How To Know Higher Worlds – Rudolf Steiner

The capacities by which we can gain insights into higher worlds lie dormant within each one of us. Mystics, gnostics, and theosophists have always spoken of a world of soul and spirit that is as real to them as the world we can see with our eyes and touch with our hands… All we need to know is how to begin to develop these faculties for ourselves.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Table of Contents

Introduction

No one who seeks sincerely will find barriers to achieving knowledge of the higher worlds, for initiation will find the seeker whatever the circumstances. There is a universal law among initiates that the knowledge due a seeker cannot be withheld. But there is also another universal law that esoteric knowledge may not be imparted to anyone not qualified to receive it. These two laws form the spiritual bond that unites all initiates.

In his book How To Know Higher Worlds, Austrian philosopher and esotericist Rudolf Steiner describes the inner work required for developing spiritual perception. While we perceive the physical world through our ordinary senses, Steiner states that the supersensible world can be perceived through what he calls “spiritual organs of perception.” These faculties lie dormant within us and can be awakened through specific exercises and practices.

Insight into the higher worlds is not impractical, but rather practical to the highest degree. Such experiences do not alienate us from life; rather, they give us renewed strength to carry out our daily duties.

Steiner emphasises that reading a description of soul development requires more than simply understanding the contents of a book. We must also put what we read into practice and make it part of our inner life. The decision to undertake such development must arise freely from within; no one can be compelled to follow this path.

He writes:

Above all, we must eradicate the belief that only bizarre and mysterious practices lead to higher knowledge. We must be clear that development begins with the feelings and thoughts we live with all the time, but that these feelings and thoughts must be given a new, unaccustomed direction. We must say to ourselves, “Within my own feelings and thoughts the highest mysteries lie concealed, but until now I have not perceived them.” In the final analysis, everything is based on the simple fact that, though we carry body, soul, and spirit about with us, we are conscious only of the body. The esoteric student must become as conscious of soul and spirit as the ordinary person is of his or her body.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

The Gate of Humility and Reverence

The Inscription over Hell-Gate – William Blake

We cannot grow spiritually unless we develop a profound feeling that there is something higher than ourselves. Those who have reached higher knowledge found the strength to do so because they first filled their hearts with reverence, devotion, and humility.

Only a person who has passed through the gate of humility can ascend to the heights of spirit.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Higher knowledge does not come from revering people, but from revering truth and insight. If we wish to become esoteric students, we must cultivate an attitude of devotion by seeking, in everything around us and in every experience, something worthy of admiration. This cannot be learned through study alone; it can only be learned through life.

When we meet other people and criticise their weaknesses, we rob ourselves of our own capacity for higher knowledge. But when we lovingly recognise the good qualities of others, we cultivate those same virtues within ourselves. Such an attitude must not remain merely external; it must become part of our thoughts. We must guard against disrespectful, disparaging, and criticising thoughts.

Inner Calm and the Backward Review

Elisha in the Chamber on the Wall – William Blake

The first task of spiritual development is not the attainment of higher knowledge, but developing inner peace and self-control. We should therefore set aside time each day for quiet reflection. Mastery of our personal hardships is not achieved by withdrawal from the world, rather we retreat so that we can better serve.

When we turn inward in reflection, we often find ourselves overwhelmed by the concerns of daily life. Therefore, we must go through a kind of “soul hygiene.” One way to begin is by reflecting on past experiences, especially those that have been difficult. Over time, this helps us distinguish the important from the unimportant in our lives. We should also learn to observe our experiences and actions as though they belonged to another person, viewing ourselves with inner calm and objectivity. We should quietly pursue inner development while continuing to fulfil our ordinary duties, unnoticed by the world.

A particularly important exercise recommended by Steiner is known as Rückschau (literally, “looking back”), or the “Backward Review.” Each night before sleep, we should review the events of the day in reverse order, from night to morning. It is not necessary to remember every detail, but rather to observe ourselves as if we were another person. Life should become more and more a lesson.

By freeing our thinking from the ordinary sequence of events, we are no longer passively remembering the past; we are actively guiding our thoughts and inner images through an act of will. For Steiner, this ability to consciously direct our inner activity is an important faculty for attaining higher knowledge.

Concentration and Meditation

Mental Faculties. Image from *Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia* – Robert Fludd

Subsequent exercises lead us beyond our personal concerns to a deeper understanding of what is universally human. Steiner calls these concentration and meditation.

Concentration means that we focus our attention on particular mental pictures and concepts connected with the mysteries of the cosmos. Meditation means living in such ideas, immersing ourselves in them in accordance with the instructions.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

For Steiner, meditation is not about emptying the mind or losing ourselves to vague feelings. Rather, thinking must become clear and precise. In this way, meditation becomes the path to supersensible knowledge, which leads us to behold the eternal, indestructible, and essential centre of our being.

