Man's transformation and spiritualization

In the current stage of development on the planetary stage Earth, Man has received his 'I'-consciousness that sets him apart and above the other lower kingdoms of creation on earth. Man is made up of four developed, and three latent bodily principles.

Man's 'I' or threefold soul is 'pivotal' in that it is the vehicle or instrument for transformation of the lower bodily principles: Man's astral body, etheric body and physical body .. into their spiritualized counterpart versions: the spirit-self, life-spirit and spirit-man.

This spiritualization is the developmental direction that will happen 'anyway' through evolution in the next cultural ages, epochs, and planetary stages. Schema FMC00.130 represents this in a high level overview, see schema FMC00.047 on Development of the I for the next cultural ages in our current epoch.

However as always, not all entities reach the development goal of each developmental stage, resulting in the evolutionary 'funnel' whereby certain cohorts are left behind and 'pushed down' whereas the others move on and 'develop upwards'. In this way the current mineral, plant and animal kingdoms are the resulting 'lower kingdoms' of the entities that were not able to make the development targets at each stage - in comparison with Man. Another aspect of this evolutionary funnel is the creation of 'off-springs' such as elementals.

When Man, who has now received conscious awareness, and free will, actively starts this work of self-improvement and development, it is referred to as 'the great Work'. Specific development techniques exist, and to follow this process is called 'initiation'.

The spiritual guidance of Mankind by the teachers of humanity through the ages (see the White Lodge) serves to help and support Man with teachings that present the precepts for living the best life possible and fulfill the criteria for the correct development. An example is the 'golden rule' that can be found in all religions, see the Golden rule.

Aspects

• spiritualization by transformation of the three lower bodily principles happens via the conscious 'I' into the three higher principles of Man's higher triad (1908-06-26-GA104 quote B, 1909-04-18-GA110)
• the crucial role of developing the consciousness soul
  • when the consciousness is developed, Man becomes receptive for the higher triad that draws near as a spiritual fructification (1910-09-11-GA123)
• the further spiritualization to life-spirit or budhi with the Christ Impulse, is explained on the Kundalini page, see: Kundalini#.5B3.5D - The process of illumination
• attitude of soul
  • suffering: a destroying process of the lower by the side of a creating process of the higher, see Christ Module 4 - Mystery of the Blood
• the process between death and a new birth
  • the higher triad and bodily principles develop in a very significant way between death and a new birth, the fruits of the previous life are added to the causal body or spirit-self, and the development of the future incarnation in the spiritual worlds is taking a step forward based on the learnings from the previous life
• Initiation and Initiation exercises and
  • how they affect the bodily constitution, elemental balance, and the blood. See also Kundalini and Discussion area below.
  • how this affects the development of the chakras or lotus flowers, and the clairvoyance resulting from this process, see Schema FMC00.129 below
• future evolution
  • During development of the higher Self, Man takes conscious control over, and separates again, the various forces that work in his lower consciousness. First and currently those are the soul forces of TFW. With still higher development, Man takes control over twelve such centers in order to attain higher consciousness. This way Man takes control of his twelve parts, and splits his human etheric body in twelve parts. (1905-08-13-GA091)
    • such highly developed integrated etheric body, consisting of various independant limbs or parts is called 'transformation body' or Nirmanakaya and can be copied through division. Example of such is Buddha. (see 1909-09-17-GA114 and 1909-09-18-GA114, and 1909-10-18-GA117, no extracts yet)
• chances for spiritualization ('being saved') - see also Schema FMC00.427A on Evil
  • four stages: the first during the seven epochs, then during next Earth's CoC/CoL , during Future Jupiter, and during Future Venus (1904-05-XX-GA090A)
  • see also Sixteen paths of perdition and ao Note [2]

Inspirational quotes

1909-04-10-GA109 (on: Etherization of blood#1909-04-10-GA109)

All the members of this physical body must be gradually spiritualized in our life on Earth so that everything that makes human beings out of us, through the influx of the divine breath is profoundly spiritualized. ... Since everything material is born out of the spirit, the spirit will again rise from matter.

1917-10-26-GA177

.. human beings must be released from the earth, torn away from it, with part of their essential nature taken back into the spiritual world.

Humanity must develop awareness of not being of this earth, and this must grow stronger and stronger. A feeling of belonging to the spiritual world must develop in us.

In their souls human beings will tear themselves away from the physical and earthly element and be citizens of the worlds of the spirit.

1922 and 1923 - Rainer Maria Rilke

From Duineser Elegien (1923)

Was, wenn Verwandlung nicht, ist dein drängender Auftrag?

..

What, if not transformation, is your urgent mission?

English translation of the poem 'O das Neue, Freunde, ist nicht dies' (1922)

translation Stephen Michell - unfortunately as always the poem works differently in the original language (see also read version in DE)

The New, my friends, is not a matter of letting machines force out our handiwork.

