THE LITTLE ELEMENTAL BEINGS

I CONTINUE WITH my explanations about Substantiality and its function in Creation.

To do so it is necessary that I first give you a small glimpse into the nearer surroundings of earthman, which is easier for the earthly understanding, before I bring to life before your gaze the vast picture of all the happenings, beginning from above and continuing downwards.

Let us therefore first consider those elemental beings which are concerned with the Gross Material World.

These consist of many special groups formed through the nature of their activities.

There are, for example, groups which work entirely independent of the human spirits and which, being led only from above, busy themselves with the continuous development of new celestial bodies.

They further their maintenance as well as their course, and likewise their disintegration wherever this becomes necessary due to their over-ripeness, in order that they may come into existence again in a new form in accordance with the Primordial Laws of Creation, and so on.

But those are not the particular groups with which we want to deal today!

Rather it is the little beings we want to consider!

You have often heard of the elves, the nixies, the gnomes and the salamanders, which are occupied with the gross matter of the earth here which is visible to you, also similarly on all the other gross material globes.

They are the densest of all and can therefore also be most easily seen by you.

You know about them, but you are not yet acquainted with their actual work.

At least you imagine you already know what they occupy themselves with; but you are absolutely ignorant as to the manner in which they perform their task, and how their activity is always carried out strictly in accordance with the Laws of Creation.

Generally speaking, everything that you already call knowledge is not yet real and authoritative recognition, but merely an uncertain groping: indeed a great shout goes up when here and there something is found through this groping, i.e., when these desultory and, in comparison with Creation, trifling attempts to clutch at something happen to reveal a little speck of dust, the existence of which is often a surprise.

However, today I still do not want to unveil this for you either, but I first want to tell you of that which is closely connected with you personally, which is linked up with your thoughts and actions, so that you will gradually achieve the capacity of careful observation at least in such matters.

These groups about which I speak to you today also belong to the little elementals.

But you must not forget that every tiniest one of them is immensely important and more reliable in its activity than a human spirit.

They carry out the work assigned to them with an accuracy so great that you cannot even imagine it, because even the apparently most insignificant of the elementals is one with the whole and therefore through it also works the power of the whole, behind which stands the one Will furthering, strengthening, protecting and leading: the Will of God!

It is like this throughout the whole of the realms where “beings” are active, and it could and should also have been the same long ago with you, the spirits of Subsequent Creation which have developed to ego-consciousness.

This firmly-established connection automatically ensures that, should any one of these elementals fail in some way or other, it is immediately expelled by the pressure of the whole and thus remains cut off.

It would then wither away because the power no longer flows to it.

All that is weak is quickly shaken off in this way and does not even have a chance to become harmful.

I now want to talk about these elemental beings which, though seemingly small, are yet so great in their activity; these you still have no knowledge about whatever, of the existence of which you have hitherto not known anything.

But you have already heard about their activity in my Message.

However, you will not have associated it with Substantiality, since I myself did not link them with this because it would have been premature at that time.

What I then revealed in short sentences objectively I am now giving to you in its real working.

I have already once observed that the little elemental beings around you are influenced by the human spirit and can accordingly produce either good or even evil.

However, this influence does not take effect in that sense as you imagine it.

It is not that you could be masters over these beings, that you could direct them!

In a sense, of course, it could be described like that without saying anything wrong.

It is actually expressed in the right way as far as your conceptions and your language are concerned, because you look at everything from your point of view and also judge accordingly.

Therefore I very often had to speak to you in my Message in the same manner to make myself understood.

I could also do it here because in this case it makes no difference as regards your acting in the right way.

Because it more closely corresponded with the attitude of your intellect it was much easier for you to understand at that time when I told you that with your volition you always strongly influence everything of the animistic around you, and that it adjusts itself to your thoughts and actions because you are spiritual.

That in itself remains literally true, but the reason for it is different; for the actual guidance of all creatures standing in the Law of this Creation, which thus live in the Will of God, is exercised solely from above!

This includes all the elemental beings!

They are never subject to an alien volition, not even temporarily, nor in cases where it seems to you as if they were.

The little elementals which I mentioned do indeed adjust their activity to your volition and your actions, you human spirits, but nevertheless their work stands entirely in the Will of God!

This appears to be a riddle, but its solution is not so difficult; for now I only need to show you the other side as against that from which you consider everything!

Looked at from your angle you do influence the little elementals!

Looked at from the Light, however, these only fulfil the Will of God, the Law!

And since any power to act can only come exclusively from the Light, therefore this side which is different to you is the right one!

But nevertheless, for the sake of a better understanding, let us first consider their activity as seen from your side.

In accordance with the Law that with every volition the spirit exerts a pressure here in the Material World, also upon the small Substantiality that is only Animistic, so you leave an imprint upon the little elemental beings with your thoughts and deeds.

