The Rudolf Steiner Archive

It has to be emphasized repeatedly that Theosophy must be lived, that, by way of Theosophy, the human being not only learns this or that, but that he learns to think differently, to feel, to perceive emotionally in regard to his whole environment. This will become a reality for someone who accepts the theosophical impulses in the right spirit. He has to learn to feel empathy, to experience living with all beings, but mostly this needs to apply in relation to other human beings. However, we learn best to empathise with human beings when we first learn to do this with the rest of the world.

Slowly man learns to know the whole world that surrounds him. He slowly learns, that he is surrounded everywhere by spiritual beings, that he walks through spiritual beings everywhere. He learns to understand this in regard to feeling and in regard to sensation. He learns to know what surrounds us in the three realms of nature. He learns to know the beings in the mineral realm, the plant realm and the animal kingdom. He strides differently through the meadows and forests, over the fields and open country from someone who has not gone through theosophical training.

When looking at the other beings, one could at first believe that the animal beings do not have a soul like human beings. The Ego of man, man’s soul, is certainly different from an animal’s Ego, in that the Ego of man lives on the physical plane. When we look at an animal as such, then each individual animal has a physical body, an etheric body and an astral body. Human beings have in addition to these three bodies an Ego. During his waking state man’s Ego is contained in him. The animal, however, does not have an Ego on the physical plane. For this, we have to go a bit deeper into the so called astral world. On the astral plane we will find a population of animal Egos, just like we have a human population here on the physical plane. Just as one man meets another here, a clairvoyant is able to meet self-contained personalities on the astral plane—these are the animal Egos.

One has to imagine it thus—imagine the ten fingers of a human being stretched through a wall. They are moving. We can see the ten fingers moving, but not the human being himself. He is hidden behind the wall. We are not able to explain to ourselves how the ten fingers can get through the wall and move. We have to assume that there is some being to which they belong. It is the same with animals in the physical world. All animals of similar shape have one group-Ego. Here in the physical world we see the animals roam about, and what we are seeing has a physical body, an etheric body and an astral body. If we see here in the physical world, for example, lions, then these lions are externalized organs of those lion-Egos that live in the astral world. The lion-Ego, the group-Ego of physical lions, is a similarly self-contained being on the astral plane as we are self-contained beings here. Thus each group of animals has an Ego on the astral plane: a lion-Ego, a tiger-Ego, a vulture-Ego are on the astral plane. The single animals exist here in the physical world like fingers stretched through a wall.

When we observe the individual animals here, many of them appear to be extraordinarily smart. These animals are being managed from the astral plane where the animal-Egos, the group-Egos, are located. The population of the astral plane is much more clever than human beings. The animal group-Egos on the astral plane are very wise beings. Observe the bird-migration, whereby the birds migrate through the various regions, how their flight is arranged, how during autumn they move to warmer regions and how they gather together again in spring. If we deeply look into these wise arrangements, we have to ask ourselves: who is hidden behind the wall, who arranges all of this?—These are the group-Egos. When we watch a beaver building, then we will see that the beaver built more wisely than the greatest engineering art.

One has observed the intelligence of bees at work by giving sugar instead of honey to them. Then they were watched. They cannot take along the sugar, so they go and fetch other bees. First they fly to a source of water, from which each bee carries a drop of water, drenches the sugar with it and transforms it into a kind of syrup. This is then carried to the hive. The spirit of the beehive is behind the work of the bees. The individual bees belong to a single bee personality, just like our limbs belong to us. Only it is the case that each bee is more separate from the others, and our individuals limbs are closer together, more compact. We walk everywhere through entities invisible for us, through the animal group-Egos, who evade physical observation.

As we begin to empathise with beings of which man has not the slightest idea, we can also empathise with the plant souls. The plant-Egos live in an even higher world than the animal-Egos. The plant-Egos, those self-contained group-Egos, to each of which a series of plant belongs, are on the so-called Devachan plane. We can also tell the place where these plant-Egos actually are—all plant-Egos are at the centre of the Earth. The animal Group-Egos are circumventing the Earth like the trade-winds, while the plant-Ego’s are in the centre of the Earth. They are beings that all penetrate each other. In the spiritual world the law of permeability holds sway—one being passes through another. We see the animal group-Egos pass across the Earth like the trade-winds and observe how they, out of their wisdom, perform what we consider to be the deeds of the animals. When we observe the plants, then we see the head of the plant, the root, is extended to the centre of the Earth, because there, at the centre of the Earth, is their Group-Ego.

The Earth itself is an expression of soul-spiritual entities. The plants appear to us, from a spiritual viewpoint, to be something like the nails on our fingers. The plants belong to the Earth. One who observes the individual plants, can never see them completely. Each plant belongs to the sum of entities, that make up the plant-Egos. Thus we can immerse ourselves into the feelings and emotion of the plants themselves. The part of the plant that grows out of the earth, that strives from within the earth to the surface, has a different nature from what grows under the earth. If you cut off the bloom, stalk and leaves of a plant, then that is something different from pulling out the root. If you cut off a plant this will create a certain type of well-being, like a pleasure for the plant soul. This pleasure it similar to what is felt, for example, by a cow whose young calf suckles at its udder. The plant part that grows out of the earth really is something similar to the milk of animals.

When we walk through the fields in autumns and the stalks are falling under the scythe of the reaper, when the scythe strikes the sheaves, then feelings of well-being, akin to ecstasy, breathe across the fields. It is something immensely significant when the reaper goes through the field with his scythe, and we not only can watch the falling sheaves with our physical eyes, but we can see feelings of pleasure stroking the Earth.

However, when you rip out a plant by its root, this causes pain for the plant soul. The laws that apply in the physical world are not the same as those in the higher worlds. We will gain different insights when we ascend to the spiritual worlds. Sometimes also here in the physical world the principle of beauty contradicts the principle of pain or joy. It is possible that someone, driven by beauty concepts, rips out a few white hairs, although it will hurt him. This applies to plants too. It might look more tidy to rip out a plant by its root, it might be more beautiful, but it will still hurt the plant.

The stones are also lifeless only in the physical world—in the higher worlds they too have their group-Egos. In the upper areas of Devachan, the group-Egos of the minerals exist. They too experience joy and pain. We will not find out anything about this by way of speculation, but only through the Science of the Spirit.

If we observe a worker in a quarry breaking up stone by stone, we could believe that this would cause pain to the stone soul. But this is not so. Just when a stone is blasted, then feelings of pleasure burst forth from the stone in all directions. Out of the quarry, where rock is blasted apart, strong feelings of well-being stream out on all sides. When we have a glass of water and add salt to it, and the salt dissolves, then feelings of desire and pleasure will stream through the water. Joy streams through the water when the dissolution of salt is being observed from a spiritual viewpoint. But if we allow the dissolved salt to settle and harden again, then this happens under pain. Likewise, it would cause pain to the stone soul if we could amalgamate the rock again that was blasted apart.

In their secret writings, in their religious scriptures, the seers have always shared their secret knowledge with human beings. But the people have lost the ability to understand these secret scriptures. Let’s imagine ourselves back into the ancient periods of time of our earthly evolution. We see the stones of our solid mountain ranges, that are built up from various clay strata, basaltic stones and so on. When we go even further back, we find that things on Earth become more and more soft. Then we come back to a time, where the Earth was filled with mighty masses of fiery warmth, where the iron, where all metals, all minerals, were dissolved in the spiritual. The human being was also a spiritual being at that time. To allow man to develop further, to receive his current shape, those soft masses needed to solidify. The mountain ranges emerged, the mineral masses dissolved out of the soft substance, and the Earth became the dwelling place of today’s human beings. The lifeless rock masses crystallised themselves out of the fiery liquid Earth like the salt out of the salt solution. Everything shaped itself so that the firm masses were formed out of the liquid state. This did not happen without pain. The whole hardening process of the globe was connected with the pain of the stone soul.

In the future Earth will become spiritualised again. The Earth will again fragment, as is already indicated by radium today. The process of dissolution of the Earth will begin, a spiritualisation, a deification, an adoption in the place of children will happen. Let us hear what the Apostle Paul says, “The whole Earth, all beings, are sighing under pain, waiting to be adopted as children”.¹

What we have got here is a representation of what happens on Earth, where the stone soul suffers under pain until the condition occurs when the stone soul will be adopted in place of a child. One could feel pain within one’s soul when those, who are announcing the religious scriptures to man, dream all sorts of things into them, because they do not want to make an effort to penetrate deeply into these records. Those people who are leading mankind are really violating their duty if they do not want to penetrate deeply into the religious scriptures.

The apostle Paul knew what the processes on Earth meant. Theosophy must lead mankind in our modern time into the depth of religious scriptures. It is sad if those who are called upon to be the representatives of the scriptures, make no effort to immerse themselves in them—they do not even have the will to understand them. All the arrogance of the present that says, “we’ve finally made such magnificent progress”,² must disappear. There are so many who believe that our ancestors knew nothing! Then people come and interpret the scriptures of Paul—religious scriptures—as they want to, but filled with arrogance they feel that they know more than our ancestors. But how do these words affect us, “All creatures are sighing under pain, awaiting to be adopted as children”? when we allow the insight of the feeling stone soul to affect us, how it awaits in pain to be adopted in place of a child? Human beings with a materialist mindset believe that when they walk outside they walk through air, wind and fog, through oxygen and nitrogen. But a person who has spiritual knowledge, knows that he is walking through spiritual beings everywhere, that with every breath he takes in spiritual beings and absorbs them.

So we have seen, how the animal-Egos circumvent the Earth like the trade-winds, how the plant-Egos are gathered together in the centre of the Earth, how the Earth itself feels something when we rip out plants, and how the Earth itself is alive and ensouled and has feelings. Everything outside is ensouled and imbued with life.

In the same way as the physical body is born out of the physical substances and powers, our spiritual limbs are born out of the vast cosmos. Then we begin to see a small world within us that rests inside the vast world. This creates a blissful feeling in us. Only when we learn to empathise with the minerals, plants and animals, will we learn to feel how our Ego rests within the whole cosmos.

Thus we can see how Theosophy leads us into the spiritual foundations of existence. It is something that transforms our sense of life, our life impulses in such a way that through it we become different human beings. The theosophical concepts are seeds, will-impulses for real experiences.

• 1. St Paul says, “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain.” In Luther’s translation it literally says: “The creatures are fearfully awaiting the revelation of the children of God”, Letter to the Romans, VIII,19
• 2. Goethe, Faust I, Scene 1, night; “Excuse me, but it is a great delight, On the spirit of the ages to set our sight, To see how wise men have thought before us, and we’ve finally made such magnificent progress.”

The first words of the Gospel of St. John touch, in fact, upon the deepest mysteries of the world. This can be seen when we allow the truths of Spiritual Science which lie at their very foundation to pass before our souls. And we must dip deeply into spiritual knowledge, if these first words of this Gospel are to appear to us in the right light. We must recall to memory much that is well known to those of you who for a long time have been occupying yourselves with the Anthroposophical world conception. But today we shall need to expand certain elementary truths of this conception by penetrating further into various significant cosmic mysteries. We need but briefly call to mind how the human being appears to us between the time of waking in the morning and the evening, when he again sinks into sleep. We know that he is composed of a physical body, an ether or life body, an astral body, and an ego. These four members of the human being, however, are in close relationship only during the waking state. It is quite necessary that we remember that during the night, while sleeping, the human creature is, in reality, entirely different from the same creature during the day, during waking day consciousness, for then his four members are assembled in a very different manner. When he sleeps, the physical and ether bodies lie in bed. The astral body and ego, in a certain sense, are loosened from their connections with the physical and ether bodies and are in fact outside of them—we must understand the word outside in a spiritual, not in a purely spatial sense. Therefore during the night the human being is a creature consisting of two parts, one that remains lying in bed and another part which separates from the physical and ether bodies. Now we must first of all clearly understand that if, during the night, from the moment of going to sleep to the moment of waking again in the morning, the physical and ether bodies lying in bed were completely abandoned by what fills them throughout the day—that is, the astral body and ego—they could not then exist at all by themselves.

Here at this point we must enter a little more deeply into the cosmic mysteries. When we have the human physical body here before us, we should clearly understand that behind what we can see with the eyes and touch with our hands there is a long evolutionary process. It has passed through this process of evolution in the course of the entire development of our earthly planet. To those of you who have concerned yourselves a little with this subject, it is already well known that our earth has passed through previous states of existence and just as the human being has gone from one incarnation to another or, in other words, has passed through repeated earth lives, so too has the earth passed through other life-states before it reached the condition in which we find it today. There are previous incarnations of a planet just as there are previous incarnations of a human being. Everything in the great world and in the small world is subject to the law of repeated incarnations, and before the earth finally became this earth of ours it had passed through a condition of being which we call the “Ancient¹ Moon,” so called because the present moon contains a portion of that ancient planet. So when we speak of the “Ancient Moon,” we do not at all mean the present moon, but a planet similar to the present earth in its earliest stages. Nov, just as there is a period between one incarnation and a new birth in the case of human beings, so also is there a period between the incarnation of this planet of ours which we call the Earth, and that one we designate as the Ancient Moon, and the same is true of that life-condition which we call the “Sun.” A state which we call the “Sun” preceded the Moon-state of our planet and again this Sun-state was preceded by a “Saturn” life-condition. Thus we can look back on three earlier incarnations of our planet but not as it is today.

Our physical human body received its very first rudiments upon the ancient Saturn. Upon that ancient planet the very first germ of a physical body was at that time created, but, of course, one very different from the human body of the present. Besides the physical body, nothing that is a part of the human being of today was present on ancient Saturn. Only when Saturn was transformed into the Sun, that is to say, during the second incarnation of our Earth-planet, was the ether body added to the physical body, penetrating and impregnating it. And what was the result? The physical human body underwent a transformation, acquired another form and attained a very different state of existence. During the Sun incarnation of our Earth, the physical body stood at a second stage of its development. But how did it reach this second stage? By becoming an inwardly living body on the Sun, while on Saturn it was still machine-like and automatic. The ether body, which had slipped in, transformed the physical body. Then on the Moon, the astral body slipped into this union of physical and ether bodies. Thus the physical body was again transformed a third time and the ether body a second time. At last upon the Earth, the ego was added to the physical, ether and astral bodies and having now entered into this threefold union, the ego transformed this physical body again, so that at last it became the complicated structure which it is today. Therefore, what you have before you now as the human physical body is a many times transformed entity, and just because it has passed through four stages of evolution it has its present complicated appearance.

If we say, when speaking of our present physical body, that it is composed of the same physical and chemical substances and forces to be found in the minerals out in the cosmos, it must, nevertheless, be quite clear to us that there is an enormous difference between this physical human body and the mineral. Speaking in very elementary terms, we emphasize the difference between the physical human body and the physical body of a mineral—for example, of a rock crystal—when we say that the rock crystal retains its form unless shattered from without. The human physical body, on the contrary, cannot of itself retain its form. It has its form only because and as long as there are within it an ether body, an astral body, and an ego. The moment the ether body, the astral body, and the ego are separated from it, it becomes something quite different from what it is between birth and death; it follows the laws of the physical and chemical substances and forces and decays, while on the other hand the physical body of the mineral remains unchanged.

Something similar is the case with the ether body. Immediately after death the ether and astral bodies and the ego separate from the physical body; then after a time the ether body also leaves this union of astral body and ego and resolves itself into the cosmic ether, just as the physical body disintegrates and goes back into the earth kingdom. There remains behind only that extract of the ether body of which we have often spoken. This remains united with the human being. Therefore we may say that the physical human body is in a certain sense of the same nature as the mineral kingdom about us, nevertheless, we must keep in mind the great difference which exists between the mineral kingdom and the physical human body.

One might say:—Indeed, but you have just stated that on Saturn our physical body was not yet permeated by an ether body, an astral body and an ego, for they were only added on the Sun, Moon and Earth. Therefore at that time, in fact—one might say—the physical body had the character of a mineral. That is true, but we have mentioned three metamorphoses of this physical body that one after the other have succeeded that early life-state of the Saturn period. Even the present mineral, which you have before you as a dead mineral, cannot possibly exist with only a physical body. Let us make it very clear that what has been said and must be repeated is true, that as far as the physical world is concerned, the mineral has only a physical body. Here in the physical world the mineral has only a physical body—however, that is not literally true. Just as the physical human body, standing before us, has within it its etheric and astral bodies and its ego which belong to it, so too has the mineral not only a physical body, but also an ether and an astral body, and an ego, however, these higher members of its being are to be found only in higher realms. The mineral has an ether body, but it is to be found in the so-called astral world; it has also an astral body, but it is in the so-called devachanic or heaven-world, and it has an ego, but this exists in a still higher spiritual world. Thus the physical human body differs from the physical body of a mineral in having here in this physical world, in a waking state, its ether and astral bodies and ego within it, while the mineral has not. We know that besides our world there are still other worlds. The world which we ordinarily perceive with our physical senses is permeated by the astral world and this again by the devachanic world which consists of an inferior and a superior region.

In comparison with the mineral, the human being is an especially favored creature, because during waking-consciousness he has his other three members within him. The mineral does not contain these members within itself, so we must think of it as not existing wholly upon the physical plane. Think of a human finger-nail. You will concede that nowhere outside in Nature can you find this finger-nail existing as an independent entity, for if it is to grow, it presupposes the rest of the human organism—it cannot exist without this. Now imagine a tiny creature with eyes that can see only your finger-nail, but has no capacity to see the rest of your organism. Such a tiny creature would look out into the rest of space, but would see nothing besides your finger-nail. Thus the minerals on the physical plane are like the finger-nail and you only perceive them in their entirety when you rise into higher realms. There they have their ether and astral bodies and egos and here only their physical member. All this we must hold firmly in mind in order that it may be quite clear that in a higher reality there can be no entity that does not possess some kind of ether and astral body and ego. A purely physical being can have no existence; to exist at all it must have an ether and an astral body, and an ego.

However, in all that has been said today there is in fact a certain contradiction. We have stated that the human being, in the night while asleep, is entirely different from the creature we see during the day when he is awake. By day he is quite comprehensible to us; we have him there before us as a four-fold being. But now let us approach him in sleep and observe his physical nature. Here we have the physical body and the ether body lying in bed—the astral body and ego outside. Thus arises the contradictory condition of having before us a being deserted by its astral body and ego. The stone does not sleep. Its ether and astral bodies and ego do not penetrate it, but remain constantly in the same relationship with it. With the human being, on the contrary, the astral body and ego depart each night and he does not concern himself about his physical and ether bodies, but leaves them to themselves. This fact is not always fully considered. Every night the human being, in his truly spiritual part, takes leave of his physical and ether bodies which he himself deserts. However, these bodies would not be able to exist by themselves, because no physical body, and for that matter no ether body, can exist by itself. Even the stone must be permeated by its higher members. Therefore you can easily comprehend that it is wholly impossible for your physical body and ether body to remain in bed at night without an astral body and ego. What occurs then during the night? Your own astral body and ego are indeed not within the physical and ether bodies, but present in their place there is another ego and another astral body. At this point, occultism calls your attention to a divine-spiritual existence and to higher spiritual powers. During the night, while your own ego and astral body are outside your physical and ether bodies, the astral body and ego of higher, divine-spiritual powers are actually active within them. And the reason for this is the following:

When we consider the whole of human evolution from the Saturn stage through the Sun and Moon periods as far as the Earth, we might indeed say that upon Saturn only the physical human body existed, that there was no human ether body, no human astral body and no human ego within this physical body. But this physical body, at that time, could have no more existed by itself than the stone today can exist by itself. The physical body of that time could only exist because it was permeated by the ether and astral bodies and the ego of divine-spiritual beings which dwelt within it, and they still dwell there today. Then on the Sun, when our own ether body entered into this physical body, the smaller human ether body amalgamated, as it were, with the earlier ether body of divine-spiritual powers. Even upon Saturn the physical body was permeated by divine-spiritual beings.

If we have now understood this properly, we come to a deeper comprehension of the present human being and we are in a position to repeat and to understand better what has been taught in Esoteric Christianity from the beginning. This Esoteric Christianity has always been fostered alongside the outer Christian exoteric teaching. I have often pointed out that Paul, the great apostle of Christianity, used his powerful, fiery gift of eloquence to teach Christianity to the people, but that at the same time he founded an esoteric school, the director of which was Dionysius, the Areopagite, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. In this Christian Esoteric School at Athens which was directly founded by Paul himself, the purest Spiritual Science was taught. And now, having brought together the necessary material in the above observations, we shall be able to place before our souls what was taught there.

This school also taught that when we observe the human being standing before us in his waking state, we find him composed of physical body, ether body, astral body, and ego. It is of little importance that the names used were not exactly the same as those used today. Even at that time the stage of evolution at which humanity now stands was already predicated. This human being, consisting of these four members, has not always been as he now appears to us. If we wish to observe him composed of these four members only, then we must not observe him as he is today, but we must retrace our evolutionary steps back to the Lemurian period. It was at that time that the ego became united with the human being composed of physical, ether, and astral bodies. Thus one might truly say that then, in the real sense of the word, the human being consisted of physical, ether, and astral bodies, and ego.

But since that time every human being has passed through many incarnations. What then is the significance of this evolution by means of incarnations? It is that from incarnation to incarnation the ego works upon and transforms the three members of its being. It begins by first transforming its astral body. In the average man of today the astral body is not just as it was in the first earthly incarnation before the ego had worked upon it. In the first incarnation upon the earth the ego, working from within outwardly, transformed certain thoughts, feelings, and passions which originally had been given to men, and from incarnation to incarnation these were changed more and more through the activity of the ego. Thus it may be said that the human being has today not only the four members, physical, ether, and astral bodies, and ego, but through the activity of the ego within the astral body, he has now a member which is the actual creation of the ego itself. In each human being of today, the astral body is two-fold; it has one part that has been transformed by the ego, and another part not so transformed. This will continue and a time will come for every human being when his entire astral body will become a creation of his ego. It is the custom in oriental wisdom to call that part of the astral body, which has already been transformed by the ego, by the name of Manas; in English, Spirit-Self. Although the human being is still composed of his four members, we can now distinguish five parts: physical, ether, and astral bodies, and ego; and as fifth member, the transformed part of the astral body, Manas or Spirit-Self. Thus we may say that in every human being the astral body contains within it Manas or Spirit-Self, the work of the ego, the product of the activity of the ego.

The human being will continue to work upon himself. The Earth will pass through further incarnations and humanity will acquire by degrees the capacity—which today can be acquired by the initiate—of working also upon the ether body. It is true the average man today is already working upon his ether body and that part of it which is transformed into a product of the ego is called Budhi or Life-Spirit. He will finally reach the point where, by means of his ego, he will transform his physical body also. That part of the physical body which is transformed by the ego is called Atman or Spirit-Man.

Let us allow our glance to sweep to the far distant future after the Earth has passed through other planetary forms, other incarnations, after—as occultism describes it—it has gone through the Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan states of existence. The human being will then stand upon a very much higher level, and will have transformed his entire astral body into Manas or Spirit-Self, his entire ether body into Budhi or Life-Spirit and his whole physical body into Atman or Spirit-Man.

Compare this human being as he will appear to us at the end of our earthly course with the same human creature as he appeared at its beginning. In the beginning there was only the physical body, and it was permeated by an ether and an astral body and an ego, but these belonged to divine higher beings who only dwelt within it. At the end of the Earth's evolutionary course, the human being will be entirely permeated by his ego. And this ego itself dwells within the astral body, when as Manas or Spirit-Self it permeates this astral body. The ego then permeates the ether body, which becomes impregnated by Budhi or Life-Spirit and the physical body becomes entirely transfused by Atman or Spirit-Man, also the product of the ego. What a tremendous difference between the creature at the beginning of this evolution and the same human being as he will be at the end of it! But by bringing this great difference clearly before our minds, what I purposely called a contradiction—the sleep state—then becomes comprehensible to us. The very form of the explanation in Esoteric Christianity makes it entirely intelligible to us. What then is this physical body that we shall have before us when the earth has reached the goal of its evolution? Will it be the present physical body? Not in any sense will it be the present physical body, but what the ego shall have made of it. This physical body, as well as the ether and astral bodies, will be wholly spirit-filled. But they were spirit-filled even before the human being transformed them into spirit through the activity of his ego. Even the stone, as we have said, is today permeated by the ether and astral bodies, and ego belonging to it, although they exist in higher spiritual realms.

