The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. The Beings of the Astral World

[ 1 ] An ancient writer, Olympiodorus, occasionally mentions Odysseus’s journey to Hades in his commentary on a work by Plato. We know, of course, that the great Homeric epic, the *Odyssey*, tells us that Odysseus also descended into the underworld. Anyone who understands the language of the Greek initiates who wrote such things will know that the descent into the underworld always signifies initiation into the mysteries, the crossing of the gate of death even while still alive. In our particular case, it also signifies becoming acquainted with the astral world. This descent of Odysseus into the underworld, then, means nothing other than that Odysseus becomes acquainted with the astral world. Among other things, we are told that Odysseus saw three deceased figures in the underworld: Tityos, Sisyphus, and Tantalus. He saw the first, Tityos, lying on the ground while two vultures were devouring his liver. He saw Tantalus standing by a lake, suffering from a burning thirst; whenever he bent down to drink, the water dried up, so that he could not reach it. He also suffered from hunger. Above him was a tree bearing apples; but whenever he tried to reach it, it slipped from his grasp. These are images meant to show us the forms that human desires take in the astral world after death, how humans cling to desires, and how they play out. The first, Tityos, lies on the earth, and an evil power—a vulture—gnaws at his liver. This indicates that he was attached to a base, sensual life and that this base, sensual life cannot bring satisfaction in the long run. Sisyphus, the greedy one, is tormented by the fact that he can never satisfy his desires, which arise anew again and again. Tantalus clings to the images of a fantastical imagination and must endure the eternal dissatisfaction of such an imagination.

[ 2 ] These are images of our astral life. Those whose eyes are opened to the astral world can speak only in such images. The seer knows how inadequate the words of our daily life are to describe what he sees in the astral world. Our language can be only a very meager means of expression to put into words what needs to be described. That is why today I will be able to offer you little else but images, visual representations of the beings that become known to those whose seer’s gaze is opened. These are beings that populate our space, even though we do not perceive them in physical life. The astral world is full of colors that the seer perceives as an external reality. Anyone who directs their gaze solely to the outer appearance of a human being and sees the whole being of that person only in that is like someone who would claim that a person has disappeared if they have entered through the door of a house and are no longer visible. We know that they are still present and merely concealed by the wall of the house. And just as the wall of the house conceals him, so the physicality of the human being conceals what we are now speaking of; it conceals it because it is invisible to the ordinary senses. Thus, beings that have no physical form are also present in the astral realm, although they do not become visible to the physical eye. And all of you are present in the astral realm just as you are in the physical realm.

[ 3 ] The first thing a person encounters upon entering the astral realm—that is, what they see when their astral eye is opened—is this: they find themselves enveloped in the astral body. It is within this astral body that all desires, passions, sensations, and so on surge. There we see clearly what is otherwise hidden within human nature. Everything hidden becomes visible when we observe this human aura. From it flows out, in wave-like movements with a certain luminosity, what I have called the astral—the whole sensory nature of the human being.

[ 4 ] I would like to mention a few details that will show you how many things we otherwise find incomprehensible become immediately understandable. One can often observe that certain people, when standing at the edge of an abyss, display an irresistible urge to throw themselves into it, even though they resist it with all their might. Or one can see what thoughts pass through a person’s soul when they hold a knife in their hand. All these things have their deep roots in the human astral body. They are based on the fact that in the astral realm we have a completely different being than the one that appears to us in our human form. However, they are subject to fate, to karma. Anyone who has certain desires in life has gone through experiences in a previous life that may have been pushed deep into the background by the present mind. But they lie dormant in the astral body. Suppose someone took part in a cruel war in a past life; then you will see in their aura how, through their karma, all these cruelties have been woven into their astral body, with which they must now wage hard struggles in their present physical life. Just as threads are spun between a past life and the present one, so too are threads spun from the present into future lives. The seer sees all of this. He sees how a person’s karma takes shape, and he also sees, for example, how a person, out of prudence, tries to suppress a tendency or how he represses feelings. The seer sees down to the very depths of the soul. Those who possess the gift of seeing do not regard it as a desirable gift that brings joy in all cases, especially not when people harbor feelings they would be better off without. And for the beginner, the chela, it is often disastrous, for he is easily drawn to all that he now beholds.

[ 5 ] In the astral realm, we find the essence of human waking and sleeping. What does that mean: waking and sleeping? It is something that the average person accepts without having a precise and definite concept of it. What lives within us is something that people in our present epoch do not immediately recognize. The higher self rests within the human being. He thinks and acts from the higher self. But the human being of the fifth root race [of the present epoch] does not see this higher self. All that consciousness offers us is merely a reflection of the higher self. Human beings see themselves only as a reflection; their brain is the mirror. What the brain reflects back is not the real human being; this slumbers deep within us and cannot be seen directly. It is the physical body alone that can grow weary; during sleep, it ceases its activity as a mirror. The higher self, of which the outer human being is a reflection, does not tire; it merely withdraws more or less from the physical. While the body sleeps, freed from outer physicality, it leaves the outer human being and can carry out its activity in the astral space. The seer observes this activity in the astral space.

