Nature and Spirit Beings
Their Effects in Our Visible World
GA 98
2 Feb 1908 am, Frankfurt
V. Group Souls of Animals, Plants, and Minerals I
It has to be emphasized repeatedly that Theosophy must be lived, that, by way of Theosophy, the human being not only learns this or that, but that he learns to think differently, to feel, to perceive emotionally in regard to his whole environment. This will become a reality for someone who accepts the theosophical impulses in the right spirit. He has to learn to feel empathy, to experience living with all beings, but mostly this needs to apply in relation to other human beings. However, we learn best to empathise with human beings when we first learn to do this with the rest of the world.
Slowly man learns to know the whole world that surrounds him. He slowly learns, that he is surrounded everywhere by spiritual beings, that he walks through spiritual beings everywhere. He learns to understand this in regard to feeling and in regard to sensation. He learns to know what surrounds us in the three realms of nature. He learns to know the beings in the mineral realm, the plant realm and the animal kingdom. He strides differently through the meadows and forests, over the fields and open country from someone who has not gone through theosophical training.
When looking at the other beings, one could at first believe that the animal beings do not have a soul like human beings. The Ego of man, man’s soul, is certainly different from an animal’s Ego, in that the Ego of man lives on the physical plane. When we look at an animal as such, then each individual animal has a physical body, an etheric body and an astral body. Human beings have in addition to these three bodies an Ego. During his waking state man’s Ego is contained in him. The animal, however, does not have an Ego on the physical plane. For this, we have to go a bit deeper into the so called astral world. On the astral plane we will find a population of animal Egos, just like we have a human population here on the physical plane. Just as one man meets another here, a clairvoyant is able to meet self-contained personalities on the astral plane—these are the animal Egos.
One has to imagine it thus—imagine the ten fingers of a human being stretched through a wall. They are moving. We can see the ten fingers moving, but not the human being himself. He is hidden behind the wall. We are not able to explain to ourselves how the ten fingers can get through the wall and move. We have to assume that there is some being to which they belong. It is the same with animals in the physical world. All animals of similar shape have one group-Ego. Here in the physical world we see the animals roam about, and what we are seeing has a physical body, an etheric body and an astral body. If we see here in the physical world, for example, lions, then these lions are externalized organs of those lion-Egos that live in the astral world. The lion-Ego, the group-Ego of physical lions, is a similarly self-contained being on the astral plane as we are self-contained beings here. Thus each group of animals has an Ego on the astral plane: a lion-Ego, a tiger-Ego, a vulture-Ego are on the astral plane. The single animals exist here in the physical world like fingers stretched through a wall.
When we observe the individual animals here, many of them appear to be extraordinarily smart. These animals are being managed from the astral plane where the animal-Egos, the group-Egos, are located. The population of the astral plane is much more clever than human beings. The animal group-Egos on the astral plane are very wise beings. Observe the bird-migration, whereby the birds migrate through the various regions, how their flight is arranged, how during autumn they move to warmer regions and how they gather together again in spring. If we deeply look into these wise arrangements, we have to ask ourselves: who is hidden behind the wall, who arranges all of this?—These are the group-Egos. When we watch a beaver building, then we will see that the beaver built more wisely than the greatest engineering art.
One has observed the intelligence of bees at work by giving sugar instead of honey to them. Then they were watched. They cannot take along the sugar, so they go and fetch other bees. First they fly to a source of water, from which each bee carries a drop of water, drenches the sugar with it and transforms it into a kind of syrup. This is then carried to the hive. The spirit of the beehive is behind the work of the bees. The individual bees belong to a single bee personality, just like our limbs belong to us. Only it is the case that each bee is more separate from the others, and our individuals limbs are closer together, more compact. We walk everywhere through entities invisible for us, through the animal group-Egos, who evade physical observation.
As we begin to empathise with beings of which man has not the slightest idea, we can also empathise with the plant souls. The plant-Egos live in an even higher world than the animal-Egos. The plant-Egos, those self-contained group-Egos, to each of which a series of plant belongs, are on the so-called Devachan plane. We can also tell the place where these plant-Egos actually are—all plant-Egos are at the centre of the Earth. The animal Group-Egos are circumventing the Earth like the trade-winds, while the plant-Ego’s are in the centre of the Earth. They are beings that all penetrate each other. In the spiritual world the law of permeability holds sway—one being passes through another. We see the animal group-Egos pass across the Earth like the trade-winds and observe how they, out of their wisdom, perform what we consider to be the deeds of the animals. When we observe the plants, then we see the head of the plant, the root, is extended to the centre of the Earth, because there, at the centre of the Earth, is their Group-Ego.
