Spirit world
The spirit world (or spirit land) is the third world after our physical world, and the astral or soul world.
It consists of:
- a lower region - the lower spirit world, that contains the formed mental or spiritual archetypes of everything we find on Earth.
- The lowest three regions are called the continental, oceanic and atmosopheric regions and contain archetypes for the physical earthly, the etheric life, and the airy astral components we find in the lower planes.
- the fourth region, holding the middle with the higher spirit world, is Plato's 'home of the Ideas', or the 'Realm of the Mothers' of which Goethe speaks in Faust (see also Three mothers)
- a higher region - the higher spirit world consisting of unformed mental substance, it is also called 'world of reason'.
Aspects
- terminology
- in theosophical terminology (based on indian sanskrite terms) the spirit world is called devachan. In theosophy the lower spirit world is called rupa devachan, the higher spirit world is called arupa devachan
- other terms are: the heavenly world, the world of inspiration (lower) and intuition (higher), or the world of harmony of the spheres.
- the spirit world world is called 'the world of effects' and the physical world 'the world of causes' (1905-10-09-GA093A)
- for the soul in the process between death and a new birth, sacrifice is the law of the spirit world (1908-10-26-GA107)
- the spirit world overlaps with the astral world, see Interpenetration of astral and spirit worlds
- consciousness of and in the lower spirit world is called Inspiration (also 'hearing' of the so-called music of the spheres), of the higher spirit world is called Intuition (also 'understanding' or 'knowing') - see Stages of clairvoyance
- friendship or relationships of a purely soul nature are unconsciously wisdom in the spirit world .. the experience of the spiritual in action .. to the extent to which someone enters livingly into such connections he is well prepared for the spirit world. (1905-10-09-GA093A)
Inspirational quotes
1912-02-25-GA143
The chief characteristic of the spirit world .. is that moral laws and physical laws coincide. ... in the spirit world the laws of nature and the moral and intellectual laws coincide.
1905-10-09-GA093A
.. we must make clear to ourselves that the sojourn in the spirit world is nowhere else than where we ourselves are in physical life. For the spirit, the astral and the physical world are nothing other than three interpenetrating worlds.
Illustrations
FMC00.079 positions the spirit world with the different namings from different sets of terminology.
Schema FMC00.136 provides an overview of the seven regions of spirit world and the experience Man has in each region. Whether Man reaches that region depends on his or her spiritual development or maturity.
FMC00.508 depicts the overlap or interpenetration between the higher astral world (right) and the lower spirit world (left). The lecture references in the middle column below (all on this page) describe how experientially one blends from the astral seeing to the spiritual hearing and how both faculties combine. The schematic representation is necessarily handicapped to represent such realities, but as most Schemas this is mainly a sigil pointer and reference for a topic of meaning. It is recommended to combine this with Schemas FMC00.261 and FMC00.136 and the descriptitions of the astral and spirit worlds.
The Schema can also be used as a support to contemplate the process between death and a new birth - see Schema FMC00.498. Only the morally good can pass through the Sun sphere which represents the transition between astral and spirit world, the package with lower drives is left behind and picked up later again. Whereas the lower spirit world is one of archetypes of form and individualized, the higher spirit world is 'the spirit world proper' of principles beyond time and space. The causal body and insight in the book of lives of all previous incarnations is at level 5 of the spirit world, mapping to the spirit-self or manas principle. The principle of buddhi, or Christos, of life-spirit (see Schema FMC00.481) is at level 6 of the spirit world; spirit-man or manas at level 7. The latter two represent the divine essence and have their origin in still higher worlds (budhi and nirvana planes).
Lecture coverage and references
1904-02-18-GA090A
.. from these highest [sixth and seventh] regions of the spirit world, the Masters send the great impulses for humanity from the higher planes of Budhi and Nirvana. They send these impulses that work on the timescale of centuries.
1905-10-09-GA093A
Again and again we must make clear to ourselves that this sojourn in the spirit world is nowhere else than where we ourselves are in physical life. For the spirit, the astral and the physical world are nothing other than three interpenetrating worlds.
We can form the most correct idea of the spirit world if we think of the world of electric forces before electricity had been discovered.
There was a time when all this was contained in the physical world, only it was then an occult world.
Everything that is occult has at some time to be discovered. The difference between life in the spirit world and that in the physical world is that Man in his present epoch is endowed with organs enabling him to perceive the physical world but not with organs that enable him to behold the phenomena of the spirit world.
