On the Astral World and Devachan
Part II
GA 88
28 January 1904, Berlin
Translated by Steiner Online Library
7. The World of the Spirit or Devachan I
[ 1 ] Esteemed attendees! Eight days ago, I described the structure of the realm that everyone who enters the state between two embodiments has to pass through, the so-called mental realm or the world of Devachan. I have described to you that we have to distinguish three different areas, and I have also noted that the words we have at our disposal in our ordinary language are insufficient to convey our perceptions in the mental realm, so that we are often only able to express what can be perceived in this realm, which man passes through between two embodiments, only in hints and sometimes only allegorically. Those who, as initiates, know about this region describe it in words that are more suggestive than descriptive. Therefore, you must also accept the descriptions I gave last time more as a suggestion, because it is almost inexpressible for someone whose mind is open to the devachanic world.
[ 2 ] I have described three regions of Devachan and remarked that these would correspond to three regions on our earth: the solid mountainous region of Devachan, which is the continental region of Devachan; the liquid ocean region of Devachan; and the region of the aerial sea.
[ 3 ] One of the German poets who knew something about this country, as I mentioned last time, was Goethe. Goethe described this country more externally through his Mephistopheles. But even from this description, you can see that Goethe knew how difficult it is to speak of this country. He describes it by having Mephistopheles point out to Faust what he will find there. Mephistopheles says the following:
And even if you swam across the ocean
And saw the boundlessness there,
You would still see waves breaking on the shore,
even if you dread your own demise.
You would still see something! You would see, in the green expanse
of the calm seas, dolphins gliding by;
you would see clouds passing by, the sun, moon and stars.
You will see nothing in the eternal, empty distance,
not hear the step you take, find nothing solid where you rest!
[ 4 ] We can see this – for those who look at it rationally – as an approximate description of this realm. In another passage, Mephistopheles says to Faust:
Take this key!
The key will sense the right place;
Follow it down: it will lead you to the mothers.
[ 5 ] The realm of the mothers was also spoken of in the time of Plutarch; for Goethe it is the realm of the uncreated. That is why he has Mephisto say to Faust:
[ 6 ] Then sink! I could also say: rise!
[ 7 ] So Devachan is not above or below, but everywhere.
Escape from the originated
Into the realm of the formless!
Delight thyself in what has long ceased to be!
[ 8 ] That is the description of a European. I will now give you the description of a Hindu sage; it is colored in an oriental way, but nevertheless the same content; it says: There are many thousands of world systems. A realm of bliss underlies this world. The realms are bounded by seven rows of fences, they are ruled by the Tathagata, and they belong to the Bodhisattvas. The waters flow through these realms and have seven properties.
[ 9 ] I have described three realms of Devachan, which correspond to our solid land, our ocean and the air sea. I have said that in Devachan the land looks different from our present land, and I have said that we find forms there that we also see here, but embedded like a seal impression. This continent forms the foundation of Devachan. Within it moves the living ocean; pink-hued, it permeates all being and forms the source of life for all forms, all structures that are to arise as plants, human beings and animals. The etheric body is of a very special kind in Devachan. We see our physical etheric body as blue; the etheric body in Devachan is reddish and radiant. It is characterized by an extraordinary sentience that rests in each of its atoms, animating every single atom. Everything that asserts itself in the aura is sentient life. All the pain and pleasure I have experienced in the lower realms is expressed in the air circle of Devachan. He who perceives on this plane, he understands what an initiate of the Christian religion, Paul, says: All creatures groan in pain, awaiting adoption. The air is also permeated by a spherical sound, by music, which the ancient Pythagoreans called the harmony of the spheres. Those who have already heard this harmony, which is the expression of the harmony of the cosmos, hear it everywhere, although it is drowned out by the noise of everyday life. This is expressed in the description of the Hindu sage as fences.
[ 10 ] Now we come to the fourth region of the spiritual realm. This is a very special realm; the creators and inspirers of all things are at work there. The so-called akasha substance is the substance, the clay from which everything is formed. This is an image that all magicians speak of. Goethe also speaks of it in the passage where he speaks of fire air. It is the substance that has the greatest plasticity, the substance into which one can impress material forms on one side and spirit on the other. It is the substance that was no longer known since the beginning of Christianity, no longer known until the Theosophical Society appeared. When the first request was made to Sinnett to make these things known to the Western world, we hear in his book “The Occult World” a description of this matter, which is said to contain magical powers. And we read there how the Master himself expresses it, that Western cultural people will only come to understand the meaning of the Akasha matter with difficulty and slowly.
