Eighth sphere
The eighth sphere is the name for an additional sphere of downward development that stands apart from the seven normal evolutionary spheres or planetary stages of our solar system evolution. In the normal development beings develop and rise along a ladder of Conditions of Consciousness.
The eighth sphere represents the opposition of normal or 'good' development, or evil, and the 'sixteen paths of perdition' to get off of this normal development. More specifically, the eighth sphere is connected with the extreme form of evil called black magic that appeared in the middle of the Atlantean epoch (see also: Rakshasas or Asuras and Sorat) and is reappearing again in the current fifth cultural age of the Current Postatlantean epoch.
For individuals who, out of free will, put themselves in the service of their egotism and devote their life to do conscious harm (as in black magic), the state of 'avitchi' (or avichi, see below) describes the state whereby these languish eternally as a 'place of no return', because their lower I or threefold soul has lost the connection with the higher or true spiritual I. The soul is banished into lower more animalistic levels and the personality eventually annihilated. (See explanations by Blavatsky below, and also Schemas FMC00.128 and FMC00.289 on Human 'I' that illustrate how Man's higher triad has its roots of essence in the higher worlds of budhi and nirvana planes, where there is and can be no evil. Hence the spiritual disconnects and closes down from such connections, and the soul below gets caught in a dead-end street.)
The future of all beings in the eighth sphere is that they are cast back to a lower level and are unable to participate in the evolution.
They can only be taken up into the regular evolution again after a whole round of evolution (or one cosmic breath of Brahma), when the First Logos 'recycles' the eighth sphere along with cosmic dust byproducts of evolution (see Schema FMC00.067B). In this case they return banished as manifesting as the lowermost entity.
Aspects
- The eighth sphere was created in the Lemurian epoch (see Man's higher triad and reference 1905-10-16-GA093A below) on the basis of the parts of the astral bodies that fell off when the higher triad united with the lower Man. It provides shelter for astral beings which have come into existence through the fact that Man has thrown something off. This is like the concept of a garbage collector for byproducts of the regular evolution, see also the concept of 'irredeemable moon' or 'unredeemable moon' on Future Venus.
- Ultimately, only the first Logos at the highest level of mahapara-nirvana is able to take up again anything which has fallen into the eighth sphere, takes it along with the cosmic dust for the next cycle of creation as the 'wheel of planes' goes full circle and stars anew (1904-11-10-GA089, see also illustration Schema FMC00.078).
- Man càn be torn out of evolution and be put on an entirely different course ... the adverse powers can and will tear part of mankind out of Earth evolution and to bring it into another planetary evolution. (ao 1924-09-22-GA346)
- The descriptions above do not contradict the fact that the evil will develop into future evil races (see Schema FMC00.077A on Creation of solar system), however with a turning point at the 666 evolutionary stage on Future Venus which is the 'last moment for salvation', as on Future Vulcan nothing more can be saved. See more on the topic page Evil.
- There is a link between the eighth sphere and the Moon as pointed out by Sinnett and Blavatsky, and corrected by Steiner (ao 1916-11-27-GA172)
Illustrations
Schema FMC00.078 shows the 'wheel of planes' (see Planes or worlds of consciousness) that positions the eighth sphere as outside of the normal evolution between mahapara-nirvana and the physical, and opposite of the budhi plane or world. See the lecture extract 1904-11-10-GA089 below.
Lecture coverage and references
The Eighth sphere is one of the topics for which the following historical background is relevant:
In 1883, A.P. Sinnett published 'Esoteric Buddhism', a book that became a widespread bestseller despite its esoteric content. Two years later, by 1885, the book was already in its fifth edition. The book contained erroneous information, and Helena Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine (1888) continued along such path of containing confusing or erroneous information - clearly from an angle that wanted to eradiate the teachings of the Christ Impulse.
This triggered a counter-reaction. In 1893 the unknown C.G. Harrison gave six (most probably inspired) lectures with deep esoteric contents. Later on Rudolf Steiner also publicly made statements and corrections about the above.
