Cosmology, Religion and Philosophy
GA 25
IX. The Destination of the Ego-consciousness in Conjunction with the Christ-problem
[ 1 ] The life of the soul in its earthly existence is passed in the facts of thinking, feeling and willing. In thinking we have a mirrored picture of the experience of the astral organism and the ego-being within the physical sense-world. These higher parts of the human nature were also experienced during the state of sleep. But this experience remains unconscious during the stay on earth. The soul is then too weak in its inner being to present its own content to its consciousness. As soon as the consciousness perceives this content, it takes it for a purely psycho-spiritual one.
[ 2 ] In awaking the astral organism and the ego enter into the etheric and physical organisms. Through thinking the sense-perceptions are experienced by the etheric organisms. But in this experience it is not the world surrounding man, which is active, but a copy of this world. In this copy the sum-total of the formative powers underlying the earthly course of man manifests itself. And a copy of the outer world is present in man at every instant. Man does not directly experience this thinking, but its reflection is presented to ordinary consciousness by the physical organism.
[ 3 ] Ordinary consciousness cannot perceive what is happening behind the reflective activity of thinking in the physical organism, it can only perceive the result, namely the reflected images, presented as thoughts. These unperceived happenings in the physical organism are activities of the etheric and astral organism and of the ego. In his thoughts man perceives what he himself is enacting in his physical organism as a psycho-spiritual being. [ 4 ] There is in the etheric organism a copy of the outer world as inner activity, filling the physical organism. In the astral organism there exists a copy of the pre-earthly existence; in the ego exists the eternal central being of man.
[ 5 ] In the etheric organism the outer world is active in man. In the astral organism continues to be active whatever man has experienced in the pre-earthly existence. This activity has not changed in kind during its earthly existence from what it was in its pre-earthly existence. It was of a kind which occurred in a spiritually changed physical organism. In the waking state it is similar. The inner head-organization of man strives continually to be changed from a physical state into a spiritual one. But this change can only remain a tendency during earthly existence. The physical organization resists it. Precisely at the moment at which the astral organism in its changing activity arrives at a point at which the inner physical head-organization would have to cease as a physical one, the state of sleep intervenes. It replenishes the inner head-organization with strength from the rest of the physical organization by means of which it can continue in the physical world.
[ 6 ] This strength lies in the etheric organism, which grows less and less differentiated inside the head-organization during the waking state. During sleep however it is differentiated internally into definite formations. In those formations are manifest the forces which during existence on earth act in rebuilding the physical organism.
[ 7 ] In the head-organization a two-fold activity is thus enacted during the waking state; one building up through the etheric organism and one tearing down, that is, one which destroys the physical organism. This destruction takes place through the astral organism.
[ 8 ] Through this astral activity man carries death in him continually during his existence on earth. Only this death is vanquished day by day by forces opposing it. But we owe to these constantly acting death tendencies the ordinary consciousness. For in the dying life of the head-organization is found that which is capable of reflecting the soul activity as thought-experience. An organically-growing activity urging towards life cannot produce a tissue of thought. For that a tendency towards death is required. The organically-growing activity reduces the machinery of thought to stupor or unconsciousness.
[ 9 ] What finally happens to the whole human organism in physical death accompanies human life during existence on earth as a tendency, as an always recurring beginning of death. And to this continued dying within him man owes his ordinary consciousness. Before this consciousness stand the etheric and the physical organism as non-transparent things; man does not see them but the thought-reflections mirrored by them and experienced by him in his soul. The physical and etheric organizations hide for him the astral organization and the Ego; and just because the consciousness of soul is filled by the reflections of the physical organism during existence on earth man is prevented from seeing his etheric and astral organization and his Ego.
[ 10 ] In death the physical organism separates from the etheric and astral one and from the Ego. Now man carries his etheric and astral organism and his ego in himself. Through the casting off of the physical organism the obstacle to man's perceiving the etheric organism has been removed. The picture of his life on earth just passed through stands before man's soul. For this picture is only the expression of the formative powers, which in their sum represent the etheric body.
