The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] When we speak of the external physical world, we speak of “history.” We look back, with the help of external documents and reports, into the past of the history of peoples and of humanity. You know, of course, that in this way, through the discovery of many new documents, we can look back to the early millennia before the birth of Christ. Now, from the lectures we have heard in the field of spiritual science, you have been able to gather that, with the help of occult documents, we can look back even further, into the boundless expanses of the past. We therefore recognize an external history of the external physical world. We know that when we speak about the habits, the knowledge, and in general the experiences of the peoples who lived in the centuries immediately preceding us, when we want to speak about their discoveries and inventions, we must speak differently than when we go back one or two millennia and speak about the customs and habits, the knowledge and insights of peoples who lived long ago. And history always becomes different the further back we go in time. It is perhaps appropriate to ask whether the words “history” and “historical development” has only one meaning for this external physical world, whether it is only there that events and the physiognomy of happenings change in the course of time, or whether the word history can also have a meaning for the other side of existence, for that side which we describe precisely through spiritual science, which human beings have to live through in the time between death and a new birth.

[ 2 ] At first glance, we must say that, according to all we know, human life in these other worlds, which are supersensible to modern humans, is even longer than life in the physical world. Does the word “history” also have a meaning for this world, for this other side of existence? Or should we accept the view that in the realms through which human beings pass in the time between death and a new birth, everything always remains the same, that it is the same when we go back, for example, through the 18th, 17th, and 16th centuries to the 8th, 7th, and 6th centuries after the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, and even further back to the pre-Christian centuries? People who enter earthly existence at birth encounter different conditions on earth with each new birth. Let us imagine ourselves in the soul of a person—and it is our own souls we are talking about—who appeared in an incarnation in ancient Egypt or ancient Persia. Let us vividly imagine the circumstances into which a human being was born, who in ancient Egypt was confronted with the gigantic pyramids and obelisks and all the living conditions that existed in ancient Egypt. Let us think about what kind of living conditions these were between birth and death. Let us now say that this person dies, goes through a period between death and a new birth, and is now born into the 7th or 8th century of the Christian era. Let us compare the times: how different the world appears to the soul in earthly existence in the times before the appearance of Christ Jesus here on the physical plane! And let us ask further: What does the soul experience that perhaps appeared in the first centuries of the post-Christian era and is now entering our physical plane again? It finds the newer state institutions that did not exist at that time. It experiences what our modern cultural means have brought about. In short, a completely different picture presents itself to such a soul compared to what presented itself to it in its previous incarnations. And when we compare these individual incarnations, we are aware of how different they are from one another. Is it not justified to ask the question: What are the conditions of a human being's life between death and rebirth, that is, between two incarnations? If a person lived in ancient Egypt and entered the spiritual world after death, where he encountered certain facts and certain beings, and then returned to physical existence in the first Christian centuries, died again, and passed over into the other world, and so on—is it not justified to ask whether, on the other side of existence, with all the experiences that human beings go through there, a “history” also takes place, whether many things also change there in the course of time?

[ 3 ] You know that when we describe human life between death and rebirth, we give a general picture of what this life is like. Starting from the moment of death, we describe how, after that great tableau of memories has unfolded before the soul, the human being enters the time where his instincts, desires, passions, in short, everything that still binds him to the physical world, are still within him, where what we have become accustomed to calling Kamaloka takes place, and how the human being, after he has cast off this connection, then enters Devachan, a purely spiritual world. And we then go on to describe what happens during this time between death and rebirth for the human being in this purely spiritual existence until his return to the physical world. You have seen how what we are describing has always been discussed, so to speak, with regard to the present, to our immediate life. And that is indeed the case. One must naturally start from something, one must stand at some point when one describes something. Just as one must start from observations and experiences in the present when describing the present, so too is it necessary, when describing the spiritual world, to describe the picture that presents itself to the clairvoyant gaze of life between death and rebirth in approximately the same way as it happens on average in the present when a person dies and lives toward a new existence through the spiritual world. But comprehensive occult observation shows that the word “history” also has a good meaning for this world that human beings pass through between death and rebirth. Something happens there just as it does here in the physical world. And just as we recount successive, distinct events, beginning, for example, in the fourth millennium BC and describing events up to our own time, so must we establish a “history” for the other period of existence. We must also become aware that life between death and rebirth in the time of Egyptian, ancient Persian, or ancient Indian culture was not exactly the same as it is, for example, in our time. So, once we have formed a preliminary idea in our present time about the Kamaloka life and the Devachan life, it is probably time to expand these descriptions and move on to a historical view of these worlds. And in order to gain clarity on these matters, we will stick to very specific spiritual facts when we present some of the material from the chapter on “occult history.” However, in order to understand each other, we must go back a long way, to the Atlantean era. Today, we have reached a point where we assume that everyone is familiar with such times.

