chapter iii
THE
THREE WORLDS
1.
The Soul-world
UR
study of man has shown that he belongs to three worlds. From
the world of physical corporality are taken the materials and
forces that build up his body. He has knowledge of this world
through the perceptions of his outer physical senses. Anyone
trusting to these senses alone, and developing only their
perceptive capacities, can gain for himself no
enlightenment concerning the two other worlds, the soul-world
and the spiritual. A man's ability to convince himself of the
reality of a thing or a being depends on whether he has an
organ of perception, a sense for it. It may, of course, easily
lead to misunderstandings if one calls the higher organs of
perception “spiritual senses,” as is done
here: for in speaking of “senses” one involuntarily
connects with them the thought of the “physical.”
The physical world is in fact designated the
“sensible,” in contradistinction to the
“spiritual.” In order to avoid this
misunderstanding, one must take into account that “higher
senses” are spoken of here only in a comparative or
metaphorical sense. As the physical senses perceive the
physical, the soul and spiritual senses perceive the soul and
spiritual worlds. The expression “sense” is used as
meaning simply “organ of perception.” Man would
have no knowledge of light and colour had he not an eye able to
sense light; he would know nothing of sound had he not an ear
able to sense sound. In this connection the German philosopher
Lotze rightly says, “Without a light-sensing eye, and a
sound-sensing ear, the whole world would be dark and silent.
There would be in it just as little light or sound as there
could be toothache without the pain-feeling nerve of the
tooth.” In order to see what is said here in the right
light, one need only think how entirely differently the world
must reveal itself to man on the one hand, and on the other to
the lower forms of animal life that have only a kind of sense
of touch or sense of feeling spread over the whole surface of
their bodies. Light, colour and sound certainly cannot exist
for them in the same way as for beings endowed with ears and
eyes. The vibrations which the firing of a gun causes, may also
have an effect on them if they are struck by them. But in order
that these vibrations of the air should present themselves to
the soul as a report, an ear is necessary. And an eye is
necessary in order that certain processes in the fine matter
called ether should reveal themselves as light and colour. A
man only knows something about a being or thing because
through one of his organs he receives an effect from it. This
relationship of man with the world of realities is excellently
brought out by Goethe when he says, “It is really in vain
that we try to express the nature of a thing. We are aware of
activities, and a complete history of these activities would
indeed embrace the nature of that thing. We endeavour in vain
to describe the character of a man: if instead we put together
his actions and deeds, a picture of his character will present
itself to us. Colours are the deeds of fight, deeds and
sufferings ... colours and fight are indeed linked in most
intimate relationship, but we must think of them both as
belonging to the whole of Nature; for through them the whole of
Nature is engaged in revealing herself to the sense of
the eye especially. In like manner Nature reveals herself to
another sense ... Nature thus speaks downwards to other
senses, to known, mis-known and unknown senses; she thus speaks
with herself and to us through a thousand phenomena. To the
attentive she is nowhere either dead or silent.” It would
not be correct to interpret this saying of Goethe's as though
by it the possibility of knowing the essential nature of things
were denied. Goethe does not mean that one perceives only the
activity of a thing, and that its nature is hidden behind this.
He means rather that one should not speak at all of a
“hidden being.” The being is not behind its
revelation; it comes on the contrary, into view through the
revelation. But this being is in many respects so rich that it
can reveal itself to other senses in yet other forms. That
which reveals itself does belong to the being: only — on
account of the limitations of the senses — it is not the
whole being. This thought of Goethe's corresponds entirely with
the views of spiritual science set forth here.
