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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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An Outline of Occult Science
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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An Outline of Occult Science
THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF MANKIND
IN THE OBSERVATION of man from the point of view of a supersensible
mode of cognition, the general principles of this method become
immediately applicable. This observation rests upon the recognition of
the revealed mystery within the individual human being.
Only a part of what supersensible cognition apprehends as the human
being is accessible to the senses and to the intellect dependent upon
them, namely, the physical body. In order to elucidate the concept of
this physical body, our attention must first be turned to that
phenomenon which, as the great riddle, lies spread out over all
observation of life, that is, to death and, in connection with it, to
so-called lifeless nature the mineral kingdom which always bears death
within it. We have, thereby, referred to facts that are only fully
explainable through supersensible knowledge, and to which a large part
of this volume must be devoted. Here, however, a few thoughts must
first be offered for the sake of orientation.
Within the manifest world, the physical body is the part of man having
the same nature as the mineral world. On the other hand, what
differentiates man from the mineral cannot be considered as physical
body. Especially important in an unbiased consideration is the fact
that death lays bare the part of man that, after death, is of the same
nature as the mineral world. We can point to the corpse as that part
of man subject to the processes of the mineral realm. It can be
emphasized that in this member of man's being, the corpse, the same
substances and forces are active as in the mineral realm, but it is
necessary to emphasize, equally strongly, the fact that at death the
decay of the physical body occurs. Yet we are also justified in saying
that while it is true that the same substances and forces are active
in both the human physical body and the mineral, their activity during
life is dedicated to a higher purpose. Only when death has occurred is
their activity similar to that of the mineral world. They then appear
as they must appear, according to their own nature, namely, as the
dissolver of the physical bodily form.
Thus, in man we have to differentiate sharply between the visible and
the concealed. For during life the concealed must wage constant battle
against the substances and forces of the mineral element in the
physical body. When this battle ceases, the mineral activity comes to
the fore. We have thereby drawn attention to the point where the
science of the supersensible must enter. It must seek that which wages
the above-mentioned battle. It is just this that is hidden from
sense-observation and is only accessible to supersensible observation.
In a later chapter of this work we shall consider how the human being
is able to reach the point where this hidden something becomes
manifest to him just as the phenomena of the senses are manifest to
the ordinary eye. Here, however, we shall describe the result of
supersensible observation.
It has already been indicated that the description of the path on
which man attains to a higher perception can be of value to him only
after he has become acquainted in simple narrative form with the
disclosures of supersensible research. For in regard to the
supersensible realm it is possible to comprehend what has not yet been
observed. Indeed, the right path toward perception is that which
proceeds from comprehension.
Even though that hidden something, which in the physical body carries
on the battle against disintegration, is only observable by higher
perception, yet its effects are clearly evident to the reasoning power
that limits itself to the manifest. These effects express themselves
in the form or shape into which the mineral substances and forces of
the physical body are fashioned during life. This form disappears by
degrees and the physical body becomes a part of the rest of the
mineral world when death has occurred. Supersensible perception,
however, is able to observe, as an independent member of the human
entity, what prevents the physical substances and forces during life
from taking their own path, which leads to dissolution of the physical
body. Let us call the independent member the ether or lifebody. In
order to prevent misunderstandings from the very beginning, two things
should be borne in mind concerning this designation of a second member
of the human entity. The word ether is used here in a
sense quite different from the one in use in present day physics,
which, for example, designates the vehicle of light as ether. Here,
however, the word will be limited to the meaning given above. It will
be used for what is accessible to higher perception and for what is
recognizable to sense-observation only in its effects, that is through
its ability to give a definite form and shape to the mineral
substances and forces existing in the physical body. The word
body also must not be misunderstood. In designating the
higher things of existence, it is necessary to use the words of
ordinary language, and for sense-observation these words express only
the sensory. From the standpoint of the senses, the ether body is,
naturally, nothing of a bodily nature, however tenuous we may picture
it.
