IF we wish to know the nature of the spiritual forces powers active in
the different kingdoms of nature in the heavenly bodies, we must first
become acquainted with these spiritual beings themselves, as we have
already begun to do in the three lectures which have been given.
We tried to characterise the so-called nature-spirits, and then
ascended to the beings which stand immediately above man and which we
can find in the higher world to our own. We will continue these
considerations to-day, and must therefore link them to what has
already been said on the way in which we can link ourselves to the
beings of the Third Hierarchy. As shown in the last lecture, it is
possible for man to rise above himself, to subdue all his own special ego
interests in order, by that means, to rise into a sphere which he
first of all finds his own guide, who can give him some idea of those
beings called, in the sense of western esotericism, Angels, Angeloi.
We then pointed out how further progress along the path leads to knowledge
of the Folk or Nation-Spirits, of whom we have spoken as Archangels,
Archangeloi; and how, in the course of cultural civilisation we find
the so-called Spirits of the Age, the Archai. If a man follows the
path roughly indicated yesterday, he gains a certain feeling of what
is meant by these beings of Third Hierarchy, but even if he goes
through an occult development, he will for a long time only have a
sort of feeling. Only if he goes in patience and persevere through all
the feelings and perceptions mentioned yesterday, can he pass over to
what may be called clairvoyant vision of the beings of the Third
Hierarchy. If, therefore, we progress further along this way, we shall
find that gradually we educate ourselves, developing in ourselves a
different state of consciousness, and then we can begin to have a
clairvoyant consciousness of the beings of the Third Hierarchy. When a
man follows this way further he will find that he gradually trains
himself to another condition of consciousness and that then a
clairvoyant perception of the Third Hierarchy can begin.
This other condition of consciousness can be compared with the sleep
of man, because in this condition a man with his ego and his astral
body feels freed from his physical and etheric bodies. We must have a
perception of this feeling of freedom. We must gradually learn what it
means not to see with our eyes, hear with our ears, or think with our
intellect, which is connected with the brain. Again, we must
distinguish this condition from that of ordinary sleep, inasmuch as in
it we are not unconscious, for we have perceptions of the spiritual
beings in our environment; at first, only dimly sensing them,
and then, as has been described, clairvoyant consciousness lights up
within us, and we get a living view of the beings of the Third
Hierarchy and of their off-spring, the nature-spirits. If we wish to
describe this condition more accurately, we may say that he who raises
himself through occult development to this condition actually
perceives a sort of demarcation between his ordinary consciousness and
this new condition of consciousness. Just as we can distinguish
between waking and sleeping, so to him who has gone through occult
development, there is at first a distinction between the consciousness
in which he sees with his ordinary eyes, hears with his ordinary ears,
and thinks with the ordinary intellect and that clairvoyant
condition in which he has nothing at all around him of what he
perceives in the normal consciousness, but has instead another world
around him, the world of the Third Hierarchy and its offspring. The
first achievement is learning to remember in ordinary consciousness
what one has experienced in this other condition of consciousness.
Thus we can accurately distinguish a certain stage in the occult
development of man, when he can live alternately in his ordinary
consciousness, when he sees, hears, and thinks like other men, and in
the other condition of consciousness which he can, in a sense, produce
voluntarily, and in which he perceives what is around him in the
spiritual world of the Third Hierarchy. And then just as we remember a
dream, so can he, in his ordinary consciousness, remember what he
experienced in the other, the clairvoyant condition. He can talk about
it, can translate into ordinary conceptions and ideas what he
experiences in the clairvoyant state. Thus if a seer in his ordinary
condition of consciousness, himself wishes to know something of the
spiritual world, or to relate something about it, he must call to mind
what he experienced in the other, the clairvoyant conditions of
consciousness. A clairvoyant having reached this stage of development,
can only know something of those beings whom we have described as the
beings of the Third Hierarchy and their offspring; he can at first
know nothing of higher worlds. If he wishes to know of these he must
attain a still higher stage of clairvoyant vision
This higher stage is reached by continually practicing those exercises
described in my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and How to
Attain It and especially going through those exercises there
described as the observation let us say of the plant, of
the animal, etc. If a man continues his exercises in this way, he
attains a higher stage of clairvoyance. This consists not only in his
having two alternate conditions of consciousness and being able to
remember his clairvoyant experiences in the normal condition; but
having attained this higher stage of clairvoyance, he can also
perceive spiritual worlds, spiritual beings and spiritual facts when
in his ordinary condition of consciousness, looking at the things of
the external world through his eyes. He can then, so to speak, carry
his clairvoyant vision over into his ordinary consciousness, and can
see behind the beings around him in the external world, the spiritual
beings and forces everywhere more deeply concealed, as though behind a
veil.