Thus we see that Esoteric Christianity has good reason for stating that the human being cannot yet master what he today possesses as physical body, because he has not yet reached the end of his evolution when his ego will have worked down even into the physical body. He also cannot yet master the ether body. He will only be able to master that when the Earth has reached the Venus state. Thus he cannot yet master physical and ether bodies through his ego. Only when he has developed Budhi and Atman will he be able to do this. But a physical and ether body of this kind must be controlled in a spiritual way. What the human being himself will some day be able to give to the physical and ether bodies must already be present within them. Those spiritual parts which the ego will at some time give to the ether and physical bodies must be there even now. They were already within the physical body in the beginning when the human creature was in the Saturn Evolution; they were in him when he was on the Sun, and they have continued to remain within him ever since. Thus Esoteric Christianity speaks truly when it says: When the human being has reached the summit of his evolution, what is now already within the human physical body, the divine Atman, a divine spiritual being, will then become a part of it. Budhi also is already within the ether body, but it is the divine Life-Spirit. The human astral body consists, as we have said, of two parts, one of which has been mastered by the human being and another which has not. What, then, is present there within that part which he cannot yet control? It is the Spirit-Self, but a divine Spirit-Self. The real spiritual life of mankind is only present in that part of the astral body in which the ego has already been active since the first incarnation. Thus we have the human being before us.

Let us now look at him in his waking state. What shall we say? The physical body as it appears to us is only the exterior. Within, he is what may be called an atmic being. Interiorly, he is composed of and permeated by higher divine-spiritual beings. The same is true of the ether body. Exteriorly, it is what holds the physical body together; interiorly it is the divine Life-Spirit. And the astral body also is permeated by a divine being, the Spirit-Self. But out of this whole combination, the transformed portion of the astral body alone has been mastered by the ego.

Let us now observe the human being while he sleeps. Here this contradiction disappears at once. We approach him when he is in this state and observe that, as astral body and ego, he is outside the physical body. He calmly abandons it and the ether body every night. Were he to leave the physical body without its being cared for by a divine-spiritual being, he would find it again, but in a shattered condition. A divine-spiritual physical and a divine-spiritual ether are present within the physical and ether bodies and they remain there while these bodies are lying in bed, with the astral body and ego outside. The physical body and ether body are permeated by beings of an atmic and budhic nature.

Now, look back to the beginning of our earthly evolution when nothing in the human being had yet been mastered by the ego. Before his first incarnation the ego was not yet united with the three other members, the physical, ether, and astral bodies. These last came over from the Moon, but the ego did not enter them until the Earth period. On the other hand, a divine Ego was present within them. They would not have been able to exist had not this divine Ego completely permeated them. The astral body was permeated by a divine Spirit-Self, the ether body by a divine Life-Spirit and the physical body by a divine Atman or Spirit-Man.

Let us look back still further to the Moon, Sun, and Saturn evolutions. Upon Saturn, the divine Life-Spirit—which still in the night dwells within the human being lying in bed—had the power to form the human body, as a matter of fact the physical body, into something like a mineral. During the Sun stage, this Life-Spirit transformed the physical body into something of the nature of a plant and on the Moon it was able to form this body into something that experiences pleasure and pain, but which could not yet say “I” to itself. The physical body passed through these lowest stages.

Now, let us proceed to the real Earth incarnation. Here, by experiencing a further transformation, the physical human body became still more perfected than previously. What had it previously been unable to do? What was yet quite foreign to it? What had the divine Spirit kept within itself? What had it not yet entrusted to the human body? It was the power to express in sound the inner life of the soul. On the Moon, this human body, then at the animal stage, was mute. The capacity to permit the soul-life to express itself outwardly in sounds was still with the Divine. It was not yet entrusted to the body's own being. Although there are also animal creatures today able to utter cries, such sounds are, however, something very different from the human vocal sounds. These animals still exist under quite different conditions from the human creature,—they make sounds, it is true, but it is the Divine within them sounding forth. The power to express the inner feelings of the soul in words was only bestowed upon men here upon the Earth. Before this, they were mute; thus this capacity for speech came with life upon the earth.

Let us consider now for a moment as a whole what we have today brought before our souls. The power of speech, namely the Word, was originally with the Divine, and the whole of evolution was so directed that the Godhead first created, as pre-requisite, a physical apparatus which only later acquired the power to allow this Word to sound forth out of itself. Everything was thus guided and directed. Like the flower within its seed, the tone-uttering human being, endowed with the Word or Logos, existed already in germ upon Saturn. Sound was concealed within this germ and developed out of it just as the whole plant grows out of the seed in which it has been hidden.

Let us look back upon the physical human body as it existed upon Saturn and ask ourselves:—Whence came this physical human body? What was its primal source? What did it need to carry it through the whole of evolution?—It came from the Logos or the Word. For even as early as the Saturn period this physical human body was directed in such a way that it later became capable of speech, became a witness of the Logos. That you are formed as you are today, that this human body has its present shape, rests upon the fact that the “Word” lies at the very foundation of the whole plan of our creation. The whole human body has been constructed upon the Word and from the very beginning it was so endowed that at last the Word was able to spring forth from it. When, therefore, the esoteric Christian, looking at this physical human body, asked: What is its original prototype and what is its image? the answer was: This physical human body has its origin in the Word or Logos. This Word or Logos was active from the beginning within the physical human body—and it is still active there today when the physical body lies in bed deserted by the ego. During that time, the divine Logos is active within the members thus forsaken by the human soul. If we ask: What was the very first beginning of the physical body? then the answer is:—The Logos or the Word.

We shall now follow evolution still further. Saturn passed over into the Sun Period; and then to the human physical body, the life or ether body was added. But what must have entered in order that such a step forward could be made? While on Saturn, the physical body was a kind of machine, a sort of automaton, wholly permeated and maintained, however, by the Logos; on the Sun, the life body was added within which the divine Life-Spirit was active. During the Saturn Period, the human body was an expression of the Logos; then Saturn disappeared, and this human body was reborn upon the Sun. To the physical body was added the life body, permeated by the Life-Spirit. The Logos became Life upon the Sun, while advancing the human creature to a higher stage. The Logos became Life upon the Sun!

Let us now continue further. Upon the Moon, the astral body was added to this human creature. What is the astral body? It appears to the clairvoyant consciousness, even today, like an aura surrounding the human being. It is a body of light, only it cannot be seen in the present state of consciousness. But when seen with clairvoyant vision, it appears as Light, spiritual Light. Our physical light is only transformed spiritual Light and the physical sunlight is the embodiment of the divine-spiritual auric, cosmic Light which is its source. In the present world there is a light streaming down upon us from the sun. But there is yet another light which streams forth out of our own inner radiance. Upon the Moon, the human astral body still shone for the beings in its environment. Thus upon the Moon, the human astral body was united with the physical and ether bodies.

Let us now observe the progress of evolution as a whole. Upon Saturn, we have the physical body as the expression of the Logos; upon the Sun, the ether body is added as an expression of the Life-Spirit. The Logos becomes Life. Upon the Moon, the light-body is added: Life becomes Light! Here we have the story of the evolution of the human body. When the human being began life upon the Earth, he was a creation of the divine-spiritual powers. At that time he existed because within his physical, ether, and astral bodies the Logos was living, the Logos which was Life and which became Light. What now occurred upon the Earth? In the human being and for the human being the ego now entered, and because of this, he was now able not only to live in Light and in Life, but also became capable of observing everything externally, capable of confronting the Logos, Life, and Light. Therefore everything became material to him and he acquired a physical material existence.

Now that we have developed our train of thought thus far, we have approximately reached the point where we shall begin our next lecture, when we shall show how the human creature, born out of the Godhead, has developed into the present ego-being. For we see that prior to this present ego-being, there existed a divine pre-human creature. All that part which has been mastered by the ego is each night torn away from the physical and ether bodies, but the part which from the beginning has always been there within him remains and watches over these bodies when unconcerned, the soul faithlessly deserts them. This original divine-spiritual being remains firmly implanted there.

All that we have been trying to present in the language of Esoteric Christianity, deep mysteries of existence familiar to those who were “servants of the Logos in the earliest times,” all this is presented unequivocally in sublime, clear-cut verses in the Gospel of St. John. One must, however, translate these first words in the right way, in conformity with their meaning. Properly translated, these words give the actual facts which have just been presented. Let us bring these facts again before our souls, in order that we may fully comprehend their value.

In the beginning was the Logos which was the archetype of the physical human body, the foundation of all things. All animals, plants and minerals appeared later, for the human creature alone was present upon Saturn. In the Sun Period, the animal kingdom was added, in the Moon Period, the plant kingdom and upon the Earth the mineral kingdom appeared. Upon the Sun, the Logos became Life and upon the Moon, it became Light; then when the human creature became endowed with an ego, the Logos as Light confronted him. But he had to learn to know the nature of the Logos and learn in what form It eventually would make its appearance. First there was the Logos which became Life, then Light, and this Light lives in the astral body. Into the human inner being, into the darkness, into the ignorance, the Light shone. And the meaning of life upon Earth is this:—That men should overcome this darkness of the soul, in order that they may recognize the Light of the Logos.

The first words of the Gospel of St. John are incisive, although, perhaps, very difficult to understand, as many may say. But should the most profound mysteries of the world be expressed in trivial language? Is it not a strange point of view, a real insult to what is Holy when one says, for example, that in order to understand a watch one must penetrate deeply into the nature of the thing with the understanding, but for a comprehension of the Divine in the world, the simple, plain, naive human intelligence should suffice? It is a very bad thing for present humanity that it has reached the point of saying, when reference is made to the profoundness of religious documents: 0! why all these complicated explanations? It should all be plain and simple. However, only those who have the good intention and good will to plunge down into the great cosmic facts can penetrate into the deep meaning of such words as those at the very beginning of the most profound of the gospels, this Gospel of St. John, words that are in fact a paraphrase of Spiritual Science.

Let us now translate the introductory words of this Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was a God (or divine). This was in the beginning with God. Through the same all things were made and save through this Word, nothing was made. In It was Life, and Life became the Light of men. And the Light shone into the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.

How the darkness, little by little, comes to an understanding of the Light is recounted later on in the Gospels.

• 1. The words Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan when spelt with an initial capital refer to the great cosmic evolutionary periods called “man-bearing periods.” The words earth, moon, and sun, spelt with small letters refer to the planets of our present solar system. Ed.

The Kingdoms of Nature. Group-egos. The Centre of Man. The Kingdoms of Higher Spiritual Beings.

If we are to bring the relationship of Universe, Earth, and Man before our minds in the following lectures, it will first be necessary to gather together many things that will furnish us with some kind of foundation. At the same time we must remember that if we only use our external senses and the intellect that is bound up with these, we shall see very little; this applies to the Earth as well as to man, and in a still higher degree to the Universe. We must realize that the greater part of what is most essential is hidden from the outer senses, and also from external intellectual observation. Therefore to begin with we will point out a few things appertaining to the beings that surround us, but which are hidden from view. Much will have to be said which many of you know already, but in order to grasp our vast subject thoroughly it will be necessary to recapitulate to a certain extent. We must in the first place consider the planet on which we live, and which forms the centre of our studies.

Yesterday we considered one portion of the earth's evolution in connection with the whole.

We saw how beings have been active in various ways, from the time when earth and sun still formed one body up to our own day. We saw also that in the various ages of the Post-Atlantean epoch man has repeated in knowledge and in religious consciousness all that the earth has passed through in the course of its evolution.

We will now go more deeply into the various conditions on this our earth. We are surrounded in the first place by the four kingdoms of nature; the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms. Man is not the mere material physical being of which the outer senses inform us, and which the scientific intellect describes and explains but he is a complicated being made up of physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. All this we know. When we allow our gaze to sweep over the beings of the other kingdoms of the earth we must be fully aware that the expressions physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego are by no means meaningless in respect of them also. When dealing with the physical world we have to allow that of all earthly beings man alone possesses an ego-nature; he alone in this physical world has a self-conscious ego. With animals it is quite different; the ego of animals is not in the physical world in the same way man's ego is.

If we consider the difference between animals and man we must acknowledge that whereas every human being has its individual “I” enclosed as a single individuality within its skin, not every animal has an “I,” but that certain groups of similarly formed animals have one “I,” or ego, in common. For example, all lions, or all bears, have a common ego, hence we call such an ego belonging to the animal kingdom a group-ego. The human ego is found in the physical world; although we may not see it with our eyes it is present within the skin of every human being. This is not the case with animals. We do not find their group-ego in the physical world. In order that you may form an idea of such a group-ego imagine that there is a partition before me, and in this partition ten holes. I put my ten fingers through the holes and move them. You see my fingers but not myself, and without much deep thought you say that these ten fingers do not move of themselves, but something hidden must be causing the movement; in other words you think of a being that belongs to the fingers. This comparison brings us to the group-nature or soul-nature in the case of animals.

The various lions on the physical plane are beings which, in a certain sense, have also something hidden behind them. Just as the central being belonging to the ten fingers is hidden by the partition, so something is also hidden which is common to all lions. It is hidden because it is not present at all in the physical world. The same ego-nature which in the case of man is present in the physical world is to be found in the case of animals in the astral world. The group ego of animals is in the astral world. From each single animal there stretches a sort of continuation of its being into the astral world, there these continuations meet together and form the garment or covering for the animal-ego. These group egos live as single individuals on the astral plane, just as human individual egos do here on the physical plane. When the clairvoyant enters the astral plane he encounters the various animal egos as separate beings which stretch forth their principles into the physical world. One must not merely picture this diagrammatically, but must accustom oneself to picture these egos in their reality. It must be clearly understood that we do not have to go into another region to enter the astral world; the astral world permeates our physical world. It is only a case of our being able to look into it with opened astral senses.

You may now ask what do the group-egos of animals look like? The group-ego of one of the higher orders of animals appears to the clairvoyant somewhat as follows: Along the spine of the animal he sees what resembles a brightly shining line. As a matter of fact our atmosphere is permeated not only by the material currents generally recognized, but also in every direction by astral currents, and in these currents the clairvoyant recognizes the group-egos of animals.

A second question might now be asked: Have lower beings, such as plants for example, an ego? Yes, they have an ego. When the clairvoyant examines a plant he finds that the part visible in the physical world is nothing but a combination of the physical and etheric bodies of the plant. Imagine the surface of the earth on which plants grow, picture the root of a plant, the stem, the leaves, and flowers. That which grows has not in the physical world, like man, a physical body, an etheric body, astral body, and ego, but only a physical and etheric body. We must not conclude from this that the astrality with which we are filled, and which is active also in animals, is not active in the plant. To the opened eyes of the clairvoyant the plant is surrounded by a glow, and this comes from astral substances. It is this also which cooperates in the development of the flower. While the plant grows from leaf to leaf through the influence of the etheric body its growth terminates above in a flower through being surrounded by astral substance.

The clairvoyant sees every growing plant thus surrounded by astral substance, but there is something else connected with the plant, namely its ego. If we wish to locate the ego of a plant we must seek it in the centre of the earth. There the ego of all plants is to be found; this is an important and essential truth. Whereas we see the egos of animals in the circumference of the earth, we must turn to the centre of the earth for the egos of plants. In fact, when clairvoyant vision has attained to such a view of the plant creation the earth, which otherwise confronts man merely as a material structure, expands to an organism having its ego in the centre; this ego includes all plant egos.

The earth is ensouled by an ego and in the same way as your head is covered with hairs which grow from out your being, so plants grow from out the being of the earth, and belong to the whole organism of the earth. When one tears a plant up by the roots it hurts the whole earth, the soul of the plant experiences pain. This is a fact. On the other hand one should not think that the earth feels pain when a flower is plucked; exactly the reverse is the case. For example, when in autumn a reaper cuts corn the clairvoyant sees great currents of a feeling of well-being pass over the earth. Objections to this from the moral standpoint do not hold good. One might for example ask: Is it then a more trifling sin when a child plucks all sorts of plants uselessly than when a man transplants one carefully and with good intention? The fact remains the same: If a plant is uprooted the earth feels pain; if a plant is cut the earth feels pleasure. For the earth has pleasure in yielding up what it bears on its surface; also when animals pass over the earth grazing upon its plants the earth has a sensation of pleasure; much the same as a cow has when her calf draws milk. This is an absolutely occult fact. The sensation of the earth when plants spring from it and are beamed upon by the astral body is the same as that of animals when they yield their milk. These are not merely comparisons, but are actual facts. Anyone who with clairvoyant vision can see into the astral world still sees nothing of the ego of plants; to do this a higher clairvoyance is required, that by which it is possible to see into the devachanic world.

We can say, therefore, that the group-ego of animals is in the astral world, whereas the ego of plants is in the devachanic world.

The next question that naturally presents itself is: How is it with the mineral world? How is it with so-called lifeless minerals? Have they anything resembling an ego, or some other higher principle? If we observe a stone clairvoyantly we find that in the physical world it has only a physical body; the etheric body of minerals surrounds and envelops this on all sides. Take, for example, a rock crystal; you must imagine this entire form as hollowed out, that it resembles a hollow space, and that only where the physical substance ends does the etheric begin. Just as the upper part of a plant is woven round by the astral, so the mineral is surrounded by the etheric. This etheric is at home in the astral world. Mark this well—we have an etheric that is at home in the astral world.

Things are really more complicated than is generally supposed. It is not the case that in the astral world everything is astral; this is as little the case as that in the physical world everything is physical. For example, in the physical world you have the etheric body, the astral body, and even the ego of man; and the clairvoyant also sees the etheric body of minerals in the astral world.

Now, let us ask: where is the astral body of minerals? This looks like peculiarly formed rays. Picture to yourselves forms of light, or rays, broadening out more and more, and piercing into the etheric body of the mineral. Astral rays stream thus from every mineral. They have no end, but stream out indefinitely into space. When a rock crystal is observed you see first the space which is filled out physically; clairvoyantly you see this physical form surrounded by the light of the etheric body, and this again as if pierced by all kinds of ray-formations which extend endlessly in all directions into space. Vision is led from each point of space that is filled by some substance into the infinite. There is no point of space that is not connected with the Universe, it is as if every single thing in the world hung on thousands and thousands of threads of spiritual light which stretch into infinite space, and you can imagine, if these extended more and more, how they would all ultimately mingle.

In fact, when a mineral is examined clairvoyantly something like the following is presented to view: the physical part is seen rayed round by the light-forms of the etheric body, these rays of light appear to broaden and radiate continually into space till they ultimately disappear as if into a hollow globe. You can think of every mineral as being the centre of such a hollow globe, and that these are present everywhere in the world. These hollow globes interpenetrate each other, and if we can picture clairvoyant power enhanced more and more to where these rays unite we arrive at where the egos of the minerals stream towards us from every direction of space. These egos reveal themselves to clairvoyant capacity when it enters the higher regions of the devachanic plane. Whereas the rays which compose the astral body are in the lower regions, the ego is in the higher devachanic world.

You have here been given a panoramic view of the different kingdoms. The ego of man is on the physical plane, that of animals on the astral plane, that of plants in the lower regions of the devachanic world, and the ego of minerals is in the higher regions of the same world.

Therefore the minerals are in the opposite position to man. Man has his ego within him, it is enclosed within his skin; each human being is a centre in himself, a “man-centre.” Plants form a wider centre; taken together they form an “earth-centre”; and the egos of minerals form the circumference of the earth-sphere. Wherever a man is found the human ego is always the centre; the mineral ego is always in the circumference—exactly the opposite of man. You will now find it comprehensible when I tell you that the mineral soul is in an entirely different position to the human or to the animal soul.

When a mineral is broken up it does not feel pain, on the contrary it feels pleasure, it has a sensation of well-being. Great currents of pleasurable feeling stream forth from a quarry where stones are broken to pieces; on the other hand were you to put all the broken pieces together again it would cause very great pain. The same fact may be observed in another process. Imagine that you have a glass of warm water into which you throw a piece of salt. When the salt dissolves not only does the substance dissolve, but feelings of well-being fill the warm water, feelings of pleasure on the part of the mineral at being dissolved. Again, if you cool the water so that the salt crystallizes, the process is connected with a feeling of pain. Initiates have always known these things and have told them to man; he has but to learn to understand what they say.

One great Initiate spoke about this in a very significant manner.

Let us picture how things were at one time in the earth's development. Today we walk on solid earth, but it was not always thus. When we trace the evolution of the earth backwards we find that it becomes ever softer and softer till at last its condition is fluidic or even vapoury. That which is solid today, namely, the mineral part, has crystallized from out the erstwhile fluidic earth. It had to become solid in order that man might walk upon it. It was necessary for human existence that the earth, as regards its mineral nature, should suffer infinite pain—for infinite pain was connected with the solidification of the earth. Paul said, referring to this: “The whole creation groaneth in pain awaiting the state of adoption,” meaning that the earth has to endure pain in connection with solidification, and formation of the mineral earth, in order that man may be adopted as the child of God.

We need never lose respect for the writings of true Initiates when we come to understand them; every line of the inspired Biblical record fills us with profound awe when we learn its meaning with the help of Spiritual Science. Cosmic secrets are hidden in the saying of Paul quoted above. It is true that such truths as these will only again become fruitful for humanity when they enter into and affect men's feeling. They must not be only comprehended intellectually, but must be embodied in feeling if they are to become true knowledge.

Let us turn now to the consideration of plants; let us think how their physical body grows, how the glow of the astral body surrounds this, and how the ego is in the centre of the earth. Let me point out once more what is essential in this. What does the astral body really do when it develops the flower from outside? It does something of great importance in the life of the plant, and we shall understand this if we go a little more deeply into the spiritual structure of our earth.

In the last lecture we learnt that there was a time when the earth and the sun formed one body. Man was already there though he lived under entirely different conditions from those of today. He possessed a dim clairvoyant consciousness; and his organism was such that he could live in that earth-sun body. Today he is so organized that, when a sunbeam falls on his eye he “sees,” that is, he sees the sunbeam which penetrates to him from outside, and he sees by means of this sunbeam. This was not the case at the time when man was still one with the earth, in the sun. He then saw the sunbeams from within; he saw the soul-forces which permeated the sunbeams. What were these soul-forces? The forces permeating the sunbeams are the same as the forces within our astral bodies. Physical light is but the external body of the astral light which radiates from the sun, and the astrality gleaming about the upper part of the body of a plant is connected inwardly with the astral outpourings coming from the sun. You have wishes and impulses of will, because you possess an astral body. In the case of plants it is desire, feeling, and will that play round the blossoms.

What does that which plays round the plant desire? It desires to absorb the soul of the sunbeam, and with the soul its purest part—its ego; and it is this purest part which passes through the plant to the centre of the earth. The activity of the plant's ego is expressed in the activity of the spiritual content of the sunbeam which passes through it to the centre of the earth. Thus earth, plant, and sun work together. The spiritual powers of the sun are in fact continually being led to the earth. And how? By means of the astral body playing round them; the blossoms, which long to absorb the soul of the sunlight, allow to sink through their bodies into the earth. That which is brought about outwardly in the physical world through the beams of the sun is but one side of its activity; the other works psychically in the plant, which longs for the soul of the light that streams to earth in the rays of the sun.

Let us now try to understand the practical result of these things. Imagine a man of a far distant future who perceives in every plant what I have just told you of its longing to absorb the soul of the sun. This man will have, at a higher spiritual stage, something that the animal has at a lower stage—when grazing in a meadow it chooses the plants that are of use to it and leaves others alone—an unconscious instinct, but really it is higher spirits who guide the animal. The man of the future will approach plants that are of use to him consciously; not as now when he reflects on which yield the best substances for his body; he will then have a vital relationship to every plant, for he will know what it is they have absorbed, and what passes from them to him. Eating will not be to him a mean occupation, but an act consummated with soul and spirit, for he will know that everything he eats is the external form of something spiritual. In our immediate age, when men know little about the vital inward relations between themselves and the world, all kinds of substitutes are made use of. Why have the Initiates of all ages urged people to say grace before eating? The grace should be a token of the recognition that, together with the food, something spiritual enters into man.

We have seen how sensation and feeling alter when man acquires true wisdom. With a certainty as sure as the instinct of animals at a lower stage man will know with shining clearness what he should do; he will know because he will recognize the soul of that which he absorbs into himself. Down to everyday details such as these we can trace the practical value of Spiritual Science for the future.

Thus we can now consider the world with entirely different feelings; for we regard the earth not only as a body shone upon by the rays of the sun, but as a living being which absorbs the soul of the sun through the astral mantle of plants, and we see the entire Universe permeated by the egos of minerals, we see how all these things are ensouled and filled with spirit.

We have now dealt with the four kingdoms of nature, the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms, but the series does not end here; it goes farther. These are only the kingdoms which man can see in his normal development. We have already pointed out, however, that in the Atlantean epoch man was the companion of Beings who as their densest form had only an etheric body. Those figures which have remained as a memory in the legends of various peoples, the figures of Zeus, Apollo, etc., were actual to the ancient Atlanteans; they dwelt with them during sleep. Such Beings were to be found everywhere who had not descended so far as to embodiment in the flesh.

Looking from man upwards to higher kingdoms, we have to begin with three kingdoms which interest us. In accordance with Christian esotericism, we call the kingdom immediately bordering on the human the realm of the Angels; they are also called Spirits of Twilight. Then there is a second kingdom, higher than the Angels, the kingdom of the Archangels; they are also called the Spirits of Fire. Lastly there is a still higher kingdom, that of the Archai (Original Forces or First Beginnings), called also the Spirits of Personality. These are the three kingdoms next above man.