As
in the body eye and ear develop as organs of perception, as
senses for bodily processes, so is man able to develop in
himself soul and spiritual organs of perception through which
the soul and spiritual worlds will be opened to him. For those
who have not such higher senses, these worlds are “dark
and silent,” just as for a being without eyes and ears
the bodily world is “dark and silent.” It is true
that the relation of man to these higher senses is rather
different from his relation to the bodily senses. It is good
Mother Nature who sees to it, as a rule, that these latter are
fully developed in him. They come into existence without his
help. But on the development of his higher senses he must work
himself. If he wishes to perceive the soul- and spirit-worlds,
he must develop soul and spirit, as Nature has developed his
body so that he may perceive the corporeal world around him and
guide himself in it. Such a development of the higher organs
not yet developed for us by Nature herself is not unnatural;
for in the higher sense all that man accomplishes belongs also
to Nature. Only he who is ready to maintain that man should
remain standing at the stage at which he left the hand of
Nature could call the development of the higher senses
unnatural. By him the significance of these organs is
“mis-known,” in the sense of the quotation from
Goethe. Such a one might just as well oppose all education, for
this also develops further the work of Nature. And he would
have to oppose especially operations upon those born blind. For
almost the same thing happens to that man who awakens the
higher senses in himself, in the way set forth in the last part
of this book, as happens to the person born blind and operated upon.
The world appears to him with new qualities, events, and
facts, of which the physical senses reveal nothing to him. It
is clear to him that through these higher organs he adds
nothing arbitrarily to the reality, but that without them the
essential part of this reality would have remained hidden from
him. The soul- and spirit-worlds are not to be thought of
alongside or outside the physical world; they are not separated
in space from it. Just as for persons born blind and operated
upon, the previously dark world flashes out in light and
colours, so do things which previously were only corporeal
phenomena, reveal their soul- and spirit-qualities to one who
is, in soul and spirit, awakened. It is true, moreover, that
this world then becomes filled with other occurrences and
beings that remain completely unknown to one whose soul- and
spirit-senses are not awakened. (The development of the soul-
and spirit-senses will be spoken of in a more detailed way
farther on in this book. Here these higher worlds themselves
will be first described. Anyone who denies the existence of
these worlds says nothing more than that he has not yet
developed his higher organs. The evolution of mankind is not
terminated at any one stage; it must always progress.
[See also under
Addenda.]
The
“higher organs” are often involuntarily pictured as
too similar to the physical ones. It should, however, be
realised that these organs are spiritual or soul-formations.
One ought not to expect, therefore, that what is perceived in
the higher worlds will be only a cloudy, attenuated form of
matter. As long as something of this kind is expected one can
come to no clear idea as to what is really meant here by
“higher worlds.” For many persons it would not be
nearly as difficult as it actually is to know something about
these higher worlds, the elementary part, that is to say, if
they did not form the idea that what they will see is again
physical matter rarefied. Because they presuppose something of
this kind, they are not, as a rule, at all willing to recognise
what they are really dealing with. They look upon it as unreal,
refuse to acknowledge it as something that satisfies
them, and so on. True, the higher stages of spiritual
development are accessible only with difficulty; but those
stages which suffice for the perception of the nature of the
spiritual — and that is already a great deal —
would not be at all difficult to reach, if people would from
the first free themselves from the preconception which consists
in picturing to themselves the soul and the spiritual
merely as being of a finer physical nature.
Just as we do not wholly know a man when we have formed a
picture of his physical exterior only, so also we do not know
the world around us if we know in it only what the physical
senses reveal to us. And just as a photograph becomes
intelligible and living to us when we have become so
intimately acquainted with the person photographed as to know
his soul, so can we really only understand the corporeal world
if we learn to know its soul- and spiritual-basis. For this
reason it is advisable to speak, first about the higher worlds,
the soul- and spirit-worlds, and only then judge of the
physical from the standpoint of spiritual science.
At
this present stage of civilisation certain difficulties are
encountered by anyone speaking about the higher worlds. For the
greatness of this age consists above all in the knowledge and
conquest of the physical world. Our words have, in fact,
received their stamp and significance in relation to this
physical world. Nevertheless we must make use of these current
words so as to link on to something known. This opens the door
to many misunderstandings on the part of those who will trust
only their external senses. Much can at first be expressed and
indicated only by means of similes and comparisons. It must be
so, for such similes are a means by which man is first directed
to these higher worlds, and through which his own ascent to
them is furthered. (Of this ascent we shall speak in a later
chapter, when the development of the higher organs of
perception will be dealt with. To begin with, knowledge of the
higher worlds must be gained by means of similes. Only then is
man ready to acquire for himself the power to see into
them.)
