SPIRITUAL LIFE IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD AND LIFE BETWEEN DEATH AND
REBIRTH
Berlin, 16th November, 1915.
My dear Friends, This evening, when to my deep satisfaction I can be
with you again after long absence, let our first thoughts be once more
directed to the fields where the great events of our time are taking
place, where so many of our dear brothers in humanity have to enter
with their own life and soul for what the tasks of this time are
requiring of them:
Spirits ever watchful, Guardians of their souls!
May your vibrations waft
To the Earth-men committed to your charge
Our souls' petitioning love:
That, united with your power,
Our prayer may helpfully radiate
To the souls it lovingly seeks.
And for those who in consequence of these events have already passed
thro' the gate of death:
Spirits ever watchful, Guardians of their souls!
May your vibrations waft
To the Men of the Spheres committed to your charge
Our souls' petitioning love:
That, united with your power,
Our prayer may helpfully radiate
To the souls it lovingly seeks!
And that Spirit whom we are seeking thro' the deepening of Spiritual
Science the Spirit with whom we desire to unite, who descended
on to the Earth and passed thro' earthly Death for the salvation of
mankind, for the healing, progress and freedom of the Earth may
He be at your side in all your difficult duties.
N.B. These Meditations were repeated at the beginning of each
Lecture of this Course.
After a long absence I am able to be again in your midst, and I should
like especially to devote the three lectures of this week to directing
our gaze to a knowledge of the spiritual world, which stands more or
less in close connection with those significant and deeply incisive
events of our time which touch us so deeply. Our attention should not
be turned immediately to the events themselves, but to what perhaps in
everyone, in the feeling of us all, is connected with these events,
like riddles, like uneasy questions concerning the destiny of man and
the Cosmos. Our attention must be turned to this: to that wider
destiny of the human soul, to which it is subject in that region of
Cosmic existence to which the gaze of Spiritual Science is also
directed, and which is not limited to earthly material existence. We
are very much tempted at this time to knock at the door through which
the human being passes when he forsakes this earthly body. We are
urged towards that to which the human being can look up when he needs
higher consolation, a deeper source of strength than can be obtained
from material life. In how many ways does the voice of the spiritual
world cry in these times to our hearts, even to those who do not wish
to penetrate into the spiritual world, but whose hearts are
nevertheless the windows into the spiritual world. How clearly and in
how manifold a way does the spiritual world knock at these windows in
our days. It is therefore fitting that we should once again bring
together, from a special point of view, many things which we are able
to know concerning this spiritual world.
One thing must be admitted by anyone who transcends the narrow
prejudices of materialism (those prejudices which altogether deny the
existence of a spiritual world). The view of those who do not deny the
existence of a spiritual world but merely maintain that man can learn
nothing of it by human means, goes somewhat further. If one does not
stand at the standpoint of the absolute materialist, but has been so
ripened by life as to admit at least the existence of a spiritual
world and this stage may soon be reached even if such an
one denied the possibility of knowing anything of it, he is not far
from the thought that the knowledge which can be assimilated and the
results which can be acquired through the ordinary material world,
must indeed be trivial compared with that which spreads out as a wider
kingdom in the spiritual world lying behind the physical-sensible.
Certainly there are in our days narrow-minded materialistic souls who
would enclose the entire human being in such narrow limits that man
would have to be regarded as little higher than the animal, and
belonging entirely to the animal-evolution. Certainly, there are such
men. But they will become ever fewer; and, as we have often seen even
Natural Science does not now admit these prejudices. And if one only
begins by admitting that in the human being there is something which
transcends external nature, very soon knowledge will arise of how
trivial and limited is that which the physical-sensible world
embraces, when compared with the greatness and might of the whole
universe. And if we then study man himself, and become conscious of
that which lives and can live in him, we cannot do otherwise than say:
No matter how far the spiritual world may extend, however great
its kingdom, man is a kind of microcosm in himself. However much
a man may hold it as unproven; yet, he in his being, extends to the
whole kingdom of the spiritual world. Although to sense-perception,
those depths of the soul into which the deeper parts of the spiritual
world extend may be concealed, they do extend into the human being.
