Disease, Karma and Healing E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Today, illness is almost universally regarded as either a nuisance or a grave misfortune. In contrast to this conventional thinking, Rudolf Steiner places the suffering caused by disease in a broad vista that includes an understanding of karma and personal metamorphosis. Illness comes to expression in the physical body, but mostly does not originate in it, says Steiner, and thus a key part of the physician's work involves gaining insight into the whole nature of an individual – his essential core being. From this perspective, illness offers us the opportunity for deeper healing. Throughout this volume Rudolf Steiner draws our attention to the greater scope of the smallest phenomena – even a seemingly insignificant headache. He casts vivid light on things we normally take for granted, such as the human capacity to laugh or cry, and in the process broadens our vision of human existence. The apparently mundane human experiences of forgetting and remembering are intrinsic to our humanity, for example, and have unsuspected moral and spiritual dimensions. Steiner's insights are never merely 'lofty' or nebulously 'spiritual' but time and again connect with the minutest realities of everyday life. In these 18 lectures, delivered on a weekly basis as part of an ongoing course covering 'the whole field of spiritual science', Steiner elaborates in detail on the diverse interplay of the human being's constituting aspects (physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego or 'I') in relation to rhythmic processes, developing consciousness, the history of human evolution, and our connection with the cosmos. Within this broad canvas, some of his themes acquire a very distinctive focus – such as vivid accounts of the 'intimate history' of Christianity, 'creating out of nothing', the interior of the earth, and health and illness. Other topics include: the nature of pain, suffering, pleasure and bliss; the four human group souls of lion, bull, eagle and man; the significance of the Ten Commandments; the nature of original sin; the deed of Christ and the adversary powers of Lucifer, Ahriman and the Asuras; evolution and involution; the Atlantean period – and even Friedrich Nietzsche's madness!

Leseprobe

DISEASE, KARMA AND HEALING

SPIRITUAL-SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRIES INTO THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN BEING

DISEASE, KARMA AND HEALING

SPIRITUAL-SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRIES INTO THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN BEING

Eighteen lectures held in Berlin between October 1908 and June 1909

TRANSLATED BY MATTHEW BARTON

INTRODUCTION BY MATTHEW BARTON

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

CW 107

The publishers acknowledge the generous funding of this publication by Dr Eva Frommer MD (1927-2004) and the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2013

Originally published in German under the title Geisteswissenschaftliche Menschenkunde (volume 107 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. Based on notes taken by members of the audiences not reviewed by the speaker, and edited by Johann Waeger and Hans W. Zbinden, MD. This authorized translation is based on the 5th German edition of 2011 which was overseen by David Marc Hoffmann

Published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

© Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach 1973, Rudolf Steiner Verlag 2011

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 440 7

Cover by Mary Giddens Typeset by DP Photosetting, Neath, West Glamorgan

CONTENTS

Editor's Preface

Introduction, by Matthew Barton

LECTURE 1BERLIN, 19 OCTOBER 1908The astral world

The astral world. The streams or currents flowing between human beings and the diverse beings of the astral world. The I as master of the many currents that flow into us. Madness as a consequence of loss of mastery of these currents. Friedrich Nietzsche's madness. The mutual connections between astral beings. Distinctive characteristics of the astral world. Matter's permeability and fruitfulness of ideas as measure of their truth. The two astral worlds, good and bad, and the world of devachan. Kamaloka.

LECTURE 2BERLIN, 21 OCTOBER 1908Some characteristics of the astral world

Repetition as the primary principle of the ether body. Ether body and astral body in plants and animals. Distinctive characteristics of the astral: connection between spatially separated entities (e.g. parallelism in twins), confluence of different astral powers (e.g. Siphonophora), physical development through astral inversion of organs (e.g. organs in fish and humans).

LECTURE 3BERLIN, 23 OCTOBER 1908History of the physical plane and esoteric history

History on the physical plane and esoteric history in the spiritual world. The Atlantean period. The history of decline for the other world and of upsurge for this world. The significance of initiates and of the Mystery of Golgotha in the history of the other world (Christ's descent to hell).

LECTURE 4BERLIN, 26 OCTOBER 1908The law of the astral plane: renunciation. The law of the devachan plane: sacrifice

Objective thinking, feeling and will through esoteric exercises. Feeling, astral vision and Imagination. Will, devachanic hearing (harmony of the spheres) and Inspiration. Privations in the astral world (kamaloca). Renunciation and abstinence as preparation for this. The difference between devachan and the astral world. Bliss in the world of devachan. Sacrifice as preparation for this.

LECTURE 5BERLIN, 27 OCTOBER 1908The nature of pain, suffering, pleasure and bliss

The interplay between etheric and astral. Privation caused by physical injury and suppressed activity of the ether body in the physical body: pain for the astral body. Self-chastisement and asceticism leading to accumulated powers of the etheric body: bliss for the astral body. Savonarola's work as example of the power gained by negating the physical body. Pain in kamaloka, bliss in devachan. Endurance of physical pain as a kind of path of knowledge. The ‘crowning with thorns’, a stage on the Christian path of initiation as an example of this.

LECTURE 6BERLIN, 29 OCTOBER 1908The four human group souls: lion, bull, eagle and man

Group souls and group egos in Atlantean and Lemurian times. The four group souls of eagle, lion, bull and man and their characters. The gender of the ether body in contrast with that of the physical body. Lion nature and female body, bull nature and male body.

