Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
[ 1 ] In future there will be found in these columns something in the nature of anthroposophical ‘Leading Thoughts’ or principles. These may be taken to contain advice on the direction which members can give to the lectures and discussions in the several Groups. It is but a stimulus and suggestion which the Goetheanum would like to give to the whole Society. The independence of individual leading members in their work is in no way to be interfered with. We shall develop healthily if the Society gives free play to what leading members have to offer in all the different Groups. This will enrich and make manifold the life of the Society.
[ 2 ] But it should also be possible for a unity of consciousness to arise in the whole Society—which will happen if the initiative and ideas that emerge at different places become known everywhere. Thus in these columns we shall sum up in short paragraphs the descriptions and lines of thought given by me in my lectures to the Society at the Goetheanum. I imagine that those who lecture or conduct the discussions in the Groups will be able to take what is here given as guiding lines, with which they may freely connect what they have to say. This will contribute to the unity and organic wholeness of the work of the Society without there being any question of constraint.
[ 3 ] The plan will become fruitful for the whole Society if it meets with a true response—if the leading members will inform the Executive at the Goetheanum too of the content and nature of their own lectures and suggestions. Then only shall we grow, from a chaos of separate Groups, into a Society with a real spiritual content.
[ 4 ] The Leading Thoughts here given are meant to open up subjects for study and discussion. Points of contact with them will be found in countless places in the anthroposophical books and lecture-courses, so that the subjects thus opened up can be enlarged upon and the discussions in the Groups centred around them.
[ 5 ] When new ideas emerge among leading members in the several Groups, these too can be brought into connection with the suggestions we shall send out from the Goetheanum. We would thus provide an open framework for all the spiritual activity in the Society.
[ 6 ] Spiritual activity can of course only thrive by free unfoldment on the part of the active individuals—and we must never sin against this truth. But there is no need to do so when one group or member within the Society acts in proper harmony with the other. If such co-operation were impossible, the attachment of individuals or groups to the Society would always remain a purely external thing—where it should in fact be felt as an inner reality.
[ 7 ] It cannot be allowed that the existence of the Anthroposophical Society is merely made use of by this or that individual as an opportunity to say what he personally wishes to say with this or that intention. The Society must rather be the place where true Anthroposophy is cultivated. Anything that is not Anthroposophy can, after all, be pursued outside it. The Society is not there for extraneous objects.
[ 8 ] It has not helped us that in the last few years individual members have brought into the Society their own personal wishes simply because they thought that as it increased it would become a suitable sphere of action for them. It may be said, Why was this not met and counteracted with the proper firmness? If that had been done, we should now be hearing it said on all sides, ‘Oh, if only the initiative that arose in this or that quarter had been followed up at the time, how much farther we should be today!’ Well, many things were followed up, which ended in sad disaster and only resulted in throwing us back.
[ 9 ] But now it is enough. The demonstrations which individual experimenters in the Society wished to provide are done with. Such things need not be repeated endlessly. In the Executive at the Goetheanum we have a body which intends to cultivate Anthroposophy itself; and the Society should be an association of human beings who have the same object and are ready to enter into a living understanding with the Executive in the pursuit of it.
[ 10 ] We must not think that our ideal in the Society can be attained from one day to the next. Time will be needed, and patience too. If we imagined that what lay in the intentions of the Christmas meeting could be brought into existence in a few weeks' time, this again would be harmful.
Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts given out as suggestions from the Goetheanum
[ 11 ] 1. Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart, of the life of feeling; and it can be justified only inasmuch as it can satisfy this inner need. He alone can acknowledge Anthroposophy, who finds in it what he himself in his own inner life feels impelled to seek. Hence only they can be anthroposophists who feel certain questions on the nature of man and the universe as an elemental need of life, just as one feels hunger and thirst.
[ 12 ] 2. Anthroposophy communicates knowledge that is gained in a spiritual way. Yet it only does so because everyday life, and the science founded on sense-perception and intellectual activity, lead to a barrier along life's way—a limit where the life of the soul in man would die if it could go no farther. Everyday life and science do not lead to this limit in such a way as to compel man to stop short at it. For at the very frontier where the knowledge derived from sense perception ceases, there is opened through the human soul itself the further outlook into the spiritual world.
[ 13 ] 3. There are those who believe that with the limits of knowledge derived from sense perception the limits of all insight are given. Yet if they would carefully observe how they become conscious of these limits, they would find in the very consciousness of the limits the faculties to transcend them. The fish swims up to the limits of the water; it must return because it lacks the physical organs to live outside this element. Man reaches the limits of knowledge attainable by sense perception; but he can recognise that on the way to this point powers of soul have arisen in him—powers whereby the soul can live in an element that goes beyond the horizon of the senses.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 14 ] 4. For certainty of feeling and for a strong unfolding of his will, man needs a knowledge of the spiritual world. However widely he may feel the greatness, beauty and wisdom of the natural world, this world gives him no answer to the question of his own being. His own being holds together the materials and forces of the natural world in the living and sensitive form of man until the moment when he passes through the gate of death. Then Nature receives this human form, and Nature cannot hold it together; she can but dissolve and disperse it. Great, beautiful, wisdom-filled Nature does indeed answer the question, How is the human form dissolved and destroyed? but not the other question, How is it maintained and held together? No theoretical objection can dispel this question from the feeling soul of man, unless indeed he prefers to lull himself to sleep. The presence of this question must incessantly maintain alive, in every human soul that is really awake, the longing for spiritual paths of World-knowledge.
[ 15 ] 5. For peace in his inner life, man needs Self-knowledge in the Spirit. He finds himself in his Thinking, Feeling and Willing. He sees how Thinking, Feeling and Willing are dependent on the natural man. In all their developments, they must follow the health and sickness, the strengthening and weakening of the body. Every sleep blots them out. Thus the experience of everyday life shows the spiritual consciousness of man in the greatest imaginable dependence on his bodily existence. Man suddenly becomes aware that in this realm of ordinary experience Self-knowledge may be utterly lost—the search for it a vain quest. Then first the anxious question arises: Can there be a Self-knowledge transcending the ordinary experiences of life? Can we have any certainty at all, as to a true Self of man? Anthroposophy would fain answer this question on a firm basis of spiritual experience. In so doing it takes its stand, not on any opinion or belief, but on a conscious experience in the Spirit—an experience in its own nature no less certain than the conscious experience in the body.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 16 ] 6. When we look out on lifeless Nature, we find a world full of inner relationships of law and order. We seek for these relationships and find in them the content of the ‘Laws of Nature.’ We find, moreover, that by virtue of these Laws lifeless Nature forms a connected whole with the entire Earth. We may now pass from this earthly connection which rules in all lifeless things, to contemplate the living world of plants. We see how the Universe beyond the Earth sends in from distances of space the forces which draw the Living forth out of the womb of the Lifeless. In all living things we are made aware of an element of being, which, freeing itself from the mere earthly connection, makes manifest the forces that work down on to the Earth from realms of cosmic space. As in the eye we become aware of the luminous object which confronts it, so in the tiniest plant we are made aware of the nature of the Light from beyond the Earth. Through this ascent in contemplation, we can perceive the difference of the earthly and physical which holds sway in the lifeless world, from the extra-earthly and ethereal which abounds in all living things.
[ 17 ] 7. We find man with his transcendent being of soul and spirit placed into this world of the earthly and the extra earthly. Inasmuch as he is placed into the earthly connection which contains all lifeless things, he bears with him his physical body. Inasmuch as he unfolds within him the forces which the living world draws into this earthly sphere from cosmic space, he has an etheric or life-body. The trend of science in modern times has taken no account of this essential contrast of the earthly and the ethereal. For this very reason, science has given birth to the most impossible conceptions of the ether. For fear of losing their way in fanciful and nebulous ideas, scientists have refrained from dwelling on the real contrast. But unless we do so, we can attain no true insight into the Universe and Man.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 18 ] 8. We may consider the nature of man in so far as it results from his physical and his etheric body. We shall find that all the phenomena of man's life which proceed from this side of his nature remain in the unconscious, nor do they ever lead to consciousness. Consciousness is not lighted up but darkened when the activity of the physical and the etheric body is enhanced. Conditions of faintness and the like can be recognised as the result of such enhancement. Following up this line of thought, we recognise that something is at work in man—and in the animal—which is not of the same nature as the physical and the etheric. It takes effect, not when the forces of the physical and the etheric are active in their own way, but when they cease to be thus active. In this way we arrive at the conception of the astral body.
[ 19 ] 9. The reality of this astral body is discovered when we rise in meditation from the Thinking that is stimulated by the outer senses to an inner act of Vision. To this end, the Thinking that is stimulated from without must be taken hold of inwardly, and experienced as such, intensely in the soul, apart from its relation to the outer world. Through the strength of soul thus engendered, we become aware that there are inner organs of perception, which see a spiritual reality working in the animal and man at the very point where the physical and the etheric body are held in check in order that consciousness may arise.