We may persevere with meditation for a long time without noticeable results. Then suddenly, the world seems filled with an inner light. We become aware of a higher self that stands apart from our ordinary self. A second life begins for us, not one that alienates us from the world, but one that enriches it.

Through meditation we come to see that even the most trivial tasks and experiences are woven together with great cosmic beings and world events. As a result, our life takes on a whole new meaning, knowing that our work and suffering participate in something far larger than ourselves. Therefore, we must not undervalue the everyday affairs of life.

The Three Forces of the Soul

Threefolding Human Being – Gerard Wagner (Based on Steiner’s Sketch)

Key to understanding Steiner’s work is his description of the three fundamental forces of the soul: thinking, feeling, and willing. Thinking forms our concepts and ideas and is most closely connected with waking consciousness. Feeling gives experience its tone of pleasure or displeasure and has a dream-like character. Willing expresses itself through impulses and actions and lies largely in the unconscious, like dreamless deep sleep.

Thinking and willing are the two opposite poles of the soul, with feeling between them. Although these three forces exist in everyone, they do not develop equally. One may predominate over the others, but in ordinary consciousness they remain interwoven and mutually influence one another.

The Stage of Preparation

The Lonely Tree – Caspar David Friedrich

According to Steiner, there are three stages of esoteric training: Preparation, in which we cultivate the inner qualities needed for spiritual perception; Illumination, in which the spiritual world begins to reveal itself; and Initiation, in which we enter into a conscious relationship with higher spiritual beings.

In the stage of Preparation, we begin cultivating our lives of feeling and thinking by directing our attention to the processes of life and death. Life grows and flourishes; death withers and fades away. These two processes are present throughout nature. Instead of rushing from one sense impression to the next, we should allow these impressions to remain with us, becoming inwardly completely still and attending to the thoughts and feelings they awaken in the soul.

We should not try to determine what things mean with the speculative mind, but should let things themselves tell us their meaning.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Whoever repeatedly contemplates the processes of growth and flourishing will feel something faintly resembling the sensation of watching the sun rise. Processes of withering and dying, on the other hand, produce an experience comparable to watching the slow rise of the moon. Cultivated through practice, these two feelings can lead to the most significant spiritual effects.

The calm cultivated in meditation gradually transforms our everyday life. We become more peaceful, less prone to fear, anger, and impatience, and increasingly learn to guide ourselves instead of being tossed about by external influences.

Students of occult (or hidden) knowledge must also direct their attention to the world of sounds coming from animals and human beings. We should immerse ourselves in this “otherness”, uniting our feelings with the pleasure or pain expressed in the sound, regardless of whether it is agreeable or disagreeable to us. Gradually, we acquire the faculty of merging, as it were, with the being that produced the sound. In time, nature begins to whisper its secrets to us through its sounds, and we begin to hear not only with our ears but with our souls.

Particularly important on the path to higher knowledge is learning to listen to other people when they speak. We must quiet our own thoughts and feelings and refrain from immediate agreement or disagreement. Instead of rushing to express our own views, we learn to listen patiently and suspend judgment, remembering that where we have already formed a conclusion, we cannot learn anything.

When these exercises are practised regularly, the perception of what Steiner calls the “inner word” awakens. He writes:

Truths are gradually revealed to us out of the spiritual world. We hear ourselves spoken to spiritually. All higher truths are attained only through such inward prompting.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

The Stage of Illumination

Eternity – Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis

In the stage of Illumination, Steiner proposes meditative exercises that slowly awaken spiritual organs of perception.

We begin by observing stones, plants, and animals. The stone has a form. The animal also has a form. The stone stays peacefully in its place. The animal changes its place. It is instinct (or desire) that moves the animal to change its place. Instincts are also served by the animal’s form. Stones, on the other hand, are shaped bya force that is without desire. The plant lies somewhere between the two.

Through the stage of Illumination, our “spiritual eyes”, as it were, are opened. Steiner describes perceiving “spiritual colours” associated with the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, as well as with supersensible beings. The range of colours in the higher worlds is immeasurably greater than in the physical world. These are not the colours seen with our physical eyes, but inner experiences that resemble the impression particular colours make on us.

For Steiner, the spiritual world is not an ethereal, or transparent replica of the physical sense world, it has its own forms and is perceived in a fundamentally different way. We must remember this if we wish to develop true spiritual perception, or else we would be confused in the worst way.

Steiner gives us a simple exercise that, when practised with the right attitude, can have profound effects.

We hold in our hands a small seed from a plant and carefully observe its physical properties. Then we think, “This seed, if planted in the ground, will grow into a complex plant.” We visualise this plant. Then we think, “What I now visualise in my imagination, forces of earth and light will later in reality draw forth from this small seed. But if this were an artificial seed, no matter how perfect it looked, it could never grow into a plant.”

