The Astral World
GA 107
26 October 1908, Berlin
III. The Law of the Astral Plane: Renunciation. The Law of the Devachanic Plane: Sacrifice
Today's lecture is to deal with the conditions that we must fulfill if we want to develop the forces and faculties slumbering within us and come to an experience and observation of the higher worlds. In the articles in the Journal “Lucifer-Gnosis” How does one attain knowledge of the Higher Worlds? [Now in book form], you have a picture of much that a human being has to fulfill when treading the path of knowledge, when wishing to press up into the higher worlds.
You remember the indications that were given in the interpretation of Goethe's Fairy Tale. We are concerned with the fact that human beings have soul forces of various kinds, and that from their development—that is, of thinking as such, of feeling as such, and of willing as such—depends our ascent on the one hand, and on the other hand our need to bring these into the right proportion by means of exercises. Willing, feeling and thinking must always be brought to development in exactly the right measure in knowledge of the different goals of spiritual life. For a definite goal, willing, for example, must step back, while feeling must come more strongly to the fore; for another goal, thinking must retreat, and again for another goal, feeling. All these soul forces must be perfected through occult exercises in the right proportion. The ascent into the higher worlds is connected with the development of thinking, feeling and willing.
Above all, it is a matter of refining and purifying thinking. That is necessary in order that thinking may no longer depend on the external sense-perceptions that can be gained on the physical plane. Yet, not only thinking but also feeling and the will can become forces of knowledge. In ordinary life, they go on personal paths; sympathy and antipathy take their way in accord with the individual personality, yet they can become, forces of knowledge. This may sound unbelievable for modern science! One can believe it more easily of thinking, especially of the descriptive thinking directed to sense-observation, but how can people admit that feeling can become a source of knowledge when they see how one person feels so, and another feels so, about the same things?
How can one admit that anything so vacillating, so dependent on personality as sympathy and antipathy can become an authority for knowledge and can be so far disciplined that they could grasp the innermost nature of a thing? That thought does so can be easily understood, but that when we confront something, and it arouses a feeling in us, this feeling can be of such a nature that not personal sympathy or antipathy speaks, but that feeling itself can become a means of expression for the inmost being of the thing—that seems hardly credible! And further, that the force of will and desire can also become means of expression for the inner nature—that above all, seems simply frivolous.
In the same way, however, as thinking can be purified and become objective, and hence a means of expressing facts in both the sense-world and the higher worlds, so, too, can feeling and willing become objective. Yet, there must be no misunderstanding. Feeling, as it exists in the ordinary life of modern man—in its direct content of feeling, does not become a means of expression of a higher world. This type of feeling is personal. The object of the occult exercises received by the student is to train feeling, alter and transform it, so that it becomes different from what it was when it was still personal. Yet, when a certain stage has been reached on the occult path through the development of feeling, one must not believe that one can state with knowledge: I have a being before me, and I feel something of this being—not that what one has there in feeling is a truth, a piece of knowledge.
The process that transforms feeling by way of occult exercises is a much more intimate and inward one. One who has changed feelings through exercises comes to Imaginative knowledge, so that a spiritual content reveals itself in symbols. The facts or beings of the astral world express themselves by symbols. Feeling becomes something different; it becomes Imagination, and astral pictures light up that express what is taking place in astral space. One does not see as one sees a rose, for instance, in the physical world with its color; one sees in symbolic pictures, and in fact, all that is brought before us in occult science is seen in pictures. The black cross with the wreath of roses and all such symbols are to bring to expression a definite fact, and they correspond just as much to astral facts as what we see in the physical world corresponds to physical facts. One therefore develops feeling, but knows in Imagination. And it is just the same with the will.
When one has reached the stage that can be reached to a certain extent through occult training, then if a being confronts one, one does not say, “It awakens in me a power of desire,” but one begins to perceive the nature of sound in Devachan.
Feeling is developed in us and astral vision in Imagination is the result. Will is developed in us, and the result is the experience of what comes about in devachanic spiritual music, the sphere-harmony from which there streams to us the inmost nature. Just as one perfects thinking and attains to objective thinking, which is the first step, so does one develop feeling, and a new world will emerge at the stage of Imagination. In the same way, one trains willing and there results in Inspiration the knowledge of Lower Devachan, until at length in Intuition there opens before us the world of Higher Devachan.
We can say, therefore, that as we lift ourselves to the next stage of existence, we are presented with pictures, but pictures that we cannot use as we use our thoughts. We do not ask, “How do these pictures correspond to reality?” Things are clothed in pictures of form and color, and through Imagination we must ourselves “unriddle” the beings who are showing themselves to us in symbols. In Inspiration, the things speak to us. There, we need not question nor try to find a solution in ideas that would be a carrying-over of the theory of knowledge from the physical plane. Rather, the inmost being of the thing itself speaks to us. When a human being confronts us, expressing his or her inmost nature to us, it is different from when we stand before a stone. We have to "unriddle" the stone and ponder about it.
With people, it is different; we experience their being in what they say to us. That is how it is in Inspiration. There, in Inspiration, it is not an abstract discursive thinking, but one listens to what the things say; they themselves express their being! It would have no meaning for someone to say, “When someone dies and I meet him again in Devachan, shall I know whom I meet?” For devachanic beings must look different and cannot be compared with what is on the physical plane. In Devachan, the being itself says what being it is, as if human beings should tell us not only their names but also let their natures flow out to us continually. That streams to us through the sphere-music and a non-recognition is not possible.
Now this is a certain opportunity for answering a question. Misunderstandings can very easily arise through the various theosophical presentations, and one can easily think that the physical, the astral and devachanic worlds are distinguished from one another spatially. We know, in fact, that where the physical world is, there is also the astral and the devachanic—they are in one another. Now the question could be asked, “Well, if everything is in one another, I cannot distinguish them as in physical space, where everything is side by side! If the ‘other side’ is in ‘this side’ how do I distinguish the astral world and the devachanic world from each other?” One distinguishes them through the fact that when one ascends from the astral pictures and colors to the devachanic world, the colors resound. What before was spiritually luminous becomes, henceforth, spiritual resounding. In experiencing the higher worlds there are also differences, so that when we rise up to these worlds, we can always recognize by definite experiences whether we are in this or that world.
