The Four Sheaths - The Etheric Body

Last time I wrote of the physical body of the human being. It is every easy to stop here. After all, this is the body that we perceive and literally “live in.” However, just as we can derive an understanding of the nature of the physical body, so can we derive a broader understanding of what constitutes the human being. 

As the physical body is related to our mineral nature, this would also mean that the physical body would not be alive or imbued with life. No mineral is and it would be consistent with their nature. And yet, in the material world, we are surrounded by so much life that there must be more to living things then mineral substance.  Through observation of the world, we can readily see that there are substances that strike us absolutely mineral or “inanimate” as we would probably say, and there are other things that strike as living or “animate.”  Plants, animals, and eventually human beings, constitute pretty much the second category. And yet, what makes us mineral and animate at the same time? I will not discuss here, just yet, the different types of “animate” existence that plants, animals, and human beings have. That will come later, in a separate discussion. I am only addressing a commonality shared by plants, animals and human beings in that there is something within that makes them animate. 

All three share something in common with the mineral world; that is, all three have distinct forms and shapes and parts of their being that are absolutely mineral in nature. It would appear, that on top of that, is something else, a body or sheath that makes them “alive” so to speak.  This living body is evidence also by its absence. When we observe things we consider to be “living” after they have died, they appear to be smaller or more contracted in size. Of course one can say that this is the loss of fluids in the body or air resulting from breathing or any other such distinction. Could this be all? What if all living things had another body on top of, surrounding and interpenetrating the mineral body?  Let us say such a body exists and for convenience calls it the life body, the body that imbues us with life.  We can then say that all living things have a life body. 

So where does this life body come from and how does it arise from the mineral world? Some process maybe taking place on earth that brings such a body into being. But what could it be?  Let us revisit this life body or all living things and inevitable, we can see another common attribute of all living things: all living things lift themselves up from the physical world. 

What does this mean? Don’t mountains also lift themselves up from the physical world? Yes, that is true; mountains appear to have a similar gesture. However, the movement is external to the uplifting gesture. Confusing? Mountains, no matter how high, are “lifted up” by forces external to the mountain. The collision or sliding of tectonic plates, the upward push of molten lava to create volcanoes is activities that are independent and external to the mountain. The mountains are results of these external impulses. The mountains, internally, have no impulse of their own to lift up from the physical world. They remain consistent with the notion of the mineral discussed in the physical body. However, unlike mountains, all living things have an impulse from within to push up and away from the physical world. Effectively, it is an impulse within all living things that make them reach into the sphere of the air or even heavens.  This force can be found in the smallest seed; in the smallest animals, and of course in human beings. All living things grow or “lift up” from within. This reaching into the so-called “airy regions” that float above the physical world lends another name to this life body – etheric. The ether, in ancient languages, often referred to the airy region above the earth. Hence a body that lifts its self away from the physical world penetrates the airy world, so to speak, and become etheric. 

In this process of “etherilization,” the density and solidity of the physical or mineral body is being “lightened” to such an extent that it can lift itself up, no matter how small, from the physical world. So strong is this impulse that it can push trees to heavenly limits, and it can have an animal, as large as an elephant, with extremely dense mineral nature, stand-up. 

From this point I would like to suggest a perspective that can be difficult to imagine. Could it be that such a process of “etherlization” may also be a process of transformation to the spiritual? Let us consider spirit in a non-religious sense. Spirit is about breath (for example to inspire, i.e. to breathe in). Could it be that the life body or the etheric body is about breathing, the breath of life? If this were so, then we could say the living things are the physical world spiritualized, i.e. filled with breathe.  To consider this picture would help us imagine that all living things, big or small, are of mineral nature into which streams this breathe of life. This would mean that all living things would have at least two bodies, a physical body and an etheric body. And yes, the mineral would have an etheric body as well; one that is asleep in the sense that its breathing is stilled at the moment. 

With an imagination like this, then it becomes possible to see all living things as a vivid and real-time transformation of our physical world into one that is being permeated with the breathe of life or spirit.

The world we live in is a wonderful place with more than meets the eye. Let us be open to see this as possible.

Sources: Theosophy by Rudolf Steiner, the Nature of Substance by Rudolf Hauschka, and Nutrition by Rudolf Hauschka.