[ 20 ] 10. Consciousness, therefore, does not arise by a further enhancement of activities which proceed from the physical and etheric bodies. On the contrary, these two bodies, with their activities, must be reduced to zero—nay even below zero—to ‘make room’ for the working of consciousness. They do not generate consciousness, they only furnish the ground on which the Spirit must stand in order to bring forth consciousness within the earthly life. As man on Earth needs the ground on which to stand, so does the Spiritual, within the earthly realm, need a material foundation on which it may unfold itself. And as a planet in the cosmic spaces does not require any ground beneath it in order to assert its place, so too the Spirit, when it looks—not through the senses into material—but through its own power into spiritual things, needs no material foundation to call its conscious activity to life.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 21 ] 11. The Self-consciousness which is summed up in the ‘I’ or ‘Ego’ emerges out of the sea of consciousness. Consciousness arises when the forces of the physical and etheric bodies disintegrate these bodies, and thus make way for the Spiritual to enter into man. For through this disintegration is provided the ground on which the life of consciousness can develop. If, however, the organism is not to be destroyed, the disintegration must be followed by a reconstruction. Thus, when for an experience in consciousness a process of disintegration has taken place, that which has been demolished will be built up again exactly. The experience of Self-consciousness lies in the perception of this upbuilding process. The same process can be observed with inner vision. We then feel how the Conscious is led over into the Self-conscious by man's creating out of himself an after-image of the merely Conscious. The latter has its image in the emptiness, as it were, produced within the organism by the disintegration. It has passed into Self-consciousness when the emptiness has been filled up again from within. The Being, capable of this ‘fulfilment,’ is experienced as ‘I.’
[ 22 ] 12. The reality of the ‘I’ is found when the inner vision whereby the astral body is known and taken hold of, is carried a stage further. The Thinking which has become alive in meditation must now be permeated by the Will. To begin with we simply gave ourselves up to this new Thinking, without active Will. We thereby enabled spiritual realities to enter into this thinking life, even as in outer sense perception colour enters the eye or sound the ear. What we have thus called to life in our consciousness by a more passive devotion, must now be reproduced by ourselves, by an act of Will. When we do so, there enters into this act of Will the perception of our own ‘I’ or Ego.
[ 23 ] 13. On the path of meditation we discover, beside the form in which the ‘I’ occurs in ordinary consciousness, three further forms: (1) In the consciousness which takes hold of the etheric body, the ‘I’ appears in picture-form; yet the picture is at the same time active Being, and as such it gives man form and figure, growth, and the plastic forces that create his body. (2) In the consciousness which takes hold of the astral body, the ‘I’ is manifested as a member of a spiritual world whence it receives its forces. (3) In the consciousness just indicated, as the last to be achieved, the ‘I’ reveals itself as a self-contained spiritual Being—relatively independent of the surrounding spiritual world.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 24 ] 14. The second form of the ‘I’—first of the three forms that were indicated in the last section—appears as a ‘picture’ of the I. When we become aware of this picture-character, a light is also thrown on the quality of thought in which the ‘I’ appears before the ordinary consciousness. With all manner of reflections, men have sought within this consciousness for the ‘true I.’ Yet an earnest insight into the experiences of the ordinary consciousness will suffice to show that the ‘true I’ cannot be found therein. Only a shadow-in-thought is able to appear there—a shadowy reflection, even less than a picture. The truth of this seizes us all the more when we progress to the ‘I’ as a picture, which lives in the etheric body. Only now are we rightly kindled to search for the ‘I’, for the true being of man.
[ 25 ] 15. Insight into the form in which the ‘I’ lives in the astral body leads to a right feeling of the relation of man to the spiritual world. For ordinary consciousness this form of the ‘I’ is buried in the dark depths of the unconscious, where man enters into connection with the spiritual being of the Universe through Inspiration. Ordinary consciousness experiences only a faint echo-in-feeling of this Inspiration from the wide expanse of the spiritual world, which holds sway in depths of the soul.
[ 26 ] 16. It is the third form of the ‘I’ which gives us insight into the independent Being of man within a spiritual world. It makes us feel how, with his earthly-sensible nature, man stands before himself as a mere manifestation of what he really is. Here lies the starting-point of true Self-knowledge. For the Self which fashions man in his true nature is revealed to him in Knowledge only when he progresses from the thought of the ‘I’ to its picture, from the picture to the creative forces of the picture, and from the creative forces to the spiritual Beings who sustain them.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 27 ] 17. Man is a being who unfolds his life in the midst, between two regions of the world. With his bodily development he is a member of a ‘lower world’; with his soul-nature he himself constitutes a ‘middle world’; and with his faculties of Spirit he is ever striving towards an ‘upper world.’ He owes his bodily development to all that Nature has given him; he bears the being of his soul within him as his own portion; and he discovers in himself the forces of the Spirit, as the gifts that lead him out beyond himself to participate in a Divine World.
[ 28 ] 18. The Spirit is creative in these three regions of the World. Nature is not void of Spirit. We lose even Nature from our knowledge if we do not become aware of the Spirit within her. Nevertheless, in Nature's existence we find the Spirit as it were asleep. Yet just as sleep has its task in human life—as the ‘I’ must be asleep at one time in order to be the more awake at another—so must the World-Spirit be asleep where Nature is, in order to be the more awake elsewhere.
[ 29 ] 19. In relation to the World, the soul of man is like a dreamer if it does not pay heed to the Spirit at work within it. The Spirit awakens the dreams of the soul from their ceaseless weaving in the inner life, to active participation in the World where man's true Being has its origin. As the dreamer shuts himself off from the surrounding physical world and entwines himself into himself, so would the soul lose connection with the Spirit of the World in whom it has its source, if it turned a deaf ear to the awakening calls of the Spirit within it.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 30 ] 20. For a right development of the life of the human soul, it is essential for man to become fully conscious of working actively from out of spiritual sources in his being. Many adherents of the modern scientific world-conception are victims of a strong prejudice in this respect. They say that a universal causality is dominant in all phenomena of the world; and that if man believes that he himself, out of his own resources, can be the cause of anything, it is a mere illusion on his part. Modern Natural Science wishes to follow observation and experience faithfully in all things, but in its prejudice about the hidden causality of man's inner sources of action it sins against its own principle. For the free and active working, straight from the inner resources of the human being, is a perfectly elementary experience of self-observation. It cannot be argued away; rather must we harmonise it with our insight into the universal causation of things within the order of Nature.
[ 31 ] 21. Non-recognition of this impulse out of the Spirit working in the inner life of man, is the greatest hindrance to the attainment of an insight into the spiritual world. For to consider our own being as a mere part of the order of Nature is in reality to divert the soul's attention from our own being. Nor can we penetrate into the spiritual world unless we first take hold of the Spirit where it is immediately given to us, namely in clear and open-minded self-observation.
[ 32 ] 22. Self-observation is the first beginning in the observation of the Spirit. It can indeed be the right beginning, for if it is true, man cannot possibly stop short at it, but is bound to progress to the further spiritual content of the World. As the human body pines away when bereft of physical nourishment, so will the man who rightly observes himself feel that his Self is becoming stunted if he does not see working into it the forces from a creative spiritual World outside him.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 33 ] 23. Passing through the gate of death, man goes out into the spiritual world, in that he feels falling away from him all the impressions and contents of soul which he received during earthly life through the bodily senses and the brain. His consciousness then has before it in an all-embracing picture-tableau the whole content of life which, during his earthly wanderings, entered as pictureless thoughts into his memory, or which—remaining unnoticed by the earthly consciousness—nevertheless made a subconscious impression on his soul. After a very few days these pictures grow faint and fade away. When they have altogether vanished, he knows that he has laid aside his etheric body too; for in the etheric body he can recognise the bearer of these pictures.
[ 34 ] 24. Having laid aside the etheric body, man has the astral body and the Ego as the members of his being still remaining to him. The astral body, so long as it is with him, brings to his consciousness all that during earthly life was the unconscious content of the soul when at rest in sleep. This content includes the judgements instilled into the astral body by Spirit-beings of a higher World during the periods of sleep—judgements which remain concealed from earthly consciousness. Man now lives through his earthly life a second time, yet so, that the content of his soul is now the judgement of his thought and action from the standpoint of the Spirit-world. He lives it through in backward order: first the last night, then the last but one, and so on.
[ 35 ] 25. This judgement of his life, which man experiences in the astral body after passing through the gate of death, lasts as long as the sum-total of the times he spent during his earthly life in sleep.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 36 ] 26. Only when the astral body has been laid aside—when the judgement of his life is over—man enters the spiritual world. There he stands in like relation to Beings of purely spiritual character as on Earth to the beings and processes of the Nature-kingdoms. In spiritual experience, everything that was his outer world on Earth now becomes his inner world. He no longer merely perceives it, but experiences it in its spiritual being which was hid from him on Earth, as his own world.
[ 37 ] 27. In the Spirit-realm, man as he is on Earth becomes an outer world. We gaze upon him, even as on Earth we gaze upon the stars and clouds, the mountains and rivers. Nor is this ‘outer world’ any less rich in content than the glory of the Cosmos as it appears to us in earthly life.
[ 38 ] 28. The forces begotten by the human Spirit in the Spirit-realm work on in the fashioning of earthly Man, even as the deeds we accomplish in the Physical work on as a content of the soul in the life after death.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 39 ] 29. In the evolved Imaginative Knowledge there works what lives as soul and spirit in the inner life of man, fashioning the physical body in its life, and unfolding man's existence in the physical world on this bodily foundation. Over against the physical body, whose substances are renewed again and again in the process of metabolism, we here come to the inner nature of man, unfolding itself continuously from birth (or conception) until death. Over against the physical Space-body, we come to a Time-body.