Today we will characterize the differences between experiencing the astral world and the world of Devachan. It is not only that the astral world is known through Imagination and the devachanic through Inspiration, but we also know through other differences, too, which world we are in. A part of the astral world is the time during which a human being has to live through directly after death, which in anthroposophical literature we call the period of Kamaloca. What does it mean to be in Kamaloca? We have often tried to show this by description. I have often given the characteristic example of the epicure, who pines for the enjoyment that only the sense of taste can give him. With death, the physical body is stripped off and left behind, and so, too, the etheric body to a great extent, but the astral body is still present with its qualities and forces. These do not change immediately after death, but only gradually. If a person has longed for dainty foods, this longing remains, this pining for the enjoyment, but after death the soul lacks the physical instrument with which to satisfy it. The physical body with its organs is no longer there, and the soul must do without the enjoyment; it pines for something that it must go without. This holds good for all the Kamaloca¬experiences that consist, really, in a condition within the astral body when the soul still longs for the satisfaction that can be fulfilled only through the physical body. And because the soul has this no longer, it has to rid itself of the striving for these enjoyments; it is thus the period of becoming “disaccustomed”. The one who has died is freed from it only when this longing has been torn out of the astral body.
During the whole Kamaloca period, something lives in the astral body that can be called “privation”—deprivation in most varied forms, nuances and differences; that is the content of Kamaloca. Just as light may be differentiated into red, yellow, green, blue tones, so can privation be differentiated into the most varied qualities, and the characteristic of privation is the sign of the one who is in Kamaloca. However, the astral plane is not alone Kamaloca, but is far more comprehensive. Nevertheless, a human being who has lived only in the physical world and experienced solely its contents would never be able to experience the other parts of the astral world—whether after death or through other means—unless the soul had prepared itself. It can experience the astral world in no other way than through deprivation! One who comes up into the higher worlds and knows: “I am deprived of this or that and there is no prospect of supporting it,” experiences the consciousness of the astral world. Even if such a one had been able through occult means to enter the astral plane out of the body, he or she would always have to suffer privation there.
Now, how can one so develop and perfect oneself that one learns to know not only the part expressed in privation, the phase of feeling a lack, but that one experienced the astral world in the best sense—the part that is really brought to expression in the good, the best sense? A human soul can come into the other part of the astral world through the development of that which is the counterpart of deprivation! Therefore, the methods that awaken the forces in a human being that are opposed to privation will be the ones that will bring the soul into the other part of the astral world. These are the forces of renunciation. Just as privation can be conceived in manifold nuances, so, too, can renunciation. With the smallest renunciation that we take upon us, we make a step forwards in the sense that we evolve upwards to the good side of the astral world on the path of sacrifice.
When one renounces the most insignificant thing, it is an inculcation of something that contributes essentially to experiencing the good side of the astral world. Hence, in occult traditions so much weight is laid on the test carried out by the pupil of denying oneself this or that, the exercise of renouncing. Through this, the pupil gains entry into the good side of the astral world.
What is brought about in this way? Let us first remember the experiences in Kamaloca. Let us think that someone leaves the physical body, either through death or in some other way; then the physical instruments of the body are lacking to that person, who thus entirely lacks the power to satisfy some desire. Deprivation is felt, and this arises as an imaginative picture in the astral world. For instance, a red pentagon or a red circle appears. This is nothing but the image of what appears in the soul's field of vision and corresponds to the privation, just as in the physical world an object corresponds to what one experiences in the soul as concept of it. If someone has very low desires, then terrible beasts confront that person when out of the body. These frightful beasts are the symbols for the very debased desires. If one has learnt renunciation, however, then in the moment when through death or initiation one is out of the body, the red circle changes into nothing, because one permeates the red with the feeling of renunciation, and there arises a green circle. In the same way, through the forces of renunciation, the beast will vanish, and a noble image of the astral world will appear.
So what is given to one objectively—the red circle or horrible animal—he or she must change into its opposite through the developed forces of renunciation and resignation. Renunciation conjures out of unknown depths the true forms of the astral world. No one must believe, therefore, that if he or she wants in the true sense to lift oneself up into the astral world, the co-operation of one's soul forces is not necessary. Without this, one would attain to only one part of that world. Renunciation is essential—even all Imagination. One who gives up claims and renounces—this is what conjures forth the true form of the astral world.
In Devachan, one has Inspiration. And here, too, there is an inner difference for the parts of Devachan, which the soul cannot experience passively when experiencing them after death. Through a certain universal relationship, so much harm has not yet been done in Devachan; the astral world has the fearful Kamaloca in it, but Devachan has not that yet. That will first come about in the Jupiter and Venus conditions, when through the use of black magic and the like, a decadence will have set in. Then, in Devachan, an element will develop similar to what exists today in the astral world. Here, in Devachan in the present cycle of evolution, the situation is somewhat different. What first appears before a human being ascending on the path of knowledge from the astral world to Devachan, or when as a simple human being one is led there after death—what does such a one experience in Devachan? Bliss is experienced! That which changes from the color-nuances into tones—that under all circumstances is bliss. At the present stage of evolution, all in Devachan is a bringing forth, production, and in respect of knowledge, a spiritual hearing. And all producing is blissfulness; blissfulness is all-hearing of the sphere-harmony! The human being in Devachan will experience pure bliss—nothing but bliss.
When a human being is led upwards through the methods of spiritual knowledge, through the leaders of human evolution, the Masters of Wisdom and the Harmony of Feelings, or in the case of the ordinary human being after death, such a one will always experience bliss there. That is what the initiate must experience when he or she has come so far on the path of knowledge. But it lies in the future evolution of the world that it may not remain at mere bliss. That would signify an enhancement of the most refined egotism; the human individuality would always take into itself the warmth of bliss, but the world would not progress. In this way, beings would be developed who would harden in their souls. For the welfare and progress of the world, therefore, it must be possible for someone who through exercises enters Devachan, not only to experience all nuances of bliss in the sphere-music, but must also develop in oneself the feeling of the opposite of bliss. Just as renunciation is the counterpart of deprivation, so is the feeling of sacrifice related to bliss: sacrifice that is ready to pour out what is received as bliss—to let it flow out into the world.
Those divine Spirits, whom we call the Thrones, had the feeling of self-sacrifice when they began to play their part in the Creation. When they poured out on Saturn their own substance, they sacrificed themselves for the newly-arising humanity. What we have today as substance is the same as they streamed out on Saturn. And in the same way, the Spirits of Wisdom sacrificed themselves on the Old Sun. These divine Spirits have ascended into the higher worlds; they have taken in the experiences of bliss not only passively, but by passing through Devachan they have learnt to sacrifice themselves. They have not become poorer through the offering, but richer. Only a being living entirely in materiality, thinks that it loses itself through sacrifice; no, a higher, richer development is linked with sacrifice in the service of universal evolution.
So we see that the human being ascends to Imagination and Inspiration and enters that sphere where the whole being is permeated with ever-new nuances of bliss, where the soul experiences everything around it, in such a way that everything not only speaks to the soul, but that all around the soul becomes an absorption of the spiritual tones of bliss.
