Esoteric Lesson

III. In order to become conscious of our astral body, we must do exactly the opposite. We must restrain the desires surging in the astral body; instead of letting everything flow out of us, we must develop calmness and balance. Then, being calm within ourselves, we feel the outer astral world impinging upon us. Just as we impinge upon the etheric world by intervening in it from ourselves (acting from the center of the will), we feel the astral world impinging upon us by remaining calm within ourselves and bringing all desires and wishes and the surging of pleasure and pain to rest. Before humans have educated themselves to do this, they numb themselves to the desires that reign within them by screaming, letting them escape in sounds. But because our astral body has been weakened by the gods, this later becomes articulated speech and song: