The Threshold of the Spiritual World
GA 17
XI. Concerning Beings of the Spirit-Worlds
[ 1 ] If the soul enters the supersensible world with clairvoyant consciousness, it learns to know itself there in a way of which in the physical world it can have no conception. It finds that through its faculty of transformation it becomes acquainted with beings to whom it is more or less related; but in addition to this it becomes aware of meeting beings in the supersensible world to whom it is not only related, but with whom it must compare itself, in order to know itself. And it further observes that these beings in supersensible worlds have become what the soul itself, through its adventures and experiences in the physical world, has become. In the elemental world beings confront the human soul who have developed within that world powers and faculties which man himself can only unfold through still having about him his physical body, in addition to his etheric body and the other supersensible principles of his being. The beings here alluded to have no such body with physical senses. They have so evolved that through their etheric body they have a soul-nature such as man has through his physical body. Although to a certain degree they are beings of like nature to himself, they differ from him in not being subject to the conditions of the physical world. They have no senses of the kind which man possesses. Their knowledge is like man's; only they have not acquired it through the gateway of the senses, but through a kind of ascent, or mounting-up of their ideas and other soul-experiences out of the depths of their being. Their inner life is, as it were, at rest within them, and they draw it up out of the depths of their souls, as man from the depths of his soul draws up his memory-pictures.
[ 2 ] In this way man becomes acquainted with beings who have become within the supersensible world that which he may become within the physical world. Owing to this, these beings are a stage higher than man in the order of the universe, although they may be said to be, in the manner indicated, of the same nature as he. They constitute a kingdom above man, a hierarchy superior to him in the scale of beings. Notwithstanding their similarity to man, their etheric body is different from his. Whereas man is woven into the supersensible etheric body of the earth through the sympathies and antipathies of his etheric body, these beings are not earth-bound in the life of their soul.
[ 3 ] If man observes what these beings experience through their etheric bodies, he finds that their experiences are similar to those of his own soul. They have thinking power; they have feelings and a will. But through their etheric body they develop something which man can only develop through the physical body. Through their etheric body they arrive at a consciousness of their own being, although man would not be able to know anything about a supersensible being unless he carried up into supersensible worlds the forces which he acquires in the physical body.
Clairvoyant consciousness learns to know these beings through developing a faculty for observing them by the help of the human etheric body. This clairvoyant consciousness lifts the human soul up into the world in which these beings have their field of activity and their abode. Not till the soul experiences itself in that world, do pictures or conceptions arise in its consciousness which bring about knowledge of these beings. For these beings do not interpose directly in the physical world, nor therefore in man's physical body. They are not present in the experiences which may be made through that body. They are spiritual, supersensible beings, who do not, so to say, set foot in the physical world.
If man does not respect the boundary between the physical world and supersensible worlds, it may happen that he drags into his physical consciousness supersensible images which are not the true expression of these beings. These images arise through experiencing the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings, who though of like nature to the supersensible beings just described, are contrasted with them through having transferred their field of activity and their abodes to the world which man perceives as the physical world.
[ 4 ] When man with clairvoyant consciousness contemplates the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings from the supersensible world, after having through his experience with the guardian of the threshold, learned the right way to observe the boundary between that world and physical existence, he learns to know these beings in their reality, and to distinguish them from those other spiritual beings who have remained in the sphere of action adapted to their nature. It is from this standpoint that spiritual science must portray the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings.
It then appears that the field of activity adapted to the Luciferic beings is not the physical but, in a certain respect, the elemental world. When something penetrates into the human soul which rises as though out of the waves of that world like pictures, and when these pictures work with a vivifying effect on man's etheric body, without assuming an illusive existence in the soul, then the Luciferic essence may be present in these images, without its activity transgressing against the order of the universe. In this case the Luciferic nature has the effect of emancipation upon the human soul, raising it above mere entanglement in the physical world. But when the human soul draws into the physical body the life which it should only develop in the elemental world, when it allows feeling within the physical body to be influenced by sympathies and antipathies which should only hold sway in the etheric body, then the Luciferic nature gains through that soul an influence which is opposed to the general order of the universe. This influence is always present when in the sympathies and antipathies of the physical world, something is working besides that love which is based on sympathy with the life of another being present in that world. Such a being may be loved because it comes before the one loving it endowed with certain qualities; in this case there is no admixture of a Luciferic element with the love. Love which has its basis in those qualities in the beloved being which are manifest in physical existence, keeps clear of Luciferic interference. But love, the source of which is not thus in the beloved being, but in the one loving it, is prone to the Luciferic influence. A being loved because it has qualities to which, as lovers, we incline by nature, is loved with that part of the soul which is accessible io the Luciferic element.