The ascent to the higher powers of knowledge is attained through the transformation of one's whole life of feeling. And occult training has this sole purpose: that through the rules and methods that have been given us by the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings, and which have been proved and tested for thousands of years, the human being's feeling and will are so transformed that he or she may be led up to higher knowledge and experience. When pupils gradually develop and transform the content of their feeling and will through occult methods, they attain to these higher faculties.
It should not be a matter of indifference to one who is within the Movement of Spiritual Science whether he or she has belonged to it for three or six or seven years. That has a definite significance. The feeling of a shared experience of this inner growth through its inner law must become real to the student. We must direct our attention to it; otherwise, its effects pass us by.
Vierter Vortrag
Unser heutiger Vortrag soll handeln von den Bedingungen, die der Mensch zu erfüllen hat, wenn er die in ihm schlummernden Kräfte und Fähigkeiten ausbilden und zu eigener Erfahrung und Beobachtung der höheren Welten kommen will. Sie haben in den Artikeln «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» ein Bild von mancherlei, was der Mensch zu erfüllen hat, wenn er den Erkenntnispfad gehen will, wenn er hinaufdringen will in die höheren Welten. Doch können diese Artikel nur Einzelheiten geben. Selbst wenn man sie dreimal, ja zehnmal größer im Umfang machen würde - es ist über alles in diesem Gebiete unendlich viel zu sagen! Es wird daher immer nützlich sein, wenn man nach dieser oder jener Richtung hin weitere Ausführungen gibt. Man kann die Dinge jedesmal nur von einer gewissen Seite her beleuchten, und man muß den Grundsatz festhalten, das, was man von einer Seite her gewonnen hat, zu ergänzen dadurch, daß es von einer anderen Seite her beleuchtet wird. Wir wollen uns heute zur Aufgabe setzen, manches von dem, was Bedingungen des Erkenntnispfades, Bedingungen des Aufstieges in die höheren Welten ist, skizzenhaft von einer gewissen Seite her zu beleuchten.
Sie erinnern sich an die Andeutungen, die in der Interpretation über Goethes «Märchen» gegeben worden sind. Es handelt sich darum, daß der Mensch Seelenkräfte verschiedener Art hat und daß von der Ausbildung derselben: also des Denkens in sich selbst, des Fühlens in sich selbst und des Wollens in sich selbst, der Aufstieg auf der einen Seite abhängt, und auf der anderen Seite, daß der Mensch durch die Methode der Übungen diese drei in das richtige Maßverhältnis zueinander bringt. Das Wollen, Fühlen und Denken muß in Erkenntnis der einzelnen geistigen Lebensziele immer in genau richtigem Maße zur Entwicklung gebracht werden. Für ein bestimmtes Ziel muß zum Beispiel das Wollen zurücktreten, das Fühlen dagegen stärker hervortreten, für ein anderes Ziel muß das Denken zurücktreten und wieder für ein anderes Ziel das Fühlen. Alle diese Seelenkräfte müssen durch die okkulten Übungen in richtiger Proportion ausgebildet werden. Mit der Ausbildung des Denkens, Fühlens und Wollens hängt der Aufstieg in die höheren Welten zusammen.
Vor allem handelt es sich um eine Läuterung, Reinigung des Denkens. Das ist nötig, damit das Denken nicht mehr abhängig ist von der äußeren Sinnesbeobachtung, die auf dem physischen Plan gewonnen werden kann. Doch nicht nur das Denken, sondern auch das Fühlen und Wollen können Erkenntniskräfte werden. Sie gehen im gewöhnlichen Leben persönliche Wege. Sympathie und Antipathie gehen auf die einzelne Persönlichkeit hin zugeschnittene Wege. Sie können aber zu objektiven Erkenntniskräften werden. Es mag dieses unglaublich klingen für die heutige Wissenschaft. Vom Denken, besonders von dem auf die sinnliche Beobachtung gerichteten vorstellungsmäßigen Denken, glaubt man das leicht, aber wie sollten Menschen zugeben können, daß das Gefühl eine Erkenntnisquelle werden könne, wenn sie sehen, wie gegenüber demselben Dinge der eine so, der andere so fühlt? Wie könnte man annehmen, daß etwas so Schwankendes, was so von der Persönlichkeit abhängt wie Sympathie und Antipathie, maßgebend werden könne für eine Erkenntnis und daß sie so weit diszipliniert werden können, daß sie das innerste Wesen eines Dinges erfassen könnten. Daß der Gedanke es tut, dies kann man leicht begreifen; daß aber auch dann, wenn wir einem Dinge gegenüberstehen und dieses Ding in uns ein Gefühl erweckt, dieses Fühlen so in uns vorhanden sein kann, daß nicht die Sympathie oder Antipathie des einzelnen spricht, sondern es selbst zum Ausdrucksmittel werden kann für das, was im Innersten des Dinges vorhanden ist, das scheint schwer glaublich. Daß ferner auch die Kraft des Willens und Begehrens Ausdrucksmittel werden kann für das Innere, das scheint zunächst geradezu frivol.
Ebenso aber, wie das Denken gereinigt und dadurch objektiv werden kann, so daß es zum Ausdrucksmittel der Tatsachen sowohl in der sinnlichen als auch in den höhern Welten wird, so kann auch das Fühlen und das Wollen objektiv werden. Doch diese Sache darf nicht mißverstanden werden. So wie das Gefühl im heutigen Menschen im gewöhnlichen Leben ist, in seinem unmittelbaren Gefühlsinhalte, so wird es nicht zum Ausdrucksmittel einer höheren Welt. Dies Gefühl ist etwas Persönliches; die okkulten Übungen, die der Schüler erhält, gehen darauf aus, dies Gefühl zu kultivieren, das heißt zu verändern, zu verwandeln. Dadurch wird das Gefühl allerdings etwas anderes, als es war, da es noch persönlich war. Nun darf man aber nicht glauben, wenn man auf dem okkulten Pfade durch die Ausbildung des Gefühls eine gewisse Stufe erlangt hat, daß man dann etwa vom Gesichtspunkte des erkennenden Menschen aus sagen könne: Ich habe eine Wesenheit vor mir und ich fühle etwas von dieser Wesenheit -, und daß dasjenige, was man da im Gefühl hat, eine Wahrheit, eine Erkenntnis sei. Der Vorgang ist ein viel intimerer, innerlicherer, der an der Hand der okkulten Übungen das Gefühl umwandelt. Das drückt sich darin aus, daß derjenige, der durch die Übungen sein Gefühl verwandelt hat, zu der imaginativen Erkenntnis kommt, so daß sich ihm ein geistiger Inhalt in Symbolen offenbart, die Ausdruck sind dessen, was in der astralischen Welt an Tatsachen und Wesenheiten vorhanden ist. Das Gefühl wird anders, es wird Imagination, so daß im Menschen die astralen Bilder auftauchen, die ihm die Geschehnisse des Astralraumes ausdrücken. Der Mensch sieht nicht so, wie in der physischen Welt, zum Beispiel eine Rose mit Farben überzogen, sondern in symbolischen Bildern, und zwar alles, was uns in der okkulten Wissenschaft vorgeführt wird, in Bildern. So das schwarze Kreuz, das mit Rosen geziert ist. Alle solche Symbole sollen eine bestimmte Tatsache zum Ausdruck bringen und entsprechen ebenso astralen Tatsachen wie das, was wir in der äußeren physischen Welt schen, physischen Tatsachen entspricht. Man bildet also das Gefühl aus, erkennt aber in der Imagination.
