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 atmospheric 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' (in the middle ages) or the 'world of ideas' (Plato)
- In the fifth, sixth and seventh regions of the spirit world, we find the creative forces of the archetypes. The archetypes are still present here as soul‑inspired germ cells, ready to take on the most diverse forms when they enter the lower realms. (1908-03-07-GA111). Here ideas take on their first forms as divine geniuses and float around together, still penetrating each other as similar spiritual beings. (1903-07-05-GA088)
Aspects
- through the Human 'I', Man continuously produces forms which cast shadows in the spirit world. Thoughts, feelings and willing deeds impact the various regions of the spirit world (o.a. 1907-05-30-GA099)
- 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)
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 'world of ideas' (see o.a. extracts section below):
- Rudolf Steiner links Goethe's plant archetypes to the second (oceanic) layer of the formed spirit world, and maps Plato's world of ideas to the higher unformed spirit world.
- Plato’s 'world of ideas' describes the true spiritual realities and timeless archetypes behind or underlying sensory phenomena corresponding to the higher spirit world (more like abstractions or principles). Goethe’s 'world of ideas' consists of ideas as living formative forces (such as the archetypal plant, which he saw as an objective reality that can be perceived); so these ideas emerge together with and are underlying phenomena of nature.
regions
- the four lower regions (1906-06-07-GA094)
- continental region: consists of negative images of physical-mineral objects. An object in the physical world is found as a vacuum corresponding to the space occupied by the object in the physical world, and a void, a nothing in the physical world is found in the spirit world as something resplendent, radiant and resounding (a bit like the photographic negative .. the physical object would exactly fit into the vacuum). This is only for objects of nature (the mineral parts of plants, animals and men), artificial forms made by Man appear in the spirit world as a positive.
- oceanic region: flowing, streaming life with all that constitutes life on Earth and enables plants and animals to grow; with great regularity, a bit like the blood-circulation in the human body.
- atmospheric region: this airy region contains everything known on Earth as feeling and sensation. Earthtly currents of pain may be felt like the winds which blow on Earth, calamities on the physical plane can be heard (eg a battle appears as a terrific tempest, unchaining itself in lightning, thunder and storms).
- fourth region: contains all fruitful and valuable ideas ever thought out by Man, as a wonderful starry writing (and can be read as the so-called akasha chronicle). Also for the foundation of each animal, each plant, each crystal, there is a thought, an idea.
various
- "one can form the most correct idea of spirit world if we think of the world of electric forces before electricity had been discovered" (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.
Schema 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 astral 'seeing' to spiritual 'hearing' and how both faculties combine - see also Stages of clairvoyance.
The schematic representation is necessarily limited to represent such realities, as most Schemas this is mainly a sigil pointer or reference to this topic's meaning. It is recommended to combine this with Schema FMC00.261 and Schema FMC00.136 with further descriptions 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 'astral package' with (individual) lower drives is left behind in the ascent and picked up later again in the descent.
- 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 (see Monad) and have their origin in still higher worlds (budhi and nirvana planes), see Schema FMC00.141A
Schema FMC00.141A: shows the layers of the spirit world, and how the living germ-point kernels in the spirit world are parts of the monad that stream in from still higher worlds, the budhi and nirvana planes (see Planes or worlds of consciousness), and are clothed with form and substance in the worlds below.
This is the original pencil drawing that was the basis for Schema FMC00.141 in context of the Golden Chain.
Lecture coverage and references
1903-07-05-GA088
Enveloped in Budhi, the Logos now flows into the mental region, which is divided into the stages of (unformed) Arupa and (formed) Rupa; the divine world of thought now pours into this region, the exemplary ideas surge through each other. What later becomes a special being and still rests enclosed in the Logos in the Budhi sphere is called into existence here as an exemplary idea. This Arupa level of the mental sphere is the world of ideas of Plato, the world of reason of the Middle Ages. On the Arupa level, these ideas take on their first forms. As divine geniuses, they begin their special existence and float around together, still penetrating each other as similar spiritual beings. This is the heavenly realm of the Middle Ages.
