Above the Ethereal Gardens

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – April 26, 2021

Czech original: Nad Jemnohmotnými Zahradami · cesta-gralu.cz

In the whole work of Creation certain happenings and forms repeat themselves, which bring to the inhabitants of the individual levels the possibility of connecting themselves upwards, while at the same time there are also shaped the ways which lead, in their working, further downwards

Looking from above downwards we may speak of a recurring principle of the mirroring of the actual starting point of the Light at the summit of Creation, which is then reflected in the surfaces of the individual layers that, like sediments, form from above downwards the successively adjoining spheres of Creation

The highest and the true starting point of Life in the work of Creation is the radiant Castle of the Grail, and also the primordially spiritual Islands of exalted service to the Light bound to it, which fill that highest part of Creation called the Primordial Spiritual, or otherwise the strongest spirituality, where we find the very essence of the life spoken of, which was begotten outwards from the divinely animistic level

It may therefore be said that the actual essence of Life, bearing within it the purest power of the true spiritual kind which arose in the image of God, is to be found only in the primordially spiritual section of Creation

Here everything took form as a pure living foundation bearing within it the power of self-conscious being, which can be described as that part of Creation nearest to God and irradiated by the Light

It is at the same time self-evident, however, that all the other spiritual levels lying beneath the primordially spiritual sphere are also permeated by so strong a radiance of the Light that for the earthly gross material world here it has no comparison

Everything to be found here in the materialities, even with its undeniable beauty and harmony, which we find above all in the world of nature around us and which has its origin in the reflected glow of the spiritual heights, is nevertheless only a certain mirroring of the higher spheres, dimly imprinting themselves upon the forms of the earthly world

In all that has proceeded directly from the work of the animistic active in the Subsequent Creation there is only the reflected glow of the higher spheres of the gardens of Asgard, which again are a mirroring of higher worlds, and therefore all of it can be called merely a distant derivation and a kind of dense sediment which remained of the radiation of God, when long before that everything stronger and more radiant had separated itself out of this sediment and had risen to its conscious life in the higher spheres of spirituality

From above downwards we may observe it thus, that the purest separates itself out of the fundamental radiation of God which has passed through that boundary at which lies the beginning of the primordially spiritual field of activity in the Grail, in order immediately and directly to shape itself in its pure power into the sphere in which everything is contained for the existence of the blissful being of the creatures dwelling there

This place alone is the true reflected glow of the Divine, and thus the primordially spiritual world with its inhabitants alone is formed in the image of God

All the rest is but a continuation of derivations, which we may call ever weaker and weaker deposits of the reflected glow of the radiation of the actual original life in the primordially spiritual, with all the forms that are found there

And every part of such a separating sphere has its highest-lying portion, which above adjoins the preceding sphere and leads downwards, where again there arises a dividing line of radiation, beyond which the next following life is once more a wholly new kind of radiation separated out in its essence

Thus everywhere that a dividing of the boundaries between the individual kinds of radiation in Creation takes place, there is at the same time the beginning of the following plane, which reflects within itself the preceding forms of the spiritually and animistically stronger life already shaped

The mirroring spoken of cannot be pictured as something flat, as with the reflection of the gross material sky with sun and clouds upon the surface of a lake, but this mirroring of the forms of life always penetrates spatially downwards and at the same time also sideways, and in its basic features always repeats the preceding stronger radiation, which here in the new place is adapted to the kind of forces and to the radiance of the level concerned

With the right view of this picture of mirroring the observer forms for himself a picture which at the same time lets him grasp that, together with the diminishing radiance and liveliness of the levels in the individual parts of the work of Creation, there also comes a certain impoverishing of the forms in their variety, their colourfulness and their detail, and that their qualities and abilities are weaker also, growing automatically ever weaker with every level downwards

This we have expressed in the description of a certain dimness, which is the lawful manifestation of the weakening of the radiance of life

Nevertheless we may say of the whole Primordial Creation, which contains within it all the levels of the spiritual degrees as well, that this part of Creation is permeated with a lightness and radiance refreshing for the human spirit, such as is more or less foreign to the subsequently added structure of the Subsequent Creation

Thus the whole Primordial Creation, containing sections of various kinds of spiritual substance, may be called a self-contained whole, in which life fulfils itself in perfect harmony and in the jubilant weaving of all creatures

This holds good also for the lowest part of Primordial Creation, which expanded as the last in order that it might receive spiritual inhabitants who, as humanly spiritual sparks, first passed through the paths of development of the levels of the Subsequent Creation to attain their ripe perfection, thanks to which they are then borne automatically upwards into the waiting luminous gardens of the spiritual Paradise