These little elementals then form in fine gross matter everything which is transferred to them by this pressure.

Let us therefore say, from your point of view, that they carry out all your volitions!

In the first place your spiritual volition!

Spiritual volition, however, is intuitive perception!

The little elementals form it in fine gross matter exactly according to the volition that has issued from the spirit.

They immediately take up the thread which springs forth from your volition and from your deed, and fashion at the end of the thread that form which corresponds exactly with this thread of will.

Such is the nature of the activity of the little elementals, which you do not yet know in their actual working.

In this way they create or, better said, they form the plane of Fine Gross Matter, which awaits you when you have to pass over into the Ethereal World!

It is the threshold thereto for your soul where, to use your expression, it must first “purify” itself after earthly death, before it is able to enter the Ethereal World.

The stay of the soul on this plane is of longer or shorter duration depending upon its inner quality and upon whether, through its various propensities and weaknesses, it strove with greater or lesser strength after the gross material.

This plane of finer gross matter has already been seen by many people.

It still belongs to the World of Gross Matter and is formed by the elemental beings which prepare the path of the human spirit everywhere.

This is very important for you to know: The elemental beings prepare for the human spirit, and thus also for the human soul as well as for earthman, that path which he must follow whether he wants to or not!

These elemental beings are influenced by man and also apparently directed by him.

But only apparently, for the actual direction in this matter does not come from man but from the Will of God, the adamantine Law of Creation, which stationed this group of elementals at this place and directs their activity in the swinging of the Law.

All the thought-forms also come about through a similar activity of the elementals.

However, this work is again carried out by a different group and a different species of the elementals, which also develop a special plane in fine gross matter alongside the first.

In this way landscapes, villages and towns also arise.

That which is beautiful and that which is ugly!

However, the different kinds are always precisely linked together, i.e., the ugly with the ugly, the beautiful with the beautiful, corresponding to the homogeneous species.

These are the places, the planes, in which you must still move about after your earthly death, before you can enter the Ethereal World.

The coarsest which still clings to your soul in the earthly sense is cast off and left behind here.

Not one little speck of this dust can you take along with you into the Ethereal World.

It would hold you back until it has fallen off, i.e., until you have lived it off through recognition.

Thus the soul must journey slowly onwards after earthly death; it must climb step by step, i.e., plane by plane, through constant recognition by personal experience of that which it acquired.

Wearisome is the path if the elementals had to build dark or gloomy places for you, depending on your volition here upon earth.

It is always you who give the cause for it! —

Now you know what the little elementals do and how they work for you under your influence: It is in the Law of Reciprocal Action!

The little elementals thereby weave your fate!

They are the little master weavers which work for you, because they always and only weave in such a manner as you wish it through your inner intuitive perception, likewise through your thinking and also your actions!

Yet in spite of this they are not in your service! —

There are three species of such elemental beings alone which are busy with this.

The one species weaves all the threads of your intuitive perception, the second one the threads of your thinking, and the third the threads of your actions.

It is not to be assumed that this is one weaving only, but there are three; however, they are linked with each other and also again linked with many other weavings besides.

A whole army is busy at this work.

And these threads are colored according to their nature.

But I must not carry my explanations so far yet, or we shall get into depths which are still incomprehensible to you and would never find an end.

You could not get a clear picture thereby!

Therefore let us concern ourselves with the individual person for the time being.

Apart from other things there issue three weavings from him, each of a different nature, because his intuitive perception is not always identical with his thinking, nor is his thinking always in strict accord with his actions!

In addition, the threads of the intuitive perception are of an altogether different nature, for they reach into the Ethereal and Spiritual Spheres and are anchored there, while the threads of his thinking remain in fine gross matter only, and must be lived off there.

The threads issuing from the actions, however, are still more dense and heavy, and they are therefore anchored closest to life on earth, and must first be journeyed through and lived off after departure from the earth before it is at all possible for a soul to continue.

You have no idea how far many a soul must travel just to be able to enter the Ethereal World, not to speak of the Spiritual Sphere!

In his superficial way man simply calls all this “the beyond” and is satisfied with that.

In his indolence he pours everything into one pot!

Many souls are earthbound over a long period because they are suspended on threads which are firmly anchored close to this heavy gross matter.

The soul cannot release itself from them until it has lived itself free of them, i.e., when in the course of its compulsory journey through them it came to the recognition that all these things possess neither the value nor the importance which the soul had attached to them, and that it was futile and wrong to waste so much time on them while on earth.

This often takes a very long time and it is sometimes very bitter!

Meanwhile many souls are again attracted from out of heavy gross matter, and they are incarnated again and ever again on earth without ever having been in the Ethereal World during that time.

They had to remain in fine gross matter because they were unable to free themselves quickly enough.

The threads held them too tightly therein.

