The Astral World
Lecture I
Berlin October 19, 1908
We have come together for the study of anthroposophical
truths for many winters, and for a little group of you, it is now quite a
good number of winter seasons that have found us united for such studies.
For reasons which we will perhaps discuss in our next General Meeting, we
may look back just at this time at our common anthroposophical life of the
past. There are still among you a few who, in a certain respect, form a
kind of nucleus for this gathering together here. They have brought over
from earlier times their fundamental spiritual conviction, have united
with us six or seven years ago, and have formed the nucleus around which
those others who were seeking have gradually, so to speak, crystallized.
We may say that in the course of these years, not only the increased
number of these meetings may tell us something, but that in
another direction, and with the help of those spiritual Powers, who
are always present when the work of spiritual science is carried out
in the right sense, we have succeeded in following a certain inner system
in our work.
Remember how six or seven
years ago, we began as a small circle and how quite slowly and gradually,
as well as in inner contents, we have created the ground on which we stand
today. We began, with the aid of the simplest basic concepts of spiritual
science, to seek first to create a fundamental feeling, and we have
gradually reached the point that last winter — at least in our
Group-meetings — we could speak of things of the various regions of
the higher worlds as one speaks of events and experiences of the ordinary
physical world. We have been able to learn about the various spiritual
beings and those worlds, which are, in fact, supersensible in regard to
our sense-world. And not only could we introduce an inner system into our
Group-work, but we could also hold two Courses last winter and enable
those who had gradually joined the nucleus to find the definite link
with our studies.
It has already been said
here, and often emphasized, that we have now come to the point of speaking
about the higher worlds as about something — one might say —
self-evident, and those who have joined inwardly in our Group meetings have
in this way reached a certain anthroposophical maturity. This maturity does
not lie in theories or in some conceptual grasp, but in an inner attitude
of mind, which one acquires in the course of time. One who has really
absorbed inwardly for a length of time what spiritual science has to give,
will feel that he can listen to things as actual facts, as self-evident
facts that would have affected him earlier quite differently.
And so in
this introductory lecture today, we will begin straight-away and without
hesitation to speak on a certain chapter of the higher worlds that will
lead us to a deeper understanding of man's character and personality.
For after all, what purpose is served by all our studies of the higher
worlds? We talk about the astral world, about the devachanic world.
In what sense do we members of the physical world talk about them in
the first place? We talk of these higher worlds not at all with the
consciousness that they are quite foreign to us and stand in no kind
of connection with the physical world. Rather are we conscious that
the higher worlds, as we call them, lie all around us, that we live
in them, that they project into our physical world, and that in these
higher worlds lie the causes and grounds for facts that take place before
our physical eyes and senses. And so we learn to know this life around
us with its human beings and nature-events, only when we look at what
is invisible but reveals itself in the visible; that is, when we look
at what belongs to other worlds in order to be able to form a judgment
as to where it plays into our physical world. Normal and abnormal phenomena
of ordinary physical life first become clear to us when we learn to know
the spiritual life lying behind it — the spiritual life that is far
richer and more extensive than the physical life, which forms only a small
section of it. The human being stands, and must stand for all our studies,
is the central point. Understanding human nature means, really, to
understand a great part of the world. But human nature is difficult to
understand, and we shall gain a small piece of this understanding
of the human being, if we speak today of a few facts, only a few facts
of the astral world. The contents of the human soul are very manifold.
We will learn about a part of this soul-content today. To begin with,
we will set before us certain characteristics of the soul.
We live in our soul-life in
the most manifold feelings, perceptions, ideas, concepts, and impulses
of will. These all take their course in our soul-life
from morning to evening. If we observe man superficially, this soul-life
appears to us to be something self-contained, enclosed in itself, and
this view is justifiable. Observe how your life flows along with the
first thoughts formed in the morning, the first feelings moving through
you, the first will-impulses arising. Observe how feeling is linked
to feeling, will-impulse to will-impulse, until the evening when the
consciousness sinks in sleep. That all looks like a progressing stream.
Observed in a deeper sense, however, it is by no means just a progressing
stream, for through our thoughts, feelings and perceptions, we stand
in a continual relation — to most people quite unconsciously —
to higher worlds. Today let us consider this relation as regards the
astral world.