(see Note #1.)1
Having reached, in the presentation of the supersensible, the mention
of this ether body or life body, the point has also been reached where
such a concept will have to encounter the opposition of many
present-day opinions. The evolution of the human spirit has led to the
point where in our age the discussion of such a member of the human
organism must be considered as something unscientific. The
materialistic mode of thought has reached the point of seeing in the
living body nothing but a combination of physical substances and
forces, like those to be found in the so-called lifeless body, in the
mineral. The combination in the living is supposed to be more
complicated than in the lifeless, however. Not so long ago, ordinary
science, too, held still other points of view. Whoever has followed
the writings of many serious scientists of the first half of the
nineteenth century realizes that at that time real natural
scientists were conscious of the fact that something exists in
the living body besides what is present in the lifeless mineral. They
spoke of a life force. This life force, to be
sure, is not visualized as having the nature of the lifebody
designated here, but an inkling that something of the kind exists,
underlies such a concept. This life force was thought of
as though supplementing in the living body the physical substances and
forces as the magnetic force supplements the mere iron in the magnet.
Then came the time when this life force was discarded from
the store of scientific concepts. Purely physical and chemical causes
were to suffice for everything. In this respect, a reaction has set in
today among many modern scientific thinkers. It is admitted on many
sides that the assumption of something similar to life
force is not, after all, pure nonsense. The scientist who admits
this, however, will not be inclined to make common cause with the
point of view presented here concerning the life body. It is useless,
as a rule, to enter into a discussion, from the standpoint of
supersensible knowledge, with people holding such views. It ought
rather be the concern of this knowledge to recognize that the
materialistic mode of thought is a necessary concomitant phenomenon of
the great progress in natural science in our age. This progress rests
upon an enormous improvement in the means of sense-observation, and it
lies in the nature of man, during his evolution, at times to bring to
a certain degree of perfection particular faculties at the cost of
others. Exact sense-observation, which has developed so significantly
through natural science, caused the cultivation of those human
capacities that lead into hidden worlds to retreat into
the background, but the time has come again when this cultivation is
necessary. Acknowledgment of the concealed, however, will not be won
by contending against opinions that result with logical accuracy from
the denial of the concealed, but by placing the concealed itself in
the proper light. Then those for whom the time has come
will acknowledge it.
It was necessary to speak of this here in order to keep people from
assuming that the author is ignorant of the viewpoint of natural
science when he speaks of an ether body that in many
circles is considered as something purely fantastic.
This ether body, then, is a second member of the human entity. For
supersensible cognition, it possesses a higher degree of reality than
the physical body. A description of its appearance to supersensible
perception can only be given in a subsequent chapter of this book
after the sense in which such descriptions are to be taken has become
clear. For the present it may suffice to say that the ether body
penetrates the physical completely and that it is to be looked upon as
a kind of architect of the latter. All organs are preserved in their
form and shape by means of the currents and movements of the ether
body. The physical heart is based upon an etheric heart,
the physical brain upon an etheric brain, and so forth.
The ether body is organized like the physical body, only with greater
complexity. Wherever in the physical body separated parts exist, in
the ether body everything is in living, interweaving motion.
The human being possesses this ether body in common with the plants,
just as he possesses the physical body in common with the mineral
element. Everything living has its ether body.
Supersensible observation advances from the ether body to a further
member of the human entity. In order to aid the student in forming a
visualization of this member, it points to the phenomenon of sleep,
just as it pointed to the phenomenon of death when it spoke of the
ether body. All human endeavor rests upon activity in the waking
state, in so far as the manifest is concerned. This activity, however,
is only possible if man again and again gathers new strength for his
exhausted forces from sleep. Action and thought disappear in sleep;
all suffering, all pleasure are submerged for conscious life. As
though out of hidden, mysterious depths, conscious forces arise out of
the unconsciousness of sleep as man awakens. It is the same
consciousness that sinks into shadowy depths when we go to sleep and
arises again when we awaken. The power that awakens life again and
again out of a state of unconsciousness is, according to supersensible
cognition, the third member of the human entity, We may call it the
astral body. Just as the physical body is unable to retain its form by
means of the mineral substances and forces contained in it, but only
by being interpenetrated by the ether body, so likewise the forces of
the ether body are unable, by themselves, to illuminate this body with
the light of consciousness. An ether body, left entirely to itself,
would have to remain in a continuous state of sleep. We might also
say: it could only maintain a plant-existence within the physical
body. An awakened ether body is illuminated by an astral body. For
sense-observation, the activity of the astral body disappears when man
sinks into sleep. For supersensible observation, the astral body still
exists, but it appears to be separated or withdrawn from the ether
body. Sense-observation is not concerned with the astral body itself,
but only with its effects within the manifest, and during sleep these
effects are not directly present. In the same sense that man has his
physical body in common with the minerals, his ether body with the
plants, he is, in regard to his astral body, of the same nature as the
animals. Plants are in a continuous state of sleep. A person who does
not judge accurately in these things can easily fall into the error of
ascribing a kind of consciousness also to plants that is similar to
that of animals and men in their waking state. That, however, can
happen only if he has an unclear idea of the nature of consciousness.