Don’t be confused by change; soon those who have praised the “New” will realize their mistake.

For look, the Whole is infinitely newer ... than a cable or a high apartment house.

The stars keep blazing with an ancient fire, and all more recent fires will fade out.

Not even the longest, strongest of transmissions can turn the wheels of what will be.

Across the moment, aeons speak with aeons.

More than we experienced has gone by.

And the future holds the most remote event in union with what we most deeply want

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.174 projects Man into the force substance representation framework with descent and re-ascent at high conceptual level

Schema FMC00.130 provides a simple tabular overview of evolution and the developmental goal per planetary stage (and Condition of Consciousness) - and epoch (taking into account Conditions of Life and Form). For the current fifth epoch on Earth that developmental target is spirit self (or manas), for the sixth it is life spirit (or budhi), and for the seventh it is spirit man (or atma). Only a limited cohort of the population will reach those targets in each epoch. The seed cohort for the next epoch is selected taking into account the developmental goal for the next epoch. See 1907-03-07-GA097 quote below.

Schema FMC00.055 illustrates Free Man Creator as participating to creation since Man received his 'I' and thereby can write into the fourth layer of the Spirit World, and through his thoughts feelings and actions contributes to the creation of future worlds.

Schema FMC00.594: offers a visualization of the process that humanity goes through, from the group souls of humanity, over individuation, to the future spiritualization into future group souls based on moral ideals.

The small insert on the lower left references that this is part of a universal process whereby the logos goes from one universal divinity to many, see also the theosophical 'mahat' concept on the IAO topic page.

Underlined terms reference FMC wiki topic pages. The metaphoric imagery consists of, upper left, a cake crumbling from monolithic to ever smaller pieces - like from ocean to droplets (to represent the spiritual hierarchies, each human being is connected to the archangelic and archai level); and on the lower right, small metallic particles in free chaotic order but organizing themselves, as attracted to magnets (the magnets are unifying soul qualities, hence virtues and moral ideals).

The crumbling into ever smaller crumbles is ongoing, today mankind is only physically separated into separate physical bodies, but humanity is still connected to the Third Hierarchy. Through Man's transformation and spiritualization also the other bodily principles will be separated, but also unified, as separation is an attribute of the lower worlds (from the lower spirit world downwards). In the higher spirit world, the principle of buddhi or Christos or selfless love (see Schema FMC00.481) is a vantage convergence point also called the Second Adam.

The idea of this schema is not to take it literally, but to imagine it at a higher level in one's mind and soul.

Schema FMC00.525 is a notebook drawing (dated 1906) by Rudolf Steiner, whereby he depicts the evolution of Man as the divine seed of atma, (arising from the nirvana world) that gives rise to Man's bodily principles in the consecutive planetary stages of evolution as it descends through the various planes or worlds of consciousness, see the image of the Golden Chain (eg Schema FMC00.141). Man originates from this spark or divine seed of atma and buddhi and our solar system evolution takes place in the planes from the higher spirit world downwards. The process consist of evolution and involution (1907-12-29-GA101), and on the return the spiritualization leads to Man becoming atma or spirit-man, Man becomes a God. Man adds something new to development, creates out of nothingness in addition to involution and evolution (1909-06-17-GA107). See Meaning of Free Man Creator. The turning point is given by the Christ Impulse at the Mystery of Golgotha, see also Cosmic breath of Brahma (eg Schema FMC00.400) and Overview of solar system evolution.

For the spiral symbol of evolution, see also Schema's FMC00.169, FMC00.438 (and FMC00.444), and FMC00.486

Schema FMC00.468 provides the key statement and illustration of the fructification of Man by the Christ Impulse, and specifically how the evolved consciousness soul is the gateway for this spiritual fructification by Man's higher triad (consisting of spirit-self or manas, life-spirit or budhi, and spirit-man or atma) through the Christ Impulse as the budhi life-giving influence driving this.

Schema FMC00.472 illustrates the relationship of Man to the third hierarchy of angels, archangels and archai, and the Spirits of Form. The concept diagram provides links to various processes on other topic pages through the Schema references given. See oa: Man's bodily principles, Jehovah, Group souls of humanity, Monad, Three meetings, Structure of Man between death and a new birth, Man's transformation and spiritualization

Schema FMC00.353 positions the physiological process underlying the study of spiritual science and initiation exercises, through the use of the newly developed organ in the brain called the pituitary gland and the process working on the etheric and astral bodies.

Schema FMC00.129 links the development of the chakras (see also FMC00.325 on that page) to the stages of clairvoyance as a result of developing the threefold soul or 'I'.

