Spirit ManSpirit ManThe Cosmology of Rudolf Steiner

Compiled by

Steve Kasperowicz

Spirit ManSpirit ManThe Cosmology of Rudolf Steiner

Compiled By

Steve Kasperowicz

All rights reserved, including the right of electronicor digital transmission. Please do not replicate thiswork in any form without the publisher's writtenpermission.

First Edition

Copyright © 1999 by Steve KasperowiczAll rights reserved.

Universal PublishersParkland, Florida

1999

ISBN: 1-58112-795-2

www.upublish.com/books/kasperowicz.htm

In Memory of

Marjorie VanCleve

&

Eric Wakefield

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Noel Bell, Frank Black,Gitta Gerhold, Van James, Bonnie Ozaki-James, Bill Sakaguchi, Genie Sakaguchi,and Ruth Stepputtis for their vital col-laboration and invaluable contribution tothis work.

Cover art created with support to AURA/STScI fromNASA contract NAS5-26555 is reproduced here withpermission:

Front Cover: STScI-PRC98-28, NGC 7742, A Seyfert 2 Galaxy.Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA) using data col-lected by C. R. Lynds (NOAO/KPNO), J. A. Westphal (CalTech), EarlO'Neil Jr. (NOAO/KPNO), and collaborators.

Back Cover: STScI-PRC98-31, NGC 7635, Credit: HubbleHeritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA) using data collected by JeffHester, Paul Scowen, and Brian Moore (Arizona State University).

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Foreword

I used to be a dyed in the wool agnostic,who paradoxically, had a keen interest in theoccult. In my high school and college years,along with the works of Ayn Rand, J. R. R. Tol-kien and Aldous Huxley, I was drawn to bookssuch as "Psychic Discoveries Behind the IronCurtain" and "A Dweller on Two Planets",where the line between fantasy and reality wasless clear. From there, I graduated to the worksof Richard Bach, Carlos Castaneda, and others,whose descriptions of alternate realities fasci-nated me.

In those younger years I also encounteredthe works of Rudolf Steiner. A multi-facetedgenius, Steiner had made significant and inno-vative contributions throughout his life in avariety of fields that included medicine, drama,science, religion, education, philosophy, eco-nomics, agriculture, and architecture. JohnDavie has said that because of his varied initia-tives, one can find throughout the world today,schools, communities, businesses, farms, hospi-tals, banks, artists, and architects that ac-knowledge a special debt to his work. Steiner'sreputation, however, is based on far more thanthese mainstream accomplishments. He is unar-guably most recognized for his extensive andrevealing research into the realms of the spirit,the results of which led to his being regarded as"The Scientist of the Invisible".

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From his childhood, Steiner already pos-sessed the ability to perceive the supersensibleto see the reality of the spiritual world withthe same clarity and certainty as he saw thephysical. As he matured, he felt a profoundneed to bring a discipline to his supersensiblediscoveriesto develop a methodology equal towhat the natural science of his day demanded.While earning degrees in mathematics, physicsand chemistry at the Technical University inVienna, he began developing an approach to asystematic research of psychological and spiri-tual phenomena. His doctoral thesis "Truth andKnowledge" was followed, in 1894, by "ThePhilosophy of Freedom", a seminal work inwhich Steiner established a firm foundation fora science of the supersensible. From there, hewent on to write dozens of books, among them"Theosophy", "Knowledge of Higher Worlds andits Attainment", and "Occult ScienceAn Out-line". He also wrote hundreds of essays anddelivered over six thousand lectures on a multi-plicity of topics.

In spite of the fact that their content was insuch stark contrast to a conventional wisdomand science to which I so strongly adhered, hisbooks, essays and lectures nonetheless reso-nated within mestruck some inner chord oftruth. And although I found that Steiner'sworks lacked the entertaining literary style ofthe more modern writers mentioned above, Icontinued to study his published legacy, readingone work after another, then reading them

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again, usually in no specific order. In eachbook or lecture series, I would discover newconcepts or revelations somehow missed duringearlier readings. Contradictions I might haveuncovered in one reading would disappear withthe nextand, more often than not, new oneswould arise. In many of Steiner's presenta-tions, he would intentionally communicate thesame topic from a variety of perspectives. AndI, like one of the blind men confronting the ele-phant, would on one occasion feel a rope, whileon another, a tree trunkaptly demonstratingthe limitations of what Steiner described as "athinking fettered by the senses". But my lack ofclear comprehension of the material never dis-suaded me from continuing the study.