From this, we arrive at a deeper thought, “Within the seed already lies concealed what—as the force of the whole plant—later grows out of it. The artificial copy of the seed has no such force. Yet, to my eyes, both seeds look the same. Therefore the real seed contains something invisible that is absent in the copy.”

Thoughts and feelings should now focus on this invisible reality. We imagine that this invisible force will one day become the visible plant, whose colour and form we will be able to see before us. We should hold the thought: “The invisible will become visible. If I were unable to think, then what later becomes visible could not announce itself to me now.”

As far as our physical senses are concerned, an entity comes into being with birth and passes away with death. But this is only because the outer senses cannot perceive the hidden spirit. For the spirit, birth and death are merely transformations.

Whatever we think during meditation must also be felt with intensity and experienced peacefully. Steiner emphasises that we must remain clear-headed and down-to-earth at all times to avoid falling into daydreaming.

The slower path of inner discipline is the safest and most reliable. Steiner writes:

Pursuing a path of esoteric training should never lead to any sudden change in one’s life situation. If we want real results, we must have patience. We must be able to stop the exercises after just a few minutes and continue with our daily work as usual. We must not let thoughts of our exercises mingle with our work. Whoever has not learned to wait, in the noblest and best sense of the word, is unsuited to esoteric work and will never achieve results of any real value.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Once the first signs of spiritual perception arise, we can begin to contemplate the longings and desires of other people. Through much focus and practice, Steiner says we are able to experience the inner soul state of the person we are contemplating, and perceive an image of that desire through spiritual vision.

Before attempting this, we must work sincerely on our moral character, letting go of any desire to use spiritual knowledge for personal advantage and resolving never to use any power gained over others for selfish or harmful purposes. For Steiner, the golden rule of the occult sciences is:

For every single step you take in seeking knowledge of hidden truths, you must take three steps in perfecting your character toward the good.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

The Stage of Initiation

Initiation is the third and final stage in attaining higher knowledge. It bestows upon us knowledge and abilities that would otherwise be acquired only after many incarnations. The trials of initiation arise naturally once the soul has practised the earlier exercises correctly.

The first trial is known as the Fire Trial. Through a process of “spiritual burning away”, the student begins to perceive qualities previously veiled from his or her physical senses. An occult script is then revealed, expressing the secrets of the supersensible world beyond the limits of ordinary language. Through it, one learns to read the spiritual laws expressed in nature.

The second trial is the Water Trial. Here we can no longer be supported by outer circumstances, just as we lose the ground beneath our feet when swimming in deep water. We must discover our duty by reading the occult script. Above all, we must develop a reliable power of judgment and learn to distinguish truth from illusion. All preconceptions and cherished beliefs must disappear; truth alone must guide us.

The third trial is the Air Trial. It is without any tangible or distinct goal. Everything is up to us. The quality to be cultivated in this trial is presence of mind. Now, in the true sense of the word, we must rely on the “higher self”, which originally lay dormant within us, seedlike and unconscious.

As we continue our inner work, the higher self is eventually born into consciousness. For Steiner this birth is not just an image. It is a literal birth in an absolutely real sense: a birth into the spiritual world. We directly experience the higher self as outlasting the lower self, begin to understand its incarnation in earthly life, and gain insight into the law of karma. We realise that our lower self, which shapes our existence is only one of the many forms our higher being can assume.

From this point on, we become able to recognise different degrees of human development. According to Steiner, those who have advanced furthest on the path are the great initiates. Their teachings arise from direct knowledge of the spiritual world and help guide the evolution of humanity.

Having passed the three trials, the initiate enters the Temple of Higher Cognition (Wisdom). Here one learns that the pursuit of truth must never be betrayed and that esoteric knowledge exists solely for the service of humanity.

The initiate then symbolically receives the Potion of Oblivion, learning the secret of action uninterrupted by lower memory. The initiate must always have complete confidence in the immediate present, tearing down the veil of memory that binds him to judgments of the past, without denying his prior experiences. Finally comes the Potion of Memory, through which the higher mysteries remain ever present in the soul, as instinctive as eating and drinking. Our ordinary memory is insufficient for this.

Requirements for Esoteric Training

Macrocosm-microcosm. Image from *Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atque technica historia* – Robert Fludd

Several requirements for entering esoteric training arise naturally from the nature of esoteric knowledge itself. None of these requires complete perfection; we need only strive towards that goal. It is our attitude and our will to begin that are important.

We must strive to improve our physical and mental or spiritual health. Esoteric schooling does not exclude unhealthy people, but demands that they have the will to lead a healthy life. For Steiner, this means above all warding off harmful influences. We should also avoid all exaggeration or one-sidedness.

Another requirement is that we feel ourselves to be a part of the whole of life. For example, we will look upon criminals differently. Rather than judging them, we will contemplate our common humanity and think, “I am a human being just as this person is. Perhaps it was only my upbringing and the circumstances of my life that spared me this fate.” It is then but a small step to realise that, as members of humanity, we are jointly responsible for everything that happens. This insight should not be immediately translated into political agitation but calmly cultivated in the soul, where it will gradually express itself in our actions.