The Earth itself is an expression of soul-spiritual entities. The plants appear to us, from a spiritual viewpoint, to be something like the nails on our fingers. The plants belong to the Earth. One who observes the individual plants, can never see them completely. Each plant belongs to the sum of entities, that make up the plant-Egos. Thus we can immerse ourselves into the feelings and emotion of the plants themselves. The part of the plant that grows out of the earth, that strives from within the earth to the surface, has a different nature from what grows under the earth. If you cut off the bloom, stalk and leaves of a plant, then that is something different from pulling out the root. If you cut off a plant this will create a certain type of well-being, like a pleasure for the plant soul. This pleasure it similar to what is felt, for example, by a cow whose young calf suckles at its udder. The plant part that grows out of the earth really is something similar to the milk of animals.
When we walk through the fields in autumns and the stalks are falling under the scythe of the reaper, when the scythe strikes the sheaves, then feelings of well-being, akin to ecstasy, breathe across the fields. It is something immensely significant when the reaper goes through the field with his scythe, and we not only can watch the falling sheaves with our physical eyes, but we can see feelings of pleasure stroking the Earth.
However, when you rip out a plant by its root, this causes pain for the plant soul. The laws that apply in the physical world are not the same as those in the higher worlds. We will gain different insights when we ascend to the spiritual worlds. Sometimes also here in the physical world the principle of beauty contradicts the principle of pain or joy. It is possible that someone, driven by beauty concepts, rips out a few white hairs, although it will hurt him. This applies to plants too. It might look more tidy to rip out a plant by its root, it might be more beautiful, but it will still hurt the plant.
The stones are also lifeless only in the physical world—in the higher worlds they too have their group-Egos. In the upper areas of Devachan, the group-Egos of the minerals exist. They too experience joy and pain. We will not find out anything about this by way of speculation, but only through the Science of the Spirit.
If we observe a worker in a quarry breaking up stone by stone, we could believe that this would cause pain to the stone soul. But this is not so. Just when a stone is blasted, then feelings of pleasure burst forth from the stone in all directions. Out of the quarry, where rock is blasted apart, strong feelings of well-being stream out on all sides. When we have a glass of water and add salt to it, and the salt dissolves, then feelings of desire and pleasure will stream through the water. Joy streams through the water when the dissolution of salt is being observed from a spiritual viewpoint. But if we allow the dissolved salt to settle and harden again, then this happens under pain. Likewise, it would cause pain to the stone soul if we could amalgamate the rock again that was blasted apart.
In their secret writings, in their religious scriptures, the seers have always shared their secret knowledge with human beings. But the people have lost the ability to understand these secret scriptures. Let’s imagine ourselves back into the ancient periods of time of our earthly evolution. We see the stones of our solid mountain ranges, that are built up from various clay strata, basaltic stones and so on. When we go even further back, we find that things on Earth become more and more soft. Then we come back to a time, where the Earth was filled with mighty masses of fiery warmth, where the iron, where all metals, all minerals, were dissolved in the spiritual. The human being was also a spiritual being at that time. To allow man to develop further, to receive his current shape, those soft masses needed to solidify. The mountain ranges emerged, the mineral masses dissolved out of the soft substance, and the Earth became the dwelling place of today’s human beings. The lifeless rock masses crystallised themselves out of the fiery liquid Earth like the salt out of the salt solution. Everything shaped itself so that the firm masses were formed out of the liquid state. This did not happen without pain. The whole hardening process of the globe was connected with the pain of the stone soul.
In the future Earth will become spiritualised again. The Earth will again fragment, as is already indicated by radium today. The process of dissolution of the Earth will begin, a spiritualisation, a deification, an adoption in the place of children will happen. Let us hear what the Apostle Paul says, “The whole Earth, all beings, are sighing under pain, waiting to be adopted as children”.1St Paul says, “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain.” In Luther’s translation it literally says: “The creatures are fearfully awaiting the revelation of the children of God”, Letter to the Romans, VIII,19
What we have got here is a representation of what happens on Earth, where the stone soul suffers under pain until the condition occurs when the stone soul will be adopted in place of a child. One could feel pain within one’s soul when those, who are announcing the religious scriptures to man, dream all sorts of things into them, because they do not want to make an effort to penetrate deeply into these records. Those people who are leading mankind are really violating their duty if they do not want to penetrate deeply into the religious scriptures.