[ 11 ] As I described eight days ago, the devachan world can be divided into three lower realms and three higher realms. The three higher realms resonate and shine into the three lower realms. If we have designated the lower devachan realms – in theosophical language 'rupa realms' – as mainland, ocean, and airspace, then beyond the fourth realm – [akasha] – the three highest realms of devachan expand, which in theosophical language are called 'arupa realms'. In addition to everything that is on this side of Devachan – that is, the astral realm and the physical realm – the original states are present in the higher Devachan. These Arupa realms are inhabited by beings of the most exalted kind. The masters of the original Christian wisdom still described these realms; they were known in Christian wisdom until the 13th century; then knowledge of them was lost. No one understands the Christian wisdom of earlier centuries if they do not recognize that some of the writings speak of the three highest realms of Devachan. These three realms are, as I said, inhabited by exalted beings who guide and direct all the events in the lower realms.
[ 12 ] In the fairy tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily, Goethe also hints at the first level of the higher Devachan. You can read there:
[ 13 ] We now ascend to even higher regions. There we meet beings who can no longer become visible, but who can speak to the person when he becomes ready to hear them. The first teachers of Christian wisdom called them Dynamis. These are beings who radiate widely as creative forces. In the next realm we find the rulers, the Kyriotetes. Thus we have the hierarchy of these exalted beings, sounding in the three highest realms of Devachan. In Christian esotericism, there are indications that these insights were still alive in the first centuries of Christianity, but that they have been lost because there have been fewer and fewer Christian initiates.
[ 14 ] Also in the realm I have described earlier, in the air circle of Devachan, there are entities whose clothing is woven from the air circle of Devachan, but which have quite opposite qualities to those we humans possess. It is difficult to describe the qualities of these entities that live in the air circle of Devachan. If we ascribe sensations to men, we must ascribe to these beings that they do not receive or accept sensations, but that they carry sensations out through the air circle. They are therefore beings of a completely different nature. Wherever they go, they radiate forces of sensation, whereas sensations flow in to us humans. Only in this way can I describe what characterizes these beings. In Christian esotericism, this was expressed by calling these beings archangels. Today this expression is no longer understood. It must not be applied to physical powers, that would be superstition. It must be applied to the devachanic beings who carry the message of feeling through the sphere of Devachan and spread everywhere that which is purest feeling.
[ 15 ] The ocean of Devachan is comparable to a rose-colored stream that pours over everything. It is animated by a series of entities called messengers, called Angeloi. These do not carry the sensation, they carry life through the realms of Devachan, they are life-bearers.
[ 16 ] And the solid realm, the continental realm of Devachan is animated and ensouled by the beings that are called Archai in Christian esotericism – in English, primal forces. The lower realm of Devachan, the solid realm, the continental realm, is animated by these Archai. They are the ones who breathe life into everything.
[ 17 ] These are the entities that are called the hierarchies of the archai, the archangeloi and the angeloi in Christian esotericism. These entities are encountered by people whose devachanic senses are open, but they are also encountered by every person who has died and goes through the conditions of the interim between two embodiments. I have already pointed out that when a person has laid down his body, he has to spend some time in the astral world. I will come back to this. I would now just like to say what takes place in this country, where a person is prepared to enter Devachan. Everything that a person has brought with him from the physical world is purified by the Kamakräfte in the astral world. Even the so-called sense of self slowly dissolves in the astral world; all chaotic forces dissolve when a person is to enter devachan.
[ 18 ] I will now mention once more the four higher realms of the astral realm, which are also called the sympathy layers. They are filled with fine astral matter, with the matter of sympathy – in contrast to the matter of egoism of the lower three levels. In the fourth realm, egoism dissolves, and in the fifth realm, sensual pleasure dissolves. In this fifth part of the astral realm, man learns to admire the beauty of the world, not because it is pleasant, but because everything eternal and pure should be beautiful. And in the sixth astral realm, man comes to know the deeper forces of compassion, benevolence, and devotion to the world. In the seventh realm, all the life that man has taken with him from the lower realms melts away like snow in the sunlight. And then man has to pass through the four lower stages of Devachan, which I have described earlier. Life on these four stages has great significance.
