The Rudolf Steiner Archive

58. The Connection Between Life in the Spiritual World and Life in the Earthly World: On the Relationships Between the Living and the Dead

[ 1 ] Many souls fall asleep today without ever looking up toward the spiritual world, without ever connecting with it in prayer. Let us create a mental image of a sleeping city—the souls that have departed from their bodies. Within these souls, everything they have absorbed from their daily lives in the spiritual realm continues to live on. And if someone takes nothing with them, then nothing spiritual can continue to live on in the soul during the time that elapses between falling asleep and waking up. But what is experienced spiritually here in the waking state—and what is carried into the state of sleep through spiritual elevation in prayer and meditation—is, for the dead, exactly the same thing in a different sense as what the fields of seed are for the living here. If nothing flourishes in the fields of seed, then people here starve. What people take with them into sleep are seeds that live in the fields where the souls of the dead dwell. The dead live off what the souls take with them—spiritual thoughts, immersion in the soul-spiritual world, and mental concentration—they nourish themselves with it and draw sustenance from it. And just as here on Earth, when no fruit grows, famine ensues, so too does a kind of famine arise in the cycle of humanity where souls live materialistically and carry nothing over into the state of sleep. This is the connection between life in the spiritual world and life on Earth.

[ 2 ] Now, one might say: There could very well be a great dying over there! — That cannot happen. The dead souls can experience hunger, the torment of starvation; but the dead cannot die. And this brings us to an important topic, to an important question. You see, death is something known only here in the physical world. Death is something that exists only in the physical world and does not exist at all in the supersensible world.

[ 3 ] I would like to draw your attention to something here. If you examine all the sciences, you will find that they establish the most diverse set of laws. An ideal—but an ideal that one must say would be fantastic if it could be achieved—is for science to understand life directly. People will always investigate chemical and physical laws, but investigating life itself will remain an ideal. It will never be grasped through physical laws, for it flows into the physical world from the higher worlds.

[ 4 ] And so, my dear friends, just as life here is something unknown, so too is death in the higher worlds something unknown. Therefore, it is a nonsensical idea that death could occur in the higher world. Suffering and pain have meaning in the supersensible world, but death does not. All the beings we know as the beings of the higher hierarchies do not know death.

[ 5 ] The angels conceal their faces from the mystery of the Incarnation. They know nothing of it. They can only learn of it through the reports of beings who enter the physical plane; but they cannot know it directly. This is true of all beings in the higher hierarchies. Only one being had to experience death: Christ. That is the great, infinite significance of the Mystery of Golgotha—that a being had to come to know death through severe, incomprehensible suffering.

[ 6 ] Only when one thoroughly thinks through and meditates on this idea can one comprehend the mystery of Golgotha and Christ as the only being who came to know death.

[ 7 ] So what happens to the beings who must starve over there for the reason stated? What happens to them is that they feel all connection with the Earth fading away from within themselves. They live in a world in which they must tell themselves: The Earth is something that is now being taken away from us, something that no longer enters our existence. And for these disembodied human beings, this means terrible torment, great pain. It means that these souls begin to long for death. But because death cannot come, they suffer infinite torments from starvation while yearning for death.

[ 8 ] Thus we see how Theosophy acts as a seed for the dead, as that which nourishes the lives of the dead, that which properly saturates them with sustenance. Only when one knows such things does one develop the right attitude toward Theosophy—that it is not merely a theory, but an elixir of life, and that it bridges the gap between the living and the dead. We must realize that through Theosophy, our soul can form a living bridge to the dead. And because this is so, we must now, in this time, work continuously on the theosophical endeavors in the various branches by recognizing what the living can do for the dead who have gone before them. Above all, they can do something for the dead by reading aloud to them—reading aloud ideas, concepts, and mental images that relate to the supersensible world. In Theosophy, there is a language that both the living and the dead can understand. And this blessing is available not only to those who studied Theosophy during their lifetime, but also to those who did not wish to know anything about Theosophy while they were here. Those who were already Theosophists here will experience it as a very special blessing when we read to them.

[ 9 ] One often hears the objection: Surely the dead must have perceptions of the supersensible world; after all, they are there; surely they cannot grasp anything from what we read to them about the supersensible world!

[ 10 ] Yes, my dear friends, the Earth is not merely a vale of tears; rather, the Earth is something that has a real, active influence. The dead can perceive the supersensible world; yet they cannot form concepts or ideas merely from what they perceive. After all, there are animals on Earth; they, too, can perceive, but they cannot form concepts the way humans do. If the Earth had never come into being, the human soul would live in higher worlds, but it would never arrive at any understanding of those higher worlds. For that to happen, human beings must have passed through earthly life in order to form concepts and ideas at all. Thus, a soul that passes through death without concepts and ideas of the spiritual world and now lives in the higher worlds will, during the time it spends there, [experience nothing of the concepts and ideas] that we here in Theosophy are able to comprehend. It would have to descend to Earth to do so.

