The Michael Mystery
GA 26
XXIX. From Nature to Sub-Nature
[ 1 ] People talk of the Philosophic Age having been superseded, about the middle of the nineteenth century, and having given place to the Age of Natural Science. They talk too, as though the Age of Natural Science were still in continuance at the present day; although many at the same time lay stress on the return to certain philosophic tendencies of thought.
[ 2 ] This is all quite correct as regards the direction taken by the new age in its lines of knowledge, but not in its lines of life. With his mental imagery Man is still living in Nature—even though he brings a mechanistic way of thinking into his understanding of Nature. But with the life of his Will he is living in a machinery of technical processes to such an extent that this has long given an entirely new colouring to the age of Natural Science.
[ 3 ] If one would understand human life, there are two sides from which one must begin by regarding it. From his previous Earth-lives Man brings with him the faculty of forming mental conceptions of the cosmic influences that act from out of the Earth's environment, and of those which are at work within the sphere of the Earth itself. Through his Senses, he perceives the cosmic element that is at work within the earthly realm; through his thinking organism, he thinks the Cosmic that acts upon the Earth from the surrounding Universe.
[ 4 ] Thus he lives through his physical body a life of Perception, and through his ether-body a life of Thought.
[ 5 ] What goes on in the astral body and in the I, is at work in more covert regions of the soul. It is at work, for instance, in a man's destiny or fate. One must not however look for it, to begin with, in the intricate complexities of human destiny, but rather in the simple, elementary processes of life.
[ 6 ] Man unites himself with definite Earth-forces, by the fact of bringing his own body into bearing with the lines of these forces. He learns to stand and walk upright; he learns, with his arms and hands, to bring himself into poise with the balance of the earthly forces.
[ 7 ] Now these are not forces of a kind that work from without, from the Cosmos; they are merely Earthly.
[ 8 ] In reality, nothing that Man experiences in his inner life is an abstraction. He only does not perceive where the experience comes from; and so, of his ideas about realities he makes abstractions. Man talks about the Laws of Mechanics; he thinks he has deduced them by abstraction from the complex of natural phenomena. This is not however the case; but rather, everything which a man realizes in his soul as a purely mechanical law, is learnt from direct inward experience of his own bearings in and towards the Earth-world (in standing, walking, and so on.)
[ 9 ] This however marks the Mechanical as the purely Earthly. For everything which exists in earthly form as Laws of Nature—in colour, sound and so forth—is a gift from out of the Cosmos. Only within the sphere of Earth does all this realm of Nature acquire—engrafted into it—the mechanical element, even as Man meets with this element in his own life and experience only within the Earth-sphere. By far the greater part of all that is at work through the agency of technical science in the civilization of to-day is not Nature, but Sub-Nature. It is a world which is emancipating itself from Nature, downwards.
Observe how the Oriental, when in pursuit of the Spirit, seeks to disengage himself from those states of equilibrium which are due solely to the Earth. He adopts for meditation, a posture which brings him solely into the cosmic equilibrium. The Earth is then no longer exerting an influence upon the disposition of his whole organism. (This is not put forward for imitation, but only to make what was said more plain. Those who are acquainted with my writings, know how the spiritual life of East and West differ in his respect. )
[ 10 ] Man needed this relation with the merely Earthly for the evolution of his Spiritual Soul. But in more recent times there came the tendency, everywhere, in his own doings as well, to give practical effect to this element with which, as Man, he must needs make himself familiar. And as he penetrates into this merely Earthly realm, he encounters the world of Ahriman. He must learn to bring himself and his own human being into right relation with this Ahrimanic element.
[ 11] As yet, in the course hitherto taken by the Technical Age, he has not found the way to readjust his human relation rightly to this new civilization of Ahriman. Man must find the strength, the inner faculty of knowledge and discernment, for his human being not to be overwhelmed by Ahriman in the civilization of Technics. Sub-Nature must be understood in this, its character of under Nature. It will only be so understood if Man rises at least as high in spiritual knowledge of that super-Nature which lies outside the earthly sphere, as he has descended in technical science below it into Sub-Nature.