Man does not only consist of physical body, of a combination of
external physical forces and substances, he is also a product of the
entire Cosmos, a veritable microcosm. And much that we have striven
and sought after, was intended to show, in detail, how far man is a
product of the spiritual world, and how far in him are really to be
sought, not only the forces of this earth, but we might also say those
of all the heavens. If this thought is once grasped, it will be clear
that by means of ordinary knowledge, we can really know but very
little of man. Through ordinary science we know certain things
concerning the laws of nature which knowledge we acquire
between birth and death. But even a very little penetration into
spiritual science not enough to be termed knowledge but enough
to throw light upon life's riddles will make us realise that,
if we are to understand the human being, we must apply ourselves to
something very different from the little external science that we can
acquire between birth and death through the external means of the
body, through the external senses and the understanding bound to the
brain.
Now, let us unite this thought with another, with the thought which
goes as a main thread through all our considerations: the thought of
repeated earth-lives. That which probably most astonishes those who
have busied themselves a little with our views, is this thought of
repeated earth-lives, and that the time which we pass here between
birth and death is relatively so short, compared with the time which
we pass in the spiritual world between death and rebirth. From many
different points of view we have stated that as a rule the time which
man has to pass between death and rebirth is much, much longer than
the relatively short time between birth and death here in physical
life. There is a connection between the two thoughts which I have just
expressed: that the little which we here acquire between birth and
death, in the way of knowledge and fruits of life, stands to the
spiritual wealth of the cosmos with which man is connected, in about
the same ratio as the short time between birth and death stands to the
longer time between death and rebirth. For in reality, it will occur
to you from the many considerations which we have developed, that it
is the task of the human soul between death and rebirth to assimilate
quite other knowledge and forces from those we acquire here in our
physical life.
Really, one can say, my dear friends, that when we enter physical
earth-life, when we descend from the spiritual world and incarnate in
the body given us by our ancestors through heredity, it is then our
duty to have ready all the forces and all the fine ramifications of
those forces which we require for the purpose of organising this body
of ours. You know that our body, as we receive it, is born of our
parents. But with this body our psychic-spiritual being unites, and
this being has previously passed a long time in the spiritual world
between death and rebirth. Could one see if one were for a
moment justified in making the hypothesis what this external
human being can become merely through the forces of heredity, through
the forces peculiar to the substance bestowed on us by our parents, we
should see that with these forces alone man cannot become what he is.
Through these forces which represent our external physical existence,
and into these substances and groups or organs, we must pour that
which we as souls bring, into the form which we receive from our
parents; and out of the abstract soul-substance we form the individual
person we are.
As I have said: it is a foolish hypothesis, but we may make use of it,
to make things clear: let us think for once what might have arisen if
you all were merely born of your parents. Let us leave Karma out of
consideration, and leave out of account the fact that we are, of
course, born into definite families; and let us only regard physical
heredity. Then you would all be alike as human beings. You would only
have the general human physical character. That you are quite definite
individuals, that so many individual beings sit here before us, rests
on the fact that the general human form, even in its finest
principles, is fashioned by the spiritual individuality which descends
from the spiritual world and enters into that which is given by father
and mother.
To that end, just as we must have fingers to grip an object in the
physical world, just as we must perceive an object in order to grasp
it even as we must have the necessary organs and also must have
learnt to grasp a thing so must we have learnt to attach
ourselves to all the different organs which form our body physically.
We have all got ears, but we each hear in our own way. We all have
eyes, but we see individually. For the external organs this is least
perceptible; in the inner behaviour of man it is more striking. Thus
we must insert our psychic-spiritual essence into all these quite
general organs, and fashion them individually. We must learn to know
the forces, the inner psychic-spiritual formations, so that what we
receive through inheritance as ears, nose, eyes, brain, etc., we can
fashion individually. That means that when at birth we enter the
physical world we must have knowledge, and not only knowledge but
practical possibilities of using it. This wonderful structure of man,
how little do we really know of it through external science? We must
inwardly learn the whole subtle structure of the brain, because we
have to organise it inwardly. And all these spiritual-psychic
processes, everything which makes it at all possible for us to be men
in a human body between birth and death, all this we have to acquire
for ourselves. Just as we have to acquire abilities for ourselves in
life, so we must also acquire between death and rebirth the power of
being men in physical life. We must keep this in view. It must be
quite clear to us, and then we shall be able to form an idea of what
we do not know of man through mere physical knowledge, but which we
must realise through that other knowledge which we have to assimilate
in a practical form between death and rebirth. But we know that what
we shall assimilate between death and rebirth is built on to all that
we have assimilated in earlier earth-lives. And so, just as in a
certain sense our physical life here is regulated between birth and
death, so too is our life between death and rebirth regulated. We
enter physical life as one might say, half sleeping, dreaming, as
small children. We cannot at once develop memory, this development we
have first to learn. If, however, we examine things more closely, we
find that during the time before we develop memory, certain relations
to the outer world are acquired. The child first gropes and then
learns to grasp. Thus certain things are acquired systematically. The
child learns much during this time, much more than is usually
supposed. Then again each single epoch of life so runs its course that
the later epochs are based on the earlier ones. Not only is the
structural formation of man built up here between birth and death
but his life also. And his life between death and rebirth is
similarly ruled and regulated. In this respect to become aware
how regulated this life of ours is we need only bring to mind
one thing that we have long known.