[ 6 ] At the present stage of development, human beings leave their bodies during sleep. They wander through the astral world, sometimes traveling great distances from their physical bodies, where they encounter other beings of the astral world and exchange thoughts with them. Yet when the person awakens, they do not remember this. This is related to their current stage of development. However, development can reach ever higher levels. The student who learns under the guidance of a so-called Master can gradually make their consciousness continuous and enduring. Then they will be able to bring the experiences of the night into their waking consciousness as memories. When the student, the chela, has attained a continuous consciousness, he remembers what he received in the astral world. These insights of the chela are not learned in the physical world, but are experienced in the astral world and brought into his physical life. This is what Plato means when he speaks of recollection of higher states of the soul.

[ 7 ] The consciousness that constantly breaks off in the average person—the chela is able to make this a continuous process once he has attained the gift of allowing his reflection to arise not only in the physical body but also in the higher elements of human nature. For the average person, the reflection of the self arises from the solid, physical body; one might also say: he becomes conscious of himself. The one who has reached the higher stage becomes conscious of his self not only in the physical realm but also in the astral; it shines forth toward him from the astral. Thus, on the astral plane, you encounter above all the chelas, the disciples, who are capable of raising their consciousness into the astral region. Raising consciousness into the astral region is what also constitutes the content of theosophical teaching and the content of the instruction that a highly evolved Master imparts to his disciples. This interaction between Master and Chela takes place in the astral realm. Translating the teachings in the astral into physical words, into physical sentences, is what Theosophy is able to offer.

[ 8 ] We have already encountered two types of beings in the astral realm: masters and disciples. In addition, there are those people who are also psychically developed but have not received regular instruction—the somnambulists, who possess an ambiguous consciousness. They know that there are people for whom it is possible, without having received instruction from a Master, to have very special perceptions at certain times—perceptions that are independent of their senses. But only for those who penetrate the astral region through theosophical training is there no error. The theosophist knows how to distinguish between what stems from pathological conditions and what are deeper truths. When we observe somnambulists in both the waking and trance states, we see that the soul can step out of the body and become a seer. But we would not believe a word the somnambulists say if we did not have proof that this undisciplined seeing can correspond with the seeing of the seer. The student who has developed continuous consciousness, who sees astral things just as he sees tables and chairs, also knows that somnambulists sometimes perceive truths in their special states. They have the ability to temporarily lift their self out of physicality and thereby see what cannot be seen with the ordinary senses. These temporarily disembodied souls are the third type you may encounter as inhabitants of the astral space. The fourth type we encounter in the astral world is something less than pleasant: they are the destroyers and ravagers of the astral realm.

[ 9 ] I have often mentioned that our physical world was preceded by another, the fruits of which we now enjoy. We can call our Earth the cosmos of love, where humanity is trained in love until it has reached the highest level in our cycle. When we survey this development and turn our gaze to what will be in the future, we know that the Earth is a school for the unfolding of love. Yet we must also turn our gaze to what has already existed in an earlier state. Our world body was born out of another. The Earth was preceded by another world body, the ancient Moon, on which was prepared what we need to traverse our earthly path. Human beings’ physical organs were formed from what they had gone through. On the earlier planetary state, the Cosmos of Wisdom, they built up human sensation and the sensory organs. The body of sensation was built up at that time.

[ 10 ] Back when we humans began our evolution, the capacity for sensation was woven into our physical organism. Consider the wisdom that is added to the chemical constitution of the physical body through the weaving in of sensations and feelings. To purify these sensations and feelings, to refine them into ethical sensations and moral feelings—that is the task of our earthly life. Just as we have the task on Earth of developing moral sensations and feelings, so too was it in the past, in the Cosmos of Wisdom that preceded ours, the highest task of the beings to create a wise structure of the sensory organism. The beings had to devote themselves to developing sensibility. Through infinite wisdom, the functions of the senses came into being.

[ 11 ] Now consider that in the various successive cosmic states, beings have different tasks. To help you understand these different tasks, imagine a piano builder and a pianist. The piano builder must devote himself with love and dedication to the construction of the piano; he therefore has a different task than the one who is to play your piano. Both the piano builder and the pianist have their specific tasks, and both do good in their respective roles. But if the piano builder were to try to saw, plane, and hammer in the concert hall, he would only have a destructive effect there. Indeed, he is not suited for that place, no matter how great a master of piano building he may be.

[ 12 ] Thus, even in the astral world there are beings of this kind who have attained a high degree of skill in the construction of the physical organism, but who have not shed this inclination upon passing into another stage of development. They are masters at constructing the physical body, but they are as ill-suited to our current stage of development as a piano builder is to a concert hall. They have a destructive, devastating effect; they act as evil spirits in the wrong place, for they cling to forces that humanity needs as a “foundation,” yet they do not advance human development. These beings may have a high level of development, but they possess a tendency that no longer fits into our evolution; therefore, they can become dangerous to the chela, the beginner who is just learning to see into the astral world, for he may be drawn to these beings and thereby go astray.

