The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] Yesterday we attempted to gain some insight into what might be called the journey into the macrocosm, into the greater world, in contrast to the descriptions of earlier days, which were intended to present to our souls the deeper mystical path, the journey into the microcosm. And yesterday we showed how the ascent into the macrocosm, into the outer world, first leads the ascender into what has usually been called in spiritual science the elemental world, how the human being then ascends through the elemental world into the so-called spiritual world, then into the world of reason, and finally into an even higher world, which we were able to characterize yesterday at the end of the lecture as the world of archetypes, while at the same time pointing out that we no longer really have a proper means of expression for these worlds in our language, because the former German word “Vernunft” has become trivial today, since in our present time it is used for something that has meaning only in the sensory world, and therefore the old term “Vernunft” for this higher world, which lies even above the so-called spiritual world, could easily be misunderstood.

[ 2 ] Of course, one could talk about these worlds not just for hours, but for weeks, even many months. We can, after all, only ever highlight one thing or another in a very sketchy way. To gain a slightly more precise idea of these worlds, let us mention one more thing. When a person immerses themselves in the elemental world in the manner described yesterday and thus gains a real perception of what is usually called the elements—earth, water, air, and fire—they then also become aware that their own physicality—and here we mean the full physicality, including what we call the higher members of human nature—is likewise built up from this elemental world. In this realization, however, the human being also gains knowledge of something else. They gain knowledge of the fact that the external perception of the elemental world appears somewhat different from the inner perception. When we look within ourselves—not with clairvoyant vision, but with ordinary human consciousness—we find certain qualities that we classify as partly psychological and partly physical, qualities we call the qualities of our temperament. We classify these characteristics of our temperament in such a way that we speak of a melancholic temperament, a phlegmatic temperament, a sanguine temperament, and a choleric temperament.

[ 3 ] Now, as we said yesterday, when a person enters the macrocosm, they do not feel as if they were standing before things, but rather they feel as if they were already inside every single thing in the elemental world. When we look at any physical object, we say: The object is there, we are here. And we are rational human beings in the physical world only as long as we can clearly distinguish ourselves, with our own sense of self, from things and beings. As soon as one immerses oneself in the elemental world, this distinction becomes much more difficult. For at first one merges with the things, beings, and realities of the spiritual world. Yesterday we characterized this specifically in relation to what is called the element of fire. We said that it is not a physical fire, but something we can compare to inner soul warmth, soul fire. When we truly become aware of the fire of the elemental world, we feel united with it; we feel ourselves within the essence of the fire, fused with it, so to speak. This feeling of union can also occur with the other elements. Only the element of earth makes an exception in a certain respect. I have told you that in the elemental world, one calls “earth” that which one cannot approach, that which actually repels one.

[ 4 ] Curiously enough, there is now a, one might say, a mysterious kinship between what is called one’s temperament and the four elements of the elemental world, such that there is a kinship between the melancholic temperament and the element of earth, between the phlegmatic temperament and the element of water, between the sanguine temperament and the element of air, and between the choleric temperament and the element of fire. This relationship is expressed in the experience of the elemental world in such a way that, for example, the choleric person has a greater tendency to grow together with the beings living in the element of fire in the elemental world than with those living in the other elements. The sanguine person, in turn, has a greater tendency to grow together with the beings appearing in the element of air, the phlegmatic with those in water, and the melancholic with those appearing in the earth. Thus, one enters into a different kind of relationship the moment one enters the elemental world through actual experience. And you can easily imagine from this that the most diverse people can tell you the most varied things about the elemental world, and that actually no one need be entirely wrong if they describe their own experiences in this world differently from others.

[ 5 ] Anyone familiar with these matters will, of course, know that when a melancholic describes the elemental world, he depicts it as a world in which there is much that repels him. This is quite natural, for his melancholy is mysteriously connected to all things earthly, and he overlooks the rest, so to speak. The choleric person, on the other hand, will tell you how fiery everything appears in the elemental world, for he overlooks everything else and, so to speak, is always inflamed only by the element of fire when he immerses himself in the elemental world. Therefore, you need not be at all surprised if the descriptions of certain lower clairvoyants regarding the elemental world differ greatly from one another, for one can only judge this world once one has a precise understanding of oneself. If one knows, for example, to what degree one is a choleric or a melancholic, then one understands the reason why this manifests itself in one way or another in the elemental world. It is precisely this self-knowledge that spurs one on to turn one’s gaze away from that which, by one’s natural disposition, is most akin to oneself.

