The Mission of Folk-Souls

LECTURE 5

[ Study Guide: Souls of the Nations — Fifth Lecture ]

11th June, 1910.

It will be seen from the last lecture, that in order to penetrate impartially into the facts under consideration, it will certainly be necessary for one to rise above all the feelings that may easily come to a person from what we must now describe quite objectively. As long as one has the smallest tendency to take an objective description of this or that race, or of this or that people, as a personal matter, so long will it be difficult to obtain an unprejudiced understanding of the facts contained in this course of lectures. With this also is connected the fact that these matters cannot be spoken of on any other ground than that of Spiritual Science; for whatever we may hear about the character of this or that people, and however our feelings and so on may be affected because we belong to a certain race or people, yet as Anthroposophists we have a sufficient counterbalance to lay on the opposite scale, viz., the teaching of Karma and Reincarnation, when properly understood. It gives us the outlook that, with the inmost kernel of our being, we shall be reincarnated in successive ages in many different races and peoples. We may therefore be sure, when we contemplate this kernel of our being, that we shall take part with it, not only in the sunny or perhaps also in the shadow-side of all races and peoples, but we may be sure that in our inmost being we shall receive share after share of the blessings of all races and peoples through being incarnated first in one place and then in another.

Our consciousness, our horizon, becomes wider, more comprehensive, through these ideas of karma and reincarnation. Therefore, through them only do we learn to bear that which at the present time must come before our mental eyes as the secrets of Race and Nationality. So that what is being spoken of in this series of lectures, if it be rightly understood, will bring no dissatisfaction at being incarnated in this people or the other race. But such an objective survey of the character of the peoples, nations and races as this, will nevertheless produce discontent and disharmony in people, unless it be received with the above assumptions. The Anthroposophist will learn, through the teaching of karma and reincarnation, how every nation, even the smallest, has to contribute its share towards the whole evolution of humanity. That is just what will be so very important, that in the second part of this course of lectures it will be shown how the several influences of the missions of the peoples flow into the whole of humanity, and how even separate peoples that were split off and are now scattered here and there among the greater peoples, have their significance in the great harmony of human evolution. That, however, can only come gradually before our mental eyes.

Now in order to acquire a complete understanding of the characters of the several Folk-souls, we shall have to make use of examples which are in certain respects clearer to us than the folk-characters of our times, in which we ourselves live with our own civilization; and on the other hand we shall perhaps have to occupy ourselves with the character of nations, which as regards time are far removed from us, in order to acquire an understanding of how we can comprehend the characters and the missions of nations.

What we have learned in the course of the last lectures, namely, that in a race a normal and abnormal Spirit of Form must so to speak work together, and that in a people, an Archangel who is going through his normal evolution and another Archangel-spirit who is going through an abnormal one must act together, — that has made comprehensible to us how the Beings, whom we have learned to know as the spiritual hierarchies, work in evolution.

Now let us ask ourselves: How do the still higher spiritual Beings work into the whole? It would be well, if to-day we lay a foundation by acquiring an understanding of the Hierarchies, to which, as we know, man belongs as the lowest member. If you remember what has already been explained, you will then know that we so understand these Hierarchies, that we say, at the lowest stage stands man. (Below him are the three kingdoms of Nature, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.) Above him come the Angels, then the Archangels, then the Primal Forces or Archai. That is what we may describe as the first Hierarchy above man. The second Hierarchy is as follows:

1. Spirits of Form or Powers,
2. Spirits of Motion or Mights,
3. Spirits of Wisdom or Dominions.

Then we have the highest of the three Hierarchies:

1. Spirits of Will or Thrones,
2. Cherubim,
3. Seraphim.

Now let us ask: As all spiritual Beings manifest themselves in some way or other, so that they appear somewhere in the realm of maya or illusion, that is to say, in the realm of the world of the senses, where may we seek for them in the lowest stage of manifestation, at the stage of illusion? Man with his ordinary view of Nature and Spirit knows only the domain of maya or illusion, the most external manifestation of these spiritual Beings. I will show you by means of an example, that man knows only the most external manifestation of these Beings.

