At the Gates of Spiritual Science
GA 95
25 August 1906, Stuttgart
4. Devachan
We have seen how at his death a man leaves behind him the corpse, first of his physical body, then of his etheric body and finally of his lower astral body. What is then left when he has shed these three bodies? The memory-picture which comes before the soul at death vanishes at the moment when the etheric body takes leave of the astral. It sinks into the unconscious, so to speak, and ceases to have any significance for the soul as an immediate impression. But although the picture itself vanishes, something important, something that may be called its fruit, survives. The total harvest of the last life remains like a concentrated essence of forces in the higher astral body and rests there.
But a man has often gone through all this in the past. At each death, at the end of each incarnation, this memory-picture has appeared before his soul and left behind what I have called a concentrated essence of forces. So with each life a picture is added. After his first incarnation a man had his first memory-picture when he died; then came the second, richer than the first, and so on. The sum-total of these pictures produces a kind of new element in man. Before his first death a man consists of four bodies, but when he dies for the first time he takes the first memory-picture with him. Thus on reincarnating for the first time he has not only his four bodies but also this product of his former life. This is the “causal” body. So now he has five bodies: physical, etheric, astral, ego and causal. Once this causal body has made its appearance, it remains, though it was first constituted from the products of previous lives. Now we can understand the difference between individuals. Some of them have lived through many lives and so have added many pages to their Book of Life. They have developed to a high level and possess a rich causal body. Others have been through only a few lives; hence they have gathered fewer fruits and have a less developed causal body.
What is the purpose of man's repeated appearance on Earth? If there were no connection between the various incarnations, the whole process would of course be senseless, but that is not how it goes. Think how different life was for a man who was incarnated a few centuries after Christ, compared with the conditions he will find when he reincarnates today. Nowadays a child's life between the sixth and fourteenth years is taken up with acquiring knowledge: reading, writing, and so on. Opportunities for the cultivation and development of human personality are very different from what they were in the past. A man's incarnations are ordered in such a way that he returns to the Earth only when he will find quite new conditions and possibilities of development, and after a few centuries they will always be there. Think how quickly the Earth is developing in every respect: only a few thousand years ago this region was covered with primeval forests, full of wild beasts. Men lived in caves, wore animal skins and had only the most primitive knowledge of how to light a fire or make tools. How different it all is today! We can see how the face of the Earth has been transformed in a relatively short time. A man who lived in the days of the ancient Germanic people had a picture of the world quite different from the picture which prevails today among people who learn to read and write. As the Earth changes, man learns quite new things and makes them his own.
What is the usual period between two incarnations and on what does it depend? The following considerations will give us the answer and we shall see how the changing conditions of the Earth come into it.
In the course of time certain Beings have enjoyed peculiar honours. For example, in Persia in 3000 B.C. the Twins (Gemini) were specially honoured; between 3000 B.C. and 800 B.C. the sacred Bull Apis (Taurus) was revered in Egypt and the Mithras Bull in Asia Minor. After 800 B.C. another Being came into the foreground and the Ram or Lamb (Aries) was honoured. So arose the legend of Jason, who went to fetch the Golden Fleece from the sacred Ram in Asia beyond the sea. The lamb was so highly revered that in due time Christ called Himself the “Lamb of God”, and the first Christian symbol was not the Cross with the Saviour hanging on it, but the Cross together with the Lamb.
This means that there were three successive periods of civilisation, each associated with important happenings in the heavens. The Sun takes his course in the sky along a particular path, the Ecliptic, and at the beginning of Spring in a given epoch the Sun rises at a definite point in the Zodiac. So in the year 3000 B.C. the Sun rose in Spring in the constellation of the Bull; before that in the constellation of the Twins, and about 800 B.C. in the constellation of the Ram. This vernal point moves slowly backwards round the Zodiac year by year, taking 2,160 years to pass from one constellation to the next, and people chose as the symbol of their reverence the heavenly sign in which the vernal Sun appeared. If today we were able to understand the powerful feelings and the exalted states of mind which the ancients experienced as the Sun passed on into a new constellation, we should understand also the significance of the moment when the Sun entered the sign of Pisces. But for the materialism of our time no such understanding is possible.
What was it, then, that people saw in this process? The ancients saw it as an embodiment of the forces of nature. In Winter these forces were asleep, but in Spring they were recalled to life by the Sun. Hence the constellation in which the Sun appeared in Spring symbolised these reawakening forces; it gave new strength to the Sun and was felt to be worthy of particular reverence. The ancients knew that with this movement of the Sun round the Zodiac something important was connected, for it meant that the Sun's rays fell on the Earth under quite different conditions as time went on. And indeed the period of 2,160 years does signify a complete change in the conditions of life on Earth. And this is the length of time spent in Devachan between death and a new birth. Occultism has always recognised these 2,160 years as a period during which conditions on Earth change sufficiently for a man to reappear there in order to gain new experience.
We must remember, however, that during this period a person is generally born twice, once as a man and once as a woman, so that on average the interval between two incarnations is in fact about 1,000 years. It is not true that there is a change from male to female at every seventh incarnation. The experiences of the soul are obviously very different in a male incarnation from those it encounters in a female incarnation. Hence the general rule is that a soul appears once as a man and once as a woman during this period of 2,160 years. It will then have had all the experiences available to it under the conditions of that period; and the person will have had the possibility and opportunity to add a new page to his Book of Life. These radical changes in the conditions on Earth provide a schooling for the soul. That is the purpose of reincarnation.
