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Manifestations of Karma
GA 120

28 May 1910, Hamburg

11. Individual and Human Karma. Karma of the Higher Beings

There is much still to be said about the various manifestations of karma; but as this is our last lecture, and time is necessarily short for so wide a subject, you easily understand that much that could be said, perhaps much of that which is in your minds in the way questions, cannot be dealt with this time. But our anthroposophical movement will continue, and that which in one course of lectures must necessarily remain unanswered, can on another occasion be carried on and explained further.

It will repeatedly have come before your minds that in the law of karma, man experiences something which is so organised that at every moment of our life we can look upon what we have gone through, upon what we have done, thought and felt in the incarnations preceding our own, and we shall always find that our momentary human inner and outer fate may be understood in the light of a ‘Life-account,’ in which on the side we set down all the clever, reasonable and wise experiences, and on the other all that is unreasonable, wicked or ugly. On one side or the other there will be an excess which signifies at any moment of life the destiny of that moment.

Now various questions may arise in this connection, and the first one would be: How is that which human beings do as a society connected with what we call ‘Individual karma?’ We have already touched upon these questions from other aspects. If we look back at any event in history, back, for instance, to the Persian wars, it will be impossible for us to believe that these events—looked at in the first place from the Greek point of view—represent something only to be written in the book of fate of individual men, who upon the physical plane may appear to be the persons most directly interested. Think of all the leaders in the Persian wars, of all the men who sacrificed themselves at that time, of all that was done by individuals—from the leaders down to the separate individuals—in the Greek legions at that time. If we really consider such an event in a reasonable light, could we possibly ascribe what each separate person did at that time solely to the karmic account of that individual? We should find it impossible so to do. For could we imagine that in the events which happen to a whole nation or to a great part of civilised humanity, nothing further occurs than that each separate human individual simply lives out his own karma? This is not possible. We must in the course of historical evolution always proceed from one event to the next, and we shall see that in the evolution of mankind itself both meaning and significance are to be found, but that such events cannot be identical with the particular karma of separate individuals.

We may reflect on an occurrence such as that of the Persian wars, and ask what significance they had in the course of human evolution. In the East a certain brilliant civilisation had developed. But as every light has its shadow, so must we clearly see that this Eastern civilisation was only to be attained by humanity at the cost of certain darker shadowy elements which should have had no place in human evolution. This civilisation had one pronounced shadow-side—the impulse to extend its frontiers by means of physical force. If this desire for aggrandisement had not been there, it is evident that the whole of that Eastern civilisation would not have come into being. The one cannot be thought of without the other. In order that man might evolve further, the Greek civilisation, for instance, had to develop from quite different principles. But the Greek civilisation could not of itself make a direct beginning. It had to obtain certain elements from outside and it borrowed these from the Eastern civilisation. Various legends about heroes who from Greece passed over to the East, do in fact represent how the pupils of certain Greek schools went over to the East and brought back to the Greeks those treasures of Eastern culture which could then be transformed by means of the national Greek talent. But for this it was necessary to eradicate the shadow-side of this culture—the impulse to press forward to the West by means of purely external force. The Roman civilisation which succeeded the Greek, and all that contributed to the evolution of European mankind would not have been possible if the Greeks had not prepared the ground by a further development of the Eastern civilisation—if they had not beaten back the Persians and what pertained to them. Thus that which had been created in Asia was purified by the driving back of the Asiatics.

Many events in the evolution of the world can be considered in this way, and one then obtains a striking picture. If we gave a course of lectures extending over three or four years and during that time gave our thought only to the traditional, historical documents of humanity, we should then see the unfolding of something which we might really call a plan in the evolution of mankind. We could then survey such a plan and say to ourselves, ‘this had to be attained; it had this shadow-side which later had to be cast off; the treasures which had been acquired had to pass over to another, and there be perfected further.’

After the Greeks had carried on the acquired treasures for some little while, the downfall of Greece occurred, and Rome took her place. In this way we should arrive at a plan of human evolution, so that when speaking of this plan we could never fall into the error of saying: ‘How did it come about, for instance, that just Xerxes or Miltiades or Leonidas had this or that individual karma?’ We must consider this individual karma as something which must be determined by and interwoven with the plan of the evolution of mankind. This cannot be understood in any other way; and this, too, is the view of Spiritual Science. But if this is the case, we must say: In this well-planned advance of human evolution we must see something which is a thing by itself, which is continuous in itself, in a similar way to that in which karmic events in individual human lives are connected with each other, and we must further enquire: ‘What relation does such a plan of the whole evolution of mankind bear to the individual karma of man?’ Let us first of all consider what one might call the ‘destiny’ of human evolution itself.