[ 12 ] The age needs a power of Knowledge that rises above Nature, because it has inwardly to deal with an element which is dangerously at work within its life, and which is one that has sunk below Nature. Of course what is here meant is not any sort of return to earlier states of civilization, but rather that Man should find his way to bring the new conditions of civilization into right relation with himself and with the Cosmos.
[ 13 ] As yet, there are but few who have any feeling of the important spiritual tasks which Man has here before him. Take for instance electricity—hailed at its discover as the very soul of the natural world. Electricity must be recognized in its own peculiar power to lead down from Nature to Sub-Nature. Only, Man must not glide down with it.
[ 14 ] In the time when there was as yet no independent realm of Technics apart from what may rightly be termed Nature, Man found the Spirit in his contemplation of Nature. Technics, becoming detached from Nature, riveted Man's eyes to the mechanistic and material world as the scientific one whence his knowledge must henceforth be derived.
[ 15 ] Now in this world, of all the divine-spiritual life connected with the first origins of human evolution, nothing remains. The purely Ahrimanic dominates this sphere.
[ 16 ] But in a Science of the Spirit the other sphere is created, from which an Ahrimanic element is altogether absent. It is precisely by taking into his mind that form of spiritual intelligence to which the Ahrimanic Powers have no access, that Man gains the strength to meet Ahriman in the world, to encounter him here.
Leading Thoughts
[ 17 ] In the Age of Natural Science, beginning about the middle of the nineteenth century, there is in human civilization a gradual downslide of the occupations and activities of men, not only into the lowest regions of Nature, but down below Nature. Technical civilization becomes Sub-Nature.
[ 18 ] This makes it necessary for Man, in living inner experience, to come to a Spirit-Knowledge in which he rises as high above, into Super-Nature, as he does down below Nature with his sub-natural, technical occupations. He thereby creates within him the power, not to ‘go under.’
[ 19 ] An earlier view of the natural world still contained within it the Spirit with which human evolution is bound up in its first sources. Little by little, this Sprit has vanished from Man's picture of Nature; the purely Ahrimanic element has taken possession of the picture, and has overflowed from thence into the technical civilization of to-day.
Von der Natur zur Unter-Natur
(Goetheanum, März 1925)
[ 1 ] Man spricht davon, daß mit der Überwindung des philosophischen Zeitalters das naturwissenschaftliche in der Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts heraufgezogen ist. Und man spricht auch so, daß dieses naturwissenschaftliche Zeitalter heute noch andauert, indem zugleich viele betonen, man habe sich zu gewissen philosophischen Intentionen wieder zurückgefunden.
[ 2 ] Das alles entspricht den Erkenntniswegen, die die neuere Zeit eingeschlagen hat, nicht aber den Lebenswegen. Mit seinen Vorstellungen lebt der Mensch noch in der Natur, wenn er auch das mechanische Denken in die Naturauffassung hineinträgt. Mit seinem Willensleben aber lebt er in so weitem Umfange in einer Mechanik des technischen Geschehens, daß dies dem naturwissenschaftlichen Zeitalter seit lange eine ganz neue Nuance gegeben hat.
[ 3 ] Will man das menschliche Leben verstehen, so muß man es zunächst von zwei Seiten her betrachten. Aus den vorigen Erdenleben bringt sich der Mensch die Fähigkeit mit, das Kosmische aus dem Erden-Umkreis und das im Erdenbereich wirkende vorzustellen. Er nimmt durch die Sinne das auf der Erde wirksame Kosmische wahr, und er denkt durch seine Denkorganisation das aus dem Erden-Umkreis auf die Erde hereinwirkende Kosmische.
[ 4 ] So lebt er durch seinen physischen Leib im Wahrnehmen, durch seinen Ätherleib im Denken.
