The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric
GA 118
10 May, 1910, Hanover
8. The Etheric Vision of the Future
The question often arises today as to why the teachings of spiritual science must be imparted now, while one hundred and twenty years ago, for instance, one heard nothing of it. Actually, the communication of spiritual truths has always taken place, but in a different form from today. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the teachings penetrated out of small brotherhoods and, for well-considered reasons, were put into writing not by the originators but by other people. Only scanty accounts penetrated out of those early mystery schools. One can still find today, however, one or two books in whose dim pages—dim only on the surface—are quite wonderful things. Such a book, Aurea Catena Homeri, was mentioned by Goethe. What its pages reveal will seem like fantasy or nonsense to modern readers, especially the most “enlightened.” If one approaches this “nonsense” with the tools of spiritual science, however, one will find something quite different. The greatest secrets are disclosed to one who studies its pages carefully. In earlier times, only a few individuals could advance into this occult science, but now there is unlimited opportunity for everyone whose heartfelt longing leads him there. How has this come about and why may these secrets now be brought to the public?
There is almost no historical age that cannot be described as a time of transition. Every age is asserted to be so, with more or less justification. Our present time, however, in which such fundamental events are occurring, can rightly be called an era of transition. To understand the deep foundations of our time, it is necessary to consider some well-known facts. We are approaching an era in which the ascent to higher worlds must take place with clear, clairvoyant consciousness. The old clairvoyance of Atlantis expired in 3101 BC, and then the time came when human beings began to perceive everything around themselves with an understanding bound to the brain. (This date is not to be taken as an absolute but as an approximate date.) The clairvoyant consciousness of humanity had to be darkened for a certain time in order that man should fully master the physical plane. The lesser Kali Yuga, or the Dark Age, now began and lasted 5,000 years; it had run its course by 1899. Now a time is being prepared in which it will become possible for people to unfold delicate clairvoyant faculties even without special training. From 1930 to 1950 there will already be people who will say, “Around that person I can see something like a bright band of light.” Another will see something rising before him like a dream-picture with a strange content. If this person has just performed a deed or action, something will appear to him that will rise like a picture in his soul. This picture will show him what action he must undertake sooner or later to compensate for this deed. It may happen that a person in whom these faculties are found relates them to a friend who will perhaps tell him, “Yes, there have always been human beings who know what you have seen. They call it ‘the etheric body of man,’ and what rises up in you like a dream-picture they call ‘karma.’”
Spiritual science has had to appear so that this age of etheric clairvoyance, which redeems the age of thinking that is controlled by an understanding bound to the brain, should not pass by unrecognized. As the Christ had to have a forerunner, so spiritual science had to appear in order to prepare for this clairvoyant age. Something could certainly happen now that would crush the bud of these delicate faculties of soul. This danger exists when people will not listen to the teachings of spiritual science, when they close themselves to them. Then the persons in whom these faculties appear will be called fantastic and foolish and will be locked up in mental hospitals. Many will themselves believe that they have had hallucinations; others will be afraid to speak about them, dreading to be laughed at or ridiculed. All this can lead to destruction of the new faculties of soul. Clever and enlightened persons in that era—you can put “enlightened” in quotation marks—will then say, “Look here! People lived long ago who declared that in our age there would be individuals with special faculties of soul. Where are these people? We are not aware of them.” Nevertheless, the prophecy of spiritual science will have been fulfilled. Although everything could be stifled by the increasing power of materialism, one can expect from souls today an understanding for that freer and lighter age just beginning.
Everything that happens in the world has an effect on everything else. The microcosm corresponds to the macrocosm. Let us study the events in the world that are connected with us. People are so easily satisfied when they can assert the truth of something. For spiritual science, however, it is of less concern always to emphasize that something is true than that this truth is also important. Much, for instance, is spoken and written about the similarity between human and animal skeletons. That is certainly a fact to which there could be no objection; yet there are truths that are much, much more important. There is, for example, the truth everyone can observe, a fact standing right before our eyes and yet connected with a great cosmic event. This is the truth that man is the only being who walks erect, who has raised himself up. Concerning the oft-mentioned similarity of the human skeleton to that of the ape, the erect gait of the ape has been botched. The ape tried to raise himself up but did not succeed. His erect gait is bungled. The erect gait of man is directly connected with the sun and the earth, with their spiritual working one upon the other. In order for man to walk upright, the sun and earth had to separate from each other. The animal is earthbound, but man has raised himself, and his countenance is turned upward. He walks in a vertical line, and with his erect gait he is a continuation of the earth's radius. That this truth is of importance is something we must feel; we must learn to feel it.
