The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fifth Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we became somewhat acquainted with the nature of Devachan; now the question arises: How does the actual bliss of Devachan come about? — Activity in Devachan consists mainly in creativity, and it is difficult to give an idea of this bliss. But perhaps a comparison with something earthly will bring us closer to it.

[ 2 ] There is a sensation on earth that can best be studied by observing a being engaged in an activity that has to do with the creation of another being, for example, a hen incubating an egg. It is a grotesque but very apt comparison. For the sensual perception of the chicken, brooding is bliss, an immense feeling of well-being. This can now be transferred to the spiritual realm and thus Devachan can be imagined.

[ 3 ] In the first region, the continental area of the spirit world, where everything physical is negative but spreads out before the human being like a huge tableau, he is prompted to bring forth the image of his new body. He does this in uninhibited activity and feels the bliss of creation.

[ 4 ] In the second region, general life, which in physical life is bound to human, animal, and plant forms and is delimited in each being, flows like the waters of the sea. One sees it flowing away, the general life, not only externally but also internally. Externally, it flows in reddish-purple colors from plant form to plant form, from animal form to animal form, as if in the unity of life. Life lives in Devachan. All forms of spiritual life, for example that of Christian communities, can be seen there as a common flowing life. The first principle of theosophy, to seek the all-one life, can also be practiced there; there one sees the one life that is common to all.

[ 5 ] In the third region, one sees everything that plays out spiritually between people here in practical reality. When two people love each other, one sees love there as a being itself, which has its body in love. If one imagines all this, one gets a picture of the bliss of Devachan. Those who know something of it will say little, because the spiritual cannot be described in physical language.

[ 6 ] However, one must not believe that human beings are idle or only concerned with themselves in Devachan. Human beings have other work to do there.

[ 7 ] The face of the earth is constantly changing, along with all its fauna and flora. How different it was, for example, in northern Siberia at the time when the mammoth, which is now found frozen in ice fields as if alive, still lived there! How different it was here, where primeval forests once covered the ground, where wild animals of the hot zone lived, in short, where a tropical world existed! Who does this? Who changes the condition of the earth? What about the soul, the spirit of the animals? What about the soul of the plants?

[ 8 ] When we consider the physical plane, we say with good reason: Man has his ego here, his place of residence here; he is the most outstanding creature among the beings that live here. It is quite different on the astral plane. As soon as the initiate enters the astral plane, he encounters a whole series of new beings that do not exist here on the physical plane. In this respect, it makes no difference whether it is an initiated human being or a dead person; the initiate can already work on the astral plane during an incarnation. There, for example, he sees the species or group souls of animals; he interacts with them there as he does with humans here; he sees them as his equals. On the physical plane, animals have only a physical, etheric, and astral body; they do not have an I on the physical plane, but on the astral plane. Just as your ten fingers have a common soul, so all animals of a species have a common soul on the astral plane. The ego of the animal species lion, dog, ant, and so on, is present there as a being. It is as if the ego were floating in astral space, holding the various animals like puppets on strings. There are also such group souls for plants; but they have their ego in Devachan. There, the “strings” reach even higher, so to speak. And all minerals made of common substances, such as gold, diamonds, stones, and so on, have a common group soul in the upper part of Devachan. Thus, the entities differ in their sequence of stages:

[ 9 ] When a human being dies, their ego is on the astral plane together with the egos — this unusual plural cannot be avoided — of animals, and there they can perform work like the egos of animals. This work consists of gradually changing the animal world. In the lower devachan, they find the egos of plants as their companions; there they can change the plant world. In this way, they themselves participate in the transformation of the earth.

[ 10 ] It is therefore human beings themselves who bring about the great changes on earth; they themselves work on the face of the earth. Human beings themselves have brought about the completely changed scene of their new incarnation. But they do this work under the guidance and leadership of higher beings. It is therefore quite true to say, with regard to the animal and plant world, which is constantly changing: this is the work of the deceased. The dead are working on the transformation of fauna and flora, even on the transformation of the physical forms of the solid earth. Earth work is the work of the dead. We must also see the actions of disembodied human beings in the forces of nature. And how powerfully these forces of nature are transforming the earth!

[ 11 ] All activity, all work, once had a beginning. There were no pyramids then, nor were there any tools. Everything was there, as the gods, or as the materialists say, the forces of nature had given it, and man was placed within it. Now, all around us, the earth has been transformed by the work of external human beings; and what cannot be achieved here, what man cannot do here, he does in the time between death and new birth. Thus, our own development is connected with the transformation of the whole earth. The construction and evolution of the earth is the work of man on the higher planes, and the higher man develops himself, the more rapidly and completely the transformation of the physical earth and its fauna and flora progresses. The higher he is developed, the longer he has to work in the higher parts of Devachan. The savage has little insight into this. In many legends and fairy tales, the seemingly childlike human spirit, which is in reality inspired by higher powers, has expressed these facts.

