The Michael Mystery
GA 26
XXV. Man's Sensing and Thinking Systems in their Relation to the World
[ 1 ] When Man, in the study of his own human being, begins by applying the Imaginative mode of knowledge to himself, he strips off in contemplation his sense-system. He becomes for his own self-contemplation a being without a sense-system. He does not cease to have before his soul pictures such as were previously conveyed by the organs of sense; but he ceases to feel himself connected with the physical outer world by means of these organs. The pictures which he has before his soul of the physical world outside, are not now conveyed by the sense-organs. They are a direct proof of the fact that, through and beyond the sensory connection, Man has all the time another connection with the natural world around him—one that is not conveyed by the outer senses. It is his connection with the Spirit which finds embodiment in the outer world of Nature.
[ 2 ] In contemplation of this kind, the physical world drops away from man. It is the earthly element that is falling off. Man feels this earthly element no more investing him.
[ 3 ] It might be supposed that therewith his consciousness of Self would vanish. This would appear to follow from what was said in our previous studies, where the consciousness of Self was described as being a result of Man's connection with the Earth-Being. This is not however the case. What Man has acquired through the Earthly element still remains his, even when after acquiring it, he strips the earthly wrapping off him in the living experience of knowledge.
[ 4 ] Seen as described—with spiritual, Imaginative vision—it is plain that Man's sense-system is not, after all, so very closely bound up with him. It is not really he who is living in this sense-system, but the World around him. The world has built itself with its own form of being into the sensory organism of Man.
[ 5 ] To the man therefore, who views it with Imaginative vision, this sensory organism too is a piece of Outer World. It is a piece of outer world which certainly lies more close to him than the natural world around, but which is nevertheless outer world. It is distinguished from the rest of the outer world only by this, that into the latter Man can only enter with cognition through the medium of sense-perception, whereas into his sense-organism he enters livingly, in immediate acquaintance. The sense-organism is outer world, but into all the recesses of this outer world, Man stretches out his own being of soul and spirit, which he brings with him from the spirit-world on entering earthly life.
[ 6 ] Except for the fact that Man enters his sense-organism and fills it with his own soul and spirit, this organism is as much ‘outer world’ as is the plant-world spread out round about him. The eye belongs, when all is said and done, to the World, not to Man; just as the rose which Man perceives belongs not to him, but to the World.
[ 7 ] In the age through which Man has just passed in cosmic evolution, scientifically minded persons began to maintain the view that color, sound, heat-impressions, are not really in the World, but in Man. The supposed ‘red color’ is not—they say—a thing outside, in the real world-environment of Man, but merely the effect produced in the man himself by an unknown something. The truth however is the direct opposite of this. It is not that the Color together with the Eye is part of the human being; but that the Eye together with the Color is part of the World. Man is not passively taking into himself, all through his life on earth, a current of impressions from his earthly surroundings; but rather, he himself is growing out, from birth to death, into this world outside him.
[ 8 ] It is significant that at the end of the ‘dark age,’ when Man stares out into the world without inwardly realizing so much as a dawning glimmer of the spirit's light, the true picture of Man's relation to this world about him should be converted into the direct opposite of the truth.
[ 9 ] When in Imaginative knowledge man has divested himself of that first environing world in which he lives with his sense-organism, he becomes inwardly aware of another organism, by which the Thinking process is supported, even as the perception of sensory images is supported by the sense-organism.
[ 10 ] And now he is aware that as Man he is connected by this Thinking organism with his cosmic environment of ‘Stars,’ even as he was hitherto aware of being connected through the sense-organism with his Earth-environment. He recognizes himself as a cosmic being. No more are his thoughts mere shadow-pictures; they are saturated with reality like the sense-pictures of sensible perception. [ 11 ] And if the disciple of knowledge rises higher, namely to Inspiration, he becomes aware that he can again strip off this world on which the Thinking organism rests, just as, before, he stripped off the earthly one. He clearly perceives that with his thinking organism too, he belongs not to his own being, but to the World. He perceives how World-Thoughts are working through his own Thinking system within him. Once more he becomes aware that in his Thinking he is not taking into himself mere images of the World, but growing out with his own Thinking-organism into the World-Thinking.