A man takes with him into Devachan his causal body and the purified, ennobled parts of his astral and etheric bodies; these belong to him permanently and he never loses them. At a particular moment, just after he has laid aside his astral corpse, he stands face to face with himself as if he were looking at himself from the outside. That is the moment when he enters Devachan.
Devachan has four divisions:
- The continents
- The rivers and oceans
- The airy region; etheric space
- The region of spiritual archetypes
In the first division everything is seen as though in a photographic negative. Everything physical that has ever existed on this Earth, whether as mineral, plant or animal, and everything physical that still exists, appears as a negative. And if you see yourself in this negative form, as one among all the others, you will be in Devachan. What is the point of seeing yourself in this way?
You do not see yourself once only, but by degrees you come to see yourself as you were in former lives, and this has a deep purpose. Goethe says: “The eye is formed by the light for the light.”18“Goethe says ...” Literally, “And so the eye is formed by the light for the light.” He means that light is the creator of the eye, and this is perfectly true. We see how true it is if we observe how the eye degenerates in the absence of light. For example, in Kentucky certain creatures went to live in caves; the caves were dark and so the creatures did not need eyes. Gradually they lost the light of the eyes, and their eyes atrophied. The vital fluids which had formerly nourished their eyes were diverted to another organ which was now more useful for them. These creatures, then, lost their sight because their whole world was without light: the absence of light destroyed their power of sight. Thus if there were no light, there would be no eyes. The forces which create the eye are in the light, just as the forces which create the ear are in the world of sound. In short, all the organs of the body are built up by the creative forces of the universe. If you ask what has built the brain, the answer is that without thinking there would be no brain. When a Kepler19Johannes Kepler, 1571–1630, astronomer and mathematician. Established the three laws concerning the movements of the planets. or Galileo20Galileo Galilei, 1564–1642. Laid the foundations of mechanics, discovered the laws of free fall, of the pendulum, of ballistics. directed his reasoning power to the great laws of nature, it was the wisdom of nature which had created the organ of understanding
Ordinarily a man enters the earthly world with his organs to a certain extent perfected. During the interval since his last incarnation, however, new conditions have arisen, and he has to work upon them with his spirit. In all his experiences there is a creative power. His eyes, and the understanding which he already possesses, were formed in an earlier incarnation. When after death he reaches Devachan, he finds, as we have seen, the picture of his body as it was in his last life, and within him he still carries the fruits of the memory-picture of his last life. It is now possible for him to compare the course of his development in his various lives: what he was like before the experiences of his last life and what he can become when the experiences of this latest life are added to those of the others. Accordingly he forms for himself a picture of a new body, standing one step higher than his previous bodies.
At the first stage in Devachan, therefore, a man corrects his previous life-picture, and out of the fruits of his former lives he prepares the picture of his body for his next incarnation.
At the second stage in Devachan, life pulsates as a reality, as though in rivers and streams. During earthly existence a man has life within him and he cannot perceive it; now he sees it flowing past and he uses it to animate the form he had built up at the first stage.
At the third stage of Devachan, a man is surrounded by all the passions and feelings of his past life, but now they come before him as clouds, thunder and lightning. He sees all this as it were objectively; he learns to understand it, and to observe it as he observes physical things on Earth; and he gathers all his experiences into the life of his soul. By dint of seeing these pictures of the life of soul he is able to incorporate their particular qualities, and thus he endows with soul the body he had formed at the first stage.
That is the purpose of Devachan. A man has to advance a stage further there, so he himself prepares the image of his body for his next incarnation. That is one of his tasks in Devachan; but he has many others also. He is by no means concerned only with himself. Everything he does is done in full consciousness. He lives consciously in Devachan, and statements to the contrary in theosophical books are false. How is this to be understood? When a man is asleep, his astral body leaves the physical and etheric bodies, and consciousness leaves him also. But that is true only while the astral body is engaged on its usual task of repairing and restoring harmony to the weary and worked out physical body. When a man has died, his astral body no longer has this task to perform, and in proportion as it is released from this task, consciousness awakens. During the man's life his consciousness was darkened and hemmed in by the physical forces of the body and at night he had to work on this physical body. When the forces of the astral body are released after death, its own specific organs immediately emerge. These are the seven lotus-flowers, the Chakrams. Clairvoyant artists have been aware of this and have used it as a symbol in their works: Michaelangelo21Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475–1564. His “Moses”, intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II, is in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Rome. created his statue of Moses with two little horns. The lotus-flowers are distributed as follows:
- The 2-petalled lotus-flower at the base of the nose, between the eyebrows;
- The 16-petalled lotus-flower in the region of the larynx;
- The 12-petalled lotus-flower in the neighbourhood of the heart;
- The 8- or 10-petalled lotus-flower in the region of the stomach;
- A 6- and a 4-petalled lotus-flower are to be found lower down.
These astral organs are hardly observable in the ordinary man of today, but if he becomes clairvoyant, or goes into a state of trance, they stand out in shining, living colours, and are in motion. Directly the lotus-flowers are in motion, a man perceives the astral world. But the difference between physical and astral organs is that physical organs are passive and allow everything to act on them from outside. Eye, ear and so on have to wait until light or sound brings them a message. Spiritual organs, on the other hand, are active; they hold objects in their grip. But this activity can awaken only when the forces of the astral body are not otherwise employed; then they stream into the lotus-flowers. Even in Kamaloka, as long as the lower parts of the astral body are still united to the man, the astral organs are dimmed. It is only when the astral corpse has been discarded and nothing remains with the man except what he has acquired as permanent parts of himself—i.e. at the entrance to Devachan—that these astral sense-organs wake to full activity; and in Devachan man lives with them in a high degree of consciousness.