The apostle Paul knew what the processes on Earth meant. Theosophy must lead mankind in our modern time into the depth of religious scriptures. It is sad if those who are called upon to be the representatives of the scriptures, make no effort to immerse themselves in them—they do not even have the will to understand them. All the arrogance of the present that says, “we’ve finally made such magnificent progress”,2Goethe, Faust I, Scene 1, night; “Excuse me, but it is a great delight, On the spirit of the ages to set our sight, To see how wise men have thought before us, and we’ve finally made such magnificent progress.” must disappear. There are so many who believe that our ancestors knew nothing! Then people come and interpret the scriptures of Paul—religious scriptures—as they want to, but filled with arrogance they feel that they know more than our ancestors. But how do these words affect us, “All creatures are sighing under pain, awaiting to be adopted as children”? when we allow the insight of the feeling stone soul to affect us, how it awaits in pain to be adopted in place of a child? Human beings with a materialist mindset believe that when they walk outside they walk through air, wind and fog, through oxygen and nitrogen. But a person who has spiritual knowledge, knows that he is walking through spiritual beings everywhere, that with every breath he takes in spiritual beings and absorbs them.
So we have seen, how the animal-Egos circumvent the Earth like the trade-winds, how the plant-Egos are gathered together in the centre of the Earth, how the Earth itself feels something when we rip out plants, and how the Earth itself is alive and ensouled and has feelings. Everything outside is ensouled and imbued with life.
In the same way as the physical body is born out of the physical substances and powers, our spiritual limbs are born out of the vast cosmos. Then we begin to see a small world within us that rests inside the vast world. This creates a blissful feeling in us. Only when we learn to empathise with the minerals, plants and animals, will we learn to feel how our Ego rests within the whole cosmos.
Thus we can see how Theosophy leads us into the spiritual foundations of existence. It is something that transforms our sense of life, our life impulses in such a way that through it we become different human beings. The theosophical concepts are seeds, will-impulses for real experiences.
Über die Gruppen-Iche von Tieren, Pflanzen und Mineralien
[ 1 ] Es wird immer wieder zu betonen sein, daß Theosophie Leben werden muß in dem Sinne, daß der Mensch durch die Theosophie nicht nur dies oder jenes lernt, sondern daß er lernt anders zu denken, zu fühlen, zu empfinden in bezug auf seine ganze Umgebung. Dies tritt für den Menschen ein, wenn er im rechten Sinne die theosophischen Impulse aufnimmt. Er muß lernen mitzufühlen, mitzuleben mit allen Wesen. Am meisten muß sich das allerdings beziehen auf die anderen Menschen. Aber wir lernen am besten mit den Menschen mitzufühlen, wenn wir es zuerst lernen für die ganze übrige Welt.
[ 2 ] Der Mensch lernt allmählich die ganze Welt um sich herum kennen. Er lernt allmählich, daß er überall von geistigen Wesen umgeben ist, daß er überall durch geistige Wesen hindurchschreitet. Er lernt das verstehen hinsichtlich des Gefühls, hinsichtlich der Empfindung. Er lernt erkennen, was um uns herum ist in den drei Reichen der Natur. Er lernt erkennen die Wesen im mineralischen, pflanzlichen und tierischen Reich. Anders schreitet er durch Wiesen und Wälder, über Äcker und Fluren als der Mensch, der nicht durch die theosophische Schulung hindurchgegangen ist.
[ 3 ] Schauen wir die anderen Wesen an, so könnte man zunächst glauben, die tierischen Wesenheiten hätten nicht eine Seele wie der Mensch. Allerdings unterscheidet sich das Ich des Menschen, des Menschen Seele von dem tierischen Ich. Das Ich des Menschen lebt auf dem physischen Plan. Wenn wir das Tier als solches betrachten, hat das einzelne Tier einen physischen Leib, Äther- und Astralleib. Beim Menschen haben wir außer den drei Gliedern auch noch das Ich. So ist im Menschen im wachen Zustand sein Ich enthalten. Das Tier hat aber das Ich nicht auf dem physischen Plan. Da müssen wir schon etwas tiefer eindringen in die sogenannte astralische Welt. Da finden wir, so wie hier auf dem physischen Plan eine Bevölkerung von Menschen, auf dem Astralplan eine Bevölkerung von tierischen Ichen. So wie der Mensch hier den Menschen begegnet, so kann der Seher auf dem Astralplan ebenso abgeschlossenen Persönlichkeiten begegnen; das sind die tierischen Iche.
