Cosmology, Religion and Philosophy
GA 25
VI. Transference from the Psycho-Spiritual to the Physical Sense-Life in Man's Development
[ 1 ] IN the previous studies it was shown how a view of the eternal psycho-spiritual inner being of man can be attained through inspired and intuitive approach. Attention was drawn to the fact that the inner life of man was filled by reflections of cosmic happenings. In the last survey it was shown how man lives through such cosmic reconstructions during sleep. Man's inner world becomes the external world and vice versa: the spiritual part of the external world becomes an inner world.
[ 2 ] During the state of sleep the physical and etheric organisms of man form an outer world for his psycho-spiritual nature. They remain there in the same way in which, in waking, they can become again the instrument of the psycho-spiritual man. Man carries the longing for these two organisms over into the sleeping state. As shown in the last review, this longing is connected with those spiritual activities of the Cosmos which are reflected physically in the appearances of the moon. Man is only subjected to these lunar activities through his being part of this earth. The contemplation of that state in which man finds himself in the purely spiritual world for a certain time before his turning towards earthly life makes it clear that then he is not subjected to the influences of these lunar activities.
[ 3 ] In this state he does not recognize a physical and etheric human organism as belonging to him, as he does in sleep. But he recognizes them in other ways. He sees them as having their foundations in cosmic worlds, as growing out of the spiritual Cosmos. He contemplates a spiritual Cosmos which is the spiritual part of the cell of the physical organism, which at some future time he will put on. When we talk of a cell in this connection we designate something which in one sense is opposed to what we usually term cell. By ‘Cell’ we usually mean the small physical beginning of a growing organism. The spiritual organism on the other hand which man sees in connection with himself in his pre-earthly spiritual state, is large and contracts continually, as it were, to merge finally with the physical part of the cell.
[ 4 ] In order to represent these relationships clearly we have to make use of expressions ‘Large’ and ‘Small’. But we must remember all the time that the happenings of the spiritual world are spiritual and that for them space, in which physical happenings move, is non-existent. The expressions used therefore are only similes for something spiritual, entirely non-spatial, purely qualitative.
[ 5 ] During his pre-earthly existence man lives in the cosmic creation which is the spiritual germ of his future physical organism, and this spiritual stage is regarded as in unity with the whole of the spiritual cosmos and reveals itself at the same time as the cosmic body of the individual human being. Man feels the spiritual cosmos as his own innate powers. His whole existence consists in his experiencing himself in this cosmos. But he does not experience only himself in it. For this cosmic existence does not separate him from the other life of the cosmos, as does later his physical organism. Over against this existence he is in a kind of Intuition. The existence of other spiritual beings is at the same time his own existence.
[ 6 ] Man has his pre-earthly existence in the active recognition of the spirit-cell of his future physical organism. He himself prepares for this organism by working in the spirit world on the spirit-cell together with other spirits in the world of spirits.
As during his existence on earth he perceives through his senses a physical world round him in which he is active, so in his pre-earthly existence he perceives his physical organism being built in spirit; and his activity consists in helping its construction, just as his activity in the physical world consists in helping to shape the physical things of the outer world.
[ 7 ] In the spirit-cell of the physical human body which the psycho-spiritual man experiences in his pre-earthly existence, a whole universe is present, no less manifold than the physical outer world of the senses. Indeed intuitive knowledge may well say that man, incorporated in his physical body, though unknown to himself, carries a universe of such magnificence that the physical world cannot be remotely compared with it.
[ 8 ] This universe it is which man experiences in a spiritual manner in his pre-earthly state, and in which he is active. He experiences it in its growth, its mobility, but filled with spiritual beings.
[ 9 ] He has a consciousness within this world; with the Powers active in the growth of this Universe his own are bound up. His consciousness is filled with the collaboration of these spiritual cosmic powers with his own power. The state of sleep is in a sense a reconstruction of his activity.
But in its course of sleep the physical organism exists as an exclusive form, or system apart from and independent of the psycho-spiritual man. Here contemplation lacks the active powers representing the content of consciousness in the pre-earthly state. Therefore the state remains unconscious.