We may ask: What has happened to a clairvoyant, who is able not
merely to remember the experiences of another condition of
consciousness, but who can have clairvoyant experiences in his own
everyday consciousness? If a man has only ascended to the first
stage, he can only make use of his astral body in order to look into
the spiritual world. Thus the body which a man makes use of at the
first stage of clairvoyance is the astral body; at the second stage of
clairvoyance which has just been described, he learns to make use of
his etheric body. By means of this he can even in ordinary, normal
consciousness, look into the spiritual world. If a man learns to use
his etheric body in this way as an instrument for clairvoyance, he
gradually learns to perceive everything in the spiritual world
belonging to the beings of the Second Hierarchy.
Now, however, the clairvoyant must not stand still here, only
perceiving his own etheric body, so to speak; but on attaining this
second stage of clairvoyance he has a very definite experience. He has
the experience of seeming to go out of himself, and as it were, of no
longer feeling enclosed within his skin. When he let us say
encounters a plant or an animal, or even another human being he
feels as if a part of himself were within the other being; he feels as
if immersed in the other being. In normal consciousness and even when
we have reached the first stage of clairvoyance, we can still say, in
a certain sense, I am here; and that being which I see is
there. At the second stage of clairvoyance, we can no longer say
this; we can only say, Where that being is which I perceive,
there am I myself. It is as though our etheric body stretched
out tentacles on all sides and drew us within the beings into which
we, perceiving them, plunge our own being. There is a feeling
belonging to our ordinary normal consciousness which can give us an
idea of this clairvoyant experience; only, what the clairvoyant of the
second stage experiences is infinitely more intense than a feeling; it
amounts to a perception, an understanding of, an immersion in another
being. The feeling to which I refer, which can be compared to this
experience of the clairvoyant, is sympathy, love. What does it really
imply when we feel sympathy and love in ordinary life? If we ponder
more closely on the nature of sympathy and love this was
slightly touched upon yesterday we find that sympathy and love
cause us to detach ourselves from ourselves and to pass over into the
life of the other being. It is truly a wonderful mystery of human
life, that we are able to feel sympathy and love. There is scarcely
anything among the ordinary phenomena of normal consciousness which
can so convince man of the divinity of existence, as the possibility
of developing love and sympathy. As human beings we experience our
existence in our own selves; and we experience the world by perceiving
it with our senses or grasping it with our reason. It is not possible
for any intellect, for any eye, to look into the human heart, to gaze
into the human soul; for the soul of another keeps enclosed in its
innermost chamber what it has within it of joy or sorrow, and truly it
should appear as a wonderful mystery to anyone, that he can, as it
were, pour himself into the being of other souls live in their
life and share their joys and sorrows. So just as we with our normal
consciousness can by means of sympathy and love plunge into the
sorrows and joys of conscious beings, so does the clairvoyant learn,
at the second stage of clairvoyance, not only to plunge into
everything conscious, into everything that can suffer and rejoice in a
human way or in a manner resembling the human; he learns to plunge
into everything that is alive. Mark well, I say everything
living; for at this second stage one only learns to
plunge into living things, not yet into that which is without life or
which appears lifeless, dead, and which we see around as a mineral
kingdom. But this immersing oneself into living things is connected
with a view of what goes on in the inner nature of those beings. We
feel ourselves there, within the living beings; we learn to live with
the plants, the animals, and with other human beings, at this second
stage of clairvoyance. But not only this; we also learn to recognize
behind all living things a higher spiritual world, the beings of the
Second Hierarchy. It is necessary that we should form a clear idea of
these connections for if one only enumerated what sort of beings
belonged to the various hierarchies that would seem but a dry theory.
We can only gain a living idea of what lives and weaves behind the
sense-world if we know the path by which clairvoyant consciousness
penetrates it.
Now, beginning once more from man, we will try to describe the beings
of the Second Hierarchy. We saw yesterday, that the beings of the
Third Hierarchy are characterised by the fact that in place of human
perception, they have manifestation of their own being, and instead of
human inner life they have what we may call being filled with
the spirit. In the beings of the Second Hierarchy we experience
when we plunge into them, that not only is their perception a
manifestation of their being, not only do they manifest their own
being, but that this manifestation remains, as something independent,
which separates from these beings themselves. We can gain an idea of
what we thus perceive if we think of a snail, which separates off its
own shell. The shell so we understand consists of a
substance which is at first contained in the body of the snail. The
snail then detaches it. Not only does the snail manifest its own being
externally, but detaches something which then becomes objective and
remains. So it is with the actual nature, with the selfhood of the
beings of the Second Hierarchy. Not only do they manifest their
self-hood as do the beings of the Third Hierarchy, but they detach it
from themselves, so that it remains as an independent being. This will
be clearer to us, if we picture on the one hand, a being of the Third
Hierarchy, and on the other hand a being of the Second Hierarchy. Let
us direct our occult vision to a being of the Third Hierarchy. We
recognize this being as such because it manifests its selfhood, its
inner life externally, and in this manifestation it has its
perception; but if it were to change its inner perception, its inner
experience, the outer manifestation would also be different. As the
inner condition of these beings of the Third Hierarchy changes, and
their experiences vary, so do the external manifestations continually
change. But if you look at a being of the Second Hierarchy with occult
vision, it is quite different. These beings also perceive and
experience inwardly; but what they experience is detached from them
like a sort of shell or skin; it acquires independent existence. If
the being of the Second Hierarchy then passes on into another inner
condition, has a different perception and manifests in a new way, the
old manifestation of the being will still exist; it still remains and
does not pass away, as in the case of a being of the Third Hierarchy.
