Souls after death

When a person dies, after the death of the physical body also quickly the etheric body is thrown off, and the soul continues on a long in the astral world and later into the spirit world.

However it is not that these worlds are disconnected with our physical world, in fact these are totally intertwined so that these deceased souls are in our feelings life and can influence us, and given certain faculties also communication is possible with the deceased souls.

Aspects

• the 'language and state of soul of a soul after death, see also Alphabet topic page
• Interaction with deceased souls
• Influence of deceased souls (on physical events on Earth)
• souls bouncing against ceiling of plant and animal kingdom if no spiritual concepts or thoughts in life on Earth (1917-11-29-GA182)

various

• death horoscope (1917-01-21-GA174, see also Willy Sucher, Wachsmuth)
• is a deceased soul a star in heaven? (1924-07-06-GA237, see also Schema FMC00.132A)

immortality

• On the concept of immortality:
  • “To be immortal means having the power (acquired by initiation or received after death from the spiritual world) to preserve the renounced past existence in memory. That is the real definition of immortality“. (1912-08-28-GA138)
  • spiritual immortality of the soul is linked to the teachings of reincarnation, and covered in very many lectures. See eg Socrates doctrine of immortality in GA008, or 1911-11-17-GA069 discussing papers by Maximilian Drossbach (1810-1884): 'The Empirical Solution of the Immortality Question According to the Known Natural Laws' (1849) and 'Thoughts on Immortality as a Repetition of the Earth-life' (1851) by Gustav Widenmann (1812-1876)
• longevity - materialistic immortality
  • materialistic or 'ahrimanic immortality' and manipulation of deceased souls by secret societies (1917-01-20-GA173C, 1917-01-22-GA174, 1917-11-25-GA178)
  • Rudolf Steiner also touches on ancient secret techniques for extending life, but is very discrete and does not divulge details (lecture references to be added)
  • see also: Draja Mickaharic (1912-) first read 'Immortality' (2007) then 'The Long Lived' (2014) (also in his other writings), in which he describes several methods and illustrates by various (anonymized) stories that he was told over his long life as a magician:
    • by projecting one's non-physical body and consciousness outside one's dying physical body before or at death and 'jumping' (projecting) into the physical body of another young and healthy person and forcefully banish the consciousness of the invaded out of the body. When seizing control, the new body becomes a new vessel to continue life.
    • using an 'alchemical elixir of life' to transform the physical body completely, a transformation that affects skin, teeth, hair etc and whereby the person - as a helpless newborn infant - requires months of special (magical) care to restart physical regeneration and functioning (eg metabolism of drinking and eating). When the change is completely, the person has greater strength and can not be ill or be poisoned any more and will retain this for the remainer of a greatly extended lifespan.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.132A: depicts the 'starry configuration' of the human being during death and rebirth, as belonging to a group of many angels and archangels, that are overlapping but still (slightly) different for each soul. The text on the left was shortened without contents change (SWCC) from 1918-03-26-GA181. On the lower right a similar visualization from the description in 1917-01-22-GA174.

Above this two schemas to illustrate what is described, that Man is still in the process of individuation, and separation during incarnate life is through the physical body, but human beings are still connected at the level of the granular group souls of humanity (see green dotted rectangle) that can be imagined as being in the process of crumbling down into smaller fragments.

The lecture provides the underlying explanation for the bridge between the living and deceased souls, see also Interaction with deceased souls.

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage overview

Main cycles are:

• GA140 of 1912-1913, an important cycle with 20 lectures, see oa sixteen lectures online here
• 1914-GA154 with 7 lectures, has as cycle subtitle 'The inpouring of spiritual impulses from the world of the deceased'
• 1916-GA168
• 1917-12-GA179 is a cycle of 8 lectures called 'The Influence of the Dead on Destiny'
• 1918-GA181 with 21 lectures oa on the 'bridge with the dead'

