GROSS MATTER, ETHEREAL MATTER, RADIATIONS, SPACE AND TIME

There have been many enquiries about the meaning of my expressions “gross matter” and “ethereal matter”.

Gross matter comprises everything that man can see with his physical eyes, and what he can feel and hear physically.

To this also belongs what he can see with the help of material aids, such as everything to be observed through the microscope, and what he will be able to see through further inventions.

Gross matter is only a certain species in the World of Matter.

The great field of the whole World of Matter, however, comprises several species which are basically entirely different, and which therefore never blend with each other.

The different species of matter form the lowest strata or end of Creation.

As with every sphere in Creation, it begins with the lightest species above and, in continuing downwards, ends with what is heaviest and densest.

All these species of matter merely serve as a means for the development of everything that is spiritual which, as a germ, descends into it as if into a fertile field, in the same manner as a seed of grain needs the earth in which to germinate and grow.

The World of Matter with its various strata remains inactive and helpless of itself.

Not until it is penetrated and bound together by the animistic substantiality above it does it receive warmth and vitality and serve as the coverings or bodies of a great variety of forms and species!

As I have already mentioned, the different species of matter cannot be blended, but they can be united through animistic substantiality, and also linked up in many ways.

The resultant unions and alliances produce heat-emanations and radiations.

Each individual species of matter thus produces its own definite radiation which blends with the radiations of the other species to which it is connected, and together these form a halo of radiations which is today already recognized and called “Od” or emanation.

Thus every stone, every plant and every animal has its own particular radiation which one can observe and which, according to the condition of the body, i.e., the cloak or form, is entirely different!

It is also possible to observe disturbances in this halo of radiations and recognize points of disorder in the cloak.

This halo of radiations gives each form or body a special aura which constitutes a protection and defense, but at the same time also a bridge connecting it with its wider environment.

It also affects the interior in order to take part in the development of the inner core in its coarsest sense.

For in reality there are many things which contribute to the overall activity in Creation which I may only explain very gradually in order to make it easy for serious seekers to fathom the Laws of Creation.

The World of Matter is as nothing unless it is permeated by animistic substantiality.

What we have now so far been considering, however, was only the uniting of animistic substantiality with the various species of matter.

And it is this union alone which provides the fertile soil for the spirit!

Animistic substantiality binds, unites and animates the World of Matter.

The spirit, however, controls all matter and animistic substantiality.

As soon as the spirit, i.e., all that is spiritual, descends for its development into this union, the latter quite naturally becomes subordinate to it, including animistic substantiality itself.

Spirituality is thus endowed with sovereignty in the most natural manner!

It is sad if it misuses or abuses it!

The real equipment of the spirit for its development in the World of Matter consists of the radiations just mentioned.

The soil needed for its development has already been carefully prepared by the animistic substantiality before the spirit descends into it.

The coverings automatically form around it as a protection, and it is the spirit’s task to make proper use of this equipment, which is given to it for its well-being and ascent, not to be used in a harmful way and cause its downfall!

It is not difficult to understand that that species of matter which predominates in the covering of the spirit must also be decisive for the composition of its emanation.

In this the radiation of the species of matter most strongly represented will naturally always predominate.

And that which predominates will in turn exert the greatest influence upon the inside as well as upon the outside.

The composition of the radiation, however, is of much greater significance than mankind have been able to fathom up to now.

Not the tenth part of its real purpose has been envisaged as yet!

The quality of the radiating halo decides the strength of the waves which have to absorb the vibrations from the radiating system of the entire Universe.

The hearer and reader should not superficially pass over this thought, but penetrate deeply into it.

Then he will suddenly see spread out before him all the nerve-strands of Creation, which he should learn to tap and to use.

He should picture to himself the Primordial Power poured radiatingly out upon the Work of Creation!

It streams through Creation, through every part and every species.

And every part and every species thereof will pass it on in modified form.

Thus the varying consistencies of the different parts of Creation produce changes in the Primordial Radiation which also alter its color!

Thus the whole of Creation presents a wonderful picture of the most glorious color-radiations such as no painter could reproduce!

And every part of Creation itself, every star, indeed every single object, be it ever so small or minute, resembles a finely-cut prism passing on every ray it receives in numberless different radiant hues!

These colors in turn give forth ringing sounds that blend into harmonious accords!

And confronting this magnificent realm of radiations stands the human spirit with its equipment of radiations derived from the various cloaks given to it!

Until the generative power awakens the process is the same as with a babe.

Through their radiations the material cloaks absorb only what they need in order to mature.

When the generative power sets in, however, the spirit stands there fully equipped, the gates are then thrown open, and an immediate connection is established.

It now comes into contact in many and varied ways with the powerful radiations of the great Universe.

As the human being, i.e., the spirit, develops and controls the colors of his own radiations so, as with a radio, he attunes his own vibrations to these same colors and absorbs those from the Universe.

This receiving may also be called an attracting, or the Power of Attraction of Homogeneous Species.

Regardless of what it is called the process as such remains the same!

The colors merely indicate the species, and the species determine the colors.

This also contains the lost key to the truly royal art of astrology, the key to the knowledge of healing with herbs as well as to the much discussed art of magnetic healing, the key to the art of living and also to the step-ladder of spiritual ascent.

For by this step-ladder, the so-called ladder leading to Heaven, is meant nothing but a simple appliance which one is to use.

And the mesh of this network of radiations in Creation constitutes the rungs of this ladder.

