The High Planes of the Animistic Servants in the Subsequent Creation – Xiv. Sthyx

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – March 2, 2020

Czech original: Vysoké Úrovně Bytostných Služebníků V Pozdějším Stvoření Xiv. Sthyx · cesta-gralu.cz

Sthyx is a servant working in direct connection under the high animistic servant of Valhalla, Hathmes

She directs the souls of men and of animals to the places where they belong in the further development of their paths, after the departure from the Earth

She is the administrator of the streams which bear the souls, resting in a protecting sleep after the departure from this world, to the places where they are to awaken to a further consciousness

With her stream she works also in the reverse direction, thus she leads the souls back again to the denser parts, where incarnation is made possible for them

The streams which Sthyx administers are ever the same, yet by the souls which are permitted to behold them they are seen in diverse ways

Men who are inwardly pure thus behold the stream of Sthyx rather as a radiation of light, which in bliss opens to them the possibility of ascent into the heights

Souls which do not bear within them sufficient purity behold then a heavy stream, rolling like a turbid, swollen river in the direction of the depths of darkness, in which there resounds the echo of a dreadful crying and also of a despairing “call out of the underworld”

The luminous stream which bears upwards is filled with bliss, and the souls enter into it with trust and with open joy

The stream directed downwards is feared, and often already during earthly life, in sleep, its picture alone in its remembrance leads to heavy dreams and to inward terrors

The sublime Sthyx, standing in the highest law of her service, does not determine who is to take which direction, but she only bears the soul in the law of movement and of development which Hathmes, set above her, ordains for her

Her working is of a bearing-away kind, and the power for it she receives from Hathmes himself

The entering into and the stepping out of her stream are in the care of others, animistic and also spiritual servants, who in faithful service fulfil the effect of the Law of Homogeneity

They come to meet the soul that has been loosed from the body which has died, and lead it with them to the places where it belongs

Not seldom these are also dear ones who have already dwelt for some time in the planes beyond the earthly world and who come for their dear ones and for the members of their family, or they are spirits and souls who long to greet friends with whom they maintain a certain kind of connection of intuitive perception and of whom they know beforehand that their time of departure from the earthly world has come

Thus on the one side there take place, before the entering into and after the stepping out of the stream led by the servant Sthyx, meetings supremely joyful and moving, while on the other side there emerge in this stream also dark souls out of the depths, in order to await those who are of the same kind and who perhaps once crossed their path, and these depraved souls now await them in fury and craving or in passion for the fulfilment of revenge, or for a renewed common continuation in the basenesses which they bear within them

Sthyx stands always aside from all this happening and from a distance observes the fulfilment of the severe Law of Homogeneity, which here fulfils itself to the last particle upon all the souls entering into the stream

Of course she too would rather bear with her stream all souls only upwards into more luminous places, yet the Law working under the power of Hathmes severely compels every soul to fulfil its destiny, which it has freely chosen

The force of the stream, and therewith also its swiftness, then manifests itself always according to the purity, or on the contrary to the darkness, of the soul

The more marked this is, be it in the one or in the other direction, the stronger and the swifter is the stream always

Thus the soul which enters into the beyond, surrounded by new experiencing, is not even aware that it suddenly finds itself in the stream led by the servant Sthyx

For the most part it is a condition akin to sleep or to a short swoon which accompanies this happening

Thus the souls not seldom experience the moments which they spend in the stream of Sthyx as a happening lasting but a flash of time, of which they were not even able to become aware

Only to outward observers does this streaming, with the souls which flit and interweave within it, appear as an actual flowing current, in which there is a ceaseless movement from below upwards, or conversely from above downwards

Herein arose also the indication that the stream should be called by those who see, for the better understanding of earthly hearers, a “flowing river”

In reality we may call this stream a kind of living artery of animistic streaming, in whose protecting space the souls are moved with swiftness to and fro across immense layers of the ethereal planes

It is not, however, a movement filled with any chaos which perhaps has no lawfulness and no order

On the contrary, all here is strictly subordinated to a higher will, which impresses upon it the harmonious, one may say supremely dignified, flowing course of the fulfilment of all the Justice working strictly therein

The soul entering into the stream of Sthyx is always borne exactly to that place which its inward homogeneity with the given plane attains, a plane which stretches into the far distances of whole lands and worlds belonging to this level

