Three Veils Separating Ego from Spiritual Worlds
GA 266I — 12 April 1908, Berlin
Esoteric Lesson
Record A
In the early stages of development, humans possessed spiritual vision and perception. Their bodies were a kind of resting place for them, where they could sleep and lose consciousness while they were in them. As the entity became more and more conscious in the physical, spiritual (mental) vision and perception diminished. When humans finally became interested in the things around them, in physical phenomena, and when their consciousness was in the physical, mental vision and perception were completely lost. If humans had not developed such an interest in the physical, in the external world, then the physical would not have become such a dense veil for them; it would be more transparent, and they would be able to recognize and see spiritual things. Through their interest in the material (substantial) environment, a veil spread before their eyes that they cannot easily penetrate.
This interest in external sensory phenomena is called “aestimatio” in occultism, and it is said that “aestimatio” is a poison that brings death. It takes away the consciousness of the continued existence of the self and thus brings with it the consciousness of birth and death. It erases the consciousness of the self or the memory of continued existence. Consciousness must not be completely withdrawn from the external world, otherwise it would not take with it the essence of what it gains through external experiences. The same is true of imagination. It must not be completely inactive, but man must be able to direct his consciousness to an action or an image as he wishes (arbitrarily). Man would not be able to raise his hand if he could not picture it in his mind, if he could not imagine it. When he raises his hand, the image and the action are present at the same time. When he begins to imagine pictures without performing an action, that is, when he connects his consciousness with the imagined picture, then he will regain the power to see spiritual things; he will then be able to see the astral again. This stage is called “Imago.”
When the soul reaches perfect peace or stillness, so that it maintains its perfect peace no matter what external experiences may come its way, then consciousness will be able to penetrate the veil of the “harmony of the spheres,” the music of the spheres. This is called ‘transmutatio’ through inspiration, or “incantatio.”
When the glands were formed on the sun, this happened through a process similar to that which takes place in our body when someone thinks of food and causes the salivary glands and glands of the tongue to secrete saliva. In the same way, the glands were incorporated into the physical body of the developing beings on the sun by the higher beings, who, so to speak, tasted the environment and secreted the glandular substance, which was absorbed by the physical bodies.
The glands above the kidneys, which are connected to them, secrete a substance that is necessary for building bones. The pancreas is there to convert sugar into substances that are necessary for nourishing the body. The secretion of the glands is a process brought about by mental processes.
When humans lived in astral or image consciousness, when their spirits could move freely into the spiritual realms, some beings remained at this stage. This stage remained crystallized in them, so to speak, and birds represent this in a crystallized form; birds, which have such wonderful eyes, such as the eagle, have crystallized astral vision. Mammals crystallized the
stage when humans attempted to control the movements of their bodies. These animals only partially achieved this and therefore remained at a lower stage of development.
Record B
What separates humans from perceiving the spiritual world? Humans did not always exist as they do today, with an ego, astral body, etheric body, and physical body. This only developed gradually over time.
The human ego, which now lives in the three bodies, used to exist outside of them. It was entirely in the spiritual worlds; it did not perceive a physical outer world through the three bodies as it does today, but rather perceived the spiritual world and its beings. It was itself a spiritual being and lived with spiritual beings in this spiritual world. The outer physical world only gradually took shape; as much as there was of it, it was not yet there for the I. Birth and death did not yet exist. In the course of the Earth's densification process, light, fine physical bodies first came into being. This spiritual being, the human being, that is, this I, experienced the shedding of its body or the receiving of another just as one experiences putting on and taking off a coat. The consciousness of this spiritual human being did not change as a result. He looked back to the state before entering a new body, so that he felt: this body is like an obstacle to me. When I take it off, I feel liberated from this obstacle. The densifying external world was also foreign to him, and his soul initially took no interest in it. Then the man's attitude toward the external world changed. He became interested in it by allowing it to affect him with the organs of his increasingly densifying physicality. He began to hear, feel, smell, taste, and so on, and in this way he made the external world his own. As a result, his former consciousness of being in the spiritual world disappeared. The more he came to identify with his outer shell, the more the spiritual world disappeared. The acquisition of the new body became more and more a beginning for him, the shedding of it an end that tore him out of the world he gradually came to feel was his own. In all occult schools, therefore, the saying always applied: “The ‘aestimatio’ is the poison that brought death.”
The “Aestimatio” is the first veil that separates the ego from the spiritual worlds.
The second veil that separates the ego from the spiritual world—so the student was told in all occult schools—will reveal itself to you when you learn to pay close attention to what you, as an ordinary human being, do not notice at all. Every movement that a person makes, for example when raising a hand or stretching out a leg, is a reflection of spiritual movements; it is a reflection, an image of a spiritual process. In the spiritual realm — completely unconscious to the present human being, since this spiritual realm lives in the subconscious depths of his being — this movement occurs first. Only then does the hand carry it out. Reflex movements are something else. For example, when I close my eyes because a fly is flying towards them, this is a movement that comes from the same force that causes a field pea to twine itself around another plant. The human “imagination” lives out in physical movements. It used to be different. When humans still lived entirely in the spiritual world, they also acted in this spiritual world in such a way that they could influence other beings through their “imaginatio.” They only descended into their bodies to rest in some corner of our planet. Their actual activity took place in the spiritual world as “imaginatio.” Human beings now use this “imaginatio” to flow into physicality as external movement. In this way, they draw the second veil before the spiritual world.