[ 6 ] This also gives you the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of what is known in spiritual science as self-knowledge. This self-knowledge is not an easy thing to achieve, for it requires that we truly be able to step outside ourselves, as it were, and look at our own being as if it were a completely foreign entity. Don’t imagine this to be particularly easy. It is relatively easy for a person to gain clarity about the soul qualities they have acquired in life. But it is much harder to gain complete clarity about the nature of one’s temperament, which, after all, extends right down into the physical body. What prevents people from achieving true self-knowledge here is that most people always agree with themselves. It is indeed a general egoistic tendency to always agree with oneself regarding everything one judges about the world. But there is no need to sharply rebuke or criticize this, for it is a completely natural human trait. One might even say: Where would a person end up in ordinary life if they did not have this certainty—which must, of course, be a one-sided certainty—of standing firmly on their own two feet? — But when they stand so firmly on their own two feet, they bring into that standpoint everything that lies in their temperament. Breaking free from one’s temperament is an extraordinarily difficult task, and one must devote all one’s self-discipline to learning to view oneself objectively. Any genuine spiritual researcher will tell you: There is actually no particular degree of maturity in penetrating the real spiritual world if one is not able to follow the principle that only the person who does not regard their own opinion can come to the truth; that is, who regards their own opinion as something about which they might say: I want to really bring this or that opinion to the forefront of my mind; I want to ask myself whether I can discover in what life situation I acquired this particular opinion. — Let us suppose that someone holds a political view of one sort or another. Before he attains the maturity to enter the spiritual world, he must be able to pose the question to himself quite objectively: How has life led me to have precisely this way of thinking, precisely this orientation? How differently would I think if karma had perhaps assigned me this or that place in life? — One must be able to ask oneself this question.

[ 7 ] If one asks oneself this very question—not just briefly, but again and again, and quite precisely—about what has shaped one to become the person one is today, then one gains the opportunity to take the first step toward breaking free from oneself. In the wider world, in the macrocosm, there is no easy, simple means other than being outside of things, as we have in the physical world. In the physical world, we can easily stand outside the rosebush because its natural nature designates this place for us. In the elemental world, what happens is that we grow into things, that we identify with them. If we now have no means of distinguishing ourselves from them, even though we are within them, then we can never achieve any clarity about things at all. Our choleric temperament grows together with the element of fire in the elemental world quite inevitably. And we can no longer distinguish there what flows out from us or what flows into us from things or from other beings, unless we have learned the ability to distinguish in a special way. So we must first learn something. We must learn to stand within a being and yet distinguish ourselves from it.

[ 8 ] There is only one being from whom we can learn this, and that is ourselves. We are a being within whom we exist and from whom we can begin to learn to distinguish ourselves. When we gradually come to judge ourselves in the same way we judge another person in everyday life, then we learn to distinguish ourselves from ourselves. Everyone need only take a moment to reflect and ask how their judgment of themselves differs from their judgment of another person. Usually, we agree with ourselves and disagree with others when they hold a different opinion than we do. That is how it is in daily life. But there is nothing more useful for beginning to educate oneself than to ask the question: I hold this opinion; another holds a different opinion; I will adopt the standpoint that the other’s opinion is just as valid as my own. — This self-education in ordinary life is necessary so that, upon entering the elemental world, we may distinguish ourselves from things, even though we stand within them.

