The Astral Body's Fragmentation and Ego Strengthening

GA 266II — 26 August 1911, Munich

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

My dear sisters and brothers! It is incumbent upon us to invoke the spirit of the day, which we may hope, indeed must hope, will help us in our esoteric endeavors. — Saying for Saturday.

Great comprehensive spirit,
in your life I live with the earth ...

Furthermore:

Great comprehensive spirit,
my ego rises from below to above,
may you sense it in your all-encompassing being ...

In the last esoteric lesson [August 23], we saw that during meditation, the etheric body pours out into space. This spiritual space is filled with all kinds of beings, good and evil, with whom we come into contact and with whom our etheric body connects. Different spirits are at work at all times, and the same beings are not active in all places at the same time.

Those who are in Asia have Europe to the west; those in Europe have Asia to the east. The realms of other (different) beings delimit their individual spiritual space in different places. But there is always a kind of empty space in the spiritual space—where the individual human being resides—as if it were set aside by the spiritual beings, which the human being fills himself. There the currents that work through his fourfold being are at work.

If we wanted to record how these beings, the good and the evil, work in space and how the space where the human being is located is, as it were, left out, we would end up with the following drawing, the following occult sign or symbol.

In the space with diagonal hatching, the spirits of form are mainly active in the present time. But they cannot penetrate into human beings. The three lower hierarchies, the angels, archangels, and spirits of personality, work there. Only the angels can work through the entire space of this five-pointed star. If we want to visualize how far the archangels can work, we must divide this pentagon (blue), which we have already considered in the exoteric lecture. They cannot enter this pentagon, only the five triangles (yellow).

If we now want to designate the area as far as the spirits of the personality can work, we must draw a circle around the pentagonal pointed star. If we stretch out our arms and imagine a circular line, starting at the top of our head and continuing to the tips of our fingers and from there all the way around to our spread legs or the tips of our feet, this line divides the areas into which the spirits of the personality can still penetrate, i.e., the areas bounded by the outstretched arms, the head, and the relevant part of the circle, and so on (green).

The spirits of form can no longer reach the human being itself; they are pushed back to the circle, as it were, by the forces working in the fourfold nature of the human being itself. When the etheric body expands during meditation, it is present in all these beings and realities that are still outside the circle, up to the stars; it is, as it were, poured out over everything, completely without any gaps, without any interruption. If one were to follow it with clairvoyant vision, one would see nowhere that it ceased in any way; it is simply everywhere.

If the student still has qualities such as stubbornness, insincerity, ambition, and so on, as discussed last time, these qualities go with the etheric body into the spirit realm. And if there is a bad being here and there, the bad in us feels related to it and attracted to it.

Now the astral body goes with the etheric body into the spirit realm. There is a tendency for the intellectual, thinking part of the astral body to expand outwards from the upper point, the feeling part to the right and left from the middle points, and the will part downwards from the two remaining points of the star.

But during this expansion, the astral body does not remain as seamless as the etheric body; individual fragments can separate, which we can then see and follow in space. If we have a kinship within ourselves to such an evil being that dwells in space, then a part of our astral body remains attached to this being through its desire nature and connects with it, detaching itself from the astral body itself. The astral body tears into shreds, into many individual shreds. Thus we have parts of our astral body scattered far and wide in space in various places, which appear to us in meditation as individual beings, but we do not know that they actually belong to us, and they then lead to error and deception. But there are threads between these individual parts of our astral body; they are connected to each other and to the pentagram. This connection is established by the human ego.

Before the mystery of Golgotha, a person had to be very bad indeed to lose control over these scattered astral pieces. Other entities worked within them for this purpose. After the event of Golgotha, human beings themselves are to take over this control from their own ego.

Even quite advanced esotericists can err by not recognizing these connections correctly. To prevent this, the esotericist must devote himself to dedicated study. Through study, he gains knowledge of everything that exists in the spiritual realm, of the entire development and all the states of the Earth during the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth evolutions, of the beings and hierarchies that have worked to create and shape human beings as they are today. his ego can master the connection between the individual parts of his astral body and is thus protected from error and deception.