It is then stated that if an external stimulus is applied to the plant
it makes certain movements like the animal. One speaks of the
sensitivity of some plants that, for example, contract
their leaves if certain outer stimuli act upon them. Yet it is not the
characteristic of consciousness that a being reacts to certain
stimuli, but that the being experiences something in its inner nature
that adds something new to the mere reaction. Otherwise, one could
also speak of consciousness when a piece of iron expands under the
influence of heat. Consciousness is present only when, through the
effect of heat, the being, for example, inwardly experiences pain.
The fourth member of his being that supersensible cognition must
ascribe to man has nothing in common with the world of the manifest
surrounding him. It is what distinguishes him from his
fellow-creatures and through which he is the crown of creation
belonging to him. Supersensible cognition forms a conception of this
additional member of the human entity by calling attention to the
essential difference in the experiences of waking life. This
difference appears at once when man realizes that in the waking state
he stands, on the one hand, always in the midst of experiences that of
necessity come and go, and that, on the other hand, he has experiences
in which this is not the case. This becomes especially clear when
human and animal experiences are compared. The animal experiences with
great regularity the influences of the outer world, and under the
influence of heat and cold, pain and pleasure, under certain regularly
recurring processes of its body, it becomes conscious of hunger and
thirst. The life of man is not exhausted with such experiences. He can
develop passions and desires that transcend all this. In the case of
the animal it would always be possible, were we able to go far enough,
to show where the cause for an action or sensation lies, outside of or
within the body. With man this is by no means the case. He can produce
desires and passions for whose origin neither the cause within nor
without his body is sufficient. We must ascribe a special source to
everything that falls within this domain. In the light of
supersensible science this source can be seen in the human ego. The
ego can, therefore, be called the fourth member of the human
entity. If the astral body were left to itself, pleasure and pain,
feelings of hunger and thirst would take place in it; but what would
not occur Is the feeling that there is something permanent in all
this. Not the permanent as such is here called the ego,
but what experiences this permanency. We must formulate the concepts
precisely in this realm, if misunderstandings are not to arise. With
the becoming aware of something enduring something permanent in the
change of the inner experiences the dawning of the ego
feeling begins. The fact that a being feels hunger, for example,
cannot give it an ego feeling. Hunger arises when the renewed causes
of it make themselves felt within the being in question. It pounces
upon its food just because these renewed causes are present. The ego
feeling appears when not only these renewed impulses drive the human
being to seek food, but when pleasure has arisen at a previous
appeasement of hunger and the consciousness of this pleasure has
remained, thus making not only the present experience of hunger, but
the past experience of pleasure the driving force in the human being's
search for food. Without the presence of the ether body, the physical
body would decay. Without the illumination by the astral body, the
ether body would sink into unconsciousness. In like manner the astral
body would have to let the past sink, again and again, into oblivion,
were it not for the ego to carry this past over into the
present. What death is for the physical body, and sleep for the ether
body, oblivion is for the astral body. One might also say that life
belongs to the ether body, consciousness to the astral body, and
memory to the ego.