[ 11 ] What is present in the etheric body has been woven into man from the etheric part of the Cosmos. He can never be entirely free of the Cosmos. The Cosmic-etheric act continues inside the human organization and this continuation inside man is the etheric organism. Thus it is when after death man becomes conscious of his etheric organism this consciousness begins already to change into a cosmic one. Man feels the world ether as well as his etheric organism as part of himself. This actually means that the etheric body dissolves after a very short while in the world ether. Man keeps that part which was bound to the physical and etheric organism during existence on earth, namely, his astral organism and his ego.
[ 12 ] The astral being is never wholly incorporated into the physical organism. The head-organization represents a total transformation of this astral organism and the Ego. But in everything that can be called the rhythmical organization of man, in the processes of breathing, blood-circulation, etc. the astral organization and the Ego continue to live with a certain independence, for their activities are not reflected by these processes as they are by the head-organization. The astral organization and the Ego can blend with the rhythmical processes. This union brings about a Being, of spirit and of body known to the ordinary consciousness as the ‘Feeling’ life. In man's Feeling life the astral organism and the Ego are united with man's experiences. [ 13 ] We must look at this union in its details. Let us assume that man has created something within the world of the senses. For his psychic life things do not remain there. He judges his own act. But this judgment is not only happening in the life of thought, the impulse towards it is derived from the astral organism, which in conjunction with the rhythmical processes also manifests itself in physical life. To thought-life which is passed in reflex pictures is added a reflection of moral judgment, which appears within the reflected thought-world as itself only bearing the character of the reflected thought-thing. But in the astral-rhythmical organism it lives in reality. This reality does not enter into the ordinary consciousness during existence on earth. Its entry is prevented because the physical rhythmical processes are felt more strongly than the spiritual processes accompanying them. When the physical organism is discarded in death and the physical rhythmical processes are no longer there, then the importance of the death of man to the spiritual-cosmic world is realized by the cosmic consciousness. This cosmic consciousness is formed after the separation from the etheric organism. In this state a man looks upon himself as a moral being as in earthly life he looked upon himself as a physical being. He now has an inner life formed by the moral quality of his activity on earth. He looks upon his astral organism. But the spiritual-cosmic world breaks in upon this astral organism. Whatever judgment this world pronounces on man's earthly activities is presented as facts to his soul.
[ 14 ] In death a man enters a form of experiences of another rhythm than during existence on earth. This rhythm appears as a cosmic imitation of his activity on earth. And into this imitative experience the spirit-cosmos enters continually as does the air into the lungs in breathing during existence on earth. In conscious cosmic experience we have a rhythm of which the physical one is a copy. Through the cosmic rhythm the activities of man on earth as a world of moral qualities are united to an amoral world. And man experiences after his death this moral kernel of a future cosmos, ripening within the cosmos, which will not only exist in a purely natural order like the present, but in a moral-natural one. The chief feeling passing through the soul during this experience in a cosmic world in the making is expressed by the question: Shall I be worthy to form part of a moral-natural order of things in a future existence?
[ 15 ] In my book Theosophy I have called the world of experience through which man passes after his death, the ‘Soul-world’. It is the consciousness of this world through ‘Inspiration’ which gives us material for a real Cosmology. Just as an ‘Imaginative cognition’ of the actual course of human life gives us material for a true philosophy.
[ 16 ] Man's soul cannot gain sufficient impulses out of that cosmic consciousness into which the cosmic after-effect of man's activities on earth have been reaching, to prepare spiritually for the future physical organism. This organism would be spoilt if the soul remained in a soul-world. It must enter into a world of experience in which the non-human, spiritual impulses of the cosmos are active. I have called this world the ‘Spirit-Land’ in the same book.
[ 17 ] The ancient Initiates were able to say to their followers out of the knowledge gained by initiation: That Spiritual Being, who, in the physical world, shows his reflected glory in the Sun, will meet you after death in the spiritual world. He will lead you out of the soul world into the Spirit Land; under His guidance you will be purified, so that you will be able to prepare a physical organism for the next world during your stay in the Spirit land.