Let us look at another important instance of correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm. In outer form a human being appears as either masculine or feminine. It is important to consider, however, that only in the outer form is one a man or a woman, not in one's inner being (we are speaking now of the outer characteristics in one incarnation). What contrast in the macrocosm corresponds to what appears in us as masculine and feminine? To clarify this, we must cast a glance into world space. There we find material substances that have remained backward; they have not taken on the laws of the sun and earth but have remained at the ancient Moon stage of evolution. Just the opposite is the case with the present moon, which is a body that has precipitated its own evolution. On account of this, it has become too strongly hardened. It had to dry up and freeze because it overshot its normal development. It is a future Jupiter condition that has miscarried, as if in human life a child had the constitution of an old man. The moon has thus missed its strength by going too far, thereby causing its own death.
In general, people will swear to a truth if it comes to them as an abstract principle; in concrete terms, however, this same truth appears to them as illusion. In all theosophical books one finds the remark that the world is an illusion or maya. Every theosophist knows this as truth and often repeats it. To say that the masculine or feminine body is only an illusion contributes something concrete to the abstraction. It is a fact that neither the masculine nor the feminine body, with the exception of the head, is properly developed. The feminine body is not fully developed, whereas the masculine has gone too far in its development. There is no middle position here. The feminine form is untrue in its backwardness, the masculine because it went too far beyond the middle position of development. Great artists have always felt these imperfections. Clothing arose from an exalted feeling for this fact. The ancient robes of priests were supposed to represent what the human body should be. Only sensual people can devote themselves to nudist colonies, because they recognize no higher expression than the body they see before them.
There is thus a lunar body, the moon, which has gone too far in its evolution, and such bodies as have remained at an earlier stage of evolution, namely, the comets. You may ask what all this has to do with man and woman. A comet brings with it the laws of the earlier Moon and therefore renews these ancient laws. It also brings with it the cyanide compounds, as has recently been established by outer science and has been known for a long time to occult science. Just as oxygen and carbon compounds are necessary to us on earth, so the cyanides were essential on the ancient Moon. In 1906 I enlarged on this in Paris, at the annual meeting of the Theosophical Society, in the presence of Colonel Olcutt, our president at that time, and various others.
Because a woman's body has remained behind in its development, it has preserved a softer, more flexible, less substantial materiality; her brain can more easily be ruled by the spirit. A man, however, having rushed ahead in his development, now has difficulty prevailing over his rigid material and more impermeable brain substance. For this reason, a woman is more receptive to new ideas, her soul takes possession of them, and she can more easily direct her thoughts through the brain. It is harder for a man to set into motion the rigid parts of his brain. It thus stands to reason that there are, for example, more women than men in the Theosophical Society, a fact much deplored on various sides. Perhaps the men who stand in such dread of appearing as women in a later incarnation will find these thoughts somewhat consoling.
We will now apply the law of correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm, between the large and small worlds, to another important matter. Just as in ordinary life we have our humdrum days—waking up, going to bed, waking up again, going about our usual tasks—so it is also in the far reaches of space. There, too, everything goes about its usual course; the rising and setting of the sun are repeated in a regular rhythm. Just as a family's methodical pace is interrupted when a child appears, since a completely new impulse enters earthly existence with a new spiritual being, so the appearance of a new heavenly body, such as a comet, has the same effect in space. All material is the expression of something spiritual, and occult science is able to indicate what lies behind the phenomena. The way in which modern science tries to occupy itself with comets is similar to a fly observing the Sistine Madonna. When it crawls over the Madonna, it certainly sees the colors, sees a spot of red here, a spot of blue there, but beyond this it sees nothing at all. This “fly-science”—the term is naturally used only in reference to what was mentioned above—knows nothing of the inner lawfulness whose outer sign is the comet. Halley's Comet particularly has the tendency to drive humanity still further into materialism. Without Halley's Comet, the books of the Encyclopedists would not have appeared, and there would not have been articles by Moleschott and Büchner after 1835. Today the ominous sign of the comet is appearing again, and if people do not listen to the teachings of spiritual science and do not make use of what is offered through it, spirituality will receive a death-blow.
There is another significant sign, however, one that makes it possible for humanity to escape the destructive influence of the comet; its forces are even stronger than the comet's. This is the spring sign of Pisces, the Fish, in which we have stood for several centuries; at the time of Christ the vernal equinox was in the constellation of Aries, the Ram. We are thus well into this sign of great spiritual forces that will carry us upward. Through understanding these forces, we will develop the faculties that we will be able to attain in this age of Pisces.
Man rises to true human dignity only when he grasps from the depths the relationships that lie at the foundation of the spiritual. People should not rush so blindly past what the heavenly signs have to show them. Wisdom should inflame and enlighten its association with small and great. You may take as an example of this the wisdom-filled organization of an anthill. There the whole has a meaning; every ant feels itself to be a member of a whole. Human beings, however, regulate their social life according to what each individual considers useful for himself. They run around each other senselessly, without understanding. Human life is really nonsensical in many ways.
