when words emerge from the child, one by one, this is the spoken, earthly reflection of that wondrous cosmic tableau that the human being passes through during the time of revelation, before re-entering the lunar realm.

[ 38 ] And then, when the child—after learning to walk and speak—gradually develops its thoughts—for the third stage in normal human development should be learning to think—this is a reflection of those acts that the human being performed by shaping the world ether from all regions of the universe into its own etheric body.

[ 39 ] So we look at the child as it has entered the world. And in this sequence of three unassuming tasks that it masters in order to establish a dynamic-static relationship with the world, maintaining balance—what we call learning to walk, learning to speak, and learning to think—we see the completely folded-up, earthly and unassuming afterimages of that which, when unfurled into the vast cosmos, represents the states experienced between death and a new birth.

[ 40 ] It is only by coming to know this spiritual life between death and a new birth that we also come to know that mystery which emerges from the deepest inner being of the human being, as the child first comes into the world in a completely undifferentiated state and becomes more and more differentiated. In this way, we learn to understand the world as a revelation of the Divine when we can point out in each individual how it is a revelation of the Divine.

[ 41 ] In the next lectures, we will discuss these matters, as well as their connection to the evolution of the Earth and the significance of the Christ impulse in that evolution.