Aug 8, 2026 · 36 min · 13 segments
Our attention has been called to the fact that to human beings at a certain stage of evolution, the external phenomena of warmth, air, water, etc., become living and permeated with spirit.
And it has been said that this stage may be designated as that of, quote, penetration into the world of spirits of the elements, close quote.
I would ask those who have been students of spiritual science for some time to note the words carefully and to realize they are used not in an approximate but in an exact sense.
Spirits of the elements was the expression I used and not elementary spirits.
It must be pointed out that when we ascend into supersensible realms, other worlds, two of which shall be named, are added to the ordinary world which is experienced by means of the sense organs.
They are to be found behind what is perceptible by the senses and comprehensible to the intellect.
There are certain striking characteristics which give an idea of the difference between our world and the two higher ones adjoining it.
The first region, hidden behind our ordinary world, is named, as everyone knows, the astral or soul world.
The other, the spiritual world, is still more deeply hidden.
In the physical world one of the most comprehensive laws is that of growth and decay, of coming into being and passing away.
Look where we will in the physical world, we find that a characteristic of its highest beings is that they are born and that they die within it.
The inanimate kingdom of the minerals belonging to the lower realms of nature may arouse an illusion of permanence within the physical world, but if the mineral kingdom be observed over long periods of time, the law of growth and decay is found there.
Observation of the astral world, however, reveals the fact that here the capacity of transformation or metamorphosis is as predominant as is the law of birth and decay in the physical world.
In the astral world we have to do with moving images changing one into the other, in a state of perpetual metamorphosis.
Even the astral body of man, which of all astral phenomena is the most intimately bound up with us, visible to the seer as a kind of aura or cloud-like formation around the physical body, shares this characteristic of continual transformation.
That which envelops and penetrates the human being in the form of an astral auric cloud changes practically every moment as higher or lower impulses develop in him, as he experiences wilder or calmer passions, or cultivates thoughts of different nature according to the character of the will impulses.
Images and shapes arise in the astral auric cloud, and as different thoughts rise and fade away, its color and form may continually change.
There is, however, a certain fundamental character and color in the astral aura of every individual, corresponding to his more or less permanent type of character.
Self-metamorphosis, then, is of the very nature of the human astral body.
We have seen that the beings visible to a man in the astral world, after he has reached the stage of illumination, meet him as good or as evil beings, according to his own preparation.
So strong is the capacity of metamorphosis in those beings which are invisible on the physical plane, and only perceptible in the astral and higher worlds, that they may change from good into evil, from light into dark.
In the real spiritual world there is permanence, even if it is relative.
For this reason the inner being of man, if it is to exist without a break from one incarnation to another, must pass through the spiritual worlds, because only there is to be found a certain, not external, but relative permanence or continuity.
The rhythm of growth and decay is the predominant characteristic of the physical world, metamorphosis from one form to another of the astral world, permanence or continuity of the spiritual world.
Our attention has been called to the fact that to human beings at a certain stage of evolution, the external phenomena of warmth, air, water, etc., become living and permeated with spirit.
And it has been said that this stage may be designated as that of, quote, penetration into the world of spirits of the elements, close quote.
I would ask those who have been students of spiritual science for some time to note the words carefully and to realize they are used not in an approximate but in an exact sense.
Spirits of the elements was the expression I used and not elementary spirits.
It must be pointed out that when we ascend into supersensible realms, other worlds, two of which shall be named, are added to the ordinary world which is experienced by means of the sense organs.
They are to be found behind what is perceptible by the senses and comprehensible to the intellect.
There are certain striking characteristics which give an idea of the difference between our world and the two higher ones adjoining it.
The first region, hidden behind our ordinary world, is named, as everyone knows, the astral or soul world.
The other, the spiritual world, is still more deeply hidden.
In the physical world one of the most comprehensive laws is that of growth and decay, of coming into being and passing away.
Look where we will in the physical world, we find that a characteristic of its highest beings is that they are born and that they die within it.
The inanimate kingdom of the minerals belonging to the lower realms of nature may arouse an illusion of permanence within the physical world, but if the mineral kingdom be observed over long periods of time, the law of growth and decay is found there.
Observation of the astral world, however, reveals the fact that here the capacity of transformation or metamorphosis is as predominant as is the law of birth and decay in the physical world.
In the astral world we have to do with moving images changing one into the other, in a state of perpetual metamorphosis.
Even the astral body of man, which of all astral phenomena is the most intimately bound up with us, visible to the seer as a kind of aura or cloud-like formation around the physical body, shares this characteristic of continual transformation.
That which envelops and penetrates the human being in the form of an astral auric cloud changes practically every moment as higher or lower impulses develop in him, as he experiences wilder or calmer passions, or cultivates thoughts of different nature according to the character of the will impulses.
Images and shapes arise in the astral auric cloud, and as different thoughts rise and fade away, its color and form may continually change.
There is, however, a certain fundamental character and color in the astral aura of every individual, corresponding to his more or less permanent type of character.
Self-metamorphosis, then, is of the very nature of the human astral body.
We have seen that the beings visible to a man in the astral world, after he has reached the stage of illumination, meet him as good or as evil beings, according to his own preparation.
So strong is the capacity of metamorphosis in those beings which are invisible on the physical plane, and only perceptible in the astral and higher worlds, that they may change from good into evil, from light into dark.
In the real spiritual world there is permanence, even if it is relative.
For this reason the inner being of man, if it is to exist without a break from one incarnation to another, must pass through the spiritual worlds, because only there is to be found a certain, not external, but relative permanence or continuity.
The rhythm of growth and decay is the predominant characteristic of the physical world, metamorphosis from one form to another of the astral world, permanence or continuity of the spiritual world.
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