A good introduction is 1918-02-14-GA174a

Reference extracts

1913-02-04 – Steiner, First experience with the dead in train

1913-02-20-GA140

The Establishment of Mutual Relations between the Living and the So-called Dead

1913-10-10-GA140

Links Between the Living and the Dead

1913-10-11-GA140

Links Between the Living and the Dead

1914-04-17-GA154

Faith and Knowledge, in The Prescence of the Dead

1914-05-25-GA154

The Presence of the Dead in Our Life

1914-05-26-GA154

The Blessing of the Dead

1916-02-16-GA168

Relationships Between the Living and the Dead

1916-02-18-GA168

Concerning the Life Between Death and a New Birth

1916-02-22-GA168

I-Consciousness and the so-called Dead

1917-01-20-GA174

The destructive power of untruthfulness in the relationship between the living and the dead. When the living work on spiritual science this gives the dead the opportunity to work in the physical world. Secret brotherhoods bring about ahrimanic immortality by means of ceremonial magic which leads to an illegitimate relationship with the dead.

1917-01-21-GA174

[Death horoscope]

Investigations are often made — unfortunately not always with the necessary respect and dignity, but out of egoistic reasons — into the starry constellation prevailing at birth. Much less selfish and much more beautiful would be a horoscope, a planetary horoscope made for the moment of death. This is most revealing for the whole soul of the human being, for the entry into death at a particular moment is most revealing in connection with karma.

Those who decide to conduct such investigations — the rules are the same as those applied to the birth horoscope — will make all kinds of interesting discoveries, especially if they have known the people for whom they do this fairly well in life. For several days the dead person bears within himself, in the etheric body he has not yet discarded, an echoing vibration of what comes from the planetary constellation. So the first phase is that of the direction in the starry constellation. It is meaningful as long as the human being remains connected with his etheric body.

[Influence of the discarnate]

Some aspects of this will be clear to you from what we said yester­day. When, by suitable means, we come to know the life of the dead today, we discover that they have a very strong urge to intervene in what human beings do here on earth. But

• in earlier times, when there was less materialism on the earth than there is today, it was easier for the dead to intervene in what took place on the earth. It was easier for them to influence the sphere of the earth through what those on earth felt and sensed of the after-effects of the dead.
• Today it can be experienced very frequently — and this is always surprising in the actual case — that people who have been intensely involved in certain events during their life are unable, in their life after death, to have any interest in the events which take place after their death, because they lack any kind of link. Amongst us, too, there are souls who showed great interest for events on earth while they were here but who now, having gone to the spiritual world, find the events taking place since their death quite foreign to them. This is frequently the case, even with distinguished souls who here on earth were greatly gifted and filled with the liveliest interest.

This has been going on for a long time, indeed it has been on the increase during the whole of the fifth post-Atlantean period, ever since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Expressed in commonplace terms — which are unfortunately all we have in our language — our experience is that, because they are less and less able to intervene in what human beings do, the dead have instead to intervene in the way people manifest as individual personalities. So we see that since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the interest and the work of the dead has been concentrated increasingly on individual personalites rather than on the wider contexts concerning mankind. Since I have occupied myself closely with this very aspect, I have reached the con­viction that it is connected with a certain phenomenon of modern times that is very noticeable to those who are interested in such things.

In recent history, unlike former times, we have the remarkable phenomenon of people being born with outstanding capacities. In general they work with tremendous idealism and distinguished endeavour but are incapable of gaining a broader view of life or of widening their horizons. In the whole of literature this has been expressing itself for some time. Individual ideas, concepts, and feel­ings, expressed either in literature or art, or even science, sometimes display strong promise. But an overall view is not achieved. This is also the reason why people find it so difficult to achieve the broader view needed in spiritual science. It happens chiefly because the dead approach individuals and work in them on capacities for which the foundations are laid during childhood and youth. The faculties which enable individuals to gain a broader view when they reach maturity are more or less untouched by the activities of the dead in this materialistic age. Incomplete talents, unfinished torsos — not only in the wide world, but also in individual situations — are therefore very prevalent because the dead can more readily approach individual souls rather than what lives socially in human evolution today. The dead have a strong urge to reach what lives socially in human evolu­tion, but in our fifth post-Atlantean period this is exceedingly dif­ficult for them.