LECTURE 7BERLIN, 2 NOVEMBER 1908Forgetting

Remembering and forgetting. The memory connected with the ether body. The ether body as a principle of repetition. The self-contained lawfulness of the plant ether body. The unused and preserved free part of the human ether body available for education and development. Health and disease and their relationship to the free part of the ether body. The free part of the ether body as precondition for humanity's evolution. How forgotten ideas continually work upon the free part of the ether body. How ideas not forgotten can disrupt development while forgotten ones enhance it. The great blessing of forgetting for daily and ethical/moral life. Learning to forget memories of the physical world in kamaloka (passing through ‘Lethe's flood’). The value of forgetting, as indispensable for the good of humanity.

LECTURE 8BERLIN, 10 NOVEMBER 1908The nature of diseases

The inner connections between the lectures in this series. Sickness and healing. Materialistic and spiritual-scientific medicine. The blood as an expression of the I. Five different forms of disease and a few methods of healing: (i) Chronic diseases associated with the blood and the I; the psychological healing method; (ii) acute diseases associated with the nervous system and the astral body; the dietary healing method, (iii) Glandular diseases associated with national characteristics and the ether body; Tabes; the reciprocal relationships between the human organs and between the planets; healing methods using specific medicines (plant, mineral); (iv) infectious diseases associated with the physical body; (v) Diseases associated with human karma; Paracelsus on materialistic physicians.

LECTURE 9BERLIN, 16 NOVEMBER 1908The nature and significance of the Ten Commandments

A translation of the Ten Commandments that takes account of their literal meaning and whole soul import. Yahweh's self-naming as ‘I am the I am’, and the I of members of the Jewish race. The Yahweh being as a being of transition. The gradual outpouring of knowledge of the I into the Jewish race. The effect of the Ten Commandments on the health of the astral, etheric and physical body. The work of the lower gods to develop the physical, etheric and astral body of the human being, and other nations’ veneration of these gods in images. The work of Yahweh on the human I and non-pictorial veneration of him amongst the Jewish people. The few I-aware priests/wise men in other nations, and education of the whole Jewish people, through the Ten Commandments, to be a nation of priests. The I impulse in the Ten Commandments and in the Mystery of Golgotha.

LECTURE 10BERLIN, 8 DECEMBER 1908The nature of original sin

The division of the sexes in Lemurian times and the hermaphrodite beings of the preceding era. People at one with their surroundings in ancient times. Increasing loss of spiritual perceptions. Mutual pleasure of the sexes in each other and the beginning of passionate, sensuous love in the middle of Atlantean times. The Platonic love of former times. Human qualities/characteristics acquired through generations and passed on by inheritance: original sin. Division of the sexes, human individualization and disease. The ungodly nature of the astral body, the more godly nature of the ether body, and the physical body as the temple of God. Mineral medicines and the human phantom (double) they create. The good effects of these medicines: independence of the physical body from harmful influences of the astral and etheric body. The bad effects: weakening of the good influences of the astral and ether body on the physical body.

LECTURE 11BERLIN, 21 DECEMBER 1908The rhythm of the human bodies

The four aspects of the human being during waking and sleeping. Day I and universal I. Rhythmic changes to the I over 24 hours and the relationship between these and the earth's rotation. Astral body and universal astral body. Rhythmic changes to the astral body in seven days, and their relationship to Old Moon and the four lunar phases. Rhythmic changes to the ether body in four times seven days, and their relationship to the lunar orbit. Rhythmic changes to the physical body in ten times seven times four days in the woman, and in twelve times seven times four days in the man, and their relationship to Old Saturn and the earth's orbit. The reciprocal relationships of the four bodies in illness. Fever as exemplified by pneumonia. The rhythms of the four bodies and human freedom. The gradually increasing emancipation from rhythm. Former awareness of these rhythms. Abstraction in materialistic science since the fifteenth century. Medical trials with phenacetin.

LECTURE 12BERLIN, 1 JANUARY 1909Mephistopheles and earthquakes

Mephistopheles and earthquakes. Mephistopheles and Faust's entry into the ‘realm of the mothers’. The ‘Prologue in Heaven’ in Faust and the Book of Job in the Old Testament. Who is Mephistopheles? The influence upon us of Lucifer and his associates. Zarathustra and ancient Persian culture. The influence upon us of Ahriman and his associates. Power over fire and earth forces, black magic. Christ's appearance in the other world after the Golgotha event (Christ's descent into hell). Christ fetters Ahriman. The Asuras. Ongoing connection of the whole karma of humanity with the karma of Ahriman. Individual karma and the karma of all humanity. The layers of the earth. The sixth layer (fire earth) as the centre of Ahriman's activity. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as reverberations of the Lemurian and Atlantean catastrophes. The possibility, difficulties of and justification for esoterically predicting earthquakes.

LECTURE 13BERLIN, 12 JANUARY 1909Rhythms in human nature

LECTURE 14BERLIN, 26 JANUARY 1909Disease and karma

Disease and death. The period in kamaloca. Hindrances and obstacles in life as a possibility for self-overcoming and strengthening. Redress in subsequent lives for pain and harm we have caused in former times. Inadequacy of inherited forces (incarnation) in relation to karmic powers and requirements of the soul as a reason for disharmony in human nature. The karmic causes of diseases. Disease and recovery as strengthening and preparation for karmic redress that is not yet possible but will later be realized. Health and illness before and during Lemurian times. The rites of Asclepius in Greek mythology.