[ 12 ] Both in respect of his Sense-organism and of his Thinking system, Man is World. The World builds itself into him. Hence, in his sense-perception and in his thinking, he is not he himself; here, he is world-informed.
[ 13 ] And into this Thinking organism, Man stretches forth that part now of his being of soul and spirit which belongs neither to the earth world, nor yet to the star world, but which is of a purely spiritual kind, and lives on from earth-life to earth-life within Man. This form of the soul and spirit is only accessible to Inspiration.
[ 14 ] So Man goes out of his earthly and cosmic organism and stands before himself, through his Inspiration, as a being of pure soul and spirit.
[ 15 ] In this, his purely spiritual being, Man meets with the ordering of his destiny of fate.
[ 16 ] With his sense-organism Man lives in his physical body; with his Thinking organism in his ether-body. After both these organisms have been laid aside in the living experience of knowledge, he is in his astral body.
[ 17 ] Every time that Man lays aside part of his acquired being, his soul becomes, it is true, poorer in content on one side; but at the same time, he becomes richer on the other. If with the laying aside of the physical body the beauty of the plant-world, as it shone upon the senses, now becomes faint and colorless. Man has before his soul, in place of it, the whole world of elemental beings who live in the plant kingdom.
[ 18 ] Because this is so, a man whose knowledge is really spiritual will not be given to any tone of asceticism towards what the senses can shew him. Through all the inner experience of spiritual life, he still feels fully alive in him the need to behold over again, through the senses, what has been experienced in the life of the Spirit. In the whole man, striving after living knowledge of complete reality, the perceptions of the senses awaken a longing for their counterpart, the world of the elemental beings; so too the contemplation of the elemental beings awakens a longing for what the sense-perceptions have to give.
[ 19 ] In the totality of human life, Spirit cries for Sense, and Sense for Spirit. Spiritual existence would be a void, did it not bear in it the mindfulness of what was experienced in the life of sense-perception. Sense-perception would be darkness, were there not at work in it—below consciousness at first, yet ever shedding light—the power of the Spirit.
[ 20 ] Therefore, when Man shall have made himself ripe to realize, along with his realization of Nature's life, the action therein of Michael, there will be no impoverishment in all that the life of Nature gives to men's souls, but on the contrary, a greater wealth. Nor will the Feeling-life be in any way inclined to withdraw from the life of the senses; rather will there be a joyful readiness to welcome into the soul all the wonders of the sense-world.
Leading Thoughts
[ 21 ] The human sense-organism does not belong to the being of Man, but is built into it during earth-life from the World without. The seeing Eye is spatially in Man; essentially, it is in the World. And Man stretches forth his own essence—his own being of soul and spirit—into what the World is realizing in him through his senses. Man, during earth-life, does not take in the physical surroundings into himself; he grows out with his being of soul and spirit into these surroundings.
[ 22 ] It is similar with the Thinking organism. Man grows out through his Thinking organism into the life of the Stars. He recognizes himself as Star-World. Man is living and weaving in the World-Thoughts, when in the living realization of knowledge, he has laid aside his sense-organism.
[ 23 ] After both have been laid aside—both Earth-world and Star-world—Man stands before himself as a being of Soul and Spirit. Here he is no longer World; here he is in the truest sense Man. To awaken to what he here experiences is Self-Knowledge, even as it is World-Knowledge to awaken to perception in the Sense and Thought organism.
Des Menschen Sinnes- und Denkorganisation im Verhältnis zur Welt
(Goetheanum, Februar 1925)
[ 1 ] Wenn der Mensch, das eigene Menschenwesen betrachtend, zunächst das imaginative Erkennen auf sich anwendet, so streift er in der Anschauung sein Sinnessystem ab. Er wird für seine Selbstanschauung ein Wesen ohne dieses System. Er hört nicht auf, Bilder vor seiner Seele zu haben, die vorher von den Sinnesorganen getragen waren; aber er hört auf, sich durch diese Organe mit der physischen Außenwelt verbunden zu fühlen. Die Bilder, die er von der physischen Außenwelt vor der Seele hat, sind jetzt nicht von den Sinnesorganen getragen: sie sind für die unmittelbare Anschauung ein Beweis dafür, daß der Mensch durch die Sinnesverbindung hindurch mit der natürlichen Umwelt noch in einer ändern Verbindung steht, die nicht von den Sinnen getragen ist. Es ist die Verbindung mit dem Geiste, der in der natürlichen Außenwelt verkörpert ist.