[ 9 ] So you see that certain subtleties in our experience are crucial if we wish to consciously ascend into the higher worlds. But this example also shows you how true what was said yesterday is: that when a person rises into the macrocosm, they are always in danger of losing their sense of self. For in ordinary life, our ego is really nothing other than a confluence of our opinions, feelings, and habits, and most people will find that it is extraordinarily difficult to think, feel, or will anything at all once they bid farewell to what life has made of them. That is why it is so extraordinarily important that, before one even considers entering the spiritual worlds, one first familiarizes oneself with what has already been explored, with what spiritual research has already brought to light. It is therefore emphasized time and again that no one with insight in this field will offer a hand to give anyone the opportunity to enter the spiritual world themselves before they have understood, through their reason and ordinary judgment, that what spiritual research asserts is not fantasy, is not folly. It is entirely possible to form a certain judgment regarding the correctness or incorrectness of what is conveyed by spiritual science. Although one cannot research the spiritual world without the open eyes of the seer, the standard of ordinary human judgment can nevertheless be applied to the messages conveyed by the spiritual researcher. According to this, one can consider life to see whether it becomes understandable through what the spiritual researcher says. The judgments formed in this way will have the peculiarity of going beyond ordinary human opinion. With regard to all the other opinions we otherwise adopt, human sentiment plays a role. But when we approach what is said here about the higher worlds with an unbiased judgment, then the sympathies and antipathies of our ordinary life cease; then we will find that we can be of the same opinion about these things even with the most opposite of people. In this way, we gain within spiritual science itself something that transcends ordinary personal opinions and that we will still possess when we enter the spiritual world. It is therefore important, so to speak, to acquire a store of spiritual scientific truths, for this protects us from immediately losing our sense of self upon entering the spiritual world.

[ 10 ] However, the loss of the ego upon entering the spiritual world would have other consequences for some people. For those who are perceptive, these consequences often become apparent even in ordinary life. This brings us to a point that we must briefly discuss. It is important when we go on to describe the paths one can take to ascend into the spiritual worlds oneself. Above all, the spiritual researcher must not be a fantasist or a dreamer in any sense. He must be able to move through the spiritual world with a certainty and inner strength just as a sensible person moves through the physical world. Any vagueness or lack of clarity would be detrimental, even dangerous, when we enter the spiritual worlds. That is why it is so necessary and of such great importance that we develop sound judgment even in our ordinary lives. Especially in today’s world, certain traits already evident in some people’s ordinary lives could become obstacles to entering the spiritual world if they are not taken into account. When you reflect on your life and recall everything that has influenced it since your birth, even a superficial review will bring back many memories, yet regarding much else you will have to admit that you have forgotten it. Of much that has helped shape your life, that has helped raise you, you have no distinct, clear awareness; oblivion has settled over them. Yet we will not admit that we have not experienced something simply because it is not present in our consciousness now. Why, then, do we forget such influences on our lives? We forget them because with each new day, life brings new things our way. And we would ultimately no longer be able to cope with life if we had to hold onto everything we have experienced. What we experience every day is transformed into abilities. We have already spoken of how our experiences, as it were, coalesce into abilities. What if, every time we put pen to paper, we had to recall the experiences we’ve had in order to learn to write! A vast number of experiences has coalesced into the ability to write. We have rightly forgotten these experiences that have shaped us. It is good for us that we have covered them with oblivion. Thus, the word “forgetting” plays a certain role in human life. There are areas of human life where it is quite beneficial that something a person has gone through can fade from consciousness again. There are countless impressions, particularly from the time of earliest childhood, over which complete forgetfulness spreads, which are not present in our consciousness because life has simply made us forget them. This is good, because otherwise we would not be able to cope with life if we had to carry all of that with us. But it is not an immediate consequence of forgetting that these impressions are also eradicated in terms of their effectiveness. Impressions can be made on us in life that have indeed vanished from our memory, but which, even though we no longer know anything about them, even though we have forgotten them, are effective driving forces in our inner life. Such impressions can lead to the inner life being influenced in an unfavorable way. If these forgotten impressions are such that they, so to speak, run counter to a healthy inner life, they can lead to our inner life being, so to speak, fragmented, driven apart, and such a fragmentation of the inner life can have an adverse effect on our entire constitution, and can even give rise to all manner of physical conditions that are described by various names—for my part, I might call them nervousness or hysteria—but which, strictly speaking, can only be fully understood if one realizes that the scope of conscious life does not coincide with the scope of the entire life of the soul. The expert in human nature can sometimes easily draw the attention of someone who comes to him complaining about all sorts of things that make life difficult to this or that—what he has forgotten, what he no longer knows, but which is nonetheless a force in his inner life. There are in the human soul a kind of islands that stand, I might say, in a manner opposite to other islands. When one is at sea, one can say that one has a firm footing on an island. The human soul, when it encounters such subconscious inclusions of which it has no clear awareness, can experience all manner of dangers. In ordinary life, these islands can most easily be circumvented by the person attempting to understand, from a later stage of their life, what it was that affected them there. It has an immensely healing effect on a person if one can give them a kind of worldview that enables them to comprehend this island of the soul and to endure it. If one were to lead a human soul straight to these cliffs, it would be all the more led astray. But if one gives a person the opportunity to understand these things, to perceive themselves with a certain degree of understanding, then they can more easily overcome them when they are able to integrate these things into their entire inner life. The more we can thus integrate them with understanding into our conscious life, the better it is even in ordinary, normal human life.

