REGARDING
HIGHER WORLDS
Vienna
21 November 1908
As
a result of a wish from your chairperson we shall speak today
about a theme which sets certain presuppositions to the
audience, and is, in a certain sense, aimed at advanced
Anthroposophists. We will have the opportunity in the following
open lectures to work from the basics of the anthroposophical
world view with something which formerly has not been taken
into account much, something which perhaps in internal lectures
had dared give a solution, and which will at least be partly
experienced in an open lecture like this. When we speak about
advanced Anthroposophists, don't suppose, my dear friends, it
means to have advanced in the spiritual scientific fields, that
you have become learned in theory. It doesn't really come to
that. What it involves is less of a theoretic world created in
the soul, but rather a certain development of our world of
impressions, our feeling-world, a certain inclination, we could
say, which we gradually acquire when we repeatedly work within
anthroposophic circles.
Whoever has worked for many years within these circles, or are
inwardly active in such circles, will think back to a time when
they had, for the first time, heard something about the
anthroposophic occult science of man, and they will remember
that some of the first communications not only appeared
improbable, but perhaps confused and fantastic — perhaps even
worse could be said about them. However, with the passing time
you may get used to certain impressions as the anthroposophic
world view comes ever closer, and the world of feeling makes it
possible to share things which are revealed from Higher Worlds.
These revelations become absorbed just like facts on the
physical place, taking place in the physical world, they too
are taken in. Whatever one can call proof of spiritual
statements is not to be sought in the same fields as are the
proofs for scientific certainties. With such a line of argument
one can't do much. The line of argument which is available for
experiences in the anthroposophic world view lies in the
complete intimate transformation as experienced within the soul
life. Long before we can happily penetrate to perceiving the
spiritual worlds through the application of spiritual
scientific or occult methods, we can build in ourselves a
presentiment, a premonition out of the correctness, from deep
legitimacy, that which is shared regarding Higher Worlds. Much
of what we can, from an imagination regarding the way we can
penetrate the Higher Worlds, how we can with our own spiritual
sense organs perceive the Higher Worlds will be brought out in
our next lecture: “What is self knowledge?” Today
we want to reveal single observations about these Higher Worlds
and cultivate the connection between these worlds and our
physical world.
You
all know by now through anthroposophical work that two other
worlds exist beside our own; the so-called astral and
devachanic worlds, called, as far as they are known in
religion, as the heavenly world, the actual spiritual world.
You are familiar with these worlds as areas through which we
journey between death and a new birth. You know that after the
astral world has been passed through during Kamaloka, you enter
the pure spiritual world, Devachan, where you are called again
to a new birth, in order to descend again after a certain time
into a new earthly life, a life in the physical world.
It's not enough to only imagine the astral and devachanic
worlds as distinct areas through which we move between death
and a new birth, because these worlds continuously surround us.
We live continuously not only in the physical world but also in
the astral or soul-world, surrounding us with their beings and
truth. We can describe this astral or soul-world as penetrating
our physical world just like a sponge is penetrated by water.
The only difference between both these worlds as opposed to our
physical world is this: our physical world is perceived through
the tools of our body, and for us this perception of the Higher
Worlds is withdrawn because we haven't developed the organs
needed for their perception. As real as they are within our
world, just so real their activities play continuously into our
world. Much taking place in the physical world can be more
easily explained if the spiritual astral and devachanic worlds,
behind it all, are made aware regarding beings and realities
existing in our surroundings, beings which can't be grasped and
understood by our senses. The astral world contains not only
realities which play supersensibly into our environment; it
contains beings who, if we dare say so, are incorporated in the
substance of their world just as we, humans, self conscious
beings, are here in the physical world bound to flesh and
blood. The distinction of these described beings is namely that
they don't possess solid physical bodies which may be seen by
our physical eyes. Their major mass is the astral body.
Now
we need to immediately make a note when we speak about these
beings who have as their lowest member of their organism the
astral body, that they are perceptible to whoever has opened
their clairvoyant awareness and can also see these beings. They
are differentiated substantially from those existing beings on
our physical plane which belong to the various kingdoms of
nature. We are surrounded by minerals, plants, animals and
people. When we determine a single characteristic of all these
different kingdoms we conclude that their form is firm,
established. When you see a person today, you may well
recognize them tomorrow, or even after a year, because their
outer form has remained constant. Similarly with the animal,
the plant or mineral. This is not at all the situation with the
beings which are incorporated on the astral plane. These
possess a continuously changing form, a shape which in many of
them, from one moment to the next become another, because the
form which can be observed in the astral plane is the exact
expression of the inner soul experiences and soul activity of
these beings.
