Rudolf Steiner: Theosophy

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The present excerpt from Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos includes parts of chapter 1, “The Constitution of the Human Being,” and chapter 2, “Re-embodiment of the Spirit and Destiny.” The term Theosophy is a compound of the Greek words theos (God) and sophia (wisdom), standing for “divine wisdom.” Steiner argues that because of the prevailing materialist conceptions of existence at the turn of the century, people are blind to their spiritual dimension and consider only the physical world of sensory perceptions. In the text, Steiner describes the threefold nature of human beings as body, soul, and spirit, which allows them to go beyond sensory impressions and discover the deeper and truer layers of experience. Steiner also recognizes the eternal nature of the spirit, thus introducing a Christian path to reincarnation that diverges from Eastern models. In the thirty-third chapter of his autobiography, Steiner states that his goal in writing Theosophy was to stimulate understanding in his readers through descriptions drawn from supersensory realms but using language taken from the world of sense perception and intellect.

Chapter 1: “The Constitution of the Human Being”

In the first chapter Steiner argues that human beings have three means by which they experience the outside world. The body allows them to enter into sensory and physical contact with the external features of the objects that they perceive, like flowers and their colors. The soul allows the human to link perceived objects to one’s own being and express the feelings that they provoke. For example, looking at flowers, one will have certain reactions of pleasure, making them one’s own. Through the spirit, the human being discovers the inherent and eternal qualities of the surrounding world. In experiencing something repeatedly, the spirit allows humans to detect timeless characteristics and thus the laws and true being of what surrounds them.

The whole being of a person is revealed only when these three aspects are taken into account, because through each aspect, one is connected to the rest of the world in a different way. Through sensory perceptions, one is able to observe objects from without and gain an understanding of bodily existence. But the feelings that such objects stimulate represent the region of the soul; they cannot be understood through the senses and are not directly accessible to others. Through the soul, one creates one’s own private world and establishes a bridge between the body and the spirit. The spirit connects with the surrounding world on a higher plane, revealing what is significant in it not merely for one’s subjectivity but more universally for the world itself. Citing the observation of “the starry heavens” as an example, Steiner writes that while the delight experienced by virtue of the soul belongs to the human being, the eternal laws of the stars apprehended through the spirit belong to the stars themselves.

Chapter 2: “Re-embodiment of the Spirit and Destiny”

The second chapter starts by considering the intermediary position of the soul, between body and spirit. The body sends to the soul impressions that are temporary and which require the activation of a sensory organ by the presence of an object. But the soul passes to the spirit the emotional reactions to sensory perceptions and thus preserves the present for remembrance, conferring timelessness upon it. What the soul retains after the initial impression becomes the conception that one has of the object. One does not need to see a red rose constantly to have an idea of it, because the soul reworks the outer world into its inner world and stores its remembrance. Steiner defines the soul as “the faithful preserver of the past” and argues that it is thanks to the soul that past external impressions are remembered. The spirit, in turn, filters these remembrances of the past, extracting what can effectively enrich human abilities and human life. Steiner takes as an example the process of acquiring reading and writing skills in childhood. One obviously cannot remember all the experiences one has had while learning but will remember “their fruits … in the form of abilities.”

Steiner then broadens his argument to consider the spirit and soul beyond the period “between birth and death.” In this section, the author introduces his own vision of reincarnation and karma. According to Steiner, physical matter and forces cannot account for the human form in its entirety, because the human form is passed on by propagation. While physical materials and forces constitute the body during life, it is the forces of propagation that enable the inheritance of the form by another body. Steiner calls this second body “the bearer of the same life-body” and defines it as “a repetition of its forefathers.” The spirit of a person, too, appears to be the result of this process of propagation. The differences of human beings in their spiritual dimension cannot arise only from the differences in their environment and upbringing, because people who are reared in the same environment or receive the same upbringing develop in different ways. Steiner therefore concludes that humans’ spirits enter their path of life with different attitudes. These differences in nature are what make each human being unique, a fact that becomes apparent when one looks at the different life stories that exist because of these differences. “In regard to spiritual things,” Steiner concludes, “each man is a species by himself.”

Just as the physical outlook of a person can be understood with reference to physical heredity, so can the spiritual dimension be understood with reference to what Steiner calls spiritual heredity. Yet this is not a mechanical or deterministic process, and it would be wrong to assume that the spiritual heritage of a given person comes from his family members. On the contrary, Steiner explains that a human being’s spiritual dimension is the result of one’s development of the predispositions with which one enters life. Such work begins before birth, and, in spiritual terms, each man or woman is “the repetition of one through whose biography [his or hers] can be explained.” The process of reincarnation (“re-embodiment”) of the spiritual human being does not concern external physical facts but occurs in the supersensory realm, where none of the human faculties can be applied except for thought. With this conceptual development, Steiner rescues his argument from irrationality, pointing out that thinking can shed light on higher spiritual facts. Still, one should not approach spiritual matters with the eyes, seeking material evidence as a natural scientist would. This is the attitude that Steiner finds predominant in his era and that he calls a “materialistic spell” preventing the human being from considering the relationships between different phenomena in a true light. The reembodiment of the spirit shows the importance of the soul beyond physical death.

Because the soul acts as a mediator between the body and the spirit, the latter is able to recognize when a particular experience has occurred and decide what attitude to adopt. This produces learning; so the spirit confers eternity to the results of transitory experience. These resulting attitudes and conceptions remain as the heritage of the spirit, which brings them within itself in its next reembodiment. Again, Steiner rejects a purely automatic model of transmission that would exclude human agency by arguing that the spirit acquires this heritage “by work.” He also adds that a human’s “deeds” are extremely important for this spiritual heritage, as the effects of yesterday’s actions are present in today’s being and will be relevant for a person’s fate. To exemplify his theory, Steiner draws a parallel between sleep and death. Just as a person waking up in the morning brings along into the new day all of one’s previous experiences in life, so does the human spirit begin earthly life with the eternal fruits of previous lives. The spirit holds throughout eternity the conceptions that the soul has elaborated from the sensations provoked by bodily organs. Therefore, the physical world that the spirit enters is not completely foreign ground, as the spirit encounters again the same situations that it has already encountered in previous lives.

The last part of the document introduces the concept of fate created by a person through actions—karma. The human spirit decides its fate through its actions, because the results of its actions remain in its heritage and link its present life with its former one. The destiny of the present life is inscribed in the spirit’s previous incarnations and past actions. Steiner emphasizes the influence of past actions in human fate and calls this destiny “self-created” because it is dependent on the conceptions that the soul has elaborated from sensory experiences. In conclusion, the text summarizes the threefold nature of the human being, stressing that the spirit is eternal and subject to the laws of reincarnation, while the body is subject to the laws of heredity. The soul links spirit and body during earthly life.