The esotericist should not study for himself, out of curiosity or the like, but must make the most devoted study his duty for the sake of his own development and that of humanity and the world. And when we have thus recognized our own being through intensive study, when we know how and by what means it came into being, then we gain a sacred feeling about it. We then express this feeling in the sentence: We are born of God — Ex Deo nascimur.

When we permeate ourselves with this feeling with deep sincerity and the ether currents, which were already mentioned in the exoteric lecture, the etherization of the blood, whereby ether currents flow from the heart up to the head, glow and illuminate the brain and activate the pineal gland, causing it to light up like flames in which everything personal is submerged, when we feel how we must completely lose ourselves in the feeling of wanting to sacrifice our own self completely, like the spirits, like Christ sacrificed himself for the development of the worlds, then we learn to express this feeling in the sentence: In Christ we die - In Christo morimur.

And then the certainty shines within us that we ascend to the spirit, that we rise again in the spirit. Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus.

Ex Deo nascimur. In Christo morimur. Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. This is the exoteric motto of the Rosicrucians.

When the esotericist utters this saying, he holds fast to what expresses what we call Christ; this is the most sacred thing to him. He does not even want to go that far with words; he does not utter the words, but lets only his feelings speak. Then, when the true Rosicrucian disciple utters the saying in his deepest meditation, it sounds like this:

Ex Deo nascimur
In - - - morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus

Then there was a lengthy discussion about the upcoming congress in Genoa. Everyone should think for themselves and try to judge what they hear in esotericism, what the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings have given, what Dr. Steiner himself represented here. Human beings could not arrive at the occult truths—for example, the two Jesus boys—but they should and could think about them for themselves.

But it would be wrong to present a particular living personality as the incarnation of this or that being, whether it be based on truth or not. It is one of the most important occult laws not to make such pronouncements about living personalities in public. It is different in an esoteric setting, where one can feel and sense how this works and how it is received by individuals.

Today is a time when people are particularly prone to error. Such a proclamation would cause the thinking of individuals to suffer inhibitions. People would regress in their thinking abilities.

Serious warnings must be issued against such publications made for propaganda purposes, and any invitation to participate in such propaganda must be seriously rejected, but with complete personal tolerance and a feeling of peace toward the individuals who commit this error!

We must assert ourselves with true knowledge, then we will learn to know and feel that we come from the spirit.

The seed of my body lay in the spirit ...
In my body lies the seed of the spirit ...

Record B

Only the three lower hierarchies have a direct effect on humans. The angels up to the hatched pentagram, which symbolically represents humans, especially their etheric body. The archangels only extend to the five unhatched points, and the spirits of personality extend to the pentagram, i.e., to the remaining parts within the circle—for example, with arms outstretched, to the space between the crown of the head and the fingertips on the right and left, between these fingertips and the spread legs, or the tips of the feet, etc. The higher realms only extend to the circle. This is true for all human beings.

The esotericist now extends his etheric body beyond the pentagram to the planets. However, it remains a coherent whole and encounters good and evil beings there. It is different with the astral body, which expands with the etheric body. When it finds a being or a thing out there that captivates its desire nature, a part of its astral body attaches itself to it and separates from the main part of the astral body. In this way, the astral body can divide into many parts.

There is a tendency for the intellectual part, the thinking part of the astral body, to expand outwards from the upper tip, the feeling part to the right and left from the middle two tips, and the will part downwards from the two remaining tips.

