The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. The Nature of Astral Processes

[ 1 ] In the previous lecture, I spoke of the beings that can be found in the astral world. I characterized the inhabitants of this world by distinguishing between those who are currently incarnated and those who are not currently incarnated. Today I would like to speak about the processes in astral space, and I would like to provide a general description of how we should imagine the events there. Of course, we can only offer a very general outline, for the world we encounter here is so overwhelmingly vast that anyone who enters this world is overwhelmed by the abundance of phenomena, so that no one could describe the entire astral world from personal experience. Just as no one has seen the entire physical Earth, so too has no one seen the entire astral world. Since the diversity of the astral world is far greater than that of the physical Earth, you can imagine that there are many things in the astral realm of which the individual cannot give an account. However, the individual can describe a small part of it.

[ 2 ] I also count among the events in the astral realm encounters with beings whom we cannot meet in the physical world, or only in very exceptional cases. The astral realm is, so to speak, a place where beings from different worlds can meet. It is just as people can meet one another in their earthly lives; just as one person might once encounter another who lives in a completely different place, perhaps travel a short distance together, lose sight of them again, and then never meet them again. Just as this happens on a small scale, it can also occur on a large scale, and thus we can explain many things from the astral world.

[ 3 ] As human beings, we have not always existed in the world in a physical body between birth and death; rather, through a kind of cosmic evolution, we have come to the point where we must pass through three stages: physical life between birth and death, life in the Kamaloka, and life in the Devachan. Not all beings pass through these stages, and we humans, too, had a time preceding our own in which our being was much closer to the astral world. Before we had developed the ability to incarnate physically, we were beings who lived purely in the astral world and possessed astral senses. Over the course of millions of years, it was from these astral senses that our eyes and ears first developed into the physical form they have today. We were astral beings, and in the course of our evolution we will once again become astral beings.

[ 4 ] We are now in the fifth root race of the fourth round, which is the fifth epoch of humanity in the fourth round of Earth’s evolution. We have evolved through four preceding epochs and will reincarnate in three subsequent ones. Then the form our planet currently has will be replaced by another form, and we humans, too, will have a different form in place of our earthly one. We will no longer reincarnate in the same way we do today. We will once again be astral beings, entities that do not make use of the senses we have now, but rather we will be beings that act astral. We were soul beings, and we will be soul beings again when the physical globe has fulfilled its task. We pass through seven so-called “races,” often through dire conditions, and in the future we will then again be in an astral state and lead a completely different existence. We were once purely passive beings, at the mercy of impressions from the outside world, before our physical body had condensed into the physical core that first made it possible to set physical muscles in motion to perform earthly actions. We will transform again, from passive to active beings. Everything we have absorbed within us on earth, everything we have processed, will have ripened within us as fruit; we will be active beings, beings of activity.

[ 5 ] Because we still carry something of our former astral form with us, because part of it belongs to our astral body, and because the past and future intertwine within us, we continue to live in the astral world even today. And we can develop our spiritual eye so that we become just as sighted in the astral world as the average person is in the physical world. People are not aware of this because their inner eye is not open. The student’s eye, however, is gradually opened. Those who have completed the training can expect their inner eye to be opened, so that they may see what is described in theosophical teachings.

[ 6 ] We are citizens of the physical world and the astral world. In the astral world, the student also encounters beings who do not belong to our Earth, have never belonged to it, and never will. These beings have undergone different developments; they come from a completely different part of the world; they pass through our astral plane. They have only a short stretch of the astral journey to make with us. They are, as it were, like comets passing through our planetary system. Such beings are strangers to our human-earthly development; their development in the astral world will be entirely different from ours. They meet us only for a short while, only to then continue their development in a way that has nothing further to do with ours.