When we look back we see how one civilisation after another arises, and how the evolution of one people follows upon that of another. We see further how one nation after another acquires this or that which is new, how something remains out of the separate national civilisations which is permanent but how just on that account the nations must die out, so that the treasures each separate nation has acquired may be saved for the corresponding later epochs of human evolution. We must, therefore, find quite comprehensible what Spiritual Science has to say, that in the continuous advance of human evolution one can in the first place clearly distinguish two currents. Consider how in the whole course of the evolution of mankind there is what we may look upon as a ‘continuous current,’ within which wave after wave develops, and that which the foregoing wave has acquired is carried over into the next. We can get an idea of this if we look back to the first civilisation of the Post-Atlantean age, and observe the great achievements of ancient India. But if we compare that with the feeble echo of it which is contained in the old Vedas, which are, to be sure, wonderful enough, but which are but a faint reflection of that to which the Rishis attained and of what Spiritual Science relates to us of the great culture of the Indians, we then are compelled to admit that the original greatness of what this people accomplished for mankind had already faded when a beginning was made to preserve this treasure of human culture in those beautiful poetical productions. But that which the Indian culture first gained flowed over into the general course of human evolution and this alone made it possible for that to develop later which again was required by a young people, not by a people already grown old. The Indians had first to be driven back to the southern Peninsula, and then the Zarathustran view of the world evolved in Persia. How sublime was this view of the world when it arose, and how low had it fallen in a comparatively short time in the people who had received it! In Egypt and Chaldea we see the same thing happen. Then we see the passing over of the Eastern wisdom into Greece, and we see the Greeks beat back that which is Eastern on the external physical plane. We then see all that the whole East had acquired taken up into the lap of Greece and interwoven with much that had been acquired in various domains of Europe. Out of this there was created a new culture, which then in various indirect ways became capable of receiving the Christ Impulse and of transplanting it into the West.

We find this continuous stream of civilisation in which we see wave after wave, and each successive wave is both a continuation of the preceding and a new contribution to mankind. But what was the origin of all this? Remember all that each nation experiences in its own culture. Think of the accumulation of emotion and perceptions in countless individuals, of wishes and enthusiasms fostering the impulse of this culture. Think how the individuals were united in the one cultural impulse, so that through countless centuries of human development, one nation after another, developing the successive cultural impulses, each one lived its enthusiasms; but lived too in a sort of illusion. Every one of them believed the particular achievement of that culture to be not transitory but eternal. For that reason only was the devoted work of the separate peoples made possible, because the illusion always survived. Even today the illusion exists; although we are not so absolutely bound by it and do not speak of our culture as necessarily everlasting.

There you have two things necessary to national civilisations, and which are only beginning to change in our own day. For the first domain of human spiritual life in which such illusions cannot persist, is that of Anthroposophy. It would be a grave error for an Anthroposophist to believe that the forms in which our knowledge is now clothed and the train of thought which we are able to give out today from our Anthroposophical thought, feeling and will, are eternal. It would be very short-sighted to suppose that in three thousand years there would still be persons who would speak of the Anthroposophical truths just as we ourselves do today. We know that we are compelled on account of the conditions of our time to impress something of the continuous stream of evolution into present forms of thought and that our successors will express their experiences of these things in completely different forms. Why is this so? Throughout many centuries and many thousands of years of human culture, civilisation imposed on single individuals experiences through which a contribution was made to the collective evolution of the nations. Think of the numberless experiences which were gone through in ancient Greece, and think of what issued from that later as an extract for the whole of humanity! You will then say: There is more in this than merely the individual currents. Many things occur for the sake of this primary current.

So we must observe two things: first, something which must spring up and die away, in order that from its entirety a second thing, which reckoned by quantity is the smallest part, may survive as something lasting. When we realise that in the evolution of mankind since there has been human individual karma, two powers or beings are at work whom we have always found to be active—Lucifer and Ahriman—then only shall we understand the progress of human evolution. For the aim of this evolution is that finally, when the earth shall have attained its goal, those experiences which were gradually embodied in the whole human evolution out of the different civilisations, will bear fruit for every separate individual, quite regardless of what particular destiny he may have had. But we can see this goal only if we look at the evolution of the world in the light of Anthroposophy. For let no man deceive himself. To think of such a goal in the right way, with the full strength of the human individuality, without the merging of the individuality into some nebulous pantheistic unity, but in such a way that the individuality is completely maintained, so that into it flows that which mankind has as a whole acquired—this goal can only be clearly and definitely seen when the soul develops by means of Anthroposophy.

If we glance back at the earlier civilisations, we see that ever since human individualities have incarnated, Lucifer and Ahriman have had a share in the evolution of humanity. Lucifer on his side always seeks to take part in the progressive stream of civilisation by settling down into the human astral bodies, and impregnating them with the Lucifer impulse. Lucifer carries on his existence during the course of the evolution of mankind by working in upon the human astral bodies. Man could never acquire what Lucifer gives him, solely from those powers which bring about the continuous stream of civilisation just described. If you separate this stream of civilisation from the whole progressive course of mankind, then you have as ever increasing wealth that which the normally progressing Spiritual Beings of the Hierarchies cause to be poured down into humanity. We must look up to the Hierarchies and say: Those who go through their normal evolution furnish the earth-civilisation with that which is the lasting possession of humanity, which was, it is true, transformed later, but has nevertheless become a lasting possession. It is just like a tree and the pith within it. And so we obtain a continuous living stream in the progressing civilisations.