True reform begins with ourselves. Merely demanding social or political change on the basis of such insights is fruitless. It is easy to say how others ought to be, but students of esoteric knowledge must work in the depths rather than on the surface. Politicians generally know what to ask of others, but rarely ever talk about asking anything of themselves.

In the soul world, thoughts and feelings affect one another just as physical objects interact in the sensory world. Until we become fully conscious of this, it is difficult to believe that entertaining a wrong thought can have as devastating an effect on the other thoughts that animate our inner world as a bullet shot blindly from a rifle has on things it hits in the physical world.

We should recognise that when we hate our fellow human beings it is just as destructive as when we physically strike them. This brings us once more to the insight that anything we do for our own improvement benefits not just ourselves but also the world. The world benefits as much from pure feelings and thoughts as from good deeds.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Esoteric training rests on the conviction that our true nature is found within rather than without. Its very foundation is the recognition that we are spiritual beings. As esoteric pupils, we should remain attentive to the needs of others, developing what Steiner calls “the spiritual scales”: a heart open to the world, balanced by inner firmness and unshakeable endurance.

In the higher worlds, love is the only motivation for action. We should therefore learn to find satisfaction in carrying out our duties themselves rather than in the external results they produce.

Finally, we must develop gratitude. Our very existence is a gift from the whole universe. We owe much to nature and to countless other people. Grateful thoughts such as these must become second nature for those engaged in esoteric training.

These requirements must become a way of life. Esoteric knowledge is not merely a matter of inner belief but must find expression in our daily conduct.

Awakening The Lotus Flowers

The chakras as depicted in *The Serpent Power* by Arthur Avalon

Steiner describes several spiritual organs of perception, called “lotus flowers”, located in different regions of the human being. In an undeveloped soul they are dark, still, and inactive. Through esoteric practice they gradually awaken, beginning to shine and rotate as spiritual perception develops. We will focus on three of them.

The sixteen-petalled lotus flower, located near the larynx, awakens as we bring greater consciousness into our everyday lives. Eight of the petals lie dormant and can be developed consciously, the other eight then unfold of their own accord. Thus, there are eight soul processes that cultivate this lotus flower.

We are asked to pay close attention to the mental images we acquire, making sure that they reflect the outer world rather than false ideas. Thinking, speech, and action must become deliberate and purposeful, and we should avoid behaviour that disturbs those around us, instead seeking to live in harmony with our surroundings.

The remaining four soul processes are to cultivate a balanced rhythm of life, avoiding both haste and laziness; to connect our ordinary duties with humanity’s great ideals; to learn from every experience, allowing mistakes to become opportunities for wisdom; and to practise regular self-reflection.

The more we are harmonised with events in the outer world, the more quickly this spiritual organ develops. Truthfulness, sincerity, and honesty nourish it, while lying, falsity, and insincerity destroy it.

As this lotus flower awakens, thoughts are perceived as living forms. A vengeful thought, for example, appears arrow-like and jagged, whereas a kind thought often has the form of a flower beginning to blossom. Thoughts that are firm and meaningful are symmetrical and regular; while confused or unclear thoughts have wavy, almost frizzy outlines.

The twelve-petalled lotus flower, near the heart, is developed through six “supplementary exercises”, which are further elaborated in Steiner’s book An Outline of Esoteric Science. He makes clear that all concentration, meditation or other exercises are worthless, in a certain respect actually harmful, if life is not regulated with these six exercises.

The first exercise is the control of thoughts. We must develop clear thinking in which each thought follows logically from the last, and free ourselves from the will-o’-the-wisps of thought, even if only for about five minutes a day. During this brief time, we set aside all thoughts concerning our ordinary life and instead become masters of our own thinking, giving it direction and purpose from within.

For this exercise, we choose an ordinary object, such as a pencil or a needle, and focus entirely upon it. A simple object requires thinking to become active through its own effort, whereas an interesting object tends to carry the thinking along through its many associations. The aim is to train thinking to hold its attention firmly on a single object and exclude all unrelated thoughts. We might ask: What materials is the pencil made of? What is it used for? When were pencils invented? And so on. The important thing is that our thoughts remain focused on the object.

Again and again, the mind will wander, and each time we need to return our attention to the object. Some questions we may be able to answer, while others we will have to look up later. We should make notes on our findings afterwards. Gradually, our attention, which before flitted without notice from one subject to the next, becomes steady and subject to our conscious control. Eventually, we will have answers to most of the questions and we can move onto another simple object.

Our thinking becomes clearer and more objective, our concentration improves, and our interest grows. This not only helps us to reduce overthinking and anxiety but also makes genuine freedom possible. When thoughts grasp us, we are not free; when we grasp them through our own being, we are.

