The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. The Cosmic Aspect of Life Between Death and Rebirth: The Path Through the Stellar Spheres

[ 1 ] In the second half of last year, I was tasked with conducting some occult investigations into life between death and rebirth. We have, of course, already described from various angles what is relevant here, but a complete understanding, a true insight into this aspect of human life, is really only possible if one approaches the subject from the most diverse perspectives. Although everything found in the writings and cycles on this subject is correct, there is still more to be added to all of this—namely, what we have to present on the matter this evening and perhaps also the day after tomorrow.

[ 2 ] Once a person has passed through the gate of death—that is, once they have shed their physical and etheric bodies—the soul is, in the early stages, particularly absorbed in memories of their past earthly life. We already know that the soul needs a certain amount of time to, if one may use the expression, wean itself from everything that binds it to its last earthly life. Now let us create a mental image of this process of growing out of the last earthly life in the context of the entire universe, of the world.

[ 3 ] When a human being—and this is not only after death, but also already occurs during sleep—leaves their physical and etheric bodies and thus lives solely in the astral body, which we can also describe as the soul, then a complete expansion occurs with the human being, spatially speaking: an expansion of their being into the vastness. Every night we actually expand out into the vastness of the stars. After death, the human being expands so slowly and gradually that we must seek out his—we cannot perhaps say “physicality”—but rather his soul-ness within the sphere of the Earth, extending far beyond the atmosphere at first. It expands farther and farther until the human being—as paradoxical as it sounds, this is indeed how it turns out—has extended their soul-being across the entire circumference of the spherical surface, which ultimately coincides with the circumference of the moon’s orbit around the Earth. We thus grow to such a magnitude that the boundary of our being is the orbit of the Moon around the Earth. As long as we grow to this magnitude, therefore, what we may call the Kamaloka period continues. This is the time of inner connection with the last earthly life.

[ 4 ] But then the expansion continues. We actually expand out into the starry sky, and a time begins when the human being grows outward to such an extent that the outermost boundary of their being can be described as the orbit that, in astronomical terms, is currently described by Venus, and in occult terms, by Mercury. Now, the nature of a person’s existence after leaving the lunar sphere depends on what life was like here between birth and death. When we live our way out into outer space as far as the sphere of Mercury, we find ourselves there either in such a way that we can easily reunite with the people with whom we were together on Earth, with whom our souls came together on Earth, or else it may also be the case that we find it difficult to achieve such a reunion, that we are, so to speak, condemned to solitude in this journey out into the sphere of Mercury. And whether we feel more or less destined for solitude or, if the expression is permitted, for sociability, depends on how a person has spent their earthly life. The person who, in life, paid little attention to stirring up moral feelings, moral attitudes, moral dispositions, goodwill, and compassion in their soul—the person who developed these little during their earthly life—feels, as they expand into the Mercury sphere after death, compelled into solitude. And it is difficult for them to find other souls with whom they are connected. The person who has developed much compassion and a moral attitude lives, as they expand into the Mercury sphere, in sociable communion with other souls. Thus, we have it in our power to arrange our lives as we wish between death and new birth. The Mercury sphere, in occult terms, is thus the sphere in which our moral qualities find expression. It is also the sphere in which what we have developed in terms of moral qualities proves effective in yet another way.

[ 5 ] First of all—especially during this passage through the Venus or Mercury sphere after death—it is significant whether, in the life between birth and death, one was a person of conscience or without conscience. You see, everything that happens in the world here in physical life is directed, is ultimately caused by the spiritual world. We have often considered the natural death from old age that must occur for human beings, because it is what must actually befall us so that life can proceed in the proper manner from incarnation to incarnation. But as we know, there is not only this death from old age, which is well-founded in evolution; there is also a death that befalls people in the prime of youth, even in childhood. There are the most manifold diseases, epidemics, and so on in the world that enter into human life. And ultimately they are not merely brought about by physical causes, but are determined and directed from the spiritual world. And actually, it originates from the region of Venus, that belt around the Earth, which we can, in occult terms, call the Mercury sphere. That is to say, if we draw a radius from the Earth to Venus and thereby describe a circle—quite apart from the astronomical conditions—then, occultly speaking, this is the Mercury sphere; that is, a circle not around the Sun, but around the Earth. And within this belt, in the space occupied by this circle, lie the forces that direct disease and death on Earth; death, not insofar as it occurs as a natural death from old age, but irregularly. Certain spiritual beings are at work there, those beings that occultism designates as the spirits of disease and death. The human being who, in occult terms, enters this Mercury sphere having spent his life on Earth as an unscrupulous person, now condemns himself, as he passes through this sphere, to become a servant of these—we may already call them—evil spirits of sickness and death. Indeed, one only begins to grasp, to get a sense of, what unscrupulousness actually means when one is aware of this fact. Unscrupulousness condemns people to be bent under the yoke of these evil spirits for a time in the Mercury sphere, between death and rebirth. And when the forces are developed that are sent from the outer regions to Earth to bring about epidemics and diseases, so that death occurs untimely, then these unscrupulous souls must cooperate as servants of these spirits of sickness and death, who send these forces into our physical world.