LECTURE 15BERLIN, 15 FEBRUARY 1909Christianity in the evolution of modern humanity. Leading individualities and avatars

The evolution of the human being through diverse incarnations, in contrast to the evolution of avatars. Christ as the greatest avatar. The workings of avatars on earth. The connection between an avatar and the ether body of Shem, the progenitor of the Semites. The countless multiplied images of this ether body in Shem's physical descendants. The preservation of Shem's own ether body in the world of spirit for Melchizedek's special task in relation to the Hebrew people's mission. Melchizedek's impulse in relation to Abraham. The multiplication of the ether body, astral body and I of Jesus of Nazareth through the entry of the Christ avatar into Jesus. The preservation of these multiplied ether and astral bodies in the spiritual world and their later interweaving into human beings mature enough for this. The intimate history of Christian development relating to this: first to fifth centuries; the great value of physical memories of the working of Christ and the Apostles. Examples: Irenaeus, Papias, Augustine of Hippo. Fourth to twelfth centuries: clairvoyant revelations of the events in Palestine through the multiplied ether bodies of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven into many people. Example: the author of the Heliand poem. Eleventh to fifteenth centuries: religious fervour and direct conviction through the [multiplied] astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven into the most important proponents of Christianity. Examples for the sentient soul: Francis of Assisi, Franciscans, Elisabeth of Thuringia; for the mind soul: scholastics; for the consciousness soul: mystics Johannes Tauler, Meister Eckhart. Fifteenth to sixteenth centuries: development of modern science from medieval Christian science. Sixteenth to twentieth centuries: preparation of the I to become a Christ-receptive organ through spiritual science.

LECTURE 16BERLIN, 22 MARCH 1909The deed of Christ and the adversary powers of Lucifer, Ahriman and the Asuras

The spirits that help human evolution to progress, and the adversarial, inhibiting spiritual beings. The influence of luciferic beings in Lemurian times: sensory desire. The remedy of the progressive spirits: illness, suffering, pain and death. The influence of the ahrimanic spirits in Atlantean times: error and sin. The remedy: the powers of karma as the possibility of correcting error and sin. The influence of Lucifer and Ahriman today: Lucifer in the sentient soul, Ahriman in the mind soul. The forthcoming, much more intense power of evil of the Asuras in the consciousness soul and the I. The difficulty of expiating the evil of the Asuras. Christ as giver of the possibility of karma. The loss of direct vision of the spiritual world due to the influence of Lucifer and Ahriman. The redemption of luciferic beings by human Christ perception. The resurrected, purified and cleansed luciferic spirit as Holy Spirit. The meaning of the Holy Spirit in the lodge of the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings, and in human Christ perception. The real, positive power of spiritual science. The supposed opposition between eastern and western esotericism.

LECTURE 17BERLIN, 27 APRIL 1909Laughing and weeping. The physiognomy of the divine in human beings

Laughing and weeping in the human being, compared with grinning and howling in the animal. Weeping as the expression of a certain disharmony with the outer world, as compression of the astral body by the I. Laughing as expanding of the astral body by the I. Individual nature of the human being, group soul and group I in the animal. The reversal of breathing processes in laughing and weeping. Laughing and weeping as expression of human egohood. Laughing as a sense of superiority over something. Weeping as cowering and withdrawing into oneself. Unnecessary and unjustified laughing and weeping. The right balance between joy and pain: caused neither by arrogance nor by being compressed but by the relationship between I and environment. Smiling through tears, weeping through laughter. Laughter and tears as expression of the physiognomy of the divine in human beings.

LECTURE 18BERLIN, 17 JUNE 1909Evolution, involution and creation out of nothing

Human evolution as distinct from the evolution of animal and plant. The death of the plant following sexual maturation after developing and unfolding its ether body. The death of the animal following development and unfolding of the astral body. The developmental capacity of the human I from incarnation to incarnation, and in relation to education. An example of developmental realities: the seed and the full-grown flower, involution and evolution. Evolution and involution in the human being between birth and death, and between death and birth. The difference compared with the plant: the possibility of creating out of nothing, of experiences not determined by karma. Creating the human being anew for Venus evolution through creating out of nothing. The human I elevates itself: (i) through logical thinking; (ii) through aesthetic judgement; (iii) through moral judgement and fulfilment of duties. The participation of the Spirits of Personality (Time Spirits) in this human evolution. The creation of the true, the beautiful and the good out of nothing as creation in the Holy Spirit. The entry of Christ into our evolution as foundation for this. The incarnation of Christ in a human body as a free deed, as creation out of nothing.

Notes

Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works

Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner

EDITOR'S PREFACE

‘This cycle of lectures over the past winter has dealt with anthropology in the broadest sense, with a study of humankind, and this subject will be one that continues to preoccupy us in the most varied fields.’

Rudolf Steiner, 3 May 1909

After the German section of the Theosophical Society was founded in October 1902 with Rudolf Steiner as its general secretary, the latter began to give a series of ‘ongoing lectures covering the whole field of theosophy’ as a continually deepening introduction to theosophy for members of the Berlin branch—at that time also known as a lodge’. The 18 members’ lectures comprising this volume, given during the so-called ‘winter semester’ of 1908/1909, follow on organically from lecture series for the Berlin branch (dissolved in 1906) and the ‘Besant branch’ which Rudolf Steiner and Marie Steiner founded in 1905.