So then, what appears in the place of manifestation in a being of the
Second Hierarchy, we can call a self-creation, a sort of shell or
skin; it creates, as it were, an impression of itself, makes itself
objective, in a sort of image. That is what distinguishes the beings
of the Second Hierarchy. And if we ask ourselves what appears in these
beings in the place of the being filled with the spirit of
the beings of the Third Hierarchy, it is shown to occult vision that
every time the being detaches such a picture, or image of itself, life
is stimulated. The stimulation of life is always the result of such a
self-creation.
Thus, in the beings of the Third Hierarchy we must distinguish their
external life in their manifestation, and their inner life in their
being filled with spirit. In the beings of the Second
Hierarchy we must distinguish their external side as a creating of
themselves, a making of themselves objective in images, in pictures;
and their inner activity as the stimulation of life, as if fluidity
continually rippled in itself and congealed as it detached its image
externally. This approximately represents to occult vision the
external and internal fulfilment of the beings of the Second
Hierarchy. Whilst to occult vision the being filled with the
spirit of the beings of the Third Hierarchy appears in picture
and imagination, as a sort of spiritual light, so is the fluidic life,
the stimulation of life which is connected with an external
separation, perceived in such a way that occult perception hears
something like spiritual tone, the Music of the Spheres. It is like
spiritual sound, not spiritual light as in the case of the Third
Hierarchy.
Now in these beings of the Second Hierarchy we can distinguish several
categories just as we did among the beings of the Third Hierarchy. To
distinguish between these categories will be more difficult, for the
higher we ascend the more difficult it becomes. We must in the course
of our ascent, first of all gain some idea of all that underlies the
world surrounding us, in so far as the world around us has
forms. I have already said that as regards this second stage of
clairvoyance, we need only consider that which lives, not that which
appears to us lifeless. What lives comes into consideration, but what
lives has in the first place, form. Plants have forms, animals have
forms, man has a form. If clairvoyant vision is directed with all the
qualities described to-day, to everything around us in nature which
has form, and if we look away from all the other parts of the being
and only see the forms, considering among the plants the multiplicity
of the forms, as also in the animals and in man, this clairvoyant
vision then perceives from the totality of the beings of the Second
Hierarchy those which we call the Spirits of Form the
Exusiai. We can, however, turn our attention to something
besides the form in the beings around us in nature. We know indeed,
that everything which lives changes its form, in a certain respect, as
it grows. This change, this alteration of form, this metamorphosis,
strikes us more particularly in the plant-world. Now if we direct, not
the ordinary vision but the clairvoyant vision of the second stage, to
the growing plant-world, we see how the plant gradually gains its
form, how it passes from the form of the root to the form of the leaf,
to the form of the flower, to the form of the fruit. If we look at the
growing animal, at the growing man, we do not merely consider a form
as it exists at a given moment, we see the growth of the living being.
If we allow ourselves to be stimulated by this contemplation of the
growth of the living being; reflecting how the forms change, how they
are in active metamorphosis then, the clairvoyant vision of the
second stage becomes aware of what we call the category of the Spirits
of Motion Dynamis.