When we have some kind of
feeling, when joy or terror flashes through our soul, that, to begin with,
is an event in our soul-life, but it is not merely that. If someone can
test that clairvoyantly, it will be seen that something
goes out of the soul like a current, like a shining current, which goes
into the astral world. It does not go in casually, however, and without
direction, but it takes its way to a being of the astral world. Let
us suppose a thought arises in our soul; let us say we ponder on the
nature of a table. Inasmuch as the thought shimmers through our soul,
the clairvoyant can observe how a current proceeds from this thought
to a being of the astral world. And so it is for every thought, every
concept, every feeling. From the whole stream that flows away before
the soul, currents continually go towards the most diverse beings of
the astral world. It would be quite an erroneous idea if you thought
that all these currents went to one single being of the astral world.
That is not the case. From all these different thoughts, feelings and
sensations proceed the most diverse currents, and they go to the most
diverse beings of the astral world. That is the peculiarity of this
fact: as individuals, we stand in connection, not with one such being,
but we spin the most diverse threads towards the most diverse beings
of the astral world. The astral world is peopled by a great number of
beings just as the physical world, and they stand in connection with
us. If, however, we want to realize the whole complexity, we must take
something else into consideration.
Let us
suppose that two individuals see a flash of lightning and have a quite
similar sensation. Then a current goes out from each, and now both currents
go to one and the same being of the astral world. We can say, therefore,
that there is a being, an inhabitant of the astral world, with whom
both beings of the physical world put themselves in connection. And
it can happen that not only one person, but 50, 100, 1000 human beings,
having a similar sensation, send out currents to one single being of
the astral world. In so far as these 1000 beings people agree on one
point, they stand in connection with the same being of the astral world.
But think what other and differing sensations, feelings, thoughts are
possessed by the individuals who, in the one case, have the same sensation!
Through these, they stand in connection with other beings of the astral
world, and in this way the most diverse connecting threads pass from
the astral world into the physical world.
Now, it
is possible to distinguish certain classes of beings in the astral world,
and it will be easier to form an idea of these classes if we take an
example. Imagine a large number of people of the European world, and
let us take from the soul-contents of these people the concept of justice.
These people may otherwise have the most varied experiences and thereby
stand in connection in the most complex way with the most differing beings
of the astral world. But since these people think similarly about the idea
of justice, have acquired this idea in the same way, they therefore
all stand in connection with the same being of the astral world. We
can look on this being exactly like a center, a middle point, from which
rays go out to all the people concerned. As often as they bring to mind
the concept of justice, they stand in connection with this one being.
Just as human beings have flesh and blood and are composed of them,
so does this being consist of the concept of justice: it lives in it.
In the same way there is an astral being for the concept of courage,
of goodwill, of bravery, of revenge, etc. Thus beings exist in the astral
world for our human qualities, the contents of our souls. And in this
way a sort of astral net is spread out over a considerable number of
persons. All of us who have the same idea of justice, for example, are
embedded in a body of an astral being, whom we can actually call the
“Justice-being”. If we have a concept of courage, valor,
we stand in connection with another being. Thus in everyone, there is
a kind of conglomeration, for we can regard everyone as receiving currents
from astral beings on all sides. We are all a confluence of currents
that come out of the astral world.
Now we shall
be able to show more particularly how human beings, who are individually
in this way a confluence of these currents, concentrate them in themselves
round their ego-centers. For that is the most important thing for our
soul-life; we must collect all these currents round a center that lies
in our self-consciousness. This self-consciousness is so important,
because the self must act as a controller in our individual inner being,
collecting the different currents flowing into us from all sides and
uniting them in itself. For the moment the self-consciousness would
slacken and give up, it could come about that a person would cease to feel
its self to be a unity, and that all the different concepts of courage,
valor, etc, would fall apart. People would then no longer be conscious of
the self as a unity; they would feel as if they were distributed in all
the different currents. There is a possibility — and there it shows
us how we can penetrate into the understanding of the spiritual world
through knowledge of the true, the right — there is a possibility
that we can lose the directing control over what streams into us. As
an individual person, you have a certain life behind you, have experienced
many things, have had a number of ideals from youth on that have gradually
evolved. Each ideal can differ from the others, you have had the ideal
of courage, valor, etc. In this way you have come into the currents
of most diverse astral beings. One can also come in another way into
such a varied succession of astral beings.
Let us suppose that
in the course of life an individual man has had a number of friendships.
