Lecture VIII

At the beginning of their development, humans have an astral body that their ego has not yet worked on. In the course of incarnations, the ego begins to work into the astral body. This makes it more perfect. The ability to distinguish between truth and error is only an achievement of later incarnations. Everything in life must first be learned through experience. Only through error does correct judgment develop. Even mathematical truths arise from the fact that the opposite is false. Human beings continually work on their astral bodies from their egos. For the clairvoyant, there is a great difference between looking at the astral body of a developed person and that of an undeveloped person. As a result of this working through of the astral body, there is a part in all human souls that is still filled with lower instincts and passions, and a part that has been spiritually reworked by the ego. Francis of Assisi, for example, had completely transformed and reworked his astral body. The occultist refers to that part of the astral body that has been reworked by the ego with the Eastern term “manas.”