[ 6 ] It is a different matter when what is very widespread on Earth—comfort—continues to exert its influence even up into this sphere. Our lives are, in fact, entirely dominated by comfort. People would do countless things differently if they were not so comfortable. Through comfort, too, human beings condemn themselves to becoming, for a time, servants in the sphere just discussed of those powers that are subject to Ahriman—powers that can be described as the powers of obstacles, that is, those spirits that hinder work on Earth. We become servants of the spirits of obstacles for a certain period of time, more or less long, through everything we have poured into our souls through comfort. Thus we gain an understanding of how the forces we have developed in our souls here in physical life influence the life between death and rebirth.

[ 7 ] The next sphere into which the soul expands is referred to in occult terms as the sphere of Venus and, in astronomical terms, as the sphere of Mercury. We prepare ourselves for it through religious qualities and a religious disposition. A person who, in the time between birth and death, has developed within themselves such an attitude through which their soul looks toward the spiritual primal powers and forces of the world can be a social being in the Venus sphere, living together with other people with whom their soul has formed a kinship on Earth. But other spirits of the higher hierarchies also enter the human sphere from there, and the human being lives there together with spirits of the higher hierarchies if they have developed a religious attitude, religious sensibility, and religious feeling. On the other hand, he condemns himself to loneliness, to isolation, to agonizing solitude, if he has not connected his soul here on Earth with the impulses of religious life. If he has been an atheist here on Earth, then he becomes utterly lonely in the sphere of which we have spoken. And it must be said that those who today actively promote irreligion condemn themselves to complete loneliness. The people who gather together in the Monist League, for example, block their own inner freedom of movement, and because they have come together here under this banner, they condemn themselves in that sphere to sitting each in their own cage; each will be separated from the other.

[ 8 ] The next sphere we enter is the solar sphere. Once again, the conditions are different from those in physical astronomy. We arrive at this sphere when we connect the Earth with the Sun and draw a circle around the Earth using this connecting line. (It is drawn.) Spiritually, the conditions are simply different from those in the physical realm. We extend out to this sphere after we have passed through the Venus sphere. What prepared us for the Venus sphere no longer prepares us for this sphere. For the Venus sphere, we can be prepared in such a way that we find union with all those human souls to whom we were religiously close in the life between birth and death. In the Venus sphere, people are, as it were, grouped into regions, much like the regions on Earth where peoples and races are united. Thus, in the Venus sphere, there are regions where those who are kindred in their religious sensibility come together. But this is no longer sufficient for the solar sphere. In the Solar Sphere, one feels lonely if one was prepared on Earth only for a certain kind of religious feeling in the soul. In the Solar Sphere, one is a social being only if one has developed, in the best sense of the word, an understanding for every religious feeling, if one has, so to speak, developed a deeper tolerance for all religious systems of the Earth. Up to our time, since the Mystery of Golgotha, the outward Christian creed has, in a sense, been sufficient; for this Christian creed does, in a certain way, contain an understanding that goes beyond a limited religious system in a manner quite different from other religious systems. One can really easily convince oneself of this. Many other religious systems are still limited to certain regions of the earth, and one can, if one is only willing to see, very easily observe how the adherent of the Hindu religion, of Buddhism, and so on, will indeed speak of the equality of all religions and religious wisdom in general, but if one delves deeper into what he means, one finds that he means only his own religion. Essentially, they demand that others recognize their own religion. They then call this equality of religions. Try reading theosophical journals originating from India. There, what the Indians say is presented as the universal world religion, and those who do not recognize this are accused of not being genuine theosophists. Early Christianity has never been of this disposition, especially where it has become a Western religion. If the West were like India, we would have a Wotan religion today; that would then be what, for example, the Hindu religion is to the East. But the West did not adopt the religion that had grown out of itself; rather, from the very beginning, it adopted the religion of a founder who lived outside the West, Jesus Christ. Selflessly, the West has incorporated a religion into its very being. That is a fundamental difference. And, fundamentally, true tolerance toward every religious system lies in the very nature of Christianity, even if this nature has perhaps been poorly understood by Western Christians.