Lecture coverage and references

Paracelsus

writes (see 'The Archidoxes of Theophrastus Paracelsus' - book 2 pg 39)

The philosophers stone, which is the second arcanum, perfects its operations in another form namely this: as the extrinsic fire burning the spotted skin of the salamander, renders it pure as if it were newly born, so, also, the Philosophers' Stone purges the whole body of Man, and cleanses it from all its impurities by the introduction of new and more youthful forces which it joins to the nature of Man"

and (see 'The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus' p 85) where Paracelsus describes alchemical furnaces, whereby through the processes of combustion, the soul and spirit of his substances are liberated by the carefully tempered fire. He describes the height of the furnace in palms, and measuring the palm height against the body, the furnace he hinted at may well have been the heart. See also Etherization of blood.

Mercurius Hermes Trismegistus says that he who perfects this Art creates a new world.

For in the same way as God created the heaven and the earth, the furnace with its fire must be constructed and regulated, that is to say, in the following manner: First, let a furnace be built at a height of six palms, with the fingers and thumb extended, but in breadth only one palm; round and within and plain, so that the coals may not adhere to it.

...

The furnace then is to be placed as the sun in the great world, which affords light, life and heat to the whole furnace itself, and to all the instruments and other things which it encloses.

See further Discussion area 'Note [2] - Of alchemical furnaces and fires'

Vladimir Solovyov

see quote: Reverse ritual#Vladimir Solovyov

1904-05-XX-GA090A

chances for spiritualization ('being saved'):

• 1 - during the seven races
• 2 - afterwards, during the next globes/rounds (due to Earth's metamorphoses)
• 3 - second half of Future Jupiter (with a strong separation of good and evil)
• 4 - finally, during Future Venus, the last chance and final separation from which no further saving is possible

1905-04-27-GA090B

describes the transformation of astral body (through meditation), etheric body (through harmonization of temperaments), and the physical body (through the right nourishment).

1905-08-13-GA091

freely translated from DE version

Higher consciousness means that the components of lower consciousness are relaxed and controlled.

Soul forces of TFW correspond to the Spirits of Will (Thrones), Wisdom, and Movement. The nine other forces work also in Man but are less noticeable.

When Man develops his higher Self, he takes control over these forces TFW first in astral, then etheric and finally physical .. and that way the higher consciousness comes in that controls the three components that have departed from one another.

Wiith still higher development, Man takes control over twelve such centers in order to attain higher consciousness.

Each human power stands in relationship with a primal force of the world, universe.

This way Man can take control of his twelve parts, and this way he splits his ether body in twelve parts. Each part has its own special characteristic.

…

Higher developed Individualities emanate etheric bodies at death, these are used as models.

Christ radiated new physical matter at his birth, so he was able, before this to radiate the twelve separate parts of the foregone Christ (?). The twelve ether bodies of the apostles are the twelve separate parts of the previous Christ ether body. Christ is one consciousness and the group soul of the twelve apostles who are his parts and represent his body. Christ has really worked through these twelve parts.

1907-03-07-GA097

(SWCC), with reference to Schema FMC00.130 above.

Every epoch has its task in the evolution of humanity. Every race has its own task: the Atlantean race had the task of developing the Ego.

The task of our race, the fifth root-race, consists in adding Manas (spirit self) to the four members of the human being. That is to say, the understanding must be awakened through concepts and ideas. Our race, the fifth root-race, or the post-Atlantean era, must develop Manas, the Spirit-Self. Now we are living in the middle of the Manas-development. It is the task of our race to develop intellectual culture, and at the same time to develop egoism in its extremest form.

In our time, we experience egoism, the dry personal, intellectual element. But our task today is to grasp the esoteric truths in Manas, the spirit self, in the purest element of thought. The comprehension of the spiritual in this finest distillation of the brain is the true mission of our age. To render thought so forceful that it acquires something of an occult or spiritual power is the task which has been given us. This task must be fulfilled, so that we may be able to take our place in the future.

Mighty flames of fire destroyed ancient Lemuria, and mighty floods ancient Atlantis. Our civilisation will also perish, through the war of all against all. This is what we must face. Our fifth root-race will perish, because egoism will reach its highest pitch. But at the same time, a small group of men will develop the power of Budhi, of the Life-Spirit, through the force of thought, in order to carry over Budhi into the new civilisation. At present, every individual must discover in himself a kind of guiding spirit in the soul's inner depths: — This is Budhi, the power of the Life spirit

1908-06-26-GA104

presents Apostle's Paul's way of expressing Man's spiritualization. See also topic of Second Adam

Quote A

All men now possess the rudiments of the Spirit-Self, but one has more, another less. Many will still have to go through many incarnations before they have developed the Spirit-Self far enough to become aware of what they are working upon within their human nature. But when the earth has reached its goal, when the seventh trumpet begins to sound, the following will he observed: that which exists of the physical body will be dissolved like salt in warm water. The human Spirit-Self will be developed to a high degree, so that man will repeat again and again the words of Paul, “Not I, but Christ in me does everything.”