It is even easier to fall into the error of ascribing memory to
animals than it is to ascribe consciousness to plants. It is very
natural to think of memory when a dog recognizes its master whom he
has not seen perhaps for a long time. Yet, in reality, this
recognition does not rest upon memory, but upon something quite
different. The dog feels a certain attraction to its master. This
attraction proceeds from the master's personality. This personality
causes pleasure in the dog when the master is in its presence, and
every time the master's presence reoccurs, it causes a renewal of this
pleasure. Memory, however, is only present when a being not only feels
with its experiences in the present, but when it retains also those of
the past. One might acknowledge this and still fall into the error of
thinking that the dog has memory. For it might be said that the dog
mourns when its master leaves it, therefore it has retained a memory
of him. That also is an incorrect conclusion. Through sharing the
master's life, his presence becomes a need to the dog and it,
therefore, experiences his absence in the same way that it experiences
hunger. Whoever does not make these distinctions, will not arrive at
clarity concerning the true relationships of life.
Out of certain prejudices, one might object to this exposition by
maintaining that it cannot be known whether or not there exists in the
animal anything similar to human memory. Such an objection, however,
is the result of untrained observation. Anyone who can observe quite
factually how the animal behaves in the complex of its experiences
notices the difference between its behavior and that of the human
being, and he realizes that the animal's behavior corresponds to the
non-existence of memory. For supersensible observation this is quite
clear. Yet, what arises as direct experience in supersensible
observation may also be known by its effects in this domain through
sense-perception permeated by thought activity. If one says that man
is aware of his memory through inner soul-observation, something he
cannot carry out in the case of the animal, one states something based
upon a fatal error. What man has to say to himself about his capacity
for memory he cannot derive from inner soul-observation, but only from
what he experiences with himself in relation to the things and
occurrences of the outer world. Man has these experiences with himself
and with another human being and also with animals in exactly the same
way. He is blinded by pure illusion when he believes that he judges
the existence of memory merely by means of inner observation. The
power underlying memory may be called an inner power; the judgment
concerning this power is acquired, also in regard to one's own person,
through the outer world by directing one's attention to the
relationships of life. Just as one is able to judge these
relationships in regard to oneself, so one can judge them in regard to
the animal. In regard to such things our current psychology suffers
from its wholly untrained, inexact ideas, deceptive to a great degree
because of errors in observation.
Memory and oblivion signify for the ego what waking and sleeping
signify for the astral body. Just as sleep permits the cares and
troubles of the day to disappear into nothingness, oblivion spreads a
veil over the bad experiences of life, blotting out a part of the
past. Just as sleep is necessary for the restoration of the exhausted
life forces, so man has to eradicate certain parts of the past from
his memory if he is to approach new experiences freely and without
bias. But precisely through forgetting, strength develops for
perception of the new. Consider certain facts, like that of learning
to write. All the details the child has to experience in learning to
write are forgotten. What remains is the ability to write. How would
man be able to write if at every stroke of the pen all the past
experiences in learning to write were to arise again in the soul as
memory?
Memory appears in various stages. Its simplest form occurs when a
person observes an object and, after turning away, is able to call up
its mental image, is able to visualize it. He has formed this image
while perceiving the object. A process has taken place between his
astral body and his ego. The astral body has aroused the consciousness
of the outer impression of the object. Yet knowledge of the object
would last only as long as the latter is present, if the ego were not
to absorb this knowledge and make it its own. It is at this point that
supersensible perception separates the bodily element from the soul
nature. One speaks of the astral body as long as one considers the
arising of knowledge of an object that is present. What, however,
gives permanence to this knowledge one designates as soul. From what
has been said we can see at the same time how closely the human astral
body is connected with that part of the soul that gives permanence to
knowledge. Both are united into one member of the human entity. This
union, therefore, may also be called astral body. If we desire an
exact designation, we may call the human astral body the soul body,
the soul, in so far as it is united with this soul body, we may call
the sentient soul.
The ego rises to a higher stage of its being when it directs its
activity toward what it has made its own out of the knowledge of the
objects. This is the activity by which the ego severs itself more and
more from the objects of perception in order to work within what it
has made its own. The part of the soul in which this occurs may be
designated the intellectual or mind soul. It is characteristic of both
the sentient and intellectual souls that they work with what they
receive through the impressions of the objects perceived by the
senses, and what is retained from this in memory. The soul is here
completely surrendered to what is external to it. What it makes its
own through memory it has also received from outside. But it can pass
beyond all this. It is not alone sentient soul and intellectual soul.