[ 4 ] Man hat sich das so vorzustellen: Wir denken uns die zehn Finger eines Menschen durch eine Wand gesteckt. Sie bewegen sich. Wir sehen die zehn Finger sich bewegen, aber nicht den Menschen selbst. Der ist hinter der Wand verborgen. Wir können uns nicht erklären, daß die zehn Finger von selber durch die Wand kommen und sich bewegen. Wir müssen annehmen, daß irgendeine Wesenheit dazu gehört. So ist es mit den Tieren in der physischen Welt. Alle gleichgestalteten Tiere haben ein Gruppen-Ich. Hier im Physischen sehen wir die Tiere umherwandeln. Was wir da sehen, das hat einen physischen Leib, Äther- und Astralleib. Sehen wir hier im Physischen zum Beispiel Löwen, so sind diese Löwen hervorgebrachte Organe des im Astralen lebenden Löwen-Ichs. Das LöwenIch, das Gruppen-Ich physischer Löwen, ist ebenso auf dem Astralplan eine abgeschlossene Wesenheit, wie wir hier abgeschlossene Wesenheiten sind. So hat jede Tiergruppe ein Ich auf dem Astralplan; ein Löwen-Ich, ein Tiger-Ich, ein Geier-Ich sind auf dem Astralplan. Die einzelnen Tiere sind hier im Physischen, so wie die Finger durch eine Wand hindurchgestreckt.
[ 5 ] Wenn wir die einzelnen Tiere hier betrachten, so erscheinen uns viele als außerordentlich gescheit. Diese Tiere werden vom astralen Plan geordnet. Dort sind die Tier-Iche, die Gruppen-Iche. Diese Bevölkerung des Astralplans ist viel gescheiter als die Menschen. Die tierischen Gruppen-Iche auf dem astralen Plan sind sehr weise Wesen. Beobachten wir den Vogelflug, wie die Vögel ziehen durch die verschiedenen Gegenden, wie ihr Flug angeordnet ist, wie sie im Herbst ziehen in wärmere Gegenden und sich im Frühling wieder sammeln. Wenn wir da tief hineinschauen in die weisen Einrichtungen, da müssen wir fragen: Wer ist da hinter der Wand verborgen, der das alles anordnet? — Das sind die Gruppen-Iche. Wenn wir den Biber bauen sehen, dann werden wir beobachten, daß der Biber weiser baut als die größte Ingenieurkunst. Man hat beobachtet, wie die Intelligenz der Bienen wirkt, hat den Bienen Zucker statt Honig hingeworfen. Dann hat man sie beobachtet. Sie können den Zucker nicht mitnehmen. Sie holen andere Bienen, fliegen zuerst nach einer Wasserquelle, und jedes Bienchen bringt einen Wassertropfen mit und durchtränkt den Zucker damit und verwandelt ihn in eine Art von Sirup. Diesen trägt es dann in den Bienenstock. Der Geist des Bienenstocks steht hinter dieser Arbeit der Bienen. Die einzelnen Bienen gehören zu einer einzigen Bienenpersönlichkeit, wie unsere Glieder zu uns gehören. Nur daß die einzelnen Bienen mehr getrennt sind, und unsere einzelnen Glieder näher zusammen, kompakter sind. Wir gehen, für uns unsichtbar, überall auch durch Wesen hindurch, durch die tierischen Gruppen-Iche, die sich der physischen Beobachtung entziehen.
[ 6 ] Wie wir da anfangen mit Wesenheiten zu fühlen, von denen der Mensch nichts ahnt, so können wir auch fühlen mit den Pflanzenseelen. Die Pflanzen-Iche leben in einer noch höheren Welt als die tierischen Iche. Die pflanzlichen Iche, jene abgeschlossenen Gruppen-Iche, zu denen wieder eine Reihe von Pflanzen gehören, sind auf dem sogenannten Devachanplan. Wir können auch den Ort angeben, wo eigentlich diese Pflanzen-Iche alle sind. Alle Pflanzen-Iche sind im Mittelpunkt der Erde. Die tierischen Gruppen-Iche kreisen um die Erde wie die Passatwinde. So sind die Pflanzen-Iche im Mittelpunkt der Erde. Sie sind Wesen, die sich alle gegenseitig durchdringen. In der geistigen Welt herrscht das Gesetz der Durchgängigkeit. Ein Wesen geht durch das andere hindurch. Wir sehen die tierischen Gruppen-Iche über die Erde hinfahren wie die Passatwinde und sehen, wie sie das aus ihrer Weisheit verrichten, was wir in den Taten der Tiere vernehmen. Wenn wir die Pflanzen betrachten, sehen wir den Kopf der Pflanze, die Wurzel, nach dem Mittelpunkt der Erde zu gerichtet, weil im Mittelpunkt der Erde deren Gruppen-Ich ist.