Through this inner effort, we can isolate pure thinking from everything else in our soul life. Such thoughts are, by their very nature, supersensible entities. When the soul unites with these pure thoughts, it experiences itself beyond the physical body. For Steiner, this is one of the first genuine supersensible experiences.

The attainment of higher knowledge must take its starting point from the realisation that thinking is the highest of the faculties we human beings possess in the physical world.

No feeling and no enthusiasm on earth can compare with the sensations of warmth, beauty, and exaltation that are enkindled by pure, crystal-clear thoughts relating to higher worlds. Our loftiest feelings are not ones that happen by themselves, but the ones achieved through strenuous and energetic thinking.

Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy

The second exercise is the control of actions. As esoteric pupils, we must be accustomed to obey our own commands. We choose a simple action that we would not normally perform and make it our duty to carry it out every day at a specific time. It could be watering a plant, turning a light switch off and on, or doing push-ups. The action itself is unimportant; what matters is strengthening the will by carrying out what we have resolved to do, as well as restraining ourselves until the time has come. As this habit becomes established, we can add more such self-imposed actions, as long as they remain compatible with one another. In this way, we gain mastery over our will and learn to transform intention into action.

The third exercise is equanimity orthe control of feelings. We must develop a certain degree of calmness in relation to the fluctuations of joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. This can easily be misunderstood. It does not mean we should suppress our feelings or become indifferent to others; with the joyful we should rejoice; with the sorrowful we should grieve. Rather, we should experience our feelings fully without being ruled by them. We gain mastery over our feelings by learning to consciously guide their expression rather than react impulsively. If we practise this honestly, we become more, not less, sensitive to both joy and sorrow. At the end of each day, we may briefly write down the feelings that affected us most strongly in order to become more aware of them.

The fourth exercise is tolerance (or positiveness). This combines both thinking and feeling. Just as the sun shines on both the good and the wicked, so too should we not withdraw our understanding and sympathy from anyone. When we meet adversity, we should not indulge in negative judgments but accept the inevitable and try, as best we can, to turn it to the good.

Steiner illustrates this with a Persian legend in which Christ and his disciples pass a dead dog. While the disciples turn away in disgust, Christ admires the animal’s beautiful teeth. This positiveness should not be confused with denying the bad, the false, or the ugly. Rather, we should not let them prevent us from finding the true, the good, and the beautiful wherever they are present.

The fifth exercise is open–mindedness, faith or trust. This develops our thinking and willing. For the esoteric student, the thought, “I have never heard that, so I do not believe it,” should entirely lose its meaning, for such an attitude prevents progress. Instead, we should strive to learn something new from every person and every experience. This does not mean disregarding our past experiences; they should still guide our understanding of the present. They form one side of the balance. On the other side, we must cultivate openness to new experiences and the possibility that they may contradict what we previously understood.

Finally, the sixth exercise is inner harmony, which is achieved by practising the five exercises, so that harmony between thinking, feeling, and willing arises.

As we keep consistent with our practice, we awaken the twelve-petalled lotus flower, which allows us to perceive the feeling-tone radiating from thoughts and living processes as forms of soul warmth and soul coldness. Everything growing and maturing radiates soul warmth, while everything passing into decay radiates soul coldness.

The ten-petalled lotus flower, near the solar plexus, is cultivated through a subtle form of soul care: learning to consciously master the effects of sense impressions upon the soul. Steiner warns that unconscious impressions can become a source of illusion and fantasy, as they often shape our thoughts, memories, and supposed intuitions without our awareness. By strengthening the inner life, we gradually become masters of what affects us from the outer world. If we combine such self-discipline with meditation, the lotus flower matures properly. What was previously perceived only as form and warmth now reveals spiritual light and colour. Living beings and nature are then supersensibly perceived as surrounded by a colourful aura.

Desire and the Astral World

Section of “General Perspective View of the Human Aura.” – Auguste Jean Baptiste Marques

The initiate who develops the spiritual organs of perception becomes a seer, capable of perceiving the astral atmosphere of places. The highest attainment of the seer is the perception of astral phenomena created by instincts, desires, and passions of humans and animals. Meaningless desire produces an ugly astral counterpart or image, while the feeling for a high ideal creates a beautiful one. These are only faintly visible during earthly life.

For Steiner, every desire also creates a counterpart in the astral world in addition to its immediate astral image. While we live on Earth, this counterpart weakens whenever the desire is satisfied. After death, however, it achieves its full strength. The soul still experiences attachment to those desires but can no longer satisfy them through the physical organs.

For example, a person strongly attached to the pleasures of food may still crave them after death, but can no longer satisfy those desires because the tongue and its sense of taste have been left behind. The resulting astral counterpart torments the soul. This is experienced in Kamaloka (the realm of desire), where we live our entire life in reverse, from our final moments back to birth. If we harmed another person, we experience not our own satisfaction, but the suffering we caused the other person. Only after the soul has purified itself of its attachments to the physical world and freed itself from its desires does it ascend to the spiritland, the realm of archetypes.