For supersensible perception it is easiest to give an idea of this
passing beyond by pointing to a simple fact, the comprehensive
significance of which, however, must be appreciated. This fact is the
following: In the whole range of language there is one name that,
through its very nature, distinguishes itself from every other name.
That name is I. Every other name may be given by every man
to the object or being to whom it applies. The I as
designation for a being has meaning only when this being applies it to
itself. The name I can never resound to the ear of a human
being from without as his designation; only the being himself can
apply it to himself. I am an I to myself only. For every other
person I am a you and everyone else is for me a you. This
fact is the outer expression of a deeply significant truth. The true
nature of the I is independent of all that is external;
therefore its name I cannot be called to it by anything
external. Those religious denominations that have consciously
maintained their relationship with supersensible perception designate
the I as the Ineffable Name of God. By using
this expression, reference is made to what has been indicated. Nothing
of an external nature has access to that part of the soul with which
we are concerned here. Here is the hidden sanctuary of the
soul. Only a being with whom the soul is of like nature can gain
entrance there. The God who dwells within man speaks when the soul
becomes aware of itself as an I. Just as the sentient and intellectual
souls live in the outer world, so a third soul member immerses itself
in the Divine when the soul gains a perception of its own being.
The above conceptions may easily be misunderstood as an attempt to
identify the I with God. But it has not been stated that the I is God,
but only that it is of the same nature and essence as the Divine.
Would anyone contend that a drop of water is the sea when he says that
the drop is of the same essence or substance as the sea? If we wish to
use a comparison, we may say that the drop of water has the same
relationship to the sea that the I has to the Divine. Man can find the
Divine within himself because his innermost being is drawn from the
Divine. Thus he acquires, through this, the third member of his soul,
an inner knowledge of himself, just as he gains through his astral
body a knowledge of the outer world. Therefore, occult science can
call this third member of the soul the consciousness soul; and, in
this sense, the soul consists of three members: the sentient soul, the
intellectual soul, and the consciousness soul, just as the corporeal
part of man consists of three members the physical body, the ether
body, and the astral body.
Psychological errors of observation, similar to those already
mentioned concerning the judging of the capacity of memory, make it
difficult to gain the proper insight into the nature of the I. Much
that people believe they understand can be regarded as a refutation of
the above, yet it is in reality a confirmation. This is the case, for
example, with the remarks about the I which Eduard von Hartmann makes
in his
Outline of Psychology2
In the first
place, consciousness of self is more ancient than the word I. Personal
pronouns are a rather late product of the evolution of languages and
have only the value of abbreviations. The word I is a short substitute
for the speaker's own name, but a substitute that each speaker, as
such, uses for himself, no matter by what proper name others may call
him. Consciousness of self can be developed in animals and in
uneducated deaf and dumb persons to a high degree, even without
reference to a proper name. Consciousness of the proper name can fully
replace the lack of use of the word I. With this insight the magical
nimbus is eliminated which for many people envelops the little word I;
it cannot add the slightest thing to the concept of
self-consciousness, but receives its whole content solely from the
latter. It is possible to be quite in agreement with such points
of view; also with the contention that no magical nimbus be bestowed
upon the little word, I, which would only dim a thoughtful
consideration of the matter. But the nature of a thing is not decided
by the way the verbal designation for this thing has gradually been
brought about. The important point is the fact that the essential
nature of the ego in self-consciousness is more ancient than the
word I and that man is compelled to use this little word endowed
with the qualities belonging to it alone for what he experiences, in
his reciprocal relationship with the outer world, differently from the
way the animal can experience it. Nothing can be known concerning the
nature of the triangle by showing how the word triangle
has been evolved; likewise, nothing can be decided concerning the
nature of the I by knowing how this word has taken form in the
evolution of language out of a different verbal usage.
The true nature of the I reveals itself only in the consciousness
soul. For while the soul sinks itself into other things in feeling and
intellect, as consciousness soul it takes hold of its own being.