With this “division” of the astral body, there is a danger that the human being will lose the sense of connection, will not be able to hold his ego together, but will instead feel it in the various separate parts. Maintaining the connecting threads between the individual parts is an important task for the esotericist; this is achieved through common sense, that is, through calm, logical thinking, through in-depth study of the general and specific teachings of theosophy, and through intellectual reflection and examination of the teachings. Only in this way can one make the teachings one's own and strengthen one's ego. Not by accepting them on authority. The latter would simply take the ego with it to a place where it no longer has control over itself. Such an effect would be caused, for example, by telling unprepared people about the previous incarnations of certain well-known personalities who are now living, or by stating the incarnation of certain individuals in current, publicly known people — quite apart from whether the statements are correct or not — because the listeners cannot understand or appreciate the context, the probability, or the meaning of this reincarnation. They would have to be accepted on authority. Therefore, serious warning must be given against participation in such manifestations undertaken for the purpose of propaganda in public.

One must combine serious rejection of any invitation to participate in such propaganda with personal tolerance and friendliness toward the personalities who commit this error.

Record C

When we take our esoteric development into our own hands, we will get a feeling that there are spiritual currents that want to influence us, whether for good or for evil. Where does this come from?

If we go back to the earliest stages of world development, we know that spiritual beings have been working on us from the beginning, higher beings who worked from outside, and also those who participated in the inner development of our Earth. What happens now when a person begins their esoteric development and enters the first verse:

In the pure rays of light
The divinity of the world shines forth

immersed in his meditation? What happens to the etheric body then? In the previous lesson, we heard that the physical body has a tendency to contract as a person ages because the etheric body gradually withdraws from it, and that the etheric body has the opposite tendency to expand into the macrocosm, up to the stars. Such expansion takes place on a larger or smaller scale during meditation, and probably even during the mere exoteric study of spiritual science. As long as it is connected with the physical body, however, the etheric body remains limited by its form. Since we now know that the entire macrocosm is filled with spiritual beings, with the beings of the higher hierarchies as well as with many other beings, both good and evil, we can imagine that the human being is completely enclosed by them; only the space that he himself occupies is left out.

It is not always the same beings that influence human beings; they differ according to the country, climate, or nature.

Let us try to visualize what we have just said in the diagram opposite.

In the pentagram we see the currents of force that underlie the whole human being and have built him up. We must imagine the outer environment as filled with beings that penetrate it from the cosmos. The middle pentagon determines the magnitude of the forces of the physical body, and within it the hierarchy of those beings we call the Angeloi or angels is particularly active. The etheric body is expressed in the five points, and within it the Archangeloi exert their influence on human beings. What is bounded by the circle signifies the astral body, and within this the archai, the primal beginnings or spirits of personality, are at work. Other hierarchies intervene from outside, the spirits of form, movement, wisdom, and will, up to the cherubim and seraphim.

Human beings constantly send thoughts from their astral body up to their brain. We know that through the interaction of the three bodies, a spiritualized stream flows out from our thoughts and into the environment of human beings. This stream is received or attracted by beings outside, which are attracted or repelled depending on the nature of the thoughts. One must imagine that a part of the astral body is repelled, so to speak, and then connects in the person's surroundings with one or another entity that is sympathetic to them and located in their spiritual environment. This can happen in all directions of space to the most diverse entities.

If the student does not allow himself to be guided by his common sense and connects with such beings in the astral space, he will experience a certain inner confusion. The same can happen if he blindly accepts everything he has not investigated himself, or if he does not take the time to understand the esoteric teachings with his intellect. He will then easily lose himself if he does not want to use his common sense when looking into the spiritual worlds; he will always observe incorrectly and draw false conclusions.

Let us now look back to a certain point in the development of the world, namely to the old Sun. In the middle of the sun's development, high spiritual beings emerge from it because the finer substances of their beings can no longer unite with the already “firmer” components that were in the sun—which, given the conditions at that time, could be called “solid,” but which were still etheric substances. Only one high being separated itself from those who stepped out and remained behind on the old sun, saturating the substance of the sun with a fine spiritual force. This force was already spoken of in the ancient mysteries; it was known as the Christ force. It is the same force that sacrificed itself once again in the later development of the earth and remained on earth when our sun withdrew from it as a fixed star. For a time it remained with the earth, then it passed over to the moon and from there reflected the sun's power down onto the earth.