It is incorrect for theosophical books to say that man is asleep in Devachan; incorrect that he is concerned only with himself, or that relationships begun on Earth are not continued there. On the contrary, a friendship truly founded on spiritual affinity continues with great intensity. The circumstances of physical life on Earth bring about real experiences there. The inwardness of friendship brings nourishment to the communion of spirits in Devachan and enriches it with new patterns; it is precisely this which feeds the soul there. Again, an elevated aesthetic enjoyment of nature is nourishment for the life of the soul in Devachan.
All this is what human beings live on in Devachan. Friendships are as it were the environment with which a man surrounds himself there. Physical conditions all too often cut across these relationships on Earth. In Devachan the way in which two friends are together depends only on the intensity of their friendship. To form such relationships on Earth provides experiences for life in Devachan.
Vierter Vortrag
Wir haben gesehen, wie der Mensch im Tode erst den physischen, dann den ätherischen und schließlich den niederen Astralleib als Leichname zurückläßt. Was bleibt nun dem Menschen nach dem Abstreifen dieser drei Leiber? Das Erinnerungsbild, das nach dem Tode vor die Seele tritt, verschwindet in dem Augenblicke, wo der Ätherleib sich heraushebt aus dem Astralleib; da sinkt es sozusagen ins Unbewußte, es verschwindet als unmittelbar seelischer Eindruck. Aber etwas Wichtiges bleibt davon zurück: das Bild schwindet, aber die Frucht bleibt. Wie eine Art Kraftextrakt bleibt das ganze Erträgnis des letztvergangenen Lebens in dem höheren Astralleib und ruht darin.
Der Mensch hat aber schon sehr oft diesen Prozeß durchgemacht. Bei jedem Tode nach seinen verschiedenen Inkarnationen trat das Erinnerungsbild vor seine Seele und hinterließ diesen sogenannten Kraftextrakt. So hat ein Leben nach dem andern ein Bild hinzugefügt. Ein Mensch, der sich zum erstenmal verkörperte, hatte nach dem Tode das erste Erinnerungsbild, nach der zweiten Inkarnation das zweite Bild und dieses schon reicher als das erste und so fort. In diesen zusammengelegten Bildern haben wir eine Art von neuem Element des Menschen. Vor dem ersten Tode bestand der Mensch aus den vier Körpern; stirbt er zum ersten Male, so nimmt er das erste Bild mit sich. Nach seiner Wiederverkörperung hat er nicht nur die vier Wesensglieder, sondern auch noch dieses Erträgnis des früheren Lebens. Das ist der Kausalkörper. Es besteht nunmehr der Mensch aus fünf Körpern: dem physischen, ätherischen, dem Astralkörper, Ich und Kausalkörper. Wenn dieser Kausalkörper einmal da ist, dann bleibt er; aber er hat sich aus den Erträgnissen der Leben erst zusammengesetzt. Nun begreift man den Unterschied zwischen den einzelnen Menschen. Diejenigen, die oft gelebt haben, also schon viele Inkarnationen durchgemacht haben, die haben ihrem Lebensbuche viele Blätter beigefügt, sind hochentwickelt und haben einen reichen Kausalleib; die anderen sind erst durch wenige Leben hindurchgeschritten, haben daher weniger Früchte gesammelt und besitzen deswegen einen weniger entwickelten Kausalkörper.
Welchen Sinn hat dieses wiederholte Erscheinen des Menschen auf der Erde? Wären die Inkarnationen ohne Zusammenhang, dann wäre dies freilich sinnlos. So ist es aber nicht. Bedenken wir die verschiedenen Lebensverhältnisse, die ein Mensch durchmacht, der ein paar Jahrhunderte nach Christi Geburt lebte und der sich heute wieder inkarniert. Heute ist des Menschen Lebenszeit vom sechsten bis vierzehnten Jahre schon ausgefüllt mit dem Erwerben von Kenntnissen: Lesen, Schreiben und so weiter. Der heutige Mensch hat ganz andere Gelegenheiten, seine Persönlichkeit zu kultivieren und heranzubilden. Es sind die Inkarnationen so geordnet, daß der Mensch erst dann wiedererscheint, wenn er in neue Verhältnisse hineinkommt, ganz andere Gelegenheiten und Entwickelungsmöglichkeiten vorfindet, und das ist immer schon nach einigen Jahrhunderten der Fall. Wie stark entwickelt sich die Erde in jeder Hinsicht! Vor wenigen tausend Jahren war die Gegend hier mit Urwäldern bedeckt, in denen wilde Tiere hausten. Die Menschen lebten in Höhlen, bekleideten sich mit Tierfellen und verstanden nur in primitiver Weise, Feuer zu machen und Werkzeuge herzustellen. Wie anders ist es heute! So verändert sich in verhältnismäßig kurzer Zeit das Antlitz der Erde. Ein Mensch, der zur Zeit der alten Germanen lebte, hatte ein ganz anderes Bild von der Welt als derjenige, der heute hier lesen und schreiben lernt. Mit der veränderten Erde lernt er ganz Neues und eignet es sich an.
Wie lange dauert es nun, bis der Mensch in einer neuen Verkörperung erscheint? Von welchen Faktoren hängt das ab? Die Antwort ergibt sich aus der folgenden Betrachtung. Wir müssen sehen, was mit der Veränderung der Erde zusammenhängt.