[ 4 ] We ask ourselves how, in those times when there was already talk of birth and death, human life began in the beyond, to use an expression. Life in the beyond at that time differed from life in this world in a way that is very different from how it differs today. When an Atlantean died, what happened to his soul? It passed into a state where it felt secure in the most eminent sense in a spiritual world, in a world of higher spiritual individualities. We know that even here on this physical earth, the life of the Atlantean was different from our life today. The present-day alternation between waking and sleeping and the unconsciousness during the night—which has been mentioned frequently—did not exist in the Atlantean era. While human beings slumbered and the knowledge of the physical things around them receded from their consciousness, they entered a spiritual world. There, the sight of spiritual beings appeared to them. Just as they are here with plants, animals, humans, and so on during the day, so too did a world of lower and higher spiritual beings appear during their sleep consciousness in the same measure as humans fell asleep. Humans lived their lives in this world. And when the Atlantean passed over into the world beyond at death, this world of spiritual beings and spiritual events appeared all the more brightly. In those Atlantean times, human beings felt much more at home in their entire consciousness in these higher worlds, in these worlds of spiritual events and spiritual beings, than in the physical world. And we need only go back to the earliest Atlantean times to find that human beings understood this physical existence — all their souls did so — as a visit to a world where one stays for a while, but which is different from one's actual home, which did not exist in this earthly sphere.

[ 5 ] But there was one peculiarity of this life between death and rebirth in the Atlantean times that is difficult for people today to imagine because they have lost it completely. That ability to say “I” to oneself, to feel oneself as a self-conscious being, to perceive oneself as an “I,” which is the essence of modern man, was completely lost to the Atlanteans when they left the physical world. As they moved up into the spiritual world, whether in sleep or, to a greater extent, during the life between death and rebirth, the consciousness of “I am a self-aware being,” “I am within myself,” was replaced by the consciousness: “I am safe in the higher beings,” ‘I am, as it were, immersed in the life of these higher beings themselves.’ Man felt at one with the higher beings, and in this feeling of oneness he experienced infinite bliss in this afterlife. And so his bliss grew more and more the further he removed himself from the consciousness of physical, sensory existence. The further back we go in time, the more blissful life was. And we have often heard what the meaning of human development in earthly existence consists of. It consists in the fact that human beings become more and more entangled in physical existence on our earth. When human beings of the Atlantean epoch felt completely at home in the afterlife in their sleep consciousness and perceived this world as bright, clear, and friendly, their consciousness in this life was still semi-dreamlike. There was not yet any real possession of the physical body. When human beings awoke, they forgot in a certain sense the gods and spirits they had experienced in their sleep, but they did not live themselves into physical consciousness in the same way as we do today when we wake up in the morning. Objects did not yet have clear outlines. For the Atlantean, it was always as if you went out on a foggy evening and saw the street lamps surrounded by a halo, an aura of all possible colors. That is how indistinct all objects on the physical plane were. The consciousness of the physical plane was only just dawning. The strong consciousness of “I am” had not yet entered into human beings. It was only towards the end of the Atlantean era that human self-awareness, the awareness of personality, developed more and more, to the extent that human beings lost that blissful awareness in sleep. Human beings gradually conquered the physical world, learned more and more how to use their senses, and with that, the objects of the physical world also took on increasingly solid and definite outlines. But to the same extent that man conquered the physical world, consciousness in the spiritual world also changed.