I will try to tell you a little about the life of these kingdoms; they play a very positive part in our life. Just as man plays a part in the life of plants when he tills the ground, so these higher kingdoms influence the human kingdom. We shall best understand this if we consider the following: Man has at the present time an ego, an astral body, an etheric body, and a physical body. How does further development come to pass? Through working continually upon himself. Today the ego of man is still in many respects powerless to affect the other principles of his being, he is in many ways unable to control his passions, but is therefore ruled by them, that is, by his astral body. There is a great difference between human beings in this respect. Compare a savage who eats his fellow men with a European and then think of a high idealist such as Schiller or Francis of Assisi. You see here an advancing development which consists in man learning more and more to control his astral body by his ego. A time will come when the ego will do this completely; it will irradiate the astral body completely. Man will then have formed a higher principle, this principle we call Manas, or Spirit-Self. It is nothing but the astral body, which has been transformed by the ego.

When we observe a man of the present day clairvoyantly we see that his astral body really consists of two parts, namely, the part that is already under the control of the ego and the part he is not yet able to control. This latter is still filled with lower forces and impulses, and when the ego drives these out all kinds of powers are added to the astral body. In order that the astral body should not be destroyed by the lower forces it must always be permeated and suffused by higher beings who control it in the same way that man will control it in the future when he has attained the goal of his evolution. The beings whose task it is to control that part of the astral body which is still uncontrolled by man are one stage higher than he is, they are the Angels, or Spirits of Twilight. In fact one such Spirit watches over every human being, and this Spirit has power over the astral body; it is therefore no childish idea, but profound wisdom, to speak of guardian angels. These guardian angels have a great duty to perform.

Let us consider the course of a human life in its entirety. We know that it passes through many incarnations. At a given time—at a certain point in earthly evolution—man began to live as a soul, as an ego, in his first incarnation on earth. He then died, there was an interval, then a new incarnation, and so it has gone on from incarnation to incarnation; and these will only come to an end at a far-off period of human evolution. Man will then have passed through all his incarnations, and he will also have attained power to control his astral body perfectly. This can not be done till he has passed through all his incarnations, at least not in normal evolution.

Now, an Angel accompanies the inmost part of man's being and guides him from incarnation to incarnation, so that he may truly fulfil his mission on earth. It is, in fact, as if the human being had been able, since the beginning of his life on earth, to look up to an exalted Spirit who was his prototype, who could completely control his astral body, and who said to him: “Thou must be like unto me when in future thou passest out of this earthly evolution.” It is the task of Angels to guide the incarnations of men and whether we say that he looks up to his higher self, whom he must come to resemble more and more, or that he looks up to his Angel as his great pattern, it is exactly the same in a spiritual sense.

As man works further upon himself he will transform the etheric body into Buddhi, or Life Spirit; one day he will do this consciously, even now he is working on it unconsciously. So even higher Spiritual Beings have to work today in all human etheric bodies; this is the task of the Fire Spirits. Now, human etheric bodies are not individually so different as are human astral bodies. Every man has his own particular virtue or vice, but in things connected with the etheric body there is a certain similarity. This can be seen in the qualities peculiar to a race or nation. Because of this we see that each individual human being does not have an Archangel in connection with his etheric body, but that whole nations and races are guided by higher or lower Spirits of Fire. The peoples and races of the earth are indeed guided as a whole by Archangels. Here our view expands to something which to many persons is entirely abstract, but for those who are able to see into the Spiritual world it is entirely concrete. If anyone today mentions a national spirit, or a national-soul, this is considered an abstraction. It is not so to the occult observer. To him the whole nation is as if embedded in Spiritual substance and this Spiritual substance is the body of a Fire-Spirit. From hoary antiquity until now our evolution has been led and guided from people to people, from race to race, by the Spirits of Fire, whose bodies are the souls of nations, and whose mission it is to guide the course of human evolution through the various races of the earth.

There is, however, something else which is independent of tribe, nation, and race. In studying our present age we find much that is independent of such communities, yet that manifests itself simultaneously in many. For example, if we look back to the twelfth century we see how certain similar spiritual tendencies occurred in all the peoples of Europe, something that goes beyond the national-spirit. A word has been coined for this, it has been called the “Spirit of the Age.” This Spirit of the Age really exists, it forms the body for still Higher Beings, namely, the Spirits of Personality, or Archai.

From all that has been said you can see that our earth is embedded in a spiritual atmosphere. From a mineral foundation plants spring forth, and animals and human beings walk on it; enveloping all this are exalted Spiritual Beings who guide individual men, and other spirits who are the leaders of communities of people and races; and, further, there are other Beings who guide the “Spirit of each Age” over from one epoch to another.

In this lecture we have tried to give a panoramic view of our earth, of what it is also in a spiritual sense, and of man's connection with it all. At the same time a foundation has been laid on which we can build usefully what we have to say in the following lectures on the relationship between Universe, Earth, and Man.

I have carefully considered for some time whether or not to include today's chapter in this lecture series, for its subject matter can only be presented in outline. But I have decided to include it, even if only to prove once more how greatly such things may be misunderstood. For on the one side, some people have long endeavoured to prove that Anthroposophy and its doctrines are muddled nonsense. Recently, however, it appears to have dawned on some other people that this opinion can no longer be held, but that Anthroposophy appears to correspond with the results of additional research into the ancient mysteries. So the attack is now from the other side: I am represented as a betrayer of the mysteries. Thus people can always find a possibility of accusation and attack, whether on one score or the other. If they can no longer state that these things are false they can at least maintain that it is extremely wrong to say them.

I must first of all repeat that the exclusively physical study of man only surveys a part and a comparatively small part of human nature This is for the simple reason that man contains the etheric body, the astral body and the ego, which are constantly working upon and moulding the physical organism, yet entirely inaccessible to external physical judgment—I use this term with intention and reference to what follows. At the same time it is not impossible for the human being to educate himself and evolve (granting steadfast effort) to the point of acquiring and assimilating a certain degree of clairvoyance into the operation of intellect and judgment. This will not yet mean the attainment of a proper clairvoyance associated with definite visual images, but it will be possible to attain a type of judgment capable of strong and reliable coincidence with the results of clairvoyance.

Now consider this. Let us begin with the ego—as it were the opposite extreme from the physical. The ego works upon the other human vehicles, and at the present stage of evolution its main sphere of action is on the physical body. In mankind today the ego has as yet comparatively little capacity for governing the etheric body. During childhood, it has such power strongly but unconsciously. This ceases later on. Only in those who retain in later life a vivid imagination or fantasy, is there a strong ego influence over the etheric body. In general, however, in all persons who develop their intelligence as distinct from their imagination and become dry intellectualists, there is a strong ego-influence over the physical body and only a slight influence over the etheric.

If you try to visualise this influence over the physical body, you will not need to go much further in order to picture in your minds as the work of the ego an intricate framework extending throughout the bodily organism; a delicate, weblike scaffolding. This scaffolding in the physical body, like a kind of phantom of man, is always present. We human beings carry with us through life, a framework imprinted into us through our ego-organisation; its structure is most delicate, and indeed it is the forces of the etheric body that insert it into the physical. But in the course of our lives, we gradually forfeit the power of consciously contributing to this structure. Only in people with creative imagination we find a half-conscious, dreamlike remnant of such power.

As you will have easily conceived, this weblike framework which the ego “timbers” into the organism of man is actually in some sense a “foreign body.” And there is a constant tendency to resist it. Every night during sleep, the human organism seeks to tear down this structure. Although we remain unaware of it in everyday waking life, do not let us forget this tendency. For this continuous tendency on the part of the ego-framework to break up, to fall to pieces in the organism, is the secret and permanent source of inflammatory conditions.

The concept of this kind of phantom-structure inserted by the ego into the human organism is of great importance, as is the realisation of the constant organic defensive reaction against it as a “foreign body,” and its continuous tendency to break up within the physical organisation. You will arrive at a visualisation which helps your judgment if you study psycho-physiologically the organisation of the human eyes. For all that takes place as between the eye itself and the external world, that is to say, between the soul and the external world by means of the eye, represents par excellence the erecting of this scaffold. There is an intimate interaction between the ego-framework proper and the results of the interplay of the eye with the world around it. I have often had occasion to study this interaction of eye and ego, in blind-born persons and in those who had lost their sight. Such cases reveal very plainly the mutual reactions of that phantom—normal to most people—which becomes incorporated in the organism by the mere fact of sight, and the other phantom which is the result of the ego's activity in the organism.

Suppose that an attempt be made to represent all this in graphic form. Through sight, through the visual process, a phantom is incorporated into the organism: and the other ego-structure lies a little deeper within, a little more inward. (See Diagram 25. Yellow portion and white portion.) The latter, more deep-seated structure is so constituted as to be perceptibly tinged with physical forces. It is an almost physical phantom that the ego inserts and erects; a real scaffold, but what the eye transmits is still etheric. And here we come to a striking difference between short-sighted and long-sighted people. In people of short sight, these two frameworks approach one another; the portion coloured white in the diagram moves inwards, closer to the yellow. In long-sighted persons, on the other hand, the white framework moves outwards, away from the yellow. In fact, if you study the organisation of the eye in any human being you will have the material for a sound judgment of the person's etheric body; the etheric body which is so like what I have just termed a framework. You cannot better train yourself to divine something of the nature of an individual etheric body, than by attentive study of the organisation of the organ of vision. Having once grasped this, you will find that the rest will be easy. Acquire the habit of observing whether individuals focus their gaze at a distance or near by, and let this impression work on you; and you will cultivate a sensibility to the perception of the etheric body. Call meditation to your aid, and it will no longer be so difficult to ascend from a devoted attention to the effects of the eye-organisation to the contemplation of the etheric body itself.

This will convince you that the process linked with the eye organisation is continuous, and it is the normal form of a process which may appear in an abnormal form. It is normal in the life of everyday, and it has its abnormal counterpart in cases of inflammation, indeed in all inflammatory conditions. So that you are justified in stating that a too vigorous development of this framework (which in the physical body is similar to the etheric) give rise to inflammations and to all the sequelæ of the inflammatory states. You can confirm your convictions in this matter by the external use of an animal product, formic acid. The best manner of studying the application of this substance is in its highest possible dilution, e.g., sprinkled in bath water. If the mildest dilution of formic acid is made to work on the human being through bath water, you will cause a consolidation of the ego-scaffold coloured yellow in the Diagram. (See Diagram 25). This consolidation takes place because by means of the formic acid the ego is forcibly compelled to approach the framework so that it becomes penetrated with the ego. And thus it is possible to counteract the tendency to inflammation for the framework only inclines to disintegrate in the inflammatory process if it is not properly permeated by the ego and restrained by it; for the ego and this framework belong together. They may be brought together by the use of bath fluid, but in extremely high dilution—for this stimulates the peculiar properties of formic acid.

A certain amount of attention to symptomatology is necessary, if you wish to enter into these matters. For instance: observe carefully in treating inflammatory conditions, whether or not they appear in persons with a concurrent tendency to obesity. For it is only in such cases, where you find both sets of symptoms, the tendency to inflammations and also to adipose deposits, that any real benefit can accrue from the external formic acid treatment just described. You will always attain extremely good results, if you have sound reason to believe in the disintegration of the ego-framework—which may be deduced from other symptoms, to be described presently—and if there is a simultaneous tendency to excessive fat.

For Spiritual Science is aware of something that shocks and offends contemporary mankind in its simple enunciation. It knows that what has to happen in the human organism, in order that the eyes shall be formed, and formed in the manner indispensable to human evolution—of course in the long run of this evolutionary history—is really a permanent process of inflammation, which is continually transferred into the normal and does not break out. Think of the processes inherent in inflammations, think of them held up, slowed down, and telescoped together, so to speak, and you will have before you the formative process of the human eye in the human organism. You are even able to obtain an idea of individual tendency to inflammatory conditions, or the reverse, by looking at the person's eyes. It is possible to see this if one trains one's judgment. Indeed the experiences we may meet with regard to human sight are closely linked with the observation of the etheric body of mankind. In referring to the existence of the etheric body and its conscious perception, we must distinguish two methods of approach. There is of course that inner process which leads to genuine clairvoyance, by way of meditation. And there is also an educative process working from outside. If we take the trouble to see and estimate the processes of nature aright, we shall acquire a visualisation of these things which is based on judgment. The actual organs of clairvoyance must be developed from within; but judgment is developed in contact with the world outside ourselves. If we develop the finer shades of judgment in the external world, this highly evolved judgment will come towards that more intimate process which passes outwards from within, in meditation.

Perhaps some of you will ask—and quite justifiably ask—“Well, but cannot all these manifestations and reactions be observed in the animal world?” My friends, the fact is simply that the things that concern man cannot be found through the study of animals. I have often stressed this difference in public lectures, and should like to emphasise it still more here. People are in the habit of thinking: an eye is an eye, an organ is an organ, lungs are lungs, a liver is a liver, and so forth. But that is not so, the eye in man is the organ which also exists in the animal world as eye, but with a modification: it is changed by the fact that in man the ego has been incorporated. The same is the case with all other organs. And for the occurrences within the organs, especially in cases of disease, the permeation by the ego is of much greater importance than what happens in the animal's organs, where there is no such permeation. This essential difference is still far too little regarded and men persist in off-hand pronouncements of this sort: “here I have a knife; well, a knife's a knife, isn't it? One knife is the same as another, so both, being knives, must have the same origin.” But suppose that one of these “identical” knives is a table knife, the other a razor. In that case the simple proposition that “a knife's a knife” becomes untenable. It is making the same mistake to explain the human eye and the animal eye by the same methods and terms. It is simply nonsense to seek for the explanation of anything in its mere external aspect; moreover such an approach is entirely barren as a foundation for study. Study founded on animal “material” simply hinders the adequate study of certain conditions in mankind; for it is only possible to form a just estimate of the dissimilarity here, by realising that in man it is precisely the peripheral organs which are the most permeated by the ego and moulded by it.

In a completely different way is the human ear formed. It is possible to train oneself to a discriminative grasp of the human ear, just as in the case of the eye. And in this manner we then approach the clairvoyant apprehension of the etheric body. We can train ourselves to understand the fact that the ear is incorporated into man as it is in animals, but that its structure is permeated by the human ego. If with this faculty we study the formation of the ear we shall find that it is connected with a process in the deeper interior of the human organism, in the same manner as the eye formation of the etheric body is connected with some more peripheral process. Thus we arrive at the insight that the ego is concerned in the formative process of the ear, just as in that of the eyes. The ego incorporates yet another framework into the organism, differing somewhat from that already described; and akin to this framework is the whole process lying at the base of the ear formation. In order to keep these separate frameworks distinct, I will colour the one just mentioned blue; it lies more inward than the yellow, and it extends less into the limbs, so that if it could be extracted and revealed to the light of day, it would have only stumps in the place of arms and legs. Thus we might say that this framework in its formation has remained at the stage of childhood. It is also much less differentiated towards the head than is the other one. But we shall find that it corresponds to the basic principle underlying the formative forces of the human ear and the whole process of hearing. This latter principle I will color violet in the Diagram. (See Diagram 25). This framework has also its specific characteristic in the human organism. It can become abnormal if the ego works too strongly; i.e., if its activity works too much internally. We have already touched on the reverse case, when the ego's activity is too strong in the periphery.

The following suggestions may be of use, in the study of the problem before us. Again take the external symptoms as a starting point: consider cases where the tendency is to become more or less thin, and never put on fat. In these cases you see before you human beings in whom the ego works too strongly internally, and intensifies this latter framework. This framework, however, has a different tendency from the other one: the tendency to internal exuberance. The first framework inclines to disintegrate or to splinter itself; the last to exuberate internally.

The treatment of this scaffold can proceed on two lines. Firstly, it can be so developed that exuberance does not ensue, because the ego as it were, shimmers out of it. For both exuberance and disintegration of the scaffolds always arise from the inadequate permeation by the ego, from it shimmering away from it. If the ego does this and at the same time is strong enough to keep itself at work within the organism, there arise certain consequences for the soul and the body. The consequence for the soul is hypochondria; for the body, constipation and similar phenomena.

This is the one aspect. On the other hand it may be that the ego is too feeble to hold itself together when it glitters away from the scaffold, that it collapses in its essential quality as ego; and not owing to the faults in its physical vehicle, the scaffold, but to its own. Consider how strange this is: the ego is so feeble that its debris as it were become embedded in the organism. And this occurs because individuals of this particular constitution, when they fall asleep, are not able to take with them the whole of what shimmers and glitters away. Thus the debris remains within the body and proliferates as a sort of soul-like ego. And this type of individual constitution with these exuberations of the soul-like ego, which develop especially during sleep, is one that inclines to tumorous formations. This process is of infinite significance. Persons with tumorous tendencies are those who do not sleep properly, for the reason that remnants of the ego remain after they fall asleep. These remnants and debris are the real excitants of tumours, including malignant growths, and these growths are linked up with the whole complex of symptoms which I have just enumerated. It is a fact that we are faced on the one hand by hypochondria and constipation, and on the other hand, if the organism cannot help itself by making the individual suffer from hypochondria and constipation, it exuberates inwards and the most malignant growths appear. We shall deal with this subject further, but for the moment we are considering merely the general principle.

You can reach the conviction that this is how things stand from a study of the external side, in indications given in a preceding lecture. As I have already remarked, it is possible to deal with the formative tendencies to inflammation by the use of very highly dispersed animal formic acid, in bath water. That is an external application; now try the same substance, suitably diluted, internally, and observe the effects it will have on thin people. It will disperse the tumorous tendencies in thin persons, and counteract the formation of growths.

These matters must be observed macroscopically and they afford striking proof of the need to acquire this macroscopical view. One must learn to have a comprehensive vision of the whole stature and physique of a man, and the many marks of his individual constitutional type, and combine this with all the phenomena emerging in sickness. Thus we shall acquire also a sense of how to divide the treatment into external and internal respectively. To test and trace the effects of the same substance by the two different routes, will furnish most interesting information. Here again, spiritual science reveals something extremely enlightening in respect of these two parts of the organism. It knows that all the formative forces of the human ear are at an early stage on the same path of development as those forces which, finally, when they are allowed to go too far lead to the formation of internal tumours.

The fact that we have a human auditory organ, is due to a process which is kept normal because the tumour-forming force has emerged in the right place. The ear is an internal tumour extended into the region of the normal. Just as the evolutionary process of the eye's formation is akin to the process of inflammation, so that of the ear's formation is allied to the tumorous. It is indeed a wonderful relationship between disease and health in man; for the processes are the same in both, only in the case of normal health they proceed at the right rate, and in the case of disease at an abnormal rate. If the inflammatory process were abolished in nature, no living creature would be able to see. Living creatures have the power of sight only because the inflammatory process is inserted into the whole of nature. But it has a certain velocity, a definite tempo. If it proceeds at a wrong speed then the abnormal process of inflammation results. Similarly, the process of tumorous formation has its significance in nature, at the right rate of development. If it were abolished no being in the world would be able to hear. If the rate is wrong, there results all that happens in cases of myoma, carcinoma, sarcoma. We will deal with this later.

Those who are not in a position to find and recognise the healthy counterpart of every morbid process, cannot understand its place within the human organisation. For the human organisation is founded on the fact that certain processes dispersed throughout the periphery of nature become interiorised and centralised in man.

Many things are discussed in our physiological text books: we should fix our attention elsewhere, on subjects whose existence is admitted but whose significance is constantly under-rated. Here is one instance. You are able to observe—quite macroscopically and as it were in a commonplace way—that the epidermis covers the human body, and has various inward folds or pockets; and its continuing membrane lines the parts situated to the interior. This is very important—the reversal of functions, as, e.g., we find it in passing from the cheeks and the external parts of the face, over the edge of the lips to the interior. There indeed one finds, in the external formation of man, the vestige of the process which where all development really proceeds by means of folding inwards and invaginations. In following up the differences in the reaction of the upper epidermis and the internal mucous membrane to preparations of formic acid, and fully realising the delicate differences in these results, one would reach tremendous results. For all the facts I here set before you are really nothing but specialisations of the elementary structural principle indicated. The study of these facts will bring before you the whole polar opposition of that external lining (also etherically) of the human organism and that which goes inside and becomes central in the same organism.

This is of importance in the following. To what corresponds the second phantom indicated in the rough sketch? (See Diagram 25). The blue phantom is that physical framework within the organism, which tends to exuberate unduly. Its normal form is associated with the formation of the ear. Educate yourselves, train yourselves in the study of man so far as to have regard to this ear organisation and especially its interiorisation, and at the same time to the characteristics of the organ of sight. Then remember that the process of sight occurs in the etheric, the process of hearing in the air. This is a considerable difference. All that lies comparatively low in the ascending scale of ponderable and imponderable is associated and linked with the more deep-seated organs and functions in the interior of man's organism. All that is more akin to the etheric and imponderable, is situated towards the surface and periphery.

The outlines coloured violet (See Diagram 25) define nothing less than that which lives in the human astral body. If you train your power of judgment, through the study of the ear, for the observation of man, you get a kind of substitute or preliminary apperception for the clairvoyant vision of the astral body. To learn to observe sight is training for the observation of the etheric body. To learn to observe hearing is training for the observation of the astral body.

The most interesting observations can be made in persons who have been deaf from birth or have lost their sense of hearing; deeper connections of nature are then revealed. I suggest that you should try to study children who have been born deaf: if they had not been born with that defect, they would develop the most terrible tumours even at that early age. We stand here before outlets supplied by nature itself, and they are rooted not only in the single individual organisation between birth and death; but they reach out into and must be understood from the repeated earth lives in which the compensation is brought about. If we follow up these phenomena beyond a certain point, we shall arrive at some apprehension of repeated lives on earth.

If you attempt to stimulate the peripheral areas in man, you will reinforce what has been dealt with in explaining the relationship of the ego to its framework. If you find it necessary to reinforce the human ego, there is a choice of methods; therapeutic or educational. Wherever it is possible to observe a tendency to inflammation, you will find that it will be necessary to re-invigorate the ego's activity in the individual. If this be done, the ego will insert itself in the proper way into its phantom, its framework; for this framework will not disintegrate where the ego adequately takes hold of it.

An appreciable reinforcement and stimulus to this activity of the ego may be obtained, e.g., by baths containing a very finely distributed solution of rosemary—that is, of the juices extracted from the leaves of the rosemary. This solution stimulates the periphery to such a degree that the ego can act and function better in that which approaches man through the finely distributed rosemary juice. The results are quite remarkable.

Now let us consider the human eye, and its specific insertion into the human organism. The process of sight depends on the power of the human ego to penetrate this isolated part in our organism. There is very little of the animal process in the eye, the sense of sight depends on the fact that man with his soul and spirit nature penetrates a region which has ceased to be animal; so that man can identify himself with the external world, not only with his internal processes. If you identify yourself with a muscle, you identify yourselves from inside, with the formative process of man. But if you identify yourself with the eyes, you really identify yourself with the external world. For this reason, I have already called this organ a gulf which the external extends physiology to neglect the facts, thereby engendering those foolish fairy stories of “subjectivity” and so forth. For it is the fashion today to ignore the fact that “objectivity” is intruded upon us and that within this “objectivity” we share in a part of the processes of the external world. For the last century and a half, every sort of sensory physiology has been founded upon subjectivity because there has been no inkling of the entry of the external world into these organic gulfs, by which we participate, through our senses, in the processes outside ourselves. To understand this rightly means also to understand the action of some foreign substance in this fine dispersal.

Take the human skin, and its pores and all the processes linked with the pores. (See Diagram 26). Sprinkle very mild dilutions of rosemary juice in a bath, immerse the patient in it and you will not be surprised to know that a sensory interaction is set in train between the skin and the minute drops of the Rosemary juice. Through this stimulation, an effect is produced upon the sensory process. This stimulation of the sensory process works on the human ego and it becomes more closely inserted into its framework. A further benefit may accrue from the same method, if it is used in time and not postponed till too late. If the skin of the head is exposed to the stimulation of diluted rosemary juice, you may be able to arrest the peripheral process of loss of hair. Only, of course, it must be applied in the correct manner. Well, there again you have something active on the surface and periphery of the human organism.

Let us suppose now, that the collaboration of the ego with the human organisation suffers a rupture from the outside world. The ego is, of course, not only a point, but a point active around itself; and this working abroad signifies the formative force of the whole human organisation; the ego-organising force spreads throughout the human organisation, permeating it throughout. Let us suppose that an external injury is inflicted on some area, interrupting this mutual action of ego and human organisation; in such cases it will be necessary to attract to this place something springing from the astral organisation (which stands a step below the ego-organisation); something which, working from out of the astral organisation, may so permeate the human organism as to enable the ego to develop its curative forces at the seat of the external injury. The astral body as I have indicated (See Diagram 25) lies nearer the centre of the total organism. Call it to your aid; not this time by means of immersion in any bath, but by a compress of arnica in woolen cloths—a proper arnica compress. The application of arnica compresses to any sprain or dislocation or similar lesion ‘ wherever the injury may have been inflicted—which impairs the efficiency of the ego's function, summons the astral body from inside; calls to it to come to the aid of the ego, and has a compensating effect on the peripheral area.