[ 10 ] In the further course of pre-earthly existence the conscious recognition of the growth of the future earth-organism becomes fainter. It never disappears completely from view, but it fades by degrees. It is as if man felt his own cosmic world get further and further away, as if he was growing out of it. What is at first a complete fusion with the spiritual beings of the cosmos now becomes only a revelation of these beings. One might say that while at one time man had a true ‘intuition’ of the spiritual world, it is now changed into a real ‘inspiration’, in which his nature acts upon man, revealing itself from the outside. [ 11 ] But with this a new phase begins within the psycho-spiritual man which might be identified with the ‘missing’ and the beginning of the ‘longing for the lost’. Expressions like these are used only to describe conditions of the supernatural world in terms of the natural world.
[ 12 ] In such a state of ‘missing’ and ‘longing’ the soul of man passes a later period of its pre-earthly existence. It no longer has consciousness of the full reality of experience of a spiritual world, but only of a revealed reflection thereof, with, as it were, less intensity of being.
[ 13 ] The human soul is now getting ready to experience the spiritual lunar activities, which up to now were beyond its sphere. It thus obtains a being through which it makes itself independent of the other spirit-beings with whom it lived before. One might say that at first its experience was permeated by spirit, and by God, and that later it feels itself as an independent spiritual being; the cosmos is now felt as an outer world, even though the experiencing of this revelation of the Cosmos is still a very intense one during the first phases, and only develops into a fainter one by degrees.
[ 14 ] In this experience man therefore leaves the existence permeated by spirit, and felt as reality, in order to enter one in which he is faced by a revealed spirit-cosmos. The first phase of this experience is the reality of that which later on appears as religious learning to one's perception. The second is the reality of what, if described, will result in a true Cosmology. For here the physical human organism is viewed also in its cosmic cell-form without which it cannot be comprehended.
[ 15 ] In the later phases man loses the capacity of viewing the spirit cosmos, which becomes less clear to the ‘spiritual eye’. On the other hand the experience of the inner soul which is connected with the spiritual lunar activities grows ever more intense. The human soul gets ready to receive from outside that which before she experienced within herself. The spiritual activity that has furthered the growth of the physical organism which man at first experienced consciously, is dropped by the organs of his soul, but it is transferred into the physical activity which reaches its climax in the reproductive development within the existence on earth. The previous experience of the human soul is transferred into this development as its directing force. Now for some time the human soul has its place in the spiritual world, for she no longer takes part in the shaping of the physical human organism.
[ 16 ] In this phase she becomes ripe to satisfy with the etheric cosmos that which in her is ‘missing’ something or ‘longing’ for it. She attracts the cosmic ether. And according to the faculties remaining to her, from her collaboration in the human Universe she forms her etheric organism. Thus man gets used to his etheric organism before his physical organism receives him on earth. [ 17 ] The events belonging to earthly existence and following an accomplished conception, and separated from the course of the last phases of the pre-earthly life of the soul, have brought the growth of the physical organism to physical cell-formation. With this the human soul which meanwhile has taken over her etheric organism, can unite. She can unite with it through the power of continued ‘longing’ and man thus begins his earthly career.
[ 18 ] The experience of the human soul in taking unto itself the etheric organism, the increase in growth, as it were, of this organism out of the world-ether, is an experience foreign to earth, for it is passed through without the physical organism. It has it, however, as its ‘longed-for’ object. That which happens in the experience of the little child is an unconscious memory of this experience. But it is an active memory, an unconscious working of the physical organism which was once the inner world of the soul and now is the outer case of it. The formative creative work which man unconsciously applies to his own organism during its growth is the visible sign of this active memory. What philosophy is searching for, and what she can only achieve as an inner reality by fully conscious imaginative treatment of the child's earliest experience, lies in this active unconscious memory. This explains in some measure the nature of philosophy which sometimes seems nearer and sometimes further away from the world.