[ 6 ] We have traced the various periods of the post-Atlantean era. We have looked back to the ancient Indian culture. We have seen how human beings conquered the external world to such an extent that they perceived it as Maya and longed to return to the realms of the ancient spiritual land. We have seen how, during the Persian cultural epoch, the conquest of the physical plane had already progressed so far that human beings wanted to connect with the good forces of Ormuzd in order to transform the forces of the physical world. We have also seen how, in the Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian period, people found the means to advance in their conquest of the outer world in the art of surveying, which led to the cultivation of the earth, and also in astronomy. And finally, we saw how the Greek-Latin period went even further, how in Greece that beautiful marriage between man and the physical world came about in Greek city-building and in Greek art. And we saw how, in the fourth period, the personal, which was there for the first time, emerged in ancient Roman law. Whereas humans had previously felt secure in a whole, which was still the reflection of earlier spiritual beings, the Romans first felt themselves to be citizens of the earth. The concept of the citizen arose.

[ 7 ] The physical world was conquered piece by piece. But in return, it also became dear to humans. Human inclinations and sympathies became connected with the physical world, and to the same extent that sympathy for the physical world grew, human consciousness also became connected with physical things. But to the same extent, human consciousness of the beyond, of the time between death and rebirth, became clouded. That blissful feeling of security in the existence of higher spiritual beings was lost to humans in the afterlife to the same extent that they grew to love the here and now in the course of their conquests of the physical world throughout history. The conquest of the physical world by humans grew from stage to stage; they discovered ever new forces of nature and invented ever new tools. They grew to love this life between birth and death more and more. But in return, their old, dim clairvoyant consciousness of the world beyond became clouded. It never ceased completely, but it became clouded. And while humans conquered the physical world, the history of the world beyond represents a decline. This decline is proportional to the rise of culture, which we describe when we look at humans in the earliest primitive stages of culture, grinding their grain between two stones, and then see how they rise from stage to stage, how they make their first discoveries, acquire tools and learn to use them, and how this progresses further and further over time. Life on the physical plane becomes ever richer. Man learns to erect gigantic buildings. But as we describe history in this way, through the Egyptian-Babylonian-Chaldean-Assyrian period, through the Greek-Roman period, up to our own time, we must make a break if we want to describe a cultural-historical progression. To the same extent, we would have to describe a path of decline in the connection between higher gods and what humans were allowed to do for the gods, what they did in the sense of the spiritual world and in the midst of the spiritual world. And we see how, in later times, humans increasingly lost their connection with the spiritual worlds and their spiritual abilities. We would have to write a history of decline for the afterlife for human beings, just as we can write a history of the rise and continuous conquest of the physical world for this life. In this way, the spiritual world and the physical world complement each other, or rather, they are mutually dependent.

[ 8 ] As you know, there is a relationship between this spiritual world and our physical world. Much has been said about the great mediators between the spiritual world and the physical world, about the initiates, about those who, although embodied in the physical body, nevertheless rise with their souls into the spiritual world between birth and death, where otherwise human beings are completely cut off from the spiritual world, who can also gain experience in the spiritual world during this time and can live their way into the spiritual world. What were these more or less great or small messengers of the spiritual world for human beings, when we speak of the pinnacles of the spiritual world, for example, the ancient holy Rishis of India, Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra, Moses, or all those who were the great messengers of God in ancient times? When we speak of all those who were messengers of God or of the spirit world to human beings, what were they in relation to the physical and spiritual worlds?

