The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] This afternoon we saw how one can conceive of life between death and rebirth as a passage through spiritual realms, and at the same time we saw how one can gain insights into this passage through certain spiritual realms by referring to specific stellar locations. But before we continue, let us examine more closely how this passage through such realms—indicated by celestial positions—should be conceived.

[ 2 ] It might seem, after all, as if it were sufficient to describe the passage through the supersensible existence between two earthly lives just as I have done, for example, in my Theosophy. Certainly, to begin with, it is entirely correct to become acquainted with these realms in this way. However, one must also progress in one’s understanding. It then becomes necessary to approach these matters in a way that truly takes into account the unity of the world—the harmonious and unified interplay between the supersensible and the sensible worlds. And in this regard, one can say: The entire relationship of the individual realms that a person enters between death and rebirth is, in turn, outwardly expressed in the spatial-temporal relationship that the relevant stars have to one another, so that what one wishes to describe is actually presented in an accurate image when one describes it, let us say, in terms of the stars. And indeed, this is truly the case: When one points outwardly to a star, one has identified the specific location one must point to whenever a supersensible realm is involved.

[ 3 ] One might object, however: The things that lie between death and rebirth cannot be conceived of spatially, or at least can only be conceived of spatially to a certain degree. While this is true, they do play a role within space. Everything that is beyond space and time plays a role within space and time, and since human beings are, after all, compelled to orient their imagination according to space and time, the constellation is precisely the very best image—one that, when we hold it in our souls, best conveys the reality in question to us. There is just one more thing to add. In physics, we can learn that the processes we observe in the physical world—which are subject to gravity—undergo changes as we venture out into outer space. Physicists specify the rate at which the intensity of gravity decreases: it decreases in proportion to the square of the distance. Luminous intensity also decreases with the square of the distance. Yet there is one thing people do not admit: that all the knowledge about sensory phenomena they have gained here on Earth is derived from this Earth, and that it is highly plausible that what is true for the Earth’s environment with regard to gravity, light, and so on, is correct, may diminish in its validity as we venture out into outer space—so that we are then justified in speaking of the insights widely accepted today only as those that apply within the Earth’s vicinity. Just as gravity decreases in proportion to the square of the distance, so does the truth of our judgments diminish as we move away from Earth. If today an astronomer or astrophysicist were to use ordinary thinking to determine, for example, what is happening out there in a spiral nebula, it would be just as if one were to calculate, based on Earth’s conditions, how heavy a stone would be in that spiral nebula out there. Therefore, one should not be surprised when spiritual science must say: Yes, here on Earth things look this way, but out there in reality they are quite different. Here on Earth, the Moon looks the way we are accustomed to seeing it, but in reality, the Moon is precisely the cosmic colony that contains what I described this afternoon. The same is true of the stars and constellations. And this must certainly be taken into account as I now present the other description, which must now be the subject of our consideration.

[ 4 ] We have now continued our considerations up to the point where the human being enters the solar region between death and rebirth. In this solar region, precisely what I have described as the transformation of the lower human spiritual form into what will become the head in the next earthly life takes place. Now, however, we must take into account that the human being takes his path between death and new birth in such a way that he actually passes through all these stellar regions twice. The human being comes near the Moon after passing through the gate of death; he then comes near Mercury, near Venus, and into the solar region. That is as far as we have come. It is there that the transformation of the lower human being into the higher human being truly begins, so that what were once the human limbs are transformed into the head system—initially in a spiritual sense. But this transformation is something extraordinarily magnificent. And anyone who views the human head solely in physical terms has no real inkling of all that must interact throughout the universe to bring about the spiritual constitution of this human head. This work—the work on the spiritual constitution of the human head, which then takes hold of the embryonic structure in the physical realm—begins when the human being, on his path after death, first enters the solar region; he then enters the region of Mars, then the region of Jupiter, and finally the region of Saturn. The latter is in fact—since Uranus and Neptune are not relevant here—the final region that the human being then enters. Throughout this entire period, as the human being passes through these regions, work is being done on the spiritual constitution of his head. Then the human being, so to speak, continues on into the cosmos, out into the waves of the cosmos, and this transformation continues to take place there until the human being retraces their path—back through the Saturn region, through the Jupiter and Mars regions, to the Solar region, until they return to the lunar sphere. We will hear how this experience continues. But now let us consider in our hearts what a human being goes through once they have passed through the solar region.

