The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Tenth Lecture

[ 1 ] We have set out to examine life between death and rebirth from certain perspectives, and in the course of these winter lectures we have attempted to present various aspects of this life, thereby providing important additions to the more general perspectives outlined in my *Theosophy* and also in *An Outline of Esoteric Science*. Today, we shall focus above all on a particular perspective that arises from the question: How does what is described, for example, in “Theosophy” regarding life between death and rebirth relate to what has been said here in the course of these winter lectures?

[ 2 ] We recall how, in *Theosophy*, the soul’s journey after passing through the gate of death is initially depicted as passing through the realm of the soul. And we know that this realm of the soul has been divided into a region of “passionate desire,” one of “fluctuating excitability,” one of “wishes,” a region of “pleasure and displeasure,” and then into the higher regions of “soul light,” “active soul power,” and “true soul life” . This was described as the realm of the soul, as the world of the soul, and it is well known that after death the soul must pass through these realms, which you will then find described in a certain respect in my *Theosophy*. Thereafter, the soul continues to pass through what must be called the spirit realm, and in my *Theosophy* this spirit realm has also been described in successive regions, whose names have been given by analogy with certain earthly images: the continental region of the spirit realm, then the so-to-speak oceanic region of the spirit realm, and so on.

[ 3 ] Over the course of the winter, we have described how the soul, as it passes through the gate of death, sheds the physical body and then the etheric body as well, and how it expands, growing ever larger and larger. Then it was explained how this soul passes through regions which—for certain reasons that have already been discussed—may be designated first as the region of the Moon, then of Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and finally the actual starry sky; how the soul, or rather the human being’s actual spiritual individuality, continually expands and passes through these regions, which encompass ever-larger areas of the cosmos; how the soul then begins to contract again, becoming smaller and smaller, only to finally unite with the germ that flows in from the soul’s hereditary stream. And through this union of the human germ flowing in through the soul’s heredity with that which is taken in from the great, macrocosmic regions of the universe, there arises what the human being of the earthly course of time is—that which life must experience between birth and death.

[ 4 ] In fact, both my *Theosophy* and the descriptions provided here essentially convey the same idea. This has been pointed out. But in one instance, the description is, so to speak, more from the inside. In my *Theosophy*, you will find the description presented in certain images that are based more on inner soul conditions. In the descriptions given here this winter, the account was presented by drawing on the great cosmic conditions and linking them to the names of the planets. The point now is that we can bring the two descriptions into harmony with one another.

[ 5 ] It has already been said that, in the early stages after passing through the gate of death, the human soul is, so to speak, essentially compelled to look back in a certain way upon what it can experience on Earth. The Kamaloka period, as it is also called, represents a life still fully connected to earthly conditions. This Kamaloka period is, in essence, a time during which the soul must feel called upon to gradually wean itself from everything that still lives within it in direct connection with its last earthly incarnation. Let us consider that here in the physical body, the human being has soul experiences that depend more or less entirely on their physical life. Let us consider just how large a part of soul experiences depends entirely on sensory impressions. Take away everything that sensory impressions bring into your soul, and try to realize how much remains in this soul once you have removed everything that sensory impressions have given you; then you will get a picture of a very meager soul content! And yet, through one final reflection, you will be able to say to yourself: Everything that the senses have given ceases when the soul passes through the gate of death; and what may then remain—it is quite natural—is no longer the liveliness of a sensory impression, but only what arises from the memories of those sensory impressions. — So when you think about how much of the sensory impressions lives on in your soul, you will also be able to easily form a mental image of what remains of a large part of the soul’s life after death from the sensory impressions. I mean, when you recall certain sensory impressions from yesterday—let’s take that just as an example of where the sensory impressions are still relatively vivid—when you think of how faded the sensory impressions are that you experienced yesterday, when you want to bring back to your soul the vivid impression that unfolded before you: so faint, then—as a memory—is what the sensory impressions have conveyed to the soul. From this you can see that, fundamentally, the whole of life in the sensory world actually exists for the soul as a specifically earthly experience. — With the loss of the sense organs, which occurs when a person passes through the gate of death, all significance of the sensory impressions also fades away. But because the person clings to the sensory impressions, because they still retain a craving for them, they first pass through the region of the fiery realm of desire in the life after death. They wish to have sensory impressions for a long time yet, but they cannot have them, since they have cast off the sense organs. The life that passes in the longing for sensory impressions and in the inability to have them—that is life in the region of the fiery realm of desire. Indeed, this life burns within the soul. This life is part of the actual kamaloka life when the soul longs for the sensory impressions to which it has become accustomed here on earth and—because the sense organs have been cast off—cannot receive such sensory impressions.

