Man uses many means to one end; God one means to many ends.
The plant thinks it is in its place for its own purpose, to grow, to
toss in the wind, to drink in light and air, to prepare fragrance and
color for its own adornment, to play with beetles and bees. It is
indeed there for itself, but at the same time it is only one pore of
the earth, in which light, air, and water meet and mingle in processes
important to the whole earthly life; it is there in order that the
earth may exhale, breathe, weave for itself a green garment and provide
nourishment, raiment and warmth for men and animals. Man thinks that
he is in his place for himself alone, for amusement, for work, and
getting his bodily and mental growth; he, too, is indeed there for
himself; but his body and mind are also but a dwelling place into which
new and higher impulses enter, mingle, and develop, and engage in all
sorts of processes together, which both constitute the feeling and
thinking of the man, and have their higher meaning for the third stage
of life.
The mind of man is alike indistinguishably his own possession and
that of the higher intelligences, and what proceeds from it belongs
equally to both always, but in different ways. Just as in this figure,
which is intended not for a representation but only a symbol, the
central, colored, six-rayed star (looking black here) can be considered
as independent and having unity in itself; its rays proceeding from
the middle point are all thereby dependently and harmoniously bound
together; on the other hand, it appears again mingled together from the
concatenation of the six single colored circles, each one of which has
its own individuality. And as each of its rays belongs as well to it as
to the circles, through the overlapping of which it is formed, so is it
with the human soul.
[Illustration]
Man does not often know from whence his thoughts come to him: he is
seized with a longing, a foreboding, or a joy, which he is quite unable
to account for; he is urged to a force of activity, or a voice warns
him away from it, without his being conscious of any special cause.
These are the visitations of spirits, which think and act in him from
another centre than his own. Their influence is even more manifest in
us, when, in abnormal conditions (clairvoyance or mental disorder) the
really mutual relation of dependence between them and us is determined
in their favor, so that we only passively receive what flows into us
from them, without return on our part.
But so long as the human soul is awake and healthy, it is not the weak
plaything or product of the spirits which grow into it or of which it
appears to be made up, but precisely that which unites these spirits,
the invisible centre, possessing primitive living energy, full of
spiritual power of attraction, in which all unite, intersect, and
through mutual communication engender thoughts in each other, this is
not brought into being by the mingling of the spirits, but is inborn
in man at his birth; and free will, self-determination, consciousness,
reason, and the foundation of all spiritual power are contained herein.
But at birth all this lies still latent within, like an unopened
seed, awaiting development into an organism full of vital individual
activity.
So when man has entered into life other spirits perceive it and press
forward from all sides and seek to add his strength to theirs in order
to reinforce their own power, but while this is successful, their power
becomes at the same time the possession of the human soul itself, is
incorporated with it and assists its development.
The outside spirits established within a man are quite as much
subjected to the influence of the human will, though in a different
way, as man is dependent upon them; he can, from the centre of his
spiritual being, equally well produce new growth in the spirits
united to him within, as these can definitely influence his deepest
life; but in harmoniously developed spiritual life no one will has
the mastery over another. As every outside spirit has only a part of
itself in common with a single human being, so can the will of the
single man have a suggestive influence alone upon a spirit which with
its whole remaining part lies outside the man; and since every human
mind contains within itself something in common with widely differing
outside spirits, so too can the will of a single one among them have
only a quickening influence upon the whole man, and only when he, with
free choice, wholly denies himself to single spirits is he deprived of
the capacity to master them.
All spirits cannot be united indiscriminately in the same soul;
therefore the good and bad, the true and false spirits contend
together for possession of it, and the one who conquers in the struggle
holds the ground.
The interior discord which so often finds place in men is nothing but
this conflict of outside spirits who wish to get possession of his
will, his reason, in short, his whole innermost being. As the man
feels the agreement of spirits within him as rest, clearness, harmony,
and safety, he is also conscious of their discord as unrest, doubt,
vacillation, confusion, enmity, in his heart. But not as a prize won
without effort, or as a willing victim, does he fall to the stronger
spirits in this contest, but, with a source of self-active strength in
the centre of his being, he stands between the contending forces within
which wish to draw him to themselves, and fights on whichever side he
chooses; and so he can carry the day even for the weaker impulses, when
he joins his strength to theirs against the stronger. The Self of the
man remains unendangered so long as he preserves the inborn freedom of
his power and does not become tired of using it. As often, however, as
he becomes subject to evil spirits, is it because the development of
his interior strength is hindered by discouragement, and so, to become
bad, it is often only necessary to be careless and lazy.
The better the man already is, the easier it is for him to become
still better; and the worse he is, so much the more easily is he quite
ruined. For the good man has already harbored many good spirits, which
are now associated with him against the evil ones remaining and those
freshly pressing for entrance, and are saving for him his interior
strength. The good man does good without weariness, his spirits do it
for him; but the bad man must first overcome and subdue by his own will
all the evil spirits which have striven against him. Moreover, kin
seeks and unites itself to kin, and flees from its opposite when not
forced. Good spirits in us attract good spirits outside us, and the
evil spirits in us the evil outside. Pure spirits turn gladly to enter
a pure soul, and evil without fastens upon the evil within. If only
the good spirits in our souls have gained the upper hand, so of itself
the last devil still remaining behind in us flees away, he is not
secure in good society; and so the soul of a good man becomes a pure
and heavenly abiding place for happy indwelling spirits. But even good
spirits, if they despair of winning a soul from the final mastery of
evil, desert it, and so it becomes at last a hell, a place fit only for
the torments of the damned. For the agony of conscience and the inner
desolation and unrest in the soul of the wicked are sorrows which, not
they alone, but the condemned spirits within them also, feel in still
deeper woe.