John - Book of Revelation
The beast that existed once but exists no longer is an eighth king, but really belongs to the seven and is headed for destruction.
other version:
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
1883 - A.P. Sinnett in'Esoteric Buddhism'
Entities of another kind occasionally to be found in Kamaloca have yet to be considered. We have followed the higher principles of persons recently dead, observing the separation of the astral dross from the spirituality durable portion; that spirituality durable portion being either holy or Satanic in its nature, and provided for in Devachan or Avitchi accordingly. We have examined the nature of the elementary shell cast off and preserving for a time a deceptive resemblance to a true entity; we have paid attention also to the exceptional cases of real four-principled beings in Kamaloca who are the victims of accident or suicide. But what happens to a personality which has absolutely no atom of spirituality, no trace of spiritual affinity in its fifth principle, either of the good or bad sort? Clearly in such a case there is nothing for the sixth principle to attract to itself. Or, in other words, such a personality has already lost its sixth principle by the time death comes.
But Kamaloca is no more a sphere of existence for such a personality than the subjective world; Kamaloca may be permanently inhabited by astral beings, by elementals, but can only be an antechamber to some other state for human beings. In the case imagined, the surviving personality is promptly drawn into the current of its future destinies, and these have nothing to do with this Earth’s atmosphere or with Devachan, but with that “eighth sphere” of which occasional mention will be found in older occult writings. It will have been unintelligible to ordinary readers hitherto why it was called the “eighth” sphere, but since the explanation, now given out for the first time, of the sevenfold constitution of our planetary system, the meaning will be clear enough.
The spheres of the cyclic process of evolution are seven in number, but there is an eighth in connection with our Earth, our earth being, it will be remembered, the turning-point in the cyclic chain, and this eighth sphere is out of circuit, a cul de sac, and the bourne from which it may be truly said no traveller returns.
It will readily be guessed that the only sphere connected with our planetary chain, which is lower than our own in the scale, having spirit at the top and matter at the bottom, must itself be no less visible to the eye and to optical instruments than the Earth itself, and as the duties which this sphere has to perform in our planetary system are immediately associated with this Earth, there is not much mystery left now in the riddle of the eighth sphere, nor as to the place in the sky where it may be sought. The conditions of existence there, however, are topics on which the adepts are very reserved in their communications to uninitiated pupils, and concerning these I have for the present no further information to give.
One statement though is definitely made-viz., that such a total degradation of a personality as may suffice to draw it, after death, into the attraction of the eighth sphere, is of very rare occurrence. From the vast majority of lives there is something which the higher principles may draw to themselves, something to redeem the page of existence just passed from total destruction, and here it must be remembered that the recollections of life in Devachan, very vivid as they are, as far as they go, touch only those episodes in life that are productive of the elevated sort of happiness of which alone Devachan is qualified to take cognizance, whereas the life from which, for the time being, the cream is thus skimmed, may come to be remembered eventually in all its details quite fully.
Man: fragments of forgotten history (1885)
Given the fact there is little information available about the eighth sphere (and rakshasas), we quote the following extract in full, from Man: fragments of forgotten history (1885) (p. 134-135). The book is downloadable from the Evolution page.
Rakshasas (demons), souls or astral forms of sorcerers, men who have reached the apex of knowledge in the forbidden art.
Dead or alive, they have, so to say, cheated Nature, and will defy the order of the general evolution until our planet goes into obscuration, when they will have to turn round and fall into the main current, and have a fresh start in the course of life. The Atlanteans are often referred to by this name in Sanskrit writings.
Most of the magical feats performed by the dabblers in black magic are performed with the help of elementals, and in rare cases also with the aid of elementaries. The more potent evil forces in Nature are known only to the regular adepts in that evil science. Some depraved persons do by the help of black magic obtain husbands and wives from the elemental beings, which, having no definite forms, will readily bring to life the ideal they find present in the magician's mind. Elementaries of suicides, or victims of accident, specially those who die by lightning, are much sought after by black magicians : the reason for this preference is obvious. Black magic also gives to its votaries the power of obsessing living men and women. This vile art was at its height during the close of the Atlantean race period, when the everlasting struggle between the black magicians and the Adepts of the Good Law raged most fiercely.
Sorcerers and black magicians, the most powerful of those vile fraternities, attain at the conclusion of a great cycle of activity, what is called Avitchi-Nirvana. At the beginning of the next period of activity they commence a nameless life of spiritual wickedness, to be ended only at the next period of rest. The name of these beings of misery and horror, the cursed alike of man and god, is never pronounced or written, but they have nothing to do with the mortals who pass through the seven spheres.
These are the habitants of the eighth sphere, which has sixteen grades [editor: see also 1908-05-16-GA102 in the Discussion section of page of Human races]. In the first fourteen of these the entity loses, after prolonged periods of suffering, its seven astral and seven spiritual senses. The mysteries of the last two grades are never communicated outside the sanctuary of initiation.