We should therefore never say that the Luciferic element is bad under all circumstances, for events and beings of supersensible worlds must be loved by the human soul in the manner of the Luciferic element. The order of the universe is not transgressed until the kind of love with which man ought to feel himself drawn to the supersensible is directed to physical things. Love for the supersensible rightly calls forth in the one loving it an enhanced feeling of self; love which in the physical world is sought for the sake of such an enhanced feeling of self is equivalent to a Luciferic temptation. Love of the spiritual when it is sought for the sake of the self has the effect of emancipation; but love for the physical when it is sought on account of the self has not this effect, but, through the gratification gained by its means, only puts the self in fetters.
[ 5 ] The Ahrimanic beings make themselves felt in the thinking soul just as the Luciferic beings affect the feeling soul. The former chain thought to the physical world. They turn it away from the fact that thoughts of any kind are only of importance when they assert themselves as part of the universal order, whose discovery is not bound within physical existence. In the world into which the human life of the soul is woven, the Ahrimanic element must exist as a necessary counterbalance to the Luciferic. Without the Luciferic element, the soul would dream away its life in observation of physical existence, and feel no impulse to rise above it. Without the counter-effect of the Ahrimanic element, the soul would fall a victim to the Luciferic influence; it would underrate the importance of the physical world, in spite of the fact that some of its necessary conditions of existence are in that world. It would not wish to have anything to do with the physical world. The Ahrimanic element has the right degree of importance in the human soul when it leads to a way of living in the physical world which is suitable to that world; when we take it for what it is, and are able to dispense with everything in it which in its nature must be transitory.
It is quite impossible to say that a person could avoid falling a victim to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements by rooting them out of himself. It is, for instance, possible that if the Luciferic element in him were rooted out, his soul would no longer aspire to the super-sensible; or, if the Ahrimanic element were eradicated, that he might not any more realise the full importance of the physical world: the right relation to one of these elements is arrived at when the proper counterpoise to it is provided in the other. All harmful effects from these cosmic beings proceed entirely from one of them becoming the unlimited master of the situation, whatever it may be, and from not being brought into the right harmony through the opposite force.
Von Wesen der Geisteswelten
[ 1 ] Tritt die Seele mit übersinnlichem Bewußtsein in die übersinnliche Welt ein, so lernt sie sich in dieser in einer Art kennen, von welcher sie in der Sinneswelt keine Vorstellung haben kann. Sie findet, daß sie durch ihre Verwandlungsfähigkeit Wesen erkennen lernt, die mit ihr einen größeren oder geringeren Grad von Verwandtschaft haben; sie wird aber auch gewahr, daß sie in der übersinnlichen Welt Wesen antrifft, mit welchen sie nicht nur verwandt ist, sondern mit denen sie sich auch vergleichen muß, um sich kennenzulernen. Und sie macht weiter die Beobachtung, daß diese Wesen in den übersinnlichen Welten das geworden sind, was sie selbst durch ihre Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen in der Sinneswelt geworden ist. In der elementarischen Welt treten der Menschenseele Wesen entgegen, welche innerhalb dieser Welt Kräfte und Fähigkeiten entwickelt haben, die der Mensch selbst nur dadurch