The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] In the course of the two lectures already given, we have become acquainted with certain spiritual beings that the occult eye can encounter when it delves into the spiritual life of our planet. Today it will be necessary to take a different path to ascend into the spiritual world, for only by considering the matter from a second perspective will we be able to form accurate mental images of the nature of the spiritual beings we have spoken of, up to the so-called planetary spirit. It will always be extremely difficult to characterize in the words of any language those spiritual beings that occult perception reveals to us, for human languages—at least the present ones—are, after all, designed only for the phenomena, for the facts of the physical plane. And so one can only hope that by describing them from various angles, one can come close to what is actually meant when speaking of spiritual beings. For our characterization today, it will be necessary for us to start from the nature of the human being itself and first become clear about certain characteristics of human nature, so that from there we can characterize the higher beings we encounter in the higher worlds. And today, one characteristic of human nature should be particularly emphasized. This is the characteristic that can be described as follows: Human beings are endowed with the capacity to lead an inner life independent of all external influences. This capacity presents itself to us in every moment of our waking daily life. We know that, with regard to what we see with our eyes and hear with our ears, we share something in common with all other beings who can also make use of their senses. As human beings, we share an inner life distinct from the external world with other human beings and perhaps also with other beings. Each of us, as we know all too well as human beings, has our own particular sufferings, our own particular joys, our own sorrows and worries, our own particular hopes and ideals; and in a certain way, these worries, these sufferings, these anxieties, these hopes and ideals constitute a special realm that cannot be immediately perceived by the physical eye in another person—a realm that they carry with them through the world as an independent inner life. When we are in the same room with a person, we know what may affect their eyes and what may affect their ears. As for what is going on in their soul, what they are experiencing inside, we may perhaps have some inkling of this from what they wish to express to us through their facial expressions, their gestures, or their speech; but if they wish to keep their inner life as their own special world, then we cannot readily penetrate this special inner world of theirs.

[ 2 ] When we now look with an occult gaze into the worlds that are initially hidden from the outer physical world, we encounter beings who are of a completely different nature, particularly with regard to the characteristics that have just been described. We encounter beings who cannot lead such an independent inner life as human beings do. We encounter, as the next group, as the next category of spiritual beings, those who, when they lead their inner life, are immediately transported by this inner life into a different state, into a different state of consciousness than the life they lead in the outer world and with the outer world. Let us try to understand this. Let us suppose that a human being had to live in such a way that, if he wished to live within himself and not direct his gaze toward the external world surrounding him, if he did not wish to live with this external world, he would then immediately, simply by virtue of his will, have to pass into a different state of consciousness. We know that in normal life, a person passes into a different state of consciousness without their will when they are asleep. But we also know that this sleep is brought about by the astral body and the human ego separating from the etheric and physical bodies. We know, then, that something happens to a person when they are to enter a different state of consciousness. The fact that a person, for example, simply says: “Here before me is a meadow, covered with many flowers; as I look at it, it brings me joy”—this alone does not cause the person to enter a different state of consciousness; he experiences, so to speak, his joy in the meadow and the flowers for himself, in communion with the external world. Now, those beings who are encountered through the occult gaze as the next category in a higher world change their state of consciousness every time they divert their perception and their activity from their external world and direct them toward themselves. Thus, no separation needs to occur between different aspects of their being; rather, within themselves, just as they are, they simply bring about a different state of consciousness through their will.