[ 6 ] A second region of the kamaloka life is that of the flowing stimulus. The soul experiences this region in such a way that, although it has already weaned itself from craving sensory impressions by the time it has fully lived through this region, it still has desires for thoughts—specifically, for those thoughts that are gained in earthly life through the instrument of the brain. In the region of the fire of desire, the soul goes through a process whereby it gradually tells itself: It is an absurdity, a nonsense, to want sensory impressions in a world for which the sense organs have been cast off, in which no being can have sense organs formed solely from the substances of the earth. — But even though the soul may have long since cast off this longing for sensory impressions, it still retains the longing to be able to think as one thinks on Earth. This earthly way of thinking is outgrown in the region of flowing excitability. There, the human being gradually experiences how thoughts, as they are conceived on Earth, essentially have meaning only in the life between birth and death.

[ 7 ] Once a person has broken the habit of entertaining thoughts that depend on the physical instrument of the brain, they still experience a certain connection to the Earth in the forms of what is contained in their desires. Just consider that desires are actually something more intimately connected to the soul than, one might say, the world of thought. Desires have a certain character in every human being. And while one has different thoughts in youth, different ones in middle age, and different ones in old age, one can easily see how a certain form of desiring runs through the entire human life on Earth. This form, this nuance of desire, is only later shed in the region of desires. And then, at the very end, in the region of pleasure and displeasure, the longing is shed to live together at all with a physical earthly body—with this physical earthly body with which one was together in the last incarnation. While passing through these regions—the region of the fire of desire, of flowing irritability, of desires, and of pleasure and displeasure—a certain longing for the last earthly life is still present. First, so to speak, in the region of the fire of desire. There the soul still longs to be able to see through eyes, to be able to hear through ears, even though it can no longer have eyes and ears. When it has finally weaned itself from the expectation of receiving such impressions through eyes, ears, and so on, it still longs to be able to think through a brain, as it did on Earth. Once it has finally weaned itself from this, it still longs to be able to desire with a heart such as one had on Earth. And finally, the human being no longer longs for sensory impressions, no longer for the thoughts of the head, and no longer for the desires of the heart, but still for their last earthly incarnation in its entirety. The human being then gradually detaches themselves from this longing as well.

[ 8 ] All that must be experienced in these regions coincides exactly with the journey of the expanding soul to the region we have called the Mercury sphere—that is, the soul’s expansion through the Moon sphere all the way to the Mercury sphere. But as the soul approaches this Mercury sphere, it encounters what is described in my *Theosophy* as a kind of spiritual region of the soul realm, the world of the soul. Try reading through this description of the soul realm and the soul’s passage through it once more with this in mind; then you will see from the characteristics of what the soul experiences how, so to speak, what is usually called the unpleasantness of the Kamaloka already ceases in the region of the soul light—as described in *Theosophy* as well. This region of soul light now coincides with the Mercury Sphere; and everything that has been said about the Mercury Sphere can also be applied to what is described in “Theosophy” as the region of soul light. Compare, with an open mind, what has been described of the life of the soul when it has expanded as far as the Mercury Sphere with what is contained in “Theosophy” regarding the region of soul light, and you will see how one account attempts to describe the soul’s inner experiences, while the other describes the great macrocosmic conditions through which the soul passes when it has those inner experiences.