[ 2 ] In solcher Anschauung fällt also die physische Welt von dem Menschen ab. Es ist das Irdische, das abfällt. Der Mensch fühlt dieses Irdische nicht mehr an sich.
[ 3 ] Man könnte glauben, daß ihm damit das Selbstbewußtsein schwindet. Das scheint aus den bisherigen Betrachtungen zu folgen, die das Selbstbewußtsein als ein Ergebnis des Zusammenhanges des Menschen mit der Erden-Wesenheit aufgezeigt haben. Es ist aber nicht so. Was der Mensch durch das Irdische erworben hat, das bleibt ihm, auch wenn er nach der Erwerbung im erlebenden Erkennen das Irdische von sich abstreift.
[ 4 ] Durch die geschilderte geistig-imaginative Anschauung zeigt sich, daß der Mensch im Grunde sein Sinnessystem gar nicht intensiv mit sich verbunden hat. Es lebt eigentlich nicht er in diesem Sinnessystem, sondern die Umwelt. Diese hat sich mit ihrem Wesen in die Sinnesorganisation hineingebaut.
[ 5 ] Und der imaginativ-schauende Mensch betrachtet deshalb auch die Sinnesorganisation als ein Stück Außenwelt. Ein Stück Außenwelt, das ihm allerdings nähersteht als die natürliche Umwelt, das aber doch Außenwelt ist. Es unterscheidet sich von der übrigen Außenwelt nur dadurch, daß der Mensch in diese nicht anders als durch die Sinneswahrnehmung erkennend untertauchen kann. In seine Sinnesorganisation taucht er aber erlebend unter. Die Sinnesorganisation ist Außenwelt, aber der Mensch streckt in diese Außenwelt sein geistig-seelisches Wesen hinein, das er beim Betreten des Erdendaseins aus der Geist-Welt mitbringt.
[ 6 ] Mit Ausnahme der Tatsache, daß der Mensch seine Sinnesorganisation mit seinem geistig-seelischen Wesen erfüllt, ist diese Organisation Außenwelt, wie es die um ihn sich ausbreitende Pflanzenwelt ist. Das Auge gehört letzten Endes der Welt, nicht dem Menschen, wie die Rose, die der Mensch wahrnimmt, nicht ihm, sondern der Welt gehört.
[ 7 ] In dem Zeitalter, das der Mensch in der kosmischen Entwickelung eben durchgemacht hat, traten Erkennende auf, die da sagten: Farbe, Ton, Wärme-Eindrücke seien eigentlich nicht in der Welt, sondern im Menschen. Die «rote Farbe», so sagen sie, sei nichts da draußen in der menschlichen Weltumgebung, sondern nur die Wirkung von etwas Unbekanntem auf den Menschen. - Aber die Wahrheit ist das gerade Gegenteil von dieser Anschauung. Nicht die Farbe gehört mit dem Auge dem Menschenwesen an, sondern das Auge gehört mit der Farbe der Welt an. Der Mensch läßt während seines Erdenlebens nicht die irdische Umgebung in sich hereinströmen, sondern er wächst zwischen Geburt und Tod in diese Außenwelt hinaus.
[ 8 ] Es ist bedeutsam, daß sich am Ende des finsteren Zeitalters, in dem der Mensch in die Welt starrt, ohne das Licht des Geistes auch nur ahnend zu erleben, die wahre Ansicht von dem Verhältnis des Menschen zur Umwelt geradezu in das Gegenbild des Wahren verkehrt.
[ 9 ] Hat der imaginativ Erkennende diejenige Umwelt abgestreift, in der er mit seiner Sinnesorganisation lebt, so tritt in das Erleben eine Organisation ein, von der das Denken so getragen ist wie das sinnliche Bild-Wahrnehmen durch die Sinnesorganisation.