[ 3 ] Now, the perceptions of these beings—whom we are discussing here as the category immediately above humanity—are not like human perceptions. Human beings perceive by means of an external world that presents itself to their senses. They surrender themselves, so to speak, to this external world. These beings we are discussing here do not perceive an external world as humans perceive it with their senses, but they perceive in a way similar to how a human—though this is only a comparison—perceives, for example, when they speak or make a hand gesture and perceive their own hand movement, or when they, let us say, express their inner self through some facial expression, in short, when he expresses his own nature. Thus, in a certain sense, for those ‘beings of a higher world’ of whom we are speaking here, all perception is at the same time a revelation of their own being. I ask you to bear this in mind, my dear friends: that as we ascend to the higher category of beings who are no longer externally perceptible to human beings, we have before us beings who perceive by revealing, by expressing what they themselves are. And they actually perceive their own being only as long as they wish to reveal it, as long as they express it outwardly in some way. They are, we might say, awake only by revealing themselves. And when they do not reveal themselves—that is, when they do not, through their own will, enter into a relationship with their environment, with the external world—then a different state of consciousness sets in for them; they sleep, in a certain sense. Only their sleep is not an unconscious sleep as in humans; rather, their sleep signifies for them a kind of diminution, a kind of loss of their sense of self. They retain their sense of self as long as they reveal themselves outwardly, and they lose their sense of self in a certain way when they no longer reveal themselves. They do not then sleep like humans, but something enters their own being—like the revelation of spiritual worlds that are higher than themselves. They are then filled within by higher spiritual worlds. So, mind you, when a human being turns their gaze outward and perceives, they live with the external world; they lose themselves to the external world. On our planet, for example, they lose themselves to the various realms of nature. When they turn their gaze away from the outside, they enter into their inner self and live an independent inner life; they then become free from this external world. When those beings of whom we speak as a category next above the human being act outwardly, they reveal themselves, and in this revealing they have their sense of self, their actual experience of self; and when they turn inward, they do not enter into an independent inner life like the human being, but instead enter into a life with other worlds. Just as human beings come to such a state when they perceive the external world, so do these other spiritual beings perceive the spiritual worlds above them when they look within; then they enter this other state of consciousness, where they find themselves filled with other beings who are higher than themselves. So that we can say, when we consider human beings: Human beings, by losing themselves to the external world, have their perception; by withdrawing from the external world, they have their independent inner life. Those beings who belong to the next higher category—we generally call them the beings of the so-called third hierarchy—have revelation instead of perception, and in this revelation they experience themselves. Instead of an inner life, they have the experience of higher spiritual worlds; that is to say, they have spiritual fulfillment instead of an inner life. This is the most essential difference between human beings and the beings of the next higher category.

Third Hierarchy: Revelation, Spiritual Fulfillment
Human: Perception, Inner Life

[ 4 ] We can illustrate the difference between human beings and these entities of the next higher category using what I would call a striking example from life. The striking case is that human beings find themselves in a situation where they have inner experiences that do not correspond to what they perceive externally, and when a person’s inner experiences do not correspond to their perception of the external world, we have, as the most striking case, the lie. And to make ourselves understood, we can express a characteristic unique to human beings by saying: Human beings are capable of perceiving something and of arousing, and even expressing, mental images that do not correspond to their perceptions. Through this characteristic, human beings can contradict the external world through lying. This is a possibility which, as we shall hear later in the course of these lectures, had to be given to human beings precisely so that they might arrive at the truth through their free will. However, when we consider human beings as they actually are in the world, we must take into account this characteristic: that in their inner life, human beings can form and also express mental images that do not correspond to perceptions or to facts. This possibility does not exist for the beings of the higher category mentioned here, as long as they retain their nature. The possibility of lying does not exist for the beings of the third hierarchy, provided they retain their nature. For what would happen if a being of the third hierarchy were to lie? Then it would have to experience something within itself that it would convey to the outer world in a different way than it actually experiences it. But then this being of the next higher category would no longer be able to perceive this, for everything that these beings experience within themselves is revelation, immediately passing into the outer world. These beings must live in the realm of absolute truth if they are to experience themselves at all. Suppose these beings were to lie—that is, to have something within them that they would express in their revelations in such a way that it does not correspond to the revelations—then they would not be able to perceive it, for they can perceive only their inner nature. They would immediately be numbed by the impression of a lie, immediately be placed in a state of consciousness that would be a dimming, a lowering of their ordinary consciousness, which can only live in the revelation of their inner being. Thus, we have above us a class of beings who, by their very nature, must live in the realm of absolute truth and truthfulness if they do not wish to deny this nature. And any deviation from truthfulness would numb these beings, dimming their consciousness. If these beings are to be observed by us with the occult gaze, then the matter is that the occultist must first find the right paths along which he can encounter these beings. I will attempt to characterize how the occultist can find these beings.