As
the substances and forces which compose and govern our stomach,
our heart, our brain, our lungs, etc., come from the physical
world, so do our qualities of soul, our impulses, desires,
feelings, passions, wishes, sensations, etc., come from the
soul-world. The soul of man is a member of this world, just as
his body is part of the physical-corporeal world. If one wants
at the outset to indicate a difference between the
corporeal and soul-worlds, one could say that the latter
is in all its objects and entities much finer, more mobile and
plastic than the former. But it must be kept clearly in mind
that on entering the soul-world one enters a world
entirely different from the physical. If, therefore,
“coarser” and “finer” be spoken of in
this respect, readers must be fully aware that one is
suggesting by means of a comparison something that is
fundamentally different. It is the same with all that is
said about the soul-world in words borrowed from the world of
physical corporality. Taking this into account, it can be said
that the formations and beings of the soul-world consist in the
same way of soul-materials and are directed in the same way by
soul-forces, as is the case in the physical world with physical
substances and physical forces.
Just as spatial extension and spatial movement are peculiar to
corporeal formations, so are susceptibility and impelling
desire peculiar to the things and beings of the soul-world. For
this reason the soul-world is described as the world of desires
or wishes, or as the world of longing. These expressions are
borrowed from the human soul-world. One must therefore hold
fast to the idea that the things in those parts of the
soul-world which lie outside the human soul are just as
different from the soul-forces within it, as the physical
substances and forces of the external corporeal world are
different from those parts which compose the physical body.
(Impulse, wish, longing, are names for the material of
the soul-world. To this material, let us give the name of
“astral.” If one pays more attention specifically
to the forces of the soul-world, one can speak of
“desire-reality.” But it must not be forgotten that
the distinction between “matter” and
“force” cannot be as sharply drawn as in the
physical world. An impulse can just as well be called
“force” as “matter.” )
The
differences between the soul-world and the physical have a
bewildering effect on one who obtains a view of the soul-world
for the first time. But that is also the case when a previously
inactive physical sense has been opened. The man born blind,
when operated upon, has first to learn to guide himself through
the world which he has previously known only by means of the
sense of touch. Such a man, for example, sees the objects at
first in his eyes, then he sees them outside
himself, but they appear to him as if painted on a flat
surface. Only gradually does he grasp perspective and the
spatial distance between things, and so on. In the soul-world
entirely different laws prevail from those in the physical. Now
it is true that there are many soul-formations bound to those
of the other worlds. The soul of man, for instance, is bound to
the human body and to the human spirit. The occurrences to be
observed in it are therefore influenced at the same time by the
bodily and the spiritual worlds. This has to be taken into
account in observing the soul-world; and one must take care not
to claim as a law of the soul-world occurrences due to the
influence of another world. When, for example, a man sends out
a wish, that wish is brought to birth by a thought, by a
conception of the spirit whose laws it accordingly follows. But
just as the laws of the physical world can be formulated
disregarding, for example, man's influence on it, so the same
thing is possible with regard to the soul-world.
An
important difference between soul and physical processes
can be expressed by saying that interaction in the former is
much more inward than in the latter. In physical space
there prevails, for example, the law of “impact.”
When an ivory ball strikes another which is at rest, the latter
moves in a direction which can be calculated from the motion
and elasticity of the former. In soul-space, the mutual
action of two forms which meet depends on their inner
qualities. If they are in affinity they mutually interpenetrate
each other and as it were grow together. They repel each other
if their essential beings conflict. In physical space there
are, for example, definite laws of vision. Distant objects
diminish in perspective. When one looks down an avenue,
the distant trees appear, according to the laws of perspective,
to stand at shorter distances from each other than the
near ones. In soul-space, on the contrary, all objects near and
far appear to the clairvoyant at those distances from each
other which are due to their inner nature. This is naturally a
source of all manner of mistakes for those who enter the
soul-world, and wish to become at home there by the help of the
principles they bring with them from the physical world.