[ 19 ] I have said that the primal forces, the archai, are to be found in this first realm of Devachan. It is with these that man makes contact. We find the disembodied souls there, gathering new strength for their later life. Everything that has held people together in family ties, in tribal affiliations, in national associations, in state federations, in short, everything that more or less points to blood relationship in the human race, all that is spiritualized in this realm of the primal forces, so that the person is purified by what he has learned and can be endowed with higher abilities. The purpose of the realm of Devachan is to enable people to develop the higher abilities they have acquired during their life on Earth. People should gain experience in the physical world, and these experiences should be transformed into abilities. We should emerge from the school of life improved and strengthened.
[ 20 ] Now the human being moves into the second region of Devachan. The ocean of Devachan is the realm that is all-uniting. Just as water connects the lands, so in Devachan the flowing, rose-colored water connects all that has boundaries in the lower realm. Boundaries are erected wherever there are family, tribal, national or state associations. These demarcations must be, but at the same time, the sense of belonging together, the harmony of all beings, must be established. The beings must come together in the stream that flows through everything. When man enters into this stream that flows through everything, he enjoys the fruits of what he has sown. There everyone will find that which elevates him above the limitations of existence; man is purified from that which must cling to man within the earthly realm. He is led to acquire new abilities. They are only germs, but the flowers that arise from them are the abilities that he develops and brings with him into the new life.
[ 21 ] The third is what I have described as the air circle of Devachan. Man also enters this air circle between two embodiments. Where within the aura the deep sighing of nature can be heard, where every thunder roll means an evocation of pain, where the sunlight corresponds to what we call eternal bliss and beatitude, there the seed is sown that will later, at the time of re-embodiment, sprout into the sense of philanthropy, of noble humanity. Here active and understanding devotion arises, laboring love, and this is the plant that thrives here above all others, that man develops within himself. Here man will see in his fruits what he has experienced in the selfish world. Here he becomes a working human being, the human being who first knows the words humanity and philanthropy in the full sense of the word.
[ 22 ] Then comes the fourth kingdom [Akasha], the kingdom of the sound of all world existence. Here man learns to recognize that which gives form and shape to beings and things in the whole of world existence. Here man learns to recognize how sound joins tone to form a symphony, how natural force joins natural force and transforms itself into “tools”. Here man gets to know the beings that discover and invent. Here he not only learns to recognize what the forces are as such, but he gets to know them as living entities. Here the human being permeates himself with the living, productive creative power. He learns to recognize not only the expressions of human existence that are created here, but also the human institutions that make the human sphere come alive and suitable for human life. In all of this, laws live that are experienced in the Akasha as living beings. By immersing himself in their splendor, man immerses himself in the fourth realm of Devachan in the way the weaving is done “at the whirling loom of time”. He learns to recognize this.
[ 23 ] These are the four stages in which the human being lives out what he has prepared in his earthly existence and develops new abilities. This marks an important moment for the human being. When he has passed through this fourth realm, the moment has come when he is transferred to the other side of our world system, into the actual realm of the spiritual, into the realm where impressions are formed from the other side. A human being can only spend a short time there; only those who have already reached a higher level of development remain for a longer period. The as yet undeveloped human beings only have a momentary glimpse in this higher realm, and then descend again into the lower realms to gain experience there, so that when they return, they will stay there longer and longer. When man enters this kingdom again, then the abilities that were formerly limited by the material world develop. I call it an important moment because what was formerly held together by matter is completely discarded and removed. What was once narrow now becomes wide, what was once stuck together and inside each other now unfolds; it becomes fluid, man becomes free. The abilities are no longer restricted by the material world. This can only be compared to a plant, for example, which cannot grow freely, but has to grow between crevices and has to adapt to the shape of the crevices; it grows upwards, but is restricted by the crevice. It is the same for the human soul. Suppose the crevice softens and softens, allowing the plant to unfold a little more. Has the human soul entered the Akashic realm: there is absolute equality. For the one whose devachanic eye is open, it is wonderful to see how the soul unfolds during the transition from the Akashic realm to the higher realms of Devachan. We see it as a fine, ethereal substance in the middle of an egg-shaped or spherical, floating substance. It sheds layer after layer. The fine color of the Akasha is removed, and the pure being unfolds, radiant in the new light, in a light that cannot be described in earthly words. It takes on a completely free form. Every ability that was constrained in earthly life and that was not completely free even in the lower realms of Devachan is now released. The person becomes free in all directions. He can bring all his abilities to full growth. The more abilities a person develops, the more he “swells up” and the more he takes with him into the new embodiment. As long as he is allowed to linger there, he also makes the acquaintance of the Masters of Wisdom and Compassion. This is the realm where, by grace, he may receive from even more exalted beings the intentions that underlie the cosmos. From here they weave the garment of the world, which is woven from the fabrics of the lower devachan realms, from the astral realm and the realm of earthly substances. Up there, the intentions and basic lines of cosmic development are preordained, and there, too, those who have developed their abilities in the course of evolution can make acquaintance with the threefold sequence of entities I have enumerated.
