The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] Some winters we have gathered here to contemplate spiritual scientific subjects, and for a smaller group of you it is now quite a number of winters that have brought us together for such contemplations. For reasons that we will perhaps discuss at the upcoming general meeting, we would like to take this opportunity to look back a little on the past years of our anthroposophical life together. There are still some among you who, in a certain sense, form the core of this gathering and who brought their fundamental spiritual convictions with them from earlier times, joining us six or seven years ago and forming the nucleus around which, little by little, all the other seeking friends, if one may use that word, have crystallized. And we can say that during this time, not only has the increase in the number of these gatherings told us something, but that with the help of those spiritual powers that are always present in spiritual scientific work done in the right sense, we have succeeded in maintaining a certain inner system in our work. Consider—especially those of you who have been with us from the very beginning—how we started six or seven years ago as a small circle and how slowly and gradually, also inwardly and in terms of content, we have laid the foundation on which we stand today. We began by trying to establish a foundation for ourselves with the simplest spiritual scientific concepts, and we gradually reached the point where last winter we had the opportunity—at least in our branch meetings—to talk about things from the various realms of the higher worlds in the same way that one talks about events and experiences in the ordinary physical world. We were able to learn about the various spiritual beings and the worlds that are supersensible in relation to our sensory world. And not only were we able to establish a certain internal system in our branch work, but last winter two courses were held here in which those who had gradually joined the core group were given the opportunity to connect with our considerations, so to speak.

[ 2 ] Those of our members who remember the beginnings of our present branch will also be able to look back on many dangers and obstacles in this work. There are some among you who have understood how to remain faithful to what we call spiritual scientific work through all these dangers. It may well be said that those who understand how to persevere faithfully, patiently, and energetically will certainly see, sooner or later, that such faithfulness and energy do indeed produce certain results.

[ 3 ] It has already been said, and it has been emphasized here many times, that we have finally reached the point where we can speak about higher worlds as something, we may say, self-evident, and we have emphasized that those who have participated inwardly in our branch meetings for a long time have thereby acquired a certain anthroposophical maturity. This anthroposophical maturity does not lie in theories or in any conceptual understanding, but in an inner mood that one acquires over time. Anyone who truly takes in what spiritual science has to offer for a period of time will gradually feel that they can listen to things as real facts, as something self-evident, which would have affected them quite differently before.

[ 4 ] So let us begin today, in this introductory lecture, to speak unreservedly, even recklessly, about a certain chapter of the higher worlds, which will lead us deeper into the understanding of the human character and the human personality. For, after all, what is the purpose of all our contemplations of the higher worlds? When we talk about the astral world, about the devachanic world, in what sense are we talking about them as members of the physical world? We do not talk about these higher worlds from the perspective of consciousness, as if they were completely foreign worlds that have no connection with the physical world. Rather, we are aware that what we call higher worlds are around us, that we live in them, and that these higher worlds extend into our physical world, that the causes and fundamental reasons for events that take place here before our physical eyes and physical senses lie in the higher worlds. Thus, we only learn about this life as it is around us, in relation to human beings and natural events, when we see what is invisible but reveals itself in the visible, when we look at these inhabitants of other worlds in order to be able to judge them where they play a role in our physical world. Normal and abnormal phenomena of ordinary physical life only become clear to us when we get to know the spiritual life that lies behind the physical, this spiritual life that is much richer and more extensive than physical life, which is only a small part of it.

[ 5 ] Human beings stand—and must stand—at the center of all our considerations. To understand human beings is actually to understand a large part of the world. But they are difficult to understand, and we will gain a small piece of understanding of human beings if we speak today of a few facts—for the number of facts is enormous—only of a few facts of the so-called astral world. As you know, human beings have a soul content that is very diverse. Today we want to consider one part of this soul content. We want to focus our attention on certain characteristics of the soul.

[ 6 ] In our soul life, we live in the most diverse feelings and sensations, in thoughts and ideas, in ideas and impulses of the will. All this takes place in our soul life from morning to evening. When we look at human beings superficially, this soul life rightly appears to us as something closed in on itself, as something belonging together. Consider how your life flows when you have your first thought in the morning, when the first sensation flashes through your soul, when the first impulse of will emanates from you; and consider how, until evening, when consciousness sinks into sleep, one idea follows another, one feeling follows another, one impulse of will follows another. All this looks like a continuous stream. In a deeper sense, however, this is not such a continuous stream, for through what we think, feel, and sense, we stand in a constant relationship—which, however, remains completely unconscious to most people—with the higher worlds. Let us now consider the relationship we stand in with regard to the astral world.