And so here too, in this place, we may find all the manifestations of mirroring, which bear within them the certainty of the shaping of everything that arises as the reflection of what already is in the higher spheres

Thus there took form in this lowest spiritual level of Primordial Creation the Castle of the Light – Montsalvat, in which the purest of the humanly spiritual servants dwell and work

As we have already written before, Montsalvat is the spiritual copy of more radiant edifices of the same consecration, which are to be found in the higher parts of the work of Creation

In the same way the gardens spreading out beneath this castle are the reflection of the Islands of exalted service in the primordially spiritual

In Montsalvat and in the gardens spoken of, where the most blessed servants render pure service, life pulsates and weaves in a glorious flowing which, in a spirit permitted to look in here, or even perhaps permitted to enter, calls forth a state of highest bliss

The whole of Paradise, consecrated to the dwelling of human spirits, is in its translucency a place of incomparable, all-embracing beauty and perfection, if we would try to bring it nearer to the worlds of the materialities in the Subsequent Creation

Earthman, who is so often enraptured by the splendour of nature here and admires its concord, its harmony and its manifoldness, can therefore only look forward in hope to the spheres of the spiritual home in Paradise, where everything earthly beautiful is surpassed a thousandfold in the perfection of forms, of shapes and of that graceful dignity which is a lasting part of all the places of Paradise

Out of Paradise there were also radiated the pictures from which the high animistic servants of Valhalla drew inspiration for the shaping of forms in the gardens of Asgard themselves, and then also in the levels of the ethereal gardens of the developing germs of the humanly spiritual sparks, which immersed themselves there in their first coverings on their journey through the materialities

Because the animistic Alphar drew directly from the prototypes of the spiritual gardens of Paradise, the highest levels of the ethereal spoken of are also filled with a radiance and beauty which, for the souls permitted to come here from time to time on their way upwards out of the depths of the material parts, creates the impression that they are perhaps already in the Light itself, near the throne of God

Such indeed is the beauty of these fine places, through which vibrates the nearness of the spiritual Paradise, which is truly no great distance from there

In these gardens there are also mirrored many happenings carried hither by the helping thoughts of the inhabitants of Paradise, who send continually to these gardens many a blessing strengthening for the fortifying and the ripening of the immersed sparks of the spirit

If men here on earth were permitted to behold it, if only in the brief flash of a single picture, everything in them would at once have to stir towards a greater vibration, for these places are truly a place of the quiet weaving of currents filled with love, in which the spiritual germs there feel themselves to be in the full protection of motherly care

In the mirroring of the spiritual life there are shaped here many edifices which serve as permeating central stations, through which spirits already ripe may from time to time draw near into the Subsequent Creation, in order through their nearness to work here as a Light-intensifying strengthening for the awakening of the young germs of the human spirit

There is here a pure weaving of exalted forces, flowing hither and thither to strengthen, to refresh, to caress tenderly and also to guard this place of peace-filled ethereal vibration, which may be called the gardens of the spiritual germs

And precisely for the guarding of the harmonious vibration spoken of, there took form on this level also, at the impulse of the knighthood in the halls of Montsalvat, the guardian Castle of the Light there, which arose as a luminous edifice spreading out above the gardens, radiating protection and safety far into the distances of the materialities

Veiled in golden clouds this guardian castle stands there, so that everything beneath it may feel itself the more in a sure protection and safety

The castle itself is radiated out by the strong thoughts of the spiritual knights, out of which there anchored itself, upon the finest boundary between Paradise and the most ethereal of the ethereal, a form bearing within it the mirroring of the mighty walls and towers of the spiritual Montsalvat itself in Paradise

The castle is kept alive by the continually sent-out thoughts of knightly protection of all that is weaker, and gradually there also formed within it the ground for the dwelling of a certain spiritual garrison, which is changed there according as the spiritual knights sent out from the halls of Montsalvat to fulfil the protecting service to all that is weaker draw near in a definite rhythmic flowing

That the castle is kept alive by the thoughts of the knights in Montsalvat makes this guardian place above the ethereal gardens of the spiritual germs a peculiar apparition, for it may be said of it that it is and at the same time is not a real edifice

Its peculiar origin is unconditionally bound up with the ever-watchful protecting service of the knights in Montsalvat

The edifice is therefore directly dependent upon the continual inflowing of the thoughts sent out by the knights