This sun-force being was Jehovah-Christ, the same being who revealed himself to Moses and announced to him that he would one day dwell among us in the flesh.

Since the baptism in the Jordan and until the event on Golgotha, this Christ force has been connected with human beings and with the earth; it still draws into those people today who want to take their higher development into their own hands. The esoteric student who, through his meditations, expands his etheric body into the expanses of space, connects this etheric body in its radiation with the fine Christ substance. He no longer feels his ego; and the Pauline word then becomes truth: “Not I, but Christ in me.”

Human beings should develop this spiritual germ within themselves so that they may return to the spirit from whence they came, after bringing the spiritual germ to its highest perfection. Then one will recognize with what reverence the sacred prayer was spoken in the Rosicrucian schools:

In the spirit lay the seed of my body ...
In my body lies the seed of the spirit ...

Record D

Spiritual beings exist throughout the entire cosmos; they fill it, as it were, and therefore also permeate and surround human beings. However, we can distinguish between that which belongs directly to human beings and that which is their spiritual environment. This spiritual environment differs depending on where human beings are located. In Europe, this environment is different from that in Asia; in Asia, Europe is to the west; in Europe, Asia is to the east – this alone implies a difference.

The beings of the third or lowest hierarchy have a more or less direct effect on the human being himself; in his environment, the spirits of form, up to the cherubim and seraphim, have an effect on him. This can be represented in a figure:

If we represent human beings and the forces working within them as a white surface, we see a five-pointed star, the pentagram. The angels penetrate most deeply into human beings themselves, into their physical bodies, which is represented by the innermost pentagon. The archangels cannot penetrate this, but remain within the five outer triangles surrounding the pentagon. The archai work in the part that is not directly in the pentagram, but is indicated by what lies between the pentagram and the circle surrounding it.

In the cycle (“World Wonders, Soul Trials, Revelations of the Spirit”), we have already heard that the inner pentagon represents the physical body, the five triangles the forces of the etheric body; the space between these and the circle belongs to the astral body, while the circle itself must be regarded as the I. If we imagine an arc drawn from the head to the outstretched arms, these are the parts that are affected by the archai. Outside the circle, the higher hierarchies are at work, beginning with the spirits of form.

We already know that the physical body has a tendency to contract and shrink, while the etheric body has a tendency to expand. In meditation and even in continued, serious theosophical study, such expansion in space takes place to a greater or lesser extent and can extend to the stars and the sun without the connection to the physical body being interrupted. With the astral body, it is the opposite; it can lose its connection and partially split off. This can happen when it clings to certain things in space that are sympathetic to it, or when it is attracted by astral beings, whether for good or evil. For example, if a bad being is in our environment (indicated by Q, see drawing $. 210), then the etheric body, if it feels drawn to this being by the qualities working in the soul, can expand to that point and envelop the being; but in the astral body, such expansion can cause a part to detach itself and then surround the being. In this way, the astral body can split into several beings in its environment. In this way, it leaves behind a part of its being, but a connection remains between the scattered, detached parts. This also causes a division of consciousness, since consciousness is connected with the astral body. One then no longer feels like a unified, closed personality, but as if split into several persons. This is indicated by the words of the Gospel when the demons that possessed the sick man were asked what their name was, and they replied, “Legion.”

Therefore, anyone who is driven by an excessive desire for occult development without strengthening their ego at the same time runs the risk of fragmenting their astral body in this way. They are then no longer able to recognize which being, good or evil, has taken possession of that part of the astral body. Only serious study, especially of what is given in “The Secret Science,” the Cycles, and so on, makes the ego strong enough to reconnect the individual parts (of the astral body), either with each other or directly with one's own being. Those who have devoted themselves sufficiently to study will not be so easily deceived about the nature of the being they have before them. Otherwise, the possibilities for error are very great and have never been as great as they are now. One of the worst things one can do in this connection is to point [publicly] to this or that person as the reincarnation of one or another personality, for this is something that cannot be proven and leads to the destruction of the intellect, which is supposed to be in the process of development at this very moment.