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At the Gates of Spiritual Science
GA 95

23 August 1906, Stuttgart

2. The Three Worlds

When one speaks of the knowledge of higher realms possessed by Initiates but not yet accessible to ordinary people, one often hears an objection to the following effect: What use to us is this knowledge you say you have of higher worlds if we cannot look into these worlds for ourselves?

I will reply by quoting some beautiful words by a young contemporary whose destiny it has been to become widely known—Helen Keller.6Helen Keller, 1880–1968, American writer. At the age of nineteen months she became blind and deaf. In her second year she became blind and deaf, and even in her seventh year this human child was little more than an animal. Then she met a teacher of genius,7Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan (Mrs Macy).a woman who gave her love, and now, at the age of twenty-six, Helen Keller is certainly one of the most cultured of her compatriots. She has studied the sciences and is astonishingly well read; she is acquainted with the poets, both classical and modern; she also has a good knowledge of the philosophers, Plato, Spinoza and so on. Although the realms of light and sound are for ever closed to her, she retains an impressive courage for living and takes delight in the beauty and splendour of the world. In her book, Optimism,8an essay by Helen Keller, 1903. there are some memorable sentences. “Night and darkness lay around me for years and then came one who taught me, and instead of night and darkness I found peace and hope.” Or again, I have won my way to heaven by thinking and feeling.” Only one thing could be given to her, deprived as she was of sight and hearing, with the sense-world accessible to her only through the communications of others. The lofty thoughts of men of genius have flowed into her soul, and through the reports of those who can speak with knowledge she shares in our familiar world.

That is the situation of anyone who hears of higher worlds only through the communications of others. From this comparison we can see how important such communications are for a person who is himself not yet able to see into these higher worlds. But there is a difference here. Helen Keller has to say to herself: “I shall never be able to see the world with my own eyes.” But every normal person can say to himself: “I shall be able to see into the higher worlds when the eyes of my spirit are opened.” The spiritual eyes and ears of everyone can be opened, if he brings enough patience and perseverance to the task.

Others again ask: How long will it take me to achieve this faculty of spiritual sight? To this an admirable reply has been given by that notable thinker, Subba Row.9Subba Row (Rao), 1856–1890, a learned Indian. He wrote articles for the journal, The Theosophist, which were later collected and published under the title, Esoteric Writings, second edition, 1931, Adyar, Madras. He says: One man will achieve it in seventy incarnations, another in seven; one in seven years, another in seven months or seven days or seven hours; or it will come, as the Bible says, “like a thief in the night”. As I have said, the eyes of the spirit can be opened in every person, if he has the necessary energy and patience. Everyone, accordingly, can derive joy and hope from the communications of another, for what we are told about the higher worlds is not mere theory, unrelated to life. As its fruits it brings us two things we must have if we are to lay hold of life in the right way—strength and security—and both are given in the highest measure. Strength comes from the impulses of the higher worlds; security comes when we are consciously aware that we have been created from out of the invisible worlds. Moreover, nobody has true knowledge of the visible world unless he knows something also of two other worlds.

The three worlds are:

  1. The physical world, the scene of human life.
  2. The astral world or the world of soul.
  3. The devachanic world or world of spirit.

These three worlds are not spatially separate. We are surrounded by the things of the physical world which we perceive with our ordinary senses: but the astral world is in this same space; we live in the other two worlds, the astral and devachanic worlds, at the same time as we live in the physical world. The three worlds are wherever we ourselves are, only we do not yet see the two higher worlds—just as a blind man does not see the physical world. But when the “senses of the soul” are opened, the new world, with its new characteristics and new beings, emerges. In proportion as a man acquires new senses, so are new phenomena revealed to him.

Let us turn now to closer study of the three worlds. The physical world need not be specially characterised. Everyone is familiar with it and with the physical laws which obtain there.

We get to know the astral world only after death, unless as initiates we are already aware of it. Anyone whose senses are opened to the astral world will at first be bewildered, because there is really nothing in the physical world with which he can compare it. The astral world has a whole range of characteristics of its own and he has to learn many new things. One of the most perplexing aspects of this world is that all things appear reversed, in a sort of mirror-reflection, and he has to get used to seeing everything in a new way. For instance, he has to learn to read numbers backwards. We are accustomed to read the figures 3, 4, 5, as 345 but in the astral world we have to read them backwards as 543. Everything appears as its mirror-reflection, and it is essential to be aware of this.

The same law applies also to higher things—in the field of morality, for instance. People do not at first understand this. It may happen that they see themselves surrounded by black, malignant forms which threaten and terrify them—this happens with very many people and they mostly have no idea what it signifies. The fact is that these figures are their own impulses, desires and passions, which live in what we call the astral body. Ordinary people do not see their own passions, but these may sometimes become visible as a result of processes active in the brain and soul, and then they appear as mirror-images. You see the mirror-images of your desires in the same way as when looking into a mirror you see reflected images of the objects around you. Everything that comes out of you seems to be going into you. Further, time and events move backwards. In the physical world you see first the hen and then the egg. In the astral world you see the egg and then the hen that laid it. Time in the astral moves backwards: you see first the effect and then the cause. This explains how prophecy is possible—if it were not for this reversal of the time-sequence it would be impossible to foresee events.

It is by no means useless to recognise these peculiarities of the astral world. Many myths and legends are concerned with them in a wonderfully wise way—for example, the story of the choice of Hercules. Hercules, we are told, once felt himself to be in the presence of two female forms, one beautiful and seductive who promised him pleasure, good fortune and happiness, the other plain and serious, who promised him hard work, weariness and renunciation. The two forms represent vice and virtue, and the story tells us quite rightly how the two natures appeared to Hercules in the astral, one urging him to evil, the other to good. In the mirror-picture they appear as the forms of two women with opposite qualities—vice as beautiful, voluptuous and fascinating, virtue as ugly and repulsive. All such images appear in the astral world reversed. Scholars attribute these legends to the folk-spirit (Volksgeist) but that is not true. Nor do these legends grow up by chance: the great Initiates created them out of their wisdom and imparted them to humanity. All myths, legends, religions and folk-poetry help towards the solution of the riddles of the world, and are founded on the inspiration of Initiates.

The higher worlds convey to us the impulses and powers for living, and in this way we get a basis for morality. Schopenhauer10Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788–1860, philosopher. The quoted sentence is the motto affixed to his “Prize Essay on the Foundation of Morality”, 30 January, 1840. His essay, “On the Will in Nature”, 1836, contains the sentence: “The upshot is easy, but to provide a foundation for morality is difficult.” once said: “To preach morality is easy, to find a foundation for it, difficult.” But without a true foundation we can never make morality our own. People often say: Why worry about the knowledge of higher worlds so long we are good men and have moral principles? In the long run no mere preaching of morality will be effective; but a knowledge of the truth gives morality a sound basis. To preach morality is like preaching to a stove about its duty to provide warmth and heat, while not giving it any coal. If we want a firm foundation for morality, we must supply the soul with fuel in the form of knowledge of the truth.

