Theosophy and Rosicrucianism
GA 100
19 June 1907, Kassel
Translator Unknown
IV. Man's Further Destinies in the Spiritual Worlds.
The Kingdom of Heaven
Since it is our task to-day to continue following, man's destinies in the spiritual world, it will be advisable if we first form some idea of what we designate as a world, in the spiritual-scientific meaning.
We are conscious of the world round about us, because we have certain capacities and organs which enable us to perceive it. If we had other organs, this world would present an entirely different aspect. For example, if a man had no eyes enabling him to see the light, but an organ enabling him instead to perceive electricity, then he would not see this room flooded with light, but he would perceive electricity in every wire, flashing, streaming through it.—The world round about us, what we call our world, is therefore dependent upon our sense-organs.
The astral world, too, is nothing but a sum of phenomena, which the human being experiences in his environment , when he has severed himself from his physical body and from his etheric body, so that he can use forces enabling him to see what he cannot otherwise see. This is the case, when he has discarded his physical body and his etheric body. The perceptive organs for the astral world are the organs of the astral body, analogous to the sense-organs of the physical body.
Let us now contemplate the astral world.
Through methods which will be discussed later, a man endowed with spiritual vision can perceive the astral world even here, in his physical body. The astral world differs greatly from our physical world. You may obtain some idea of what is round about you in the astral world, if you summon up before your soul the life of dreams, which is the last trace of that early clairvoyance which man once possessed in times gone by. You all know this life of dreams from your own experience, as world of chaotic images. How does it come about that man dreams at all? We know that while we dream, the physical body and the etheric body lie on the bed, while the astral body soars above them. In a sound, dreamless sleep, the astral body is completely lifted out of the etheric body; but in a sleep filled with dreams, certain tentacles of the astral body still reach into the etheric body, and this enables man to perceive the more or less confused pictures of the astral world.
The astral world is as transparent as the dream-pictures; it is, as it were, woven out of dreams. But these dreams which constitute the astral world differ from ordinary dreams, for they are the images of a reality, just as “real” a reality as the physical world. We perceive this reality in the same way in which we perceive dreams, for the astral world, too, is perceived symbolically. You all know that the world of dreams is a symbolical world. Everything from the world outside which enters our sleep, takes on a symbolical aspect in our dreams. I will give you a few typical examples of dreams, which will show you how a simple impression from outside constitutes the foundation of a dream's symbolical image.
For example, you may be dreaming that you have caught a frog. You feel its slippery body, and on waking up you find that you are holding the cold end of the sheet in your hand. Or you may dream that you are in a cellar, in a dark hole full of spiders' webs: You wake up ... with a headache. Or you may see snakes in your dream, and when you awake you will find that you have abdominal pains. Or another dream: An academician has a long dream of a duel, beginning with some insult and ending with the pistol-shot: He hears the shot, awakes, and discovers that a chair has fallen.
The whole course of this last dream can also show you that the conditions of time are quite different in dreams. Not only does time run backwards, so to speak, but the whole conception of time loses its meaning in a dream. During a dream, we may pass through a whole life in the fraction of a second, in the same way in which our whole life passes before our soul's eye during the moment of drowning, or crashing. The point to be borne in mind in all these dream-pictures is that the cause which gave rise to them appears in the form of IMAGES.
This is the case in the astral world. Its images can be interpreted. The same astral experience always appears in the form of the same image; there is always regularity and harmony in these pictures of the astral world, whereas our ordinary dreams are chaotic. In the end, we can find our way about in the astral world just as well as in the physical world.
The astral world is woven out of such pictures, but they are the expression of soul-beings. After death all human beings are enveloped in such pictures, which are in part very rich in colour and form. Also when we are asleep the astral body can be seen in the midst of streaming, changing forms and colours. If we have the astral power of vision, we can perceive these astral beings in a surging sea of colours.
The astral world has, however, one peculiar quality, which appears strange to one who hears this for the first time. In the astral world everything exists, as it were, in the form of a picture reflected in a mirror, and a pupil of spiritual science must therefore get accustomed little by little to see things in the RIGHT way. For instance, you may see the number 365, but this really corresponds to 563. This applies to everything which we see in the astral world. There, everything that goes out of our own being appears as if it were coming towards us. It is most important to consider this fact.
When astral images arise, for instance, in pathological conditions, we must know how to deal with them. They often appear when people are delirious; a delirious person often sees all kinds of faces and forms rushing towards him, for the astral world becomes accessible to him in this pathological condition. Although these astral pictures seem to be rushing towards him, they are in reality streaming out of him. Progressive doctors should bear this in mind, for in future such symptoms will be more and more frequent, arising out of a concealed religious longing. The subject of a painting such, as for instance, the well known “Temptation of Saint Anthony” is based on such astral experiences.
If you think these things through to the very end you will no longer find it strange that time too is reversed in the astral world. An echo of this may be found in dreams. In this connection you should remember the above-mentioned example of the duel in a dream. In the astral world everything is reversed; even time. When we observe the development of a tree astrally, we first perceive its fruit, then its blossoms, and so on backwards to the seed.
After death, during the time in which we must lose our earthly habits, our whole life in the astral world runs backwards. But this process of living through our whole life once more backwards, concluding it ,with our first impressions of childhood, is faster than the one on the physical plane; it lasts about one third of the duration of our life on earth. Thus we live through our life again in a reversed order, but we experience many other things too.
Let us suppose that you were eighty years old when you died, and that now you live through your life backwards as far as your fortieth year. At that time you may, for instance, have boxed someone's ear, thus causing him pain. In the astral world this sensation of pain also appears as if in a mirror, i.e. YOU now experience the pain felt by the other person when you boxed his ear. But this also applies to every pleasant experience.
