7. The Four Spheres of the Higher Worlds

Anyone who has prepared himself in such a way has a very definite experience when he enters the Elementary World. We shall understand this experience if we remind ourselves again that the choleric temperament is akin to the element of fire, the sanguine to the element of air, the phlegmatic to the element of water and the melancholic to the element of earth. When a man passes into the Elementary World, the beings of that world confront him in the form that corresponds with his own temperament. Thus choleric qualities confront him as if aglow in the element of fire, and so on. Because of his training it will then become evident that the strength of soul he has already developed triumphs over all obstacles and is also akin to a power in the World of Spirit. This power is related to that figure which, gathered together from all the four elements, confronts him in the World of Spirit in such a way that he beholds himself calmly and quietly as an objective being. The outcome of the resolve in his soul to overcome all imperfections is that this imperfect “double” stands before him but that the sight does not have the disturbing or shattering effect it would otherwise have upon him. In everyday life we are protected from this, for every night on going to sleep we should be confronted by this imperfect being and be overwhelmed by the sight if consciousness did not cease. But there would also be before us that other great figure who shows us what we can become and what we ought to be. For this reason consciousness is extinguished when we go to sleep. But if we acquire the maturity to say to ourselves: You will overcome all obstacles—then the veil that falls over the soul on going to sleep, is lifted. The veil becomes thinner and thinner and finally there stands before us—in such a way that we can now endure it—the form that is a likeness of ourselves as we are, and by its side we become aware of the other figure who shows us what we can become by working at our development. This figure reveals itself in all its strength, splendour and glory. At this moment we know that the reason why this figure has such a shattering effect is that we are not, but ought to be, like it, and that we can acquire the right attitude only when we can endure this spectacle. To have this experience means to pass the “Greater Guardian of the Threshold.” It is this Greater Guardian of the Threshold who effaces consciousness when we go to sleep in the ordinary way. He shows us what is lacking in us when we try to enter into the Macrocosm, and what we must make of ourselves in order to be able, little by little, to grow into that world.