And in this it is impossible to slip through by cunning!

So much is possible for man here upon earth which he is unable to do after his departure.

He then hangs more firmly in the Law of this Creation, experiencing everything instantly without the interference of a ponderous gross material cloak to delay matters.

The earthly cloak is able to delay through its dense heaviness and impermeability, but it can never actually prevent.

Therefore many things awaiting redemption are only postponed, but nothing is ever cancelled.

Everything that man here upon earth has perceived and thought is awaiting him, as well as the strict and just consequences of his actions!

When a man perceives intuitively then the threads thereby produced, which seem like small seeds sprouting forth from the soil, are taken up and cared for by the little elementals.

And just as it is in heavy gross matter, the weeds receive exactly the same careful attention as the best plants.

As the threads develop they are anchored for the first time at the border of fine gross matter, where they pass into the hands of a different species of the elementals, which lead them onward through the Ethereal World.

They are again anchored at the border of the Ethereal World, and passed on into the Animistic Sphere.

From the Animistic Sphere they then reach the Spiritual Sphere, where they are finally anchored again by a different species of the elementals.

Such is the path of a good volition which leads upwards.

The path of an evil volition is guided downwards in the same way.

With each anchorage at a border these threads lose a certain species of their substance, which they leave behind in order to be able to proceed into the next sphere.

This, too, takes place in a lawful manner, exactly corresponding to the particular species of the spheres.

And all these developments are subject to the activity of the elementals.

As the intuitive perception of a good volition originates in the mobility of the spirit, these threads are consequently carried into the Spiritual Sphere.

From there they pull at the soul or at least hold it fast when it still has to live through or redeem many a thing in fine gross matter.

Thus, if there are many such threads anchored in the Spiritual Sphere, the soul cannot sink and fall so quickly as can a soul which carries with itself threads only for fine gross matter, because the latter was spiritually indolent while on earth and only bound itself to the World of Gross Matter, considering its pleasures alone worth striving for.

The soul that is being pulled by the threads of its volition no more sees these threads than does man here on earth, because they are always of a somewhat finer substance than the outermost cloak in which the soul still moves about.

At the very moment, however, when the process of living off these threads through recognition enables the cloak to attain the same consistency as the densest among the still existing threads, whereby the soul through the homogeneous nature of its outer cloak could see them, these threads have already fallen off as being redeemed.

Consequently it never happens that the soul connected with such threads actually sees them. —

Thus from the earthly point of view these little elementals are in the service of the human spirit because they adjust their activities to the nature of the conscious or unconscious volitions of men.

And yet in reality they only act in accordance with the Will of God, Whose Law they thereby fulfil.

Thus their activity is only apparently influenced by the human spirit.

For the difference to become evident it depends entirely from which side you look at the matter.

When in the lectures about reciprocal action I spoke of threads which, as they issue from you, are thrust out and attracted, you perhaps until now saw only a conglomeration of threads before your mind’s eye.

However, it was not to be supposed that these threads would continue by themselves like worms, but they must pass through hands, must be guided.

And these hands belong to the little elementals working therein, of which you could have no knowledge up till now.

But now the picture has come to life and stands before you!

Imagine that you are constantly surrounded by these elementals, which observe you and at once take up every thread and guide it to where it belongs.

Not only that, but they anchor it and care for it until the seed springs up, indeed until the blossoms and fruit appear!

Just as it is here in the World of heavy Gross Matter with the seeds of plants, which are tended by the elemental beings until you can eventually have the fruits thereof!

It is the same basic Law, the same activity, but carried out by other species of the elemental beings which, as we would express it in an earthly way, are specialists in this field.

And thus the same weaving, the same activity – the producing of seed, the germination, the growth, the blossoming and the fruit-bearing – under the supervision and care of the elementals, penetrates the entire Creation for everything, no matter what it is and to which species it belongs.

The activities of the elemental beings cover every single species, and without their activity there would in turn be no species.

Thus through the activity of the elemental beings, under the impulse of the base volition of men, and through the anchoring of the threads springing forth from this volition, there also came into existence the so-called hell.

The threads of the evil volition were anchored there, grew, blossomed and finally bore the corresponding fruit, which those human beings who produced the seed had to accept.

Therefore a consuming lustfulness has dominion in these nether regions, the lust for murder, for quarrelling and for all the aberrations of human passions, each with its corresponding place.

However, everything springs forth from the same Law, in the fulfilment of which the little elemental beings also fashion the fairy-like beauty of the more Luminous Realms! —

Thus I shall let one picture after another arise from Creation until you receive a great and uniform survey, which will never allow you to waver upon your ways nor let you go astray, because you are then “knowing”.

Whoever even then would still not wish to direct his path towards the Luminous Heights would fundamentally prove himself as absolutely depraved and only worthy to be cast out!

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