So, years after my first encounter with"Occult Science", and my earlier skepticism allbut turned around, I decided to compile selectedsections of Steiner's work for a wider audience.It has been one hundred years since their initialpresentation, and, with recent cultural shifts inattitude, I feel there are more who share aninterest in a cosmic view of human evolutionindividuals who are willing to explore beyondthe self-imposed limits of the natural sciencesand seek an insight into the world of spirit.Having completed two original works during thepast few years, I thought this would be an easyproject, since all I had to do was select fromwhat Steiner had already presented, and ar-range it to be accessible and interesting to themodern reader. The task, however, proved far

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more difficult than I had first thought. For, toSteiner, the efforts expended by his audience inapproaching what he presented, were integralto the educational process. It would have beena disservice, therefore, to try to make the sub-ject matter more accessible, or water it downfor wider acceptability.

What follows then, is a distillation of manyof the works of Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D. (1861-1925) that deal with the cosmology of Man.Because I omitted material of an introductorynature, it is primarily intended for an audiencealready convinced that a spiritual reality perme-ates the universe. Those who do not sharesuch a conviction, or who, as I once did, findmuch of the material incomprehensible and fan-tastic, may hopefully acknowledge the possibil-ity that reality is not limited to only what isperceptible by the senses, and that what isherein presented is at least plausible.

Although the content of what follows hasbeen accessible in occult mystery centersthroughout the ages, the masters traditionallyconveyed it to prepared neophytes throughsymbols rather than conventional languages.This text, therefore, contains the difficultiesinherent in presenting the world of soul andspirit in a language that is grounded in temporalconcepts. It demands an immense amount ofgood will on the part of the reader to set asideconventional thinking and any predispositiontoward a specific worldview in order to ap-proach the concepts it contains. The supersen-

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sible worlds are every bit as complex as oursense perceptible world. So, beyond good willand determination, it helps to have a lovingopen heart, a healthy feeling for truth, and enli-vened mobile thinking. A sense of humorwouldn't hurt either. Because the material canbe somewhat serious, I'd recommend inter-spersing sections of this book with selectionsfrom humorists Dave Barry or Douglas Adams,whose personal perspectives of reality refresh-ingly complement Steiner's.

At one time, I thought it would be interest-ing to compare the alternate realities of Bachand Castaneda with those of Steiner, becauseeach portrays the same supersensible realitiesusing their own unique nomenclature. Steiner's`meditation' is Castaneda's `stopping the in-ternal dialog.' The 'sentient body' in one is a'luminous egg' in the other. But Bach and Cas-taneda limit themselves to the here and now,ignoring the broader context. They providecolorful, personal pictures of a modern path ofinitiation, but leave us wanting for explanationson the why of it all. We become immersed in aworld of power and mystery, of the drama andcomedy that constitutes the human condition,but are left floundering for perspective and di-rection.

Most of us, I believe, view our day to dayworld through the perspective sliver of a singlelifetime. Some may view it from the wider win-dow provided by written or oral history, while

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still others may approach their reality throughthe broader boundaries defined by archeology.My guess, though, is that few view their per-sonal world through the cosmic expanse thatencompasses the beginning and end of time. Ifyou are new to what Steiner presented to theworld in his books, essays and hundreds oflectures on the nature of humanity, be preparedto make stupendous leaps to the far distantpast and far distant future, and into completelydifferent dimensions of being. And though youmay find the material ponderous, or hard toaccept, you can be sure that it will not leaveyou unaffected. You may find instead that themundane in the world begins to reveal the mi-raculous.

Preface

The fact that the unaided human eye is limitedfrom seeing beyond the infrared and ultraviolet, ofseeing what is transpiring within the living cell orin the far reaches of space, has not deterredresearchers from launching scientific investigationsinto these areas.