[ 10 ] Und jetzt weiß sich der Mensch durch diese Denk-Organisation mit der kosmischen Sternen-Umgebung so in Zusammenhang, wie er sich vorher durch die Sinnes-Organisation mit der Erden-Umgebung in Zusammenhang gewußt hat. Er erkennt sich als kosmisches Wesen. Die Gedanken sind nicht mehr Schattenbilder; sie sind von Wirklichkeit durchtränkt wie die Sinnesbilder in der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung.
[ 11 ] Steigt nun der Erkennende zur Inspiration auf, so wird er gewahr, daß er diese Welt, die sich auf die Denkorganisation stützt, ebenso abstreifen kann wie die irdische. Er durchschaut, wie er auch mit dieser Denkorganisation nicht dem eigenen Wesen, sondern der Welt angehört. Er durchschaut, wie die Weltgedanken durch seine eigene Denk-Organisation in ihm walten. Er wird wieder gewahr, wie er denkt, indem er nicht Abbilder der Welt in sich hereinnimmt, sondern wie er mit der Denkorganisation in das Weltdenken hinauswächst.
[ 12 ] Sowohl in bezug auf die Sinnesorganisation wie auf das Denksystem ist der Mensch Welt. Die Welt baut sich in ihn hinein. Dadurch ist er im Sinneswahrnehmen und im Denken nicht er selbst, sondern er ist da Welt-Inhalt.
[ 13 ] In die Denkorganisation streckt nun der Mensch das Geistig-Seelische seines Wesens hinein, das weder der Erden- noch der Sternen-Welt angehört, das ganz geistiger Art ist und von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben in dem Menschen west. Dieses Geistig-Seelische ist nur der Inspiration zugänglich.
[ 14 ] So tritt der Mensch aus seiner irdisch-kosmischen Organisation heraus, um durch seine Inspiration als rein geistigseelisches Wesen vor sich zu stehen.
[ 15 ] In dieser rein geistig-seelischen Wesenheit trifft der Mensch auf das Walten seines Schicksals auf.
[ 16 ] Mit der Sinnes-Organisation lebt der Mensch in seinem physischen Leib, mit der Denk-Organisation in seinem ätherischen Leib. Nach Abstreifung beider Organisationen durch das erlebende Erkennen ist er in seinem astralischen Leib.
[ 17 ] Jedesmal, wenn der Mensch von seinem angenommenen Wesen etwas abstreift, wird zwar auf der einen Seite sein Seelen-Inhalt ärmer; aber er wird auf der ändern Seite zugleich reicher. Hat der Mensch nach der Abstreifung des physischen Leibes die Schönheit der sinnenfälligen Pflanzenwelt nur noch abgeblaßt vor sich, so tritt dafür vor seine Seele die ganze Welt der Elementarwesen, die in dem Pflanzenreiche leben.
[ 18 ] Weil es so ist, herrscht aber bei dem wirklich geistig Erkennenden nicht eine asketische Stimmung gegenüber dem, was die Sinne wahrnehmen. Im geistigen Erleben bleibt ihm voll-lebendig das Bedürfnis, das Geistig-Erlebte auch wieder durch die Sinne wahrzunehmen. Und wie bei dem Vollmenschen, der nach Erleben der ganzen Wirklichkeit strebt, die Sinneswahrnehmung die Sehnsucht nach dem Gegenpol, nach der Welt der Elementarwesen weckt, so weckt das Anschauen der Elementarwesen wieder die Sehnsucht nach dem Inhalt der Sinneswahrnehmung.
[ 19 ] Im Gesamt-Menschenleben verlangt der Geist nach dem Sinne, und der Sinn nach dem Geiste. — Im geistigen Dasein wäre Leerheit, wenn nicht als Erinnerung die Erlebnisse des Sinnen-Erlebens darinnen wären; im Sinnes-Erleben wäre Finsternis, wenn nicht leuchtend, obwohl zunächst unterbewußt, die Kraft des Geistigen hereinwirkte.
[ 20 ] Es wird daher, wenn sich der Mensch reif gemacht haben wird, die Betätigung des Michael mitzuerleben, nicht etwa ein Verarmen der Seelen an Natur-Erlebnissen eintreten, sondern im Gegenteil eine Bereicherung. Und auch das Gefühlsleben wird nicht dazu neigen, sich von dem Sinnes-Erleben abzuziehen, sondern es wird freudige Neigung da sein, um die Wunder der Sinnen-Welt voll in die Seele aufzunehmen.