It may be stated, however, that from the last, the entity, having lost the accumulated vile energy of its past, emerges as a new individuality, to begin a new course from the lowest rung of the ladder of life.
Explaining this subject of the so-called personal annihilation our Teacher says :
"At this point the great law begins its work of selection. Matter, found divorced from spirit as far as that possible, is thrown over into the still lower worlds, into the sixth 'gate' or way of re-birth in the vegetable and mineral worlds, and also in the primitive animal forms. From thence matter, ground over in the workshop of Nature, proceeds soulless back to its mother fount, while the egos, purified of their dross, are enabled to resume their progress once more on earth. It is here that the laggard egos perish by the million. It is the solemn moment of the survival of the fittest, the annihilation of the unfit. It is but matter (or material man) which is compelled by its own weight to descend to the very bottom of the 'circle of necessity', to then assume an animal form. Of course the monad never perishes, whatever happens."
To prevent a misunderstanding it is necessary to point out that what the Master says above does not warrant the belief in a retrogression of souls. A human spirit will never inhabit the form of an animal.
In its descent through the 'circle of necessity' it loses all trace of humanity, and then the colourless monad begins to reascend through the different grades. It is as absurd to accuse a man of cannibalism if he eats a turnip grown in a graveyard, as to construe the esoteric doctrine expounded by the Master into a justification of the vulgar idea of the transmigration of souls.
C. J. Harrison in The Transcendental Universe (1893)
... It will be my duty to explain, to the best of my ability, certain facts in connection with a mystery known as the Mystery of the Eighth Sphere. ... Now I am well aware that there are many occultists who say the subject ought not to be brought before the public at all, and object to the very name being mentioned, ... In reply to such persons it is due to myself to say I am breaking no oath, and violating no confidence. These lectures were advertised in the public journals, and all who choose to attend them are welcome. I regret to be obliged to differ from many persons, whom I hold in the highest respect, as to whether or not the times are ripe for mentioning these subjects. They have been mentioned — prudently or imprudently — and are familiar to all who have taken an interest in the Theosophical Movement ... The first person, however, to profane the mysteries (albeit unconsciously) was Mr. Sinnett, the author of Esoteric Buddhism, a book which made considerable sensation when it came out, but which contains nothing new that is true, and nothing true that is new.
As he was the first to make public the information that there is an “eighth sphere” and a mystery connected with it of which he is ignorant, it may be as well to say that both these statements are true.
But when he proceeds to say that the Eighth Sphere is the Moon, he gives utterance to one of those half-truths that are more misleading than falsehoods ...
Readers of Esoteric Buddhism will remember that Man is said therein to evolve on seven planets; three of which (including the Earth) are visible, and the other four composed of matter too attenuated to be visible.
Also that there is an eighth planet, the moon, in which matter “asserts itself” yet more strongly than on the Earth. Anything more utterly misleading it is impossible to conceive.
Madame Blavatsky, who knew very well that this kind of thing was sure to be exposed sooner or later, has in her Secret Doctrine corrected some of the errors, but as she has not chosen to elucidate any portion of the mystery except such as suit her purpose, and as she is destitute, moreover, of the literary gifts of her disciple, her teaching in respect to the Seven Planets and the Eighth Sphere will be “caviare to the General”, who will continue to regard Mr. Sinnett's explanation as the genuine “Esoteric Buddhism” ..
1904-11-10-GA089
is key, in order to be understood, the short extract below needs to be read in full context of the whole lecture.
With reference to Schema FMC00.078 above (and for context see also Schema FMC00.400 and variant on Cosmic breath of Brahma).
.. Two planes that are in opposite positions correspond. On the astral plane, desire rules, on the para nirvana plane love, budhi. On the mental plane, perception rules, taking in the thought; on the mahapara nirvana plane the creative thought rules.
The budhi plane is absolute, loving dedication to the divine. Its opposite is a state of having completely tumed away from all that is divine. Where the budhi plane is beatific, its opposite has absolute wretchedness. That is the eighth sphere.
...
Imagine a particular entity has turned its back on evolution on some plane or other, going its own way. It would fall into the eighth sphere and would have to wait until the whole of evolution has gone round. It could only be taken along again, as lowermost entity, in the next evolution.
...
