Spirit world
The spirit world (or spirit land) is the third world after our physical world, and the astral or soul world.
It consists of:
- a lower region - the lower spirit world, that contains the formed mental or spiritual archetypes of everything we find on Earth.
- The lowest three regions are called the continental, oceanic and atmospheric regions and contain archetypes for the physical earthly, the etheric life, and the airy astral components we find in the lower planes.
- the fourth region, holding the middle with the higher spirit world, is Plato's 'home of the Ideas', or the 'Realm of the Mothers' of which Goethe speaks in Faust (see also Three mothers)
- a higher region - the higher spirit world consisting of unformed mental substance, it is also called 'world of reason' (in the middle ages) or the 'world of ideas' (Plato)
- In the fifth, sixth and seventh regions of the spirit world, we find the creative forces of the archetypes. The archetypes are still present here as soul‑inspired germ cells, ready to take on the most diverse forms when they enter the lower realms. (1908-03-07-GA111). Here ideas take on their first forms as divine geniuses and float around together, still penetrating each other as similar spiritual beings. (1903-07-05-GA088)
Aspects
- terminology
- in theosophical terminology (based on indian sanskrite terms) the spirit world is called devachan. In theosophy the lower spirit world is called rupa devachan, the higher spirit world is called arupa devachan
- other terms are: the heavenly world, the world of inspiration (lower) and intuition (higher), or the world of harmony of the spheres.
- the spirit world world is called 'the world of effects' and the physical world 'the world of causes' (1905-10-09-GA093A)
- for the 'world of ideas' (see o.a. extracts section below):
- Rudolf Steiner links Goethe's plant archetypes to the second (oceanic) layer of the formed spirit world, and maps Plato's world of ideas to the higher unformed spirit world.
- Plato’s 'world of ideas' describes the true spiritual realities and timeless archetypes behind or underlying sensory phenomena corresponding to the higher spirit world (more like abstractions or principles). Goethe’s 'world of ideas' consists of ideas as living formative forces (such as the archetypal plant, which he saw as an objective reality that can be perceived); so these ideas emerge together with and are underlying phenomena of nature.
- through the Human 'I', Man continuously produces forms which cast shadows in the spirit world. Thoughts, feelings and willing deeds impact the various regions of the spirit world (o.a. 1907-05-30-GA099)
- for the soul in the process between death and a new birth, sacrifice is the law of the spirit world (1908-10-26-GA107)
- the spirit world overlaps with the astral world, see Interpenetration of astral and spirit worlds
- consciousness of and in the lower spirit world is called Inspiration (also 'hearing' of the so-called music of the spheres), of the higher spirit world is called Intuition (also 'understanding' or 'knowing') - see Stages of clairvoyance
- friendship or relationships of a purely soul nature are unconsciously wisdom in the spirit world .. the experience of the spiritual in action .. to the extent to which someone enters livingly into such connections he is well prepared for the spirit world. (1905-10-09-GA093A)
- the four lower regions (1906-06-07-GA094)
- continental region: consists of negative images of physical-mineral objects. An object in the physical world is found as a vacuum corresponding to the space occupied by the object in the physical world, and a void, a nothing in the physical world is found in the spirit world as something resplendent, radiant and resounding (a bit like the photographic negative .. the physical object would exactly fit into the vacuum). This is only for objects of nature (the mineral parts of plants, animals and men), artificial forms made by Man appear in the spirit world as a positive.
- oceanic region: flowing, streaming life with all that constitutes life on Earth and enables plants and animals to grow; with great regularity, a bit like the blood-circulation in the human body.
- atmospheric region: this airy region contains everything known on Earth as feeling and sensation. Earthtly currents of pain may be felt like the winds which blow on Earth, calamities on the physical plane can be heard (eg a battle appears as a terrific tempest, unchaining itself in lightning, thunder and storms).
- fourth region: contains all fruitful and valuable ideas ever thought out by Man, as a wonderful starry writing (and can be read as the so-called akasha chronicle). Also for the foundation of each animal, each plant, each crystal, there is a thought, an idea.