VI. Der Übergang vom seelisch-geistigen Dasein in der Menschenentwicklung zum sinnlich-physischen
[ 1 ] Es ist in den vorangehenden Betrachtungen gezeigt worden, wie durch die inspirierte und intuitive Erkenntnis eine Anschauung des ewigen geist-seelischen Wesenskernes im Menschen erlangt werden kann. Dabei ist aufmerksam gemacht worden, wie das menschliche Innenleben von Nachbildungen des kosmischen Geschehens er-füllt wird. Wie der Mensch ein solches kosmisches Innenleben unbewußt während des Schlafes erlebt, das ist in der letzten Betrachtung dargestellt worden. Die menschliche Innenwelt wird zur Außenwelt, und umgekehrt: die geistige Wesenheit der Außenwelt wird zur Innenwelt.
[ 2 ] Während des Schlafzustandes sind der physische und der ätherische Organismus des Menschen eine Außenwelt für die seelisch-geistige Wesenheit. Sie bleiben in der Art vorhanden, wie sie immer wieder im Wachen das Werkzeug des seelisch-geistigenMenschen werden können. In den Schlafzustand nimmt der Mensch den Wunsch nach diesen beiden Organismen mit hinüber. Dieser Wunsch hängt - das wurde in der letzten Betrachtung gezeigt - mit denjenigen geistigen Kräften des Kosmos zusammen, die in den Erscheinungen des Mondes ihr sinnenfälliges Abbild haben. Diesen Mondenkräften ist der Mensch nur durch seinen Zusammenhang mit dem Erden-wesen unterworfen. Es ergibt die Anschauung desjenigen Zustandes, in dem sich der Mensch in der rein geistigen Welt eine gewisse Zeit vor seiner Hinwendung zum Erdenleben befindet, daß er da den Einflüssen dieser Mondenkräfte nicht unterworfen ist.
[ 3 ] In diesem Zustande erlebt er nicht einen physischen und ätherischen Menschenorganismus als zu ihm gehörig, wie das im Schlafzustande der Fall ist. Aber er erlebt doch in ganz anderer Art diese Organismen. Er erlebt in den kosmischen Welten ihre Grundlagen. Er erlebt das Werden dieser Organismen aus dem geistigen Kosmos heraus. Er schaut einen geistigen Kosmos an. Dieser geistige Kosmos ist der geistige Teil des Keimes des physischen Erdenorganismus, den er künftig tragen wird. Wenn man in diesem Zusammenhange von «Keim» spricht, so wird damit etwas bezeichnet, das in einer gewissen Beziehung sich entgegengesetzt zu dem verhält, das im physischen Weltzusammenhange so genannt wird. Da ist der «Keim» der kleine physische Anfang eines sich vergrößernden Gebildes. Das geistige Kraftgebilde, das der Mensch in seinem vorirdischen geistigen Dasein im Zusammenhange mit seinem Wesen erschaut, ist groß und zieht sich immer mehr zusammen, um zuletzt mit dem physischen Keimteil zu verwachsen.
[ 4 ] Man muß sich zur Darstellung dieser Verhältnisse der Ausdrücke «groß» und «klein» bedienen. Aber es muß dabei berücksichtigt werden, daß das Erleben in der geistigen Welt ein geistiges ist, und daß für dasselbe der Raum, in dem das physische Geschehen vor sich geht, nicht vorhanden ist. Die verwendeten Ausdrücke sind also eigentlich nur Verbildlichungen dessen, was geistig, rein qualitativ, unräumlich, erlebt wird.
[ 5 ] Im Erleben des kosmischen Gebildes, welches der geistige Keim seines künftigen physischen Organismus ist, ist der Mensch während des vorirdischen Daseins. Und dieses geistige Gebilde wird als eine Einheit mit dem ganzen geistigen Kosmos anschauend erlebt und offenbart sich zugleich als der kosmische Leib des eigenen Menschenwesens. Der Mensch fühlt den geistigen Kosmos als die Kräfte seines eigenen Wesens. Sein ganzes Dasein besteht darinnen, daß er sich in diesem Kosmos erlebt. Aber er erlebt nicht nur sich. Denn es trennt ihn dieses kosmische Dasein nicht wie später sein physischer Organismus von dem anderen Leben des Kosmos ab. Er ist diesem Leben gegenüber in einer Art Intuition. Das Leben anderer geistiger Wesen ist zugleich sein Leben.