We have often emphasised the fact that for our soul-life here in
physical existence we need a conception of our Ego, which once
acquired in the second, third and fourth year of life, that
time to which we can go back in memory should never leave us.
In a man with whom to a certain extent this Ego-thread is broken, a
disturbance of the soul's equilibrium takes place. There are such
people, as I have often mentioned, but they are really suffering from
a severe psychic illness. It may happen that a man is suddenly torn
away from the connection with his Ego. He does not remember his
earlier life. He may, for instance, go to the station, and buy a
ticket for some place or another. His reason functions quite normally.
At the intervening stations he does everything necessary, in quite a
reasonable way. But he does not remember anything that previously took
place. His inner life only extends to the point when he resolved to
buy a ticket and make the journey. He travels all over the world with
his mind and reason quite in order. Then comes a moment when he knows:
he is he. Till then, his soul-life was extinguished as regards
memory. The understanding may be in order, although the memory is
extinguished. The Ego is wrenched away and the man suffers from a
severe psychic illness. I myself had an acquaintance who while
occupying a relatively high post was suddenly seized by such an
illness. He suddenly had the impulse to travel, after having forgotten
everything about himself and who he was. He traveled, as one might
say, blindly through the world from one place to the other, and found
himself again in his native city, in an asylum for the homeless. Then
it suddenly came back to him who he was. The interval was passed quite
rationally, but was not connected with the rest of his life. The
illness befell him a second time but this time he committed
suicide while still in that state of consciousness in which the memory
was dissociated from the Ego.
Now, you see, just as in the life between birth and death the Ego must
be a continuous thread, which may not at any time during daily life
lose the possibility of remembering what has happened since that point
in childhood to which one can go back, so must it be also in the life
between death and rebirth. There, too, we must always have the
possibility of preserving our Ego. Now this possibility is given us,
and it is given us through the fact that the first days after death
are passed in the manner we have often described. Immediately after
death a man has before him, as in a mighty picture, the life which has
just run its course. For several days he goes back over his whole past
life, but always so that the whole life is there before him. It lies
before him as in a great panorama. Now, of course, if observed more
closely, it turns out that these days in their review of the past
life, are as it were endowed with a certain power of observation. In a
sense we regard the life during these days from the standpoint of the
Ego. We see in particular everything in which our Ego was interested.
We see the relations which we have with a person, but we see them in a
connection with the results we ourselves obtained from them. Thus we
do not regard things quite objectively, but see all that has borne
fruit for ourselves. Man sees himself everywhere as the centre. And
that is extremely necessary. For from these days when he thus sees
everything which has been fruitful for him, arises that inner strength
and force which he needs in the whole of his life between death and
rebirth, in order there to be able firmly to retain the thought of the
Ego. For we owe the power of being able to retain the Ego between
death and rebirth to this vision of the last life; the power to do so
really proceeds from this. And I must again specially emphasise this,
even if I have said it before the moment of death is of
extraordinary significance. Death is something which most distinctly
has two totally different aspects. Regarded here from the physical
world it certainly has many sad aspects, many painful sides. But we
really only see death here from the one side; after our death we see
it from the other. It is then the most satisfying and most perfect
occurrence that we can possibly experience, for there it is a living
fact. Whereas here death is a proof of how frail and transitory the
physical life of man is when seen from the spiritual world it
is actually a proof that the spirit continually wins the victory over
everything non-spiritual, that the spirit is ever the life, the
eternal, ever-unconquerable life.
Death is precisely the proof that in reality there is no death, that
Death is a Maya, an illusion. Herein lies the great difference between
the life from death to rebirth and our life here from birth to death.