Just think about yourself, how you may observe your soul in the
morning just after you have received a cheerful letter and how
the joyful message filled your soul with delight and pleasure
and how this feeling lived in the soul. Then think how your
soul will express itself in the direct contrary situation, how
different the image will be when you receive news of a death in
the afternoon, or you are shaken in rage and fear. Consider how
your outer expression changes each time as a result of what
took place in the soul, then you have an image of what happens
on the astral plane. Hence the bewildering scurrying and
continuously changing forms of the astral beings. Thus you have
to imagine that the clairvoyant awareness, when it is turned
away from perceiving the physical plane, is surrounded by the
astral image world. Naturally everything that enfolds there
can't be depicted; only single sketches can be given.
Life on the astral plane is far richer than on the physical
plane. You can imagine light images in the astral world which
don't cling to outer objects but flash with a definite form,
one moment either light or less luminous, less radiant or
misty, changing in every blink of the eye. They are nothing
other than expressions for souls, we may call them, which live
there on the astral plane. However these light bodies show not
mere light and different colour images but also all other
physically similar sense impressions, only these are not
perceived with outer but with inner spiritual organs of the
soul.
There exists a differentiation between the observation of a
bright body on the astral plane and a colour or a bright body
on the physical plane. In contrast, what meets light there, has
an awareness — not a feeling, as if it is beyond that- yet has
a sense: “You live in this”. — This is really quite
difficult to imagine, because you have to think, that the very
moment this clairvoyant awareness rises up in you, you feel
something different, as if not only is the space filled with
astral truths and beings, but it feels as if it is all growing
larger and larger. It stretches your awareness with “This
is me” — right over your skin. That is the essential part
of clairvoyant consciousness. It senses, as when it spreads
itself out into that which is perceived, creeping in, so that
it lives within these light bodies and experiences warmth and
cold, sensing taste as well.
All
these experiences which you know firstly from the sense world
and which are integrated in the outer limited body, stream and
flash through the realm — and then something else appears. Here
in the physical world we have naturally the feeling that all
that belongs to a physical being is actually spatially linked
to that being. It comes as an extraordinary surprise when some
physical being walks into a space and behind him follows
another and someone insists the two belong together although no
link exists between them. You would insist they are separate
beings, because we never consider spatially separate beings as
a single being. We would take them as separate beings; because
we will never consider separate bodies in the physical world as
one being. In the astral world it is throughout applicable that
things which in no way connect spatially, comprise one being,
and so you have no tool which can help you pin-point a single
being when you are within, and has the consciousness, that two
quite outstanding members belong to a single being. Confusing
it is also, that clairvoyant consciousness is not always the
same and that which belong together, can't always be glimpsed
again. Yes, it can go further: you could see a single being,
which appears to you as a row of separate spheres, here a
shining sphere, and far from this a second, then a third,
fourth and so on. In conclusion, the astral place basically
looks different from here.
Yet
there is something which is linked to us and this connection
expresses simultaneously all the similarities of the astral
world working in us; this is our own astral body. This is the
third member of our being, which you experience as having a
definite self-contained shape. During our life between birth
and death we can definitely see the essential astral body
resembling a kind of oval cloud, within which the physical and
astral bodies are embedded. A kind of egg shape is this body,
the outer boundary existing in a constant surging movement, so
that some kind of regularity of form is out of the question.
The astral body only appears in a kind of firm, steady form as
long as it is contained within the physical body. As long as
this is the case, it retains this form. Already at night, when
the astral body withdraws, it begins to adapt itself to the
soul body. Then you can see how a human being, who lives with
evil feelings during the day, appear in quite another form
compared with someone who has lived with noble feelings during
the day. In general the form of the astral body is steady at
night, while the forces of the physical and etheric bodies work
very strongly through the night, and the astral body retains
its form essentially, but only essentially.
However, when we die, after the end of our physical life, we
relinquish our physical body, as well as push away that part of
our etheric body which is to be given up, then the astral body
takes on a variable form right through the Kamaloka time. This
body completely matches its form and image to the soul life,
hence a person who has lost a body which had been filled with
hateful feelings shows a withered form while a person who died
with beautiful feelings, show a sympathetic form as an astral
body. It can go so far that people who are totally taken with
sensory desires and who can't lift themselves into an exchange
towards noble feelings and impulses, after their death for a
while really take on the forms of all kinds of grotesque
animals — not those living on the physical plane but those who
only remind us of animals.