[ 5 ] Das, was in seinem astralischen Leib und in seinem Ich vor sich geht, waltet in verborgeneren Regionen der Seele. Es waltet zum Beispiel im Schicksal. Aber man muß es zunächst nicht in den komplizierten Schicksalszusammenhängen, sondern in den elementarischen, einfachen Lebensvorgängen aufsuchen.
[ 6 ] Der Mensch verbindet sich mit gewissen Erdenkräften, indem er seinen Organismus in diese Kräfte hineinorientiert. Er lernt aufrechtstehen und gehen, er lernt mit seinen Armen und Händen sich in das Gleichgewicht der irdischen Kräfte hineinstellen.
[ 7 ] Nun sind diese Kräfte keine solchen, die vom Kosmos hereinwirken, sondern die bloß irdisch sind.
[ 8 ] In Wirklichkeit ist nichts eine Abstraktion, das der Mensch erlebt. Er durchschaut nur nicht, woher das Erlebnis kommt, und so bildet er aus Ideen über Wirklichkeiten Abstraktionen. Der Mensch redet von der mechanischen Gesetzmäßigkeit. Er glaubt, sie aus den Naturzusammenhängen heraus abstrahiert zu haben. Das ist aber nicht der Fall, sondern alles, was der Mensch an rein mechanischen Gesetzen in der Seele erlebt, ist an seinem Orientierungsverhältnis zur Erdenwelt (an seinem Stehen, Gehen usw.) innerlich erfahren.
[ 9 ] Damit aber kennzeichnet sich das Mechanische als das rein Irdische. Denn das Naturgesetzmäßige, in Farbe, Ton und so weiter ist im Irdischen aus dem Kosmos zugeflossen. Erst im Erdenbereich wird auch dem Naturgesetzmäßigen das Mechanische eingepflanzt, wie ihm der Mensch mit seinem eigenen Erleben erst im Erdenbereich gegenübersteht.
[ 10 ] Das weitaus meiste dessen, was heute durch die Technik in der Kultur wirkt und in das er mit seinem Leben im höchsten Grade versponnen ist, das ist nicht Natur, sondern Unter-Natur. Es ist eine Welt, die sich nach unten hin von der Natur emanzipiert.
[ 11 ] Man sehe, wie der Orientale, wenn er nach dem Geiste strebt, herauszukommen sucht aus den Gleichgewichtszuständen, die bloß vom Irdischen kommen. Er nimmt eine Meditationsstellung an, die ihn in das bloße kosmische Gleichgewicht hineinbringt. Die Erde wirkt dann nicht mehr auf die Orientierung seines Organismus. (Dies sei nicht zur Nachahmung, sondern nur zur Verdeutlichung des hier Vorgebrachten gesagt. Wer meine Schriften kennt, weiß, wie sich in dieser Richtung östliches und westliches Geistesleben unterscheiden.)
[ 12 ] Der Mensch brauchte die Beziehung zu dem bloß Irdischen für seine Bewußtseinsseelenentwickelung. Da kam denn in der neuesten Zeit die Tendenz zustande, überall auch im Tun das zu verwirklichen, in das sich der Mensch einleben muß. Er trifft, indem er sich in das bloß Irdische einlebt, das Ahrimanische. Er muß sich mit seinem eigenen Wesen in das rechte Verhältnis zu diesem Ahrimanischen bringen.
[ 13 ] Aber es entzieht sich ihm in dem bisherigen Verlauf des technischen Zeitalters noch die Möglichkeit, auch gegenüber der ahrimanischen Kultur das rechte Verhältnis zu finden. Der Mensch muß die Stärke, die innere Erkenntniskraft finden, um von Ahriman in der technischen Kultur nicht überwältigt zu werden. Die Unter-Natur muß als solche begriffen werden. Sie kann es nur, wenn der Mensch in der geistigen Erkenntnis mindestens gerade so weit hinaufsteigt zur außerirdischen Über-Natur, wie er in der Technik in die Unter-Natur heruntergestiegen ist. Das Zeitalter braucht eine über die Natur gehende Erkenntnis, weil es innerlich mit einem gefährlich wirkenden Lebensinhalt fertig werden muß, der unter die Natur heruntergesunken ist. Es soll hier natürlich nicht etwa davon gesprochen werden, daß man zu früheren Kulturzuständen wieder zurückkehren soll, sondern davon, daß der Mensch den Weg finde, die neuen Kulturverhältnisse in ein rechtes Verhältnis zu sich und zum Kosmos zu bringen.