[ 7 ] These are facts referred to in the mystical writings of all ages. These beings, to whom the mystical writings have given various names, are nothing other than those inhabitants of the Earth who undergo their evolution separately from our own—so-called elemental beings, elemental spirits. For these beings, what they experience through humans is just as foreign as what is foreign to a human who enters the astral realm. They are mostly averse to whatever approaches them from the physical world. The chela will experience the most manifold temptations through these beings; he may be drawn to these elemental spirits and thereby easily diverted from the path laid out for him. These beings show sympathies or antipathies toward what comes to meet them from our human sphere. This was not always the case. In an earlier epoch, they were not so hostile toward physical human beings. Now, however, these beings harbor a great antipathy toward everything that comes from the physical world.

[ 8 ] These phenomena of the astral world have, of course, often been described in figurative terms. Today, many people regard them merely as folk superstitions, unaware that the expressions found in ancient writings are based on truths. In the Middle Ages, these beings—who never have a physical existence—were called gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. It is, of course, easy to speak of these things, but only those who can distinguish between superstition and reality speak of them with a full sense of responsibility. Superstition manifests itself at various levels. It is not merely the superstition that clings to us when we believe in phenomena that do not actually exist. No, superstition can also be found among the greatest scholars, even among those who believe they have thoroughly investigated nature from every angle. Belief in matter can also be a form of superstition. The student must have attained the second level of vision—spiritual vision—in order to be able to distinguish between physical reality and illusion. Then he also learns to recognize what in the literature [on elemental beings] is based on reality and what is merely fantastical.

[ 9 ] You need not imagine elemental beings as particularly highly evolved; they do not experience birth and death as humans do. Very few have undergone anything even remotely similar to human evolution. Nor do most of them have such developments ahead of them. Some come—like comets—from other planets, disappear again, and continue their existence elsewhere. What these beings accomplish is not without influence on humans. Certain processes occur in the human astral body that can be traced back to the influence of these beings. Only those who can see into the astral realm can explain such processes that may take place within the human astral body.

[ 10 ] On the astral plane, there are also beings who stand higher than humans. Religions that have some knowledge of esotericism speak of such higher beings; the Indian religion, for example, speaks of devas. Such beings have also been spoken of in the Christian religion. Gradually, this knowledge was lost in Christianity, but there are still circles that know these beings. The Devas assume a certain “physicality.” Just as humans derive their physical body from the elements of nature, and just as our physical body is the lowest element possible for us, so the lowest body of the Kama-Devas is the astral; it is composed of astral substance—in accordance with their stage of development. We call other devas Rupa-Devas. They live in Devachan, through which we pass between death and a new birth. The substance of the Rupa-Devas is the mental body, that of the Arupa-Devas the causal body. The causal body has to do with what draws us from one incarnation to the next. That which is physical matter passes away, vanishes; the corpse is returned to the earth, to the chemical and physical forces. The astral body and the lower mental body also dissolve after death. Only the one soul remains within us, which returns again and again in a new incarnation when one development has reached its goal, in order to then enter into a new development. This one soul is woven from the substance of the causal body, in which we can have recollections of past lives and recognize the entire development therein. Whoever knows these facts knows that Buddha was not speaking figuratively when he said: I remember past lives; I remember how I was born here and there, how I helped there, had children here and there; I remember the coming and passing of worlds through which I have passed, and so on. — This was spoken by this highly developed individuality, who has anticipated the stage of development that humanity will only reach in the sixth round, in which human beings will have a purely spiritual existence. Buddha has already attained this; he gained the ability to perceive the higher states. Ordinary people will only attain this later. Everyone will one day see all their past states of development pass before them. This is because something always remains, namely the finest substance of the causal body. And from this substance are formed the higher kinds of devas, the arupa-devas. These are the three types of devas we can encounter in the astral: Kama-devas, Rupa-devas, Arupa-devas. First we encounter those who are made of astral matter; but the other devas also have the ability to envelop themselves in astral matter, so that they can be seen by astral seers.

