IN THE GROSS MATERIAL WORKSHOP OF THE ELEMENTAL BEINGS

SO FAR WE have been considering the activity of the little elemental beings in regard to that which issues from earthmen, such as their intuitive perception, their thinking and their actions.

Now, however, we want to remain just as close to earthmen as before, but observe therewith the activities of those elemental beings which develop their sphere of work in a direction leading towards earthmen.

Thus they are not the beings which build the paths of the soul leading out of the heavy gross material substance of the earth, but those which strive in the opposite direction towards the gross material substance of this earth.

Everything shows movement, nothing is without form.

Thus it appears as if man is surrounded by a huge workshop, the activities of which partly stream towards him and partly diverge from him, thereby intertwining, knotting and loosening, building up and pulling down, in constant change, continually growing, blossoming, ripening and decaying in order to offer new seed the opportunity to develop in fulfilment of the cycle which is in accordance with the Laws of Creation, the cycle of the necessary development and decay of all forms in the World of Matter.

This is ordained by the Law of continuous Movement under the pressure of the radiation of God, the Only Living One!

It effervesces and surges, melts and cools off, hammers and pounds without ceasing.

Vigorous fists push and pull, loving hands guide and protect, unite and separate the wandering spirits in all this tumult.

But the man of this earth is dull, blind and deaf to all this as he staggers about in his gross material attire.

Greedy in his pleasures and knowledge, his intellect shows only this as its goal: Earthly joys and earthly power as the reward for his work and the crown of his existence!

For the sluggish and indolent, the intellect tries to conjure up pictures of quiet comfort which, like a narcotic – hostile to the spirit, paralyze the will for activity in Creation.

He does not want to submit, the man of this earth, because the choice was left to his volition.

And therefore he chains his living spirit to the dying form, the origin of which he does not even know.

He remains a stranger to this Creation, instead of using its gifts to build up for himself.

Only the right knowledge offers the possibility of a conscious adaptation.

Therefore man must step out of his ignorance now!

In future he can only work knowingly under the rays of the new star, which will separate the useful from the useless in the whole of Creation.

That which is useful – not judged according to human thinking, but only according to God’s Holy Law!

Thus all that is useless in the first place includes every person who is incapable of receiving the blessings and mercies of God in humility, something which he can only achieve through the knowledge of all the activities in Creation.

Only out of the Word can he receive all the knowledge which he needs for this.

He will find it therein if he seeks earnestly.

He finds exactly what he needs for himself!

But Christ’s words are now more than ever a law: “Seek, and ye shall find!”

Whoever does not seek with true eagerness of his spirit shall not and will not receive anything either.

And therefore he who sleeps or is spiritually indolent will also find nothing in the Word which is living.

It does not give him anything!

Every soul must first open itself for this of its own accord and strike the Source which lies in the Word.

Therein rests an adamantine and sifting law, which now fulfils in all severity.

You must become knowing, otherwise you will lose every hold and will stumble and fall when now, during the course of the on rolling world events, you are forcibly compelled to take that course which you must take in accordance with the Holy Will of your God, in Whose Works of Grace you have so far trampled about like ignorant animals in the most beautiful flower garden – destroying instead of furthering the upbuilding and helping, indulging in conceited audacity without exerting yourselves to obtain the understanding as to why you are allowed consciously to stay and enjoy everything in the beautiful Creation.

You never thought of giving the necessary service in return, you did not observe that great Law of God which ordains that the right to take lies in giving alone!

But you have taken thoughtlessly; with or without petitions you have made boundless demands without even once thinking of your duty towards Creation, in which you guests wanted to make yourselves unscrupulous masters!

The Creator was expected to give, always to give!

You did not even once in serious reflection ask how you really came to deserve this, but you only complained when you had to undergo suffering which you yourselves brought about, and you grumbled when something you had hoped for was not fulfilled for once.

And your hoping, your wishes, were directed always and only towards earthly happiness!

You have never as yet properly concerned yourselves with genuine longing for all else, for that which is more real!

