The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture II

[ 1 ] Today we want to deal with three important concepts that are related to the parts of human nature. They form, so to speak, a guide through the whole world. These are: activity or movement, wisdom, which is also called the Word, and thirdly, will. When we speak of activity, we actually mean something very general. The esotericist, however, sees activity as the foundation of the entire universe that surrounds us. For the esotericist, the first form of the universe is a product of activity. To the ordinary human mind, the world appears as something finished; but the esotericist says to himself that what exists is a product of activity. What appears to be finished is a stage of progressive activity, a point of passage. The whole world is constantly in activity. This activity is actually karma.

[ 2 ] When we speak of human beings, we speak of their astral body as karma, as activity. Actually, the astral body is what is closest to human beings. What humans experience, which determines their welfare and misfortune, their pleasure and suffering, emanates from their astral body. Love, passion, joy, pain, ideals, and duty are all connected with the astral body. When we speak of pleasure and suffering, drives, wishes, and desires, we are speaking of the astral body. Human beings constantly experience the astral body, but the seer sees the form of the astral body. This astral body is in a state of constant transformation. At first it is undifferentiated, as long as the human being has not yet worked on it. But human beings are constantly working on it in our time. When they distinguish between what is permitted and what is forbidden, human beings work on it from their ego. From the middle of the Lemurian epoch to the middle of the sixth root race, humans have been working on their astral body.

[ 3 ] Why do humans work on it? They work on their astral body because in the realm of activity, every single action causes a counteraction. Every action causes a counteraction. When we run our hand over the tabletop, it becomes hot. The heat is the counter-effect of our activity. Thus, every activity causes another. When certain animals migrated into the dark caves of Kentucky, they no longer needed their eyesight, but only sensitive tactile organs to find their way around. As a result, the blood drained from their eyes and they became blind. This was the consequence of their activity, of migrating into the caves of Kentucky.

[ 4 ] The human astral body is in constant activity. That is what constitutes its life. This activity is called, in the narrower sense, human karma. What I do today finds expression in the astral body. If I strike someone, that is an action and it provokes a counteraction. That is compensatory justice: karma. Action is a blow that provokes a counter-blow. This must then be linked to the concept of cause and effect. There is always something unbalanced in karma; it always demands something else.

[ 5 ] The second thing in human nature and in the universe is wisdom. Just as karma is something unbalanced, wisdom has something of calmness and balance about it. That is why it is also called rhythm. All wisdom is rhythm in form. There may be a lot of sympathy in the astral body, then there is a lot of green in the aura. This green was once challenged as a complementary color. The green originally corresponded to a red, a selfish instinct. This has been transformed into green through activity, karma. In wisdom, in rhythm, everything is complete, balanced. In humans, everything rhythmic and wise is in the etheric body. The etheric body is therefore what represents wisdom in humans. Calm and rhythm reign in the etheric body.

[ 6 ] In contrast to mere calm, will is creative, it brings forth. So we have the following ascent: first, karma, activity, the unbalanced; second, wisdom, that which has come to rest; third, will, an existence so overflowing that it can surrender itself. So activity, wisdom, and will are the three stages in which all existence flows.

[ 7 ] Let us consider the human being standing before us from this point of view. First of all, the human being has his physical body. As the human being is at present, he has no influence whatsoever on the physical body. What the human being is physically and what he does is made by external, creative forces. They cannot regulate the movement of their brain molecules themselves, nor can they control their blood circulation of their own accord. This simply means that the physical body is created without the human being and is also maintained by other forces. It has, as it were, only been lent to them. The human being is incarnated into a physical body that has been created for them by other forces. In a certain sense, the etheric body is also created for him by other powers. In contrast, the astral body is formed partly by other powers and partly by the human being himself. As much as the astral body is formed by the human being himself becomes the karma of the human being. What he himself has worked into it must have a karmic effect. This is also the immortal, the imperishable part of him. The physical body has come into being through the karma of other beings; but the part of the human astral body into which the human being has worked since Lemurian times is his karma. Only when the human being has worked through the entire astral body has he reached the stage of freedom. Then the entire astral body has been transformed from within. The human being is then entirely the result of his activity, his karma.