1917-01-20-GA173C

I said that in olden times there was no question of discussing whether immortality existed or not. People then had a third condition apart from sleeping and waking, an in-between condition which was not merely a state of dreaming. It was an elementary and natural condition, in which human beings saw their dead spiritually face to face. They were there and they lived together with them. In those earlier times, when people did something, or when something happened to them which was a little out of the ordinary—and this of course happened and still happens all the time, for we are not only creatures of habit—they then felt beside them one or another of those who had gone through death before them, either long, or not so lang, ago. They felt as though the dead person acted with them, or joined in their counsel. So when the soul of a person living on the Earth decided to do something, or when something happened to that person, this soul felt that there was one who had died who joined in the action or the suffering. The dead were present. So there was no discussion about immortality or the lack of it. It would have been as pointless as questioning whether someone with whom we are speaking is actually there or not. Whatever we experience is a reality, and in olden times people experienced how the dead shared in all that happened.

...

This is something that can have immense consequences. Imagine a number of people brought together to form a certain brotherhood. These people know: Others have gone before us; their urge to exercise their power was so great that their life on Earth was not enough for its gratification, so they want to go on gratifying it even after death. For them we are creating an abode, and through the acts of ceremonial magic we perform, they work into our bodies. Because of this we gain greater power than we have; because of this we are enabled to exercise a certain degree of magical power over other, weaker people who stand outside such brotherhoods. When we speak words, when we give a speech, these dead souls work in us because we have been prepared by sharing in these acts of ceremonial magic.

[contemporary politics]

It is one thing if somebody who simply participates honestly in the cultural processes of our time gives a speech in parliament or writes a newspaper article. But it is something entirely different if a person who belongs to a circle of ceremonial magic, and is thus strengthened by the power urges of some who have died, gives a speech in parliament or writes an article for a newspaper. The latter exercises an immensely greater degree of influence in the direction of his wishes than would be the case if he did not have this backing. This is one side of the matter.

[materialistic or ahrimanic immortality]

The other side is that those who enter the circle of certain societies practising ceremonial magic are securing for themselves a power that reaches beyond death, a kind of ahrimanic immortality. For these people this is their main concern. For them, the society they enter provides a kind of guarantee that certain forces—which should by rights only live in them until the moment of death—will continue to live, even beyond death. More people than you might think are nowadays filled with this idea of guaranteeing for themselves an ahrimanic immortality, which consists in exercising influence not only as an individual human being, but also through the instrument of a society of this kind. Such societies exist in the most varied forms, and individuals who have attained certain degrees of advancement in these societies know: As a member of this society I shall become to some degree immortal because forces which would otherwise come to an end at my death will continue to work beyond death.

What these people then experience through this ceremonial magic makes them quite oblivious to a thought which would concern someone who takes such things truly seriously and in a genuinely dignified way. This is that the more a person gains by way of materialistic immortality, or rather ahrimanic immortality, the more he loses of the consciousness of true, genuine immortality. Yet materialism has taken such a hold on many souls today that they remain unconcerned about this and are tricked into striving for ahrimanic immortality. It could indeed be said that societies exist today which, from a spiritual or occult point of view, could be called ‘insurance companies for ahrimanic immortality’!

It is only a small number of people in each case who understand all these things. For as a rule these societies are organized in such a way that the ceremonial magic they practise influences only those who are unaware of the implications, merely desiring to make contact with the spiritual world by means of symbolic ceremonies. There are many such people. And those who have this desire are by no means necessarily the worst. They are accepted as members of the circle of ceremonial magic among whom there are then a few who simply use the rest of the members as instruments. Therefore one should beware of all secret societies administered by so-called higher grades whose aims are kept hidden from the lower grades. These administrative grades usually comprise those who have been initiated to a stage at which they only have a vague idea of what I have just been explaining to you. They comprise those who are to work positively in connection with certain goals and aims which are then realized by the wider group of those who have been merely inveigled into the circle of ceremonial magic. Everything these people do is done in such a way that it leads in the direction required by the higher grades but is strengthened by the forces which come from ceremonial magic.

