The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. The Effects of Certain Supernatural Beings on Human Beings

[ 1 ] Last time, we dealt with a topic that led us from our physical world up into higher worlds by means of what are called the elemental realms, and at that time we had the opportunity to to look into the complex nature of the human being, with all its connections, and the many threads that lead from the human being to the higher worlds. It would be advisable to expand on this subject a little today. In doing so, it will be necessary to make a brief preliminary remark.

[ 2 ] We would not be able to make much progress in our theosophical considerations if we only dealt with elementary facts. Many members would have to keep coming back to the same things. However, by elementary things we do not mean only what one hears at the beginning of the theosophical worldview, but also what is slightly removed from what a reasonable person of today's mindset can understand. This means that a reasonable person of today will at best accept a little of what rises above the physical world. There may be some people who accept this. But they say that one cannot know anything for certain about it, even if it is not completely crazy. The latter, however, is opposed to what corresponds to the higher realms in theosophical illumination. These higher realms are not only meant in the sense that a higher degree of understanding is necessary to hear and understand them, but they also include all the feelings that one can only have if one has long sought knowledge in theosophical life. In a certain sense, one can expect more from someone who has lived this life for a long time. Those who have only been participating for a short time may be asked to tell themselves that today's topic will be somewhat distant from what is commonly said. But it is not so difficult to say to oneself: Perhaps some things may seem a little fantastic and dreamy to me at first, but once I have thought about them for a longer period of time, they will no longer seem so strange to me. It could be that some things only seem crazy to me now, but once I have acquired the feelings for them, they will no longer appear that way to me.

[ 3 ] After that, let us approach the subject with an open mind, which for those who are advanced in their feelings constitutes a higher chapter of the theosophical worldview.

[ 4 ] When we penetrate ever deeper into the higher worlds with the open eye of the seer, of which we have already spoken frequently, into the astral world, the lower and higher Devachan, we see that there are beings who do not incarnate down into our physical world, who do not take on physical bodies, but who are nevertheless complete beings like the people here on our plane. When human beings ascend from the solid ground of the physical world to the higher worlds, they must distinguish between two different kinds of beings: one kind sends its revelations down to the physical plane; the other kind either does not reveal itself at all or reveals itself on the physical plane in such a way that this revelation is hardly perceptible to ordinary perception.

[ 5 ] Let us remember groups of animals that belong together, that are similar in form and related to one another. They have a group soul, a group ego in the astral world. When we observe such a group ego on the astral plane, such a being is just as much a complete entity, a personality, as the human being is a complete personality on the physical plane. The seer encounters the group souls of animals there, just as one encounters human beings here. They are individual, self-contained personalities on the astral plane, and only their manifestations are sent into the physical world. It is just as if I were separated from you by a wall that has holes in it so that fingers can be stuck through. One could then also say: I see something that belongs to another being. That is roughly what it is like when you look at a lion. The soul to which it belongs is also like behind a wall, and all lions are like outstretched fingers. We therefore encounter these group egos as separate beings on the astral plane. They are therefore easy to find in their manifestations in the physical world. One sees the organs that are stretched out.

[ 6 ] However, it is not the case with all astral beings that their manifestations can be easily observed; human beings have no inkling of the presence of these astral beings unless their senses are sharpened. Humans therefore encounter personalities on the astral plane who are partly familiar to them, as well as other beings who seem unfamiliar to them, whom they do not know very well from the physical plane; in a certain sense, they are new to them. The astral plane is very populated, and many things live there that humans cannot even dream of. It is not to be claimed that these beings have no effect whatsoever on the physical plane; on the contrary, they have a tremendous effect on human beings. Only then do we realize how complicated the connections are when we look at everything that is at work there. We encounter these beings, and some of them give the impression of being extraordinarily gentle, mild creatures that live very peacefully among themselves. But we also encounter others that cannot be characterized in this way, that have all kinds of malicious qualities and that, above all, pose a danger when they come close to humans.