[ 8 ] If we take any stage of development, the human being has an astral body that is partly his own work. But what is his own work lives in the etheric body and in the physical body. What the human being has made of himself lives in the physical body, and through the physical body it lives in the physical world. He would not be able to grasp concepts of the physical world if he did not work in it through his organs. What the human being experiences in the astral body, he works into himself. In what he observes in the physical world, his three sheaths are active. When they see a rose, for example, all three sheaths are involved. First, they see red. The physical body is involved in this. In a camera obscura, the rose makes the same impression. Secondly, however, this rose is perceived by the human being in the etheric body as a living image. Thirdly, the rose delights the human being, and their astral body is involved in this. These are the three stages of human observation. The innermost part of the human being works through the three bodies into the outer world. What the human being takes in from the outer world, he takes in through these three bodies.

[ 9 ] All these things that relate to human activity or karma are based on desire. The human being would not need to be active if he had no desire. But they have the desire to participate in their environment. That is why we also call their astral body their desire body.

[ 10 ] There is an inner connection between human activity and their organs. Humans need their organs for their lowest and highest instincts. They also need them in art. Once humans have sucked everything out of the world, so to speak, they no longer need their organs. Between birth and death, humans become accustomed to viewing the world through their organs. After death, they must slowly shed this habit. If they still want to use their organs to view the world, they find themselves in a state called Kamaloka. It is a state in which there is still a desire to see through the organs, but the organs are no longer there. If, after death, humans could tell themselves that they no longer need their organs, there would be no more Kamaloka for them. In Devachan, everything that humans previously perceived through their organs in life is now seen from within, without organs.

[ 11 ] Karma, the activity of humans through the astral body, is something unbalanced. However, as activity gradually reaches a state of equilibrium, a balance is achieved. When a pendulum is struck, it gradually comes to rest. Every unbalanced activity ultimately transitions into something at rest. A few irregularities can be observed, but when the irregularities are infinitely numerous, they balance each other out. For example, an instrument can be used to observe the irregularities caused in a city by the movement of electric trains. In a small town, where the trains do not move so much, the instrument shows constant strong fluctuations, but in a large city, where the movement is much stronger and more frequent, the instrument is much more at rest because the many irregularities balance each other out. The same is true in Devachan with every irregularity.

[ 12 ] In Devachan, man looks within himself. He observes what he has absorbed; he must observe it until it has reached a rhythmic state.

[ 13 ] A blow provokes a counterblow, but the counterblow only returns after many mediations. However, the effect continues in the meantime. How blow and counter-blow are connected is transformed into wisdom in Devachan. What the human being has transformed into wisdom is transformed into rhythm in the human being, in contrast to activity. What has been transformed into rhythm passes into the etheric body. After Devachan, one has become wiser and better because one has processed all experiences in Devachan. What has been worked into the etheric body from the astral body in terms of vibrations is immortal. When a person dies, what they have transformed from the astral body remains, as does the small piece of the etheric body that they have worked on; the rest of the etheric body dissolves into the world ether. To the extent that the human being has processed this small piece of etheric body, his etheric body is immortal. That is why he finds this piece of etheric body again when he returns. What he needs to supplement this piece of etheric body determines the length of his stay in Devachan.

[ 14 ] When a person has transformed their entire etheric body to this extent, they no longer need Devachan. This is the case with the trained secret student who has transformed their etheric body in such a way that the entire etheric body remains after death and does not need to pass through Devachan. This is called renouncing Devachan. One can allow a person to work on their etheric body if one is certain that they will no longer bring anything evil into the rest of the world; otherwise, they would work their bad instincts into the world. In hypnosis, it is possible that the hypnotized person will work the hypnotist's bad instincts into the world. In normal people, the physical body prevents the etheric body from being pulled and tugged in all directions. However, when the physical body is in a state of lethargy, it is possible to work into the etheric body. If a person is hypnotized and bad instincts are worked into them, these remain present even after death. Many practices of black magicians consisted of creating willing servants in this way. The rule of white magicians is not to allow anyone to work into their etheric body to a greater extent than their instincts have already gone through catharsis. Calm and wisdom reign in the etheric body. When something bad enters it, this badness comes to rest and remains there.