[ 5 ] The first thing that someone undergoing occult development must experience inwardly is, of course, the striving to overcome, in a certain sense, the inner life of ordinary, normal consciousness. We refer to what we experience within ourselves as our egoistic experience—that which we want from the world, so to speak, only for ourselves. The more the person undergoing occult development succeeds in becoming detached from what constitutes their egoistic experience—from that which concerns only them—the closer they are to the gateway to the higher worlds. Let us take an obvious example. We all know that certain truths, certain things in the world, please or displease us purely for our own sake, that this or that touches us sympathetically or antipathetically for our own sake. Such feelings toward the world, which we harbor solely for our own sake, must first be torn from the heart by the one who wishes to develop occultly. He must, in a certain sense, become free from everything that concerns only him. This is a truth that is often emphasized, but which is, in fact, more difficult to observe than one usually thinks, for in normal consciousness, the human being has extremely few points of reference for freeing oneself from oneself, for overcoming that which concerns only oneself. Let us just consider for a moment what it actually means to free oneself from oneself. Freeing oneself from what is usually called selfish impulses—that is perhaps not so difficult. But we must bear in mind that in the one incarnation in which we live, we were born at a certain time, in a certain place; that when we turn our eyes to what surrounds us, those eyes fall upon quite different things than, for example, those of a person living in another part of the world. That person must, after all, be interested in quite different things in his surroundings. Thus, simply by virtue of being born as embodied, physically embodied human beings at a specific time and place, we are surrounded by all sorts of things that arouse our interest and attention, that actually concern us specifically, and that are different for another person. Because we as human beings are distributed across our planet in a differentiated manner, we are, in a certain sense, compelled to each have our own particular interests, as it were, our own particular home on Earth. Therefore, in what we can learn from our immediate surroundings, we can never, in the highest sense, experience that which frees us from our specifically human interests, from our specifically human concerns. So because we humans are in physical bodies, and insofar as we are, we cannot at all reach the gateway that leads us into a higher world through our external perception alone. We must set aside everything that our senses can perceive externally, everything that our mind can first combine regarding the external world—all of that belongs to our specific interests. But when we now look at what we usually have within us—our sufferings and joys, our sorrows and worries, our hopes and goals—we will very, very soon become aware of how this inner world depends on what we experience outside, how it is, in a certain way, colored by what we experience outside. Yet a certain difference still exists.

[ 6 ] We must, however, readily admit that each of us carries our own world within us. The fact that one person is born in one place on Earth, at one time, and another in a different place, at a different time, colors their inner world in a certain way. But we also experience something else in relation to this inner world. It is, of course, our own unique, so to speak, our differentiated inner world; it has a certain character, but we can experience something else as well. When we leave the place where we are accustomed to engaging our senses and go to a very distant place, where we meet a person who has had entirely different external experiences and perceptions, then we can understand one another, and we understand one another because they have gone through certain sufferings that we ourselves have experienced in a similar way, because they can, in a certain way, take joy in similar things that we ourselves take joy in. Who among us has not experienced that it may be difficult to communicate with a person we meet in a distant region about the external world they both share, yet that we can easily communicate about what the heart feels and longs for? Through our inner world, we humans are already much closer to one another than through our outer world, and truly, there would be little hope of conveying the idea of Spiritual Science to all of humanity if we could not be conscious that within every human being, wherever they may be on Earth, there lives something that can communicate with us. But in order to arrive at something that is entirely free from the specific, egoistic inner self, a person must also shed that coloring of their inner experience that is still influenced by the outer world. This can only happen if a person creates the possibility within themselves to experience something that does not come from the external world at all—something that corresponds to what we might call inner intuitions, inspirations, that which grows and flourishes solely within the soul itself. From this particular inner life, a person can rise in such a way that they feel something revealing itself within them that is independent of their particular, egoistic existence. People feel this when they repeatedly assert that there can be understanding across the entire globe for certain moral ideals, for certain logical ideals that no one can doubt, which can be evident to every person, because they are communicated not from the external world but from the inner world within the human being.