A person goes on foot, for instance, over the rocky land of the North. Now the first thing he will say of it is: ‘Here there is substance spread out,’ and he will describe this dense, rocky, stony substance over which he walks just as he first sees it, and call it in his ordinary language ‘hard, stony substance.’ But one who penetrates into the nature of things, sees something quite different in this stony substance. What is that really upon which we stand and which offers us resistance? What man believes to be there, is not there at all, it is a delusion. The most external surface of our earth is simply a delusion. The truth is, that forces from below work upwards, they again are none other than forces streaming out from certain Beings; we may therefore say, in that piece of ground we see before us what in the first place presents itself as forces which come out of the earth and radiate into space in every direction. Certainly a man could not walk about upon the earth if only these forces were there. These forces alone would hurl him with lightning rapidity out into space. The fact that he is able to stand upon solid ground he owes to the circumstance that other forces stream in from all sides from universal space. The sphere of the instreaming forces meets incessantly that of the outstreaming forces; and where they come together they form as one might say a boundary, which is the surface of the earth. So that the surface one sees is only a delusion which is the result of the in and outward streaming forces, acting in such a way that they stop each other just at the surface in question. That which thus streams forth is essentially the same as what we must call the activities of the Thrones, the Spirits of Will. These Spirits radiate their forces from the earth, out in every direction; and that which comes in from universal space is essentially what we may call the radiating influx of the forces of certain Spirits of Motion, working inwards from without. Thus these two kinds of forces meet here, and this co-operation of the Thrones with the Spirits of Motion, through the activity of the Thrones being arrested by the Spirits of Motion, — produces the various contours of the earth's surface. So that what you see outside as the earth's surface is most unreal, it is nothing but illusion. What really is there is a balance of forces, and as it were an agreement between the Spirits of Will and the Spirits of Motion which is so arranged that it models the earth in the most varied manner.

Nevertheless this would certainly not suffice to enable our earth to form itself into just such a planet as it now is. The opposed activity of the Spirits of Will and the Spirits of Motion would not be sufficient for this; they would produce something quite different. If, for instance, only the Spirits of Will were to work outwards from within the earth, and had as their opponents only the Spirits of Motion, then the earth would inwardly be in a continual state of flux. No part of the planet would then be able to be at rest. True, it would not be so fluidic as the present sea; it would not be an element forming and throwing up waves so easily as water, but it would form and throw up waves in a denser substance.

Now if you wish to form an idea of how the Spirits of Will and the Spirits of Motion originally worked together, — I should like to give you an example, and would beg you to accompany me on the map. In the first place I should like to draw your attention to the Alps, which to-day are a chain of solid mountains, so that the solid rocky ground of the Alps divides the Italian Peninsula in the South from the other parts of Europe. Now how did this Alpine chain really come into existence? There was a time, which lies far back in the primeval past, when the Alps were not yet there, but to the North and West there were older elevations, which at that time had already become solid. Viscous waves were then thrown up from the South, so that we may picture something like the following: —

Diagram 4 Click image for large view

Here we would have the Bohemian Plateau. Now picture to yourselves a mighty wave being thrown up from the South, which divided and spread right and left towards the Bohemian Plateau. This mighty wave in primeval ages formed the solid Alps. This conclusion may be arrived at even from an ordinary view. Anyone who has once stood on the summit of one of the mountains of the Alps and surveyed the unique configuration of the Alpine chain, has seen — even if he did not know it — what spiritual science has long established and what even the present-day geologists have established, — the remarkable wave-like formation, which was produced at the time when the primeval mass of the earth was still in a thick fluidic state.

Through the co-operation of the Spirits of Will and the Spirits of Motion, the earth would be still in that form, if another activity had not come in, one which is exceptionally enduring and which expresses itself on the surface of our earth by the fact that to the Will-forces, acting in conjunction with the Spirits of Motion, was added that which we call the activity of the Spirits of Form. You may therefore imagine that these Spirits of Form, dancing as it were upon the waves, stilled the moving masses and brought them into forms; so that we have to describe the co-operative workings of three different forces. These three forces proceed from three sorts of Beings. You see the Spirits of Form at work, their influence penetrates upwards as well as downwards, into the sphere of the Spirits of Will as well as into the sphere of the Spirits of Motion. Above them are the Spirits of Motion, below them are the Spirits of Will. That which on our earth appears externally chiefly as a fluidic element, not however our present-day water, but the old fluidic element, which was brought to rest by the Spirits of Form, — that we must look upon as the most external manifestation of the Spirits of Will or Thrones. But another element always mingles itself with this activity. The Spirits of Will or Thrones are assisted, so to speak, by the Cherubim and Seraphim. The Cherubim help in the element of air, in everything which permeates the apparent earthy substance as gaseous substance. Air is as it were an illusion, behind which there are the mighty Beings we call the Cherubim. The Seraphim work in what we know as heat, they are behind every sort of heat.