Where you did so it was the urge for earthly knowledge, nothing else!

You wanted to find in order to make yourselves prominent thereby!

And when it happened that because of some distress you tried to investigate, then it was only done in order to escape from this trouble, no matter whether it was earthly distress or distress of the soul.

But it was never done for the purpose of honoring God!

Now, however, learn at last to know the structure of this Creation in which you dwell and through part of which you also have to wander, so that you will no longer remain as foreign substance therein.

With the recognition which will then become ever stronger you will also receive that humbleness which you need in order to absorb the last and great gift: that of being allowed to exist eternally!

With the cognition, which must lead to recognition, you also shorten the period of your wanderings through Creation by thousands of years, and arrive much more quickly and surely at those Luminous Heights which must remain the longing and the goal of that human spirit which does not wish to become lost through being useless.

Thus follow me today further along the paths through the nearer surroundings of your existence upon earth!

Imagine that you are striving towards this earth as it is with every incarnation, no matter whether it be the first or already the fiftieth!

Thereby it is not possible for the soul which is waiting for incarnation to slip into a physical body without further ado.

The soul itself, which on account of its nature never unites with the physical body, but which is capable of joining a physical body only when the conditions required for this are fulfilled, could never move or set aglow the physical body without a special bridge.

The threads which are tied through the attraction of homogeneous species are not sufficient for such a purpose.

In order to give an absolutely clear picture I will go back once more and in brief outline touch upon a few requirements for an incarnation which are already known.

The effects of the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species are not decisive in all cases for incarnations, but there are also other possibilities and compelling reasons.

The Law of Reciprocal Action also intervenes in this matter and sometimes with a strength which eclipses all else.

A soul outside of the physical bodies, which through threads of reciprocal action is strongly linked with another soul dwelling upon earth within a female physical body, will absolutely be led to this woman upon earth by way of these threads as soon as there is an opportunity for an incarnation with her.

In addition to such conditions, which cannot be avoided, there is then also the Law of Attraction of Homogeneous Species.

But there are also besides these two happenings other kinds and possibilities about which we shall talk in the course of time only, because today any superfluous deviation would only dim the clearness of the necessary picture.

So for the present let us only say that all the threads, no matter what their nature, cannot suffice to enable the soul to move the gross material body and to set it aglow.

Even when the condition is fulfilled that, due to some threads, the soul remains in the neighborhood of the growing body, and that the body in its radiation also reaches that degree which is able to hold the soul (as I have already mentioned in an earlier lecture), then although it is true that the soul would thereby be bound to the body, yet it would still not on that account be in a position to move or set aglow the physical body connected with it.

A bridge for this is still lacking.

Instead of saying bridge we can also call it an implement, which is especially needed by the soul in addition.

And this bridge must again be built by the little elemental beings!

Like everything else this also takes place within the laws of the exact meeting together of very specific radiations, which in this case concern earthly manhood and womanhood, as well as various active threads of fate concerning these two human beings and also the soul.

This process, too, needs a special explanation later on.

Today it should be sufficient to hint that all of this forms the decisive starting point for the activities of those little elemental beings which build the bridges for the incarnation of souls.

And these bridges are what many today already call the “astral body”.

The astral body consists of medium gross matter.

It must be formed by the little elementals directly preceding the heavy gross material earth body, so that it almost appears as if it were being fashioned simultaneously.

But this is not so, for the astral body –

I still want to retain this known designation for the sake of simplicity – must precede everything which is to be formed in the heavy gross material substance.

There are many people who have arrived at the knowledge of the existence of so-called astral things.

But they neither know their actual purpose nor the real process of their coming into existence!

Those who have hitherto known about astral things again looked at everything only from their angle, and therefore thought of them as having originated from the heavy gross material substance.

In most cases they consider them to be images of heavy gross matter, because every plant, every stone, and in fact everything of heavy gross matter seems to be reflected in the astral world.

These, however, are not images but prototypes of things in heavy gross matter.

Without them nothing whatever would or could form in the World of heavy Gross Matter.

That is the difference!

