The Ethereal Soul of Man – Part I

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – November 18, 2024

Czech original: Jemnohmotná Duše Člověka – Část I. · cesta-gralu.cz

Many people live their whole life in thoughts which others formed before them

They are literally drawn in a certain direction along the narrow rails of a uniform thinking which in reality was never their own, because they took over this thinking only outwardly, in the supposition that it was right so

The greatest part of the attitudes which people take up in life thus lies outside their own conviction

Even the greatest part of the mentioned thoughts merely circles about outside them, without ever becoming their true possession

This concerns above all the subject-matter taught in the schools

More than anywhere else the folk saying holds good here: “In at one ear and out at the other”

And all this is done by people only because it generally appears as the easiest way of passing through life

But something of this kind may be called a superficial attitude

The condition which thereby arises we may call the lamentable result of the lukewarmness of the spiritual inner being

It is a dishonouring of the high worth of the spiritual spark dwelling in every man

It may also be designated as a deceiving of oneself, and that precisely because in the important questions of life people lack an attitude of their own formed out of a knowledge they have experienced

Alas, to the majority of people something of this kind is no hindrance at all

In order to become a part of the majority opinion in thought about life it suffices them merely to let themselves be borne along by the prevailing current of society together with the homogeneous host of the lukewarm

That is very tempting

This attitude has already lasted with a great number of people for whole millennia

And thus just as it was at any earlier time

Today too we find only very few people who go in their manner of perceiving independently aside from all the crowds

These are those who carry on within themselves an honest struggle in order, with the seriousness and genuineness they exert, to arrive at their own fully conscious attitude to life and thereby to free themselves from dependence upon the opinions of others

Every such man who strives for his own free knowledge of the meaning of life deserves recognition and great support today

He also surely receives support from the helpers inclining down from the Light

For such people there now comes the great spiritual enlightenment penetrating into the threads above this earth

The majority of mankind, however, through its attunement necessarily stands outside all the helping happening

As regards a renewal in a clarified comprehension in thought, mankind so far works very lukewarmly

As a whole the world of thought of the majority still appears only as a sluggishly flowing great river full of silt which coats every flash of a free thought

The attitudes to life and the opinions of the majority are even today still taken over without examination from generation to generation, without people reflecting more earnestly upon whether that which they have taken over is also right

For a long time already it has become an unhappy condition that human souls which are born on earth for their further development then remain spiritually stuck in the same place for their whole earth-life, or even entangle themselves still further in the threads of the necessary expiation

That is a sign that for the greatest part the comprehension of the significance of earth-life, which is graciously afforded to the human spirit by the Creator, is lacking here

The knowledge and comprehension of the high spiritual meaning of life needs to be attained by each one individually through his own free and independent work

Yet of the true meaning of life, as a very precious gift in the sense of spiritual ascent, there is hardly any speaking among men

There is lacking a teaching and an education which speaks of the true significance of all that life on earth offers here, and which would summon the individual to occupy himself with it independently and with seriousness

There is also lacking a living bringing near of the knowledge of how important the condition of a pure attunement is in every moment of the present

There is here no elucidation of the connections showing how precisely the pure experiencing of the present is the foundation for the further future of the human spirit

However much this is the most fundamental knowledge, the awareness of it remains entirely pushed away deep beneath the thoughts directed to success in the material world, which for centuries already has appeared as the supremely important thing

It may be said that in the truly most important thing, that is in the comprehension of why they are on this earth, people are entirely confused by the present world of thought, and thereby fettered

Nevertheless they suppose that they think and intuitively perceive freely and independently

Yet it is exactly the opposite

Generally there is nothing known among men of what was before birth, of what meaning the birth itself into earth-life has, and there is also almost nothing known of what will come when a man one day leaves this earth

Because people reflect only little upon precisely those things which lie outside this earthly world, there are in the present world of thought no clear vistas upon all that lies in the planes of the finer worlds

The knowledge of the soul planes of the ethereal which we find here among men rather removes itself from a clear insight, instead of being able to be regarded as a pure guide for the seekers

Therefore too so much confusion prevails among men when the soul and spiritual worlds in Creation are spoken of, which by their origin are of a finer constitution than the gross material universe

With many a one it leads at last to the degree that he himself begins to reflect upon all that is of the soul and of the spirit like the majority, that is doubtingly, with mistrust that there really is something further after earthly death

This alone must lead to confusion, for there are many people who at the same time intuitively sense something of the ethereal radiation within themselves

They perceive within themselves their finer part of radiation, which may be called the soul body, which is an inseparable part of the wholeness of every man