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)
1907-05-30-GA099
Thus spiritual science shows us that we do not live as isolated beings but that our thoughts continually produce forms which cast shadows in the world of Devachan and permeate it with all kinds of substances and essences.
The four regions of Devachan .. the “Continental,” the “Oceanic,” the “Atmospheric” and the region of original “Inspirations” are influenced all the time by the thoughts, feelings and sensations of human beings.
The higher regions of Devachan, in which the Akasha Chronicle appears, are influenced by deeds.
What happens in the external world plays into the very highest region of Devachan - the “world of Reason.”
1907-09-25-GA111
in context of reincarnation:
Just like plant seeds, human beings take a multitude of seeds with them to the spirit world, in order to develop them there anew. All the powers that rebuild the body are contained there; the archetypes of the human being are also found there.
Long ago, the physical eyes were formed by the light. The light drew out the eyes, they are products of the light. Before that, man was still blind; the food juices, which otherwise provided the strength to feel, grasp, scratch and so on, were transformed to form organs for seeing. In this way, the ear was formed for sound, the nose for aroma.
The archetype of the etheric body arises out of the watery region of the spirit world.
The archetype of the astral body arises out of the aerial region of the spirit world.
Out of these regions Man creates the foundations for his physical shell.
1908-03-07-GA111
We must now study the devachanic world. It is just as varied as our material world. There, as here, we can speak comparatively of a continental area, an ocean area and an air area (atmosphere or aura), which permeate each other.
The continental area contains the archetypes of the material world, insofar as they are not animated with life, that is, the material forms of minerals, plants, animals and humans.
Imagine a limited space filled with material bodies. Seen with a devachanic gaze, the material forms disappear, but a radiance around the bodies begins, while the space occupied by the material bodies forms an empty space, a negative or shadow image. Animals and humans, seen in this way, appear as negative images: Blood appears green, which is the complementary color of red. The entire material world is present in this way as an archetypal image in the devachanic realm.
The second realm, the oceanic realm, consists not of water but of flowing life that permeates the entire devachanic realm, just as the bloodstream permeates everything in the human body. The unique substance, the “Pran”, which flows here [on earth] in separate animal and human bodies, forms an eternally flowing stream of life in the devachan, the color of peach blossoms. This element is the creative force of everything that appears on earth as a living being. In Devachan we see that the life that animates us all is indeed a unity.
The third realm can best be characterized by saying that everything that takes place here [on earth] in the soul in terms of inner feelings of joy or pain, passion or anger, is revealed there as an atmospheric phenomenon. The silent longing of a human soul can be perceived there like a gently whispering wind; an outburst of passions like a storm wind; a battlefield caused by the outbursts of hatred, anger and lust for murder causes a heavy thunderstorm with rolling thunder and bright lightning strikes. Just as the earth is surrounded by its aura, so the devachan has around it, scattered about, all the feelings that are nurtured or expressed here on earth.
The fourth region of devachan has no direct connection with the lower worlds. The archetypes found there are beings that rule over the archetypes of the lower devachanic realms and bring them together. They are therefore more concerned with organizing and grouping the archetypes that are subordinate to them. A greater power emanates from this realm than from the lower three.
In the fifth, sixth and seventh regions of Devachan, we find the creative forces of the archetypes. Those who can ascend this far learn about the underlying objectives of our world. The archetypes are still present here as soul-inspired germ cells, ready to take on the most diverse forms when they enter the lower realms.
The ideas through which the human spirit appears in the material world are a reflection, a shadow image of these germs of the higher spiritual world. The harmony of the spheres of the devachanic realm is here translated into spiritual language. Here one begins to hear the spiritual word, whereby things express their inner being not only in tones and sounds, but also in words.
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.
Journey between death and a new birth
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 world, the astral and the physical world are nothing other than three interpenetrating worlds.
We can form the most correct idea of 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 spirit world.
Let us imagine ourselves in the soul of someone living between two incarnations.