[ 18 ] At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and during the first Christian centuries the Initiates had to tell their followers: The degree of Ego consciousness to which you will attain during existence on earth will by its own nature on earth be so light that its antithesis which will begin after death will be so dark that you will not be able to see the spiritual sun-guide. Therefore the sun-being has descended on earth as Christ and has consummated the Mystery of Golgotha. If therefore during your existence on earth you already let yourself be permeated by a lively feeling of your connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, then its significance will become part of life on earth and will continue to be active in man after death. You can then recognize the Christ-guide through this result. [ 19 ] After the Fourth Century this old initiated knowledge was lost in the course of human development. A renewed Christian Religious knowledge should introduce once more from inspiration into cosmological science Christ's deed for humanity even into experiences after death. To expound how the events of human existence on earth, hidden by Will, have their effects even after death, will be the task of the next study.
IX. Das Ereignis des Todes im Zusammenhang mit dem Christus
[ 1 ] Das Seelenleben im Erdendasein vollzieht sich in den Tatsachen des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens. Im Denken erscheint ein Spiegelbild dessen, was der astralische Organismus und die Ich-Wesenheit innerhalb der physisch-sinnlichen Welt erleben. Ein anderes Erleben dieser höhern Glieder der Menschenwesenheit geschieht während des Schlafzustandes. Aber dieses Erleben bleibt im Erdendasein unbewußt. Die Seele ist da in ihrem Innern zu schwach, um ihren eigenen Inhalt sich selbst vor das Bewußtsein zu stellen. Sobald das schauende Bewußtsein diesen Inhalt erlebt, stellt er sich als ein rein geistig-seelischer dar.
[ 2 ] Mit dem Erwachen treten der astralische Organismus und die Ich-Wesenheit in den ätherischen und physischen Organismus ein. Durch das Denken werden die Sinneswahrnehmungen im ätherischen Organismus erlebt. Aber in diesem Erleben ist nicht die Welt wirksam, die den Menschen umgibt, sondern eine Nachbildung dieser Welt. In dieser Nachbildung offenbart sich die Summe der bildenden Kräfte, die dem Erden-Lebenslauf des Menschen zugrunde liegen. In jedem Lebensaugenblicke ist eine solche Nachbildung der Außenwelt im Menschen vorhanden. Der Mensch erlebt diese Nachbildung durch das Denken nicht direkt, sondern es stellt sich deren Reflexion durch den physischen Organismus als Gedankeninhalt vor das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein.
[ 3 ] Was hinter der reflektierenden Tätigkeit des Denkens im physischen Organismus vor sich geht, das kann durch das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein nicht wahrgenommen werden, sondern nur das Ergebnis, welches die als Gedanken sich darstellenden reflektierten Bilder sind. Diese nicht wahrgenommenen Vorgänge im physischen Organismus sind Tätigkeiten des ätherischen und astralischen Organismus und der Ich-Wesenheit. Der Mensch nimmt in seinen Gedanken dasjenige wahr, was er selbst als seelisch-geistiges Wesen in seinem physischen Organismus bewirkt.
[ 4 ] Im ätherischen Organismus lebt eine Nachbildung der äußeren Welt als eine innere Tätigkeit, die den physischen Organismus erfüllt. Im astralischen Organismus lebt ein Nachbild des vorirdischen Daseins; in der Ich-Wesenheit lebt der ewige Wesenskern des Menschen.
[ 5] Im ätherischen Organismus ist die äußere Welt im Menschen tätig. Im astralischen Organismus ist dasjenige nachwirkend tätig, was der Mensch im vorirdischen Dasein erlebt hat. Diese Tätigkeit ist ihrem Wesen nach während des Erdendaseins keine andere geworden, als sie während des vorirdischen Daseins war. Sie war eine solche, die im geistig verwandelten physischen Organismus sich vollzog. Im Wachzustand ist sie eine ähnliche. Die innere Kopforganisation des Menschen ist in einem fortwährenden Bestreben begriffen, aus dem physischen Zustand in einen geistigen umgewandelt zu werden. Aber diese Umwandlung tritt während des Erdendaseins nur als Anlage auf. Die physische Organisation leistet Widerstand. In dem Augenblicke, in dem der astralische Organismus in seiner umwandelnden Tätigkeit an dem Punkte angekommen ist, an dem die innere physische Kopforganisation als physische zerfallen müßte, tritt der Schlafzustand ein. Dieser führt der inneren Kopforganisation aus dem übrigen physischen Organismus wieder die Kräfte zu, durch die sie in der physischen Welt bestehen kann.
