The Earth
THE SPIRITUAL EARTH
- Chapter 39 -
The activity of the spirits in the interior of the Earth
Our description of the natural Earth showed how the Earth, as a living organic being, takes on nutritive liquids and then distributes them through the different organs to the surface while passing coarser, indigestible waste to the South Pole as excrement. The nourishment of the Earth appears to the human eye as material, but, in accordance with her being, she is, like all matter, spiritual. Countless spirits and spiritual specifica of the better kind constantly penetrate to the interior of the Earth, whence the most malicious spirits are banished.
This penetration has a manifold purpose. First of all, the souls and the spirits of evil human beings are banished there and condemned, as the saying goes, "to an eternal hellish imprisonment." The mutineers that are contrary to the divine order must be kept in deep and fast custody. And this is done after many thousands of attempts for their betterment have failed; their imprisonment has resulted so that they will be unable to disrupt the divine order.
The second reason why spirits and spiritual specifica penetrate to the interior of the Earth is because there are lower spirits that have become enlightened and now have the ardent desire to regain their freedom. These spirits are liberated from their imprisonment in an orderly manner by the good spirits and are led up to greater freedom, where they are employed in a new activity.
First, they must put in order the primordial psychic specifica of poisonous plants and poisonous animals for the purpose of the growth of these, since they themselves still contain something evil. The poisonous plants and animals thereby receive the shape and nature which is theirs in accordance with the order. These spirits will be employed to supervise better plants and animals, provided they do not fail in this first task. Should they fail, however, and send harmful specifica forth into animals and human beings instead of plants - by which epidemics come into being - they will be released from this task and returned, in most restricted confinement, into the Earth. There they will be occupied with the formation of metals and stones. This work is, of course, much harder and more wearisome.
A release from these circumstances will occur only after many years, when such a spirit has faithfully carried out the task he was ordered to do for the benefit of the deliverance of the souls held captive in matter.
And there is another reason why the primordial souls which are held captive are brought up to the surface of the Earth - still, of course, as greatly divided specifica in the form of all kinds of liquids. There they will be led through the levels of the kingdoms of plants and animals under the guidance of the supervising spirits onto their path of salvation. Everywhere in the Earth there are spirits held captive that have either already endured the path of the flesh or else have developed into independent spirits without traveling this path. These are the earth, mountain, water, fire, and air spirits. Besides these two kinds of spirits, there is an unnumbered quantity of soul specifica that must first be gathered and placed in order in one being which corresponds to it in the proper order on every level of its ascent.
The deeper in the Earth these spirit and soul atoms are, the worse they are. Therefore the surveillance must be a wise one, and particularly so with those soul particles which have already been permitted to come to the surface of the Earth. Only the purest are used for the completion of the actual soul, and the coarser and more malicious for the formation of the material body.
Therefore the human body also consists only of soul particles. But these soul particles that form the physical body are still coarse, wicked, and impure. That is why they must enter the Earth again in order to decompose, and from there ascend to the being whose physical body they once formed. They are usually accepted in the third highest sphere of the Earth. Every pure spirit becomes complete again if he has taken up everything that is his. This taking-up is the so-called resurrection of the flesh.
It is obvious that the spirits employed in the first region have much to do. That is why there are scheduled rest periods in which these busy spirits may recuperate. Such a rest period is the winter, which is of course of considerably shorter duration at the Equator than towards the Poles.