Through “Aestimatio” and “Imaginatio,” humans are prevented from perceiving the spiritual world, so that the physical and etheric bodies work together.
It is difficult to describe how the etheric body is separated from the spiritual world. All glandular processes are processes of the etheric body. They secrete certain substances that enable life processes to take place. The secretion of the salivary glands prepares food for digestion. The secretion of the kidneys and adrenal glands enables humans to build up their skeleton in the way they need for their earthly existence. Now, the force that causes these secretions is definitely a spiritual force. This can be clearly seen in the following process: A person hears about a food that he particularly loves. Especially in a primitive person, saliva is secreted in the mouth without him enjoying the food. The desire for the food, which arises in thoughts of it, causes the process. We know that the glandular organs developed on the old Sun. This spiritual force was active from outside, flowing in from outside; the spiritual beings were, so to speak, constantly tasting. This spiritual force that is at work is called “incantatio.” The earthly human being has drawn the power of “incantatio” into his sympathy or antipathy and thereby drawn the third veil before the spiritual world.
The teacher gives the student the instructions he must follow if he wants to find his way back. He shows him how to make these three veils transparent so that they no longer conceal the spiritual-soul world, but how to find his way back to these worlds through their power. The teacher says something like this to the student, that is, the teacher does not say it, but the student hears something like this in his own soul when he listens to it: You stand with your soul before the outer world. It speaks to you through your senses. You must recognize it in its value or worthlessness. You must not turn away from it, for it is part of the whole world and has its value as such a part of the whole world. Experience the outer world, listen carefully to what it wants to tell you! For it is something spiritual that you, as a human being, have to give to the cosmos and the whole world through your experience of the outer world. You must give back the right experience of the outside world as an enrichment of the entire world of the spiritual realm. But first, an inner strength must arise within you, in which you must sink completely. This strength is called peace.
Meister Eckhart speaks of the soul's behavior toward the outside world in this way: The soul should use the senses of the physical body as one uses a door. You open it, walk through it, and then close it again. Then you are outside the door. And when you have accomplished your business outside the door, you walk through it again and enter your own inner space. So it is with human beings and the outside world. Outside is the loud noise of the outside world. When you leave it and enter your inner self, you find peace.
If you were to keep shaking the door handle, that would be a double movement, which would cause you unrest and prevent you from properly perceiving the outside world or behaving correctly toward it. You must transform the “Aestimatio.” In inner peace, you will gain the right appreciation of what you should receive as a gift from the outside world as essential. And you must learn to strictly distinguish the non-essential, that which is signified by the noise of shaking the door, from the essential.
The essential thing that man can experience in the external world, and only there, is the gift that you as a human being must return to the spiritual world as thanks for being allowed to live in this external world. If you learn to live in this essential, then you will be given the key to attain eternal values in the external world that will conquer death.
Thus, “aestimatio” is transformed into the knowledge of what the external world can give you as an inner strength that can only be developed when the soul learns to relate to the external world in inner, absolute peace. “Aestimatio” is transformed into knowledge.
These inner powers of insight now lead the student further. He has learned to allow impressions from the external world to approach him in a way that he himself determines. He gradually removes the first veil that the ego drew before the spiritual world through “aestimatio.” He also recognizes this ego as something that must grow beyond itself. He learns to distinguish his own ego experience from an ego experience that feels connected to something purely human and to all of humanity, that feels itself to be part of all humanity. He learns to shift the center of his ego experience to his inner self. He listens to the voice within. He can only hear it through the deep peace he has created within himself. The noise of everyday life has fallen silent within him; he has closed the door of his soul to it. Peace and deep silence reign within him. He is alone with his thoughts, just as he used to be alone with the things in the room. He gradually learns to understand the inner essence of all these things. He learns to understand how they came into being in their diversity through the creative sound of the deity, which sounded from outside into the thought substance of the world, the divine light-wisdom of the moon, giving form and creating shapes. He feels his way inwardly, as it were, through every form outside, experiencing the creative cosmic world of sounds. And his own inner mobility becomes a reflection of that creative divine power. In this way, he advances to melt away the second veil he has woven before the spiritual world. The imago is transformed in his inner experience into “imaginatio,” that is, into the ability to recognize the living, essential divine creative power that echoes from the things outside the soul. Gradually, an inner sound opens up to him, through which things tell him their own names. He hears this with his soul. The student advances to transform the third veil: he transforms the “Incantatio” into inspiration. Then the inner tone becomes the inner word. This inner word is a living, meaningful intervention from spiritual worlds into the soul of the student. These are living forces that flow into the soul from the spiritual world, communicating something to him spiritually.
All higher truths are attained through such inner communication. Human beings can only attain this when they are free from sympathy and antipathy, free from criticism, silent and devoted to listening to what comes to them from the spiritual worlds.
The spiritual sound becomes spiritual life, intuition.