Only when the human being has thus passed through his whole life backwards, is he ready to enter the heavenly world. Religious traditions should always be taken literally. If you bear in mind what I have just now explained to you, you will easily understand that the human being can only enter the spiritual world—and the spiritual world is the one which the Bible designates as “Kingdom of Heaven”—when he has lived through his whole life backwards as far as infancy. This lies at the foundation of Christ's words: “Unless you become as little children you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. For on reaching the stage of childhood in his reversed passage through life, the human being discards the astral body and enters the spiritual world.
Now I must give you a description of the spiritual world. The Kingdom of Heaven differs from the physical world even more than the astral world. But since it is only possible to describe the spiritual world with expressions taken from the physical world, it should be borne in mind even more than for descriptions of the astral world, that everything I say about the spiritual world should only be taken comparatively.
In the Kingdom of Heaven we also find a triad, as here on earth. Even as upon the earth we find the three aggregate states of solid, liquid and gaseous, and accordingly divide the earth into continents, oceans, and atmosphere, so we may also distinguish three similar spheres—but, as stated, only as a comparison—in the spiritual realm. The continental sphere, however, consists of something which differs from our rocks and stones. What constitutes the firm ground of the spirit realm, are the archetypal images of the physical world. For everything physical has its archetype, even man. The clairvoyant seer perceives these archetypal images as a kind of negative, that is to say, he sees space as a kind of shadow-form, and round about it radiant light. But corresponding, for instance, to the blood and nerves, these shadows are not uniform. But a stone, or a mineral reveal in their archetypal images a uniformly empty space surround by raying light.
Even as you walk, on firm ground here on earth, so in the spiritual realm you walk on the archetypal images of physical things. This forms the continents of the spiritual world.
When the human being first sets foot on these continents, a definite aspect always presents itself to him: It is the moment when he first has a clear perception of his own body lying before him. For he himself is spirit. Normally this takes place about thirty years after death, and this is connected with the fundamental experience: “This is you.” The Vedanta philosophy based one of its fundamental teachings on this knowledge, the “Tat twain asi”—this is you. All such expressions are drawn out of a deep spiritual knowledge.
The second sphere of the spiritual realm is the oceanic sphere. Whatever is life here in the physical world, i.e. everything that possesses an etheric body, exists in the spiritual realm as if it were a liquid element. Streaming, surging life flows through the spirit-realm. It even collects like the waters of the ocean, in a kind of ocean-basin, or to be more precise, like the blood streaming through the veins and collecting in the heart.
And thirdly we have the atmosphere of the spirit realm, consisting of all the passions, instincts, feelings, etc. You have all these sensations up there as an external perception, resembling the atmospheric phenomena here on earth. All this blows through the atmosphere of Devachan. As a clairvoyant, you can perceive in the spirit-realm all the sufferings and joys experienced on earth. Every passion, every feeling of hatred and such like, appears in the spirit-realm as if it were a storm. A battle, for example, appears in such a form that in the Devachan world the seer experiences a tremendous storm. The whole spiritual world is thus permeated with wonderful joys which pass through it, but also with terrible passions.
In the same way it is possible to speak of spiritual ears. When you have advanced to the stage of having an insight into the Devachan world, you may both see and hear these floating phenomena, and what you thus hear is the HARMONY OF THE SPHERES.
We have thus characterised the spiritual region up to this stage. But there is a fourth region in Devachan. Up to now we have found in it:
1. The prototypes of all physical forms; as the continents
2. The prototypes of all life, as the oceans
3. The prototypes of all soul-life, feelings, etc., as the atmosphere
Now there is something in human life which cannot have its origin in the external world, and its spiritual content constitutes the fourth sphere of Devachan. There we find every original idea, going as far as the creative productions of genius. All that is original, that is to say, all that man puts into the world, thus enriching the world, the prototypes of all these creations form the fourth sphere of Devachan. This concludes the description of the lower parts of Devachan.
Beyond this there are three higher spheres, but during his physical life man can only reach them through a higher initiation. They are only accessible to an initiate, and after death, they can only be perceived by more highly developed individuals.
What does such an advanced initiate experience when he penetrates into the next higher sphere of Devachan? At first he experiences that which is designated in Occult Science as the Akasha Chronicle. Everything that occurs in the world and that has ever occurred in it in the past, is preserved as an impression in a fine substantiality, which is imperishable.
Let me illustrate this through at example: Now I am speaking to you, but you would not hear me if my voice were not able to produce vibrations in the air. Thus every word which I utter exists in the air in the form of fine movements. These fine movements of course vanish, but everything which occurs here on earth becomes impressed in that fine substantiality which we experience when reaching the spiritual world. This impression is everlasting. Every word, every thought, everything which has ever taken place in humanity, can be read in the Akasha Chronicle. This entails either initiation, or that moment after death when the human being enters the higher devachanic sphere, that is to say, when he has developed so far as to perceive this high sphere of Devachan after death. In that case he is able to look into the past.
The Akasha Chronicle is a writing which preserves everything that has ever occurred. But it is not really a writing in the ordinary physical meaning, for it consists of images. You see, for example, Caesar in every situation of his life,—you do not see what he has done, but the inner impulses which led him to his deeds. These Akasha pictures possess a high degree of life, and if we cannot interpret them in the right way, they can give rise to great delusions. The source of many spiritistic aberrations is, for example, the appearance of an Akasha picture at one of these seances. If you summon Goethe, and the Akasha picture of November 25th 1797 appears before you, giving you information concerning some question, this picture will reply as Goethe would have replied had he been asked that question on November 25th 1797. Only those who really know the spiritual world can judge whether they are dealing with a reality or with a shadow. These descriptions can show you what aspect the higher spheres of the spiritual world present.