Whoever has had experiences on the astral plane and is able to
follow which forms are offered to the clairvoyant
consciousness, knows which image speaks nobly and which doesn't
contain noble content; they can experience and observe
everything from these images. I have already mentioned that
these human astral bodies cannot appear in absolute definite
inner and outer shape, only within certain boundaries is this
the case. Also already in physical life, actually in every part
of the body which appear after falling asleep, the astral body
matches that which the soul experiences. From here certain
images and forms taken up by the astral body can be seen
according to what is happening to a person and what he or she
is living through.
With regard to some things which the soul may experience, I
would like to indicate something to you, namely, how the astral
body may be observed. Take for example a person who is a
gossip, inquisitive or tend towards temper outbursts or, let's
say, similar bad habits. These bad habits will express
themselves in a distinct manner through the astral body. If
someone is for instance plagued by fury, annoyance and
especially if the person is irascible, then we see tuberous
formations, thickenings expressed in the astral body. The
person becomes polluted. From these thickenings exude evil
looking snakelike protuberances, distinguishable in colouring
and other substances. Particularly with irascible people this
can easily be seen. When a person is talkative, tend to gossip,
it appears in the astral body as all kinds of thickenings,
which can be characterized by saying the thickenings will
exercise pressure in all directions in the astral body. When a
person is inquisitive then it shows in the astral body in such
a way that folds are created, sections become slack and hang as
it were against one another in parts; it shows a general
slackness, it seems as if these astral bodies in a certain way
participate in the general characteristics of the astral world,
matching in form its inner soul experiences.
We
discover, on researching the astral world in general, certain
beings of which we, who only know the physical, actually can
have no inkling. In the physical world these beings appear in
quite a different way, than what we have perceived about them
before. For example, we find quite extraordinary beings in the
group souls of animals. The human being, as he approaches us
here, has an individual soul which comes to meet us — a soul
for each person, an Ego-Being. The animals don't have the same
kind of I or Ego-Being. They have similarly shaped forms, all
lions, tigers, all tortoises, which we call a mutual group
soul. Just imagine that on the astral plane there is a single
I-Being, simultaneously living in the physical animal. All the
animals are imbedded in the I-Being, who has a definite
personality on the astral plane, and there we can meet this
personality, this group soul, just like meeting a person.
An
example: take a migration of birds when they all start to move
from the northern hemisphere towards the equator. Whoever
doesn't consider this extraordinary wise migration
superficially, will be amazed how many have what we note as
intelligence in such a flight of birds. Various birds come from
different regions, one from this, one from another: the danger
exists that they land where they need to land. Ordinary
physical awareness only sees the massive swarms. The
clairvoyant consciousness however, sees the group soul, the
action of the personalities who lead and link what is
happening. Actually these are such astral personalities who
direct and lead. These group souls are the ones we meet as
inhabitants of the astral world. The diversity which rules in
the group souls of the astral plane, this variegation is
endlessly larger. Just to mention aside, the astral plane has
space for everything, because there beings interpenetrate;
because the law of the impenetrable is only valid on the
physical plane. However, there we feel influences, good
or bad, when we are penetrated and experience this in our inner
life. They could thus go through one another; they can exist in
one and the same place. There the law of interpenetration
rules.
However, this is only a part of the astral inhabitants, surely
one in which we can only fully, in the right sense, understand
when we come to grips with it completely. Don't believe that
someone already has a concept of a group soul with some or
other animal form, how, shall we say, it is observable already
in the way it is embedded in the astral world and how this
group soul is led into his consciousness. This is not enough.