[ 11 ] Human beings have such unconscious islands of the soul not only in ordinary life, but many more things of this kind appear before them spiritually when they enter the macrocosm. We have seen, after all, that every night when falling asleep, a person enters the macrocosm, but that every night when falling asleep, complete forgetfulness spreads over what a person can experience there. Among the many things a person would experience if they were to consciously enter the macrocosm at the moment of falling asleep would be themselves; the person would be present within this macrocosm. We described yesterday that human beings have spiritual beings and spiritual realities around them in the macrocosm. Certainly, that is true, but among all that the human being has before them is also an objective view of themselves. Now a person can compare how imperfect they are in relation to what is contained in the macrocosmic world, how many qualities they possess that make them unfit for this macrocosmic world. There is ample opportunity for a person to lose their self-confidence and self-assurance. What can protect a person from this loss of self-confidence and self-assurance is a process of self-education, preceding entry into the spiritual world, leading to a mature judgment that while they are indeed imperfect as they are now, the possibility always exists to acquire the abilities needed to grow into this spiritual world. One must gain the ability to endure one’s imperfections, and one must also learn to bear the vision of what one may one day become, once one has overcome one’s imperfections and acquired the qualities one still lacks today. This is a feeling that must enter the human soul when consciously crossing the threshold into the macrocosm. Human beings must learn to see themselves as imperfect from their present standpoint. They must learn to endure telling themselves: When I look back on my present life and on the lives of my past incarnations, these have made me what I am. — But they must also have the opportunity, alongside this form of their own, to perceive and feel another form that tells them: If you now work on yourself, if you do everything to develop the potential that lies in your deepest being, then you may one day become a being like this entity, which stands beside you as a real ideal. Look upon it without fear or discouragement. — But one can look upon what stands there beside one’s own imperfection without fear or discouragement only if one has trained oneself to possess the strength to overcome life’s difficulties. If, before entering the spiritual world, one has ensured that one has already attained spiritual strength in the physical world to overcome pain, suffering, and life’s obstacles—if one has steeled oneself to defy adversity—then at the moment one has this feeling, one can sense the impulse within: Whatever may happen to you, whatever you may encounter in this spiritual world of the macrocosm, you will get through it; for you will continue to develop, ever more strongly, the qualities you have already acquired as powers to overcome obstacles and hindrances.

[ 12 ] When one has prepared oneself in this way, one experiences something quite special, especially upon entering the elemental world. We will understand what is experienced there if we look back at what was said earlier: that our choleric temperament is related to the element of fire, the sanguine to the element of air, the phlegmatic to the element of water, and the melancholic to the element of earth. When one projects one’s temperament out into the elemental world, the beings of the elemental world approach one in a manner that corresponds to one’s own nature. Choleric qualities meet you as if glowing in the element of fire, sanguine qualities as if fleeting in the element of air, phlegmatic ones as in the element of water, and melancholic ones as in the element of earth. There it will become clear how the strength of soul one has acquired through self-discipline leads to the realization: You will have the strength to overcome all obstacles! — What a person has within them is akin to what confronts them in the spiritual world; it is akin to what—as it were, flowing together from all the elements—confronts the person in such a way that they perceive themselves as an external being. If a person has resolved to overcome and cast off all their imperfections through self-education, then this impulse of the soul works in such a way that this imperfect human being stands before them without the sight of it crushing them. Without sufficient maturity, a person would always feel crushed when they saw their double. In normal life, the cessation of consciousness protects him from this; for if he were to fall asleep consciously, he would have his imperfect self before him every night as he fell asleep and be crushed by it. Likewise, that other being would stand before him, drawing his attention to how he might become. That is why consciousness is extinguished upon falling asleep. But as the human being increasingly develops within himself the maturity that tells him: You will overcome the obstacles! — then what stands before the human soul like a veil in normal life gradually lifts when the person falls asleep. This veil becomes thinner and thinner, and finally, in a way that the person can bear, the figure that is a likeness of himself as he is at present stands there; and beside it he becomes aware of the other figure, which shows him what he can become if he continues to work on himself. It reveals itself to him in splendor, majesty, and glory. At this moment, the person knows that the figure appears so overwhelming only because he is not like that and yet could be, and he knows that he can attain the right state of soul only if he can bear this sight. To have this experience means: to pass before the great Guardian of the Threshold. This great Guardian of the Threshold extinguishes human consciousness during ordinary sleep, so that oblivion spreads over this consciousness. This great Guardian of the Threshold shows us what we lack if we wish to enter the great world, and what we must first make of ourselves so that we may gradually grow into this great world.