entfalten kann, daß er außer seinem ätherischen Leibe und den anderen übersinnlichen Gliedern seiner Wesenheit noch den physischen Leib an sich trägt. Die Wesen, auf welche hier hingedeutet wird, haben keinen solchen physisch-sinnlichen Leib. Sie haben sich so entwickelt, daß sie durch ihren ätherischen Leib eine Seelenwesenheit haben, welche der Mensch durch den physischen Leib hat. Trotzdem sie bis zu einem gewissen Grade mit dem Menschen gleichartige Wesenheiten sind, unterscheiden sie sich von ihm dadurch, daß sie den Bedingungen der Sinneswelt nicht unterworfen sind. Sie haben keine Sinne von der Art, wie der Mensch sie hat. Ihr Wissen gleicht dem menschlichen Wissen; aber sie haben es nicht durch Sinne erworben, sondern durch eine Art Aufsteigen ihrer Vorstellungen und ihrer anderen Seelenerlebnisse aus den Tiefen ihrer Wesenheit. Es ist ihr Innenleben gleichsam in sie gelegt; und sie holen es aus ihren Seelentiefen herauf, wie der Mensch seine Erinnerungsvorstellungen aus seinen Seelentiefen heraufholt.Von geistigen Weltwesenheiten Von geistigen Weltwesenheiten
[ 2 ] Der Mensch lernt auf diese Art Wesen kennen, welche innerhalb der übersinnlichen Welt das geworden sind, was er innerhalb der Sinneswelt werden kann. In dieser Beziehung stehen diese Wesen in der Weltenordnung um eine Stufe höher als der Mensch, trotzdem sie mit ihm in der angedeuteten Weise gleichgeartet genannt werden können. Sie bilden ein über dem Menschen stehendes Wesensreich, eine über ihm in der Stufenfolge der Wesen stehende Hierarchie. Ihr ätherischer Leib ist - trotz der Gleichartigkeit - von dem ätherischen Leibe des Menschen verschieden. Während der Mensch durch die Sympathien und Antipathien seines ätherischen Leibes in den übersinnlichen Lebensleib der Erde einverwoben ist, sind diese Wesenheiten mit ihrem Seelenleben nicht an die Erde gebunden. -
[ 3 ] Beobachtet der Mensch, was diese Wesenheiten durch ihren ätherischen Leib erleben, so findet er, daß sie ähnliche Erlebnisse haben wie er in seiner Seele. Sie haben ein Denken; sie haben Gefühle und einen Willen. Aber sie entwickeln durch den ätherischen Leib etwas, was der Mensch nur durch den physischen Leib entwickeln kann. Sie kommen durch ihren ätherischen Leib zu einem Bewußtsein von ihrer eigenen Wesenheit. Der Mensch würde von einer übersinnlichen Wesenheit nichts wissen können, wenn er nicht das, was er an Kräften im physisch-sinnlichen Leib erwirbt, hinauftrüge in die übersinnlichen Welten. - Das übersinnliche Bewußtsein lernt diese Wesenheiten dadurch kennen, daß es zur Fähigkeit wird, mit Hilfe des ätherischen Menschenleibes zu beobachten. Es hebt dieses übersinnliche Bewußtsein die Menschenseele in die Welt hinauf, in welcher diese Wesenheiten ihren Wohnplatz und ihr Wirkensfeld haben. Erst wenn die Seele in dieser Welt sich selbst erlebt, treten in ihrem Bewußtsein Bilder (Vorstellungen) auf, welche eine Erkenntnis von diesen Wesen vermitteln. Denn diese Wesenheiten greifen nicht unmittelbar in die physische Welt und damit auch nicht in den physisch-sinnlichen Menschenleib ein. Sie sind für die Erlebnisse, welche durch diesen Leib gemacht werden können, nicht vorhanden. Sie sind geistige (übersinnliche) Wesen, welche die Sinneswelt gewissermaßen nicht betreten. - Wenn der Mensch die Grenze zwischen sinnlicher und übersinnlicher Welt nicht beachtet, dann kann es geschehen, daß er in sein physisch-sinnliches Bewußtsein übersinnliche Bilder hereindrängt, welche nicht der wahre Ausdruck für diese Wesenheiten sind. Diese Bilder entstehen durch ein Erleben der luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten, welche zwar gleichartig sind mit den eben beschriebenen übersinnlichen Wesenheiten, die aber im Gegensatze zu ihnen ihren Wohnplatz und ihr Wirkensfeld in die Welt verlegt haben, welche der Mensch als Sinneswelt wahrnimmt.