[ 5 ] Until a person reaches the realm of the Sun, they mostly experience things that are still quite closely connected to themselves. This afternoon I was able to describe to you how human beings bear within themselves the physiognomy of their own good and evil, how this gives them a perception of other beings of a similar nature, and how they then gradually transform their form more and more, becoming similar to the beings belonging to the supersensible world, so that they become visible to the beings of the third hierarchy, as well as those of the second hierarchy. If, therefore, one wishes to describe human beings up to the stage of the Sun, one must describe them in such a way that one first takes up their spiritual form and describes it. But as the human being enters the solar realm, what I have already described in previous lectures—without reference to astronomy—also comes upon him: he begins to live himself into the music of the worlds. There he hears the meaning of the entire interplay of the starry worlds in the harmonies of the worlds, in the melody of the worlds. For this interplay of the stars—in which, however, the interplay of all the spiritual beings present in these realms is simultaneously expressed—is what ultimately gives rise to that phenomenon that finds expression as the melody and harmony of the worlds. It is primarily the emotional life in its spiritual metamorphosis that is stimulated when a human being enters the solar existence. And everything a human being experiences, they experience as if they were being vibrated through by the cosmic melody and cosmic harmony.

[ 6 ] At this stage of life, between death and rebirth, we do not need theories; nor do we initially need anything that can be expressed in words. Rather, we need the universal, all-encompassing feeling of how harmoniously and melodiously the individual essences of the universe interact. And here again something comes into play that truly reveals to us the relationship between the two worlds—the physical-sensory world and the supersensory-superphysical world.

[ 7 ] At the very moment we enter solar existence and the cosmic melody and harmony—in short, cosmic music—surrounds us from all directions, at that very moment we still feel the last remnants of what we possessed during our earthly existence as one of our most spiritual faculties: the last remnants of language. When, during the passage between death and new birth, even our spiritual form has fallen away from us; when, even during our solar existence, we have become, in our own form—transformed into a head-like form—similar to the world sphere; when, in other words, that which in our outward form still reminds us of our earthly existence has already fallen away from us, then that which expressed itself within us while we were earthly human beings—through our ability to speak, to pour our thoughts into words—in short, that which lived out its soul life in language—follows us and brings with it—at least as it now exists in human memory on Earth—a kind of discord into the music of the worlds. It is indeed a discord that enters the music of the worlds because human beings carry the remnants of their linguistic capacity with them even into their solar existence. And what human beings carry into solar existence through their language is essentially the foundation for certain higher spirits whose task is to work on earthly existence from the outside, from the cosmos, by observing what has degenerated or gone wrong in earthly existence and what is expressed through human language—namely, language as it is today.

[ 8 ] Today, this human language—in none of its European or American forms—is really anything that develops from within a person with elemental force. One might say that what language once was could perhaps return to the earth once more in the following way. Some of us are learning eurythmy today. What actually happens when people learn eurythmy? Today, people easily utter any word without having the slightest idea how the entire configuration of that word is connected to inner soul experience. Today, speaking words often means merely conforming to a convention. People no longer think about the fact that when we say an “A”—separated from all other letter-based conventions—we are expressing something that, in terms of its sound, springs from astonishment, from wonder at something. And when we pronounce a “B,” it signifies that we are creating an enclosure; we are enveloping something with something. Consonants always signify forms; vowels always signify feelings. The innermost core of the human soul is represented by vowels; consonants always signify forms. That is why the “B” sound is originally associated with the act of enclosing—in fact, with the house, the little house. When I say “B,” I mean the act of enveloping. When I say “A,” it is something like a sense of wonder deep within the soul. When I say “T,” as a consonant, it signifies taking a firm stand, making a stop with something, pausing at something; “D” is a gentler form of pausing. So if, for example—forgive me for using a German word now (it was, after all, spoken in Holland)—I say the word “Bad,” then, if I go back to its origin, where the word is still fully felt and perceived, I would have to say to myself something like: There is the enclosure, there is the water—B, if it’s warmed just right for me—ah! now I’m at the A—and now I’m staying inside—D. The entire experience lies within the word. If you break this down today, it seems a bit quietly humorous, since people today no longer experience words in this way. But if one were to experience the word “bath” in this way, one would have to say: the house in which, for me, the wonder lies, in which I sit. And so language is actually permeated everywhere by spiritual experience; human spiritual experience flows concretely into language. Language used to be such that it was perceived in this way. In the original, primitive languages, language was entirely a perception of feeling and form: a perception of feeling in the vowels, a perception of form in the consonants. Today, this has become detached, and everything has become convention. We already live in such a way that words are for us almost exclusively a matter of memory.