Rose Cross Meditation

In An Outline of Esoteric Science, Steiner gives us a rare example of symbolic visualisation: the Rose Cross Meditation. Rather than beginning with an arbitrary image, the symbol is first formed inwardly through contemplation.

We visualise a plant taking root, growing leaves, and blossoming. Beside it stands a human being. The plant follows the pure and passionless laws of growth, but remains rooted in the earth, whereas the human being is free to move about and has reached a higher stage of development. We think that the human being is indeed more perfect than the plant. However, the human being has acquired instincts, desires, and passions, and these he sometimes follows in his behaviour, with the result that he goes astray. This is absent in the plant, so that it may appear to us more perfect.

We then visualise the green sap of the plant as the expression of the pure, passionless laws of growth, and the red blood that flows through the human veins as the expression of instincts and passions.

However, because we have a soul and are capable of spiritual development, something lower in these passions may be destroyed and reborn on a higher plane, so that human blood becomes the expression of purified and cleansed passions.

I now imagine a red rose and say to myself: In the red rose sap I see the colour of the green plant sap transformed into red; and the red rose, like the green leaf, follows the pure passionless laws of growth. The red rose therefore becomes for me the symbol of blood expressing purified and cleansed instincts and passions.

I now let these thoughts come to life in my heart and feelings. A feeling of bliss may come over me as I contemplate the pure and dispassionate nature of the growing plant; a solemn feeling as I reflect that higher perfection has been purchased through the acquirement of instincts and desires; and finally, a feeling of liberating joy when I contemplate the red blood that can become the bearer of inwardly pure experiences, like the red sap of the rose.

We then transform these thoughts and feelings in the following symbolic image. I imagine a black cross, symbolising the destroyed lower instincts and passions, and at the point where the arms of the cross intersect, I visualise seven red, radiant roses arranged in a circle. These roses symbolise for me a blood that is the expression of passions and instincts that have undergone purification.

Such a symbolic visualisation should be called forth in the soul through a visualised memory image. It has a soul-awakening power if we surrender to it in inward meditation. We must exclude all other thoughts. Only the Rose Cross is to hover before the soul as intensely as possible, and we should maintain this immersion for as long as possible.

This symbol, Steiner emphasises, becomes effective only because we have first constructed it inwardly through a sequence of thoughts concerning plant and the human being. If adopted merely as a picture, without the preparatory thoughts, it remains cold and far less effective. Outside meditation, we should occasionally reconstruct the image through the thoughts and feelings that gave rise to it, so that the inner feeling does not fade.

The Rose Cross does not represent anything found in the sensible world, and that is precisely why it can awaken powers that lie within the soul. Although its individual elements come from nature, these elements alone do not awaken higher faculties. Their power lies in the way they are united into a single symbol, a combination that has no counterpart in the outer world. It is a symbol of human development as it proceeds in the world, the human being’s victory of the higher, purified nature over the lower.

The Dangers of Ascending to Higher Worlds

There are many dangers connected with the ascent to the higher worlds. Whether we are aware of them or not, we must realise that forces hostile to life exist. We likewise learn to use certain forces and beings imperceptible to our physical senses. The great temptation will be to use these forces for our own selfish, forbidden ends or to use them incorrectly out of an inadequate knowledge of the higher worlds. However, as long as we follow proper esoteric training, we need fear no danger, even though we may undergo experiences whose power and greatness exceed anything we can imagine.

Above all, we must avoid any disharmony between our higher experiences and the events and demands of our everyday life. Our work is wholly here on earth. And if we evade our earthly tasks and try to escape into another world, we can rest assured that we will never achieve our goal… Our task is the transformation of the earth. Therein lies the only reason for seeking higher knowledge. The earth as we know it with our senses depends on the spiritual world, and this means that we can truly work on the earth only if we share in those worlds where creative forces are concealed. This realisation should be our only motivation for wanting to ascend to higher worlds.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Those seeking initiation must cultivate courage and fearlessness, seeking out opportunities to strengthen these virtues. As we penetrate the higher mysteries, we encounter realities ordinarily hidden from the illusions of the senses. It is a blessing that we do not perceive them before we are ready, for they would deeply disturb us. As students of the occult, we must learn to bear these sights calmly reminding ourselves that: “All fear is useless. I must not let it take hold of me. I must think only of what is to be done.”