[ 9 ] In reality, for a Christian, everyone is a Christian, regardless of how they may otherwise identify themselves. And it is nothing but narrow-mindedness to want to spread Christian dogma everywhere. Broad-mindedness is something quite different. When one considers the Hindu, the Chinese, the Buddhist—when one delves into the deeper elements of their being—one will find the beginnings of Christianity everywhere; one will discern, from what they themselves think, those elements that are the seeds of Christianity, without needing to mention the name of Christ. But this narrower Christianity, as it is actually given to people today between birth and death, is merely a preparation for the solar sphere after death. Something else is necessary for this solar sphere: what is necessary is what we call, in the true and proper sense, theosophy. It gives us that inner understanding of all the religious systems of the earth, of the essence of all the religious systems of the earth. If we acquire this understanding here on Earth, then we prepare ourselves in the right way for the solar sphere. We must have this understanding of the various religions and of the Mystery of Golgotha, of the Christ impulse, if we are not to become recluses in relation to other human souls and to the spirits of the higher hierarchies in the solar sphere between death and new birth.

[ 10 ] When we enter the solar sphere between death and rebirth, we find two things there. The first thing we find is something we can only describe figuratively: we find an empty throne, an empty world throne. And what we can seek upon this empty world throne, we can find only in the images of the Akashic Records. Upon this throne, which we find empty as we pass through the time between death and new birth, Christ once sat within the solar sphere. He has extended into the Earth sphere through the Mystery of Golgotha, and since that time, the inhabitants of Earth here on Earth must be able to acquire an understanding of the Christ impulse and retain this impulse in their memory: then they can recognize the image that appears in the Akashic Records when they live themselves into this solar sphere. Whoever here on Earth has not attained this understanding does not recognize who once sat upon this throne and what now exists only as an image, and cannot find their way in life within the solar sphere between death and new birth. Here we see how it is the earthly mission of human souls to seek the connection with the Mystery of Golgotha here, just as we seek it within our spiritual movement. Through this, we retain the memory of the Christ impulse between death and new birth and, within the solar sphere, do not become solitary beings but social beings through the forces we have brought with us; so that we then, as it were, through our own power brought with us, enliven the image—which is now only an image in the solar sphere—of the Christ. And we must take so much strength with us from our time on Earth that this strength remains with us for the time to come and cannot be lost.

[ 11 ] But we find a second entity in this solar sphere, a second throne, and this is now occupied by a real being, by Lucifer. And so, when we have reached the solar sphere, as has just been described, we find ourselves between death and new birth, facing Christ on one side and Lucifer on the other. If we had not taken in the Christ impulse, Lucifer alone would have to become our guide. But if we have taken in the Christ impulse, then on the long journey through the universe we are guided on one side by the Christ impulse and on the other by Lucifer; for we also need him for the times to come. We also need Lucifer, for he now leads us in the right way through the other world spheres, initially as far as the Mars sphere.