There are, however, individuals who have un-folded faculties for perceiving the supersensiblewho engage themselves in equally objectiveresearch into those branches of knowledge whoserealms lie beyond what is physically perceptible.Those who believe that such research is purefantasy do not realize that all who have attainedthe requisite level of initiation will each observethe exact same supersensible phenomenajust aseach individual possessing normal sight will see atable as being round or square. Although no manis free from error in any field, what various initiateshave conveyed regarding their findings has been inessential agreement for millennia.

In the same sense that we do not have to bemicrobiologists or astrophysicists to appreciatewhat those scientists convey about their disci-plines, we do not ourselves need to be clairvoyantin order to understand the facts that are revealedby investigators into the supersensibleto use thesame judgment in accepting the results of theirresearch.

1 ManThe human spirit is as little newly createdat birth as a man is newly created uponawakening each morning.

Before many of Dr. Steiner's presentations dealingwith the origin and evolution of Man, he would beginwith a description of the human being as he standsbefore us today. In conformance with this practice,therefore, this chapter introduces the modern hu-man being in a way that highlights those majorcomponents that were 'built up' during specific andseparate periods of our evolution. These specificevolutionary periods, which will be described later,endowed us with what we have in common with themineral kingdom, the plant kingdom and the animalkingdomand what on earth is exclusively Man's.We will see that we are essentially threefold beingscomprised of body, soul and spirit. And that each ofthese is also threefold in nature. To begin then, we'llstart with a description of Man's physical nature.

The Physical BodyThe physical body is that part of the human beingthat presents itself to objective perceptionthat partwe have in common with everything else in visiblecreation. So obvious are its color and dimension, itssounds, smells and actions, that some would deny

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that there is anything of Man beyond what is physi-cal, beyond what is manifested in the materialworld. For, when studying the human body, we canbe left in awe of its wisdom-filled design and execu-tion. When considering the upper thigh bone, theheart, the eye, inner ear or brain, we not only gainan appreciation for the level of perfection the humanbody has achieved during its long evolution, but wemight also be convinced that in its complexity andmystery also lie the source of those unquantifiablequalities that raise us, at our best, to be individualswho are capable of moral action and selfless love.But morality and love do not spring from the physi-cal.

When we observe a human being, we have be-fore us not just the physical body, but a combinationof the physical with higher faculties. And, eventhough our body has a brain that reflects thoughts,and a nervous system that conveys sensations, inand of itself what is purely of a physical nature canneither think nor feel. We recognize that a piece ofrock crystal is physical, but in its very nature, it issomething quite different from the human brain, eyeor heart. The rock crystal is inert. But these organs,part of Man's physical body, are intermixed withhigher members. It is through such a system ofrelationships that something is brought about whichis completely different from other aspects of thephysical. To gain an insight into our physical na-ture, we need to take away from what appears beforeus everything that is not of a material nature.Eliminate all thoughts, sensations, feelings, mani-

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festations of willeverything of the human beingthat is not quantifiable or measurable. There thenwould remain a very wisely ordered, extremely com-plicated automaton, a purely physical apparatus.This is Man's physical body.

Perhaps the best way of appreciating just whatcomprises our physical bodywhat we have in com-mon with the material world around usis to con-sider the phenomenon of death. For the corpse is anexpression of the physical body without the interplayof these higher members. It is then easier to seethat our physical body is of the same nature as therest of the physical world. An investigation of thecorpse will reveal the same mineral forces at workwithin it as within the rest of the world of matterand energy. For once life departs, the purely physi-cal laws of nature hold sway, and the human formbegins little by little to disappear. It becomes com-pletely subject to the workings of the material world.

Thus death separates what is purely physicalfrom those higher components of the human beingthat build up and animate the body; separates whatis hidden from what is manifested in Man. Andalthough one requires clairvoyant sight to see thesehidden agents, one needs only sound observation andjudgment to see their effects.

The Life BodyThe phenomenon of death, therefore, introduces usto an invisible component of the human being thatbuilds up and gives form to our physical nature.Because physical laws are adapted to the destruction

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of lifeto rendering the body to dustduring everymoment of our life we must occupy ourselves with aninner battle against death. Plants, animals and menpossess this vital element which elaborates thephysical body and forestalls death. It is our lifeforce, and it interpenetrates our physical body.What we see when we look at a plant is really its lifebody made visible through the agency of the physi-cal, for by using building blocks from the materialworld, the life body constructs the physical body.