In occultism there is a saying which can now be made known: In the astral world, every lie is a murder. The full significance of this saying can be appreciated only by someone who has knowledge of the higher worlds. How readily people say: “Oh, that is only a thought or a feeling; it exists only in the soul. To box someone's ears is wrong, but a bad thought does no harm.” No proverb is more untrue than the one which says: “You don't have to pay for your thoughts.” Every thought and every feeling is a reality, and if I let myself think that someone is a bad man or that I don't like him, then for anyone who can see into the astral world the thought is like an arrow or thunderbolt hurled against the other's astral body and injuring it as a gunshot would. I repeat: every thought and every feeling is a reality, and for anyone with astral vision it is often much worse to see someone harbouring bad thoughts about another than to see him inflicting physical harm. When we make this truth known we are not preaching morality but laying a solid foundation for it. If we speak the truth about our neighbour, we are creating a thought which the seer can recognise by its colour and form, and it will be a thought which gives strength to our neighbour. Any thought containing truth finds its way to the being whom it concerns and lends him strength and vigour. If I speak lies about him, I pour out a hostile force which destroys and may even kill him. In this way every lie is an act of murder. Every spoken truth creates a life-promoting element; every lie, an element hostile to life. Anyone who knows this will take much greater care to speak the truth and avoid lies than if he is merely preached at and told he must be nice and truthful.

The astral world is composed in the main of forms and colours similar to those of the physical world, but the colours float freely, like flames, and are not always associated with a particular object, as they are in the physical world. There is one phenomenon in the physical world—the rainbow—which can give you some idea of these floating colours. But the astral colour-images move freely in space; they flicker like a sea of colours, with varying and ever-changing forms and lines.

The pupil gradually comes to recognise a certain resemblance between the physical and astral worlds. At first the sea of colour appears uncontrolled, unattached to any objects; but then the flakes of colour merge together and attach themselves, not indeed to objects but to beings. Whereas previously only a floating shape was apparent, spiritual beings, called gods or devas, now reveal themselves through the colours. The astral world, then, is a world of beings who speak to us through colour.

The astral world is the world of colours; above it is the devachanic world, the world of spirit. The pupil learns to recognise the spiritual world through a quite definite event: he comes to understand the profound utterance of Indian wisdom, “Tat tvam asi”11Tat tvam asi. Sanskrit, from the Vedas.—“That thou art”. Much has been written about this saying, but to the pupil its true meaning becomes clear for the first time when he passes from the astral world into the world of Devachan. Then for a moment he sees his physical form outside himself and says, “That thou art”; and then he is in the world of Devachan. And so another world appears to him; after the world of colours comes the world of musical sounds which in a certain sense was there already without the significance it now has. The world of Devachan is a world of sounds the sounds which Pythagoras12Pythagoras, Greek philosopher, sixth century B.C. called the music of the spheres. The heavenly bodies as they pursue their courses can be heard resounding. Here we recognise the harmony of the Cosmos and we find that everything lives in music. Goethe,13Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 1749–1832. as an Initiate, speaks of the Sun resounding; he indicates the secret of Devachan. When Faust is in heaven, in the spiritual world, surrounded by Devas, the Sun and the spheres speak in music:

The day-star, sonorous as of old
Goes his predestined way along,
And round his path is thunder rolled,
While sister-spheres join rival song.*Faust, Part I, Act I. Prologue in Heaven.
Translation by Philip Wayne.
Penguin Classics, 1949.

Goethe means the spirit of the Sun, which really does sound forth to us in music if we are in the world of Devachan. We can see that this is indeed what Goethe means because he keeps the same image later, in the Second Part of Faust, when Faust is again caught up into this world:

Hark! the Hours, with furious winging,
Bear to spirit-ears the ringing
Rumour of the new day-springing.
Gates of rock grind back asunder,
Phoebus comes with wheels of thunder:
Light spreads tumult through the air.
Loud are trump and timbrel sounded,
Eyes are dazed and ears astounded,
Sounds unheard of none may hear.**Faust, Part II, Act I.
Translation by Philip Wayne.
Penguin Classics, 1959.

When we enter the devachanic world the astral world remains fully present; we hear the devachanic, and we see the astral, but under a changed aspect, offering us a remarkable spectacle. We see everything in the negative, as though on a photographic plate. Where a physical object exists, there is nothing; what is light in the physical world appears dark, and vice versa. We see things, too, in their complementary colours: yellow instead of blue, green instead of red.

In the first region of Devachan we see the archetypes of the physical world in so far as it has no life—the archetypes, that is, of the minerals—but also the archetypes of plants, animals and men in so far as their physical forms are concerned. This is the region which provides as it were the basic skeleton of Spirit-land. It can be compared with the solid land on Earth and is therefore called the “Continental Mass” of Devachan. When a man is observed over there by an Initiate, the physical space he occupies appears dark, but round him is a radiant halo.

When our senses have become more delicately organised, the archetypes of life are added: everything that has life flows over the Earth like water. Here the minerals cannot be seen because they have no vibrant life; but plants, animals and men can be seen very well. Life circulates in Devachan like blood in the body. This second region is called the “Ocean” of Devachan.

In a third region, the “Atmosphere”, we encounter feelings and emotions, pleasure and pain, wherever they are active in the physical. Physical forms then are like solid foundations, the Continents, of Devachan. Everything that has life forms its Ocean. Everything that pleasure and pain signify are its Atmosphere. The content of all that is suffered or enjoyed on Earth, by men or by animals, is displayed here. Thus to the Initiate a battle appears like a great thunderstorm, fiery flashes of lightning, powerful claps of thunder. He sees, not the physical actions that occur in the battle, but the passions of the opposing armies, and these appear to him like the heavy clouds and lightning-flashes of a thunderstorm.

The fourth region transcends everything that might still have existed even if there had been no mankind. It includes all man's original thoughts which enable him to bring something new into the world and to act upon it, no matter whether the thoughts are those of an ignorant or a learned man, of a poet or a peasant. They need not involve any great discoveries; they may belong to everyday life.