Im Laufe der Zeiten haben immer gewisse Wesenheiten als heilige Symbole eine besondere Verehrung genossen. So zum Beispiel verehrte man in Persien bis 3000 Jahre vor Christi Geburt die Zwillinge. Von 3000 bis 800 vor Christi verehrte man in Ägypten den heiligen Stier Apis und zugleich in Vorderasien den Mithrasstier. Von ungefähr 800 vor Christi an tritt ein anderes Tier in den Vordergrund, der Widder oder das Lamm, und damit entstand die Sage von Jason, der das Goldene Vlies vom heiligen Widder aus Asien, von jenseits des Meeres, herüberholte. Das geht noch weiter. Das Lamm wurde so heilig verehrt, daß Christus sich als das «Lamm Gottes» bezeichnete, und das erste christliche Symbol war nicht das Kreuz, an dem der Erlöser hing, sondern das Kreuz mit dem Lamm.
Das alles bedeutet drei aufeinanderfolgende Kulturzustände, und das hängt zusammen mit bedeutungsvollen Vorgängen am Himmel. Der Gang der Sonne geht am Himmel entlang einer gewissen Zone, dem Tierkreis, und das Merkwürdige ist, daß die Sonne, die beim Anbruch des Frühlings in einem bestimmten Punkt des Tierkreises aufgeht, innerhalb einer bestimmten Epoche immer weiterrückt, so daß sie in einem Zeitraum von 2160 Jahren von einem Sternbild in ein anderes rückt. So ging die Sonne im Jahre 3000 vor Christi im Frühling auf im Sternbild des Stiers, noch früher im Sternbild der Zwillinge und ungefähr 800 Jahre vor Christi im Sternbild des Widders.
Dieser Punkt rückt also jedes Jahr ein Stückchen weiter, nach 2160 Jahren tritt er in das nächste Sternbild ein, und die Völker wählten als Symbol ihrer Verehrung das Zeichen am Himmel, in dem die Sonne im Frühling aufgeht, und brachten ihm ihre Verehrung dar. Würden wir heute noch die gewaltigen Gefühle und erhabenen Stimmungen verstehen, welche die Alten damit verbanden, als sie diesen Augenblick des Eintrittes der Sonne in ein neues Sternbild erlebten, dann würden wir auch die Bedeutung des Momentes verstanden haben, als die Sonne in das Sternbild der Fische eintrat. Aber das kann unsere materialistische Zeit nicht.
Was sah denn der damalige Mensch in diesem Vorgange? Die Alten sahen darin die Naturkraft verkörpert. Im Winter lag sie im Schlaf gebunden, und im Frühling wurde sie von der Sonne wieder ' hervorgerufen. Das Sternbild nun, in dem im Frühling die Sonne erschien, das der Sonne neue Kraft gab, das wurde als etwas Verehrungswürdiges empfunden. Das Sternbild symbolisiert also die auferweckende Kraft. Die Alten wußten, daß mit einem solchen Vorrücken der Sonne etwas ganz Wichtiges verbunden ist, denn die Sonnenstrahlen fallen dann unter ganz anderen Verhältnissen ein. Und wirklich bedeutet ein solcher Zeitraum von 2160 Jahren eben den Eintritt ganz anderer Verhältnisse auf der Erde. Diese Zeitperiode bringt nun der Mensch im Devachan zu, um vom Tode zu einer neuen Geburt zu kommen. Der Okkultismus hat diese 2160 Jahre von jeher als einen Zeitraum anerkannt, in dem die Zustände auf Erden sich derart ändern, daß der Mensch wiedererscheinen kann, um etwas Neues zu erleben.
2160 Jahre vergehen also zwischen zwei Verkörperungen. Hierbei ist aber in Betracht zu ziehen, daß in dieser Zeit von 2160 Jahren der Mensch eigentlich zweimal erscheint, so daß mithin schon tausend Jahre durchschnittlich den eigentlichen Zeitraum bilden, der zwischen zwei Verkörperungen liegt. Das geschieht darum, weil in der Regel beim Menschen eine Verkörperung männlich und eine weiblich ist. Es ist unrichtig, daß alle sieben Mal eine männliche und eine weibliche Inkarnation sich abwechseln. Die Erfahrungen einer Seele sind sehr verschieden, ob sie männlich oder weiblich inkarniert war; das ist ja begreiflich. Daher erscheint sie im Zeitraum von 2160 Jahren einmal männlich und einmal weiblich. Dann hat der Mensch alle Erfahrungen gemacht, die er in den gegebenen vorliegenden Verhältnissen machen kann. Da hatte er die Gelegenheit und Möglichkeit, seinem Lebensbuche ein neues Blatt hinzuzufügen. Solche radikale Veränderungen der Erde und der irdischen Verhältnisse sind eine Lehrzeit für die Seele. Das ist der Sinn des Wiedererscheinens, der Reinkarnation.