[ 7 ] There is certainly one area—albeit a dry, sober one—that all people undoubtedly share when it comes to such inner revelations. This is the realm of numbers and their relationships; in short, the realm of mathematics, counting, and calculation. We can never learn from the external world that three times three equals nine; we must allow this to be revealed to us through our inner being. Therefore, there is no possibility of arguing about this across the globe. Whether something is beautiful or ugly is a matter of much debate across the globe, but if a person has allowed it to be revealed within them even once that three times three is nine, or that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts, or that a triangle has a sum of angles equal to 180°, then they know it, because no external world can reveal this to them—only their inner self. What we might call inspiration begins even in dry, sober mathematics. Only people usually do not realize that inspiration begins with dry mathematics, because most people consider this dry mathematics to be something terribly boring and therefore do not like to let it reveal anything to them. But when it comes to inner revelation, it is essentially no different with moral truths. When a person has recognized something as right, they will say: This is right and the opposite is wrong, and no external power in the world on the physical plane can convince me that what reveals itself to me as right within my inner self is wrong. — Moral truths in the highest sense also reveal themselves through the inner self. One can train oneself in this by directing one’s spiritual gaze, through feeling and perception, toward this possibility of inner revelation. Even education through pure mathematics is very good. For example, if a person often reflects on the thought: Whether this or that food is good—you may have your opinion, and another may hold a different one. That lies within the individual’s discretion. Mathematics, however, and moral obligations are not subject to such arbitrariness. With them, I know that they reveal something to me, and if I refuse to acknowledge it as true, I prove myself unworthy of humanity. — This recognition of a revelation through the inner self, grasped as a feeling, as an inner impulse, is a powerful educational force within the human being when he surrenders to it meditatively. If he first tells himself: In the sensory world there is much over which my will alone decides, but from the spirit there are things revealed to me over which my will has no power and which nevertheless concern me, of which I must prove myself worthy as a human being— if a person allows this thought to grow stronger and stronger, so that they can be overcome by their own inner being, then they grow beyond mere egoism; then, as we also say, a higher self—which knows itself to be one with the spirit of the world—overcomes the ordinary, arbitrary self. We must develop such a mood within ourselves if we wish to reach the gateway that leads into the spiritual world. For if we frequently surrender to such moods, as they have been described, they prove fruitful. They prove fruitful, in particular, when we bring them into our thoughts as concretely as possible, and especially when we cherish such thoughts, take in such thoughts that strike us as true and yet contradict the outer sensory world. Such thoughts may at first be only images, but such images are extraordinarily useful for the occult development of the human being.

[ 8 ] I want to describe such an image to you, to show you through such an image how a person can elevate their soul above themselves. Take two glasses; one contains water and the other is empty. The glass containing water should not be completely full, but only half-full. Now let’s suppose you are observing these two glasses in the outside world. If you pour some water from the glass containing water into the empty glass, the empty glass will be partially filled with water, but the other will subsequently have less water. If you pour water a second time from this glass, which was initially half-filled with water, into the glass that was initially empty, the first glass will have even less water; in short, as you pour, there will be less and less water in the glass that was initially half-filled with water. This is a true mental image for the external physical-sensory world. |

