The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The World of the Spirit, or Devachan III

[ 1 ] In the lectures on the astral world, I have attempted to describe the path the human soul must traverse after passing through the gate of death. This journey through the world of souls—or the astral world, as it is called in theosophical literature—is relatively short. The human soul spends the majority of the time required to pass from one incarnation to the next in the spiritual world, in what is called Devachan, the land of the gods, in Theosophy. To use a German expression, I will employ the terms “Geisterland” or “Geisteswelt” for “Devachan.” We must ensure that we gradually introduce German terms. And once we know that by the so-called “land of spirits” we mean nothing other than what in Theosophy is “Devachan,” we will be able to understand one another.

[ 2 ] In the astral world, the soul must purify itself of what binds it to the earthly realm—the drives, passions, and instincts that are necessary for earthly life but cannot possibly cling to the human soul on its further journey. Once it has freed itself from all of this, it traverses the true realm of the spirit. If one wishes to understand what it means to journey through the realm of the spirit, one must first make this clear to oneself. I have often emphasized that Theosophy by no means turns away from earthly activity, nor does it point to some afterlife; on the contrary: it makes clear that the primary task of the human being lies in the course of his or her incarnation here on Earth, that it is the human being’s task to bring this earthly existence to ever greater and greater perfection. Humanity must carry into the earthly sphere, as a fruit, what it can experience in the higher world; it must apply in physical incarnation what it observes in the interval between two incarnations. For this physical incarnation, it is the task of the Earth and of humanity to become so perfected that what has been perfected can be carried up into higher realms. It is our task to cooperate in earthly perfection, for according to the cosmic plan for the Earth, this Earth is not to remain as it is, but is to become a higher world. And that which will enable it to be received into a higher world is to be brought about by the human beings within it; therefore, they must return from time to time to the spiritual realm. Humanity is to work on Earth to lead it toward its goal, which is spiritual. To do this, they must enable themselves to work spiritually. They must return again and again to this state of living purely spiritually in the spiritual world, in order to engage from there with the intentions and goals for earthly life. What we experience in the spiritual world, we carry into earthly life. Just as in the construction of a house, the first and most important thing does not happen on the construction site, where the bricks are laid, but in the architect’s study, where the blueprint is drawn up; and just as the workers merely bring into reality what the architect has designed, so the first and most important thing is what we draw from the supersensible world: the goals, the intentions, the plans, to apply them within the physical world.

[ 3 ] The most important work is done during one’s earthly incarnation. From time to time, the spirit withdraws in order to come to know the true foundation of earthly existence. This is the purpose of the sojourn in Devachan, or the spiritual realm. When a person leaves their body at death, they first pass through a state of unconsciousness; they traverse the astral world and finally awaken in the spiritual realm. There they must then develop all that in which they have trained themselves in the earthly world. We must imagine—to stick with the same image—that the human being works like an architect who designs the plans for a house. Once the architect has drawn up a plan, he also comes to know its imperfections and flaws during the material realization of the plan; he is a learner, and in exactly the same way, the human being also learns during his incarnation. Just as the architect recognizes, utilizes, and applies the experiences and observations gained from a first construction project to a later one, so too does the human being transform his experiences and observations into more perfect insights and then, enriched by these insights, enters into the new incarnation. That is the meaning.

