Notes from Mathilde Scholl 1904–1906

GA 91 — 30 September 1906

35. The Three Worlds

In the physical world, space is immobile; in order to perceive something in space, we must approach the things in space; we must move ourselves through space towards the things. Space is what contains the physical world. Time enables us to move towards the things in space. Time is what stands for us in the physical in place of the mobility of space. This movement in time through space is represented by the ellipse.

In the astral world, space itself is mobile; physical locomotion is not necessary there; the astral world perceives the human being in all its parts from the point where he is at the moment, no matter where. There he does not need time to move from one part of the astral world to another. He lives there in time, just as he lives here in space. Time is his essential environment there, not space. And everything in the astral space moves through him. This is represented by the lemniscate.

Just as time moves and advances in the physical, so space itself moves and advances in the astral. Space, which is immobile in the physical, is an image of man, who is firmly rooted in the physical. When man, as firmly established in the physical, has learned to stand firm in the astral, then the time has come when he can stand firmly in the astral and let the world pass through him. There he must have the same firmness as space in the physical in order to know his way around in the astral world. For the movement of another being or object can only be judged correctly if one is firmly established oneself. Therefore, complete soul balance is necessary to explore the astral realm, because otherwise one would always be subject to deception.

In the spiritual world, the human being is at the center of a radiant world that radiates into him from all sides, a resounding world that flows together in him in its vibrations. This is represented by the circle, where the human being stands in the middle.

Wherever one is in the spiritual world, one is at the center of it, and all around it is spread out. There is no need for space or time because the human being has absorbed space and time within himself and has united within himself all the effects of space and time. There he encompasses with his spirit everything that is there, by sending out the spirit from the point where he is at that moment, grasping things with the spirit and drawing them towards him.

In the physical world, the human being moves through space in time. In the astral world, space moves through time in the human being. In the spiritual world, time moves through space in the human being, where he has space within him, into which time flows and from which it flows out again.

The human being is placed in space through the physical organism. His upright spine, the entire skeleton with the limbs represents standing in space, and his mobility gives him the possibility of moving in time through space. The movement of the astral space, the soul world within him through time, corresponds to his blood circulation.

His breathing in and out corresponds to the connection of his spirit with the spiritual world. He can connect the spirit outside with his spirit within without space and time, just as he breathes out and in the air. Space and time enter into him with the spirit, or he connects with space and time through his spirit. In the physical, space and time are outside of him; in the astral, he connects with time; in the spiritual, he connects with space and time. While in the physical, space rests outside of him, and in the astral, space moves through him, in the spiritual, space rests within him.

Thus, in man, that which is solid is that which makes him dependent on space and time, that which connects him to the physical world. That which is liquid is that which connects him to the soul world, that which makes him independent of space. That which is aerial is that which connects him to the spiritual world, that which makes him independent of time. We can only perceive with our senses in space; we can only perceive with our soul in time; we can perceive spiritually without space and time. There, space and time have become forces within us. The solid, the physical world, approaches man from the outside; it stands opposite him; it is different from himself and remains different; the liquid - the astral world - flows through him and flows out again; the other connects with him; the air-shaped — the spiritual world — flows into him and becomes him; just as with every breath the air flows into us and the exhaled air contains something of our being and carries it out.

While the physical world is objective to man, his relationship to the spiritual world is purely subjective. The connection with the astral world is both objective and subjective. As long as the astral world passes through him, it is his property; he lives in it subjectively; but what he adds from his own soul to the astral comes out of him again with the current of the astral and then confronts him as an objective. This is his karma, which, when it confronts him as an overall picture, forms the Guardian of the Threshold. Karma is the soul-life of man that has become objective. To overcome this karma, man must reunite with it; he must re-incorporate the soul-life that has become objective in such a way that he becomes one with it, that it is reborn subjectively in him out of the spirit. When he allows karma to arise subjectively out of his spirit, then karma becomes a spiritual power in him. Thus we have to look at man as a spiritual, living laboratory that transforms the forces of the world.

Man never completely connects with the physical world; he connects with the soul world, but then it comes out of him again; he connects with the spiritual world, and it remains in him.

He moves through the physical world, gathering experiences in space with the help of time. These experiences awaken soul forces in him. Through this, he enters into contact with the soul world. The soul world now passes through his soul with its images and emerges through him, transformed, as his karma. His karma is what he has worked from his being into the soul world. But the soul world that passes through him has also created something new within him; it has awakened his spiritual powers. With his spiritual powers, he now draws the karma, his soul world that has become objective, back into his inner being and now works on it in his inner being with his spiritual powers and sends it out again into the world, transformed as spirit.

The path of development is therefore this:

First moving around the two focal points of the ellipse of physical life, then human life flows through the soul through the center between the two focal points of a lemniscate and then flows in the spirit from the center to the periphery of the circle.

Through his karma, which is transformed in the soul, the person connects with the spiritual world. The effect that arises from the union of the negative and positive poles, of object and subject, is radiance, light.

The whole physical world is there for the purpose of gaining experience, of awakening the soul forces; the soul world is there to develop the powers of the human being; the activated powers of the human soul work out its inner subjective being as an outer objective, as karma; this karma is as good as the human being is himself as the inner being of his soul; he must reconnect with this karma. In the spiritual world, he expresses what he has gained in new powers through the conscious, self-willed connection with his karma. Just as the breathing of physical impressions in the human soul awakens forces in the soul, so does the taking up of karma in the human spirit awaken forces in the spiritual.

Man has left the physical world behind him in his physical development as a stage in his physical ascent; it becomes a teacher for his soul; the soul world, karma, man has left behind him in his soul development as a stage in his spiritual ascent; it acts as a teacher for the spirit, for its enrichment and growth. The path to spiritualization in humanity goes through the soul. When a person learns to consciously carry out this process of development, then he consumes his karma as quickly as it arises, and he no longer has personal karma.

The development of humanity is an alchemy that transforms physical impressions into spiritual powers. Man can learn to shorten the process of development, to subordinate it to his will. He who has reached the degree of mastery can immediately consciously transform everything he perceives through the senses into spiritual power in his soul. The path of the student is the gradual development of the soul to this level, where he consciously learns to perform the spiritual alchemy. When he has achieved the transformation of his own karma into spiritual power, then he can also reach the stage where he no longer accumulates karma because he is so stable in the spiritual that he immediately transforms the physical into the spiritual through his soul. The power that he would otherwise have had to use to transform his own karma, he can then use to transform the karma of the world. One who has transformed the karma of the world into spiritual world powers in such a way that all of humanity owes him the power for their ascent is Christ. And in every single person, it is also the power of Christ, love, that transforms his karma into spiritual power. Love is the soul power that transforms karma into knowledge, into wisdom, into spiritual power.

Man must learn more and more to shorten the world process of transforming everything physical into spiritual through the power of his soul, love. Love is the bond that entwines and connects the physical and the spiritual. Thus, on the one hand, there is the physical world and, on the other, the spiritual world, with the human being in the middle and in both worlds at the same time. The soul world is the arena in which the human being transforms the forces of the physical world into spiritual ones.