Esoteric knowledge must never be sought for personal gain. Steiner writes:

Every insight that you seek only to enrich your own store of learning and to accumulate treasure for yourself alone leads you from your path, but every insight that you seek in order to become more mature on the path of the ennoblement of humanity and world evolution brings you one step forward.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Only when knowledge becomes a means of serving humanity can we call ourselves genuine seekers after higher knowledge. Steiner summarises this principle:

Every idea that does not become an ideal for you kills a force in your soul, but every idea that becomes an ideal for you creates forces of life within you.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

Dreams and Continuity of Consciousness

Serenity – Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis

We spend roughly one-third of our lives asleep. But our soul lives and acts uninterruptedly in the higher worlds. For Steiner, it is important to become as conscious of what we observe in our dreams as we are of what we observe in waking life. We must then learn to carry this consciousness of dream observations into our ordinary waking state. As more experiences emerge from unconsciousness, our periods of unconscious sleep become shorter.

The goal of esoteric training is the attainment of what Steiner calls “continuity of consciousness”, the ability to remain conscious even during sleep. This, however, is an ideal attained only at the end of a long path. As beginning esoteric students, we first come to know only two states: consciousness in a state where previously only disordered dreams were possible, and consciousness in a state that previously we recognised as unconscious, dreamless sleep.

The higher life experienced in sleep remains unconscious in most human beings, but as esoteric students we bring them into consciousness. In time, we learn to connect them with ordinary life. As long as our souls could not “see” in the higher sense, they were guided by higher cosmic beings. Once this unconscious guidance is outgrown, we must lead ourselves.

The Splitting of The Personality

Once we begin to lead ourselves consciously, we undergo a “splitting of the personality”, in which thinking, feeling, and willing become independent of one another.

One of the first changes we notice as we advance in esoteric training is that no impulse can carry us from thought to action unless we freely allow it to do so. We become able to face events that would previously have filled us with intense love or hatred without being carried away by them. If someone sends a feeling of hatred towards us, for example, we are able to perceive it as a delicate cloud of light of a certain hue and ward it off as we would a physical blow. Hatred thus becomes a perceptible phenomenon in the supersensible world.

The great accomplishment of the esoteric path is attaining complete mastery over the interaction of our three soul forces. But with this mastery comes complete responsibility for keeping them in harmony.

If will predominates, the regulating influence of thinking and feeling upon the will ceases. The will, no longer held in balance by cosmic laws, constantly impels us towards tremendous performance of power. If we reach this point before we have developed the higher consciousness needed to harmonise our soul forces, our will can overwhelm us, leaving feeling and thinking powerless. We become slaves to our own impulses, driven from one uncontrolled action to the next. As a result, our character can become increasingly violent.

If feeling predominates and we are unable to keep it under control, we become excessively dependent on others, surrendering our own capacity to think and act independently. This leads to inner emptiness and helplessness.

If thinking predominates, the world has value only insofar as it satisfies our insatiable desire for knowledge. We become indifferent and cold to everything else.

Thus, we can go astray in three ways: through willful violence, sentimental indulgence in feeling, or a cold striving after knowledge. If one soul force overwhelms the others, the birth of the higher soul becomes a miscarriage, as the unrestrained force floods the whole personality, and it may take a long time before balance is restored.

The “splitting of the personality” becomes a real danger only once we have conscious higher experiences during both sleep and waking life. As long as our experience of sleep remains unconscious, our ordinary sensory life, still regulated by universal cosmic laws, has a compensatory effect on the soul, continually restoring its balance.

Therefore, those who wish to proceed on the higher path must maintain a healthy and vigorous constitution of body, soul, and spirit. An overly anxious or exhausting way of life can hinder spiritual development by creating unnecessary inner turmoil. We must take care that our moods, intentions, and thoughts—as well as our physical health—remain stable and do not constantly fluctuate.

The Lesser Guardian of the Threshold

The Dweller on the Threshold – Reginald W. Machell

One of the most important experiences on the path to higher knowledge is the encounter with the Guardian of the Threshold. Steiner distinguishes between two such beings: the Lesser and the Greater Guardian.

The Lesser Guardian is an independent spiritual being that appears only when we have reached the appropriate level of inner development. At this meeting, we become aware that the ordinary connection between our thinking, feeling, and willing begin to loosen.

A thoroughly horrid, ghostly being stands before us. It reveals the following:

Until now, unseen spiritual powers shaped your destiny. Every good deed brought its reward, every evil deed its consequence, and through the law of karma they formed your character across many lives. Your present life is the result of your past actions.

I am the being formed from your good and evil deeds. Until now I lived hidden within you while the wisdom of destiny worked to transform me. That task now passes into your own hands.

If I am to become radiant and whole, you must purify yourself. Every wrong thought or deed will appear immediately as a demonic distortion in my form. My being will become beautiful only when you have made amends for all your wrongs and become incapable of further evil.

Do not cross this threshold until you are free from fear and ready to take full responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Until now, this being was visible only to the powers of karma after death, which prepared our future incarnation according to its appearance. Now we encounter it while still alive, consciously entering a realm previously reached only after death.