Under the influence of these friendships, quite definite feelings and
sensations have developed, especially in youth. In this way, currents
passed to a definite being of the astral world. Then the man formed
a new friendship, and he was then united with another being of the astral
world, and so on for the whole of life. Now let us suppose that through
a sickness of the soul, it came about that the ego lost control over
the different currents; it could no longer group them. Then the man
would reach the state of no longer feeling himself as ego, as enclosed
entity, a self-conscious unity. If he should lose his ego through a
process of soul-sickness, he would then perceive these currents as if
he were not aware of himself, but of the separate currents, as if he
flowed into them. You will be able to understand an especially tragic
case if we consider it from this point of view, from the aspect of the
astral world — Friedrich Nietsche.
Many of
you will certainly know how Friedrich Nietsche became insane in the
winter of 1888/89. It is interesting to read in his last letters how
he became divided, split up in different currents in the moment when
he lost his ego. He writes to this or that friend — or to himself:
“There lives a person in Turin who was once a professor of philosophy
in Basle, but he is not egotistic enough to have remained one.”
(Thus he had lost his ego and clothed the fact in such words). “And
the god Dionysos strides to the River Po and looks down at all his ideals
and friendships, which are wandering below him.” He appears to
himself now as King Humbert, now as someone else, now even as one of the
criminals about whom he had read at that time, during the last days of his
life. There were two notorious cases of murder just then, and in the
moments of his illness he identified himself with these women-murderers.
For he did not experience his ego but, rather, a current that went into
the astral world. Thus in abnormal cases, what is otherwise held together
through the center of self-consciousness rises to the surface. It will
become more and more necessary for people to know what is at the base
of the soul. For we would be infinitely poor beings if we were not able
to form many such currents into the astral world, and we would also
be very limited beings if we were not able gradually to become master
over all these currents through the deepening of our spiritual life.
We must realize that we are not confined within our skin, but project
everywhere into other worlds and that other beings project into our
world. A whole web of beings is spun out over the astral world. Now
we will observe a little more closely the beings standing in connection
with us in this way. They are beings, who by way of comparison, present
themselves to us somewhat like this:
The astral
world surrounds us. Let us think that here is such a being — one,
if you like, that has to do with the concept and feeling of courage.
It stretches its tentacles towards all sides and they go into human
souls; and inasmuch as men develop courage, the connection is established.
Other men are different. All those, for instance, who develop a definite
form of anxiety or a feeling of love are connected with another being
of the astral world. If we make a study of these beings, we come to what
we can call the constitution, the social life in the astral world. People,
as they live here on the physical plane, are not merely individuals. Here,
too, we are all connected in a hundred, a thousand different ways. We are
connected by the law, in friendships, and so on. Our connections on the
physical plane are regulated by our ideas, concepts, representations,
etc. In a certain way, the social connections of those beings on the
astral plane, of whom we have been speaking, must also be regulated.
Now then,
do these beings live with one another? They have no such dense physical
bodies of flesh and blood as we humans have; they have astral bodies,
are at most of etheric substance. They stretch out their feelers into
our world; but how do they live together? If these beings were not to
work together, our human life, too, would be quite different. In fact,
our physical world is only the external expression of what takes place
on the astral plane. Now, do these beings arrange things among themselves?
One could easily be tempted to think that the social life on the astral
plane is similar to the life on the physical plane. But the joint life
on the astral plane differs essentially from a working together on the
physical plane. People who group the different planes above one another
and characterize the higher worlds as if things were just the same there
as here in the physical world, do not give a right description of the
higher worlds. There is an immense difference between the physical world
and the higher worlds, and this difference increases the higher up we come.
Above all, a definite peculiarity exists in the astral world, which is not
to be found at all on the physical plane. That is the penetrability of the
substance of the astral plane. It is impossible here to place yourself on
the spot where someone else is already standing; impenetrability
is a law of the physical world. In the astral world it is not; there,
the law is penetrability. And it is absolutely possible — it is
even the rule — for beings to penetrate each other, and where
already one being is, another presses in. Two, four, hundreds of beings
can be on one and the same spot in the astral world. But that results
in something else, namely, that the logic of common life on the astral
plane is quite different. You will best understand how the logic of
the astral plane is quite different from the logic of the physical plane
— though not, perhaps, the logic of the act, of the common life
— if you take the following example.
