---
ga: 90
title: "Essence, Perception, and Actions"
date: 1904-08-14
location: Berlin
words: 903
---
# Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge I

## GA 90a — 14 August 1904, Berlin

### LIII. Essence, Perception, and Actions

We must distinguish between the essence as such and between the perceptions and actions of the essence. These depend not only on the essence, but also on the world in which it is placed. The human being is in different worlds at different times, going through planets and globes. We have become acquainted with four of the three worlds. If he is to perceive and be active, he must form organs out of the world in question. In order to be able to work on the physical earth, he must form organs of perception out of the earth's materials. Thus we must distinguish between the being, which belongs to the world of the eternal, and the organs that it has formed out of the materials of the worlds it passes through.

If we did not have a physical hand, we would not be able to move an object, but would pass through matter. The hand must be impenetrable. [Gap in the transcript] It is the same with the sense organs. [Gap in the transcript] eyes. These organs are called Indriyas, and a distinction is made between Indriyas of the senses or perception and Indriyas of action. Every being forms organs of action and sense from the materials of the world through which it passes. Man belongs to the eternal world with his being, but with his organs to the world through which he passes. When he has traversed these worlds, he takes something from the worlds through his organs, which remains his possession. You had eyes when you emerged from the bosom of the Eternal, but they had no [gap in the transcript]

What you perceived remains. The eyes as organs of the physical world fade.

We see from this that people are wrong about what they call real. What appears as the effect of the processes is precisely what is real, lasting. Thus, through its organs, which it receives from time to time, the being draws the fruits from the different worlds, which it then takes with it. That is why the Greeks had beautiful symbols in the mysteries: They called the soul bees because the soul gathers the honey from the worlds and lays it down at the altar of the Eternal.

Why do the initiates use such images for the people? Does it have any value? Everything that is a myth is an outer garment for deeply inner truths.

How will we work on the statues more easily? Will we first work on the rough image in the block of stone or start with the finest execution? I think the first. The priests of different times acted according to this principle. They said [gap in transcript]

I instill in this soul a figurative idea that people do not understand at all. But it prepares his mind so that he can perceive the pure truth later. This had value as long as the priests were so imbued with reincarnation.

Back to the main idea: the beings take from the worlds what they need for their organs. For us: the physical, soul and spiritual worlds, of which we are composed. Man lives in these three worlds, the physical, astral and mental, and is therefore a threefold being.

Above the spiritual and below the physical, there are other worlds in which humans do not live directly, but other beings do. Let us imagine that these beings, which are only soul and spirit, are two-tiered for us. Such beings are called devas, who are not incarnated in the physical world, whose lowest form of existence is the astral. Myths have treated the knowledge of such beings allegorically, either by making them appear in fiery clouds. But we also find in myths that they appear in the form of animals - Zeus.

The animal often represents an astral being because it expresses the passionate more clearly than the human. This therefore corresponds to an astral reality, but is not to be thought of in the physical sense in the ordinary sense; rather, the people to whom it appeared were in a trance for the moment.

Besides these, there are other entities that are only physical-spiritual, lacking the spiritual. They are not animals, because with their generic character they belong to the spiritual; their generic soul belongs to the devachan. There are such entities that have no spiritual expression at all. It is only possible to reach them if you are not dependent on spiritual expression. I would have to be clairvoyant in the astral plane to perceive their astral essence. The earth is much more populated than one would think. A being lives in every rock and tree, but they do not express themselves because they have no spiritual expression. They are called elemental beings.

Man only perceives their effects when they manifest themselves to him, as it seems, by chance.

There are devas that have natures that are above the spiritual, and elemental beings that are below the physical. But they are none of our concern. These have organs that belong to the same worlds as we do. The devas do not perform acts that directly belong to the sensual world, so we do not perceive them; the elementary beings have no organs that can express themselves spiritually, so they are not there for humans.