After these four regions we come to the boundary of the spiritual world. Just as the sky at night looks like a hollow globe encircled by stars, so it is with this boundary of Devachan. But it is a highly significant boundary; it forms what we call the Akasha Chronicle. Whatever a person has done and accomplished is recorded in that imperishable book of history even if there is no mention of it in our history books. We can experience there everything that has ever been done on Earth by conscious beings. Suppose the seer wants to know something about Caesar:14Julius Caesar, 100–44 B.C. he will take some little incident from history as a starting-point on which to concentrate. This he does “in the spirit”; and then around him appear pictures of all that Caesar did and of all that happened round him—how he led his legions, fought his battles, won his victories.

All this happens in a remarkable way: the seer does not see an abstract script; everything passes before him in silhouettes and pictures, and what he sees is not what actually happened in space; it is something quite different. When Caesar gained one of his victories, he was of course thinking; and all that happened around entered into his thoughts; every movement of an army exists in thought. The Akasha Chronicle therefore shows his intentions, all that he thought and imagined as he was leading his legions; and their thoughts, too, are shown. It is a true picture of what happened, and whatever conscious beings have experienced is depicted there. (Plants, of course, cannot be seen.) Hence the Initiate can read off the whole past history of humanity—but he must first learn how to do it.

These Akasha pictures speak a confusing language, because the Akasha is alive. The Akasha image of Caesar must not be compared with Caesar's individuality, which may already have been reincarnated again. This sort of confusion may very easily arise if we have gained access to the Akasha pictures by external means. Hence they often play a part in spiritualistic séances. The spiritualist imagines he is seeing a man who has died, when it is really only his Akasha picture. Thus a picture of Goethe may appear as he was in 1796, and if we are not properly informed we may confuse this picture with Goethe's individuality. It is all the more bewildering because the image is alive and answers questions, and the answers are not only those given in the past, but quite new ones. They are not repetitions of anything that Goethe actually said, but answers he might well have given. It is even possible that this Akasha image of Goethe might write a poem in Goethe's own style. The Akasha pictures are real, living pictures. Strange as these facts may seem, they are none the less facts.

Zweiter Vortrag

Wenn man von den Erkenntnissen höherer Daseinsgebiete spricht, von denen die Eingeweihten wissen, die aber dem gewöhnlichen Menschen heute noch nicht zugänglich sind, dann wird gegenüber diesem Besprechen übersinnlicher Tatsachen oft ein naheliegender Einwand gemacht. Er heißt: Was erzählt ihr, die ihr vorgebt, ein höheres Wissen zu besitzen, uns von höheren Welten? Was hat das für eine Bedeutung für uns, die wir doch selbst nicht in übersinnliche Welten hineinschauen können? | Darauf erwidere ich mit den schönen Worten einer jungen Zeitgenossin, die durch ihr Schicksal in den weitesten Kreisen bekanntgeworden ist: Helen Keller. Sie wurde im zweiten Lebensjahre blind und taub. Im siebenten Jahre war dieses Menschenkind noch immer wie eine Art Tier. Da fand sich eine liebevolle Seele, eine geniale Lehrerin, und heute, im sechsundzwanzigsten Lebensjahre, gehört Helen Keller wohl zu den Gebildetsten ihres Volkes. Sie ist eingedrungen in die Wissenschaften und hat eine erstaunliche Belesenheit; sie ist vertraut nicht nur mit den klassischen und modernen Dichtern, sondern sie kennt auch und studiert die Philosophen, wie Plato, Spinoza und so weiter. Und sie, der die Welt des Lichtes und der Töne verschlossen ist für immer, hegt einen ergreifenden Lebensmut und innige Freude über die Schönheit und Herrlichkeit der Welt. Einige Sätze aus ihrem Buch über «Optimismus» schreiben sich uns fest in die Seele. Sie sagt: Oh, es lagerte sich um mich herum durch Jahre Nacht und Finsternis, und es hat sich eine Seele gefunden, die mich gelehrt hat, und an Stelle von Nacht und Finsternis trat Friede und Hoffnung. - Eine andere Stelle: Ich habe mir durch Denken und Empfinden den Himmel erobert. Eines nur konnte dieser Seele gegeben werden — nicht Gesicht oder Gehör, die Sinneswelt bleibt ihr verschlossen, nur durch Kunde anderer Menschen dringt sie zu ihr —, aber die erhabenen Gedanken der großen Genien sind in ihre Seele geflossen, und durch die Kunde der Wissenden hat sie Anteil an einer Welt, die Sie alle kennen.

Das ist die Situation dessen, der nur durch die Mitteilungen anderer von höheren Welten hört und selbst nicht hineinschauen kann in diese höheren Welten. Solch ein Vergleich lehrt die Bedeutsamkeit der Mitteilungen aus höheren Welten, wenn man sie auch noch nicht selbst schauen kann. Aber noch etwas anderes steht vor unserer Seele. Helen Keller muß sich sagen: Niemals werde ich die Welt selbst schauen. — Jeder Mensch aber kann sich sagen: Auch ich werde die höheren Welten schauen, wenn meine Geistesaugen geöffnet werden. — Die geistigen Augen und Ohren der Seele sind für jeden operierbar, wenn er nur die nötige Geduld und Ausdauer hat.

Wie lange dauert es denn, bis ich einen Einblick gewinne? - so fragen wieder andere. Da hat der bedeutende Denker Subba Row eine schöne Antwort gegeben. Er sagt: Der eine erreicht es in siebzig Inkarnationen, der andere in sieben Inkarnationen, der eine in siebzig Jahren, der andere in sieben Jahren, ein anderer in sieben Monaten, in sieben Wochen, in sieben Tagen, in sieben Stunden. — Oder die höhere Erkenntnis kommt, wie die Bibel sagt, «wie ein Dieb in der Nacht». Jedes geistige Auge kann geöffnet werden, wenn der Mensch nur die nötige Energie und Geduld hat. Darum kann jeder Freude und Hoffnung schöpfen aus den Mitteilungen anderer, denn was wir hören über die höheren Welten, sind keine Theorien, ist nicht etwas, was ohne Beziehung zu unserem Leben steht. Es ist etwas, was uns zwei Dinge als Früchte bringt, die wir haben müssen im Leben, wenn wir es richtig ergreifen wollen: Kraft und Sicherheit. Und beides gewinnen wir im vollsten Umfange: Kraft aus den Impulsen der höheren Welten, Sicherheit, wenn wir das Woher und Wohin des Menschen wissen, wenn uns bewußt wird, daß wir sichtbar ein Geschöpf der unsichtbaren Welt sind. Aber nur der kennt recht die sichtbare Welt, der auch von den zwei anderen Welten weiß.

Die drei Welten sind:

1. die physische Welt, der Schauplatz aller Menschen
2. die astralische oder seelische Welt
3. die devachanische oder geistige Welt.