Right here we are reproached vividly by that which is spatially
separated but belongs together, so that we, for every animal
group soul filled with wisdom and leading the whole, arrive at
a counter image, a terrible counter image. Within this exists
the animality to which we refer in the astral world, and find,
on descending into that part of the astral world where ugliness
and adversity rule, where every animal group has a light-form
and an ugly form, that which had at one time been separated
from the light-form of evil and ugliness, which had been at one
time within them, part of them. From this you can see how the
old pictures and artworks sprung from a higher knowledge. Today
we recognise only that which lives as an individuality. Hence
if we want to invoke something higher today, we can only grasp
at fantasy. This was not always the case. In the past, most of
mankind who worked artistically, had a clairvoyant
consciousness or still a remnant of clairvoyance, and they
depicted what they actually found in Higher Worlds. Thus they
depicted what was known to them in Michael and the Dragon or
Saint Georg with the Dragon in a wonderful representation of
relationships which the clairvoyant finds as animal forms on
the astral plane. The wise lifted them to a higher form, to
tower far above the wisdom of people. However the wisdom is
acquired through what has been thrown out of the astrality of
such beings' ugly side. The ugly side you find in the adverse
dragon. When the clairvoyant looks on the living form he sees
everything as lively form organised by higher beings who are
wise but do not know love. However these expressions of the
light soul form can only be acquired through treading the evil
qualities underfoot which are in the being's form. Human beings
have acquired their current nature through good and bad still
being mixed in their karma, while in the animal the moral
distinctions of good and bad can't be applied. The concept of
light filled being is with an upwards reach while connecting
and lifting that which had fallen and had been conquered.
Ancient art was mostly produced with meaningful symbols and
created through nothing less than with a clairvoyant conscious
consideration. They will only be comprehended once we have
understood the astral archetypal images.
The
plant world also presents something curious on the astral
plane. When a clairvoyant considers a plant and how its roots
worm their way in the earth and leaves and flower appear, he
perceives the plant possessing a physical and ether body. The
animal has the astral body in addition. Now the question may
surface: do the plants not have any form of an astral body? It
would be wrong to hope for this; there is nothing within the
plant as there is within the animal. When the plant is looked
at with clairvoyant consciousness, the upper part, where the
flowers develop, appear as if dipped in an astral cloud, a
bright cloud surrounding and wrapping this part of the plant
where it blossoms and bears fruit. Thus astrality gradually
sinks down over the plant and wraps part of it. The astral body
of the plant is embedded in this astrality. What is peculiar is
that when the spread of plants cover the earth, it is found
that the astral bodies of the plants merge their boundaries and
envelop the earth as if by a physical air of plant-astrality.
If the plants only had an ether body they would only develop
leaves and no flowers because the principle of the ether body
is repetition. When a repetition is completed and a conclusion
needs to be created, then an astral body must join in.
Likewise the human body may be considered — how the etheric and
the astral co-operate. Contemplate how the vertebrae of the
spine follow successively. Vertebra upon vertebra they are
divided. As long as this happens it is mainly the etheric
principle working. At the top, where the bony skull capsule
appears, here the astral has the upper hand. The principle of
repetition is the principle of the etheric, and the principle
of conclusion is that of the astral. The plant would not come
to a conclusion in its flower if it's etheric isn't sunk into
the astral nature of the plant.
On
researching the plant, how it grows through summer and bears
fruit in autumn to eventually start wilting, or when the flower
starts dying away, the astral withdraws upward from the plant.
This is particularly beautiful to observe. While our physical
consciousness may experience joy in the blossoms during spring,
covering meadow after meadow, yet another joy can be
experienced by the clairvoyant. In comparison, when the annual
plants die down in autumn, it glows and flashes above it
beings, the astral beings withdrawing from the plants, beings
which had cared for the plants during summer. Here lies another
fact which we discover in poetic images, which are
incomprehensible when we can't research this with clairvoyant
consciousness. Here we connect to the intimate fields of the
astral consciousness. With folk in past times, where
clairvoyants with such intimate knowledge were around, these
insights existed in autumn. We find in the clairvoyant Indian
folk art representations of wonderful phenomena, of a butterfly
or a bird flying out of the flower's calyx. Against such an
example we see how something of it arises in their art, from a
basis of the clairvoyant consciousness since way back; either
clairvoyant consciousness of the artist works into it, or
inspiration from tradition.