[ 13 ] Our present age is in such dire need of coming to terms with such matters, yet it so strongly resists doing so. Indeed, our present age is in the midst of a peculiar transition. While many will theoretically admit that they are imperfect human beings, they usually do not go beyond that theoretical level. This becomes most evident when we take a look at our spiritual life. Test this for yourself! Pick up literature that deals with the spiritual world in today’s style. Everywhere you will find a tone that is completely opposite to the one just described. Everywhere you will hear and read, when this or that person expresses their opinion about the spiritual world: this can be known, that cannot be known. — Try to count how often you discover this little word “one” in today’s writings: this can be known, that cannot be known. — With this little word “one,” people set a limit on knowledge that they believe they cannot cross. Every time a person uses the word “one” in this way, they are taking a position opposed to spiritual science. For we must never say at any moment in life: “one can” know this, or “one cannot” know that; rather, we must say: We can know as much as corresponds to our present level of maturity and our abilities, and when we have developed to a higher level, we will be able to know more. This “one cannot” does not exist at all. Anyone who speaks in this way reveals themselves from the outset as a person who is incapable of grasping the very concept of self-knowledge. For we know that human beings are beings capable of development, and that we can only speak of how much each person can know in accordance with the current development of their abilities.

[ 14 ] This “one cannot know”—as bad as it is—would not even be the worst thing, for it is, after all, merely a figure of speech that one could overlook. The scholar of the humanities will overlook it; he will get into the habit of reading contemporary literature with the understanding that when the author says “one,” it actually means “he.” One can then make sense of it if one reads it from this perspective. In doing so, the person in question reveals what he specifically knows. If this were merely a matter of phrasing, it would not be so bad. But the matter begins to become more serious when the person in question goes further and actually puts it into practice. For theories are not dangerous at all, but only when they are turned into a way of life. It becomes dangerous when the person in question begins to say: I know what a human being can know and recognize, so I don’t need to do anything at all—; then he places obstacles in his own path, then he denies himself development. Basically, there are many people today who block their own development, so that from a spiritual scientific standpoint one can only wish for them that they always sleep quite well and quite deeply, so that they may never, in any way, through a slight lifting of the veil, become aware of how imperfect they are in comparison to what they could become. Thus it is in the habits of thought, in the entire sensibility of our time, that people even gladly make the veil ever thicker and thicker before the world into which we cannot enter unless we pass by the great Guardian of the Threshold, that mighty figure who always denies us entry unless we take a sacred vow before him. Without this sacred vow, there is no passage, and this sacred vow consists in our saying: We know now how imperfect we are, but we will never cease to strive to become ever more and more perfect. — With this impulse alone may one enter the macrocosm. Whoever lacks this strong will to work on themselves more and more should first cultivate this strong will if they wish to step into the macrocosm.

[ 15 ] This is the necessary counterpart to the self-knowledge we must acquire if we are to learn to discern in the higher world. Self-knowledge must become a part of us; yet this self-knowledge would remain a lifeless product if it were not linked to the will to self-perfection. The ancient Apollonian maxim resounds through the turning of the ages: Know thyself! — It is true; there is nothing to be said against it, but we must also consider what was said yesterday regarding truths: It is not the ideas that are actually erroneous that are the worst for human beings, but the one-sided ideas—the half-truths—that intrude far more obstructively into our lives. And the exhortation: “Know thyself”—would be one-sided if we did not also consider its flip side, which proves to be a call to constant self-improvement. When we make this vow to ourselves, to the higher human being we are to become, then we can venture confidently and without danger into the macrocosm; for then, in the labyrinth into which we must enter, we will gradually learn to find our way.