Die Frucht des Erinnerungsbildes, der Kausalleib und der gereinigte Astralleib bleiben beim Menschen, er verliert sie fortan nie wieder. Bei seinem Eintritt in das Devachan nimmt er den Kausalleib und einen Teil seines Astralleibes mit, und zwar den gereinigten, denn das, was er sich erarbeitet hat, bleibt ihm im Devachan und immer. Nun macht er seine Devachanzeit durch. Der Wilde hat natürlich erst wenig an seinem Astralleibe gearbeitet und nur ein Flämmchen nimmt er mit ins Devachan, seine Erinnerungsbilder gehören ihm mehr unbewußt an. Ein Franz von Assisi hat sich dagegen einen vollkommen schön gegliederten Astralleib errungen und lebt mit diesem im Devachan. Wenn der Mensch den niederen Astralleib abgestreift hat, sieht er in gewisser Weise sich selbst wie außer sich stehend vor sich. Das ist der Moment, wo er ins Devachan eintritt. Das Devachan hat gleichsam vier Abteilungen, die wir nennen können:
1. die Kontinente
2. Flüsse und Meere
3. die Luft, den Ätherraum
4. die Region der geistigen Urbilder.
In dem ersten Teil, den Kontinenten, sieht man alles in einem negativen Bilde, gleichsam wie auf einer photografischen Platte. Was hier auf Erden je physisch gewesen ist und noch ist, alles, was je auf dieser Erde an physischen Mineralien, Pflanzen und Tieren war und noch ist, erscheint als negative Gestalten. Und wenn man sich unter diesen negativen Gestalten selbst negativ sieht, dann ist man im Devachan. Was hat das für einen Sinn, daß man sich so selbst sieht?
Man sieht sich nicht nur einmal, sondern nach und nach so, wie man in früheren Leben ausgeschaut hat, und das hat einen tiefen Sinn. Goethe sagt: Das Auge wird von dem Licht für das Licht gebildet. - Er meint damit, das Licht sei der Schöpfer des Auges, und das ist richtig. Das begreifen wir, wenn wir sehen, wie aus Mangel an Licht das Auge rückgebildet wird. Gewisse Tiere zum Beispiel wanderten einst in Kentucky in Höhlen ein, Sie brauchten kein Sehvermögen mehr, denn die Höhlen waren finster. Nach und nach verloren sie das Augenlicht, die Augen verkümmerten. Der Säftezufluß wandte sich einem anderen Organ zu, das sie jetzt nötiger gebrauchten. Weshalb haben sie das Augenlicht verloren? Weil ihre Welt ohne Licht war. Die Abwesenheit des Lichtes hat das Sehvermögen genommen. Wäre also kein Licht, so wäre kein Auge. In dem Licht selbst sind die schöpferischen Kräfte für das Auge, geradeso wie in der Tonwelt die schöpferischen Kräfte für das Ohr sind. Kurz, der ganze Leib, alle Organe wurden von den schöpferischen Kräften des Universums gebildet.
Was hat das Gehirn aufgebaut? Gäbe es nichts nachzudenken, gäbe es auch kein Gehirn. Es gibt gewaltige Naturgesetze; ein Kepler, Galilei richteten den Verstand auf diese Gesetze. Wer schuf das Verstandesorgan? Die Weisheit in der Natur!
Mit einer gewissen Vollkommenheit der Organe betritt der Mensch die irdische Welt. Aber es sind ja inzwischen neue Verhältnisse eingetreten; die verarbeite ich nun mit dem Geiste. Alles aber, was ich erlebe, ist schöpferisch. Die Augen, die ich schon habe, der Verstand, den ich schon habe, sind von den vorigen Inkarnationen gebildet. Komme ich nach dem Tode ins Devachan, so finde ich, wie gesagt, das Bild des Leibes, wie er im letzten Leben war, und habe noch in mir die Frucht des Erinnerungsbildes an das letzte Leben. Ich kann nun vergleichen, wie ich mich in verschiedenen Leben entwickelte, wie ich war, ehe ich die Erfahrungen des letzten Lebens hatte, und was aus mir werden kann, wenn ich die Erfahrungen des letzten Lebens hinzufüge. Danach gestalte ich mir nun im Bilde einen neuen Leib, der eine Stufe höher steht als mein voriger Körper.
Auf der ersten Stufe im Devachan korrigiert also der Mensch das frühere Lebensbild: Er bereitet sich aus den Früchten des vorigen Lebens selbst das Bild seines Körpers für die nächste Inkarnation.
Auf der zweiten Devachanstufe pulsiert das Leben als Wirklichkeit gleichsam in Flüssen und Strömen. Während des irdischen Daseins hat der Mensch das Leben in sich, es konnte nicht wahrgenommen werden; jetzt sieht er es dahinfluten, und er benutzt es, um die Form, die er auf der ersten Stufe gemacht hat, zu beleben.
Auf der dritten Devachanstufe hat der Mensch um sich her alles, was früher in ihm war an Leidenschaften, Gefühlen und Affekten; wie Wolken, Donner und Blitze tritt es ihm hier entgegen. Das alles sieht er nun gleichsam objektiv, er lernt es kennen und beachten wie das Physische auf der Erde und sammelt seine Erfahrungen in bezug auf das seelische Leben. Durch dieses Sehen der Bilder des seelischen Lebens kann man sich die seelischen Eigentümlichkeiten einverleiben, man kann den auf der ersten Stufe gebildeten Körper beseelen. Das ist der Sinn des Devachans. Der Mensch muß im Devachan eine Stufe weiterkommen; so bereitet er sich selbst das Bild seines Körpers für die nächste Inkarnation. Das ist eine der Aufgaben, die der Mensch im Devachan hat.
Aber der Mensch hat noch viele Aufgaben im Devachan. Er ist keineswegs nur mit sich selbst beschäftigt. Er tut das alles auch nicht ohne Bewußtsein. Der Mensch lebt bewußt im Devachan, und falsch ist die Behauptung des Gegenteils in theosophischen Büchern. Wie geht das aber zu?