[ 7 ] Die Erde selbst ist der Ausdruck seelisch-geistiger Wesenheiten. Die Pflanze erscheint uns vom geistigen Gesichtspunkt so wie etwa die Nägel an unseren Fingern. Die Pflanzen gehören zur Erde. Wer die einzelnen Pflanzen betrachtet, betrachtet sie nie ganz vollständig. Jede Pflanze gehört zu der Summe von Wesenheiten, die die Pflanzen-Iche bilden. Wir können uns so hineinleben in das Empfinden und Fühlen der Pflanzen selber. Was von der Pflanze aus der Erde herauswächst, was vom Innern der Erde nach der Oberfläche hinstrebt, hat ein anderes Wesen, als was unter der Erde wächst. Wenn man die Blüte, Stengel und Blätter der Pflanze abschneidet, so ist das etwas anderes, als wenn man die Wurzel ausreißt. Wenn man sie abschneidet, so ist das eine Art Wohlgefühl, wie eine Wollust für die Pflanzenseele. Ähnlich ist diese Lust zum Beispiel wie die, welche die Kuh empfindet, wenn das junge Kalb am Euter saugt. Was von der Pflanze aus der Erde herauswächst, das ist wirklich etwas Ähnliches wie die Milch der Tiere. Wenn wir im Herbst durch die Felder gehen und die Halme unter der Sense des Schnitters dahinfallen, wenn die Sense durch die Garben streicht, dann strömen, dann hauchen Gefühle von Wohlgefühl, von Wollust durch die Felder dahin. Etwas ungeheuer Bedeutendes ist es, wenn wir nicht nur mit physischen Augen die hinfallenden Garben sehen, sondern wenn wir sehen, wie diese Wohlgefühle über die Erde streichen, wenn der Schnitter mit der Sense durch die Felder geht. Wenn man aber die Wurzeln der Pflanzen ausreißt, so ist das für die Pflanzenseele ein Wehgefühl. In den höheren Welten ist nicht dieselbe Gesetzmäßigkeit wie in der physischen Welt. Wir kommen zu andern Vorstellungen, wenn wir hinaufdringen in die geistigen Welten. Auch hier in der physischen Welt widerspricht manchmal das Prinzip der Schönheit dem Prinzip des Schmerzes oder der Lust. Es kann sein, daß, vom Schönheitsgefühl getrieben, jemand sich die weißen Haare ausreißt, aber weh tut es doch. So ist es auch mit den Pflanzen. Wenn man sie mit der Wurzel ausreißt, so mag das ordentlicher aussehen, so mag das schöner sein, aber es bereitet dennoch der Pflanze Schmerz.
[ 8 ] Auch die Steine sind leblos nur in der physischen Welt. In den höheren Welten haben auch sie ihre Gruppen-Iche. In den höheren Partien des Devachanplanes sind die Gruppen-Iche der Mineralien vorhanden. Auch sie erleiden Freude oder Schmerz. Nicht durch Spekulation können wir darüber etwas erfahren, sondern nur durch die Geisteswissenschaft.
[ 9 ] Wenn wir in einem Steinbruch sehen, wie der Arbeiter Stein um Stein abbricht, so könnten wir glauben, das verursache der Steinseele Schmerz. Es ist aber nicht so. Gerade wenn der Stein zersprengt wird, so spritzen nach allen Seiten Wohlgefühle heraus aus dem Stein. Aus dem Steinbruch, aus dem die Felsen herausgesprengt werden, strömen nach allen Seiten starke Wohlgefühle hervor. Wenn wir in einem Glase Wasser haben und tun Salz hinein, und das Salz löst sich auf, so wird das Wasser durchströmt von Wollust, von Lustgefühl. Freude durchströmt das Wasser, wenn man die Auflösung des Salzes vom geistigen Standpunkt aus betrachtet. Wenn wir aber das aufgelöste Salz wieder fest werden lassen, so geschieht das unter Schmerzgefühl. So würde es auch unter Schmerzgefühl der Steinseele sich vollziehen, wenn wir die zersprengten Felsen wieder zusammenbacken könnten.
[ 10 ] Die Seher haben immer in ihren Geheimschriften, den religiösen Urkunden, den Menschen Kunde gegeben von diesen Geheimnissen. Aber die Menschen haben verlernt, diese Geheimschriften zu verstehen. Denken wir uns zurück in ferne, vergangene Zeiträume unserer Erdentwickelung. Wir sehen die Steinmassen der Gebirge, die zusammengeschichtet sind aus verschiedenen Tonmassen, basaltischen Gesteinen und so weiter. Weiter zurückgehend finden wir, daß die Dinge auf der Erde immer weicher werden. Dann kommen wir zurück in eine Zeit, wo die Erde erfüllt war von mächtigen Wärmefeuermassen, wo das Eisen, wo alle Metalle, alle Mineralien aufgelöst waren in Geistiges. Der Mensch war damals auch ein geistiges Wesen. Sollte der Mensch sich weiter entwickeln, sollte er seine heutigen Formen erhalten, so mußte jene weiche Masse sich verfestigen. Die Gebirge entstanden, die Mineralmassen lösten sich aus der weichen Substanz heraus, und die Erde wurde der Wohnplatz des jetzigen Menschen. Es kristallisierte sich die leblose Gesteinsmasse aus der feuerflüssigen Erde heraus wie das Salz aus der Salzlösung. Alles hat sich so gestaltet, daß die festen Massen sich herausgestalteten aus dem flüssigen Zustande. Das geschah nicht ohne Schmerz. Der ganze Verfestigungsprozeß des Erdballes ist verbunden gewesen mit Schmerzen der Steinseele.