[ 40 ] 30. In the Inspired Knowledge there lives, in picture-form, what man experiences in a spiritual environment in the time between death and a new birth. What Man is in his own Being and in relation to cosmic worlds—without the physical and etheric bodies by means of which he undergoes his earthly life—is here made visible.
[ 41 ] 31. In the Intuitive Knowledge there comes to consciousness the working-over of former earthly lives into the present. In the further course of evolution these former lives have been divested of their erstwhile connections with the physical world. They have become the purely spiritual kernel of man's being, and, as such, are working in his present life. In this way, they too are an object of Knowledge—of that Knowledge which results with the further unfolding of the Imaginative and Inspired.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 42 ] 32. In the head of man, the physical Organisation is a copy, an impress of the spiritual individuality. The physical and the etheric part of the head stand out as complete and self-contained pictures of the Spiritual; beside them, in independent soul-spiritual existence, there stand the astral and the Ego-part. Thus in the head of man we have to do with a development, side by side, of the physical and etheric, relatively independent on the one hand, and of the astral and Ego-organisation on the other.
[ 43 ] 33. In the limbs and metabolic part of man the four members of the human being are intimately bound up with one another. The Ego-organisation and astral body are not there beside the physical and etheric part. They are within them, vitalising them, working in their growth, their faculty of movement and so forth. Through this very fact, the limbs and metabolic part of man is like a germinating seed, striving for ever to unfold; striving continually to become a ‘head,’ and—during the earthly life of man—no less continually prevented.
[ 44 ] 34. The rhythmic Organisation stands in the midst. Here the Ego-organisation and astral body alternately unite with the physical and etheric part, and loose themselves again. The breathing and the circulation of the blood are the physical impress of this alternate union and loosening. The inbreathing process portrays the union; the out-breathing the loosening. The processes in the arterial blood represent the union; those in the venous blood the loosening.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 45 ] 35. We understand the physical nature of man only if we regard it as a picture of the soul and spirit. Taken by itself, the physical corporality of man is unintelligible. But it is a picture of the soul and spirit in different ways in its several members. The head is the most perfect and complete symbolic picture of the soul and spirit. All that pertains to the system of the metabolism and the limbs is like a picture that has not yet assumed its finished forms, but is still being worked upon. Lastly, in all that belongs to the rhythmic Organisation of man, the relation of the soul and spirit to the body is intermediate between these opposites.
[ 46 ] 36. If we contemplate the human head from this spiritual point of view, we shall find in it a help to the understanding of spiritual Imaginations. For in the forms of the head, Imaginative forms are as it were coagulated to the point of physical density.
[ 47 ] 37. Similarly, if we contemplate the rhythmic part of man's Organisation it will help us to understand Inspirations. The physical appearance of the rhythms of life bears even in the sense-perceptible picture the character of Inspiration. Lastly, in the system of the metabolism and the limbs—if we observe it in full action, in the exercise of its necessary or possible functions—we have a picture, supersensible yet sensible, of pure supersensible Intuitions.
[ 1 ] Man soll an dieser Stelle in der Zukunft eine Art anthroposophischer Leitsätze finden. Sie sind so aufzufassen, daß sie Ratschläge enthalten über die Richtung, welche die Vorträge und Besprechungen in den einzelnen Gruppen der Gesellschaft durch die führenden Mitglieder nehmen können. Es wird dabei nur an eine Anregung gedacht, die vom Goetheanum aus der gesamten Gesellschaft gegeben werden möchte. Die Selbständigkeit im Wirken der einzelnen führenden Mitglieder soll damit nicht angetastet werden. Es ist gut, wenn die Gesellschaft sich so entfaltet, daß in völlig freier Art in den einzelnen Gruppen zur Geltung kommt, was die führenden Mitglieder zu sagen haben. Dadurch wird das Leben der Gesellschaft bereichert und in sich mannigfaltig gestaltet werden.
[ 2 ] Aber es sollte ein einheitliches Bewußtsein in der Gesellschaft entstehen können. Das kann geschehen, wenn man von den Anregungen, die an den einzelnen Orten gegeben werden, überall weiß. Deshalb werden hier in kurzen Sätzen solche Darstellungen zusammengefaßt werden, die von mir am Goetheanum für die Gesellschaft in Vorträgen gegeben werden. Ich denke mir, daß dann von denjenigen Persönlichkeiten, die in den Gruppen (Zweigen) Vorträge halten oder die Besprechungen leiten, dabei das Gegebene als Richtlinien genommen werde, um in freier Art daran anzuknüpfen. Es kann dadurch zu einer einheitlichen Gestaltung im Wirken der Gesellschaft etwas beigetragen werden, ohne daß an einen Zwang in irgendeiner Art gedacht wird.
[ 3 ] Fruchtbar für die ganze Gesellschaft kann die Sache werden, wenn der Vorgang auch die entsprechende Gegenliebe findet, wenn die führenden Mitglieder über Inhalt und Art ihrer Vorträge und Anregungen auch den Vorstand am Goetheanum unterrichten. Wir werden dadurch erst aus einem Chaos verschiedener Gruppen zu einer Gesellschaft mit einem geistigen Inhalt.
[ 4 ] Die Leitlinien, die hier gegeben werden, sollen gewissermaßen Themen anschlagen. Man wird dann in der anthroposophischen Bücher- und Zyklenliteratur an den verschiedensten Stellen die Anhaltspunkte finden, um das im Thema Angeschlagene so auszugestalten, daß es den Inhalt der Gruppenbesprechungen bilden kann.
[ 5 ] Auch dann, wenn neue Ideen von den leitenden Mitgliedern in den einzelnen Gruppen zutage treten, können sie ja an dasjenige angeknüpft werden, was in der geschilderten Art vom Goetheanum aus als ein Rahmen für das geistige Wirken der Gesellschaft angeregt werden soll.
[ 6 ] Es ist ganz gewiß eine Wahrheit, gegen die nicht gesündigt werden darf, daß geistiges Wirken nur aus der freien Entfaltung der wirkenden Persönlichkeiten hervorgehen kann. Allein, es braucht dagegen nicht gesündigt zu werden, wenn in rechter Art innerhalb der Gesellschaft der eine mit dem ändern im Einklänge handelt. Wenn das nicht sein könnte, so müßte die Zugehörigkeit des Einzelnen oder der Gruppen zur Gesellschaft immer etwas Äußerliches bleiben. Diese Zugehörigkeit soll aber etwas sein, das man als Innerliches empfindet.
[ 7 ] Es kann doch eben nicht so sein, daß das Vorhandensein der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft von dieser oder jener Persönlichkeit nur als Gelegenheit benützt wird, um das zu sagen, was man aus dieser oder jener Absicht heraus persönlich sagen will, sondern die Gesellschaft muß die Pflegestätte dessen sein, was Anthroposophie ist. Alles andere kann ja auch außerhalb ihres Rahmens gepflegt werden. Sie kann nicht dafür da sein.
[ 8 ] Es ist in den letzten Jahren nicht zum Vorteil der Gesellschaft gewesen, daß in sie einzelne Mitglieder ihre Eigenwünsche hineingetragen haben, bloß weil sie mit deren Vergrößerung für diese Eigenwünsche ein Wirkungsfeld zu finden glaubten. Man kann sagen: warum ist dem nicht in der gebührenden Art entgegengetreten worden? - Wäre das geschehen, so würde heute überall die Meinung zu hören sein: ja, wenn man damals die Anregungen von dieser oder jener Seite aufgenommen hätte, wo wären wir gegenwärtig? Nun, man hat vieles aufgenommen, was kläglich gescheitert ist, was uns zurückgeworfen hat.
[ 9 ] Aber nun ist es genug. Die Probe auf das Exempel, das einzelne Experimentatoren in der Gesellschaft geben wollten, ist gemacht. Man braucht dergleichen nicht ins Endlose zu wiederholen. Der Vorstand am Goetheanum soll ein Körper sein, der Anthroposophie pflegen will, und die Gesellschaft sollte eine Verbindung von Menschen sein, die sich mit ihm über ihre Pflege der Anthroposophie lebendig verständigen wollen.
[ 10 ] Man soll nicht denken, daß, was angestrebt werden soll, von heute auf morgen erreicht werden kann. Man wird Zeit brauchen. Und es wird Geduld nötig sein. Wenn geglaubt wird, in ein paar Wochen könne verwirklicht da sein, was in den Absichten der Weihnachtstagung liegt, so wird das wieder von Schaden sein.
Anthroposophische Leitsätze als Anregung vom Goetheanum herausgegeben
[ 11 ] 1. Anthroposophie ist ein Erkenntnisweg, der das Geistige im Menschenwesen zum Geistigen im Weltenall führen möchte. Sie tritt im Menschen als Herzens- und Gefühlsbedürfnis auf. Sie muß ihre Rechtfertigung dadurch finden, daß sie diesem Bedürfnisse Befriedigung gewähren kann. Anerkennen kann Anthroposophie nur derjenige, der in ihr findet, was er aus seinem Gemüte heraus suchen muß. Anthroposophen können daher nur Menschen sein, die gewisse Fragen über das Wesen des Menschen und die Welt so als Lebensnotwendigkeit empfinden, wie man Hunger und Durst empfindet.