Thus we gaze upon that which is brought about in our planet by radiations from within, from the centre. We may therefore say: our planet is so constituted, that the Spirits of Will or Thrones, the Cherubim and the Seraphim work from its centre. We must understand our planet in this way: Where its boundaries of air and warmth coincide, — for the atmosphere is just as much part of our planet as the water or dry land, — there a surface is formed; upon this surface the Spirits of Form literally dance upon the waves, and bring them to rest and into form. For this reason their name was given them, because they bring the thick fluid element to rest. Behind them there are the Spirits of Motion. In their element again is intermingled what we call the Spirits of Wisdom. So that when we look towards the centre of our planet, we may say: There are sublime Beings, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. When we look outward, we look first of all through the sphere of the Spirits of Form, who permeate the air and heat with their element, up to the Spirits of Motion and the Spirits of Wisdom. When we gaze out into the periphery of our earth, when we gaze up to the lofty sky, everything there in the way of nature-forces and phenomena is essentially to be ascribed to the second Hierarchy. Everything we see when we look down into the depths of the earth, we ascribe to the Beings of the third or — highest Hierarchy. It is the peculiar combined operation of the second and third Hierarchies which yields the configuration of our surroundings.

In which of the elements of Nature — we have said that the three elements of Nature, water, air and fire are connected with the Spirits of Will, the Cherubim and Seraphim — do the Spirits of Form manifest themselves? They are the nearest Beings and they dance upon the surface upon which we live, move and have our being. They come out of universal space, but only display their force in that which streams up out of the earth. To our observation they are concentrated in what we call the rays of the sun. Light, therefore, is the element in which in the first place the Spirits of Form weave and live. Since, however, the activities of light, with all they include, display themselves on the boundary where the Spirits of Motion and Spirits of Will co-operate, it is there that the solid forms are produced. Man has at first no organs with which he could gaze up at that which lies on the further side of these forces of light, which we also call the Spirits of Form, no organs with which to look into that which is woven into the light. Everything which on our earth regulates construction and decomposition, all that is active in these in the way of chemical forces is here still interwoven with the light, and that is principally the domain in which the Spirits of Motion are at work. When man learns to perceive something of that which he otherwise looks upon merely as maya, in the action of the chemical combinations and dissolutions, then he hears these Spirits of Motion, he perceives the Music of the Spheres, of which the Pythagorean and other occult schools speak. It is that too, which Goethe describes when he speaks of the sun, not as the giver of light, but when he says of it:

‘The sun, with many a sister-sphere,
Still sings the rival psalm of wonder,
And still his fore-ordained career
Accomplishes, with tread of thunder.’

This music of the spheres is still there, only it is inaudible to the ordinary consciousness. The music of the spheres is real, it approaches all men as an astral effect, coming from without. Man, however, does not hear it. If to him the music of the spheres was to alternate as does the light, which at certain times when darkness sets in he no longer sees, then there would be certain times when he could hear it. It sounds forth, however, both day and night, and thus he can only hear it when he goes through a certain occult training and development. Whereas the light streams towards us during the day as light, and during the night weaves on further as light which has been received and absorbed, the music of the spheres sounds forth both day and night. To man this is as with the miller, who only hears his mill when it is not working.

Then there still remain the Spirits of Wisdom, who send in their activities from without and work into the weaving light and into the music of the spheres in its weaving through the universe. That is the life of the universal ether which streams down to the earth. Life pours in upon the earth from universal space and is caught up by its various beings. This proceeds from the Spirits of Wisdom.

Thus we gaze out into the distances of the universe, and first of all we look up at the sun, in which these forces are concentrated for us, and we see how streaming life, weaving sound, formative light, the trinity of the second hierarchy press in from space. The highest of the hierarchies, the Seraphim, Cherubim and the Thrones, stream up to us from below. The first hierarchy is interwoven in all that works upon the earth and is chiefly active within the beings. To this hierarchy belong in the first place, the Archai, who act as Spirits of the Age. These Spirits of the Age weave in what has been prepared for them by the higher hierarchies, and bring about what we call our human history, the evolution of civilization on the earth. Then we also find around us the Archangels, the Spirits of Peoples and Tribes; and finally the Angels, the intermediaries between the individual human beings and the Archangels.