The first experience is therefore the perception of one's own body, and this experience is the starting point for all other experiences. The human being feels strongly that he has emancipated himself from his bodily involucres, for the most blissful of moments is the one in which he discards the last body, the astral corpse. Even as a plant wedged in the fissure of a rock would experience it as bliss to be freed, so this feeling of blissfulness becomes a fundamental sensation of the human being. It permeates him and transfigures the other feelings which were once experienced in an earthly manner, for instance, feelings of friendship, which may perhaps undergo certain transformations here on earth, but which are deepened and purified in the spiritual realm.
Also a mother's love for her child undergoes such a purification, and vice versa. The originally animal feeling of belonging to one another, which even here upon the earth took on a moral character, unfolds a still higher moral-power in Devachan, Every tie on earth becomes deepened in the spiritual realm, and all connections interpenetrate.
Through love man works his way up from the narrowness of egotism to the encompassing experience of cosmic life. There, nothing, is divided or severed; each one works for the others, for even in the spiritual world activity and work constitute the element which carries, furthers and unites the souls. But Love is the inexhaustible source of all life.
Vierter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Da wir heute die Aufgabe haben, die Schicksale des Menschen weiter zu verfolgen durch die geistige Welt, wird es gut sein, wenn wir uns vorher eine Vorstellung davon bilden, was man überhaupt im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne eine Welt nennt.
[ 2 ] Die Empfindung von der Welt um uns herum hängt davon ab, welche Fähigkeiten und Organe wir haben, sie wahrzunehmen. Hätten wir andere Organe, dann wäre auch die Welt ganz anders für uns. Wenn zum Beispiel der Mensch keine Augen hätte, um das Licht zu sehen, sondern ein Organ, wodurch er, sagen wir, die Elektrizität wahrnehmen könnte, dann würden Sie diesen Raum nicht als hell, vom Lichte durchflutet wahrnehmen, wohl aber würden Sie in den Drähten, die durch den Raum gehen, die Elektrizität hinfließen sehen; dann würden Sie es überall zucken, blitzen und strömen sehen. So ist eben das, was wir unsere Welt nennen, abhängig von unseren Sinnesorganen.
[ 3 ] So ist auch die astrale Welt nichts anderes als eine Summe von Erscheinungen, die der Mensch um sich herum erlebt, wenn er von seinem physischen und Ätherleib getrennt ist, und wenn er diese Kräfte in seinem Inneren verwenden kann, um das zu schauen, was er sonst nicht sehen kann. Das ist eben der Fall, wenn er den physischen Leib und den Ätherleib abgeworfen hat. Die Wahrnehmungsorgane für die Astralwelt sind die Organe des Astralleibes, analog den Sinnesorganen für den physischen Leib. Wir wollen nun einmal die astrale Welt betrachten.
[ 4 ] Der geistig Schauende kann diese Astralwelt durch jene Methoden, die wir später besprechen werden, auch schon hier im physischen Leibe wahrnehmen. Diese Astralwelt unterscheidet sich von unserer physischen ganz beträchtlich. Zunächst können Sie sich eine Vorstellung bilden von dem, was um Sie herum ist in der Astralwelt, wenn Sie sich den letzten Rest, den der Mensch noch von seinem früheren Hellsehen in alten Zeiten hat, das ist das Traumleben, einmal vor die Seele rufen. Sie kennen ja alle dieses Traumleben aus der Erfahrung, und Sie kennen es als eine Welt chaotischer Bilder. Woher kommt es nun, daß der Mensch überhaupt träumt? Wir wissen ja, daß während dieses Traumlebens im Bette der physische Leib und der Ätherleib liegt, während der Astralleib darüber schwebt. Beim vollen, tiefen, traumlosen Schlafe ist der Astralleib ganz aus dem Ätherleibe herausgehoben; beim Traumschlaf stecken noch Fühlfäden des Astralleibes im Ätherleib drinnen, und dadurch nimmt der Mensch dann die mehr oder weniger verworrenen Bilder der Astralwelt wahr. Die astrale Welt ist so durchlässig wie die Traumbilder, sie ist wie aus Träumen gewoben. Aber diese Träume unterscheiden sich von den gewöhnlichen Träumen dadurch, daß diese Bilder eine Wirklichkeit sind, genau so eine Wirklichkeit, wie die physische Welt. Die Art der Wahrnehmung ist sehr ähnlich der Traumwahrnehmung: sie ist nämlich auch symbolisch. Sie wissen ja alle, daß die Traumwelt symbolisch ist. Alles, was von der Außenwelt in den Schlaf aufgenommen wird, das wird im Traum symbolisiert. Ich will Ihnen einige typische Beispiele von Träumen sagen, und daran werden Sie ohne weiteres sehen können, wie sich der Traum auf Grund eines einfachen äußeren Eindruckes symbolisiert.