[ 4 ] Wenn der Mensch durch das übersinnliche Bewußtsein die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten von der übersinnlichen Welt aus betrachtet, nachdem er durch das Erlebnis mit dem «Hüter der Schwelle» die Grenze zwischen dieser Welt und dem Sinnessein richtig beachten gelernt hat, dann lernt er diese Wesen in ihrer Wahrheit kennen. Er lernt sie unterscheiden von den anderen geistigen Wesenheiten, welche innerhalb des ihrer Natur angemessenen Wirkensfeldes verblieben sind. Von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus muß die Geisteswissenschaft die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten schildern. Von den luziferischen Wesen zeigt sich dann, daß ihr ihnen angemessenes Wirkensfeld nicht die physisch-sinnliche, sondern in einer gewissen Beziehung die elementarische Welt ist. Wenn in die menschliche Seele das eindringt, was sich innerhalb dieser Welt wie aus deren Fluten als Bilder erhebt, und diese Bilder in dem ätherischen Leibe des Menschen belebend wirken, ohne daß sie ein illusionäres Dasein in der Seele annehmen: so kann in diesen Bildern das luziferische Wesen vorhanden sein, ohne daß seine Taten gegen die Weltordnung verstoßen. Es wirkt dieses luziferische Wesen dann befreiend auf die Menschenseele; es erhebt dieselbe über das bloße Verwobensein mit der Sinneswelt. Wenn aber die Menschenseele das Leben, das sie nur in der elementarischen Welt entfalten sollte, in die physisch-sinnliche Welt hereinzieht, wenn sie das Fühlen innerhalb des physischen Leibes beeinflußt sein läßt von Antipathien und Sympathien, die nur in dem ätherischen Leibe walten sollten, dann gewinnt das luziferische Wesen durch diese Seele einen Einfluß, der sich gegen die allgemeine Weltenordnung auflehnt. Es ist dieser Einfluß überall da vorhanden, wo in den Sympathien und Antipathien der Sinneswelt etwas anderes wirkt als jene Liebe, welche auf dem Mitfühlen des Lebens eines anderen in der Sinneswelt vorhandenen Wesens beruht. Ein solches Wesen kann geliebt werden, weil es dem Liebenden mit diesen oder jenen Eigenschaften entgegentritt, dann wird in die Liebe sich nichts von luziferischem Elemente einmischen können. Liebe, die ihren Grund in den im Sinnensein zutage tretenden Eigenschaften des geliebten Wesens hat, hält sich von luziferischem Einschlage fern. Liebe, die ihren Grund nicht in dieser Art in dem geliebten Wesen hat, sondern in dem, welches liebt, neigt zu dem luziferischen Einfluß hin. Ein Wesen, das man liebt, weil es Eigenschaften hat, zu denen man als Liebender seiner Natur nach neigt, liebt man mit dem Teil der Seele, welcher dem luziferischen Elemente zugänglich. ist. - Man sollte daher niemals sagen, das luziferische Element sei unter allen Umständen etwas Böses. Denn die Vorgänge und Wesenheiten der übersinnlichen Welten muß die Menschenseele im Sinne des luziferischen Elementes lieben. Gegen die Weltordnung wird erst verstoßen, wenn man die Art von Liebe, mit der man sich zu dem Übersinnlichen hingezogen fühlen sollte, auf das Sinnliche richtet. Die Liebe zum Übersinnlichen ruft mit Recht in dem Liebenden ein erhöhtes Selbstgefühl hervor; die Liebe, die in der Sinneswelt um eines solchen erhöhten Selbstgefühles willen gesucht wird, entspricht einer luziferischen Verlockung. Die Liebe zum Geistigen wirkt, wenn sie um des Selbstes willen gesucht wird, befreiend; die Liebe zum Sinnlichen wirkt, wenn sie wegen des Selbstes angestrebt wird, nicht befreiend; sondern sie führt durch die Befriedigung, welche durch sie erzielt wird, Fesseln für das Selbst herbei.