[editor: Jean Dubuis - who had been member of AMORC and other societies - aftewards made very explicit commentaries about this, these exist both in writing as video-taped for those interested]

Those who know how huge a number of such societies exist in the West can begin to gain an idea of what immensely effective tools such societies of ceremonial magic can be for certain far-reaching plans for the world. As you have seen, the chief aim is to prolong into our time a way of proceeding in which the spiritual world works into the sense-perceptible, physical world in a manner that was right in earlier times.

For our times, however, the right procedure is for human beings to go towards the dead and meet them half-way. In the mood we have just been discussing, however, a path is sought which was appropriate in earlier, atavistic times but which today is brought about through the medium of ceremonial magic.

1917-01-22-GA174

see also: Structure of Man between death and a new birth#1917-01-22-GA174

From various things I have said you will have gathered that these brotherhoods make it their business to fetter human beings to the material world. Just recently we spoke of how these brotherhoods are eager to make materialism super-materialistic or, in a way, to create a kind of ahrimanic immortality for their members. They can do this most strongly by representing group interests, group egoisms, and they certainly do this outstandingly.

...

.. in the case of some souls, who had been successfully influenced in this way .. this had actually happened. These souls had indeed been prevented from contact with the world of the archangeloi and they therefore lacked any strong, clear consciousness. So in his way Leadbeater was observing souls who had fallen prey to the machinations of those brotherhoods, only he did not go so far as to observe what became of those souls after a while.

Such souls cannot spend their whole time between death and a new birth without the ingredients which would normally be given to them by the world of the archangeloi, so they have to receive something else instead. And they do indeed receive something that is an equivalent; they are indeed permeated by something; but what?

They are permeated by something that comes from archai who have remained behind at the stage of the archangeloi. So, instead of being permeated by the substance of the real archangeloi - as would be normal  - they are permeated by archai, by time spirits, but by those who have not ascended to the level of time spirits but have remained behind at the level of the archangeloi. They would have become archai if they had evolved normally, but they have remained behind at the level of the archangeloi. That means that these souls are permeated by ahrimanic influences in the strongest manner.

You need to have a proper idea of the spiritual world in order to comprehend the full significance of a fact such as this. When occult means are used in an endeavour to secure for a single folk spirit the rulership over the whole world, this means that the intention is to influence even the spiritual world.

It means that

• in the place of the legitimate rulership of the dead by the archangeloi,
• is put the illegitimate rulership by archai who have remained at the stage of the archangeloi and who are, therefore, illegitimate time spirits. With this, ahrimanic immortality is achieved.

You might ask why human beings can be so foolish as to allow themselves to be programmed away from normal evolution and into quite another evolutionary direction. This is a short-sighted judgement, for it fails to take into account that out of certain impulses human beings can indeed come to long for immortality in worlds other than those that would be normal. It is well and good that you do not long for any part in some kind of ahrimanic immortality! But just as all kinds of things are incomprehensible, so you will have to admit that it must be allowed to remain incomprehensible, if people in the normal world — including life between death and a new birth — want to escape from this normal world, saying — as it were: We do not want Christ to be our guide, Christ, who is the guide for the normal world; we want a different guide, for we want to oppose this normal world. From the preparations they undergo — I have described these to you — from the preparations brought about by ceremonial magic, they gain the impression that the world of ahrimanic powers is a far more powerful spiritual world and that it will above all enable them to continue what they have achieved in the physical world — making immortal their materialistic experiences in physical life.

The time is ripe for looking into these things, because those who do not know about them, those who do not know that such endeavours exist today, are not in a position to understand what is going on. Behind everything visible in the physical world there lies something that is supernatural, something physically imperceptible. And there are today not a few who work, either for good or for bad, with means, with impulses that are hidden behind what the senses can perceive. It can be said that the world in which we live will follow its proper evolution if human beings place themselves in the service of Christ. But there are many and varied means by which this can be avoided, and some of these are so close to home that it is not easy to speak about them. People have no idea of what can spread through human souls, yet at the same time work as an immeasurably strong occult impulse.