[ 7 ] When we have any feeling, when joy or fear flashes through our soul, this is initially an event in our soul. But it is not only that. If a person can test this clairvoyantly, they can notice that at the moment of fear or joy, something emanates from them like a luminous stream that enters the astral world. But it does not enter without meaning or direction; rather, it makes its way to a being in the astral world, so that when a sensation flashes within us, we come into contact with a being in the astral world. Let us suppose that a thought takes hold in our soul; let us say we are thinking about the nature of a table. As the thought vibrates through our soul, the clairvoyant can again demonstrate how a stream emanates from this thought toward a being in the astral world. And so it is with every thought, every idea, every sensation. From the entire stream of life that flows out of the soul, streams continually go out to the most diverse beings of the astral world. It would be a completely mistaken idea to believe that these currents that emanate all go to one being in the astral world. That is not the case. Rather, the most diverse currents emanate from all these individual thoughts, individual sensations, and feelings, and they go to the most diverse beings in the astral world. This is the peculiarity of this fact, that we as individual human beings are not only connected with one such being, but that we spin the most diverse threads to the most diverse beings of the astral world. The astral world is populated by a large number of beings, just like the physical world, and these beings are connected with us in the most diverse ways.

[ 8 ] But if we want to understand the full complexity of this matter, we must consider something else. Let us assume that two people see a flash of lightning and have a very similar sensation. Then a current emanates from each of the two people, but both currents now go to one and the same being in the astral world. So we can say that there is a being, an inhabitant of the astral world, with whom the two beings of the physical world are in contact. It may be that not just one being, but fifty, a hundred, or a thousand people who have a similar feeling send streams to a single being in the astral world. By agreeing on just this one point, these thousand people are connected to the same being in the astral world. But think what other feelings, emotions, and thoughts these people, who in this case have the same feeling, carry within themselves! Through this they are connected with other beings of the astral world; through this the most diverse connecting strands run from the astral world into the physical world.

[ 9 ] Now it is possible to distinguish certain classes of beings in the astral world. We can most easily gain an idea of these classes by considering an example. Take a large number of people from the European world, and let us take from the soul contents of these people the concept, the idea of justice. Otherwise, people may have the most varied experiences and thereby be connected in the most complicated ways with the most diverse beings of the astral world. But because these people think about the concept of justice in the same way, because they have acquired this concept in the same way, they are all connected to a being of the astral world, and we can regard this being of the astral world as a center, a focal point from which rays emanate to all the people in question. And whenever these people bring the concept of justice to mind, they are connected with this single being. Just as human beings have flesh and blood and are composed of these, so this being exists in the concept of justice; it lives within it. Similarly, there is an astral being for the concept of courage, benevolence, bravery, revenge, and so on. So for what are qualities in human beings, contents of the soul, there are beings in the astral world. Through this, something is spread out over a large number of people like an astral net. All of us who have the same concepts of justice are embedded in the body of an astral being that we can call the legal being. All of us who have the same concepts of courage, bravery, and so on are connected to one and the same astral being, whose substance is law, courage, or bravery. This also means that each of us is a kind of conglomerate of currents, because we can view every human being as if astral beings were sending currents into their body from all sides. We are all a confluence of currents coming out of the astral world.

[ 10 ] Now, in the course of these winter lectures, we will be able to point out more and more how the human being—who is, in essence, a convergence of such currents—centers these currents within himself around his ego-center. For this is the most important aspect of the human soul life: that he gathers all these currents around a center that lies within his self-consciousness. This self-consciousness is therefore so important in the human being because it must act as a ruler within the inner human being, bringing together and uniting within itself the various currents that flow into us from all sides. For the moment self-consciousness were to wane, it could happen that the human being would no longer feel himself to be a unity; it could happen that all the various concepts of courage, bravery, and so on, would fall apart. The human being would then no longer be conscious of being a unity, but would feel as if he were divided into all these various currents. There is a possibility—and here we see how, through knowledge of the true facts, we can truly penetrate into an understanding of the spiritual world—that a person might, so to speak, lose control over what flows into them. Imagine that, as an individual, you have lived a certain life; you have experienced many things, and from your youth onward you have held a number of ideals that have gradually developed within you. Each such ideal may differ from the others. You have held the ideal of courage, bravery, benevolence, and so on. Through this, you have entered into the currents of the most diverse astral beings. There is also another way in which a person can enter into such a varied succession of currents of astral beings. Let us assume that a person has had a number of friendships in the course of their life. Very specific feelings and sensations have developed under the influence of these friendships, especially in youth. Through this, currents flowed toward a very specific being of the astral world. Then a new friendship entered the person’s life; through this, they became connected again with another being of the astral world, and so on throughout their entire life. Now let us suppose that, due to an illness of the soul, the ego were to lose control over the various currents, so that it could no longer group them together. The person would then reach a point where they no longer felt themselves as an “I,” as a unified being, as a unity within their self-consciousness. If they were to lose their “I” through a process of illness of the soul, they would perceive these currents as if they were not perceiving themselves, but rather these individual currents, as if they were flowing into them. Certain cases of insanity can be attributed solely to this. A particularly tragic case of insanity will become clear to you when we view it from this perspective, from the astral world: Friedrich Nietzsche.

