The Rudolf Steiner Archive

3. On the Difficulties of Entering the Spiritual Worlds: The Case of Swedenborg

[ 1 ] My dear friends, today I would like to discuss the difficulties of entering the spiritual worlds, and I will begin by using an example as a starting point for this topic. You have all heard of the seer Swedenborg. I myself have often drawn attention to him and emphasized that, on the one hand, one cannot dismiss a figure like Swedenborg with flippant remarks; yet on the other hand, if one truly wishes to penetrate the nature of the paths leading to the spiritual worlds, it is precisely through the example of such a seer that one can see how a person, even while in the spiritual world, can still succumb to all manner of illusions, because he does not penetrate through the world of deception, even though the spiritual world is open to him in a certain way.

[ 2 ] Swedenborg, I said, should not be taken lightly. Swedenborg was not a seer who, lightheartedly and without much knowledge of life and the world, surrendered himself to the gift of vision; rather, Swedenborg was a profound, eminent scholar—one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of his time. His scholarship encompassed everything that the science of his day could offer humanity. And a great testament to Swedenborg’s well-founded scientific rigor and his quest for knowledge is that a whole commission of scholars has now been formed—not for the works he left behind as a seer, but for his purely scientific works, which have not yet been published—to edit and publish them. Thus, in Swedenborg we are dealing with a man who, during his pre-prophetic period—before access to the spiritual world was opened to him—had reached a point where he had recorded the sum of his knowledge —perhaps not even the sum, but only a part of his knowledge—in a large number of manuscripts that no single scholar can publish today, but which require an entire commission of scholars. These are, therefore, writings that are entirely removed from any form of visionary experience; for it was only when Swedenborg had already reached the pinnacle of secular science that his visionary sense awakened—only then did the spiritual worlds open up to him. Thus, he appears to us as the example of a man who does not one day proclaim himself a seer out of ordinary, mundane life, but who ascends to the level of a seer on the basis of serious and conscientious scholarship.

[ 3 ] On the other hand, however, when we consider the entire nature of Swedenborg’s visionary soul, we see how the visionary can remain at a stage that does not, after all, lead him to the ultimate insights.

[ 4 ] It is precisely in the case of such an outstanding scholar and seer that we find a good example of how thoroughly and conscientiously one must proceed when speaking of entering the spiritual worlds and of bringing this or that out of the spiritual worlds. It cannot be emphasized enough that in Swedenborg we are dealing, on the one hand, with an outstanding scientific figure and, on the other hand, with a development of clairvoyance, since this man not only encompassed the sum total of the knowledge of his time but—as has already become apparent and will undoubtedly become even more so with the publication of his posthumous works—enriched science through numerous scientific discoveries. He was a scientific discoverer of the very highest order before his time as a seer.

[ 5 ] Swedenborg recounts a wide variety of experiences from his visions. It is particularly interesting that whenever he soared with his soul to gaze into the spiritual worlds, he always felt surrounded not only by his own aura, but also felt a number of spiritual beings embedded within it. This is something quite characteristic, something quite significant. So whenever Swedenborg’s gift of clairvoyance awakened, he immediately felt not alone, but felt his soul expanded into his aura and, looking within it—as it were, stepping out of his own organs—saw spiritual elemental beings who, while he was looking, consulted among themselves and also consulted with him, with his soul.

[ 6 ] Thus, from the very beginning, he was guided by the spiritual beings that dwell within every human being—beings who only came into his consciousness once his clairvoyance had awakened. In addition to these inner beings, which are an integral part of every human being, there were other beings whom he recognized mostly through what emerged from their counsel with the elemental beings that had emerged from within himself; he recognized other beings—as it were, flying toward him—as beings of the outer elemental world, as well as beings whose home is on other planets belonging to the Earth’s sphere.

[ 7 ] And so, after consulting with his own elemental beings, he came to recognize certain beings in his surroundings that revealed a peculiarity to him. Up to that point, he had been accustomed not only to understanding the language spoken by those elemental beings that came from within himself, but he had also been accustomed to immediately understanding—up to a certain point in his clairvoyant perception—the other beings that came to him from Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and so on. He was accustomed to believing that the spirits have a common language that one can understand. This language is, after all, the language of the idea, the language of the inner weaving of ideas that have come to life. I have told you about these ideas that have come to life in my recent lectures. Swedenborg was accustomed to understanding this language.