[ 14 ] Heute fühlen noch die wenigsten, welch bedeutsamen geistigen Aufgaben sich da für den Menschen herausbilden. Die Elektrizität, die nach ihrer Entdeckung als die Seele des natürlichen Daseins gepriesen wurde, sie muß erkannt werden in ihrer Kraft, von der Natur in die Unter-Natur hinabzuleiten. Es darf der Mensch nur nicht mitgleiten.
[ 15 ] In der Zeit, in der es eine von der eigentlichen Natur unabhängige Technik noch nicht gab, fand der Mensch den Geist in der Naturanschauung. Die sich unabhängig machende Technik ließ den Menschen auf das Mechanistisch-Materielle als das für ihn nun wissenschaftlich werdende hinstarren. In diesem ist nun alles Göttlich-Geistige, das mit dem Ursprünge der Menschheitsentwickelung zusammenhängt, abwesend. Das rein Ahrimanische beherrscht die Sphäre.
[ 16 ] In einer Geistwissenschaft wird nun die andere Sphäre geschaffen, in der ein Ahrimanisches gar nicht vorhanden ist. Und gerade durch das erkennende Aufnehmen derjenigen Geistigkeit, zu der die ahrimanischen Mächte keinen Zutritt haben, wird der Mensch gestärkt, um in der Welt Ahriman gegenüberzutreten.
Goetheanum, März 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 183 bis 185
(12. April 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehenden Betrachtungen über Natur und Unter-Natur)
[ 17 ]
183. Im naturwissenschaftlichen Zeitalter, das um die Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts beginnt, gleitet die Kulturbetätigung der Menschen allmählich nicht nur in die untersten Gebiete der Natur, sondern unter die Natur hinunter. Die Technik wird Unter-Natur.[ 18 ] 184. Das erfordert, daß der Mensch erlebend eine Geist-Erkenntnis finde, in der er sich eben so hoch in die Über-Natur erhebt, wie er mit der unternatürlichen technischen Betätigung unter die Natur hinuntersinkt. Er schafft dadurch in seinem Innern die Kraft, nicht unterzusinken.
[ 19 ] 185. Eine frühere Naturanschauung barg noch den Geist in sich, mit dem der Ursprung der menschlichen Entwickelung verbunden ist; allmählich ist dieser Geist aus der Naturanschauung geschwunden und der rein ahrimanische ist in sie eingezogen und von ihr in die technische Kultur übergeflossen.
From nature to sub-nature
(Goetheanum, March 1925)
[ 1 ] It is said that with the overcoming of the philosophical age, the natural scientific age arose in the middle of the nineteenth century. And it is also said that this scientific age still continues today, while at the same time many emphasize that we have returned to certain philosophical intentions.
[ 2 ] This all corresponds to the paths of knowledge that modern times have taken, but not to the ways of life. With his ideas, man still lives in nature, even if he brings mechanical thinking into the conception of nature. With his life of will, however, he lives to such an extent in a mechanics of technical events that this has long since given the scientific age a completely new nuance.
[ 3 ] If we want to understand human life, we must first look at it from two sides. From previous lives on earth, man brings with him the ability to imagine the cosmic from the earthly environment and that which is active in the earthly realm. Through the senses he perceives the cosmic working on earth, and through his mental organization he thinks the cosmic working on earth from the earth's environment.
[ 4 ] So he lives through his physical body in perception, through his etheric body in thinking.
[ 5 ] What goes on in his astral body and in his ego takes place in more hidden regions of the soul. It operates in fate, for example. However, one must first seek it out not in the complicated contexts of fate, but in the elementary, simple processes of life.