1917-11-25-GA178

from RSH:

Left occult brotherhoods try to clamp these forces for their group-egoistic purposes. Certain substances (foodstuffs and luxuries), e.g., can have an effect on moral qualities at certain constellations of stars. A member of such a brotherhood may also be able – by taking advantage of cosmic constellations – to remain after death within his brotherhood and make his forces available to it (‘immortality’).

1917-11-29-GA182

see: Christ Module 15 - Study of Spiritual Science and the Mystery of Golgotha#1917-11-29-GA182

1927-12-09-GA179

Lecture 2: Concerning the World of the Dead

1917-12-10-GA179

Lecture 3: Our Life with the Dead

1917-12-17-GA179

[The life of the so-called dead and the so-called living]

1918-02-10-GA182

The Dead Are With Us

1918-02-14-GA174a                                

1918-03-05-GA181

Uniting with the universal spirit

1918-03-19-GA181

The feeling of community and the experience of gratitude

1918-03-26-GA181

Trust in life and rejuvenation of the soul

1924-07-04 – Memento Mori (Latin phrase that means 'Remember that you must die.')

1924-07-06-GA237

We have seen how the study of karma, wherein the destiny of man is contained, leads us from the affairs of the farthest universe — from the worlds of the stars — down to the tenderest experiences of the human heart, inasmuch as the heart is an expression of all that man feels working upon him during life, — of all that happens to him in the whole nexus of earth-existence. When we try to arrive at our judgments through a deeper understanding of the karmic connections, we are driven again and again to look into these two domains of world-existence which lie so far removed from one another. Indeed we must say: Whatever else we may be studying, — be it Nature, or the more natural configuration of human evolution in history or in the life of nations — none of these leads us so high up into cosmic realms as the study of karma. The study of karma makes us altogether aware of the connections between human life here upon earth and that which goes on in the wide universe. We see this human life taking its course on earth, unfolding till about the 70th year of life, when in a certain connection it attains its limit. Whatever lies beyond this is in reality a life given by grace. What lies below this limit stands under karmic influences, and these we shall now have to study.

It is possible, as I have often mentioned from varied points of view, to put the length of human life on earth at about 72 years. Now 72 years, seen in relation to the secrets of the cosmos, is a remarkable number, the true significance of which only begins to dawn upon us when we consider what I may call the cosmic secret of human earthly life. We have already described what the world of the stars is from a spiritual point of view. When we enter on a new earthly life, we return, so to speak, from the world of stars to this life on earth.

At this point once more it is astonishing how the ancient ideas — even if we do not take our start from tradition — simply emerge again of their own accord when we approach these domains of life with the help of modern spiritual science. We have seen how the various planetary stars and fixed stars take part in human life and in all that permeates this human life on earth. If we have before us an earthly life that has taken its full course, — one that does not come to an end all too soon, but that has passed through half at least of the allotted earthly time, — then in the last resort we find this truth once more: The human being, inasmuch as he comes down from cosmic spiritual spaces into an earthly life, comes always from a certain star. We can trace the very direction of it, and it is not unreal — on the contrary, it is most exact, to say: — ‘The human being has his star.’ If we take what is experienced beyond all space and time between death and a new birth, and translate this into its spatial image, we can say: Every man has his star, which determines what he has attained between death and a new birth.

He comes from the direction of a certain star. We may indeed receive into our minds this conception. The whole human race inhabiting the Earth is to be found on the one hand by looking round about us upon Earth, passing through these many continents, finding them peopled by the human beings who are now incarnated.

And the others who are not on the Earth, where in the universe shall we find them? Whither must we look in the great universe if we would turn our soul's gaze to them, assuming that a certain time has elapsed since they went through the gate of death?

The answer is: We look in the true direction when we look out upon the starry heavens. There are the souls — or at least the directions which will enable us to find the souls — who are spending their life between death and a new birth.

We see and comprehend the entire human race that inhabits the Earth, when we look upward and downward. Those alone who are now on the way thither or returning thence, we find in the planetary region.