[ 9 ] If you then go on to read in *Theosophy* what is said about the active soul force, you will understand that the inner experiences in the realm of the active soul force must bring about what has been described here as decisive for the passage through the Venus sphere. It has been explained there that the soul must have developed religious impulses in a certain way during its earthly life. In order for it to pass through this Venus sphere correctly, so that it does not have to remain lonely there but can develop a social life, it must possess the qualities described here; it must be imbued with certain religious concepts. If you compare what has been said here with the description of the region of active soul power in *Theosophy*, you will find a correspondence in that these conditions have been presented in one instance from within and in the other from without.

[ 10 ] What has been described as the highest, the most spiritual region of the soul world—the region of true soul life—is experienced when the soul passes through the region of solar life. So that one can also say: The actual Kamaloka sphere extends somewhat beyond the lunar sphere, as already mentioned; then the lighter regions of the soul world begin, extending all the way to the Sun. What the soul experiences at the Sun is precisely the region of soul life. Soul experience is the defining feature of the time after death up to the epoch when the soul passes through the solar region. We also know that in this solar region the soul then becomes particularly intimately acquainted with the spirit of light who on Earth became its tempter, its corrupter: with Lucifer. And we know that as it moves out into the vastness of space, it draws ever closer to those forces that enable it to develop what it needs for its next earthly incarnation. — When the soul passes through the solar region, through the region of solar life, it has only just completed its last earthly incarnation. Up to the region of pleasure and displeasure—that is, up to the point where the soul is situated, as it were, between the Moon and Mercury—it is still deeply imbued with longing for its last earthly life; yet even in the region of Mercury, Venus, and the Sun, the soul is not yet completely free from its last earthly incarnation. But there it must come to terms with what goes beyond mere personal experience; in the Mercury region it must come to terms with what has or has not developed within it in terms of moral concepts, in the Venus region it must come to terms with what has developed within it in terms of religious concepts, and in the Sun region with what has developed within it regarding the grasp of universal human values that are not confined to a religious creed, but rather correspond to a religious life suitable for all humanity. Thus, it is the higher interests—which can still be developed in the further evolution of humanity—that the soul must come to terms with right up to the time of the Sun region.

[ 11 ] Then it enters into the cosmic-spiritual life and joins the Mars region. This Mars region corresponds to what you will find described in my *Theosophy* as the first part of the spirit realm. In this description in “Theosophy,” you will find depicted from within how the human soul has become so spiritualized that it now views what is, so to speak, the archetype of physical corporeality—the physical conditions on Earth in general—as something external. Everything on Earth that is an archetype of physical life appears as a kind of continental region of the Spirit Realm. Etched into this continental region are the outer forms of the various incarnations. This region of the Spirit Realm describes, from within, the same process that a human being must undergo—in cosmic terms—in the Mars region. — It might seem strange that in this Mars region, which has indeed been repeatedly described in these lectures as a region of struggle and aggressive impulses right up to the beginning of the 17th century, that in this Mars region, so to speak, the first region of Devachan—the actual spirit realm—is to be found. And yet it is so. Everything on Earth that belongs to the actual material realm—everything that causes the mineral kingdom to appear as material—is based on the fact that the forces on Earth are in a constant struggle with one another. This also led to the fact that, when materialism was in full bloom and material life was regarded as the only one on Earth, people also saw in this conflict—that is, in the “struggle for existence”—the sole given law of earthly life. This is, of course, a mistake, because it is not merely material existence that develops on Earth. But when a human being enters the Earth, they can only enter existence as it has its archetypes in the lowest region of the spirit world—which is the spirit world for the Earth. — Please now look up this description of the lowest region of the spirit world in my *Theosophy*. I would like to present this very chapter here today so that you may see what, after all, might be said to underlie all our considerations. Recall that the description of the spirit world in my *Theosophy* begins as follows (p. 132):

[ 12 ] “The formation of the spirit in the ‘Land of Spirits’ occurs as a person becomes attuned to the various regions of this land.”