He has given over his physical body to the forces of the earth and relinquished his etheric body to the life-forces. Furthermore he has given back that part of his astral body into which he himself has not worked. He then finds himself in spirit world.
He no longer has as personal possession what the gods had worked into his etheric and astral bodies; all this has been cast aside.
He now possesses only what he himself has achieved in the course of many lives. In spirit world this remains his own.
All that man has done in the physical world serves the purpose of making him more and more conscious in spirit world.
Experiential
see also faculty of intuition as 'understanding' in the higher spirit world, on Stages of clairvoyance
198X - Daskalos
Daskalos in Markides FIH Ch 3.8
At the higher noetic spheres you do not learn about things outside yourself. You become those things. This is what we mean by at-onement.
At the higher noetic spheres you do not shape mind as thought forms in order to understand reality outside yourself. You become the reality outside yourself. And when you reach the higher noetic worlds you can consciously acquire any form you like and yet still be you.
My difficulty is to convey these experiences with words. Sometimes I am forced to invent new words to convey the essence of an experiential reality that cannot be communicated with language. For example, in Greek we have the word antilepsis [perception, awareness]. The other day I introduced to the members of the inner circle the term synantilepsis [co-perception, co-awareness]. To my knowledge there is no such word. Yet there is an experiential reality out there.
Synantilepsis means ... [to] assimilate an object within their consciousness in exactly the same way. Synantilepsis means to become that something. And in order for synantilepsis to take place, at-onement must precede it. We use such words, but how many people really 'can understand them?"
[someone interjecting: So at the higher noetic spheres, as you define them, you enter into the nature of things, into reality itself. You become the reality. This is what you mean by 'thought' at these levels.]
Thought at these levels is yourself. It is your nature. It is not something external to you which will excite or disappoint you. Thought there is love itself. To reach the highest stages it means that you truly understand and live by Christ's admonition of loving your enemies. ... The nature of thought in the higher noetic spheres is to become the Truth
What did Christ say? "I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life." I Am.
...
To provide a rough analogy ...
... let us assume that mind is the light that hits an object. Then an image of that object is placed on our eye and becomes an irritation upon the optical nerve that transfers the image to your brain and then you say 'I see this object.' This, let us say, is ordinary thought. Then a sentiment develops. Do I like it or do I not? Do I want it or do I not? In this situation you have the 'I' which observes and the object out there being observed by the 'I.' And then you judge accordingly.
But what I am talking about is something else.
[higher cognition]
I am not waiting for the light as an outside condition to offer me this or that situation that I can observe, I the observer as something outside the thing I observe. No. I dress myself with Mind Itself because I discover that me as 'I' has mind as its very essence, which is the essence of the Absolute Itself. It is a different condition than using Mind as an external reality to myself that I utilize to construct noetic images in order to observe objects outside myself.
Rather, I fuse my consciousness with the object outside myself and become one with it.
And when I become that I do not need to understand it. I know it. I become it.
2021-12-21 - Rawn Clark
Demonstrates and comments 'live' from an experiential perspective in the higher spirit world, in this youtube movie 'Offerings: 19 - Greater selves'. (4'30-17'30). In this movie he speaks with waking consciousness to comment whilst at the same time shifting his consciousness to the higher spirit world and visiting the world of group souls and archetypes of all kingdoms of nature.
Rawn uses terminology 'greater self' for group soul (and/or Man's higher triad), and 'individual self' for 'Individuality'.
Transcript A below as a quick-read introduction, was autoformatted by chatgpt. This however looses meaning, it is not literal, for this see youtube movie.
For solstice, in these troubling days, I wanted to give you the gift of a different perspective: the perspective of the Greater Self.
I’ve been talking a lot about the Greater Self and I’ve never really described what it is, what it’s really like. I did write about an early experience, a short piece called 'Sowantha' back in 1996, but I’ve had a quarter-century more of experience since then. The Greater Self is much more familiar to me now, much easier for me to access.
It’s always with me; it’s part of my awareness. So I’m in a better position now to describe the Greater Self and to give you a different perspective on the world, on life, and on our existence.