[ 5 ] Sie sehen zum Beispiel im Traume, wie Sie einen Laubfrosch fangen. Sie fühlen ganz genau den glitschigen Laubfrosch: beim Aufwachen fühlen Sie, daß Sie den kalten Bettlakenzipfel in der Hand halten. Oder Sie träumen, Sie wären in einem dumpfen Kellerloch voller Spinnweben; Sie wachen auf, und haben Kopfschmerzen. Oder Sie sehen im Traum Schlangen, und merken beim Aufwachen, daß Sie Schmerzen in den Därmen haben. Oder ein Akademiker träumt eine lange Geschichte von einem Duell vom Anfang der Anrempelung bis zum Schluß des Austragens in der Pistolenforderung: der Schuß fällt - da wacht er auf und merkt, daß der Stuhl umgefallen ist. Aus dem ganzen Ablauf dieses letzten Traumbildes ersehen Sie auch, daß die Zeitverhältnisse ganz andere sind. Nicht nur, daß die Zeit sozusagen nach rückwärts konstruiert wird, sondern auch, daß der ganze Zeitbegriff im Traumerlebnis seine Bedeutung verliert. Man träumt im Bruchteil einer Sekunde ein ganzes Leben, wie ja auch im Augenblick eines Absturzes oder des Ertrinkens unser ganzes Leben vor unserem Seelenauge vorüberzieht. Worauf es aber jetzt in all den angeführten Traumbildern besonders ankommt, ist eben, daß sie Bilder darstellen zu dem, was die Veranlassung dazu ist. So ist es überhaupt in der Astralwelt. Und wir haben Veranlassung, diese Bilder zu deuten. Dasselbe astrale Erlebnis erscheint auch immer als dasselbe Bild, darin ist durchaus Regelmäßigkeit und Harmonie, während die gewöhnlichen Traumbilder chaotisch sind. Man kann sich schließlich in der Astralwelt genausogut wie in der sinnlichen zurechtfinden.
[ 6 ] Aus lauter solchen Bildern ist die Astralwelt gewoben, aber diese Bilder sind der Ausdruck für seelische Wesenheiten. Alle Menschen sind nach dem Tode selbst in solche Bilder gehüllt, die zum Teil sehr farbenund formenreich sind. So ist auch, wenn ein Mensch einschläft, dessen Astralleib in flutenden und wechselnden Formen und Farben zu sehen. Alle astralen Wesenheiten erscheinen in Farben. Kann der Mensch astral schauen, so nimmt er diese astralen Wesenheiten in einem flutenden Farbenmeer wahr.
[ 7 ] Nun hat diese astrale Welt eine Eigentümlichkeit, die dem, der das zum ersten Male hört, eigenartig erscheint: Es ist in der Astralwelt alles wie im Spiegelbild vorhanden, und daher müssen Sie als Schüler sich erst nach und nach daran gewöhnen, richtig zu sehen. Sie sehen zum Beispiel die Zahl 365, die entspricht der Zahl 563. So ist es mit allem, was man in der Astralwelt wahrnimmt. Alles, was zum Beispiel von mir selbst ausgeht, das scheint auf mich zuzukommen. Das zu berücksichtigen, ist außerordentlich wichtig. Denn wenn zum Beispiel durch Krankheitszustände solche astralen Bilder zustande kommen, muß man wissen, was man davon zu halten hat. Im Delirium treten sehr häufig solche Bilder auf, und es können solche Menschen alle möglichen Fratzen und Bildgestalten sehen, die auf sie zukommen, da in solch krankhaften Zuständen die astrale Welt für den Menschen geöffnet ist. Diese Bilder sehen natürlich so aus, als ob die Dinge auf den Menschen zustürzten, während sie doch in Wirklichkeit von ihm ausströmen. Das müssen die Ärzte in Zukunft wissen, weil derartige Dinge durch die verdrängte religiöse Sehnsucht in der Zukunft immer häufiger sein werden. Einem solchen Astralbilderlebnis liegt auch zum Beispiel das Motiv zu dem bekannten Gemälde «Die Versuchung des heiligen Antonius» zugrunde. Wenn Sie das alles bis zum letzten Ende durchdenken, so wird es Ihnen nicht mehr drollig erscheinen, daß auch die Zeit sich in der Astralwelt umkehrt. Einen Anklang daran geben Ihnen ja schon die Erfahrungen des 'Traumes. Erinnern Sie sich an das eben erwähnte Beispiel des geträumten Duells. Alles läuft hier rückwärts, und so auch die Zeit. So kann man im astralen Erleben am Baum zuerst die Frucht, dann die Blüte und zurück bis zum Keim verfolgen.
[ 8 ] Und so verläuft auch nach dem Tode — das ist also die Zeit des Abgewöhnens - das ganze Leben durch die Astralwelt rückwärts, und Sie durchleben Ihr Leben noch einmal von rückwärts nach vorn und schließen es ab mit den ersten Eindrücken Ihrer Kindheit. Dieses geht aber wesentlich schneller als hier in der physischen Welt und dauert etwa ein Drittel des Erdenlebens. Man erlebt nun da auch noch manches andere bei diesem Rückwärtsdurchlaufen des Lebens. Nehmen wir an, Sie sind mit achtzig Jahren gestorben und leben nun das Leben zurück bis zum vierzigsten Lebensjahr. Da haben Sie zum Beispiel einmal einem eine Ohrfeige gegeben, wodurch seinerzeit dieser Mensch von Ihnen einen Schmerz erfahren hat. Nun ist es so in der Astralwelt, daß auch diese Schmerzempfindung sozusagen wie im Spiegelbild auftritt; das heißt: nun erleben Sie den Schmerz, den damals der andere durch Ihre Ohrfeige erfahren hat. Und dasselbe ist natürlich auch der Fall bei allen freudigen Ereignissen. — Und dann erst, wenn der Mensch sein ganzes Leben durchlebt hat, tritt er ein in die himmlische Welt. Religiöse Urkunden sind immer wörtlich zu nehmende Wahrheiten. Wenn Sie das soeben Gesagte sich vor Augen halten, werden Sie ohne weiteres einsehen, daß der Mensch wirklich erst in die geistige Welt — und mit der geistigen Welt ist das gemeint, was in der Bibel mit «Himmelreich» oder «das Reich der Himmel» bezeichnet wird — eintreten kann, wenn er eben vorher sein ganzes Leben rückläufig durchlebt hat bis zur Kindheit. Und dieses liegt in Wahrheit dem Worte Christi zugrunde: «So ihr nicht werdet wie die Kindlein, werdet ihr nicht in das Himmelreich kommen.» Dann nämlich, wenn der Mensch rückläufig wieder an der Stufe seiner Kindheit angekommen ist, streift er den Astralleib ab und tritt in die geistige Welt ein.