Ebenso ist es mit dem Willen. Wenn man die Stufe erlangt hat, die durch Schulung des Willens bis zu einem gewissen Grade erlangt werden kann, dann sagt man nicht, wenn eine Wesenheit einem entgegentritt, sie erweckt in mir ein Begehrungsvermögen, sondern, wenn der Wille ausgebildet ist, beginnt man dasjenige wahrzunchmen, was Gegenstand des Tönens im Devachan ist.
Das Gefühl wird in uns ausgebildet, und das astralische Schauen in der Imagination ist die Folge. Der Wille wird in uns ausgebildet, und das Erleben des devachanischen Geschehens in der geistigen Musik, der Sphärenharmonie, aus der uns heraustönt die innerste Natur der Dinge: Das ist die Folge. Ebenso wie man das Denken ausbildet und dadurch zum objektiven Denken gelangt, was die erste Stufe ist, so bildet man das Fühlen aus, und es wird auf der Stufe der Imagination eine neue Welt aufgehen. Und ebenso bildet man den Willen aus, und es ergibt sich in der Inspiration die Erkenntnis der niederen devachanischen Welt, und endlich tut sich in der Intuition die höhere devachanische Welt vor dem Menschen auf.
So können wir sagen: Indem sich der Mensch in die nächste Stufe des Daseins hinaufhebt, ergeben sich ihm Bilder, die wir aber jetzt nicht mehr so anwenden wie unsere Gedanken, so daß wir fragen: Wie entsprechen diese Bilder der Wirklichkeit? Sondern die Dinge zeigen sich ihm in Bildern, die aus Farben und Formen bestehen, und durch die Imagination muß der Mensch selber die Wesenheiten, die sich ihm so symbolisch zeigen, enträtseln. In der Inspiration sprechen die Dinge zu uns, da brauchen wir nicht zu fragen, nicht zu enträtseln in Begriffen, das wäre ein Übertragen der Theorie des Erkennens vom physischen Plan, sondern da spricht das innerste Wesen der Dinge selbst zu uns. Wenn uns ein Mensch entgegentritt, der sein innerstes Wesen uns zum Ausdruck bringt, so ist das anders, als wenn wir einem Stein gegenüber sind. Den Stein müssen wir enträtseln und über ihn nachdenken. Beim Menschen ist etwas, was wir nicht so erfahren, sondern wir erfahren sein Wesen in dem, was er zu uns sagt: Er spricht zu uns. So ist es mit der Inspiration. Da ist es nicht ein begriffliches diskursives Denken, sondern da hört man hin, was die Dinge sagen; sie sprechen selber ihr Wesen aus. Es hätte keinen Sinn, wenn man sagen wollte: Wenn jemand stirbt und ich treffe ihn im Devachan wieder, werde ich da wissen, wen ich da treffe, da doch die devachanischen Wesenheiten anders ausschauen müssen und nicht verglichen werden können mit dem, was auf dem physischen Plan ist? - Im Devachan sagt das Wesen selbst, was es für ein Wesen ist, so wie wenn ein Mensch uns nicht nur seinen Namen sagen würde, sondern wie wenn er fortwährend sein Wesen uns zufließen ließe. Das strömt uns durch die Sphärenmusik zu; ein Verkennen ist da nicht mehr möglich.
Nun ist das ein gewisser Anhaltspunkt zur Beantwortung einer Frage. Man kommt sehr leicht zu Mißverständnissen durch die verschiedenen geisteswissenschaftlichen Darstellungen und glaubt leicht, daß die physische, die astralische und die devachanische Welt sich räumlich voneinander unterscheiden. Wir wissen ja: Da, wo die physische Welt ist, da ist auch die astralische und devachanischg; sie sind ineinander. Nun könnte man da die Frage aufwerfen: Wenn alles ineinander ist, da kann ich die drei Welten ja nicht unterscheiden wie im physischen Raum, wo alles nebeneinander ist. Wenn das Jenseits im Diesseits darin steckt, wie unterscheide ich dann die astralische und die devachanische Welt voneinander? - Dadurch unterscheidet man sie, daß, wenn man vom Astralischen zum Devachanischen aufsteigt, die Summe von Bildern und Farben in demselben Maße, als man hinaufsteigt in das Devachanische, in ihren Formen durchklungen werden. Dasjenige, was vorher geistig leuchtend war, wird nunmehr geistig tönend. Es gibt auch einen Unterschied im Erleben der höheren Welten, so daß derjenige, der sich hinauflebt, immer an bestimmten Erlebnissen erkennen kann, ob er in dieser oder jener Welt ist.
Heute sollen die Unterschiede in bezug auf das Erleben der astralischen und der devachanischen Welt charakterisiert werden. Also nicht nur dadurch, daß die astralische Welt durch Imagination und die devachanische durch Inspiration erkannt werden, sondern auch durch andere Erlebnisse wissen wir, in welcher Welt wir sind.