Through these powers who are going through a normal evolution on their own account, man would have led his Ego more and more with this progressing enrichment of human evolution. From time to time there would have flowed in that which brings man on further. Man would have filled himself more and more with the gifts of the spiritual world, and at last, when the earth had reached its goal, it stands to reason that man would have possessed within himself everything which was given from the spiritual worlds. But then one thing would not have been possible. Man would not have been able to develop the original, sacred ardour, devotion and enthusiasm arising in one age of civilisation after another. Out of the same soil from which springs every wish and every desire, springs forth also the wish for great ideals, the desire for the happiness of mankind, for the accomplishments of Art in the successive periods of human civilisation. From the same soil whence spring injurious desires leading to evil, springs forth also the striving after the highest which can be accomplished upon earth. And that which enkindles the human soul for the highest good, would not exist if, on the other hand, the same desire might not sink into wickedness and vice. The possibility of this in human evolution is the work of the luciferic spirits. We must not fail to recognise that the luciferic spirits have brought freedom to mankind at the same time as the possibility of evil—free receptivity for that which otherwise would only flow into the human soul.

But we have seen on other occasions, that everything provoked by Lucifer finds its counterpart in Ahriman. We see Lucifer and all his hosts work in that which gave to human evolution the impulse of the Greek civilisation, in the Greek heroes, in the great men and artists of Greece. He penetrates into the astral bodies and enkindles enthusiasm within them for that which they honour as the highest. So that what was to flow into evolution through Greece became at the same time an enthusiasm in the soul of the people. This is precisely Lucifer's realm, because Lucifer owes his power to the Moon-evolution and not the Earth-evolution. He is a challenge to Ahriman, and as Lucifer develops his activity from one age to another, Ahriman joins in and, bit by bit, spoils that which Lucifer has brought about on earth. The evolution of man is a continual action and reaction between Ahriman and Lucifer. If Lucifer were not in humanity, the zeal and fire for the continuous progress of human development would be lacking; if Ahriman were not there, he who in nation after nation destroys again that which comes,—not from the continuous stream, but from the luciferic impulse—then Lucifer would want to perpetuate each civilisation. Here you see Lucifer drawing down his own karma upon himself. This is a necessary consequence of his evolution on the old Moon. And the consequence now is, that he must always chain Ahriman to his heels: Ahriman is the karmic fulfilment of Lucifer.

Thus in the example of the ahrimanic and luciferic beings we get an insight into the karma of the higher beings. There also karma reigns. Karma is everywhere where there are egos. Lucifer and Ahriman naturally have egos and therefore the effects of their deeds can react upon themselves. Many of those secrets will be touched upon in the summer, in the series of lectures on ‘Secrets of the Bible Story of Creation,’ but there is just one thing to which I should now like to draw your attention, showing you the profound importance of each single word in the true occult records.

Have you never thought why it is that in the Bible History of the Creation, at the end of each day of creation comes the sentence: ‘And the Elohim saw the work, and they saw that it was very good!’ That is a significant statement. Why is it there? The sentence itself shows that it refers to a characteristic of the Elohim who evolved in a normal way on the old Moon and whose opponent is Lucifer. It is given as a sort of characteristic belonging to the Elohim that after each day of creation they saw that ‘it was very good.’ It is given for the reason that this was the degree of attainment reached by the Elohim. They could on the Moon only see their work as long as they were performing it, they could not have a subsequent consciousness of it. That they were able subsequently to look back reflectively upon their work, marks a particular stage in the consciousness of the Elohim. This only became possible upon the earth, and their inner character is shown by the fact that the element of will streams out from the being of the Elohim, so that when they saw it they saw that it was very good. Those were the Elohim who had completed their work upon the Moon and who, when they looked at it afterwards on the earth, were able to say: ‘It can remain, it is very good.’ But for that it was necessary that the Moon-evolution should be completed.

Now what of the Lucifer beings, who had not completed their Moon-development? They must also try to look back upon their work when on earth, for instance, to their share in the ardour and enthusiasm of the Greek civilisation. They will then see how, little by little, Ahriman crumbled it away; and they will have to say, because they did not complete it: ‘They saw their day's work, and behold, it was not of the best; it had to be blotted out!’