According to earthly conceptions this field of medium gross matter could best be called the workshop for models.

Just as an artist first fashions a model, so the so-called astral body comes into existence before the heavy physical body.

Except that there is nothing in Creation which would serve one such purpose only and then just be put aside, as it is with earthman!

Instead everything, even that which appears the smallest, necessarily has a many-sided value in Creation.

In the working of the elemental beings every single thing belongs as a necessary part to the whole.

Each part is also flooded through and pulsated through uniformly by the whole and with the whole.

So every piece upon the earth, even the earth itself, has a co-operating model.

Some of those who are allowed to see call it the “shadow”, while others, as already mentioned, call it the “astral body”.

There are other lesser known designations for this, but they all mean the same thing.

None of them, however, hits upon that which is right, because it was again considered from the wrong side, whereas there is no knowledge whatever about the origin.

There is nothing on earth which has not already been fashioned beforehand in an even more beautiful and more perfect way by the little elemental beings in medium gross matter.

Everything taking place in the World of heavy Gross Matter, even the skill of the craftsmen, the creations of the artists, etc., is only drawn from the preceding activities of the little elemental beings.

They have already completed this and much more besides in medium and finer gross matter.

There all this is even more perfect in its forms, because the elementals work directly in the laws of the Will of God which is perfect, and which can therefore only give expression to what is perfect in form.

Every invention, even the most surprising one, is only borrowed from things already achieved by the beings on other planes.

There are very many such things yet, ready for men to draw upon in order to transfer them here upon earth into the World of heavy Gross Matter.

And yet, although the models are so easily attainable for those who are not only serious but also humble seekers, much has again been distorted here upon earth through the intellect, because in most cases those endowed with the ability lacked the requisite humility to draw in purity, and furthermore because the inhabitants of the earth, through their conceit which hampers everything, have so far paid no attention to the Laws of God in Creation.

Not until they obtain exact knowledge of these Laws will the inventing or, more correctly expressed, the discovering on other planes, and consequently also the correct transfer into the heavy gross material substance of this earth, become much easier and more accurate than it has been so far.

It will also become much more extensive.

The astral plane is therefore not a reflection of the World of Gross Matter!

In the first place this plane in itself still consists of gross matter, only of a somewhat finer species than the earth, and secondly the reverse obtains – the heavy earthly gross matter is a reproduction of medium gross matter, of the so-called astral plane.

However, the astral plane contains two ways and thereby also two great basic divisions, one leading towards the heavy gross matter and another leading away from it again!

The part striving towards heavy gross matter is the bridge which is necessary for the upbuilding in the earthly; the part striving away from it, however, is the formed expression of the thoughts and actions of the human spirits which are upon earth in earthly garments.

Men’s knowledge of this has so far been isolated piecework only, whereby owing to their ignorance these few pieces are in a confused medley without any real connection.

Thus nothing but a fantastically composed picture floating in the air was devised, which seems like a mirage, and therefore probably exerts a special fascination upon many people who are inwardly unstable.

Man can then revel so beautifully in irresponsible things!

He can allow himself to establish daring suppositions in these matters, which he naturally likes others to consider as knowledge and certainty, knowing that nobody can hold him responsible thereby if he errs.

In his opinion he has been given the opportunity to be held in esteem for once without having any responsibility!

Yes, before men!

But not before the Laws of God!

Towards these everybody is fully responsible for everything he says!

For every word!

And all those who follow his wrong opinions, even those whom he merely incites with his erroneous teachings to new and fantastic ideas of their own, all are firmly chained to him, and he must help to free them again individually before he can think of himself and his ascent.

After having again taken a brief glimpse at these matters, we must now return to details.

Thus the little elemental beings fashion the astral body beforehand as the necessary bridge for the soul, so that it is able to control, direct and move the growing body.

The soul is connected with the astral body and works through this upon the heavy physical body.

Likewise the physical body with the radiation necessary for this can really bind the soul to itself only through the astral body acting as a mediator.

