The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophy and Rosicrucianism VI

[ 1 ] When a person has progressed so far within that spiritual realm we discussed yesterday that they have, so to speak, transformed all the abilities and talents they acquired during their earthly life, the time comes when they prepare for a new incarnation. We must be clear that in what we encounter in human beings, we are faced with two distinct aspects. One is what is passed down through physical heredity; the other is what they bring into this world from their previous lives.

[ 2 ] We will have to describe humanity’s descent into this world, though you must not take offense at the word “descent,” for it is not a spatial descent, but rather a process of emerging from the world around us. Yesterday we saw that this spiritual world is not to be sought in some afterlife, but that it is also here all around us; it is just that modern human beings lack the ability to perceive this spiritual world. Out of this spiritual world develops what is called a new incarnation. We have seen that the human being has retained an essence from both his etheric and astral bodies from his previous life—an overview of his experiences; and whatever he has already refined within his astral body, he has taken with him into the spiritual world. Only the unrefined has fallen away.

[ 3 ] We will gain a clearer mental image of reincarnation if we consider a few more aspects of life after death. We have seen that immediately after physical death, a person continues to live in their etheric body for about three and a half days, and that during these three and a half days, their past life unfolds before them like a tableau. Then the etheric body dissolves, and this is followed by the Kamaloka period: this is the time of purification and cleansing of all astral elements in need of purification and cleansing.

[ 4 ] But now I must mention one more experience. At the very moment this memory image appears immediately after death, the person has a significant experience. The person has the sensation of suddenly becoming larger, as if they were rapidly breaking through their own surface and growing out into space. This feeling does not fade away until the next birth. The person feels as vast as the world to which they belong, as vast as the entire universe. This is why you can also gain a mental image of how it is possible for a person to see and perceive their body as something foreign, for they see their passions, as it were, outside their body. It is a peculiar feeling, this sense of being spread out through the universe.

[ 5 ] Then there is something even more difficult to understand. Throughout this entire Kamaloka period, the person feels as if they were truly divided within space. You will understand this better this way: When, during the Kamaloka period, as I have described to you, the person relives their life back to childhood, they feel everything they had experienced as if in a mirror image. Thus, the person truly feels the slap they gave someone back then; they truly feel like a part of the place the other person has occupied. If, for example, you died here in Kassel and the other person whom you slapped back then lives in Paris, then you feel as if a part of you is there. And so you feel as if you are divided across the cosmos; you feel, in pieces, everywhere where you have, so to speak, something to seek. This is to be understood in such a way that you feel nothing in the space between Paris and Kassel. So that, when you consider all the events of your life in this way, you feel literally fragmented throughout the entire passage through the period after death.

[ 6 ] Consider the following analogy: A wasp consists of two parts, a front section and a rear section connected by a very thin thread. Imagine this rear section completely severed, yet the wasp still drags this part along with it. This is roughly how you can create a mental image of the description above: You feel as though you consist of separate pieces, and there is no connection between these pieces. But when a person enters Devachan, they feel once again as they did immediately after death, as if they were taking up the entire universe.

[ 7 ] But once a person in Devachan has transformed all their predispositions into talents and abilities, the ego once again feels drawn to the physical Earth and strives to descend once more to Earth for a physical incarnation. First, the ego surrounds itself with an astral body. This happens in such a way that it draws all that is astral toward itself: it is like a convergence. It is as if you were holding a magnet near iron filings: just as the iron filings are drawn together in certain patterns, so the ego draws the astral toward itself. However, it has received impressions from all the experiences it had during its passage through the realm of souls and spirits, and all of this forms the fundamental forces that contribute to the formation of the new astral body. Thus, this new astral body incorporates everything the human being has experienced in past lives and in the Kamaloka. All the impressions they have received there have a decisive influence on their integration into their new astral body.

[ 8 ] At this stage, the human being has only the astral body; but he must now also acquire the other members. The astral body has been formed solely by the individual’s own forces of attraction. Before conception, the human being is clothed only in this astral body. The seer therefore constantly sees these astral human embryos waiting for their birth or conception. He sees them flying about at tremendous speed: bell-shaped formations moving through space at tremendous speed. Distances play no role at all; they move so fast that distances simply do not matter.