[ 12 ] This is the next sphere into which we expand between death and rebirth. In order for Lucifer to guide us in a way that is appropriate for us as human beings, we must have the Christ impulse as a counterbalance; then the Lucifer impulse is beneficial to us; otherwise, it is harmful to us. Something else has also become necessary: In the sphere of Mars, we must be able to take into account with our whole being certain changes that have taken place on Mars over the course of the last few centuries. These changes can be described roughly as follows. Through certain forces, all the individual celestial bodies are connected with one another; the other celestial bodies are connected with the Earth. Forces radiate from them. From Mars and its sphere, in fact, not only does the light effect radiate that reaches the Earth, but spiritual forces also radiate. If we go back to earlier centuries, we find that the forces radiating from Mars were those that inspired people toward what they needed in earlier times: physical strength to promote human evolution. It is not merely a myth, but an occult truth, that what has developed in the world as warlike power and warlike entanglement—what has made people energetic and courageous over centuries and millennia—originates from the inflow of Mars’s forces. But in the life of a planet, its forces undergo an ascending and a descending phase of development. And Mars has, in a certain sense, changed its role in recent centuries. What is still being developed in terms of warlike forces today is the ebbing warlike life of earlier centuries; no new warlike life is flowing in from the inspiring forces of Mars. For at the turn of the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, Mars had reached a decisive point, a point that, in the nature of Mars, can only be compared to the time when the Earth reached a decisive point at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. We are touching upon something of immense significance here. Mars passed through a decisive point. This was known within the Earth Mysteries, where decisions regarding the great spiritual matters of earthly existence are made. Namely, since the twelfth century, decisive preparations have been made within the development of the Earth Mysteries to account for the change in the sphere of Mars. The forces that Mars was meant to send forth to bring courage and energy to Earth were now over for Mars: they were no longer to penetrate the Earth. But because Mars has undergone such a crisis, what the souls living there between death and new birth would have to undergo in the Mars sphere after death is also changing. For when a human being moves beyond the solar sphere, forces radiate into their soul that are already significant for the next incarnation. The soul that had passed through the sphere of Mars in ancient times, before the seventeenth century, came into contact with those forces that permeated it with courage and energy. Lucifer was the guide to the sources of courage and energy. But the souls that arrived in later times could no longer find that characteristic: Mars was going through its crisis. Where the great spiritual decisions are made within the Mysteries, one takes into account not only the human life between birth and death, but also one’s salvation and damnation between death and new birth; that is to say, in the Mysteries one ensures that those elements are incorporated into humanity’s spiritual culture which enable souls to pass through the various spheres correctly after death.

[ 13 ] If we wish to understand what is at stake here in the sphere of Mars, we must consider the following. A major, decisive development began to emerge in the Rosicrucian mysteries from the twelfth century onward, necessitating the following realization. A very special era is dawning for the development of the Earth: the era of external material culture, of external material triumphs. One cannot oppose this; although it brings nothing spiritual, this age of machines, airships, and so on is necessary, yet it brings a kind of spiritual death. One cannot oppose it; humanity must live within it. — The materialistic age had to come; yet it was always the effort of higher spiritual beings to create a counterweight to this materialistic age. When we consider all that has emerged in Earth’s development as a counterweight to materialism, we find the final, most significant manifestation in Francis of Assisi; that Francis of Assisi who, in his very being as Francis of Assisi, turned away from all external life, who led that existence in Assisi—which you are well acquainted with—so wonderfully depicted by Giotto on the walls of the church in Assisi, so that today, even though these paintings have been overpainted so many times, life still shines down from the walls so movingly. And although he, too, underwent a development toward materialism, one must still say: the spiritual atmosphere of Francis is still widespread in the region around Otto of Assisi—that atmosphere which has absorbed within itself the elements of a life that is, admittedly, unworldly, yet intimately familiar to the soul, not only to the human soul but also to the soul of nature. You can read in the series on “Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy, and Philosophy” that wonderful poetry in which Francis of Assisi expressed what he felt toward the soul of nature and the beings of nature. One might say that no poet has more beautiful tones; perhaps only Goethe has found such beautiful tones regarding the existence of nature. Where did all this come from? It all came from the fact that in his previous incarnation, in the seventh or eighth century, Francis of Assisi was a student at a mystery school near the Black Sea, where he studied under an individuality who was no longer incarnated in a physical body.

[ 14 ] It is a curious thing. In his immediately preceding incarnation, Francis of Assisi had lived in a place of mystery; together with other disciples, he was a student of an entity who, at that time, was active only in the spiritual body among the disciples, a group that included Francis of Assisi. And this was none other than the Buddha, whom we know was last incarnated as Gautama Buddha. He nevertheless continued to work in the spiritual body. We know that, as a spiritual being, he was present at the birth of the infant Jesus described in the Gospel of Luke. He continued to work in the school where Francis of Assisi had lived in his previous incarnation. There Francis absorbed the impulses of his soul-intimate life—that life which was meant to lead people away from all that was then spreading further on Earth, away from purely material life. And this remained in Francis of Assisi; we see its aftereffects in the incarnation of Francis of Assisi. But it could not be that, on Earth in the age that had already once had a materialistic mission, many souls would join, say, a St. Francis of Assisi community. Those who had to move forward with the times could not do so. Thus, a certain conflict was created. It could not be that on the one hand there was only external, material culture, and on the other hand followers of Francis of Assisi. As great and mighty as Francis of Assisi is, the rules he had laid down were of little use for later times. How could this have come to pass? What had to come upon the Earth?