Whenever a person takes on an inner discipline, however, he makes himself ripe for what should be brought forward as a third fact: the possibility of looking out into the etheric with newly awakened faculties. There the soul will see what Paul once saw: the Christ in His etheric body. Without books and documents this great event—the second coming of Christ—will take place for those who have made themselves worthy of it. It is the obligation of anthroposophy to announce this. There are already human beings who sense that we have overcome the Dark Age and are approaching a more luminous era. Anthroposophists must walk this path consciously. Anthroposophy must bring its fruits to humanity, so that souls are made capable of uniting themselves with Christ. Whether these souls inhabit a physical body or not makes no difference; He has descended to the dead as well as to the living. The great and sublime event of Christ's appearance in the etheric thus has significance for all the world.
Das Kommende Äthersehen
Es wird in der heutigen Zeit vielfach die Frage aufgeworfen, warum gerade jetzt die geisteswissenschaftlichen Lehren verbreitet werden müssen, warum man früher, zum Beispiel vor 120 Jahren nichts davon gehört habe. So etwas geschah aber immer, nur in einer andern Form als heutzutage. Im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert drangen Lehren heraus aus kleinen Gesellschaften, die aber aus wohlerwogenen Gründen nicht von den Urhebern, sondern von andern Menschen aufgeschrieben wurden. Es sind nur spärliche Nachrichten, die aus den damaligen Geheimschulen herausdrangen. So findet man zum Beispiel noch heute Bücher, in deren vergilbten Blättern - vergilbt dem Äußeren nach - ganz wunderbare Dinge stehen. Ein solches Buch ist das von Goethe erwähnte «Aurea Catena Homeri». Was darinnen steht, wird von den heutigen Menschen, am meisten natürlich von den Aufgeklärtesten, für Phantasterei und Unsinn gehalten. Geht man aber mit den Mitteln der Geisteswissenschaft an diesen «Unsinn» heran, so steht da etwas ganz anderes. Da enthüllen sich dem, der sich hineinvertieft, die größten Geheimnisse. Früher konnten nur wenige, nur einzelne bis zu dieser Geheimwissenschaft vordringen, jetzt gibt es eine unbegrenzte Möglichkeit für alle, welche durch die Sehnsucht ihres Herzens dahin geführt werden. Woher kommt dies nun, und warum dürfen diese Geheimnisse gerade jetzt an die Öffentlichkeit gebracht werden?
Es gibt wohl kein Zeitalter, von dem nicht behauptet würde, es sei ein Übergangszeitalter. Mit mehr oder weniger Recht wird solches behauptet. Aber gerade von unserer heutigen Zeit, in welcher sich fundamentale Tatsachen abspielen, kann man mit Recht behaupten, sie sei ein Übergangszeitalter. Um die tiefen Grundlagen der Zeit zu verstehen, ist es notwendig, an bekannte Tatsachen anzuknüpfen. Wir gehen Zeiten entgegen, wo der Aufstieg zu den höheren Welten mit klarem, hellsichtigem Bewußtsein geschehen muß. 3101 vor Christus schied das alte Hellsehen der Atlantier dahin, und es kam die Zeit, wo der Mensch mit dem Verstande, der an das Gehirn gebunden ist, alle Dinge um ihn herum wahrnimmt. Diese Jahreszahl ist nun freilich nicht als eine absolute, sondern nur als Durchschnittszahl aufzufassen. Das hellsichtige Bewußtsein mußte der Menschheit für eine Zeitlang getrübt werden, damit sie dazu gelangte, den physischen Plan vollständig zu erobern. Es begann nun das kleine Kali Yuga oder das finstere Zeitalter, welches 5000 Jahre dauerte und 1899 abgelaufen war. Jetzt bereitet sich eine Zeit vor, in welcher es dem Menschen möglich sein wird, wiederum zarte hellseherische Fähigkeiten zu entfalten, auch ohne besondere Schulung. Schon um die Jahre 1930 bis 1950 wird es Menschen geben, die sagen werden: Ich sehe da um den Menschen herum etwas wie einen hellen Lichtstreif. - Andere wird es geben, die werden etwas wie ein Traumbild vor sich aufsteigen schen mit einem merkwürdigen Inhalt. Haben diese Menschen eine Tat, eine Handlung begangen, so wird ihnen etwas erscheinen, was wie ein Bild in ihrer Seele aufsteigt. Dieses Bild zeigt ihnen, welche Handlung sie früher oder später zum Ausgleich dieser Tat vornehmen müssen. Nun kann es vorkommen, daß ein Mensch, in dem diese Fähigkeiten auftreten, einem Freunde davon erzählt, und dieser Freund wird ihm dann vielleicht sagen: Ja, es hat schon immer Menschen gegeben, die von dem, was du da siehst, etwas gewußt haben. Sie nennen es den «Ätherleib des Menschen», und was als Traumbild vor den Menschen auftritt, aufsteigt, das nennen sie «Karma».