For as you know, no man can with ordinary physical means of cognition
remember his own birth. No one can prove his own birth by personal
experience, for he has not seen it himself. One's birth is something
which cannot be seen by the human eye here in physical life. It lies
before the time which we can remember. Birth is never included in our
recollection. Death, however and it is thereby distinguished
from birth as regards its significance after death death stands
before our spiritual vision as the greatest, most significant, living
and perfect event in our life between death and rebirth. For death is
precisely the means by which we retain our Ego-consciousness after
death. And just as little as it is possible in physical life to
remember our birth, is it necessary and self-evident in the life
between death and rebirth, that the great moment, when the spirit
separates from the body should, during the whole time we pass in the
spiritual world, always stand before our psychic-spiritual gaze. For
from this death flows to us, in connection with what we have
experienced here, the force we need to feel ourselves as
I. We might say: If we were unable to die we could
never experience a spiritual Ego. For we owe the possibility of
experiencing a spiritual Ego to the fact that we can die
physically. Thus lie the facts for our Ego. The Ego is
strengthened and invigorated through our experiencing those first days
after death, in which we are still within our etheric body. Then the
etheric body is laid aside and we experience retrospectively
the preceding life; this we call the passage of the human soul
through the soul-world; a life lasting longer than that shorter life
which lasts only a few days, and which immediately follows physical
death. Now, the opinion is very prevalent that a person who can look
into the spiritual world immediately beholds everything. I have often
corrected this. Nothing produces such humility as true insight into
the spiritual world. For one may look for a very long time, and the
investigation of the single facts of the spiritual world is really a
long, long labour, and is accomplished by means of forces of the
spiritual world. It is mere prejudice to believe that anyone who looks
into the spiritual world can immediately give information about
everything. Just as here in the physical world things are investigated
gradually, in the course of time, so is it in the spiritual life;
things have to be investigated little by little. And now I should like
to touch on a point which must appear important to some of those here
present: that is, the absolute agreement of the different spiritual
facts as they gradually come to light, as they continually arise in
new forms. Even to those who do not yet see into the spiritual world,
this may be a proof of the truth of that for which a true and genuine
investigation is striving. In my
Occult Science
I have given, from different standpoints, a definite time to the periods of
the life between death and rebirth. I should now like to bring forward yet
another standpoint which I did not quote in my
Occult Science
for a simple reason, which I will not conceal from you, so that you
may see that Spiritual Science is striven for here in an honourable
and upright manner: for the simple reason that at that time I did not
yet know these facts myself, but was only able to discover them later.
There is a certain connection between the spiritual life which can be
developed here on the physical plane, and the spiritual life between
death and rebirth. You already know that we pass our physical life
here in waking and sleeping. On the one hand we have a full
consciousness in the waking state, and then for the normal man an
unconscious condition sets in, in the time between sleeping and
waking.
Now you know also from what has been set forth in
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment
that this sleep-life may be lit
up by consciousness, that it is possible to look into that which
happens between falling asleep and waking up. If we can attain to
this, and learn more and more of the life which man passes here in
sleep, we really learn to know an amazing kingdom of Life. In this
unconscious condition between falling asleep and waking up a vast and
amazing kingdom of human life flows by unperceived by the normal human
existence. A great deal goes on then. And that which very soon strikes
us, in this sleep-life, is that it is much more active than the life
between waking and sleeping. During sleep we are within our Ego and
astral body, and have as it were, our physical body and etheric body
outside us. Now, even this external life is an active one, with many
people a very active life indeed. It appears so active to us because
we do not take all the inactivities which exist in this outer life
much into consideration. Really, if everything in this external life
had to proceed from our own initiative, we should be greatly
astonished how differently everything would take place.
Just consider you get up every morning, you hardly form the
resolution to get up, you do it from habit; and you do not really come
to a closer knowledge of what it signifies to be so connected with the
whole Cosmic-ordering, that you pass your life at definite times in
one or other of these two conditions of waking and sleeping, and have
to regulate your life accordingly. How many people think of this? It
all goes on as a matter of course. And now try for once, to consider
how much goes on in this way, so that in a sense, we go through life
like automata. You will then come to recognise that there is a great
deal more inactivity in the life between waking and falling asleep,
but great activity in the life between sleeping and waking. There a
complete and tremendous activity takes place. It is an interesting
fact that people who are relatively indolent in external life between
waking and sleeping are just the busiest between sleeping and waking.