Wenn der Mensch schläft, ist der Astralleib aus dem physischen und Ätherleib herausgetreten, und dann hat der Mensch kein Bewußstsein, aber nur so lange, als der Astralleib seine gewöhnliche Arbeit verrichten muß: nämlich den abgearbeiteten und ermüdeten physischen Körper auszubessern und zu harmonisieren; so lange ist der Mensch ohne Bewußtsein. Wenn der Mensch aber gestorben ist, hat der Astralleib diese Tätigkeit nicht mehr auszuüben, und in demselben Maße, in dem er befreit wird von der Tätigkeit am physischen Körper, erwacht in ihm das Bewußtsein. Sein Bewußtsein wurde ja während des Lebens am Tage verdunkelt und eingedämmt durch die physische Macht des Körpers, und nachts mußte er arbeiten an diesem physischen Körper. Wenn nun nach dem Tode die Kräfte frei werden, dann treten am Astralleib sogleich ganz bestimmte Organe hervor. Diese Organe sind die sieben Lotusblumen, Chakrams. So entsteht an der Nasenwurzel, zwischen den Augenbrauen die zweiblättrige Lotusblume. Hellsehende Künstler haben das gewußt und ihren Kunstwerken das Symbol dafür gegeben: Michelangelo bildete seinen «Moses» mit zwei Hörnern. Die anderen Lotusblumen sind in folgender Weise verteilt:
die sechzehnblättrige Lotusblume in der Nähe des Kehlkopfes,
die zwölfblättrige Lotusblume in der Nähe des Herzens,
die acht- oder zehnblättrige Lotusblume in der Nähe der Magengrube,
eine sechs- und eine vierblättrige sind weiter unten.
Diese astralen Organe sind beim gewöhnlichen heutigen Menschen kaum angedeutet zu sehen, aber wenn er hellsehend wird, oder bei Medien im Trancezustand, treten sie scharf hervor in lebhaften, leuchtenden Farben und bewegen sich.
In dem Augenblick, wo die Lotusblumen sich bewegen, nimmt der Mensch in der Astralwelt wahr. Der Unterschied zwischen physischen und astralen Organen besteht darin, daß die physischen Sinnesorgane des Menschen passiv sind; sie lassen alles von außen auf sich einwirken. Auge, Ohr und so weiter sind zunächst im Zustande der Ruhe, sie müssen warten, bis ihnen etwas geboten wird, Licht, Töne und so weiter. Die geistigen Organe sind im Gegensatz dazu aktiv, sie umfassen klammerartig den Gegenstand. Diese Tätigkeit kann aber erst dann erwachen, wenn die Kräfte des Astralleibes nicht anderweitig gebraucht werden; dann aber strömen sie in die Lotusblumen ein. Auch in Kamaloka, solange die niederen Teile des Astralleibes noch mit dem Menschen verbunden sind, findet immer noch eine Trübung statt. Wenn aber der astrale Leichnam abgestoßen ist und nur das dauernd Erworbene zurückbleibt, also an der Pforte von Devachan, dann sind diese astralen Sinnesorgane zu voller Tätigkeit erwacht, und im Devachan lebt der Mensch in hohem Maße bewußt mit diesen Sinnesorganen. Es ist nicht richtig, wenn in theosophischen Büchern gesagt wird, daß der Mensch im Devachan schläft, und es ist auch nicht richtig, daß er nur mit sich selbst beschäftigt ist oder daß er die auf Erden angesponnenen Verhältnisse nicht fortgesetzt findet; eine echte, auf Geistesgemeinschaft gegründete Freundschaft setzt sich vielmehr mit größerer Intensität dort fort. Die Innigkeit der Freundschaft führt der geistigen Gemeinschaft im Devachan Nahrung zu, bereichert es mit neuen Formen. Das ist es gerade, was der Seele im Devachan Nahrung gibt. Auch das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Natur, ein edler, ästhetischer Naturgenuß, ist Nahrung für das Leben der Seele im Devachan.
Davon lebt, wie gesagt, der Mensch dort. Die Freundschaftsverhältnisse sind gleichsam die Einrichtungsstücke, mit denen er sich umgibt. Die physischen Verhältnisse durchkreuzen auf Erden diese Beziehungen oft genug. Im Devachan wird die Art und Weise, wie zwei Freunde beisammen sind, nur durch die Intensität der Freundschaft bestimmt. Also solche Verhältnisse auf Erden anzuknüpfen bedeutet, Erlebnisse zuführen für das Leben im Devachan. So stellen sich die physischen Lebensverhältnisse als wirkliche Erlebnisse im Devachan dar.
Fourth Lecture
We have seen how, in death, the human being leaves behind first the physical body, then the etheric body, and finally the lower astral body as corpses. What remains for the human being after shedding these three bodies? The memory image that appears before the soul after death disappears at the moment when the etheric body lifts itself out of the astral body; it sinks, so to speak, into the unconscious, disappearing as an immediate soul impression. But something important remains: the image fades, but the fruit remains. Like a kind of extract of power, the entire yield of the last life remains in the higher astral body and rests there.