Die Geisteswissenschaft mußte also auftreten, damit dieses Zeitalter des ätherischen Hellsehens nicht unbeachtet vorübergeht, welches die Zeit der Herrschaft des Denkens durch den Verstand, der an das Gehirn gebunden ist, ablöst. Und wie der Christus einen Vorläufer haben mußte, so mußte die Geisteswissenschaft erscheinen, um dies hellsichtige Zeitalter vorzubereiten. Nun kann allerdings etwas eintreten, was diese zarten Seelenfähigkeiten im Keim erstickt. Diese Gefahr besteht, wenn die Menschen auf die Lehren der Geisteswissenschaft nicht hören wollen, wenn sie sich ihnen verschließen. Dann wird man die Menschen, bei denen diese Fähigkeiten auftreten, Phantasten, Narren schelten, und wird sie ins Irrenhaus sperren. Manche Menschen werden selbst glauben, Halluzinationen gehabt zu haben, andere werden sich fürchten, darüber zu reden, um nicht ausgelacht und verspottet zu werden. Das kann dazu führen, daß diese auftretenden Seelenfähigkeiten totgetreten werden. Die klugen und aufgeklärten Leute jener Zeit - das «aufgeklärt» ist immer in Gänsefüßchen zu denken, aber wirklich in Gänsefüßchen, nicht in Anführungszeichen — werden dann sagen: Seht, da lebten früher einmal Menschen, die haben behauptet, in diesem Zeitalter, in diesem Zeitabschnitt gäbe es einmal Menschen mit besonderen Seelenfähigkeiten. Wo sind denn nun diese Menschen? Wir sehen ja nichts davon. — Aber deshalb ist die Prophetie der Geisteswissenschaft dennoch in Erfüllung gegangen. Es kann nur alles durch den überhandnehmenden Materialismus erstickt werden. Von den heutigen Seelen wird man Verständnis erwarten für jenes beginnende freiere, lichtere Zeitalter.
Alles nun, was in der Welt geschieht, steht in Wechselwirkung. Der Mikrokosmos entspricht dem Makrokosmos. Werfen wir daher einen Blick auf die Vorgänge in der Welt, die mit uns in Beziehung stehen. Die Menschen sind so leicht zufrieden, wenn sie von einer Sache behaupten können, sie sei wahr. Für die Geisteswissenschaft kommt es aber weniger darauf an, immer zu betonen, daß eine Sache wahr ist, sondern es kommt darauf an, daß diese Wahrheit auch von Wichtigkeit ist, Es wird zum Beispiel so viel geredet und geschrieben von der Ähnlichkeit des Knochengerüstes zwischen Mensch und Tier. Das ist eine Wahrheit, gewiß, dagegen läßt sich nichts einwenden. Aber es gibt Wahrheiten, die viel, viel wichtiger sind. Das ist zum Beispiel eine Wahrheit, die jeder beobachten kann, die ganz einfach vor uns hintritt, die aber zusammenhängt mit einem großen kosmischen Ereignisse. Das ist die Wahrheit, daß der Mensch das einzige Wesen ist, das einen aufrechten Gang hat, das sich aufgerichtet hat. Bei der so oft erwähnten Ähnlichkeit der menschlichen Knochen mit denen des Affen ist doch der aufrechte Gang des Affen verpfuscht. Der Affe hat versucht, sich aufzurichten, aber er hat es nicht fertiggebracht. Sein aufrechter Gang ist eben verpfuscht. Der aufrechte Gang des Menschen steht nämlich in Zusammenhang mit Sonne und Erde, mit ihrem geistigen Aufeinanderwirken. Sonne und Erde mußten sich voneinander trennen, damit der Mensch sich aufrichten konnte. Das Tier ist erdgebunden, der Mensch aber hat sich aufgerichtet, sein Antlitz ist nach oben gekehrt. In der vertikalen Linie stellt er sich dar, er ist mit seinem aufrechten Gang eine Fortsetzung des Erdradius. Daß diese Wahrheit von Wichtigkeit ist, das müssen wir fühlen, fühlen lernen.