Suppose
that a town had decided to build a church on a definite site. Then,
of course, the wise council of the town must first consider how the
church is to be built, what arrangements must be made, and so on. Now
let us suppose that two parties arise in the town. The one party wants
to build a church on this site in a definite style and with a certain
architect, etc. The other party wishes to build a different church with
a different architect. On the physical plane, the two parties will not
be able to carry out their intention. Before anything at all is begun,
it will be necessary for one of the parties to be victorious and gain
the upper hand, and that the style of the church is decided on. You
know, of course, that actually far the greater part of mankind's social
life is passed in such consultations and mutual arguments before something
is carried out, before people come to an agreement about what is to
be done. Nothing indeed would be done unless in most cases one or other
party gains the upper hand and remains in the majority. But the party in
the minority will not straightaway say: “We have been wrong,”
but will go on believing they have been right. In the physical world
it is a matter of discussing the proposals, which must be decided purely
within the physical world, because it is impossible for two plans to
be carried out on one and the same spot.
In the
astral world, it is quite different. It is perfectly possible there
to build — let us say — two churches on one and the same
spot. Such actually happens continually in the astral world, and it
is the only right thing there. One does not argue as in the physical
world. One does not hold meetings and try to get a majority for this
or that. In fact, it is not at all necessary there. When a city council
holds a meeting here and 40 out of 45 people are of one opinion and
the others of another, then the two parties may inwardly want to murder
each other on account of their different opinions. That is not so bad,
however, because externally the things are at once dealt with. Neither
party tries without consideration of the other party to build their
church immediately, because on the physical plane thought can remain
a possession of the soul, it can remain in the soul.
On the astral plane, that
is not so; it is like this: When the thought has been formed, it also
stands in a certain respect already there. So that if such an astral
being as the one I have just spoken about has a thought, it immediately
stretches out the corresponding “feelers” that have the
form of this thought, and another being stretches out from itself the
substance. Both now mutually interpenetrate each other and are in the
same space as a newly-formed being. In this way, there is a continual
interpenetration of the most varying opinions, thoughts, and feelings.
In the astral world, the most completely opposite ideas can interpenetrate
each other. It must be said that when things are discussed in the physical
world, contradiction prevails, but in the astral world what prevails
at once is conflict. For, as a being of the astral world, one cannot
keep back one's thoughts to oneself, they become deeds immediately;
the objects are there at once. Now, to be sure, churches such as we
have on the physical plane are not built there, but let us suppose that
a being of the astral plane wanted to realize something and another
being wanted to cross it. Discussion is not possible there, but the
principle holds good that a thing must be preserved! So when the two
"feelers" are really in the same space, they begin to fight
each other; and the idea that is the more fruitful, which is therefore
right (i.e., the one that can endure), will annihilate the other and
vindicate itself. So that there we have a continual conflict of the
most varying opinions, thoughts, feelings. On the astral plane each
opinion must become deed. There, one does not oneself fight; one lets
the opinions fight, and the one that is the most fruitful routs the
other from the field. The astral world is, so to say, the much more
dangerous, and a great deal of what is said about its danger is connected
with what has just been stated. Thus, everything there becomes deed,
and all opinions must fight with each other, not discuss and argue.
I will now
touch upon a matter that is doubtless shocking to the modern materialistic
age, but which nevertheless is fact. I have often emphasized that our
present age grows more and more accustomed to the mere consciousness
of the physical world, to the characteristics and peculiarities of the
physical world. So that when discussions arise, everyone would like
to annihilate the one who is not of his or her opinion, or else takes
him for a fool. That is not how it is in the astral world. There a being
will say, “I do not concern myself with other opinions.”
The most complete tolerance obtains. If one opinion is more fruitful
than the others, it will drive them out of the field. One lets other
opinions stand just as one's own, because things have to right themselves
through conflict. One who gradually becomes familiar with the spiritual
world must learn to adjust oneself to the customs of the spiritual world.
The first part of the spiritual world is the astral world, where such
usages prevail as have just been described, so that in a person who
becomes familiar, with the spiritual world, the customs, too, of the
beings of that world in a certain respect take root. And that is also
right. Our physical world should become more and more an image of the
spiritual world, and we shall bring more harmony into our world if we
make it our purpose that life in the physical world should resemble
life in the astral world. We cannot, of course, build two churches on
the same spot, but where opinions differ, one lets them mutually prevail
as regards their fruitfulness in the world. The opinions that are the
most fruitful will assuredly carry off the victory, as it is in the
astral world.
So, the
characteristic qualities of the astral world can extend into the physical
world precisely within a spiritual movement. That will be a great field of
education, which the spiritual-scientific movement will have to cultivate
— to create on the physical plane an image of the astral world.