Diese drei Welten sind räumlich voneinander nicht getrennt. Es umgeben uns die Dinge der physischen Welt, die wir mit den äußeren Sinnesorganen wahrnehmen; aber in demselben Raume mit uns ist auch die astralische Welt. Ebenso wie in der physischen Welt leben wir auch zugleich in den beiden anderen Welten, in der astralischen und in der devachanischen Welt. Überall, wo wir sind, sind auch die drei Welten. Wir sehen die höheren Welten nur noch nicht, gleich dem Blinden, der die physische Welt nicht sieht. Aber wenn die Seelensinne dem Menschen geöffnet werden, dann tritt die neue Welt mit den neuen Eigenschaften und den neuen Wesenheiten für ihn hervor. Bekommt er neue Sinne, bekommt er auch neue Dinge.

Wenn wir nun zu einer näheren Betrachtung dieser drei Welten schreiten, so können wir sagen: Die physische Welt ist nicht besonders zu charakterisieren. Jeder kennt sie, und jeder lernt die physischen Gesetze, die darin gelten, kennen.

Die Astralwelt lernt er kennen nach dem Tode, oder er lebt jetzt darin als Eingeweihter. Der Schüler, dessen Sinne für die Astralwelt geöffnet werden, ist zunächst in einer Verwirrung, denn was dort auftaucht, ist mit nichts in der physischen Welt recht zu vergleichen. Man muß viele Dinge ganz neu lernen. Die Astralwelt charakterisiert sich durch eine Reihe von Eigenschaften. Eine verwirrende Eigenschaft ist vor allem für den Schüler, daß ihm alle Dinge verkehrt, sozusagen im Spiegelbilde erscheinen, so daß er sich gewöhnen muß, sie ganz anders anzusehen. Er muß zum Beispiel lernen, Zahlen von rückwärts nach vorwärts zu lesen. Wir sind gewohnt, eine Zahl so zu lesen, daß, wenn dasteht 3, 4, 5, wir 345 lesen; in der Astralwelt müssen wir umgekehrt, 543 lesen. Alles kehrt sich zum Spiegelbild um. Das ist sehr wichtig zu wissen. Das trifft auch für höhere Dinge, zum Beispiel moralische Dinge zu, auch solche erscheinen im Spiegelbild. Das begreifen die Leute zunächst nicht recht. Viele Menschen heutzutage klagen, daß sie sich umgeben sehen von bösartigen schwarzen Gestalten, die sie bedrohen und beängstigen und dergleichen. Das ist eine Erscheinung, die heute schon sehr viele Menschen befällt und über die die meisten gar nicht Bescheid wissen. In vielen Fällen verhält es sich nun so: Es sind das die eigenen Triebe, Begierden und Leidenschaften, die im Menschen leben, und zwar in dem, was wir den Astralkörper nennen. Der gewöhnliche Mensch sieht ja nicht seine eigenen Leidenschaften, aber durch besondere Vorgänge in der Seele und im Gehirn kann der Fall eintreten, daß sie ihm sichtbar werden; nur erscheinen sie ihm dann wie im Spiegelbild. Wie einer, der in den Spiegel schaut und rund um sich die Gegenstände sieht, so erblickt er rund um sich die Spiegelbilder seiner eigenen Triebe und so weiter. Alles, was aus ihm herausströmt, sieht er dann auf sich einströmen. Eine andere Erscheinung ist, daß die Zeit und die Ereignisse nach rückwärts gehen. Zum Beispiel sehen wir im Physischen zuerst die Henne und dann das Ei. Im Astralischen sieht man umgekehrt erst das Ei und dann die Henne, welche das Ei gelegt hat. Im Astralen bewegt sich die Zeit zurück; erst sieht man die Wirkung und dann die Ursache. Daher der prophetische Blick; niemand könnte künftige Ereignisse voraussehen ohne dieses Rückwärtsgehen von Zeitereignissen.

Es ist nicht wertlos, diese Eigentümlichkeiten der Astralwelt kennenzulernen. Viele Mythen und Sagen aller Völker haben sich mit wunderbarer Weisheit damit beschäftigt, zum Beispiel die Sage vom Herkules auf dem Scheidewege. Es wird gesagt, daß er sich einst hingestellt fühlte vor zwei weibliche Gestalten, die eine schön und verlockend; sie versprach ihm Lust, Glück und Seligkeit, die zweite einfach und ernst, von Mühsal, schwerer Arbeit und Entsagung sprechend. Die beiden Gestalten sind das Laster und die Tugend. Diese Sage sagt uns richtig, wie im Astralen des Herkules eigene zwei Naturen vor ihn treten, die eine, die ihn zum Bösen, die andere Natur, die ihn zum Guten drängt. Und diese erscheinen im Spiegelbilde als zwei Frauengestalten mit entgegengesetzten Eigenschaften: das Laster schön, üppig, bestrickend, die Tugend häßlich und abstoßend. Ein jedes Bild erscheint im Astralen umgekehrt.

Die Gelehrten schreiben solche Sagen dem Volksgeist zu. Dies ist nicht wahr. Auch nicht zufällig sind diese Sagen entstanden. Die großen Eingeweihten haben sie nach ihrer Weisheit geformt und den Menschen mitgeteilt. Alle Sagen, Mythen, alle Religionen, alle Volksdichtungen dienen zur Lösung der Welträtsel und beruhen auf Eingebungen der Eingeweihten.

Die Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten bringen uns Impulse und Kräfte zum Leben, und durch sie wird eine Begründung der Moral erlangt. Schopenhauer sagt: «Moral predigen ist leicht, Moral begründen schwer.» Ohne eine wirkliche Begründung jedoch wird man sich die Moral nie wirklich zu eigen machen.

Viele Menschen sagen: Was sollen uns die Erkenntnisse höherer Welten, wenn wir nur gute Menschen werden und moralische Prinzipien haben! - Aber auf die Dauer werden keine Moralpredigten eine Wirkung haben, wohl aber wird die Erkenntnis der Wahrheit die richtige Moral begründen. Der Moralprediger gleicht dem Menschen, der dem Ofen seine Pflichten vom Heizen und Wärmen vorpredigt, ihm aber keine Kohlen gibt. Will man Moral begründen, muß man der Seele «Heizmaterial» geben, und das geschieht nur durch die Erkenntnis der Wahrheit.