[ 12 ] 2. Anthroposophie vermittelt Erkenntnisse, die auf geistige Art gewonnen werden. Sie tut dies aber nur deswegen, weil das tägliche Leben und die auf Sinneswahrnehmung und Verstandestätigkeit gegründete Wissenschaft an eine Grenze des Lebensweges führen, an der das seelische Menschendasein ersterben müßte, wenn es diese Grenze nicht überschreiten könnte. Dieses tägliche Leben und diese Wissenschaft führen nicht so zur Grenze, daß an dieser stehengeblieben werden muß, sondern es eröffnet sich an dieser Grenze der Sinnesanschauung durch die menschliche Seele selbst der Ausblick in die geistige Welt.
[ 13 ] 3. Es gibt Menschen, die glauben, mit den Grenzen der Sinnesanschauung seien auch die Grenzen aller Einsicht gegeben. Würden diese aufmerksam darauf sein, wie sie sich dieser Grenzen bewußt werden, so würden sie auch in diesem Bewußtsein die Fähigkeiten entdecken, die Grenzen zu überschreiten. Der Fisch schwimmt an die Grenze des Wassers; er muß zurück, weil ihm die physischen Organe fehlen, um außer dem Wasser zu leben. Der Mensch kommt an die Grenze der Sinnesanschauung; er kann erkennen, daß ihm auf dem Wege dahin die Seelenkräfte geworden sind, um seelisch in dem Elemente zu leben, das nicht von der Sinnesanschauung umspannt wird.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 14 ] 4. Der Mensch braucht zur Sicherheit in seinem Fühlen, zur kraftvollen Entfaltung seines Willens eine Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt. Denn er kann die Größe, Schönheit, Weisheit der natürlichen Welt im größten Umfange empfinden: diese gibt ihm keine Antwort auf die Frage nach seinem eigenen Wesen. Dieses eigene Wesen hält die Stoffe und Kräfte der natürlichen Welt so lange in der lebend-regsamen Menschengestalt zusammen, bis der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet. Dann übernimmt die Natur diese Gestalt. Sie kann dieselbe nicht zusammenhalten, sondern nur auseinandertreiben. Die große, schöne, weisheitsvolle Natur gibt wohl Antwort auf die Frage : wie wird die Menschengestalt aufgelöst, nicht aber, wie wird sie zusammengehalten. Kein theoretischer Einwand kann diese Frage aus der empfindenden Menschenseele, wenn diese sich nicht selbst betäuben will, auslöschen. Ihr Vorhandensein muß die Sehnsucht nach geistigen Wegen der Welterkenntnis unablässig in jeder Menschenseele, die wirklich wach ist, regsam erhalten.
[ 15 ] 5. Der Mensch braucht zur inneren Ruhe die Selbst-Erkenntnis im Geiste. Er findet sich selbst in seinem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Er sieht, wie Denken, Fühlen und Wollen von dem natürlichen Menschenwesen abhängig sind. Sie müssen in ihren Entfaltungen der Gesundheit, Krankheit, Kräftigung und Schädigung des Körpers folgen. Jeder Schlaf löscht sie aus. Die gewöhnliche Lebenserfahrung weist die denkbar größte Abhängigkeit des menschlichen Geist-Erlebens vom Körper-Dasein auf. Da erwacht in dem Menschen das Bewußtsein, daß in dieser gewöhnlichen Lebenserfahrung die Selbst-Erkenntnis verloren gegangen sein könne. Es entsteht zunächst die bange Frage: ob es eine über die gewöhnliche Lebenserfahrung hinausgehende Selbst-Erkenntnis und damit die Gewißheit über ein wahres Selbst geben könne? Anthroposophie will auf der Grundlage sicherer Geist-Erfahrung die Antwort auf diese Frage geben. Sie stützt sich dabei nicht auf ein Meinen oder Glauben, sondern auf ein Erleben im Geiste, das in seiner Wesenheit so sicher ist wie das Erleben im Körper.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 16 ] 6. Wenn man den Blick auf die leblose Natur wendet, so findet man eine Welt, die sich in gesetzmäßigen Zusammenhängen offenbart. Man sucht nach diesen Zusammenhängen und findet sie als den Inhalt der Naturgesetze. Man findet aber auch, daß durch diese Gesetze die leblose Natur sich mit der Erde zu einem Ganzen zusammenschließt. Man kann dann von diesem Erdenzusammenhang, der in allem Leblosen waltet, zu der Anschauung der lebendigen Pflanzenwelt übergehen. Man sieht, wie die außerirdische Welt aus den Weiten des Raumes die Kräfte hereinsendet, welche das Lebendige aus dem Schöße des Lebenslosen hervorholen. Man wird in dem Lebendigen das Wesenhafte gewahr, das sich dem bloß irdischen Zusammenhange entreißt und sich zum Offenbarer dessen macht, was aus den Weiten des Weltenraumes auf die Erde herunterwirkt. In der unscheinbarsten Pflanze wird man die Wesenheit des außerirdischen Lichtes gewahr, wie im Auge den leuchtenden Gegenstand, der vor diesem steht. In diesem Aufstieg der Betrachtung kann man den Unterschied des Irdisch-Physischen schauen, das im Leblosen waltet, und des Außerirdisch-Ätherischen, das im Lebendigen kraftet.
[ 17 ] 7. Man findet den Menschen mit seinem außerseelischen und außergeistigen Wesen in diese Welt des Irdischen und Außerirdischen hineingestellt. Sofern er in das Irdische, das das Leblose umspannt, hineingestellt ist, trägt er seinen physischen Körper an sich; sofern er in sich diejenigen Kräfte entwickelt, welche das Lebendige aus den Weltenweiten in das Irdische hereinzieht, hat er einen ätherischen oder Lebensleib. Diesen Gegensatz zwischen dem Irdischen und Ätherischen hat die Erkenntnisrichtung der neueren Zeit ganz unberücksichtigt gelassen. Sie hat gerade aus diesem Grunde über das Ätherische die unmöglichsten Anschauungen entwickelt. Die Furcht davor, sich in das Phantastische zu verlieren, hat davon abgehalten, von diesem Gegensatz zu sprechen. Ohne ein solches Sprechen kommt man aber zu keiner Einsicht in Mensch und Welt.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 18 ] 8. Man kann die Wesenheit des Menschen betrachten, insoferne diese aus seinem physischen und seinem ätherischen Leib sich ergibt. Man wird finden, daß alle Erscheinungen am Menschen, die von dieser Seite ausgehen, nicht zum Bewußtsein führen, sondern im Unbewußten verbleiben. Das Bewußtsein wird nicht erhellt, sondern verdunkelt, wenn die Tätigkeit des physischen und des Ätherleibes erhöht wird. Ohnmachtszustände kann man als Ergebnis einer solchen Erhöhung erkennen. Durch die Verfolgung einer solchen Urteilsorientierung gelangt man dazu, anzuerkennen, daß in die Organisation des Menschen - und auch des Tieres - etwas eingreift, das mit dem Physischen und Ätherischen nicht von der gleichen Art ist. Es ist wirksam nicht, wenn das Physische und Ätherische aus seinen Kräften heraus tätig ist, sondern wenn diese aufhören, auf ihre Art wirksam zu sein. Man kommt so zum Begriffe des Astralleibes.
[ 19 ] 9. Die Wirklichkeit dieses Astralleibes wird gefunden, wenn man durch die Meditation von dem Denken, das durch die Sinne von außen angeregt wird, zu einem innerlichen Anschauen fortschreitet. Man muß dazu das von außen angeregte Denken innerlich ergreifen und es in der Seele als solches, ohne seine Beziehung auf die Außenwelt, intensiv erleben; und dann durch die Seelenstärke, die man in solchem Ergreifen und Erleben sich angeeignet hat, gewahr werden, daß es innere Wahrnehmungsorgane gibt, die ein Geistiges schauen da, wo in Tier und Menschen der physische und der ätherische Leib in ihren Schranken gehalten werden, damit Bewußtsein entstehe.