In these phenomena we have a standard for comparison of the different substances available in the external world. They may have a great tendency towards expansion, and thus be of benefit to the peripheral regions, if administered in baths, for the support of the ego's action. Or again, they may belong to the group which includes especially arnica and are thus indicated when we wish to summon the astral body and draw on its power for the indirect support of the ego.

It is impossible to understand the operation of such substances except as summoners of help from the ego and astral body. To recognise this principle must be indeed fundamental for a theory of therapeutics. both for internal and external treatment.

What has been the generally designated as the Elementary Kingdoms, since the earliest times, is not so easy to understand as we are apt to imagine after a superficial examination. For these Elementary Kingdoms belong to what lies behind the world which we generally perceive—behind the world which forces itself immediately upon our senses.

We can understand such things in the best way, if we proceed from what we can perceive through our senses—from the kingdom of the sense-world, which are accessible to human observation. Here, in the physical sense-world, four kingdoms are spread out before our senses: the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the kingdom of man. This is common knowledge. Let us now try to form some clear idea as to the precise nature of these four kingdoms; for this is by no means clear to the average person. And for this same reason, it is also not so easy to gain an insight into the first, second and third elementary kingdoms. It is precisely when we speak of such difficult matters, that we must take great care, from the very outset, to realize that no true goal can be reached, if we believe that a concept which we have, as it were, driven like a stake into the ground, can then be left rooted in this place. This may still be possible within the physical sense-world, for here, things stand one beside another; there is a division between them, just as this book, this piece of chalk, a rose, etc., are distinct and separate from one another. It is possible, in this case, to apply a thought to a single object, for when we have named something, we can be sure that we have before us something distinct and limited. If, however, we send to the astral plane, that world which is immediately beyond our own, and permeates it, as the one nearest to it, we find that this no longer holds true, for, in the astral world, there is eternal movement. If you observe the astral body of man, which floats around him as his aura and is the expression of his passions, etc., you will see that this astral body of man is in a continual movement—it is an ebb and flow, a rise and fall of colors and forms, which change at every moment, for new colors shine forth and others disappear, at every moment. This is what we find in the case of man. But there are other Beings which whirl about on the astral plane. Their astral bodies do not form part of the physical body, although—at the same time—they are nonetheless changeable, for at every moment they have a different shape, color, or luminous force. Everything on the astral plane is the continual manifestation of the inner nature of these Beings. We would, indeed, find ourselves in a difficult position if we were to apply to the astral plane the rigid, unchangeable thoughts of the physical world. We must learn instead to adapt ourselves to the mobility of these shapes—we must acquire mobile thoughts. We should be able to use a concept, once in this way, and once in that.

This is true of the higher worlds to a still greater degree. If we consider the world from a higher standpoint, we find that everything on the physical plane is an expression of forces emanating from these higher worlds. In everything we see about us, such forces and beings lie concealed. It is precisely this fact which explains the great variety among the beings of the physical world. Observe, for instance, the mineral kingdom. All apparently lifeless beings, all minerals, belong to this kingdom. You are told, to begin with, that these minerals upon the earth have no etheric body of their own, no astral body and no Ego. But this is true only within the physical world. We must know this, in order to reach a clear conception of what actually takes place upon the physical plane. But let us now suppose that someone were to say: “The mineral is something which has nothing but a physical body.” This statement is exactly as false, as on the other hand—it would be true, were someone to say: “The mineral kingdom is something which has, upon the physical plane, only a physical body.” For, in the light of a genuine spiritual method of observation, we find that here, upon the physical plane, the mineral has a physical body, but nothing more. If we wish to find its etheric body, we must ascend to the astral plane: there, its etheric body is to be found. The moment that a human being becomes astrally clairvoyant, he is able to see the etheric body of the mineral—there, on the astral plane—and here, on the physical plane, he sees merely its physical body. If we extend our observations still further, we find that the mineral has also an astral body. This body cannot be found, however, upon the astral plane, but must be sought in the lower regions of Devachan. Only in the higher Mental plane, is the Arupa-Mental plane, do we find the Ego of the mineral—and it is from here, that the mineral is directed by its Ego. If you wish to form a rough picture of this, you must say to yourselves: I will try to imagine a human being, whose clairvoyance reaches as far as the higher Devachan. To such a clairvoyance, who is able to see into Arupa, the minerals will appear like the fingernails of the human being—nails of Beings whose Ego dwells in higher Devachan. It is not possible to think of the fingernails without the human being; the same thing must be applied also to the minerals.

Let us suppose that we are observing a rock-crystal here upon the earth. If we now look away for a moment, our clairvoyant gaze discovers the etheric body, which gives life to the physical body, there, in the astral world. Yet it would not be possible to perceive there, that any injury caused to the mineral, also causes it pain. The joy and gladness, pain and suffering of minerals can only be found upon the Devachanic plane—but entirely differently from the way in which we usually imagine this. A mineral's sensation of pain is not like that of an animal; we must not think that a mineral feels pain when we hammer it and break it into pieces. When workmen in a quarry break stone, this actually gives rise to a feeling of pleasure upon the Devachanic plane—it is a true delight for the minerals. Thus, in their case, we find the very opposite of what takes place in the kingdom of man and in the animal kingdom. On the Devachanic plane, it is not merely one mineral which belongs, as it were, to a mineral personality, but rather a whole system of minerals—just as, imaginatively speaking your fingernails do not each possessed a separate soul. If someone were to imagine that everything of an astral nature must be found upon the astral plane, he would be under a delusion. It seems, of course, natural to look for the astral element upon the astral plane—nevertheless, the inner nature of a Being must be distinguished from the environment in which it lives. Just as your Ego has no physical nature, and lives nevertheless upon the physical plane, so the astral body of the mineral does not live on the astral plane but in lower Devachan. We must not have delayed our thoughts according to a system, but must rather work our way through, with the aid of a more precise analysis and understanding of things.

Let us now observe the plant, just as we see it before us. Here, on the physical plane, it has its physical body and its etheric body. It has these two bodies on the physical plane—but where are we to look for the astral body of the plant? We shall find it in the astral world—and the Ego, in the lower Devachan. Let us now go a step further, to the animal. The animal has, in the physical sense-world, a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body—but it's Ego is on the astral plane. That is to say: just as, here on the earth, defined in the human being as an isolated person, as a single individuality, so you will find the Egos of the animals, as complete, self-contained personalities, upon the astral plane. But we must think of this in the following way: All groups of animals which have a similar form, have also a common Ego. Man, therefore, distinguishes himself from the animals, owing to the fact that every human being has an individual Ego. On the astral plane, we find for instance, that the Ego of the lions, the Ego of the Tigers, etc. There, they are single, self-contained Beings; the single animal group-souls inhabit the physical sense-world. But in the case of the human being, he must recognize the fact that the physical body, etheric body, astral body and the Ego have all descended as far as the physical plane. This is true, however, only when the human being is awake—when he is asleep it is otherwise. The physical and etheric bodies are then in the physical world, whereas the astral body and the Ego are on the astral plane. Thus, during sleep, the fourfold human being is separated into parts, and is to be found partly on the physical plane and partly on the one directly above this—the astral plane. On the physical plane, the human being is then of the same worth as a plant.

Now we have already learned to know, in previous lectures, the nearest ways in which the expressions “astral”, etc. must be used. But we shall attain to a real penetration and insight into these things, only if we realize clearly that we cannot push them about like the men on a chessboard. If we study the human being, we must observe him quite precisely, in the following way: We find in him the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the Ego. It has often been emphasized here, how very important it is to form a clear conception concerning the relation of these four members. It is very easy to imagine that the physical body is the most imperfect and the lowest of these. From a certain aspects, however, it is the most perfect of all—for it has passed through four successive stages of evolution—upon ancient Saturn, Sun, Moon, and upon the Earth. The etheric body has reached its third stage of perfection, for only upon the Sun was added to the physical body. In the future, it will indeed rise to a higher stage—although at present, it is not yet as perfect as the physical body. The astral body was added to the other two bodies upon the Moon, hence it has reached only the second stage of perfection. The Ego is the baby among the four members of man: for it was added only upon the Earth, and is thus only at the beginning of its evolution; it works continually in a corruptive way upon the other bodies. Anyone who studies, from an anatomical point of view, the wonderful organization of the physical body, must be filled with wonder by the perfection of the heart and of the brain. How imperfect, on the other hand are the impulses and passions of the Ego! The Ego craves for wine, beer, etc., whichever destructive influence throughout life—nevertheless, the physical body with stands these attacks for decades! Let us now try to make clear to ourselves how the Ego was inserted, as it were, within the physical body—how it first arose.

To begin with, there was the ancient Saturn-evolution. This was the first stage of evolution for the precursor of our present physical body. At that time man's physical body had the cosmic value of a mineral. If you look at a mineral today, you will see in it a retarded stage of existence; it has remained behind at the same stage which the physical body had reached upon Saturn. But you must not think from this that the physical body had then the appearance of a mineral of today.—this would be quite wrong. The present minerals are the youngest forms in evolution. Upon Saturn, the human body was not so dense; this density of the physical body of man was very slight indeed.

Let us now consider the relation between the various stages of matter. The first is what we call Earth—that is, everything which today may be called a solid body iron, copper, tin, etc. Everything solid is Earth. Secondly, everything liquid is Water for instance, quicksilver. Even iron, in a liquefied state would be Water. From the third-place, if you convert water into steam it becomes Air. Occultism, here goes still further, for it shows that the air may become still more rarefied—may become thinner still. In this case, we must transcend what is physical, in the modern sense—and here the occultist speaks of Warmth-Ether, or Fire. For the occultist, Fire is something distinct within itself, just like Earth, Water, and Air—whereas modern science merely looks upon the fire, or heat, as a state, work condition of matter.

Upon Saturn, heat was the substance of man's physical body. On the Sun, the physical body of man was condensed to air; at the same time, an etheric, or life-body, entered into it, transforming this physical body. We now have a physical body, with an etheric body consisting of one member, and the physical body of two members. In the case of the physical body upon this Sun, we must distinguish a more perfect than the less perfect part—that is to say, one part was not as yet permeated by the etheric body. When picturing to ourselves the physical body upon the Sun, we must realize that the inner part of this physical body has received nothing from the etheric body; it has still the same value as the physical body had upon Saturn. Thus, we have one part which has already attained to the stage of a plant, and this part is at the same time permeated by another part, which is still upon the stage of a mineral: nevertheless, these two parts completely permeate one another.

Let us now consider the physical body upon the Moon. Here, it is already condensed to water, and the astral body is incorporated within the etheric and physical bodies. Thus, we must now distinguish three different parts: One part is permeated by the etheric and astral bodies; another part is permeated only by the etheric body; and a third part has remained at the mineral stage.

And now, let us consider the physical body upon the Earth. Here, the Ego is added. On the Earth, four members are interwoven. One part of the physical body is permeated by the etheric body, astral body and the Ego; a second part, by the etheric body and astral body; a third part, by the etheric body only; and a fourth part remains at the mineral stage. It has the same value as has a mineral, and is still on the stage of the Saturn. These four parts can be clearly distinguished in the physical body. The first part, which contains all four members, consists of the red blood corpuscles. Wherever we find red blood, these four members permit one another.

The nerves are the second part, or member. Where nerves are found, there the physical, etheric and astral bodies permeate one another. Where glands are to be found, the physical and etheric bodies interpenetrate. All the instruments of the senses, all organs which have the character of a physical apparatus, have reached merely the stage of the mineral. They follow exactly the same laws as do the minerals. The eye and the ear, for instance, belong to these mineral parts; also in the brain, we find such mineral parts. Thus you can see for yourselves how easily one may be tempted at times to become a materialist—because of something mineral does actually permeate the whole body. If a materialist declares that the brain is mineral, he is in part right—that is, if he considers merely one aspect of the brain. Particularly in certain parts of the frontal brain—although these are, indeed, permeated by others—mineral forces alone are active. And were we to study the bones and muscles, it would become still more competition. When the human Ego entered into man, it began to work upon the sentient soul, the understanding soul, and the consciousness soul; and at the same time, it formed the bones and muscles. If we wish to observe these things exactly, we need years of study, only to be able to keep them distinct and separate. We must trace one thing after the other, with patience.

If we now have before us a sleeping human being, his physical body and etheric body lie upon the bed. But this physical body is very complicated. When the human being is awake, the astral body and the Ego work within his blood. But what happens when the physical body lies on the bed, in the human being is asleep? The functions of the etheric body are indeed still carried on—yet there can be no blood, unless an astral body and an Ego are active within it. Hence, every night, the blood would be doomed to death, since it is dependent upon the ego and the astral body. But these as we know, leave the body—leave it mercilessly. Also the whole nervous system is mercilessly abandoned, for the nervous system is dependent upon the astral body. Thus, we have before us the strange fact that in reality, the blood and the nervous system would have to die every night—they would fall a prey to death, if they would be obliged to depend entirely upon the human being. Other Beings must come to their aid; other Beings must take over the work of man. From other worlds, other Beings must pour their activity into man, in order to preserve what he so treacherously abandons. We shall not try to explain the nature of these Beings who become active when man is asleep, and to make it possible for him to preserve his blood intact.

We can form an idea of these Beings, if we ask ourselves: where does the human Ego really live, when it lives here, upon the physical plane? In which one of the three kingdoms does it live? And we must ask ourselves further: how much can we really know, without clairvoyant perception?—Without clairvoyance, we can, in reality, gain knowledge only of the mineral kingdom. This is the peculiar characteristic of the human being—that he cannot even grasp the plant completely, as long as he is not astrally clairvoyant. Materialists declare that plants are merely a conglomerate of mineral processes—just because they can see only the plant's mineral nature. When the human beings will have progressed, in their work upon themselves, as far as the first stage of clairvoyance, the life of the plants and the laws of life will then appear to them just as clearly as do now the laws of the mineral world.

If you wish to construct a machine, or to build a house, you must do this in accordance with the laws of the mineral world. Initiates construct according to these laws of the mineral world; but you cannot construct a plant in this way. If you wish to have a plant, you must leave this work to those Beings which form the foundations of Nature. In the future, it will be possible to produce plants in the laboratory, but only when human beings will regard this as a sacrament, as a holy rite. Only when man has become so earnest and purified, that he looks upon the laboratory-table as an altar, will he be permitted to produce living substance. Until this time has arrived, however, not even the slightest detail concerning the way in which living beings are constituted, will be revealed to him. In other words: The Ego lives, as a cognitive being, in the mineral kingdom, but it will ascend, in the future, to the vegetable kingdom, and it will learn to know this kingdom, just as today, it knows the mineral kingdom. Still later, it will learn to grasp also the laws of the animal kingdom; and finally, those of the human kingdom. All human beings will learn to know and to grasp the inner nature of plants, animals, and of man—these are prospects for the future. Whatever we really understand, we can also produce—for instance, a clock. But the human being of our day will never be able to produce anything belonging to the sphere of living Nature, without the help of the Beings that lie behind nature, as long as such a work has not become for him a sacramental rite. Only then will he be able to ascend from the mineral kingdom to the vegetable kingdom. The human being is already a human being, at the present time; but his knowledge is restricted to the mineral kingdom. The Ego of man lives within a human form, but when this human Ego looks out into the world, its knowledge is limited to the mineral kingdom. The Ego thus possesses only the capacity to vitalize the blood in a mineral fashion—it is unable to do more. Although the Ego lives within the blood, during the day—dwelling within it and vitalizing it—nevertheless it does this merely in a mineral way.

How does it do this? If you look out into the world, your cognitive forces will reveal to you the laws of the mineral kingdom. Try to observe for yourself the peculiar quality of this human activity. You look out into the world through your senses; you grasp the mineral laws, and during your waking hours, you impress these laws upon your blood—you force them into the entire substance of your blood, thus vitalizing it in a mineral way. This is the peculiar process which takes place during the act of cognition. Now imagine to yourselves the human being, in accordance with the following diagram (it cannot be produced here) ... the laws of the mineral world are streaming into him from all sides. They do not, however, remain merely within his sense-organs; but while the human being is awake, they stream together with the blood, throughout the whole human body.

Now, what does the plant-world do? You will understand what takes place in the case of a plant, if you bear in mind the following fact: You have often been told that the Ego works upon the man's other bodies and transforms the astral body into the Spirit-Self. In the same degree that this takes place, do the laws of the vegetable kingdom stream into the human nervous system. When the human being has reached the next stage of clairvoyance, the laws of the animal kingdom will permeate his glandular system, and finally, when he is able to work upon the transformation of his physical body, the laws of the human kingdom itself will flow into the human body. All this should be thought of as applying to the waking state and to the various stages of a higher clairvoyant consciousness. Thus we can say that the human being has reached, at the present time, a stage where the Ego permits the laws of the mineral kingdom to stream into the blood. But it is able to do this only during the waking state—for, the mineral laws can enter the blood only while man is awake. While he is asleep however, the blood must also be cared for. And because this blood has been worked upon, throughout four successive stages of evolution, three other powers must now step in with their activity. The first of these is a power which is the most closely related to the way in which the Ego has worked upon the blood—but it is a power which has not descended as far as the physical plane. The blood would be given over to death, did not another Ego work upon it, while the human being is asleep ... another Ego which has remained upon the astral plane, and now intervenes by taking over the work upon the blood. If we observe the human blood, this “peculiar fluid”, we find that while the human being is awake, the Ego of man is active within it, here on the physical plane. During the night however, the blood is worked upon by an Ego which dwells upon the astral plane. For there are such Egos.

Now I have referred, only recently, to Egos living upon the astral plane—namely, to the group-souls of the animals. But in this case we are dealing with another species of Egos, dwelling upon the astral plane, which work upon the human being and vitalize his blood, when the Ego of man has abandoned it. By what means do they accomplish this? And what is it that they bring into the blood? They bring into it that which, ever since the time of Saturn, must always be present in the human body—namely fire, heat. These are spirits which have never descended as far as the physical plane—spiritual Beings that live on the astral plane and have a body of fire. In the mineral kingdom, everything appears to us endowed with a certain degree of heat. Heat is met with as a quality of solid, liquid, and gaseous bodies. But now, try for a moment to think of heat, of warmth, quite independently, quite by itself ... it does not exist as such upon the physical plane. But upon the astral plane, you would meet with such warmth, or heat, streaming there and thither—heat as an independent being—and within it, you would discover Beings embodied, such as we were ourselves upon ancient Saturn. These Beings enter into the blood during the night, and vitalize it with their warmth. But something else must also take place—for the astral body also abandoned the blood, and this body too, is indispensable to it. Thus it is not sufficient if these Ego-beings alone approach man during the night and work upon him with their warmth-bodies—but other beings as well are needed, which work upon the blood in the same way as does the astral body. These Beings have their Ego upon the Devachanic plane, and this Ego possesses a still higher body, which is not even condensed as far as heat. The Ego which I described first, did not descend even as far as the astral plane—for it has remained in Devachan. It permeates the blood and carries on within it, an activity which corresponds to that of the astral body during the day.

Thus you may see how we are cared for and protected during the night by higher Beings which do not live in the mineral kingdom. The human Ego has descended as far as the mineral kingdom, and will later ascend to the vegetable kingdom, etc. These other Egos have remained behind the human kingdom during the successive stages of evolution; they form the hidden kingdoms, the Elementary Kingdoms, which lie behind our physical world, and which work down into it. The first Being which works in our blood during the night, as a body of heat—just as we have a physical body; it permeates the blood with heat—and at the same time, lives upon the astral plane with its body of heat. Through this warmth-body, it belongs to the third Elementary Kingdom. These Beings, belonging to the third Elementary Kingdom, are the companions of the Group-Egos of the animals—they belong to the same region. And what are the capacities of these Egos? They need not have the same capacities as a human Ego, which has descended as far as the physical sense-world; but they are able nevertheless, to act as a substitute for the human Ego, from the astral plane. These Egos work down from the astral plane, in the same way that the animal Group-Egos work down upon the animals; souls of the animals. In other words, they fill man's astral body with impulses, desires, and passions. If we have before us an astral body—what lives within this astral body? In addition to the Ego, Beings live within it whose Ego dwells upon the astral plane. These Beings permeates the astral body just as maggots live in cheese. This is the third Elementary Kingdom: it is the kingdom which forms impulses and passions of an animal nature.

But behind this kingdom lies another, namely the second Elementary Kingdom. This kingdom is active within a purer element, for it moulds and forms the shapes of the plants. But its activity extends also to the human being—to his many elements which have a plant-like character—nails, hair, etc. These are not permeated by the astral body, but merely by the etheric body; for this reason they feel no pain. The hair and nails are products from which the astral body has already withdrawn—it is possible to cut them, without causing pain. At an earlier time however, the astral body was also within these. Many things in the human being are of a plant-like nature, and within all these plants-like elements, the Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom are active. Hence, that which builds up the body of a plant consists of the forces belonging to the second Elementary Kingdom. Within the plant are active both the Plant-Ego, which permeates the etheric and astral bodies and these Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom. Whereas the Ego of the plants works upon the plant from within, these other Beings work upon it from without—forming it, making it grow and blossom. The whole plant is permeated by an etheric body. But it does not possess an astral body of its own; instead the entire astral body of the Earth forms the common astral body of the plants. The Ego of the plants is to be found at the center of the earth. This is true for all plants. For this reason, if you pull up a plant by the roots you cause pain to the earth; but, if you pick a flower, the earth will have a feeling of well-being, as a cow has a feeling of well-being when her calf sucks her milk. It is also a wonderful experience when the corn is moved in the autumn, to see how great waves of well-being streamed over the earth! The Beings which work upon the plants, from out of the second Elementary Kingdom, and help it to take form, fly toward the plant from all sides, like butterflies. The renewal and repetition of the leaves, blossoms, etc., is their work. This is what acts upon the plants from out of the second Elementary Kingdom.

In like manner, there is a first Elementary Kingdom, which gives the minerals their form. The animals received their shape, or form—a form determined by instincts and desires—from the Beings belonging to the third Elementary Kingdom. The leaves, etc., of the plants are formed by the second Elementary Kingdom; this work consists chiefly of repetitions. But performing, shaping forces of the minerals, which work out of the formless element, are to be found in higher Devachan, in Arupa-Devachan. These three Elementary Kingdoms permeate one another, flow into one another. One who imagines everything distinct and separate, will never attain to a living understanding. In the vegetable kingdom, the vegetable and mineral kingdoms permeate one another. In the animal kingdom, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms interpenetrate. And in a human being, the Ego is added to these. For, with the income of the Ego, the human kingdom first arose upon the earth. It is the blood which first makes man a human being; all the kingdoms are contained within it. But the Ego can for the present, penetrate with its cognitive forces only into the mineral kingdom; it must leave the other kingdoms to the Beings of the Elementary Kingdoms. The mineral kingdom contains, besides this mineral kingdom itself, also the first Elementary Kingdom; for this reason, it takes on a clearly defined shape. The plant owes its form entirely to the second Elementary Kingdom—for, without it, it would be spherical. And the animal is endowed with instincts, etc., owing to the added activity of the third Elementary Kingdom. Our world consists of interpenetrating regions; only if we are able to make our thoughts mobile and fluent, shall we gradually be able to understand such things.

If we wish to form a concept of how the third Elementary Kingdom is connected with the animal kingdom, the following example may be helpful. You all know the migrations of the birds! The birds take quite definite courses in their migrations; from the northeast to southwest and from southwest to northeast. But who directs these migrations? It is the Group-Soul of the birds! In these migrations instinct comes to expression. Essentially speaking, they are wedding-flights—for the birds take flight in order to breed in better climates. They are directed by the Souls of the Species, or Group-Soul, of the animal kingdom.

On the other hand, the animals are given their form, which enables him to have certain instincts, and which is the bearer of these instincts, by the Beings of the third Elementary Kingdom—the companions of the animal Group-Souls. If we wish to express this in a somewhat trivial manner, we may say: Those Egos which constitute the animal Group-Souls form one company, upon the astral plane; and the Beings of the third Elementary Kingdom form another. Nevertheless, they must work together in harmony. The one supplies the instincts, the other the bodies, forming and moulding them, so that the instincts may live within them.

The physical forms of the plants originate from the Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom. And in everything which molds and works upon the minerals, the Beings of the first Elementary Kingdom are to be found. The forces of the minerals, active as attraction and repulsion, the atomistic forces, proceed from the groups of minerals. But it is the Beings of the first Elementary Kingdom who form the minerals.

Thus we obtain a perspective which reveals to us where we may seek for the activities of the various kingdoms within our world. We must however, observe these things very accurately. We may say to a plant: You are living being; this you owe to the Plant-Ego. Your form, your shape however, is given to you by the Beings of the second Elementary Kingdom.