This will enable him to dissolve the physical nature and make the ennobled etheric into a being which can live in the astralized earth. Thus man, a new being, will live over into this spiritualized earth. We might say that the important stage of passing over into the earth which has become spiritualized, is wonderfully expressed in the Bible where it says that everything which man now accomplishes within himself in the physical body during the earth period is like a sowing whose fruit will appear when the earth has become spiritual.

“And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain. But God giveth it a body as it bath pleased him, and to every seed his own body” (1 Cor. xv. 37)

That is, the body which is the expression of the soul of the individuality.

“There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial body is one, and the glory of the terrestrial body is another.”

The earthly bodies will be dissolved, the celestial will appear as the luminous expression of what the soul is.

“It is sown corruptible and will rise incorruptible.”

The incorruptible body will then be resurrected.

“It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.”

Paul calls the etheric or life-body, spiritual body, after the physical has dissolved and the etheric passes into the astral earth. Paul here sees beforehand the incorruptible spiritual body, as he calls it. And now let us consider what it is that man will embody as the expression of his capacity for receiving the Christ. It is the same that hovered before Paul in spirit, and that he calls “the last Adam,” while he calls the first man who entered into existence in a physically visible body “the first Adam.”

At the end of the Lemurian epoch we already find various animals below, but man is not yet visible to external eyes; he is still etheric. He condenses, and absorbs mineral constituents and appears in his first form; the physical man gradually appears, just as water condenses into ice, Physical evolution then proceeds so far that what is earthly can dissolve and eventually disappears. Hence the man who has the etheric body appears as the last Adam. The first Adam has the capacity of seeing the earth in the physical body through the physical senses; the last Adam, who assumes a spiritual body, is an expression of the inner capacity for receiving the Christ. Hence Christ is called by Paul the last Adam. This comprises the whole of human evolution; in spirit we sec what man will become in the future, whereas before we saw how he descended to the earth.

Quote B

.. the fourth principle in human nature, that which makes man the crown of earthly creation, which makes him stand out above all the other beings, and enables him to develop as “I,” as an individual self-conscious being in earthly existence. In the future the evolution of Man will unfold in such manner that he will gradually work from his “I” upon the lower principles, so that the “I” becomes their ruler.

• When the “I” has thoroughly worked upon the astral body and taken possession of it, so that in this astral body there are no more unconscious and unguarded impulses, instincts and passions, then the “I” will have developed what we call Spirit Self or Manas. Spirit-Self is none other than the astral body, only the astral body is the third principle before it is transformed by the “I.”
• When the “I” transforms the etheric body also, Life-Spirit or Budhi is produced;
• and when in the remotest future the “I” transforms the physical body so that this is completely spiritualized by the “I” itself (this is the most difficult work, because the physical body is the densest), then the physical body develops into the highest principle of human nature, namely, Atma or Spirit-Man.

Thus, if we conceive of man in his seven-fold nature, we have the physical body, the etheric body or life-body, the astral body and the “I.” Further, we have that which man will develop in the future; Spirit-Self or Manas, Life-Spirit or Budhi and Spirit-Man or Atma. That is the sevenfold being of man.

However, he will only develop these higher principles in the far-distant future. It is not yet in Man's power while on the Earth to work so far upon himself as to bring all these higher spiritual parts to full development.

1909-04-10-GA109

also on: Etherization of blood#1909-04-10-GA109

Let us look back one more time to the prophecies of ancient cultures. All of them, back to the very distant past of the post-Atlantean era, probably knew what the course of human development would be.

The Mystery Centers everywhere taught what is now proclaimed by spiritual science as follows:

• Human beings consist of four parts: the physical, the etheric, and the astral bodies, and the I.
• They can rise to higher stages of development: through individual effort on the part of their I, when they transform their astral body into spirit self — manas, when they transform their etheric body into life spirit—buddhi, and when they spiritualize the physical body into spirit man—atman.
• All the members of this physical body must be gradually spiritualized in our life on Earth so that everything that makes human beings out of us through the influx of the divine breath is profoundly spiritualized.
• And because spiritualization of the physical body begins with the spiritualization of the breath — of the odem, the transformed, spiritualized physical body is called atma or atman, from which the German word for breath, atem, derives. The Old Testament tells us that the human being received the breath of life in the beginning of his earthly existence. Likewise, all ancient Schools of Wisdom perceived this breath of life as something that must gradually be spiritualized by the human being, and they saw atman as a deification of the breath — as the great ideal human beings must strive for — so that they will be imbued with the spiritual breath of air.

[spiritualization of the blood]

But there is still more in the human being that has to be spiritualized. If the entire body is to be spiritualized, it is necessary not only that the breath be spiritualized but also that the blood—the expression of the I that is constantly renewed by the breath — be spiritualized. The blood must be infected by a strong impulse toward the spiritual.