[ 13 ] So, based on what we have considered over the course of this winter, we could say that, starting from the region of Mars, human beings begin to acclimate themselves further to spiritual conditions.

[ 14 ] Next:

[ 15 ] “His own life merges with these regions in a corresponding sequence; he temporarily takes on their characteristics. Through this, they permeate his being with their own essence, so that the former, strengthened by the latter, may then act in the earthly realm. — In the first region of the ‘spirit realm,’ the human being is surrounded by the spiritual archetypes of earthly things. During earthly life, he comes to know only the shadows of these archetypes, which he grasps in his thoughts. What on earth is merely thought is experienced in this region. Man walks among thoughts; but these thoughts are real entities.”

[ 16 ] And then the following is discussed later (p. 133):

[ 17 ] “Here, our own physical forms merge with the rest of the world into a single unity. Thus, we view the archetypes of physical reality as a unity to which we ourselves belong. We therefore gradually come to understand our kinship, our unity with the environment, through observation. We learn to say to it: What spreads out around you here is you yourself. — But this is one of the fundamental ideas of ancient Indian Vedanta wisdom. The “sage” acquires even during earthly life what others experience after death, namely the realization that he himself is related to all things, the thought: “That is you.” In earthly life, this is an ideal to which the life of thought can devote itself; in the “land of spirits,” it is an immediate fact that becomes ever clearer to us through spiritual experience. — And in this land, the human being himself becomes increasingly aware that, in his true nature, he belongs to the spirit world. He perceives himself as a spirit among spirits, as a member of the Primordial Spirit, and he will feel within himself: “I am the Primordial Spirit” (The wisdom of the Vedanta says: “I am Brahman,” that is, I belong as a member to the Primordial Being from which all beings originate.)”

[ 18 ] You will find these words in my *Theosophy*. Thus we see that when describing a person’s entry into the region of Mars, in the life between death and rebirth, they come to understand the full meaning of “That is you,” of “Tat tvam asi,” and of “I am Brahman.” And when here on Earth, within or outside the soul, the words “I am Brahman” or “Tat tvam asi,” “That is you,” resound, this is an earthly reflection of what resounds in the soul as a self-evident experience in the Mars region, the lowest region of the spirit realm. If we now ask ourselves from where ancient Indian wisdom borrowed that which, within this wisdom, has always led to the profoundly significant words “Tat tvam asi,” “That is you,” “I am Brahman,” then we have now found this region, and those teachers of ancient India appear to us as members of the Martian region who have been transferred to Earth. And to what was said years ago in “Theosophy” about the Mars region, about the lowest region of Devachan, we now add what we were able to contemplate this winter: that with the dawn of modern times, the Buddha was transferred into this very same region, into the Mars region of the Earth. That he had been transferred to Earth and, so to speak, as a preparer of the Mystery of Golgotha—spiritually regarded as a forerunner—entered the realm half a millennium before this Mystery of Golgotha, a realm in which Martian wisdom has resounded since time immemorial. And after the Mystery of Golgotha, as we know, he was sent by the Rosicrucians to the Mars region to continue his work there. What thus unfolded in the cosmos—that in ancient times the old Brahmanism was at home in the Mars region, that at the beginning of the 17th century after the Mystery of Golgotha, as we have seen, this Brahmanism transitioned into the Buddha impulse—a reflection of this unfolded here on Earth: the transition from Brahmanism to Buddhism in Indian culture.

[ 19 ] Thus we see how what takes place on Earth is, in a broad and magnificent sense, a reflection of what occurs in the celestial regions.