[ 24 ] In the first sphere of upper Devachan, he learns from the entities that have ascended to Exusiai about the miracle flower that springs from the seeds of the universe. He learns how it grows; he learns about the eternal forces of the universe. In this sphere, he meets the beings who have the power of thought; he sees how thought works through them.
[ 25 ] The next higher sphere is the home of the entities of Dynamis. They not only have the power of thought, but also the power of the source; they are the beings who, as it were, have the seeds of thought. Compare the exusiai with the flower. Then go to the seed, which is now transparent, bright and clear, but which also has the power to become a flower. The spiritual power of the whole universe is in the hands of the Dynamis. That is why they are called power rays. Thus, through these entities, the seed of thought can be formed, and then, from the other side, the whole can be imagined into the Akasha, which is the sound of the whole world structure. This is how it is formed, as Goethe has it described by Faust, there where the mothers sit, enthroned in solitude and working at the glowing tripod. I already said that in Plutarch's time this realm was also called the realm of mothers. If you read about the realm of mothers in Plutarch, a completely new meaning will emerge from this story.
[ 26 ] In the highest realm, the beings we call Kyriotetes resound. Only the most highly developed can gain a brief insight into this realm. There, everything is in harmony and unity; all peculiarity has disappeared.
[ 27 ] The Exusiai, the Dynamis, the Kyriotetes, these are the three highest realms in which man's abilities are completely freed. We enter these realms in the meantime between two embodiments in order to draw strength from what lies on the other side for our work in the world of
[ 28 ] What happens in this world, what we ourselves do and achieve, is the world of results, the world of effects. The world of causes lies beyond the earthly. When we
[ 29 ] return to a new incarnation, new strength for our existence flows to us from the world of causes, and everything that a person accomplishes in this world, everything that shines within him as moral ideals, as abilities for creative work, as active human love, and compassion for all beings, and for the control of natural forces in technology, all this rests in the hidden depths of the human soul; it has been brought there from the realm of the higher Devachan, where the causes of the effects in this world are found.
[ 30 ] In the fairy tale of the green snake and the beautiful lily, Goethe wonderfully suggests this when he speaks of the river – which we can compare with the Akashic current – and calls the opposite bank the garden of the flower, the garden of the beautiful lily. The messages of the Hindu sage also speak of such a flower. It is the power that permeates the entire Devachan. From this flower grow fruits, and the fruits are the archetypes for this world. If man wants to work, he must draw strength from these fruits by finding nourishment in them. Then man comes to development; he becomes effective and powerful.
[ 31 ] As I said, Theosophy is not meant to draw man away from the world. It does not want to transfer him to a realm in which he becomes weak and feeble for earthly existence; it does not want that. It wants something quite different. It wants to point him to a realm in which he can draw strength and abilities to be strong and capable of his work in earthly existence. A man who does not know what lies behind and before him in evolution is like a blind man who gropes along, not knowing whither he gropes nor what he encounters. And a man who knows his way backwards and forwards resembles a seeing man.
[ 32 ] The particular beings we will encounter later will be the subject of the next lectures. We will hear more about life in Devachan, about individual experiences and about the influence of the Devachanic world on our world. From these introductory lectures it should be clear that Theosophy is not a doctrine that is alien to reality, but one that is friendly to reality and full of creative power, because it does not lead man away from earthly existence, but rather equips him with powers that live in earthly existence but are not visible in earthly existence. Man must recognize this if he aspires to the realms that cannot be entered by one who is attached only to the sensual world. And to all natures hostile to the spiritual realm, to all those who say that there is nothing beyond the sensual world, we want to call out the Goethean saying:
Go on! We will fathom it:
In thy nothingness I hope to find the All.