[ 11 ] In der Zukunft wird die Erde sich wiederum vergeistigen. Die ganze Erde wird sich wieder zersplittern, wie heute schon das Radium zeigt. Der Auflösungsprozeß der Erde wird eintreten, eine Vergeistigung, eine Vergöttlichung, die Annahme an Kindesstatt. Hören wir nun, was der Apostel Paulus sagt: «Die ganze Erde, alle Wesen seufzen unter Schmerzen, der Annahme an Kindesstatt harrend.»
[ 12 ] Da haben wir eine Darstellung dessen, was geschieht auf der Erde, wo die Steinseele unter Schmerz leidet, bis der Zustand eintritt auf der Erde, wo sie die Annahme an Kindesstatt findet. Es könnte einem die Seele wehtun, wenn die, welche die religiösen Urkunden den Menschen verkünden, alles mögliche hineinträumen in die religiösen Urkunden, weil sie sich nicht bemühen wollen, einzudringen in die Tiefen dieser religiösen Urkunden. Für die, welche die Menschen leiten, ist es geradezu eine Pflichtverletzung, wenn sie nicht eindringen wollen in ihre religiösen Urkunden.
[ 13 ] Der Apostel Paulus hat gewußt, was die Vorgänge auf der Erde bedeuten. Die Theosophie soll in unserer neuen Zeit die Menschen hinführen in die Tiefen der religiösen Urkunden. Es ist traurig, wenn die berufenen Vertreter derselben sich gar nicht bemühen, in sie einzudringen, aber sie haben gar nicht den Willen, sie zu verstehen. Aller Hochmut der Gegenwart, der sagt: Wie haben wir es so herrlich weit gebracht! - der muß schwinden. Wie viele glauben, unsere Vorfahren haben nichts gewußt! Da kommen die Menschen und legen die Schriften des Paulus, die religiösen Urkunden aus, wie sie wollen, aber erfüllt von Hochmut, mit dem Gefühl, daß sie mehr wissen als unsere Vorfahren. Wie wirken aber die Worte auf uns: «Alle Wesen seufzen unter Schmerzen, der Annahme an Kindesstatt harrend» — dann, wenn wir auf uns wirken lassen die Erkenntnis der fühlenden Steinseele, wie sie harrt in Schmerzen, der Annahme an Kindesstatt gewärtig? Die Menschen mit materialistischer Gesinnung glauben, daß sie draußen bloß durch Luft, durch Wind und Nebel gehen, durch Sauerstoff und Stickstoff. Der Mensch aber, der die geistige Erkenntnis hat, weiß, daß er durch geistige Wesenheiten überall hindurchgeht, daß er mit jedem Atemzug geistige Wesenheiten einatmet und sich einfügt.
[ 14 ] So haben wir gesehen, wie die tierischen Iche die Erde im Kreise umziehen wie die Passatwinde, wie die Pflanzen-Iche im Mittelpunkt der Erde versammelt sind, wie die Erde selbst etwas empfindet, wenn wir die Pflanzen ausreißen, und wie die Erde selbst lebt und beseelt ist und etwas empfindet. Alles draußen ist beseelt und durchlebt.
[ 15 ] So wie der physische Leib herausgeboren ist aus den physischen Stoffen und Kräften, so sind herausgeboren unsere geistigen Glieder aus dem großen All. Da fangen wir an, in uns eine kleine Welt zu sehen, die ruht in der großen Welt. Das bewirkt ein beseligendes Gefühl in uns. Nur wenn wir mitfühlen lernen mit Mineralien, Pflanzen und Tieren, dann lernen wir auch fühlen, wie unser Ich ruht im ganzen Weltenall.
[ 16 ] So sehen wir, wie die Theosophie in die geistigen Untergründe des Daseins führt. Sie ist etwas, was unser Lebensgefühl, unsere Lebensimpulse umgestaltet, so daß wir dadurch andere Menschen werden. Die theosophischen Vorstellungen sind Keime, Willensimpulse für wirkliches Erleben.
About the group egos of animals, plants, and minerals
[ 1 ] It must be emphasized again and again that theosophy must become life in the sense that through theosophy, human beings do not merely learn this or that, but learn to think, feel, and perceive differently in relation to their entire environment. This happens to people when they take in theosophical ideas in the right way. They have to learn to feel for and live with all beings. This has to be most true for other people, though. But we learn best to feel for people when we first learn to feel for the rest of the world.