[ 6 ] In dem tätigen Erleben des Geist-Keimes seines künftigen physischen Organismus hat der Mensch sein vor-irdisches Dasein. Er bereitet selbst diesen Organismus vor, indem er in der geistigen Welt mit anderen Geistwesen an dem Geist-Keim wirkt. Wie er während des Erdendaseins durch seine Sinne eine physische Umwelt vor sich hat und in dieser tätig ist, so hat er im vorirdischen Dasein seinen im Geiste sich erbildenden physischen Organismus vor sich; und seine Tätigkeit besteht in der Teilnahme an dessen Gestaltung, wie seine Tätigkeit in der physischen Welt in der Teilnahme an der Gestaltung der physischen Dinge in der Außenwelt besteht.
[ 7 ] In dem Geist-Keim des physischen Menschenleibes, welchen der geistig-seelische Mensch in seinem vorirdischen Dasein anschauend erlebt, ist ein wahres Universum vorhanden, nicht minder mannigfaltig und vielgestaltig in sich, als die physische Umwelt der Sinne ist. Ja, die intuitive Erkenntnis darf sagen, daß dasjenige, was der Mensch , in dem physischen Menschenkörper zusammengezogen, als ihm unbewußte Welt an sich hat, ein solches Universum ist, mit dem sich an Großartigkeit die physische Welt gar nicht im entferntesten messen kann.
[ 8 ] Und dieses Universum erlebt auf geistige Art der Mensch in seinem vorirdischen Zustande, und er wirkt an ihm. Er erlebt es in seinem Werden, seiner Beweglichkeit, aber erfüllt von geistigen Wesenheiten.
[ 9 ] Er hat innerhalb dieser Welt ein Bewußtsein. Mit den tätigen Kräften, die im Werden dieses Universums sich auswirken, sind seine eigenen verbunden. Die Zusammenarbeit der geistigen Kosmoskräfte mit seinen eigenen erfüllt sein Bewußtsein. Der Schlafzustand ist in einem gewissen Sinne eine Nachbildung dieser Betätigung. Aber dieser verläuft so, daß der physische Organismus als ein abgeschlossenes Gebilde außer dem seelisch-geistigen Menschen vorhanden ist. Die sich betätigenden Kräfte, die im vorirdischen Dasein den Inhalt des Bewußtseins bilden, fehlen der Anschauung. Deswegen verläuft der Zustand unbewußt.
[ 10 ] Im weiteren Verlaufe des vorirdischen Daseins wird das bewußte Mit-Erleben am Werden des zukünftigen Erden-Organismus immer dumpfer. Es schwindet für die Anschauung nicht völlig dahin; aber es dämmert ab. Es ist, als ob der Mensch seine eigene kosmische Innenwelt immer mehr sich entfremdet fühlte. Er lebt sich aus dieser Welt heraus. Was erst ein völliges Mit-Erleben mit den geistigen Wesenheiten des Kosmos war, stellt sich nunmehr nur als eine Offenbarung dieser Wesen dar. Man kann sagen, vorher hatte der Mensch eine erlebte Intuition der Geisteswelt; jetzt verwandelt sich diese in eine erlebte Inspiration, bei der das Wesen von außerhalb auf den Menschen, sich offenbarend, wirkt.
[ 11 ] Damit aber tritt im Innern des geistig-seelischen Menschen ein Erleben auf, das sich mit dem «Entbehren» und der Entstehung der «Begierde nach dem Verlorenen» bezeichnen läßt. Wenn man solche Ausdrücke gebraucht, so ist es, um durch ähnliche Verhältnisse des physischen Erlebens das übersinnliche zu verbildlichen.
[ 12 ] In einem solchen «Entbehren» und «Begehren» lebt die Menschenseele in einer späteren Zeit ihres vorirdischen Daseins. Sie hat eine geistige Welt nicht mehr in der vollen Realität des Mit-Erlebens, sondern als geoffenbarten Abglanz, gewissermaßen mit geringerer Intensität des Daseins im Bewußtsein.