[ 16 ] Now we have seen how our own nature is related to what we call the elemental world, and we have found that what we encounter in the elemental world is related to our temperaments. We would also feel that other things we encounter are related to our own being if we were to look at other qualities of the soul. Within us is always also that which is outside of us, for we are drawn from the environment. But we can not only look into the elemental world from what we can perceive in the physical world—for example, from our choleric temperament to the elemental fire—but we can also ascend to the spiritual world and to even higher worlds. We would also like to briefly discuss this point today.

[ 17 ] As human beings, we know that we pass from one incarnation to the next. If we happen to be a melancholic person in this incarnation, we can say to ourselves: Well, in this incarnation we are a melancholic person; in another, either a previous or subsequent incarnation, we may have been or may become sanguine or phlegmatic—that is, the one-sidedness will balance itself out. With this, we have gained an understanding that even if we are melancholic in one life, as beings we are more than merely melancholic. With the same being with which we are melancholic in this life, we may have been, say, a choleric person in a previous life, or we may become a sanguine person in a subsequent life. Our being, then, is not absorbed into these temperamental dispositions; there is something else that stands above them. So when the clairvoyant observes someone in the elemental world and sees them as a melancholic person, they must tell themselves: Just as they now present themselves as a melancholic in the element of earth, this is a temporary phenomenon; it is merely the appearance of an incarnation. In another incarnation, a person who appears, so to speak, earthy in their present embodiment may present themselves as airy or fiery. — This is indeed how human beings appear to the clairvoyant consciousness within the elemental world. Melancholics, who like to brood within themselves, who cannot cope with themselves, appear—when viewed from the perspective of the elemental world—in such a way that they seem to repel one, as it were. Choleric individuals actually appear in the elemental world as if they were spreading flames of fire. However, we must take into account the spiritual element of fire and not confuse it with ordinary physical fire. To avoid misunderstanding, I would like to mention that in theosophical handbooks, what we have called here the elemental world is referred to as the astral world or the astral plane. What we have called the spiritual world here is referred to there as the Mental Plane or the Devachan world, but specifically the lower parts thereof. The higher parts of Devachan, which are also referred to there as Arupa-Devachan, constitute the world we have characterized here as the world of reason.

[ 18 ] When we enter the world of reason from the spiritual world, we encounter something similar to what we encounter in the elemental world, where we, as spiritual beings, appear in such a way that we increasingly overcome the elemental aspect of our temperament, balancing ourselves from one life to the next. We encounter something similar when we reach the boundary of the spiritual world. Yesterday we described how, in the spiritual world, we find spiritual realities that are expressed through the movement of the planets, as in a cosmic clock. We said that the beings express themselves as an outer likeness in the images of the zodiac, their deeds in the planets. And we pointed out that one has not yet gained anything special from these likenesses, that one must move on to the beings themselves. We have designated the sum of these beings as hierarchies, so that in the spiritual world we come to those beings designated as Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, and so on. Now, however, we would not be able to form a concept of the even higher worlds if we did not move from the designations we chose yesterday for the temporary manifestations of these beings to the beings themselves. We have said that a human being may appear to us in one incarnation as a melancholic or a sanguine; but their true being is more than just their temperament, because they develop beyond that in another incarnation. The being thus transcends what has been characterized to us as an expression of their nature. Only when we realize that the higher beings, who are designated as Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, as Spirits of Will, and so on, and who express themselves in physical space through the zodiacal images, are as beings more than these names denote, do we gain a concept of this upper limit of the macrocosm. Such a being that appears to us, let us say, as a Seraph or as a Spirit of Wisdom, does not always remain in a state where we can designate it as such. For just as human beings develop and take on the most diverse qualities, so do the beings we find at the upper limit of the spiritual world develop through various states, so that we can designate them by one name at one time and by another at another. The spiritual beings grow through these designations. To put it simply, one could call these names official titles. It illustrates the point. When one speaks of spirits of wisdom, of spirits of will, it is much like speaking, for example, of a government councilor and a secret government councilor; this can be the same person who, over time, holds various official titles. Thus, it can be the same hierarchical being who is at one time a Spirit of Wisdom and at another a Spirit of Will, because the beings develop through the various ranks. As long as one remains in the spiritual world, these beings appear under one designation or another, as Seraphim or Cherubim, and so on. But the moment one moves beyond this official title to perceive the being itself, when one, so to speak, becomes acquainted with the spiritually developing being, one has ascended into a higher realm, the realm of reason, which we characterized by showing at which aspect of human nature this realm of reason works.