We may therefore say: In the forces of Nature which we have upon our planet, in earth, water, air and fire, the Beings of the third or highest hierarchy pour themselves forth and stream towards the activity of the Spirits of Form, who come from outside. From outside the Beings of the second hierarchy stream in, and around the earth are the Beings of the first hierarchy who for the moment have the weakest forces, so to say. Just imagine for a moment, what strong forces are possessed by the exalted Beings we call the Spirits of Will, who really carve the ground upon which we walk. Then we have those forces which stream in from outside. Let us take those nearest to us, the Spirits of Form, who mould the races into shape; and then we have what we call Angels, Archangels and Archai who act intimately in the human soul. In the third hierarchy, we have those forces of Nature which we call the strongest, the underground forces of Nature, the forces of our solid earth. In the second we have those forces which live and weave around us in the ether, and in the first hierarchy we have that which lives and weaves in an intimate manner within ourselves.

If we take these three hierarchies in their co-operative activity and see how they work in our earth planet, how they form it out of the collective womb of the universe, we get an idea of what was necessary to bring this earth into being. The earth had to go through various incarnations before it could become earth, through the Saturn, the Sun and the Moon states. If you follow what is written in my books, The Akashic Records and Occult Science, you will see that even during the earlier incarnations of our earth these various spiritual Beings worked together, only that this co-operative activity took place in a manner that was different from their present way of working. Each time a new incarnation appeared, such as the Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth states, there was a different kind of co-operative activity of those hierarchical Beings, because of the fact, that each of the conditions our earth went through, represented a special task which these hierarchical Beings set themselves. We may absolutely say, that each one of the conditions through which our earth has passed, and those which it still has to go through, signify and have signified a particular mission in cosmic evolution.

Now it is exceptionally difficult, as all conceptions alter from one planetary condition to another, to define what was the mission of old Saturn, of the old Sun and of the old Moon periods. It is not easy, because then one must next characterize the mission of our earth in a very abstract way. We can most easily conceive of it if we call to mind the nature of the various forces which manifest themselves in space. If you consider the inner nature of the human being, his soul, you have there, willing, feeling, thinking; and again if you consider the human envelopes, the outer part of human nature, you have the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body. So that if you look at a man of the present day and to begin with leave his ‘ I ’ out of consideration, you can conceive of him as a tissue consisting of the physical, etheric and astral bodies as an outer covering, into which are woven willing, feeling and thinking.

Now these forces in man, both in the outer and the inner man, are always related to some earlier mission or other, which was connected with a former incarnation of the earth.

We have, for example, the Saturn mission. If you wish to form an approximate idea of that, you may think of it as being related to what is on the one side the human physical body and on the other the human will. This is so to be thought of that if there had been no Saturn incarnation of our earth, the will of man on the one side and his physical body on the other could not have attained their present form. What man possesses of will and of physical body he owes to the old Saturn. The knowledge that he owes his physical body to Saturn is drawn from the Akashic Records. But each foregoing condition produces after-effects in the formations in the succeeding conditions. Hence, that which to-day shows itself as will, is to be traced back to the after-effects of the Saturn element. The results of these show themselves in the inner part of man as his will.

You will obtain an idea of the mission of the Sun condition if you observe what is called the human etheric body and if to it you connect feeling. You have already been told that the etheric body may be traced back to the old Sun. The after-effects, however, are such that man could later unfold the inner forces of feeling. Finally if we glance at the Moon condition we see that the astral body of man and human thinking are connected with that. So we say: In order that these forces of the inner and the outer man, — physical body, etheric body and astral body, willing, feeling and thinking — could so develop that man now possesses them as an outer and inner life, three successive cosmic missions were necessary. And those Beings whom we have described as belonging to the hierarchies, were obliged — in order that the task of the three successive incarnations of our earth might be fulfilled and that man might be endowed with what is manifested in his whole constitution at the present time — to work together every time with the requisite reciprocal activity.

Thus therefore the mission of the old Saturn-state had to be fulfilled, or man could not have received the foundations of the physical body and of the will. The mission of the Sun had to be fulfilled, otherwise he could not have received the etheric body and feeling; and finally the mission of the Moon had to be fulfilled, otherwise he could not have had the astral body and that which we call the power of thought. So that the three preceding incarnations of our earth were each especially devoted to what we may call one of the predominating elements of our own personal being, our ‘ I ’. We have before us the fact that the external physical body which emanated from the Beings of the old Saturn, from the Spirits of Will, presents nothing else than Will seen externally. With us it acts as inner life which comes from within. These words are carefully chosen; they are not fantastic, but absolutely correspond to the facts of the matter. You may learn much from them.