[ 13 ] Die Menschenseele wird jetzt reif zum Mit-Erleben der geistigen Mondenkräfte, die vorher außerhalb ihres Daseinsbereiches waren. Sie erhält dadurch ein Sein, durch das sie sich als selbständig absondert von den andern Geistwesen, mit denen sie vorher gelebt hat. Man kann sagen: vorher war ihr Erleben geistdurchdrungen, gott-durchdrungen; nachher wird ein eigenes, seelisches Wesen gefühlt; und der Kosmos wird als eine Außenwelt empfunden, wenn auch das Mit-Erleben mit dieser Offenbarung des Kosmos noch immer ein sehr intensives ist in den Anfangsstadien und sich erst allmählich als ein dumpferes herausbildet.
[ 14 ] In diesem Erleben tritt also der Mensch aus dem als Wirklichkeit empfundenen, geistdurchtränkten Dasein in ein solches, in dem ihm ein geoffenbarter Geist-Kosmos gegenübersteht. Das erste Stadium des Erlebens ist die Realität desjenigen, was später im Erdendasein als religiöse Seelenanlage für Vorstellung und Empfindung erscheint. Das zweite ist die Realität dessen, was, wenn es beschrieben wird, eine wahre Kosmologie ergibt. Denn es wird da die physische Menschenorganisation auch in ihrer kosmischen Keimanlage angeschaut, ohne die sie nicht verständlich sein kann.
[ 15 ] In der Folgezeit verliert der Mensch die Anschauung des Geist-Kosmos. Dieser verdunkelt sich vor dem «Geistesauge». Das Erleben des seelischen Inneren, das im Zusammenhange steht mit den geistigen Mondenkräften, wird dafür immer intensiver. Und die Menschenseele wird reif, dasjenige von außen zu empfangen, was sie vorher im Innern erlebt hat. Die geistige Tätigkeit am Werden des physischen Organismus, die vorher der Mensch bewußt miterlebt hat, entfällt seinen Seelenorganen; sie geht über an die physische Tätigkeit, die sich in der Fortpflanzungsentwickelung innerhalb des Erdendaseins vollzieht. Das von der Menschenseele vorher Miterlebte geht über auf diese Fortpflanzungsentwickelung, um in derselben als dirigierende Kräfte zu wirken. Die Menschenseele hat jetzt für einige Zeit in der geistigen Welt ein Dasein, in dem sie an der Bildung des physischen Menschenorganismus nicht mehr einen Anteil hat.
[ 16 ] In diesem Stadium wird sie reif, dasjenige, was in ihr «Entbehren» und «Begehren» ist, an dem Atherischen des Kosmos zu befriedigen. Sie zieht den kosmischen Ather an sich heran. Und sie bildet im Sinne der Anlagen, die ihr aus dem Mitarbeiten an dem menschlichen Universum geblieben sind, ihren ätherischen Organismus. So lebt sich der Mensch in seinen ätherischen Organismus hinein, bevor ihn im Erdendasein sein physischer Organismus empfängt.
[ 17 ] Die im Bereich des Erdendaseins in der Folge der vollzogenen Empfängnis auftretenden Vorgänge haben, abgesondert von dem Verlauf der letzten Stadien des vorirdischen Lebens der Menschenseele, die Bildung des physischen Organismus bis zu der physischen Keimanlage gebracht. Mit dieser kann sich die Menschenseele, die mittlerweile sich ihren ätherischen Organismus eingegliedert hat, vereinigen. Sie vereinigt sich mit derselben durch die Kraft des fortwirkenden «Begehrens»; und der Mensch tritt sein physisches Erdendasein an.
[ 18] Das Erleben der Menschenseele bei ihrer Eingliederung des ätherischen Organismus in sich, gewissermaßen des Zuwachsens dieses Organismus aus dem Weltenäther, ist ein erdfremdes Erleben; denn es wird ohne den physischen Organismus durchgemacht. Es hat aber diesen zum «begehrten» Objekt. Dasjenige, was im Erleben des ganz kleinen Kindes auftritt, ist eine unbewußte Erinnerung an dieses Erleben. Es ist aber eine tätige Erinnerung, ein unbewußtes Arbeiten an dem physischen Organismus, der vorher seelische Innenwelt war und der jetzt als ein äußerer der Menschenseele gegeben ist. Die bildende Tätigkeit, welche der Mensch unbewußt an seinem eigenen Organismus in dessen Wachstum vollzieht, ist die Erscheinung dieser tätigen Erinnerung. Was die Philosophie sucht und was sie nur durch ein vollbewußtes Imaginieren des ersten Kindheitserlebens als eine innere Realität haben kann, das liegt in dieser tätigen, unbewußten Erinnerung. Damit hängt das weltfremde und doch. wieder der Welt geneigte Wesen des Philosophierens zusammen.