Goetheanum, Februar 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 171 bis 173
(15. März 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorhergehende Betrachtung: Des Menschen Sinnes- und Denkorganisation im Verhältnis zur Welt)
[ 21 ] 171. Die menschliche Sinnesorganisation gehört nicht der Menschen-Wesenheit an, sondern ist von der Umwelt während des Erdenlebens in diese hineingebaut. Das wahrnehmende Auge ist räumlich im Menschen, wesenhaft ist es in der Welt. Und der Mensch streckt sein geistig-seelisches Wesen in dasjenige hinein, was die Welt durch seine Sinne in ihm erlebt. Der Mensch nimmt die physische Umgebung während seines Erdenlebens nicht in sich auf, sondern er wächst mit seinem geistig-seelischen Wesen in diese Umgebung hinein.
[ 22 ] 172. Ähnlich ist es mit der Denk-Organisation. Der Mensch wächst durch sie in das Sternendasein hinein. Er erkennt sich selbst als Sternenwelt. In den Weltgedanken webt und lebt der Mensch, wenn er im erlebenden Erkennen die Sinnes-Organisation abgestreift hat.
[ 23 ] 173. Nach Abstreifung von beidem, der Erden weit und der Sternenwelt, steht der Mensch als geistig-seelisches Wesen vor sich. Da ist er dann nicht mehr Welt, da ist er im wahren Sinne Mensch. Und gewahr werden, was er da erlebt, heißt Sich-Erkennen, wie Gewahr-Werden in der Sinnes- und Denkorganisation Welt-Erkennen heißt.
Man's organization of sense and thought in relation to the world
(Goetheanum, February 1925)
[ 1 ] When man, contemplating his own human being, first applies imaginative cognition to himself, he casts off his sense system in contemplation. For his self-perception, he becomes a being without this system. He does not cease to have images before his soul which were previously carried by the sense organs; but he ceases to feel himself connected with the physical outer world through these organs. The images he has of the physical outer world before his soul are now not borne by the sense organs: they are proof for the immediate perception that the human being, through the sense connection, is still in a changed connection with the natural environment that is not borne by the senses. It is the connection with the spirit that is embodied in the natural external world.
[ 2 ] In such a view, the physical world falls away from the human being. It is the earthly that falls away. The human being no longer feels this earthly in himself.
[ 3 ] One could believe that his self-consciousness thus disappears. This seems to follow from the previous observations, which have shown self-consciousness to be a result of man's connection with the earthly being. But it is not so. What man has acquired through the earthly remains with him, even if after the acquisition he strips the earthly from himself in experiencing cognition.
[ 4 ] Through the spiritual-imaginative view described above, it becomes apparent that the human being has basically not intensively connected his sensory system with himself. It is not actually he who lives in this sensory system, but the environment. This has built itself into the sensory organization with its essence.
[ 5 ] And the imaginative-seeing human being therefore also regards the sensory organization as a piece of the external world. A piece of the outside world that is closer to him than the natural environment, but which is still the outside world. It differs from the rest of the external world only in that man cannot immerse himself in it other than through sensory perception. But he immerses himself in his sensory organization through experience. The sensory organization is the outer world, but man stretches into this outer world his spiritual-soul being, which he brings with him from the spirit world when he enters earthly existence.
[ 6 ] With the exception of the fact that man fills his sense organization with his spiritual-soul being, this organization is the outer world, as is the plant world that spreads out around him. The eye ultimately belongs to the world, not to man, just as the rose that man perceives belongs not to him but to the world.
[ 7 ] In the age that man has just passed through in the cosmic development, cognizers appeared who said that color, sound and warmth impressions are not actually in the world, but in man. The "red color", they say, is nothing out there in the human world environment, but only the effect of something unknown on the human being. - But the truth is the exact opposite of this view. It is not the color that belongs to the human being with the eye, but the eye belongs to the world with the color. During his life on earth, man does not allow the earthly environment to flow into him, but he grows between birth and death into this outer world.