One
of the first things that a man must acquire in order to make
his way about the soul-world, is the power to distinguish
the various kinds of forms found there in a similar manner to
that in which solid, liquid, airy or gaseous bodies are
distinguished in the physical world. In order to do this one
must know the two basic forces which are the most important
here. They may be called sympathy and antipathy.
According to the way in which these basic forces work in any
soul-formation, its nature is decided. The force with which one
soul-formation attracts others, seeks to fuse with them, to
make its affinity with them effectual, must be designated as
sympathy. Antipathy, on the other hand, is the force
with which soul-formations repel, exclude each other in the
soul-world, with which they assert their separate identity. The
part played in the soul-world by a soul-formation depends upon
the proportion in which these basic forces are present in it.
One has to distinguish, in the first place, between three kinds
of soul-formations according to the manner in which sympathy
and antipathy work in them. These kinds differ from each other
in that sympathy and antipathy have in them definitely fixed
mutual relationships. In all three, both basic forces
are present. Let us take, to begin with, a formation of the
first kind. It attracts other formations in its neighbourhood
by means of the sympathy ruling in it; but besides this
sympathy there is at the same time present in it
antipathy, through which it repels certain things in its
surroundings. From the outside such a formation appears to be
endowed with the forces of antipathy only. That, however, is
not the case. There is sympathy and antipathy in it, but
the latter predominates. It has the upper hand over the former.
Such formations play a self-seeking role in soul-space. They
repel much that is around them, and lovingly attract only
little to themselves. They therefore move through soul-space as
unchangeable forms. The force of sympathy in them makes them
appear avaricious, with a greed that seems insatiable, as
though it could never be satisfied. That is because the
predominating antipathy repels so much of what approaches, that
no satisfaction is possible. If one wishes to compare
this kind of soul-formation with something in the physical
world, one can say that it corresponds with the solid
physical body. This region of soul-substance may be called
Burning Desire. That portion of this Burning Desire
which is mingled with the souls of animals and men determines
in them what one calls the lower sensual impulses, their
dominating selfish instincts.
The
second kind of soul-formation is that in which the two basic
forces preserve a balance, in which, accordingly,
antipathy and sympathy act with equal strength. They
approach other formations with a certain neutrality; they act
on them as if related, but without especially attracting or
repelling. They erect no solid barrier, as it were, between
themselves and their surroundings. They constantly allow other
formations in their surroundings to act on them; one can
therefore compare them with the fluids of the physical
world. And there is nothing of greed in the way in which such
formations attract others to themselves. The activity meant
here may be recognised, for example, when the human soul
receives the sensation of a certain colour. If I have the
sensation of a red colour, I receive to begin with a neutral
excitation from my surroundings. Only when there is added to
this excitation pleasure in the red colour does another
soul-activity come into play. That which produces the
neutral excitation is the action of soul-formations standing in
such mutual relationship that sympathy and antipathy
preserve an equal balance. The soul-substance here being
considered, must be described as a perfectly plastic and mobile
substance. Not self-seeking like the first it moves through
soul-space in such a way that its being receives
impressions everywhere, and it shows itself to have
affinity with much that approaches it. An expression that might
be applied to it is Flowing Susceptibility.
The
third degree of soul-formation is that in which sympathy
has the upper hand over antipathy. Antipathy produces the
self-seeking self-assertion; this, however, retires into the
background when inclination towards the things around takes its
place. Let us picture such a formation within soul-space. It
appears as a centre of an attracting sphere which spreads over
the objects around it. Such formations must be specially
designated as Wish-Substance. This designation appears
to be the right one, for although antipathy, relatively weaker
than the sympathy, is there, the attraction works in such a way
as to bring the attracted objects within the soul-formation's
own sphere. The sympathy thus receives an underlying tone of
selfishness. This wish-substance may be likened to the airy or
gaseous bodies of the physical world. As a gas strives
to expand on all sides, so does the wish-substance spread
itself out in all directions.