Inspirational quotes
1912-02-25-GA143
The chief characteristic of the spirit world .. is that moral laws and physical laws coincide. ... in the spirit world the laws of nature and the moral and intellectual laws coincide.
1905-10-09-GA093A
.. we must make clear to ourselves that the sojourn in the spirit world is nowhere else than where we ourselves are in physical life. For the spirit, the astral and the physical world are nothing other than three interpenetrating worlds.
Illustrations
FMC00.079 positions the spirit world with the different namings from different sets of terminology.
Schema FMC00.136 provides an overview of the seven regions of spirit world and the experience Man has in each region. Whether Man reaches that region depends on his or her spiritual development or maturity.
FMC00.508 depicts the overlap or interpenetration between the higher astral world (right) and the lower spirit world (left). The lecture references in the middle column below (all on this page) describe how experientially one blends from the astral seeing to the spiritual hearing and how both faculties combine. The schematic representation is necessarily handicapped to represent such realities, but as most Schemas this is mainly a sigil pointer and reference for a topic of meaning. It is recommended to combine this with Schemas FMC00.261 and FMC00.136 and the descriptitions of the astral and spirit worlds.
The Schema can also be used as a support to contemplate the process between death and a new birth - see Schema FMC00.498. Only the morally good can pass through the Sun sphere which represents the transition between astral and spirit world, the package with lower drives is left behind and picked up later again. Whereas the lower spirit world is one of archetypes of form and individualized, the higher spirit world is 'the spirit world proper' of principles beyond time and space. The causal body and insight in the book of lives of all previous incarnations is at level 5 of the spirit world, mapping to the spirit-self or manas principle. The principle of buddhi, or Christos, of life-spirit (see Schema FMC00.481) is at level 6 of the spirit world; spirit-man or manas at level 7. The latter two represent the divine essence and have their origin in still higher worlds (budhi and nirvana planes).
Schema FMC00.141A: shows the layers of the spirit world, and how the living germ-point kernels in the spirit world are parts of the monad that stream in from still higher worlds, the budhi and nirvana planes (see Planes or worlds of consciousness), and are clothed with form and substance in the worlds below.
This is the original pencil drawing that was the basis for Schema FMC00.141 in context of the Golden Chain.
Lecture coverage and references
1903-07-05-GA088
Enveloped in Budhi, the Logos now flows into the mental region, which is divided into the stages of (unformed) Arupa and (formed) Rupa; the divine world of thought now pours into this region, the exemplary ideas surge through each other. What later becomes a special being and still rests enclosed in the Logos in the Budhi sphere is called into existence here as an exemplary idea. This Arupa level of the mental sphere is the world of ideas of Plato, the world of reason of the Middle Ages. On the Arupa level, these ideas take on their first forms. As divine geniuses, they begin their special existence and float around together, still penetrating each other as similar spiritual beings. This is the heavenly realm of the Middle Ages.
1904-02-18-GA090A
.. from these highest [sixth and seventh] regions of the spirit world, the Masters send the great impulses for humanity from the higher planes of Budhi and Nirvana. They send these impulses that work on the timescale of centuries.
1905-10-09-GA093A
Again and again we must make clear to ourselves that this sojourn in the spirit world is nowhere else than where we ourselves are in physical life. For the spirit, the astral and the physical world are nothing other than three interpenetrating worlds.
We can form the most correct idea of the spirit world if we think of the world of electric forces before electricity had been discovered.
There was a time when all this was contained in the physical world, only it was then an occult world.
Everything that is occult has at some time to be discovered. The difference between life in the spirit world and that in the physical world is that Man in his present epoch is endowed with organs enabling him to perceive the physical world but not with organs that enable him to behold the phenomena of the spirit world.
[example]
Let us take the relationship of one person to another. It can be said that this is simply a natural one, for instance the relationship between brothers and sisters who have been brought together through natural circumstances. It is however only partially natural, for moral and intellectual factors are continually playing in. Through his karma, Man is born into a particular family; but not everything is conditioned by karma. The natural relationship, into which nothing else is intermixed, we have in the case of the animals. In the case of human beings there is always a moral relationship also, through karma.