Auf einen andern wichtigen Fall von Entsprechung zwischen Makrokosmos und Mikrokosmos sei noch hingewiesen. Der Mensch erscheint in seiner äußeren Gestalt entweder männlich oder weiblich. Aber es ist wohl zu beachten: Nur von dem Äußeren des Menschen, nicht von seinem inneren Wesen, nur von seinen äußeren Eigenschaften in einer Verkörperung soll die Rede sein jetzt. Welcher Gegensatz draußen im Makrokosmos entspricht denn nun dem, was sich uns als männlich und weiblich darstellt? - Um dies zu erklären, müssen wir einen Blick in den Weltenraum tun. Es sind nämlich stoffliche Substanzen vorhanden, die zurückgeblieben sind, nicht die Gesetze der Sonne und Erde angenommen haben, sondern auf der Mondenstufe stehengeblieben sind. Das Entgegengesetzte ist bei dem heutigen Monde der Fall, der ein Körper ist, der sich in der Entwickelung überstürzt hat. Infolgedessen verhärtete er sich zu stark. Er mußte vertrocknen, vereisen, indem er seine Bildungsstufe überschritt. Er ist ein mißratener zukünftiger Jupiterzustand. Das ist so, als ob im Leben das Kind die Bildung eines Greises haben wollte. So hat der Mond seine Kraft übersprungen, er ist zu weit gegangen, er hat sich tot gemacht. Im allgemeinen schwören die Menschen auf eine Wahrheit, die sie als abstrakten Satz annehmen; aber im Konkreten erscheint ihnen diese Wahrheit als eine Illusion. In allen theosophischen Büchern findet man den Ausspruch, daß die Welt eine Illusion sei, Maja. Jeder Theosoph erkennt ihn als Wahrheit an und hat ihn schon öfters ausgesprochen. Daß sowohl der männliche wie der weibliche Leib nur eine Illusion ist, das ist etwas, was sich verhält wie das Konkrete zum Abstrakten. Es ist Tatsache: Weder der männliche noch der weibliche Körper ist, mit Ausnahme des Kopfes, wahr. Die weibliche Gestalt ist nicht voll entwickelt, die männliche hat die Entwickelungsstufe überschritten. Es ist keine Mittellage da. Das Zurückbleiben des weiblichen und das Überschreiten des männlichen Leibes von der Mittellage der Entwickelung, das gibt also die unwahre Gestalt. Echte Künstler haben diesen Mangel immer gefühlt. Die Bekleidung entsprang einem erhabenen Gefühl für diese Tatsache. In den alten Priestergewändern sollte dargestellt werden, wie der menschliche Leib sein sollte. Nur Sinnenwesen konnten sich der Nacktkultur zuwenden, weil sie keinen höheren Ausdruck kennen als den Körper, den sie vor sich sehen.
Es gibt also einen lunarischen Körper, den Mond, der über das Entwickelungsziel hinausgeschossen ist, und solche Körper, die auf einer früheren Stufe stehengeblieben sind. Die gibt es nämlich auch. Das sind die Kometen.
Nun können Sie fragen: Was hat das mit Mann und Weib zu tun? Mond und Komet sind der kosmische Ausdruck von Mann und Weib. Der Komet brachte sich frühere Mondengesetze mit. Die Kometen erneuern also die alten Mondengesetze. Deshalb führen sie auch, wie das ja von der äußeren Wissenschaft vor kurzem erst festgestellt wurde, der Geheimwissenschaft aber schon lange bekannt war, Blausäure mit sich. Denn ebenso wie auf der Erde Kohlenstoff- und Sauerstoffverbindungen nötig sind, so waren auf dem alten Mond Zyanverbindungen erforderlich. Das führte ich schon 1906 auf dem Kongreß in Paris aus, in Gegenwart unseres damaligen Präsidenten Olcott und noch verschiedener anderer Zeugen.
Weil die Frau in der Entwickelung zurückgeblieben ist, hat sich ihr Stoffliches auch weicher und biegsamer erhalten, ist nicht so materiell geworden. Das Gehirn kann leichter vom Geiste aus regiert werden, während der Mann, der in der Entwickelung vorausgeeilt ist, Schwierigkeiten hat, die starre Materie, die dichteren Gehirnkräfte zu überwinden. Deshalb sind die Frauen empfänglicher für alle neuen Ideen, die Seele bemächtigt sich ihrer, und sie können ihre Gedanken leichter durch das Gehirn dirigieren, der Mann setzt seine zähen Gehirnteilchen nicht leicht in Tätigkeit. Daher hat es zum Beispiel auch seine volle Berechtigung, daß in der Theosophischen Gesellschaft mehr Frauen als Männer sind, was von manchen Seiten zwar öfter als Mißstand beklagt worden ist. Aber jenen Männern, welche sich so sehr davor fürchten, in einer späteren Verkörperung als Frau wieder zu erscheinen, mag von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus dieser Gedanke etwas erträglicher werden.