[ 9 ] During their initiation and through their initiation, they experienced the conditions of the spiritual world. They could not only see with their physical eyes and perceive with their physical mind what was happening in the physical world here, but through their heightened powers of perception they could also perceive what was happening in the spiritual world. The initiate does not live only on the physical plane with human beings, but can also follow what the dead do in the time between death and rebirth. They are as familiar to him as the people on the physical plane. From this you can see that everything that is told as occult history flows from the experiences of the initiates.

[ 10 ] An important turning point, also for the history we are now touching upon, occurs on earth with the appearance of Christ. And we get a picture of the progress of history in the world beyond when we ask ourselves: What is the significance of Christ's deed on earth? What is the significance of the mystery of Golgotha for history in the beyond?

[ 11 ] In various places, I have been able to point out in some lectures the decisive significance of the event of Golgotha for the development of the history of the physical plane. Let us now ask ourselves: How does the event of Golgotha appear when we view it from the perspective of the beyond? We arrive at the answer to this question when we consider the point in time in the beyond when human beings had stepped most fully onto the physical plane, when the consciousness of personality had developed most strongly: the time of the Greco-Latin era. And that is also the time when Christ Jesus appeared on earth: on the one hand, the most intense personality consciousness, the most intense joy in the sensory world; on the other hand, the strongest, most powerful call to the world beyond in the event of Golgotha, and the greatest deed, the overcoming of death through life, as it is represented in this event of Golgotha. These two things coincide perfectly when we consider the physical world. There was truly great joy and heightened sympathy for external existence in Greek times. Only such people could create those wonderful Greek temples in which, as has been described to you, the gods themselves dwelt. Only these people, who stood so firmly in the physical world, could create those works of art in sculpture, where such a wonderful marriage of spirit and matter comes to light. This required joy and sympathy for the physical plane. These developed gradually, and we can actually sense the progression in history when we compare the emergence of the Greeks in the physical world with the sublime worldview that the first post-Atlantean civilized people received from their holy rishis. These people had no interest in the physical world; they felt at home in the spiritual world and looked blissfully up to the world of the spirit, which they sought to reach with the help of the teachings and exercises given to them by the holy rishis. Between this rejection of sensual pleasure and the greatest enjoyment of the sensory world in the Greco-Latin period lies a large part of human history—up to the point where the marriage between the spirit and the sensory world came about, in which both came into their own.

[ 12 ] But what was the counterpart to this conquest of the physical plane in the Greco-Latin period in the spiritual world? Anyone who can look into the spiritual world knows that it is not a legend, but that what the Greek poets say about those who were the best people of their culture is really based on truth. Those who felt so completely at home in the physical world with all their sympathies, how did they feel in the spiritual world? It is entirely true when such people are quoted as saying: Better to be a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows! The dullest, least intense state of consciousness occurred precisely at this time between death and rebirth. Despite all their sympathy for the physical world, people did not understand existence in the world beyond. It seemed to them as if they had lost everything, and the spiritual world seemed worthless to them. As sympathy for the physical world grew, the Greek heroes felt increasingly lost in the spiritual world. And an Agamemnon, an Achilles, felt like squeezed beings over there, like nothing in this world of shadows. However, there were times in between—for the connection with the spiritual world is never completely lost—when even these people could live with spiritual beings and spiritual activities. But the state of consciousness just mentioned was definitely present. So we have a history of the world beyond, a history of decline, just as we have a history of the rise of the world here.

[ 13 ] Those who were called messengers of God or spirits always had the ability to go back and forth, from one world to the other. Let us try to imagine what these spirit messengers were to the people of the physical plane in pre-Christian times. They were those who, from their experiences in the spiritual world, could tell the people of the old world what the spiritual world was really like. Of course, they also experienced the extinguished consciousness of physical human beings on earth, but in return they experienced the entire spiritual world in all its glorious fullness. And they were able to bring news to people on earth that there is a spiritual world and tell them what it looks like. They were able to bear witness to this spiritual world. This was particularly important in those times when people on the physical plane were becoming more and more interested in the physical plane. And the more people conquered the earth, the more joy and sympathy they felt for the physical world, the more the messengers of God had to emphasize that the spiritual world exists. They could always say: You know this and that about the earth. But there is also a spiritual world. This and that must be told to you about the spiritual world—in short, the entire tableau of the spiritual world has been revealed to people through the messengers of God. People knew this in various religions. But whenever these messengers of God came over after their initiation or after a visit to the spiritual world, they were able to bring refreshment and upliftment from the spiritual world to the physical world, which was becoming more and more beautiful for life on the physical plane, something of the treasures of the spiritual world. They brought the fruits of spiritual life into physical life. It was always the case that through what the messengers of God brought them, people were led into the spirit. The physical world, the here and now, gained through the messengers of God and their messages.