[ 11 ] Many of you will have heard of this: in the winter of 1888 to 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche was struck by madness. It is interesting for readers of his last letters to observe how Friedrich Nietzsche split himself up, divided into different currents at the moment when he lost his ego. He writes to this or that friend, or even to himself: “There lives a god in Turin who was once a professor of philosophy in Basel; but he was not selfish enough to remain so.” So he had lost his ego, and he clothed it in such words. “And the god Dionysus strides along the Po.” And he looks down on all his ideals and friendships that walk beneath him. He soon sees himself as King Carlo Alberto, then as someone else, then even as one of the criminals he had read about in the last days of his life. At that time, there were two sensational murder cases, and in the moments of his illness, he identified with the murderers of the women involved. He did not feel his ego, but rather a current that entered the astral world. Thus, in abnormal cases, what is otherwise held together by the center of self-consciousness comes to the surface of life.

[ 12 ] It will become increasingly necessary for people to know what lies at the bottom of the soul. For human beings would be infinitely poor creatures if they were incapable of forming many such currents into the astral world; and they would also be very limited creatures if they could not, through the spiritual deepening of their lives, gain the ability to gradually master all these currents. So we really have to say to ourselves: We are not limited within our skin, but we extend everywhere into other worlds, and other beings extend into our world. A whole network of beings is woven over the astral world.

[ 13 ] Now let us take a closer look at some of these beings that are related to us in this way. These are beings that appear to us comparatively like this: The astral world surrounds us. Let us imagine such a being here, for my sake, one that has something to do with the concept and feeling of courage. It extends its tentacles in all directions, and these tentacles enter into human souls; and as people develop courage, a connection is established between this being of courage and the human soul. Other people are different. For example, all those who develop a certain form of fear or love are connected to a being of the astral world. When we engage with these beings, we arrive at what we can call the constitution, the social life in the astral world. Human beings, as they live here on the physical plane, are not merely individual beings; even on the physical plane, we stand in hundreds and thousands of connections. We are bound by legal ties, friendships, and so on. Our connections on the physical plane are regulated according to our ideas, concepts, and so forth. In a certain sense, the social connections of those beings on the astral plane whom we have just placed before our souls must also be regulated in some way. How do these beings live together? These beings do not have such dense physical bodies of flesh and blood as we humans do; they have astral bodies, consisting at most of ethereal substance. They extend their feeling horns into our world. But how do they live together? If these beings did not interact, our human life would be completely different. Basically, our physical world is only the outer expression of what happens on the astral plane. So if there is a being in the astral world who is the legal system and to whom all thoughts relating to justice go, and another being to whom all thoughts relating to giving go, and then the thought arises in our soul: Giving is right – then a current flows from both beings into our soul. We are connected to both. How do these beings get along with each other?

[ 14 ] It would be easy to believe that social life on the astral plane is similar to life on the physical plane. But coexistence on the astral plane differs significantly from interaction on the physical plane. People who simply group the individual planes on top of each other and characterize the higher worlds as if they were very similar to the physical world are not describing the higher worlds correctly. There is a huge difference between the physical world and the higher worlds, and this difference becomes greater the higher we go. Above all, there is a certain peculiarity in the astral world that cannot be found on the physical plane at all. This is the permeability, the penetrability of the matter of the astral plane. In the physical world, it is impossible for you to stand in the same place where someone else is already standing; impenetrability is a law of the physical world. In the astral world, this is not the case; there is a law of permeability. And it is entirely possible, indeed the rule, that beings penetrate one another and that one being enters the space where another already is. Two, four, or a hundred beings can be in one and the same place in the astral world. But this has another consequence, namely that on the astral plane the logic of coexistence is completely different from that on the physical plane. You will best understand how the logic of the astral plane is completely different from the logic of the physical plane—not the logic of thought, but the logic of action, of coexistence—if you take the following example.