VI The transition from the soul-spiritual existence in human development to the sensual-physical
[ 1 ] It has been shown in the preceding observations how a view of the eternal spiritual-soul essence in man can be attained through inspired and intuitive cognition. Attention has been drawn to how the human inner life is filled with replicas of cosmic events. How the human being experiences such a cosmic inner life unconsciously during sleep has been described in the last observation. The human inner world becomes the outer world, and vice versa: the spiritual essence of the outer world becomes the inner world.
[ 2 ] During the state of sleep, the physical and the etheric organism of the human being are an outer world for the soul-spiritual entity. They remain present in such a way that they can become the tool of the soul-spiritual human being again and again while awake. The human being takes the desire for these two organisms with him into the sleeping state. This desire is connected - as was shown in the last observation - with those spiritual forces of the cosmos that have their sensory image in the phenomena of the moon. Man is only subject to these lunar forces through his connection with the earth being. The observation of the state in which man finds himself in the purely spiritual world a certain time before he turns to earthly life shows that he is not subject to the influences of these lunar forces.
[ 3 ] In this state he does not experience a physical and etheric human organism as belonging to him, as is the case in the state of sleep. But he experiences these organisms in a completely different way. He experiences their foundations in the cosmic worlds. He experiences the development of these organisms out of the spiritual cosmos. He looks at a spiritual cosmos. This spiritual cosmos is the spiritual part of the germ of the physical earth organism, which it will carry in the future. When we speak of "germ" in this context, we are referring to something that in a certain respect is the opposite of what is so called in the physical world context. There the "germ" is the small physical beginning of an enlarging entity. The spiritual structure of power, which man sees in his pre-earthly spiritual existence in connection with his being, is large and contracts more and more in order to finally grow together with the physical germ part.
[ 4 ] The terms "large" and "small" must be used to describe these relationships. But it must be taken into account that the experience in the spiritual world is a spiritual one, and that the space in which the physical event takes place does not exist for it. The expressions used are therefore actually only visualizations of what is experienced spiritually, purely qualitatively, non-spatially.
[ 5 ] In the experience of the cosmic entity, which is the spiritual germ of his future physical organism, man is during the pre-earthly existence. And this spiritual entity is experienced as a unity with the entire spiritual cosmos and at the same time reveals itself as the cosmic body of its own human being. The human being feels the spiritual cosmos as the forces of his own being. His whole existence consists in the fact that he experiences himself in this cosmos. But he does not experience only himself. For this cosmic existence does not separate him from the other life of the cosmos as his physical organism does later. He is in a kind of intuition towards this life. The life of other spiritual beings is at the same time his life.
[ 6 ] In the active experience of the spirit-germ of his future physical organism, man has his pre-earthly existence. He himself prepares this organism by working on the spirit-germ in the spiritual world with other spirit beings. Just as he has a physical environment before him through his senses during his earthly existence and is active in it, so he has his physical organism forming in the spirit before him in his pre-earthly existence; and his activity consists in participating in its formation, just as his activity in the physical world consists in participating in the formation of physical things in the outer world.
[ 7 ] In the spirit-germ of the physical human body, which the spiritual-soul man experiences contemplatively in his pre-earthly existence, a true universe is present, no less manifold and diverse in itself than the physical environment of the senses is. Indeed, intuitive knowledge may say that what the human being, gathered together in the physical human body, has as his unconscious world is such a universe with which the physical world cannot even remotely compare in magnificence.
[ 8 ] And this universe is experienced spiritually by man in his pre-earthly state, and he works on it. He experiences it in its becoming, its mobility, but filled with spiritual beings.