[ 7 ] The peculiar thing about these beings is that all our ideas about spatial relationships that we have from the physical world are shattered. If we do not want to be fantastical, we must gradually accustom ourselves to ideas that are completely different from those we are accustomed to. What strikes us about these unsympathetic beings is that they are not really where we perceive them to be, but somewhere else entirely. Their effects are in the astral world, but their home is not there.

[ 8 ] A rough comparison would be as follows. Imagine a worker who lives outside the city and goes to work in the city every morning. That is where he works, but he lives outside the city. That is a rough comparison. The following comparison is somewhat better, but it is also very fantastical. Imagine that the worker lives far away from Munich, but has elastic arms so that he can do his work hours away. You have to imagine completely different spatial relationships than those you are familiar with on the physical plane. Any being of an astral nature can live on another planet and still exert its influence here on the astral plane, because the separation of spatial relationships no longer exists. These influences, which stimulate other world bodies, for example, are transmitted and appear on Earth. We must not only try to investigate the spiritual world with the ideas formed in the physical world, but we must also be willing to form new ideas.

[ 9 ] The beings I have told you about, which belong to the unsympathetic beings, are moon beings. That is where they have their actual home. With clairvoyant eyes, you can observe them as if you saw your fingers stretched out here in Munich and had to walk for hours to be able to observe the beings themselves. You will find that such beings are at work here on Earth. But if you follow the lines of force, you will come to the moon. That is where they have their home. The moon is truly populated in this way. These beings do not have the dense physicality of our earthly beings, although they do have a physicality. But this is so diluted that it expresses itself astral on earth. They could be compared to dwarf beings that do not grow larger than a six- or seven-year-old child. These beings have a peculiarity that is caused by the conditions on the moon and will seem very strange to you; but if all worlds were the same, then it would not be necessary for so many to exist. This peculiarity consists in the fact that they can roar with infinite strength. Their vocal organs are extremely well developed. These beings first manifest themselves on the earthly astral plane; they are not always and everywhere present, but are attracted by certain conditions in our lives. The deeds of such beings can be found in certain places, especially where there are mediums and somnambulists, where very specific things are present. There they penetrate with their effects and deeds and express themselves to humans in a very unpleasant way. They can also be found where base passions unfold. In contrast, you can find the benevolent beings of the astral plane where extraordinarily philanthropic passions are lived out. In any charitable society where real charity lives in the souls, that which draws such beings into the sphere of human beings is stimulated, so that human beings actually exert an attraction on certain beings through what they do, through what flows out of them by virtue of their qualities, and thus establish a connection with distant world bodies, which is brought about by the expression of the deeds of the world beings and human souls. The beings I spoke to you about last, who are gentle and mild, also have their home on another planet, namely Mars. From there they exert their influence on the earth. These beings work, so to speak, by traversing the vastness of space with their deeds. Everything that really has an effect, except for physical effects, from one planet to another, is based on such relationships between the inhabitants of the world bodies. You see, then, that when we ascend to the higher worlds, we find very strange companions. It is of no use to say, “There are spiritual worlds,” and so on; rather, human beings must get to know these beings.

[ 10 ] When we ascend with our clairvoyant faculties to even higher worlds, we come to the lower Devachan plane, the lower spiritual world. It also permeates our physical and astral worlds. There we find the group egos of plants. You already know that the plants that cover the earth are united into large groups, which then correspond to a group ego. These group egos are only to be found on the Devachan plane, but they are initially located at the center of the earth. All the group egos of plants have their center there. And if you imagine the whole earth in this way, you see it as a large organism in which the various group egos of plants also interpenetrate. This sum of group egos of plants feels suffering and joy, pleasure and pain just as the human organism does. We can specify quite precisely how pleasure and suffering are present in this Earth organism. We know that picking plants gives pleasure, even sensual pleasure, a feeling of well-being similar to the well-being a cow feels when her calf suckles her milk. Pulling out the roots, on the other hand, hurts the earth organism and causes it discomfort. So you see how it is possible to specify in detail how the beings of the devachanic world feel. Whatever we do on earth is not a matter of dry facts; when we do this or that, we cause pleasure or pain, joy or suffering to some being or other. When the reaper cuts through the stalks, a breath of well-being, which the plant soul feels, passes over the fields. Thus, those who have sensitivity for these things pass over the earth, learning to empathize with the spiritual beings who live in the higher worlds and who send only their organs into the physical world.