[ 15 ] This was firmly established in the Rosicrucian mysteries from the twelfth century onward. It was said: Human beings must work with their earthly bodies; they must immerse themselves externally in material existence between birth and death, and they must go along with the triumphs of this material existence. But the possibility must be created for every soul that immerses itself in and befriends material existence to have, as it were, an understanding within a part of its being of the inner experience of what lies in the spirit of Francis of Assisi. — For this is the very essence of the progress of souls on earth: that these souls must, as it were, acquire two natures, increasingly so the further they advance toward the future; that we may, with the faculties of our souls, grasp the impulses of earthly existence and become friends with them; but that we must also develop within ourselves moments and hours in which we can be solitary and devoted to the life of the soul itself. As we become more worldly and familiar with the world, we must at the same time have hours in which we can become intimate with our souls. While on the one hand we follow in the footsteps of Edison, on the other hand we must be able to become, in the stillness of our inner being, disciples of Francis of Assisi or his great teacher, the Buddha. Every soul, even if thrust into material life, must be able to feel this. And this is what the Rosicrucian mysteries were intended to prepare us for. Christian Rosenkreutz had the task of providing for this.

[ 16 ] How can this happen? Only by the fact that a certain period of life between death and rebirth can be utilized by the soul in a very specific way. In the Rosicrucian mysteries, it was said: Mars, so to speak, loses its old task; let us give it a new one. — At the beginning of the seventeenth century, around the turn of the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, the Buddha, who had already undergone his final earthly incarnation, was sent to Mars, to the sphere of Mars, and one can say, quite correctly: At that time, the Buddha accomplished for Mars something similar to what—only on a larger scale—Christ accomplished on Earth in the Mystery of Golgotha. That which had always emanated from Mars and lay in its very nature, the Buddha transformed at that time through his sacrifice. He transformed the entire nature and essence of Mars. For Mars, the Buddha became the great Redeemer. It was a sacrifice for him. You need only recall how the Buddha ascended to the teaching, the message of great peace, of harmonious existence. He was now sent out into the planetary sphere from which the power of aggression had emerged. He, the Prince of Peace, crucified himself, as it were, though not through the Mystery of Golgotha. Thus something else is brought into the sphere of Mars: Mars is permeated by the being of the Buddha. Just as on Earth the substance of Christ flowed forth from the Mystery of Golgotha, so the substance of peace of the Buddha flows out into the sphere of Mars and has been there ever since.

[ 17 ] This is how it was spoken of within the Rosicrucian mystery. Through the sending forth of the Buddha, human souls were able to live for a time in the sphere of Mars between death and rebirth, after they had entered the sphere of the Sun and had carried the Christ impulse until then. After the soul has entered there through being properly imbued with the Christ impulse and through the guidance of Lucifer, the soul proceeds further into the sphere of Mars, and precisely in our time, what could not occur earlier now takes place in the sphere of Mars: the souls are permeated by what can no longer take place on Earth, permeated by the Buddha-Francis-of-Assisi element. Between death and new birth, every soul can undergo—if it is suitably prepared—what played out on Earth as a final surge in the soul life of Francis of Assisi, but which since then can no longer find a true home on Earth. As the human soul passes through the sphere of the Buddha in the life between death and new birth on Mars, it can absorb there the power that will enable it to do what has just been said: that it may later, through a new birth, enter a purely material existence, be cast into an earthly existence that will become ever more materialistic, yet still be able to develop powers with another part of the soul being, in order to be devoted to the spiritual-soul world. Such is the nature of the mysteries hidden between death and new birth.

[ 18 ] Then we spread out further and further into the vastness of space, toward Jupiter, Saturn, and even farther still. What has just been described actually occurs only with the most advanced souls. Souls that have not yet acquired the necessary conditions, but will acquire them later, connect in the life between death and rebirth only with the spheres closest to Earth. They also pass through the other spheres, but in a certain sleep-like, unconscious state. In the outer spheres, in the spheres beyond the Sun, the forces are gathered that the human being must absorb so that he can work again as he approaches a new birth, and can participate in the building of a new body. What is within the human being did not enter him merely on Earth. It is the greatest short-sightedness when materialists believe that the human being is a creature of the Earth. When the human being builds himself up in this way with the forces he receives—built up in the most comprehensive sense—these forces of building contain cosmic forces that the human being first had to draw upon. As he expands between death and new birth up to the solar sphere, he is still dealing with the forces that continue to work from the previous life. The forces he needs to work into the Earth sphere what can construct his physical body from the surrounding environment—he must draw these from the forces that approach him from beyond the solar sphere. Between death and new birth, the human being must truly expand into the cosmos; he must live with the cosmos; for the forces capable of truly bringing the human being into being are not found on Earth alone. From the human germ that arises there through the interaction of the two sexes, a new human being could never come into being unless the following were to occur.