An
astral body thus also exists in the plant. An animal has a
physical, ether and astral body. The Ego of the animal we find
in the group soul. The astral body of the plant we noticed in
the beings withdrawing from the wilting plant. Has the plant an
Ego? Yes, the same exists for the plants as we called a Group
Soul in the animal, only here the extraordinary exists, that
the Plant-Ego directs itself towards a single place on earth,
namely the centre of the earth. It is as if the earth is being
radiated from all sides by the Group Ego of the plant, and
therefore the plants grow towards the earth. This Ego however
we can't see on the astral plane — here we find the animal
group soul. Here we also find every double-being, as we see in
the symbol of Michael and the Dragon. We also find what has
been depicted, but the plant-Ego will be sought in vain on the
astral plane. The actual plant soul, the plant-Ego is only
found in the higher, the actual spiritual world, in the
greatest, under layers of Devachan, in Rupa-Devachan. Here the
plant soul and plant-Ego mingle, their actual centres so
intermingled, that they unite in the centre of the earth. Now
the question may arise: Surely the physical plane, the astral
plane and devachanic plane are within one another, so while the
clairvoyant is situated where physical man finds himself, how
is one distinguishable from the other? The physical plane is
there as long as we can see, hear and taste it and when we
develop an inner capability, we can distinguish between the
physical and astral worlds. There were such beings entering
into our awareness who may not be observable through physical
organs, here the astral plane starts. Where then begins the
devachanic plane? Now there is the possibility to provide
boundaries between the astral and devachanic plane, although
they blur into one another; through this is created an outer
and inner possibility to recognise the astral from the
devachanic plane. The outer possibility is as follows: when you
develop a clairvoyant consciousness, you should experience
moments in life when you leave the physical worlds to a certain
extent. This is already a higher degree of human development
when you can so to say simultaneously glance at the physical,
then penetrate the astral world, as for example the physical of
the animal and the astral body of the animal. This can only be
accomplished through specific levels of development, after we
have gone through something else, namely that you don't see the
physical world when you see the astral world.
This participation of the human being in the development of the
astral world from the beginning shows in the following. The
human being exists in a certain place. He hears all kinds of
things, looks at objects, touches and tastes them. When the
human being gradually lives into the astral world, these
sensory perceptions start to withdraw further and further away,
similar to a sound which moves ever further away until it
disappears. Just so it is with sensory perceptions: the human
being gradually becomes that which is being touched, not
through direct experience but, he or she has a distinct feeling
of their body being penetrated as the sensory object senses,
stirs into the human body. The same is valid for the world of
colour, the world of light: the human being expands, he or she
lives into this light world. In this manner the sensory world
withdraws from the human being and is replaced by appearances,
as mentioned earlier. Next, what has to be observed is what the
human being really must go through in the astral world, so to
speak the entire perception of tone, of hearing, the world of
sound which dissolves tone. This is not available in the astral
world for quite a while. The human being must so to speak go
through this abyss and live in a soundless world. However it is
excellent that through this is found an abundance of
impressions in him- or herself, namely a differentiated world
of images. When the human being ascends in his development, he
or she will meet something which appears as quite new, a
spiritual counter-image linked to the world of tone. What is
first learnt within the astral world as something new and
appears as spiritual hearing. This is of course difficult to
describe.
Take for example the following: you see a shining form. Another
one approaches, comes closer and merges with it. A third comes,
crosses the way and so on. Now, what is appearing before you is
not merely seen clairvoyantly, but it evokes in your soul the
most diverse feelings. Thus it can happen that these inner
feelings tend towards an inclination, then towards reluctance,
the most varied feelings appear when you penetrate the being,
when you approach or withdraw from them. Thus the
acquiring-clairvoyance soul lives into the astral plane
cooperation and hence becomes glowing and penetrated by
existing or contradictory feelings of a pure spiritual nature.
Here spiritual music can be perceived. The moment this happens,
you are already in the region of Devachan. Thus Devachan begins
its presence from outside, where soundlessness begins to cease,
partly a horrific toneless experience on the astral plane. The
human being has no idea what it means to live in an endless
toneless place where no sound exists but also shows that there
is none to be found within. The feeling of hardship in the
physical world is trivial compared to feelings in the soul when
this impossibility is experienced, that something could sound
out of this endless spread out realm. The possibility arises
that through cooperation with the Beings and observing their
harmony and disharmony, a world of tone is begun. That is
Devachan, seen externally through its forms.
The
transition from the astral world to Devachan as experienced
through the soul can be illustrated in another way. In the
physical world we are accompanied in our soul by our character
type. One person may pass a picture and experience nothing
while another will feel a world filled with bliss as he stands
before the image. People pass one another, the one says of the
other he could be the right one and sees soul peculiarities
that they belong to one another, and experience an enlightening
joy. Very soon no more of this will exist in the Higher Worlds.
Here the human being demands with inner urgency the experiences
of the world of feeling thus not enabling the passing by to
have a somewhat cold or sober experience of the astral and
devachanic planes, but rather particular experiences demanding
dedication, a full penetration, while other experiences are
repelled.