That is the great disappointment of the luciferic spirits; they are always trying to do their work over again, always trying to swing the pendulum again to the other side, and always they find their work again destroyed by Ahriman. You must think of it as an ebb and flow in the tide of human evolution, a continuous rousing of new forces by beings who are higher than we are ourselves, and the experiencing by them of continual disappointments. That comes into the experience of the luciferic spirits in the earth-evolution. Man had to take up this karma into himself, because only thus could he attain to real freedom which can develop only when man himself gives the highest purpose to his earth Ego. That Ego which man would have had, if at the end of the earth-evolution all goals were given to him, could not in a true sense be free; for from the beginning it was predestined that all the good of the earth-evolution should flow into him. Man could only become free, by adding to the Ego another Ego which is capable of error, which is always swinging backwards and forwards between good and evil, and which still is able to strive again and again after that which is the purpose of the earth-evolution. The lower Ego had to be joined to man through Lucifer, so that the upward struggle of man to the higher Ego should be his own deed. Only thus is ‘free will’ possible to mankind. Free will is something which man may acquire gradually, for he is so situated, that in his life, free will floats before him as an ideal. Does there exist a movement in human evolution when the human will is free? It is never free, because at any moment it may succumb to the luciferic and ahrimanic element; it is not free because every man, when he has passed through the gates of death, in the ascending time of purification—perhaps during several decades—has impressions which are definite and determined. It is the essential part of kamaloca that we should see to what an extent we are still imperfect by reason of our failings in the world, that we should see in detail in what way we have become imperfect. From that issues the decision to reject everything which has made us imperfect. Thus life in kamaloca adds one intention to another, and the conclusion that we make good again everything that we did and thought which lowered us. What we then feel is imprinted into our further life and we enter into existence through birth with that decision and intention thus charged with our own karma. Therefore we cannot speak of free will when we have entered into existence through birth. We can say we are approaching nearer to ‘free will,’ only when we have succeeded in mastering the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman, and we can obtain the mastery over the luciferic and ahrimanic influences, only by means of knowledge. Firstly, through self-knowledge, we make ourselves more and more capable—even in the life between birth and death—of learning to know our weaknesses in all three departments of the soul, in Thought, Feeling and Will. If we constantly strive to yield to no illusion, then that strength grows within our Ego by means of which we are able to resist the luciferic influence; for then we shall realise more and more how much those treasures of mankind are really worth. Secondly, we can obtain this mastery by means of the knowledge of the external world, which must be supplemented by self-knowledge—both must work together. We must unite self-knowledge and the knowledge of the external world with our own being and then we shall be quite clear as to how we stand regarding Lucifer.

It is characteristic of Anthroposophy that through it we are able to throw light upon these questions how far inclinations and emotions, and how far Lucifer and Ahriman play into every human action. What have we done in this course of lectures other than to explain in how many different ways the luciferic and ahrimanic forces work in our lives! In our present age, enlightenment as to the luciferic and ahrimanic forces may begin, and man must be enlightened regarding these if he really wishes to contribute something towards the attainment of the goal of earthly humanity. If you look around you, everywhere where human feeling and human thinking exist, you can see how far removed men still are from a really true enlightenment of the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman and you will find that by far the greater number of people do not wish for such enlightenment. You will see a great part of mankind succumbing to a certain religious egotism, and being overcome by the feeling that above all they should in their own souls attain the greatest degree of well-being. This egotism is such that people are not in the least conscious that the strongest passions may play a part in it. Nowhere does Lucifer play a greater part than when people, driven by their emotions and desires, strive to ascend to the Divine without having had the Divine illuminated by the light of knowledge. Do you not think that Lucifer is frequently involved where people believe they are striving for the highest? But the forms which are striven for in this way will also belong to the disenchantments of Lucifer, and those people whose erroneous desires cause them to believe that they are able to receive this or that form of spiritual culture, who preach over and over again that this Anthroposophy is so bad because it believes in something new, ought to reflect that it does not depend upon human will that Ahriman fastens himself to the heels of Lucifer. That which came about in the course of evolution in the forms of religion will, because Ahriman mingles into them, go under again through Lucifer. The continuous stream of human evolution will alone be preserved.

In a preceding evolution as we know, certain beings sacrificed themselves by retarded development. These beings live out their karma for our sake, so that we may in a normal way express what these beings can bestow on us. Indeed Jehovah originally poured into mankind by means of the Divine Breath, the capacity for absorbing the Ego. If only that Divine Breath had entered which pulsates in the human blood, without that which leads us away from it; if in fact the luciferic as well as the ahrimanic impulse were not at work, man would, it is true, have been able to attain to the actual gift of Jehovah, but he would not have perceived it with a self-conscious freedom.

Today we may indeed look back upon many disappointments of Lucifer, but we can also look forward to a future in which we may learn more and more to understand what the real current of evolution is. Anthroposophy will be the instrument for the understanding of this and will help us to be more conscious of the influences of Lucifer, more able to recognise it within ourselves, and therefore more able to make good use of it consciously; for formerly it worked but as a dim impulse. The same applies of course to ahrimanic influences.