[example]
Let us take the relationship of one person to another. It can be said that this is simply a natural one, for instance the relationship between brothers and sisters who have been brought together through natural circumstances. It is however only partially natural, for moral and intellectual factors are continually playing in. Through his karma, Man is born into a particular family; but not everything is conditioned by karma. The natural relationship, into which nothing else is intermixed, we have in the case of the animals. In the case of human beings there is always a moral relationship also, through karma.
The relationship between two people can however also exist without this being conditioned by nature. For instance a bond of intimate friendship can arise between two people in spite of outer hindrances. As a rather extreme case let us assume that they were at first mutually somewhat unsympathetic to one another and that they found the way to each other on a purely intellectual and moral basis, soul to soul. Let us contrast this with the natural relationship between members of a family.
With the relationship of soul to soul we have a powerful means of developing devachanic [spirit world] organs. In no way can devachanic organs be more easily developed at present than by such relationships. Such a relationship is unconsciously a devachanic one.
What a person develops in his present life in the way of soul faculty through friendship of a purely soul nature, in the spirit world is wisdom, the possibility of experiencing the spiritual in action.
To the extent to which someone enters livingly into such connections he is well prepared for the spirit world.
To the degree to which Man fosters purely soul relationships do organs of vision develop in him for the spirit world. The earlier relationships become causes which have their effects in the spirit world.
This is why the spirit world world is called the world of effects and the physical world the world of causes. For this purpose Man is transferred to earthly existence.
1906-06-07-GA094
1906-06-08-GA094
(seven regions)
1906-07-01-GA094
(description of five regions)
1909-06-07-GA109
The disembodied soul does not lose all consciousness of the one who is still on Earth; he can actually follow the latter’s actions.
The soul who is first in the spirit world is naturally unable to see physical colors and forms belonging to the Earth because in that spiritual realm he has no physical organs. But everything in the physical world has its spiritual counterpart in the spirit world and that is what is perceived by the soul already there. Every movement of the hand in the physical world, because it is preceded by an impulse of will that is either conscious or unconscious, every change in the physical human being, has a spiritual counterpart that can be perceived in the spirit world by the soul whose death preceded that of the other human being concerned.
Existence in the spirit world is not a kind of dreaming or sleeping but in all respects a conscious life. It is in the spirit world that a human being develops the predispositions and impulses that enable the bond with those whom he loved to remain closer, in order that in a later incarnation he will find them again on Earth.
In many respects the purpose of incarnation on Earth is to forge bonds of ever greater intimacy.
Companionship in the spirit world is, to say the least, as intimate as any life here on Earth. Fellow feeling in the spirit world is much more alert, much more intimate than it is on Earth; one experiences another’s pain there as one’s own.
On Earth, greater or less personal prosperity is possible at the cost of others but in the spirit world that is out of the question. There, the misfortune caused by someone to another human being in order to better himself, would reverberate upon him; nobody could prosper at the expense of another.
Adjustment starts from the spirit world. It is from there that the impulse is brought to make brotherliness a reality on the Earth. A law that is a matter of course in the spirit world is a task that has to be fulfilled on Earth.
1912-02-25-GA143
SWCC
The chief characteristic of the spirit world (devachan) is that moral facts can no longer be distinguished from physical facts, or physical laws; moral laws and physical laws coincide.
What is meant by this? In the ordinary physical world the sun shines over the just and the unjust; one who has committed a crime may perhaps be put in prison, but the physical sun will not be darker because of this fact. This signifies that the world of sense-reality has both a moral order of laws and physical one; but they follow two entirely different directions. In the spirit world it is otherwise — there, this difference does not exist at all. In the spirit world everything that arises out of something moral, or intellectually wise, or esthetically beautiful, etc., leads to a creation, is creative — whereas everything that arises out of something immoral, intellectually untrue, or esthetically ugly, leads to destruction, is destructive.
The laws of nature in the spirit world are indeed of such kind that the sun does not shine equally brightly over the just and the unjust. Speaking figuratively, we may say that the sun actually is darkened in the case of an unrighteous Man, whereas the righteous man who passes through the spirit world really finds in it the spiritual sunshine, that is, the influence of the life-spending forces which help him forward in life. A liar or an ugly-minded Man will pass through the spirit world in such a way that the spiritual forces withdraw from him.
In the spirit world an order of laws is possible, which is not possible here or Earth. When two people, a righteous and an unrighteous one, walk side by side here on the Earth, it is not possible for the sun to shine upon one and not to shine upon the other. But in the spiritual world the influence of the spiritual forces undoubtedly depends upon the quality of a human being. In the spirit world this signifies that the laws of nature and the spiritual laws do not follow separate directions, but the same direction. This is the essential thing which must be borne in mind — in the spirit world the laws of nature and the moral and intellectual laws coincide.
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