Thus we may sum up the four kingdoms as follows. The kingdom of man is the kingdom within which an Ego can work formatively into the human world; the vegetable kingdom is the one within which an Ego can work formatively in the plant world; the mineral kingdom, the one in which an Ego can build for itself forms in the mineral kingdom. The third Elementary Kingdom cares for the blood during the night, and forms at the same time, the instinctive life of the animals; the second Elementary Kingdom forms the plants; and the first Elementary Kingdom forms the minerals—for instance the crystals. From all this we can see that patience is necessary for the penetration into Spiritual Science. The world is constructed in a complicated way, and the highest truths are not the simplest. It is an utterly senseless way of speaking to declare that the highest things can be grasped with the simplest concepts. This is due only to laziness. It is admitted of course, that it is not possible to understand a clock at once, but the world, people believe, can be understood without any further trouble. If we wish to grasp the Divine, infinite patience is needed for the Divine contains everything. In order to understand the world, people wish to apply the simplest concepts, but this is simply laziness ... no matter how reverently the soul may say it. The Divine element is profound, and an eternity is needed in order to grasp it. Man dares, indeed, the spark of the Godhead within him, but the nature and Being of this Godhead can be understood only by collecting a knowledge of the facts of the world.

The great patience and renunciation which knowledge entails, is what we must learn first of all. We ourselves must gradually mature in order to form judgments. The world is infinite at every point. And we must be modest enough to say that everything is, in a certain sense, only a half-truth. We must transform everything into moral impulses, even the classification of man's being into ten or twelve members. Spiritual Science gives us pictures which we should unite with our feelings. For, Spiritual Science is only of value when we draw from it not merely knowledge, but are filled with the noblest feelings for the profundity of the world around us. All the greater then, will be the longing for the Divine. The very fact that the Divine appears to man so far removed, in distinct height, should incite him so much the more to become strong, in order that he may again find his way thither.

It is of some interest to observe from the point of view of spiritual science in the sense that the word is used here, the various ways by which the human being expresses himself.¹ For in approaching human life from different sides, as it were, and observing its different aspects as we have done in these lectures, a comprehensive view of it can be gained. Today let us deal with that universal expression of the human spirit which is manifest in language; and next time, under the heading “Laughing and Weeping”, we will then look at a variation, as it were, of human expression which is connected with language but is fundamentally different from it all the same.

When we speak of human language, we feel sufficiently how all the significance, dignity and the whole of the human being are connected with that which we call language. Our innermost existence, all our thoughts, feelings and impulses of the will flow outward to our fellow human beings and unite us with them through language. Thus we feel the possibility of expanding our being infinitely, the ability to make our being extend into our environment through language. On the other hand, anyone who can enter into the inner life of significant personalities will be able to feel particularly how language can also become a tyrant, a force which exercises power over our inner life. We can feel how our feelings and thoughts, those things of a special and intimate nature which pass through our soul, can be expressed only poorly and inadequately in the word, in language. And we can also feel how even the language within which we are placed forces us into specific modes of thinking. Everyone must be aware how the human being is dependent on language as far as his thinking is concerned. It is words to which our concepts are generally attached; and in an imperfect stage of development the human being will readily confuse the word or that which the word inculcates in him with the concept. Here lies the cause for the inability of some people to construct for themselves a conceptual framework which reaches beyond what is contained in the words commonly used in their environment. And we are aware how the character of a whole people who speak a common language is in a certain way dependent on that language. The person who observes national character more closely, the character of languages in their context, must realise that the way in which the human being is able to transform the content of his soul into sounds in turn acts back on the strengths and weaknesses of his character, on the way his temperament is expressed, even on his conception of existence as a whole. The configuration of a language can tell much about the character of a people. And since a language is common to a people, the individual is dependent on a common element, an average quantity, as it were, which prevails among that people. He is thus subject to a certain tyranny, to the rule of commonality. But if one realises that language contains on the one hand our individual spiritual life and on the other the spiritual life of the community, then one comes to see what might be called the “secret of language” as something of special significance. A considerable amount can be learnt about the soul-life of the human being if one observes how this being expresses itself in language.

The secret of language, its origin and development at different periods, has always been the subject of investigation by certain specialist scientific disciplines. But it cannot be said that these disciplines have been particularly successful in our century in uncovering the secret of language. That is why today we will try to illuminate aphoristically so to speak, in broad outline, language, its development and its connection with the human being from a spiritual-scientific point of view as we have been applying it to man and his development.

It is this connection which in the first instance seems so mysterious when we use a word to describe an object, an event, a process. What is the link between a particular combination of sounds which form a word or sentence and that which is within us which the object, expressed as word, means? In this respect outward science has tried to unite a wide range of observations in all kinds of ways. But the unsatisfactory nature of such a method has also been felt. The question is quite simple, and yet it is so difficult to answer: why did the human being, when faced with some object or event in the outside world, produce this or that particular sound from within himself as an echo of that object or event?

From a certain point of view the matter was thought to be quite simple. It was thought, for example, that language was originally formed by an inner ability of our speech organs. This imitated those things which were heard outwardly as sound—the sounds of certain animals for example, or something knocking against something else; rather like when the child hears the dog bark “bow-wow” it calls the dog a “bow-wow”. Such word formation is called onomatopoeic, an imitation of the sound. This was held by certain directions of thought to be the original foundation of sound and word formation. Of course the question how the human being came to name beings which did not emit a sound remains unanswered. The great linguistic researcher Max Müller,² realising the unsatisfactory nature of such a theory, ridiculed it by calling it the “bow-wow” theory. He set up another theory which his opponents in turn called “mystical” (giving the word a sense in which it should not be used). For Max Müller holds the view that each object contains within itself, as it were, something which is like a sound; everything in a certain sense has a sound, not only the glass which is dropped, not only the bell which is struck, but everything. And the ability of the human being to establish a relationship between his soul and this expressive element, which is like the essential nature of the object, calls forth the ability in the soul to express this inner sound-being of the object. Thus the essence of a bell can be experienced in the sounding of the “bim-bam”. And Max Müller's opponents returned his ridicule and called his theory the “bim-bam” theory. A more detailed examination would show that something unsatisfactory always remains in trying to characterise outwardly in this way the things which the human being experiences of the nature of things like an echo in his soul. A deeper penetration of the inner being of man is required.

From the point of view of spiritual science the human being is fundamentally a very complex being. He has his physical body, which is governed by the same laws and has the same constitution as the mineral world. Then, from a spiritual-scientific aspect, the human being has a second, higher member of his being, the ether body or life body. Then there is the astral body, the bearer of pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, of instincts, desires and passions; this is just as real a member of the human being for spiritual science, if not more real, than the one which one can see with the eyes and touch with the hands. And the fourth member of the human being we called the bearer of the ego. We further saw that at his present stage the development of the human being consists of the ego working on the transformation of the other three members of his being. We also pointed out that at a future time the ego will have transformed these three members in such a way that nothing will remain of what nature, or the spiritual forces which are active in nature, has made of these three human members.

For the astral body, the bearer of pain and pleasure, of joy and sorrow, of all the surging power of the imagination, feelings and perceptions, was created initially without our participation, that is, without any contribution by our ego. But now the ego has become active and it works in such a manner that it purifies and cleanses and subordinates all the qualities and activities of the astral body. If the ego has worked only a small amount on the astral body, the human being is dominated by his instincts and desires; but if it purifies the instincts and desires into virtues, if it orders muddled thinking by the thread of logic, then a part of the astral body has become transformed. It has become transformed from a product in which the ego takes no part into a product of the ego. If the ego fulfils this work consciously, of which today only a start has been made in human evolution, we call this part of the astral body which has been consciously transformed by the ego the “spirit-self”, or, using a term from Oriental philosophy, “Manas”. When the ego works not only on the astral body, but in a different and more intensive way on the ether body, we call this part of the ether body transformed by the ego the “life-spirit”, or, with a term from Oriental philosophy, “Budhi”. And when finally the ego has become so strong—and this will happen only in the far distant future—that it transforms the physical body and regulates its laws and permeates it so that it rules over everything which lives in the physical body, we call this part of the physical body “spirit-man”, or also, because this work begins with controlling the breathing processes, with a term from Oriental philosophy, “Atman”. (Cf. German “atmen”—to breathe.)

Thus we see the human being initially as a four membered being, consisting of a physical body, an ether body, an astral body and an ego. And similarly to the three members of our being which derive from the past, we are able to speak of three members of the human being developing into the future, created by the work of our ego. We can therefore speak of the seven-membered human being by adding to the physical body, ether body, astral body and ego the spirit-self, life-body and spirit-man. But when we consider these last three members as something distant, belonging to the future evolution of mankind, it must be added that the human being is prepared for such a development in a certain way already in the present. Consciously the human being will work with his ego on the physical, ether and astral bodies only in the far distant future; but in the subconscious, that is, without full consciousness, the ego is already transforming these three members of its being on the basis of a still dulled activity. The results are already in existence. What we described in previous lectures as inner members of the human being were only able to come about because of this work by the ego. From the astral body it fashioned the sentient soul as inner mirror-image, as it were, of the sentient body. Whilst the sentient body transmits gratification (sentient body and astral body are synonymous as regards man; without the sentient body we would have no gratification), this is mirrored internally in the soul as desire—and it is desire which we then ascribe to the soul. Thus the two things belong together: the astral body and the transformed astral body or sentient soul, as gratification and desire belong together. In a similar way the ego was working in the past already on the ether body. This created internally in the soul of the human being the intellectual or mind soul. Thus the intellectual soul, which is also the bearer of memory, is linked with the subconscious transformation of the ether body by the ego. And finally, the ego has been working in the past also on the transformation of the physical body in order to enable the existence of the human being in his present form. The result of that transformation is the consciousness soul, which permits the human being to gain knowledge about the things of the outside world. The seven-membered human being can therefore be characterised as follows: through the preparative, subconscious activity of the ego the three soul members have been created; the sentient soul, the intellectual soul and the consciousness soul.

The question may now be asked: are not the physical body, ether body and astral body complex entities? What a miracle of construction is the physical human body! And if we examined it more closely, we would find that this physical body is much more complex than that part alone which the ego has transformed into the consciousness soul and which can be called the physical form of the consciousness soul. Similarly the ether body is much more complex than that which might be called the form of the intellectual or mind soul. And the astral body too is much more complex than the form of the sentient soul. These parts are poor in comparison to what was in existence before the human being had an ego. That is why in spiritual science we speak of the human being as having developed in the distant past from spiritual beings the first predisposition for a physical body. To this was added the ether body, then still later the astral body, and finally the ego. The physical body of the human being has thus passed through four stages of development. First there was a direct correspondence with the spiritual world; then it developed and was interwoven and transfused with the ether body. It therefore became more complex. Then it became interwoven with the astral body which made it more complex again. Then the ego was added. And only the work of the latter on the physical body transformed part of the physical body and made it into the bearer of human consciousness: the ability to gain knowledge of the outer world. But this physical body has more functions than providing us with a knowledge of the outside world by means of our senses and our brain. It has to fulfil a number of activities which form the basis of our consciousness but which take place completely outside the sphere of the brain. The same applies to the ether body and the astral body.

If the fact is now quite clear that everything which surrounds us in the outside world is spirit, that there is a spiritual foundation to everything material, etheric and astral, as we have emphasised so often, then we have to say: the ego works as a spiritual being from the inside outwards, as the human being develops the three members of his being; in a similar manner—whether we call them spiritual beings or spiritual actions is not important—must have been working on our physical, ether and astral bodies before the ego emerged, which then took over this development. We are looking back at a time in which the same action on our astral body, ether body and physical body occurred as today is done by the ego outwards into these three members. That is to say, before the ego was ready to establish itself within them, spiritual creation, spiritual actions, worked on our sheaths and gave them form, movement, shape. There are spiritual actions in the human being which occur before the activities of the ego, if we exclude for a moment all that which our ego has transformed in the three members of our being as sentient soul, intellectual soul and consciousness soul, and regard the construction, the inner movement and action of these three sheaths of the human being.

That is why in spiritual science we talk of the human being as he is today as being an individual soul, a soul transfused with an ego, which makes every human being into a self-contained individuality. Before the human being became such a self-contained ego-being, he was part of a “group-soul”, part of a quality of soul which we still refer to today in the animal world as group-soul.³ What occurs in the human being as individual soul in each person, that occurs in the animal world as the basis of the whole species or family. A whole species of animal has a common group-soul. The individual human soul is equivalent to the soul of the species in the animal. Thus before man became an individual soul another soul was working in the three members of his being of which we have knowledge today only through spiritual science, a soul which was the precursor of our individual ego. And this precursor of our ego, which then passed on to the ego the physical body, ether body and astral body in order that the ego might continue to transform them, this group-soul also transformed from within itself the physical body, ether body and astral body and ordered them according to itself. And the final activity of the human being before he was endowed with an ego, the final influence which lies before the birth of the ego, is present today in what we call human language. When we therefore consider what preceded the life of our consciousness soul, our intellectual or mind soul and our sentient soul, we come across an activity of the soul which is not yet transfused by the ego and its result is present today in the expression of language.

What is the outward appearance of the four members of the human being? How are they expressed purely outwardly in the physical body? The physical body of a plant looks different from the physical body of a human being. Why? Because in the plant only the physical body and the ether body are present, whereas in the human physical body the astral body and the ego are present as well. This inward activity forms and refashions the physical body correspondingly. How is the physical body affected when it is permeated by an ether or life body?

The glandular system is the outward physical expression in man and animal of the ether or life body; that is to say, the ether body is the architect of the glandular system. The astral body formed the nervous system. That is why it is correct to talk of a nervous system only in those beings where an astral body is present. What, now, is the expression in the human being of his ego? It is the circulatory system and specifically what might be called the blood under the special influence of the inner life warmth. All the work which the ego does on the human being when it transforms the physical body is channelled via the blood. That is why the blood is of such special nature. When the ego transforms the sentient soul, the intellectual soul and the consciousness soul, then all the work that the ego achieves only penetrates into the physical body because the ego has the ability to affect the physical body via the blood. Our blood is the mediator for the astral body and the ego and all their activity.

There can be no doubt if we look at human life, even on a superficial level only, that the human being transforms the physical body with the ego in the same way as he transforms the consciousness soul, the intellectual soul and the sentient soul. Who would deny that the physiognomy expresses what lives and works inwardly. And who would deny that inward thinking, if it takes hold completely of the soul, transforms the brain even in the course of one life. Our brain is a tool which adapts to the requirements of our thinking. But if we consider the amount which the human being can transform, artistically fashion as it were, his outer being through the ego, it is very small. It is very little which we can do with our blood by setting the blood in motion with what we call our inner warmth. Those spiritual beings which preceded our ego managed to achieve more, for they were able to make use of a more effective means; thus the human form took shape under their influence in such a way that it is an overall expression of what those forces made of the human being. These beings used the substance of air. In the same way that we use the inner warmth to make our blood pulse—thus making the blood active in our own form—the beings working on us previous to our ego made the air serve their purpose. And the work of these beings on us through air created what gives us our form as human beings.

It might seem strange that we speak of spiritual forces working on the human being in the far distant past through air. But it is not the first time I have said that it is a misjudgement to think of the soul and spirit life of our inner being only as product of the imagination, and not to realise that it has been taken from the outside world as a whole. Whoever states that concepts and ideas could arise in us without ideas existing in the outside world might just as well say that he can take water from a glass in which there is none. Our concepts would be nothing more than froth if they were anything other than what lives in outside things and what is present in those things as their laws. We fetch that which we allow to develop in our souls from our environment. That is why we can say: everything material which surrounds us is interwoven with spiritual beings.

Strange as it may sound, what surrounds us as air is not merely the substance as shown by chemistry, but spiritual beings and spiritual forces are active in it. And in the same way that we can transform our physical body a small amount by the warmth which streams forth from our ego—that is the essential element—in the blood, the beings which preceded the ego formed in a powerful way the outer form of our physical being by means of the air. We are human beings because of our larynx and everything connected with that. The larynx, sculpted from outside into us as this wonderful artistic organ and connected with the other vocal and speech organs, was created from the spiritual element in the air. Goethe said very aptly with reference to the eye: “The eye is fashioned by the light for the light!”⁴ If, in the sense of Schopenhauer,⁵ it is now stressed that without an eye sensitive to light there would be no impression of light for us, then this is only half the truth. The other half is that we would have no eye if the light had not sculpted, as it were, our eyes from undefined organs in the far distant past. Light must therefore be seen not only as the abstract entity which is described today as physical light; but in light we have to search for that hidden being which is capable of creating the eye for itself.

Similarly we can say in another respect that the air is full of beings which were able at certain times to create in the human being the intricate organ of the larynx and all that is connected with it. And the rest of the human form to the smallest detail has been formed and sculpted in such a manner that man in his present stage is a further development of his speech organs, as it were. The speech organs are something decisive for the human form in the first instance. That is why it is speech that transcends man above the animals. For the spiritual being which we call the spirit of the air also fashioned the animals, but not to such a level where they could develop the facility of speech such as the human being has it. We see that the human being had internally already developed his speech organs by the time that he developed his present thinking, his feelings and his will, that is to say, everything connected with his ego. Now it can be understood why these spiritual forces could only work on the physical body in such a manner that the human being finally became like an appendix to his speech organs, because they developed the astral body, ether body and physical body through the influence, the configuration of the air. After the human being had become capable of having within him an organ which corresponded to what we have called the spiritual beings of the air, in the same way that the eye corresponds to the spiritual beings of the light, he could fashion into this what the ego developed in itself as reason, as consciousness, feeling, emotion. Thus there is a threefold activity in the subconscious; activity on the physical body, the ether body and the astral body which existed previous to the ego. We can recognise this if we know that it was the group-soul and that the group-soul worked in an imperfect manner in the animal.

This has to be taken into consideration if we regard the work of the spiritual forces occurring before the ego in the astral body. We have to exclude everything concerning the self and observe the work done by the group-self from dark foundations. Desire and gratification face each other in the astral body on a level of imperfection. Desire was able to become a soul quality, an inner faculty, because it already had a precursor in the astral body of the human being.

Similar to desire and gratification in the astral body, imagery, symbolism, and outer stimulus face each other in the ether body. It is most important to distinguish the activity of our ether body preceding the ego from the activity of the ego in the ether body. When the ego is active as intellectual or mind soul, then, at the present stage of development of the human being, it seeks a truth which is as nearly as possible a true picture of the outer world. Those things which do not exactly correspond to outward things are not called “true”. The spiritual activities which lie before the advent of our ego do not work in this manner; they work more symbolically, in the image, rather like a dream works. A dream works in the following manner, for example, that someone dreams of a shot being fired; and when he wakes up he sees that the chair next to the bed has fallen over. What is outer happening and outer impression—the falling over of the chair—is transformed into an image in the dream, into the shot. In this way the spiritual beings preceding the ego work symbolically in the same way that we will work again when we achieve a higher spiritual activity by initiation; here we try—but this time with full consciousness—to work towards a symbolic view, an imaginative conception, away from the purely abstract outside world.

Then the spiritual beings working in the human physical body transformed it into what might be called a correspondence of outer events, outer facts, and imitation. Imitation is something which we find in the child, for example, when the other soul members are still hardly developed. Imitation is something that belongs to the subconscious human nature. That is why education should start with imitation, because before the ego begins to create order in the human being, the drive to imitate is present as a natural drive.

The drive to imitate in the physical body in contrast to outer activities, symbolising in the ether body in contrast to outer stimulus, and the correspondence of desire and gratification in the astral body all have to be considered as having been created with the aid of the tool of air—and having been created in such a manner that a sculpted, an artistic impression as it were, has been created in our larynx and in the whole of the speech apparatus. It can then be said: these beings preceding the ego worked on the human being in such a manner that they formed and ordered him such that the air could come to expression in him in this threefold direction.

For when we look at language capability in the true sense of the word, we have to ask: does it consist of the sound which we utter? No, it is not the sound. Our ego sets in motion what has been created into us by the air. In the same way that we move the eye to take in the outward light, whilst the eye itself exists to take light in, our ego within us sets in motion those organs which have been formed by the spiritual beings in the air. We set the organs in motion by the ego; we activate the organs which correspond to the spirit of the air and we have to wait until the spirit of the air who formed the organs sounds back at us the tone as an echo of our action on the air. We do not produce the tone, just as the individual parts of a pipe do not produce the tone. Our ego develops activity by the use of those organs which have been created from the spirit of the air. Then we have to wait for the latter to set the air in motion again such that the word sounds by the original activity which produced the organs.

Thus we can indeed see that human language must rest on the threefold correspondence which was mentioned. How does this correspondence work?

Imitation in the physical body rests on the speech organs imitating those things which are outward activities, outward objects which make an impression on us, and producing them as sound in the same way that a painter imitates a scene which consists of quite different constituents than paint, canvas, light and dark. Similar to the painter who imitates with light and dark we imitate the environment with our organs which were formed from elements of the air. That is why what we produce in sound is a true imitation of the essence of an object; and our vowels and consonants are nothing but images and imitations of those things which make an impression on us from the outside.

The next thing is the image in the ether body, what we might call symbolism. The first elements of our language were created by imitation, but then this developed further by tearing itself away, as it were, from outward impressions. The ether body assimilates—such as in the dream—those things which no longer correspond to outer experiences; that is the developing element in sound. Initially the ether body assimilates the pure imitation; then the imitation is transformed in the ether body so that it becomes something independent and, because it has been through an internal process, corresponds to outward impressions only symbolically as image: we are no longer merely imitators.

And thirdly, desire, emotion, everything which lives internally is expressed in the astral body. This works in such a manner that it continues to transform the sound. The internal experiences flow from the inside into the sound: pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, desires, wishes; all these things stream into the sound and bring the subjective element into it. What started as pure imitation was then transformed into the language symbol in the independent sound or word image and is now transformed further by the infusion of the human being's internal experiences. It always has to be an outward correspondence which provokes the sound in the soul; when the soul expresses its inward experiences, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow and all the others, in sound it has to search for a corresponding outer form. At the first stage the outer impression is imitated. The inner sound image or the creation of the symbol is the next step. But the inner experiences, such as joy and sorrow, by their nature have no outer equivalent. This correspondence between outer being and inner experience can be observed with children as they learn to speak. One can see how the child begins to transform a feeling into a sound. When the child initially calls “ma” or “pa” then this is only the inner transformation of an emotion into sound. It is only the expression of something inward. But when the child expresses itself in this way and the mother, for example, comes, the child notices how its inward feeling of pleasure, which is transformed into the sound “ma”, corresponds to an outer event. Of course the child does not enquire how it happens that in this case there is a correspondence with the coming of the mother. The inner experience of pleasure or pain is allied with an outward impression and thus what streams out from the inside is united with the outer impression. That is the third way in which language acts. It is therefore true to say that language originated equally by internal imitation of the outside and by outward reality being linked to our inner experience. The process which happens in innumerable cases, and which is completed when the inner expression “ma” or “pa” is formed into the words “mama” or “papa”, and is satisfied when the father or mother responds. Every time that the human being realises that something happens as a result of an inner expression, the expression of that inner event unites for him with something outward.

All this takes place without any participation by the ego. It is only at a later stage that the ego takes over this activity. Thus the forces in existence previous to the ego were at work in the configuration which lies at the base of the human language ability. And because the ego took over when the basis for human language had already been created, language then ordered itself according to the ego. Therefore the expression connected with the sentient body is transfused by the sentient soul; the images and symbols connected with the ether body are transfused by the intellectual soul: the human being fills the sound with the experiences of the intellectual soul, and similarly he fills it with the experiences of the consciousness soul, which were initially only imitation. By this process gradually those areas of our language came into existence which represents inner experiences of the soul.

That is why, regarding the nature of language, it must be quite clearly understood that there is something in us which was there before the ego, which was then developed by the ego. But then, also, it cannot be claimed that language directly represents the ego, that it represents the spiritual aspect in us, everything which is intimate to our personality; but it must be understood that we can never see in language an immediate expression of the ego. The spirit of language works symbolically in the ether body, imitatively in the physical body; and this is linked with its creative activity in the sentient soul, forcing the inward experiences from it in such a manner that the sound is an expression of the inner life. In sum, language did not develop according to the conscious ego as it is today, but, if the development of language is to be compared to anything at all, its development can only be compared to artistic creation. Just as we cannot demand that the imitation of the artist corresponds to reality, we cannot demand that language copies those things which it is meant to represent. Language only imitates the outside world in a way similar to the picture, to the way that the artist as such imitates outside reality. Before the human being was a self-conscious being in the way that he is today, an artist was at work in him, active as the spirit of language, and our ego is embedded in a place where previously an artist was at work. This in itself is put rather in the form of an image, but it expresses the truth in this field. We observe an unconscious activity and feel that here there is something which created the human being as a work of art. In this respect we must not forget that we can only examine each work of art as permitted by the methods of that art. If this were born in mind, it would preclude from the beginning such pedantic works as Fritz Mauthner's “Kritik der Sprache”.⁶ Here the critique of language is based on quite wrong premises; namely, that if we regard human languages they do not in any way represent objective reality. But is that their function in the first place? There is just as little possibility for language to represent reality as there is of the picture representing outward reality in the colours on the canvas and the use of light and shadow. The spirit of language which lies at the foundation of human activity has to be grasped with artistic feeling.