[ 4 ] From a state of unconsciousness, the human being awakens [between death and rebirth] in Devachan. He must then pass through the various stages. In each of these stages, a very specific set of abilities develops. We have learned of seven stages. I will let these pass before our minds once more and at the same time indicate what the spirit must accomplish at each stage. I have explained that the lowest region is the realm of the archetypes. But this is to be understood figuratively; it is a state. There, within this world, we find the archetypes for everything that confronts us in the sensory world. I have said that in the spiritual world we live within the spiritual just as we live within the sensory world with our senses, and we perceive the spiritual world just as we perceive the sensory world with our senses—just as we hear and see this sensory world and so on. What is a thought in this earthly world is a living being in the spiritual world. What passes through our minds as a thought is only the shadow of a spiritual being. This spiritual being appears to us as a thought because it must penetrate through the veil of physical corporeality. Human beings imprint their thoughts and ideas upon the world, and through them they make the Earth more perfect. In the spiritual world, these thoughts are things among which human beings move. And just as we move here among physical things, just as we encounter them and touch them, so do we move in the spiritual realm among thoughts. The archetypes of the sensory world are to be found in the lowest region of the spiritual realm. There we are in the “workshop” where sensory objects are “made.” There we see the archetypes of the physical forms of plants, animals, and humans. We must reflect on what we have seen. These thoughts linger like shadowy figures in the background, and human beings do not believe in the reality of thoughts because they have such a shadowy existence. Just as a clock is made exactly as its inventor first conceived it in his mind, so every thing is created according to thought, and the being of thought appears to us in the spiritual realm.

[ 5 ] Thus, in the spiritual realm, the entire physical world that we see here appears to us in its archetypes. There we see everything as it is being created; we see how plants and animals spring forth from the life-giving force that creates them. We learn to see what is here from a different perspective; we see, as it were, the spiritual negative in contrast to the physical positive. We enter a world whose description must seem fantastical to those who have no feeling for it, but which is infinitely more real than the physical world to those whose senses are awakened to this world. It is the world of archetypes, the world of causes. There a spiritual transformation takes place within us, which grows ever stronger the more we become at home in this world.

[ 6 ] I would like to describe to you the journey through this world. It is significant because it sheds light on this world—a light of ineffable significance. Our own physicality, the body we call our own, appears to us as a thing among things; it appears to us as belonging to external reality. We see how it comes into being and passes away. Thus the archetype of our body appears to us as a member within external reality; we feel ourselves standing opposite it. We no longer say to the body, “That is me,” but we know that it belongs to objective reality. And one comes to know a maxim of the highest Indian Vedanta wisdom, the maxim: You must recognize that you yourself are a part of the whole Great One—“That is you.”

[ 7 ] We perceive the substance that constitutes our body as if we were stepping onto a rock. It is something entirely foreign. Through experience, we come to understand the statement: “This is you.” And when we practice this statement, it is nothing other than a recollection of what we once experienced in the spiritual realm. We bring this memory into our consciousness and experience a faint reflection of the spiritual world in the physical world. But this lifts us out of the sensory world; it elevates us into higher spheres. We feel ourselves to be spiritual beings; we know that we are a part of the Primordial Spirit, as it were, a ray streaming forth from it. We know this through direct insight.

[ 8 ] The second principal tenet of Vedanta philosophy is also immediately fulfilled in the first region of Devachan: “I am Brahman.” “Brahman” refers to the Primordial Spirit. When a person has reached the point of feeling themselves to be a part of this Primordial Spirit, they say: The Primordial Spirit lives within me; it is my very essence. — “I am the Primordial Spirit” is a direct experience that the soul has even in the lowest region of the spiritual realm. This is the meaning of life in the first region of Devachan.

[ 9 ] I have described the second region as the one where the archetypes of all life on our Earth are found. When we observe life in our earthly world, we find it embodied in individual beings—in plants, animals, and humans. Yet the life of these plants, animals, and humans forms a great, living unity. It springs from the common source of life. The archetype of that life, which lives here on Earth in its reflection, flows there like an ocean through all beings of the spirit realm. The occultist knows that this flowing life has a rose-red color, as it were like a rose-red ocean; as a liquid element, it flows through all beings of the spirit realm. This flowing, rose-red, liquid life permeates and pulses through all life in the spirit realm. Once a person has passed through the first region of the spirit realm, they identify with this flowing life on the second level. Then they come to know the flowing life as their very essence.

