The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. Kamaloka

[ 1 ] Human beings also have a part in this astral world, which we have now come to know, even during their physical lives. Every day and every hour, we participate in the processes of the astral world. We have become acquainted with the processes and beings that can be encountered in the astral world by those whose eyes are open to it. Today, we shall again highlight a particular subject; today we wish to examine more closely what Theosophy calls “Kamaloka.”

[ 2 ] If we wish to understand what Kamaloka is, we must first and foremost realize that, in the course of our evolution, we have already passed through many incarnations; that our present incarnation in the flesh has been preceded by many others and will be followed by many more. The essential point is that in this incarnation, in this earthly life, we have tasks to fulfill.

[ 3 ] It is entirely wrong to claim that Theosophy distracts from life or seeks to lead people into some kind of fantasy world, or that it preaches an asceticism that turns away from real life. That would be a completely mistaken view of what the Theosophical Movement aims to achieve. Rather, Theosophy regards this very life as the instrument, as the tool, which we must use to fulfill our highest spiritual tasks in our development. Whoever withdraws from life, whoever does not apply spiritual powers in the physical realm as well, does not fulfill the tasks they have on Earth. Therefore, it is one of the ideals of Theosophy that we derive the greatest possible benefit from our physical existence for the highest spiritual life.

[ 4 ] We know, esteemed audience—and we must emphasize this today—that what the human spirit is, what the true self within us is, is embodied not just once, but countless times throughout our earthly existence. We know that our present earthly existence has followed countless previous ones and that further incarnations will follow this present life. We must now ask the question: What does the human self accomplish in the time between two incarnations? How does the human self participate in the other worlds that are not like our physical world? — It is only by journeying through the other worlds in the appropriate manner that it is able to derive the greatest possible benefit for its development from physical existence. The worlds through which the human self journeys in the interval between two incarnations are first the Kamaloka and then the Devachan. When the physical bodies have fallen away from the human being [after death], he enters the world which we in Theosophy call “Kamaloka,” the “Place of Desire.” And after having stayed there for a while, they then journey through the higher spiritual world, Devachan, which we also call the “world of the spirit.” Thus, the human soul journeys through these worlds following its earthly pilgrimage. If one wishes to understand what part these two other worlds, Kamaloka and Devachan, play in the entire pilgrimage of the human soul, one must first and foremost consider the tasks that a human being must accomplish during their earthly existence. These have always been taught in the esoteric sciences and are also taught to us today through Theosophy.

[ 5 ] There are very specific tasks that the human self must undertake and carry out during its earthly pilgrimage. Human beings must cultivate certain virtues that they cannot cultivate outside of their earthly pilgrimage. There are seven such virtues. Human beings came to Earth with the predispositions for these virtues, and by the end of their earthly pilgrimage, they should have fully developed these seven virtues.

[ 6 ] If I may use an analogy, I would say: Let us imagine a person who, by nature, is endowed with the greatest benevolence toward his fellow human beings—a truly generous person—but who is completely poor and therefore unable to make use of this charitable disposition. So too is the human character, by nature, one of the highest order; yet the person cannot yet make any real use of it. Now let us imagine that this person moves to a remote, undeveloped land and attempts to make it productive; through hard work there, he produces so much that he now acquires the means which, when he returns to his original homeland, he can use to benefit his fellow human beings. Now he can carry out what was contained within him as a disposition toward generosity.

[ 7 ] The seeds of these seven virtues are present in human beings at the time of their first incarnation. After millions of years, they will depart from their earthly pilgrimage, and these seeds will have blossomed into virtues. They will then be able to use these abilities in a future planetary evolution. These seven virtues are:

1. Justice
2. Temperance
3. Fortitude
4. Prudence

[ 8 ] These are the four lower virtues. Prudence encompasses everything that enables us to judge our earthly circumstances and thereby intervene in the course of earthly events. By cultivating these abilities, a person gains the strength to intervene in the world with power and leadership.

[ 9 ] The three higher virtues are:

Faith
Hope
Love.

[ 10 ] Goethe put it this way: “Everything transitory is merely a parable.” If a person sees in everything he can see and hear only a symbol of an eternal reality that it expresses, then he possesses “faith.” This is the first of the three higher virtues. The second is to develop a sense that human beings should never remain at the point where they currently stand, a sense that we are today people of the fifth race, but will later evolve to a higher level. That is hope. So we have faith in the eternal, and then trust and hope for higher development. The final virtue is the one that must be cultivated as the ultimate goal of our cosmos; it is love. That is why we also call our Earth the “cosmos of love.” What we must develop within ourselves by belonging to the Earth is love, and when we have completed our earthly pilgrimage, then the Earth will be a cosmos of love. Love will then be a natural force in all human beings. It will manifest with such naturalness as the magnetic force of attraction and repulsion is natural in a magnet.