[ 11 ] But once you enter these devachanic regions, you encounter other beings who do not send their influence into the physical world in such an open manner, but who express themselves in a much more hidden way. Here again, two types of beings can be distinguished: on the one hand, extraordinarily gentle, mild beings who radiate harmony, and on the other hand, predatory beings who are constantly fighting each other. These also have their home on another planet and only express their effects on the Devachan plane. They have their roots on Venus; there you will find them as inhabitants of that planet if you visit it with spiritual vision. Thus, there are new acquaintances for each of the worlds when you first leave the physical plane, what you see in gross matter, and then rise to the origin of the beings. If you start from whole groups of plants or groups of animals, you will find the plant soul and the animal soul, but then you will also be able to find other beings that do not express themselves in such a grossly sensual way on the physical plane.

[ 12 ] Instead of plants or animals, one can also start with minerals or stones, and there one finds beings in the higher Devachan. These too feel pleasure and suffering, joy and pain. When the seer looks at a quarry where workers are chipping away at stones, he sees how the mineral soul experiences something. One must not draw analogies or parallels here. Being smashed with a hammer does not hurt. A feeling of well-being flows out as the stones are knocked down. A feeling of pain is present when you want to reunite the stones from separate masses of rock; when you want to crystallize a whole out of scattered masses, then pain is inflicted. In this way, one can also learn to empathize and experience the mineral world, the self of minerals.

[ 13 ] Here again, however, we learn to recognize beings that do not express themselves in such a coarse, crude manner in the physical world. Once again, we will consider two types as the most striking here. There are those that have a strange spiritual constitution. They are difficult to describe, but you will get an idea of them if you imagine an extraordinarily gifted being who, in order to make inventions, does not need to think much at all, but is prompted by his perceptions to transform objects in some ingenious way. These are beings who live in a certain way in perception, without thinking as such playing a major role. They are very strange beings with extraordinary inventiveness, but this is based only on perception, not on thinking. Opposite them are other beings who are as unsympathetic as these are sympathetic. These other beings can be characterized by the fact that they also live in the world of perception, do not think particularly, but seek out perceptions that are horrible and gruesome to us humans. This is their pleasure, they revel in it. These beings have their home on Saturn, just as the others described above live on the Moon, Mars, and Venus.

[ 14 ] So here we have a perspective on the higher beings. We might ask: But what do all these beings have to do with us? It might seem like idle curiosity to concern ourselves with them. But they concern us very much. For even if they do not manifest themselves so obviously in the physical world, they nevertheless express themselves in their effects in a way that is extremely important for human beings. And there we are guided by the beings themselves to a normal effect of these beings on us humans. What has been said about somnambulists and so on is, in a sense, an exceptional case. But they also have quite normal effects on human beings, more on some than on others. What effects they have on us becomes apparent to our soul when we consider human beings in a certain relationship to their constitution, to the juices flowing through them. Juices of various kinds flow through human beings.

[ 15 ] First, let us consider the nutrient fluid, the chyle. Food is absorbed from a wide variety of components, digested, passes into the intestines, and is pushed through the intestinal walls by the organs located there in order to be used in the appropriate way for rebuilding the body. This is the one flow that permeates the human being. It has its source in the food that is ingested. Another type of fluid is the lymph, a liquid that flows in vessels, some of which run together with the blood vessels, which collect in the abdominal cavity, but which also flows through the entire organism in a certain way. These have a peculiarity that we will consider another time: namely, that all these lymph vessels, which come from the left side of the trunk and head, collect and pour into the left clavicular cavity. Only the streams coming from the right side of the body are separated from this. There is an occult meaning behind this.