[ 8 ] Our eurythmy, too, is to be practiced on the basis of this language. When a person speaks using vocal language, the forces required to articulate speech are concentrated in the organs that make up the larynx and its associated structures. It is as if the whole human being were freed from participating in speech. As a result, the inner structure of speech becomes unconscious and subconscious, turning into something entirely earthly. Through eurythmy, the whole human being is to be reengaged with speech. But more on this deeper meaning of eurythmy another time, my dear friends. I would now like merely to point out how Swedenborg felt able to understand the language of spiritual beings, until he noticed at a certain point that certain spirits approached him who, though they also spoke through all manner of gestures—as spirits do in general—spoke through movements of their limbs or through movements of their own form. As I said, Swedenborg was accustomed to understanding this gestural language of the spirits. But once, spirits approached him where he could clearly see that they were making certain movements, yet he could not understand them; no meaning, no sense from these movements penetrated his soul. To his surprise, it was as if we were standing before a person and saw that he was moving his lips and speaking, yet we heard nothing.

[ 9 ] From this, Swedenborg initially drew a very significant lesson for himself. He arrived at this lesson after realizing that these beings, whom he did not understand, are certain inhabitants of Mars—that there really are inhabitants of Mars who can speak in such a way that one cannot understand them, even though one is otherwise accustomed to understanding the language of spiritual beings—as I said, I am speaking of Swedenborg’s experiences. And because he did not interpret these things arbitrarily but studied them, it gradually became clear to him why he could not understand these Martian beings, these Martian souls. He could not understand them because they belonged to a category of celestial beings who had attained the gift of concealing all their feelings and impulses of will, allowing nothing of what they felt to flow into their words. And from the fact that they were able to conceal and keep to themselves the entire content of their minds, Swedenborg recognized that when one understands a language, one does not merely hear the words and see the gestures, but that something overflows from the speaker’s inner life; thus, understanding a language actually rests upon this overflow of the inner life. And he realized that these Martian beings had acquired the ability to conceal their feelings and thus not to reveal the meaning of their speech, even though they spoke.

[ 10 ] He then immediately had another experience. He had another experience that led him to a further insight. He came to realize, in fact, that these Martian beings were, after all, understood by the beings of the hierarchy of the Angeloi. They were not understood by him or by the spirits emerging from his body, but they were understood by the beings belonging to the category of the Angeloi. He noticed this, and it was an extraordinarily significant, profound experience for him. For it was now clear to him that his gift of clairvoyance was limited in regard to perceiving the spiritual world—that there were things he could not understand, which the beings of the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, however, could indeed understand.

[ 11 ] One must not skim over a narrative such as the one provided by Swedenborg; rather, it belongs to that which can truly, in the deepest sense, introduce one to certain mysteries of the spiritual worlds.

[ 12 ] To understand the context, let us now recall some of the points I have already discussed. I have described to you how regular clairvoyance begins, and how, for the regular—the good—clairvoyant, a completely different approach must be adopted in relation to the spiritual world than to the physical world. I said that when we encounter beings and objects on the physical plane, they exist outside of us in our consciousness. We face objects and, as it were, take something of the objects into ourselves through our perception. Our “I” is aware of the objects; our “I” creates mental images of the objects. And this is, after all, the fundamental experience of all cognition and perception on the physical plane: that I create mental images of the objects on the physical plane, that I recognize them.

[ 13 ] I said that this fundamental experience changes as soon as one ascends into the spiritual worlds. There, this fundamental experience is replaced by another: one becomes an object oneself. Just as objects once stood in relation to the “I,” so now the “I” stands in relation to the beings of the higher worlds; one no longer perceives, but experiences being perceived—that the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies are looking at one. This experience—that I am being perceived, that the angels, the archangels, and so on are looking at me—is a complete reversal of one’s entire relationship to the world. And one then attains the awareness: you have expanded your being beyond the sphere of the hierarchies, and the hierarchies are at work within you and are looking at you, just as you look at objects on the physical plane.

[ 14 ] Without this fundamental experience, any relationship to the spiritual world is distorted, just as any relationship to the physical world would be distorted without the fundamental experience of “I create mental images of objects.” “I look at” is correct for the physical world; “I am looked at” is ultimately correct for the spiritual world.

[ 15 ] Now, at the threshold—upon entering the spiritual world—there is, so to speak, a region, a current, in which one retains the entire configuration, the entire nature of one’s relationship to the physical world. One cannot break free from the “I look at”; one cannot ascend to the “I am looked at.” Out of a habit deeply ingrained within oneself, one expects the spiritual world to be, in essence, merely a copy, a refined imprint of the physical world. And there are quite a few people who have a mental image of themselves standing here in this hall among physical human beings, and they imagine that just as they could enter a gathering of spirits, so too could they do so—the spirits would be assembled in exactly the same way—only somewhat more ethereal, so that one could reach right through them—just as human beings are on the physical plane. Because we bring our habits of perception from the physical plane into the spiritual world, this fundamental experience—“I am looking at the beings of the world”—remains as an illusion, a delusion; and therefore we cannot rise to the other fundamental experience: “I am being looked at by the beings of the world.”