Man is then extremely active, only he knows nothing of this in
ordinary life. If we examine more closely into that which drives the
soul, that is, the Ego and astral body, we find that this activity is
really intimately connected with the whole existence of man, though in
our journey through life we consciously take but very little of it
with us. We do not work upon all our life as it approaches us
externally. I should like to give an apt instance of this. Just
consider, you are now hearing this lecture, which lasts perhaps one
hour. Really, without wishing to offend any of the dear friends
sitting here, I may say: it would be possible to hear infinitely more
in the words of this lecture than the different friends sitting here,
are hearing. Indeed, it would be possible to gather much more from all
I am saying, than I know myself. But what I mean is this and I
am only saying this in illustration of the above you will go
home presently, go to bed and sleep, and wake up to-morrow morning.
And in the time between your sleeping and waking quite
unconsciously, of course, as regards the normal consciousness
you will work upon much of what you are now in a position to hear. You
will work upon it a great deal in your next sleep and perhaps also
during the following nights. One sees souls labouring between sleeping
and waking in quite a different fashion at what they have absorbed.
And even if it occurred that someone had listened very inattentively,
and had merely been somewhat receptive, yet through that receptivity
he would draw into his soul the spiritual powers and impulse in the
lecture. And that would be worked upon during sleep, and transformed
into what we require not only for the rest of life up till death, but
beyond death. Thus we work over our whole life as it transpires by day
between our waking and sleeping. Everything we experience by day we
work upon during the night. Thus as it were, we learn lessons which we
need for all the rest of our life here, and beyond death into the next
incarnation. When we are asleep, we are our own prophetic transmuters
of our life. This sleep-life is full of tremendously deep riddles, for
it is much more deeply connected with what we experience, than is the
external consciousness, and we work at it all from the standpoint of
its fruitfulness for the following life. What we can make of ourselves
through what we have experienced, is the object of our labour in the
time between sleeping and waking. Whether we become stronger and more
powerful in our soul, or perhaps have to reproach ourselves, we labour
at all our experiences so that they become life-fruit. You see from
this, that the life between sleeping and waking is really enormously
significant, and that it goes deeply into the whole riddle of man.
Now, perhaps one day the spiritual investigator forms the intention
we may even say the purpose of comparing this life of
sleep with another, a super-sensible life, and he decides to compare it
with those days which take their course during the life of Kamaloka.
And note here, though this can only be seen by clairvoyance, that
whereas here in life we can recollect all that we have experienced in
our day-life, after death after the time of the life-tableau is
past we obtain a memory of all our nights. This is an important
secret which is revealed to us. We remember all our night-life. This
review so presents itself that we really live backwards starting from
the last night passed here in life, passing to the preceding one, and
so on. In this way we experience the whole life again backwards, but
as seen from the night-aspect. One experiences again in this
retrospective recollection, what one has unconsciously thought and
investigated. One really goes back through one's life, but not from
the day-aspect. How long does that last approximately? Now remember
that we sleep away about one-third of our life. As you know, there are
people who naturally sleep much more. But on an average we sleep away
a third of our life. Therefore this retrospect also lasts about
one-third of our earth-life, because we experience the nights. Just
think how wonderfully that agrees with the other points of view which
have been elucidated. We have always said that the life in Kamaloka
lasts about one-third of one's life. And when we take the above into
consideration, we again see that it must be a third. Thus do these
things harmonise. The details always fit in. That is the wonderful
thing in spiritual investigation one learns to know a fact, and
when that is settled, one presently learns it again from another
aspect.
It is always like the case of a man who climbs a hill from which he
sees something first from one side and then from another side, yet the
essential points are always the same. So that one can say: Here in
earth-life between birth and death our life is so experienced that it
is always torn away from us, it is always broken off by the
night-life; and we only remember the day-life, the things we have
experienced by day. But in the night-life we do more than remember
them; we work upon them and transform them, as stated above. And what
we cannot remember now, we remember during the Kamaloka life. That is
an important connection, and from this you will grasp many things
which perhaps could not be understood otherwise. Just consider,
especially in our present time, how many relatively young men pass
through the gates of death. I have already stated from many points of
view the significance this has for the collective life of humanity.