Ein Glied in der astralischen Welt ist diejenige Zeit, die der Mensch unmittelbar nach dem Tode zu durchleben hat und die in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Literatur die Kamaloka-Zeit genannt wird. Was heißt im Kamaloka sein? Wir haben öfters versucht, durch Umschreibungen zu geben, was es heißt, im Kamaloka zu sein. Ich habe oft das charakteristische Beispiel herangezogen von dem Feinschmecker, der da lechzt nach dem Genuß, den ihm nur der Geschmackssinn verschaffen kann. Der physische Leib ist abgestreift und zurückgelassen beim Tode, der Ätherleib zum großen Teil auch, aber der astralische Leib ist noch vorhanden, und der Mensch ist im Besitz seiner Eigenschaften und Kräfte, die er im Leben innerhalb des physischen Leibes gehabt hat. Diese ändern sich nicht sofort nach dem Tode, sondern erst nach und nach. Wenn der Mensch Sehnsucht gehabt hat nach leckeren Speisen, so bleibt ihm diese Sehnsucht, dieses Lechzen nach dem Genuß, aber es fehlt ihm nach dem Tode das Instrument, dieselbe zu befriedigen, denn der physische Leib mit seinen Organen ist nicht mehr da. Er muß den Genuß entbehren, und er lechzt nach etwas, was er entbehren muß. Das gilt für alle eigentlichen Kamaloka-Erlebnisse, und diese bestehen eigentlich in nichts anderem als in dem Leben, in dem Zustande innerhalb des astralischen Leibes, wo der Mensch noch Sehnsucht hat nach Befriedigungen, die nur durch den physischen Leib erfüllt werden können. Und weil er diesen nicht mehr hat, ist er genötigt, das Streben und Lechzen nach den Genüssen sich zu untersagen: Das ist die Zeit des Abgewöhnens. Erst dann ist er davon befreit, wenn er diese Sehnsucht aus dem Astralleib herausgerissen hat.
Während dieser ganzen Kamaloka-Zeit lebt etwas in dem Astralleib, was man Entbehrung nennen kann, Entbehrung in den verschiedensten Formen und Nuancen und Differenzierungen; das ist der Inhalt des Kamaloka. Ebenso wie man das Licht in rote, gelbe, grüne, blaue Töne differenzieren kann, so sind auch die Entbehrungen in den verschiedensten Qualitäten zu differenzieren, und das Merkmal der Entbehrung ist das Kennzeichen des Menschen, der in Kamaloka ist. Doch der Astralplan ist nicht nur Kamaloka, sondern er ist weit umfassender. Aber niemals würde ein Mensch, der nur in der physischen Welt gelebt und nur ihren Inhalt erlebt hat, zunächst - sei es nach dem Tode oder durch andere Mittel, die astralische Welt zu erleben -, wenn er sich nicht vorbereitet hat, die anderen Teile der astralischen Welt erleben können. Er kann zunächst die astralische Welt nicht anders erleben als in der Entbehrung.
Wer in die höheren Welten hinauf kommt und weiß, ich entbehre dies oder jenes, und es ist keine Aussicht, es zu erhalten - der erlebt den Bewußtseinsinhalt der astralischen Welt. Auch wenn sich jemand als Mensch okkulte Mittel geben lassen könnte, so daß er aus seinem Leibe heraus den Astralplan betreten könnte, er würde immer die Entbehrung in der astralischen Welt erleiden müssen.
Wie kann man sich nun so ausbilden, daß man nicht nur den Teil der astralischen Welt kennenlernt, der in der Entbehrung zum Ausdruck kommt, die Entbehrungsphase, sondern daß man die astralische Welt im besten Sinne erlebt, daß man jenen Teil erlebt, der wirklich diese Welt auch im guten und besten Sinne zum Ausdruck bringt? Durch die Ausbildung dessen, was das Gegenteil der Entbehrung ist, kann der Mensch in den anderen Teil der astralischen Welt hineinkommen. Daher werden die Methoden, die in dem Menschen die Kräfte wachrufen, die dem Entbehren entgegengesetzt sind, diejenigen sein, die den Menschen in den anderen Teil der astralischen Welt bringen. Diese müssen ihm gegeben werden. Das sind die Kräfte der Entsagung. Ebenso wie das Entbehren, so ist auch das Entsagen in mannigfachen Nuancen denkbar. Mit der kleinsten Entsagung, die wir uns auferlegen, machen wir einen Schritt vorwärts in dem Sinn, daß wir uns zu der guten Seite der astralischen Welt hinaufentwickeln. Wenn man sich das Unbedeutendste versagt, so ist dies ein Anerziehen von etwas, das etwas Wesentliches beiträgt zum Erfahren der guten Seiten der astralischen Welt. Darum wird in den okkulten Überlieferungen so viel Gewicht darauf gelegt, daß der Schüler sich probeweise dies oder jenes entzieht, daß er Entsagung übt. Dadurch bekommt er Eintritt in die gute Seite der astralischen Welt.
Was wird dadurch bewirkt? Denken wir zunächst einmal an die Erfahrungen im Kamaloka. Denken wir, jemand geht durch den Tod oder durch andere Dinge aus dem physischen Leib hinaus, so werden ihm die physischen Instrumente des Leibes fehlen. Dadurch fehlt ihm unbedingt das Werkzeug für irgendeine Befriedigung. Es tritt sofort Entbehrung ein, und diese tritt als imaginatives Bild in der astralischen Welt auf. Zum Beispiel erscheint ein rotes Fünfeck oder ein roter Kreis. Dies ist nichts anderes als das Bild dessen, was in das Gesichtsfeld der Menschen eintritt und dem Entbehren ebenso entspricht, wie in der physischen Welt ein Objekt auf dem physischen Plan dem entspricht, was man in der Seele als Vorstellung davon erlebt. Hat man sehr niedere Gelüste, sehr tiefstehende Begierden, dann treten grauenvolle Tiere dem Menschen entgegen, wenn er aus dem Leib heraus ist. Diese furchtbaren Tiere sind das Symbolum für diese niedrigsten Gelüste. Hat man aber Entsagung gelernt, dann verwandelt sich in dem Augenblick, wo man durch den Tod oder die Initiation aus dem Leib heraus ist, der rote Kreis, weil man das Rot mit dem Gefühl der Entsagung durchdringt, in nichts, und es entsteht ein grüner Kreis. Ebenso wird das Tier durch die Entsagungskräfte verschwinden, und ein edles Gebilde der astralischen Welt wird erscheinen.
So muß der Mensch erst das, was ihm objektiv gegeben ist, den roten Kreis oder das scheußliche Tier, durch die ausgebildeten Entsagungskräfte, durch den Verzicht, in sein Gegenteil umwandeln. Die Entsagung zaubert heraus aus unbekannten Tiefen die wahren Gestalten der astralischen Welt. So darf also kein Mensch glauben, wenn er sich im echten Sinne in die astralische Welt hinaufschwingen will, daß dabei nicht das Mittun seiner Seelenkräfte notwendig sei. Er würde ohne dieses nur in einen Teil der astralischen Welt gelangen. Er muß verzichten, auch auf alle Imagination. Wer verzichtet, der entsagt, und das ist dasjenige, was die wahre Gestalt der astralischen Welt hervorzaubert.