[perception to words]
First I need to say something about the nature of perceiving my Greater Self. These perceptions come from the fire region of my mental body — my temporal mental body (which I described in my last video). The perceptions are nonverbal; they have no structure that language can encompass. So I have to bring these impressions back down into the air, water, and earth regions of my mental body — into my ordinary awareness [meaning waking consciousness] — in order to put them into words. In other words, what I’m offering are translations of perceptions, and my perceptions are far richer than words can capture. It has taken a lot of practice to get to the point where I can translate this, and put things in words.
[start at 4'40]
So here goes. This is a vast subject; I’ll feel my way through it and try to cover the essentials.
When I go to my Greater Self it is a rising. At first glance the realm of the Greater Selves is dark, darkness ... but at the same time there are shapes and things in it that appear clear as day. The sense of the domain is dark, yet full of form.
[6'40]
I go up to my Greater Self in silence; and in going up I am becoming my Greater Self — my awareness is that of my Greater Self. At this level there are an infinite number of us: an infinite number of Greater Selves. There is no sequence here, no before-and-after. We are all together. Our separateness is really an illusion; everything is very fluid, though there is still me-ness. I am the Greater Self (I just call 'Sowantha')
If my focus is exclusively down in the realm of time and space, the sequential realm, I perceive that whole realm of time and space, all at once. For the Greater Self there is no past, present, or future; it’s all there, simultaneously. I am part of the creation of that realm; I project parts of myself into it. I call those projections my individual selves.
All throughout the realm of space-time my individual selves are strewn. There is no past or future in the Greater Self’s perspective: they are all present, all there now, all they always have been.
And, I live through them; I am connected to each one of them through the fire region of their mental bodies. That connection is how I am present in every moment of their existence. They exist always, and I feel what they feel. I experience all of them — all at the same moment — and thereby I experience the entire realm of time and space through my individual selves.
[8'45]
I can focus myself into anyone I want, but I remain present in all of them at once. I may be focused in one, or several; I may focus into a moment of time and space, or into the entire existence of that individual self. I can focus anywhere — endlessly focusing, experiencing, perceiving, and being.
All my fellow Greater Selves are doing exactly the same thing with their individuals, and together we create this realm of time and space: the realm of sequence. We set it in motion; we create it; we are it. It is all us, and it is all there at once — from beginning to end — but there is no true beginning or end. It is like the ouroboros [see o.a. Schema FMC00.328 and IAO], constantly eating its own tail, always changing. As a whole it is beautiful; it is absolutely perfect.
[10'55]
When I look around the realm of the Greaters, I realize I am near the bottom — the most specific layer of Greater Selves. We are the most particular, the most finite expressions. We personify a limited combination of essential meanings; we receive infinite essential meanings and give them finite form. We personify a small set of essential meanings and project them into the realm of sequence so they can manifest and be experienced. We regurgitate them into the realm of time-space so that each moment of existence can be lived.
As a Greater Self I am right at the birthing point — the womb that gives birth. Above me there are infinitely more inclusive creators. The whole situation is fluid. Awareness and consciousness like to group themselves; they form collectives in the Greater Realm much as we form groups in the Earth realm. Collective groupings in the Greater Realm mirror what happens in the sequential realm.
There are Greater Selves composed of many things.
[13'13]
There is a Greater Self that is all human beings. I am a part of that Greater Self.
[Note: this is in the higher spirit world so 'beyond/above' the astral group souls of humanity]
There is a Greater Self for everything that is manifest:
- a Greater Self for minerals; there is a Greater Self for quartz crystal (I am fond of that Self); a Greater Self of gold (all the gold).
- There are Greater Selves for animals,
- for trees, for creatures,
- for ideas, for feelings.
And there is the One Greater Self of All — the I — which permeates all the Greater Selves. We are all connected.
[14'40]
And I can travel, and become one with the Greater Self of quartz crystal; I can delve into all the individuals of quartz crystal and then rise back and come home to myself. Existence here is incredibly fluid.