The radiations issuing from heavy gross matter, through which the animistic pulsates, must first penetrate the medium gross matter of the astral body, for otherwise they cannot connect with the radiations of the soul, the outermost cloak of which is by then already of finest gross matter.

Let us at present distinguish only between three basic species of gross matter, although there are still various intermediate and side species in addition.

For the time being we will only consider the fine, the medium heavy and the heaviest gross material substance.

In this sense the physical body also belongs to the heaviest earthly species, and the astral body to the transitional species of medium heavy gross matter, i.e., to that species which lies next to the heaviest.

When an incarnation is to take place this astral body is first fashioned by the elemental beings, and immediately afterwards the physical body is formed so that it appears as if both occur simultaneously.

In reality, however, the fashioning of the astral body precedes the process in heavy gross matter; it must precede it, otherwise the physical body could not be completed and the soul would be unable to do anything with it.

I am only giving you the picture of the process here, so that the conception can arise therefrom.

Later on we shall perhaps follow step by step the growing, the maturing and the decaying, with all the logical order and with all the threads which are part of it, as soon as the whole stands before you like a picture.

The astral body is connected with the physical body, but is not dependent upon it, as has been assumed in the past.

The lack of knowledge of the actual process of development in Creation brought in its train the many errors, especially since man always basically presented the little knowledge he acquired by considering it from his point of view.

As long as he imagines himself as the most important point in Creation, where in reality he does not at all play a special main role, but where he is nothing but a creature like innumerable others, he will always go wrong, also in his investigations.

It is true that after the soul has severed itself from the physical body the astral body decays along with the physical body.

But this must not be taken as a proof that it is therefore dependent upon it.

This does not even give a justifiable foundation for such an assumption!

In reality the process is different: When it severs itself the soul, being the mobile part, draws the astral body away from the physical body.

Figuratively speaking: The soul upon stepping out of and leaving the physical body pulls the astral body out with it.

That is how it appears!

In reality the soul only pulls it off the physical body, because a fusion has never taken place but only a telescoping, as it is with field glasses
which go in and out.

In so doing the soul does not draw this astral body along very far, because the latter is not only anchored with the soul but also with the physical body; and, moreover, the soul from which the essential movement issues also wants to sever itself from the astral body and consequently strives away from it too.

Thus after the earthly departure of the soul the astral body always remains near the physical body.

The further the soul then moves away the weaker the astral body also becomes; and the ever-increasing severance of the soul finally brings about the decay and decomposition of the astral body, which in turn immediately brings in its train the decay of the physical body, in the same way as it also influenced its formation.

This is the normal process in accordance with the Laws of Creation.

Naturally special acts of intervention also bring about special conditions and disarrangements, but without being able to eliminate the lawfulness.

The astral body, which is first and foremost dependent upon the soul, is the mediator to the physical body.

Whatever happens to the astral body is also definitely suffered by the physical body.

The sufferings of the physical body, however, touch the astral body much less, although they are closely connected with each other.

If, for example, some part of the physical body is taken away (let us suppose it is a finger), then the finger of the astral body is not also taken away simultaneously, but it still remains as before.

That is why a person on earth can actually still feel pain or a pressure periodically at that spot where he no longer possesses a member of his physical body.

Cases of this kind are well enough known, but man never found the proper explanation of it because he lacked the survey.

Thus the elemental beings knot and connect all the souls to their astral bodies, which we shall call the bodies of medium gross matter, while the heavy earth bodies, even when coming into existence, are directly connected with the body of medium gross matter and form and develop accordingly.

It must be reserved until possible later lectures to show the way in which the soul works through this cloak upon the heavy physical body, for to reach such a point much has still to be clarified beforehand in order to presuppose the right understanding.

All this, however, is also pervaded by one single law, which is zealously and faithfully fulfilled by the little elemental beings without any deviation.

In this they are models for the human spirits, which can and also shall learn therefrom, until at last they work hand in hand and without presumption with the little master-builders in this Creation, so that through deeds which lead to complete harmony they will jubilantly and gratefully praise the Wisdom and Love of their Creator!

* * *