Im Devachan hat man Inspiration. Auch hier gibt es eine innerliche Unterscheidung für die Teile des Devachan, die der Mensch nicht passiv erleben kann, wenn er sie nach dem Tode erlebt. Im Devachan ist es so, daß durch einen gewissen Weltenzusammenhang noch nicht soviel Unheil angerichtet ist. Die astralische Welt hat das furchtbare Kamaloka in sich, aber das Devachan hat das noch nicht. Das wird erst im Jupiter- und Venuszustand der Fall sein, wenn durch Anwendung der schwarzen Magie und dergleichen dasselbe in den Dekadenzzustand übergegangen sein wird. Dann freilich wird sich im Devachan Ähnliches entwickeln wie dasjenige, was heute in der astralischen Welt ist. Hier im Devachan ist also im jetzigen Entwicklungszyklus das Verhältnis etwas anders.
Was tritt zunächst vor dem Menschen auf, wenn er auf dem Erkenntnispfad aufsteigt von der astralischen Welt zum Devachan oder wenn er den Weg des einfachen Menschen geht und er nach dem Tode hinaufgeführt wird, was erlebt er dann im Devachan? Seligkeit erlebt er! Das, was sich aus den Farbennuancen in Töne herausdifferenziert, das ist unter allen Umständen Seligkeit. Im Devachan ist auf der heutigen Stufe der Entwicklung alles ein Hervorbringen, Produzieren, und in bezug auf die Erkenntnis ein geistiges Hören. Und Seligkeit ist alles Produzieren, Seligkeit ist alles Hören der Sphärenharmonie. Der Mensch wird im Devachan nur Seligkeit, lauter Seligkeit empfinden. Wenn er durch Mittel geistigen Wissens durch die Leiter der menschlichen Entwicklung, die Meister der Weisheit und des Zusammenklanges der Empfindungen, oder aber im Falle des gewöhnlichen Menschen nach dem Tode hinaufgeführt wird: Er wird immer Seligkeit dort erleben. Das ist dasjenige, was der Eingeweihte erleben muß, wenn er so weit gekommen ist auf dem Erkenntnispfad. Aber es liegt in der Fortentwicklung der Welt, daß es nicht bei der bloßen Seligkeit bleiben darf. Das würde nur eine Steigerung des raffiniertesten spirituellen Egoismus bedeuten. Die Individualität des Menschen würde immer nur in sich aufnehmen die Wärme der Seligkeit, die Welt aber würde so nicht weitergehen. So würden Wesen ausgebildet, die sich in sich selbst seelisch verhärten. Zum Heile und Fortschritt der Welt muß daher derjenige, der durch die Übungen in das Devachan hineinkommt, nicht nur die Möglichkeit erhalten, in der Sphärenmusik alle Nuancen der Seligkeit zu erleben, sondern er muß in sich Gefühle des Gegenteils der Seligkeit entwickeln. Wie das Entsagen dem Entbehren gegenübersteht, so verhält sich das Gefühl der Opferung zur Seligkeit, der Opferung, die da bereit ist, dasjenige, was man als Seligkeit erhält, auszugießen, es in die Welt fließen zu lassen.
Dies Gefühl des Sich-Opferns haben jene göttlichen Geister, die wir die Throne nennen, gehabt, als sie begannen ihren Anteil zu haben in der Schöpfung. Als sie ihren eigenen Stoff auf dem Saturn ausgegossen haben, da haben sie sich hingeopfert für die werdende Menschheit. Das, was wir heute als Stoff haben, ist dasselbe, was sie ausströmten auf dem Saturn. Und ebenso haben sich die Geister der Weisheit auf der alten Sonne hingeopfert. Diese göttlichen Geister sind hinaufgestiegen in die höheren Welten, sie haben das Erlebnis der Seligkeit nicht nur passiv hingenommen, sondern sie haben bei dem Durchgang durch das Devachan gelernt, sich zu opfern. Sie sind nicht ärmer durch dies Opfer geworden, sondern reicher. Nur ein Wesen, das ganz in der Materie lebt, glaubt, durch das Opfern schwinde es dahin - nein, ein Sich-höher-, Sich-reicher-Entwickeln ist mit dem Hinopfern im Dienst der universalen Evolution verknüpft.
So sehen wir, daß der Mensch aufsteigt zur Imagination und Inspiration und eintritt in jene Sphäre, wo sein ganzes Wesen sich durchdringt mit immer neuen Nuancierungen der Seligkeit, wo er sozusagen alles um sich herum so erlebt, daß es nicht nur zu ihm spricht, sondern wo alles um ihn herum wird ein Aufsaugen der geistigen Töne der Seligkeit.
In der Wandlung der ganzen Gefühle, die der Mensch hat, besteht der Aufstieg zum höheren Erkenntnisvermögen, und die okkulte Schulung besteht in nichts anderem, als daß die Regeln und Methoden, die uns die Meister der Weisheit und des Zusammenklanges der Empfindungen gegeben haben und die durch jahrtausendealte Erfahrung erprobt sind, daß durch diese Regeln und Methoden Gefühl und Wille des Menschen gewandelt wird und daß ihn dies hinaufführt zu höheren Erkenntnissen und Erlebnissen. Dadurch, daß der Schüler nach und nach seinen Gefühls- und Willensinhalt okkult kultiviert und umbildet, erlangt er diese höheren Fähigkeiten.
Wer in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung darinnensteht, darf es nicht gleichgültig nehmen, ob er drei oder sechs oder sieben Jahre dazugehört. Das hat etwas zu bedeuten. Das Gefühl des Miterlebens dieses inneren Wachstums durch seine innere Gesetzmäßigkeit, das soll sich der Schüler klarmachen. Es handelt sich darum, daß wir unsere Aufmerksamkeit darauf lenken, sonst gehen die Wirkungen desselben an uns vorüber.
Fourth Lecture
Today's lecture will deal with the conditions that human beings must fulfill if they want to develop the powers and abilities that lie dormant within them and gain their own experience and observation of the higher worlds. In the articles “How does one gain knowledge of the higher worlds?”, you have been given a picture of some of the things that human beings must fulfill if they want to walk the path of knowledge, if they want to ascend to the higher worlds. However, these articles can only provide details. Even if they were three times or ten times longer, there is still an infinite amount to say about everything in this field! It will therefore always be useful to provide further explanations in this or that direction. One can only illuminate things from a certain angle at any given time, and one must adhere to the principle of supplementing what one has gained from one angle by illuminating it from another angle. Let us set ourselves the task today of sketching some of the conditions of the path of knowledge, the conditions of the ascent into the higher worlds, from a certain point of view.