[ 20 ] 10. Das Bewußtsein entsteht nicht durch ein Fortführen derjenigen Tätigkeit, die aus dem physischen und dem Ätherleib als Ergebnis kommt, sondern diese beiden Leiber müssen mit ihrer Tätigkeit auf den Nullpunkt kommen, ja noch unter denselben, damit «Platz entstehe» für das Walten des Bewußtseins. Sie sind nicht die Hervorbringer des Bewußtseins, sondern sie geben nur den Boden ab, auf dem der Geist stehen muß, um innerhalb des Erdenlebens Bewußtsein hervorzubringen. Wie der Mensch auf der Erde einen Boden braucht, auf dem er stehen kann, so braucht das Geistige innerhalb des Irdischen die materielle Grundlage, auf der es sich entfalten kann. Und so wie im Weltenraum der Planet den Boden nicht braucht, um seinen Ort zu behaupten, so braucht der Geist, dessen Anschauung nicht durch die Sinne auf das Materielle, sondern durch die Eigenkraft auf das Geistige gerichtet ist, nicht diese materielle Grundlage, um seine bewußte Tätigkeit in sich rege zu machen.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 21 ] 11. Das Selbstbewußtsein, das im «Ich» sich zusammenfaßt, steigt aus dem Bewußtsein auf. Dieses entsteht, wenn das Geistige in den Menschen dadurch eintritt, daß die Kräfte des physischen und des ätherischen Leibes diese abbauen. Im Abbau dieser Leiber wird der Boden geschaffen, auf dem das Bewußtsein sein Leben entfaltet. Dem Abbau muß aber, wenn die Organisation nicht zerstört werden soll, ein Wiederaufbau folgen. So wird, wenn für ein Erleben des Bewußtseins ein Abbau erfolgt ist, genau das Abgebaute wieder aufgebaut werden. In der Wahrnehmung dieses Aufbaues liegt das Erleben des Selbstbewußtseins. Man kann in innerer Anschauung diesen Vorgang verfolgen. Man kann empfinden, wie das Bewußte in das Selbstbewußte dadurch übergeführt wird, daß man aus sich ein Nachbild des bloß Bewußten schafft. Das bloß Bewußte hat sein Bild in dem durch den Abbau gewissermaßen leer Gewordenen des Organismus. Es ist in das Selbstbewußtsein eingezogen, wenn die Leerheit von innen wieder erfüllt worden ist. Das Wesenhafte, das zu dieser Erfüllung fähig ist, wird als «Ich» erlebt.
[ 22 ] 12. Die Wirklichkeit des «Ich» wird gefunden, wenn man die innere Anschauung, durch die der Astralleib erkennend ergriffen wird, dadurch weiter fortbildet, daß man das erlebte Denken in der Meditation mit dem Willen durchdringt. Man hat sich diesem Denken zuerst willenslos hingegeben. Man hat es dadurch dazu gebracht, daß ein Geistiges in dieses Denken eintritt, wie die Farbe bei der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung in das Auge, der Ton in das Ohr eintritt. Hat man sich in die Lage gebracht, dasjenige, das man auf diese Art, durch passive Hingabe, im Bewußtsein verlebendigt hat, durch einen Willensakt nachzubilden, so tritt in diesen Willensakt die Wahrnehmung des eigenen «Ich» ein.
[ 23 ] 13. Man kann auf dem Wege der Meditation zu der Gestalt, in der das «Ich» im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein auftritt, drei weitere Formen finden 1. In dem Bewußtsein, das den Ätherleib erfaßt, erscheint das «Ich» als Bild, das aber zugleich tätige Wesenheit ist und als solche dem Menschen Gestalt, Wachstum, Bildekräfte verleiht. 2. In dem Bewußtsein, das den Astralleib erfaßt, offenbart sich das «Ich» als Glied einer geistigen Welt, von der es seine Kräfte erhält. 3. In dem Bewußtsein, das eben als das zuletzt zu erringende angeführt worden ist, zeigt sich das «Ich» als eine von der geistigen Umwelt relativ unabhängige, selbständige geistige Wesenheit.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 24 ] 14. Die zweite Gestalt des «Ich», die in der Darstellung des dritten Leitsatzes 1Gemeint ist der dritte der vorangehenden Gruppe, hier der 13. Leitsatz. angedeutet worden ist, tritt als «Bild» dieses Ich auf. Durch das Gewahrwerden dieses Bildcharakters wird auch ein Licht geworfen auf die Gedankenwesenheit, in der das «Ich» vor dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein erscheint. Man sucht durch allerlei Betrachtungen in dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein das «wahre Ich». Doch eine ernstliche Einsicht in die Erlebnisse dieses Bewußtseins zeigt, daß man in demselben dieses «wahre Ich» nicht finden kann; sondern daß da nur der gedankenhafte Abglanz, der weniger als ein Bild ist, aufzutreten vermag. Man wird von der Wahrheit dieses Tatbestandes erst recht erfaßt, wenn man fortschreitet zu dem «Ich» als Bild, das in dem Ätherleibe lebt. Und dadurch wird man erst richtig zu dem Suchen des Ich als der wahren Wesenheit des Menschen angeregt.
[ 25 ] 15. Die Einsicht in die Gestalt, in der das «Ich» im Astralleibe lebt, führt zu einer rechten Empfindung von dem Verhältnisse des Menschen zu der geistigen Welt. Diese Ich-Gestalt ist für das gewöhnliche Erleben in die dunklen Tiefen des Unbewußten getaucht. In diesen Tiefen tritt der Mensch mit der geistigen Weltwesenheit durch Inspiration in Verbindung. Nur ein ganz schwacher gefühlsmäßiger Abglanz von dieser in den Seelentiefen waltenden Inspiration aus den Weiten der geistigen Welt steht vor dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein.
[ 26 ] 16. Die dritte Gestalt des «Ich» gibt die Einsicht in die selbständige Wesenheit des Menschen innerhalb einer geistigen Welt. Sie regt die Empfindung davon an, daß der Mensch mit seiner irdisch-sinnlichen Natur nur als die Offenbarung dessen vor sich selber steht, was er in Wirklichkeit ist. Damit ist der Ausgangspunkt wahrer Selbsterkenntnis gegeben. Denn jenes Selbst, das den Menschen in seiner Wahrheit gestaltet, wird sich der Erkenntnis erst offenbaren, wenn er vom Gedanken des Ich zu dessen Bilde, von dem Bilde zu den schöpfenden Kräften dieses Bildes, und von da zu den geistigen Trägern dieser Kräfte fortschreitet.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 27 ] 17. Der Mensch ist ein Wesen, das in der Mitte zwischen zwei Weltgebieten sein Leben entfaltet. Er ist mit seiner Leibes-Entwickelung in eine «untere Welt» eingegliedert; er bildet mit seiner Seelen-Wesenheit eine «mittlere Welt», und er strebt mit seinen Geisteskräften nach einer «oberen Welt» hin. Seine Leibes-Entwickelung hat er von dem, was ihm die Natur gegeben hat; seine Seelen-Wesenheit trägt er als seinen eigenen Anteil in sich; die Geisteskräfte findet er in sich als die Gaben, die ihn über sich selbst hinausführen zur Anteilnahme an einer göttlichen Welt.
[ 28 ] 18. Der Geist ist in diesen drei Weltgebieten schaffend. Die Natur ist nicht geistlos. Man verliert erkennend auch die Natur, wenn man in ihr den Geist nicht gewahr wird. Aber man wird allerdings innerhalb des Naturdaseins den Geist wie schlafend finden. So wie aber der Schlaf im Menschenleben seine Aufgabe hat und das «Ich» eine gewisse Zeit schlafen muß, um zu einer ändern recht wach zu sein, so muß der Weltengeist an der «Natur-Stelle» schlafen, um an einer ändern recht wach zu sein.
[ 29 ] 19. Der Welt gegenüber ist die Menschenseele ein träumendes Wesen, wenn sie nicht auf den Geist achtet, der in ihr wirkt. Dieser weckt die im eigenen Innern webenden Seelenträume zur Anteilnahme an der Welt, aus welcher des Menschen wahres Wesen stammt. Wie sich der Träumende vor der physischen Umwelt verschließt und in das eigene Wesen einspinnt, so müßte die Seele ihren Zusammenhang mit dem Geiste der Welt verlieren, aus dem sie stammt, wenn sie die Weckrufe des Geistes in sich selbst nicht hören wollte.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 30 ] 20. Es gehört zur rechten Entfaltung des Seelenlebens im Menschen, daß er sich innerhalb seines Wesens des Wirkens aus dem Geiste vollbewußt werde. Viele Bekenner der neueren naturwissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung sind in dieser Richtung so stark in einem Vorurteile befangen, daß sie sagen, die allgemeine Ursächlichkeit ist in allen Welterscheinungen das Herrschende. Wenn der Mensch glaubt, es könne aus Eigenem die Ursache von etwas sein, so kann das nur eine Illusion bilden. Die neuere Natur-Erkenntnis will in allem treu der Beobachtung und Erfahrung folgen. Durch dieses Vorurteil von der verborgenen Ursächlichkeit der eigenen menschlichen Antriebe sündigt sie gegen diesen ihren Grundsatz. Denn das freie Wirken aus dem Innern des menschlichen Wesens ist ein ganz elementares Ergebnis der menschlichen Selbstbeobachtung. Man darf es nicht wegleugnen, sondern muß es mit der Einsicht in die allgemeine Verursachung innerhalb der Naturordnung in Einklang bringen.
[ 31 ] 21. Die Nicht-Anerkennung dieses Antriebes aus dem Geiste heraus im Innern des menschlichen Wesens ist das größte Hindernis für die Erlangung einer Einsicht in die geistige Welt. Denn Einordnung des eigenen Wesens in den Naturzusammenhang bedeutet Ablenkung des Seelenblickes von diesem Wesen. Man kann aber in die geistige Welt nicht eindringen, wenn man den Geist nicht zuerst da erfaßt, wo er ganz unmittelbar gegeben ist: in der unbefangenen Selbstbeobachtung.