This stream is here for the souls which have newly come out of earthly life into the beyond

Those souls which have already dwelt for a certain time in the given plane can pass over the degrees lying gradually above or below them, and this also by other ways appointed for it

Thus with these who already dwell here there does not arise the need of a swift transfer, which is called forth by the pressure of the Law of Homogeneity, similarly as it is with a cork held down under pressure in water

In the moment when the soul is released from the covering of the body which held it in the earthly world, there work upon it immediately the forces of homogeneity, which bring it about at last that the soul is immersed in the stream of Sthyx and through its working emerges after some while at the place where the beginning of its further path is to be found

This holds good for the movement upwards as well as for the movement in the direction downwards

The emerging we may also picture to ourselves as an awakening at the given place, which is already beforehand made ready in everything for the one who comes

The lands and worlds themselves play no part here, for the decisive thing is the degree of lightness or of heaviness which the soul bears upon itself through the setting of its long-enduring volition

According to its inward condition the land and all that is found within it transform themselves

The threads of the laws, immediately after the transfer through the stream administered by the sublime Sthyx, draw the soul into the experiencing which awaits it, and according to its inward vision it then experiences the new world around it as the most genuine reality, just as it was in the earthly world

Beneficent and supremely just is the effect of this streaming, for not for one single moment does it leave anyone to remain in a space where by his maturity and his purity he is not to be

It must then be a strong inward will of the soul for it to free itself from the reach of the streaming of Sthyx

This comes about, for example, in the moment when the soul cannot loose itself from someone dear who still dwells upon Earth, or when it is bound in another manner to something earthly

If the soul bears within it such a strong volition, then it is withdrawn from the attraction of the streaming administered by the servant Sthyx and remains held fast in its attachment in the astral space in the nearness of the Earth

Here the soul then remains of its own will exposed to influences, of which there is a great multitude here, for this astral space of the medium gross materiality is filled with inhabitants of diverse kinds of maturity and of purity, similarly as it is among men upon Earth

The souls here are diverse in their maturities and in their ways of bearing themselves towards one another, yet in spite of their diversity they are bound together by the kind of the place around the Earth, which binds them in common to this earthly world or to something proceeding from it

Although the souls are here together in a diversity of maturity, they are the common inhabitants of this astral world, and their mutual relation is a very close one, working immediately upon one another

They work upon one another because the boundaries of the earthly body, and therewith also of the ways of a certain mutual respect and distance which the life of men upon Earth affords, are taken away, and thereby the mutual influences of the souls dwelling here are suddenly stronger, more immediate and not seldom far more wounding to one another

The protection of bodies is gone, and the more sensitive covering of the astral kind experiences far more intensely all that takes place here, in this part of the immediate existence after death, be it a matter of purer or of darker doings

Many souls which linger here on account of their own pain, or of the pain of their dear ones at their departure from the Earth, experience here a suffering from the surrounding influences which it is often possible to call a literal “purgatory”

Yet even in this there is only the highest Justice, for the souls remain here of their own will, by reason of their attachment to something earthly, and this even though immediately after their departure from the earthly covering of the body the helping stream of the sublime servant Sthyx was at once near to them, in order to bear them to the places where by their soul disposition they belong

Their own will, however, suppressed the natural happening of the grace-filled stream of Sthyx, and through the refusal of it, for a certain time which may however last long, these souls renounced the possibility of ascending to places perhaps of a more luminous kind in the ethereal planes

Anew this stream will draw near to the soul only upon the ground of a truly fervent call in which there lies a strong longing to leave the world of the astral surroundings of the Earth and to advance further upon its path through Creation

The call must be fervent in order to break a way through to the stream of Sthyx, which meanwhile has withdrawn

At the same time there may also work helpfully therein a certain kind of pure intercession of souls that are near, whether these pray for the one concerned upon Earth or in other planes of Creation

In the same way certain periods of great fulfilments work as a hastened fulfilment of grace, which makes it possible to leave the astral world of souls in the nearness of the Earth

These fulfilments are connected with the great events recurring in the whole work of Creation, such as the Outpouring of the Power of the Holy Spirit in the Grail at the summit of Creation

Other fulfilments too are helping, when the stream of Sthyx draws near to souls which, in their attachment to the earthly, have for a certain time forgotten to look further forward upon their onward path