[ 9 ] Now comes the process of being clothed in an etheric body; but this is something that human beings can no longer achieve through their own powers alone. The human being’s own inner powers can no longer provide for the etheric body; instead, the human being requires the assistance of certain spiritual beings who must cooperate in this process. You can get a mental image of these beings when you think of how you sometimes use words to which you usually attach no concrete image—for example, the terms “Folk-souls” or “national spirit.” Today, when people utter these words, they either imagine nothing at all or think of something entirely abstract. The seer, however, has a different mental image of them. 'In fact, there are beings of a higher order that are just as real as we ourselves are—beings that do not incarnate in the flesh, and that are nothing other than Folk-souls. It is not merely a vague term when one speaks of the national spirit; the national soul is a real being, only it has no physical body, but its lowest member is the etheric body. Then this national spirit has an astral body, I, Manas, Buddhi, Atma, and then a higher member that human beings do not attain, which Christian esotericism calls the Holy Spirit and which Theosophy is accustomed to calling the Logos.

[ 10 ] Thus, the seer can address the national spirit just as he addresses other people. Today, people have no real mental image of such things and believe only that this term denotes a summary of the characteristics of individual peoples; but that is not true—it has a real existence. Due to the materialistic mindset, understanding of such things had to be lost, but it will be regained. Today, humanity tends to dismiss such things as empty concepts. But this was bound to happen. And so, in our time, a book had to be written that is, so to speak, the opposite of theosophical outlook. This book had to be written, and it is also much admired: “The Critique of Language” by Fritz Mauthner. Fritz Mauthner is a spirit who dissolves everything that lies beyond the sensory. Only a radical thinker abandoned by all good spirits could write in this way—one who had the courage to break with everything that is spirit and reality. Future centuries will have to turn to this very book if they wish to know how people thought at the turn of this century.

[ 11 ] The folk-souls are a tangible reality: like a mass of mist, they spread out, and all the etheric bodies of the individual members of the respective nation are embedded within them, and their forces flow into the etheric bodies of the individual people.

[ 12 ] Now there are spirits from precisely this level of the Folk-souls who assist in the formation of the etheric body of the new soul. This being ensures that the human being is guided toward a specific people that is best suited to him. However, this etheric body does not always fit perfectly; and all the disharmony you find in life very often stems from the fact that a person cannot create their own etheric body solely through their own efforts. This complete harmony will only occur at a much later stage of the Earth’s development.

[ 13 ] This process of donning the etheric body takes place at a breakneck speed, one that you cannot even begin to form a mental image of based on physical conditions. And then, guided by even higher beings, the human being is led to the couple who can provide the suitable material for his physical body.

[ 14 ] Today’s materialistic person, seeing how a son resembles his parents, will not be able to believe that anything else is connected to this body inherited from the parents. Certainly, we see our ancestors in our bodies, but this does not contradict what has been said. Let us consider a specific case: the Bach family. Over the course of two hundred and fifty years, more than twenty-nine musicians of varying degrees of significance have emerged from this family. The materialist will say: There you have it—that proves it is inherited! — Similarly, the Bernoulli family produced eight mathematicians in a short time. How is that possible? We understand this best when we consider the laws of heredity. Since this is easier to understand in the case of a musician, let us consider the Bach family. So let us assume that a young Bach had been in Rome in a previous incarnation, had developed his talents, and wished to reincarnate. Suppose he had brought with him the greatest musical talents as a result of his previous incarnations: if he did not find a well-trained ear, he could do nothing with all his talents; without a well-trained ear, he would be just as helpless as a virtuoso without an instrument. It was absolutely necessary for this individuality to integrate itself into a body that possessed a suitable organ for these innate talents. Now, however, the external form of the internal and external organs is hereditary, and this individuality, if it wanted to become a musician, had to have a well-trained hearing organ for the coming life. Where could it obtain this most easily? In a family of musicians. Thus, they are led to where they can find the best instrument for the further development of the talents inherent in them, and at that time, that was precisely the parents of Johann Sebastian Bach.

[ 15 ] What about the Bernoulli brothers? Mathematical thinking does not depend on the nature of the brain, for mathematical logic is nothing other than logic in general; rather, mathematical talent depends on the particularly precise structure of the three semicircular canals. This is an organ, not much larger than a pea, embedded in the center of the temporal bone, consisting of three semicircular canals that correspond exactly to three-dimensional space. So if one canal lies exactly vertical, the second lies from right to left, and the third from front to back. They are all perpendicular to one another at an angle of exactly ninety degrees. This precise alignment is therefore crucial: the more accurately the right angle is maintained, the better the organ functions. If the organ is damaged in any way, vertigo sets in and you can no longer orient yourself in space. And mathematical talent—or rather, the ability to exercise that talent—is based on a particularly refined development of these channels. And this organ is inherited just like a musical ear.