[ 9 ] Now, in eurythmy, we transform what B, A, and D represent back into the corresponding gestures. As the eurythmist performs the gestures, he must once again come to experience language. And one can hope that once eurythmy becomes popular in wider circles, people will find their way back to language as it was once seen and felt—to what the primitive languages were like. Thus, in the future, eurythmy will not only be what it is now as a new art form, but it will once again serve as a guide for carrying the soul-spiritual life on the waves and surges of language. We have already reached a point today where language is so poorly articulated—and I am not even thinking here of an “infusion of soul” into language—that a number of people, in essence, no longer speak at all, but merely “spit out” words. So little of what lies in language today is born out of the soul. It is sometimes enough to drive one to despair how words are no longer imbued with soul and lived through—indeed, are not even articulated anymore!

[ 10 ] It is indeed true that today a shrill discordant note resounds from Earth into the music of the worlds when a human being, after death, has arrived in the solar realm. And it is precisely through this nature of language that certain spiritual beings perceive what the signs of decline in earthly existence are, and how one can find the forces and impulses to achieve a kind of ascent once more.

[ 11 ] And then humanity’s journey between death and rebirth continues, and it enters the Martian existence. What does it mean to “enter into the Martian existence”? I can no longer speak in terms that tie in with the human spiritual form, for the human being has been completely transformed; he has become a spiritual imitation of the world sphere. Thus the journey continues—through Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—into the surges and waves of the cosmos. But as the human being enters the Mars region, he encounters there the “Mars population”—if I may put it that way—that Mars population which consists solely of either disembodied human souls or of the beings of the higher hierarchies, but above all of the beings of those higher hierarchies who, out of their very being, resound the language of the worlds into the cosmic realm. Thus, the human being enters the realm where world music becomes the language of the worlds, where he first hears it, but is then himself woven into the language of the worlds—where, in other words, he does not merely perceive the imitative language of humanity, but the creative language from which things come into being. This occurs during the passage through Mars. There, the human being now learns from the beings of this region in a conscious manner. The spiritual population of Mars consists of those who are versed in the language of the worlds, alongside those beings who are warlike in nature and the like. — But the most important beings of the spiritual population of Mars for human beings are those who, by their very nature, consist entirely of the resounding Word of the Worlds. They are the guardians of what the language of the worlds is.

[ 12 ] Then the human being’s journey continues. He arrives in the region of Jupiter. There are beings there who are the guardians of the world-thoughts. The beings present there radiate thought-beings into our planetary system and its vicinity. Human beings now pass through this region as well. They now undergo a transformation that I can describe—albeit only schematically—in the following way. Imagine, then, that human beings themselves become a kind of reflection of the world sphere—that is, the spiritual structure of the head they will later bear on Earth. After having learned to shed the Earthly language—through the sensation of its shrill discord—during his existence in the Sun, he grows into the World Language during his passage through Mars and acquires the first capacity to understand this World Language. That is to say, after the transformation of his lower human form has begun—as I have described it—with the limbs becoming the lower jaw, the arms becoming the upper jaw, and so on—the human being first develops, together with the beings of the higher hierarchies, the very spiritual foundation of his future head. But initially, this head is predisposed to comprehend the entire universe—not the Earth! It first learns the language of the worlds, first learns the thoughts of the worlds. These thoughts of the worlds and this language of the worlds take root in the human head, and just as human beings here on Earth know something about the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, so too do they, in fact, become acquainted with the mysteries of the spiritual universe during this passage through Mars and Jupiter. In fact, a human being only truly develops the right sense of human nature when he becomes aware that, during his passage through life between death and a new birth, he has first learned all the names of the wondrous, majestic beings of the higher hierarchies; that he has learned to understand what these beings of the higher hierarchies are creating out into the universe; that he has learned to to grasp judgments that do not concern questions such as: “How does one travel from The Hague to Amsterdam?”—but rather concern questions such as: “How are world epochs born out of world epochs through the workings of the higher hierarchies?” This during the Jupiter transit.