[ 32 ] 22. Die Selbstbeobachtung bildet den Anfang der Geistbeobachtung. Und sie kann deshalb den rechten Anfang bilden, weil der Mensch bei wahrer Besinnung nicht bei ihr stehen bleiben kann, sondern von ihr fortschreiten muß zu weiterem geistigen Weltinhalt. Wie der menschliche Körper verkümmert, wenn er nicht physische Nahrung erhält, so wird der im rechten Sinne sich selbst beobachtende Mensch sein Selbst in Verkümmerung empfinden, wenn er nicht sieht, wie in dieses Selbst die Kräfte einer außer ihm tätigen geistigen Welt hineinwirken.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 33 ] 23. Der Mensch betritt, indem er durch die Todespforte geht, die geistige Welt, indem er von sich abfallen fühlt alles, was er durch die Sinne des Leibes und durch das Gehirn während des Erdenlebens an Eindrücken und an Seeleninhalten erworben hat. Sein Bewußtsein hat dann in einem umfassenden Tableau in Bildern vor sich, was an Lebensinhalt während des Erdenwandels in Form von bildlosen Gedanken in das Gedächtnis gebracht werden konnte, oder was zwar für das Erdenbewußtsein unbemerkt geblieben ist, doch aber einen unterbewußten Eindruck auf die Seele gemacht hat. Diese Bilder verblassen nach wenig Tagen bis zum Entschwinden. Wenn sie sich ganz verloren haben, so weiß der Mensch, daß er auch seinen Ätherleib abgelegt hat, in dem er den Träger dieser Bilder erkennen kann.
[ 34 ] 24. Der Mensch hat nach der Ablegung des Ätherleibes noch den Astralleib und das Ich als die ihm verbleibenden Glieder. Solange der erstere an ihm ist, läßt dieser von dem Bewußtsein alles das erleben, was während des Erdenlebens den unbewußten Inhalt der im Schlafe ruhenden Seele gebildet hat. In diesem Inhalt sind die Urteile enthalten, welche die Geistwesen einer höheren Welt während der Schlafzeiten dem Astralleib einprägen, die aber dem Erdenbewußtsein sich verbergen. Der Mensch lebt sein Erdenleben noch einmal durch, doch so, daß sein Seeleninhalt jetzt die Beurteilung seines Tuns und Denkens vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswelt aus ist. Das Durchleben geschieht rückläufig: erst die letzte Nacht, dann die zweitletzte und so weiter.
[ 35 ] 25. Die nach dem Durchgang durch die Todespforte im Astralleibe erlebte Lebensbeurteilung dauert so lange, wie die Zeit betragen hat, die während des Erdenlebens von dem Schlafe eingenommen war.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 36 ] 26. Erst nach Ablegung des Astralleibes, nach der vollendeten Lebensbeurteilung, tritt der Mensch in die geistige Welt ein. In dieser steht er zu Wesenheiten rein geistiger Art in einer solchen Beziehung wie auf der Erde zu den Wesenheiten und Vorgängen der Naturreiche. Es wird im geistigen Erleben dann alles, was im Erdenleben Außenwelt war, zur Innenwelt. Der Mensch nimmt dann nicht bloß diese Außenwelt wahr, sondern er erlebt sie in ihrer Geistigkeit, die ihm auf Erden verborgen war, als seine Innenwelt.
[ 37 ] 27. Der Mensch, wie er auf Erden ist, wird im Geistgebiet Außenwelt. Man schaut auf diesen Menschen, wie man auf Erden auf Sterne, Wolken, Berge, Flüsse schaut. Und diese Außenwelt ist nicht weniger inhaltreich, wie die Erscheinung des Kosmos dem irdischen Leben erscheint.
[ 38 ] 28. Die im Geistgebiet vom Geiste des Menschen erbildeten Kräfte wirken in der Gestaltung des Erdenmenschen fort, so wie die im physischen Menschen vollbrachten Taten in dem Leben nach dem Tode als Seeleninhalt fortwirken.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 39 ] 29. In der entwickelten imaginativen Erkenntnis wirkt, was im Innern des Menschen seelisch-geistig lebt und in seinem Leben am physischen Leib gestaltet und auf dessen Grundlage das Menschendasein in der physischen Welt entfaltet. Dem sich im Stoffwechsel immer wieder erneuernden physischen Leib steht da die in ihrem Wesen von der Geburt (bzw. Empfängnis) bis zum Tode dauernd sich entfaltende innere Menschenwesenheit gegenüber, dem physischen Raumesleib ein Zeitenleib.
[ 40 ] 30. In der inspirierten Erkenntnis lebt im Bilde, was das Menschenwesen in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt innerhalb einer geistigen Umgebung erfährt. Da ist anschaulich, was der Mensch ohne seinen physischen und Ätherleib, durch die er das irdische Dasein durchmacht, seinem Wesen nach im Weitenzusammenhange ist.
[ 41 ] 31. In der intuitiven Erkenntnis kommt das Herüberwirken früherer Erdenleben in das gegenwärtige zum Bewußtsein. Diese früheren Erdenleben haben in ihrer Weiterentwickelung die Zusammenhänge abgestreift, in denen sie mit der physischen Welt gestanden haben. Sie sind zum rein geistigen Wesenskern des Menschen geworden und wirken als solcher im gegenwärtigen Leben. Sie sind dadurch auch Gegenstand der Erkenntnis, die als die Entfaltung der imaginierenden und inspirierten sich ergibt.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 42 ] 32. In dem Haupte des Menschen ist die physische Organisation ein Abdruck der geistigen Individualität. Physischer und ätherischer Teil des Hauptes stehen als abgeschlossene Bilder des Geistigen, und neben ihnen in selbständiger seelisch-geistiger Wesenheit stehen der astralische und der Ichteil. Man hat es daher im Haupte des Menschen mit einer Nebeneinanderentwickelung des relativ selbständigen Physischen und Ätherischen einerseits, des Astralischen und der Ich-Organisation anderseits zu tun.
[ 43 ] 33. In dem Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselteil des Menschen sind die vier Glieder der Menschenwesenheit innig miteinander verbunden. Ich-Organisation und astralischer Leib sind nicht neben dem physischen und ätherischen Teil. Sie sind in diesen; sie beleben sie, wirken in ihrem Wachstum, in ihrer Bewegungsfähigkeit und so weiter. Dadurch aber ist der Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselteil wie ein Keim, der sich weiter entwickeln will, der fortwährend darnach strebt, Haupt zu werden, und der fortwährend davon während des Erdenlebens des Menschen zurückgehalten wird.
[ 44 ] 34. Die rhythmische Organisation steht in der Mitte. Hier verbinden sich Ich-Organisation und Astralleib abwechselnd mit dem physischen und ätherischen Teil und lösen sich wieder von diesen. Atmung und Blutzirkulation sind der physische Abdruck dieser Vereinigung und Loslösung. Der Einatmungsvorgang bildet die Verbindung ab; der Ausatmungsvorgang die Loslösung. Die Vorgänge im Arterienblut stellen die Verbindung dar; die Vorgänge im Venenblute die Loslösung.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 45 ] 35. Man versteht das physische Menschenwesen nur, wenn man es als Bild des Geistig-Seelischen betrachtet. Für sich genommen bleibt der physische Körper des Menschen unverständlich. Aber er ist in seinen verschiedenen Gliedern in verschiedener Art Bild des Geistig-Seelischen. Das Haupt ist dessen vollkommenstes, abgeschlossenes Sinnesbild. Alles, was dem Stoffwechsel- und Gliedmaßen-System angehört, ist wie ein Bild, das noch nicht seine Endformen angenommen hat, sondern an dem erst gearbeitet wird. Alles, was zur rhythmischen Organisation des Menschen gehört, steht in bezug auf das Verhältnis des Geistig-Seelischen zum Körperlichen zwischen diesen Gegensätzen.
[ 46 ] 36. Wer von diesem geistigen Gesichtspunkte aus das menschliche Haupt betrachtet, hat an dieser Betrachtung eine Hilfe zum Verständnisse geistiger Imaginationen; denn in den Formen des Hauptes sind imaginative Formen gewissermaßen bis zur physischen Dichte geronnen.
[ 47 ] 37. In derselben Art kann man an der Betrachtung des rhythmischen Teiles der Menschenorganisation eine Hilfe haben für das Verständnis von Inspirationen. Der physische Anblick der Lebensrhythmen trägt im Sinnesbilde den Charakter des Inspirierten. Im Stoffwechsel- und Gliedmaßensystem hat man, wenn man diese in voller Aktion, in der Entfaltung ihrer notwendigen oder möglichen Verrichtungen betrachtet, ein sinnlich-übersinnliches Bild des rein übersinnlichen Intuitiven.
[ 1 ] A kind of anthroposophical guiding principles should be found here in the future. They are to be understood as containing advice on the direction which the lectures and discussions in the individual groups of the Society can take by the leading members. They are intended only as a suggestion which the Goetheanum would like to give to the Society as a whole. The independence of the work of the individual leading members should not be affected by this. It is good if the Society develops in such a way that what the leading members have to say is expressed in a completely free way in the individual groups. In this way, the life of society will be enriched and diversified.
[ 2 ] But a unified consciousness should be able to emerge in society. This can happen if people everywhere know about the suggestions given in the individual places. That is why I will summarize here in short sentences the presentations that I give to the Society in lectures at the Goetheanum. I think that those personalities who give lectures in the groups (branches) or lead the discussions will then take what has been given as a guideline in order to build on it in a free way. In this way, something can be contributed to a uniform organization in the work of the society, without thinking of coercion in any way.