It is still more difficult to consider a third category of such beings
of the Second Hierarchy. For we must consider neither the form as
such, nor the changes of form, nor the movement; but that which is
expressed in the form. We can describe how a man may train himself to
this. Of course it does not suffice to train the ordinary normal
consciousness in such a way as has just been described, he must he
helped by the use of the other exercises which raise man to occult
vision. He must perform these; and not educate himself by means of his
ordinary consciousness but by clairvoyant consciousness. This must
first train itself as to how man himself becomes, in his outer form,
the expression of his inner being. As we have said, that can also be
done by the normal consciousness, but in that way one would attain to
nothing but conjecture, a supposition of what may lie behind the
bearing, gestures, and the facial expression of the human being. But
when the clairvoyant vision which has already been trained to the
second stage of clairvoyance, allows the physiognomy, gestures, and
facial expression in man to work upon him, it produces stimulations
through which he can gradually train himself to observe the beings of
the third category of the Second Hierarchy. But this cannot take place
please take note of this if he merely observes the
gestures, imitative expression, and physiognomy of man; if he remains
at this stage very little can really be gained. He must pass on
occult education is carried on in this most rational way in this realm
he must pass over to the plants. The animals can be left out,
it is not very important to study them, but after one has trained
oneself a little, clairvoyantly, to learn the inner being of his soul
from a man's physiognomy and gestures; it is important to turn to the
plant-world and educate oneself further by means of this. Here someone
clairvoyantly trained can have very remarkable experiences; he will
feel profoundly the difference between the leaf of a plant which
let us say runs to a point (diagram a.) and the leaf of
a plant which has this form (diagram b.); between a blossom which
grows upwards in this way (c.) and one which opens outwards. (d.)
(See Figure 2)
A whole world of difference appears in the inner
experience if one directs the occult vision of the second stage to a
lily or to a tulip, if one lets either a panicle of oats or a wheat or
barley stalk work upon one.
All this becomes as livingly speaking as the physiognomy of the human
being. And when this speaks as livingly as the physiognomy, the
gestures, of a man speaks, when we feel how the blossom which opens
outwards has something of the character of a hand which turns outwards
with the inner surface below and the outer surface above, and when we
find another blossom which closes its petals above, like the two hands
folded; it we feel the gestures, the physiognomy, and the colors of
the plant-world to he something like a physiognomy, then the inner
vision, the occult perception and understanding are stimulated;
and we recognize a third category of the beings of the Second
Hierarchy, whom we call the Spirits of Wisdom. This name is
chosen by way of comparison, because when we consider man in his
mimicry, physiognomy and gestures, we see the spiritual part of him,
that which is filled with wisdom, springing forth externally,
manifesting itself. In this way we feel how the spiritual beings of
the Second Hierarchy permeate all nature, and find expression in the
physiognomy, the collective gestures, the collective mimicry of
nature. Flowing Wisdom passes full of life through all beings, through
all the realms of nature; and not merely a general flowing wisdom, for
this flowing wisdom is differentiated into a profusion of spiritual
beings, into the profusion of the Spirits of, Wisdom. When occult
consciousness raises itself to these spirits, it is at first the
highest stage of those spiritual beings whom we can reach in this
manner; but just as we could say that the beings of the Third
Hierarchy, the Angels, Archangels, and Spirits of the Age have
offspring who separate from them, so, too, the beings of the Second
Hierarchy have offspring. In the course of time there are detached
from the beings of the Second Hierarchy, in the same way as we were
able to describe yesterday with regard to the beings of the Third
Hierarchy, other beings of a lower order who are sent down into the
kingdoms of nature, just as the nature-spirits by the Third Hierarchy
who then become, as it were, the master-builders and foremen in
miniature in the Kingdom of Nature. Now the spiritual beings
which are detached from the beings of the Second Hierarchy and which
sink down into the kingdoms of nature, are those designated in
occultism as the group-souls of the plants and animals, the
group-souls of the individual beings. So that occult vision of the
second stage finds in the beings of the plant and animal kingdoms,
spiritual beings which are not, as in man, individual spirits in
individual human beings; but we find groups of animals, groups of
plants which are of like form, ensouled by a common spiritual being.
The form of the lion and tiger and other forms are, for instance,
ensouled by a common Soul-being. These we call group-souls, and these
group-souls are the detached offspring of the beings of the Second
Hierarchy, just as the nature-spirits are the offspring of the Third
Hierarchy. Thus when we penetrate from below upwards into the higher
worlds, we find, when we look at the elements, which are of importance
to all the beings of the plant and animal kingdoms and to the human
kingdom, that in these elements, in solid, fluidic, and gaseous
matter, there rule the nature-spirits which are the offspring of the
beings of the Third Hierarchy. If we ascend from the elements of
earth, water, and air, to that which lives in the nature kingdoms by
the aid of these elements, we find spiritual beings, group-souls, who
animate and interpenetrate the beings of these nature-kingdoms, and
these group-souls are spiritual beings detached from those we call the
beings of the Second Hierarchy.
You can realise from this that only to the occult vision of the second
stage are those beings which we call the group-souls, actually
perceptible. Only for those occultly developed individuals who can
extend their own etheric body as tentacles, is it possible to know the
beings of the Second Hierarchy and also the group-soul-beings which
exist in the various kingdoms of Nature. Still more difficult is the
ascent to the beings of the First Hierarchy, and to those beings which
are their offspring in the kingdoms of nature. We shall speak further
about these in the next lecture.
|