[ 11 ] A soul on Earth can help by reading aloud to the dead, for the dead can understand it. And even if the souls themselves have not absorbed anything about Theosophy here on Earth, we must not assume that they would therefore reject Theosophy after death. On the contrary, many who have always resisted drawing closer to theosophy—and who, precisely for that reason, became furious about it and wanted nothing to do with it—may now long to hear about theosophy. For it is not only the things that surround us that are caught up in maya. There can be a maya to which a person surrenders when he is angry at Theosophy; in the depths of the soul, something quite different often takes place than on the surface. While someone in his waking consciousness works himself up into a rage, there may be a great longing within him. It is entirely futile to try to teach Theosophy to such a person; in their soul, [however], they may be a better theosophist than anyone else. But after death, maya ceases. Then what lies in the depths of the soul comes to the fore. Here, the soul may have railed, but on the other side, the longing emerges. It may be that we read aloud in vain, but we must take that risk. ...

[ 12 ] We become increasingly connected with the dead as we devote ourselves, in the true sense, to a theosophical outlook. We must deeply internalize the understanding that Theosophy must permeate the current cycle of humanity. From the other side as well, we will increasingly come to realize that the dead also exert a influence on the living, the more we engage with Theosophy.

[ 13 ] [For example, when raising children who lost their father at a very young age, one must take this circumstance into account. In such cases, one can often feel the father’s influence very strongly from the spiritual worlds. I once had to raise children whose father had died young. I tried to raise them using my own method, but lo and behold, it didn’t work—it simply wouldn’t work. It wasn’t until I thought to take into account the father’s influence from the spiritual world that things went exceptionally well ...]

[ 14 ] What is theoretically devised about incarnations is, as a rule, completely wrong. It might seem strange that Raphael is the same person as the rugged figure of John the Baptist. How is it, then, that this—so to speak—rugged individuality, which had to prepare the way for the mystery of Golgotha in such a shattering manner and with such force, subsequently manifested itself in the gentle, supple, serene Raphael? The following then comes to light. Raphael’s father, Giovanni Santi, died when Raphael was eleven years old. He was a painter. He was not a great painter in terms of his outward technique; but he had great ideas in his mind that he simply could not translate onto the canvas because he lacked the technical skill. He was also a poet. Much lived within him in his imagination, but the physical abilities were lacking. So he passed through the gate of death at an early age. And now his powers worked their way into his son as a painter. In Raphael’s hands and in his imagination, that which could flow from the father into the physical world continued to take effect. One might say: Old Giovanni Santi was, in the supersensory world, a painter without hands. For, within a wondrous karmic connection, he contributed precisely what, together with the Christ-infused individuality of John the Baptist, could now find expression in Raphael. Thus, the interaction between the supersensible world and the physical world had to take place in order to bring about this connection. We see how the influences of the so-called dead work from the other side upon those left behind here. ...

[ 15 ] Earthly life has another important mission as well. Once we have passed through the gate of death, we must encounter other souls so that we are not alone and so that we may come to know them. We can be together with other souls on the other side, but know nothing about them. Here, we must establish a relationship with these souls so that we may know one another on the other side. In the spiritual world, souls may pass each other by without knowing anything about one another. That is why it is also important [on the other side] for us to have passages read to us by people [from here] whom we knew in this life. Through the relationships we form here, we create the bonds that will carry over to the other side. We therefore establish communities and friendships on a spiritual foundation in order to create connections that extend beyond death. Not out of mere preference, but out of a necessity that extends beyond death, we seek to shape into a kind of social form what we wish to allow to flow into us as spiritual life. And so we see how, by forming relationships with other souls here on Earth, a person need not remain a recluse in relation to humanity in the world between death and a new birth, but can be a social being there as well. We can only have understanding for other souls after death if we try to look into the lives of those other souls. Therefore, let us make it a point not to shut ourselves off from souls who are spiritually distant from us, but to look into the inner life of even those souls who are further removed from us. We study religions because we can know nothing at all about a soul whose beliefs are foreign to us. In this way, we forge a close bond with the souls who are closer to us, who are dear to us. But we can also reach out to and draw closer to the people whose spiritual lives we are exploring here. One must learn to understand Scher in order to realize that he cannot help but share what he knows with others, so that what is necessary may come to pass in the world [and the mission on Earth may be fulfilled].

[ 16 ] However, only those souls who have absorbed spiritual knowledge here can have a complete awareness of their influence on the physical world. And since we must come to understand these things with ever greater precision, I would also like to highlight a fact that is very significant, even if it is difficult to understand.

[ 17 ] Let us consider a soul that has not concerned itself with the supersensory world here. This soul can influence the physical world through its intentions. But what this soul may lack is this: although it can, so to speak—if the souls who have remained behind know how to live in the spiritual realm—see them, this soul, which has not cultivated a spiritual life within itself, lacks an awareness that its intentions extend into the physical world.

