The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture XIV

[ 1 ] Today we want to talk about the human being's stay in Devachan between two incarnations.

[ 2 ] We must repeatedly remind ourselves that the human being's stay in Devachan is not somewhere else than where we usually are. For Devachan, the astral world, and the physical world are three worlds intertwined. The most accurate idea of Devachan can be formed by imagining the world of electrical forces before humans discovered electricity. Even before that, everything was contained in the physical world, only at that time it was an occult world. Everything that is occult will one day be discovered. The difference between life in Devachan and life in the physical world is that in their present cycle, human beings are equipped with organs that enable them to see the physical world, but not with organs that enable them to see the phenomena of Devachan.

[ 3 ] Let us put ourselves in the soul of a person who is between two incarnations. He has surrendered his physical body to the general forces and also returned his etheric body to the life forces. Furthermore, he has returned the part of the astral body that he has not yet worked into himself. Then he finds himself in Devachan. He no longer possesses what the gods had worked into his etheric and astral bodies; all of that has been cast off. Only what he himself has worked out during many lifetimes is now his possession. This is also his own in Devachan. Everything that the human being has done in the physical world serves to make him more and more conscious in Devachan.

[ 4 ] Let us take the relationship between one person and another. It may be that it is determined by mere nature; for example, the relationship between siblings who have simply come together through natural circumstances. However, it is only partly natural, because moral and intellectual factors are constantly intertwined with the natural. Through their karma, people are born into a particular family; but not everything is determined by karma. We see natural relationships without any admixture in animals. In humans, it is always also a moral relationship through karma. However, the relationship between two people can also exist without being determined by nature. For example, an intimate friendship between two friends can develop despite external obstacles. Let us imagine such a relationship in a somewhat radical way, assuming that the friends were initially somewhat unsympathetic to each other and then found each other on a purely intellectual and moral basis, from soul to soul. We contrast this relationship with the natural one between two siblings. In the relationship from soul to soul, we now have a powerful means of developing devachanic organs. Nothing develops devachanic organs more easily than such relationships. Such a relationship is unconsciously devachanic.

[ 5 ] What human beings currently develop in terms of soul capacity in purely soul friendship is wisdom in devachan, the possibility of actually experiencing the spiritual. To the extent that human beings live themselves into such relationships, they are well prepared for devachan. If they cannot establish soul relationships, they are unprepared for devachan; for just as color eludes a blind person, so the soul eludes them. To the extent that human beings cultivate purely soul relationships, their eyes for devachan grow. So that the following statement applies: Those who move in the life of the spirit here will perceive as much of the spirit over there as they have acquired here through their activities. Hence the infinite importance of life on the physical plane. There is no other means for human evolution to awaken the organs for Devachan than spiritual activity on the physical plane. All of this is creative and returns to us as devachanic sense organs for the devachanic world. There is no better preparation than to have a purely spiritual relationship with people, a relationship that originally has no natural basis.

[ 6 ] That is why people should be brought together in branches to form purely spiritual relationships. The Masters want to pour life into the stream of humanity in this way. What happens in the branch with the right attitude means the opening of a spiritual eye in Devachan for all participants. There, one then sees everything that is on the same level as what one has established here. If one has established a spiritual relationship on the physical plane, this is definitely one of the things that remain after death. After death, it belongs just as much to the deceased as to the survivor. The one who is on the other side remains in the same relationships, linked by the same bonds to the one who is still here. The deceased is even more aware of this spiritual relationship.

[ 7 ] In this way, one educates oneself for Devachan. The deceased remains in relationship with their loved ones after death. The former relationships become causes for producing effects in Devachan. That is why the devachanic world is called the world of effects and the physical world the world of causes. Human beings can never form their higher organs other than by sowing the causes for these organs on the physical plane. For this purpose, human beings are transferred to the physical plane. The meaning of the much-used phrase “abolishing specialness” will now become clear to us. Before we descended into physical existence, we lived with a content of the astral body that was brought about by a deva. In the past, sympathy and antipathy were stimulated in humans by the devas; humans were not responsible for themselves. Then, on the next stage, humans said to themselves: Now I have entered the physical world as a being that must find its own way. Previously, I could not even utter the word “I”; now I have become a separate being in my own right. Previously, I was also a separate being, but a member of a devachanic being. On the physical plane, I am a separate being in my own right, an I, because I am enclosed in the physical body.