[ 6 ] Diese Kräfte liegen im ätherischen Organismus. Dieser wird während des Wachzustandes innerhalb der Kopf-Organisation immer undifferenzierter; während des Schlafzustandes differenziert er sich innerlich zu bestimmten Gestaltungen. In diesen Gestaltungen offenbaren sich die Kräfte, die während des Erdendaseins für den physischen Organismus aufbauend wirken.
[ 7 ] In der Kopforganisation vollzieht sich also während des Wachzustandes eine zweifache Tätigkeit: eine aufbauende durch den ätherischen Organismus und eine abbauende, das ist eine solche, welche die physische Organisation zerstört. Diese Zerstörung wird durch den astralischen Organismus bewirkt.
[ 8 ] Durch diese astralische Tätigkeit hat der Mensch den Tod während seines Erdendaseins dauernd in sich. Dieser Tod wird nur jeden Tag durch die ihm entgegenwirkenden Kräfte besiegt. Aber den fortwährend sich vollziehenden Todeswirkungen verdankt man das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein. Denn in dem ersterbenden Leben der Kopforganisation liegt dasjenige, was geeignet wird, die Seelentätigkeit als Gedanken-Erleben zu reflektieren. Eine zum Leben drängende organisch-sprossende Tätigkeit kann kein Gedankenweben hervorbringen. Dazu ist eine nach dem Sterben hin tendierende notwendig. Die organisch-sprossende Tätigkeit dämpft das Gedankenweben zur Betäubung oder Bewußtlosigkeit herab.
[ 9 ] Was sich im physischen Tode einmal mit dem ganzen menschlichen Organismus vollzieht, das begleitet das menschliche Dasein während des Erdenlebens als eine Anlage, ja als ein sich fortwährend bildender Anfang des Sterbens immer fort. Und diesem Ersterben in sich verdankt der Mensch sein gewöhnliches Bewußtsein. Vor dieses Bewußtsein stellen sich der ätherische und der physische Organismus hin wie undurchsichtige Wesenheiten; der Mensch schaut nicht sie, sondern die Gedankenspiegelbilder, die sie ihm zurückwerfen und die er in seiner Seele erlebt. Die physische und ätherische Organisation verdecken ihm die astralische Organisation und die Ich-Wesenheit. Weil das Bewußtsein der Seele durch die Reflexion des physischen Organismus im gewöhnlichen Erdendasein erfüllt ist, kann der Mensch seine ätherische und astralische Organisation sowie seine Ich-Wesenheit nicht wahrnehmen.
[ 10 ] Mit dem Tode löst sich der physische Organismus von dem ätherischen und astralischen und von der Ich-Wesenheit los. Der Mensch trägt nun seinen ätherischen und astralischen Organismus sowie seine Ich-Wesenheit an sich. Durch das Wegfallen des physischen Organismus ist für das Bewußtwerden der ätherischen Organisation durch den Menschen kein Hindernis mehr da. Vor die Menschenseele tritt das Bild des eben verflossenen Erden-lebens. Denn dieses Bild ist nur der Ausdruck der gestaltenden Bildekräfte, welche in ihrer Summe den ätherischen Leib darstellen.
[ 11 ] Was so im ätherischen Leib lebt, ist aus dem ätherischen Wesen des Kosmos in den Menschen hineingewoben. Es kann sich nie ganz vom Kosmos ablösen. Es setzt sich das kosmisch-ätherische Geschehen in die menschliche Organisation herein fort; und die innermenschliche Fortsetzung ist der Ätherorganismus. Daher kommt es, daß in dem Momente, in dem nach dem Tode der Mensch in seiner ätherischen Organisation sich bewußt wird, dieses Bewußtsein auch schon beginnt, sich in ein kosmisches Bewußtsein umzuwandeln. Der Mensch fühlt den Weltenäther geradeso wie seinen Ätherorganismus als etwas, was in seiner eigenen Wesenheit ist. Das heißt aber in Wirklichkeit: der Ätherleib löst sich nach ganz kurzer Zeit im Weltenäther auf. Der Mensch behält sein Inneres, das während des Erdendaseins an den physischen und ätherischen Organismus gebunden war, seinen astralischen Organismus und seine Ich-Wesenheit zurück.