The denial of the existence of this perceiving can lead only to contradiction in a man who by his constitution is more sensitive for the perceiving of ethereal happenings

The soul body is a matter of course for every man

As one of the coverings of the actual essence of man it surrounds the spiritual spark and thus forms the soul body, and that in proportion to the maturity on the path of perfecting

The foundation of the human spirit is from the beginning the spark set apart on the spiritual step out of the Divine radiation, which besides this contains many further steps of life

The spark bears within itself the capacity for perfection within the frame of its spiritual species

Through the experiencing of a pure and joyful consciousness it becomes ever more radiant and changes into a flame which with maturity takes outward shape as a perfect human form created by the personal radiation out of the innermost, most living essence of man

In the same way the covering of ethereal substance, which may be called the soul covering, also develops and changes in a certain liveliness

Unlike the earthly body, which is the most distant and also the densest manifestation of the formed volition of the spirit, the soul body with its fineness lies closer, more intimately, to the inner flame of the spirit

It may be said that it “fits” the spirit better, in that the radiation of the soul envelope is of a finer kind than the gross material body itself

Therefore too this soul body transforms itself more quickly in connection with the inward volition of the spiritual spark

The soul, like the spiritual form, has no sexual features such as the earthly body has, which is thereby among other things bound up with the mission of affording the possibility of the birth of further life

In gross materiality on earth we therefore find the sexual organs as a quite evident division into men and women

On the plane of the soul, where the necessity of propagation falls away, the division into the masculine and the feminine lies in the qualities which develop out of the volition of the spiritual spark

The most important here is always that first decision and the qualities unfolding out of it at the initial becoming conscious of the spiritual germ, which is identical with the spiritual spark

The decision of the spiritual spark in the initial becoming conscious lies in the inclination either towards qualities near to the masculine kind of working, or towards finer qualities which are connected in principle with the kind of femininity in Creation

The soul, however sexless it is, through the unfolding of the mentioned basic qualities forms its outward shape, which will appear either as a masculine or as a feminine form of appearance, according to how strongly it is irradiated in this matter by the core of the spiritual inner being

This form of appearance has nothing in common with sex as we know it in gross materiality on earth

In the ethereal world of the soul, as also in the spiritual planes, the decision for the masculine or the feminine always manifests itself in qualities which thereafter imprint themselves upon the outward appearance

Thus the form of the soul in its liveliness can also change together with the awakening, at a certain degree of maturity of the spiritual spark, of the longing to taste from the whole inexhaustible range of vibrations offering themselves in Creation

This degree of maturity we may call the degree of one's own becoming self-aware

It belongs to that stage of development which in no case can as yet by any means be called the highest stage of the perfect maturity of the human spiritual species

We may rather speak of a condition of imperfection and immaturity, which among other things manifests itself precisely in that the vibrations of the volition of the spiritual spark long to taste something of a different nature, perhaps of a wholly opposite kind of qualities from those which asserted themselves at the very beginning

This then also manifests itself upon the sexless covering of the soul itself, which thereafter shapes itself to another appearance than was perhaps the case before

It is a matter of course that the more mature the spiritual foundation in a man is, the less will a wavering in the volition to taste this or that kind of experiencing manifest itself with him

The more mature the spirit is, the more the longing burns in him to find possibilities for his use for the whole Harmony of Creation

The mature spirit longs, as something natural, always to fit himself into the service of God, for in it he finds for himself the strongest condition of bliss

Yet maturity demands an inner mobility which is entirely remote from any superficial attitude to life

But because there are many side influences in the long-standing disposition of thought of mankind on earth, attention is, together with superficiality, drawn away from everything more important towards less serious aims

To these belong, among other things, those vibrations in the tasting of the masculine and the feminine principle of working

Immature souls, not yet wholly anchored in themselves, change their longings for experiencing in this matter more easily from the one principle to the other

Thereby a chaos arises which through thought-forms surrounds ever more people

Instead of really serious and worthy aims, the longings for the tasting of opposites are then strengthened here, which also necessarily transfers itself to the ethereal soul body with those individuals who in their immaturity are weak and unsure in themselves

On earth it then appears as the awakening of the longings of the other sex

At first it always manifests itself as deeply lodged finer vibrations in the spiritual spark, thereafter it passes over into the thoughts, so as at last in some way to break through outwardly as an inner contradiction opposing the bodily covering with its sex

Something of this kind may perhaps happen with immature individuals who either brought this contradiction with them out of the ethereal world, or it manifests itself only in the time of childhood or of growing up