[ 11 ] Because such a person can move freely in the astral plane, he is able to communicate with the devas; an exchange of thoughts takes place. The development toward higher knowledge, the development into an adept, into a master, consists in achieving what is referred to in certain occult writings as: “The adept makes the gods his servants.” The adept gradually comes to perform deeds in these higher worlds, and among the helpers in his deeds are not merely human beings, but also such beings who never enter our earthly spheres. However, the intelligence of some Devas is lower than the wisdom of the Budhi, of self-sacrificing love, and of the creative power of wisdom. A human being can attain such a degree of this power that he surpasses most of the Devas we encounter. Then he makes them his servants. Much of what happens occurs because the Adepts have their helpers in these Deva beings, who never enter our physical spheres.

[ 12 ] People were aware of this until the 15th century; but in the 14th and early 15th centuries, all traces of accounts about the Devas were lost; these matters were no longer discussed in the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries; no one had any knowledge of these things—except in very intimate circles. It was the time when the power of the intellect was being developed. Today it is possible—at least in part—to speak again of these truths concerning the Devas, about which absolute silence has reigned for centuries; it is possible because human development is currently heading toward events in the spiritual realm that are great and significant, and because people must face these things in such a way that they are prepared. I can characterize what is coming very soon by saying: People will perceive the underlying realities of good and evil to a far greater extent than they do today. They will look deep into the threads that the powers are spinning; they will see the fabric of the world, which will appear to people of the present as a web of good and evil. This truth will be a realization of infinite significance. And now there is already the possibility of acquiring this understanding of good and evil.

[ 13 ] These are great things that have just been discussed; there are also other things taking place in the astral realm. I would now like to tell you a little about them. Human beings must be aware that, at every moment of their lives, they also live in the astral realm. Just as physical facts can be seen with physical eyes, so too can one see in the astral realm that, for example, a desire arising within you radiates out like a cloud. Every thought of desire emanates from you like a force and flows out into the astral realm. Such thoughts are like flash-like formations, others like fine cloud formations. The power contained in the thoughts takes shape as arrows or soothing cloud formations; rays and star-like formations also emerge. Everything takes on shape and form the farther it moves away from us. Everything is of a protean nature; everything changes its shape and color. By its color and form, one can clearly recognize which thoughts a person is sending out into space. If you send out an angry thought, it shoots from you like a bolt of lightning through the air, all the way to another person’s astral body; anyone can observe this. It depends on the intensity of the desire whether the thought shoots quickly through astral space, and it depends on the character of the desires in which colors they appear. Irritable thoughts appear brown-red to blood-red; thoughts of a calm, quiet, contemplative, and benevolent nature appear in intense bluish to violet hues. You can see sharp, logical thoughts as yellow star-like formations intertwining with one another. The Chela learns to consciously evoke such thought-forms in the astral space by becoming acquainted with the laws of the astral and mental worlds. A Chela knows exactly how the thoughts he sends out affect the astral space. This is Chela development: becoming ever more conscious of these facts and sending out only thoughts for the healing of humanity. This is one of the profound truths to which Theosophy leads people.

[ 14 ] The processes in the astral realm are processes that constantly surround us, that take place in our environment. They are realities higher than those of our physical world. In the time between death and rebirth, the human being passes through these higher worlds. The chela can consciously enter these regions even before he dies. The development of the human being in Kamaloka—that is, what awaits the human being when he crosses the threshold of death—will be the subject of a separate discussion. Today I wished only to touch upon those matters that are not connected with this particular chapter. I have omitted everything that can be discussed in connection with Kamaloka and Devachan. Next time we will hear the sixth, the final lecture in this series.

[ 15 ] I have shown that human beings have descended from higher worlds and that they will return to higher worlds. Many things happen here whose causes lie in the higher worlds. The training of a chela also takes place in a higher world. The chela may receive instruction in the physical world; but that is not the most important part; more important is the instruction that is imparted in the higher spheres. Things take place with human beings in the higher spheres of which they are not aware in ordinary life. The intellectual person can only know anything about these worlds if he is first informed of them. Receiving such information is a way of looking into the higher worlds. It is not unnecessary to first be told something about these higher worlds. What is told sinks into the spiritual nature of human beings and will certainly come to life in the future. What is sown as a seed today will bear fruit in the future. This was a saying of Paul, the Christian initiate: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows, that he will also reap.