Only the first Logos is able to take up again anything which has fallen into the eighth sphere. It takes it along with the cosmic dust. To be cast out from evolution is to link one's life to something which inexorably remains behind, without fail, and to wait until evolution once again coincides with the state in question. A native of an uncivilized wild place with the soul of such a native is relatively happy; but imagine a more highly developed spirit in the body of such a native or even a dog, that is banishment indeed. The higher soul has taken the road to a lower manifestation.
To 'go into the eighth sphere' does indeed mean to be no longer progressing in accord with evolution, to be unable to participate in the evolution of the others, but to be cast back to a lower level.
...
On the mahapara nirvana plane it is the creative conscious mind of the Logos. This moves on from there through the eighth sphere and on to the physical plane, where it becomes the creative powers of nature.
1905-10-09-GA093A
Beside these there is an Eighth Sphere to which everything goes that cannot make any connection with this continuous evolution. This already forms itself as predisposition in the devachanic state. When a human being uses the life on earth only to amass what is of service to himself alone, only to experience an intensification of his own egotistical self, this leads in Devachan into the condition of Avitchi. A person who cannot escape from his own separateness goes into Avitchi. All these Avitchi men will eventually become inhabitants of the Eighth Sphere. The other human beings will be inhabitants of the continuing chain of evolution. It is from this concept that religions have formulated the doctrine of hell.
1905-10-16-GA093A
At that time, the union took place between these forms on the Earth and the other beings already described. The astral body with the head formation united with the winged-serpent body with its fiery opening. It was the fructification of the maternal earth with the paternal spirit.
In this way there proceeded the fructification with the manas forces. The lower astral body merged with the higher astral body. A great part of the astral body, as it then was, fell away.
- One portion formed the lower parts of the human astral body, and
- the other newly acquired astral body, connected with the head, united with the upper parts of the human being.
- What was then peeled off abandoned this astral body which was bound up with the form of the winged-serpent; it could no longer have any further development on the Earth. It formed, as a conglomerate substance, the astral sphere of the moon, the so-called eighth sphere. The moon actually provides shelter for astral beings which have come into existence through the fact that Man has thrown something off.
1908-05-16-GA102
(SWCC) talks about the downward evolution and the segment of that does not reach the evolutionary goals. Like during the previous evolutionary phases, they give rise to the lower kingdoms (see off-springs, and how the current nature kingdoms are also a result of this process .. plants and animals did not make it through the evolutionary funnel as Man did). In the future, these will be the degenerated versions of Man that will give rise to the 'evil' kingdoms.
.. Mankind will have gone forward but they too will appear in an ever progressed form. He however who thrusts the Leader of humanity from him must reappear again and again in the same way. That is the legend of Ahasuerus, who has thrust from him the Christ, the Leader of humanity. Man has either hardened or possesses the possibility of developing to higher stages. Races would not stay behind and become decadent if there were not men who wish to stay behind and are obliged to stay behind, since they have not developed their eternal life-kernel. Older races only persist because there are men who cannot or will not move forward to a higher racial form. I cannot today speak about the whole series of possibilities, in the course of earthly evolution, for man to become one with the race, to grow together with what is the character of one race or another. Think of the Atlantean race; souls have gone through it, but not all have passed out of it. There are sixteen possibilities of becoming merged with the race. They are called the “sixteen paths of perdition.” On these paths man would merge with the material. By striving forward, however, he is drawn up from race to race to ever higher stages.
We see then that it is actually possible for a man to combine with the one incarnation in such a way that he remains behind in evolution. His other soul-brothers are therefore at a higher stage when he reappears in a new incarnation. He must then content himself with an inferior incarnation which has been left to him in a decadent race. This is something that takes place, but it need not frighten people for the present phase of evolution. No one is obliged to take all the sixteen paths and thereby fall out of evolution. We must only be aware of the possibility.
Now let us take an extreme case and imagine that a man unites too fully with what is to constitute the character of an incarnation. Let us suppose he reaches what is to be reached in sixteen incarnations; he takes the sixteen false paths. The earth does not wait for him, the earth goes forward and he finally arrives at a point where he can no longer incorporate in a human body, for none are in existence. There will be no more bodies in which souls that have grown too much involved in their bodily nature can incarnate. Such souls lose the possibility of incarnation and find no other opportunity. Just think what they will have lost. It is possible, but only in exceptional cases, that even during Earth evolution souls will be unable to incarnate because there are no more bodies bad enough. These men have gone so far that they have no other opportunity of incarnating in the normal course of evolution. Let us suppose such beings should remain on the earth — it will only be single cases. And now, since the later is the fruit of the earlier, these would then find no bodies suitable for them. They are, as it were, too good for the bodies of a subordinate order and for the other bodies they are too bad. They must therefore live a bodiless existence. They must cut themselves off entirely from the progress of evolution.