But let us first look at the two divisions which we have just
characterised. (We will come on to other things in the course of these
lectures.) Let us first consider the life in the etheric body which
lasts only a few days, during which a man has his life tableau before
him, and then we shall consider the life of the soul in the
soul-world. In going through the previous life from the night-side we
shall easily be able to see why the spiritual investigator must say
that even these two periods of life between death and rebirth are
different for a man who has gone relatively early through the gates of
death; one who dies at a later age has different experiences. This
concerns us very closely because so many now are dying at a relatively
early age. You see it is really the case that the separate sections
which I have distinguished are of great significance for our life here
in the physical world. I have given these divisions of life thus: the
first extends to the seventh year, to the change in dentition; the
next to the fourteenth year, the time of puberty; another extends to
the twenty-first year and so on; in periods of seven years. And if you
earnestly consider what lies in these phases of life you will see that
the thirty-fifth year becomes an important epoch. Till then we are, as
it were, in a state of preparation, whereas later we have ended the
preparatory stage and built up our life on the basis of what has been
prepared up to the thirty-fifth year. This thirty-fifth year of life
is of very great significance. Till then, not merely the bodily growth
continues, but also the growth of the soul; for the soul of a man
really grows.
Now, it must decidedly be emphasised that much of the ripened
condition of life can only be attained after the thirty-fifth year.
And if we consider this thirty-fifth year of life from another point
of view, it will appear still more significant to us. You see, if we
place these seven-year epochs of life before the soul, we first have
the building up of the physical body to the age of seven, and the
building up of the etheric body to the age of fourteen. From the
fourteenth to the twenty-first year there is fashioned and organised
what we call the astral body; then the sentient soul to the age of
twenty-eight, the rational or intellectual soul to the age of
thirty-five, and the self-conscious or spiritual soul to the age of
forty-two. And then we come to spirit-self, which is a kind of
evolving back again to the astral body, and so on. The further epochs
of life do not progress in periods of seven years, but irregularly,
for they will only evolve to regularity in the future. Thus, unless
thwarted by the errors of education, a certain regularity is followed
up to the thirty-fifth year. Now, we may be especially struck by the
deeper significance of the entire development of life, when we observe
people who die at these different epochs of life. Suppose
merely as an instance that we follow the soul of an eleven,
twelve, or thirteen-year old boy or girl, who goes through the gate of
death at that early age. In accordance with what I have already
described, it follows in such a case that the etheric body
which would theoretically have been able to care for the full life of
the child has these unused forces still within it. In general
it happens, that man during the whole life between birth and death
really prepares himself for death: he really makes himself ready for
death. In reality our whole life is a preparation for death, in so far
that we continually labour at the destruction of the body. If we could
not destroy it we could never attain to perfection. For we purchase
the perfection, as it were, with the destruction of the outer physical
body. Now, when a boy of thirteen goes through the gate of death, he
does not accomplish the long work of destruction, which he might have
been able to do. He does not fulfil everything he might have done.
This expresses itself in a noteworthy manner. If we follow such a
soul, we find it in the spiritual world, after a certain time, a
relatively short time, between death and rebirth, in what I might call
a most noteworthy society. We find it among those souls who are so
preparing themselves for their next life that they will soon have
again to descend to the earth. These are the souls who will soon
incarnate. Among these then, live such souls as pass through the gate
of death at the age of eleven, twelve, or thirteen. They are placed
among them. And if we look more closely into these connections it
turns out, strange to say, that these souls who are soon to enter
their earth-life, require that which these other souls can bring up to
them from the earth to give them the strength they on their part
require to enter a physical body. Thus the souls of the young form a
strong help to those others who must soon descend to the earth. Young
children who are quite normal, who have no prominent spiritual life,
but are merely intelligent, are normally able to give certain
assistance, which can no longer be given by one who dies in later
years. He, too, has his task, each one must accommodate himself to his
own Karma, and we should not on this account wish to die at this or
that age, for we all die at the age permitted by our Karma. Thus the
help a soul can offer to the souls awaiting incarnation cannot be
given by one who dies in later years. That rests in the fact that
during the first half of life a soul stands nearer to the entire
spiritual world, in one sense, than in the second half of life. Yet in
another sense this is not the case. But in a certain sense we do stand
nearer to the spiritual world in the first half of our life. In fact
the whole life so runs its course that the longer we live in the
physical body the further we are from the spiritual world. A child of
one year still stands very close to the spiritual world. When it
forsakes the physical plane it is soon in the spiritual world. This is
the case up to the fourteenth year; till then a child so lives in the
physical body that it can easily enter the world of souls who are
seeking an early incarnation. This is connected with the fact that
even in the tableau, one who dies very young has different experiences
from those of one who dies in later life.
