Supplements to Member Lectures
GA 246
12 December 1906, Munich
Translated by Steiner Online Library
5. The Concept of the Group Soul
[ 1 ] Only human beings have an individual soul; other creatures have a group soul. A human being’s individual soul belongs solely to this one entity, just as this individual human form is likewise the vessel of the complete soul. This is not the case with animals; there, the individual physical forms of the animals are merely the individual members of this one soul, the group soul. The group soul lives on the astral plane. We live side by side here on the physical plane. With the group soul on the astral plane, it is somewhat different. The astral plane is the realm of permeability; the astral plane has four dimensions, while the physical plane has three dimensions. On the astral plane, there are no spatial constraints, for the law of permeability prevails.
[ 2 ] The distinction between animals such as cats, lions, tigers, and so on is not as great as one might think. One group merges into the next. As a result, these group souls are not strictly separated from one another. The grouping of souls on the astral plane is such that they can interpenetrate one another in the most diverse ways. There are not only group souls on the astral plane; there are also animals whose group soul is very highly evolved—for example, the group soul of ants, which is very highly evolved and can be found in the upper regions of Devachan. Furthermore, there is the group soul of the beehive; it dwells on the Buddha plane. In the past, human beings also had a group soul. There were seven types of such group souls back when human beings did not yet have an individual soul. In the sevenfold division of the races, you can still see the expression of these seven group souls.
[ 3 ] What is an individual soul? When the soul is separated from the Divine, when it is cut off from above and receives its experiences from outside, then it is an individual soul.
[ 4 ] The group soul multiplies into individual souls according to the law of number. This is a very significant and important truth. It is in this that the individualization of the soul lies—that the soul perceives through eyes on the physical plane.
[ 5 ] The sense of direction, the inheritance of mathematical ability, the inheritance of talent [—all such things] depend more on the senses than on the brain.