[ 16 ] The brain thinks about space in exactly the same way as it does, for example, about philosophy; but whether someone has a sense for spatial forms depends on these three semicircular canals. Thus, an individual gifted with high mathematical talents will incarnate into a family in which this organ is best developed, and that was the case in the Bernoulli family.

[ 17 ] To be morally upright, one needs the right tools. An individual with high moral standards therefore seeks out the parents who promise to provide the best tools for this purpose. Thus, the proverb often used in a superficially trivial way—one cannot be too careful in choosing one’s parents—is true in the deepest, most serious sense, for the child, so to speak, chooses its parents. Now some may object: Where does that leave maternal love? For that love comes from the fact that the mother knows the child is a part of herself. — Viewed in the right light, a mother’s love suffers in no way; on the contrary, one comes to understand it even more deeply as a result. Why is the child born to this particular mother? Because its spiritual qualities draw it to a mother who is spiritually akin to it, and indeed, the child loves the mother even before conception; a mother’s love is, so to speak, the reciprocal love of this primary affection. Such an insight, therefore, is actually a further deepening of this concept.

[ 18 ] Essentially, it depends on the characteristics of the father and mother as to how they provide the opportunity for incarnation; and in this regard, the father and mother have different effects. When a human being descends for a new birth, the “I,” which possesses greater willpower, is more drawn to the father, while that part which possesses greater astral powers is drawn to the mother. The father thus has more influence on the ego, the will, and the character, while the mother has more influence on the astral body, that is, on the imagination. Of course, it is best when both parents are suited to the individuality that wishes to incarnate.

[ 19 ] However, as one descends, the forces that were imprinted on the person during the ascent also come into play. All of this creates forces of attraction, and he will be drawn into the sphere that has always been connected to him. He is thus led to those people with whom he has had some connection in the past. I would like to give you an example based on a real case. There was once a case in which a man was sentenced to death by a court of four or five judges and executed. Now, using methods of Spiritual Science, the past lives of these six people were investigated, and it turned out that all these men had been together on Earth in a previous life, but in such a way that the executed man was their chieftain, and that the others had been executed by him. Thus, the final execution was a kind of compensation. This case in particular illustrates the law of karma very clearly. Thus the various forces that a person has drawn to themselves in their previous life interact; they determine, upon reincarnation, both the constitution of their body and the place where they are born, as well as their later fate. Even more so than with the etheric body, the dissonances often manifest in the physical body.

[ 20 ] All these things demonstrate how, upon reincarnation, the human being is clothed in the three bodies, and with each incarnation, the I works upon the astral body, the etheric body, and the physical body. We will hear later how the human being ascends to this high perfection. But the astral body and etheric body are increasingly transformed, and the refined astral body becomes Manas, the refined etheric body becomes Buddhi, and the refined physical body becomes Atma. This is how one can create a mental image of the ever-increasing perfection of the human being from incarnation to incarnation.

[ 21 ] This is most beautifully expressed in the Lord’s Prayer, which, however, can only be properly understood if one interprets it in the true Christian sense, as it was interpreted by the secret school of Paul. It was this school that explained the Lord’s Prayer in the true Christian sense. It told its students, for example: Imagine the higher aspects of human nature, which develop as a result of the human being increasingly refining his three lowest aspects. — Early Christianity regarded these three higher aspects—Manas, Buddhi, Atma—as the divine nature of the human being. By increasingly developing these three higher aspects, the human being draws ever closer to the Divine. From this point of view, the ancient esoteric Christians called the three highest aspects the Divine Nature, and they called the Highest Atma: the Father. This is the deepest aspect of divinity in the human being: the Father in Heaven. This Father is that toward which all human beings are evolving; it is the center of the creation of the worlds. The best mental image of creation in the Christian sense is of sacrifice. Imagine your reflection in a mirror, and suppose you could be so selfless as to surrender your life to that reflection. This is how one must envision selfless creation: that one merges with the very thing one has created. Imagine the Father Spirit at the center of a hollow sphere reflecting itself; then the image of God confronts you in a thousandfold manner. Thus said the ancient esoteric Christian: Look at the world: all beings—what are they but mirror images of God! —And this self-reflecting divinity they called in their esotericism “the Kingdom,” that is: the God who reflects Himself everywhere. — Now develop your feeling further. If you see God in everything, then you have dissolved the divinity into an immense number of details, and if you wish to distinguish them, then you must give each one a name. This name must be sanctified, for every single creature is, after all, a reflection of the divinity.