In this regard I may perhaps call attention to the fact that an important period of human evolution is before us, an age in which soul-forces are reversed. It is an age in which certain persons—very few—will develop capacities different from those recognised to-day. For example, the etheric body of man, besides the physical body can be seen only by those who have undergone a methodical training. But even before the middle of the twentieth century there will be people possessed of a natural etheric clairvoyance, who, since mankind has reached the epoch in which this will develop as a natural gift, will perceive the etheric body as permeating the physical body and extending beyond it. Just as man, once able to see into the spiritual world, has descended to the merely physical perception and intellectual comprehension of the external world, so he begins gradually to evolve new and conscious capacities which will be added to the old ones. One of these new capacities I should like to characterise.

There will be people—at first only a few, for only in the course of the next two or three thousand years will these capacities evolve in larger numbers, and these first forerunners will be born before the end of the first half of the twentieth century—who will have an experience something like the following. After taking part in some action they will withdraw from it, and will have before them a picture which arises from the act in question. At first, they will not recognise it; they will not find in it any relation to what they have done. In the end they will see that this picture, which appears to them as a sort of conscious dream-picture, is the counterpart of their own action; it is the picture of the action which must take place, in order that the karmic compensation of the previous action may be brought about.

Thus we are approaching an age in which men will begin to understand karma not only from the teachings and presentations of Spiritual Science, but in which they will begin actually to see karma. Whereas until now karma was to man an obscure impulse, an obscure desire, which could be fulfilled only in the following life, which could only between death and a new birth be transformed into an intention, man will gradually evolve to a conscious perception of the work of Lucifer and its effect. Certainly only those will have this power of etheric clairvoyance who have striven after knowledge and self-knowledge. But even in normal circumstances men will have more and more before them the karmic pictures of their actions. That will carry them on further and further, because they will see what they still owe to the world—what is on the debit side of their karma. What prevents us from being free is that we do not know what we still owe and so we cannot really speak of free will in connection with karma. The expression ‘free will’ itself is incorrect, for man only becomes free through ever-increasing knowledge, through rising higher and higher and growing more and more into the spiritual world. By so doing he fills himself with the contents of the spiritual world, and becomes in greater degree the director of his own will. It is not the will which becomes free, but man who permeates himself with what he can know and see in the spiritualised domain of the world.

Thus do we look upon the deeds and the disappointments of Lucifer and say: In this way, thousands of years ago, the foundations were laid for that on which we stand; for if we did not stand upon those foundations, we should not be able to evolve to freedom. But after we have enlightened ourselves about Lucifer and Ahriman, we can gain a different relation to these powers; we can gather the fruits of what they have done; we can, as it were, take over the work of Lucifer and Ahriman. Then, however, the acts of which Lucifer is the author, and which have always led to disillusions must be transformed into their opposite when they are performed by us. The deeds of Lucifer necessarily roused desires, and led man into that which could result in evil. If we ourselves are to counteract Lucifer, if we are to regulate his affairs in the future, it will only be the love in us which can take the place of the acts of Lucifer: but love will be able to do it.

In the same way when we gradually remove the darkness which we interweave into external substance so that we completely overcome the ahrimanic influence we shall recognise the world as it really is. We shall penetrate to that of which matter really consists—to the nature of Light. At the present day science itself is subject to manifold deceptions as to the nature of light. Many of us believe that we see light with our physical eyes. That is not correct. We do not see light, but only illuminated bodies. We do not see light, but we see through light. All such deceptions will be swept away so that the picture of the world will be transformed; for necessarily under the influence of Ahriman it was interwoven with error, but hence-forward it will be permeated with wisdom. Man, in pressing forward towards the light will himself develop the psychic counterpart of light—which is wisdom.

By this means Love and Wisdom will enter the human soul. Love and Wisdom will become the practical force, the vital impulse which results from Anthroposophy. Wisdom which is the inner counter-part of Light, Wisdom which can unite with Love, and Love when it is permeated with Wisdom; these two will lead us to the understanding of what at present is immersed in external wisdom. If we are to partake in the other side of evolution, and to overcome Lucifer and Ahriman, we must permeate ourselves with Wisdom and Love, for these elements will flow from our own souls as our offering to those who as the luciferic and ahrimanic powers in the first half of the evolution sacrificed themselves to give us what we needed for the attainment of our freedom. But it is indispensable that we should be aware of the following: Because evolution must be, we must accept the civilisations that are the expression of it. We shall gladly and lovingly devote ourselves to an Anthroposophical culture which will not be eternal—nevertheless we shall accept it with enthusiasm, and we shall create with love what was before created under the influence of Lucifer; we shall, too, develop within ourselves a superabundance of love, without which culture after culture could not be developed. We shall not be under the delusion that everything will last for ever, for by our attitude we shall counter-balance Lucifer's disappointments; we repay to Lucifer consciously the services he has done us and by this repayment we redeem him.

That is the other side of the karma of higher beings, that we develop a love which does not remain in mankind alone, but penetrates right into the cosmos. Love will stream into beings who are higher than we are and they will feel it as a sacrifice. This sacrifice will rise to those who once poured their gifts upon us; just as in early days the smoke of sacrifice ascended to the Spirits, when men still had spiritual possessions. At that time men were only able to send up the symbolical smoke of sacrifice, but in the future they will send up streams of love, and out of the sacrifice higher forces will pour down to men which will work, with ever increasing power, in our physical world as forces guided from the spiritual world. Those will be magical forces in the true sense.