[ 16 ] Well, you see, the seer Swedenborg remained entirely within this illusion as long as he was in the incarnation in question. He was never able to rise to the experience: “I am being looked upon.” - Just read everything that comes from Swedenborg as a seer, and you will see that he truly describes the higher worlds as if they were nothing more than a fine mist emanating from the physical world—delicate, mist-like forms that are, however, otherwise quite similar to the physical world.

[ 17 ] Certainly, Swedenborg describes the world of imagination in a very accurate way; but he cannot judge it, because he casts the veil of his habits from the physical world over the entire spiritual world. And so it happens that all beings of the spiritual worlds show him only what they can and are willing to clothe in the form of imaginations that one brings with oneself from the perceptions of the physical world. That is to say, Swedenborg sees only as much of the spiritual world as is clothed within his imaginations, which are marred by the habits of the physical world. Certainly, he sees highly spiritual, significant spiritual beings there, but always in a form that is not their own, but one imposed upon them by himself. But when he enters a region where the spirits are specifically striving to conceal their inner selves, he can no longer understand them; they remain a mystery to him, just like these Martians who have learned to hide their inner lives and not let them spill over into their speech. This is what underlies what Swedenborg describes so conscientiously, and what one must recognize in order to understand the nature of Swedenborg’s visionary world.

[ 18 ] The point, then, is that anyone who truly wishes to enter the spiritual world must first seek to identify his own self with things—this is already described in the last chapter of my *Theosophy*, where, in essence, all the necessary information has already been provided—so that he becomes accustomed to detaching himself from his own self by contemplating the higher world. And once they have cultivated this habit, they will gradually enter into that other experience—which, however, cannot be acquired, only the path to it—for this other experience comes upon one as if by a grace of the spiritual world: “You are now being looked upon by the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies; they are looking at you.” —But they do not merely look at you; rather, you likewise become a perception, a mental image, a thought for the beings of the higher worlds, just as objects of the physical plane are for us.

[ 19 ] If Swedenborg had been able to accustom himself to the fact that the beings of the higher hierarchies look upon and create mental images of him, then he would not merely have experienced: “I do not understand these Martians, but the Angeloi above understand them.” He could not perceive through the perception of the Angeloi themselves, but only through his own understanding. But one must be able to do that. One must not merely create a mental image, but one must become the mental image; one must not merely think, but one must become the thought—a thought that the beings of the higher hierarchies think. Just as the thought relates to us, so must we learn to relate to the beings of the higher hierarchies. Swedenborg could not do that. Had he been able to do so, he would have said: Yes, as long as I remain within myself, I cannot understand these Martians; but the moment I step outside myself and become an object, a thought, an idea of the angels, then—in my expanded self—I understand the angels and the category of the Martians. - And then the understanding that the Angeloi had of the nature of these Martians would have arisen in his consciousness. He could not rise to that level because he always remained within his own consciousness and did not reach the point of being beheld—that is, of being beheld in such a way that the Angeloi experience their beholding within him, and he becomes merely the field of vision for the Angeloi. What the angels know, he then knows as well, for it is known that the higher spirits—the spirits of the higher hierarchies—know within one, and through this one comes to know the higher worlds.

[ 20 ] This is the crucial point that must be kept in mind: In this epoch of development, because of the way human beings are organized, they can perceive only those worlds that are accessible to their faculties of perception. If they wish to perceive more—read everything I have written about initiation, and you will realize that everything is already contained therein—if they wish to progress further, they must take into themselves the consciousness of the spiritual beings above them, and what those spiritual beings experience must become the object of their own consciousness. They must feel themselves to be part of the choir of spiritual beings within. That is the essence.

[ 21 ] Thus, we see precisely in the case of such a significant figure as Swedenborg that ascending into the spiritual worlds without being fully imbued with the reality of stepping out of the consciousness of the physical plane leads to illusions. One is left with nothing but an illusory world. And now, my dear friends, you may go through all the available literature by seers and read their descriptions of the spiritual world, and you will find that for the most part, you are reading nothing but such illusions. One must not allow oneself to be deceived by these illusions; for being deceived by the illusions at the threshold to the spiritual world is far worse than being deceived by the deceptions of the physical world.