Since Rudolf Steiner could assume that his audience was familiar with the works he had so far published—Theosophy, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and The Stages of Higher Knowledge — this now gave him a basis for developing more differentiated esoteric studies of the human being, the earth and the cosmos. The title of the original German edition of this volume—'spiritual-Scientific Enquiries into the Nature of the Human Being’—was very probably chosen for this series of lectures with Rudolf Steiner's endorsement, and is very apposite for their unifying theme.

Two further aspects to which Rudolf Steiner drew attention are also important for understanding these lectures. He reminds his audience of the public lectures he was giving during the same period at the Architects’ House, Wo und wie findet man den Geist? (GA 57, ‘Where and How Do We Find the Spirit?’, not translated): ‘We can only ascend to ever higher domains in these meetings here by arranging the courses running parallel to these branch lectures in the way that we have. I would therefore ask you to take note of these courses as far as you can.’ For readers today, likewise, it is very illuminating to study these two lecture series alongside each other, and to note the difference in mode of presentation between those for a public audience and those for members. At the same time it was very important to Rudolf Steiner that previously published lecture transcripts should be read—if at all—in the sequence in which they were given, since he had placed them in an intrinsically coherent sequence (see also the lecture of 10 November 1908).

INTRODUCTION

Today illness is almost universally regarded as a nuisance at best, and at worst a grave misfortune. It is not therefore largely seen as intrinsic to our human state but as a troubling anomaly, a deviation from the norm of health, which must if possible be fiercely combated. Modern medicine seeks to do this with all the weapons and knowledge in its armoury. No one could possibly argue with the medical profession's ethical, laudable efforts to provide remedies and alleviate suffering. But, as becomes clear in many places in this volume, illness and suffering can also be seen in a much larger context. Steiner states that ‘What has been gained from one angle needs enlarging and extending through insight from another’ (lecture 4). While he is referring here to his own efforts to approach reality from many diverse, complementary perspectives, this statement can also readily apply to the way we normally view disease. Our view of it can be enlarged and extended by understanding—as Steiner seeks to show—that disease and illness also offer us a ‘path of knowledge’, confronting us with hindrances, weaknesses and obstacles that we need to engage with to progress. This very word ‘progress’ at the same time begs further questions of our development as human beings, both in this life on earth and beyond death into future stages of our evolution. While ‘suffering’ an illness we may of course die. But, according to Steiner, it will still have given us the strength to realize and more fully embody our karma in a subsequent life. In this view, illness is a misfortune only from a narrower and more immediate perspective. From a larger, complementary one, it offers us the opportunity for deeper healing. It is itself a ‘remedy’ to balance our otherwise deep immersion in sensory delights of the material world, reminding us, also, of the pain and curtailments of merely physical existence. William Blake famously wrote:

Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine,

Under every grief and pine,

Runs a joy with silken twine.

It is right it should be so,

We were made for joy and woe,

And when this we rightly know,

Through the world we safely go.

Joy and pain both belong to our lives as embodied spiritual beings. And illness can be a salutary reminder in the truest sense, without which we might so easily lose sight of the distinctive nature of our humanity, which is our conscious connection with worlds of spirit. Today's prevailing paradigm of materialism is at present mostly only a belief, though one very strongly held in many quarters. While many think, for instance, that ‘our loftiest ethical ideas are just highly developed animal drives’ (lecture 16), they do not on the whole live according to this belief but still hold to a sense of their humanity and their capacity to act in free and moral ways. We do however gradually create our own reality, and Steiner warns that the materialistic outlook urgently needs enlarging with insight into the workings of spirit within matter; with, for instance, the idea and experience of karma and of the non-material realities that inform our physical lives. Problems come to expression in the physical body but mostly do not originate in it. In Steiner's own metaphor, considering the physical body alone in efforts to cure illness is rather like tinkering with a train engine when the problem actually lies with the train driver. Part of a physician's work, in fact, involves gaining insight into the whole nature of an individual, his core being. Ultimately, says Steiner, the health of individual human beings and of humanity as a whole will depend on a redemptive knowledge of the whole compass of our nature, including spiritual aspects that—like the larger part of the iceberg hidden beneath the surface—are no less real for being, at present, hard to discern.

Hard but not impossible. Throughout this volume Steiner seeks to draw our attention to the greater scope of the smallest phenomena—even a seemingly insignificant headache for instance. He casts vivid light on things we usually take for granted, such as the human capacity—not shared with animals—to laugh or cry; and in the process he enormously broadens our vision of human existence. Similarly he shows how the apparently mundane human experiences of forgetting and remembering are intrinsic to our humanity and have unsuspected moral and spiritual dimensions. Thus Steiner's insights are never merely ‘lofty’ or nebulously ‘spiritual’ but time and again connect with the minutest realities of everyday life and the particularities of the human condition. He himself demonstrates what he continually urges upon us: that the spirit is everywhere the primum mobile giving rise to all phenomena in the world. At the same time it becomes clear that we are distinguished from the animal kingdom by the core identity of the ‘I’ we bear within us, which embodies our capacity to learn, change and progress by our own intrinsic, developing powers so that we can become free, and freely creative, in ways that animals are not. This, for Steiner, is the very essence of the two necessarily connected phenomena of human health and illness: a view in which physical and spiritual health become identical, and cannot be sundered from a far-reaching vista of human evolution. Ultimately we are not just the product of this evolution, of the blind working of natural forces, but can gradually become the free creators of our own nature and destiny.