Although it can be referred to as the vital force,or the body of formative forces, in this book it will bedesignated the life body, in spite of the fact that ithas nothing of a bodily nature in the physical sense.The life body, therefore, is not a more rarefied physi-cal body, for it expresses the antithesis of what is ofa material nature. In this context, the term 'body'simply indicates that the life body has a spatial di-mension. But this spatial aspect does not excludeother bodies from occupying the same space.

One cannot grasp the nature of living things bymeans of the laws governing the outer world ofsense, and we cannot perceive the life force throughour ordinary senses. It is possible, however, throughpersistent meditative exercises, to unfold the organsnecessary for higher perception. We perceive thecolors and odors of living beings with our normalsenses. But, with these organs of higher perception,we perceive life itselfperceive the formative forcesthat permeate and animate the physical body. Forexample, if one regularly spends time imagining thelife cycle of the planthow the seed germinates,

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sprouts into stem and leaf, blossoms and bears fruit,to finally leave the seed behind as it diesan insightinto life processes will be achieved. Certain organsof supersensible perception will begin to open. Oncethis higher perception is developed, the supersensi-ble researcher can start investigating the invisibleaspects of the world around us with the same exact-ness and discipline as those researchers who areengaged in studying the physical nature of the uni-verse.

The life body, or body of formative forces, is thevital second principle of Man. It maintains andenlivens the form and function of all the members ofthe physical body. And except for rare situations,such as happens during near-death experiences, thelife body remains permanently united with thephysical body from soon after conception until death.(It is possible to experience a partial separation ofthe life body from the physical when one of our limbs"goes to sleep" from pressure exerted upon itwhena small part of our life body is extruded from thephysical body.)

The life body somewhat resembles the physicalin certain respects. In its upper part, it takes on theform of the physical body, although it extendsslightly beyond it. As it approaches the lower ex-tremities, it becomes more cloudy and indistinct.But unlike the physical body, the life body is lumi-nous and fluidic. Instead of distinct physical organs,there are flows of diverse colors1 that are centered in 1 Although the supersensible investigator does not see thesecolors in the physical sense, the psychic-spiritual impressions

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the heart. The area around the heart is a veritablevortex of life forces and streaming ethereal currents.By these currents, life itself is maintained andregulated.

Even though all other living things have lifebodies, the human being's life body is quite differentfrom a plant's. Once a certain stage of developmentis completed, a part of our life body is set freeis setaside and reserved for a unique purpose. Though itmay seem surprising, it is this free part of our lifebody that is the seat of our temperaments and ourmemory. Our life experiences and our consciousthoughts are impressed into the life body as memo-ries. These memories are then held fast by thephysical body. Because of this reserved part of ourlife body, a person can be educated, while a plantcannot.

Beyond enlivening and maintaining the physicalbody, the life body also contains the principle ofrepetition. The forces of growth, rhythm and repro-duction are also within its nature. In spite of thefact that the materials that comprise a living beingare continually changing, in spite of this continualrenewal of its elements, an organism remains con-stant during life, and its form is transmitted to itsdescendants. In fixing the form of living beings, thelife body thereby also determines species.

From observation of the plant kingdom, we canconclude that left to itself, a life body would remainin a perpetual state of sleep. It would maintain the received are similar in their effect as the impressions of physi-cal colors.

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physical body in a purely vegetative form of life. Butin the animal kingdom and in Man, there is some-thing that rouses us again and again from this un-conscious state into one illumined with the light ofconsciousness.

The Sentient BodyJust as that which gives life and form to our physicalnature cannot be perceived with bodily senses, so toothe process of perception, or the experience of paincan only be directly studied by a still higher order ofclairvoyant perception. (The direct perception ofthese higher principles is popularly called seeingsomeone's aura.)

