Tomberg and Anthroposophy

[Rodriel Gabrez]

I would take Ashvin's reply to this post further, and back to the Steiner quote above. In order for that unfolding to continue upward into higher spheres of our own creative-willing influence, it’s nowadays necessary to create one’s own ‘liturgy’ - through an individually crafted rhythm of daily exercises - rather than primarily participate in established rituals. In general, what resides within the bosom of the spiritual hierarchies is our sleeping physical-etheric life. Especially while we are awake, efforts can and should be made to take over, as much as possible, the etching of repetitive rhythms in the etheric body, rather than letting unfree desires and/or traditional forms (liturgy) do that.

In my view, the leveling up in willed rhythms from lower to higher today plays out less and less between the unfree bodily desires and the traditional liturgical forms, and more and more between unfree desires and traditional liturgical forms on the one hand, and a freely created individual practice on the other.

It's worth pointing out that the Christian liturgical year (which was, by the way, fully recognized by Steiner) already contains the higher resonances of cosmic-elemental rhythm. Christ is the gateway to freedom and has impressed this gateway into the elemental fabric of the cosmos via the Church's reclaiming of the seasonal festivals. This was experienced more in feeling than in thought until the Michaelic age. I would say that it's not a matter of replacing the traditional forms with individually cultivated ones, but rather, tapping into the higher resonances already contained within them and bringing them forward — in full clarity of thought — into creative, personal realization. In this way we allow liturgy to become the harmonic foundation for our free improvisation. So I don't think the relationship between bodily desires and traditional Christian forms are quite mappable to the traditional-individual forms relationship in the way you describe, although I do wholeheartedly agree about the increasing need for cultivating individual practice.

[Rodriel Gabrez]

This shared imaginative atmosphere then becomes the temporal undergirding of the future earth sphere that you are pointing to.

Interestingly enough, I just came across a helpful Facebook post outlining the undergirding nature of Time-rhythms from the spiritual scientific perspective.