Matthew Barton, September 2013

LECTURE 1

BERLIN, 19 OCTOBER 1908

We have gathered here for several previous winter courses to consider spiritual-scientific themes. A few of you have already taken part in quite a number of these winter gatherings of ours. For reasons we will perhaps come to speak of during the forthcoming annual general meeting,1 this moment is an apt one for casting our minds back a little to the anthroposophical endeavours we have so far engaged in together. In a sense, several of you still form a kind of core of this gathering and have brought your fundamental spiritual conviction with you from earlier studies. Six or seven years ago you joined us to form the core around which, if one can put it like this, all our other questing friends have gradually crystallized.2 And it is telling that these gatherings have not only grown in numerical terms over this period but that, with the aid of the spiritual powers always present when spiritual-scientific work is accomplished in the right way, we have also succeeded in remaining inwardly systematic in our work to some degree.

Those especially who have taken part in our branch meetings from the very beginning may reflect on how we started as a small group six or seven years ago, and how very slowly and gradually, and also inwardly, in terms of inner content we have created the ground upon which we stand today. We started with the simplest spiritual-scientific concepts, trying to create a foundation for ourselves; and gradually we arrived at the point when, last winter—at least in our branch meetings—it became possible to speak of various aspects of the higher worlds in the same way as one speaks of events and experiences in the mundane physical world. We were able to learn about diverse spiritual entities and the worlds which are supersensible by contrast to our sensory world. Besides cultivating an inwardly consistent and systematic approach in our branch work, it also proved possible to give two courses last winter3 during which those who had gradually assembled around the core group could as it were pick up the thread of our ongoing studies.

Those of our members who can recall the beginnings of our present branch group will also remember various difficulties and obstacles in this work. Throughout all such difficulties, some among you kept faith with what we call spiritual-scientific work. Those who know how to endure faithfully, patiently and energetically will, sooner or later, come to see that faithfulness and energy bring certain results.

As mentioned, and often emphasized here, we have ultimately succeeded in speaking of higher worlds as something self-evident, and have stressed that those who inwardly participated in our branch gatherings over a longer period have acquired a certain anthroposophical maturity in consequence. Such maturity does not lie in a theoretical domain, in some kind of conceptual understanding, but rather in an inner mood one can acquire over time. Anyone who for a while really inwardly absorbs what spiritual science can offer will gradually come to feel that he can listen to things as realities, real facts, as something self-evident, which he would previously have experienced in a quite different way.

Today, then, in this introductory lecture, let us immediately start to speak in an unconstrained and even uninhibited way of a certain aspect of the higher worlds which can bring us to deeper understanding of human character and personality. Basically, what is served by all the considerations we give here to higher worlds? When we speak about the astral world, or the world of devachan, in what sense, as inhabitants of the physical world, are we initially speaking? In speaking of these higher worlds, we have no sense whatever that they are something wholly alien to us, and have no connection with the physical world. No, we are aware that what we refer to as ‘higher worlds’ surround us, that we live within them, that these higher worlds permeate our physical world and that these higher worlds contain the active causes and originating foundations of realities which unfold here before our physical eyes and physical senses. Thus we only come to know the life which surrounds us, in its relationship to us and natural phenomena, if we regard this invisible life—manifesting, though, in the visible realm—as part of other worlds, and can therefore assess how it plays into our physical world. Both normal and abnormal phenomena of ordinary physical life only become clear to us when we familiarize ourselves with the spiritual life underlying the physical—this spiritual life far richer and more encompassing than physical life, which represents only a small part of it.

The human being is the focus of all our considerations—and must be so. To understand the human being really means understanding a great part of the world itself. But it is hard to understand him. However, we will acquire a little insight into the human being if we speak today of just a few—among the enormous number—of facts relating to what we call the astral world. As you know, the content of the human soul is very rich and diverse. Today let us bring to mind a portion of this soul content: let us consider certain qualities of soul.

In our soul life we live within the fullest range of feelings and emotions, and in thoughts, images, ideas and will impulses. From morning to evening all this unfolds in our life of soul. If we observe the human being in a superficial way, this soul life rightly appears to us as self-contained, as inwardly consistent. Just consider how your life flows by: how in the morning you entertain the first thought of the day, and the first emotion flickers through your soul, your first will impulse emerges. And consider how, until consciousness sinks into sleep again at night, idea after idea, feeling after feeling, will impulse after will impulse continually succeed one another. All this appears like a steady flow. From a deeper perspective, though, this is not such a continuous flow for we are always connected with higher worlds—though most people are unaware of this—through our thoughts, feelings and sentience. Today let us consider this relationship of ours with the astral world.