Only a brief outline of these things has been given. But if one knows that an artist who formed language was active in mankind then one can understand—as different as the various languages may be—that even in the individual human languages the artistic element was at work in all sorts of differing ways. Then it can be understood how the spirit of language—let us call this being working in the air the spirit of language—when it reveals itself on a relatively low level in the human being works in an atomistic way by wanting to construct everything from the single parts. That is how it comes about that the individual sounds combine to form a whole sentence.

If, for example, we take the sounds “shi” and “pian” in Chinese, we have two atoms of language formation; the one syllable “shi” means song, poem, and “pian” means book. If we combine the two sounds, “shi-pian”, then this would be the same as creating the combination “poem-book” in English; something results from the particles which, seen as a whole, produces poetry book. This is only one example of how the Chinese language forms its concepts and ideas.

If we reflect on the things which we have considered today, we can also now understand how a wonderfully formed language such as a Semitic one must be considered in its essence. In Semitic languages we have certain sounds as a foundation which are really only constituted of consonants. And then the human being inserts vowels in between these consonants. If we thus take the consonants q, t, l, just as an example, and insert an a and then another a, then, whilst the word formed purely from the consonants is only an imitation of an outward sound, the word “qatal”, to kill, is created by the addition of the vowels.

We thus have a noteworthy development in that “to kill” as a complex of sounds comes about initially by the speech organs simply imitating the outward process. Then the soul continues the process and the inward experience is added with the vowels: the complex of sounds is further developed so that “to kill” is referred back to a subject. This is basically the constitution of the Semitic languages and in it is expressed the combination of the various elements in language formation within the framework of language. Symbolism (i.e. that which is found at work in the ether body as the spirit of language), which is the primary agent in Semitic languages, demonstrates the particular aspect of the Semitic languages which takes the individual imitative sounds one step further and transforms them into symbols by the insertion of vowels.

That is why fundamentally all words in Semitic languages are formed in such a way that they relate to the surroundings of the outside world as symbols. In contrast, everything which appears in the Indo-Germanic languages is prompted more by what we have called the inner expression of the astral body, the inner being. For the astral body is something which is already connected with the consciousness. When one faces the outside world one contrasts oneself with it. If one faces the outside world from the point of view of the ether body one fuses with it, is one with it. Only when things are reflected in the consciousness does a difference exist between oneself and things. This working of the astral body with all its inner experiences can be seen in the Indo-Germanic languages in contrast to the Semitic languages in that they have the verb “to be”: a reflection of independent existence. That is possible because we are able to separate ourselves from outward impressions with our consciousness. If, therefore, we want to say for example “God is good” in Semitic, then this is not immediately possible because there is no way of producing the word “is” as an expression of being, for this originates in the contrast of astral body and outside world. The ether body simply states. That is why in the Semitic languages one would have to say “God the good”. The contrast of subject and object is not a characteristic element. The languages which are in contrast with the outside world, which contain as an essential element the perception of an outside world, are particularly the Indo-Germanic languages. They in turn affect the human being in such a way that they support inwardness, i.e. all those things which provide the foundations for developing a strong personality, a strong ego. This is already evident in the language.

All the things which I have spoken about might be considered by some to be only unsatisfactory indications for the simple reason that one would have to speak for two weeks if one wanted to describe everything in this field in detail. Nevertheless, those who have attended these lectures more regularly and who have penetrated into the essential nature of the matter will see that such indications are not unjustified. They are only intended to show how a spiritual-scientific view of language can be provoked which fundamentally shows that language cannot be understood in any other way than in an artistic sense, which must be developed. That is why all scholarship must fail if it is not willing to participate in the creative act which was undertaken by the forces creating language in the human being before the ego became active in us. Only a creative faculty can grasp the secret of language, because only a creative faculty as such can recreate. No learned abstraction can ever bring about comprehension of a work of art. Only those ideas illuminate a work of art which are able to recreate in a fruitful way as ideas the things which the artist expresses by other means paint, sound, etc. Creative feeling alone can comprehend the artist, and a creative feeling for language alone can understand the spiritual creativity in the origin of language. That is one of the tasks which spiritual science is called upon to do in respect of language.

The other task is something which is of significance on a practical level. If we understand how language originated from an inner pre-human artist, then we can also elevate ourselves to make this creative feeling become active where we want to express something of validity in language. But there is little feeling for that in our present time, where not much progress has been achieved in fostering a living feeling for language.⁷ Today everyone who opens his mouth feels that he is able to express all things. But it must be understood quite clearly that we have to create again in our soul an immediate connection between what we want to express and how we want to express it. We have to re-awaken the linguistic artist in us in all areas. Today human beings are satisfied if what they want to say comes out in any way, no matter what form it takes. How many people realise—which is absolutely necessary in the field of spiritual science—that an artistic feeling for language is necessary to express anything? If true presentations of spiritual-scientific material, for example, are examined,⁸ it will be found that the true spiritual scientists who have written these things also seriously worked on them to form each sentence creatively, that the position of the verb is not an arbitrary decision. Each sentence will be seen as a birth, because it must be experienced inwardly in the soul as immediate form, not simply as a thought. And the sentences are connected not only consecutively, but the third one has to be formed in essence at the same time as the first one because they are interconnected in their effect. In spiritual science it is impossible to work without a creatively active sense of language. Everything else is inadequate. It is important to free oneself of being slavishly tied to words. But we cannot do that if we think that any word is suitable to express a given thought; that already is an error in our linguistic creativity. The expression of super-sensible facts cannot be gained from words which are coined only with a view to the sense world. If the question is asked “How is one to express the ether body or the astral body in a concrete manner in reality by means of a word?” nothing of this has been understood. Only the person has understood something of this who says: I will understand what the ether body is if in the first instance I investigate from one particular aspect and it is quite clear that I am dealing with artistically formed reflected images; and then I investigate three more aspects. The matter has then been presented from four different sides. When it is thereafter expressed in language, in walking round the topic as it were, we are presenting an artistic image of the matter. If one is not aware of this, nothing will be achieved but abstractions and a sclerotic reproduction of what is previously known. That is why development in spiritual science will always be connected with what might be called “development of the inward sense and the inward creative power of language”. In this sense spiritual science will have a fruitful effect on style in language, will transform the terrible linguistic style of today which is ignorant of the creativity of language, and fewer people, who can hardly speak and write, will embark on literary careers. The awareness has been lost today, for example, that to write prose is something much more elevated than writing in verse; only the prose which is written today is on a much lower level. But it is the purpose of spiritual science to act as a stimulus in those fields which are connected with the deepest secrets of mankind. For spiritual science will be active in those areas in such a way that it fulfils the visions of the greatest personalities. Spiritual science will conquer the super-sensible worlds through the thinking, will become capable of decanting the thought in such a way into the sound structure that our language too can again become a means of communication of the experiences of the soul in the super-sensible.⁹ Then spiritual science will have become the agent which makes real what is expressed about an important realm of the inner human being in the words:

Unmeasurably deep is the thought;
And its winged agent is the word.¹⁰

• 1 . Cf. the lecture “Sprachwissenschaft”, Dornach, 7th April 1921, in: Die Befruchtende Wirkung der Anthroposophie auf die Fachwissenschaften, Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland. (GA 76)
• 2 . Max Müller, 1823–1900. Noted Orientalist, religious and linguistic researcher.
• 3 . Cf. the lecture “Die Seele der Tiere im Lichte der Geisteswissenschaft”, Berlin, 23rd January 1908, in: Die Erkenntnis der Seele und, des Geistes, Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland. (GA 56)
• 4 . Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Entwurf einer Farbenlehre”, des ersten Bandes erster, didaktischer Teil, in: Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften, ed. Rudolf Steiner, reprint Dornach 1975, vol. 111, P.88.
• 5 . Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788–1860, German philosopher.
• 6 . Fritz Mauthner, 1849–1923. A new edition of this work, Die Kritik der Sprache, was just being published in 1910.
• 7 . In 1898 already Rudolf Steiner wrote in his essay “Noch ein Wort über die Vortragskunst”: “Artistic speech is often considered today to be failed idealism”. In: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Dramaturgie 1889–1900, Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland. (GA 29)
• 8 . Cf. also chapter 33 of Rudolf Steiner, An Autobiography, Steiner Books, New York, 1980.
• 9 . Rudolf Steiner repeatedly noted in his later work that for example the 7th scene of his mystery drama “The Portal of Initiation” (in: Rudolf Steiner, Four Mystery Plays, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1983) showed in the most direct sense this transformation of spiritual experience into sound.
• 10. Friedrich von Schiller, Poetry in Homage to the Arts (Die Huldigung der Künste).

[ 1 ] Ingestion of albumen is a process connected with one aspect of the inner activities in the human organism. This is that aspect which comes about on the basis of the absorption of physical substance. All such activities result in growth, creation of form, or new formation of material content. All that is related to the unconscious functions of the organism, belongs to this domain.

[ 2 ] The processes of this kind are opposed by those which consist of excretion. These may be excretions directed outward; but they may also be processes of secretion where the product is further elaborated internally, in the forming or laying down of substances in the body. These are the processes of secretion where the product is further elaborated internally, in the forming or laying down of substances in the body. These are the processes which provide the material foundation of conscious experience. Through the first kind of processes the force of consciousness is muted if it exceeds that which can be held in balance by means of the second kind of processes.

[ 3 ] A most remarkable excretory process is that of uric acid. The astral body is active in this excretion. This has to take place throughout the whole organism. It takes place to a particular degree through the urine. In a very finely divided way it takes place for example, in the brain. In the secretion of uric acid in the urine the astral body is mainly active, while the part played by the ego-organization is only subsidiary. In the secretion of uric acid in the brain, on the other hand, the ego-organization is the important factor and the astral body is in the background.

[ 4 ] Now in the organism, the astral body is the intermediary between the activity of the ego-organization and the etheric and physical bodies. The ego-organization must carry lifeless substances and forces into the organs. Only through this impregnation of the organs with inorganic material can man become the conscious being that he is. Organic substance and organic force would lower human consciousness to the dim level of the animal.

[ 5 ] The action of the astral body inclines the organs to receive the inorganic impregnations of the ego-organization. Its function is in fact to prepare the way.

[ 6 ] We see, therefore, that in the lower parts of this human organism the activity of the astral body has the upper hand. Here the uric acid substances must not be received into the organism. They must be excreted copiously. Under the influence of this excretion the impregnation with inorganic material must be prevented. The more uric acid is excreted, the more lively is the activity of the astral body, while that of the ego-organization impregnating the body with inorganic materials is correspondingly diminished.

[ 7 ] In the brain, on the other hand, the activity of the astral body is slight. Little uric acid is excreted, whereas more inorganic material in the sense of the ego-organization is deposited.

[ 8 ] The ego-organization cannot master large quantities of uric acid; and thus they fall under the action of the astral body; small quantities, on the other hand, enter the organization of the ego and there provide the foundation for the forming of the inorganic in the sense of the ego-organization.

[ 9 ] In the healthy organism there must be a correct economy in the distribution of uric acid in the different regions. Whatever belongs to the system of nerve-sense organization must be provided with as much uric acid as the ego-activity can make use of and no more; while, for the system of metabolism and the limbs, the ego-activity must be suppressed and the astral enabled to unfold its action in the more copious secretion of the uric acid.

[ 10 ] Now since it is the astral body that makes way for the ego-activity in the organs, a correct distribution in the deposition of uric acid must be regarded as an essential factor in human health. For in this is expressed whether the correct relationship between the ego-organization and astral body exists in any particular organ or system of organs.

[ 11 ] Let us assume that in some organ, in which the ego organization should predominate over the astral activity, the latter begins to gain the upper hand. This can only apply to an organ where the excretion of uric acid beyond a certain measure is impossible by virtue of structural arrangement of the organ. The organ becomes overloaded with uric acid uncontrolled by the ego-organization. Nevertheless, the astral body begins to bring about a secretion of uric acid. Since the organs of excretion are lacking in such a region, the uric acid is deposited not outwardly but in the organism itself. And if it finds its way to places in the body where the ego-organization is unable to take a sufficiently active part, we find inorganic substance i.e. something which is only proper to the ego-organization, but which the latter leaves to the action of the astral activity. Foci arise, where subhuman (animal) processes insert themselves into the human organism.

[ 12 ] We are dealing with gout. If gout is frequently reputed to develop as a result of inherited tendencies, it is due to the simple fact that when the forces of inheritance predominate the astral-animal nature becomes especially active and the ego-organization is thereby repressed.

[ 13 ] We shall, however, understand the matter more clearly if we look for the true cause of gout in this: substances are introduced into the human body in the process of nourishment, which the activity of the organism is not strong enough to divest of their foreign nature. The ego-organization, being weak, is unable to lead them over into the etheric body, and they thus remain in the region of astral activities. If an articular cartilage or a portion of connective tissue become over-charged with uric acid and, as a result, overburdened with inorganic materials and forces, it shows that in these parts of the body the ego's activity lags behind that of the astral. And since the whole form of the human organism is an outcome of the organization of the ego, this abnormality must necessarily give rise to a deformation of the organs. In effect, the human organism will then strive away from its true and proper form.

Yesterday I said that certain complexes of symptoms are condensed in the phenomena of falling asleep and awakening. It is most important first to study the symptoms that are condensed in the process of falling asleep. To fall asleep inadequately always indicates that the astral body is clinging to the physical and etheric organs, especially to the latter. (I will use these terms this time since you are now all quite familiar with them.) The astral body is too strongly bound up with these other members. This clinging of the astral body is at once evident to the spiritual investigator because, when sleep should appear, the physical and etheric organs continue to function as in the waking state, whereas in the normal person their function is clearly dampened down.

Ordinarily we cannot learn the real significance of this inadequate falling asleep; hence we must acquire a comprehensive view of the phenomena in the waking state that accompany this inadequate falling asleep. We then may notice that everything revealing an involuntary functioning of the organism is a concomitant of falling asleep inadequately. Thus any involuntary twitching of the lips or blinking of the eyelids, any excessive movement of the fingers and the like—any movement that is not an expression of an inner process, any fidgeting—all these are waking concomitants of not falling asleep properly. Obviously this process can be observed only when it manifests outwardly. When such fidgetiness occurs with regard to the internal organs, a certain capacity to perceive such things must be acquired so that one understands how to relate ertain phenomena.

For example, in patients suffering from anemia you may hear rushing sounds in the blood vessels on the right and left sides of the neck. These murmurs or bruits are noticeable in every person when he turns his head far to the left or right, therefore initiating a powerful unfolding of his astrality. Such an unfolding of astrality always arises when a movement that would normally be carried out voluntarily is carried out involuntarily. Whenever an otherwise voluntary movement—that is, a movement dependent on the ego—is made involuntarily, the astrality is too strongly exerted, too strongly engaged, is too strongly pressed into the organ. This is what we are dealing with in fidgety movements. Thus through such indirect observations, attention can be directed to the fidgetiness of the internal organs.

Now we must add that in patients who fall asleep inadequately there is always an underlying irregularity that cannot be countered by direct, outer methods. This irregularity is not closely connected with what I had to say yesterday about magnetic and electric fields, for example. Such things have very little to do with everything accompanying inadequate sleep. Thus in such cases it is necessary to make use of remedies. If we encounter a complex of symptoms that can be grouped together under the formula, “falling asleep inadequately,” we must apply remedies, and in particular plant substances in which processes must first be called forth by cooking, burning, etc. Such remedies will play a large role in cases of inadequate falling asleep, when the disease is in the human thoracic cavity, because there we always find an irregular clinging of the astral body to the organs. All remedies obtained by combustion, by reducing the substance to ashes, or extracted from the roots by boiling will be very valuable here. Everything that remains as force in root extracts and plant ash should play a very important part in such cases.

On the other hand, everything that I described yesterday will play a significant role in cases of inadequate awakening. To wake up inadequately always shows that the astral body enters too little into the organs. In diseases of the chest, this incomplete penetration by the astral body means something different from what it means in generalized diseases of the human organism. In the latter, one must try to bring in the entire astral body. This has to do with what I said about the effects of arsenic. Arsenic is effective when we have to treat an astral body already permeated by the ego, whereas when we want to treat the astral body alone, it will be especially important to apply the methods about which I spoke yesterday. In cases of inadequate awakening, we will always find something accompanying the waking process, what might be called numbness, a tendency to hold on to a dulled state of consciousness. Thus the symptoms that accompany inadequate awakening are essentially soul phenomena. Therefore it is particularly important in cases that show some defect or other in the chest organism—and at the same time the accompanying soul phenomena—to use the magnetic or electric fields curatively.

At this point I will try to answer a question put to me yesterday concerning the difference between treatment by direct current and by alternating current. (In the course of these lectures I will try to answer all your questions, so far as time permits.) In cases where one is treating a weakened individual—that is a person clearly suffering from malnutrition or the like—where the disturbance proceeds more from the lower portion of the middle human being, it is better to use an alternating current. If the disturbance clearly proceeds from the upper human being, it is better to use a direct current. However, the difference is not very great, and if you use one in one case and the other in another case you cannot make too great a mistake.

You will have noticed that in this realm of human health and illness dietary considerations can become quite important. This is because a subtle transition appears here from effects of a more dynamic kind, effects applied to the human being from outside, and those effects worked through by the human being himself in the transformation of plant substances. However, you will understand that because we are dealing with the region of rhythm, with phenomena based on the rhythmic functions in the human organism, there is no place for fanaticism in judging the healthy or diseased individual. There must really be no fanaticism of any kind in medical art—for example, fanatical adherence to an uncooked diet. A raw food diet also entails the exclusion of cooked plant substances obtained from the part of the plant lying toward the root, and this generally has definite consequences for the human organism: it slowly undermines the health of the respiratory system. A destructive influence on the human organism of this kind can continue for a long time, since it is not so easy to destroy this organism, but fanatical adherence to uncooked food will in time lead to shortness of breath or similar symptoms.

Someone may reply, “That may be true, but I have had excellent results with a fruit diet.” But you must then note that fruits are not roots; fruits have been worked upon strongly by outer sunlight. In them an extra-terrestrial process has been intensely brought to completion. One comes very close to the process of cooking when making use of what is dynamically present in fruits. Thus if you let certain patients eat fresh fruits rather than raw roots, you do much less harm. It is best not to be fanatical in either direction; both directions must be dealt with individually. There may well be cases in which it can be clearly determined that the irregularity in the chest system comes from the circulation and not from the respiratory rhythm; it can be proven that this problem derives from the circulation rather than the respiratory rhythm. Then it is necessary to pay attention to what plays into the circulation from the digestive activities. In such cases, what is lacking can be properly assisted by a diet of raw fruits. It is quite correct, in this individual case, a diet of raw fruits could be indicated. On the other hand, if I have a patient whose symptoms suggest that the cause of the inadequate functioning of his chest system is in the breathing, I will not be able to achieve anything by such means, and in fact I may only do harm. In this case I must instead prescribe a diet of boiled roots. In dealing with this very labile system we come to realize how serious the consequences of fanaticism can be in one direction or another.

In this first stage of our studies we must take into account one further thing in order to understand this system completely and not have to return to it. This is a process in the human organism that frequently escapes outer observation entirely and remains unnoticed to the detriment of human health. We should consider this here, in the first stage of our studies, this being the more pathological-therapeutic stage, whereas the next part should be more therapeutic-pathological in character.

In my more public lectures I have had occasion to speak on philology; I haven't had the opportunity to introduce this in the scientific courses, but it could equally well have been considered there. In the public lectures I said that the peculiar processes that come to more outward expression in the organism during puberty discharge themselves more inwardly during the time between birth and the change of teeth, when the child is learning to speak. These processes that occur between the astral body and the human etheric and physical bodies underlie the acquisition of speech and all the changes in the human organism connected with learning to speak. These processes should be carefully observed in the child as learning to speak runs parallel with changes in the rest of the organism. One ought to follow these changes backward toward birth, that is, from the radical change at the second dentition to the time of acquiring speech. However, in addition to the change of teeth there is an equally significant change, only it is more inward and does not express itself as obviously as the change of teeth or the acquisition of speech, which can be observed by anyone because they appear outwardly. This other change is almost more important than these in human health and illness, though they are given more attention because they are outwardly manifest. This other change is actually much more significant and occurs between the change of teeth and puberty. It is a process that lies midway between those events and is due to the fact that the ego—which, in the sense explained elsewhere, is completely born exoterically only around the twentieth year—is born inwardly in the same way that the astral body is born in the acquisition of speech. This process reaches its culmination between the ninth and tenth years of life.

Please consider now the following: What is latent in the human being regarding his ego, waiting to unfold, is almost entirely overlooked. The ego dwelling in the human organism really does something quite special. Everything else—the physical, the etheric, and also the astral in the human being, which only comes into contact from within with what is outside the human being by means of oxygen—all these components of the human entity are very strongly bound to the inner aspects of the human being. During sleep the ego takes only the astral with it out of the human organism. The astral body has a strong affinity for the physical, and especially for the etheric body. But this is not the case with the ego. It is here, taking into account the ego especially in its relation to the outer world, that the far-reaching difference between the human being and the animal is revealed.

In taking up nourishment we introduce substances from the outer world into ourselves. These must be transformed within us. What is it that brings about this fundamental transformation of outer substances? What brings this about? In truth, this is brought about by the ego. The ego alone is sufficiently powerful to stretch out its feelers, you could say, right into the forces of outer substances. To put it schematically, an outer substance possesses certain forces that must first be destroyed (dekombiniert) if they are to be re-constituted in the human organism. The etheric and astral bodies only walk around the substances, as it were; they have no power to penetrate to the inner aspect of the substances, so they just circumvent them. It is the ego alone that really has to do with the penetration of substances, with truly entering into the substance. If you introduce food substance into the human organism, it is at first inside the human being. But the ego overlaps the entire human organism and enters directly into the food substance. The inner forces of the food substance and the ego begin to interact. Here the outer world in regard to chemistry and physics and the inner world in regard to “anti-chemistry” and “anti-physics” overlap. This is the essential aspect.

Now in a child, this penetration of substances is regulated from the head until the change of teeth begins. The child is born in such a way that forces received by way of his head during embryonic development are then active in the human being in working through substances from within. But in the period between the change of teeth and puberty, which culminates between the ninth and tenth years, the ego that works from out of the lower human being, the lower ego, must meet the higher ego. In the child it is always the ego working from the upper man that works through the substances until the time indicated. Of course, I am referring to the instruments of the ego. The ego is indeed ultimately a unity. But the instruments of the ego, the polarity of the ego—that is the meeting of the lower ego with the higher—only establish a proper relationship in the way I have described. Thus the ego must enter the human organization at this time in the same way that the astral body must penetrate the human organization in learning to speak.

With all this in mind, observe the phenomena that can be seen in children from about the eighth or ninth to the twelfth or thirteenth year. Study from this viewpoint just those phenomena that it is so necessary to observe in children of elementary school age. You will find their outer expression in a seeking of the human organism for a harmony, a harmony that must be established during life between the substances taken in and the inner organization of the human being. Observe carefully how the head can be reluctant, at this time, to take in the inner forces of the substances, and how this comes to expression in headaches at about the ninth, tenth, or eleventh year. Observe further the accompanying metabolic disturbances in the secretion of gastric acid, for instance. Observe all this, and you will see that there are children who suffer continually from this inadequate adjustment of the ego from below and from above.

If such matters are carefully noted, one learns how to deal with them and as a rule they then disappear. They correct themselves gradually after puberty, when the astral body appears and makes good what the ego cannot do. They die away gradually between the fourteenth or fifteenth year and the twentieth or twenty-first year. Children who are sickly between the change of teeth and puberty can afterward become extraordinarily healthy. It is very instructive to observe this. You will often have found that sickly children, especially those whose illness is manifested outwardly in digestive ailments, in an irregular digestion, become quite healthy later if carefully treated. It is especially important in dealing with such cases to be extremely careful as to the diet prescribed. Splendid results can be achieved if the parents or teachers of such a child do not continually overload him with all kinds of food and with continuous persuasion to eat. That just makes the matter worse. Rather try to find out what the child can digest easily and give this frequently in small portions throughout the day. One can do these children a great service in this way. On the other hand, it is quite wrong to believe that anything is achieved by overfeeding.
In addition, we must take care that these children do not have too much school work, for this would only aggravate their condition. Thus if we allow them the necessary rest, we assist in this inwardly necessary digestive activity in response to smaller portions of food. There is hardly any area in which more transgressions are made than this one, in relation to which the above suggestions are made. If healthy human development in this direction is hindered, all sorts of tendencies to illness from this stage in life may remain throughout life.

