Introduction to the Basics of Theosophy

GA 111 — 25 March 1909, Rome

XXVI. Introduction to Theosophy I

In general, Theosophy has only been known for a few decades, and yet it has always existed. Here we will talk in particular about how it meets the needs of our time. The word 'Theosophy' comes from the apostle Paul. He speaks of two kinds of knowledge: one related to the perception of the world and humanity through the senses, and one for contemplating the divine core in man. Through it, man ascends into the hidden spiritual world. Paul was called to work through his powerful word. In Athens, he established an esoteric school that was later continued by Dionysius the Areopagite, and from there the secret teachings that we have now spread. Although we cannot trace them in history, we do occasionally find inspired “bearers of these secret teachings. We see how they communicated the same to a few chosen disciples, giving rise to brotherhoods such as the Knights of the Holy Grail and, later, the schools of the Rosicrucians. It is the latter that will be the main subject of discussion here. Today we will talk about the nature of man as taught by the occult tradition.

Where does the knowledge of the spiritual worlds come from? There have always been individuals who were initiated, and in them what is in the spiritual worlds came to life. We do not perceive those worlds, but that does not give us the right to deny them; just as a blind person would be mistaken to deny what we tell him about his surroundings. In our midst live worlds full of beings, and just as the blind man can only see his surroundings if he is operated on, so we must, in order to perceive these higher worlds, undergo what I would call a spiritual operation, which is precisely the initiation. Spiritual science is a result of the life that the initiates led in these higher worlds through the organs of perception that developed within them [...]. We shall see later what is needed to develop these organs within us.

What does the initiate see? For him, the physical world and what is revealed by physiology and biology are only part of what he sees. Even the physical part of man, which comes from the mineral world, appears quite different to him; he sees higher things everywhere. We shall speak more precisely later about this spiritual origin of the physical world, which is the Logos, of whom it is said in the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.”

The first component of the human being is his physical body. This is permeated by the etheric or life body, which is the second link and is already supersensible. Man has it as well as all the kingdoms of nature, except the mineral kingdom, which also has it, but not individualized. In the Gospel of John, the etheric body is called “life” - universal life. We will see what happens to it when a person dies.

The third part is the astral body. In reality, a person does not just occupy as much space in space as his physical body needs. Beyond this, he has a larger one that is the carrier of pleasure and pain and the sensations that come to us in our daily lives. Only humans and animals have it, each for themselves, but not plants. It consists of a special substance called “astral”. Through our physical eye we perceive physical light, but the clairvoyant perceives through his spiritual eye a different light, of which the first is only the physical covering. This second light is the spiritual or astral light, from which the astral body is woven. This body resembles an egg-shaped cloud, in contrast to the etheric body, which exactly resembles the shape of the physical body. The Gospel of John says: And the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and you will do the works that God has shown us. It is precisely from this light that the astral body is formed. Now comes the fourth link, which is unique to humans and makes them the highest of all creatures. Every thing has its own name that distinguishes it from other things; we can call it by its name because it is different from us. But the “I” is unique and the same in all people. Therefore, in reality we are one single “I”, and the difference between “I” and “you” is possible in all cases except this one. In this supersensible part of man the divine announces itself. But that does not make man a god. Man is only as a drop is to the sea; the drop is of the same substance as the sea, but is not the sea for that.

It was the I that spoke through Moses: “Ejeh asher ejeh” - “I am that I am”. It was the same I that the priests called “Yahweh-I-am”, the proclamation of God through the innermost being of man. The clairvoyant can observe how the “I” spreads throughout the world, into the non-self-aware human being—as the primitive man of the Lemurian period was—that is, into darkness. That is why it says in the Gospel of John: “The light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not understand it.” Only gradually, as the “I” descends, will the darkness—that is, each individual human being—understand it. This understanding of the light coincides with the visions of the disciples in the school of Dionysius the Areopagite.

Now we come to a very ordinary fact of our life, which is very important and yet often ignored, namely waking and sleeping. When awake, man shows the clairvoyant eye all his bodies, including the ego, which sends out its rays like a star. In the state of sleep, however, the conditions change. While the physical and life bodies lie on the bed, the astral body and the ego move away. So-called unconsciousness sets in, joy and pain no longer take place. In the morning, the ego and the astral body submerge again into their physical tool.

Since every body is nothing more than a means of perception in relation to the sense organs, a person can perceive as many worlds – world revelations – as he has senses. But the clairvoyant lives in several worlds because he has developed the relevant organs to do so. For him, the spiritual world then becomes a reality.

Between life and death there is the same relationship as between waking and sleeping, but to a greater extent. We will discuss life and death in more detail later. Today, however, we will take a closer look at what happens at death. During life, under normal circumstances, the physical and life bodies always remain together. At death, however, the physical body remains behind alone, while the life body, the astral body and the ego move out, and the physical corpse dissolves into its elements.

The first sensation the dead person has is the feeling of expanding, more and more, and penetrating into his surroundings. It is a feeling of the greatest bliss to feel so united with that from which one was previously separated. The clairvoyant can experience it during life. One could compare this feeling to dissolving in the astral light, like snow [dissolving] in the sun. In the mysteries it was called: transforming into Dionysius. The dead person now has their own life before them like a panorama, because the life body, the carrier of memory, is now freed from the physical body, which obscured it on earth and only allowed imperfect perceptions. This panorama forms a single image that the dead person looks at objectively and impartially. Depending on the individuality, it lasts about as long as the person could stay awake in life. For thirty-six to forty-eight hours the dead person still drags his etheric body with him, and can therefore easily show himself to our physical [...] organs of perception. Then the human being discards his second corpse; the useful part of the life body is taken up by the higher limbs, while the rest falls away like dross. This fact explains the frequently occurring expression in the Bible: 'It was as if scales fell from his eyes'. Man takes something with him like an extract of his panorama, in which all his experiences are condensed. He takes this with him to a higher world; this world can also be reached by the clairvoyant.