[ 10 ] To fully understand this, let us once again clarify what the purpose is of living in these regions [during the time between death and rebirth]. One lives for a particularly long time in the first region of Devachan. In the physical world, we are born into very specific circumstances determined by the physical nature of the Earth. We are born in a country, into a family, so that through physical connections we may acquire this or that friend. Prompted by physical circumstances, we become connected to what constitutes the substance of everyday life: life in the family, life in the tribe, in the nation—that is karma. Everything that stems from physical circumstances, we come to know and assess in its archetypes in the first region of the spiritual realm. And the abilities we acquire through practice in family life, in friendships, and so on, undergo their complete development in the first region of Devachan. They are enhanced and developed so that we may return to this earth for a new incarnation with these enhanced and developed abilities. Hence we observe that people who see their entire purpose in the circumstances of daily life—who do not look beyond their immediate surroundings, their business, and so on—spend a long time in this first region of Devachan.

[ 11 ] The second region of Devachan is inhabited by those who have already undergone a certain degree of preparation. This preparation is achieved through higher education within earthly life itself. The individual learns to recognize that the things of earthly life are transitory and are merely expressions of eternal principles. They learn to recognize the unity in all life and to look up to that unity with reverence. When the simple savage sees divine qualities in objects and regards them as symbols of the Divine, this already transcends everyday circumstances. In this region, human beings learn to recognize the creation and workings of the Deity. There we see the adherents of various religions developing devotional feelings as they approach their gods with humility and reverence. With a higher degree of piety, a person attains their embodiment after passing through this second region. We see people who have a sense of the underlying unity of all things lingering for a long time in this second region. We see them acclimatizing to the unity of all being, and we see how these spirits, when they return to Earth, become leading religious figures. These people see that the interests of the individual can no longer be separated from the interests of the community. This sense of community life is developed in the second region of Devachan.

[ 12 ] Let us ascend to the third region. Here we no longer find the archetypes of what lives in earthly existence, but rather the archetypes of soul life itself. Here are the archetypes of all desires and instincts, all sensations and feelings, and all passions, from the lowest passion up to the highest pathos. For all of this there are purely spiritual archetypes, and these are in the third region of Devachan. Just as all life in the second region forms a great unity, so too in the third region all sensation, feeling, all suffering, and so on form a great unity. There, the instincts of one being are not separate from the instincts of another being. There, the “That is you” has already been realized. We can no longer—as in the limited conditions of sensory existence—distinguish between my feeling and your feeling. Another’s sorrow is just as much our own. We hear the “sigh of the creature.” We perceive every pleasure and displeasure, whether it is ours or another’s. We say of everything: That is you. — We feel in sympathy with everything. I have described this region as the atmosphere, as the airy sphere of the spirit realm. Just as our Earth is enveloped by the physical atmosphere, so is the spirit continent enveloped by this airy sphere, by the spheres of sorrow and misfortune, by the archetypes of human passions, as by storms and by thunderous, discharging thunderstorms. When we live in the third region of Devachan, we come to understand the words of an inspired being and realize what it means to unite with the “sigh of the creatures who wait to be accepted as children.” This develops another aspect of feeling within us; we come to know earthly feeling from a different perspective, not as an egoistic, individual sensation, but in such a way that we have cultivated a sense of compassion for all beings in this third region. What we develop in our incarnation in terms of selflessness and goodwill toward our fellow human beings is the memory of this third region of Devachan; that is what we bring with us from this third region. Philanthropists, the geniuses of human charity, develop their abilities there; they spend a long life in the third region of Devachan.

[ 13 ] How do these three regions of Devachan relate to our earthly world? In the first region we find the archetypes of physical things; in the second, the archetypes of life; and in the third, the archetypes of the soul world—the drives, instincts, and passions. We find what we need to work within earthly life in the spiritual realm.

[ 14 ] The fourth region is a kind of pure spiritual realm, but not in the full sense of the word. If we wish to understand the difference between the fourth region and the lower three regions, we must realize that, in all the creative power that human beings bring into the physical world, they are dependent on what already exists on Earth. We are like a potter who imprints his thoughts upon the clay. In seeking to bring messages from the spirit world to life here, we are dependent on the clay of the earthly world. We must conform to what has already been created. We must study what already exists in the world as physical force and physical matter. We must adhere to what our fellow creatures experience in terms of suffering, pleasure, and pain. We must align what we bring with us from the spirit world with what we encounter here. We create only a reflection of what exists in the spirit world.