[ 16 ] A third fluid is blood, which in turn flows through the human organism in various ways. Anyone who views the human being with a purely materialistic sense sees in these substances — blood and so on — bodies that can be chemically analyzed, consisting of chemical parts. But those who look at things with seeing eyes know that spirit is everywhere, that spirit is the basis of all matter. Whatever you may see, gold flowing through the veins of the earth, mercury settling in drops, it is the expression of something spiritual. And so, those who look at the three fluids with spiritual eyes know that little is said when one examines the fluids chemically and so on. Spiritual beings permeate the organism with the fluids. Spiritual beings flow through the human body with the blood, as well as with the lymph and chyle. Only those who recognize these fluids as expressions of spiritual beings truly understand them. Only those who know that spirits flow through us from all sides, from above to below and so on, who know that spirits exist in the world and in our environment, can place human beings correctly in the earthly organism, on the earthly stage.

[ 17 ] Only one of the three fluids mentioned is a more or less independent expression of the human I. That is blood. Blood is the physical expression of the I, so that one can say: as blood pulses through the body, the human I flows through the body. But only to a certain degree, which is greater in one person and less in another, is the human being master of his organism in relation to his blood.

[ 18 ] This is not the case with the lymph. It is not our own ego that lives in it, but other beings, astral beings that have their home on the Moon and Mars. As the lymph forms and dissolves, these beings enter into the human being, and as the lymph flows through him, the lines of force, the actions of these beings, flow through him. Now consider that the ego has a purifying effect on the astral body. To the same extent that the human being gains control over the astral body, to the same extent he also gains control over the spirits or their effects, which flow through the body via the lymph, so that through purification, through cleansing of his astral body, the human being increasingly restricts the arbitrariness of these beings. You see what you do spiritually by ensuring that intellectuality is developed, that ethics become purer and nobler, and that aesthetic sensibility is purified. In this way, you change the effects that emanate from the aforementioned beings of the astral plane. These beings lose their hold on you. This is what higher development consists of: that human beings become more and more an expression of their own being.

[ 19 ] Just as the astral beings pass through and flow through us in the lymph, so the Venus beings pass through and flow through the food juice. It is not controlled by lower beings, but by higher beings. A higher power is needed to make the composition of the chyle an expression of one's own personality. If you remember that these beings are the companions of the plant souls, the plant egos, you will see that these entities essentially attack the type of food that humans consume. This is why humans differ according to race and nation in different areas of our globe, because they consume different foods. And when humans gradually learn to emancipate themselves from the randomness of food, when they choose food according to the principles of spiritual knowledge, then they gradually gain power over this food juice, they emancipate themselves from these beings that work from outside. That is why such great importance is attached to the food that affects humans in one way or another. What you eat contains the power of certain beings, and how you gain influence over them makes you the ruler of your own organism. In fact, by consciously choosing your food, you drive out the spirits that previously possessed you.

[ 20 ] In fact, humans are only masters of their blood in a certain sense. But they can also gain control over other fluids. Try to recognize how humans attract certain beings through certain foods, and you will understand the significance this has for education, medicine, and other sciences. It is not enough to say that man must perfect himself. One must go into the details of how one can perfect oneself.

[ 21 ] Because they live entirely in external perception, they have an influence on our external perception. It is not irrelevant whether a person passionately directs their eyes and senses toward the disgusting and base, or whether they direct their eyes with a certain attraction toward the beautiful and noble in the world. Depending on this, good or evil Saturn beings gain influence over people.

[ 22 ] With the passion with which a person absorbs any sensory impression, beings creep into him like food juices and lymph. It is never without side effects when you focus your gaze on sensory impressions. With every glance, you take in the deeds of spiritual beings. When you see a beautiful, noble picture, not only does what is visible to you flow into you, but spiritual beings also flow in with what you see. When you listen to sensual music, the spiritual power of Saturnian beings also flows into you. You can then appreciate how complicated life is once you penetrate its spiritual foundations.

[ 23 ] The effect of sensory impressions that we call smell is particularly strong. Through smells, human beings absorb a vast amount of influences from spiritual beings. They can consciously affect a person by conveying the influence of evil beings through smells. Many perfumes would not be used if people knew what effects they had on those around them. In the intrigues of some royal houses, it was not only words that played a role; there were times when personalities knew how to beguile their fellow human beings through the effects of perfume and aromas.

[ 24 ] The most important things in life are beyond the senses, and people live unconsciously, unaware of the effects of spiritual beings to which they are constantly exposed.