[ 12 ] Die astralische Wesenheit ist nie ganz in den physischen Organismus eingegliedert. Die Kopforganisation stellt eine völlige Umwandlung dieses astralischen Organismus und der Ich-Wesenheit dar. Aber in allem, was rhythmische Organisation des Menschen ist, in dem Atmungsvorgange, der Blutzirkulation und in den andern rhythmischen Prozessen leben die astralische Organisation und die Ich-Wesenheit mit einer gewissen Selbständigkeit fort. Deren Tätigkeiten werden durch diese Prozesse nicht so reflektiert wie durch die Kopforganisation. Mit den rhythmischen Vorgängen vereinigen sich die astralische Organisation und die Ich-Wesenheit. Es entsteht da eine geistig-physische Wesenheit, die im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein als Gefühlsleben zur Erscheinung kommt. In dem Gefühlsleben verbindet sich dasjenige, was der Mensch durch seine Gedanken mit der Sinneswelt zusammen erlebt, mit dem astralischen Organismus und der Ich-Wesenheit.
[ 13 ] Man muß diese Verbindung in ihren Einzelheiten betrachten. Man nehme an: der Mensch vollbringe etwas in der Sinnenwelt. Es bleibt für sein Seelenleben nicht bei dem äußeren Geschehen. Er beurteilt die eigene Tat. Dieses Beurteilen geschieht aber nicht im Gedankenleben allein, sondern der Impuls dazu kommt aus dem astralischen Organismus, der in der Vereinigung mit den rhythmischen Vorgängen sich auch im physischen Dasein offenbart. In das Gedankenleben, das in Reflexbildern verläuft, fügt sich ein Abglanz des moralischen Urteilens ein. Dieser Abglanz erscheint innerhalb der reflektierten Gedankenwelt selbst mit dem Charakter der bloß reflektierten Gedankenwesenheit. Im astralisch-rhythmischen Organismus lebt er aber in seiner Wirklichkeit. Diese Wirklichkeit tritt während des Erdendaseins nicht in das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein ein. Der Eintritt wird dadurch verhindert, dass die physischen rhythmischen Prozesse stärker gefühlt werden als ihre geistigen Begleitprozesse. Ist im Tode der physische Organismus abgeworfen, sind die physischen rhythmischen Prozesse nicht mehr im Menschen-Erleben da, dann tritt in das kosmische Bewußtsein die Anschauung von dem, was die Taten des Menschen vor der geistig-kosmischen Welt bedeuten. Dieses kosmische Bewußtsein bildet sich aus, nachdem der ätherische Organismus ausgeschieden ist. Der Mensch schaut sich in diesem Zustande selbst als moralische Gestaltung an, wie er sich im Erdendasein als physische Gestaltung angesehen hat. Er hat jetzt ein Inneres, das gestaltet ist von der moralischen Qualität seiner Erdenbetätigung. Er schaut seinen astralischen Organismus an. Aber in diesen astralischen Organismus leuchtet die geistig-kosmische Welt hinein. Was sie zu den im Erden-dasein vollbrachten Menschentaten sagt, das steht als ein Tatsachenbild vor der Menschenseele.
[ 14 ] Der Mensch tritt mit dem Tode in eine Form des Erlebens ein, in der er einen andern Rhythmus erlebt als im Erdendasein. Dieser Rhythmus erscheint wie in einer kosmischen Nachbildung der Erdenbetätigung. Und in dieses Nach-Erleben strömt fortwährend das Leben des Geist-Kosmos herein wie im Erdenleben die Atemluft in die Lunge. In dem bewußten kosmischen Erleben erscheint ein Rhythmus, von dem der physische ein Abbild ist. Durch den kosmischen Rhythmus gliedert sich, was durch den Menschen im Erdendasein geschieht, als eine Welt mit moralischen Qualitäten in eine amoralische Welt ein. Und der Mensch erlebt nach seinem Tode diesen im Schoße des Kosmos sich ausbildenden moralischen Wesenskern eines künftigen Kosmos, der nicht nur wie (1er gegenwärtige in einer rein natürlichen Ordnung sich ausleben wird, sondern in einer moralisch-natürlichen. Die Grundempfindung, welche die Seele durchzieht während dieses Erlebens in einer werdenden kosmischen Welt, ist ihr durch die Frage gegeben: werde ich würdig sein, mich in einem kommenden Dasein in die moralisch-natürliche Weltordnung einzugliedern.