Higher grades of soul-substance render themselves
distinguishable by the fact that in them one of the basic
forces, namely antipathy, retires completely into the
background, and sympathy alone shows itself as the one really
effective factor, which is able to express itself primarily
within the various parts of the soul-formation itself. These
parts act upon each other in mutual attraction. This force of
sympathy within a soul-formation comes to expression in what
one calls liking. And each lessening of this sympathy is
disliking. Disliking is only lessened liking, as cold is
only a lessened warmth. Liking and disliking compose what fives
in man as the world of feeling in the strict sense of the word.
Feeling is the activity of the soul within itself. What
one calls soul-comfort depends on the way in which the feelings
of liking and disliking interact within the soul.
A
still higher grade is occupied by those soul-formations whose
sympathy does not remain shut up within the region of their own
life. They differ from the three lower grades, as does in fact
the fourth also, in that in them the force of sympathy
has no opposing antipathy to overcome. It is only through these
higher orders of soul-substance that the manifold variety
of soul-formations can unite and form a common soul-world. In
so far as there is any appearance of antipathy, it is when the
soul-entity approaches some other object for the benefit of
its own life, in order that it may itself be
strengthened and enriched by the other. Where antipathy is
stilled, the other object is received as a revelation, a source
of discovery. This higher form of soul-substance plays in
soul-space a similar role to that played by light in physical
space. It causes a soul-entity to absorb into itself, as it
were, the being or essence of others for their sake, or,
in other words, to let itself be shone upon by them. It is only
by drawing upon these higher regions that the soul-entities are
awakened to their true soul-life. Their dull, darkened life
opens outwards, and begins to shine and ray out into
soul-space; the sluggish, dull weaving within itself which
seeks to shut itself off through antipathy when only the
substances of the lower regions are present, becomes force and
mobility, which goes forth from within and pours itself
outwards in streams.
The
Flowing Susceptibility of the second region is only
effective when formations meet each other. Then, indeed, the
one streams over into the other. But contact is essential. In
the higher regions there prevails a free out-raying and
outpouring. Rightly does one describe the essential
nature of this region as an “out-raying,” for the
sympathy which is developed acts in such a way that one can use
as symbol for it the expression taken from the action of light.
As a plant languishes in a dark cellar, so do the
soul-formations without the soul-substances of the higher
regions which give them life. Soul-Light,
Active Soul-Force and the true Soul-Life, in the
strict sense, belong to these higher regions, and thence pour
themselves into the soul-beings.
Thus we have to distinguish between three lower and three
higher regions of the soul-world; and these two are linked
together by a fourth, so that there results the following
division of the soul-world:
-
Region of Burning Desires.
-
Region of Flowing Susceptibility.
-
Region of Wishes.
-
Region of Attraction and
Repulsion.
-
Region of Soul-Light.
-
Region of Active Soul-Force.
-
Region of Soul-Life.
Throughout the first three regions, the soul-formations receive
their qualities from the relative proportions of sympathy
and antipathy; throughout the fourth region sympathy weaves its
web within the soul-formations themselves; throughout the three
highest, the power of sympathy becomes ever more and more free;
illumining and quickening, the soul-substances of this region
waft through soul-space, awakening that which, if left to
itself, must lose itself in its own separate existence.
For
the sake of clarity it is here emphasised, though it should be
superfluous, that these seven divisions of the soul-world do
not represent regions separated one from another. Just as in
the physical world, solid, liquid and airy or gaseous
substances interpenetrate, so do Burning Desire, Flowing
Susceptibility, and the forces of the World of Wishes in the
soul-world. And as in the physical world, warmth penetrates
bodies and light illumines them, so is it the case in the
soul-world with attraction and repulsion, and with the
Soul-Light. And something similar takes place with regard to
the Active Soul-Force and the true Soul-Life.
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