Nun wollen wir das Gesetz der Entsprechung von Makrokosmos und Mikrokosmos, der kleinen und der großen Welt, noch auf eine andere wichtige Tatsache anwenden. Wie wir im gewöhnlichen Leben dem Trott des Tages folgen, schlafen gehen, wieder erwachen, unseren gewöhnlichen Verrichtungen nachgehen, so ist es wiederum im Weltenraum der Fall. Auch da geht alles seinen gewohnten Gang, es wiederholt sich Sonnenaufgang und Sonnenuntergang in regelmäßigen Zwischenräumen. Wie nun in einer Familie dieser Trott des Tages unterbrochen wird, wenn in der Familie ein Kind erscheint, wie dadurch ein ganz neuer Impuls kommt, wenn ein neues Geistiges ins Erdendasein tritt, so wirkt das Erscheinen eines neuen Weltenkörpers, wie des Kometen, im Weltenraum. Alles Stoffliche ist der Ausdruck eines Geistigen, und die Geheimwissenschaft kann angeben, was dahintersteht. Die Art und Weise, wie die äußere Wissenschaft sich mit den Kometen beschäftigt, ist zu vergleichen mit der Betrachtung der Sixtinischen Madonna durch eine Fliege. Diese Fliege, wenn sie über die Madonna kriecht, sie sieht auch die Farben, sie sieht, daß an einer Stelle eine rote Farbe ist, an der andern eine blaue, aber weiter sieht sie auch nichts. Diese Fliegenwissenschaft - das Wort ist natürlich nur in bezug auf das eben Gesagte anzuwenden -, sie weiß nichts von den inneren Gesetzmäßigkeiten, von denen die Kometen ein äußeres Zeichen sind. Der Halleysche Komet hat ganz besonders die Tendenz, die Menschen noch mehr in den Materialismus hineinzutreiben. Ohne den Halleyschen Kometen wären die Bücher der Enzyklopädisten nicht erschienen, hätte es nach 1835 keine Schriften von Moleschott und Büchner gegeben. Jetzt eben erscheint das verhängnisvolle Zeichen wieder, und wenn die Menschen die Lehren der Geisteswissenschaft nicht hören und das, was durch sie geboten wird, nicht benützen, wird das Geistige totgetreten werden.
Nun gibt es aber noch ein anderes, bedeutungsvolles Zeichen, das es der Menschheit möglich macht, dem verderblichen Einfluß der Kometen nicht zu unterliegen, und dessen Kräfte stärker sind als die der Kometen. Das ist das Frühlingszeichen der Fische, in dem wir seit einigen Jahrhunderten stehen, während zur Zeit Christi der Frühlingspunkt im Sternbild des Widders war. So sind wir eingetreten in dieses Zeichen geistiger Kräfte, die uns hinauftragen werden, daß wir durch ihr Verständnis die Fähigkeiten entwickeln werden, zu denen wir in diesem Zeitalter der Fische gelangen können.
Der Mensch erhebt sich erst zu wahrer Menschenwürde, wenn er aus der Tiefe heraus die Zusammenhänge der geistigen Grundlagen begreift. Die Menschen sollen nicht so blind an dem vorbeilaufen, was ihnen die Himmelszeichen zu sagen haben. Weisheit soll ihr Zusammenleben im Kleinen und Großen durchglühen und durchleuchten. Sie können sich ein Beispiel an dem weisheitsvollen System eines Ameisenhaufens nehmen. Da hat das Ganze einen Sinn. Jede Ameise fühlt sich als das Glied eines Ganzen, während die Menschen ihr Zusammenleben nach dem regeln, was ihnen allein nützlich ist, nützlich erscheint. Sie rennen durcheinander ohne Sinn und Verstand. Das menschliche Leben ist wirklich vielfach Unsinn. Wenn der Mensch sich in eine innere Gesetzmäßigkeit hineinstellt, macht er sich reif für das, was als dritte Tatsache hingestellt werden soll. Es ist die Möglichkeit gegeben, mit den neuerwachten Fähigkeiten hinauszuschauen in das Ätherische. Da wird die Seele sehen, was Paulus einst sah: sie wird schauen den Christus im Ätherleib. Ohne Bücher und Dokumente steht dieses große Ereignis, das Wiedererscheinen des Christus da für die, welche sich würdig darauf vorbereiten. Und es ist die Pflicht der Anthroposophie, dieses zu verkündigen. Es gibt Menschen, welche ahnen, daß wir das finstere Zeitalter überwunden haben und einem lichteren Zeitalter entgegengehen. Die Anthroposophen haben bewußt diesen Weg zu beschreiten. Die Anthroposophie hat ihre Früchte hineinzutragen in die Menschheit, um die Seelen fähig zu machen, sich mit dem Christus zu vereinigen, und es macht keinen Unterschied, ob sie noch im physischen Leibe verkörpert sind oder ihn abgelegt haben, denn er ist zu den Toten ebensogut herabgestiegen, wie zu den Lebenden, und so wird das große, gewaltige Ereignis, das Erscheinen des Christus im Ätherischen, Bedeutung haben für alle Welten.