[ 2 ] Human beings gradually get to know the whole world around them. They gradually learn that they are surrounded everywhere by spiritual beings, that they pass through spiritual beings everywhere. They learn to understand this in terms of feeling and sensation. They learn to recognize what is around us in the three realms of nature. They learn to recognize the beings in the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms. They walk through meadows and forests, across fields and meadows differently than people who have not undergone theosophical training.
[ 3 ] When we look at other beings, we might initially believe that animal beings do not have a soul like humans. However, the human ego, the human soul, differs from the animal ego. The human ego lives on the physical plane. If we consider the animal as such, the individual animal has a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. In addition to these three members, we humans also have the ego. Thus, when we are awake, our ego is contained within us. However, animals do not have the ego on the physical plane. Here we must penetrate a little deeper into the so-called astral world. There we find, just as here on the physical plane, a population of human beings, and on the astral plane a population of animal egos. Just as human beings encounter other human beings here, so the seer on the astral plane can encounter equally self-contained personalities; these are the animal egos.
[ 4 ] Imagine the following: Imagine the ten fingers of a human being sticking through a wall. They are moving. We see the ten fingers moving, but not the human being himself. He is hidden behind the wall. We cannot explain how the ten fingers come through the wall by themselves and move. We must assume that some kind of being is involved. It is the same with animals in the physical world. All animals of the same kind have a group ego. Here in the physical world, we see animals walking around. What we see there has a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. If we see lions here in the physical world, for example, these lions are organs produced by the lion ego living in the astral world. The lion ego, the group ego of physical lions, is just as much a complete being on the astral plane as we are complete beings here. Thus, every animal group has an ego on the astral plane; a lion ego, a tiger ego, a vulture ego exist on the astral plane. The individual animals are here in the physical world, just as fingers are when they are stretched through a wall.
[ 5 ] When we look at the individual animals here, many of them appear to us to be extraordinarily intelligent. These animals are organized by the astral plane. There are the animal egos, the group egos. This population of the astral plane is much more intelligent than humans. The animal group egos on the astral plane are very wise beings. Let us observe the flight of birds, how they migrate through different regions, how their flight is organized, how they migrate to warmer regions in autumn and gather again in spring. If we look deeply into these wise institutions, we must ask: Who is hidden behind the wall, organizing all this? — It is the group I's. When we see beavers building, we observe that they build more wisely than the greatest engineers. People have observed how bees' intelligence works by throwing sugar instead of honey to them. Then they were observed. They cannot take the sugar with them. They fetch other bees, fly first to a source of water, and each little bee brings back a drop of water and soaks the sugar with it, transforming it into a kind of syrup. They then carry this into the beehive. The spirit of the beehive is behind the work of the bees. The individual bees belong to a single bee personality, just as our limbs belong to us. Only that the individual bees are more separate, and our individual limbs are closer together, more compact. We walk, invisible to ourselves, everywhere, even through beings, through the animal group egos that elude physical observation.
[ 6 ] Just as we begin to feel beings of which humans have no inkling, so too can we feel the souls of plants. Plant egos live in a world even higher than that of animal egos. Plant egos, those closed group egos to which a series of plants belong, are on the so-called Devachan plane. We can also specify the place where all these plant egos actually are. All plant egos are at the center of the Earth. The animal group egos circle around the Earth like the trade winds. Thus, the plant egos are at the center of the Earth. They are beings that all interpenetrate each other. In the spiritual world, the law of continuity prevails. One being passes through another. We see the animal group Iches traveling over the Earth like the trade winds and see how they carry out what we perceive in the actions of animals from their wisdom. When we look at plants, we see the head of the plant, the root, pointing toward the center of the Earth, because their group Iche is at the center of the Earth.
[ 7 ] The earth itself is the expression of soul-spiritual beings. From a spiritual point of view, plants appear to us like the nails on our fingers. Plants belong to the earth. When we look at individual plants, we never see them completely. Each plant belongs to the sum of beings that form the plant egos. We can thus empathize with the sensations and feelings of the plants themselves. What grows out of the earth from the plant, what strives from the interior of the earth toward the surface, has a different nature than what grows beneath the earth. Cutting off the flower, stem, and leaves of a plant is different from pulling out the root. When you cut them off, it is a kind of pleasant feeling, like a delight for the plant's soul. This pleasure is similar to that felt by a cow when her young calf suckles at her udder. What grows out of the earth from the plant is really something similar to the milk of animals. When we walk through the fields in autumn and the stalks fall under the reaper's scythe, when the scythe sweeps through the sheaves, feelings of well-being, of pleasure, flow and breathe through the fields. It is something immensely significant when we see not only with our physical eyes the sheaves falling, but when we see how these feelings of well-being sweep across the earth as the reaper goes through the fields with his scythe. But when the roots of plants are pulled out, it is a painful sensation for the soul of the plant. In the higher worlds, the same laws do not apply as in the physical world. We arrive at different ideas when we ascend into the spiritual worlds. Here in the physical world, too, the principle of beauty sometimes contradicts the principle of pain or pleasure. It may be that, driven by a sense of beauty, someone pulls out their white hair, but it still hurts. It is the same with plants. If you pull them out by the roots, it may look neater, it may be more beautiful, but it still causes pain to the plant.
