Theosophy and Occultism

GA 90c — 13 October 1903, Berlin

IX. On the Origin of Evil

Since God is perfect, it is virtually impossible for something imperfect to arise. The question of the origin of evil is as old as humanity itself and can only be answered on a theosophical basis. Christian theology has a very specific belief, a very specific view, of the origin of evil. It says that the world was created to glorify God. Evil must therefore have been admitted to a kind of glorification. But this formula only provides an inadequate solution to the problem – and it is also exoteric.

Paul says that before the law was, there was no sin; and when the law came, sin came into the world. Above all, it is important to bear in mind what I said last time. We are dealing with a linear development. The clock served as an example. Before you could make a clock, you had to be able to make the wheels, you also had to be so advanced in mathematics and physics that you knew the laws and could use them to make the whole thing. At first, mathematicians had nothing to do with physicists. But at some point the two came together so that the two insights could interact in one brain. Then the idea of the clock could also develop. So here there is a confluence of currents. Man is also a confluence of spiritual and material currents.

Actually, there are three currents that flow together in man. The Moon-pitris came over from the moon. These had only prana and kama. But what is in man today comes firstly from the moon: prana and kama; secondly from the elemental realms: the physical body; thirdly from what has been infused from the higher beings: spirit = manas, budhi, atma.

When the question of imperfection arises, I often use an example that science provides us with: there is a person who has been afflicted by a kind of mental illness. He lost his will and was sent by the doctor to the south to strengthen his nervous system. He was supposed to issue a document and sign his name to it. But it was impossible for him to write his name. He then came to Rome. There was a festival in Rome at the time, and he was completely healthy during that day. But after that day, his health was gone again. On the journey home, he also had to travel in a cab. Someone was run over next to his cab. He noticed it, jumped out and helped him. Afterwards, however, he was again unable to write his name. He could read, and could do everything else, but he could not write his name. And if he should make a decision to do something that was not quite right, so that his intelligence was not in harmony with his physical body, then the connection between the two was interrupted, as it were. We think of this process as extending to the whole world.

Jakob Böhme has already solved the problem from this point of view. He says: A person never has hands for feet or feet for hands. They match. And yet it is possible for the right hand to scratch the left.

Spirit, Kama, Manas, Prana originate from the same deity. But they flow into each other at different times, and so it happens that different states arise. Therefore, even in the great world, it is possible that although the individual is perfect, there is disharmony in the overall harmony.

One may ask: why does the Deity not take care to prevent the right hand from scratching the left? We must thoroughly grasp and comprehend that God created man in his own image, in the likeness of himself. Man is the image of the Deity; God formed the world out of free will. To create in freedom is to create according to inner motives and not according to outer reasons.

The allegory of the Fall of Man states that man gains knowledge, and through it he learns to distinguish good from evil. On the one hand, he is in the image of the deity, on the other hand, he is imperfect. He must have the reason for his actions within himself. The original, eternal being can only be perfect. This original being has poured itself out on many angelic beings. And through this, the ability to make one's own decisions also arises in man. Through the descent of the higher entities to the lunar beings, the two currents can interact. Man differs from other beings in that he has the three higher elements - manas, budhi, atma - within him. But why do they have to collide, why do they have to come into disharmony?

The animal is never evil. You cannot say that a lion is evil. Nevertheless, it wreaks great havoc, greater than the greatest criminal. And why can man be evil? Because in man, the same animal nature as in a lion is supposed to be in harmony with the higher. This discordance of the higher with the lower nature is what we call evil. When higher spirituality misuses the lower nature, evil arises. Now we understand Paul when he says: Before the law was, there was no sin.

Another rough example: can any sexual excess in animals be called evil? No, everything goes its regular course. Corruption only arises when the spirit comes into play. It is capable of misusing the physical. This is where evil arises. Mental abuse.

But where does the tendency to go astray in the spiritual nature come from? This is because the various currents were perfect at the beginning of the emanation. In the end they will be in tune again, but in the middle they do not have to be in tune. It is the same as in music, where a disharmony is also resolved again in a higher harmony at the end.

If you have developed your intellect very highly but neglected your moral side, you will have to overcome a great disharmony within you in your next incarnation.

There are beings that play a role in our development. They may have reached such a high level of development that they are beyond human development. You can't just throw yourself from a higher level of development to a lower one. But such high beings are thrown into our development. They are highly intelligent, but never satisfied with the current state of human development. Such a being will have the urge to reincarnate. They therefore want to seduce people, they want to bring people to a point of development that they are not yet ready for. There are constant insinuations. To someone who can see through this, the development of a person looks like this: caught between God and the devil. These people are the brothers of the shadow.