Christianity has added to the ancient mysteries the mystery of the blood and of the fire that is enclosed in the human being. The ancient mysteries say that human beings have descended to Earth in their present earthly form and physical corporeality from spiritual heights. Having lost their spiritual essence and having wrapped themselves into a physical corporeality, they must return to spirituality by casting off the physical sheath and by ascending to a spiritual existence.

The religions could not teach what one might call the self-induced salvation of the human I as long as the I, whose physical expression is in the blood, was not touched by an impulse now present on Earth.

[this is why Rudolf Steiner also speaks of the new mysteries, see a.o. Mysteries of the Spirit, the Son and the Father]

And thus we are told how the great spiritual beings — the great avatars — descend and incarnate themselves from time to time in human bodies, especially when humanity needs help. These are beings who do not need to descend into a human body to enhance their own development because they have completed their own human development in an earlier cycle of the world. They descend for the sole purpose of helping human beings.

[see Three classes of Buddhas and Bodhisattva and White Lodge]

For example, when mankind is in need of help, the great god Vishnu descends from time to time into an earthly existence. Krishna, one of the incarnations of Vishnu, speaks of himself and explains clearly what the essence of an avatar is. In the divine poem, the Bhagavad Gita, he himself explains what he is. Here we have the wonderful words that Krishna, in whom Vishnu lives as an avatar, says about himself:

“I am the spirit of creation, its beginning, its middle, its end;

I am the Sun among the stars, fire among the elements, the great ocean among the waters, the eternal snake among all snakes.

I am the basis of everything.”

No words can proclaim more beautifully and more magnificently the all-embracing, omnipotent divinity.

The godhead whom Moses saw in the elements of fire not only weaves and radiates through the macrocosmic world but also can be found inside the human being. That is why the Krishna-Being indwells in anything human as the great ideal to which the human core strives to develop itself from within.

And if, as the wisdom of antiquity endeavored to do, the human breath can be spiritualized through the impulse that we absorb through the Mystery of Golgotha, then we have realized the principle of salvation through that which itself lives within us. All avatars saved mankind through the forces they caused to radiate from spiritual heights down onto Earth. The avatar Christ, however, saved mankind by means of what He Himself extracted from the strength of mankind, and He showed us how the strength to be saved and to conquer matter through spirit can be found within ourselves.

Now we can see how even such an illuminate as Kashyapa could not yet be fully saved even though he had made his body imperishable. This body of his had to remain in the secret cave until the Maitreya-Buddha came to pick it up.

Only when the physical body has been so spiritualized through the I that the Christ-Impulse can stream into it does one no longer need the wonderful cosmic fire in order to attain salvation; what is needed for salvation is the fire raging in the blood of the inner human being. And that is why we can utilize the light that radiates from the Mystery of Golgotha in order to illuminate such a wonderfully profound legend as the one told about Kashyapa.

At first blush, the world appears to us dark and full of riddles, but we can compare it with a dark room containing many splendid objects that we are unable to see when we first enter. However, when we ignite a light, it illuminates the whole splendor of the objects in the room and everything else represented by these objects. The same can be true for the human being who strives for wisdom. The human being strives at first in the dark; looking in this world first to the past and then to the future, he or she can at first see nothing but darkness. However, once the light coming from Golgotha is ignited, everything from the farthest past to the remotest future becomes illuminated.

Since everything material is born out of the spirit, the spirit will again rise from matter.

To express this certainty is the meaning of today's celebration of Easter — a festival that is tied to the events of the world. Mankind must realize what it can attain through spiritual science: if the human soul, by gaining knowledge of the mysteries of existence, can acquire a lively feeling for the mysteries of the universe on important symbolic occasions such as Easter, then it will also feel something of what it means to live not simply in one's own narrow, personal existence but also in a symbiosis with the light of the stars, the splendor of the sun, and with everything that lives in the universe. The soul will become increasingly more spiritual as it feels extended into the universe.

The spiritual Easter bells echo their sounds through our hearts, indicating that we must pass from a human to a universal life through the resurrection. Hearing these spiritual Easter bells will make us lose any doubt we may have about the spiritual world, and we will then be sure that death in the material world cannot harm us. When we understand these spiritual Easter bells, we will return to the life in the spirit.

1909-04-18-GA110

It is a higher grade of development to be able to give, to bring sacrifices, than merely to store up for oneself all that the Cosmos gives. This is again mirrored in human life. What is this human development? Look backwards in spirit to the Atlantean and Lemurian times, and then look forwards!

Man receives the physical body, the etheric and astral bodies and the Ego, and then again the Ego works back on the other members, transforming the astral body, the etheric and physical bodies, into Manas, Budhi, and Atma, into Spirit self, spirit-Life and Spirit-man.