However much it shocks the person who only knows the physical plane
and accordingly believes that only one opinion can be advocated and
that all who hold other opinions must be blockheads, yet it will become
increasingly obvious to the adherents of a spiritual world-conception
that an absolute tolerance of opinions must prevail, not a tolerance
consequent on a sermon, but one which takes root in our soul.
This penetrability
that has been described is a very important and essential quality of
the astral world. And no being of the astral world will develop such
a concept of truth as we know in the physical world. The beings of the
astral world look upon discussion, etc., in the physical world as quite
unfruitful. Goethe's words, “What fruitful is, alone is true!”
hold good for them, too. We must learn to know truth not through theories,
but through its fruitfulness, through the way in which it vindicates
itself. Thus, a being of the astral world will never contend with another
as human beings do. It will say to the other, “Fine; you do as
you think, I will do as I think!” It will soon be shown which
idea is the more fruitful, which idea will drive the other from the
field.
If we transpose
ourselves into such a way of thinking, we have also gained something
of practical knowledge. One must not imagine that the growth of human
beings into the spiritual world occurs in some tumultuous way; it happens
inwardly, intimately. If we can pay attention to it and make our own
what has just been described as the peculiarity of the astral world,
then we shall increasingly come to regard such feelings as the astral
beings possess as model feelings for ourselves. And if we take as our
guide the character of the astral world, we shall have a hope of gradually
living into the spiritual world. The spiritual worlds gradually dawn
for us in this way. This is what proves to be the more fruitful for
mankind in the matter.
What has
been said today is in many respects to be considered a kind of preparation
for what we shall deal with in the next lectures. If we have now spoken
of the beings of the astral world and their particular character, yet
we must already point out that the astral world differs much more sharply
from the higher worlds — let us say from the devachanic world
— than one would be inclined to believe. It is true that the astral
world is there where our physical world is, too; it interpenetrates
our physical world, and all that we have often spoken about is always
around us in the same space as physical facts and physical beings are.
But there is also the devachanic world. It differs through the fact
that we experience it in a different state of consciousness from that
in which we experience the astral.
Now you
could easily think: Here is the physical world and it is penetrated
by the astral world, the devachanic, etc., but it is not quite so simple.
In order to describe the higher worlds more exactly than we have done
earlier, we must realize that there is yet another difference between
the astral and devachanic worlds. Our astral world, in fact, as we live
in it and as it permeates our physical space, is in a certain respect
a double world, whereas in a certain way the devachanic is a single
one. That is something we will mention today as a preparation.
There are,
as it were, two astral worlds and their difference lies in the fact
that one is, so to say, the astral world of the good, the other the astral
world of evil. It would be incorrect to make such an abrupt difference
in the devachanic world. If we consider the worlds from above downwards,
we must say: devachanic world, astral world, physical world. Even so,
we do not consider the totality of our worlds; we must consider worlds
still deeper than the physical. There is a lower astral world lying
below our physical world. In practice, these two interpenetrate, the
good astral above, the evil below. Now the most diverse currents pass
over to the beings of the astral world, and amongst them are currents
from the good and evil qualities of humanity. Those that are good pass
to a good being and the evil currents to a corresponding evil being
of the astral world. If we take the totality of all the good and the
bad beings of the astral world, we have, in a certain way, two astral
worlds. When we consider the devachanic world, we shall see that there,
that is not the case in the same degree. Thus, there are two worlds in
the astral world, mutually interpenetrating and having in the same way a
relation to humanity. Above all, these two worlds are to be distinguished
from each other in regard to their origin.
If we look
back in the earth's evolution, we come to a time when the earth was
still connected with the sun and moon. In a still earlier time, the
earth was itself moon and was a body that was outside the sun in the
Moon-evolution. At that time, before the earth had become our present
earth, there was already an astral world. This astral world would have
become the good astral world if it could simply have developed further
without hindrance. Through the fact, however, that the moon had separated
itself from the earth, the evil astral world has been incorporated into
the general astral world, and today we are still at this stage. In the
future, an evil part will be incorporated into the devachanic world,
as well.
Provisionally,
we must clearly keep in mind that there is not one astral world but
two, one into which pass all the currents fruitful for human progress
and further evolution, and one into which pass all the currents that
hinder man's evolution—to which, at the same time, Kamaloca belongs.
In both these worlds are beings whom we have learnt to know today in
a more abstract way, how they exercise an influence on us, how they
live with one another. In our next lecture, we will gain more exact
knowledge of the inhabitants of the higher worlds, of their condition
and constitution.
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