You will remember the hints given in the interpretation of Goethe's “Fairy Tales.” It is about the fact that human beings have soul forces of various kinds and that, on the one hand, their development—that is, thinking within oneself, feeling within oneself, and willing within oneself—determines the ascent, and on the other hand, that human beings bring these three into the right relationship to one another through the method of exercises. Willing, feeling, and thinking must always be developed in exactly the right measure in recognition of the individual spiritual goals of life. For a certain goal, for example, the will must recede, while feeling must come to the fore; for another goal, thinking must recede, and for yet another goal, feeling must recede. All these soul forces must be developed in the right proportions through occult exercises. The ascent into the higher worlds is connected with the development of thinking, feeling, and willing.
Above all, it is a matter of purifying and cleansing the thinking. This is necessary so that thinking is no longer dependent on external sensory observation, which can be gained on the physical plane. But not only thinking, but also feeling and willing can become powers of knowledge. In ordinary life, they follow personal paths. Sympathy and antipathy follow paths tailored to the individual personality. However, they can become objective powers of knowledge. This may sound unbelievable to modern science. It is easy to believe this about thinking, especially about imaginative thinking directed toward sensory observation, but how could people admit that feeling could become a source of knowledge when they see how one person feels one way and another feels another way about the same thing? How could one assume that something so fluctuating, so dependent on personality as sympathy and antipathy, could become decisive for knowledge and that it could be disciplined to such an extent that it could grasp the innermost essence of a thing? That thought does this is easy to understand; but that even when we are confronted with a thing and this thing arouses a feeling in us, that this feeling can exist in us in such a way that it is not the sympathy or antipathy of the individual that speaks, but that it can itself become a means of expression for what is present in the innermost being of the thing, seems difficult to believe. Furthermore, that the power of the will and desire can become a means of expression for the inner self seems at first glance to be downright frivolous.
But just as thinking can be purified and thereby become objective, so that it becomes a means of expression for facts in both the sensory and higher worlds, so too can feeling and willing become objective. However, this must not be misunderstood. The way feeling is in ordinary life for people today, in its immediate content, does not become a means of expression for a higher world. This feeling is something personal; the occult exercises that the student receives are aimed at cultivating this feeling, that is, at changing and transforming it. As a result, the feeling becomes something different from what it was when it was still personal. Now, however, one must not believe that when one has reached a certain stage on the occult path through the training of feeling, one can then say from the point of view of the knowing human being: I have a being before me and I feel something of this being — and that what one feels there is a truth, a knowledge. The process is much more intimate and inner, transforming the feeling through occult exercises. This is expressed in the fact that those who have transformed their feelings through the exercises arrive at imaginative knowledge, so that a spiritual content is revealed to them in symbols that are expressions of what exists in the astral world in terms of facts and beings. The feeling changes, it becomes imagination, so that astral images appear in the human being, expressing to him the events of the astral realm. The human being does not see as in the physical world, for example, a rose covered with colors, but in symbolic images, and indeed everything that is presented to us in occult science is presented in images. Such as the black cross decorated with roses. All such symbols are intended to express a certain fact and correspond to astral facts just as what we perceive in the outer physical world corresponds to physical facts. So one develops the feeling, but recognizes it in the imagination.
The same is true of the will. When one has reached the stage that can be attained through training of the will to a certain degree, one does not say that when a being approaches one, it awakens a desire in me, but rather, when the will is trained, one begins to perceive that which is the object of the sound in the Devachan.
The feeling is developed within us, and astral vision in the imagination is the result. The will is developed within us, and the experience of devachanic events in spiritual music, in the harmony of the spheres, from which the innermost nature of things resounds to us: that is the result. Just as one develops thinking and thereby attains objective thinking, which is the first stage, so one develops feeling, and a new world opens up at the stage of imagination. And in the same way, one develops the will, and the knowledge of the lower devachanic world arises in inspiration, and finally the higher devachanic world opens up before the human being in intuition.
So we can say: as man rises to the next stage of existence, images arise for him, but we no longer use them in the same way as our thoughts, so that we ask: how do these images correspond to reality? Instead, things appear to him in images consisting of colors and forms, and through imagination man himself must unravel the essences that reveal themselves to him in such a symbolic way. In inspiration, things speak to us; we do not need to ask questions or unravel concepts, which would be a transfer of the theory of cognition from the physical plane. Instead, the innermost essence of things speaks to us. When we encounter a person who expresses their innermost essence to us, it is different from when we encounter a stone. We have to unravel the stone and think about it. With people, there is something we do not experience in this way, but rather we experience their essence in what they say to us: they speak to us. This is how it is with inspiration. It is not conceptual, discursive thinking, but rather listening to what things say; they express their own essence. It would make no sense to say: When someone dies and I meet them again in Devachan, will I know who I am meeting, since the Devachanic beings must look different and cannot be compared with what is on the physical plane? In Devachan, the being itself says what kind of being it is, just as when a human being not only tells us his name, but continually lets his essence flow toward us. This flows to us through the music of the spheres; misunderstanding is no longer possible.
Now this is a certain clue to answering a question. It is very easy to misunderstand the various spiritual scientific descriptions and to believe that the physical, astral, and devachanic worlds are spatially distinct from one another. We know that where the physical world is, there is also the astral and devachanic worlds; they are intertwined. Now one might ask: If everything is intertwined, how can I distinguish between the three worlds as in physical space, where everything is next to each other? If the beyond is contained within the here and now, how can I distinguish between the astral and devachanic worlds? They can be distinguished by the fact that, as one ascends from the astral to the devachanic, the sum of images and colors resonate in their forms to the same extent as one ascends into the devachanic. What was previously spiritually luminous now becomes spiritually resonant. There is also a difference in the experience of the higher worlds, so that those who ascend can always recognize by certain experiences whether they are in this or that world.
Today we will characterize the differences between the experience of the astral and Devachanic worlds. It is not only through imagination that we recognize the astral world and through inspiration that we recognize the Devachanic world, but we also know which world we are in through other experiences.
One link in the astral world is the period that human beings have to go through immediately after death, which is called the Kamaloka period in spiritual scientific literature. What does it mean to be in Kamaloka? We have often tried to describe what it means to be in Kamaloka. I have often used the characteristic example of the gourmet who craves the enjoyment that only the sense of taste can give him. The physical body is stripped away and left behind at death, as is most of the etheric body, but the astral body is still present, and the human being is in possession of the qualities and powers that he had in life within the physical body. These do not change immediately after death, but only gradually. If a person has longed for delicious food, this longing, this craving for enjoyment, remains, but after death he lacks the instrument to satisfy it, for the physical body with its organs is no longer there. He must do without enjoyment, and he craves something he must do without. This applies to all actual Kamaloka experiences, and these consist of nothing other than life in the state within the astral body, where the person still longs for satisfactions that can only be fulfilled by the physical body. And because he no longer has this, he is compelled to deny himself the striving and longing for pleasures: this is the time of weaning. Only then is he freed from it, when he has torn this longing out of the astral body.