[ 9 ] Nun muß ich Ihnen einmal diese geistige Welt erzählungsweise schildern. Dieses Reich der Himmel ist noch mehr verschieden von der physischen Welt als die Astralwelt. Da man aber selbstverständlich alles nur mit Ausdrücken schildern kann, die dieser physischen Welt entnommen sind, so gilt es noch mehr als für die obige Beschreibung der Astralwelt, daß alle diese Schilderungen nur vergleichsweise gelten dürfen.
[ 10 ] Auch in diesem Reich der Himmel gibt es eine Dreiheit, wie hier auf der Erde. Wie man hier die drei Aggregatzustände hat: fest, flüssig und luftförmig, und danach die Erde einteilt in das Kontinentale, die Ozeane und das Luftgebiet, so kann man auch im Geisterlande, wenn auch wie gesagt nur vergleichsweise, drei derartige Gebiete unterscheiden; nur ist das Gebiet der Kontinente aus etwas anderem zusammengesetzt als unsere Felsen und Steine. Was nämlich dort der feste Boden des Geisterlandes ist, das sind die Urbilder alles Physischen. Alles Physische hat ja seine Urbilder, auch der Mensch. Diese Urbilder nehmen sich für den Hellseher aus wie eine Art Negativ, das heißt, man sieht den Raum wie eine Art Schattenfigur, und rings um ihn ist strahlendes Licht. Dieser Schatten ist aber, entsprechend zum Beispiel dem Blut und den Nerven, nicht gleichmäßig, während ein Stein oder ein Mineral im Urbild einen gleichmäßig leeren Raum erscheinen läßt, um den herum auch eine Lichtstrahlung zu sehen ist. Wie Sie auf der Erde auf festen Felsen gehen, so gehen Sie dort auf den Urbildern der physischen Dinge herum. Daraus ist das Land dieser geistigen Welt zusammengesetzt. Wenn der Mensch dieses Land zuerst betritt, dann hat er immer einen ganz bestimmten Anblick: das ist der Moment, in dem er das Urbild seines eigenen physischen Leibes erblickt. Da sieht er zuerst klar daliegen seinen eigenen Leib. Denn er selbst ist ja Geist. Das geschieht bei einem normal verlaufenen Erdenleben etwa dreißig Jahre nach dem Tode; und dabei hat man die Grundempfindung: Das bist du. — Aus dieser Erkenntnis heraus hat die Vedantaphilosophie das «Tat tvam asi — Das bist du», als einen grundlegenden Erkenntnissatz geprägt. Alle derartigen Ausdrücke sind tief aus dem geistigen Erkennen herausgeholt.
[ 11 ] Das zweite Gebiet des geistigen Landes ist das Ozeangebiet. Alles, was hier in der physischen Welt Leben ist, alles also, was einen Ätherleib besitzt, das ist in dem Geisterland wie ein fließendes Element. Fließendes, flutendes Leben durchströmt so das Geisterland. Es sammelt sich auch wie in einem Meerbecken, wie das Wasser im Meer, oder besser gesagt, wie das Blut, das durch die Adern fließt und sich im Herzen sammelt.
[ 12 ] Und drittens haben wir das Luftgebiet des Geisterlandes, welches gebildet wird durch alle Leidenschaften, Triebe, Gefühle und so weiter. Alles das haben Sie da oben als äußere Wahrnehmung, wie die atmosphärischen Erscheinungen hier auf der Erde. Alles das durchbraust die Atmosphäre des Devachan. Als Seher können Sie so im Geisterlande wahrnehmen, was hier auf der Erde gelitten wird, und was für Freude hier herrscht. Jede Leidenschaft, jeder Haß und dergleichen wirkt sich im Geisterlande aus wie ein Sturm. Eine Schlacht zum Beispiel wirkt sich so aus, daß der Seher das Erlebnis eines Gewitters in der Devachanwelt hat. So ist das ganze geistige Gebiet durchzogen sowohl mit dahinziehenden wunderbaren Freuden wie auch furchtbaren Leidenschaften. Und so kann man auch von geistigen Ohren sprechen. Wenn Sie so weit vorgeschritten sind, daß Sie sich den Einblick in diese Devachanwelt errungen haben, dann können diese hinwogenden Erscheinungen von Ihnen gesehen und gehört werden, und das also Gehörte ist dieSphärenharmonie. |
[ 13 ] So haben wir das Gebiet des Geistigen bis zu dieser Stufe charakterisiert. Aber es gibt noch ein viertes Gebiet im Devachan. Wir haben bisher gesehen:
des Devachan:
die Urbilder aller physischen Form = Kontinent
alles Leben = Meer
alles Seelenleben, Gefühle und so weiter = Luftgebiet
[ 14 ] Es gibt nun etwas im Menschenleben, was nicht in der Außenwelt angelegt werden kann, und der geistige Inhalt dessen bildet das vierte Gebiet des Devachan. Dahin gehört jeder originelle Einfall, bis zum Schöpferischen des Genies. Alles, was originell ist, das heißt, alles, was der Mensch in diese Welt hinein schafft, wodurch die Welt bereichert wird, alle diese Urbilder bilden das vierte Gebiet des Devachan. Damit haben wir das abgeschlossen, was die Beschreibung der unteren Partien des Devachan ist.