The relationship between two people can however also exist without this being conditioned by nature. For instance a bond of intimate friendship can arise between two people in spite of outer hindrances. As a rather extreme case let us assume that they were at first mutually somewhat unsympathetic to one another and that they found the way to each other on a purely intellectual and moral basis, soul to soul. Let us contrast this with the natural relationship between members of a family.
With the relationship of soul to soul we have a powerful means of developing devachanic [spirit world] organs. In no way can devachanic organs be more easily developed at present than by such relationships. Such a relationship is unconsciously a devachanic one.
What a person develops in his present life in the way of soul faculty through friendship of a purely soul nature, in the spirit world is wisdom, the possibility of experiencing the spiritual in action.
To the extent to which someone enters livingly into such connections he is well prepared for the spirit world.
To the degree to which Man fosters purely soul relationships do organs of vision develop in him for the spirit world. The earlier relationships become causes which have their effects in the spirit world.
This is why the spirit world world is called the world of effects and the physical world the world of causes. For this purpose Man is transferred to earthly existence.
1906-06-07-GA094
1906-06-08-GA094
(seven regions)
1906-07-01-GA094
(description of five regions)
1907-05-30-GA099
Thus spiritual science shows us that we do not live as isolated beings but that our thoughts continually produce forms which cast shadows in the world of Devachan and permeate it with all kinds of substances and essences.
The four regions of Devachan .. the “Continental,” the “Oceanic,” the “Atmospheric” and the region of original “Inspirations” are influenced all the time by the thoughts, feelings and sensations of human beings.
The higher regions of Devachan, in which the Akasha Chronicle appears, are influenced by deeds.
What happens in the external world plays into the very highest region of Devachan - the “world of Reason.”
1907-09-25-GA111
in context of reincarnation:
Just like plant seeds, human beings take a multitude of seeds with them to the spirit world, in order to develop them there anew. All the powers that rebuild the body are contained there; the archetypes of the human being are also found there.
Long ago, the physical eyes were formed by the light. The light drew out the eyes, they are products of the light. Before that, man was still blind; the food juices, which otherwise provided the strength to feel, grasp, scratch and so on, were transformed to form organs for seeing. In this way, the ear was formed for sound, the nose for aroma.
The archetype of the etheric body arises out of the watery region of the spirit world.
The archetype of the astral body arises out of the aerial region of the spirit world.
Out of these regions Man creates the foundations for his physical shell.
1908-03-07-GA111
We must now study the devachanic world. It is just as varied as our material world. There, as here, we can speak comparatively of a continental area, an ocean area and an air area (atmosphere or aura), which permeate each other.
The continental area contains the archetypes of the material world, insofar as they are not animated with life, that is, the material forms of minerals, plants, animals and humans.
Imagine a limited space filled with material bodies. Seen with a devachanic gaze, the material forms disappear, but a radiance around the bodies begins, while the space occupied by the material bodies forms an empty space, a negative or shadow image. Animals and humans, seen in this way, appear as negative images: Blood appears green, which is the complementary color of red. The entire material world is present in this way as an archetypal image in the devachanic realm.
The second realm, the oceanic realm, consists not of water but of flowing life that permeates the entire devachanic realm, just as the bloodstream permeates everything in the human body. The unique substance, the “Pran”, which flows here [on earth] in separate animal and human bodies, forms an eternally flowing stream of life in the devachan, the color of peach blossoms. This element is the creative force of everything that appears on earth as a living being. In Devachan we see that the life that animates us all is indeed a unity.
The third realm can best be characterized by saying that everything that takes place here [on earth] in the soul in terms of inner feelings of joy or pain, passion or anger, is revealed there as an atmospheric phenomenon. The silent longing of a human soul can be perceived there like a gently whispering wind; an outburst of passions like a storm wind; a battlefield caused by the outbursts of hatred, anger and lust for murder causes a heavy thunderstorm with rolling thunder and bright lightning strikes. Just as the earth is surrounded by its aura, so the devachan has around it, scattered about, all the feelings that are nurtured or expressed here on earth.
The fourth region of devachan has no direct connection with the lower worlds. The archetypes found there are beings that rule over the archetypes of the lower devachanic realms and bring them together. They are therefore more concerned with organizing and grouping the archetypes that are subordinate to them. A greater power emanates from this realm than from the lower three.