It is a manifestation of immaturity which is in no way new, for here on earth it was in a certain measure always formerly a part of the human world

Yet there is here still something further which today may be called a harmful influence working upon wavering individuals through the world of thought

This is the ever greater attention which it receives through certain individuals, and at last also within the frame of the whole of society

The more something of this kind is strengthened in thoughts, the more it penetrates to the inner being of people who would otherwise not of themselves seek out this kind of tasting

That which would otherwise be passed by at a distance by people is, through the support of those who occupy themselves with it feverishly, so strengthened and encouraged that in the end it poisons no small part of the world of thought

In connection with the unanchoredness of immature souls harm arises from it, for it leads away from the otherwise simple and healthy path of development of the individual spiritual sparks

Instead of a clear definiteness in the soul's direction, either in the clearly masculine or in the clearly feminine principle, there dwells a confusion of so devastating an extent that already at the time of incarnating into an earthly body the soul, influenced by the vibrations in the surroundings of the earth, comes to long for another kind of manifesting than that to which the developing earthly body corresponds

In childhood too the inner longing of the soul may be altered by some strong outward influence, and in the hour when the earthman grows into adulthood it comes about that the soul hastens in another direction than that in which the earthly body is set by sex

Thereby a confusion arises at last also in the earthly world itself, for suddenly the kinds of discontent with one's own body imprint themselves upon the world of thought

It then appears almost as a communicable disease of thought reaching deep into the plane of the soul and of the spirit of men

From the standpoint of a material approach there is also no help, for the essence of these torments of such people lies on a plane of a finer kind which neither medicines nor the psychology of today reaches

The root lies in a certain immaturity of the spiritual spark, which then lets itself be influenced too easily by the vibrations of this kind of tasting from the two basic principles of working which are found in Creation

Excessive uncertainty, and thereby the running to and fro between the two principles, leads to an instability of the soul covering, which thereafter of necessity calls forth unrest and discontent

However beautiful the place in which such a soul finds itself, sooner or later a new discontent will appear with it, which is the necessary consequence of being anchored in neither of the principles of working

The spark and also the soul covering remain standing still in their development, caught by one of the many dangers in the tasting of vibrations which can manifest itself with the human spirit on the path of ripening

Nevertheless there is here a quite clear way out

It lies in the transferring of all attention to far higher aims of life than the mentioned kinds of vibrations

Such an aim is precisely the knowledge of the meaning of the whole spiritual existence of man in Creation

The occupation with this worthy aim leads gradually to progress in the maturity of the spiritual spark, and thereby all that is of lesser worth, with which it was never in place to linger so long, gradually falls away

There comes about a gradual accord between the earthly body, the soul and the innermost part, the spiritual spark

The ethereal body will no longer need so much to experience the manifestations which imprint themselves upon its appearance as a dim masculine or an indistinct feminine principle

It will at last find its anchoring again in accord with the first decision of the spark, which at the very beginning of its path of development awoke to the first consciousness

Thereby the radiation of the soul covering will also grow stronger, which will then not permit an incarnation of the soul into any other earthly body than that which by sex corresponds entirely to the one or the other principle

All this is in reality simple and also easily recognisable to the eye of a mature human spirit

Nor is it needful for this to carry on endless reflections and analyses over questions which in reality have no cause to arise under the illumination of the Truth

Everyone who today wishes to help those who contend with similar difficulties of the contradiction between their bodily covering and their soul is to direct his attention to the whole being of the human spirit in Creation

With patience and also with understanding for the difficult state of such wavering souls, enlightenment is to be brought into their inner being, if they are open to it

Happily it is also mostly so that such people are more seeking of answers to their questions than are other people on earth

It is also well to remark that of souls having the weakness of immaturity of this kind of wavering between the masculine and the feminine principle there are not such a number in Subsequent Creation that it should become a really serious cause for a necessary intervention of the Will of God

There are far more other weaknesses of the soul which call for help

The foundation stone for all the wavering and straying of human souls in their development is an insufficient maturity which arises out of lukewarmness and also out of an insufficiency of knowledge

Therefore the spiritual enlightenment now comes here to this earth

In the enlightenment leading to God and to the Light lies the true help to one's fellow-men

This holds good also for the working in the world of thought

Through the clear and unshakable thinking of those who have the knowledge the boundary is at last to be moved higher above the hitherto narrow boundaries of wrong human opinions about life

Everything is now to proceed along the ways of a kindly and yet sharp making luminous through distinct thought-forms shaped out of the recognised radiation of the Light of Truth