[ 15 ] Darüber hinaus kommen noch drei höhere Gebiete, die aber der Mensch hier während des Lebens nur durch höhere Einweihung - also nur der Eingeweihte - erreichen kann, und die nach dem Tode auch nur höher entwickelten Individualitäten wahrnehmbar sind. Wenn nun aber ein solch vorgeschrittener Eingeweihter in dieses nächstfolgende höhere Gebiet des Devachan einzutreten vermag, was erlebt er denn da? Zunächst etwas, was man in der Geheimwissenschaft bezeichnet als die Akasha-Chronik. Alles, was in der Welt geschieht und je geschehen ist, wird als Eindruck in einer feinen Stofflichkeit, die unvergänglich ist, erhalten. Ich möchte Ihnen das an einem Beispiel etwas verständlich machen: Ich spreche jetzt zu Ihnen; Sie würden mich aber nicht hören, wenn meine Stimme nicht die Luft in Schwingungen versetzen könnte. So ist also alles, was von mir gesprochen wird, in feinen Bewegungsformen ausgedrückt hier in der Luft. Diese Bewegungsformen vergehen natürlich; aber in jene feine, geistige Stofflichkeit, die wir erleben, wenn wir in jene höhere Welt kommen, da wird alles eingedrückt, was hier sich ereignet, und das bleibt ewig. Jedes Wort, jeder Gedanke, alles, was in der Menschheit je geschehen ist, kann in dieser Akasha-Chronik gelesen werden. Dazu gehört entweder Einweihung oder jener Moment, wo der Mensch nach dem Tode in dieses Gebiet des Devachan kommt, das heißt, wenn er sich so weit entwickelt hat, daß er nach dem Tode dieses immerhin hohe Gebiet des Devachan wahrzunehmen vermag. Dann kann er in die Vergangenheit hineinsehen. Diese Akasha-Chronik ist eine Schrift, in der alles aufbewahrt wird, was jemals geschehen ist. Es ist eigentlich keine Schrift im physischen Sinne, sondern es sind Bilder. Sie sehen zum Beispiel Cäsar in allen Situationen seines Lebens; nicht das, was er eigentlich getan hat, sondern die inneren Impulse, die ihn zu seinen Taten veranlaßt haben. Diese Akasha-Bilder haben einen hohen Grad von Leben, und wenn man sie nicht in der richtigen Weise zu deuten versteht, können sie die Veranlassung zu großen Täuschungen sein. So sind sie zum Beispiel ein Quell von vielen spiritistischen Verirrungen — wenn nämlich in den Sitzungen ein Akasha-Bild erscheint. Wenn Sie zum Beispiel Goethe zitieren und es erscheint das Akasha-Bild vom 25. November 1797 und gibt Ihnen Auskunft über eine Frage: es beantwortet diese in der Weise, wie Goethe die Antwort damals gegeben hätte, wenn ihm am 25. November 1797 die Frage gestellt worden wäre. — Nur der genaue Kenner der geistigen Welt kann erkennen, ob es sich in einem solchen Falle um Wirklichkeit oder Schemen handelt. Aus solchen Schilderungen können Sie entnehmen, wie diese höheren Gebiete der geistigen Welten ausschauen.
[ 16 ] Das erste Erlebnis ist also die Wahrnehmung des eigenen Leibes; von diesem Erlebnis nehmen alle andern ihren Ursprung. Stark empfindet da der Mensch das Gefühl der Befreiung von den leiblichen Hüllen, denn es ist ja der beglückende Augenblick, wo er auch den letzten der Leichname, den Astralleichnam, abgelegt hat. Wie eine in einen Felsspalt eingeklemmte Pflanze es als Seligkeit empfände, wenn sie befreit würde, so wird dieses Gefühl der Seligkeit zu einer Grundempfindung des Menschen. Diese Seligkeit durchdringt und verklärt dann auch die früher mehr irdisch durchlebten Gefühle, zum Beispiel solche der Freundschaft, die hier vielleicht gewissen Wandlungen unterworfen waren und die drüben vertieft und geläutert werden. Eine solche Läuterung erfährt auch die Liebe der Mutter zu ihrem Kinde, und umgekehrt: das ursprünglich animalische Gefühl des Verbundenseins, das schon hier zu einem moralischen wurde, entfaltet sich im Devachan zu einer noch höheren sittlichen Macht. Alle hier auf Erden geknüpften Bande erfahren eine Vertiefung im Geistgebiet, sich gegenseitig durchdringend. Durch Liebe arbeitet sich der Mensch schon hier empor aus der Enge der Selbstsucht ins Umfassende des Welterlebens. Dort aber ist nichts voneinander abgeschlossen, getrennt, einer arbeitet für den andern, denn Arbeit ist auch dort das die Seelen tragende und fördernde, verbindende Element, die Liebe aber der unerschöpfliche Quell alles Lebens.
Fourth Lecture
[ 1 ] Since we have the task today of pursuing the destinies of man through the spiritual world, it will be helpful if we first form an idea of what is actually meant by a world in the spiritual-scientific sense.
[ 2 ] Our perception of the world around us depends on the abilities and organs we have for perceiving it. If we had different organs, the world would be quite different for us. If, for example, humans had no eyes to see light but an organ through which they could perceive, say, electricity, then you would not perceive this room as bright and flooded with light, but you would see electricity flowing in the wires that run through the room; you would see it twitching, flashing and flowing everywhere. So what we call our world is dependent on our sense organs.