Among these fulfilments there count also the time of the Festival of the Pure Lily, or the time of the Festival of the Radiant Star at the time of Christmas

In these times there literally “open the heavens” in the astral world, and for some while the stream of Sthyx stands full of grace, ready to bear the awakened souls to the places which await them in the fulfilment of the great Law of Homogeneity

Only as a reminder there is to be mentioned here with earnestness the recognition of how the lamenting and the unmastered pain of those left behind can be a dragging influence and thereby a hindrance to the entering of a dear one into the places where it would be freer and more joyful for him

The pain of those left behind, which from a certain degree onwards may even be called selfish, holds back many a soul in the nearness of the Earth, and it then of its own free will renounces the natural entering into the stream of Sthyx which is offered to it after the passing into the beyond

All this only that it may remain near to those whom it has left and who lament for its nearness

Held back by the call of those left behind, this soul literally forgets itself thereby in the astral world and must then for a certain time wander through its twilight, for only thus can it be near to those who call it back

Thus, even though it would itself belong to one of the brighter planes which await it, it stays behind and exposes itself, solely and alone for the sake of its dear ones who call it, to the molesting of many impure souls which are bound to the Earth through their weaknesses and passions, which they had in part to renounce with the laying aside of their physical body and which, as a bridge, certain inwardly impure men still living upon Earth replace for them

The leaving of the protecting boundary of the physical world then makes it possible to experience in a higher receptivity the passions and the furies of those souls which remain in the nearness of the Earth in order to press back from the astral plane upon the world of earthly men

It is no wonder that many purer souls experience a condition of horror at this mad carnival which in the astral world surrounds the Earth and in which they must then to a certain degree take part

If men upon Earth lived but a little more purely, much of what has been described would swiftly vanish in the astral world, for the dark souls dependent upon passions would lack the hold upon earthly homogeneity, and their only wish would be to reach with all speed the planes in the depths which correspond more to their soul-likeness

These souls would then of themselves cast themselves into the stream which the sublime Sthyx leads and guides, and which would bear them to places whence they could no longer influence the earthly world of men

On all sides there would be greater relief, for the earthly world could draw breath from their influence, and likewise the astral world, in which there also works a great part of the animistic servants who form the direct threads for the world of nature and for human happenings

Thus the whole astral world would free itself from the baseness and the stifling ugliness which, like a turbid yellow haze of mist, has for thousands of years permeated and burdened it with its oppression

It is difficult to describe all the happenings which work together in the labour of the glorious servant Sthyx, who is known for her delicacy and for her wholly lovely appearance

She is wrapped in a silvery mantle, which with its great hood covers her glorious, brightly shining hair

Her countenance is marked by a certain sorrowfulness, for that which her being beholds leads her to a lasting reserve and withdrawnness, since otherwise her inner being, which is always open to help all human souls upon their way home, would have to burst with pain

Therefore her countenance bears also the traces of a knowing silence, and only her great eyes shine quietly when in her working she is permitted to welcome a soul which wears upon itself a more luminous garment

For the most part, however, it is only pain that is experienced by her, when she beholds how a great part of the souls coming into the beyond are tossed about by an impurity which does not permit them easily to rise upwards

Her stream must then change into a turbid flood rolling downwards, holding within it the tossing souls which are drawn to the places of passions, of cravings, of sensuality, of envy, of hatred and of all else which in their inner beings finds the homogeneity of the dark planes

Her former lustre and her enchanting, peace-filled attraction are covered over by sorrow and by pain, which have let the brightness of her mantle fade and have taken from her glorious countenance the strengthening smile which in ancient times, at the beginning of her service, she held ready for everyone who was permitted to meet her

Yet now a change draws near which this servant too experiences as a liberation, for the Ray of Parzival brings a strong becoming luminous of all the life and movement streaming within it

Just as Erda and the other servants of Valhalla who are to be found here in these far distances of the universe, so now also the servant Sthyx, who works in this world-part of Ephesus, welcomes the hope of a new time of the Light and of the Grace of God

Much more will men have to learn to recognise and to receive as a part of the true knowledge of the sublime servants of Valhalla

May this text of today be thus a small, clarifying prospect for all those who bear within them questions as to the meaning of their existence and who with earnestness seek the answers to these questions