[ 11 ] Little by little, through various incarnations, human beings must develop these virtues. He has now reached approximately the middle of this path. What these virtues will one day be has been correctly described by Christian theology as: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man”; this means that no one can conceive of the perfect manner in which these virtues will one day be present in the perfected being. Step by step, we work our way through the various incarnations. We descend, as it were, from the spiritual world with the potential for these seven virtues and must cultivate these virtues in life in order to truly possess them. Thus, earthly life is nothing other than a journey through a land, undertaken to work on transforming these potentials into true abilities. Whoever enters this land must first devote themselves to the work, and while working, they may not be able to look toward that lofty goal. They develop the virtues by entering into contact with other people, thereby cultivating fortitude, justice, hope, love, and so on. They come together with other people, and they must use these encounters to cultivate the virtues. To cultivate the virtues, a person must descend from the spiritual world into the physical world. They become entangled in what the physical world contains, and this always includes the astral, the world of desires and lusts: Kamaloka.

[ 12 ] We cannot develop our intelligence to such an [extent] that it shakes the entire world. No, we must be content that we can act in an appropriate manner in the place and time into which we were born. Galileo and Giordano Bruno developed their higher soul powers, their kama-manas, within their own people and their own time. Giordano Bruno’s intellect was suited to his people and his time. Had he been placed among a different people or born in a different era, he would have needed different abilities. Human beings are bound to the physical environment through their tasks, and the same is true of our higher faculties; in every incarnation we are confined to a narrow sphere. Our intellect and our higher soul powers, too, are confined to a certain narrow sphere, and all the more so are our desires, cravings, passions, and instincts.

[ 13 ] We must pour what we have brought with us from the spiritual realm into our desires. If I want the highest, I must surround the highest with desire. In order to fulfill his tasks in the physical world, man must grow together with the physical world, and he forms a kind of shell around himself through which he is connected to the world of desires and cravings. Just as you are connected to the objects of the physical world in such a way that you come into contact with them, so you are connected to the astral world through your desires, cravings, and passions. And just as you detach yourself from the physical world immediately upon death, so must you gradually detach yourself from the astral world after death. A person has grown together with those with whom they interacted. They must first shed this shell. This takes place in the Kamaloka. Once a person has lost their earthly shell immediately upon death, they are still connected to the world of their desires, cravings, and passions. Because of a passion through which they are still intimately connected to this earthly existence, they must undergo a period of reckoning with this earthly existence. We call this the sojourn in the Kamaloka.

[ 14 ] Just as the physical world consists of various realms, so too does the astral world consist of various realms, and we can classify these according to the seven virtues I have mentioned. By cultivating these virtues, we become connected and bound to the astral world in a very specific way.

[ 15 ] Human beings must learn to consciously practice justice. They can do this only by overcoming astral forces. Justice can exist only in a world where individuals are distinct beings; justice is possible only between distinct beings. I must consciously behave [justly] toward other individual beings. I must therefore first feel myself to be a distinct being in order to be able to practice justice toward my fellow human beings. A prerequisite for this is the separation of one from the other. First, human beings separate themselves as individual beings, and this distinctness leads them into a struggle for existence. The struggle for existence is the antithesis, the opposite pole to justice; it must be overcome through the virtue of justice. Man must cast off everything that stands against his fellow man, cast off all vices that arise from the struggle for existence. The region where the forces of the struggle for existence reign is the darkest region of Kamaloka. Egyptian documents tell us of this region, which is black as night, where beings wander helplessly. “Here there is no air, no water; here no human can live with peace in their heart.”

[ 16 ] Refraining from judgment, or abstaining from judgment regarding one’s surroundings, is the second virtue that must be practiced. Usually, people judge others based on the sympathy or antipathy they feel toward them. Gradually, they learn to recognize that if one wishes to understand a person, one must go beyond sympathy and antipathy; one must overcome them. And just as justice has struggle and existence as its antithesis, so does abstinence from judgment have, as its opposite vice, surrender to all the temptations of the external world. Antipathy and sympathy must be shed in the second region of Kamaloka.

[ 17 ] Only those who are not spared from temptation can develop the virtue of fortitude. We can only develop this virtue because the opposing poles exist and we are entangled in them. Day by day, hour by hour, we are exposed to temptations. We must cast these aside on the third stage by developing the virtue of fortitude in this region.

[ 18 ] Wisdom can only be developed by a person going through countless mistakes. Goethe says: “Man errs as long as he strives.” — Just as a child learns by hurting itself when it falls, so all great people have learned from experiences gained through their mistakes. This takes place in the fourth region of Kamaloka.