[ 18 ] But it is lacking only as living knowledge. There is a certain difference, isn’t there, between living in direct contact with your fellow human beings and being prevented from living in direct contact with them—yet having their intentions pass onto you invisibly, so that you would see everything as if in a mirror. The dead person who has entered the spiritual world without spiritual knowledge sends out their intentions; but this awareness is like a mirage. And that is far less satisfying than direct knowledge: “Now you have this intention; you are sending it down.” But this direct knowledge of the connection with the living can be possessed only by those who have already embraced a spiritual life here—or who, after death, are instructed through the reading aloud of spiritual ideas. This reading aloud can substitute for that knowledge. And this will gradually develop: that human beings here on Earth, too, will attain an awareness of the influence of the dead; that is to say, it is not merely a one-sided influence upward into the region of the supersensible through what people do here, but rather, the deeper people immerse themselves in the supersensible world, the more they will gradually rise to to become aware of what comes from the other side.

[ 19 ] However, we are only at the beginning of theosophical development today. Therefore, little attention is being paid to what is being said now. But people will become increasingly aware of it. There will be moments when one will be able to perceive quite clearly how the dead exert a influence. Not every moment of our lives is conducive to this, but those who can immerse themselves in Theosophy will have such moments. After all, human beings actually experience very little of what surrounds them. They experience only what takes place in their immediate surroundings from hour to hour. But that is, of course, the very least of what is really there or could be there for us.

[ 20 ] An example of a man who takes a walk a few minutes later than usual and thereby escapes death. The dead have thus influenced his life.

[ 21 ] In such a case, we realize how many things around us do not happen that could have happened in our lives. How do you know what would have happened in your life if, say, you had taken a step three minutes earlier than you actually did? Certainly, there are karmic necessities; but there are still a thousand possibilities that do not come to pass. What actually happens arises from the ground of many possibilities. Precisely in those moments when something could have happened but did not—because we missed the opportunity, so to speak—there is always a favorable moment for the spiritual world to shine through. Let’s take an example: You miss a train because you’re late. You should accept such a thing with equanimity, for karma may be at work here. A person should gradually cultivate equanimity. When they do so, in those moments when misfortune could have befallen them but did not, they will sense something arising, like a dreamlike thought. In it will be expressed something that a deceased person is telling them—and which may be an important message from the other side.

[ 22 ] In order to receive a direct message from the spiritual world, a certain degree of spiritual training is required. Theosophy will provide people with this spiritual training. This can go so far that, for example, we may experience that someone who died before us is constantly looking out for us. If the person in question died very young, for example, they have saved up certain forces that they could still have used in this life. These forces remain with them, and when conditions are favorable, they can send them into earthly existence. The deceased may have grown fond of us and wish to send us these forces. We also make use of these forces, but we are not aware of it in our waking consciousness. Then a situation arises: We narrowly avoid a misfortune, perhaps by missing a train or something similar. Then, like a vivid dream image, the imagination of the person who has grown fond of us and is sending us their forces appears. We then have a sense of this person; and this person, who cares for us, reveals themselves to us. One will learn to interpret such a soul.

[ 23 ] Just think how the love that souls have for one another can deepen when one knows that one has not been torn away from the one left behind here; one can still influence that person. And this influence will gradually become such that a bridge can be built. If one thinks in this way—that the souls who feel close to the dead, and whose love is strengthened by the possibility of continuing to love—then love from soul to soul will be kindled by what Theosophy is able to give to the souls, which can truly be something great compared to what can be mustered in love today. The souls will only truly be brought together when people realize: whether dead or alive, one belongs to a world!

[ 24 ] Helping people realize that life—whether over there or here—is merely a change of form is part of the immensely significant mission of theosophy in our present human cycle. And we will only understand this mission when we view it in such a way that we truly tear down the barrier through Theosophy—a barrier that today seems to be becoming ever more threatening as a materialistic mindset spreads more and more across the Earth itself. ...

[ 25 ] The soul is no less busy in the life between death and a new birth than it is here. Although the tasks there are different from those here, they are prepared for here in earthly life. ...

[ 26 ] Forces originating from the higher worlds always flow into physical causes. [If a person has been unscrupulous, he will have to go through something traumatic. He will then become the slave, the servant, of those entities who must bring illness and early death into the physical world.]

[ 27 ] There are people who develop enthusiasm, love, and zeal for their work; who enjoy doing what they are meant to do according to their abilities and their karma. There are numerous types of professions, however, in which people really cannot work with enthusiasm; and this will become increasingly common. Therefore, it becomes necessary for souls who dutifully pursue their professions to have something they can engage in with enthusiasm. Through Theosophy, a person can find something to do with love and enthusiasm, through which forces develop within our soul. In this way, we can become servants of those forces of the higher hierarchies that infuse earthly life with freshness, growth, and health.

[ 28 ] All these connections, so to speak, open our eyes to what lies beyond death and imbue our soul with the awareness that it belongs to the macrocosm, and that the soul lives by living here on Earth—not merely for the sake of physical existence—but that important forces are developing here which will find their full expression between death and a new birth. And we are given the opportunity to organize our lives in such a way that we do not hinder the flourishing development of humanity and the world, but rather that we increasingly develop the forces that contribute to that flourishing development. — We can regard this as the mission of Theosophy.