[ 15 ] Imagine that a city has decided to build a church on a certain site. Then the wise council of this city must first consult among themselves how this church is to be built, what arrangements are to be made, and so on. Now let us assume that two parties have formed in the city. One party wants to build a church on this particular site in a certain design, with a certain architect, and so on; the other party wants to build a different church with a different architect. On the physical plane, the two parties will not be able to carry out their intentions. So before anything can be done, it is necessary that one party prevails, that one party gains the upper hand, and that it is decided what form the church should take. You know that in fact the vast majority of human social life is spent in such consultations and mutual negotiations before anything is done, in agreeing on what is actually to be done. Nothing would happen if, in most cases, one party did not gain the upper hand and remain in the majority. But the party that remains in the minority will not readily say, “I was wrong,” but will continue to believe that it was right. In the physical world, it is a matter of discussing ideas that must be decided purely within the physical world, because it is impossible to carry out two plans in one and the same place.

[ 16 ] It is quite different in the astral world. There it would be quite possible for two churches to be built in one and the same place, let us say. This actually happens all the time in the astral world, and it is the only right thing to do in the astral world. People do not argue there as they do in the physical world. They do not hold such meetings and seek to obtain a majority for this or that; it is not even necessary there. When a city council is convened here and forty-five of the fifty-five people have one opinion and the others have another, the two parties may want to murder each other in their minds because of their different opinions, but it is not so bad because outwardly things remain the same. Each party does not immediately seek to build its church without regard for the other, because on the physical plane the thought can remain a spiritual good; it can remain there. On the astral plane, it is not so simple. There, it is like this: once the thought has been formed, it already exists in a certain relationship. So when an astral being such as those I have just spoken of has a thought, this being immediately extends the corresponding feeling threads, which have the form of this thought, and another being extends its feeling threads; both now interpenetrate each other and are present in the same space as a newly formed being.

[ 17 ] In this way, the most diverse opinions, thoughts, and feelings continually interpenetrate each other. The most contradictory things can interpenetrate in the astral world. And we must say: if there is contradiction in the physical world regarding the points we have discussed, there is immediately conflict in the astral world. For as beings of the astral world, one cannot hold back one's thoughts; thoughts immediately become deeds, and objects are immediately there. Now, churches are not built there as we have them on the physical plane, but let us suppose that one being of the astral world wanted to realize something, and another being wanted to thwart it. There is no discussion there, but rather the principle applies: a thing must prove itself! If the two feelers are really in the same space, then they begin to fight each other, and then the idea that is more fruitful, that is, the one that is right—that is, the one that can exist—will destroy the other and assert itself. So we have a constant conflict between the most diverse opinions, thoughts, and feelings. On the astral plane, every opinion must become action. There is no arguing, opinions are allowed to fight it out, and the more fruitful one defeats the other. The astral world is, so to speak, much more dangerous, and much of what is said about the danger of the astral world is connected with what has just been said. There, everything becomes action. And the opinions that exist there must fight each other, not discuss.

[ 18 ] Now I will touch on something that is shocking for today's materialistic age, but which is nevertheless true. We have often emphasized that our age is becoming increasingly accustomed to the mere consciousness of the physical world, including the character traits and peculiarities of the physical world, where, when a discussion arises, everyone wants to destroy those who do not share their opinion or considers them fools. This is not the case in the astral world. There, a being will say: I don't care about other opinions! There is absolute tolerance. If one opinion is more fruitful, it will prevail over the others. Other opinions are allowed to exist just as one's own, because things must sort themselves out through struggle. Those who gradually settle into the spiritual world must learn to conform to the customs of the spiritual world; and the first part of the spiritual world is the astral world, where customs such as those just described prevail, so that in a person who settles into the spiritual world, the customs of the beings of the spiritual world must also take hold in a certain respect. And that is also right. Our physical world should increasingly become a reflection of the spiritual world, and we will bring more and more harmony into our world by setting ourselves one goal: life in the physical world should unfold like life in the astral world. We cannot build two churches in one place, but where opinions differ, we allow them to influence each other in terms of their fruitfulness in the world. The opinions that are most fruitful will prevail, as is the case in the astral world.

[ 19 ] In this way, within a spiritual world current, the character traits of the astral world can reach right into the physical world. This will be a great field of education that the spiritual scientific movement will have to cultivate: to create more and more of a reflection of the astral world on the physical plane. As shocking as it may be to people who only know the physical plane and can only imagine that only one opinion can be held and that anyone who has a different opinion must be stupid, it will become more and more self-evident to those who belong to a spiritual worldview that there is absolute inner tolerance of opinions, a tolerance that does not present itself as the consequence of a sermon, but as something that will take root in our souls because we are naturally acquiring more and more of the customs of the higher worlds.