[ 14 ] These messengers of God could not work fruitfully for the world beyond to the same extent. You can imagine it like this: when the initiate, the messenger of God, passes over into the world beyond, the beings there are just as much his companions as the beings in the physical world. He can speak to them and tell them what is happening in the physical world. But the closer we approach the Greek-Latin period, the less valuable the initiate could offer the souls in the beyond when he passed over from earth to the beyond. For they felt too keenly the loss of what they had been attached to in the physical world. Nothing that the initiates could tell them was of any value to them anymore. Thus, in pre-Christian times, the messages that the initiates brought to people in the physical world were extremely fruitful, and what they could bring to those who had departed from the physical world was fruitless for the spiritual world. Buddha, Hermes, Zarathustra—no matter how great a message they brought to the people of the physical world, they could achieve very little on the other side. For they could convey few joyful and invigorating messages to the beyond.

[ 15 ] Let us now compare what happened for the afterlife through Christ, which occurred, so to speak, in the period of deepest decadence, as we describe in occult history, in the Greek-Latin period, with what happened previously through the initiates. We know what the event of Golgotha means for the history of the earth. We know that it is the defeat of earthly death through the life of the spirit, the overcoming of all death through the earth evolution. Even if we cannot go into everything that the mystery of Golgotha means today, we can summarize it in a few words: It means the final and irrefutable proof that life conquers death. And on Golgotha, life defeated death, the spirit laid the seed for the final defeat of matter! What is recounted in the Gospel about Christ's visit to the dead in the underworld after the events at Golgotha is not a legend or a symbol. Occult research shows you that it is the truth. Just as Christ walked among people during the last three years of his life, so too were the dead able to rejoice at his visit. Immediately after the events at Golgotha, he appeared to the dead, to the departed souls. This is an occult truth. And now he could tell them that in the physical world over there, the spirit had irrevocably won the victory over matter! This was a flame of light in the world beyond for the departed souls, striking them like a spiritual electric shock and stimulating the dead consciousness of the Greek-Latin era, beginning a whole new phase for human beings between death and new birth. And since that time, the consciousness of human beings between death and rebirth has become brighter and brighter.

[ 16 ] Thus, when we describe history, we can supplement our account of present conditions with what we have to say about Kamaloka and the Devachan life, and we must point out that the appearance of Christ on earth marks the beginning of a completely new phase in the afterlife, that the fruit of what Christ accomplished for the evolution of the earth will be realized in a radical change in the afterlife. This visit of Christ to the afterlife means something tremendous, a renewal of life in the afterlife between death and rebirth. Since that time, the departed souls who, at that important moment in the Greco-Latin era, felt like shadows despite all their joy for the physical world, so that they would rather be beggars in the upper world than kings in the realm of shadows, now felt themselves becoming more and more at home in the afterlife. And since then, it has been the case that human beings have grown more and more into the spiritual world, and a period of ascent and blossoming in the spiritual world has thus begun.

[ 17 ] Thus we have touched upon the event of Golgotha from the point of view of the other world, albeit only sketchily, and at the same time pointed out that there is a history for the spiritual world just as there is a history for the physical world. And it is only by exploring these real relationships between the physical world and the spiritual world that one world becomes fruitful for the other in human life. We will always see what we gain for our understanding of human life on earth when we set before us the true characteristics of the spiritual world.