[ 22 ] Our task, then, is to make genuine use of the literature available to us in such a way that we gradually accustom ourselves to gaining a reasonable understanding of the entire relationship between human beings and the spiritual world. To this end, I would say, an opportunity presents itself in two ways. First, because we have such literature; second, because this literature cannot be read without making a mental effort. This is already ensured, even though it has often been suggested to me that the writings should be more popular. I have always resisted this, because it is essentially part of what they are meant to be—that they are not popular. If one were to cast what is offered in our Spiritual Science literature into all sorts of vague forms and then—supposedly because they are much more popular—present them to the public, this would merely serve the interests of convenience on the one hand and amount to nonsense on the other. For nonsense will always arise when there is an effort to become spiritually profound in an easy, thoughtless way. The work we do in learning to understand something that is difficult to read is a form of inner training; it is something that helps us shape our relationship to the spiritual world in the right way. And so an essential part of our literature is—or should be—that you truly think in the most comprehensive way as you take in the subject matter, putting your thoughts into action; connecting everything at your disposal from your prior knowledge and previous reading with what the anthroposophical writings contain. I would now like to outline a thought for you, to give you, so to speak, an example of how one can study these writings thoughtfully on the basis of anthroposophical texts.

[ 23 ] There is a series of lectures that discusses the way the Elohim work. This series was once presented in Munich on the story of creation, with reference to the Bible. That is, in essence, the topic of this series. People read the lecture series, and many believe that once they have read it and internalized it in their own way, they have accomplished something special. But that cannot be the whole story. First and foremost, of course, there must be an inner soul work that follows such a lecture series. And there, for example, someone might say to themselves: “Yes, well, with these Elohim—at the head of whom is the being who later transforms into Christ himself—I am dealing with a category of beings who, during that planetary existence which we call the Sun existence, have a special role to play.” The main thrust of these beings’ development falls within the period of the Solar Age. And because of these beings’ connection to the Solar Age, we must indeed also speak of Christ himself as a solar being. And one will then be able to reflect deeply on how the Elohim are related to the Sun—truly related to the Sun. The entire tone of the lecture series will reveal to you that reference is always made to this solar aspect of the Elohim; one senses, so to speak, this solar aspect within it.

[ 24 ] Now—not in the depths of sleep, but after thorough meditation—one will come to understand how one should actually create a mental image of the nature of the Elohim. One will immerse oneself in the nature of the Elohim, and if one does so with true patience, one will experience that after some time, as if emerging from the unknown, a thought will come to mind. Something will occur to one. Ah, for example—this is just an example—one might recall that the Bible states that one of Yahweh’s commandments—that is, one of the Elohim’s—is not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, and that, after the Luciferic temptation had taken place and the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge had been eaten, humanity was prevented from eating from the Tree of Life as well. - Strange—so the Elohim speak of trees!

[ 25 ] Now, I have said many times before that the language of a text such as the Bible should not be taken lightly. When it speaks of trees—when the Elohim speak of trees—it means something; it refers to something essential. You see, it is said of Homer that he remarked that every thing has two names: one in the language of the gods, the other in the language of ordinary people. If one recalls this, one might say to oneself: Yes, perhaps there is a connection after all with the language of the gods, in that the gods speak of trees. If we delve a little deeper into the matter, we might ask ourselves: What exactly are the Elohim talking about when they speak of the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life? What are they actually talking about? What do they mean by that?

[ 26 ] My dear friends, if you take our entire teaching as a whole, you will be able to say to yourselves: This Tree of Life and this Tree of Knowledge must have something to do with the human being itself. The prohibition against eating from the Tree of Knowledge means—as you will ultimately come to understand—that the human soul should not seek knowledge that is bound to the physical body; for it is from this that our present sensory perception has arisen. “Eating from the Tree of Knowledge” means precisely this kind of connection with the physical body, through which the present form of knowledge—which I described recently—brought about by Lucifer has arisen. Thus, when the Elohim spoke of the Tree of Knowledge, they were referring to something inherent in the human being itself.

[ 27 ] And once again, they must be referring to the human being itself when they speak of the Tree of Life. One must ask: Yes, how is it that human beings see the way they do today? How does he perceive in this way? Because his spiritual-soul aspect, imbued with the essence of Lucifer, is embedded in the physical body and draws sustenance from it. It was not predetermined from the outset that the soul would be embedded in the physical body as it is now. This physical body is the Tree of Knowledge, and the Tree of Life is the etheric body. After allowing themselves to be led astray by Lucifer, human beings should at least not also have the knowledge gained through the etheric body, in addition to using their physical body for the kind of knowledge we are accustomed to. This is denied to them.