[ 15 ] Before a person is guided as a student to the point where they can work on their etheric body at will, they must at least partially be able to assess karma and gain self-knowledge. That is why meditation must not be undertaken without continuous self-knowledge and self-observation. This enables the person to see the guardian of the threshold at the right moment: the karma that they still have to work off. When this stage is reached in a normal state, it means nothing more than the recognition of the karma that still exists. When I begin to work into the etheric body, I must set myself the task of balancing the karma that is still there. It can happen that the guardian of the threshold appears in an abnormal way. This happens when a person has such a strong attraction to the one life between birth and death that he cannot remain in Devachan long enough because of his low level of inner activity. If the person has become too accustomed to looking outward, they have nothing to see within. They then soon return to physical life. Their desires remain, the short devachan is soon over; and when they return, the structure of their former desires is still present in Kamaloka; they still encounter it. They incarnate. The old astral body mixes with the new one; this is the previous karma, the guardian of the threshold. They then have their former karma constantly before them, which becomes a peculiar kind of doppelganger.

[ 16 ] Many of the popes of the infamous papal era, such as Alexander VI, had such doppelgängers in their next incarnation. There are people, and not infrequently nowadays, who constantly have their former lower nature beside them. This is a specific kind of madness. It will become stronger and more intense because life in the material world is spreading more and more. Many people who are now completely absorbed in material life will have the abnormal form of the Guardian of the Threshold beside them in their next incarnation. If spiritual influence were not being exerted very strongly now, a kind of epidemic vision of the Guardian of the Threshold would occur as a result of materialistic culture. A harbinger of this is the nervousness of our century. It is a kind of absorption in the periphery. All the nervous people of today will be hounded by the Guardian of the Threshold in their next incarnation. They will be hounded into a premature incarnation, a kind of cosmic premature birth. What we must strive for with theosophy is a sufficiently long devachan period to avoid such premature incarnations.

[ 17 ] Christ's entry into world history must be viewed from this perspective. Previously, anyone who wanted to come to a life in Christ was led to the point where they had to enter the mystery. The physical body was made lethargic there, and only the pure priesthood administered to the astral body what was still lacking in its purification. That was the initiation.

[ 18 ] But through Christ's coming into the world, it became possible for those who felt drawn to him to receive from him a substitute [for this old form of initiation]. It is always possible, through connection with Christ, to purify one's astral body to such an extent that it can be worked into the etheric body without harm to the world. When one considers this, the word “vicarious atoning death” takes on a completely different meaning. This is what is meant by the atoning death of Christ. Previously, anyone who wanted to attain purification had to suffer death in the mysteries. Now the One has suffered it for all, so that through world-historical initiation, a substitute has been created for the old initiation. Christianity has created much that is communal which was not communal before. The effective power is expressed in the fact that through introspection, through true mysticism, communion with Christ is possible. This was also incorporated into language. The first Christian initiate in Europe, Ulfilas, incorporated it into the German language itself, so that man found the “I” in language. Other languages express this relationship to the I through a special form of the verb, for example in Latin “amo,” but the German language adds the I. “I” is: J.Ch. = Jesus Christ. This was deliberately incorporated into the German language; it is not a coincidence. It was the initiates who created the language. Just as in Sanskrit we have AUM for the Trinity, we have the sign “ICH” for the inner being of man. This created a center through which the passions of the world can be transformed into rhythm. They must be rhythmicized through the ego. This center is literally the Christ.

[ 19 ] All Western nations have developed activity, the passions. An impulse must come from the East to bring calm to them. A harbinger of this is already Tolstoy's book on “Doing Nothing.” In the activity of the West, we often find chaos. This is still increasing. The spirituality of the East should bring a center to the chaos of the West. What is practiced for a long time as karma is transformed into wisdom. Wisdom is the daughter of karma. All karma finds its balance in wisdom. A wise man who has reached a certain level is called a sun hero because his inner being has become rhythmic. His life is a reflection of the sun, which travels through the sky in rhythmic orbits.

[ 20 ] The word “AUM” is the breath. The breath is to the word as the Holy Spirit is to Christ, as the Atma is to the ego.