The Earth
THE SPIRITUAL EARTH
- Chapter 47 -
The animal soul and her influence through spirits, and the development of the body
It has been mentioned often enough that the spirits in the mineral and plant kingdoms arrange the intelligence specifica in the proper order, into one being, and connect the sidereal and telluric. What remains to be examined is the formation or the transition of an animal out of the preceding kingdoms, and of what the tasks of the spirits therein consist.
In every animal there is present, to a certain degree, a developed soul which is active by means of the so-called nerve spirit which surrounds her in her body, which is still of a coarse matter. The animal kingdom is thus distinguishable from the plant kingdom, and even more so from the mineral kingdom. The animal now has a free soul, whereas the soul in the plant kingdom, and particularly in the mineral kingdom, is yet intermingled with and divided in matter, just like the spirit of wine in the grape. But where would this fiery spiritual anther be? In the grape, it is still very much divided and cannot express an effect, because in every individual grape, among thousands of specifica, only one such ætheric specificum is added. When, however, this individual specificum is extracted by distillation and gathered from many grapes, it then clearly expresses its power.
This also applies to the animal soul. The animal soul is an accumulation of a multitude of substantial ætheric specifica which already form a free intelligent being, and the more pronounced it is, the more of these different specifica unite into this one being. When animals engage in the act of procreation, the spirits drive these psychic soul elements into the physical organs of procreation and enclose them, at the moment of procreation, in a thin material coat (i.e. the skin). In this thin coat, the soul becomes active, and begins to put herself in order in accordance with her intelligence.
When the soul has established within herself this order in this first abode, then the spirits see to it that the soul, through organs which are developed particularly out of the mother's womb, receives the appropriate nourishment, and therewith the building material for her future body. The soul forms this body herself, of course, under the constant guidance of the spirits.
The development of the body is as follows: the ætheric substantial soul has first to bring her intelligences into order; this means that these intelligences bring themselves gradually in order in accordance with the laws of assimilation that reside within them. However, each of those ætheric, and now already physical, intelligence specifica carries within itself a complete idea that materializes itself into a particular form; this attribute of the soul passes over to the body during the period of formation. The body, when fully developed, is nothing but the typical form of the soul which was given to the womb of the animal at the moment of procreation. When the form in the mother's womb is fully developed, and if the soul has produced the form of the body accordingly, the soul may rest for a certain time. Meanwhile, the body continues to develop further with the support of the soul through the nourishment taken in by the mother's womb; the next activity of the soul begins in the main organs.
The pulse beat starts, the fluids commence their circulation, and nourishment is accepted by the stomach. And during this time the fetus becomes alive in the mother's womb.
When all the organs have opened up and the nerves are satiated, and, through an electro-magnetic process of fermentation, a nerve spirit related to the soul has formed within the organs, the spirits, with their will, come back again. They loosen the bonds between the fetus and the mother's womb, and drive out the new being.
After birth, the newborn animal must be nourished for a short time by the mother's body, just as, for instance, mammals are nourished with milk or fowl by the secretion of mucilage over their food. Amphibious animals are also nourished with milky mucilage which they discharge in the water or on land through a sap which the parents secrete from the nipples or mouth. During this time, the body develops further; on account of this development, the body is then capable of taking on nourishment by itself.
From this moment on, the soul which resides in the body begins to change the material specifica of the body into substantial specifica ("Substantial specifica" have a more permanent, enduring being. -ED.) under the guidance of the spirits. During the life span of the body, the specifica thus develop into an ever richer soul. When the soul has reached the highest possible development, she neglects the body more and more.
The body wastes away through this process until it becomes very burdensome to the soul, and becomes completely unsuitable for any further tasks. Through the nerve spirit, it causes the soul pain; these pains contribute, however, to the loosing and liberation of the soul from the body. The soul is nevertheless recaptured by the spirits and placed on a higher animal level; this level is, of course, more complicated than the last one. At this level the soul becomes active in the same manner as described above.
The specifica of the departed body will be dissolved again, since they were not destined for independence but were gathered by the soul only for a dependent assignment. After the dissolution, the specifica are placed in a particular order, and form in the course of the advancing animal levels of the female psyche; the psyche which we have described thus far is the male psyche.
Here the question might arise: What happens to the specifica of discarded female bodies? They are united with the male specifica. That provides them with the ability to develop something male and something female within them on the next level. If the mother did not, at the same time, unite male and female specifica, with what would she develop the male, and with what would she develop the female? All this lies within the order of the soul, because the soul places her intelligences in accordance with the order of the Laws of Assimilation.