Thus human evolution is the working out of human karma and the karma of higher beings. The whole plan of evolution is connected with individual karma. If a higher being or superhuman individuality in the year 1910 did this or that which was carried out on the physical plane by a human being, a contact is established between them. The person is then interwoven into the karma of the higher beings and human karma is fructified by the universal karma of the world.

Consider Miltiades, or some important personality, who played a part in the history of his nation. This part was necessary to the karma of the higher powers and so each man is placed at his post. Into the individual karma is poured part of the karma of humanity which then becomes his own karma as soon as he performs some action connected with it. Thus do we also live and weave into the macrocosm the individual karma of a microcosm.

We have now reached the end of this course of lectures, although not the end of the subject. But that cannot be helped. I may just add a few words more, namely, that I have given this course of lectures on those very human questions which are able to stir the human heart so deeply, and which again are connected with the greatest destiny, even of the higher beings. When I say that I have given this course really from the depths of my soul and am happy that it was possible for once to speak of these things in an anthroposophical circle, among anthroposophical friends, who have come here from all directions in order to devote themselves to these considerations, these words come from the bottom of my heart. Those who will have the opportunity of hearing further courses, will see that much will be answered of what someone may have in his soul in connection with this course. But those also who will not be able to hear the summer courses, will later have the opportunity to discuss something of the sort with me. And so I may again say on this occasion that I have endeavoured to speak of the things which have been discussed in such a way that they should not be mere abstract knowledge, but so that they should pass over into our thought, feeling and will, into our whole life, so that one should be able to see in the Anthroposophists who are out in the world a likeness and picture of that which we may call the deepest Anthroposophical truths. Let us endeavour to bring ourselves completely to this, for only then shall we have an Anthroposophical movement which in our small circle exists for the study of spiritual knowledge. Then, however, this knowledge must—first of all in the circle of our members—become life and soul to us, and as such pass over into the world. And the world will gradually see that it was not in vain that at the turning-point of the twentieth century there were honest and upright Anthroposophists—people who honestly and straightforwardly believed in the might of the spiritual powers. And when they themselves believed in it, they became filled with the force with which to work for it. Faster and faster will civilisation proceed in our lives, if we within ourselves transform that which we hear into life, into action and into deeds—and not by trying to convince other people. The present age is not yet ready for that. Those only will be convinced who come to Anthroposophy out of the deepest impulse of their hearts; the remainder will not be convinced. We have karma in the mental sphere too, it was something called forth by materialism; and we must look upon these defects as that against which Anthroposophy must show itself to be a spiritual power.

Therefore that which we have to give to the world must be given out of the conviction that it is the most important thing. Each one who has transformed Anthroposophy into an inner force of his soul will be a spiritual source of strength. And whosoever will believe in the super-sensible may be absolutely convinced that our Anthroposophical knowledge and convictions work in a spiritual way, that is to say, they spread invisibly into the world if we make ourselves truly into a conscious instrument, filled with the life of Anthroposophy.

Elfter Vortrag

Vieles wäre noch zu sagen über die verschiedenen Offenbarungen des Karma. Aber da wir heute die letzte unserer Betrachtungen haben und die Zeit überhaupt für ein so reiches Thema notwendigerweise kurz sein mußte, so werden Sie es begreiflich finden, daß mancherlei von dem zu Besprechenden, mancherlei vielleicht auch von dem, was Ihnen als Fragen auf der Seele liegt, diesmal nicht seine Erledigung finden kann. Aber unsere Bewegung wird ja weitergehen, und wir werden das, was bei einem Kursus notwendigerweise unerledigt bleiben muß, bei einem andern weiter ausführen und erledigen können.

Was Ihnen wiederholt vor die Seele getreten sein wird, das ist, daß der Mensch die karmische Gesetzmäßigkeit als etwas erlebt, was sozusagen in jedem Augenblick, in dem er lebt, etwas vollkommen Bestimmtes ist, so daß wir in jedem Augenblick unseres Lebens zurückblicken können auf das, was wir durchgemacht haben, was wir getan, gedacht, gefühlt haben in den Inkarnationen, die der betreffenden vorangegangen sind, in welcher wir unsere Betrachtungen anstellen. Und immer werden wir finden, daß unser augenblickliches menschliches inneres und äußeres Schicksal dadurch gefaßt werden kann, daß wir sozusagen eine Art «Lebenskonto» haben, wo wir alle klugen, verständigen, weisen Erlebnisse auf die eine Seite schreiben, und alles Unverständige, alles Böse und Häßliche auf die andere Seite. Auf irgendeiner Seite wird sich dabei ein Überschuß ergeben, und der bedeutet in einem Augenblicke des Lebens auch das Schicksal dieses Augenblickes.