[ 13 ] There are also other beings in the astral world—those who do not descend into a physical incarnation and manifest themselves only in the astral realm. They cannot be perceived by those whose gaze is fixed solely on the physical. These beings are noble, and their aspirations are directed solely toward the goal of human development. They have no human desires; they are not attached to earthly things; they have attained the stage of development that has enabled them to become helpers of humanity. They are not hedonists, yet we find them in the astral realm, for they await their future destiny there.

[ 14 ] To understand how this happens and what it means, we must first briefly clarify what will be the subject of the sixth lecture: the state in the Kamaloka. When a person leaves the physical body, the body is returned to the earth; the life force is also shed. Then they enter the astral world, the realm of desires. In this astral world, the human being goes through a period, then passes into Devachan, only to descend again toward reincarnation. This is the normal [post-death] development of the human being, that they pass through two worlds, the astral world and the purely spiritual world, in order to then become ripe again for the next incarnation. In this next incarnation, they then enjoy the fruits of their previous life. “God does not allow Himself to be mocked. For whatever a person sows, that they will also reap.”

[ 15 ] Bear in mind that a spiritually advanced individual could reap a rich harvest in the spiritual world. But they are free to return to Earth after a short time to help those who have lagged behind in their spiritual development. Thus, they may forgo their spiritual sojourn in Devachan and wait until a Master assigns them a new incarnation. We encounter these beings among the so-called discarnate spirits.

[ 16 ] Visible only to the most highly evolved individuals of our time are even higher beings who now rarely dwell in the astral world, because their home is in even higher realms, on even higher levels of the spiritual world. As the chela continues to develop, he acquires the ability to maintain consciousness not only in the astral but also in the even higher world—the spiritual or devachanic world—which is higher than the astral world. In this higher world, the Self is reflected to him. In the higher spiritual regions, the human being experiences himself as the mirror image he sees in the physical world. The beings who belong here are visible only to highly evolved individuals. These beings, too, can renounce what is to be understood as the highest task of our earthly existence; they can renounce “Nirvana.” Such a being can forgo Nirvana; it can return to the earthly world, to which it did not need to return at all, in order to help humanity. Such beings are called Nirmanakayas. They are able to descend from the spiritual world into the astral and physical worlds, and in order to have a “foothold” there, they assume an astral body. They do this to help humanity. These are the Nirmanakayas whom we may encounter in the astral world, albeit rarely. I am speaking here of such beings who are not visible to physical eyes, but only to those eyes that can receive impressions from the astral realm. If the eyes can perceive impressions in the astral world, then they can perceive Nirmanakayas there, as well as human beings who are between death and their next incarnation. I will speak more about this in the next lecture.

[ 17 ] In the astral world, we also encounter beings that are incomprehensible, especially to the beginner. These are beings of the highest inner mobility who assume various forms and shapes and demonstrate their connection to the world in a manner entirely different from that of the human astral body. The human astral body has a form that is, within limits, closed; it has definite contours. The astral bodies of animals do not have such definite outlines. The astral bodies of animals look quite different. They do not belong to a single being; rather, group souls exist for entire groups of animals. The individual physical animals are, as it were, attached to a common trunk, and from these individual animals, a sort of strand leads to the group souls that move the animals. You can also discover certain animal forms in the astral realm that cannot be found in the physical world. These astral bodies are human beings-in-the-making who are forming and further developing their astral bodies in order to serve as suitable vehicles for those descending from the spiritual world.

[ 18 ] But these are not all the beings of the astral world. In the astral world we also encounter beings of a nature that is difficult to describe, beings whose magnitude we cannot fathom, beings of such vastness that it is as if they extended across our entire planetary system. These beings, which encompass the entire Earth, clearly show that they have something to do with our earthly evolution, but it is difficult for earthly human beings to form a conception of them. These beings, which exist in the most diverse variations, are connected with the entirety of our evolution. They underwent a development during the earlier cycles of Earth’s evolution. Three cycles preceded our Earth, and three cycles will follow. These beings, who were called “Devas” in the oldest and even more spiritual religions, will have attained a higher stage of development by the time our Earth has reached its goal. They are conceived of as human-like because people cannot form a proper conception of them. However, those who know something of this find in it an indication of how cosmological development proceeds.

[ 19 ] When a “cosmos” begins to develop in its first, second, and third cycles, it is like a child developing during the first three years of life. This, as it were, indicates the path it will take in life. Only then does what is the actual task of the cosmos come into play; we call this the “truth” of the cosmos. On our present Earth, the truth has come to light; the three preceding rounds of the path of development represent the “path.” The “truth” is the outward manifestation of this “path” in our present earthly development. We will undergo the third part of development, “life,” when our souls have become increasingly permeated by the truth. We learn to recognize the truth, but the truth will become our life; then we will no longer need to strive to attain the truth. For now, this is still necessary to guide us toward a moral and ethical life. But in the future, this truth will permeate us; it will be the lifeblood of our existence. That is why the one who is a representative of the truth flowing through the cosmos has taken this threefold reality into his consciousness and expressed it in the words: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”