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Adriana
Koulias Human
beings have always had a presentiment that they carry within themselves
another being. Myths and legends tell of the monster that must be
conquered if the human being is to progress. The Persian saw him as the
hairy rough living Enkindu companion of
Gilgamesh, the Greeks saw him as the Minotaur that had to be overcome
by Theseus, the Grimm brothers portray him
as Rumplestiltskin the clever little man
that eventually drives his leg into the earth and tears himself in two
when the girl solves the riddle of his name. Once
again this being was portrayed by Hermann Hess in his book Stepenwolf and by Dostoyevsky in his poem ‘the
Double’. The enigmatic creature that feeds off the blood of human
beings could even be the vampire of old legends. A parasite that hates
the light of day and only lives in darkness. The Werewolf is another
example as is the tale of Frankenstein. Most recently we see him in the
creature Gollum of the Lord of the Rings. Tonight
we will explore the double according to Rudolf Steiner and his
knowledge of the human being as a triune of members. Lets
remember what we have been saying about the human being. Rudolf
Steiner has told us that the human being is made up of three physical
members, three soul members, an ego and one day will develop three
spiritual members. Tonight
we will concentrate particularly on the body and the soul. The
physical members are: §
§
§
The
soul members are: §
Sentient soul - Feeling §
Intellectual soul -Thinking §
Consciousness soul - Willing The human being is not so
insular as he may imagine. In every breath, in every perception, in
every intake of food, in every sensation, thought and act of will human
beings are accompanied by beings of a spiritual nature.[1]
Luciferic beings and Ahrimanic beings
(retarded beings of opposition) enter into the human soul during
evolution, and it is a fact that they live side by side with elemental
beings or nature spirits and also higher (progressive) spiritual beings
in our Physical, Etheric and Astral
bodies. We have heard in past lectures
how Lucifer entered into the human being through his nerves and senses
that is, into his Astral body during Lemurian
times. This made it possible for Ahriman who exists around us in the
material world to enter into man through his senses. Ahriman longs to
reside in the Etheric body for it is in
the Etheric body, in the body of formative
forces, the life body where resides memory that he finds it most
suitable for his development. Along with
these beings there are elemental nature spirits that enter man through
his food, enchanted in the minerals and vitamins that he ingests.
Through his eyes man also takes in these elemental beings that live in
the Etheric element of the Earth, through
his sense of smell and all his other senses taste touch etc. These
beings have no ego and must rely on man in order to progress. A man of
moral character disenchants these beings and allows them to progress
further in their evolution. A man who is not moral traps
them inside himself and they become prey to Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings. There is however another being
that enters man just before he is born. This forms a part of what
Rudolf Steiner calls ‘the Double’. When man is born he cannot at
first penetrate all the way down into his Etheric
and physical body with his ego and his soul members. That is he remains
unconscious to the physical part of human existence. Into these the
human being does not dive down. We see this in the biblical tale of the
fall when the tree of life (Etheric body)
is denied man when he eats from the Tree of Knowledge. This happened
for our own good, because knowledge concerning these processes was not
only dangerous - man would have been able to manipulate his physical
body that is right down into his bones as well as his blood etc – but
also would have taken his focus away from developing his ego
consciousness. Just think how little you can concentrate when you have
pain, or when you are ill. At these times you cannot use your higher
faculties because your physical processes are overpowering them. We
must not be able to sense every process of digestion, every impulse
from our brains to our muscles. This would be extremely distracting and
occurs only during illness. It was therefore necessary for
human beings to forget this knowledge and unconsciousness of it
resulted. Rudolf Steiner tells us that
wherever there occurs unconsciousness this creates opportunities for
spiritual beings to enter into man. Therefore the fact that man is
unconscious into his physical nature creates an opportunity for
spiritual beings to enter into the void left by the soul and spirit. It
is into this space that a being enters a short time before we are born
who takes possession of those unconscious physical processes. This being Rudolf Steiner tells
us falls into the category of an Ahrimanic
being. A being that is connected with the great being of opposition
Ahriman whose realm is matter, the earth and the fallen ethers. This double being under the
service of Ahriman continues to live within us during our life
predominantly in our Etheric body in the
same way that our spirit lives predominantly within our soul. Why do they enter man? These beings are Ahrimanic in character and so they are retarded
beings that serve the beings that fell behind during the old Sun
evolution of the earth. Ahrimanic beings
that could not pass through their human stage at this time had to
undergo their development at another time not suitable to their
existence – on a Physical earth. Having no physical bodies with which
to undergo their development they had to take up residence in the
physical body of human beings if they were not to suffer greatly. Their particular sphere of
action is the Etheric body. In the Etheric
body lies our potential for memory and therefore our Intellect. In it
also there lies the power of love and the beginnings of what will one
day be true conscience. It is not then difficult to see why these
beings are attracted to this sphere as they have an extremely high
Mephistophelian intelligence, but it is an Ahrimanic
intelligence that has no warmth of heart and no conscience. In the Etheric body lies our temperaments and we can
see the connection here with these beings that are possessed of a
strong will akin to the nature of the elements. What does this mean? This means that these beings are
connected with the fallen ethers that had once undergone a generation
and now are degenerating that is, what once existed in the outer world
of the elements, lightning, thunder, fire cyclonic winds, raging seas –
results of the effects of Light ether, Chemical ether and Life ether,
now exists in a fallen state in the earth as the forces of electricity,
magnetism and the power of the Atom.