But we can certainly not speak of the midnight hour of existence between death and a new birth, without thinking of some star which the human being as it were indwells between death and a new birth (albeit we must always bear in mind what I have said about the beings of the stars).

Then, my dear friends, we shall approach the cosmos with this knowledge. Away there are the stars, the cosmic signs from which there shines and lightens down upon us the soul-life of those who are between death and a new birth. And then we become aware that we can look also at the constellations of stars, saying to ourselves: ‘How is all this, that we behold in cosmic spaces, connected with the life of Man?’ We look up with a new fulness of heart and mind to the silvery moon, the dazzling blaze of the sun, the twinkling stars at night-time, and we feel ourselves united even humanly with all of these. This is what anthroposophy is to attain at last for the souls of men: they shall feel themselves united even in a human way with the whole cosmos. It is at this point that certain secrets of cosmic existence first begin to dawn upon us.

Funerals

Friedrich Rittelmeyer

in 'Rudolf Steiner Comes Into My Life', saw the chance to ask Rudolf Steiner a couple of question after a funeral where he did the services

"Are the dead really there when one is giving their funeral oration?" I asked, and waited eagerly to see what he would reply to this unexpected question. ,

"When you spoke of the words which had comforted him on his death-bed, he came and stayed there until Prince X. got up so abruptly and went away. Then I did not see him any more."

Again I tried to realize the extraordinary situation. There among three hundred others was a man who had experienced this. But nobody could have guessed it. What kind of faces would they have pulled if they had suddenly seen what was happening?

"It must often be very unpleasant for the dead to be obliged to listen to these funeral orations!" I continued.

Dr. Steiner replied: "I have never noticed that. If they have no inner relation to what is said they stay away."

Longevity

The quotes below are examples that describe the elixir of life and immortality as the quest towards the future spiritual immortality of Man, not of physical immortality. That is why Rudolf Steiner also called anthroposophy or spiritual science the much needed elixir of life for humanity's future. However in certain lectures Rudolf Steiner did hint to ancient techniques for extending life, but he did not unveil anything further.

1907-06-29-GA100

The idea of the Stone of Wise was connected with the meaning that little by little it enabled one to know man's immortal part, which cannot decay after death, for it leads one up into the higher worlds. If a human being realizes that this immortal part cannot fall a prey to death, he acquires an immortal life through the possession of the Stone of the Wise, and thus he overcomes death.

This had been interpreted as meaning that one would never die. But it means instead that thereby one learns to know the world where man lives after death. Moreover one saw in the Stone of the Wise an elixir of life. All this rendered the Stone of the Wise extremely desirable. Those who knew the true meaning of these things must have found these words strangely correct; for they are true—but those who do not know the secret cannot do much with them.

...

Now you will be able to understand the indications which were published by that strange man, though he did not understand them. The Stone of the Wise is the ordinary black coal; but you must learn the process enabling you to elaborate the carbon through your inner forces: this constitutes the future of mankind. The present coal is a prototype of that which will one day constitute the most important substance of the human being. Bear in mind the clear diamond: also the diamond is nothing but carbon! This was called, the “Preparation of the Stone of the Wise” in the Rosicrucian world-conception. It conceals a process of transformation in the human being and the call to work upon future conditions of humanity,. All who work in this way help to prepare the human bodies of the future, the bodies which will in future be needed by the human souls.