[ 20 ] So if you read that chapter in *Theosophy* back then—the one that has now revealed itself to you as the Mars region, and regarding which you were made aware that a natural experience there is “I am Brahman”—then, by rereading that chapter, you could now create a mental image of how a process of becoming, an event, also takes place in the regions of the cosmos, how this event can be perceived in a certain way, and how the Buddha impulse relates cosmically to that event which has been described in the relevant chapter of my “Theosophy.” Thus, what we have considered this winter, for example, fits together with that with which we, in a certain sense, began our theosophical work more than ten years ago. When we first described the spirit realm and spoke of a continental region of the spirit realm, when we spoke of how this spirit realm is to be characterized in its lowest region from the standpoint of inner soul life, the description was already presented in such a way that, if you understood the presentation at that time, you will find it only natural that the Buddha impulse can be placed within this Spirit Land, within its lowest region, as we were able to describe this winter. This is how the details of spiritual research come together.

[ 21 ] If we then wish to depict the second region of the spirit realm—the oceanic region of the spirit realm, which was previously described from the inner soul’s perspective—in cosmic terms, we must identify it with the Jupiter region. And if we wish to describe the third region of Devachan, the air region, in cosmic terms, then it coincides with the Saturnic influence, with the Saturn region. And what is described as the fourth region of the Spirit World already extends beyond our planetary system. There the soul expands, so to speak, into wider spaces, into the wider starry heavens. And you will find in the description, which was given at that time from the inner soul’s point of view, how the characteristics of the soul experiences for the fourth region of the spirit realm are such that one can see: they cannot be lived through in what still stands in such a spatial, cosmic relationship to the Earth as the entire planetary system. Something is brought in from the fourth region of the spirit realm that is so utterly foreign that it cannot be reconciled with anything that can be experienced even within the last planetary sphere, the sphere of Saturn.

[ 22 ] And then the soul lives on further and further away from Earth, but also further and further away from the Sun, and ascends into the starry sky. This is described in the three highest regions of the spirit realm, which the soul passes through before it begins to contract again and to retrace all these conditions in a different way, acquiring on its return the powers through which it can then build a new earthly life for itself. We can generally say: Once the soul has passed through the solar region, it is done with everything that can be experienced in a certain way in relation to the human “personality.” What is experienced outside the solar region, outside the region of actual soul life, is then spiritual; it transcends everything personal. What the soul then experiences as the “That is you”—and especially in our time, when it experiences what can be experienced on Mars as the Buddha impulse, which appears so strange here on Earth but no longer appears strange on Mars—the impulse designated by the word “Nirvana,” that is, the letting go of everything that derives its meaning on Earth, thus the drawing near to the great cosmic significance of the universe: the soul experiences all this in such a way that it frees itself from what the personality is. In the Mars region, the lowest region of the spirit realm, where the soul comes to understand the “This is you,” or in our time to receive the Buddha impulse, there it frees itself from all connections with the earthly-natural. After it has freed itself from this in the soul—a process in which the Christ impulse must assist it—it frees itself from it in the spirit by recognizing everything that constitutes blood ties, everything that can be bound on Earth, in its earthly determinacy, but then moves on to new relationships.