The Coming Ethereal Vision
In our time, the question is often raised as to why the spiritual scientific teachings must be disseminated now, why nothing was heard of them earlier, for example 120 years ago. But something like this has always happened, only in a different form than today. In the 17th and 18th centuries, teachings emerged from small societies, but for well-considered reasons they were not written down by their originators, but by other people. Only scant information leaked out of the secret schools of that time. For example, even today one can still find books whose yellowed pages – yellowed on the outside – contain wonderful things. One such book is the “Aurea Catena Homeri” mentioned by Goethe. What it contains is considered by most people today, especially the most enlightened, to be fantasy and nonsense. But if one approaches this “nonsense” with the tools of spiritual science, something completely different emerges. To those who delve deeply into it, the greatest secrets are revealed. In the past, only a few individuals were able to penetrate this secret science, but now there is unlimited opportunity for all who are led there by the longing of their hearts. Where does this come from, and why are these secrets being made public now?
There is probably no age that has not been claimed to be a transitional age. Such claims are made with varying degrees of justification. But it is precisely of our present age, in which fundamental events are taking place, that it can rightly be said that it is a transitional age. In order to understand the deep foundations of the times, it is necessary to build on known facts. We are approaching times when the ascent to the higher worlds must take place with clear, clairvoyant consciousness. In 3101 BC, the ancient clairvoyance of the Atlanteans disappeared, and the time came when human beings perceived everything around them with their intellect, which is bound to the brain. This date is, of course, not to be understood as an absolute date, but only as an average. The clairvoyant consciousness had to be clouded for a time so that humanity could completely conquer the physical plane. Then began the Little Kali Yuga, or the dark age, which lasted 5,000 years and ended in 1899. Now a time is preparing in which it will be possible for human beings to develop delicate clairvoyant abilities again, even without special training. Already around the years 1930 to 1950, there will be people who will say: I see something like a bright streak of light around people. Others will see something like a dream image rising before them with strange content. If these people have committed an act, something will appear to them that rises like an image in their soul. This image shows them what action they must take sooner or later to compensate for this act. Now it may happen that a person in whom these abilities appear tells a friend about them, and this friend may then say to him: Yes, there have always been people who knew something about what you see. They call it the “etheric body of the human being,” and what appears before people as a dream image, rising up, they call “karma.”
Spiritual science therefore had to come into being so that this age of etheric clairvoyance, which is replacing the age of the domination of thinking by the intellect bound to the brain, would not pass unnoticed. And just as Christ had to have a forerunner, so spiritual science had to appear in order to prepare this clairvoyant age. Now, however, something may happen that will nip these delicate soul abilities in the bud. This danger exists if people do not want to listen to the teachings of spiritual science, if they close themselves off to them. Then people who exhibit these abilities will be called fantasists or fools and locked up in insane asylums. Some people will even believe that they have had hallucinations, while others will be afraid to talk about it for fear of being laughed at and ridiculed. This can lead to these emerging soul abilities being trampled into the ground. The clever and enlightened people of that time — the word “enlightened” should always be thought of in quotation marks, but really in quotation marks, not in quotation marks — will then say: Look, there once lived people who claimed that in this age, in this period of time, there were once people with special soul abilities. Where are these people now? We don't see any of them. — But that is why the prophecy of spiritual science has nevertheless been fulfilled. Everything can only be stifled by rampant materialism. Today's souls will be expected to understand that dawning freer, lighter age.
Everything that happens in the world is interconnected. The microcosm corresponds to the macrocosm. Let us therefore take a look at the events in the world that are related to us. People are so easily satisfied when they can claim that something is true. For spiritual science, however, it is less important to always emphasize that something is true than to emphasize that this truth is also important. For example, there is so much talk and writing about the similarity between the skeletal structure of humans and animals. This is a truth, certainly, and there is no objection to it. But there are truths that are much, much more important. This is a truth that everyone can observe, that is right in front of us, but that is connected to a great cosmic event. It is the truth that humans are the only beings that walk upright, that have raised themselves up. When people talk about the similarity between human bones and those of apes, they are overlooking the fact that apes' upright gait is botched. The monkey tried to stand upright, but it did not succeed. Its upright gait is simply botched. The upright gait of humans is connected with the sun and the earth, with their spiritual interaction. The sun and the earth had to separate from each other so that humans could stand upright. Animals are bound to the earth, but humans have stood upright, their faces turned upward. He stands in a vertical line; with his upright gait, he is a continuation of the radius of the earth. We must feel, learn to feel, that this truth is important.