People often complain that we give very little homework at the Waldorf School. We have good reason for this. A system of education corresponding to reality does not heed the abstract principles—or abstractions generally—applied in many spheres of life today. Instead it takes into account everything that has to do with the real development of the human being, and it is important, above all, not to burden children with homework. Homework is frequently the concealed cause of bad digestion. These things are not always manifested outwardly until later, but they nevertheless have their influence. It is remarkable that super-sensible study of the human being leads one to see an indication in an early stage of life of what is being prepared for a later period.

There is always a danger of the ego not being properly interlinked—if I may express it in this way—with the organism from below upward. This danger is really very great for almost all people, and especially for those in our time who are not of robust peasant stock. There is still a marked difference between those of peasant stock and the rest of the earth's population. One must draw a dividing line here. The rest of the population is very susceptible to the dangers arising when the ego is inadequately interlinked with the organism. The organism is then fundamentally ruined before the ego ought to insert itself. With regard to the respiratory system—also the head system—the female is more sensitive to the peculiarly labile equilibrium present there. The male is more robust regarding his chest organs, that is, less sensitive though not more stable. The same troubles can appear, but their outer expression is weaker. The female is more sensitive to the troubles arising there. What I have described as a seeking for the proper interlinking of the ego ends in a healthy human being or in anemia. Anemia (Bleichsucht) is a direct continuation of everything that happens abnormally in this way in the period from age seven onward. Anemia does not appear until later, but it is an intensified result of what was not observable in this direction in the preceding period of life.

In this regard, we must now point to an exceptionally important distinction. When we study the circulatory system, we must distinguish the actual circulation—which is a sum of movements—from the metabolism which is intimately interwoven with this circulation, inserting itself into it in a sense. In the circulatory system there is an equilibrium between the metabolic system and the rhythmic system, whereas in the respiratory organism we find the equilibrium between the rhythmic organism and the nerve-sense organism. Thus when you study this middle aspect of the human being, the chest system, you must realize that it is organized polarically in two directions. Through the breathing it is organized toward the head, and through the circulation it is organized toward the metabolic-limb system. Everything within the metabolism itself, or that is intimately connected with the metabolism in man's capacity for movement—which is of great importance especially during the first or ascending half of life—inserts itself as metabolic forces into the forces of circulation. This insertion upward from the metabolism must then advance a stage further.

Hence, in the process I have described we have to do with an advance, with a further stage of the activity developed by the ego in metabolism, already in the taking up of substances and then in laying hold of their inner forces. What we are dealing with here is a movement upward through the circulation and breathing into the head system, and all this must be properly coordinated in the period between the change of teeth and puberty. The egö s grasp of forces of outer substances must move upward through circulation and breathing to a proper intervention in the head system. It is a very complicated process we are dealing with here. We can really study this process by trying to grasp its influence within the “outer” digestive tract, where the substances are still quite similar to their outer states, where the substances are grasped only weakly by man's inner being. For what is the first stage in dealing with outer substances? What does the ego do when it first takes hold of outer substances?

The first activity of the ego in laying hold of the forces of outer substances is accompanied by sensations of taste. Tasting—that is, working through outer substances in a way that finds subjective expression in tasting—is the first stage of laying hold of the outer forces. It then proceeds further inward. But tasting also extends further inward. The “inner” digestive organism that lies on the other side of the intestines and transfers substances into the blood is still a tasting, but a tasting that grows ever weaker. It extends upward until, in the head organism, the tasting is opposed and thereby dampened down. The activity of the head in regard to tasting consists in the damping down of tasting, it opposes it. This process must take place properly. Then, of course, the ego lays hold of the substances as they proceed further; the ego grasps them more strongly than is the case in tasting, which is subjective and merely external. This process that takes place in the outer digestive tract is strongly influenced by mineral salts.

You will be able to harmonize every aspect of what I am now saying with what I said in the last course. You will see that what I am now saying is essentially bringing to completion what was said then. We have to ask ourselves, “What really is a remedy from the outer kingdoms of nature?” This is a fundamental question for medicine. What is a remedy?

Anything that the organism can digest in its healthy state is not a remedy. We can only speak of a remedy when we introduce into the organism something it cannot digest in a healthy state but is able to digest only in an abnormal condition, that is able to be digested, therefore, only in an abnormal human organism. We provoke the abnormal human organism to digest something that the healthy human organism does not digest. The healing process is a continuation of digestion, but a digestion carried step by step into the interior of the human organism.

Among the symptoms accompanying the condition seen in its most pronounced form in anemia we find these: fatigue, lassitude, and inadequate falling asleep and awakening. If all these symptoms appear, as can happen with most children during the period of development mentioned today, then it is necessary first to experiment with the outer digestive tract. There one must apply the mineral element, and yet not completely mineral. If you do this, you will obtain results. In the first place, these things could be observed through the symptoms that arise. For example, you may find that definite symptoms arise, all of which point to the need for the ego to take hold outwardly of the forces of outer substances. This process could be assisted by carbonate of iron. Ferrum carbonicum is a remedy that can act as a support for the weakness when the ego ought to be taking hold outwardly.

Let us go a stage further and consider an inadequate intervention of the ego within the circulatory organism. We will notice that this inadequate intervention of the ego in the circulatory organism can be supported by ferrous chloride (ferrum muriaticum)—that is, by a still more purely mineral remedy.

Let us go a stage further still, to what we encounter in the breathing organism. Here we can find special support for the ego through plant-acids. And if we go yet further, to the head system, we can support the ego by pure metals. These, of course, must not be used in their outer form as pure metals, for they then have no proper relation to the human organism. We must apply the finest forces of these metals. Last year I therefore said that the human organism does not allow itself to be treated with metals allopathically. The organism itself acts homeopathically; it breaks up the metals itself as they move from the digestive system to the head organism. The organism can, of course, be supported in this activity through potentization.

You will see, however, that we can learn from this something about potentization. (We will return to these things later from another viewpoint.) First one must form a mental picture of the real center of the deficiency. The deeper this center lies—the farther from the head organization—the lower the potency required. The nearer this center lies to the head organization, the higher the potency we must apply. Of course, what approaches the head organization can come to expression outwardly in all kinds of ways.

If you proceed properly from this viewpoint—that is, from the ego's laying hold of outer substances—you will be able to gain insight into the symptoms you encounter. This leads us back to what I have said today and have often emphasized elsewhere: that the human organism is not simply something we can draw with lines; that is only the solid part. The human organism in essence is organized fluid, organized air, organized warmth, and the ego has to intervene in these various members of the organization.

The ego's intervention in the warmth conditions of the body is especially subtle and important; it does this in the following way: When a person is born we have initially an imprint of the ego and this is present in the head. This imprint is active during childhood. In order to do this, the ego must offer its being [Sein] from below upward. It must intervene in this way. This finds expression in the ego-imprint, that we have in the head, permeates the organism with warmth during childhood. It has something to do with the human organism being suffused with warmth. But this warming follows a descending curve; it is strongest at birth, since it proceeds from the head, and then moves in a descending curve. As human beings we are compelled in later life to compensate from below upward for what unfolds there in the warmth curve. We have to maintain its proper level from below through the ego's intervention in these warmth conditions. We must later oppose the descending curve by this other ascending curve. The latter depends essentially on the ego laying hold of the ascending forces of substance gained in food and leading them over into the circulation, the breathing, and then into the head system.

Now imagine that this is not taking place in the right way, that the transference of the inner forces of the outer world's substances into the human organism is too weak, that it is not developed with sufficient intensity. Then insufficient warmth is introduced into the organism by way of the ego. The head, which is now only developing the descending curve, lets the body become cold. This occurs at first at the periphery. You should observe that those individuals who suffer from this further development of the condition of lassitude, due to all I have described, have cold hands and feet. This is palpable, for you can sense here how the process that was accomplished in childhood from above downward through the imprint of the ego is not being met in the necessary way by the active ego, by the ego that must be developed and that carries warmth right into the outermost periphery of the limbs.

This will show you that we have what you could call pictures in what manifests outwardly in this way; for as soon as you apply yourself to perceiving things pictorially, as soon as you take into account the interplay in the human being of the various forces above with the forces below—if you consider these so delicately that you arrive at a pictorial impression—you have pictures. In cold hands and feet you have pictures of something that is taking place in the entire human organism and appears in this way. One learns to make use of symptoms so that from them there springs forth a knowledge of the whole human being. If a person has cold hands and feet, it is a profound sign that the ego is not intervening properly in later stages of life. If we are attentive to such things, if only we enter into what spiritual science has to say out of its considerations, we gain a connection with the human organism. Otherwise we will see that through inattention we gradually lose touch with a real, penetrating insight into the human organism. If only we can enter into what spiritual science has to offer, we receive a connection with the human organism, we grow into it.

Consider the following, for instance: Spiritual science continually impresses upon us the fact that in mari s power to hold himself erect there lies something connected with the development of the ego from below upward. This power of holding himself erect is at first expressed only outwardly in a certain sense. It is supported by what streams from above downward. When the change of teeth is accomplished, when this force of erectness has done its work in the proper way, this elementary force of erectness comes to a full stop and now transfers its influence to the inside. Now the balance of the forces that work upward from below and downward from above must be created within.

Then the forces from above downward and from below upward appear in contrast. They meet each other. In this one-dimensional encounter, as you could call it, between forces from above and forces from below, one can see especially what is taking place in this period. Just observe what especially fatigues people with a tendency to anemia. They become most tired when they climb stairs, not when they walk on the horizontal. This points directly to the phenomena that we have been studying. People with a tendency to anemia will always complain about climbing stairs. Thus by looking at the symptoms, by observing what comes to living expression in a process of becoming, we can get a hold of what stands spiritually behind the human being. Then we can come to the point where we learn simply to read what needs to be done in response to these abnormal conditions from what we have gained through diagnostic pathology. We will take this further tomorrow.

Today we shall deal with a subject that is connected with the vast far-reaching view into cosmic space that we entered upon in our last lecture. We shall go more closely into the spiritual evolution that lies within spatial and material evolution than we did before. In the last lecture we saw how spiritual beings guide those mighty evolutionary processes which ordinary physical science describes to us inaccurately, but Theosophy or spiritual science exactly and accurately.

We have seen how the separate planets, the separate bodies of our cosmic system, arise from a common original substance, and have recognized that spiritual beings of various kinds are active in all this evolution. We have pointed out too in former lectures how spiritual science does not see merely physical material objects in the bodies of our cosmic system, but linked with the physical and material, spiritual beings of various grades. These may be beings of the most exalted order who raise evolution, thus benefiting the whole system, or they may be spiritual beings of a lower kind who hinder and destroy. Yet we must be clear that what seems to be hindrance and destruction is in the long run again membered into the wisdom of the whole system. One might therefore say: When something apparently destructive, retarding and evil exists anywhere, then evolution in its whole course will be so wisely guided that even this evil, this destruction and hindrance will be reversed and changed into the good. Today however we want to bring about a living feeling of the existence of such spiritual beings as belong to the “creative beings”—considering first those of an exalted order. Man must work in evolution for a long time yet, before he ascends to the rank of a “creative” being. We will consider in particular those beings who participated in the structure of our cosmic system when the Earth began its evolution in our universe as Saturn.

The Earth began its evolution as Saturn and advanced through the Sun and Moon evolutions up to its present formation. Everything on that Saturn cosmic body was, however, quite different from the nature of our present earthly planet. On Saturn there were no solid rocky masses, what we call the mineral world in the modern sense, nor was there water in the modern sense, not even air; what was present at that time could only be compared with warmth among our elements today, with “fire,” as one says in occultism. You would certainly not get a right idea if you thought that this Saturn fire looked like the modern flame of gas or candle. To have the right conception you must call to mind what pulses up and down in your own body—you must recollect the fundamental difference existing between a lower creature of the animal world, which has preserved certain stages of evolution, and the human being. A lower creature has the warmth of its surroundings. An amphibian has no inner warmth of its own; it has the warmth of its surroundings. It is as cold or as warm as its surroundings. Man has his own internal, equable warmth, as indeed he must have. His organism must ensure that when it is cold outside, he can nevertheless maintain his warmth at a certain temperature, and you know that when disturbances such as fever etc. enter this warmth, the health of the whole body is disturbed as well. The point is that man has an inner degree of warmth and he must think of some underlying force that creates it. This force is not water, not the solid, not air, it is an element for itself, and this element alone was present on ancient Saturn, the first embodiment of our Earth. If you had gone for a walk at that time in universal space—naturally that is a phantasy but it helps to form an idea of the condition—you would not have seen Saturn, for in the earliest stage it sent out no light at all. To shed light the cosmic body must first become a sun, or be united with a sun and so become luminous. If you approached ancient Saturn you would have noticed in its neighborhood that there was warmth, you would think that there was a space filled with warmth, you would enter a space like an oven. The existence of ancient Saturn would have been realized through this force of warmth alone. It was a rarefied material sub-stance of which modern man can scarcely form a right idea—least of all a learned physicist—but it was present, a condition finer than gas, finer than air, and all that existed of man at that time, namely, the first rudiments of the physical body, consisted of this substance. If you could eliminate today everything except the warmth of your blood then you would have an idea of those first rudiments of the human being. That, however, could not be done, since one cannot live like that. Today with our mineral kingdom, fluid kingdom, etc., we cannot live as the human being lived on ancient Saturn. At that time one could do so. But today you must think away all that you have of juices, tissues, solid parts, even the air that you take in as oxygen. You must conceive solely and alone that which remains over—naturally in quite a different form—namely, the warmth contained in your blood: a physical body consisting only of warmth! It is a horrible idea for a modern natural scientist—but therefore one that is all the more correct and real.

Such was the rudimentary germ of man—his physical body. All the other beings which are on the earth today animals—plants—minerals—were not in existence on Saturn. Saturn at that time consisted solely of human germs which were clustered together like the tiny berries which form a blackberry. In this way the Saturn-globe was a great berry made up purely of tiny berries which were the human beings. If we were to examine the surroundings of Saturn somewhat as we test our earth's surroundings and find a mantle of air in which are structures of mist, clouds etc., we should find nothing of a material nature. We should find in the Saturn mantle spiritual substance, spiritual beings, and these were at a much higher level than man in his first rudiments.

We will now occupy ourselves with a definite order of beings who were linked with the Saturn existence. There we find the Spirits of Will, then the Spirits of Wisdom, Spirits of Movement, of Form, of Personality, and so forth. To-day we will turn our attention especially to the Spirits of Form for the reason that they have played an important role in the beginning of our evolution. From the whole ranks of spiritual beings who were present in the atmosphere and environment of Saturn, we will therefore select the Spirits of Form and be clear that they have gone through an evolution up to today, just as all beings go through an evolution. As man received his etheric body on the Sun, his astral body on the Moon, his ego on the Earth and has become more and more perfect, so have the Spirits of Form passed through their evolution.

These Spirits of Form had no physical body on Saturn, their lowest member was an etheric body which one can compare with the etheric body of man; thus we should have to think away completely the physical body in the Spirits of Form, and think of the lowest member of their being as the etheric body. Then these beings had an astral body, an ego, spirit-self or Manas, life spirit or Budhi, spirit man or Atma and an eighth member which is a stage higher than man can reach in the course of his evolution through the Earth's embodiments. These Spirits of Form therefore act externally on Saturn through their etheric body as man on Earth works externally through his physical body. They possess no hands through which they can work, no feet with which they can walk, for these are members of the physical body. But their etheric body manifests in such a way that they continuously ray in fructifying life-saps from the Saturn atmospheric mantle, which are of very rarefied matter. We can picture Saturn as we have described it, and from the environment—continuously and from all sides—fructifying life-saps streaming down like rain from the etheric bodies of the Spirits of Form. The nature of Saturn was such that it did not retain these fertilizing life-saps but rayed them back like a mirror. In this way arose the mirror pictures of Saturn of which I have spoken in earlier lectures, but now more exactly. You can picture the warmth sub-stance of Saturn perpetually receiving the rays of the etheric body of the Spirits of Form and raying these back again. We can form a rough picture of it, if we remember how the rain drips from the clouds down to earth, collects in the earth and rises up again as misty vapors. We must not however imagine this as having an interval of time, but picture the process as a continuous one; the rank luxuriant life-saps stream in and are reflected, so that the rudimentary physical bodies appear like mirror-pictures. They actually consist of mirror-pictures. You can form an idea of what was present on Saturn as the physical germ of man, if you imagine a person standing before you and you look into his eye; you send your light into the eye of the other, and your picture comes back to you rayed out of his eye. So it was with the Spirits of Form in the environment of ancient Saturn. They sent their life-bestowing saps down into the warmth masses of Saturn and their own form, their likeness, was reflected; this mirror likeness was the first rudiments of the human physical body. Man was thus, even on ancient Saturn, in the most literal sense a likeness of his Godhead.

If we now go on to the Sun which arose out of old Sat-urn, the advance was made through the fact that the Spirits of Form no longer have need of an etheric or life-body; they give up the etheric body. They no longer ray down the life-giving saps, they relinquish their etheric body and in this way the first physical germs of man were permeated with an etheric body. The etheric body which the human beings received on the Sun was formed, to begin with, from the etheric body of the Spirits of Form,—a portion of the etheric body of the Spirits of Form. These celestial beings mirrored themselves in the warm Saturn, and through the fact that they brought a sacrifice and created pictures, they have gradually grown more independent and capable of the greatest deed, namely, to lay aside their etheric body in sacrifice and to permeate with their own life-force that which they first formed as picture. If you could endow with life the reflection which rays to you from the eye of your fellow man, make it independent, so that it had its own life and could step out of the eye, then you would have a deed which the Spirits of Form accomplished in the transition from ancient Saturn to the Sun. This was a significant advance for our cosmic evolution.

You know of course—I will just mention this here—that all sagas and myths have a multiple meaning, and when we consider the true facts of world evolution in a spiritual sense, then the myths disclose their truth in a surprising way. This may be the case right here.

Let us look at the advance that took place from Saturn to Sun. On ancient Saturn the life-giving forces streamed in, were reflected and taken up again by the mantle, the atmosphere of Saturn. In the old Greek myth the warm globe of Saturn was called Gaea and the atmosphere Chronos. Now consider the myth: the life-giving forces of Chronos rayed in continually upon Gaea and were reflected and absorbed. It is Chronos continually swallowing his own children! One must feel the truth of such a myth; if it is not felt, one has not the right attitude to it. For just consider what it means: in hoary primitive ages of ancient Greece we find a myth that presents this truth to us in a wonderful picture. There is only one possible explanation of such a fact, namely, the most advanced individuals of mankind, who guided man's further development from the Mystery centres, had exactly the same knowledge of world evolution as we give out today in Theosophy. In the Ancient Mysteries they spoke of these things as we speak today; for the masses the truths were veiled in pictures and these pictures form what today we know as Mythology. In the face of such knowledge how extraordinary seem those people who believe that men have discovered truth only in the last forty years and that all knowledge possessed by men of earlier times is only childish fantasy. One must however describe it as a childish fantasy when it is emphasized again and again: “How marvellously advanced we are today!” That is the really childish picture!

So we advance from Saturn to Sun and consider the evolution of the Spirits of Form further. They have laid aside their etheric body, “exuded” it out of themselves and imparted it to the body of the Earth, inasmuch as the human bodies have permeated themselves with it. As the lowest member of their being they now have the astral body and their higher development means that they have not only one member above spirit-man or Atma, but a still further one. We must now describe their being as consisting of astral body, ego, spirit-self, life-spirit, spirit-man, an eighth and a ninth member which are beyond what man can attain in his completed seven-membered development. What do the Spirits of Form present as an “outside”?

The Spirits of Form have “trickled,” so to speak, the life-rain down on to Saturn. On the Sun they manifest through instincts, desires and passions raying into the Sun, through all that is anchored in the astral body. If someone had sat there and looked out into cosmic space, he would not have seen lightning flash or heard thunder pealing, but round him in the astral light he would have perceived the passions of spiritual beings—everywhere, all around him, passions, and you must not at all imagine only lower passions. These passions and emotions now worked creatively on the planet from without. If we consider the myths further we see the creative Titans within our earthly evolution, the creative passions which worked from out-side, from the spiritual airy circles of the Sun when this was a planet.

Now we advance to the Moon—the Sun is metamorphosed into the Moon. In the course of evolution this signifies that the Spirits of Form now lay aside their astral body also and that their lowest member is the ego. To describe their nature we should say: as the human being has the physical body for lowest member, so these Spirits of Form in the environment of the Moon have the ego as lowest member, then they have spirit-self, life-spirit, spirit-man, an eighth, ninth, and a tenth member. Thus they pre-sent their ego to the outer world. It is very remarkable, but so it is: they present externally pure ‘I’s, pure egos; they simply displayed sheer egos to the outside world. The whole activity in the surroundings of the Moon was as if one met with beings who revealed their whole character and individuality—and this was from the Moon's atmosphere inwards. Just imagine all your egos which are here in your physical bodies being suddenly freed from that and from etheric and astral body, imagine only your egos there as the lowest member, and that they could manifest them-selves through space. Think of yourselves on the old Moon and your egos outside in the universe, but in such a way that they were embedded in the spiritual substances, only the lowest members of the Spirits of Form working in out of the air, then you will have a picture of how the Spirits of Form express themselves as sheer egos out of space. They have given up to the human beings the astral body which they still had on the Sun, so that on the Moon man now consisted of physical body, etheric body and astral body.

We will now picture the human being of Saturn who has the first rudiments of the physical body. We must visualize hovering above him beings who are the Spirits of Form and have an etheric body, astral body, I, spirit-self, life-spirit, spirit-man, to the eighth member. Now we must think of the next stage. In the Sun-human-being we have the physical body and the etheric body. The etheric body had been instilled into man by the Spirits of Form, keeping their astral body, so that they had their astral body, their I, up to the ninth member. Then we pass on to the Moon.

We have man consisting of the physical, etheric, astral bodies. The astral body has been sacrificed to man by the Spirits of Form who then have as lowest member the I, and spirit-self, and so forth, up to the tenth member. All that we call ‘man’ has gradually flowed down out of the environment of the planet, has been put together, so to speak, from outside. All that is within was once outside, has entered into man from without.

Let us now follow evolution on the Earth itself: at the beginning man has the rudiments of his physical body, then his etheric, and astral bodies. The Spirits of Form came over from the Moon. Their lowest member is the I or ego. This they now sacrifice as well and with it fructify the human being in his rudimentary stage, so that the ego, as it appears on Earth, is a fertilizing force which streams out from the Spirits of Form, and these beings have now Spirit-Self or Manas as their lowest member.

If we wish to describe them we must say: Above us in the Earth's atmosphere there rule the Spirits of Form, their lowest member is Spirit-Self or Manas; in this they live and weave and they have sacrificed what they still possessed on the Moon—the ego working towards all sides, that ‘trickled’ down and fertilized the human being.

We will now follow the progress of man on the Earth itself. There one can point to the spot in man where the ego was trickled in, but today we will consider it only schematically. Man receives his ego. It comes in contact first of course with the astral body which surrounds him like an auric sheath, there the ego first flows in, interpenetrates the astral body. This takes place in what we call the Lemurian Age, in the middle of earthly evolution. In the Lemurian Age, in the course of long periods of time, different for each different human being, the ego drew into the astral body and fructified it. Let us picture this developing human being.

The physical body at that time did not consist of flesh and blood as it does today; it was a quite soft structure, even without cartilage, and was penetrated as if by magnetic currents. Then there was the etheric body and then the astral body which was fructified by the ego. We must imagine this fructification as being something like an indentation which occurred in the astral body, like a turned-in aperture. That is what actually took place, something like an opening arose at the top of the astral body through the inflowing of the ego, an opening as far as to the etheric body. (Fig. 1.) This was of great significance and produced an important result; the consequence was that the first dim perception of a physical outer world appeared. In earlier conditions man had perceived nothing but that which lived in him inwardly; he was as if hermetically sealed towards the outside. He was aware only of himself and what went on in him internally. Now for the first time there opened to him the sight of a physical outer world. But man was not yet quite independent, much was still regulated for him by other divine beings with whom he stood in connection. He could not immediately see all that was around him, as we do now; since only his astral body was opened he perceived only with that body. It was a quite dim clairvoyance, and when in this ancient primeval time the human being moved over the earth he perceived what was outside his body, he perceived if this were sympathetic or unsympathetic, beneficent or harmful. He perceived a color picture when he so moved about, a glaring-red, for instance, that arose as an auric color-picture, for it was his astral body that first opened. He knew that when a red picture appeared there was a being in the neighborhood that was dangerous to him. If a blue-red color met him, he knew that he could go towards it; thus he took his direction from these dim clairvoyant perceptions. He perceived only the soul elements, he could not perceive, for instance, what is present in the plants of today. He perceived only the soul-nature in the other human beings and in the animals, and the Group-souls, too. That was the first fertilizing with the ego.

