Spirit world
Spirit World (or Spirit Land) is the third world after our physical world, and the astral or soul world. In theosophical language (based on indian sanskrite terms) it is also called Devachan. Other terms are: the heavenly world, the world of inspiration (lower) and intuition (higher), or the world of harmony of the spheres.
It consists of:
- a lower region, that contains the formed mental or spiritual archetypes of everything we find on Earth. In theosophy this Lower Spirit World is called rupa devachan.
- 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
- a higher region of unformed mental substance, in theosophy this Higher Spirit World is called arupa devachan, it is also called world of reason.
Aspects
- For the soul in the process between death and a new birth, sacrifice is also 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
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.
Illustrations
FMC00.079 positions the Spirit World with the different terminologies
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.
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.
1906-06-07-GA094
1906-06-08-GA094
(seven regions)
1906-07-01-GA094
(description of five regions)
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.
Discussion