[ 13 ] This is followed by the Saturn transit. Saturn brings to human beings what one might call the “memory of the worlds,” for Saturn is the sphere within cosmic existence where the spiritual beings are located who preserve a memory of everything that has ever happened in our planetary system. Saturn is the great repository of memory and remembrance for all events in our planetary system. Just as the human being first learns the language of the gods in the Mars region and the thoughts of the gods in the Jupiter region, so, during his first passage through the Saturn existence, he learns to recognize everything that the gods of the planetary system remember. Through this, everything he needs to be a citizen of the cosmos—and to live in the cosmos among the beings of the higher hierarchies just as he lives on Earth among the beings of the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms who are subordinate to him—is imprinted upon his spherical head, which is the spiritual foundation of his future earthly head.

[ 14 ] And as human beings become so inwardly enriched in their spiritual existence that they have learned to understand the language of the great world—the macrocosm in the broadest sense of the word—they cross over into the realm that was formerly called the sphere of the fixed stars. There, planetary influences no longer operate; instead, the fixed-star system is at work. And it is there, in the truest sense, that what belongs to the human head in its primordial constitution is first preformed out of infinite spiritual worlds.

[ 15 ] Then the human being begins his journey back again. He returns to the Saturn realm. — We can discuss all of this tomorrow. — The fact that, during his existence on Saturn, he first absorbed the planetary memory within himself provides the foundation for the capacity for memory—which he will then need on Earth—to be formed within his head. What was implanted within him as world memory is, so to speak, “earthified.” The world memory is transformed back into the capacity for human memory. And when the human being has once again reached the sphere of Jupiter, what he has attained through the contemplation of the thoughts of the gods is transformed back into the ability to grasp human thoughts, which can then be reflected in ordinary consciousness when the human being’s head structure unites with the physical embryonic structure. — But now, during this passage through Saturn, the individual process of transforming the lower human being into the members of the head organization can also begin to be worked out in greater detail. And this is a wondrous way in which one human being works upon another, how this work takes place in harmony with the beings of the higher hierarchies, how, in fact, work is carried out on the human head in such a way that this work is like the creation of a whole world in itself. For every human head, viewed in the sphere I am speaking of—the realm between death and new birth—is a wondrous world with countless details. And the work involved requires precisely the devotion of those human beings who are fatefully connected to one another, as well as the corresponding work of those beings of the higher hierarchies who, drawing upon the mystery of the cosmos, understand how such a human head must be formed. It is indeed something truly wondrous to learn in this way what it means to be human. And finally—this is not meant to lead to arrogance, for the world in which we find ourselves ensures that we do not fall into arrogance between death and a new birth. It would indeed be absurd to succumb to human megalomania among the beings of the higher hierarchies—among the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones—for one is still small in comparison to these beings, among whom one works. And when, finally, one experiences here in earthly existence what a human being is in the great world-macrocosm between death and a new birth, then every opportunity is given to say to oneself: Well, you didn’t bring very much with you into earthly existence; so you shouldn’t imagine too much about your present situation, and you need not be particularly proud of what you were among the gods. — But what can grow through such an understanding of what happens to a human being between death and rebirth is the human sense of responsibility, which tells him: One must strive very hard indeed to be worthy of being human even in earthly existence, when one measures the full significance of being human by what it means for the gods to work on human beings between death and rebirth.

[ 16 ] And then we return to the Martian existence. In this Martian existence, work on the human being continues. But there, the spiritual foundations are already laid for the future new body—for the chest structure and the limb structure—which the human being will then carry in their later earthly life. For it is indeed the case that the limb structure from the previous earthly life appears as the head structure in the new earthly life, and that the chest and limb structures for the new earthly life are newly established during the passage through the starry world to the new earthly life. The only difference is that everything that is established there still takes place in the spiritual realm. When the human being passes through the Mars stage of existence again, that which was integrated into him in the highest spiritual realm during his first passage through the Mars stage—that which enabled him to hear the Word of the Worlds—is now transformed from the higher spiritual realm into the somewhat lower spiritual realm, into that spiritual substance from which the human “I” will later reveal itself. And during this passage through the Mars stage, the entire structure of the larynx and lungs is incorporated into the spiritual constitution.