[ 8 ] It is significant that at the end of the dark ages, in which man stares into the world without even suspecting the light of the spirit, the true view of man's relationship to the environment is virtually transformed into the antithesis of the true.
[ 9 ] Once the imaginative cognizer has stripped off the environment in which he lives with his sensory organization, an organization enters into experience by which thinking is supported in the same way as sensory image-perception is supported by sensory organization.
[ 10 ] And now, through this organization of thought, man knows himself to be in connection with the cosmic stellar environment in the same way as he previously knew himself to be in connection with the earthly environment through the organization of the senses. He recognizes himself as a cosmic being. The thoughts are no longer shadow images; they are imbued with reality like the sensory images in sensory perception.
[ 11 ] When the cognizer ascends to inspiration, he becomes aware that he can strip off this world, which is based on the organization of thought, just as he can strip off the earthly world. He sees through how, even with this mental organization, he does not belong to his own being but to the world. He sees through how the thoughts of the world rule in him through his own mental organization. He becomes aware again of how he thinks by not taking images of the world into himself, but how he grows out with the organization of thought into the thinking of the world.
[ 12 ] Both in relation to the organization of the senses and to the system of thought, man is world. The world builds itself into him. As a result, he is not himself in sensory perception and thinking, but he is the content of the world.
[ 13 ] Into the organization of thought man now stretches the spiritual-soulful of his being, which belongs neither to the earth-world nor to the star-world, which is of a completely spiritual kind and from earth-life to earth-life in man west. This spiritual-mental is only accessible to inspiration.
[ 14 ] So man steps out of his earthly-cosmic organization in order to stand before himself as a purely spiritual-soul being through his inspiration.
[ 15 ] In this purely spiritual-soul entity, man encounters the workings of his destiny.
[ 16 ] With the sense-organization man lives in his physical body, with the thinking-organization in his etheric body. After stripping off both organizations through the experiencing cognition, he is in his astral body.
[ 17 ] Every time man strips off something from his assumed being, his soul content becomes poorer on one side; but it becomes richer on the other side at the same time. If, after the shedding of the physical body, the beauty of the sensuous plant world is only pale before him, then the whole world of elemental beings that live in the plant kingdom appears before his soul.
[ 18 ] Because it is so, however, the truly spiritually cognizing person does not have an ascetic mood towards what the senses perceive. In spiritual experience the need to perceive what is spiritually experienced through the senses remains fully alive. And just as sensory perception awakens the longing for the opposite pole, for the world of elemental beings, in the full human being who strives to experience the whole of reality, so looking at the elemental beings again awakens the longing for the content of sensory perception.
[ 19 ] In human life as a whole, the spirit longs for the senses, and the senses for the spirit. - In spiritual existence there would be emptiness if the experiences of sense-experience were not in it as memory; in sense-experience there would be darkness if the power of the spiritual did not shine in, although at first subconsciously.
[ 20 ] When the human being has matured to experience the activity of Michael, there will therefore not be an impoverishment of the souls in natural experiences, but on the contrary an enrichment. And also the emotional life will not tend to withdraw from the sensory experience, but there will be a joyful inclination to fully absorb the wonders of the sensory world into the soul.
Goetheanum, February 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 171 to 173
(March 15, 1925)
(With reference to the previous consideration: Man's organization of sense and thought in relation to the world)
[ 21 ] 171 The human sensory organization does not belong to the human being, but is built into it by the environment during life on earth. The perceiving eye is spatially in man, essentially it is in the world. And man stretches his spiritual-soul being into that which the world experiences in him through his senses. The human being does not absorb the physical environment during his life on earth, but he grows into this environment with his spiritual-soul being.
[ 22 ] 172 It is similar with the mental organization. Through it, the human being grows into star existence. He recognizes himself as a starry world. Man weaves and lives in the world thoughts when he has stripped off the sense organization in experiencing cognition.
[ 23 ] 173 After stripping off both, the earth far and the starry world, man stands before himself as a spiritual-soul being. There he is no longer world, there he is man in the true sense. And becoming aware of what he experiences there is called knowing himself, just as becoming aware in the sensory and mental organization is called knowing the world.