[ 23 ] In the Jupiter region, the conditions that force the soul into a specific, narrow religious creed are then dissolved. We know that the soul can only pass through the Venus region in a sociable manner; it would become lonely there if it had no religious creed at all. And we have said that it can only pass through the Sun region properly if it has an understanding of all creeds. In the Jupiter region, however, the soul first frees itself from the creed to which it belonged during its last incarnation. This is not something to which it personally belonged, but something into which it was born, which it shared with other souls. So while it can only pass through the Venus sphere if it has acquired any religious mental images at all during its earthly life, and while it can only pass through the Solar region if it has an understanding of all earthly religious creeds, it can only pass through the Jupiter region if it is able to detach itself from the creed it held during its life; it is not enough that she can merely understand the others. For it is decided there, as she passes through the Jupiter region, whether she must pass through the same creed again next time, or whether she has experienced everything that can be experienced within a particular religious creed. The soul reaps the fruit of a religious creed on Venus; it experiences the fruit of understanding all religious life on the Sun; but when the soul then enters the Jupiter region, it must be able to establish a new religious relationship for the next life it must undergo on Earth. These are three stages that the soul experiences between death and new birth: first, to live through the fruit of the creed to which the soul belonged in its last life; then to receive the fruit of the appreciation it has developed for all other religious creeds as well; then to detach itself from the last creed to such an extent that it can truly pass over into another creed. For simply valuing all creeds at the same time does not yet allow one to pass into another; and we know that as the soul journeys back through these regions, it returns once more to the Jupiter region; there it then prepares within itself the dispositions it needs to live in a different creed in the next life. Thus, the powers necessary for the soul to build a new life are slowly imprinted upon it.

[ 24 ] If you now read what is said in *Theosophy* about the third region of the spirit world, the air region, you will find there the same things that have been stated here in the description of the Saturn region. In this region, only those souls capable of truly practicing a certain level of self-knowledge—unbiased self-knowledge—will be able to be, so to speak, of a sociable nature and will not have to endure a dreadful loneliness. Only by being able to practice self-knowledge can one enter those regions that extend beyond the Saturn region—and thus beyond our solar system—into the cosmic life of the worlds, from which souls must continually bring forth that which truly brings about progress on Earth. For if souls, as social beings, never lived beyond Saturn life, the Earth would never be able to experience progress. Take, for example, the souls sitting here today: if the souls currently incarnated in the world had never gone beyond the Saturn region between death and new birth, then Earth’s culture would still be the same as, for example, in ancient Indian times. It is only through this that ancient Indian culture was able to make its progress toward ancient Persian culture, because in the meantime souls had gone beyond the Saturn region; and in turn, the progress from ancient Persian to Egyptian-Chaldean culture was brought about by the fact that the impulses for progress were brought in from the regions beyond the Saturn sphere. What human beings have contributed to the progress of Earth’s culture has been brought in by the souls from the region beyond the Saturn region.

[ 25 ] All of this, which was brought in from outside the Saturn region, brought about humanity’s external progress; it caused the individual cultural epochs to change from time to time and new cultural impulses to arise. Alongside this, we have that stream of inner experience which is distinct from external cultural progress and which has its earthly focal point in the Mystery of Golgotha. Now, if we know that the stream of inner experience in the earthly soul life of human beings has its focal point in the Mystery of Golgotha, and if, on the other hand, we relate this Mystery of Golgotha to the solar region, then a question arises; a question that could occupy us for a long time in these reflections, but which we at least wish to set before our souls today. For that is precisely the benefit: that our souls can form their own thoughts about such questions, within themselves, on the basis of what we can already find in lectures and cycles, thoughts that are then rectified only in accordance with the research presented here.

[ 26 ] On the one hand, we have the fact that Christ is the Sun Spirit who, through the Mystery of Golgotha, united himself with earthly life. You can read about this fact most accurately in the lecture series “The Gospel of John in Relation to the Three Other Gospels, Especially the Gospel of Luke,” given in Kassel, and in the lecture series “From Jesus to Christ.” Now we have the other fact that all external earthly progress, the progress of the individual cultural epochs, is to be found outside the Saturn region, that it must therefore be brought in from outside the Saturn region. A question therefore arises. What brings about the actual earthly progress from cultural epoch to cultural epoch, is thus connected with a completely different world—outside the sphere of Saturn—than that which brings about the progress that can be characterized as the spiritual current flowing through human development, approaching humanity in ancient times, having its focal point in the Mystery of Golgotha, and then proceeding as has often been described. How do these two things fit together? In fact, one must say: These two things fit together completely.