[ 6 ] The human being connects with certain earth forces by orienting his organism towards these forces. He learns to stand upright and walk, he learns to place himself in the balance of earthly forces with his arms and hands.
[ 7 ] Now these forces are not those which act in from the cosmos, but which are only earthly.
[ 8 ] In reality, nothing that man experiences is an abstraction. He just does not realize where the experience comes from, and so he forms abstractions from ideas about realities. Man talks about mechanical laws. He believes that he has abstracted them from natural contexts. However, this is not the case, but everything that man experiences in the soul in terms of purely mechanical laws is experienced inwardly in his orientation relationship to the earthly world (in his standing, walking, etc.).
[ 9 ] Thus, however, the mechanical is characterized as the purely earthly. For the natural law, in color, sound and so on, has flowed into the earthly from the cosmos. Only in the earthly realm is the mechanical also implanted into the natural law, just as the human being with his own experience only confronts it in the earthly realm.
[ 10 ] The vast majority of what is at work in culture today through technology and in which he is highly entangled with his life is not nature, but sub-nature. It is a world that is emancipating itself from nature in a downward direction.
[ 11 ] You can see how the Oriental, when he strives for the spirit, tries to get out of the states of equilibrium that come merely from the earthly. He assumes a meditative position that brings him into the mere cosmic balance. The earth then no longer affects the orientation of his organism. (This is not said for the sake of imitation, but only to clarify what has been said here. Anyone familiar with my writings knows how Eastern and Western spiritual life differ in this respect.)
[ 12 ] Man needed the relationship to the merely earthly for the development of his consciousness soul. In recent times, therefore, there has been a tendency to realize everywhere in action that which man must settle into. By settling into the merely earthly, he encounters the ahrimanic. He must bring himself with his own being into the right relationship with this Ahrimanic.
[ 13 ] But in the course of the technical age to date, the possibility of finding the right relationship to the Ahrimanic culture still eludes him. Man must find the strength, the inner power of cognition, in order not to be overwhelmed by Ahriman in the technical culture. The sub-nature must be understood as such. It can only do so if man ascends in spiritual knowledge at least as far to the extraterrestrial super-nature as he has descended in technology to the sub-nature. The age needs a knowledge that goes above nature, because it must inwardly come to terms with a dangerous life content that has sunk below nature. Of course, we are not talking here about returning to earlier states of culture, but about man finding the way to bring the new cultural conditions into a right relationship with himself and the cosmos.
[ 14 ] Today, very few people realize what important spiritual tasks are emerging for man. Electricity, which after its discovery was praised as the soul of natural existence, must be recognized in its power to lead down from nature into sub-nature. Only man must not glide along with it.
[ 15 ] In the time when technology did not yet exist independently of nature itself, man found the spirit in the view of nature. Technology, which was becoming independent, made man stare at the mechanistic-material as that which was now becoming scientific for him. In this, everything divine-spiritual, which is connected with the origin of human development, is now absent. The purely Ahrimanic dominates the sphere.
[ 16 ] In a spiritual science the other sphere is now created, in which the Ahrimanic is not present at all. And it is precisely by recognizing that spirituality to which the Ahrimanic powers have no access that man is strengthened to face Ahriman in the world.
Goetheanum, March 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 183 to 185
(April 12, 1925)
(With reference to the preceding considerations on nature and sub-nature)
[ 17 ] 183. In the age of natural science, which begins around the middle of the nineteenth century, the cultural activity of man gradually slides down not only into the lowest regions of nature, but under nature. Technology becomes sub-nature.
[ 18 ] 184 This requires man to experience a spiritual knowledge in which he rises just as high into the super-nature as he sinks below nature with the sub-natural technical activity. He thereby creates within himself the power not to sink below.
[ 19 ] 185. An earlier view of nature still contained within itself the spirit with which the origin of human development is connected; gradually this spirit has disappeared from the view of nature and the purely ahrimanic has entered it and flowed over from it into technical culture.