[ 19 ] There is this tiny human embryo. Something immensely vast and significant is connected to this human embryo—something that first spread out in a mysterious way across infinite expanses of the cosmos and then contracted again. After humanity has spread out as far as the sphere of the stars, it begins to contract again. It passes through the spheres of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, becoming smaller and smaller. And as it grows smaller, it has taken within itself the spiritual forces of the cosmos. And he becomes smaller and smaller. And that which is finally compressed, squeezed together into a small spiritual sphere, is precisely compressed from an immense dilution. And this now unites with the physical sphere, which is the germ cell, and fertilizes it from the spiritual realms. Thus we see how the human being enters into existence through birth.

[ 20 ] After passing through his final death, he spread out into the far reaches of the universe, becoming, as it were, a gigantic sphere. Spiritually, he was united with the spiritual beings and realities; then he compresses himself again, becoming smaller and smaller, until the moment comes when, through his inherent powers, he unites with physical matter. That which, together with the human germ cell, forms a human body is drawn in from the cosmos. From this human germ cell, even if it is fertilized, nothing that is viable on Earth could arise—as can be occultly investigated—unless this compressed sphere of spirit could unite with it. And what would arise from the human germ cell alone? From it could arise only the predisposition for the senses and the nervous system, but nothing that is viable. The senses, the nervous system—the Earth can provide the forces for these. That which is structured around them must be drawn in from the cosmos. And only when a new science comes to understand the processes in the human germ cell according to the guidance of this occult knowledge will that which cannot now be comprehended by a clear-thinking person in any scientific account become understandable. Whether you read Haeckel’s insightful discussions on this subject or those of others, you will find everywhere that these things are not comprehensible in and of themselves. What is not known is that a third element connects with what comes from the father and mother. This third element enters from the cosmos.

[ 21 ] Actually, only a certain class of people knows—or, as we might say today, knew—about this secret, but that is now becoming less and less the case. Children and their nannies and teachers—among them, at least, the subject comes up or used to come up when they spoke of how the stork or other beings bring something in that allows human beings to be born. Although this is merely a figurative expression for a spiritual process, it is wiser than what intelligent people advocate today. But in today’s world, it is considered enlightened to explain human conditions in materialistic terms. This figurative representation should still have an effect on children’s souls, on their imagination! Of course, people say: Children no longer believe in the stork because those who tell the fairy tale no longer believe in it themselves. But those who become anthroposophists today believe in the image of the stork, and they will soon discover that something good has been given in these figurative representations for the spiritual processes.

[ 22 ] We have thus examined the cosmic aspect of life between death and rebirth; the day after tomorrow, we will focus more on the human aspect of practical life.

[ 23 ] But now let us consider one more thing. Kant once made the significant statement—one might say, almost as if inspired by an intuition—that “Two things fill the mind with ever-renewed admiration and awe: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” This statement may seem significant to the occultist. For what is this strange relationship between the starry heavens and that which is the best within our inner life? They are both one and the same. Between death and rebirth, we expand beyond the starry sky, and we bring its forces into life and feel them as the most significant forces of our soul. No wonder, for we are the outward image of it! We look up to the starry sky, where we were between death and rebirth, and see within ourselves what we have taken in. No wonder we feel a kinship with what lives within us as the guiding lines of our soul life, and with what shines into us from the starry heavens and what we feel as a force within us when we appeal to the deepest depths of our soul life. The starry heavens are one with us, and we with them, when we consider our entire existence. — Thus we must tell ourselves that such a Spiritual Science contemplation gives us not only what we know, what we can call knowledge in the ordinary sense of life; it truly gives us moral strength and support in the feeling that the entire universe lives within us. And bit by bit we see ourselves being permeated by this universe as we pass through the life between death and rebirth. Yes, this life between death and rebirth is hidden from the outer eye; but what drives and inspires us in the depths of our soul-life is also hidden. And yet, it is within us, works within us, and gives us our strength—this, our highest being. We carry heaven within us because we live through heaven before we enter this physical existence. We then feel the obligation to make ourselves worthy of this heaven, which has done so much for us that we owe our entire inner being to it.

[ 24 ] We will discuss this the day after tomorrow, when we will take a more human perspective on life from a vantage point that is more closely tied to practical daily life.