However, human beings have already gone through this process many times. At each death after their various incarnations, the memory image appeared before their soul and left behind this so-called extract of power. Thus, one life after another has added an image. A human being who incarnated for the first time had the first memory image after death, after the second incarnation the second image, which was already richer than the first, and so on. In these combined images we have a kind of new element of the human being. Before the first death, the human being consisted of the four bodies; when he dies for the first time, he takes the first image with him. After reincarnation, they not only have the four parts of their being, but also this product of their previous life. This is the causal body. The human being now consists of five bodies: the physical, etheric, astral, ego, and causal bodies. Once this causal body is there, it remains; but it has only been composed from the fruits of previous lives. Now we can understand the difference between individual human beings. Those who have lived many times, who have already gone through many incarnations, have added many pages to their book of life, are highly developed, and have a rich causal body; the others have only passed through a few lives, have therefore gathered fewer fruits, and therefore possess a less developed causal body.
What is the meaning of this repeated appearance of human beings on earth? If the incarnations were unrelated, then this would of course be meaningless. But this is not the case. Let us consider the different living conditions experienced by a person who lived a few centuries after the birth of Christ and who is incarnated again today. Today, a person's life from the age of six to fourteen is already filled with the acquisition of knowledge: reading, writing, and so on. Today's human beings have completely different opportunities to cultivate and develop their personalities. Incarnations are arranged in such a way that a person only reappears when they enter into new circumstances, encounter completely different opportunities and possibilities for development, and this is always the case after a few centuries. How greatly the earth has developed in every respect! A few thousand years ago, this area was covered with primeval forests inhabited by wild animals. People lived in caves, clothed themselves in animal skins, and understood only in a primitive way how to make fire and manufacture tools. How different it is today! This is how the face of the earth changes in a relatively short time. A person who lived at the time of the ancient Germanic peoples had a completely different view of the world than someone who learns to read and write here today. With the changed Earth, he learns completely new things and acquires them.
How long does it take for a person to appear in a new incarnation? What factors does this depend on? The answer can be found in the following consideration. We must look at what is connected with the change of the Earth.
Throughout the ages, certain beings have always enjoyed special veneration as sacred symbols. In Persia, for example, twins were worshipped until 3000 BC. From 3000 to 800 BC, the sacred bull Apis was worshipped in Egypt and, at the same time, the Mithras bull in the Near East. From around 800 BC, another animal came to the fore, the ram or lamb, and with it arose the legend of Jason, who brought the Golden Fleece from the sacred ram of Asia, from across the sea. It goes even further. The lamb was so sacredly revered that Christ referred to himself as the “Lamb of God,” and the first Christian symbol was not the cross on which the Savior hung, but the cross with the lamb.
All this represents three successive cultural states, and this is connected with significant events in the heavens. The sun's path across the sky follows a certain zone, the zodiac, and the remarkable thing is that the sun, which rises at a certain point in the zodiac at the beginning of spring, moves further and further within a certain epoch, so that in a period of 2160 years it moves from one constellation to another. Thus, in the year 3000 BC, the sun rose in the constellation of Taurus in the spring, even earlier in the constellation of Gemini, and about 800 years BC in the constellation of Aries.
This point therefore moves a little further each year, and after 2160 years it enters the next constellation, and the peoples chose as a symbol of their worship the sign in the sky where the sun rises in spring, and offered their worship to it. If we could still understand the powerful feelings and sublime moods that the ancients associated with this moment when the sun entered a new constellation, then we would also understand the significance of the moment when the sun entered the constellation of Pisces. But our materialistic age cannot do that.
What did the people of that time see in this process? The ancients saw it as the embodiment of the power of nature. In winter it lay dormant, and in spring it was ‘awakened’ again by the sun. The constellation in which the sun appeared in spring, which gave the sun new power, was perceived as something worthy of worship. The constellation thus symbolizes the awakening power. The ancients knew that something very important was connected with such an advance of the sun, because the sun's rays then fall under completely different conditions. And indeed, such a period of 2160 years means the onset of completely different conditions on earth. This period of time is now spent by man in Devachan in order to come from death to a new birth. Occultism has always recognized these 2,160 years as a period in which conditions on Earth change in such a way that human beings can reappear to experience something new.
So 2160 years pass between two incarnations. However, it should be noted that during this period of 2160 years, human beings actually appear twice, so that on average, a thousand years constitute the actual period between two incarnations. This is because, as a rule, one incarnation of a human being is male and one is female. It is incorrect that a male and a female incarnation alternate every seven times. The experiences of a soul are very different depending on whether it was incarnated as male or female; that is understandable. Therefore, it appears once as male and once as female in the period of 2160 years. Then the human being has had all the experiences that he or she can have in the given circumstances. He or she has had the opportunity and possibility to add a new page to his or her book of life. Such radical changes on Earth and in earthly circumstances are a learning period for the soul. That is the meaning of reappearance, of reincarnation.
The fruit of the memory image, the causal body, and the purified astral body remain with the human being; he never loses them again. Upon entering Devachan, he takes the causal body and a part of his astral body with him, namely the purified part, because what he has worked for remains with him in Devachan and forever. Now they go through their Devachan period. The savage, of course, has done little work on their astral body and takes only a small flame with them into Devachan; their memory images belong to them more unconsciously. Francis of Assisi, on the other hand, has attained a perfectly structured astral body and lives with it in Devachan. When a person has shed the lower astral body, they see themselves in a certain way as standing outside themselves. This is the moment when they enter Devachan. Devachan has, as it were, four divisions, which we can call:
1. the continents
2. rivers and seas
3. the air, the etheric space
4. the region of spiritual archetypes.