[ 15 ] In the fourth region lie the archetypes for what human beings create as a kind of original work within the world—that which they create beyond what already exists. Everything that art and science have produced, everything we know as technical inventions, everything that would never exist without the influence of the human spirit—all of this can be found as an archetype in the fourth region of Devachan. Those who participate in the cultural progress of their time, in scientific endeavors, in the development of state institutions, in the perfection of that which is freely born of the spirit, that which is not bound to the soul: they are all inspired by what they experienced in the fourth region of Devachan. What we experience there, we imprint upon sensory reality and thereby transform it. If we ask ourselves whether this fourth region is independent of the earthly region, we must say: in a certain sense—for the human being who comes from it brings with them something that is not yet there. Yet it is also dependent, for a human being can only ever stand at a certain stage of perfection, and can only shape that for which humanity is ripe. The fourth region of Devachan is connected to earthly existence in such a way that, on the one hand, it is free, but on the other hand, it is once again dependent on a certain [state of earthly] existence.

[ 16 ] When we ascend to the fifth region of the spiritual realm, we are completely free from the bonds of earthly existence. Then we are free in every direction and capable of further development. Then we find ourselves in the element that is our true, real home. In this higher region, we come to understand the true intentions that the World Spirit has for earthly development. We participate in the intentions of the World Spirit. All things then come to speak. We learn what goal the divine World Spirit has for plants, for animals, and for human beings; we come to know in perfect form that of which the created world is only an imperfect image. What we experience are the purposes, the intentions, the goals—the goals that flow forth from the Eternal; these we come to know here. And when, strengthened and invigorated by this, we return to the physical world, we become messengers of the divine intentions; we then carry out that which is to be woven into this world as truly spiritual, as independent spirit.

[ 17 ] Now you can easily imagine that what can be drawn from this region will depend on how much the Self has already developed during its incarnation in physical life. If a person shows no inclination to rise to higher purposes, if they cling to the mundane and cannot grasp what is eternal, then they will have only a brief glimpse of the fifth region of Devachan. And the one who, during earthly life, is little attached to the earthly, who reflects in free thought upon earthly existence, who performs acts of compassion and charity without selfish interest—such a person has earned in this life the right to dwell for a longer time in the higher regions of Devachan. This enables them, in a higher sense, to develop what constitutes free spiritual activity. Here, that which flows from the Eternal, the Divine, pours into them. Here, the Self takes in the world of thought, unrestricted by earthly imperfection.

[ 18 ] Every incarnation is merely an imperfect reflection of what a human being truly is. The spiritual self resides in the spiritual realm, and as it enters the human body and the human soul, it can only manifest a faint reflection of what it essentially is. When a person returns to their true self, to their original nature, when they become acquainted with the fifth region, their perspective expands to encompass their own incarnations, and they are able to survey their past and their future. He experiences a flash of memory regarding his past incarnations and can connect them with what he can accomplish in the future. He surveys the past and the future with a prophetic gaze. Everything he accomplishes appears to him as flowing forth from the eternal Self. This is what the Self acquires in the fifth region of the spiritual realm. Therefore, we call this Self—insofar as it lives out its life in the fifth region and becomes conscious of its own essence—the bearer of the causes of human existence, which carries all the results of past lives into the future. That which reappears in the various incarnations is the causal body, and this continues until the human being passes into higher states where laws higher than those of reincarnation apply. Since the beginning of planetary life, we have been subject to the law of reincarnation. The causal body is that which carries the results of a previous life into future lives, reaping as fruit what was earned in previous lives.