Thus the thirty-fifth year of life is an important boundary. If a man
dies before the thirty-fifth year, he first experiences the
life-tableau, and then goes backwards through the night-life. But
during this entire experience of the spiritual world, he sees
as it were through a glass darkly, as if he were seeing it
through the life-pictures that spiritual world which he forsook
on being born. His perspective still extends to the spiritual world.
But if he has passed this thirty-fifth year then it is quite
different. He no longer beholds that wherein he himself was before
birth. That is one of those things which particularly strikes one now,
when so many die young. For this looking back at the spiritual world
still retains a certain significance up to the thirty-fifth year. Of
course after the fourteenth, fifteenth, or sixteenth year it is no
longer such a direct vision, but even from then to the thirty-fifth
year, if death occurs, it is as if the spiritual life was everywhere
reflected in the retrospective life-picture. If one dies quite in
infancy, there is naturally not much experience of life to go back
over one can almost immediately look into the spiritual world.
If a child dies at the age of thirteen, he has a retrospective
tableau, but immediately behind that lies the spiritual world. He can
still see the spiritual world clearly. If death takes place later, the
spiritual world is not perceived so distinctly, but it is contained in
what one sees as one's own life. Up to the thirty-fifth year we are
still connected with that spiritual world from which we descended. One
who dies before the age of thirty-five, experiences even in the first
period of the life in which he sees the life-picture, and then in the
retrospective journey through the soul-world, that he really is in a
kind of homeland which he forsook at birth. He has the direct feeling
of coming back home into the world from which he descended. This is of
tremendous importance. For each one who dies thus is, in one sense, as
you see, immediately placed more easily into the spiritual world than
one who dies later. Out of his post-mortem survey he carries far more
spirituality into his next life between birth and death. And those
young men who die in such numbers in our present age, will from this
standpoint become important bearers of spiritual truths and spiritual
knowledge when they descend to earth again in their next incarnation.
Thus we see that the terrible suffering which is poured over the world
is nevertheless necessary for the course of existence as a whole. For
the blood which now flows will be the symbol of a certain refreshing
of spiritual life at a particular time in the future, and this is
necessary for the whole evolution of humanity. Then will the souls,
who now go through the gate of death so early, descend again; but most
of them will descend different from what they would have been had they
reached the limits of life in material existence, and then died. It is
Cosmic Wisdom which now calls away a number of souls, that they may be
allowed to perceive even in their retrospective tableau and
experiences, deep spiritual secrets connected with the earth. That,
too, is Cosmic Wisdom, for these souls are thus filled with that which
they will behold in stronger form when they come to see it again; they
will have been strengthened by the shorter earth life which they have
undergone. That is the true Wisdom of the Cosmos. And so we must say
that much of what rightly gives us pain when we are only able to
regard it from the standpoint of earthly existence, shows us its
redeeming side when we observe it from the standpoint of spiritual
vision. Thus it is with the whole of life. Certainly, my dear friends,
earthly pain cannot be at present avoided through such a
consideration. It must be experienced. For that is the very condition
for its compensation. If we did not experience it in the physical
world it could never be compensated. But although we must suffer many
things in the physical world, there are nevertheless moments in which
we can place ourselves at the standpoint of the spiritual. Then we
shall recognise that much of that which must appear to us as painful
from a lower point of view is a tribute which must be offered to the
higher spiritual worlds and the wise beings therein, in order that the
evolution of the whole Cosmos and of human existence may go forward
not in a one sided manner, but in every direction. The expiation for
much suffering must be achieved, and to this end the suffering itself
must first be endured. Spiritual science cannot indeed spare us that,
but it can teach us to lay it on the altar of existence, to seek the
compensation, and to recognise the Wisdom of the Cosmos, in spite of
all the pain which for higher ends it must cause. This is what
spiritual science can give us as a precious unction for the whole
human existence. Thus from this standpoint also and right from the
feelings which spiritual science can arouse in us, let us regard the
powerful events of our time, and say again that which we have often
repeated here:
From the fighters' courage,
From the blood of battles,
From the mourners' suffering,
From the people's sacrifice,
There will ripen fruits of Spirit
If with consciousness the soul
Turns her thought to Spirit Realms.
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