Another important case of correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm should be pointed out. In their outer form, human beings appear either male or female. But it should be noted that we are now only talking about the outer appearance of human beings, not their inner nature, only their outer characteristics in an embodiment. What contrast in the macrocosm corresponds to what we perceive as male and female? To explain this, we must take a look at the universe. There are material substances that have remained behind, that have not accepted the laws of the sun and earth, but have remained at the lunar stage. The opposite is true of today's moon, which is a body that has rushed through its development. As a result, it hardened too much. It had to dry up and freeze by exceeding its stage of formation. It is a failed future state of Jupiter. It is as if, in life, a child wanted to have the formation of an old man. Thus, the moon has overstepped its power, it has gone too far, it has killed itself. In general, people swear by a truth that they accept as an abstract proposition; but in concrete terms, this truth appears to them as an illusion. In all theosophical books one finds the statement that the world is an illusion, Maya. Every theosophist recognizes this as truth and has often repeated it. That both the male and female bodies are only an illusion is something that relates to the concrete as the abstract does. It is a fact: neither the male nor the female body is real, with the exception of the head. The female form is not fully developed, the male has passed the stage of development. There is no middle ground. The lagging behind of the female body and the surpassing of the male body from the middle stage of development thus results in the false form. True artists have always felt this deficiency. Clothing arose from a sublime feeling for this fact. The ancient priestly robes were intended to represent what the human body should be. Only sensual beings could turn to a culture of nudity because they know no higher expression than the body they see before them.
So there is a lunar body, the moon, which has shot beyond the goal of development, and there are bodies that have remained at an earlier stage. These also exist. They are the comets.
Now you may ask: What does this have to do with man and woman? The moon and the comet are the cosmic expression of man and woman. The comet brought with it earlier lunar laws. The comets therefore renew the old lunar laws. That is why they carry cyanide with them, as has only recently been discovered by external science, but has long been known to secret science. For just as carbon and oxygen compounds are necessary on Earth, cyanide compounds were necessary on the old moon. I explained this in 1906 at the congress in Paris, in the presence of our then president Olcott and various other witnesses.
Because women are less developed, their physical bodies have remained softer and more flexible and have not become as material. The brain can be more easily controlled by the spirit, while men, who are more advanced in their development, have difficulty overcoming rigid matter and the denser powers of the brain. That is why women are more receptive to all new ideas; the soul takes hold of them, and they can more easily direct their thoughts through the brain, whereas men do not easily set their tough brain cells in motion. Therefore, for example, it is entirely justified that there are more women than men in the Theosophical Society, which has often been lamented by some as a shortcoming. But for those men who are so afraid of reappearing as women in a later incarnation, this thought may become somewhat more bearable from this point of view.
Now let us apply the law of correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the small world and the large world, to another important fact. Just as we follow the daily routine in our ordinary lives, going to sleep, waking up again, and going about our usual activities, so it is in the universe. There, too, everything follows its usual course, with sunrise and sunset repeating themselves at regular intervals. Just as this daily routine is interrupted in a family when a child is born, just as a completely new impulse arises when a new spirit enters earthly existence, so the appearance of a new world body, such as a comet, has an effect in the universe. Everything material is the expression of a spiritual reality, and the secret science can reveal what lies behind it. The way in which external science deals with comets can be compared to a fly looking at the Sistine Madonna. When this fly crawls over the Madonna, it also sees the colors, it sees that there is a red color in one place and a blue color in another, but it sees nothing else. This fly science—the word is of course only to be used in relation to what has just been said—knows nothing of the inner laws of which comets are an outward sign. Halley's Comet has a particular tendency to drive people even further into materialism. Without Halley's Comet, the encyclopedists' books would not have been published, and there would have been no writings by Moleschott and Büchner after 1835. Now the fateful sign is appearing again, and if people do not listen to the teachings of spiritual science and do not make use of what it offers, the spiritual will be trampled underfoot.
But there is another significant sign that enables humanity not to succumb to the destructive influence of comets, and whose powers are stronger than those of comets. This is the spring sign of Pisces, in which we have been living for several centuries, whereas at the time of Christ the vernal equinox was in the constellation of Aries. Thus we have entered this sign of spiritual forces that will carry us upward so that, through understanding them, we will develop the abilities that we can attain in this age of Pisces.
Human beings only rise to true human dignity when they understand the connections between spiritual foundations from the depths of their being. People should not blindly ignore what the signs of the heavens have to tell them. Wisdom should permeate and illuminate their coexistence in both small and large ways. They can take the wise system of an anthill as an example. There, the whole has meaning. Every ant feels itself to be a member of a whole, while humans regulate their coexistence according to what is useful to them alone, what seems useful to them. They run about without sense or understanding. Human life is really nonsense in many ways. When humans place themselves within an inner lawfulness, they become ripe for what is to be presented as the third fact. The possibility is given to look out into the etheric with newly awakened abilities. There the soul will see what Paul once saw: it will see Christ in the etheric body. Without books and documents, this great event, the reappearance of Christ, stands before those who prepare themselves worthily for it. And it is the duty of anthroposophy to proclaim this. There are people who sense that we have overcome the dark age and are moving toward a lighter age. Anthroposophists must consciously follow this path. Anthroposophy must bear fruit in humanity in order to enable souls to unite with Christ, and it makes no difference whether they are still embodied in the physical body or have laid it down, for he has descended to the dead just as he has to the living, and thus the great, mighty event, the appearance of Christ in the etheric, will have meaning for all worlds.