[ 9 ] Now let’s imagine a completely different mental image. Just imagine, for the sake of argument, the opposite scenario: imagine pouring water from the half-full glass into the empty one. Water would flow into the latter glass, but in the half-full glass—imagine this—the water would increase as a result of the pouring, and if you were to pour a second time, some would again flow into the previously empty glass, but the glass that was initially half-full would end up with even more water. As a result of the pouring, there would be more and more water in the first glass. Imagine this, create a mental image of this scenario. Of course, anyone here who considers themselves a perfectly rational person will say: Well, that’s utter madness, the mental image you’re creating there. You imagine that you are pouring out water and that, as a result, more and more water is entering the glass from which you are pouring. — Yes, if one applies this mental image to the physical world, then it is, of course, a crazy image, but strangely enough, it can be applied to the spiritual world. In a peculiar way, it can be applied. Let’s suppose a person has a loving heart, and from that loving heart he performs an act of love for another person in need of love; in doing so, he gives something to the other person, but he does not become emptier as a result. Rather, by bestowing acts of love upon the other person, he receives more— they become fuller, and when they perform an act of love a second time, they become even fuller, they have even more. One does not become poor or empty by performing acts of love, but rather one becomes richer, one becomes fuller. One pours something into the other person that makes oneself fuller.

[ 10 ] If we now apply this image—which is impossible and absurd in the ordinary physical world—to the outpouring of love, then it becomes applicable; then we can understand it as a metaphor, as a symbol of spiritual realities. What love is, is something so complicated that no human being should presume to define love, to readily fathom love in its very essence. Love is complicated. We perceive it, but no definition can express love. Yet a metaphor, a simple metaphor—a glass of water that, as it is poured out, becomes fuller—reflects one aspect of the workings of love. When we create a mental image of the complexity of acts of love in this way, we are essentially doing nothing other than what the mathematician does in his dry science. Nowhere is there a real circle, nowhere a real triangle; we must simply imagine them. If we draw a circle and look at it just a little through a microscope, we see nothing but chalk or other dots; such a circle will never have the regularity of a real circle. We must turn to our mental image, to our inner life, if we want to imagine the circle or the triangle or anything else. Thus, in order to imagine something like a spiritual act—love, for example—we must also resort to an image and hold fast to a particular quality.

[ 11 ] Such images are useful for occult development. Through them we realize that we are being lifted beyond ordinary mental images, that if we wish to ascend to the spiritual realm, we must form concepts that are virtually the opposite of those applicable to the sensory world. That is why you will find that the development of such symbolic mental images is an important means of ascending into the spiritual world. You will find this explained in my book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*. Through this, a person comes to recognize something that stands as a world above them, which inspires them, which they cannot perceive in the external world, but which penetrates into them. As they devote themselves more and more to this world of imagination, they come to recognize that through them—through every human being—lives a spiritual essence that is higher than themselves, the human being, in this single incarnation with their egoism.

[ 12 ] When one begins to recognize that there is something above us—a being that guides us ordinary human beings—then one encounters, within the hierarchy of beings of the third hierarchy, the first form: those beings who are called angels or angeloi. By transcending oneself in the manner described, one first experiences the influence of an angelic being working into one’s own being. If one now conceives of this being, which inspires us, as having become independent, so that it possesses the qualities described as revelation and spiritual fulfillment, then one arrives at the concept of the next beings of the third hierarchy standing immediately above humanity. Thus, one can refer to the first beings above humanity as those who guide, lead, and direct each individual human being.

[ 13 ] In this way, I have described to you a little of the path by which a human being can first rise up to the first beings who stand above him, so that he may form a mental image of them. Just as the individual now has his guide in this way, and the occult gaze—when we rise above ourselves and our selfish interests—draws our attention to this: “You have your guide”—so there is also the possibility that the occult gaze may be directed toward groups of people, tribes, nations, and so on. Such related groups of people have leadership just as the individual human being does in the manner described. Only, those beings who lead entire peoples or entire tribes are more powerful than the guides of the individual human being. In Western esotericism, such leaders of peoples or tribes—who live in the spiritual world and have revelations as their perceptions, spiritual experiences as their inner life, and whose deeds are expressed in what an entire people or tribe does—are called Archangels or Archangeloi. As a person progresses further in their occult development, they may come to a point where not only is revealed to them what specifically guides them, but also what guides the group of people to which they initially belong.