[ 12 ] How do the forces work to bring humans to a new incarnation? As we have seen, approximately a thousand years pass between death and new incarnation; during this time, the soul matures in order to embark on the path to a new birth. It is extremely interesting for the seer to explore the astral world. For example, he can observe flying astral corpses in the process of dissolution. The astral corpse of a highly developed person who has worked on their lower instincts dissolves quickly; but the dissolution proceeds slowly in low-level people who have given free rein to their inclinations and passions. It can even happen that the old astral corpse left behind has not yet dissolved when the original bearer proceeds to a new birth. And that is then a difficult fate. It may also be that, due to special circumstances, a person returns soon and still finds their old astral body; this then has a strong attraction to them and slips into the new astral body. The person thus forms a new astral body, but their old one connects with it, and they then carry both with them through life. The old astral body then appears to them in bad dreams or visions as their second self, deceiving, tormenting, and torturing them. This is the unjustified, false “guardian of the threshold.” This old astral corpse easily leaves the person because it is not firmly connected to the other parts of the being, and then appears as a doppelganger.

[ 13 ] In addition to these figures, the seer sees a particularly strange type of formation; they are bell-shaped formations that fly and shoot through the astral space at tremendous speed. These are human germs that have not yet incarnated but are striving for incarnation. Time and place are actually quite meaningless for these human germs striving for incarnation, because they can move so easily. They are multicolored and surrounded by a colorful atmosphere; in one place they are red, in another blue, and in the middle a yellow-glowing ray sparkles. These are the human germs just entering the astral space from the Devachan. What has happened there? The human being had taken the higher astral body and the fruits of various lives as a causal body with him into the Devachan, and now he is gathering new “astral matter” around himself. It is as if scattered iron filings are arranged according to the forces of a magnet. Depending on their inherent forces, human beings gather astral matter around themselves; if they have had a good previous life, they gather different material than if they have had a bad one. The bell-shaped structure is now the former causal body, the forces of the former astral body, and the new astral body. The germ should no longer find the old astral body, but should form a new astral body from the undifferentiated astral matter, so that this process depends on the human being himself: the form and color of the new astral body depend on the forces of the past life. This is a fact that must be taken into account. Why do these human germs shoot off at such breakneck speed? Because the parents must be found who match the human germ in character and family circumstances. The speed makes it possible to find the parents. The human germ can be here at this moment and in America the next.

[ 14 ] In what happens next, the human being is dependent on help. Higher beings, the Lipikas, guide the human germ to the appropriate parents, the Maharajas form the etheric body in accordance with the astral form and what the parents contribute in terms of the outer physical body. During the act of fertilization, the seer can also discover astral matter in the passion that develops on the part of the parents. This determines the passion of the child according to the intensity of this passion. Then the etheric matter shoots in from north, south, east, and west, from above and from below.

[ 15 ] It is not always possible to find a pair of parents who are a perfect match for the human germ; only the best possible match can be sought. Nor is it possible to build a physical body that is a perfect match for the etheric body of the human germ. There can never be complete harmony. This is the source of the conflict between soul and body in human beings.

[ 16 ] Immediately before incarnation, a very important event occurs that is parallel to the moment of death. Just as immediately after death, memories of the past life appear before the soul like a tableau, so immediately before incarnation there is a kind of preview of the life to come. One does not see all the details, but in broad outlines one sees all the circumstances of the life to come. This moment is of tremendous importance. It happens that people who have suffered greatly in previous lives and gone through very difficult experiences are shocked when they see their new circumstances and fate, and hold back their soul from entering the body completely, so that only part of the soul enters the body. The consequence of the shock of such a preview is the birth of an idiot or an epileptic.

[ 17 ] At the moment of incarnation, immediately after fertilization, the yellow shining thread in the causal body darkens and disappears. Only in the initiated does it remain in all stages.

[ 18 ] Now, one must not imagine that the higher members of the being are fully connected to the embryo from the very beginning. The first to develop its activity is the causal body, for it is already at work at the very beginning of the physical body's formation.

[ 19 ] The etheric body only begins to work on the embryo in the seventh week, and the astral body only in the seventh month. Before that, the mother's etheric body and astral body work on the child. It is now very important for the child's education in the early years to develop these bodies further. This should be taken into account much more in the child's education than is currently the case. The time when the child's etheric body and astral body begin to work should be observed.

[ 20 ] After birth, development continues in various stages, and the period from the seventh to the fourteenth year of life is particularly important for education. Tomorrow we will continue to see how theosophy approaches educational issues, which are indeed an important chapter in human development.