[ 28 ] If one really thinks about it, my dear friends, one can arrive at such lines of thought. And then one must ask oneself: But why, then, do the gods, in their language, call the physical body the Tree of Knowledge? Why do they speak of a tree? And why do they call the etheric body the Tree of Life? Why do they speak of trees?

[ 29 ] Well, it is easy to understand what is meant by the “language of the gods” when one considers that the gods in question underwent their particular evolution during the Solar Age, and thus absorbed something essential from the Solar Being itself. Now consider this: the ancient Saturn Age—everything is at the mineral stage; the ancient Solar Age—everything is at the level of the plant kingdom. If the gods we call the Elohim acquired the character of their language during the Solar Age, then when they speak, they will not speak of what can only be experienced on the Moon and on Earth, but of what the cosmos had developed into by the time of the Solar Age, namely, the plant kingdom. That is why, when they speak in their language, they speak of trees, because they speak in the language of the Sun.

[ 30 ] You see, my dear friends, one can arrive at such insights by doing nothing other than thinking through what is presented in the cycles and books in the proper way; not merely by reading and reading and reading and then combining what one has read, but by thinking further and bringing together the things as they reveal themselves through their own nature. But in doing so, one does something else as well: one truly exerts oneself, and this effort yields a result—namely, that the soul is made independent, that one now truly finds the path, through one’s own inner effort, to make the soul independent. But work—real, genuine work—is required for this. And it must be emphasized again and again: It is not merely through passive surrender, but through truly active work drawn from one’s own soul forces that one detaches the spiritual world from the physical one.

[ 31 ] So what really matters is actively working through the spiritual world. If one truly wants to enter the spiritual world, one must not shy away from working through what is presented and connecting it to everything one has experienced in life. Otherwise, such folly could indeed occur that someone might believe he is the reincarnated Homer, yet feel he need do nothing to demonstrate that something of Homer’s genius is bubbling up within him; rather, he might genuinely believe, “Well, back then Homer was awake, and now he is developing an incarnation in which he simply lies back on the lazy bed of mystical slumber.” - If one tries to work one’s way through what lies before us actively and diligently, then one will not, I would say, be led into all sorts of mystical nonsense, but rather one will be led to that point from which one gains a proper understanding of how truth in the spiritual world is meant for human beings in a deeper sense. And then one will see that one must strive as hard as possible not to mix the habits—the habits of thought, feeling, and sensation on the physical plane—with the peculiarities of the spiritual world.

[ 32 ] This is the attitude we are talking about. And this attitude, my dear friends, if we truly possess it, frees us from all the nonsense surrounding our entry into the spiritual world. After all, it doesn’t take much effort to eat salt for a week in order to descend into the subterranean worlds, and then not eat salt for another week to ascend into the higher elemental worlds. That requires no effort; but one gains nothing from it either—at most, only the very worst illusions. In the spiritual world, one can truly attain something only through inner work. And inner work, when it truly exists, is by its very nature such that it does not lead one to engage in nonsense regarding the spiritual world, but rather brings one to correct thoughts. Otherwise, however, mystical and erroneous thoughts do indeed arise, and people are right to laugh at us.

[ 33 ] For example, a man who had a sound way of thinking in this area once wrote to me that he had visited one of our branches as a member, and there—even though it was terribly hot and there was no reason to close all the windows—they had closed the windows. Well, I have nothing against closing the windows, especially when all sorts of things can be heard from outside; that would be a reasonable reason, wouldn’t it? But they didn’t give him that reason; instead, they said: “Yes, Dr. Steiner expressly pointed out to us that when a lecture is given in our branch, the windows must be closed so that the demons cannot come in.” - In response, this man—who in this instance was not mystically enlightened—wrote to me: “Yes, but can’t spirits also come in through closed windows?” That must be a strange teacher of Spiritual Science who tells his students that they must close the windows so that the demons cannot come in! — You see how such thoughtless talk truly reveals a confusion between the physical plane and the higher world. On the physical plane, it is true that beings cannot enter through closed windows unless they break them; but it is hardly possible to keep spirits out simply by closing the windows! The real issue is that one must form sufficiently serious mental images of the spiritual and physical worlds.

[ 34 ] And an example such as that of Swedenborg—a conscientious, energetic, and, in his own way, magnificent seer—can, when we reflect on the matter, correct many of the mental images we hold that are fundamentally erroneous.

[ 35 ] More on that tomorrow.