Why have they deserved this? By reason of the fact that they have not made use of life! The world is around them; they have possessed senses in order to perceive the world, to enrich the life-kernel and mold it to a higher stage. They do not advance with world evolution, they remain behind at a certain stage. Beings that stay behind at such stages appear in a later epoch with approximately the character of the earlier age. They have grown together with it, but not in the forms of the later epoch. They appear in a later epoch as subordinate nature-spirits.
In fact the human race will furnish a whole number of such new nature-spirits in the second half of the Future Jupiter evolution, for man will have fully completed the fifth principle at the Future Jupiter stage. For those who have not used the opportunity on Earth to develop the fifth principle there will be no available form. They will appear as nature-spirits and they will appear then with four principles, the fourth being the highest. Whereas the normally advanced man will have the principles 5, 4, 3, 2 at the Future Jupiter stage, these men will have 4, 3, 2, 1. That would be the destiny of those who have not gradually developed their higher principles by making use of earthly life. They become nature-spirits, so to speak, of future evolutionary periods, working invisibly. Just the same occurred in the case of our present nature-spirits in the earlier periods of evolution, except in so far as there are, of course, continual changes according to the character of the different periods. Everything has now been graded, so to speak, according to moral responsibility, and because this is so, the nature-spirits that arise from the human race will have a certain morality. Upon Future Jupiter there will be nature-spirits which have moral responsibility.
Let us now recollect what I have said as to how Future Jupiter differs from our Earth. We have described the nature of the Earth as that of the planet of Love, in contrast to the nature of Old Moon, the planet of Wisdom. As love has evolved on Earth so did the wisdom that we find all around us evolve on Old Moon. Love in its lowest form originated in the Lemurian epoch and becomes transformed to ever higher stages up to the highest spiritual form. When in the future the Earth planet appears as Future Jupiter, the Future Jupiter dwellers will direct their gaze upon love as men on Earth do upon wisdom. We observe the thigh bone into which wisdom is woven; the whole Earth is in a certain sense crystallized wisdom, which was formed little by little on Old Moon. But wisdom was formed gradually just as on our Earth love is gradually formed. And just as we wonder at the wisdom in all that surrounds us, so he who will one day inhabit Future Jupiter will feel wafting towards him the love that will lie in all things. This love will stream forth from all beings and speak to us, as the wisdom speaks to us which is secreted into the Earth through the Old Moon existence.
Thus the cosmos moves forward from stage to stage. The Earth is the cosmos of Love, and every condition has its special task. As a common wisdom prevails throughout our Earth, so will a common love prevail throughout Future Jupiter.
And as the destructive forces of wisdom originate from those beings who stayed behind on Old Moon, so there will appear upon Future Jupiter the destructive forces of love from beings who have remained behind. Into the midst of the general tapestry of the Future Jupiter existence will be set the hideous forms of the retarded beings with egoistic demands for love and they will be the mighty devastating powers in the Future Jupiter existence. The staying behind of human beings in individual incarnations creates the destructive nature-powers on Future Jupiter. Thus we see how the world is woven, harmful elements as well as beneficent; we have a moral element woven into the world process.
1909-05-21-GA104A
In the age when the sixth seal is broken the “people of twelve” will appear. The salvation of the “great whore of Babylon” will also occur in the sixth age. In this sixth age the Earth will have repeated the Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon stages, as well as the Earth condition itself and 'Future Jupiter-Earth'.
On 'Future Venus-Earth' the Earth will finally have the five rounds [editor: Conditions of Life are meant here, see Earth rounds perspective] behind it. Then the sixth state will have come.
Nevertheless, the Vulcan state for the chosen will not be present yet. For this reason we read
[“And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come ...”] “... five are fallen ...” and the remnant that has maintained itself: “... one is ...” and the seventh: “the other has not yet come.” (Rev. 17:10)
We see how we again find the messages of the writer of the Apocalypse in Theosophy.
[editor: see Revelation 17 to position this statement, in context of the 'beast' .. eg Rev. 17:11: "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition."]