The ego was gradually further developed and the fructifying element that entered the astral body began to permeate it more deeply so that the ego was increasingly present in the feelings of likes and dislikes. According as the ego expanded in this way in the astral body there arose what has been called in the book Theosophy the sentient soul. It is as if the fructifying ego spread its forces over the whole astral body, thereby producing the sentient soul. Here we still have to incorporate an important fact.

We have now seen a fairly normal advance of evolution. We have seen how the Spirits of Form on the Moon rayed in their lowest member, the ego, and how, when the Earth had arisen out of the Moon condition, they gave up the ego and fructified man with it. Now we know that certain beings on the Moon remained behind, beings who did not complete their development. What does that mean? It means that they had not advanced to the stage where they could let their ego stream out and fructify the human being. That they could not do. They still stood at the old Moon stage, when they worked with their ego into the atmosphere of the earth. There were laggard beings around man who worked on the earth as the Spirits of Form had done on the Moon. Man was surrounded in the earth's atmosphere by ego-beings who had not yet relinquished their egos. These beings now strove to accomplish on the earth what they had failed to do finally on the Moon. Man was thus exposed to influences that were not in the normal course of his evolution. These influences of the ego-spirits rayed into his astral body. While his astral body was molded through the in-trickling ego of the Spirits of Form, the ego-spirits, who were not at the stage of the Spirits of Form, rayed lower forces to him at the same time, lower than should have entered him in normal evolution. These lower forces brought it about that man divided into a higher and a lower part. Thus from the Spirits of Form an ego was instilled with the propensity to selflessness, whereas the laggard ego-spirits instilled into man the ego with the propensities towards selfishness, egotism. That is the ego which will still not free itself from instincts, desires, and passions. They press into the astral body and interpenetrate it—so that in man's astral body there is a twofold nature: selfless impulses that aspire to rise higher and those passions which are imbued with selfishness and have entered man through the influences of the ego-spirits and have anchored themselves in him.

Now we will further consider evolution itself. We have seen how the astral body has been entirely permeated by the force of the incoming ego. The next stage is when the etheric body too is seized by this force, so that here too a kind of aperture towards the outer world arises. To sketch this (Fig. 2) we must put in the middle a physical body, then an etheric body which is broken through and entirely filled with the force of the ego and then the astral body which is also entirely full of this force. So in the etheric body we now have a force desiring to expand; the etheric body opens to the outside world.

We have come in the formation of man practically into the first and second third of the Atlantean Age. There still existed an old clairvoyance which no longer saw in picture merely the beneficial and harmful, the sympathetic and unsympathetic, but a kind of living dream pictures arose before man which lasted a long time. For the etheric body is the bearer of memory and since these human beings had as yet no disturbance from the physical body, such pictures coming from outside were held for a long time. Memory at that time was an outstanding force of the soul. You can read in The Akashic Record¹ what man was at that time in respect of memory. There was not of course as yet complete observation of the external world, but a kind of dim clairvoyance. This was, however, more comprehensive than perception through the astral body. It caused everything to arise in mighty pictures, definitely formed, like a dream, but with a correspondence to the external objects, whereas formerly the pictures only served to guide man in taking his direction.

Now we advance to the last third of the Atlantean time. And now the physical body too is gripped by the force of the ego (Fig. 3). Rudiments of an indentation arise in the physical body, it becomes indented and around it we have the etheric and astral bodies. We will merely imagine the whole schematically now; in the course of succeeding lectures we shall get to know the realities. In a certain way, however, such a kind of indenting had appeared, the physical body took up the ego into itself. The point where the ego was taken in lies between the eyebrows, as I have often explained. The opening that comes about through the penetration of the ego into the physical body is to be thought of particularly as the opening of the physical senses. The ego presses through the eye, through the hearing—which is not merely an opening but a whole series of openings. All this takes place in the last third of Atlantean times and the human body was so transformed that it has become what it is today.

We call the etheric body as it was transformed at the beginning of the Atlantean Age the intellectual or mind soul and the transformed physical body we call the consciousness soul. So that what is described in my Theosophy as the position today, we have now followed as a consequence of evolution. You see here how things come about gradually.

After the physical body too is opened to the outside, man for the first time learnt to know the external world. And now begins the conscious transforming of the astral body. It was a more or less unconscious transformation before the beginnings of the consciousness soul. To picture this condition, we must think of it schematically like this: the astral body, etheric body and physical body opened, and through the fact that man comes in connection with the outside world he forms in himself an enclosure. This represents all that the ego develops in intercourse with the outer world, all that the ego “learns” through external contacts. Now imagine that the whole of what the ego develops in this way becomes greater and greater, and that this new structure, which has been gradually developed, lays itself round the astral body here. Although this is all schematic it corresponds to the actual process, and the new structure unites with man's astral body and in course of evolution transforms it into the human Manas or spirit-self. (Fig. 4.) Man is at work on this today, when through what he ac-quires in his intercourse with the external world he is transforming his astral body into Manas or spirit-self. We are in the midst of this process at the present time.

Since, however, the Spirits of Form have given up their ego, letting it trickle down into man, we are surrounded everywhere by these beings whose lowest member is of a Manasic nature, the spirit-self. If we want to seek in our surroundings for these Spirits of Form, for their lowest member, then we find it in that which we ourselves gradually develop as our fifth member. What we develop as human wisdom by which we must become wiser and wiser, that we should find manifested in our surroundings as the lowest member of the Spirits of Form. We have indeed often spoken of this. Let us look at what surrounds us, at what has been done by more exalted beings around us and in which we have taken no share. Let us look at what I have often mentioned, a piece of the thigh bone, in which the lattice work which goes to and fro is combined to such a wonderful scaffolding, that we must confess: Here with the minimum amount of material the maximum strength is attained! We see secreted in this structure what man will gradually learn—though it is impossible today—how to build bridge-scaffoldings through his engineering art that will be as wisely constructed as the thigh bones which carry the human upper body like pillars. The whole human body is thus wisely arranged, it is an expression of wisdom and when we go out into Nature this same wisdom meets us everywhere. Let us go, for example, to the dams which the beavers make. We see how the beavers collect at certain times of the year when the water has acquired a greater fall, in order to construct a dam in the water at a definite angle which will hold up the water and produce a new fall. Everywhere in our surroundings we find everything permeated with wisdom,—as we shall be permeated with it when we have developed Manas in full measure. The wisdom that we meet with everywhere belongs to the Spirits of Form. As the physical body is our lowest member so is the wisdom which we find all around us the lowest member of the Spirits of Form, then they have Budhi, Atma, where we have our etheric and astral bodies and then they have the eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh members. We have to do here, as you see, with highly exalted beings to whom we look up; and when we see the wisdom in our surroundings, we see only the lowest member of these exalted beings. In comparison with these beings we are like a creature, a lower being, that creeps about on man and sees only the outside of his physical body. We creep about on the earth and see the wisdom, which for the Spirits of Form is what the physical body is for us. Such a being is a “creative spirit” as regards man, for this creative spirit has instilled his ego into him.

Precisely as we raise ourselves to Manas, so in the further course of evolution we shall someday acquire the life-spirit, Budhi, through the transforming of our etheric body. In our environment we have Manas or spirit-self as the wisdom impregnated into the world. That is the lowest member of the Spirits of Form, but there are also other beings linked with the earth whose lowest member is not our fifth, Manas, but our sixth, i.e. the life-spirit or Budhi. Around us is the atmosphere for beings whose lowest member—as member of higher beings—is equivalent to our life-spirit. And just as truly as at the beginning of the earthly evolution an external deed instilled the ego into man, so at a definite point of time there came the first impression and influence of the beings who little by little instil the full strength of Budhi. Two thousand years after the time in the ancient hoary past when the ego was poured down, there was still not much to be seen of such egos in the human bodies. That all came about gradually, only in the course of many millennia did the ego reach full manifestation. One must never imagine that the instilling of the ego was an event of which someone could say: “Nothing special happened; I do not acknowledge it, that is simply an event as others have been before!” If any particularly “enlightened” persons had lived on earth 2000 years after the instilling of the ego, and had perhaps represented the materialism of the time, they would have said: “Oh, there are certain among us who maintain that a special force has come down from heaven and brought all mankind forward. But that is a dualism of the worst kind, as Monists we must explain that that is something which was already there long ago!” These things appeared slowly and gradually.

Just as at the beginning of the Lemurian Age a powerful impulse forwards was given through the inflowing of the ego, which has later made possible the development of spirit-self or Manas, even so there has been an event of fundamental importance through which man will become capable with his whole being of developing not only Manas, but life-spirit or Budhi. And this event is the Deed on Golgotha. This event is the appearance of Christ on earth! It may be that some people will deny that to-day, but this event was just as much a force coming out of the environment as that other was. Thus we see that we grasp the evolution of the world from its spiritual aspect when we look into the depths of the world. We learn gradually not to look merely to a material existence, but we discover, wherever we look into cosmic space, spiritual beings and their deeds. Through what we call Theosophy we learn to know of these deeds, we live and weave and have our being within the spiritual beings and their deeds.

In our next lecture we will go more exactly into the human organism and indicate how the development has taken place, after today having dealt with it more schematically.

• 1. See: Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory, Rudolf Steiner Publications, Englewood, N.J.

Today, we will talk about how a person who adopts the theosophical worldview not only learns something and is able to recognise something about the world and its beings, but how the theosophical teachings, perspectives, thoughts and ideas are able to affect human feelings and emotions. Rightfully, it is often emphasized that theosophy shouldn't be something that only theoretically introduces us to higher worlds, but that it should be something that deeply penetrates our life. Normally, the opinion connected with this saying is deemed something trivial and inferior, so today we must form a view about the importance of such an opinion. In the most intimate way thoughts and ideas, which we absorb through theosophy, are flowing steadily into our whole feelings and emotions, so that we can become, literally through theosophy, different human beings. Of course, this trivial opinion is often based on a preconceived notion about how a theosophist must be. And if he is not like that, one says: I understand a theosophist to be someone completely different. I am thinking what a theosophist should be, only a theosophist can be the judge of. And if others who are not yet theosophists always say that they imagine a theosophist to be different, then their opinion cannot be very theosophical since they are not really experts. Today, we do not want to talk about such a trivial opinion, but about the intimate transformation of our emotions and feelings once we really absorb theosophy into ourselves. We want to deal with this question: Are such thoughts that are revealed to us able to penetrate into all the forces of our soul and, in relation to everything we experience within us, able to turn us into a new human being? They can do this.

The world around us, the ordinary world through which we walk, could look different for us at every turn if we understood theosophy. Therefore, today we must try to dive deeper into a theosophical understanding of the world.

Around us are lifeless beings that we call minerals, plants and animals, and other human beings. We know that behind these beings are spiritual beings, that there exists behind our physical world a spiritual world. We know that even of a human being who stands in front of us, we can only perceive a small part with our senses, the physical body. We know that this human being has apart from this physical body, his etheric body, his astral body, his Ego—these latter three members we are unable to perceive with ordinary senses. When looking at a stone, we tell ourselves it is different from a human being because as a mineral, as a stone, it has no etheric body, no astral body, no Ego in the physical world, but only a physical body. About the plant, we know it has a physical body and an etheric body. About the animal, we know that it has those and also has an astral body. But only the human being has the fourth member—the Ego. Thus, by having a fourth member, the Ego, above all other beings, the human being is the crown of our physical world. If we say it like that, then it is correct. But if we say it a little bit differently, then it is already wrong. If someone says, here in the physical world the stone or the mineral only has a physical body, then that is correct. But if one leaves out the words ‘here in the physical world’ then this is already wrong, and indeed utterly wrong. If someone says 'the stone has only a physical body' ... then this is utterly wrong.

What looks quite pedantic has to be said at least once, so that people get a feeling for the way how precisely one must talk about these subtle things. The stone too has its etheric body, its astral body and its Ego, albeit not in the physical world. This applies to the plant and the animal too. It is important to place in front of your soul precisely the idea that we should look at the stone from a higher point of view: as a being, that also belongs to something other than that which faces us. Have a look at your fingernails. Imagine that some sort of tiny being would look at these nails and could not see anything of the fingers, because it didn’t have any sense organs. It would believe that the nails are something separate that stands alone, and yet this is not true. The nails only make sense when they are attached to the fingers. So it is with all of our minerals. Human beings look at the minerals and they see of these only their physical body. But just like the nails belong to the fingers, the physical body of the mineral belongs to an etheric body which can no longer be found in the physical world. The physical body of the minerals is in the physical world, and the etheric body of the mineral is in the astral world. For a being that looks into the astral world, it just appears as if they follow the nails to the fingers because this etheric body in the astral world belongs to the mineral. In the same way, the mineral has an astral body, but this astral body of the mineral is in what we call ‘Devachan’. And finally, the mineral also has an Ego and this Ego is in the higher Devachan world, in the Arupic world.

Therefore, when we are looking at the minerals around us, we see entities pushed in front, that just like our nails stick out of the organism, they stick out of the beings to whom they belong and who in regard to their Ego exist in higher worlds. Just like you have nails, these beings have limbs which they extend, first into the lower Devachan world, then into the astral world and then they grow nails downwards: the minerals of the Earth. So when you look at a mineral, don’t believe that this one mineral has an Ego, but many related minerals belong to a common Ego. There are few such mineral personalities on the Devachan plane. The plant is different from the mineral in that on the physical plane it has its physical and also its etheric body. In the astral world, it has its astral body and on the Devachan plane, it has its Ego. The plant Ego is therefore one level lower than the mineral Ego so that on the lower Devachan plane one can encounter beings, who in turn have as their lowest limb a plant. The animal has its physical body, its etheric body and its astral body all on the physical plane, here in the physical world, and its Ego in the astral world. All animals belonging to one species and, for example, all lions, do not each have a separate Ego, but share a common one. This Ego is also called animal group-Ego. The human being differs from the animals because he also has his Ego on the physical plane.

When looking at an animal with the eyes of a theosophist, these feelings must arise: You will find in every human being an Ego—in every single human being. In an animal you cannot find an Ego on the physical plane. For this you must climb up to the astral plane, which is populated by animal group-Egos. The lion-Ego on the astral plane is an entirely different being than a single lion, just like your fingers appear to be a different ‘being’ from yourself. There are animal group-Egos, which are far more intelligent than the smartest human beings on the physical plane. These group-Egos are the drivers, catalysers and arrangers of what an animal experiences here on the physical plane. Never will anyone come to a true understanding of animal life, who doesn’t know that what the animals do here is only an expression of the measures that have been taken by the animal group-Egos. Look at the strange phenomenon that in a particular season, the bird life of the Northeast begins to migrate Southwest in one line, to return again in spring. Each bird species flies at a particular height and you can imagine that these bird migrations are connected to important instincts in the animal world. The spring migration is a wedding flight. If you enquire about the underlying wise arrangements of this, you will not understand these without making it clear to yourself that these are made by the group-Egos who conduct and direct everything. All that happens in the animal world will appear different to us, once we are aware of the presence of group-Egos. Imagine you had a wall with different holes in it through which someone would put his hands. What a mistake would one make if one would believe these hands are beings themselves. Someone who believes that an animal is a being by itself makes such a mistake. Those who conduct the bird migration are wise beings. In this way the animal world becomes an expression of a world of wise beings standing behind it. We learn to know a wonderful world of beings and no longer pass thoughtlessly over what we encounter directly. In fact, those animal group-Egos are always present in the periphery of our Earth. They are spiritually constantly encircling our Earth, just like the trade winds or the migrating birds or the electrical and magnetic currents that flow around the Earth. In this way spiritual currents and movements exist that do not represent anything but those deeds of the animal group-Egos.

When we now observe the plant world, it represents something similar. We see the outer plant. What we perceive as a plant in front of us, is a physical and an etheric body. But if we rise up to the astral plane, we find the astral bodies of the plants, and in Devachan the plant-Egos. For our earthly flora there is a greater number of such plant-Egos, which all have one common place where they are together—that is the centre of the Earth. All plants strive with the essence of their being towards the centre of the Earth.

Watch what happens to the Earth itself if we look at it from this perspective. It will no longer be the body as portrayed by geology, but the Earth will thereby become a living being with an Ego. A single plant does not possess an astral body, but all plants are immersed in and enclosed by an astral body, so that we can imagine the plant world of the Earth vaguely like this: All plants belong to the astral body of the Earth and in the centre of the Earth is the Ego of the plants. In this way, the Earth becomes a conscious being to us. Just as your Ego, which is located within your body, sends its rays towards your fingers, the Ego of the Earth, which is located in its centre, sends its rays towards the individual plants. Like our hair, the plants are organs of the Earth organism. Each plant strives towards the centre of the Earth as towards its Ego. In the spiritual world countless beings can be tucked in together at one single location. The spatial relationships in the spiritual world are different from those in the physical world. All plant Egos are able to meet each other in the centre of the Earth. The weeds have a different Ego than the wheat. Both Egos don't get on well with each other, but both their Egos are within the centre of the Earth. Such a truth must not only be grasped by the intellect, but must also be felt with every step you take through life. The plant cover of the Earth will become something different for us, when we stride along with the feeling that these plants are the outer physical expression of a spiritual content connected with the Earth. Earth has its Ego, which is realised through all the plants.

Only by looking at the issue in this way, and not stopping at mere concepts, does it come to life. Only then we will have grasped it in the right way. Because then we know that what we do to a plant is having a similar effect as if we did the same to a human being. If we are hitting a person, then this will hurt him because he has an astral body. The etheric body is unable to experience joy or pain. The individual plant doesn’t feel hurt if we squeeze it, as not all individual plants possess an astral body. But the jointly shared astral body of the plants belongs to the Earth, and what is done to a plant hurts it. In the centre of the Earth are the plant-Egos and it is there that consciousness originates about what one does to a plant. Once we grasp this teaching with all the strength of our soul, we will walk differently upon the surface of the Earth. Thus, every step we take in life becomes a communication with the Earth as a conscious being, and we know that this Earth as a whole experiences pleasure and pain and joy and sorrow. But we have to experience this in the right way. One could believe that if we cut a plant, the Earth would feel pain. This is not the case. Detailed information can only be given by a clairvoyant able to see the way the Earth’s astral body functions. If you pick a blossom, this creates a feeling as if a calf is suckling milk from its mother, which creates a kind of well-being sensation for the cow. Plants that the Earth lets sprout up, can be compared to the milk that spurts out of an animal, so that when you pick flowers, a feeling of pleasure for the Earth is provided. But if you rip these out with the roots, the Earth experiences pain, as if you were cutting into flesh. If you take this vividly, you will notice what kind of spiritual relationship with the Earth you will gain. Once the sickle slices through the stalks, the clairvoyant sees blissful sensations move across the Earth, across the fields. By mowing a field, a flood of well-being moves across the Earth. Our relationship to the world is deepening in a wonderful way when we begin to settle into these truths, and feel how we are hurting Earth when we rip out her plants, like someone would rip out a hair from us.

It could be objected that sometimes it might be very good to not rip off all the blossoms but leave them in nature, and sometimes it is good to reposition plants elsewhere and rip them out with their roots. This doesn’t change the fact that tearing out produces pain, and picking creates feelings of pleasure. The moral side is something different from the fact itself. A moral perspective which is justifiable in a human life, must not be applied to the cosmos. Imagine someone who is getting their first white hair, so that from an aesthetic standpoint it seems desirable to pull them out. He might become more beautiful, but it will hurt him. Thus, it might be desirable to replant plants, but it will hurt the Earth. The question is, ‘Is it not necessary to cause such hurt?’ or ‘Is one allowed or should one cause such pain?’. Pain is in many ways inseparable from existence. The human being steps into the world through the pain of the mother. Whatever is born is born in pain. Even if it is necessary to rip out plants, it will always be painful for the Earth. Our concepts and ideas turn into intimate emotions and feelings. We slowly notice all the things we do not perceive in our environment because we do not know about them. In our surroundings there is always feeling, and perceiving and living; it is not only a mechanical process when the sickle is wielded through the stalks, but floods of emotions stream across the field in autumn. Thus we learn to empathise with the beings which surround us.

What about rock? Rock, as we have said, has its Ego just like a human being, but in a much higher world. This rock-Ego and this rock-astral-body feel and sense just like the Earth, when you rip out plants or pick them. It is not only a mechanical process when the stone carvers in a quarry are hammering stone by stone out of it. Those rocks that are blown up will be seen by a person, who only uses his senses, as a process of the outer world. We learn to know that something similar happens, is experienced, in a soul when we immerse ourselves into theosophy. There you should not judge according to analogies, but must proceed with something concrete. One could believe that the hammering in a stone quarry causes pain. This is not so. You cannot bestow a bigger favour upon the mineral kingdom than when you split a stone apart—this is its true bliss. An outpouring of pleasure is happening when you blow up stones in a quarry and the stones are thrown around everywhere. The stone possesses a true longing and passion to be split, blown up, ripped apart.

In contrast, something else causes pain and suffering to the being at the foundation of our rock world. If you have dissolved cooking salt in a glass and this begins to separate, so that it separates itself as hard salt, settles, and then, when what had been dissolved forms once again a solid body, the affected being experiences pain. If you again dissolve what has been joined together, then it experiences pleasure. If you would reassemble the blown-up stone fragments and return them to the original rock, this would hurt the rock-soul tremendously. Consider that essentially our Earth was created as a liquid fire body. So that you can have solid ground under your feet, many different solutions and forms of water had to group together to form solid bodies.

Once our Earth consisted wholly of molten metals. Then the first island formations occurred. This was accompanied by massive pain. For the Earth it was painful to become our dwelling place, and the incremental solidification of the Earth, as described by natural science, meant spiritual processes happened simultaneously. If someone, who understands these things, experiences a volcanic eruption where the dissolved materials are flooding out and solidify, then he sees streams of pain of the lava-soul flowing down the mountain. In this way the whole of nature is ensouled for us, if we are conscious of these things. But this is also what the initiates have always held out to mankind. The sayings of the initiates have normally a deep meaning and deep value and sometimes not only one meaning. Understand that the Earth was once a liquid fire body, and that this stone kingdom has solidified and agglomerated itself. Under suffering, the Earth was transformed into our dwelling place. Only through the suffering of the rock kingdom were we able to reach a certain level of development. This pain of the rock will only cease, when the final state of the Earth will be reached, when the Earth will become softer again, when it will become spiritual again. Put yourself into this phase of the Earth: liquid-fire Earth, humans still spiritually immersed in it. The stone masses solidify. Ongoing pain and suffering in the seemingly lifeless rock kingdom for the sake of progressing the human race. How could one express this better than this: “For all creatures are sighing in pain, awaiting to be adopted as children”.¹ One cannot go down deep enough, if one truly wants to grasp the sayings of initiates.

This all shows that understanding the world is something completely different from an abstraction. When the concepts are being deepened, emotional experiences appear through which we can look into the soul entities that stream through the world. Everything becomes for us an expression of the soul in some form. Every step in our life becomes something different, because not only do we connect to the beings in front of our senses, but also with those unknown beings on ever higher planes of the world. We only must find within ourselves the thoroughly different way to live.

In this way, we also learn to find the soul in a plant, in an animal, in a mineral. We learn to know the soul of a whole people. An entire people has a common soul and what one calls the Folk-soul is not a dead term; it is something real. When a people arise, let’s say the Goths, and perish again, this is like the birth and death of a single human being. But in the whole people lives some soul essence and the individual beings are the limbs of this Folk-soul, embedded into the Folk-soul’s substance, which in turn has its fates, sufferings and joys. First, we gain an idea, then increasingly more knowledge of how the world around us is suffused everywhere with pleasure and pain, old and young—as it is within ourselves. This is what through the theosophical teachings turns us into different human beings. This means acquiring theosophical understanding, implementing theosophy intimately in your life, as if the theosophical concept was a seed, which we plant into suitable Earth. Then it starts to sprout and becomes blossom and fruit when it becomes an emotion and a feeling and when we immerse ourselves through our emotions and feelings deeply, deeply into our environment. When through theosophy plants and stones become not only objects of observation, but our friends and fellow beings, who warm up to us through theosophical observation, whom we learn to love, like we love human beings, then by and by we will gain understanding, a perspective will open up about the enormous educational value of theosophy for the whole future. Imagine human beings in two, three, four, five centuries who will not only have concepts about karma and reincarnation but will walk through the world with such emotions as we have indicated here. All of human life and all education will be different when the human being will be able to perceive everywhere the pulse of other beings. If he places his hand on a tree and feels the pulse of the Earth, if he smashes a stone and shares the emotions of bliss that the stone soul experiences, and if he becomes conscious that the Earth had to suffer pain, then the human being will walk across this Earth differently. Life then will be different, and the right empathy, through the human beings themselves, will prevail and be alive.

• 1. Luther’s translation reads literally: “The creatures are fearfully awaiting the revelation of the children of God”, Letter to the Romans, 8:19