Therefore this I can be perceived by the consciousness soul only
through a certain inner activity. The visualizations of external
objects are formed just as these objects come and go, and these
visualizations continue to work in the Intellect by means of their own
force. But if the I is to observe itself, it cannot simply surrender
itself; it must, through inner activity, first lift its being out of
its own depths in order to have a consciousness of it. With the
perception of the I, with self-contemplation, an inner activity of the
I begins. Through this activity, the perception of the I within the
consciousness soul has a significance for man quite different from the
observation of all that reaches him through the three corporeal
members and the two other members of the soul. The force that
discloses the I within the consciousness soul is indeed the same force
that manifests in all the rest of the world. This force does not,
however, appear directly in the body and in the lower members of the
soul, but reveals itself by degrees in its effects. The lowest
manifestation is the manifestation through the physical body; this
then mounts up by stages to what fills the intellectual soul. One
might say that, with each step upward, one of the veils that envelop
the hidden falls away. In what fills the consciousness soul, the
hidden enters unveiled into the innermost temple of the soul. Yet it
appears there only like a drop out of the ocean of all-pervading
spirituality. Here, however, man must first take hold of this
spirituality. He must recognize it in himself, then he will be able to
find it also in its manifestations.
What here like a drop penetrates into the consciousness soul, occult
science calls the spirit. Thus the consciousness soul is united with
the spirit, which is the hidden in all that is manifest. If man wishes
to take hold of the spirit in all manifestation, he must do it in the
same way he takes hold of the ego in the consciousness soul. He must
direct the activity that has led him to the perception of this I
toward the manifest world. He, thereby, develops to higher stages of
his being. He adds something new to the corporeal and soul members.
The next thing is that he, himself, also conquer what lies hidden
within the lower members of his soul, and this happens through his
work on his soul, proceeding from the ego. How man is engaged in this
work becomes evident if one compares a person who still surrenders
himself to his lower passions and so-called sensual lust, with a noble
idealist. The latter develops out of the former if he rids himself of
certain low inclinations and turns toward nobler ones. In doing so he
has worked on his soul, ennobling and spiritualizing it out of his
ego. The ego has become master within the soul-life. This can be
carried so far that no desire, no enjoyment can gain entrance into the
soul without the I being the power that makes the entrance possible.
In this way, the whole soul now becomes a manifestation of the I, as
this was previously the case with the consciousness soul alone. In
fact, all cultural life and all spiritual human endeavor consists in a
work that has as its aim this rulership of the ego. Every human being
living in the present age is engaged in this work whether he wants it
or not, whether he is conscious of it or not.
Through this work, however, higher stages of the being of man are
reached. Through it, man develops new members of his being. These lie
as the concealed behind what is manifest to him. Not only can he
become master of the soul by working on the latter through the power
of the ego so that the soul drives the concealed into manifestation,
but he can also extend this work. He can extend it to the astral body.
The I thus takes possession of this astral body by uniting itself with
the latter's hidden nature. This astral body, overcome and transformed
by the ego, may be called the spirit self. (This is what, in
connection with oriental wisdom, is called manas.) In the
spirit self we have a higher member of man's being, one which, so to
speak, exists within it as a germ and which emerges more and more as
it actively works upon itself.
Just as the human being conquers his astral body by penetrating to the
hidden forces standing behind it, so, too, in the course of evolution,
does this happen with the ether body. The work upon the ether body is,
however, more intensive than the work upon the astral body, for what
is concealed in the former is enveloped by two veils, while the
concealed in the astral body is veiled by only one. It is possible to
form a concept of the difference in the work on these two bodies by
pointing to certain changes that can take place in man in the course
of his development. Let us call to mind how certain human soul
qualities develop when the ego is working upon the soul; how passion
and desire, joy and sorrow may change. It is only necessary to think
back to the time of childhood. At that time, what was man's source of
pleasure? What caused him pain? What has he learned in addition to
what he was able to do in childhood? All this is only an expression of
the way the ego has gained mastery over the astral body. For this body
is the bearer of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow. Compare this
with how little certain other qualities of man change in the course of
time, for example, his temperament, the deeper peculiarities of his
character, and so forth. A person, hot-tempered as a child, will often
retain certain aspects of this violent temper in later life. This is
such a striking fact that there are thinkers who wholly deny the
possibility of any change in the fundamental character of a human
being. They assume that this is something that remains unchanged
throughout life, manifesting in one way or another. Such a judgment is
merely based upon lack of observation. Anyone who has the capacity of
observing such things can perceive clearly that also man's temperament
and character change under the influence of his ego. To be sure, this
change is slow when compared with the change in the qualities
described above. The relationship between the two kinds of changes may
be compared with the advancing of the hour hand of a clock in relation
to the minute hand. The forces that bring about this change of
character or temperament belong to the hidden realm of the ether body.