[ 8 ] The higher bodies flow into one another; for example, Atma is in truth only one for all of humanity, like a communal atmosphere. However, the Atma of the individual human being can be understood as if each person cuts out a piece for themselves from the general Atma, so that incisions are made in it, as it were. But we must overcome this separateness. We do this by establishing human relationships of a purely spiritual nature. In this way, we abolish separateness and recognize the unity of the Atma in all. By establishing such human relationships, I awaken sympathy within myself. I take on the task of selflessly integrating myself into the world plan. This awakens the divine in human beings. That is the purpose of looking out into the world.

[ 9 ] Today we are surrounded by physical reality, by the sun, moon, and stars. What surrounded human beings from outside in the ancient moon existence, they now have within themselves. The forces of the moon now live within human beings themselves. If human beings had not been on the moon, they would not have these forces. That is why Egyptian esoteric teachings refer to the moon as Isis, the goddess of all fertility. Isis is the soul of the moon, the predecessor of the earth. All the forces that now live in plants and animals for the purpose of reproduction lived around them. Just as fire, chemical forces, magnetism, and so on are now around us and surround the Earth, so the forces that are now reproductive forces in humans, animals, and plants surrounded the Moon. The forces that now surround the Earth will play a special role in humans in the future. What now acts between man and woman were then external physical forces on the Moon, like volcanic eruptions today. These forces surrounded humans during the Moon's existence, and humans absorbed them through their lunar senses in order to evolve them. What humans had involved on the Moon came out as evolution on Earth. What humans separated out as sexual power after the Lemurian period is Isis, the soul of the Moon, which now lives on in humans. This is the relationship between humans and the present-day moon. It left its soul with humans and therefore became slag itself.

[ 10 ] As we gain experience on Earth, we gather the forces that will be our own on the next planet. What we are now experiencing in Devachan are the preparatory stages for the next times. Just as humans today look up at the moon and say to themselves: It has given us the powers of reproduction — so in the future, humans will also look at a moon that will emerge from our present physical Earth and orbit the future Jupiter as a soulless slag. On Jupiter, humans will develop new powers that they today receive on Earth as light and warmth, as all physical perceptions. Later, they will radiate everything they have previously perceived through the senses. Whatever they have absorbed through the soul will then become reality.

[ 11 ] Thus, the theosophical view does not lead us to underestimate the world of the physical plane, but to know that human beings must go out into the physical plane to gather experiences that they will later radiate back out again. The warmth of the earth and the sun's rays that flow to us today will later radiate from us. Just as sexual energy now flows from us, these new powers will then flow out.

[ 12 ] Now let us clarify what the successive states of devachan mean. At first, devachan is only brief. But more and more spiritual organs develop in the mental body until, when the human being has finally embraced the wisdom of the earth, the organs of the devachanic body are fully developed. This will happen for all human beings when all the Earth cycles have been completed. Then everything will have become human wisdom. Warmth and light will then have become wisdom. Between the Earth manvantara and the next planet, human beings live in a pralaya. There is nothing around them, but all the powers that human beings have drawn out of the Earth are then within them. In such a phase of life, everything external goes inward. Everything is then present in seed form and lives on until the next Manvantara. In general, this is a similar state to when, in a moment of reflection, we forget everything around us and remember only our experiences in order to store them in our memory and apply them later. In Pralaya, the whole of humanity remembers all its experiences in order to make use of them again later.

[ 13 ] There are always such intermediate states, which represent memories, as it were, and so the Devachan state is also such a state of intermediateness. The initiate already sees before him those facts which man only gradually encounters in the Devachan state. It is a state of intermediateness. All similar states are states of intermediateness. The initiate describes the world as it is in Devachan, on the other side, in the intermediate state. When he goes beyond Devachan to an even higher state, he again describes an intermediate state.