Es gibt einen Satz im Okkultismus, der jetzt bekannt werden kann: Jede Lüge ist in der Astralwelt ein Mord! - Das ist ein sehr bedeutungsvoller Satz, dessen Wichtigkeit nur der einsieht, der Erkenntnis der höheren Welten hat. Wie leichthin sprechen die Menschen: Ach, das ist ja nur ein Gedanke, ein Gefühl, das bleibt in der Seele; eine Ohrfeige darf ich nicht geben, aber ein schlechter Gedanke, der schadet nichts. — Es gibt kein unwahreres Sprichwort als: Gedanken sind zollfrei, - denn jeder Gedanke, jedes Gefühl ist eine Wirklichkeit, und wenn ich denke, einer sei ein schlechter Mensch oder ich liebe ihn nicht, so ist das für den, der in die Astralwelt hineinschauen kann, wie ein Pfeil, wie ein Blitz, der sich wie eine Flintenkugel gegen den Astralleib des anderen bewegt und ihn schädigt. Jedes Gefühl, jeder Gedanke ist eine Wesenheit, eine Form in der Astralwelt, und für den, der Einblick hat in diese Welt, ist es oft viel schlimmer, mit anzusehen, wenn einer einen schlechten Gedanken über seinen Mitmenschen hat, als wenn er ihn physisch schädigt. Macht man diese Wahrheit bekannt, so heißt das Moral begründen, nicht predigen. Sagt man über einen Menschen die Wahrheit, so bildet sich eine Gedankenform, die der Seher nach Form und Farbe erkennen kann und die das Leben des Nächsten verstärkt. Der Gedanke, der eine Wahrheit enthält, geht auf die Wesenheit hin, auf die er sich bezieht, und fördert und belebt sie. Wenn ich also eine Wahrheit denke über meinen Mitmenschen, so stärke ich sein Leben; sage ich eine Lüge über ihn, so ströme ich eine feindliche Kraft auf ihn, die zerstörend, ja tötend wirkt. Daher ist jede Lüge ein Mord. Jede Wahrheit bildet ein lebenförderndes Element, jede Lüge ein lebenhemmendes Element. Wer das weiß, der wird sich mehr in acht nehmen in bezug auf Wahrheit und Lüge als jener, dem man nur predigt, man solle nur immer hübsch die Wahrheit sagen.

Die Astralwelt ist in der Hauptsache aus Formen und Farben zusammengesetzt. Solche gibt es auch in der physischen Welt; wir sind aber gewohnt, auf dem physischen Plan die Farben immer mit einem Gegenstand verbunden zu sehen. In der astralen Welt schwebt diese Farbe wie ein Flammenbild frei in der Luft. Es gibt eine Erscheinung der physischen Welt, die an diese schwebenden Farben erinnert, das ist der Regenbogen. Aber die astralischen Farbenbilder sind frei im Raum beweglich, sie vibrieren wie eine Flut von Farben, ein Farbenmeer in immer wechselnden, verschiedenartigen Linien und Formen.

Allmählich aber kommt der Schüler dazu, eine gewisse Ähnlichkeit zwischen der physischen und astralen Welt zu erkennen. Zuerst erscheint ihm diese Glut, dieses Farbenmeer sozusagen als herrenlos, es haftet nicht an Gegenständen. Dann aber treten die Farbenflocken zusammen und heften sich, zwar nicht an Gegenstände, aber an Wesenheiten. Während vorher nur eine schwebende Form gesehen wurde, offenbaren sich jetzt durch diese Farben geistige Wesenheiten, die man Götter, Devas, nennt. Es sprechen sich darin geistige Wesenheiten aus. Eine Welt von Wesenheiten, die durch Farben zu uns spricht, ist die Astralwelt.

Die Astralwelt ist die Welt der Farben; höher noch steht die devachanische, die geistige Welt. Wenn der Schüler die geistige Welt kennenlernt, bemerkt er das an einem ganz bestimmten Vorgang; er lernt verstehen ein tiefes Wort indischer Weisheit, Tat tvam asi, das heißt: Das bist du! - Darüber ist viel geschrieben worden. Die wahre Bedeutung lernt der Schüler erst kennen, wenn er von der astralischen in die Devachanwelt eintritt. Da sieht er in einem Moment seine physische Gestalt außerhalb seiner selbst und sagt: Das bist du. Während er früher zu sich gesprochen hat: Das bin ich, - sieht er jetzt seine physische Gestalt außerhalb seiner selbst und sagt: Das bist du. - In diesem Moment ist der Mensch in der Devachanweelt. Da tritt für ihn zu der Welt der Farben klar und deutlich noch eine andere Welt hinzu: die Welt der Töne, die in einem gewissen Sinne schon da war, aber nicht diese Bedeutung hatte. Die Devachanwelt ist die tönende Welt. Dieses Tönen bezeichnete Pythagoras als Sphärenmusik. Tönend hört man die Weltenkörper ihre Bahnen ziehen. Man vernimmt die Weltenharmonie, alles lebt in Tönen. Goethe läßt als Eingeweihter die Sonne tönen, er zeigt das Geheimnis des Devachan. Als Faust im Himmel, in der geistigen Welt ist, umgeben von Devas, da tönt die Sonne, da tönen die Sphären:

Die Sonne tönt nach alter Weise
In Brudersphären Wettgesang,
Und ihre vorgeschriebne Reise
Vollendet sie mit Donnergang.

Er meint den Geist der Sonne, der wirklich tönt, wenn man in der Devachanwelt weilt. Daß Goethe dies meint, können wir daraus ersehen, daß er bei dem Bilde bleibt. Im zweiten Teil von «Faust», als Faust wieder in diese Welt entrückt wird, heißt es:

Tönend wird für Geistesohren
Schon der neue Tag geboren.
Felsentore knarren rasselnd,
Phöbus’ Räder rollen prasselnd,
Welch Getöse bringt das Licht!
Es drommetet, es posaunet,
Auge blinzt und Ohr erstaunet,
Unerhörtes hört sich nicht.

Man hört die devachanische und sieht die astralische Welt. Beim Eintritt in die devachanische Welt bleibt für den Schüler die Astralwelt voll bestehen, sie verändert sich aber für ihn. Wenn man zuerst die Devachanwelt betritt, bietet sie einem einen merkwürdigen Anblick: Man sieht in der Devachanwelt jedes Ding im Negativ, wie auf der photographischen Platte. Wo ein physischer Gegenstand ist, sieht man nichts; was physisch hell ist, ist dort schwarz, und umgekehrt. Man sieht alles in den Komplementärfarben: statt Blau Gelb, statt Rot Grün. In der ersten Region des Devachan sind die Urbilder der physischen Welt, insofern diese nicht mit Leben begabt ist, also die Urbilder der Mineralien und ferner die der Pflanzen, Tiere und Menschen, insofern es sich um ihre physischen Formen handelt. Es ist die Region, die das Grundgerüste des Geisterlandes bildet. Es kann verglichen werden mit dem festen Land unserer physischen Erde; daher heißt sie die «Kontinentalmasse» des Devachan. Ein Mensch, der vor einem Eingeweihten steht, erscheint dort, wo er physisch den Raum ausfüllt, dunkel, aber ringsherum von einer Strahlenhülle umgeben.