1910-12-27-GA126

Eabani comes to know a woman of Erech and is attracted by her into the City. He becomes the friend of Gilgamesh and this brings peace to the city. Gilgamesh and Eabani together are now the rulers. Then Ishtar, the Goddess of Erech, is stolen by a neighbouring city. There upon Eabani and Gilgamesh go to war with the marauding city, conquer the king and bring the Goddess back again to Erech. Gilgamesh lives near her, and here we come to the strange fact that he has no understanding of the essential nature of the Goddess. A scene takes place, directly reminiscent of a Biblical scene described in the Gospel of St. John. Gilgamesh confronts Ishtar, but his conduct is very different from that of Christ Jesus. He upbraids the Goddess for having loved many other men before she had encountered him, reproaching her particularly for her most recent attachment. Thereupon the Goddess carries her complaints to that deity, that Being of the higher Hierarchies, to whom she belongs. She goes to Anu. And now Anu sends a bull down to the earth; Gilgamesh has to engage in combat with it. Those who recall Mithras's fight with the bull will see a resemblance here. All these events—and when we come to explain the myth we shall see what depths it contains—have led meanwhile to the death of Eabani. Gilgamesh is now alone. A thought comes to him that gnaws at the very fibres of his soul. Under the impression of what he has experienced, he becomes conscious for the first time of the thought that man is mortal; a thought to which he had previously paid no heed comes before his soul in all its terror. And then he hears of the only man of earth who has remained immortal, whereas all other human beings in the Post-Atlantean epoch have become conscious of mortality: he hears of the immortal Xisuthros far away in the West. And because he is resolved to fathom the riddle of life and death, he sets out on the perilous journey to the West.⁵

I can tell you at once that this journey to the West is nothing else than the search for the secrets of ancient Atlantis, for happenings prior to the great Atlantean catastrophe.

Gilgamesh sets out on his journey. The details are interesting. He has to pass through an entrance guarded by giant scorpions; the spirit leads him into the realm of death; he enters the kingdom of Xisuthros and there learns that in the Post-Atlantean epoch all men will inevitably be more and more penetrated with the consciousness of death.

Gilgamesh now asks Xisuthros whence he has knowledge of his eternal being; how comes it that he is conscious of immortality? Thereupon Xisuthros says to him: “You too can have this consciousness, but you must undergo all that I had to experience in overcoming the terror, anxiety and loneliness through which it was my lot to pass. When the god Ea had resolved to let perish” (in what we call the Atlantean catastrophe) “that part of humanity which was to live no longer, he bade me to withdraw into a kind of ship. I was to take with me the animals that were to remain, and those Individualities who are truly to be called the Masters. By means of this ship I outlived the great catastrophe.” Xisuthros then tells Gilgamesh: “What was there undergone, you can experience only in your innermost being; but you can attain the consciousness of immortality if for seven nights and six days you refrain from sleep.” Gilgamesh wishes to submit to the test but soon falls asleep. Then the wife of Xisuthros baked seven mystic loaves which by being eaten are to be a substitute for what would have been attained in the seven nights and six days without sleep. With this “life-elixir” Gilgamesh continues his journeying, bathes as it were in a fountain of youth, and again reaches the borders of his own country in the region of the Euphrates and the Tigris. A serpent deprives him of the power of the life-elixir and so he reaches his country without it, but all the same with the consciousness that there is indeed immortality, and filled with longing to see the spirit at least, of Eabani. The spirit of Eabani appears to him, and from the discourse which then takes place we can glean how, for the culture of the Egypto-Chaldean epoch, a consciousness of the link with the spiritual world could arise.—This relationship between Gilgamesh and Eabani is very significant. I have now outlined pictures from the significant myth of Gilgamesh which, as we shall see, will lead us into the spiritual depths lying behind the Chaldean-Babylonian culture-epoch. These pictures show that two individualities stand there: the individuality of one—Gilgamesh—into whom a divine-spiritual being has penetrated; and an individuality who is more of a human being, but of such a nature that he may be called a young soul, who has had few incarnations and for that reason has carried over ancient clairvoyance into later times—Eabani.

Related pages

• Man's cycle of reincarnation
• The world of the deceased
• Influence of deceased souls
• Interaction with deceased souls

References and further reading

Death horoscope

• Willy Sucher:
  • The horoscope of death (Feb 1938, PDF article in public domain)
  • The horoscope of death and the life after death (Jul 1938, PDF article in public domain)
• Gunther Wachsmuth: 'Kosmische Aspekte von Geburt und Tod. Beiträge zur Karmaforschung.' (1956, 1990) also in FR as 'Ciel de naissance et ciel de mort : Contribution à la recherche sur le karma.'
  • comparison of birth and death charts for the Individualities part of Karma research case studies