When we have some feeling or other, when joy or alarm flare in our soul, initially this is an occurrence within our soul. But it is not merely that. If one is able to examine this clairvoyantly, it becomes apparent that something like a luminous stream emanates from a person at the moment of alarm or joy, and that this enters the astral world. It does not enter it haphazardly or arbitrarily, though, but makes its way to a being within the astral world. In other words, when a feeling shimmers up in us, we enter into a connection with a being of the astral world. Let us assume that some thought occupies a place in our soul. Let's say that we reflect on the nature of a table. As this thought quivers through our soul, the clairvoyant can demonstrate how a current issues from this thought and seeks out a being of the astral world. And the same is true of every thought, every mental picture, every emotion. From the whole current of life that issues from the soul, streams continually flow towards the most diverse beings of the astral world. It would be quite wrong to think that these outflowing streams all went to a single being in the astral world. This is not so. Instead, the most varied currents stream from all these separate thoughts, emotions and feelings, and connect with the most diverse beings of the astral world. This is the remarkable thing here: that as individuals we are not connected with just a single such being, but that we spin the most diverse threads connecting us to the most diverse beings of the astral world. The astral world is populated by a large number of entities just as the physical world is; and these beings are connected with us in the most varied and diverse ways.

But if we wish to gain insight into the full complexity of this, we also have to consider something else. Let us assume that two people see a flash of lightning and both have a very similar feeling in response to it. From each of the two a current emanates, but both these now flow to one and the same being in the astral world. We can say therefore that there is a being, an inhabitant of the astral world, with whom the two beings of the physical world establish a connection. It may be that not just one but 50, 100 or 1000 human beings have similar sentiments or perceptions and emit currents which stream towards a single being of the astral world. In uniting in this one point, these thousand human beings establish a connection with the same being of the astral world. But now picture the other different emotions, feelings and thoughts which these people—who share the same emotion in this one instance—carry within them! Through these other currents they are connected with other entities in the astral world, and in consequence the most diverse connecting threads pass from the astral world into the physical world.

Now it is possible to distinguish certain categories of beings in the astral world. We gain an idea of these different classes most easily if we consider the following example. Take a large number of Europeans and examine for a moment the concept or idea of justice contained in their souls. People may otherwise have the most varied experiences and therefore connect with the most diverse beings of the astral world in the most intricate and complex ways. But when these people think about the concept of justice in the same way, appropriate it in the same way, they all connect with one being of the astral world; and we can regard this being of the astral world really as a centre, a focal point, from which issue rays towards all those who share this idea. Whenever such people call to mind their concept of justice, they are connected with this single being. Just as we have flesh and blood, and are composed of it, so this being is constituted of the concept of justice: it lives within it. Likewise there are astral beings for the concepts of courage, benevolence, fortitude, revenge and so forth. So you see that qualities we can have as human beings, the contents of our soul, correspond to beings in the astral world. This means that something like an astral net spreads out over a larger number of people. All of us who share the same concepts of justice are embedded in the body of an astral entity whom we could really call the being of justice. All of us who share the same concepts of courage, fortitude and so forth, are connected with one and the same astral being, constituted of, and embodying, justice, courage or fortitude. Thus each one of us is a kind of conglomeration of streams—for we can regard each person as receiving from all directions streams sent out by astral beings. All of us are a confluence of streams entering us from the astral world.

During the winter lectures we will increasingly be able to show how the human being is basically a confluence of streams as I have described, and focuses these streams within him, around the central point of his I. You see, the most important thing for human soul life is that we concentrate all these streams around a focal point which lies within our self-awareness. This self-awareness is so important in us since it must hold sway like a ruler in our inner human entelechy, encompassing and connecting the diverse streams that flow into us from all sides. Were self-awareness to lapse, the human being might immediately cease to feel himself a unity, and all the diverse concepts of courage, fortitude and so forth might then fall asunder. A person would then cease to have the sense of being a unity but would instead feel himself sundered into all the different streams. A person can in a sense lose directing mastery over what streams into him—and here we see how we can gain understanding of the spiritual world through insight into the real state of affairs. Consider that as a single individual you have lived a particular kind of life, experiencing various things, and from youth onwards nurturing a number of ideals which gradually developed in you. Every such ideal can be different from another. You have had the ideal of courage, fortitude, benevolence and so forth, thereby entering into streams from the most diverse astral beings. There is also another way in which we can engage with a diverse succession of streams from astral beings. Assume we have had a number of friendships during our life. Very particular feelings and emotions will have developed under the influence of these friendships, especially during our youth. In this way, streams went out to a quite specific being in the astral world. Then a new friendship entered our life, connecting us therefore with a different being of the astral world—and so on, throughout life. Now let us assume that the psyche suffered disturbance so that the I lost mastery over the various different streams and was no longer able to hold them together. We would arrive at a state when we ceased to feel ourselves as an I, as an intact entity, as a unity within our self-awareness. If we were to lose our I through a process of mental illness, we would no longer experience these streams as something through which we perceive ourselves but as if we were flowing out and dissolving into them. Certain cases of mental illness only become comprehensible when we consider them from this perspective, that of the astral world. One such case is Friedrich Nietzsche.4

Many of you will probably have heard that Friedrich Nietzsche suffered an outbreak of madness during the winter of 1888/1889. Readers of his last letters will find it interesting to observe how Friedrich Nietzsche fragmented into diverse streams at the moment when he lost his I. For instance, he writes to this or that friend, or also notes to himself: ‘A god lives in Turin who was once a professor of philosophy in Basel, but he was not egotistical enough to remain so.’5 In other words, he had lost his I, and he clothed this fact in words such as these. ‘And the god Dionysus walks by the Po.’6 And he looks down on all his ideals and friendships, which wander below him. Sometimes he thinks he is King Carlo Alberto,7 at other times someone else, sometimes even one of the criminals he was reading about during the last days of his life. At this time there were two murder cases which had attracted much attention, and at moments in his illness he identified with those lady-killers. He no longer experienced his I but instead a stream flowing into the astral world. In abnormal cases, therefore, separate currents otherwise made to cohere by our centre of self-awareness rise to the surface of life.