[ 27 ] You need only create a mental image of the entire development of the Earth as we know it today being preceded by the Earth’s earlier incarnation, the ancient Lunar Age. And now try to picture, one after the other, the ancient Lunar Age—as we have often described it—and the present Earth Age. From the ancient lunar era to the present Earth world, the entire development unfolds in such a way that we have something like a kind of cosmic slumber in the middle. As in a kind of embryonic state, everything that existed on the ancient Moon entered into the transition from the ancient Moon to the Earth, and from this later emerged what exists on Earth. But it was only with this emergence from the world sleep that all the individual planetary spheres also came into being. Thus, the planetary spheres were not as they are today during the ancient lunar era. We have the ancient lunar era; then this enters into the world sleep. Then the world spheres, the planetary spheres, develop; they belong to it as they are now. Therefore, we can go as far out as the Saturn sphere, and within it we have what first took shape in the cosmos between the ancient Lunar and Earth eras. But if we take the Christ impulse, it does not belong to what took shape in the cosmos during this time, but to what already belonged to the ancient Sun, what developed from the ancient Sun, but remained in the Sun when the ancient Moon separated from it, what developed toward the Earth but remained united with the Sun after all the spheres contained within Saturn, Jupiter, and so on had unfolded from the Sun. Therefore, in addition to what it was before the Mystery of Golgotha, the soul now possesses within itself that which is more than all that is contained in the planetary spheres, that which is deeply rooted in the cosmos, that which, while initially descending from the Sun to the Earth, belongs in the spiritual realm to regions far deeper than those we have before us in the planetary spheres. For the planetary spheres are a result of what has come over from the development of the ancient Moon to the Earth. But what comes to us from the Christ impulse comes from the ancient Sun that preceded the ancient Moon.

[ 28 ] From this we see that the outer cultural development of the Earth, insofar as it presents itself as progress, is indeed connected to the cosmos; but that inner life, in a much deeper sense, is even more closely connected to the life of the Sun than outer cultural life is. Thus, spiritually speaking, we also have before us in all these circumstances something of which we can say: Yes, when we look out into the starry worlds, what first appears to us in these starry worlds—as if spread out in space—is a world that is revived in human culture through the human souls who go out into these starry worlds between death and new birth; but when we look toward the Sun, we see in the Sun something that has become what it is today by having itself undergone a long, long process of development. And even when it was not yet possible to speak of a connection between Earth culture and the starry worlds, as we can today, the life of the Sun was already linked to the Christ impulse, standing in relation to it, in primeval times when one could not yet speak of a connection between the Earth and the starry worlds. Thus, everything that is brought down from the starry worlds for the culture of the Earth is, as it were, to be regarded as a kind of earthly body that was to be animated—and was animated—by that which, through the development of the Sun, drew near to the Earth: the Christ impulse. The Earth was animated through the Mystery of Golgotha; it was then that Earth culture received its “soul.” What the “Death on Golgotha” is, is apparent death; in truth, it is the birth of the Earth soul. And everything that can be brought from the realms of the cosmos, even from beyond the sphere of Saturn, relates to the Earth sphere as the Earth body relates to the Earth soul.

[ 29 ] These are reflections that can show us how the book *Theosophy* already contains, albeit in slightly different words and from a different perspective, what has been described this winter, so to speak, from a cosmic standpoint—cosmographically. You need only create a mental image of the situation in which the description is based on the soul, and in the other on the great cosmic relationships, and you can bring the two descriptions into perfect agreement, into complete parallelism.

[ 30 ] The conclusion I would like to draw from this is that you can see how broad the scope of spiritual science is, and that its method must be such that it gathers together, from the most diverse sources, whatever can shed light on the spiritual world. Even if something is added years later to what was said years ago, the statements need not contradict one another; for they do not spring from philosophical systems or human reasoning, but from occult research. What is yellow today will still be yellow in ten years, even if the essence of what yellow is will only be understood after ten years. Thus, what was presented here in earlier years still holds true years later, even if it can now be illuminated from new perspectives through what we are able to contribute.