Steiner does not intend this merely as symbolism; he describes it as a real spiritual experience. Horrid as it may be, the Lesser Guardian is, after all, our own character awakened to an independent life. The purpose of esoteric training is to bear the awful sight of it without any fear or aversion.

After successfully passing this encounter, death itself becomes a conscious experience. We learn to lay aside the physical body like a worn-out garment.

We also come to understand that family, folk, and nation souls are real beings of the supersensible world who, in order to work in the physical world, use individuals as instruments to accomplish certain tasks, just as a civil engineer uses workers to execute the details of a project.

Until now, we worked unconsciously towards the goals of these higher beings. Now their guidance ceases, and we must consciously take responsibility for our own development and for serving others. As our horizon expands, so does our responsibility.

On the esoteric path, we look back on our previous upbringing as if watching our house crumble into individual bricks that must be rebuilt in a new form. Our physical homeland is the place of our birth, where we grow up and absorb ideas and beliefs, which then unconsciously colour our experience. Our spiritual homeland, however, is one we create consciously. Steiner calls this process “Building a Hut.” Until we do so, we remain wanderers in the spiritual world.

We then find ourselves surrounded by darkness, broken only by the radiance of the Guardian, who warns us, “You must not cross the threshold until you have fully understood that you yourself have to illuminate the darkness before you.”

The veil is lifted, revealing the spiritual beings that guided our past development and showing that their guidance has now ceased. The feeling of our new freedom is overwhelming.

We realise that the physical world is the place where we acquire qualities that cannot be gained elsewhere. Once we have developed all the faculties needed here, we shall become useful coworkers in the spiritual world.

One of the greatest lessons of initiation is that we learn the true value of earthly life better than we could before our esoteric training. The spiritual world gave rise to the physical, yet it also depends on earthly life for its own continued evolution. Human beings are the bridge between the two, developing on earth the faculties that allow both themselves and the spiritual world to advance.

We therefore possess a double nature. Our mortal being is in its final stages, our immortal being is only beginning.

Our task is to harvest from the mortal world fruits for the immortal.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds

The Great Guardian of the Threshold

Image from Opus medico-chymicum – Johann Daniel Mylius

The Lesser Guardian reveals the consequences of our past and the influences that shaped us. The Great Guardian, however, reveals the true purpose of earthly existence. This encounter occurs not only when thinking, feeling, and willing have become separated from one another, but also when they have come under the complete control of the soul.

The Great Guardian appears as a being of light of indescribable beauty, and union with it is a distant goal of the soul. It delivers the following message:

You have earned the right of citizenship in the supersensible world and no longer need the physical world for your own spiritual development. Until now, you have worked only to free yourself, but now that you are free, you can help free all your fellow beings.

You could enter the spiritual world now, but then you would have separated your destiny from that of humanity. You are bound together with all human beings, and the powers you have gained through humanity must be shared with it.

I refuse to admit you into the highest regions of the supersensible world until you have used all your powers in the service of humanity.

If you do not use your spiritual powers for the benefit of others, others will carry the work forward without you. The higher supersensible world will continue to evolve, but you will be left behind. If this is your choice, then yours is the black path. But those from whom you separate yourself tread the white path.

The Black Path and White Path

Casual Body of an Arhat (Adept) from *Man Visible and Invisible* – C.W. Leadbeater

The temptation of the black path is the greatest we can conceive of, because it fully satisfies the ego’s desire for personal salvation. Those who seek only their own liberation while abandoning their responsibility to humanity will almost certainly choose this path, even if a premature ascent into the supersensible world means that humanity will continue its evolution without them.

The white path, by contrast, asks us to sacrifice our own salvation in order to continue serving humanity. Which path we choose depends on whether we have overcome selfishness and are willing to dedicate our abilities entirely to the good of others.

True esoteric teachers therefore do not teach personal salvation as the ultimate goal. They teach us to develop our abilities so that we may serve the spiritual progress and liberation of all beings. Humility and selflessness form the moral foundation for all genuine spiritual development. Nevertheless, they reject no one, for even the most egoistic can purify themselves. The task of the “white occultist” is to keep us from the supersensible world until we are ready to enter it with a will dedicated to selfless service.

Conclusion

By ascending into higher worlds, we come to understand the redemptive work taught by the Buddha and exemplified by Christ. Humility and compassion frame the entirety of How To Know Higher Worlds: at the beginning of the path, we are instructed to enter the gate of humility; at its culmination, before the Great Guardian, we are called to place our spiritual powers at the service of the world through selfless love. This deeply Christian-Bodhisattvic character is perhaps the most essential aspect of Steiner’s teaching. Spiritual development does not end with self-realisation, but rather with self-transcendence.

Inner experience is the only key to the beauties of the outer world… The world around us is filled everywhere with the glory of God, but we have to experience the divine in our own souls before we can find it in our surroundings.

Rudolf Steiner, How To Know Higher Worlds