Wenn die Sinne feiner werden, treten die Urbilder des Lebens hinzu, und alles, was Leben ist, flutet wie das Wasser auf der Erde dahin. Hier kann man ein Mineral nicht sehen, weil es kein pulsierendes Leben hat, wohl aber die Pflanze, das Tier und den Menschen. Wie das Blut im Körper, so fließt alles Leben im Devachan. Man nennt diese zweite Abteilung die «Meere» des Devachan.

In der dritten Abteilung, dem «Luftkreis», flutet alles dahin, was an Gefühlen und Empfindungen, an Lust und Schmerz im Physischen lebt.

Die physischen Gebilde sind gleichsam die feste kontinentale Grundlage im Devachan. Alles, was Leben in sich hat, ist Meer. Alles, was Lust und Leid bedeutet, ist in dem Luftkreis des Devachan enthalten. Der Inhalt all dessen, was auf Erden gelitten und genossen wird, stellt sich hier dar, also alles Tierische und Menschliche. Eine Schlacht zum Beispiel erscheint dem Eingeweihten auf dem Devachanplan wie feurige, zuckende Blitze, wie gewaltiger Donner, man könnte sagen, wie ein heftiges Gewitter. Aber es sind nicht die physischen Wirkungen der Schlacht, sondern die Leidenschaften der feindlichen Heere, die sich da gegenüberstehen und die dem Eingeweihten wie schwere Wolken mit Donner und Blitz erscheinen.

Die vierte Abteilung des Devachan geht hinaus über all das, was auch ohne den Menschen schon vorhanden wäre. Sie enthält alles das, was an originellen Gedanken im Menschen lebt, durch die er Neues in die Welt bringt und auf die Welt wirkt, gleichgültig, ob es die Gedanken eines Gelehrten oder Ungelehrten, eines Dichters oder eines Bauern sind. Es brauchen also keine großen Erfindungen zu sein, diese Gedanken können auch dem Alltag angehören.

Nach diesen vier Partien steht man an der Grenze der geistigen Welt. Wie uns nachts der Himmel wie eine Hohlkugel, umgrenzt von einem Sternenkranz, erscheint, so ist es mit dieser Grenze des Devachan. Aber das ist eine bedeutungsvolle Grenze, sie heißt «Akasha-Chronik». Alles, was der Mensch je getan und gewirkt hat, wenn es auch nicht von Geschichtsbüchern gemeldet wird, es bleibt in jenem unvergänglichen Geschichtsbuch an der Grenze des Devachan, das man die Akasha-Chronik nennt, eingeschrieben. Alles, was je von bewußten Wesen in der Welt bewirkt wurde, ist dort zu erfahren. Will der Seher zum Beispiel etwas wissen über Cäsar, dann nimmt er irgendeine Kleinigkeit aus der Geschichte als Anhalt, um einen festen Punkt zu haben, auf den er sich konzentrieren kann. Das tut er geistig; dann zeigen sich um ihn herum Bilder von all dem, was Cäsar tat, was um ihn herum geschehen ist, wie er seine Legionen gelenkt, seine Schlachten geschlagen, seine Siege erfochten hat. Aber in merkwürdiger Weise tritt das auf; der Seher sieht nicht nur eine abstrakte Schrift, sondern wie in Schattenrissen, in Bildern zieht alles vorüber. Es spielt sich nicht das ab, was sich im Raume zugetragen hat, sondern etwas ganz anderes. Wenn Cäsar zum Beispiel seine Siege erfochten hat, hat er gedacht; alles, was um ihn herum vorging, lebte auch in seinen Gedanken, jede Armbewegung lebt ja auch in den Gedanken. Die Absichten, also das, was Cäsar sich vorgestellt und gedacht hat, als er seine Legionen lenkte, und auch deren Vorstellungen, das zeigt die Akasha-Chronik. Sie ist ein treues Abbild alles dessen, was vorgegangen ist; was bewußte Wesen überhaupt erlebt haben, das wird da verzeichnet. Der Eingeweihte kann so die ganze menschliche Vergangenheit ablesen. Aber er muß es erst lernen. Diese Akasha-Bilder führen eine verwirrende Sprache, weil Akasha etwas Lebendiges ist. Aber man darf das Akasha-Bild Cäsars nicht verwechseln mit der Individualität Cäsars. Die kann schon wieder verkörpert sein. Das Verwechseln passiert namentlich dann leicht, wenn man durch äußere Mittel Zugang gewinnt zu den Akasha-Bildern. So spielen sie oft eine Rolle in spiritistischen Sitzungen. Der Spiritist glaubt einen verstorbenen Menschen zu sehen, es ist aber nur dessen Akasha-Bild. Ein Akasha-Bild von Goethe zum Beispiel kann auftreten, wie er im Jahre 1796 gewirkt hat; der Unkundige verwechselt es mit der Individualität Goethes. Das ist um so verwirrender, als dieses Bild lebt, auf Fragen Antwort gibt, und zwar nicht nur solche, die schon damals gegeben wurden, sondern ganz neue, die nicht ausgesprochen wurden. Es sind nicht Wiederholungen, sondern Antworten, so wie sie Goethe damals gegeben haben könnte. Es ist durchaus möglich, daß dieses Akasha-Bild Goethes sogar ein Gedicht macht im Stil und Sinn des damaligen Goethe. Die Akasha-Bilder sind eben richtig lebendige Gebilde.

So wunderbar sind diese Tatsachen, aber es sind Tatsachen.

Second lecture

When one speaks of the insights of higher realms of existence, which are known to the initiated but are not yet accessible to ordinary people today, an obvious objection is often raised to this discussion of supersensible facts. It is: What are you, who claim to possess higher knowledge, telling us about higher worlds? What significance does this have for us, who cannot ourselves see into supernatural worlds? | I respond to this with the beautiful words of a young contemporary who has become known in the widest circles through her fate: Helen Keller. She became blind and deaf in her second year of life. At the age of seven, this child was still like a kind of animal. Then a loving soul, a brilliant teacher, came along, and today, at the age of twenty-six, Helen Keller is probably one of the most educated members of her people. She has delved into the sciences and has an astonishing breadth of knowledge; she is not only familiar with classical and modern poets, but also knows and studies philosophers such as Plato, Spinoza, and so on. And she, who is forever shut out from the world of light and sound, has a moving courage to face life and a deep joy in the beauty and glory of the world. Some sentences from her book on “Optimism” are etched in our souls. She says: Oh, night and darkness surrounded me for years, and a soul was found that taught me, and in place of night and darkness came peace and hope. Another passage: “I have conquered heaven through thought and feeling. Only one thing could be given to this soul—not sight or hearing, for the sensory world remains closed to her, reaching her only through the knowledge of other people—but the sublime thoughts of the great geniuses have flowed into her soul, and through the knowledge of those who know, she has a share in a world that you all know.”