In it lies everything, all knowledge and the last secrets in Creation!

You who are seeking should grasp the mesh of this network of radiations!

Consciously, but with a good volition, and humbly acknowledging your God Who gave this wonderful Creation which you may use to make you as happy as a child at play, providing you at last honestly wish to do so and throw off your presumptuous knowledge!

The false burden must first be cast from your shoulders, from your spirit, before you can stand upright and free!

Absolute harmony must also prevail in the composition of the radiations of the human body in order to provide the spirit with the best means for its protection, development and advancement, such as are meant for it in the normal course of development in Creation.

In particular it is through the choice of foods and manner of exercising the body, and in general through the whole conditions of living in many ways, that these radiations have become one-sidedly disordered, which calls for a readjustment if there is to be any possibility of ascent at all.

Today everything is diseased in this respect!

Nothing can be called healthy!

Man can now imagine what effect the choice of foods alone has upon this system of radiations!

Through the choice of foods for his nourishment man may help his body to acquire the right balance by strengthening or perhaps weakening certain radiations or by displacing the predominant ones, whether favorable or hampering in their effect, so that that radiation takes the lead which is favorable to him and thereby also normal, for only what is favorable is the normal condition!

All this, however, cannot of itself bring about ascent.

It only provides a healthy soil for the full activity of the spirit, to the volition of which it is reserved to determine whether the road is to lead upwards, to one side, or downwards.

However, the body as well as the spirit are bound to be strengthened as soon as one begins to pay attention to these things!

At present almost everywhere grievous sins are committed in these matters through ignorance!

When I speak of gross matter and ethereal matter it should not be assumed that ethereal matter is a refinement of gross matter.

Ethereal matter is a completely different species and of different consistency.

It can never become gross matter, but it forms an intermediate step in the upward direction.

Furthermore, both ethereal matter and gross matter represent coverings only, which must be united with animistic substantiality in order to be animated by it!

In dealing with this subject I must point out that those already mentioned by no means exhaust the number of divisions.

Therefore I wish to state here and now that, besides conscious and unconscious spirituality and animistic substantiality, currents of energy of various kinds penetrate Creation, animating the different species of matter and contributing in different ways to their development and progress, each according to its nature.

These streams of energy again are only the next of the forces which adjoin the activity of spiritual and animistic substantiality or, more correctly, which precede the two latter and prepare the field of their activity.

The further we analyze and go into the details the more will be revealed.

One follows the other in a continuous flow in order to create ever new gradations in unison with what already existed before.

Everything, however, also has a logical explanation, because after the First Creation only what was consistent with logic could come into being.

Nothing else exists!

And this fact absolutely guarantees a complete solution and a clear survey.

In my lectures I now offer the key!

With it every hearer can then unravel the entire Creation for himself!

To give this all at once, however, would create a picture the vastness of which would only confuse mankind!

But if I permit, as I have done hitherto, one thing to issue quietly from the other in the course of coming decades, it will be easy to follow and finally to survey everything calmly, consciously and quite clearly.

It will be easy for him who wishes to follow me.

In the beginning, before I touch all the finer points, I first want to explain the main pillars of Creation.

The hearer and reader will probably feel like a creature to whom a human skeleton is first shown, and then next to it a living man in the fullness of his vigor and activity.

If it has no conception of man it would not recognize the skeleton in the living man.

It might even aver that the two do not belong together or, indeed, that they are not the same.

And so it will be with those who do not calmly follow my explanations to the end!

He who does not earnestly and persistently strive to understand from the beginning will not be able to grasp the entire Creation when I come to the last explanations.

In these matters he must attempt to follow only step by step!

Since so far I have been obliged to speak in broad outline, I shall now gradually turn to the new things.

Otherwise I would leave gaps!

Moreover I have often been told that I offer only the gist of a subject, which is not so easily understandable to the majority.

But I cannot act differently in order to say everything I wish to say.

Otherwise I would only get one fourth of my task done, because a lifetime on earth would hardly suffice for more than that if one were to go into details.

Others will come who will be able to write one or even several books about each one of my lectures.

I cannot spend my time on it now!

Since, as I have mentioned before, ethereal matter is of a different nature from gross matter, this implies something I have not touched upon so far.

In order not to cause confusion I have hitherto in many instances used popular terms, which I must now enlarge.

This, for instance, includes the expression “beyond time and space”.

This always pointed to everything that is above the earthly.

But in order to continue we must now say: Life in the World of Ethereal Matter “stands above the earthly conceptions of time and space”, for in the World of Ethereal Matter there is also a conception of time and space, but of a different nature and adjusted to ethereal conditions.

Indeed, the conception of time and space is to be found in the whole of Creation, but it is always bound up with the nature of the species concerned!

Creation itself has its limits and that involves the idea of space even for Creation itself!

It is the same with all the basic laws which uniformly permeate the entire Creation – in their effects they are always influenced by the particular species in Creation and are subject to its peculiarities!

Therefore the effects of a certain law must manifest themselves differently in the various sections of Creation!

This has led to great misunderstandings, to contradictions and doubts in the uniformity of the Laws of Creation and of the Divine Will, and also to belief in arbitrary acts by the Creator.

In reality, however, every such thing is caused through man’s ignorance about Creation!

I shall postpone going into these subjects in detail until much later, as at present it would only divert the attention of the hearer and reader and confuse them.

I will give this information as soon as it becomes necessary for a further understanding, so that no gaps will then remain!

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