In much the same way that we drew on thephenomenon of death to seek evidence of the lifeforce within Man, we can utilize the phenomenon ofdreamless sleep to lead us to the next higher princi-ple of human nature, that which bestows upon usour conscious capacities. For within the deeplysleeping individual, action and conscious perception,pain and pleasure, have all faded away. This is whythe surgeon will anesthetize a patient, have him "putto sleep", before beginning a painful procedure.

As the corpse evinces the withdrawal of a per-son's life body, the dreamless sleeping figure pro-vides us with a view of the human being lacking theactivity of this third principle. In the same way thatour life body animates and gives form to our physicalnature, another hidden element, designated thesentient body, irradiates Man and the animals withthe light of consciousness. It provides the faculty to

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bring the outer objective world into inner subjectiveexperience. This lighting up of consciousness, how-ever, has a destructive consequence.

As long as the sentient body is joined to thephysical and life bodies it can feel pleasure and pain,experience all the bounty of the senses. But thisvery activity brings about a fatiguedebilitates boththe physical body and the life body. It is necessaryto our very life that the sentient body expels thefatigue it produces. And it does just that when itwithdraws from the physical and life bodies duringsleep, allowing them to be renewed during its ab-sence. During this 'outbreathing' at night, the sen-tient body is in a world of its own nature, of univer-sal harmony from which it draws nourishment andstrength, bringing back freshly invigorated forces tothe waking individual.

But, as wondrous as this revitalizing activity is,there remains much that is imperfect. Incorporatedduring a later phase of our evolution, the sentientbody has not yet achieved the same level of perfec-tion as our physical and life principles. And, as weshall see in subsequent chapters, it has been infusedwith forces that run counter to the normal progressof evolution. It is because of this imperfection that itis able to destroy the harmony inherent within thephysical bodyto bring about sickness and disease.But even though it has had a shorter term of evolu-tion, in one sense the sentient body is that part ofthe human being that is closest to the self. What thehuman being experiences in differentiating betweenwell-being and misfortune, happiness and sorrow,

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emanates from the sentient body.Interestingly, unlike the life body which takes

on the opposite sex of the physical body (i.e. the lifebody of a female is masculine), the sentient or soulbody has both masculine and feminine aspects. Ittherefore is genderless. And the sentient body doesnot assume the form of the physical body as the lifebody does. It is egg-shapedan ovoid that extendsbeyond the physical body like a cloud. The upperpart of the sentient body is luminous and, since eachpassion has its corresponding 'astral' color, it cantake on all the colors of the rainbow according towhat passions animate it. For example, green isindicative of compassion for one's fellow man, whilea brownish-red reflects an affinity toward the lowerpassions. The clear conception of a logical thinkerwould be seen as a sharply defined yellowish figure,while a muddled thought has vague outlines. Withinthe sentient body are outlined a great number ofdifferent figures, complex variations of lines andraysmany like flashes of lightning, others in curi-ous twists. In the average person, the lower partlacks a certain order and regularity, and is still cha-otic and dark.

Although the life body constructs the physical, itis the sentient body that provides the guidance andstimulation, the archetypal patterns used by the lifebody in building up the physical form. Being themost volatile form of 'body', the sentient body isnonetheless still involved in the laws of heredity. Init is expressed what is felt to be the external, per-sonal peculiarity of an individual. Hence, inclina-

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tions, passions, etc. can pass from forefathers tochildren.

The "I Am" - The Ego2

There is that magic moment in the two-year-old's lifewhen the dawning of self-awareness transforms her"Mary wants a cookie", to "I want a cookie." For thefirst time, through an inner conscious activity, shehas perceived herself as separate from the rest of theworldis first given a glimpse of the primordialessence of her own spirit. This perception of the selfcomes about by our relating inner experiences tothings and events of the outer worldby comparingpresent experiences with those of the past. By pre-serving the past in memory, the 'I' holds conscious-ness together. It is only when the child begins toutter 'I' that the contents of her soul life become knittogether in a conscious unity. Of course her Egoexisted before this conscious revelation occurred, forit had been the actor in the infant's learning to walk,to speak and think.