[ 3 ] The matter can become fruitful for the whole Society if the process also meets with the appropriate approval, if the leading members also inform the Executive Council at the Goetheanum about the content and nature of their lectures and suggestions. Only in this way will we be transformed from a chaos of different groups into a society with a spiritual content.
[ 4 ] The guidelines given here are intended to suggest themes, so to speak. In the anthroposophical book and cycle literature, one will then find the points of reference in the most diverse places in order to shape what is suggested in the topic in such a way that it can form the content of the group discussions.
[ 5 ] Even when new ideas emerge from the leading members in the individual groups, they can be linked to what is to be stimulated from the Goetheanum in the way described as a framework for the spiritual work of the Society.
[ 6 ] It is certainly a truth that must not be sinned against, that spiritual activity can only emerge from the free development of the active personalities. However, there is no need to sin against it if one person acts in harmony with the other in the right way within society. If this were not possible, then the affiliation of individuals or groups to society would always have to remain something external. But this affiliation should be something that is felt as internal.
[ 7 ] It cannot be so that the existence of the Anthroposophical Society is used by this or that personality only as an opportunity to say that which one wants to say personally out of this or that intention, but the Society must be the nurturing place of what anthroposophy is. Everything else can also be cultivated outside its framework. It cannot be there for that.
[ 8 ] It has not been to the Society's advantage in recent years that individual members have brought their own desires into it simply because they believed they could find a field of action for these desires by enlarging it. One could say: why was this not countered in the proper way? - If this had happened, the opinion would be heard everywhere today: yes, if the suggestions from this or that side had been taken up back then, where would we be today? Well, many things have been taken up that have failed miserably, that have set us back.
[ 9 ] But now that's enough. The test of the example that individual experimenters wanted to set in society has been made. There is no need to repeat such things ad infinitum. The Goetheanum Board should be a body that wants to cultivate anthroposophy, and the Society should be an association of people who want to communicate with it about their cultivation of anthroposophy.
[ 10 ] We should not think that what we are striving for can be achieved overnight. It will take time. And patience will be necessary. If we believe that the intentions of the Christmas conference can be realized in a few weeks, this will again be detrimental.
Anthroposophical Guiding Principles published as a suggestion by the Goetheanum
[ 11 ] 1. Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge that seeks to lead the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe. It arises in man as a need of the heart and feelings. It must find its justification in the fact that it can satisfy this need. Anthroposophy can only be recognized by those who find in it what they must seek out of their souls. Anthroposophists can therefore only be people who feel certain questions about the nature of man and the world as a necessity of life, just as one feels hunger and thirst.
[ 12 ] 2. Anthroposophy conveys knowledge that is gained in a spiritual way. However, it only does this because daily life and science, which is based on sensory perception and intellectual activity, lead to a limit of the path of life at which the spiritual human existence would have to die if it could not cross this limit. This daily life and this science do not lead to the limit in such a way that one has to stop at it, but at this limit of sensory perception the view into the spiritual world opens up through the human soul itself.
[ 13 ] 3 There are people who believe that the limits of sense perception are also the limits of all insight. If they were attentive to how they become aware of these limits, they would also discover in this awareness the ability to transcend the limits. The fish swims to the limit of the water; it must return because it lacks the physical organs to live outside the water. Man comes to the limit of sense perception; he can recognize that on the way there the soul powers have become his in order to live soulfully in the element that is not encompassed by sense perception.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 14 ] 4. man needs a knowledge of the spiritual world for security in his feeling, for the powerful development of his will. For he can feel the greatness, beauty and wisdom of the natural world to the greatest extent: this gives him no answer to the question of his own nature. This own being holds the substances and forces of the natural world together in the living, active human form until the human being passes through the gate of death. Then nature takes over this form. It cannot hold it together, it can only drive it apart. The great, beautiful, wise nature may answer the question of how the human form is dissolved, but not how it is held together. No theoretical objection can erase this question from the sentient human soul if it does not want to anaesthetize itself. Its presence must keep the longing for spiritual ways of knowing the world incessantly active in every human soul that is truly awake.
[ 15 ] 5. Man needs self-knowledge in the spirit for inner peace. He finds himself in his thinking, feeling and willing. He sees how thinking, feeling and willing are dependent on the natural human being. In their development they must follow the health, illness, strengthening and damage of the body. Every sleep extinguishes them. The ordinary experience of life shows the greatest conceivable dependence of human spiritual experience on bodily existence. This awakens in the human being the awareness that self-knowledge may have been lost in this ordinary experience of life. At first the anxious question arises: whether there can be a self-knowledge that goes beyond the ordinary experience of life and thus the certainty of a true self? Anthroposophy aims to provide the answer to this question on the basis of secure spiritual experience. It is not based on an opinion or belief, but on an experience in the spirit that is as certain in its essence as the experience in the body.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 16 ] 6. If one turns one's gaze to inanimate nature, one finds a world that reveals itself in lawful connections. One searches for these connections and finds them as the content of the laws of nature. But one also finds that through these laws inanimate nature unites with the earth to form a whole. We can then move on from this earthly connection, which prevails in everything inanimate, to the view of the living plant world. One sees how the extraterrestrial world sends in from the vastness of space the forces that bring forth the living from the womb of the lifeless. One becomes aware of the beingness in the living, which tears itself away from the merely earthly context and makes itself the revealer of that which works down to earth from the vastness of space. In the most inconspicuous plant one becomes aware of the essence of the extraterrestrial light, just as in the eye one becomes aware of the luminous object that stands before it. In this ascent of contemplation, one can see the difference between the earthly-physical, which rules in the lifeless, and the extraterrestrial-etheric, which forces in the living.
[ 17 ] 7 One finds man with his extra-soul and extra-spiritual being placed in this world of the earthly and the extraterrestrial. In so far as he is placed in the earthly, which embraces the lifeless, he carries his physical body; in so far as he develops within himself those forces which draw the living into the earthly from the expanses of the world, he has an etheric or living body. This contrast between the earthly and the ethereal has been completely disregarded by the modern school of thought. For this very reason, it has developed the most impossible views of the etheric. The fear of losing oneself in the fantastic has prevented us from speaking of this opposition. But without speaking in this way, no insight into man and the world can be gained.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 18 ] 8. One can consider the essence of man insofar as this arises from his physical and etheric body. It will be found that all phenomena in man which emanate from this side do not lead to consciousness, but remain in the unconscious. Consciousness is not illuminated but darkened when the activity of the physical and etheric bodies is increased. Fainting states can be recognized as the result of such an increase. By pursuing such an orientation of judgment, one comes to recognize that something intervenes in the organization of man - and also of the animal - which is not of the same kind as the physical and etheric. It is effective not when the physical and etheric are active out of their powers, but when they stop being effective in their own way. One thus arrives at the concept of the astral body.
[ 19 ] 9. The reality of this astral body is found when, through meditation, one progresses from thinking, which is stimulated by the senses from outside, to an inner contemplation. To do this, one must inwardly grasp the externally stimulated thinking and intensely experience it in the soul as such, without its relation to the external world, and then, through the strength of soul that one has acquired in such grasping and experiencing, become aware that there are inner organs of perception that see the spiritual, where in animals and humans the physical and etheric bodies are held in their boundaries, so that consciousness arises.
[ 20 ] 10. Consciousness arises not through a continuation of the activity that comes from the physical and etheric bodies as a result, but these two bodies must come to the zero point with their activity, even below it, so that “space arises” for the reign of consciousness. They are not the generators of consciousness, but only provide the ground on which the spirit must stand in order to bring forth consciousness within earthly life. Just as man on earth needs a ground on which he can stand, so the spiritual within the earthly needs the material foundation on which it can unfold. And just as in world space the planet does not need the ground to assert its place, so the spirit, whose contemplation is not directed through the senses to the material, but through its own power to the spiritual, does not need this material foundation in order to stimulate its conscious activity within itself.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 21 ] 11. Self-consciousness, which is summarized in the “I”, arises from consciousness. This arises when the spiritual enters the human being through the forces of the physical and etheric bodies breaking them down. In the dismantling of these bodies the ground is created on which the consciousness unfolds its life. However, if the organization is not to be destroyed, the dismantling must be followed by reconstruction. Thus, when a dismantling has taken place for an experience of consciousness, precisely that which has been dismantled will be rebuilt. The experience of self-consciousness lies in the perception of this reconstruction. One can follow this process in inner contemplation. One can feel how the conscious is transformed into the self-conscious by creating an image of the merely conscious out of oneself. The merely conscious has its image in the organism that has become empty to a certain extent through decomposition. It has moved into self-consciousness when the emptiness has been filled again from within. The beingness that is capable of this fulfillment is experienced as “I”.
[ 22 ] 12. The reality of the “I” is found when the inner contemplation, through which the astral body is grasped cognitively, is further developed by penetrating the experienced thinking in meditation with the will. At first one has given oneself to this thinking without will. One has made it so that something spiritual enters into this thinking, just as color enters the eye in sensory perception and sound enters the ear. If one has put oneself in a position to reproduce through an act of will that which one has brought to life in consciousness in this way, through passive surrender, then the perception of one's own “I” enters into this act of will.