They are of like nature with the forces that rule in the kingdom of
life, that is to say, with the forces of growth and nutrition and
those that bring about reproduction. Subsequent explanations in this
book will shed the right light upon these matters. The I is not
working upon the astral body if the human being simply gives himself
up to pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, but if the peculiarities of
these soul qualities change. Likewise, the work extends to the ether
body if the ego applies its activity to the changing of its traits of
character, of its temperament, and so forth. Also on this latter
change every human being is working, whether he is conscious of it or
not. The strongest impulses producing this change in ordinary life are
the religious ones. When the I allows the impulses that flow from
religion to act upon it again and again, they form within it a power
that works right into the ether body and transforms it in much the
same way that lesser life-impulses cause a transformation of the
astral body. These lesser impulses of life, which come to man through
study, contemplation, ennobling of the feelings, and so forth, are
subject to the manifold changes of existence; religious experiences,
however, imprint upon all thinking, feeling, and willing a uniform
character. They shed, as it were, a common, uniform light over the
entire soul-life. A man thinks and feels this way today, tomorrow
differently. The most varied causes bring this about. But if a person
through his religious feelings, whatever they may be, divines
something that persists throughout all changes, he will relate his
current soul experiences of thinking and feeling to that fundamental
feeling just as he does with his soul experiences of tomorrow.
Religious creed, therefore, has a far-reaching effect upon the whole
soul-life; its influence becomes ever stronger in the course of time,
because it works by means of constant repetition. It therefore
acquires the power of working upon the ether body. The influence of
true art has a similar effect upon the human being. If, through outer
form, through color and tone of a work of art, he penetrates to its
spiritual basis with thought and feeling, then the impulses that the I
thus receives work down even into the ether body. If we think this
thought through to the end we can estimate what a tremendous
significance art has for all human evolution. We have referred here
only to a few instances that give to the I the impulse to act upon the
ether body. There are many similar influences in human life that are
not so apparent to the observing eye as those that have been
mentioned. But from these it is evident that hidden within man there
is another member of his being that the I gradually develops. This
member may be called the second spiritual member, the life spirit. (It
is called buddhi in oriental wisdom.) The expression
life spirit is the appropriate term for the reason that
the same forces are active in what it designates as in the life
body; only, in these forces, when they manifest themselves as
life body, the human ego is not active. If they manifest as life
spirit, however, they are permeated by the activity of the 1.
The intellectual development of man, his purification and ennobling of
the utterances of feeling and will are the measure of his
transformation of the astral body in spirit self; his religious and
many other experiences imprint themselves upon the ether body and
transform it into life spirit. In the usual course of life this occurs
more or less unconsciously. On the other hand, what is called
initiation of man consists in his being directed by supersensible
knowledge to the means that enable him to undertake this work on the
spirit self and life spirit in full consciousness. These means will be
discussed in later parts of this book. For the present, it was a
question of showing that, beside the soul and the body, the spirit is
also active within the human being. We shall see later how this
spirit, in contrast to the transient body, belongs to the Eternal in
man.
The activity of the I is not exhausted with its work upon the astral
and ether bodies; it extends also to the physical body. A trace of the
influence of the I upon the physical body can be seen when, for
example, under certain circumstances a person blushes or turns pale.