This is the situation of someone who hears about higher worlds only through the communications of others and cannot see into these higher worlds himself. Such a comparison teaches the significance of communications from higher worlds, even if one cannot yet see them oneself. But there is something else before our soul. Helen Keller must say to herself: I will never see the world myself. — But every human being can say to themselves: I too will see the higher worlds when my spiritual eyes are opened. — The spiritual eyes and ears of the soul can be opened for everyone, if only they have the necessary patience and perseverance.

How long will it take before I gain insight? — others ask. The eminent thinker Subba Row gave a beautiful answer to this question. He said: One person achieves it in seventy incarnations, another in seven incarnations, one in seventy years, another in seven years, another in seven months, in seven weeks, in seven days, in seven hours. Or, as the Bible says, higher knowledge comes “like a thief in the night.” Every spiritual eye can be opened if the person has the necessary energy and patience. That is why everyone can draw joy and hope from the messages of others, because what we hear about the higher worlds are not theories, not something unrelated to our lives. It is something that brings us two things that we must have in life if we want to grasp it properly: strength and security. And we gain both to the fullest extent: strength from the impulses of the higher worlds, security when we know where humans come from and where they are going, when we become aware that we are visibly creatures of the invisible world. But only those who also know about the other two worlds truly know the visible world.

The three worlds are:

1. the physical world, the scene of all human beings
2. the astral or soul world
3. the devachanic or spiritual world.

These three worlds are not spatially separated from each other. We are surrounded by the things of the physical world, which we perceive with our external sense organs; but the astral world is also in the same space with us. Just as in the physical world, we also live simultaneously in the other two worlds, the astral and the devachanic worlds. Wherever we are, the three worlds are also there. We just cannot see the higher worlds yet, like a blind person who cannot see the physical world. But when the soul senses are opened to human beings, the new world with its new qualities and new beings emerges for them. When they acquire new senses, they also acquire new things.

If we now proceed to a closer examination of these three worlds, we can say: The physical world does not need to be characterized in any special way. Everyone knows it, and everyone learns the physical laws that apply in it.

He learns about the astral world after death, or he lives in it now as an initiate. The student whose senses are opened to the astral world is initially confused, because what appears there cannot really be compared to anything in the physical world. Many things have to be learned from scratch. The astral world is characterized by a number of properties. One property that is particularly confusing for the student is that everything appears upside down, as if in a mirror image, so that he has to get used to seeing things in a completely different way. For example, he has to learn to read numbers backwards. We are used to reading a number so that when it says 3, 4, 5, we read 345; in the astral world, we have to read it the other way around, 543. Everything is reversed into a mirror image. This is very important to know. This also applies to higher things, for example moral things, which also appear in mirror image. People don't really understand this at first. Many people today complain that they see themselves surrounded by evil black figures that threaten and frighten them and so on. This is a phenomenon that already affects many people today and about which most people know nothing. In many cases, it is the person's own instincts, desires, and passions that live within them, specifically in what we call the astral body. Ordinary people do not see their own passions, but through special processes in the soul and brain, they can become visible to them; however, they then appear as if in a mirror image. Like someone who looks in the mirror and sees objects around them, they see the mirror images of their own instincts and so on around them. They then see everything that flows out of them flowing back into them. Another phenomenon is that time and events go backwards. For example, in the physical world we see the hen first and then the egg. In the astral world, on the other hand, we first see the egg and then the hen that laid it. In the astral world, time moves backwards; first we see the effect and then the cause. Hence the prophetic gaze; no one could foresee future events without this backward movement of time events.

It is not worthless to learn about these peculiarities of the astral world. Many myths and legends of all peoples have dealt with this with wonderful wisdom, for example, the legend of Hercules at the crossroads. It is said that he once found himself standing before two female figures, one beautiful and enticing, promising him pleasure, happiness, and bliss, the second simple and serious, speaking of hardship, hard work, and renunciation. The two figures represent vice and virtue. This legend correctly tells us how, in Hercules' astral world, two natures appear before him, one urging him toward evil, the other toward good. And these appear in the mirror image as two female figures with opposite characteristics: vice beautiful, voluptuous, beguiling, virtue ugly and repulsive. Each image appears reversed in the astral plane.

Scholars attribute such legends to the spirit of the people. This is not true. Nor did these legends arise by chance. The great initiates shaped them according to their wisdom and communicated them to the people. All legends, myths, all religions, all folk poetry serve to solve the riddles of the world and are based on the inspirations of the initiates.

The insights of the higher worlds give us impulses and forces for life, and through them a foundation for morality is attained. Schopenhauer says: “Preaching morality is easy, justifying morality is difficult.” Without a real justification, however, one will never truly make morality one's own.

Many people say: What use are the insights of higher worlds to us if we just become good people and have moral principles! - But in the long run, no moral sermons will have any effect, whereas the knowledge of truth will establish the right morality. The moral preacher is like a person who preaches to the stove about its duties of heating and warming, but does not give it any coal. If one wants to establish morality, one must give the soul “fuel,” and that can only be done through the knowledge of truth.

There is a saying in occultism that can now be revealed: Every lie is murder in the astral world! This is a very meaningful saying, the importance of which can only be understood by those who have knowledge of the higher worlds. How lightly people speak: Oh, it's just a thought, a feeling that remains in the soul; I mustn't slap someone, but a bad thought does no harm. There is no saying more untrue than: thoughts are duty-free, for every thought, every feeling is a reality, and if I think that someone is a bad person or that I do not love them, then for those who can see into the astral world, it is like an arrow, like a lightning bolt, which moves like a shotgun pellet toward the other person's astral body and damages it. Every feeling, every thought is a being, a form in the astral world, and for those who have insight into this world, it is often much worse to see someone having bad thoughts about their fellow human beings than to see them physically harming them. Making this truth known is establishing morality, not preaching. When you tell the truth about a person, a thought form is created that the seer can recognize by its shape and color and that strengthens the life of your neighbor. The thought that contains a truth goes to the entity to which it refers and promotes and enlivens it. So when I think a truth about my fellow human being, I strengthen his life; if I tell a lie about them, I pour a hostile force upon them that has a destructive, even deadly effect. Therefore, every lie is murder. Every truth forms a life-promoting element, every lie a life-inhibiting element. Those who know this will be more careful with regard to truth and lies than those who are simply preached to that they should always tell the truth.