[ 22 ] It is through these three that human beings evolve toward God. But you must not believe that human beings become God. Take a drop from the sea: it is of the same essence as the sea, but it is not the sea. In the same way, the drop of divinity within us is indeed of the same essence as the Godhead, but it is not the Godhead. Thus, as man increasingly develops these three highest aspects, he becomes ever more one with the Kingdom, for the spiritual world descends to him. Here you have the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer: first, in invoking the Father; second, in imploring that the Kingdom come to us; third, in the sanctification of the Name. Then we will always strive to perform no action that is not in harmony with the Father Spirit, from whom we have sprung and toward whom we are developing, precisely as we cultivate the three highest members within us. And in contrast to the three higher members, esoteric Christianity now considers the four lower members of the human being, which must also become ever more perfect.

[ 23 ] The physical body consists of the same substances as the external world, which are constantly entering and leaving this physical body. And they must constantly enter and leave if the physical body is to remain healthy.

[ 24 ] The etheric body possesses forces that, just as the physical body interacts with the entire external natural world, also interact with the entire folk-souls. For the physical body to be in good order, physical substances must flow into and out of it daily. If the etheric body is to be in good order, it must not develop as an isolated entity, but must bring itself into harmony with the entire folk-soul and all higher beings.

[ 25 ] The word “guilt” is related to the word “debt.” Debt is something that clearly shows you that you do not stand alone, but that you are part of a social context, that you owe something to your fellow human beings. What can throw the human astral body into disorder was viewed by early Christian esotericism as something that affected one’s inclinations and passions, drives and desires; and everything that can throw these into disorder is expressed by the word “temptation.” Guilt is thus something that places the human being in a relationship with the social community, whereas temptation is something into which every human being, as an individual being, can fall.

[ 26 ] If physical substances did not enter and leave our physical body, this physical body would fall into disarray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” If the etheric body did not enter into a harmonious interrelationship with the collective soul, that is, if it did not harmoniously integrate itself into the entire social fabric, then it too would fall into disorder: “Forgive us our debts.” If a person were to fall into the error of succumbing to every temptation that comes his way, his astral body would thereby fall into disorder: “Lead us not into temptation.”

[ 27 ] The ego can fall into those errors that are referred to as “evil.” These failings of the ego—which is, after all, our self—include everything that transforms a normal and healthy sense of self into evil, that is, into selfishness. This includes all excesses of self-centeredness and egoism: “Deliver us from evil.”

[ 28 ] The physical body can thus develop in a healthy way if we provide it with its daily bread in the right way. The etheric body can develop in a healthy way if we bring ourselves into harmony with the social body in which we live. The astral body can develop in a healthy way—that is, be purified and cleansed—if we overcome all temptations. The ego can develop in a healthy way if we strive to transform all egoism into altruism, and all selfishness into selflessness.

[ 29 ] Thus, we see the Lord's Prayer as a prayer that encompasses the development of the whole person.

[ 30 ] Now someone might object—and you will in fact encounter this objection quite often: The Lord’s Prayer is, after all, a prayer given by Jesus Christ as a prayer for everyone. What good is such an interpretation, which most people know nothing about?

[ 31 ] The naive person need not know any of this either. Look at the rose. The highest wisdom created the rose, and yet even the most naive person can take joy in it. Knowledge of this wisdom is not necessary. And so it is with the Lord’s Prayer. It has its power over the human mind, even if the simple mind knows nothing of it. But the Lord’s Prayer would never have this power if it were not drawn from this deepest wisdom. All the great forms of prayer are, like this greatest form, created from the deepest wisdom, and the power of these forms of prayer rests solely on that. Even if you think this is a matter of human speculation, that is not true; rather, the Being who gave us the Lord’s Prayer has placed that deep power within it.

[ 32 ] This shows how it is only through Spiritual Science that one can understand what one practices daily, and whose power humanity has experienced for two millennia.

[ 33 ] But now the time has come in human development when progress is no longer possible without this deepening of understanding. In the past—that is, up until now—humanity was able to feel the spiritual forces inherent in this prayer without knowing their deeper meaning. But now humanity has advanced so far in its development that it must ask, and therefore the answer must now be given to it.

[ 34 ] The Christian religion will not lose its value as a result; on the contrary, it will reveal itself in all its depth. Through the greatest wisdom, religious truths will be rediscovered. An example of this is the esoteric interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer. It shows us the path that human beings must follow through their many incarnations. The four lower petitions, if followed in their true spirit, help them accomplish the work that leads to the development of their higher aspects of being, as expressed in the first three petitions.