During this entire Kamaloka period, something lives in the astral body that can be called deprivation, deprivation in various forms and nuances and differentiations; this is the content of Kamaloka. Just as light can be differentiated into red, yellow, green, and blue tones, so too can deprivation be differentiated into various qualities, and the characteristic of deprivation is the hallmark of a person who is in Kamaloka. But the astral plane is not only Kamaloka, it is much more comprehensive. However, a person who has only lived in the physical world and experienced only its contents would never be able to experience the other parts of the astral world, whether after death or by other means, if they had not prepared themselves. At first, they can only experience the astral world in deprivation.
Those who ascend to the higher worlds and know that they are deprived of this or that, and that there is no prospect of obtaining it, experience the content of consciousness of the astral world. Even if someone could be given occult means as a human being so that they could enter the astral plane out of their body, they would always have to suffer deprivation in the astral world.
How can one train oneself so that one not only gets to know the part of the astral world that is expressed in deprivation, the phase of deprivation, but that one experiences the astral world in the best sense, that one experiences that part which truly expresses this world in the good and best sense? By training in the opposite of deprivation, human beings can enter the other part of the astral world. Therefore, the methods that awaken in human beings the forces that are opposed to deprivation will be those that bring human beings into the other part of the astral world. These must be given to them. These are the forces of renunciation. Just like deprivation, renunciation is also conceivable in many different nuances. With the smallest renunciation we impose on ourselves, we take a step forward in the sense that we evolve toward the good side of the astral world. When we deny ourselves the most insignificant things, we are cultivating something that contributes significantly to experiencing the good sides of the astral world. That is why the occult traditions place so much emphasis on the student withdrawing this or that on a trial basis, on practicing renunciation. This gives them access to the good side of the astral world.
What does this achieve? Let us first consider the experiences in Kamaloka. Let us imagine that someone leaves the physical body through death or other means. They will then lack the physical instruments of the body. As a result, they will inevitably lack the tools for any kind of satisfaction. Deprivation immediately sets in, and this appears as an imaginative image in the astral world. For example, a red pentagon or a red circle appears. This is nothing other than the image of what enters the field of vision of human beings and corresponds to deprivation in the same way that an object on the physical plane corresponds to what one experiences in the soul as an idea of it. If you have very base desires, very deep cravings, then horrible animals appear to you when you are out of your body. These terrifying animals are symbols of these lowest desires. But if one has learned renunciation, then at the moment when one is out of the body through death or initiation, the red circle is transformed into nothing because one permeates the red with the feeling of renunciation, and a green circle arises. In the same way, the animal will disappear through the forces of renunciation, and a noble form of the astral world will appear.
Thus, human beings must first transform what is objectively given to them, the red circle or the hideous animal, into its opposite through the developed powers of renunciation, through self-denial. Renunciation conjures up the true forms of the astral world from unknown depths. Therefore, no human being should believe that if they want to ascend into the astral world in the true sense, the cooperation of their soul forces is not necessary. Without this, they would only reach a part of the astral world. They must renounce everything, including all imagination. Those who renounce, renounce, and that is what conjures up the true form of the astral world.
In Devachan, one has inspiration. Here, too, there is an inner distinction between the parts of Devachan that humans cannot experience passively when they experience them after death. In Devachan, it is so that, due to a certain world connection, not so much harm has yet been done. The astral world has the terrible Kamaloka within it, but Devachan does not yet have this. This will only be the case in the Jupiter and Venus states, when black magic and the like will have caused the same thing to pass into a state of decadence. Then, of course, something similar to what is in the astral world today will develop in Devachan. Here in Devachan, therefore, the relationship is somewhat different in the current cycle of development.
What first appears before a person when they ascend on the path of knowledge from the astral world to Devachan, or when they follow the path of the simple human being and are led upward after death? What do they experience in Devachan? They experience bliss! That which differentiates itself from the nuances of color into tones is, under all circumstances, bliss. In Devachan, at the present stage of development, everything is a bringing forth, a producing, and in relation to knowledge, it is spiritual hearing. And bliss is all producing, bliss is all hearing the harmony of the spheres. In Devachan, the human being will feel only bliss, pure bliss. When he is led upward through the ladder of human development by means of spiritual knowledge, by the masters of wisdom and the harmony of sensations, or, in the case of ordinary human beings, after death, he will always experience bliss there. This is what the initiate must experience when he has come so far on the path of knowledge. But it lies in the further development of the world that it cannot remain mere bliss. That would only mean an increase in the most refined spiritual egoism. The individuality of man would only ever absorb the warmth of bliss, but the world would not continue in this way. This would result in beings who become spiritually hardened within themselves. For the good and progress of the world, therefore, those who enter Devachan through the exercises must not only be given the opportunity to experience all the nuances of bliss in the music of the spheres, but they must also develop feelings within themselves that are the opposite of bliss. Just as renunciation stands in contrast to deprivation, so the feeling of sacrifice stands in contrast to bliss, the sacrifice that is ready to pour out what one receives as bliss and let it flow into the world.
This feeling of self-sacrifice was felt by those divine spirits whom we call the Thrones when they began to take their part in creation. When they poured out their own substance on Saturn, they sacrificed themselves for the becoming humanity. What we have today as substance is the same thing that they poured out on Saturn. And in the same way, the spirits of wisdom sacrificed themselves on the old Sun. These divine spirits ascended to the higher worlds; they did not merely passively accept the experience of bliss, but learned to sacrifice themselves during their passage through Devachan. They did not become poorer through this sacrifice, but richer. Only a being that lives entirely in matter believes that sacrifice causes it to disappear—no, developing oneself higher and richer is linked to sacrifice in the service of universal evolution.
Thus we see that man ascends to imagination and inspiration and enters that sphere where his whole being is permeated with ever new nuances of bliss, where he experiences everything around him in such a way that it not only speaks to him, but where everything around him becomes an absorption of the spiritual tones of bliss.
The ascent to higher knowledge consists in the transformation of all the feelings that man has, and occult training consists in nothing else than that the rules and methods given to us by the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings, which have been tried and tested through thousands of years of experience, that through these rules and methods the feelings and will of the human being are transformed and that this leads him up to higher knowledge and experiences. By gradually cultivating and transforming the content of his feelings and will in an occult way, the student attains these higher abilities.
Those who are involved in the spiritual scientific movement must not be indifferent to whether they have been members for three, six, or seven years. This has meaning. The student must realize the feeling of participating in this inner growth through its inner laws. It is important that we direct our attention to this, otherwise its effects will pass us by.