Spiritual Wisdom:

"When these worlds of unhappiness gradually came into existence and the separation from God took place for a great number of beings, as I said before, Divine Law provided for the possibility to regain the happy state of existence these beings once were in. But certain decisions and changes had to be made, always according to the free will of the fallen spirits, either individually or as a group. This was also foreseen by God and provided for and left open at the time to effect at the proper time. All this is part of the plan of salvation for which God enlisted the help of all spirits who remained faithful to Him, as well as those who reached and are still reaching sufficient development after their fall, to help along." (PL #20)

"The disharmonious worlds coming into existence through this division from God, through the so-called fall, are also called hell. These worlds simply reflect the state of mind of the creatures living there; that is, these spheres came into existence as a direct result of the state of mind of these beings. But hell is not just one sphere, but there are many spheres there just as there are many spheres in the divine world, or so-called heaven. When the fall took place, not all who participated came into an equal state of disharmony and evil. The degree was very individual and different. Thus, again as an automatic result, different spheres came into being within the world of darkness, always corresponding to the individual's state of mind. But on the whole, one can say that every divine aspect turned -- here more, there less -- into the opposite." (PL #20)

"Spiritual worlds existed for a very, very long time where all created beings lived in a state of bliss as you cannot imagine. For all creatures, the possibility existed, ever since their coming into existence, to choose freely to either live within divine law or to act against it. At one time, one spirit fell under this temptation. Symbolically you explain this in the story of Adam and Eve in Paradise. Actually this happened in a very different way although the idea was there. Perhaps you can comprehend some of this when you imagine that you may have a great power. You may know that to use this power in a certain way might be dangerous for you. As long as this power is not exploited, you may feel a curiosity as to what would actually happen if you did use it. This temptation becomes stronger and stronger. The stronger it becomes, the less you can think of means to counteract this temptation. You will not even have the intention to continue using it, you just want to try a little bit, just to see. And all theoretical knowledge you may have -- once tried, you may not find it possible not to be swept away by it -- dissolves under the growing weight of the temptation. Once this one spirit succumbed to this temptation, he set something in motion that he could not change anymore, just as he had once known that it would but did not wish to remember when he did give in. The result was not an immediate change, but a gradual one. The change from harmony to disharmony took place just as gradually and slowly as your change from disharmony into harmony. The latter is evolution, the former could be called an evolution backwards -- and neither can ever happen suddenly. Here I would like to give you another example that may help you to understand by trying to feel when thinking of this example. Let us suppose a person is tempted to take a drug. He does not have the intention to succumb to it entirely. He, too, knows, as everybody does, that this would mean his ruin in every respect. But he thinks he can try just once, to see what it is like. But after this once, he cannot escape anymore. He is caught. This is a mild example of what I am trying to tell you, but the same principle reigns here. The same principle holds true to everything opposed to divine law. This one spirit who succumbed first, generated a power running in the opposite direction of divine law, but it was still the same power, only used differently. And with this power he could affect and influence many other spirits little by little -- but not all spirits. There was a division between those who succumbed and those who did not. With the former, the so-called fall of the angels thus began. In this process, every divine aspect turned into its opposite nature: harmony became disharmony, beauty ugliness, light darkness, wisdom blindness, love hatred and fear and egotism -- and union became separateness. Once wholeness split further and further, the more this "pull" proceeded. Thus evil came into existence." (PL #20)

"Jesus, the man, was the incarnation of the Christ .. the highest, the most exalted of all created beings. He is the first direct and inborn creation of God. His substance is the same as the substance of God. All of you have some of this substance, that which I call the higher self or the divine spark, that which has to come out through spiritual development gradually. But no other created being has this substance to quite the same degree as Christ. And there is the difference.
 
"I can see again and again that human beings think or feel: "Why He? If He is the Son of God, so are we sons of God. Why should He be better? Or more exalted or higher? Why? This is not just." These thoughts and feelings are often lurking in the soul of man even if he does not dare to make that thought conscious. In this very same thought lies the germ of the fall of the angels. This very thought, this very attitude started once long before the material earth existed and caused the coming into existence of disharmony and of evil. Certainly, none who had ever thought so realized at the time the danger of such an attitude or realized what lay in it, realized that in this, let us call it jealousy, actually lies a lack of faith in God, in his capacity of love. For even though God created in His first Son the highest of all beings and gave most of His substance to Him, if you will have the trust and faith the Creator deserves, you will not think that this is unjust or that you will lack anything. Oh, nowadays people do not go so far in thinking through these thoughts, but that slight feeling of resistance against Christ in a number of people represents the germ of the fall, the germ of evil. This is the way it all started." (PL #19)

"QUESTION: I would like to ask something in connection with the fall of the angels. In Isaiah, it is said that God created good and evil. So God created the evil forces, the luciferic powers too?

"ANSWER: That is a great error. And you will readily understand now, when I remind you of one of the last lectures, how this error could have happened. You will remember that I have explained that God has created this power which He has given to each of His created spirits. This power could be used either way, any way, in free will. Now that explains why or how this error could have occurred. It is technically not correct to say that God created evil. It would be more correct to say God created the possibility for evil, if in free will His power is used against divine law. " (PL #25)