[ 5 ] Die ahrimanischen Wesenheiten machen sich so für die denkende Seele geltend wie die luziferischen für die fühlende. Sie fesseln das Denken an die Sinneswelt. Sie lenken es von der Tatsache ab, daß alle Gedanken nur eine Bedeutung haben, wenn sie als ein Teil der großen Gedankenordnung der Welt sich geltend machen, welche in dem Sinnessein nicht gefunden werden kann. In der Welt, in welche das menschliche Seelenleben eingewoben ist, muß das ahrimanische Element als notwendiges Gegengewicht gegen das luziferische vorhanden sein. Ohne das luziferische Element wurde die Seele ihr Leben in den Beobachtungen des sinnlichen Daseins verträumen und keinen Antrieb empfinden, sich über dasselbe zu erheben. Ohne die Gegenwirkung des ahrimanischen Elementes würde die Seele dem luziferischen verfallen; sie würde die Bedeutung der Sinneswelt gering achten, trotzdem sie innerhalb derselben einen Teil ihrer notwendigen Daseinsbedingungen hat. Sie würde von der Sinneswelt nichts wissen wollen. Das ahrimanische Element hat dann in der Menschenseele die rechte Bedeutung, wenn es zu einem Einleben in die Sinneswelt führt, welches dieser Welt entspricht. Wenn man diese nimmt als das, was sie ist, und sie auch entbehren kann in alledem, was an ihr vermöge ihrer Natur vorübergehend sein muß. - Es ist ganz unmöglich zu sagen, man wolle dem luziferischen und ahrimanischen Elemente dadurch nicht verfallen, daß man sie in sich ausrottet. Man könnte zum Beispiel, wenn man das luziferische Element in sich ausrottete, mit seiner Seele nicht mehr zum Übersinnlichen hin streben; man könnte, wenn man das ahrimanische Element ausrottete, nicht mehr der Sinneswelt in ihrer vollen Bedeutung gerecht werden. Man bringt sich zu dem einen dieser Elemente in das richtige Verhältnis, wenn man ihm das rechte Gegengewicht in dem anderen schafft. Alle schädlichen Wirkungen dieser Weltenwesenheiten rühren allein davon her, daß sie da oder dort unumschränkt zur Geltung kommen und nicht durch die entgegegengesetzte Kraft in die richtige Harmonie gebracht sind.
On beings of the spiritual worlds
[ 1 ] When the soul enters the supersensible world with supersensible consciousness, it gets to know itself in this world in a way of which it can have no idea in the sense world. It finds that through its capacity for transformation it learns to recognize beings who have a greater or lesser degree of kinship with it; but it also becomes aware that in the supersensible world it encounters beings with whom it is not only related, but with whom it must also compare itself in order to get to know itself. And she further observes that these beings in the supersensible worlds have become what she herself has become through her experiences in the sensory world. In the elementary world the human soul is confronted by beings who have developed powers and abilities within this world which the human being himself can only develop by the fact that he still carries the physical body in addition to his etheric body and the other supersensible members of his being. The beings referred to here have no such physical-sensory body. They have developed in such a way that through their etheric body they have a soul entity which the human being has through the physical body. Although they are to a certain extent similar to human beings, they differ from them in that they are not subject to the conditions of the sensory world. They have no senses of the kind that man has. Their knowledge is similar to human knowledge; but they have not acquired it through the senses, but through a kind of ascent of their ideas and their other soul experiences from the depths of their being. Their inner life is, as it were, placed in them; and they bring it up from the depths of their souls, just as man brings up his memories from the depths of his souls.
[ 2 ] In this way man gets to know beings who have become within the supersensible world what he can become within the sense world. In this respect, these beings are one level higher than man in the world order, even though they can be called of the same nature as man in the manner indicated. They form a realm of beings above man, a hierarchy above him in the hierarchy of beings. Their etheric body is - despite the similarity - different from the etheric body of man. While man is interwoven into the supersensible life body of the earth through the sympathies and antipathies of his etheric body, these beings are not bound to the earth with their soul life. -
[ 3 ] When man observes what these beings experience through their etheric body, he finds that they have similar experiences as he has in his soul. They have a mind; they have feelings and a will. But they develop something through the etheric body that man can only develop through the physical body. Through their etheric body they come to a consciousness of their own essence. Man would know nothing of a supersensible entity if he did not carry up into the supersensible worlds that which he acquires of powers in the physical-sensible body. - The supersensible consciousness learns to know these entities by becoming able to observe with the help of the etheric human body. This supersensible consciousness lifts the human soul up into the world in which these beings have their dwelling place and their field of activity. Only when the soul experiences itself in this world do images (ideas) appear in its consciousness which convey a knowledge of these beings. For these beings do not intervene directly in the physical world and therefore also not in the physical-sensual human body. They are not present for the experiences that can be made through this body. They are spiritual (supersensible) beings who do not, so to speak, enter the sensory world. - If the human being does not observe the boundary between the sensory and supersensory world, then it can happen that he forces supersensory images into his physical-sensory consciousness, which are not the true expression of these beings. These images arise through an experience of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities, which are indeed similar to the supersensible entities just described, but which, in contrast to them, have moved their dwelling place and their field of activity into the world which man perceives as the sensory world.