In the first part, the continents, one sees everything in a negative image, as if on a photographic plate. Everything that has ever been and still is physical on earth, everything that has ever been and still is physical minerals, plants, and animals on this earth, appears as negative forms. And when you see yourself negatively among these negative forms, then you are in Devachan. What is the point of seeing yourself like this?
You see yourself not just once, but gradually, as you looked in previous lives, and this has a profound meaning. Goethe says: The eye is formed by light for light. By this he means that light is the creator of the eye, and that is correct. We understand this when we see how the eye degenerates due to a lack of light. Certain animals, for example, once migrated into caves in Kentucky. They no longer needed their eyesight because the caves were dark. Gradually, they lost their eyesight and their eyes atrophied. The flow of fluids turned to another organ that they now needed more. Why did they lose their eyesight? Because their world was without light. The absence of light took away their vision. So if there were no light, there would be no eyes. Light itself contains the creative forces for the eye, just as the world of sound contains the creative forces for the ear. In short, the entire body, all organs, were formed by the creative forces of the universe.
What has the brain built up? If there were nothing to think about, there would be no brain. There are powerful laws of nature; Kepler and Galileo directed the mind toward these laws. Who created the organ of the mind? The wisdom in nature!
Human beings enter the earthly world with a certain perfection of their organs. But in the meantime, new circumstances have arisen, which I now process with my mind. However, everything I experience is creative. The eyes I already have and the mind I already possess were formed in previous incarnations. When I enter Devachan after death, I find, as I said, the image of the body as it was in my last life, and I still have within me the fruit of the memory image of my last life. I can now compare how I developed in different lives, how I was before I had the experiences of my last life, and what I can become when I add the experiences of my last life. Then I form a new body in my mind, one that is a step higher than my previous body.
On the first stage in Devachan, the human being corrects the image of their previous life: they use the fruits of their previous life to prepare the image of their body for the next incarnation.
On the second stage of Devachan, life pulsates as reality, as it were, in rivers and streams. During earthly existence, the human being has life within them, but it could not be perceived; now they see it flowing by, and they use it to enliven the form they created on the first stage.
On the third stage of Devachan, the human being has around him everything that was previously within him in terms of passions, feelings, and emotions; it confronts him here like clouds, thunder, and lightning. He now sees all this objectively, as it were, he learns to recognize and observe it like the physical on earth and gathers his experiences in relation to the soul life. By seeing these images of spiritual life, one can incorporate spiritual characteristics and animate the body formed on the first stage. That is the meaning of Devachan. Humans must advance one stage in Devachan; in this way, they prepare the image of their body for the next incarnation. That is one of the tasks that humans have in Devachan.
But human beings still have many tasks in Devachan. They are by no means only concerned with themselves. Nor do they do all this without consciousness. Human beings live consciously in Devachan, and the assertion to the contrary in theosophical books is false. But how does this work?
When a person sleeps, the astral body has left the physical and etheric bodies, and then the person has no consciousness, but only as long as the astral body has to do its usual work: namely, to repair and harmonize the worn-out and tired physical body; for as long as this is the case, the person is without consciousness. But when a person dies, the astral body no longer has to perform this activity, and to the same extent that it is freed from its activity on the physical body, consciousness awakens in it. During life, consciousness was obscured and restrained by the physical power of the body during the day, and at night it had to work on this physical body. When the forces are freed after death, certain organs immediately emerge on the astral body. These organs are the seven lotus flowers, or chakras. Thus, the two-petaled lotus flower arises at the root of the nose, between the eyebrows. Clairvoyant artists knew this and gave their works of art the symbol for it: Michelangelo formed his “Moses” with two horns. The other lotus flowers are distributed in the following way:
the sixteen-petaled lotus flower near the larynx,
the twelve-petaled lotus flower near the heart,
the eight- or ten-petaled lotus flower near the pit of the stomach,
a six-petaled and a four-petaled one further down.
These astral organs are barely visible in ordinary people today, but when they become clairvoyant, or in mediums in a trance state, they stand out sharply in vivid, bright colors and move.
The moment the lotus flowers move, the person perceives the astral world. The difference between physical and astral organs is that the physical sense organs of the human being are passive; they allow everything from the outside to affect them. The eye, ear, and so on are initially in a state of rest; they must wait until something is presented to them, such as light, sounds, and so on. In contrast, the spiritual organs are active; they cling to the object like a clamp. However, this activity can only awaken when the forces of the astral body are not needed elsewhere; then they flow into the lotus flowers. Even in Kamaloka, as long as the lower parts of the astral body are still connected to the human being, clouding still takes place. But when the astral corpse has been cast off and only what has been permanently acquired remains, that is, at the gate of Devachan, then these astral sense organs are fully awakened, and in Devachan the human being lives with these sense organs in a highly conscious state. It is not correct when theosophical books say that the human being sleeps in Devachan, nor is it correct that he is only concerned with himself or that he does not find the circumstances he spun on earth continued there; rather, a genuine friendship based on spiritual communion continues there with greater intensity. The intimacy of friendship nourishes the spiritual community in Devachan, enriching it with new forms. This is precisely what nourishes the soul in Devachan. Man's relationship to nature, a noble, aesthetic enjoyment of nature, is also nourishment for the life of the soul in Devachan.
As I said, this is what people live on there. Friendships are, as it were, the furnishings with which they surround themselves. Physical circumstances on earth often interfere with these relationships. In Devachan, the way two friends are together is determined only by the intensity of their friendship. So establishing such relationships on earth means providing experiences for life in Devachan. Thus, physical living conditions present themselves as real experiences in Devachan.