[ 9 ] He has a consciousness within this world. His own are connected with the active forces that are at work in the becoming of this universe. The cooperation of the spiritual cosmic forces with his own fills his consciousness. The state of sleep is in a certain sense a reproduction of this activity. But it proceeds in such a way that the physical organism exists as a self-contained entity apart from the soul-spiritual man. The active forces, which form the content of consciousness in the pre-earthly existence, are absent from perception. That is why the state is unconscious.
[ 10 ] In the further course of the pre-earthly existence the conscious co-experience of the becoming of the future earth organism becomes duller and duller. It does not disappear completely from view, but it dims. It is as if man felt his own cosmic inner world becoming more and more alienated. He lives himself out of this world. What was first a complete co-experience with the spiritual beings of the cosmos now presents itself only as a revelation of these beings. One can say that man previously had an experienced intuition of the spiritual world; now this is transformed into an experienced inspiration in which the being from outside acts on man, revealing itself.
[ 11 ] With this, however, an experience arises within the spiritual-soul man that can be described as the "lack of desire" and the emergence of the "desire for what is lost". If such expressions are used, it is in order to visualize the supersensible through similar relationships of physical experience.
[ 12 ] The human soul lives in such "deprivation" and "desire" in a later time of its pre-earthly existence. It no longer has a spiritual world in the full reality of co-experience, but as a revealed reflection, so to speak with a lesser intensity of existence in consciousness.
[ 13 ] The human soul now becomes ripe to co-experience the spiritual powers of the moon, which were previously outside its realm of existence. It thereby receives a being through which it separates itself as independent from the other spirit beings with which it previously lived. One can say: before, its experience was spirit-permeated, God-permeated; afterwards, a separate, spiritual being is felt; and the cosmos is perceived as an external world, even if the co-experience with this revelation of the cosmos is still a very intense one in the initial stages and only gradually develops into a duller one.
[ 14 ] In this experience, therefore, the human being emerges from the spirit-saturated existence perceived as reality into one in which a revealed spirit-cosmos confronts him. The first stage of experience is the reality of that which later appears in earthly existence as a religious soul disposition for imagination and sensation. The second is the reality of that which, when described, results in a true cosmology. This is because the physical human organization is also seen in its cosmic nucleus, without which it cannot be understood.
[ 15 ] In the following period, man loses the view of the spirit cosmos. This darkens before the "mind's eye". The experience of the inner soul, which is connected with the spiritual moon forces, becomes more and more intense. And the human soul becomes ripe to receive from outside that which it has previously experienced within. The spiritual activity in the development of the physical organism, which the human being previously experienced consciously, is no longer part of his soul organs; it passes over to the physical activity that takes place in the reproductive development within the earthly existence. That which the human soul has previously experienced passes over to this reproductive development in order to work in it as directing forces. The human soul now has an existence for some time in the spiritual world in which it no longer has a part in the formation of the physical human organism.
[ 16 ] In this stage, it becomes ripe to satisfy that which is in it "deprivation" and "desire" with the etheric of the cosmos. It draws the cosmic ether to itself. And it forms its etheric organism in the sense of the dispositions that have remained from its cooperation with the human universe. Thus the human being lives into his etheric organism before his physical organism receives him in earthly existence.
[ 17 ] The processes occurring in the realm of earthly existence as a result of the completed conception have, separately from the course of the last stages of the pre-earthly life of the human soul, brought the formation of the physical organism up to the physical germinal unit. The human soul, which in the meantime has incorporated its etheric organism, can unite with it. It unites with it through the power of the continuing "desire"; and the human being begins his physical earthly existence.
[ 18] The experience of the human soul during its incorporation of the etheric organism into itself, so to speak the growth of this organism from the world ether, is a non-earthly experience; for it is experienced without the physical organism. But it has this as its "desired" object. That which occurs in the experience of the very small child is an unconscious memory of this experience. But it is an active memory, an unconscious working on the physical organism, which was previously the soul's inner world and which is now given to the human soul as an outer one. The formative activity which man unconsciously carries out on his own organism in its growth is the manifestation of this active memory. What philosophy seeks and what it can only have as an inner reality through a fully conscious imagining of the first childhood experience lies in this active, unconscious memory. The unworldly nature of philosophizing, which is nevertheless again inclined towards the world, is related to this.