Primeval wisdom has always taught that Man transforms his astral body in such a way that this astral body consists at first partly of Manas and partly of the old astrality, but that later it becomes completely transformed, completely penetrated by the work and action of the I.

Let us take a man who has not yet reached that grade of development when the astral body is completely penetrated by the work of the Ego; almost all men, with very few exceptions, are in that condition. That which man has already transformed goes with him through all eternity; that which he has not yet changed in which his Ego has had no part, must leave him, as a sort of astral shell, after he has passed through Kama-Loka; that shell dissolves in the astral world, not without its having brought about considerable mischief if as an astral body, it had bad desires and evil passions. Thus we can say that the development of man consists in. his leaving always less and less behind him in the astral world. Let us follow the process; the man dies. Soon after death the etheric body is dissolved; and the extract of it remains. The man passes through. Kama-Loka, and the untransformed shell detaches itself; that which has been re-worked goes with man through all eternity, it is brought back into each new incarnation. The more perfect the man is, the less there will be of those remnants left in the astral world; till at last he will have progressed so far that he leaves nothing of his astral body in Kama-Loka, so far — that he can injure no living being on earth through the remnants he leaves in Kama-Loka. Such. a man has then the possibility of seeing into spiritual worlds. For it is not possible to reach this condition without having reached a certain degree of clairvoyance in the Astral. The whole astral body has then been spiritualised, it has become Spirit-Self, and the whole of it is taken with him by the man to the spiritual world. Formerly that which was bad was left behind, now the whole astral body can be taken with him into all futurity. And in the moment when the astral body is so far advanced that it is completely transformed, in that moment the whole of this new astral shape is impressed upon the etheric body, so that the etheric body becomes a counterpart of the astral body. The etheric body does not need to be as yet quite transformed, but that is impressed upon it which has been refashioned in the astral body. You see, that we have here described a particularly exalted being, one who is eminently far advanced, because he has developed the whole of the Spirit-self. This Being is called Nirmana-Kaya in Eastern Science; for his astral body, his astral Kaya, has reached the stage when it leaves no remnants in the astral world.

Man can always develop further; at last he influences or transforms his etheric body, then his physical body. What happens when the etheric and the physical body are transformed so that they are ruled by the man? When the etheric body is thus changed, when man has not only ‘Spirit Self’ in the astral body, but Budhi or ‘Life Spirit’ has also been gradually developed in his etheric body, and when this Life-Spirit or Budhi impresses itself upon the physical body — then yet a further stage of development is reached.

Man then reaches the point when his etheric body also leaves nothing behind it, so that he retains this etheric body in the same shape through all time, the etheric body in which he has formed the Life-Spirit or Budhi.

Through such transmutations man becomes more and more ruler over his astral and his etheric bodies. Such control enables him also to direct in a certain way his astral and etheric bodies. One who has not yet brought his astral body under the rule of his Ego must certainly wait until he has come thus far; but the man who already is lord of his astral and etheric bodies, has them at his free disposal. He can say: ‘Because with my “I,” I have passed through so many incarnations which have taught me to transform my astral and etheric bodies, I am now enabled, when I have to return to earth again, to form for myself out of astral and etheric substances, an astral and an etheric body which will be equally perfect.’ He is also enabled to sacrifice his own astral and etheric bodies, to pass them on to others. You now see, that there are individualities who, because they have become rulers of their astral and etheric bodies, are able to sacrifice these bodies, because they have learnt how to build them. If they wish to return to earth again, they will themselves form them anew out of the existing material. The perfection to which they have attained, they pass on to other personalities who have to perform certain tasks in the world. Thus personalities of later days have woven into them, organised into them, the astral and etheric bodies of these who lived in times of yore. You see that when this happens the personality of olden times did not only influence the time in which he lived, but that his influence works on also into the future.

1910-09-11-GA123

In the course of his development Man evolves the consciousness-soul so that in it the spirit-self may appear. When he has evolved the consciousness soul, the upper triad (spirit-self, life-spirit, and spirit-man) come to meet him, so that the opening flower of his being can receive into it this upper triad from above. This may be illustrated graphically to resemble the unfolding of a plant. When Man has made himself receptive by developing his consciousness soul, the higher triad draws near; this may be likened to a spiritual fructification coming towards him from on high. While with the other principles of his being he grows upwards from below, unfolding the blossom of the ‘Son of Man,’ there must come to meet him from on high, so that he may gain his I-consciousness, that which brings with it spirit-self, life-spirit, and spirit-man.

1912-11-03-GA140

Now in our life on earth there is only one member of our being whose development we can work at in the real sense, and that is our I.

What does it mean to work at the development of the I?