The earth went through the Sun period, in order on the one hand to lay the foundation of the etheric body through the influence of the Spirits of Wisdom, and on the other to lay the foundation — through the continued operation of the element of Wisdom — of that which reflects the inner wisdom, viz., Feeling.

That which was the mission of the Moon is connected in a similar way with the astral body and with Thought.

Now arises the question: What particular mission have the Spirits of Form chosen, who work chiefly on the earth and form it? We may say: The Spirits who worked chiefly on Saturn, the Spirits of Will or Thrones, had the mission of interweaving that element which later, during the earth evolution, manifests itself as will. It was the great mission of Saturn to give will, to implant the forces of will. When we contemplate such a thing as this, we are filled with reverence and respect for the ruling cosmic Powers. We acquire a true appreciation for them, when we see that for the production of the wonderful tissue of outer will which we have in the physical body, and of inner will, a special planetary mission was necessary. The whole world of the hierarchies had to cause a planet to come into existence and to disappear again, in order to bring about the condition which is woven into us as the outer and the inner element of Will.

In the same way the old Sun had to come into existence, so that the etheric body and the element of Feeling, the element of inner Wisdom could originate. Then the Moon-mission was necessary for that which is reflected in our element of thought, in our astrality, as the inner element of Thought.

Now what mission have the Spirits of Form? What is the real mission of the Earth? If one connects the Saturn-mission with the imprinting of the element of Will, the Sun-mission principally with the imprinting of the element of Feeling, and the Moon-mission chiefly with the imprinting of the element of Thought, — with that, therefore, which is in the human astral body, — one then has to connect with the Earth-planet the mission of bringing about the perfect equilibrium of these three elements, each of which had the hegemony in an earlier incarnation of our earth: that they should co-operate in perfect equilibrium, — that is the mission of our earth. It is its mission to still the conflict between these elements by bringing them into proper equilibrium.

Man is interwoven with this mission of the earth, in order that he may bring about this balance between thought, feeling, and will, first of all in his own inner being. At the beginning of the earth period man was indeed in this respect an inharmonious fabric of thought, feeling, and will. Everyone who possesses a little self-knowledge can feel that the inner balance of present-day man is not yet complete but is still in a state of disharmony and disorder. Man is called upon first of all to bring about an equilibrium between thought, feeling and will within himself, by means of which he can from within radiate and carry over on to the earth what this equilibrium between thought, feeling and will signifies.

In occult symbolism this mission of the earth has always been expressed in quite a special way by means of a geometrical figure. If you go through all geometrical figures, you will find none which so exactly corresponds to this balance of the three activities as the equilateral triangle. If you merely draw it, you will find the three sides equal, the three angles equal, each angle is equidistant from the others and all are equidistant from the centre. The centre of the equilateral triangle is an absolute symbol of a balance of forces, so that when the occultist looks at an equilateral triangle, he can see in it a symbol of the absolutely balanced co-operation of those elements which, in the three earlier incarnations of our earth, had each for a while, the upper hand. The deeds of the ‘ I ’ in man signify nothing else than the creating of an active centre in his nature, whereby this state of equilibrium can be prepared from within. So that man is indeed called to something great upon the earth, namely, to bring about from within, first of all through his whole being, a balance between what formerly, for a time, was dominant in various ways and at various times.

That is in the first place a very abstract definition of our Earth-mission, but it consists in just what I have said. The secret of this mission is expressed in the fact that through this co-operation, through this equilibrium of the three forces, the inner being actually produces something new. A fourth element is thus really added to the three preceding ones, and this fourth is the element of Love. Love can only develop in the world when an absolute equilibrium comes about between the three forces which in earlier ages were each in turn the ruling power. We shall have more to say about this in the next few days. For the moment just take it as an abstract description.

Thus our planet is the planet of Love, and therefore this equilibrium which, so to speak, is established in the co-operation of these three forces, produces as an effect the “activity of Love,” and this is to be woven into the whole of evolution throughout all the following incarnations of the earth by this very mission of earthly activity. In this way the Trinity becomes a Quaternary, and the latter begins with its fourth element at the lowest stage, it begins so to speak with the lowest form of love which is cleansed and purified up to the state when, at the end of the whole evolution of the earth, love will appear as an element standing on just the same level as the others. To fulfill the mission of equilibrium which belongs to our earth-planet is therefore in reality ‘to make the Trinity into a Quaternary.’ It is for this reason that the Mystery of the Earth is usually expressed occultly in the words: ‘To make the Trinity into a Quaternary.’ The fourth element is naturally to-day still very imperfect; but when the earth shall have fulfilled its mission it will appear just as bright and shining as the Sacred Triangle, which in its state of perfect equilibrium shines before us as the highest symbol we possess for our earth-ideal, in so far as we remember the past of the earth.