[ 3 ] So is the astral world nothing more than a sum of appearances that man experiences around him when he is separated from his physical and etheric bodies, and when he can use these forces within himself to see what he otherwise cannot see. This is precisely the case when he has shed his physical body and etheric body. The organs of perception for the astral world are the organs of the astral body, analogous to the sense organs for the physical body. Let us now take a look at the astral world.
[ 4 ] The spiritual seer can perceive this astral world through the methods that we will discuss later, even here in the physical body. This astral world differs considerably from our physical world. First of all, you can form an idea of what is around you in the astral world by calling to mind the last remnant that a person has of his former clairvoyance in ancient times, that is, the dream life. You all know this dream life from experience, and you know it as a world of chaotic images. But why do we dream at all? We know that during this dream-life in bed the physical body and the etheric body are lying there, while the astral body hovers above them. During a full, deep, dreamless sleep, the astral body is completely removed from the etheric body; during dream sleep, filaments of the astral body are still embedded in the etheric body, and through these, the person perceives more or less confused images of the astral world. The astral world is as permeable as the images in a dream, it is as if it is woven out of dreams. But these dreams differ from ordinary dreams in that these images are a reality, just as real as the physical world. The nature of the perception is very similar to the perception in a dream: it is also symbolic. You all know that the dream world is symbolic. Everything that is absorbed from the outside world into sleep is symbolized in dreams. I will give you some typical examples of dreams, and from these you will be able to see how dreams are symbolized on the basis of simple external impressions.
[ 5 ] For example, you dream that you are catching a tree frog. You feel the slippery tree frog very clearly: when you wake up, you feel that you are holding the cold corner of the bed sheet in your hand. Or you dream that you are in a musty cellar full of cobwebs; you wake up with a headache. Or you see snakes in your dream and, when you wake up, you notice that you have pain in your intestines. Or an academic dreams a long story of a duel from the beginning of the jostling to the end of the fight in the pistol challenge: the shot is fired – then he wakes up and notices that the chair has fallen over. From the entire course of this last dream image, you can also see that the time conditions are quite different. Not only that time is constructed backwards, so to speak, but also that the whole concept of time loses its meaning in the dream experience. You dream an entire life in a fraction of a second, just as our whole life passes before our mind's eye in the moment of a fall or drowning. But what is particularly important in all the dream images mentioned is that they represent images that have a cause. This is the case in the astral world in general. And we have reason to interpret these images. The same astral experience always appears as the same image; there is regularity and harmony in this, whereas ordinary dream images are chaotic. One can eventually find one's way around in the astral world just as one can in the sensual one.
[ 6 ] The astral world is woven out of such images, but these images are the expression of soul entities. After death, all human beings are clothed in such images themselves, which are sometimes very rich in colors and forms. So too, when a person falls asleep, his astral body can be seen in flowing and changing forms and colors. All astral entities appear in colors. If a person has astral vision, he perceives these astral entities in a flowing sea of colors.
[ 7 ] Now this astral world has a peculiarity that seems strange to someone who hears about it for the first time: everything in the astral world is present as if in a mirror image, and therefore you as a student must first get used to seeing it correctly little by little. For example, you see the number 365, which corresponds to the number 563. This applies to everything you perceive in the astral world. For example, everything that emanates from me seems to come towards me. It is extremely important to take this into account. Because when, for example, such astral images come about through illness, you have to know what to think of them. Such images occur very often in delirium, and such people can see all kinds of grotesque and pictorial figures coming towards them, because in such pathological conditions the astral world is open to people. These images naturally look as if the things were rushing towards the person, whereas in reality they emanate from him. The doctors of the future must know this, because such things will become more and more frequent in the future due to the suppressed religious yearning. The motif for the well-known painting 'The Temptation of Saint Anthony', for example, is also based on such an astral image experience. If you think about all this to the very end, it will no longer seem strange to you that time also reverses in the astral world. The experiences of 'dream' already give you a hint of this. Do you remember the example of the dreamed duel just mentioned? Everything here runs backwards, and so does time. Thus, in the astral experience, one can first follow the fruit on the tree, then the blossom, and back to the germ.
[ 8 ] And so it is after death – this is the time of disaccustomment – the whole life runs backwards through the astral world, and you relive your life again from back to front and complete it with the first impressions of your childhood. But this is much faster than here in the physical world and takes about a third of your life on Earth. You experience many other things as you go through life backwards. Let's assume that you died at the age of eighty and are now living your life backwards until the age of forty. For example, you may have slapped someone once, causing them to experience pain from you. Now it is so in the astral world that this sensation of pain also occurs as it were in a mirror image; that is to say: now you experience the pain that the other person experienced at the time of your slap. And the same is of course the case with all joyful events. — And only when a person has lived through his whole life does he enter the heavenly world. Religious documents are always truths to be taken literally. If you bear in mind what has just been said, you will readily see that a person can only enter the spiritual world – and by the spiritual world is meant what is referred to in the Bible as the “Kingdom of Heaven” or “the Kingdom of Heaven” – when he has first relived his entire life backwards to childhood. And this is the true meaning of Christ's words: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” When man has gone back to the stage of his childhood, he discards the astral body and enters the spiritual world.
[ 9 ] Now I must describe this spiritual world to you in the form of a story. This realm of the heavens is even more different from the physical world than the astral realm is. But since one can, of course, only describe it using expressions taken from this physical world, it applies even more than for the description of the astral realm above that all these descriptions can only be valid comparatively.