But those who have proven themselves to be immature in the Future Venus stage, who have placed themselves under the rulership of Sorat, must now isolate themselves on a special sphere of Earth while the other seven proceed downward and again upward.
Thus the colony of Sorat falls away. The black magicians inhabit this eighth sphere, which goes to the left and away, and the beast gives a home to all that thus falls away: that is the eighth state.
[editor: hence this links this Sorat to the 'best with the seven heads and ten horns' as described in Revelation]
1915-10-18-GA254
is the lecture where Rudolf Steiner spends most 'airtime' on the topic, but without going any more in depth as clearly this is another audience in another context.
This will give you an inkling that the Eighth Sphere is to be observed within the Earth Sphere. It cannot properly be drawn either above or below; to depict the reality it would have to be sketched into the Earth Sphere. I have often given a crude example to express what is here meant. Just as the physical air is around us, so is the Spiritual around us; we have to look for the Spiritual within what is actually physical in our environment. Hence it must be presumed that just as the spiritual is round about us, so we must also look for the Eighth Sphere in our environment. This means that an organ enabling man to perceive the Eighth Sphere would have to be developed, just as his physical senses enable him to perceive the material Earth. He could then experience the Eighth Sphere quite consciously; but unconsciously he is always within it just as we are always within the air, even if we are not aware of it. And if we have developed an organ for experiencing the Eighth Sphere, we are conscious of it around us. So that if the Eighth Sphere is to be described, it must obviously be described as a realm in which we are living all the time.
..
If the Spirits of Form had achieved everything that their own nature desires and moreover is able to achieve, when the mission of Sphere Three was fulfilled in the Cosmos, Sphere Four would have arisen quite naturally from Sphere Three. That is obvious.
But we know that Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits are at work — and they hold back for themselves something of the Old Moon substantiality, wrest it away, as it were, from the Spirits of Form. The fact that Lucifer and Ahriman do so is indicative of their essential nature. Thus as Sphere Three is advancing to a further stage, something is wrested from the Spirits of Form by Lucifer and Ahriman; into this part that is wrested away, Lucifer and Ahriman penetrate, instead of the Spirits of Form. The activities of Lucifer and Ahriman are added to those of the Spirits of Movement and, as a result, Eight arises out of Three. (Note by translator: The Eighth Sphere out of the Third Sphere.)
..
Let me express it schematically, as follows: On the Old Moon certain pictures were present. These should have passed over to the Earth as something everywhere perceptible. But Lucifer and Ahriman retained them for themselves. Lucifer and Ahriman wrested from the Earth certain of its constituents and made them into Imaginations, so that these Earth-substances became, not Earthly formations, but Moon formations. Into our Fourth Sphere, therefore, there has been instilled a sphere that is really a Moon-sphere, but is filled with Earthly substantiality and is therefore a bogus creation in the Universe. To the seven Spheres, an Eighth, created in opposition to the progressive Spirits, has been added. The necessary consequence of this is that the Spirits of Form must do battle on the Earth for every morsel of substantiality capable of mineralisation, lest it should be wrested from them by Lucifer and Ahriman and borne into the Eighth Sphere.
In truth, therefore, our Earth (the fourth sphere) is simply not what it appears outwardly to be. Were it really to consist of atoms, all these atoms would still be impregnated by formations belonging to the eighth sphere — which are perceptible only to visionary clairvoyance. These formations are present everywhere; so too is the spectre-like content of the Eighth Sphere which can therefore be perceived just as actual spectres are perceived. All earthly being and existence are involved here. Lucifer and Ahriman strive unceasingly to draw from the Earth's substances whatever they can snatch, in order to form their Eighth Sphere which then, when it is sufficiently advanced, will be detached from the Earth and go its own way in the Cosmos together with Lucifer and Ahriman. Needless to say, the Earth would then pass over to Jupiter as a mere torso. But man, as you realise, has his established place in the whole of Earth-evolution, for he is mineralised through and through. We are permeated by the mineralising process which is itself drawn into this battle, so that morsels of this substance can be continually wrested from it. Therefore we ourselves are involved in the battle. Lucifer and Ahriman battle against the Spirits of Form, with the aim of wresting mineral substance from us everywhere.
..
And everything that passes in this way into the eighth sphere disappears from Earth evolution, does not go forward in the right way with Earth evolution.
1916-11-27-GA172
[eighth sphere and moon]
... what is called the eighth sphere was introduced into earthly evolution in ancient times.