My work, however, is in the realm of sequence. I can focus within any one of my individuals, at any moment in their existence.
I can share with fellow Greater Selves of human beings; I can look into their individuals as well, and they into mine.
Some of us have affinities, connections between Greater Selves of different species or types of being. The human Greater Self shares affinities with other greater-selves of species (animals) that live here on Earth ... we’re all so related.
[17'30 - back]
And so I look down into the world, and here I am as Rawn, looking through Rawn’s eyes, experiencing this present moment through Rawn — looking into your eyes.
I’ll leave that as my little gift to you. I hope it brings some comfort to know there are much larger perspectives than our tiny moment in time-space. When it feels like everything in the world is going to end, remember: this process happens over and over again. Life continues in one form or another; we always continue.
From the Q&A
Question: Which reason would there be for a higher self to experience a situation through a highly individualized being, like a human? One could assume experiencing, but everything is timeless. And learning, but this must be a concept inside of individualization, right? So what for?
It isn't a matter of motivation, but rather, simply the way it is. By the Greater Selves projecting themseves (as they must because of what they are) and thus forming the temporal/sequential realm, the Greaters awarenesses by necessity fill their Individual Selves. The Individuals themselves are composed of their Greater's awareness -- that is what an Individual IS. So when an Individual experiences the temporal present moment, the Great Self does as well, just by nature.
The perspectives of The "I", the Greater Selves, the Individual Selves and the physical selves are so different from one another that we must be very careful when we presuppose reasons and motives for the workings of the Universe!
and
Question: I want to ask something regarding the process of accessing the Self and "merging" with one's Greater... In the tradition I used to participate with, it is said that without a living, breathing human who is also in that state of Greater Awareness, and without the grace/transmission they confer, it is nigh impossible to achieve Understanding: a true "crossing" of the so called "abyss", and the permanent union and integration of those levels...They go further and say that without a master, nothing is possible (which I doubt) How would you interpret this? Is it true that this is the case?
I interpret this in many ways.
- One is that it's simply old programming: the "teacher" was taught this as dogma and is simply passing the dogma along without actually knowing if it is true (likely without even having questioned its veracity).
- Second is the egotism of the "teacher" who says this: it certainly affords one a certain quantity of supposed validity to be able to claim a lineage of sages and saints for one's teachings, no? Makes one out to be special, a trusted and advanced initiate, etc. It offers a false validation over saying "I discovered this myself".
- And third (which I see a LOT in this day of YouTube! LOL) is economic or narcissistic self-interest. There's nothing better for the pocketbook or the ego than a bevy of "students"!
Or are, for example, the techniques in Initiation Into Hermetics on their own capable of taking one to cross and merge into the non-sequential realm...
Well, yes and no. This is the self-stated goal and aim of IIH and I can attest from my own direct experience that it all works and is achievable. At least it was for me and is for several people that I know personally. Whether it will be for you, or is for anybody else, is up to you and to each individual. Each individual must do the work to "cross and merge" for themselves no matter what approach they pursue. And if that is truly what your heart is set upon, you will reach your goal no matter the path you choose.
Part of why I'm asking is that in the essay about your experience of merging with Sowantha, you once mentioned you had a teacher, which you realized was none other but your own Greater... and that it is through other individuals that Greater Selves aid the individuals to "ascend"
The former teacher that I mentioned is not my Greater Self, he is a "brother" Individual Self projected by our Greater Self. Many of the people I've learned from over countless lifetimes have been related to me in this way and many of the people that have learned from me have been this sort of relative too. :) That is the nature of the process of self-realization: it's the self, realizing itself, over and over and over.