If these thoughts should ever cease to flow from the spiritual to this edifice, it would begin to wither and to fade away until it vanished entirely, because the material fineness of this place at the dividing line between the spiritual and the ethereal would lead to the gradual dissolving of all the mighty walls of the halls, the towers and the golden domes which make it that mighty edifice as it appears to all who are permitted to climb up to it from the lowlands, up to the very dividing line between the Subsequent Creation and the spiritual spheres

This happening would come about because the guardian castle in its radiation has its foundation not in the animistic but directly in the spiritual creative activity descending to the finest nebulae of the ethereal materialities

In this castle there is therefore mirrored the condition of the faithful service itself of the garrison of the knighthood in the spiritual Montsalvat, and this place radiated out by them is in its very life wholly bound up with their faithful vigilance in the service of God

In its being and its not-being this edifice depends upon the continuance of the vigilant service of the knights, for it was that faithful, protecting service which let the place there arise into form

And here we come to the question which often leads many an earnest enquirer to deep reflection, where that fabled castle may be in which the knights dwelling there begin to age and to wither when the inflow from the Light fails them, at that time when above the vessel no longer uncovered by the priest in the highest hall of this castle the dove sent by God the Father to confirm the covenant can appear no more

The reflection which was radiated out from the spiritual Castle of Montsalvat to the place of the guarding, protecting castle above the ethereal gardens of the spiritual germs fulfilled itself in the immediate connection of these two places

Thus at the time when Amfortas wavered, and when in this wavering there was straightway taken from him out of the Light, through the strictly just effect of the Laws of God, the possibility of further rendering the gracious and earnest service at the uncovering of the vessel which in the spiritual Montsalvat is the faithful copy of the primordially spiritual vessel of the Grail, this wavering showed itself at once in the mirroring of the guardian castle above the ethereal as a beginning withering and weakening of the radiant forms of the place there

It came about thus because it was Amfortas who was the strongest of the knights in the radiating out of his helping thoughts for the continuance of the guardian castle

He, however, turned his attention in another direction, and this showed itself at once as a weakening of the inflow of blessed power for the lower castle dependent upon the happenings in Montsalvat

Thus life in the castle above the ethereal gardens came to a standstill at once, and the bells which until then had called to fervent devotion at the Festivals of the Outpouring of the Power of the Holy Spirit, in their sudden falling silent ceased to carry the blissful tidings into the distances of the ethereal levels

Everything in this formerly radiant edifice grew weak and moved inexorably towards its passing away

This unexpected happening was noticed by many souls who had grown accustomed to this sound of the bells and had always received the announcing tone with a sacred intuitive sensing of something great in Creation

In the longing to know what had really come to pass, some souls attained in the experiencing of the grave wavering of the highest servant of Montsalvat a ripening in which they beheld for themselves a strong summons to strengthen their own flame of the spirit

They recognised that they could no longer remain dependent upon happenings which were meant to lead them to the strengthening for the attaining of the spiritual home, and that they could not merely draw blissfully from them for their pleasant sojourn in the more luminous ethereal levels

The experiencing of this event stirred many souls to the strengthening recognition that they are therefore not provided for here in the materialities for a lasting existence, but that they still need to complete their development and to ascend higher, up to the gates of the real home of the spirit

The tidings of the unexpected halting of the inflow of forces into the ethereal gardens travelled as swift news among many, ever further downwards, until they reached those places from which they came as inspiration also to earthmen in the world part of Ephesus, when some inwardly more open poets partly caught the pictures of the grave happening

Out of these inspirations there took form the tale which lives in the subconscious of men as the well-known legend of the knight Arthur

Arthur is mentioned in the tale because at that very time when Amfortas wavered in Montsalvat the first knight in the guardian castle above the ethereal was a knight by the name of Arthures

In the distortion of the pictures, and also in a certain poetic fancy, there was formed, among other things, the tale of this knight as of a king who, together with the rest of the knighthood, from his castle with golden walls bearing the name of Camelot, protects the weak human souls in need of his strength

Arthur in the tale, however, is a figure who does something other than the real Arthures

The person of Guinevere in the tale too is built upon a real spiritual person, who, however, does not belong to Arthures but serves the Light faithfully in the gardens of purity near Montsalvat

Her real name is Gwenevier, and she is the first servant of the spiritual gardens in which spiritual, virtuous women and maidens serve devotedly Irmingard and her Island of Lilies in the primordially spiritual levels

From time to time Gwenevier inclines to the ethereal gardens of the human spiritual germs spoken of, in order to strengthen there the breath of purity, which unyieldingly urges to awaken out of long sleep those germs which do not wish to rouse themselves to the needed movement