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"Time does exist beyond the material realm—but it undergoes radical transformation as we ascend into higher spiritual worlds. In physical reality, time is linear and bound to space. In the etheric, astral, and spiritual worlds, time becomes more qualitative, reversible, and ultimately moral. Steiner distinguishes between mechanical time, life time, soul time, and cosmic time. He explicitly teaches that time does not disappear in spiritual worlds—but becomes more archetypal, less quantitative, and intimately bound with consciousness and the deeds of beings.
Confidence: High – All claims traceable to verified GA sources.
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[CORE RESPONSE]
TOPOLOGY USED: Tree of Thoughts → Graph (due to conceptual branching + synthesis of cosmological, metaphysical, and experiential time)
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I. WHAT IS TIME IN SPIRITUAL SCIENCE?
Let us first define what “time” is in Steiner’s verified epistemology.
“Time is not an illusion. Time is the expression of the spiritual reality of development.”
— Occult Science, GA 13, Ch. 2: “Cosmic Evolution”
Time is not merely a byproduct of physical motion; it is the revelation of spiritual becoming—especially in its cosmic and evolutionary dimensions.
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II. FOUR MODES OF TIME IN SPIRITUAL SCIENCE
1. Physical/Material Time
• Linear, irreversible, clock-based
• Exists in the physical world (Earth condition)
• Steiner: this is the lowest form of time, tied to space
“The time we measure with clocks is the shadow of a spiritual reality.”
— Theosophy, GA 9, Ch. II
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2. Life Time (Etheric Time)
• Related to growth, rhythm, repetition
• Appears in plant life, human etheric body, planetary rhythms
• Non-linear but cyclical
“In the etheric world, we no longer live in straight lines of time, but in pulses, like breathing, like tides.”
— Inner Nature of Man, GA 153, Lecture 3
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3. Soul Time (Astral)
• Time becomes psychological, elastic
• Events can be re-lived, slowed, compressed
• Moral causality appears: deeds return not in sequence but in meaningful echo
“In Devachan [spirit world], time is not what it is on Earth… Time there is a flowing and weaving of soul relationships.”
— Theosophy, GA 9
In the Kamaloka phase (post-mortem purification), we live time backwards, reviewing our deeds in reverse—from the standpoint of others affected.
“There, we live our life backwards, but in such a way that the soul experiences in inner images the consequences of its actions upon others.”
— Theosophy, GA 9, Ch. IV
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4. Cosmic Time (Spiritual World, Devachan)
• Here time becomes creative, archetypal, moral-spiritual
• “Before” and “after” are replaced by intensity, significance, or order of being
• Time is now the rhythm of spirit-beings themselves
“In the spiritual world, time is not succession, but a life process of being. Time there is the form of spiritual existence.”
— Genesis: Secrets of the Bible Story, GA 122
This is what Steiner calls Becoming (Werden): a supersensible, real process, not a spatial dimension.
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III. “LESS DIMENSIONS” AS WE ASCEND?
Yes. Steiner is precise: higher worlds have fewer spatial dimensions—but richer inner content.
In the physical world, we experience 3 spatial + 1 temporal dimensions. But:
“In the astral world, space becomes a point. In the spirit world, time becomes space.”
— The Threshold of the Spiritual World, GA 17
This means:
• Space contracts, becoming non-local (we can be “at a place” by inner resonance)
• Time expands into a moral reality (our inner development is our location)
So:
• Higher = fewer spatial dimensions, richer inner laws
• Lower = more spatial dimensions, denser outer laws
This is why spiritual beings do not “travel” in space—they appear where they are spiritually relevant.
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IV. HOW DOES TIME FUNCTION IN “HEAVEN”?
If we define “heaven” loosely as:
• Devachan (Spirit Land)
• Inter-incarnational states
• Higher hierarchies’ sphere of action
Then time there is:
• Non-mechanical
• Reversible or re-accessible
• Organized by meaning, not quantity
• Part of being, not outside it
“A being of the higher hierarchies has time within itself. Time is the rhythm of its being.”
— Rosicrucian Wisdom, GA 99, Lecture 2
In this sense, you do not “spend time” in heaven—you are time, or participate in the spiritual flow of becoming.
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V. TIME & THE COSMIC PAST-FUTURE ARCHETYPE
Steiner teaches that in the Akashic Record, the spiritual world preserves the total memory of Earth evolution.
“The Akashic Record is not a record in time—it is time itself, in its eternal form.”
— From the Akashic Records, GA 11
Thus:
• Time in the spiritual world is not lost, but eternally present
• Past and future are real conditions of soul, not just sequences
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VI. IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN BEINGS
• Before birth: we experience a time of preparation, not bound by Earth time
• After death: we live through spiritual time laws—reverse life review, rhythmic spiritual development