As one of its aspects, the eighth sphere consists of Man's acquiring such a preference for and attachment to his lower nature that Lucifer is not able to remove the higher nature from it. Every time Lucifer endeavored to spiritualize human beings, they were too strongly habituated to the flesh to follow him. If they had not been possessed by this cleaving to the flesh, to the physical nature, they would have followed Lucifer. This is one of the great mysteries of cosmic existence, that a divine element was actually implanted in human nature so that it might have, as it were, a greater heaviness than it would have possessed if this divine and necessary element had not been implanted in it. If it had not been implanted, human souls would have obeyed Lucifer. When we go back into ancient times, we find everywhere that the religions lay emphasis on the necessity of human beings reverencing what is earthly, what is an earthly connection living in flesh and blood so that they may be heavy enough not to be led out into the universe. Since all things having a relationship to both the human and the cosmic require not only an earthly, but also a cosmic arrangement, what you find described in my 'Outline of Esoteric Science' occurred.
At a certain time .. not only was the Earth formed, revolving in its orbit around the sun, but it was provided with the moon as its satellite. What does it mean that the Earth has a moon as its satellite? It means nothing more than that it acquired a force through which it can attract and hold the moon nearby. Should the Earth not possess this power to hold the moon, then the spiritual correlative of this force would not be able to chain man to his lower nature because this force, from the spiritual point of view, is the same as that with which the earth attracts the moon. It may be said, then, that the moon is placed in the universe as an opponent of Lucifer in order to hinder him.
I have already alluded to this mystery and pointed out that in the period of materialism of the nineteenth century, this truth has been exactly reversed in Sinnet's book, 'Esoteric Buddhism'. There the moon is described as something actually hostile to man.
The truth is that it is not hostile to him but prevents him from falling victim to the temptation of Lucifer; it acts as the cosmic correlative of what constitutes the attachment of the human being to his lower nature. Rather than tearing the souls out of the lower nature and thereby preventing its concomitant spiritualization, a subconscious process was required. Had the arrangement been conscious, Man would have followed the urges of his lower nature in full consciousness and would have sunk to the animal level. There had to be something in the lower nature of which man was not conscious and which he did not follow except as a human being on earth would follow what flowed into his lower nature as a divine element. Especially the God of the Old Testament, the Jahve God, was concerned that the human being should remain on earth. Jahve is connected in this mysterious way with the moon, as you will find explained also in Occult Science.
From this statement you can estimate how materialistic it was to designate the moon as the eighth sphere, whereas it really is the force itself, the sphere, that attracts the moon. In her misguided ways, Blavatsky developed special malice in her Secret Doctrine by maligning Jehovah as a mere moon god. She wanted to replace him with Lucifer whom she undertook to represent as the friend of the spirit. To be sure, Lucifer is just that, but only in the particular sense I have explained. Blavatsky tried to represent the Jahve God as the god of the mere lower nature, whereas what really constituted an opposition to Lucifer was implanted in the lower nature.
You see how dangerous it is to set up truths that may be perverted to their opposite. Blavatsky was misled by certain beings who had an interest in guiding her into putting Lucifer in the place of Christ, and this was to be achieved by introducing precisely the opposite of the truth of the eighth sphere and by maligning the Jahve God, representing him merely as the god of the lower nature. Thus did those cosmic powers who desired to advance materialism work even through what was called “theosophy.” Materialism would obviously have sunk to its worst abyss if men had come to believe that the moon was really the eighth sphere in the sense indicated by Sinnett or Blavatsky, and that Christianity must be fought in every way.
1924-09-22-GA346
Now this Ahrimanic power who is called Satan in Christian tradition lacks the strength to work up further than the human level of cosmic beings. So one shouldn't think that the intelligence of an angel, for instance, could be taken hold of directly by this Satanic power; this can only happen in certain exceptional cases. These exceptional cases that could occur in the future, where it might not only be possible for the Satanic power to chain men to himself through their intellects, but also to bind beings from the spheres of the angels and namely of the archangels to himself — these things still belong to the higher secrets of occultism that cannot be spoken about at present, and that can only be disclosed under certain conditions. So we can only indicate that a temptation and a seduction of beings in the hierarchy of angels and namely of archangels might be possible in the future, but we must reckon with the fact that the power who is called Satan in Christian tradition has the ability to cling to something in man's inner life that is as independent as his intellectuality. And then when the intellectuality which men contain is taken hold of by the Ahrimanic power, a Man can be torn out of evolution and can be put on an entirely different course, simply because his being is pulled along with the intelligence with which Satan is able to connect himself.