This co-operation of the elements of thought, feeling and will within man works first of all in such a way, that the actual inner being becomes the substance of love. That is what we may call the really productive, the inwardly productive element in earthly existence. We must therefore also call the Spirits of Form (because they have this very mission, of bringing the three former conditions into equilibrium), collectively the Spirits of Love.

If we consider the earth-existence in this way, we have then in the first place characterized will, feeling and thought, and the working of Love outside our earth-planet; and we have been able to describe as the special task of the Spirits of Form, the imprinting of Love, which results from equilibrium. Therein consists the whole mission of the earth. In order to produce this force of Love which is to impregnate the earth, the mutual interaction and co-operation was necessary, of all that we have described as the work of the lowest hierarchies.

We have already begun to describe in our preceding studies what we might call the tissue, the network of love; and this web of love must be so woven, that the principal threads are woven into it by the normal Spirits of Form, that being their fundamental mission. Then the abnormal Spirits of Form, who are in reality Spirits of Motion, weave into it that which produces the races. Then the normal and abnormal Spirits of the Age weave into it the historical evolution, and the Archangels, both of normal and abnormal evolution, the several peoples and languages; and lastly those Beings who put man into his right place on the earth, the Angels, also co-operate in the weaving. In this way is spun this mighty fabric of Love.

The fabric of Love which is woven as the real mission of the earth, is only visible on earth as a reflection, a maya. The nearest domain above the physical world in which this fabric can be seen, is the astral world. But we can see the working of the hierarchies more and more clearly in the truths underlying our external maya, when we rise from the astral world into the worlds of lower and higher Devachan. Then we see how this web is spun. If we rise to the astral world, certainly we do not at first perceive that which spins chiefly from within, viz., the Spirits of Will, the Cherubim and Seraphim. If we wish to find these Spirits at work, we must raise our vision to still higher worlds. But we find even in the astral world, what we call the abnormal Spirits of Form, who, if they had attained their normal evolution, would be weaving from without. We have seen that the Spirits of the second hierarchy ought to weave from without, but here we see that they are weaving from within. We may therefore say, that in this tissue, in which the Spirits of Motion, the Spirits of Form and the Spirits of Wisdom are weaving from without, and the Spirits of Will, the Seraphim and Cherubim from within, there are still other Spirits weaving from within, who should really be weaving from without. They weave under the surface, however, in somewhat the same way as the silkworm weaves its cocoon. What is seen first of all in the astral world is something within. These remarkable Spirits of Motion, who are not in their right place, and are fallen Spirits, are the first spiritual Beings to become visible — even before the normal angels among those who surge and weave in the spiritual atmosphere of the earth. These beings who are the first to become visible on the astral plane, are the Spirits who in a sense lead astray the clairvoyant vision, — although they are in the deepest sense of the word necessary for the procreation of the races. These Spirits, each of whom has many under him, because each one produces many spiritually subordinate beings, are enveloped in the spiritual world in a number of spiritual beings who are always inferior to the hierarchies in question.

The higher Spirits also have their inferior beings; the Spirits of Will have the Undines, the Cherubim the Sylphs, the Seraphim the Salamanders.

The abnormal Spirits of Form who are really Spirits of Motion, and who appear on the astral plane as hideous, these too, have their subordinate Spirits. They are the Spirits who live or move in that which is connected with the production of the human races, which is therefore connected in man with, and so to say depends upon, that element which we have described as earth-bound, connected with propagation and such-like. These Beings, this whole domain in fact, is one of the most highly-colored and most dangerous parts of the astral world, and it is unfortunately — as had better be said in this connection — the one most easily discovered by those who attain to vision by the wrong methods. The host of those Spirits who are connected with the propagation of the race, who serve that purpose, are the most easily seen. Many a man who prematurely and in the wrong way entered the occult domain, has had to pay dearly for having met with the host of these spiritual beings without the harmonizing through other spiritual beings.

Thus we have been able to throw light upon that which spins and weaves on the Reality, to produce this web, out of which the actual soul-world of man then unfolds. As to how these foundations, into which we have glanced a little to-day, appear in the development of races and peoples and so on, we shall speak further to-morrow.