This drawing by Rudolf Steiner
gives us an idea of the Double. Note the seven charkas related to the Etheric body or what the Eastern peoples call
Chi. His ray like form, the two horns and the mesmerised eyes –
degenerated Light ether or Electricity. The great ears symbolising the
degenerated Sound ether or magnetism. And the degenerated Life ether
that is symbolised by the wings. His strength comes from a crack in the
earth. Man sitting on the mountain of objectivity looks at this double
across the abyss or threshold of the spiritual world and sends out
beneficent rays to transform the double. There is one thing these beings
cannot tolerate. Death. They must leave the human body before it dies.
They can’t accompany the human spirit after death. They must wait for
that being’s next incarnation so that they can slip into that body once
again. They do have one delusion though
and this is that they will one day be able to remain in human bodies
after death. This is in fact the object of
various black brotherhoods that initiate their members into an Ahrimanic immortality by taking the materialism
only appropriate to the thinking process all the way down to the Etheric body. This makes the Etheric body dense so that it does not
disintegrate into the world ether after death. This dense Etheric body is the perfect vehicle for these
beings. However they have not been able to
achieve this in any great number so far because of one momentous event.
The mystery of Having said this we must not
think this being is not necessary for human development. He is. All
hindrances make a person stronger. And it is this very hindrance that
makes memory possible. For it is this double that carries with him the
memory of all that we have made of ourselves from life to life. Without
these beings man would have no memory of all the he experienced
consciously and unconsciously when he passed through the gate of death
or during initiation. At a certain point in our
development we become capable of reaching the threshold of the sense
world and the spiritual worlds. At this time man comes across this
being which Rudolf describes in many books as the lesser guardian of
the threshold. ‘…There arises the phenomenon
known as the Guardian of the Threshold — the appearance of the lower
double of man. The spiritual being of man, composed of his impulses
of will, his desires and his thoughts, appears to the Initiate in
visible form. It is a form that is sometimes repugnant and terrible,
for it is the offspring of his good and bad desires and of his karma
— it is their personification in the astral world…’[2] This being bars the way to the
spiritual world because while ever we carry the baggage of our faults
and fallacies all our lower desires needs wants, all our impulses of
will, all that is perishable and not eternal we are too heavy and
cannot enter. It is a real blessing to see
this being because on seeing what we have created of this being and its
hideous form we are encouraged to work on ourselves to perfect
ourselves so that we might do away with the influence of this being. It is no surprise then that the
existence of this being in our life body leads to illnesses of our
organs. In the Astral body this being is demonstrated in psychological,
nerve illnesses. How does this happen? This results from the fallen
forces that stream out of the earth and are intimately connected to the
double. Where the double is strong in us he attracts the fallen forces
that then further feed and enhance him. It
is a fact that there are certain beings that prefer certain
geographical locations where this or that fallen ether is more
prevalent and will enter into human beings born here or there. The
fallen forces in man (the double) are especially strengthened by coming
into contact with their counterpart in the outer world. How do we perceive him? In everyday life we see him in
our intellect wherever it becomes cold and hard and lacking in feeling.
We see him in our temperaments – wherever something becomes habitual,
whenever we lose the control over our emotions and whenever we lust
over things of a material nature. One being that comes to mind
immediately is Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. He covets the ring of
power, which serves the fallen ethers and their lord. “My Precious” is
his catch phrase. He is intelligent, quick, clever but has no heart,
all he does is for himself and himself alone. He accompanies his master
Frodo, who at first wants to kill him and later takes pity on him and
wants to redeem him. This is wise because without Gollum the quest
could not have been completed. How do we redeem him? Firstly, as in Rumpelstiltskin we have to learn his name. That
is we have to recognise him through our Ego consciousness, since every
time we recognise him he loses power. Secondly, we have to raise our
thinking up from the realms of matter. This is done by §
Ordering our thoughts (will in thinking) through
concentration exercises §
Releasing our thinking from the brain through meditations
on spiritual truths that are warmed through with feeling (feeling in
thinking). Thirdly we have to work on our
feeling life to balance the highs and the lows through §
Equanimity (thought in feeling) §
Positivity (will in feeling) §
Fourthly, we have to work on our
life of will to do the good
This transforms the human Soul and physical bodies allowing the impulse of Christ to enter in. When the Double comes into contact with the being of Christ he is immediately redeemed. The Christ being is characterised in this sense as the Greater Guardian of the Threshold to the spiritual world. It is he who stands before us as the great Archetype, the ideal to which we must turn in order to model ourselves. An old sage once said to his pupil: ‘What being is stronger in you, the Dragon or the Lamb?” The young pupil was puzzled and answered, “I do not know master.” To which the master replied, “The stronger is the one that you feed the most.” Will we feed the dragon or will we create a space in which the lamb can exist. This is up to us. |
