Theosophy
GA 9
Preface to the Revised Edition
This book has been carefully and thoroughly revised by me for each new edition. The substance of the first edition remains, it is true, unaltered; but in certain parts I have sought to bring the mode of expression more and more into accord with the content of spiritual vision. I have specially endeavoured to do this in the chapter on repeated earth-lives and destiny (Karma).
Descriptions of the supersensible world must be treated differently from descriptions of the sensible. They appeal to the reader in a different way. They demand more from him; he must work with the author, in thought, more intensely while he is reading. The author needs his co-operation to a far higher degree than does one who writes descriptions drawn from the regions of the sense world. Many critics will perhaps complain, because I have made special efforts to comply with this demand in my description of the spiritual world. The spiritual world, however, has not the defined outlines of the physical; and if anyone were to represent it so as to give the impression that this was the case, he would be describing something false. In describing the spiritual world of facts, the style must be in accordance with the mobile, flowing character of that world.
Inner truth, for descriptions of the spiritual world, belongs alone to what is expressed in flowing, mobile ideas; the peculiar character of the spiritual world must be carried over into the ideas. If the reader applies the standard to which he is accustomed from descriptions of the sense world, he will find it difficult to adapt himself to this other method of description.
It is by inner exertion of soul that man must reach the supersensible world. That world would indeed have no value if it lay spread out complete before his consciousness. It would then be in no way different from the sense world. Before it can be known, there must be the longing to find what lies more deeply hidden in existence than do the forces of the world perceived by the senses. This longing is one of the inner experiences that prepare the way for a knowledge of the supersensible world. Even as there can be no blossom without first the root, so supersensible knowledge has no true life without this longing.
It would however be a mistake to suppose that the ideas of the supersensible world arise, as an illusion, out of this longing. The lungs do not create the air for which they long, neither does the human soul create out of its longing the ideas of the supersensible world. But the soul has this longing because it is formed and built for the supersensible world, as are the lungs for the air.
There may be those who say that this supersensible world can only have significance for such as already have the power to perceive it. This is not so, however. There is no need to be a painter in order to feel the beauty of a picture. Yet only a painter can paint it. Just as little is it necessary to be an investigator in the supersensible in order to judge of the results of supersensible research. It is only necessary to be an investigator in order to discover them. This is right in principle; in the last chapter of this book, however—and in detail in others of my books—the methods are given whereby it is possible to become an investigator, and thus be in a position to test the results of investigation.
RUDOLF STEINER
April, 1922
Zur Neuauflage dieser Schrift (1922)
[ 1 ] Vor dem Erscheinen der neunten Auflage dieser Schrift im Jahre 1918 habe ich sie einer sorgfältigen Durcharbeitung unterzogen. Seither ist die Anzahl der Gegenschriften gegen die in ihr dargestellte anthroposophische Welt-Anschauung um ein bedeutendes gewachsen. 1918 hat die Durcharbeitung zu einer großen Zahl von Erweiterungen und Ergänzungen geführt. Die Durcharbeitung zu dieser Neu-Ausgabe hat zu einem Gleichen nicht geführt. Wer beachten will, wie ich an den verschiedensten Stellen meiner Schriften mir die möglichen Einwände selber gemacht habe, um deren Gewicht zu bestimmen und sie zu entkräften, der kann im wesentlichen wissen, was ich zu den Gegenschriften zu sagen habe. Innere Gründe, den Inhalt in gleicher Art zu ergänzen, wie 1918, gab es aber diesmal nicht, trotzdem sich in meiner Seele die anthroposophische Weltanschauung seither gerade in den letzten vier Jahren nach vielen Seiten erweitert hat und ich sie auch vertiefen durfte. Diese Erweiterung und Vertiefung hat mich aber nicht zu einer Erschütterung des in dieser Schrift Niedergeschriebenen geführt, sondern zu der Ansicht, dass das seither Gefundene gerechtfertigt erscheinen lässt, an dem Inhalt dieser grundlegenden Darstellung nichts Wesentliches zu ändern.
Stuttgart, 24. November 1922
Rudolf Steiner
On the new edition of this publication (1922)
[ 1 ] Before the publication of the ninth edition of this work in 1918, I subjected it to a careful revision. subjected it to a careful revision. Since then, the number of counter-writings against the anthroposophical view of the world has grown considerably. In 1918 the has led to a large number of extensions and additions. The revision to this new edition has not led to the same. If you want to see how I have the various passages of my writings in order to determine their weight and to refute them. weight and to refute them, can essentially know what I have to say about the I have to say about the counter-writings. There were no internal reasons to supplement the content in the same way as in 1918. this time, despite the fact that the anthroposophical world view has since then developed in my soul has expanded in many directions in the last four years and I have also been able to deepen it. it. However, this broadening and deepening has not led me to shake what I have written down in this book. to the view that what I have found since then makes it seem justifiable to continue justifies not making any significant changes to the content of this fundamental presentation. to change anything essential.
Stuttgart, November 24, 1922
Rudolf Steiner