[ 14 ] The first stage of initiation consists of the disciple learning to see the world from the other side through the veil of the outer world. The initiate is homeless here on earth. He must build himself a hut on the other side. When the disciples were “on the mountain” with Jesus, they were introduced to the devachanic world, beyond space and time; they built themselves a hut. This is the first stage of initiation.

[ 15 ] At the second stage of initiation, something similar occurs, but at a higher level. At the second stage, the initiate has a state of consciousness that corresponds to the time of interim between two states of form (globes), a pralaya state that occurs when everything that can be achieved in the physical state of form has been achieved and the earth is transformed into a so-called astral state of form or globe.

[ 16 ] The third state of consciousness of the initiate is the state that corresponds to the interlude between two rounds, from the old Arupaglobus of the previous round to the new Arupaglobus of the following round. In the Pralaya between two rounds, the initiate is in the moment when he rises to the third state; he is then an initiate of the third degree. Thus we can understand why Jesus was only able to place his body at the disposal of Christ in the third stage. Christ stands above all spirits who live in the rounds. The initiate who had risen above the rounds was able to place his body at the disposal of Christ.

[ 17 ] Human ego consciousness should be purified and sanctified through Christianity. Christ had to lift up and purify the selfish ego, which dies selflessly as soon as it has attained self-consciousness. He could only do this in a body that had become one with... (gap in the text). Therefore, only the third-degree initiate could sacrifice his body to Christ.

[ 18 ] In our time, it is extremely difficult to attain complete awareness of these highly developed states. The deeply knowledgeable Subba Row had his own knowledge; he describes three such states of chelaship.

[ 19 ] We see the moon as the soulless remnant of ourselves, and we ourselves have within us the forces that once gave life to the moon. This is also the basis for the peculiar, sentimental feelings of poets who sing the praises of the moon. All poetic feelings are faint echoes of occult currents living deep within human beings.

[ 20 ] Now, however, a being can become overgrown with what should actually remain as dross. Something must remain behind on Earth that will later become what the moon is today. Humanity must overcome this. But humanity can enjoy it, and then it connects with it. A person who is deeply interwoven with the merely sensual, the merely instinctual, connects more and more with what is to become slag. This will happen when the number 666, the number of the beast, is fulfilled. Then comes the moment when the earth must move out of the ongoing evolution of the planets. If human beings have made themselves too closely related to the sensual forces that are to be eliminated, then what is related to them and has not found a connection to pass over to the next globe goes along with the slag and becomes inhabitants of this slag, just as such beings are now inhabitants of today's moon.

[ 21 ] This brings us to the concept of the eighth sphere. Human beings must pass through seven spheres. The seven planets correspond to the seven bodies:

Saturn corresponds to the physical body
The sun corresponds to the etheric body
The moon corresponds to the astral body
Earth corresponds to the ego
Jupiter corresponds to manas
Venus corresponds to buddhi
Vulcan corresponds to atma.

[ 22 ] In addition, there is an eighth sphere, where everything that cannot join this ongoing development goes. This is already formed in the devachanic state. If a person uses their life on Earth only to gather what serves them alone, to experience only an elevation of their own selfish self, this leads to the state of Avitchi in Devachan. The person who cannot escape their peculiarity comes to Avitchi. All these Avitchi people will one day become inhabitants of the eighth sphere. Avitchi is the preparation for the eighth sphere. The other people become inhabitants of the ongoing chain of evolution. Religions have formulated the concept of “hell” from this idea.

[ 23 ] When a person returns from Devachan, the astral, etheric, and physical forces around them are arranged according to twelve karmic forces, which are called nidanas in Indian esotericism. These are:

1. avidya = ignorance
2. samskara = the organizing tendencies
3. vijnana* = consciousness
4. nama rupa = name and form
5. shadayadana = what the mind makes of things
6. sparsha = contact with existence
7. vedana = feeling
8. trishna = thirst for existence
9. upadana = pleasure in existence
10. bhava = birth
11. jati* = what has led to birth
12. jaramarana* = what liberates from earthly existence.

[ 24 ] In the next lectures, we will take a closer look at these important aspects of karma.

[ 25 ] * In these Sanskrit words, j is pronounced as dzh: vidzhnana, dzhati, dzharamarana.