The astral world is mainly composed of forms and colors. These also exist in the physical world, but we are accustomed to always seeing colors associated with an object on the physical plane. In the astral world, these colors float freely in the air like images of flames. There is a phenomenon in the physical world that is reminiscent of these floating colors, and that is the rainbow. But the astral color images are freely movable in space; they vibrate like a flood of colors, a sea of colors in ever-changing, diverse lines and forms.

Gradually, however, the student comes to recognize a certain similarity between the physical and astral worlds. At first, this glow, this sea of colors, appears to him to be ownerless, not attached to any objects. But then the flakes of color come together and attach themselves, not to objects, but to beings. Whereas before only a floating form was seen, now these colors reveal spiritual beings called gods or devas. Spiritual beings express themselves in them. A world of beings that speaks to us through colors is the astral world.

The astral world is the world of colors; even higher is the devachanic, the spiritual world. When the student gets to know the spiritual world, he notices this in a very specific process; he learns to understand a profound word of Indian wisdom, Tat tvam asi, which means: That is you! Much has been written about this. The student only learns the true meaning when he enters the Devachan world from the astral world. There, in a moment, he sees his physical form outside of himself and says: That is you. Whereas he used to say to himself: That is me, he now sees his physical form outside of himself and says: That is you. - At that moment, the human being is in the Devachan world. There, another world clearly and distinctly joins the world of colors: the world of sounds, which in a certain sense was already there, but did not have this meaning. The Devachan world is the world of sound. Pythagoras described this sound as the music of the spheres. One hears the bodies of the worlds moving in their orbits. One hears the harmony of the worlds; everything lives in sounds. As an initiate, Goethe lets the sun sound; he reveals the secret of Devachan. When Faust is in heaven, in the spiritual world, surrounded by devas, the sun sounds, the spheres sound:

The sun sounds in the old way
In brotherly spheres, a song of competition,
And its prescribed journey
It completes with a thunderous roar.

He means the spirit of the sun, which really sounds when one dwells in the Devachan world. We can see that Goethe means this from the fact that he sticks to the image. In the second part of “Faust,” when Faust is transported back to this world, it says:

Resounding to spiritual ears
The new day is already born.
Rock gates creak and rattle,
Phoebus' wheels roll with a clatter,
What a din the light brings!
It drums, it trumpets,
Eyes blink and ears are astonished,
The unheard is not heard.

One hears the devachanic world and sees the astral world. Upon entering the Devachanic world, the astral world remains fully intact for the student, but it changes for him. When one first enters the Devachanic world, it offers a strange sight: in the Devachanic world, one sees everything in negative, as on a photographic plate. Where there is a physical object, one sees nothing; what is physically bright is black there, and vice versa. Everything is seen in complementary colors: yellow instead of blue, green instead of red. In the first region of Devachan are the archetypes of the physical world, insofar as it is not endowed with life, i.e., the archetypes of minerals and, further, those of plants, animals, and humans, insofar as their physical forms are concerned. It is the region that forms the basic framework of the spirit world. It can be compared to the solid land of our physical earth; hence it is called the “continental mass” of Devachan. A person standing before an initiate appears dark where he physically fills the space, but surrounded by a radiant shell.

As the senses become more refined, the archetypes of life appear, and everything that is life flows like water on earth. Here one cannot see a mineral because it has no pulsating life, but one can see plants, animals, and humans. Like blood in the body, all life flows in Devachan. This second division is called the “seas” of Devachan.

In the third division, the “air circle,” everything that lives in the physical realm in terms of feelings and sensations, pleasure and pain, flows away.

The physical structures are, as it were, the solid continental foundation in Devachan. Everything that has life in it is sea. Everything that signifies pleasure and suffering is contained in the air circle of Devachan. The content of everything that is suffered and enjoyed on earth is represented here, that is, everything animal and human. A battle, for example, appears to the initiate on the Devachan plane as fiery, flashing lightning, as mighty thunder, one might say, as a violent thunderstorm. But it is not the physical effects of the battle, but the passions of the opposing armies that appear to the initiate like heavy clouds with thunder and lightning.

The fourth division of Devachan goes beyond everything that would already exist without human beings. It contains all the original thoughts that live in human beings, through which they bring new things into the world and influence the world, regardless of whether they are the thoughts of a scholar or an uneducated person, a poet or a farmer. So these thoughts do not have to be great inventions; they can also be part of everyday life.

After these four sections, one stands at the border of the spiritual world. Just as the sky appears to us at night like a hollow sphere surrounded by a ring of stars, so it is with this border of Devachan. But this is a significant border, it is called the “Akashic Records.” Everything that human beings have ever done and accomplished, even if it is not recorded in history books, remains inscribed in that imperishable history book at the border of Devachan, which is called the Akashic Records. Everything that has ever been accomplished by conscious beings in the world can be found there. If, for example, the seer wants to know something about Caesar, he takes some minor detail from history as a starting point in order to have a fixed point on which to concentrate. He does this mentally; then images appear around him of everything Caesar did, what happened around him, how he led his legions, fought his battles, and won his victories. But this occurs in a remarkable way; the seer does not merely see an abstract text, but rather, as in silhouettes, everything passes by in images. It is not what happened in the room that is being played out, but something entirely different. When Caesar won his victories, for example, he thought; everything that happened around him also lived in his thoughts, just as every movement of the arm also lives in the thoughts. The Akashic Records show the intentions, that is, what Caesar imagined and thought when he commanded his legions, as well as their ideas. It is a faithful reflection of everything that has happened; everything that conscious beings have ever experienced is recorded there. The initiate can thus read the entire human past. But he must first learn how to do so. These Akashic images speak a confusing language because Akasha is something alive. But one must not confuse the Akashic image of Caesar with the individuality of Caesar. That may already be embodied again. Confusion easily arises when one gains access to the Akashic records through external means. They often play a role in spiritualist séances. The spiritualist believes he sees a deceased person, but it is only his Akashic record. An Akashic image of Goethe, for example, may appear as he was in 1796; the uninformed person confuses it with Goethe's individuality. This is all the more confusing because this image is alive, answers questions, and not only those that were asked at the time, but also completely new ones that were not asked. These are not repetitions, but answers, just as Goethe might have given them at that time. It is quite possible that this Akasha image of Goethe might even compose a poem in the style and spirit of Goethe at that time. Akasha images are truly living entities.

These facts are so wonderful, but they are facts.