[ 15 ] Ich habe die Welt der Erlebnisse, die in dieser Art der Mensch nach dem Tode durchmacht, in meinem Buche «Theosophie» die «Seelenwelt» genannt. Das durch die Inspiration auftretende Bewußtsein von dieser Welt gibt erst den Inhalt für eine wahre Kosmologie, wie eine imaginative Erkenntnis des realen menschlichen Lebenslaufes den Inhalt ergibt für eine wahre Philosophie.
[ 16 ] Aus demjenigen kosmischen Bewußtsein heraus, in das die kosmische Nachwirkung der menschlichen Erdentaten hineinwirkt, können nicht die ausreichenden Impulse gewonnen werden, aus denen die Menschenseele im Geistigen den kommenden physischen Organismus vorbereiten kann. Dieser Organismus würde verdorben werden, wenn die Seele in der Seelenwelt verbleiben würde. Sie muß in eine Welt des Erlebens eintreten, in der die außermenschlichen geistigen Impulse des Kosmos wirken. Ich habe diese Welt in dem genannten Buche das «Geisterland» genannt.
[ 17 ] Die alten Initiierten konnten aus ihrem durch die Initiation erworbenen Wissen ihren Bekennern sagen: das geistige Wesen, das in der physischen Welt in der Sonne seinen Abglanz hat, werdet ihr nach dem Tode in der geistigen Welt finden. Es wird euch aus der Seelenwelt in das Geisterland führen. Ihr werdet durch seine Führung gereinigt werden, so daß ihr im Geisterland fähig werdet, einen weltgemäßen physischen Organismus vorzubereiten.
[ 18 ] Die Initiierten zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha und die der ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte mußten zu ihren Bekennern sagen: Der Grad des Ich-Bewußtseins, den ihr während des Erdendaseins erlanget, wird durch sein eigenes Wesen auf Erden so hell, daß sein Gegenpol, der nach dem Tode auftritt, so dunkel ist, daß ihr den geistigen Sonnenführer nicht sehen könntet. Deshalb ist das Sonnenwesen als Christus auf die Erde herabgestiegen und hat das Mysterium von Golgatha vollbracht. Durchdringet ihr euch nun schon während der Erdenzeit mit einem lebendigen Gefühle eures Zusammenhanges mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, so wird dessen Sinn dem Erdenleben eingegliedert und wirkt in der Menschenwesenheit nach dem Tode fort. Ihr könnt dann den Christusführer durch diese Nachwirkung erkennen. -
[ 19 ] Vom vierten Jahrhundert an ist dieses alte initiierte Wissen innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung verlorengegangen. Eine erneute christliche Religionserkenntnis muß auch das Wirken Christi für die Menschheit bis in die Erlebnisse nach dem Tode hinaus aus der Inspiration wieder in die kosmologische Wissenschaft einführen. Wie das im Wollen verborgene Geschehen des menschlichen Erdendaseins bis nach dem Tode hinaus wirkt, das zu schildern bleibt nun die Aufgabe der nächsten Darstellung.
IX. The event of death in connection with the Christ
[ 1 ] The life of the soul in earthly existence takes place in the facts of thinking, feeling and willing. In thinking appears a mirror image of what the astral organism and the I-entity experience within the physical-sensual world. Another experience of these higher members of the human being occurs during the state of sleep. But this experience remains unconscious in earthly existence. The soul is too weak within itself to present its own content to consciousness. As soon as the seeing consciousness experiences this content, it presents itself as a purely spiritual-mental one.
[ 2 ] With awakening, the astral organism and the I-entity enter the etheric and physical organism. Through thinking, the sensory perceptions are experienced in the etheric organism. But in this experience it is not the world that surrounds the human being that is active, but an imitation of this world. This reproduction reveals the sum of the formative forces that underlie the course of man's life on earth. In every moment of life such a replica of the outside world is present in man. The human being does not experience this reproduction directly through thinking, but its reflection through the physical organism presents itself as thought content before the ordinary consciousness.