In the fifth, sixth and seventh regions of Devachan, we find the creative forces of the archetypes. Those who can ascend this far learn about the underlying objectives of our world. The archetypes are still present here as soul-inspired germ cells, ready to take on the most diverse forms when they enter the lower realms.
The ideas through which the human spirit appears in the material world are a reflection, a shadow image of these germs of the higher spiritual world. The harmony of the spheres of the devachanic realm is here translated into spiritual language. Here one begins to hear the spiritual word, whereby things express their inner being not only in tones and sounds, but also in words.
1909-06-07-GA109
The disembodied soul does not lose all consciousness of the one who is still on Earth; he can actually follow the latter’s actions.
The soul who is first in the spirit world is naturally unable to see physical colors and forms belonging to the Earth because in that spiritual realm he has no physical organs. But everything in the physical world has its spiritual counterpart in the spirit world and that is what is perceived by the soul already there. Every movement of the hand in the physical world, because it is preceded by an impulse of will that is either conscious or unconscious, every change in the physical human being, has a spiritual counterpart that can be perceived in the spirit world by the soul whose death preceded that of the other human being concerned.
Existence in the spirit world is not a kind of dreaming or sleeping but in all respects a conscious life. It is in the spirit world that a human being develops the predispositions and impulses that enable the bond with those whom he loved to remain closer, in order that in a later incarnation he will find them again on Earth.
In many respects the purpose of incarnation on Earth is to forge bonds of ever greater intimacy.
Companionship in the spirit world is, to say the least, as intimate as any life here on Earth. Fellow feeling in the spirit world is much more alert, much more intimate than it is on Earth; one experiences another’s pain there as one’s own.
On Earth, greater or less personal prosperity is possible at the cost of others but in the spirit world that is out of the question. There, the misfortune caused by someone to another human being in order to better himself, would reverberate upon him; nobody could prosper at the expense of another.
Adjustment starts from the spirit world. It is from there that the impulse is brought to make brotherliness a reality on the Earth. A law that is a matter of course in the spirit world is a task that has to be fulfilled on Earth.
1912-02-25-GA143
SWCC
The chief characteristic of the spirit world (devachan) is that moral facts can no longer be distinguished from physical facts, or physical laws; moral laws and physical laws coincide.
What is meant by this? In the ordinary physical world the sun shines over the just and the unjust; one who has committed a crime may perhaps be put in prison, but the physical sun will not be darker because of this fact. This signifies that the world of sense-reality has both a moral order of laws and physical one; but they follow two entirely different directions. In the spirit world it is otherwise — there, this difference does not exist at all. In the spirit world everything that arises out of something moral, or intellectually wise, or esthetically beautiful, etc., leads to a creation, is creative — whereas everything that arises out of something immoral, intellectually untrue, or esthetically ugly, leads to destruction, is destructive.
The laws of nature in the spirit world are indeed of such kind that the sun does not shine equally brightly over the just and the unjust. Speaking figuratively, we may say that the sun actually is darkened in the case of an unrighteous Man, whereas the righteous man who passes through the spirit world really finds in it the spiritual sunshine, that is, the influence of the life-spending forces which help him forward in life. A liar or an ugly-minded Man will pass through the spirit world in such a way that the spiritual forces withdraw from him.
In the spirit world an order of laws is possible, which is not possible here or Earth. When two people, a righteous and an unrighteous one, walk side by side here on the Earth, it is not possible for the sun to shine upon one and not to shine upon the other. But in the spiritual world the influence of the spiritual forces undoubtedly depends upon the quality of a human being. In the spirit world this signifies that the laws of nature and the spiritual laws do not follow separate directions, but the same direction. This is the essential thing which must be borne in mind — in the spirit world the laws of nature and the moral and intellectual laws coincide.