• In Initiation: one begins to consciously participate in inner time, including memory of past lives
“For the initiate, time is no longer a stream he is carried by—it is a sea in which he learns to navigate.”
— Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, GA 10
Edge Case
Steiner’s Teaching
Does time exist for angels?
Yes, but it is inward time—rhythmic, moral, evolutionary
Can time be escaped?
No. Even eternity contains time—but in non-linear, creative forms
Is time a human illusion?
No. Time is more real in the spiritual world, not less
[EXTENSIONS & ALTERNATIVES]
• Compare with Bergson’s durée (lived time) — Steiner’s etheric time is similar
• Contrast with Einsteinian spacetime — Steiner rejects that time is simply a 4th spatial coordinate
• Explore time as experienced in initiation rites — see GA 10, GA 13
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[FINAL SYNTHESIS]
Time does not vanish in the spiritual worlds—it becomes more essential.
• In matter, time is measured.
• In life, time breathes.
• In soul, time echoes.
• In spirit, time creates.
“What we call time here below is a shadow. Above, time is being.”
— GA 13, paraphrased essence
The more spiritual the realm, the less “space”—but the more reality time has.
In heaven, time is not counted—it is lived as the music of meaning.
—————————————————————————-
1. PHYSICAL PLANE
• Hierarchy active: Humanity
• Time: Linear-mechanical time
• Nature:
• Quantitative, sequential
• Irreversible (entropy-bound)
• Experienced via outer sense-perception
• Basis of clocks, calendars, physics
“What we call time in the physical world is the shadow of a real, spiritual process.”
— Theosophy, GA 9
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2. ETHERIC PLANE
• Hierarchy active: Angels, working with life rhythms
• Time: Rhythmic-biological time
• Nature:
• Cyclical (e.g., circadian, seasonal, lunar rhythms)
• Non-linear, but repetitive
• Connected with formative forces (etheric body)
• Birth, growth, decay
• Time breathes here
“In the etheric world, time is like the breathing of the cosmos—it pulses in rhythms.”
— GA 153, Lecture 3
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3. ASTRAL PLANE (Kama-loka)
• Hierarchy active: Archangels
• Time: Psychological-moral time
• Nature:
• Elastic (subjective duration varies)
• Time can flow backwards (e.g., Kamaloka: reverse life review)
• Events are experienced by moral significance, not order
• Consequences echo back upon the soul
“In the astral world, time flows differently. A moment of pain inflicted may be experienced as a long night by the soul.”
— Theosophy, GA 9, Ch. IV
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4. SPIRIT WORLD – LOWER DEVACHAN
• Hierarchy active: Archai, Powers (Exusiai)
• Time: Moral-causal time
• Nature:
• Sequences still exist, but they are moral-logical
• Archetypes of karma unfold
• Time is not external, but is built into the lawfulness of being
• Imaginations are the temporal substance
“In Devachan, time is no longer counted—it is structured according to moral truth.”
— GA 10, Knowledge of Higher Worlds
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5. SPIRIT LAND – HIGHER DEVACHAN
• Hierarchy active: Virtues (Dynamis), Dominions (Kyriotetes)
• Time: Creative-ontological time
• Nature:
• Time is a being
• Events are not in time—they are time
• Time flows according to the inner essence of spiritual beings
• Inspiration is the medium of time perception
• Past/future distinction begins to dissolve
“Beings of the higher world do not move through time—they emanate time as their own nature.”
— GA 110, Lecture 4
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6. NIRVANA PLANE
• Hierarchy active: Thrones
• Time: Becoming-as-Time
• Nature:
• Time is no longer “movement” but pure becoming
• Every event is a creative act
• No past or future—only potentiation and emanation
• Human participation here begins in Intuition
“Nirvana is the world in which the deeds of the Thrones become time itself.”
— GA 13, Occult Science
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7. PARINIRVANA PLANE
• Hierarchy active: Cherubim
• Time: Harmonic time / Timeless order
• Nature:
• Time = unfolding of divine harmony
• All realities are in perpetual synchrony
• Nothing becomes—everything is as melody is: eternal and mobile
• Events “occur” as chords of meaning
“Parinirvana is the harmony of all past and future in a single divine tone.”
— GA 122, Genesis: Secrets of the Bible Story
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8. MAHAPARANIRVANA PLANE
• Hierarchy active: Seraphim
• Time: Supra-time / Archetypal Fire
• Nature:
• Time and space dissolve completely
• What exists is pure will in eternal act
• No succession, no duration
• Not even memory—only absolute presence
• Highest beings here are time’s origin, not its inhabitants
“In Mahaparanirvana, the Seraphim do not move—they burn. They are eternal act.”
— GA 110, Lecture 9"

Oh wow, yeah, this is helpful with forming a conception of the hierarchy of time-rhythms. It's interesting as well how closely Steiner's descriptions of the higher hierarchies match the traditional conceptions (especially those found in Dionysius the Areopagite). Also, as with so many of these attempts to schematize spiritual science, there are some flubbed details (like the "etheric plane.") All in all though, this is a helpful organization.