To answer this question we must realize what it is that makes this work necessary. Suppose a man goes to another and says to him, “You are wicked.” If this is not the case the man has told an untruth. What is the consequence of the I having uttered an untruth such as this? The consequence is that from this moment the worth of the I is less than it was before the utterance was made. That is the objective consequence of the immoral deed. Before uttering an untruth our worth is greater than it is afterwards. For all time to come and in all spheres, for all eternity the worth of our I is less as the result of such a deed. But during the life between birth and death a certain means is at our disposal. We can always make amends for having lessened the worth of our ego; we can invalidate the untruth. To the one we have called wicked we can confess, “I erred; what I said is not true,” and so on. In doing this we restore worth to our I and compensate for the harm done. In the case where our ego is involved it is still within our power during life to make the necessary adjustment. If, for example, we ought to have acquired knowledge of something but have forgotten all about it, our I has lost worth, but if we make efforts we can recall it to memory and thus compensate for the harm done. To sum up, we can lessen the worth of our I but we can also augment it. This faculty to correct a member of our being, to rectify its errors in such a way as to further its development, we possess in respect of the I.

For a Q&A on this extract, see Note [3] in the Discussion area on topic page Human 'I'

1913-03-29-GA145

the threefold soul and astral, etheric, physical body is linked to the intuition, inspiration and imagination soul (SWCC)

In our present age, the consciousness soul is first localized in the physical body, that is: it uses the physical organs. The intellectual soul, containing the inner feeling forces of sympathy and compassion, is located in the etheric body, which means that it uses etheric movements. The sentient soul, containing impulses, desires, passions, uses the forces localized in the astral body. When the sentient soul is changed into the intuition soul, you must imagine that in a kind of correspondence, the astral body becomes an instrument of this intuition soul. Similarly the inspiration soul is the transformed intellectual soul and its instrument is the human etheric body. The imagination soul or transformed consciousness soul uses the physical body as its instrument.

1917-01-14-GA174

The effect of poison in man's higher components. People who lag behind evolution fill their being with poisonous phantom of formative forces, the source of emptiness of soul, hypochondria, aggressive instincts. If spiritual life is possible, it must also be possible to go astray

1917-10-26-GA177

Humanity was able to unite with the earth because when it came down from heaven to earth, if we may put it like this, the spirits of darkness which came down with it laid an adequate foundation for human independence during the time when the laws of heredity, nationality and race prevailed.

What Lucifer and Ahriman had done became a good thing in so far as humanity was enabled to unite with the earth.

To show this in diagrammatic form, we may put it like this: before Lucifer took action, humanity was united with the whole cosmos including the earth; human beings united with the earth because hereditary traits — original sin in biblical terms - hereditary traits in scientific terminology — were implanted into them. This made human beings — I am using crosses to indicate them — part of the earth. You see, therefore, that Lucifer and Ahriman are here servants of the progressive powers.

Evolution then continued. We are now at the time when human beings live on earth and are united with it.

Luciferic and ahrimanic spirits, spirits of darkness, have been cast down from heaven to earth. Because of this, human beings must be released from the earth, torn away from it, with part of their essential nature taken back into the spiritual world.

Humanity must develop awareness of not being of this earth, and this must grow stronger and stronger.

In future, human beings must walk on this earth who say to themselves: ‘Yes, at birth I enter into a physical body, but this is a transitional stage. I really remain in the spiritual world. I am conscious that only part of my essential nature is united with the earth, and that I do not leave the world where I am between death and rebirth with the whole of my essential nature.’

A feeling of belonging to the spiritual world must develop in us.

In their souls human beings will tear themselves away from the physical and earthly element and be citizens of the worlds of the spirit.

And in those worlds there are no races or nations, but relationships of a different kind.

These things must be understood today when great, tremendous events happen in the world, unless you are going to be mulish — excuse the expression — and present old-established prejudices as new ideals.

1919-08-25-GA293

But although these three higher principles of human nature are only present in embryo in the earthly life of the man of to-day, yet, albeit under the guardianship of higher spiritual Beings, they develop in a very significant way between death and a new birth. Thus when man dies and enters again into the spiritual world, these three principles develop very markedly, pointing, in a measure, to a future existence of humanity. Just as Man in his present life develops in soul and spirit between birth and death, so after death he goes through definite development, only then he is attached, as it were by an umbilical cord to the spiritual beings of the higher Hierarchies.

1920-10-31-GA200

the realism is sketched of the required transformative work on future forms and structures, already in the current cultural ages

... during earth-evolution only the germs of spirit-self, life-spirit and spirit-man will be able to evolve; for we shall have to wait for the transformation of the earth into its three following conditions for them to appear fully. .. Essentially, spirit-self is the transformation of the astral body into a higher stage, life-spirit is the transformation of the etheric body to a higher stage, and spirit-man is the transformation of the physical body to a higher stage. This transformation of the physical body, however, will not take place until the seventh condition — nor, correspondingly, the transformation of the other members.