In this case the I is actually the cause of a process in the physical
body. If, through the activity of the I, changes take place in man in
respect of its influence upon the physical body, the I is actually
united with the hidden forces of this physical body, with the same
forces that cause the physical processes to take place. It can be
said, then, that the I, through this activity, works upon the physical
body. This expression must not be misunderstood. It must not be
imagined that this activity is something grossly material. What
appears in the physical body as gross matter is only the manifested
part of it. Behind this manifested part lie the hidden forces of its
being, and these forces are of a spiritual nature. We are not speaking
here of work upon a material substance, of which the physical body
seems to consist, but of the spiritual work upon the invisible forces
that bring this body into existence and allow it to decay. In ordinary
life this work of the I on the physical body enters human
consciousness indistinctly. Complete clarity of consciousness in this
respect is acquired only if man, under the influence of supersensible
knowledge, takes this activity consciously in hand. Then the fact
emerges that there is still a third spiritual member in man. It is
what may be called spirit man, in contrast to the physical man. (In
oriental wisdom this spirit-man is called atma.)
It is easy to be misled in respect of the spirit man, owing to the
fact that in the physical body we see the lowest member of man's
being, and it is, therefore, hard to be reconciled to the idea that
work on the physical body brings into being the highest member of the
human entity. But just because the physical body conceals the active
spirit within it behind three veils, the highest form of human
endeavor is needed to unite the I with this hidden spirit.
Thus in occult science man presents himself as a being composed of
various members. Those of a corporeal nature are the physical body,
the ether body, and the astral body. Those belonging to the soul are
sentient soul, intellectual soul, and consciousness soul. The I, the
ego, spreads out its light within the soul. The members possessing a
spiritual nature are spirit self, life spirit, and spirit man. We see
from the above descriptions that the sentient soul and the astral body
are closely united and in a certain respect form a whole. In a similar
manner, consciousness soul and spirit self are a whole, for the spirit
flashes up within the consciousness soul and from there rays through
the other members of human nature. With this in mind, we can also
speak of the following membering of the human being. We may combine
astral body and sentient soul into a single member, likewise
consciousness soul and spirit self, and the intellectual soul we may
call the I, since it partakes of the I nature and, in a certain
respect, is already the I that has not yet become conscious of its
spiritual nature. We have, therefore, seven members of man: 1.
physical body, 2. ether or life body, 3. astral body, 4. I ,
5. spirit self, 6. life spirit, and 7. spirit man.
Even for those who are accustomed to materialistic ideas this
membering of man according to the number seven would not possess
anything vaguely magical, which they often ascribe to it,
if they but held to the meaning of the above description and did not,
from the very outset, themselves introduce this magical element into
the matter. It is from the standpoint of a higher form of observing
the world and in no other way that we ought to speak of these seven
members of man, just as we speak of the seven colors of light or of
the seven tones of the scale, (considering the octave as a repetition
of the tonic.) Just as light appears in seven colors, and tone in a
sevenfold scale, so does the homogeneous human nature appear in the
above-mentioned seven members. Just as the number seven in tone and
color bears nothing of superstition in it, so is this also
the case in regard to the sevenfold membering of the human being. (On
one occasion, when this question was discussed verbally, it was said
that in the case of colors the number seven does not hold good, since
beyond red and violet there are other colors that are not visible to
the eye. Even in this respect, however, the comparison with the colors
agrees, for the being of man extends beyond the physical body on the
one side and spirit man on the other, only these extensions are
spiritually invisible to the spiritual means of
observation in the same way that the colors beyond red and violet are
invisible to the physical eye. This comment had to be made because the
opinion so easily arises that supersensible perception is not
particular with respect to natural scientific thinking, that it is
amateurish in this regard. But whoever pays strict attention to what
is meant by the statements made here will find that, in fact, they are
nowhere in contradiction to true natural science neither when facts of
natural science are used for illustration nor when, in the remarks
made here, a direct relationship to natural-scientific research is
indicated.)
Footnotes:
-
In his book, Theosophy, the author has discussed the fact that
with the designation ether body or life body
he has no intention of renewing the old concept of life
force discarded by natural science.
-
Eduard von Hartmann,
Grundniss der Psychologie, Vol. 111, p.55. Bad Sachsa, 1908.
Last Modified: 02-Nov-2024
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