[ 4 ] When man observes the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities through the supersensible consciousness from the supersensible world, after he has learned through the experience with the "Guardian of the Threshold" to correctly observe the boundary between this world and the sensory being, then he learns to know these beings in their truth. He learns to distinguish them from the other spiritual beings who have remained within the field of activity appropriate to their nature. It is from this point of view that spiritual science must describe the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities. In the case of the Luciferic beings it is then shown that their appropriate field of activity is not the physical-sensual, but in a certain respect the elementary world. When that which rises within this world as images from its floods penetrates into the human soul, and these images have a vitalizing effect in the etheric body of man without assuming an illusory existence in the soul, then the Luciferic being can be present in these images without its actions violating the world order. This Luciferic being then has a liberating effect on the human soul; it raises it above being merely interwoven with the sensory world. But when the human soul draws into the physical-sensual world the life that it should only unfold in the elemental world, when it allows the feeling within the physical body to be influenced by antipathies and sympathies that should only prevail in the etheric body, then the Luciferic being gains an influence through this soul that rebels against the general world order. This influence is present wherever something else is at work in the sympathies and antipathies of the sense world than that love which is based on compassion for the life of another being present in the sense world. Such a being can be loved because it confronts the lover with these or those qualities, in which case nothing of a Luciferic element can interfere in the love. Love that has its reason in the qualities of the loved being that emerge in the senses keeps itself away from Luciferic influence. Love that has its reason not in this way in the loved being, but in the one who loves, tends towards the Luciferic influence. A being that one loves because it has qualities to which one is inclined by nature as a lover, one loves with that part of the soul which is accessible to the Luciferic element. - One should therefore never say that the Luciferic element is evil under any circumstances. For the human soul must love the processes and entities of the supersensible worlds in the sense of the Luciferic element. The world order is only violated when the kind of love with which one should feel attracted to the supersensible is directed towards the sensible. Love for the supersensible rightly evokes a heightened sense of self in the lover; love that is sought in the sensual world for the sake of such a heightened sense of self corresponds to a Luciferic enticement. Love of the spiritual, when sought for the sake of the self, has a liberating effect; love of the sensual, when sought for the sake of the self, does not have a liberating effect; rather, through the gratification it brings about, it creates fetters for the self.
[ 5 ] The ahrimanic entities affect the thinking soul in the same way as the luciferic entities affect the feeling soul. They bind the mind to the sensory world. They distract it from the fact that all thoughts only have meaning when they assert themselves as a part of the great thought order of the world, which cannot be found in the senses. In the world in which human soul life is interwoven, the ahrimanic element must be present as a necessary counterweight to the luciferic element. Without the Luciferic element the soul would dream away its life in the observations of sensual existence and feel no impulse to rise above it. Without the counteraction of the ahrimanic element, the soul would fall prey to the luciferic element; it would disregard the importance of the sensory world, even though it has a part of its necessary conditions of existence within it. It would not want to know anything about the sensory world. The ahrimanic element then has the right meaning in the human soul when it leads to a living in the sense world which corresponds to this world. If one takes it for what it is and can do without it in everything that must be temporary in it because of its nature. - It is quite impossible to say that one does not want to fall prey to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements by eradicating them within oneself. For example, if one were to eradicate the Luciferic element within oneself, one could no longer strive with one's soul towards the supersensible; if one were to eradicate the Ahrimanic element, one could no longer do justice to the sense world in its full significance. One brings oneself into the right relationship with one of these elements if one creates the right counterbalance in the other. All the harmful effects of these world entities stem solely from the fact that they come into their own here or there without restriction and are not brought into the right harmony by the opposing force.