Nun können verschiedene Fragen dabei auftauchen, und die nächste muß die sein: Wie verhält sich das, was die Menschen in ihrem Zusammenleben tun, was sie vollbringen als menschliche Gemeinschaft, zu demjenigen, was wir das individuelle Karma des einzelnen Menschen nennen? Wir haben diese Fragen von andern Seiten her schon berührt. Wenn wir auf irgendein Ereignis der Geschichte zurückblicken, zum Beispiel auf die Perserkriege, so können Sie unmöglich glauben, daß dieses Ereignis, zunächst von griechischer Seite aus an nf gesehen, etwas darstellt, was nur in das Schicksalsbuch der einzelnen Menschen zu schreiben wäre, die auf dem äußeren physischen Plan als zunächst daran beteiligt zu gelten haben. Denken Sie an alle die Führer der Perserkriege, an alle die Menschen, welche sich damals aufgeopfert haben, denken Sie an alles, was von den Führern bis zu dem einzelnen damals im griechischen Heere getan worden ist: Werden Sie jemals, wenn Sie nur einigermaßen vernunftgemäß ein solches Ereignis auf sich wirken lassen, das, was die einzelnen Menschen damals getan haben, bei jedem einzelnen Menschen nur auf das karmische Konto dieser einzelnen Persönlichkeiten schreiben können? Unmöglich werden Sie das können. Denn Sie werden unmöglich sich vorstellen können, daß bei den Ereignissen, die ein ganzes Volk oder einen großen Teil der zivilisierten Menschheit angehen, nichts anderes geschieht, als daß jede einzelne menschliche Individualität nur ihr Karma auslebt. Und so müssen Sie im Verlauf der geschichtlichen Entwickelung immer wieder von Ereignis zu Ereignis gehen, und Sie werden sehen, daß innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung selber Sinn und Bedeutung zu finden sind, daß aber solche Ereignisse nicht eines sein können mit dem individuellen Karma des einzelnen Menschen.

Wir können eine Angelegenheit wie die Perserkriege auf unsere Seele wirken lassen und uns dann fragen: Was haben sie im Entwickelungsgang der Menschheit für eine Bedeutung? Im Orient hatte sich eine gewisse Kultur entwickelt, die große, gewaltige Lichtseiten hatte. Aber wie jedes Licht seine Schatten mit sich bringt, so müssen wir uns auch klar sein, daß die ganze Kultur des Orients nur dadurch für die Menschheit zu erreichen war, daß auch mancherlei Schattenseiten, die nicht in der menschlichen Entwickelung hätten weitergeführt werden dürfen, sich in jene Kultur hineingedrängt haben. Vor allem war eine solche Schattenseite die, daß der Orient den Drang hatte, durch äußere, rein auf dem physischen Plan liegende Machtmittel sich immer mehr zu vergrößern. Wäre dieser Vergrößerungstrieb nicht erstanden, so wäre natürlich die ganze orientalische Kultur nicht zustande gekommen. Eines ist nicht ohne das andere zu denken. Aber damit die Menschheit sich weiterentwickeln konnte, mußte aus ganz andern Voraussetzungen heraus sich zum Beispiel die griechische Kultur entwickeln. Die griechische Kultur hätte aber nicht einen unmittelbaren Anfang nehmen können, sie mußte gewisse Voraussetzungen anderswoher bekommen. Und sie hat in der Tat wichtige Voraussetzungen aus der orientalischen Kultur entlehnt. Verschiedene Sagen von Heroen, die von Griechenland hinüberzogen nach dem Orient, stellen nichts weiter dar, als daß Schüler gewisser griechischer Schulen hinübergezogen waren nach dem Orient und den Griechen jene Güter gebracht haben, die nur innerhalb der orientalischen Kultur gewonnen werden konnten, die dann aber weitergepflegt und umgewandelt werden konnten durch das, was aus dem griechischen Volkscharakter, durch das griechische Volkstalent sich herangebildet hatte. Aber dazu mußte aus diesen herübergebrachten Gütern ausgemerzt werden, was ihre Schattenseite war: der Drang, durch rein äußere Machtmittel sich so nach dem Westen hinüber auszudehnen, wie sie waren. Das Römertum, das später entstand als das Griechentum, und alles, was die weiteren Voraussetzungen waren für die Weiterentwickelung der europäischen Menschheit, das hätte sich nicht herausbilden können, wenn nicht die Griechen sich den freien Boden geschaffen hätten für die Fortentwickelung der orientalischen Kultur, wenn sie nicht die Perser und das, was dazugehört, zurückgeschlagen hätten. So konnte filtriert werden, was in Asien geschaffen worden war, indem man die Asiaten zurückschlug.