[ 23 ] 13. In the way of meditation one can find three further forms of the shape in which the “I” appears in ordinary consciousness (1) in the consciousness that grasps the etheric body, the “I” appears as an image, which is at the same time an active entity and as such gives man shape, growth and formative powers. (2) In the consciousness that grasps the astral body, the “I” reveals itself as a member of a spiritual world from which it receives its powers. (3) in the consciousness that has just been cited as the last to be attained, the “I” reveals itself as a relatively independent, autonomous spiritual entity from the spiritual environment.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 24 ] 14. The second figure of the “I”, which has been indicated in the presentation of the third guiding principle 1The third of the preceding group, here the 13th guiding principle. appears as the “image” of this I. By becoming aware of this image character, light is also thrown on the thought entity in which the “I” appears before the ordinary consciousness. One searches for the "true I" in the ordinary consciousness through all kinds of contemplations. But a serious insight into the experiences of this consciousness shows that one cannot find this "true I" in it; but that only the thought-like reflection, which is less than an image, is able to appear there. The truth of this fact is only really grasped when one progresses to the “I” as an image that lives in the etheric body. And through this, one is only really stimulated to search for the I as the true essence of man.
[ 25 ] 15. Insight into the form in which the “I” lives in the astral body leads to a correct perception of man's relationship to the spiritual world. For ordinary experience, this ego-form is immersed in the dark depths of the unconscious. In these depths the human being makes contact with the spiritual world entity through inspiration. Only a very faint emotional reflection of this inspiration from the vastness of the spiritual world, which reigns in the depths of the soul, stands before the ordinary consciousness.
[ 26 ] 16. The third form of the “I” gives insight into the independent being of man within a spiritual world. It stimulates the perception that man with his earthly-sensual nature stands before himself only as the revelation of what he really is. This is the starting point of true self-knowledge. For that self which shapes man in his truth will only reveal itself to knowledge when he progresses from the thought of the ego to its image, from the image to the creative powers of this image, and from there to the spiritual carriers of these powers.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 27 ] 17. Man is a being who unfolds his life in the middle between two world realms. With his bodily development he is integrated into a "lower world"; with his soul entity he forms a "middle world", and with his spiritual powers he strives towards an "upper world". His bodily development comes from what nature has given him; he carries his soul-entity within himself as his own share; he finds the spiritual powers within himself as the gifts that lead him beyond himself to participate in a divine world.
[ 28 ] 18. The spirit is creative in these three realms. Nature is not mindless. One also loses cognition of nature if one does not become aware of the spirit in it. But one will, however, find the spirit asleep within the existence of nature. Just as sleep has its task in human life and the “I” must sleep for a certain time in order to be fully awake at a certain time, so the world spirit must sleep at the "natural place" in order to be fully awake at a certain time.
[ 29 ] 19. The human soul is a dreaming being towards the world if it does not pay attention to the spirit that works in it. This spirit awakens the dreams of the soul that weave within us to participate in the world from which our true nature originates. Just as the dreamer closes himself off from the physical environment and weaves himself into his own being, so the soul would have to lose its connection with the spirit of the world from which it originates if it did not want to hear the spirit's wake-up call within itself.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 30 ] 20. It belongs to the right development of the life of the soul in man that he becomes fully conscious within his being of the working out of the spirit. Many advocates of the newer scientific world view are so strongly prejudiced in this direction that they say that general causation is the dominant factor in all world phenomena. If man believes that something can be caused by something of his own, this can only be an illusion. The newer knowledge of nature wants to follow observation and experience faithfully in everything. Through this prejudice of the hidden causality of man's own impulses, it sins against this principle. For the free working from within the human being is a very elementary result of human self-observation. It must not be denied, but must be harmonized with the insight into the general causation within the natural order.
[ 31 ] 21. The non-recognition of this drive from the spirit within the human being is the greatest obstacle to the attainment of insight into the spiritual world. For categorizing one's own being in the context of nature means distracting the soul's gaze from this being. But one cannot penetrate the spiritual world if one does not first grasp the spirit where it is given quite directly: in unbiased self-observation.
[ 32 ] 22. Self-observation is the beginning of the observation of the spirit. And it can form the right beginning because man cannot stop at it in true contemplation, but must progress from it to further spiritual world content. Just as the human body atrophies if it does not receive physical nourishment, so the person who observes himself in the right sense will feel his self atrophy if he does not see how the forces of a spiritual world outside himself work into this self.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 33 ] 23. By passing through the gate of death, man enters the spiritual world by feeling everything fall away from him that he has acquired through the senses of the body and through the brain during life on earth in terms of impressions and soul contents. His consciousness then has before it in a comprehensive tableau in pictures what life content could be brought into the memory in the form of pictureless thoughts during the life on earth, or what has remained unnoticed by the earth consciousness but has nevertheless made a subconscious impression on the soul. These images fade after a few days until they disappear. When they are completely lost, the person knows that he has also discarded his etheric body, in which he can recognize the bearer of these images.
[ 34 ] 24. After discarding the etheric body, man still has the astral body and the ego as his remaining limbs. As long as the former is with him, it allows the consciousness to experience everything that formed the unconscious content of the soul resting in sleep during life on earth. This content contains the judgments which the spirit beings of a higher world imprint on the astral body during the periods of sleep, but which are hidden from the earthly consciousness. The human being lives through his earthly life once again, but in such a way that the content of his soul is now the judgment of his actions and thoughts from the point of view of the spiritual world. The reliving happens retrograde: first the last night, then the second last and so on.
[ 35 ] 25. The judgment of life experienced in the astral body after passing through the gate of death lasts as long as the time that was occupied by sleep during life on earth.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 36 ] 26. Only after the discarding of the astral body, after the completed judgment of life, does man enter the spiritual world. In this world he stands in such a relationship to beings of a purely spiritual nature as he does on earth to the beings and processes of the kingdoms of nature. In the spiritual experience everything that was the outer world in earthly life then becomes the inner world. Man then not only perceives this outer world, but he experiences it in its spirituality, which was hidden from him on earth, as his inner world.
[ 37 ] 27. The human being, as he is on earth, becomes the outer world in the spiritual realm. One looks at this human being as one looks at stars, clouds, mountains, rivers on earth. And this outer world is no less rich in content than the appearance of the cosmos appears to earthly life.
[ 38 ] 28. The forces formed in the spiritual realm by the spirit of man continue to work in the shaping of the earthly man, just as the deeds accomplished in the physical man continue to work in the life after death as soul content.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 39 ] 29. In the developed imaginative cognition, what lives within the human being in soul and spirit and shapes his life in the physical body and on its basis unfolds the human existence in the physical world. In contrast to the physical body, which is constantly renewing itself in metabolism, there is the inner human entity, which unfolds in its essence from birth (or conception) to death permanently, the physical space body a temporal body.
[ 40 ] 30. In the inspired cognition lives in the image what the human being experiences in the time between death and a new birth within a spiritual environment. There it is clear what man without his physical and etheric body, through which he passes through earthly existence, is in his essence in a broad context.
[ 41 ] 31. In intuitive cognition, the effect of earlier earthly lives comes to consciousness in the present. In their further development, these earlier earth lives have shed the connections in which they stood with the physical world. They have become the purely spiritual essence of the human being and as such are active in the present life. They are thus also the object of cognition, which arises as the unfolding of the imaginative and inspired.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 42 ] 32. In the head of man the physical organization is an imprint of the spiritual individuality. The physical and etheric parts of the head stand as self-contained images of the spiritual, and next to them in independent soul-spiritual entity stand the astral and ego parts. In the human head, therefore, we are dealing with a co-development of the relatively independent physical and etheric on the one hand, and the astral and the ego organization on the other.
[ 43 ] 33. In the limb-metabolic part of the human being, the four members of the human being are intimately connected with each other. The ego organization and the astral body are not separate from the physical and etheric parts. They are within them; they animate them, work in their growth, in their ability to move and so on. In this way, however, the metabolic part of the limbs is like a germ that wants to develop further, that continually strives to become the head, and that is continually held back by it during the earthly life of the human being.
[ 44 ] 34. The rhythmic organization stands in the middle. Here the ego organization and the astral body alternately connect with the physical and etheric parts and separate from them again. Breathing and blood circulation are the physical imprint of this union and detachment. The inhalation process represents the connection; the exhalation process the detachment. The processes in the arterial blood represent the connection; the processes in the venous blood represent the detachment.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 45 ] 35. One understands the physical human being only if one regards it as a picture of the spiritual-soul. Taken by itself, the physical body of man remains incomprehensible. But in its various limbs it is an image of the spiritual-soul in various ways. The head is its most perfect, complete sensory image. Everything that belongs to the metabolic and limb system is like an image that has not yet assumed its final form, but is still being worked on. Everything that belongs to the rhythmic organization of the human being stands between these opposites in terms of the relationship between the spiritual and the physical.
[ 46 ] 36. Whoever looks at the human head from this spiritual point of view has an aid to the understanding of spiritual imaginations in this observation; for in the forms of the head, imaginative forms have to a certain extent coagulated to physical density.
[ 47 ] 37. In the same way, the contemplation of the rhythmic part of the human organization can be of help for the understanding of inspirations. The physical appearance of the rhythms of life bears the character of the inspired in the sensory image. In the metabolic and limb systems, if one observes them in full action, in the unfolding of their necessary or possible functions, one has a sensual-supersensible image of the purely supersensible intuitive.