[ 8 ] Stones are also lifeless only in the physical world. In the higher worlds, they too have their group egos. In the higher parts of the Devachan plane, the group egos of minerals are present. They too experience joy or pain. We cannot learn about this through speculation, but only through spiritual science.
[ 9 ] When we see a worker breaking stone after stone in a quarry, we might think that this causes pain to the soul of the stone. But this is not the case. Precisely when the stone is broken, feelings of well-being spring forth from the stone in all directions. From the quarry where the rocks are blasted out, strong feelings of well-being flow out in all directions. If we have a glass of water and add salt to it, and the salt dissolves, the water is filled with a feeling of pleasure, of delight. Joy flows through the water when we view the dissolution of the salt from a spiritual point of view. But when we allow the dissolved salt to solidify again, this happens with a feeling of pain. The same would happen with a feeling of pain in the soul of the stone if we could bake the shattered rocks back together again.
[ 10 ] The seers have always told people about these secrets in their secret writings, their religious documents. But people have forgotten how to understand these secret writings. Let us think back to distant, past periods of our Earth's development. We see the stone masses of the mountains, which are composed of different clay masses, basaltic rocks, and so on. Going further back, we find that things on Earth are becoming softer and softer. Then we come back to a time when the Earth was filled with powerful masses of heat, when iron, all metals, and all minerals were dissolved into spiritual substance. At that time, human beings were also spiritual beings. If human beings were to develop further and retain their present forms, this soft mass had to solidify. The mountains arose, the mineral masses separated from the soft substance, and the Earth became the dwelling place of present-day human beings. The lifeless rock mass crystallized out of the fiery liquid Earth like salt from a salt solution. Everything was formed in such a way that the solid masses emerged from the liquid state. This did not happen without pain. The entire process of solidification of the globe was connected with the pain of the stone soul.
[ 11 ] In the future, the earth will become spiritual again. The whole earth will split apart again, as radium already shows today. The process of dissolution of the earth will begin, a spiritualization, a deification, an adoption as a child. Let us now hear what the Apostle Paul says: “The whole earth, all beings groan in pain, waiting to be adopted as children.”
[ 12 ] Here we have a description of what is happening on Earth, where the stone soul suffers in pain until the state is reached on Earth where it is adopted as a child. It could hurt one's soul when those who proclaim religious documents to people dream all kinds of things into them because they do not want to make the effort to penetrate the depths of these religious documents. For those who guide people, it is downright a dereliction of duty if they do not want to penetrate their religious documents.
[ 13 ] The Apostle Paul knew what the events on earth meant. Theosophy should lead people in our new age into the depths of religious documents. It is sad when the appointed representatives of the same do not even try to penetrate them, but they have no will to understand them. All the arrogance of the present, which says, “How wonderfully far we have come!” must disappear. How many believe that our ancestors knew nothing! People come and interpret the writings of Paul, the religious documents, as they please, filled with arrogance, feeling that they know more than our ancestors. But how do the words affect us: “All beings sigh in pain, waiting to be accepted as children” — when we allow ourselves to be affected by the knowledge of the sentient stone soul, how it waits in pain, waiting to be accepted as a child? People with a materialistic mindset believe that they walk outside merely through air, wind, and fog, through oxygen and nitrogen. But the person who has spiritual knowledge knows that he passes through everything, that with every breath he inhales spiritual beings and becomes one with them.
[ 14 ] Thus we have seen how the animal egos circle around the earth like the trade winds, how the plant egos are gathered at the center of the earth, how the earth itself feels something when we pull up plants, and how the earth itself lives and is animated and feels something. Everything outside is animated and alive.
[ 15 ] Just as the physical body is born out of physical substances and forces, so our spiritual limbs are born out of the great universe. We begin to see within ourselves a small world that rests within the great world. This causes a blissful feeling within us. Only when we learn to empathize with minerals, plants, and animals do we also learn to feel how our ego rests in the entire universe.
[ 16 ] Thus we see how theosophy leads us to the spiritual foundations of existence. It is something that transforms our attitude toward life, our life impulses, so that we become different people. Theosophical ideas are seeds, impulses of will for real experience.