[ 20 ] What has just been described—this penetrating quality—is a very important and essential characteristic of the astral world. No being in the astral world will develop a concept of truth such as we know it in the physical world. The beings of the astral world find what in the physical world is discussion and so on to be entirely fruitless. For them, Goethe’s saying also applies: “Only what is fruitful is true!” Truth must not be known through theoretical considerations, but through its fruitfulness, through the way it can assert itself. Thus, a being of the astral world will never argue with another being as humans do, but such a being will say to the other: “Fine, you do your thing, I’ll do mine.” It will become clear which idea is more fruitful, which idea will prevail over the others.

[ 21 ] When we put ourselves in such a way of thinking, we have already gained something in practical knowledge. One must not believe that human development into the spiritual world takes place in a tumultuous manner, for it occurs inwardly, in an intimate way. And if we can pay attention to this and thus acquire something that has now been characterized as a peculiarity of the astral world, then we will increasingly come to regard such feelings—as the astral beings have them—as model feelings for our own. If we orient ourselves toward the nature of the astral world, we can hope to rise up to the spiritual beings, whose lives thus become increasingly clear to us. This is what proves to be fruitful for human beings.

[ 22 ] What we have discussed today is intended in many respects to serve as a kind of preparation for what we will cover in the next lectures. Having now spoken of the beings of the astral world and their characteristic features, we must nevertheless point out today that this astral world differs in a much more marked way from the higher worlds—let us say, from the devachanic world—than one might be inclined to believe. It is true, after all, that the astral world is where our physical world is as well. It permeates our physical world, and everything we have sometimes spoken of is always around us in the same space where physical realities and physical beings also exist. But the Devachanic world is there as well. It differs in that we experience the Devachanic world in a different state of consciousness than the astral world.

[ 23 ] Now you might easily believe: Here is the physical world; it is permeated by the astral world, the Devachanic world, and so on. - It is not quite that simple. If we wish to describe the higher worlds more precisely than we have done before, we must realize that there is yet another difference between the astral world and the devachanic world. Namely, our astral world—as we live within it and as it permeates our physical space—is, in a certain sense, a dual world, whereas the devachanic world is, in a certain way, a simple one. This is something we wish to mention today by way of preparation. There are, so to speak, two astral worlds, and the two differ in that one is, so to speak, the astral world of good, the other

[ 24 ] is the astral world of evil, whereas in the case of the Devachanic world it would still be incorrect to present this difference in such a stark manner. We must therefore say, when we view the worlds from top to bottom: first the higher Devachan, then the lower Devachanic world, then the astral world, and then the physical world. Yet we have not yet considered the entirety of our worlds; we must still consider worlds deeper than the physical one. There is still a lower astral world lying beneath our physical world. The one that is good lies above the physical plane, the one that is evil lies below it, and this too practically permeates the physical world. Now the most diverse currents flow over to the beings of the astral world. In doing so, we must distinguish that currents of good and evil qualities emanate from human beings toward the astral beings. The good currents go to a good being, and the evil currents go to a corresponding evil being in the astral world. And if we take the sum of all the good and evil beings in the astral world, we have, in a certain sense, two astral worlds. When we consider the devachanic world, we will see that this is not the case there to the same extent. There are thus two worlds within the astral world that interpenetrate one another and relate to human beings in the same way. These two worlds must be distinguished from one another above all in terms of how they came into being. If we look back at the Earth’s development, we arrive at a time when the Earth was still connected to the Sun and the Moon. At a later time, the Earth itself was the Moon and was a body that existed outside the Sun during the ancient lunar epoch. Back then, an astral world already existed before our Earth became the Earth as we know it today. But this astral world would have become the good astral world had it been able to develop unhindered. However, because the Moon separated from the Earth, the evil astral world has been incorporated into the general astral world. On Earth, in relation to the astral world, we have only reached the point where we have had an evil astral world incorporated into it. In the future, an evil one will also be incorporated into the devachanic world. For the time being, let us firmly bear in mind that there is not one, but essentially two astral worlds: one into which flow all the currents that are fruitful for human progress and further development, and into the other astral world—to which the Kamaloka also belongs—flow all the currents that hinder human development. In both astral worlds there are beings whom we have come to know today in a more abstract way—how they influence us, how they themselves live together. Next time we will learn more specifically about this population of the higher worlds, their nature, and their constitution.