[ 19 ] If one wishes to reach a certain level of understanding, one must distinguish between the advanced beings themselves and what they are at a particular stage of development. We must do this with those beings who, even as advanced beings, still appear on Earth, as well as with those beings whom we encounter only in the spiritual world. Let us take the Buddha as an example. People know the Buddha as he lived some five to six hundred years before our era. However, anyone who has delved spiritually into this subject must learn to distinguish between the being itself—who was called Buddha in his incarnation at that time—and the “title” of Buddha. The being who lived some five to six hundred years before our era only attained the dignity of a Buddha in that incarnation. Before that, it was something else. It was previously a Bodhisattva and, as such, had already been connected to the Earth for millennia. But the same being who was a Bodhisattva in earlier millennia then appeared as Gautama Buddha and attained Buddhahood in that incarnation. However, this being has also continued to evolve further, so that—for certain reasons we may yet touch upon—after its existence as a Buddha, it no longer needs to descend into a physical body, no longer needs to incarnate as a physical human being. It lives on in another form. So one can say: The Buddha was united with the development of the Earth as a Bodhisattva for many millennia. He then ascended to become the “Buddha” and had thus reached a point in this incarnation where he no longer needs to descend into a physical incarnation. He has now ascended to a higher being found in the spiritual world. — So the open eye of the seer must be present to find the Buddha in his development today. If you take this as a kind of comparison, you can already see that one must distinguish between the term “Buddha” and the being who, so to speak, passes through the office of the Buddha. In the higher worlds, too, one must distinguish between the names we give to the hierarchies and the beings who develop through these ranks, who, for my sake, ascend from the level of the Thrones to the level of the Cherubim and Seraphim.

[ 20 ] Thus, at the threshold of the spiritual world, we see that certain beings touch the boundary of this world from above and take on certain qualities through which they appear to us with this or that function, which we must attribute to them so that they may work through their deeds. But when we ascend to even higher worlds, these beings appear to us in their living development. In the higher worlds, this presents itself just as the course of one’s incarnations, one’s physical embodiments in the physical world, does to human beings. And just as we essentially come to know a human being only when we do not merely consider their present incarnation but trace what moves from embodiment to embodiment, so too do we come to know these high spiritual beings only when we are able to look up from what their actions express to the beings themselves. To live in the world of reason means to interact with spiritual beings and to participate in their development.

[ 21 ] Now, as we pointed out yesterday, there is an even higher world that lies above the world of reason, and it is from this world that the forces come which enable us to move from ordinary, normal consciousness into clairvoyant consciousness—the consciousness endowed with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears. We thus enter a world even higher than the one we must look to when we wish to explain our own physical world. And how much more wondrous it is, then, that we must explain these human qualities from worlds that are higher than the spiritual world and even the world of reason, since the abilities through which human beings grow into the higher worlds are imperceptible to the outer physical world! Human beings become participants in the spiritual worlds when clairvoyant consciousness awakens within them. Is it any wonder, then, that the forces required to awaken this clairvoyant consciousness must come from a world from which higher beings themselves draw their powers! We draw our intellectual powers from the world of reason. If we wish to go beyond this, we must draw the powers for it from even higher worlds. This brings us to the imaginative world. It will be our task to characterize this imaginative world, which is the first to open up to the human being when clairvoyant consciousness awakens. We will have to show what organs a human being needs to look into the imaginative world, and how the forces that form the organs for imaginative consciousness emerge from the world of eternal archetypes, just as the forces that make a human being a spiritually judging being come from the world of reason. Our next task will then be to recognize the connection between the first stage of higher knowledge and the spiritual world of archetypes, and then we will have to proceed to the description of the inspired and intuitive worlds. We will show how the human being, in keeping with the spirit of our present age, can grow into the higher worlds, can become a citizen of these worlds, in which he is the lowest being, where he looks up to higher beings who stand above him, just as in the physical world he looks down upon the realms of minerals, plants, and animals that surround him. This will become clear to us as we discuss the attainment of higher abilities through which human beings come to know new entities and realities as they proceed further along the path into the macrocosm.