[ 19 ] Now, the higher virtues. The first is faith; this is the recognition of the eternal in the temporal and earthly, the realization that all that is transitory is but a parable. The various worldviews are ongoing attempts to lead people here and there, in this or that nation, along the most diverse paths to the knowledge of the eternal. Man must advance from the letter to the spirit, from dogma to true, inner knowledge. Human beings will always be tempted to become entangled in a limited field of the letter. Because in life we are necessarily a part of a specific age, we must first cast off what has become dogma in our time in order to arrive at the truth that is expressed in all worldviews and religions. In the fifth region we encounter the devout, the literalists of all religious denominations, of all worldviews: literalist Hindus, literalist Muslims, literalist Christians, and also Theosophists who believe in the letter.

[ 20 ] The next virtue is the one that Christianity has called “hope.” Human beings can only cultivate hope if they believe in continued evolution. Little by little, we can come to understand this through theosophical teachings, which lead us to the idea of continued evolution. Human development prior to our time was already immense. Even greater is the prospect of a future higher development for the Chela. He develops a sense that humanity must not remain stagnant at the finite, limited ideals—ideals that belong only to his own time. Consider Socrates or Robespierre or the idealists of our time. Try to determine whether their ideals would have suited any other people, any other age. Try to determine whether the ideals and hopes of a Columbus could have been realized in another time and among another people. This limitation to a single time or a single people—that is what humanity must shed in this luminous sixth region of Kamaloka.

[ 21 ] In order for a person to learn “love,” they must begin with the finite. To learn a higher concept of love, they must start with the small, with the transitory and the finite, and continue to develop. Love must become a matter of course, a natural force. It must be the goal and the aspiration of human beings. When a person develops love, they experience themselves in the seventh and highest region of Kamaloka.

[ 22 ] There are seven purifying fires in the Kamaloka through which the soul must pass. Then it ascends to the Devachan, where there are again seven regions. Only that which is the fruit of a high ideal can be carried over into a new existence, into a new incarnation. That which is bound to place and time must be shed in Kamaloka.

[ 23 ] Thus, depending on whether a person must undergo one form of purification or another, they must pass through the seven regions of Kamaloka. If, for example, a person needs to develop fortitude and therefore must be strengthened against desires and cravings, they will awaken in the region where they can purify the negative. He will pass through the remaining regions in a more dormant state. This is what Theosophy calls the sojourn in Kamaloka. What we must undergo on the pilgrimage of our earthly life enables us to progress from one stage of development to the next and requires us, in the intermediate states [between death and a new birth], to pass through places of soul purification and shed the dross in Kamaloka.

[ 24 ] Only to the Seer do the various places in Kamaloka become comprehensible. For the Chela, the stage at which he learns to understand the Astral comes at the moment when our eye is opened to the astral world. What exists in the physical world is then no longer there. He sees the sun shining at midnight. Other people cannot see the sun shining at midnight. This is not a symbol; it is to be understood as literally as possible: to the astral eye, the sun becomes visible at midnight. The chela can cross this threshold; he perceives what a person normally sees only when crossing the threshold of death. This is not theory, but real experience that can be recounted just as, for example, someone who has traveled to America might tell you about their experiences. The materialistic worldviews and attitudes of the past centuries had little inkling that such higher worlds exist. Theosophy has made it its task to reawaken an awareness that such higher worlds exist. The fact that such a message is necessary, especially in our present-day culture, is what gave rise to the Theosophical Society. It is necessary for the voice of a higher world to resound once more into our own world. We must be guided to what the seven virtues teach us and what can be learned through them. We must recognize how these virtues can be cultivated.

[ 25 ] The final task is: “Wisdom in love” and “love in wisdom.” Love in wisdom is what a person will attain after cultivating the seven virtues and what they can carry forward from this stage of human development. This is already expressed in the Wisdom of Solomon in the words: “And because I prayed for understanding, it was given to me; and because I sought wisdom, the spirit of wisdom came to me. And I have learned to value this spirit of wisdom more highly than principalities and kingdoms.”

[ 26 ] This is what matters: not to withdraw ascetically from physical existence, but to elevate it to a higher plane; to cherish and nurture the “realms of the world” and to develop what the Middle Ages called the “Spiritus sapientiae”—the spirit of wisdom. And with the spirit of wisdom, humanity will move forward toward a new planetary existence.

[ 27 ] We can experience all of this in the astral world. The purpose of these lectures was to offer a brief glimpse into this astral world, which is closest to our physical world. Next time, we will discuss the spiritual world, the world of Devachan.