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To be sure, Satan can use this great moment in the evolution of humanity and he can pull men's intelligences and the men with it into his own realm. We can already see how the Satanic power is trying to bring men into its evolution in this way. The way to do this is to bring people together in the kind of associations that we see arising everywhere in a germinal form today, where the old group souls end and a new group-soulness can begin.
That is why what is occurring in eastern Europe today, for instance, is so terribly Satanic because it all tends very forcibly in the direction of putting people together in such a way that group souls become necessary. If the most intelligent people are then taken over into the lower Ahrimanic regions in this way, the groups that are formed here can only be assigned to Ahrimanic powers as groups. That would be a way for the Satanic powers to tear mankind out of Earth evolution and to bring it into another planetary evolution. That kind of activity with a group soul character can only succeed if the intellectual element becomes completely emancipated in a certain way.
The state of avichi
The references below are to be read together with references made to the state of avitchi in other sources (ao see above on this page). Note that Blavatsky uses the term 'avichi' without 't', other sources used 'avitchi'.
First, see the quote from the reference higher on this page: Eighth sphere#Man: fragments of forgotten history .281885.29, dating from 1885
Sorcerers and black magicians, the most powerful of those vile fraternities, attain at the conclusion of a great cycle of activity, what is called Avitchi-Nirvana. At the beginning of the next period of activity they commence a nameless life of spiritual wickedness, to be ended only at the next period of rest. ..
These are the habitants of the eighth sphere, which has sixteen grades ... In the first fourteen of these the entity loses, after prolonged periods of suffering, its seven astral and seven spiritual senses. The mysteries of the last two grades are never communicated outside the sanctuary of initiation. It may be stated, however, that from the last, the entity, having lost the accumulated vile energy of its past, emerges as a new individuality, to begin a new course from the lowest rung of the ladder of life.
Explaining this subject of the so-called personal annihilation our Teacher says :
"At this point the great law begins its work of selection. Matter, found divorced from spirit as far as that possible, is thrown over into the still lower worlds, into the sixth 'gate' or way of re-birth in the vegetable and mineral worlds, and also in the primitive animal forms. From thence matter, ground over in the workshop of Nature, proceeds soulless back to its mother fount, while the egos, purified of their dross, are enabled to resume their progress once more on earth.
It is here that the laggard I's perish by the million. It is the solemn moment of the survival of the fittest, the annihilation of the unfit. It is but matter (or material man) which is compelled by its own weight to descend to the very bottom of the 'circle of necessity', to then assume an animal form. Of course the monad never perishes, whatever happens."
Helena Blavatsky
comments as follows on the state of avitchi - for reference see theosophy.wiki for the topic.
The state of avichi begins when the lower quaternary (the four lowest of Man's bodily principles) retains only the most personal aspect of the soul but, due to its absolute lack of spirituality, loses its connection with the higher I or Man's higher triad. The person then becomes a soulless entity destined to suffer annihilation sooner or later. (SWCC)
The personal soul in this case .. this personal soul becomes separated from the I. It can graft nothing of Self on that eternal trunk whose sap throws out millions of personalities, like so many leaves from its branches, leaves which wither and die and fall at the end of their season. These personalities bud, blossom forth and expire, some without leaving a trace behind, others after commingling their own life with that of the parent stem. It is the souls of the former class that are doomed to annihilation, or avichi.
Note: for the distinction in bold between the soul and the I, see Human character - the I and threefold soul Upto a certain stage there is hope still to escape back out of this state:
While yet in the body which has lost its higher “Soul” through its vices, there is still hope for such a person. He may be still redeemed and made to turn on his material nature; in which case either an intense feeling of repentence, or one single earnest appeal to the I that has fled, or best of all, an active effort to mend one’s ways, may bring the Higher I back again. The thread or connection is not altogether broken, though the I gets beyond forcible reach .. but it is not yet totally beyond hearing a strong spiritual appeal.
The result is that a soul in the avichi state is in a loop of incarnations that become more animalistic without improvement path or way to get out
.. expelled forever from the consciousness of the Individuality (the reincarnating I) .. the now separate personality immediately reincarnates .. only in a lower and still more abject creature, a human being only in form, doomed to karmic torments during the whole of its new life. If it persists in its criminal or debauched course, it will suffer a long series of such immediate reincarnations.
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