World of Ideas
1883-GA001, Ch. 11
What we find of Goethe's world view in Eduard von Hartmann's philosophy is the becoming aware of something objective within our world of ideas, and the devotion, arising from this becoming aware, to this objective element. Hartmann was led by his philosophy of the unconscious to this merging with the objective idea. Since he recognized that the being of the idea does not lie in its being conscious, he had to recognize the idea also as something existing in and of itself, as something objective. The fact that he also includes the will among the principles constituting the world does make him differ again from Goethe, to be sure. Nevertheless, where Hartmann is really fruitful, the will motif does not come into consideration at all. That he assumes this motif at all comes from the fact that he regards the ideas as something static which, in order to begin working, needs the impetus of will. According to Hartmann, the will alone can never achieve the creation of the world, for it is the empty, blind urge for existence. If the will is to bring forth something, then the idea must enter in, because only the idea gives the will a content for its working.
But what are we to make of this will? It slips away from us when we want to grasp it; for we cannot after all grasp an empty urging that has no content. And so it turns out after all that everything which we actually grasp of the world principle is idea, because what is graspable must in fact have content. We can only grasp what is full of content, not what is empty of content. If therefore we are to grasp the concept will, it must after all arise in the content of the idea; it can appear only in and along with the idea, as the form in which it arises, never independently. What exists must have content; there can only be existence which is full; there cannot be an empty one.
Therefore, Goethe pictures the idea as active, as something working, which needs no further impetus. For, something full of content may not and cannot first receive from something empty of content, the impetus to come into existence. The idea therefore, according to Goethe, is to be grasped as entelechy, i.e., as an already active existence; and one must first draw an abstraction from its form as an active existence if one then wants to bring it back again under the name will. The will motif also has no value at all for positive science. Hartmann also does not need it when he confronts the concrete phenomenon.
1894-GA004, Ch. 10
Philosophy of Freedom, for background on 'ideas'
1897-GA006, Ch. 5
note: it is worthwhile to read this whole chapter
Those natures who are not able to recognise that it is the speech of things that is uttered in the inner being of man, hold the view that all truth must penetrate into man from without. Such natures either adhere to mere perception and believe that only through sight, hearing and touch, through the gleaning of historical events and through comparing, reckoning, calculating and weighing what is received from the realm of facts, is truth able to be cognised; or else they hold the view that truth can only come to man when it is revealed to him through means lying beyond the scope of his cognitional activity; or, finally, they endeavour through forces of a special character, through ecstasy or mystical vision, to attain to the highest insight—insight which, in their view, cannot be afforded them by the world of ideas accessible to thought. A special class of metaphysicians also range themselves on the side of the Kantian School and of one-sided mystics. They, indeed, endeavour to form concepts of truth by means of thought, but they do not seek the content of these concepts in man's world of ideas; they seek it in a second reality lying behind the objects. They hold that by means of pure concepts they can either make out something definite about this content, or at least form conceptions of it through hypotheses. I am speaking here chiefly of the first mentioned category of men, the “fact-fanatics.” We sometimes find it entering into their consciousness that in reckoning and calculation there already exists, with the help of thought, an elaboration of the content of perception. But then, so they say, thought-activity is only the means whereby man endeavours to cognise the connection between the facts. What flows out of thought as it elaborates the external world is held by these men to be merely subjective; only what approaches them from outside with the help of thinking do they regard as the objective content of truth, the valuable content of knowledge. They imprison the facts within their web of thoughts, but only what is so imprisoned do they admit to be objective. They overlook the fact that what thought imprisons in this way undergoes an exegesis, an adjustment, and an interpretation that is not there in mere perception. Mathematics is a product of pure thought-processes; its content is mental, subjective. And the mechanician who conceives of natural processes in terms of mathematical relations can only do this on the assumption that the relations have their foundation in the essential nature of these processes. This, however, means nothing else than that a mathematical order lies hidden within the perception and is only seen by one who elaborates the mathematical laws within his mind. There is, however, no difference of kind but only of degree between the mathematical and mechanical perceptions and the most intimate spiritual experiences. Man can carry over other inner experiences, other regions of his world of ideas into his perceptions with the same right as the results of mathematical research. The “fact-fanatic” only apparently establishes purely external processes. He does not as a rule reflect upon the world of ideas and its character as subjective experience. And his inner experiences are poor in content, bloodless abstractions that are obscured by the powerful content of fact.
