Sublunar sphere
In the ancient and medieval geocentric world view, the sublunar sphere is the region within or below the lunar sphere. It is divided into the areas of the four elements earth, water, air and fire in order of decreasing gravity. In this sense, there are four sublunar spheres.
Sublunary Sphere and Kamaloka
The sublunary sphere is not to be regarded primarily as an external spatial area, but much more as part of the etheric world and the soul world, whose four lower areas correspond with the sublunary sphere. Above this is the Kamaloka (purgatory), in which the human being after death strips of his attachment to the past earthly life. The Kamaloka is where the three uppermost regions of the physical-etheric world (light ether, sound ether and life ether) intersect with the three lowermost regions of the astral world (burning desire, mobile sensitivity and region of wishes):
„If we start from the physical plan, we have here (it is drawn) seven subdivisions of the physical plan; then would come seven subdivisions of the astral plan. Of these, the three lowest coincide with the three highest of the physical plan. We must regard the astral plan as being pushed together with the physical plan in such a way that the three uppermost sections of the physical plan are at the same time the three lowermost sections of the astral plan. We can speak of a marginal zone, that is, the one which our souls cannot leave after death, when they are still bound to the earth by desires. It is called Kamaloka.“ (Lit.:GA 101, p. 223)
| physical-etheric world | astral world | planetary sphere |
|---|---|---|
| Region of soul life | Sun sphere | |
| Region of active soul force | Venus sphere | |
| Region of soul light | Mercury sphere | |
| Region of liking and disliking | ||
| Life ether | Region of wishes | Moon sphere |
| Sound ether | Region of mobile sensitivity | (Kamaloka) |
| Light ether | Region of burning desire | |
| Fire/Warmth ether | ||
| Air | Sublunar sphere | |
| Water | ||
| Earth |
Literatur
- Rudolf Steiner: Theosophie - Einführung in übersinnliche Welterkenntnis und Menschenbestimmung, GA 9 (1904), Kapitel Die Seele in der Seelenwelt nach dem Tode English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Mythen und Sagen. Okkulte Zeichen und Symbole, GA 101 (1992) English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Rudolf Steiner: Esoterische Betrachtungen karmischer Zusammenhänge. Dritter Band, GA 237 (1991), ISBN 3-7274-2370-6 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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