[ 3 ] What goes on behind the reflective activity of thinking in the physical organism cannot be perceived by the ordinary consciousness, but only the result, which are the reflected images that present themselves as thoughts. These unperceived processes in the physical organism are activities of the etheric and astral organism and the I-entity. The human being perceives in his thoughts that which he himself, as a soul-spiritual being, brings about in his physical organism.
[ 4 ] In the etheric organism lives an imitation of the outer world as an inner activity that fills the physical organism. In the astral organism lives a replica of the pre-earthly existence; in the ego-entity lives the eternal essence of man.
[ 5] In the etheric organism, the outer world is active in the human being. In the astral organism, that which the human being experienced in the pre-earthly existence is still active. In essence, this activity has become no different during the earthly existence than it was during the pre-earthly existence. It was one that took place in the spiritually transformed physical organism. It is similar in the waking state. The inner head organization of the human being is in a continuous effort to be transformed from the physical state into a spiritual one. However, this transformation only occurs as an investment during earthly existence. The physical organization offers resistance. At the moment when the astral organism in its transforming activity has reached the point where the inner physical head organization would have to disintegrate as a physical one, the sleep state occurs. This state provides the inner head organization with the forces from the rest of the physical organism through which it can exist in the physical world.
[ 6 ] These powers lie in the etheric organism. During the waking state, this becomes increasingly undifferentiated within the head organization; during the sleeping state, it differentiates itself inwardly into certain forms. These formations reveal the forces that have a constructive effect on the physical organism during the earthly existence.
[ 7 ] There is thus a twofold activity taking place in the head organization during the waking state: a constructive one through the etheric organism and a destructive one, that is, one that destroys the physical organization. This destruction is brought about by the astral organism.
[ 8 ] Through this astral activity, man has death permanently within him during his earthly existence. This death is only defeated every day by the forces working against it. But ordinary consciousness is owed to the constantly occurring effects of death. For in the dying life of the head organization lies that which becomes capable of reflecting the activity of the soul as thought-experience. An organic-sprouting activity pushing towards life cannot bring forth a weaving of thoughts. For this, an activity tending towards death is necessary. The organic-sprouting activity dampens the thought-weaving down to numbness or unconsciousness.
[ 9 ] What takes place with the whole human organism once in physical death always accompanies human existence during earthly life as a disposition, indeed as a continually forming beginning of dying. And man owes his ordinary consciousness to this first dying within himself. The etheric and physical organisms stand before this consciousness like opaque entities; man does not see them, but the mirror images of thought which they reflect back to him and which he experiences in his soul. The physical and etheric organization conceal the astral organization and the I-entity. Because the consciousness of the soul is filled by the reflection of the physical organism in the ordinary earthly existence, man cannot perceive his etheric and astral organization as well as his I-entity.
[ 10 ] With death, the physical organism detaches itself from the etheric and astral and from the ego-entity. The human being now carries his etheric and astral organism as well as his ego-entity. The removal of the physical organism means that there is no longer any obstacle to man's becoming conscious of the etheric organization. Before the human soul comes the image of the earthly life that has just passed. For this image is only the expression of the formative formative forces, which in their sum constitute the etheric body.
[ 11 ] What thus lives in the etheric body is woven into the human being from the etheric being of the cosmos. It can never completely detach itself from the cosmos. The cosmic-etheric events continue into the human organization; and the inner-human continuation is the etheric organism. Hence it is that at the moment when man becomes conscious of his etheric organization after death, this consciousness already begins to transform itself into a cosmic consciousness. Man feels the world ether just as he feels his etheric organism as something that is in his own being. In reality, however, this means that the etheric body dissolves into the world ether after a very short time. The human being retains his inner being, which was bound to the physical and etheric organism during his earthly existence, his astral organism and his I-entity.