The two separate services of the knight Arthures and of the pure servant of purity Gwenevier were mingled on earth into a kind of garbled tale joining these pure spirits into one human narrative

Although much wisdom is contained in this earthly narrative, and although there is in it a certain endeavour to express noble intuitive perceptions of love, the tale may nevertheless be called severed from reality and thereby, in the end, twisted away from the exemplary fulfilling of these spiritual personalities

The story of the knight Arthures and that of the virtuous servant of purity Gwenevier are therefore in reality separate, and they do not belong together in the way the earthly telling of the legend seeks to describe in its content

Unlike King Arthur, the knight Arthures was on the contrary the one who did not succumb to the temptation of Lucifer, who drew near to him also in the guardian castle and wished to tear him away from the connection with Montsalvat

Arthures, however, stood the test, and it was he too who hastened back to Montsalvat in order to warn the knighthood there, headed by Amfortas, of the working of the fallen Archangel

He arrived too late, however, and beholding what had come to pass he did not hesitate, but seized with his hand the sacred sword which had before fallen from the hand of the wavering Amfortas

Arthures was also the one who had the courage to point this sword against the tempter threatening the vessel of the Grail there and the whole of Montsalvat

Although it was not possible for him as a human spirit to contend with an Archangel of divinely animistic origin, by this deed Arthures showed great courage

Therewith he gave courage also to the knights guarding this place, who for a moment were to a certain degree paralysed

Of this happening yet another part of the earthly legend of Arthur and his sword tells, in which we again find a small part of reality, while the rest is joined into something other than the true happening

Over Arthures too there rang out that call of the promise of Parzival as the deliverer, who by his coming would heal the wound, appoint a new first knight and priest of Montsalvat, and himself bless anew the vessel of the Grail there

Thus much now appears otherwise than men generally know it, and more could be brought nearer for elucidation, because the severing of the world of earthly mankind from the other parts always leads only to the loss of knowledge of the real happenings which belong to the great stories of destiny of noble spirits in Creation

Much will still need purifying and setting right, but that will fall only to the knowledge of a new mankind which, in a greater liberation of its spiritual perceiving than is the case today, will be permitted to receive new vistas of the happenings that lie above the dense world parts of the Subsequent Creation

For this, however, men will have to transform their inner being, so that a humble ground in their seeking for connection with the Light may replace the hitherto prevailing volition to know everything better, whereby everywhere that men do not understand something they unhappily set themselves in their lack of comprehension, as a rule, in hostility against everything new or sounding otherwise than what their intellect at present acknowledges

But happily we are already drawing near to the turning point of the ages, in which the complete rebirth of earthly mankind is announced, towards which it will be led by urgent steps on the part of the animistic servants, for only thus will a shift come about in the hitherto prevailing manner of thinking

Only then will a greater receptivity of men for the higher things in life gradually be attained here on earth, and thereby the way will gradually open which today is still buried under the ponderousness of the intellect

Then will come a state which today is only exceptional, in which solitary individuals strive honestly to recognise the true meaning of their being, and thereby the blessed currents of knowledge may also gradually open to them, filling them with an ever greater joyful longing for the ascent upwards, in connection with vistas of the real worlds of the spiritual kind

May all those therefore be greeted by this bringing near of pictures today who belong to those courageous ones already striving now, in daily struggle, to keep their spirit in alert receptivity

Perhaps they themselves are not even aware of it, but by this striving they give to their earthly life the most precious thing that can be here

Their repeated enduring of clashes with intellectual men brings them at the same time an experiencing which may be called a strengthening of inner mobility, in which their spirit learns to seek harmony, understanding and forgiveness there where a while ago they themselves would have acted harshly in condemnation of their fellow men, who appear to be spiritually asleep

Everything is to develop towards a wise kindliness, in which alone the human spirit can find the ways to ascent, without thereby losing anything of its keenness in distinguishing good from evil

Whoever makes this attitude towards other men his own can also become in the end a true helper called by the Light in the present time on earth

All the rest is only a certain toying with thoughts of self-exaltation, without such suppositions being matched also by a purely decent and matter-of-fact approach to other men, which for the Light is the conditioning confirmation of the true ripeness of the human spirit

For the happiness of the present time, however, there are here on earth also men who may be called truly ripe and pure

Such are in this time most precious of all, although they themselves perhaps live in their humility modestly and simply

To such the new age on earth is promised, which will refresh them and raise their spirit still more, so that afterwards much new knowledge may also come to them of the great stories in the luminous levels of Creation, of which men today have no inkling