In the infant, the continual colliding of the selfwith the external world brings about the dawning ofself-consciousness. As for ourselves, upon awakingeach morning, our 'I' reencounters the resistance ofour physical body. This experience is what reawak-ens the consciousness of our 'I'. Throughout ourworking day we do not really possess our 'I', but

2 The word Ego is used throughout in its original Greek senseto imply the spiritual essence of Man. The word Ego is anallusion to something which has only its image in the physicalworld, but does not itself exist here.

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rather we perceive it being reflected back from ourphysical body. Thus what we normally know as self-consciousness is a reflection, a mirror image of ourEgo. We can observe how this reflection ceases whenwe go to sleep, that this reflection of the 'I' is nolonger perceived. Yet in the morning when weawake, it enters our consciousness again.

Along with the dimming of consciousness, sleepalso involves a dimming of our will. We do not exertour will during sleep. But what is expressed in theword 'I' is a true act of will. This mental picture wehave of our 'I' is a reflection that arises when ourwill impinges on our body. Thus we see our own 'I'as an expression of will through its effect on thebody. This gives us our mental image of the 'I'. Onthe physical plane, the 'I' lives as an act of will.

Through self-consciousness, Man describes him-self as an independent being, separate from all oth-ers. This revelation of the 'I' within justifies us inregarding our Ego as our true being. Even though inone sense, our thoughts and feelings and actions canbe interpreted as the 'self', in another real sense ourbody and soul are only the carriers of the true es-sence of our being. They are the vehicles that allowus to perceive the effects of the 'I',the imperishablespirit that is Man himself.

To supersensible perception, the manifestationof the Ego could be sketched as an ensemble of raysbeing focused to a point lying less than one-half inchbehind the forehead. Slightly above the root of thenose, lying motionless like a tiny blue egg within themobile sentient body, sits an empty space that is the

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center of our Ego. From it radiate forces throughwhich the human being gains control over the sen-tient body. And the more the Ego is lord over bodyand soul, the more definitely organized, the morevaried and richly colored the aura becomes.

The Sentient, Intellectual and Spiritual Souls

As our bodily nature is comprised of three principles:its physical or material component, its vital life ele-ment, and its sentient or conscious attribute; Man isalso endowed with three 'soul' componentscompo-nents that enable us to think, feel, and act withconscious volition.

If we observe someone raising her hand, we canconsider the action from two different perspectives.We can examine the physical mechanism of the armto describe the nerve and muscle processes takingplace, or we can consider the inner motive, the soulprocess that initiates the movement. The supersen-sible researcher can see these soul processes behindall physical events.

As described earlier, our sentient body awakensus to the outer world by conveying to our inner beingwhat our senses perceive as odors and colors, heatand cold, pleasure and pain. But it is with the firstof our soul attributes, the sentient soul, that werespond to these stimuli, and experience attractionor repulsion, joy or sorrow, courage or fear. Oursentient soul, which forms a unity with our sentientbody, houses our world of feelings and emotions.Passion, joy, courage and duty are all bound up with

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it. When we speak of joy and sorrow, desires,wishes, etc. one is speaking of the sentient soul. It isthe seat of desires, impulses, emotions and passions.

But we are more than sentient beings with emo-tions and passionswe also think.

It is with thinking that we transcend the imme-diate experience of sensations, impulses, instinctsand passions. Unlike the animal kingdom, we incor-porate in our nature a system of rational laws. Themere sentient soul is therefore different and distinctfrom this higher member, the intellectual or rationalsoul, which brings thinking into its servicewhichinwardly experiences the harmony in its universe.Nature subjects man to its laws, but Man subjectshimself to the laws of thought. Unlike my feelings,which are always self-referential, my thoughts canbe universal, for thoughts need have no reference tothe self. Knowledge has significance independent offeelings, and truth carries its value in itself.

And, as it is with the true, so it is with the trulygood.

Moral goodness is independent of inclinations,passions and knowledge. By causing the self-existent true and good to come to life in our innerbeing, we develop within ourselves a still highersoul, one in which a moral world awakensin whichthe eternal spirit shines. A light is kindled in it thatis imperishable. And, in so far as the soul lives inthis light is it a participant in the eternal. That,which shines forth in our being as eternal, whichconveys to us the moral order of the universe, is thespiritual soul.