[ 17 ] Then the human being returns once more to the solar stage of existence. The second passage through the solar stage of existence is of very special significance. For up to this point, the human being has actually set out from the first solar stage of existence, passed through Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn to the world of the stars, and is now making the journey back through Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. Throughout this entire time, they are completely devoted to the universe; they have become entirely one with the universe. They live within the universe; they have learned the language of the worlds, have learned to interweave the thoughts of the worlds, and do not live in their own memory—which only reawakens later—but rather live in the memory of the entire planetary system. He lives in such a way that he feels at one with the beings of the higher hierarchies within the memory of cosmic thoughts and the cosmic language, and now returns once more to solar existence. There, the human being begins, so to speak, to separate himself again as an individual being. The feeling dawns gently: You are separating yourself from the world. — But this is connected to the fact that the primordial structure of the human heart is now being integrated into the human being.

[ 18 ] And then the human being continues back, once again through the Venus region and the Mercury region. There, the elements that must be incorporated into him as spiritual faculties through his organs are integrated into his being.

[ 19 ] From the moment a human being passes through the second solar existence—which, of course, takes a long time—and actually long before he enters earthly existence, a significant turning point in his destiny already takes place. At the moment when, out in the cosmos, we acquire the spiritual structure of the human heart upon returning to Earth, it is of course not merely a physical heart form that is present—that has already been indicated—but this physical heart form is surrounded by and connected to everything that the human being has come to embody through their previous earthly lives. It is not so much the fact that we take in the primordial form of the physical heart that is important, but rather it is of very special importance that the human being concentrates upon what he is in terms of soul, morality, and spirit, for all of this is concentrated in the human heart. And before the heart structure unites with the embryonic structure of the future human body, the heart is, in the cosmos, a spiritual-moral-soul being within the human being. The human being then unites this spiritual-moral-soul being—which has now been experienced and attained within them upon their return to Earth—with the embryonic structure. Human beings experience this convergence of their spiritual, moral, and soul elements in communion with the high solar beings—those solar beings who actually hold the creative forces of the planetary system, and thus of earthly existence, in their hands.

[ 20 ] If I may use a metaphor—the expressions sound somewhat paradoxical, but they are nonetheless apt—it is the case that at the very moment a human being receives his cosmic heart, he simultaneously finds himself in the presence of those spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies who, so to speak, hold the reins of leadership over the entire planetary system in connection with earthly existence. And there we are pointed toward something truly magnificent, something truly wondrous. It is actually quite difficult to find the words to describe what a human being experiences there. In a certain sense, they feel just as they do in physical existence. Just as they feel connected in this life to their heartbeat and the entire activity of the heart, so do they feel connected there in the macrocosm—through their macrocosmic spiritual heart—to their entire spiritual, soul, and moral being. What one has become in the universe up to this moment of spiritual experience—as a soul-moral-spiritual being—is within one as if it were a spiritual heartbeat. One now feels one’s entire being in the cosmos as one’s own heartbeat within oneself, and one also feels a kind of circulation connected to this heartbeat. Just as we here on Earth feel, in the heartbeat, the blood circulation and breathing that cause it, so do we perceive—as we feel our spiritual-macrocosmic heart beating spiritually out there during the return through the solar existence, if I may express it figuratively—something akin to currents flowing from there toward the beings of the second hierarchy. Just as blood flows to the heart from the veins and through the veins in the physical organism, so does that which the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, and Dynameis have to say about the world, from the world, and in judgment of humanity, enter into our spiritual-soul being, now localized in the human being. The Spirit of the universe, in its words and sounds, is the circulation that concentrates in this macrocosmic, spiritually beating heart—this moral, spiritual, and soulful human being. There the human spiritual heart beats. At the same time, this is the heartbeat of the world itself, within which the human being is situated. And in this world, the flow of blood is what the creative beings of the second hierarchy do, what radiates from them as forces. And just as the flow of blood in the human being is concentrated in the heart, so that it is felt unconsciously by the human being—for the heart is a sensory organ that perceives the movement of the blood; it is not, as physicists believe, a pumping mechanism, but rather the blood moves through the human being’s spirituality and vitality— so, at this moment between death and a new birth, human beings are graciously permitted to nurture within themselves one of the organs of perception, one of the cosmic hearts, which are created from the pulse of the macrocosm formed by the deeds of the beings of the Second Hierarchy.