It will become ever more necessary for people to know what lies in the depths of the soul. You see, we would be endlessly impoverished if we were unable to produce many such streams that enter the astral world; and our nature would be very restricted if we were unable, by deepening our lives spiritually, to gain mastery over all these streams. We really must say therefore that we are not confined within our skin but extend beyond it on all sides into other worlds, which in turn penetrate into our world. A whole network of entities is spun out over the astral world.

Now let us examine in a little more detail a few of these entities that are connected with us in this way. These are beings that present themselves to us roughly as follows. The astral world surrounds us. Let us conceive of such a being, say the one relating to the concept and feeling of courage. It stretches its tentacles out in all directions, and these tentacles enter human souls. As people develop courage a connection is created between this being of courage and the human soul. Other people are different. All, for instance, who develop a certain kind of feeling of love or anxiety are connected with a being of the astral world. When we engage with these beings we enter into what we can say constitutes life in the astral world, its social coherence. As people live here on the physical plane they are not merely separate beings. Here on the physical plane, too, we are involved in hundredfold and thousandfold interconnections. We have legal arrangements with one another, and are involved in friendships and suchlike. Our connections on the physical plane are governed by our ideas, concepts, mental pictures and so on. In a certain sense, the social connections of the beings we have been considering on the astral plane must likewise be governed in some way. So how do these beings coexist with each other? They do not have a dense, physical body of flesh and blood as we do; instead they have astral bodies, are composed at most of etheric substance. They stretch out their feelers into our world. But how do they live together? If these beings did not collaborate, our human life would also be quite different. Basically, our physical world is only the external expression of what occurs on the astral plane. Picture a being in the astral world, the being of justice, to whom stream all thoughts relating to justice; then picture another, to whom flow all thoughts relating to giving. If the idea forms in our soul that giving is justice, then a stream issues from both these beings and enters our soul. We are connected with both. But how do these two beings bear with one another?

One might be tempted to think that social or communal coexistence on the astral plane is the same as on the physical plane, yet it is different in very important respects. It is wrong merely to place the different planes one above the other and characterize what happens in the higher worlds as closely resembling occurrences in the physical world. There is a huge difference between the physical world and the higher worlds, one which becomes ever greater the higher we ascend. Above all, the astral world is distinguished by a singular quality that cannot be found on the physical plane at all. This is the permeability, the penetrability of the matter of the astral plane. In the physical world it is impossible for you to stand at exactly the same place as another person—and thus impenetrability is a law of the physical world. This is not true in the astral world, and there the law of permeability prevails. There it is certainly possible, and even the usual thing, for beings to interpenetrate, for one being to enter the space already occupied by another. Two, four, a hundred beings can be at one and the same place simultaneously in the astral world. What this means though, in turn, is that the logic of communal coexistence is quite different on the astral plane from the physical plane. You can best grasp the nature of this different logic— not the logic of thinking but that of action—if you consider the following example.

Imagine that a city council decided to build a church at a certain location. The council would inevitably first have to discuss how to build it, how to organize this and so on. Now let's assume there are two groups on the council, and that the two have different ideas about architecture and the choice of building company. On the physical plane the two parties will be at loggerheads and unable to carry out their plans until one of them gets the upper hand and carries the day, securing agreement as to the design of the church. You are aware of course that the great majority of human social interactions involve such discussion and negotiation before anything is realized, so that people can first agree about what should actually be done. Nothing at all would get done unless, in most cases, one party prevailed and secured a majority. The minority party will not easily concede that it was in the wrong, but instead will go on believing it was right. In the physical world, we are involved therefore in discussion about ideas that must be decided purely within this physical world, since it is impossible for two different plans to be realized at one and the same location.

In the astral world things are completely different. There it would be perfectly possible to build, say, two churches at one and the same place. In fact such things continually occur in the astral world, and this alone is the right and proper thing there. Disputes do not occur there as they do in the physical world. Meetings are not held where a majority opinion is sought for this or that venture, nor is there any need at all for this. When a council meeting takes place and 40 out of 45 councillors have one view while the others have another, it is not so dire if the two parties feel like murdering each other because of their differences of opinion, since these things come to immediate outward expression, are voiced. One party will not try to build its church without regard to the other, since on the physical plane a thought can remain a content of the soul: it can remain within us. Things are not so straightforward on the astral plane. There, when an idea is formed, in a certain sense it already exists. Thus if an astral being such as those I have been speaking of has a thought, it immediately extends the corresponding feelers which have the form of this thought, while another extends its own feelers; and both interpenetrate and now exist in the same space as a newly formed entity.

Thus the most diverse opinions, thoughts and feelings continually interpenetrate. The most contrary things can interpenetrate in the astral world. While disagreement occurs in the physical world about such things as we have mentioned, in the astral world actual conflict immediately arises. You see, as beings in the astral world you cannot restrain a thought within yourself since thoughts immediately become deeds, and objects immediately materialize. Now it is true that churches are not built there as they are on the physical plane; but let us assume that a being of the astral world wished to realize something, while another sought to prevent it. These things cannot be discussed, but here the principle applies that things must prove their worth! If the two sets of feelers are now present in the same space, they start battling; and then the more fruitful and thus more justified idea—the one that can therefore persist—will destroy the other and be realized. Here, therefore, we have a continual conflict of the most diverse views, thoughts and emotions. On the astral plane, every opinion inevitably becomes deed. Instead of dispute, opinions are left to battle it out themselves, and the more fruitful one will knock the other out of the ring. You can say that the astral world is a much more dangerous one; and some of what is said about such dangers is connected with what I have now described. Everything becomes deed there, and views have to battle with one another rather than discuss and argue.