Thus if you are not thoroughly prepared it can become dangerous
because you experience continuous changes under inwardly
disturbing circumstances, inward tearing and as a result
undermining your health. Step by step you will realize in which
world you find yourself. While you are in the astral world, you
will recognise principally two nuances of feeling expressed in
a varied manner. The one, which appears most strongly when you
enter the astral world directly after death, is the one we call
Kamaloka. Here you have, so to speak, not yet freed your
feelings from life in the physical and you desire and long for
it. Take for example a gourmet, who longs for delicious food.
After death and his transition to the astral world he still has
desires but no longer the physical organs to satisfy them. Thus
he greedily craves for that which only the tongue and palate
can provide. As a result he experiences in his soul the most
painful sensation, the feeling of deprivation. Deprivation is
one of the principal sensations we have when we are in the
astral world. Here you become aware, when you have developed
your consciousness, not only particular painful feelings of
deprivation like in those who have died, but also the feeling
of a search for something. The feeling of deprivation will also
overtake the clairvoyant when there is no other to balance out
the weight. If you enter unprepared or not prepared in the
right way for the astral plane, then this applies. Neither rest
nor peace will the soul have; anxiety and restlessness shoves
the soul from one side to another. To avoid this there is only
one possibility: the formation of the opposing nuance of
feeling, and in all secret schools this nuance is unanimous: it
is renunciation. To prepare yourself for the right existence in
the astral world, you need to know that everything, in some way
or another, refers to renunciation. When you abstain from the
slightest insignificance here, it is totally valid that you
are, so to speak, laying a stepping stone in the astral world.
The calm observation of the astral world is achieved through
your own preparation regarding the feeling world of abstinence.
While the feeling of the desire turns the astral world into one
of pain and reluctance, the opposite happens through working
with renunciation, because the images and beings of the astral
world become ever clearer and more distinct to observation and
thus you no longer sway between desire and denial. These are
the nuances of feelings in the astral plane as long as the
foregoing is active in the soul, while you are in the astral
plane.
Now
new experiences of feeling enter the soul. First of all, at the
boundary where the soul crosses into the devachanic world,
feelings of bliss and happiness ensue. Even when you enter
Devachan in an unworthy manner, through some or other spell or
through black magic before death allows this entry, you will
soon swim in a sea of happiness in some higher or lower degree.
Now you may say it is peculiar that even an unworthy entry of
Devachan spoils you with blessedness. Indeed this is the case,
but it has certain disadvantages, is the answer. This feeling
of outer and inner blissfulness is in the devachanic planes
inseparable from something else, namely the loss of self, the
power of self consciousness, the inner Ego-force. We will
dissolve into it if no other feeling nuance comes to the fore.
This feeling is called, in occult science, the feeling of self
sacrificing dedication, called the ability to sacrifice.
In
the astral plane we find deprivation and renunciation; on the
devachanic plane, blessedness and self-sacrifice. It is
strange, yet true, that when someone on the devachanic plane
doesn't have the feeling: — ‘you must dedicate yourself to what
surrounds you’ — but only wants to enjoy the bliss with the
Ego, then he or she will be dissolved by devachanic beings.
When he or she however allows the penetrating feeling: ‘I want
to offer myself, I will not dissolve into what I've acquired,’
— then he or she will be shielded in Devachan from dissolving,
passing away. The noblest feeling of love, creative love, must
be the second feeling nuance in Devachan. This is something
which can be understood in the manner it works in Devachan
between death and a new birth. Through the fact that a person
coming out of Kamaloka, who lived with deprivation and thus
shortened the duration of his sojourn through learning
renunciation, upon arrival in Devachan, must immediately begin
to work towards his next incarnation. Slowly he builds up the
archetypes of his next earthly life. How much better would he
create these while experiencing a feeling of blessedness,
really entering this bliss, having learnt to add the self
sacrificing dedication of his own being to that which surrounds
him. In the degree to which he offers himself through his soul,
to this degree is the archetype created for his future
personality. Should he be unable to do this, then he would
either totally pass away or need an enormous length of time
until he returns again to an earthly existence. So we see, so
to speak, how the soul is formed externally — through
transitions from the dumb, radiant astral world into the
sounding devachanic world — by finding the boundary; more
importantly though is how one lives in this other world within
one's soul. Thus we have some indications of the relationships
in the Higher Worlds, which one enters through the observation
of the ancient Greek words of wisdom: “Know
thyself!” Much can still be added, however only a portion
of it can be given which is characteristically valid of the
Higher Worlds. So we gradually live into that and through the
experience, we also start to recognise the working of it into
the physical world and hence this world becomes ever more
transparent.
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