[ 14 ] And then, as our occult development progresses further, we find beings who serve as guides to humanity—beings who are no longer associated with individual tribes or peoples, but who act as guides through successive eras. When the occultly trained person traces, for example, the age in which the ancient Egyptians or the ancient Chaldeans lived, the entire character and nature of that era appear to them under a certain leadership. This leadership changes. When the occult gaze looks at what followed, for example, the Egyptian or Chaldean era, when the occult gaze turns to the age in which the Greeks and Romans set the tone in the Western spiritual world, it becomes evident that, beyond individual peoples, spirits more powerful than the archangels—the leaders of nations—are at work, guiding entire groups of related peoples simultaneously, and that these are then succeeded after a certain time by other guides of the age. Just as we find the individual spheres of the Archangeloi, the archangels, distributed throughout space, guiding groups of people simultaneously—but individual groups of people—so too, when we let our occult gaze wander over the course of time, we find that the individual ages are guided by their real time spirits, who are more powerful than the archangels, and that the most diverse peoples stand under them at the same time. We call this third category of the third hierarchy “spirits of the age” or “Archai,” using a term from Western esotericism.

[ 15 ] All the beings belonging to these three classes of the third hierarchy possess the qualities that have been described to you today; they all possess what has been referred to here as revelation and inner spiritual fulfillment. This is what the occult eye perceives when it is able to rise to the level of these beings. We can therefore say: When we observe that which surrounds human beings in the spiritual world—that which, as it were, acts as their own individual guide—when we observe that which lives spiritually there, invisibly governs us, and actually impels us to our impersonal actions and to our impersonal thinking and feeling—when we observe this, we first encounter the beings of the third hierarchy. The occult gaze perceives these beings. For it, they are realities. But even ordinary consciousness lives under their power, even if this consciousness does not perceive the angel, for it stands under his guidance, albeit unconsciously. And so, under their archangel stand the groups of people, and under the guidance of the spirits of the age stand the ages and the people of their times.

[ 16 ] These beings of the third hierarchy—we find them, just as they have been described today, in our spiritual environment, in the very immediate spiritual environment. But if we were to go back in the evolution of our planet to a certain point in time, which we will learn about in the following lectures, then we would find more and more that these beings, who actually live only within the cultural process of humanity, are constantly bringing forth other beings from within themselves. Just as a plant sheds a seed, so do the beings of the third hierarchy, which I have described to you, bring forth other beings. There is, however, a certain difference between what the plant produces as a seed—if we use that as a comparison—and these beings that separate themselves from the beings of the third hierarchy. When the plant produces a seed, it is, so to speak, just as valuable as the entire plant, for from it a whole plant of the same kind can in turn develop. These beings likewise separate others who, as it were, detach themselves, just as the seeds detach themselves from the plants: they, as it were, have offspring, who are now, in a certain respect, of a lower order than themselves. They must be of a lower order because they are given other tasks that they can perform only if they are of a lower kind. That which we have, as described, spiritually within our sphere as angels, archangels, and spirits of the ages, separates from itself certain beings who descend from the human sphere into the natural realms; and the occult gaze teaches us that the beings we came to know yesterday and the day before as nature spirits are beings severed from the beings of the third hierarchy we have come to know today. They are descendants who have been destined for a service other than the service of humanity, namely the service of nature. Specifically, certain descendants of the Archai are those beings we have come to know as the nature spirits of the Earth. Those who separate themselves from the Archangels and are sent down into nature are the nature spirits of water, and those who separate themselves from the Angels are to be regarded as the nature spirits of air. We shall yet come to know those of fire or heat. Thus we see that, as it were, through a division of the beings who, as the third hierarchy, represent our connection with the next higher world, certain beings are sent down into the realms of the elements—into air, water, earth, into the gaseous, liquid, and solid states, to perform services down there, to work within the elements, and to function, so to speak, as lower descendants of the beings of the third hierarchy, as nature spirits. We can therefore speak of a kinship between the nature spirits and the beings of the third hierarchy.