World of Ideas
1883-GA001, Ch. 11
What we find of Goethe's world view in Eduard von Hartmann's philosophy is the becoming aware of something objective within our world of ideas, and the devotion, arising from this becoming aware, to this objective element. Hartmann was led by his philosophy of the unconscious to this merging with the objective idea. Since he recognized that the being of the idea does not lie in its being conscious, he had to recognize the idea also as something existing in and of itself, as something objective. The fact that he also includes the will among the principles constituting the world does make him differ again from Goethe, to be sure. Nevertheless, where Hartmann is really fruitful, the will motif does not come into consideration at all. That he assumes this motif at all comes from the fact that he regards the ideas as something static which, in order to begin working, needs the impetus of will. According to Hartmann, the will alone can never achieve the creation of the world, for it is the empty, blind urge for existence. If the will is to bring forth something, then the idea must enter in, because only the idea gives the will a content for its working.
But what are we to make of this will? It slips away from us when we want to grasp it; for we cannot after all grasp an empty urging that has no content. And so it turns out after all that everything which we actually grasp of the world principle is idea, because what is graspable must in fact have content. We can only grasp what is full of content, not what is empty of content. If therefore we are to grasp the concept will, it must after all arise in the content of the idea; it can appear only in and along with the idea, as the form in which it arises, never independently. What exists must have content; there can only be existence which is full; there cannot be an empty one.
Therefore, Goethe pictures the idea as active, as something working, which needs no further impetus. For, something full of content may not and cannot first receive from something empty of content, the impetus to come into existence. The idea therefore, according to Goethe, is to be grasped as entelechy, i.e., as an already active existence; and one must first draw an abstraction from its form as an active existence if one then wants to bring it back again under the name will. The will motif also has no value at all for positive science. Hartmann also does not need it when he confronts the concrete phenomenon.
1894-GA004, Ch. 10
Philosophy of Freedom, for background on 'ideas'
1897-GA006, Ch. 5
note: it is worthwhile to read this whole chapter
Those natures who are not able to recognise that it is the speech of things that is uttered in the inner being of man, hold the view that all truth must penetrate into man from without. Such natures either adhere to mere perception and believe that only through sight, hearing and touch, through the gleaning of historical events and through comparing, reckoning, calculating and weighing what is received from the realm of facts, is truth able to be cognised; or else they hold the view that truth can only come to man when it is revealed to him through means lying beyond the scope of his cognitional activity; or, finally, they endeavour through forces of a special character, through ecstasy or mystical vision, to attain to the highest insight—insight which, in their view, cannot be afforded them by the world of ideas accessible to thought. A special class of metaphysicians also range themselves on the side of the Kantian School and of one-sided mystics. They, indeed, endeavour to form concepts of truth by means of thought, but they do not seek the content of these concepts in man's world of ideas; they seek it in a second reality lying behind the objects. They hold that by means of pure concepts they can either make out something definite about this content, or at least form conceptions of it through hypotheses. I am speaking here chiefly of the first mentioned category of men, the “fact-fanatics.” We sometimes find it entering into their consciousness that in reckoning and calculation there already exists, with the help of thought, an elaboration of the content of perception. But then, so they say, thought-activity is only the means whereby man endeavours to cognise the connection between the facts. What flows out of thought as it elaborates the external world is held by these men to be merely subjective; only what approaches them from outside with the help of thinking do they regard as the objective content of truth, the valuable content of knowledge. They imprison the facts within their web of thoughts, but only what is so imprisoned do they admit to be objective. They overlook the fact that what thought imprisons in this way undergoes an exegesis, an adjustment, and an interpretation that is not there in mere perception. Mathematics is a product of pure thought-processes; its content is mental, subjective. And the mechanician who conceives of natural processes in terms of mathematical relations can only do this on the assumption that the relations have their foundation in the essential nature of these processes. This, however, means nothing else than that a mathematical order lies hidden within the perception and is only seen by one who elaborates the mathematical laws within his mind. There is, however, no difference of kind but only of degree between the mathematical and mechanical perceptions and the most intimate spiritual experiences. Man can carry over other inner experiences, other regions of his world of ideas into his perceptions with the same right as the results of mathematical research. The “fact-fanatic” only apparently establishes purely external processes. He does not as a rule reflect upon the world of ideas and its character as subjective experience. And his inner experiences are poor in content, bloodless abstractions that are obscured by the powerful content of fact.