[ 10 ] In this kingdom of heaven, there is also a trinity, as here on earth. Just as we have the three aggregate states here: solid, liquid and gaseous, and then divide the earth into the continental, the oceanic and the aerial regions, so too in the spirit world, albeit only comparatively, three such regions can be distinguished; only the region of the continents is composed of something different from our rocks and stones. What is the solid ground of the ghost land there, that is the archetypes of all physical things. Everything physical has its archetypes, including man. These archetypes look like a kind of negative to the clairvoyant, that is, one sees space like a kind of shadow figure, and radiant light around it. But this shadow is, corresponding to the example of the blood and the nerves, not uniform, while a stone or a mineral in the archetype gives the appearance of a uniformly empty space, around which a radiance of light can also be seen. Just as you walk on solid rock on earth, you walk on the archetypes of physical things there. The land of this spiritual world is composed of this. When a person first enters this land, he always has a very specific vision: that is the moment when he sees the archetype of his own physical body. There he sees his own body lying there clearly. For he himself is spirit. In the case of a normal life on earth, this happens about thirty years after death; and one has the basic feeling: That is you. — Vedanta philosophy has coined the phrase “Tat tvam asi — That is you” as a fundamental insight based on this realization. All such expressions are deeply rooted in spiritual realization.
[ 11 ] The second area of the spiritual realm is the ocean area. Everything that is alive in the physical world, that is, everything that has an etheric body, is like a flowing element in the spiritual realm. Flowing, surging life thus flows through the spiritual realm. It also collects like in a sea basin, like the water in the sea, or rather like the blood that flows through the veins and collects in the heart.
[ 12 ] And thirdly, we have the air region of the ghost country, which is formed by all passions, instincts, feelings and so on. All this you have up there as external perception, like the atmospheric phenomena here on earth. All this roars through the atmosphere of Devachan. As seers, you can perceive in the spirit world what has been suffered here on earth, and what joy prevails here. Every passion, every hatred and the like has an effect in the spirit world like a storm. A battle, for example, has the effect that the seer experiences a thunderstorm in the Devachan world. Thus the entire spiritual realm is permeated with both wonderful joys and terrible passions. And so one can also speak of spiritual ears. When you have progressed to the point of gaining insight into this devachan world, then these surging phenomena can be seen and heard by you, and what is heard is the harmony of the spheres.
[ 13 ] This is how we have characterized the spiritual realm up to this level. But there is still a fourth realm in Devachan. We have seen so far:
the Devachan:
the images of all physical form = continent
all life = sea
all soul life, feelings and so on = air region
[ 14 ] There is now something in human life that cannot be created in the outside world, and the spiritual content of this forms the fourth area of devachan. This includes every original idea, right up to the creativity of genius. Everything that is original, that is, everything that a person brings into this world, thereby enriching it, all these archetypes form the fourth region of devachan. This concludes our description of the lower regions of devachan.
[ 15 ] Beyond that, there are three higher regions, which, however, a person can only reach here during their lifetime through higher initiation – that is, only the initiate – and which, after death, can only be perceived by highly developed individualities. But if such an advanced initiate is able to enter this next higher region of Devachan, what does he experience there? First of all, something that is referred to in esoteric science as the Akasha Chronicle. Everything that happens and has ever happened in the world is preserved as an impression in a subtle, imperishable materiality. I would like to make this somewhat clearer to you with an example: I am speaking to you now; but you would not hear me if my voice could not set the air in vibration. So everything that is spoken by me is expressed here in the air in subtle forms of motion. These forms of motion naturally fade away; but in that fine, spiritual substance that we experience when we come to that higher world, everything that happens here is imprinted, and that remains forever. Every word, every thought, everything that has ever happened in humanity can be read in this Akashic Chronicle. This requires either initiation or the moment when a person, after death, enters the realm of Devachan. That is, when he has developed to such an extent that after death he is able to perceive this, after all, high realm of Devachan. Then he can see into the past. This Akashic record is a writing in which everything that has ever happened is stored. It is not really writing in the physical sense, but images. For example, you see Caesar in all situations of his life; not what he actually did, but the inner impulses that led him to his actions. These Akashic images have a high degree of life, and if they are not interpreted in the right way, they can be the cause of great deception. For example, they are a source of many spiritual aberrations – namely when an Akasha image appears during the sessions. If you quote Goethe, for example, and the Akasha image of November 25, 1797 appears and provides you with information about a question: it answers it in the way that Goethe would have given the answer at the time if the question had been put to him on November 25, 1797. Only someone who is very familiar with the spiritual world can recognize whether it is reality or a mere shadow in such a case. From such descriptions, you can see what these higher realms of the spiritual world look like.
[ 16 ] The first experience is therefore the perception of one's own body; all other experiences originate from this one. The human being experiences a strong sense of liberation from the physical shells, for it is indeed the happy moment when he has discarded the last of the corpses, the astral corpse. Just as a plant wedged in a crevice would experience it as bliss if it were freed, so this feeling of bliss becomes a basic human sensation. This bliss then also permeates and transfigures the more earthly feelings experienced earlier, for example those of friendship, which may have been subject to certain transformations here and are deepened and purified over there. Such a purification also takes place in the love of a mother for her child, and vice versa: the original animalistic feeling of connectedness, which has already become a moral one here, unfolds in Devachan into an even higher moral power. All bonds formed here on earth are deepened in the spiritual realm, permeating each other. Here, through love, man already works his way up out of the narrowness of selfishness into the comprehensiveness of world experience. But there, nothing is closed off or separated from each other. Each works for the other, because work is also the element that sustains, promotes and connects souls there, and love is the inexhaustible source of all life.