[ 12 ] The astral entity is never fully integrated into the physical organism. The head organization represents a complete transformation of this astral organism and the I-entity. But in everything that is the rhythmic organization of the human being, in the breathing process, the blood circulation and in the other rhythmic processes, the astral organization and the I-entity live on with a certain independence. Their activities are not reflected by these processes in the same way as by the head organization. With the rhythmic processes, the astral organization and the I-entity unite. There arises a spiritual-physical entity which appears in ordinary consciousness as emotional life. In the emotional life, that which the human being experiences through his thoughts together with the sensory world connects with the astral organism and the ego entity.
[ 13 ] This connection must be considered in detail. Let us assume that man accomplishes something in the world of the senses. His soul life is not limited to the external event. He judges his own deed. However, this judgment does not take place in the thought life alone, but the impulse for it comes from the astral organism, which also manifests itself in physical existence in union with the rhythmic processes. A reflection of moral judgment is inserted into the life of thought, which proceeds in reflex images. This reflection appears within the reflected world of thought itself with the character of the merely reflected thought entity. In the astral-rhythmic organism, however, it lives in its reality. This reality does not enter the ordinary consciousness during the earthly existence. Entry is prevented by the fact that the physical rhythmic processes are felt more strongly than their accompanying spiritual processes. When the physical organism is thrown off at death, when the physical rhythmic processes are no longer present in the human experience, then the view of what man's deeds mean before the spiritual-cosmic world enters the cosmic consciousness. This cosmic consciousness develops after the etheric organism has been eliminated. In this state man sees himself as a moral formation, just as he saw himself as a physical formation in his earthly existence. He now has an inner being that is shaped by the moral quality of his earthly activity. He looks at his astral organism. But the spiritual-cosmic world shines into this astral organism. What it says about the human deeds accomplished in earthly existence stands before the human soul as a factual image.
[ 14 ] With death, man enters a form of experience in which he experiences a different rhythm than in earthly existence. This rhythm appears as if in a cosmic replica of earthly activity. And the life of the spirit-cosmos continually flows into this after-experience as the air breathed into the lungs in earthly life. In the conscious cosmic experience a rhythm appears of which the physical is an image. Through the cosmic rhythm, what happens through the human being in earthly existence is integrated as a world with moral qualities into an amoral world. And after his death, the human being experiences this moral essence of a future cosmos that is forming in the bosom of the cosmos, which will not only live itself out in a purely natural order like the present one, but in a moral-natural one. The basic feeling that pervades the soul during this experience in a becoming cosmic world is given to it by the question: will I be worthy to integrate myself into the moral-natural world order in a coming existence?
[ 15 ] In my book "Theosophy" I have called the world of experiences, which man undergoes after death in this way, the "soul world". The consciousness of this world that arises through inspiration provides the content for a true cosmology, just as an imaginative realization of the real course of human life provides the content for a true philosophy.
[ 16 ] From that cosmic consciousness into which the cosmic after-effects of human earthly deeds work, the sufficient impulses cannot be gained from which the human soul in the spiritual can prepare the coming physical organism. This organism would be corrupted if the soul remained in the world of the soul. It must enter a world of experience in which the extra-human spiritual impulses of the cosmos are at work. I have called this world the "spirit land" in the aforementioned book.
[ 17 ] The old initiates could tell their confessors from the knowledge they had acquired through initiation: the spiritual being, which has its reflection in the sun in the physical world, you will find in the spiritual world after death. It will lead you from the world of souls into the land of spirits. You will be purified through its guidance so that you will be able to prepare a worldly physical organism in the spirit land.
[ 18 ] The initiates at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and those of the first Christian centuries had to say to their confessors: The degree of ego-consciousness which you attain during earthly existence becomes so bright through its own being on earth that its opposite pole, which appears after death, is so dark that you would not be able to see the spiritual sun guide. That is why the sun being descended to earth as Christ and accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha. If you now imbue yourselves during your time on earth with a living feeling of your connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, its meaning will be incorporated into your earthly life and will continue to work in the human being after death. You can then recognize the Christ leader through this after-effect. -
[ 19 ] From the fourth century onwards, this ancient initiated knowledge has been lost within the development of humanity. A renewed Christian knowledge of religion must also reintroduce the work of Christ for humanity into cosmological science from inspiration into the experiences after death. How the events of human existence on earth, hidden in the will, continue to have an effect after death, remains the task of the next presentation.