[ 19 ] When, through a series of such earthly pilgrimages, the true spiritual Self or the bearer of causes has incarnated in the physical body and now lives in the spiritual realm in such a way that it is able to move there as freely as the sensory human moves among sensory things—for this is an experience we have there: learning to move in a way that seems far more proactive and elevated than within sensory reality—then we advance to the sixth region of Devachan, and then we earn the right to spend certain periods between two lives in the sixth region. In the sixth region, the human self already lives out its deeper essence from within; there it lives out what we call life in the spiritual, in the eternal self. There it lives out what draws directly from the source of the divine self. There the human being learns to become as at home in the spiritual realm as the physical human being is at home in the physical world. The laws of the spiritual world become so familiar to them that they regard themselves as belonging to them. In this sixth region, the human being learns that they come into this physical world as a messenger of the purely Divine; he no longer takes the intentions for what he needs to work in the physical world from the physical world itself; he carries out the plans of the divine world order himself: he creates from the spiritual, he works from the spiritual. Yet he is therefore no stranger on Earth, nor does he act like a stranger; he has acquired free impartiality in this sixth region. When he appears in the physical world as a messenger of the spiritual world, his work is all the more fruitful because he is not attached to the things of this world; and because he judges them completely objectively, he will do what is right. His deed will be a deed of the divine world order itself, an expression, a revelation of the divine world order itself.

[ 20 ] In this sixth region of the spiritual realm, the human being now also enjoys the company of those exalted beings I spoke of last time, who contribute to the plan of the divine world order. Their gaze is cast over divine wisdom, open and unveiled. The human being who has developed to the sixth region can understand there what they tell him about the divine world plan. When he returns to the earthly plane, he is then able to determine the direction and goals of his life for himself. Then he acts from within himself; he can consciously shape the future; then he is capable of becoming an initiate here on this earth. The one who is capable of becoming an initiate has first earned the right, through deeds not bound to the earthly by selfishness but performed in selfless devotion, to live in the presence of the spirits during the interval between two incarnations and to become familiar with the forces and treasures of the spiritual realm. When he then returns to incarnation, his memory is open to his past incarnations; he sees that he has already lived here and there, and he determines the future of his next incarnation—though not in every detail, for that cannot be determined. Those who have experienced such things in the intermediate state between their incarnations in the spirit realm are the aspirants for initiation into the mysteries; they are the ones who are admitted into the secret schools and there learn the wisdom they are to proclaim to the world, so that it may walk the path of progress.

[ 21 ] These are the ones who can attest from personal experience that the teachings of Theosophy are truths and facts. But they are also the ones who have a duty, as often and as well as they can, to proclaim to others what has revealed itself to them as irrefutable truths, and to kindle in them the noble sentiment and the strength that lead humanity further up the ladder of knowledge. Whoever is able to believe in reincarnation, whoever knows that it is a possibility, has already reached the first step. Whoever believes—even if only dimly—that reincarnation is possible can expect this thought to become a realization of reality within them, for faith, acting as a living force in the human soul, works wonders in the human soul. Those who do not know how that which comes from spiritual depths works call such people enthusiasts and dreamers, because they are not aware that these people create from a much deeper consciousness than their own. But the course of the world is a continuous embodiment of what the dreamers and idealists have thought.

[ 22 ] The seventh stage can be attained only by one who has been an initiate in this life, who has grasped the meaning of the mysteries, and who can participate in the construction and the plan of the divine world order. After fulfilling his task in the lower regions, he enters directly into the highest region, from which the source of existence emanates, where all life impulses and currents of existence flow. The initiate alone is entitled to the seventh stage of Devachan, or the Land of the Spirits.

[ 23 ] We have seen that humanity’s task lies in this earthly world, and that we must not withdraw from it. But what lies within this world must be enriched by the experiences we gain in the realm of the spirit—experiences we recognize as messages we are to carry out in our earthly lives. In order to act with greater certainty, we must regard life as a school; we must make life a lesson for ourselves. We must observe with insight how, as it were, the rays of the higher life flow into the earthly world. We will speak further about this next time.