[ 21 ] And as the human being then goes further back, he passes once again, as I have already said, through the Mercury and Venus stages of existence. But before that, precisely at that cosmic moment when a human being is truly allowed to feel at home in the spiritual heart of the world, their gaze already falls upon the generational line, at the end of which stands the parental couple through whom they are born, so that the human being is connected to their generational line relatively early on. We are born as human beings to a father and a mother; our parents, in turn, have fathers and mothers, who likewise have fathers and mothers—and by tracing the generational line back, we have already gone back nearly a century. Then we go further back—and we must go back through several centuries, for long before a human being is born on Earth, they have already become connected to the generational line that finds its end in their family. Early on, a person becomes embedded in the generational line as they pass through the solar existence in the manner I have described. And what a person then needs in order to align his destiny, as far as possible, with what now confronts him as an external experience—namely, the fact that he must be born into a specific family and a specific people—he can to some extent work out and determine for himself by passing through the world colony of Venus and Mercury.

[ 22 ] Then he returns to the realm of the Moon. Let us consider: When the human being first passed through the lunar region on the path between death and new birth, he was prompted—both by the forces of good and evil—to think of the ancient sages and of the Earth, of the starting point of earthly existence, where superhuman teachers imparted superhuman wisdom to the earthly human being. Now, when he returns, his attention is less drawn to that which once was on Earth. The situation is now such that he spends the same amount of time up above, in the cosmic realm of the Moon, as elapses down on Earth between conception and birth, so that, in fact, the human being’s embryonic period is accompanied by a cosmic development. The human being undergoes a certain development up in the lunar realm, and down below, the physical embryo is being prepared for him in the meantime—successively—as that with which he gradually unites. What, then, does he undergo up above, in the macrocosm, during his second lunar development?

[ 23 ] Yes, the consciousness that a person experiences in all these situations I have described is much clearer and more alert than the consciousness we have on Earth in our normal lives. It is extremely important that we be clear about this: Consciousness during dreaming is dull; consciousness while awake is bright; consciousness after death is even brighter; and all life here on Earth is like a dream compared to reality in relation to the brightness of consciousness we experience after death. But with each new stage we reach, our consciousness becomes even more alert, even brighter. If we first pass through the lunar existence during our ascent, our consciousness becomes brighter as we enter the presence of the wise primordial teachers of humanity in the lunar region. As we pass through Mercury and Venus, our consciousness grows ever brighter. And so our consciousness brightens each time we enter a new stellar region. Only when we return, heading toward a new earthly life, is this consciousness gradually dimmed once more. But when we arrive at the Mercury stage of existence, we still possess a consciousness that is brighter than any consciousness that remains in ordinary earthly existence. Yet we then enter the lunar region—specifically, that part of the lunar region which represents what human beings were at the beginning of Earth’s evolution. This region extinguishes our consciousness as we return. There, where we have already received our first enlightenment into the supersensible world—in a state of consciousness more alert than we can experience on Earth—our consciousness is dampened on the return to Earth until it is so greatly subdued that it can now become nothing more than a force of growth, a force of growth such as is present in a dreaming child. Consciousness is subdued to the point of dreamlike quality. And only when it has been subdued to this dreamlike state can a human being unite what has developed within them as a spiritual-soul being—as I have described—with their embryo. For this single fact—that at a certain stage of their development, human beings can establish the necessary connection with the physical embryo—it is necessary that, just as the embryo below undergoes the ten lunar months within the mother’s womb, so too, above, in the community of the Primordial Teachers of Humanity, undergo a lunar development—a lunar development that consists in an entire population of Teachers of Humanity working together to temper that cosmic consciousness which the human being still possessed during the Mercury existence into the dream consciousness that is present when the human being enters earthly existence.

[ 24 ] Everything we encounter here in the physical-sensory human being can only be understood if one is able to understand it from the perspective of the supersensible human being. And the supersensible human being, in turn, cannot be understood on Earth or from earthly realities; rather, the supersensible human being can only be understood from cosmic realities, from macrocosmic realities. And so the lectures thus far have been structured to show you how the human being, as an earthly human being, must be born from the spiritual cosmos as a spiritual human being.

[ 25 ] For tomorrow’s lecture, we will still have time to learn to understand, in this context as well, the significance of earthly life itself, insofar as that which is superhuman passes into this earthly life, and to understand the significance of the fact that, from earthly life, the human being carries the remnants of what he has acquired during his earthly life out through the gate of death into the spiritual world.

[ 26 ] Now that we have become acquainted, at least in some respects, with the spiritual nature of the human being—his supersensible being—let us return tomorrow to understanding the relationship between the supersensible and the sensory aspects of the human being.