I will now touch on something that is shocking to hear in our materialistic age but is nevertheless true. We have often stressed that in our era people are increasingly immersing themselves in consciousness of a world that is merely physical, thus also in characteristically physical qualities, distinctive characteristics of the physical world—for instance a world where, in discussion and dispute, each person feels like murdering another who does not share his view or regards him as an idiot. Things are not like that in the astral world. There a being will say: ‘Other opinions do not bother me!’ The greatest tolerance exists there. If one view proves more fruitful it will knock the others out of the ring. Other opinions can happily exist alongside one's own, since battle will sort it all out. If you gradually come to be at home in the world of spirit you have to learn to judge things according to what is customary there. The first domain of the spiritual world is the astral, where what I have described is customary. Someone who comes to be at home in the spiritual world must, in a sense, make space in himself for the customs of the beings who live there. And this is the right thing to do. Our physical world should increasingly become a reflection of the spiritual world, and we will introduce ever more harmony into our world through accomplishing the following: life in the physical world ought to unfold as it does in the astral world. Although we cannot build two churches in one spot, where views differ we can allow their fruitfulness to interpenetrate in the world. The most fruitful or productive views will be victorious, as is the case in the astral world.

Thus, within a universal spiritual stream, the distinctive qualities of the astral world can really reach down into the physical world. The spiritual-scientific movement has a broad field to cultivate here: to create, increasingly, a reflection of the astral world on the physical plane. However shocking it may sound to people today who only acknowledge the physical plane—and can therefore only conceive of propounding one opinion and seeing anyone who has a different view as a fool—adherents of a spiritual world-view will find it increasingly self-evident for absolute inner tolerance of different views to prevail. This is not the sort of tolerance that arises in us like heeding a sermon, but something instead that will take up its natural place in our soul as we increasingly acquire the customs of the higher worlds.

What has been described here, this interpenetrability, is a very important and key quality of the astral world. No being of the astral world will develop a concept of truth such as those we know here in the physical world. The beings of the astral world find debate, argument and so forth to be entirely unproductive. They agree with Goethe that ‘Fruitful things alone are true!’8 We should not come to know truth through theoretical reflections but through their productiveness, through the way in which they prove their value. One being of the astral world will therefore never dispute with another as people do, but will say: Fine, you do your thing, I’ll do mine. We will see which is the more productive idea, and which will knock the other out of the ring.

If we engage with this way of thinking, we have already acquired some practical insight. We should not think that our development into the spiritual world is accomplished in a tumultuous way, for actually it occurs subtly. And if we can attend carefully and acquire a quality such as the distinctive characteristic of the astral world I just described, we will increasingly come to regard feelings such as those possessed by astral beings as models for our own. If we allow ourselves to be guided by the character of the astral world, we can be hopeful of living our way upwards towards the spiritual beings whose life, in this way, will become increasingly apparent to us. It is this that will prove fruitful for human beings.

What has been aired today aims in many respects to be a kind of preparation for the subject matter of the next few lectures. We have been speaking of the nature of the astral world and its distinctive characteristics, but we should be aware already that this astral world is far more distinct from higher worlds—say the world of devachan—than people might tend to think. Truly, the astral world is also present wherever our physical world exists. It permeates our physical world, and everything we have spoken of on past occasions always surrounds us, is present in the same space as physical realities and physical beings. But then there is also the world of devachan, which is distinct from the astral world inasmuch as we experience it in a different state of consciousness.

You might easily think that this physical world here is permeated by the astral world, the world of devachan and so on. But things aren’t quite so simple as that. If we wish to describe the higher worlds in more detail than we did before, we must be clear that another difference exists between the astral world and the world of devachan. You see, our astral world, in which we live and which penetrates our physical space, is in a sense a dual world, whereas the world of devachan is, in a way, a single world. This is something we needed to mention today as preparation. In a sense there are two astral worlds, and these two differ inasmuch as the first is, as it were, the astral world of goodness while the other is the astral world of evil. It would be incorrect to make such a blunt distinction in the case of the world of devachan. If we consider the worlds in descending sequence we have to see them as follows: first higher devachan, then the lower world of devachan, then the astral world and then the physical world. This does not yet give us the totality of our worlds, for we also have to consider those lower than the physical. Below our physical world there is another, lower astral world. The good astral world lies above the physical plane while the astral world of evil lies below it, and likewise, for all practical purposes, penetrates it. Now the most diverse streams flow into the beings of the astral world. Here we must distinguish between streams of good and bad qualities issuing from human beings. The good streams pass to a good being and the bad streams, correspondingly, connect with a bad being of the astral world. If we take the sum of all good and bad beings of the astral world, in a sense we have two astral worlds. When we observe the world of devachan we will see that this is not true to the same degree. The astral world therefore contains two worlds which interpenetrate and both equally connect with the human being. These two worlds must be distinguished from each other, chiefly in regard to the way they originated.