Today, the human being can already understand that this has to happen, embrace the thought that it must happen. Indeed, the human being can grasp still more today if, without prejudice, he .. directs his soul's gaze upon its own nature. He will have to say to himself:

'It is true that, during earth-existence, I cannot attain spirit-self in my astral body, nor life-spirit in my etheric body nor spirit-man in my physical body, but what I have to do is to prepare, to prefigure, them in my soul. And by developing the consciousness-soul now I am preparing myself to take spirit-self into it in the next, the sixth, culture-epoch'. I know that I cannot yet bring spirit-self into my entire astral body, but I have to bring it into my consciousness-soul. As a human being, I must learn to live inwardly in the way that I shall one day live when the earth has passed over, through a certain cosmic development, into its next stage of evolution. And I must prepare for these future conditions, at least inwardly, while still in earthly existence. I must prepare myself, in germ, inwardly so that in the future I shall be able to shape my outer form in the way which it is my task, even now, to understand.

Now try and sense clearly what is really involved here. The human being is already growing into spirit-self [in the current cultural age]. The human being is growing into states of conscious­ness of which he must say that they are really of such a nature that, during the period of earth-existence, they cannot emerge fully. These states of consciousness try to transform him even as regards his external sheaths — his astral body, etheric body and physical body — but, as earthly man, he cannot achieve this. He has to say to himself: 'I must pass through the rest of earth-evolution continually feeling that I am preparing myself inwardly for conditions of being I cannot yet develop'. In future it will have to be the normal thing for a human being to say: 'I see the being of man as something which, in its inner nature, grows beyond what I can be as earthly man. As earthly man I am forced, in a sense, to feel myself as a dwarf compared with what the human being really is.'

Discussion

Note 1 - How do initiation exercises affect the human physiology and blood?

Man's transformation and spiritualization is also the purification of the blood. In the mineral blood fluid also live the Elementary Kingdoms, Man's 'I' lives currently only with a grip on the warmth section.

PS: Rudolf Steiner mentions 'somewhere' that it would be possible to see the difference in blood quality between eg Thomas Assisi and a savage human being.

Spiritual exercises impact Man's etheric and astral body, and influence the development of the lotus flower petals. How does it influence our nervous system?

What is the impact of working the 'elemental balance' of our personality? If we work on our habits and temperament, we influence or etheric body.

1907-06-06-GA266/1

And those who are in esoteric schools are already working on its development. The exercises have an effect not only on the astral and etheric bodies but also on the pineal gland. And when the effects are very penetrating, they go from the pineal gland out to the lymph vessels and from there into the blood.

Note 2 - Of alchemical furnaces and fires

In the source reference extracts above, Paracelsus describes alchemical furnaces whereby, through the processes of combustion, the soul and spirit of substances are liberated by the carefully tempered fire.

For more on furnaces, see Titus Burckhardt 'Alchemy: science of the cosmos, science of the soul' (1960), in Ch. 13 on 'The Athanor', the alchemical term for the oven in which the elixir is prepared. Burckhardt writes:

The alchemical masters speak of three fires: an artificial, a natural, and an 'anti-natural'. These correspond to the distinction between methodic contemplation, the 'vibration' of the soul which is set in motion by the former, and the spontaneously occuring intervention of the spirit, which is also described as an 'incombustible sulphur' and is a mode of grace'.

Compare this statement with the etheric flows as explained in Etherization of blood. For the third fire, see reference FMCR00.001 in 1910-10-01-GA130 on that page: this is the Christ Impulse and indeed 'a spontaneously occuring divine intervention of the spirit as a mode of grace'.

For the second fire and the effects of meditation on the etheric body, see 1908-01-07-GA266/1 and the other descriptions on the Kundalini page. One could read that the first 'artificial' fire is a result of Man's choice and action, the two other can indeed be seen as 'effects of nature'.

Exercise for further contemplation:

• Furthermore see also the 1909-04-GA109 references on Holy Supper symbolism - bread and wine
• alongside the references about the fires on Mystery of silver.

Note 3 - The process of enlightenment

Enlightenment (or illumination, in greek photismos) describes a state of spontaneous clairvoyance and breaking through waking consciousness, as the astral senses reach the threshold at which higher spiritual perception starts. However the term enlightenment is also used to the more intense experience also referred to as Kundalini.

The process is described on: Kundalini#.5B3.5D - The process of illumination

Also see other related topic pages and quotes, eg Initiation exercises#1908-09-13-GA106

Related pages

• Christ Module 5 - Initiation and spiritualization
• Mysteries of the Spirit, the Son and the Father
• Christ Module 12 - the cosmic 'I'
• Initiation
• Kundalini
• Man past and future
• Man's bodily principles
• Second Adam