Von diesem Gesichtspunkt aus sind viele Ereignisse in der Weltentwickelung zu betrachten, und man bekommt dann ein eigentümliches Bild. Wenn wir bei einem Vortragszyklus, der drei bis vier Jahre dauern würde, diesen Gedanken nur für die uns geschichtlich überlieferten Dokumente der Menschheit ausführen könnten, so würde sich uns etwas ergeben, was wir wirklich nennen könnten einen Plan in der Entwickelung der Menschheit. Wir würden dann einen solchen Plan überschauen und uns sagen: Dies mußte errungen werden; das hatte diese Schattenseiten, die wieder ausgemerzt werden mußten; das errungene Gut mußte einem andern übergeben und dort weiter ausgebildet werden.

Auf diese Weise würden wir einen Plan der Menschheitsentwickelung herausbekommen und würden bei Besprechung dieses Planes eigentlich gar nicht auf den Gedanken verfallen können: Wie ist denn das zustande gekommen, daß zum Beispiel gerade Xerxes oder Miltiades oder Leonidas dieses oder jenes individuelle Karma hatten? Dieses individuelle Karma müssen wir als etwas betrachten, was für sich entschieden und hineinverflochten werden muß in den Plan der Menschheitsentwickelung. Anders ist die Sache durchaus nicht zu fassen. Und so ist es auch für die geisteswissenschaftliche Anschauung. Wenn aber das der Fall ist, müssen wir sagen: In diesem planvollen Fortgang der Menschheitsentwickelung müssen wir für sich etwas sehen, was in ähnlicher Weise in sich zusammenhängt, wie die karmischen Ereignisse im individuellen Menschenleben zusammenhängen. Und dann können wir weiter fragen: Was hat ein solcher Plan in der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung für eine Beziehung zum einzelnen individuellen Karma des Menschen?

Betrachten wir zunächst einmal das, was man nennen könnte das Geschick in der menschlichen Entwickelung selber. Wenn wir zurückblicken, sehen wir, wie Kultur nach Kultur, Volksentwickelung nach Volksentwickelung aufsteigen. Wir sehen weiter, wie Volk für Volk dieses oder jenes Neue leistet, wie etwas bleibt als Unvergängliches aus den einzelnen Volkskulturen, wie aber geradezu die Völker sterben müssen, um das Volksgut, die Errungenschaften der einzelnen Völker zu retten für die entsprechend späteren Epochen der MenschheitsentwickeJung. Da müssen wir doch verständlich finden, was die Geisteswissenschaft zu sagen hat, daß in diesem fortlaufenden Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung genau zwei Strömungen zunächst zu unterscheiden sind.

Betrachten Sie im ganzen Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung das, was wir als fortlaufende Strömung ansehen können, innerhalb welcher sich Welle nach Welle entwickelt, wobei aber das errungene Gut der vorangegangenen Welle für die nachfolgende erhalten bleibt. Wir würden ein Bild davon bekommen, wenn wir hinschauen auf die erste Kultur der nachatlantischen Zeit, auf das, was im alten Indertum an Großartigkeit geleistet worden ist. Wenn wir dieses Großartige aber vergleichen mit dem schwachen Nachklang, der in den Veden davon enthalten ist, die zwar immer noch bewundernswürdig sind, aber eben doch nur ein schwacher Abglanz sind von dem, was die Rishis geleistet haben und was uns die Geisteswissenschaft von dem großen Kultureinschlag der Inder berichtet, dann werden wir sagen müssen: Es war die ursprüngliche Größe dessen, was dieses Volk für die Menschheit zu leisten hatte, schon im Niedergange, als man daran ging, in jenen herrlichen dichterischen Darstellungen dieses Kulturgut der Menschheit aufzubewahren. Aber was die indischeKultur zunächst zu leisten hatte, das floß hinein in den ganzen Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung. Und nur unter dieser Voraussetzung konnte sich das später entwickeln, was wieder ein junges Volkstum brauchte - nicht ein altgewordenes Volk. Es mußten zuerst die Inder zurückgedrängt werden auf die südliche Halbinsel, und es entwickelte sich dann in Persien die Weltanschauung des Zarathustra. Was hatte diese Weltanschauung an Großem in der Zeit, als sie entstand — und wie war sie in verhältnismäßig gar nicht langer Zeit verfallen bei dem Volke, das sie geschaffen! Wir haben dann beim Agyptertum und Chaldäertum denselben Vorgang. Dann sehen wir das Hinübergehen orientalischer Weisheit nach Griechenland, und sehen, wie die Griechen zurückschlagen das, was auf dem äußeren physischen Plan das Orientalische ist. Wir sehen dann, wie in den Schoß des Griechentums aufgenommen wird, was der ganze Orient geleistet hat, und wie es verwoben wird mit mancherlei, was bis dahin in andern europäischen Gebieten geleistet worden ist. Daraus wird dann ein neuer Kultureinschlag geschaffen, welcher auf vielen Umwegen fähig geworden ist, den christlichen Impuls aufzunehmen und ihn nach dem Westen weiterzuverpflanzen. Und so würden wir auch späterhin einen fortlaufenden Kulturstrom finden, in welchem wir Glied an Glied anreihen können, und jedes folgende Glied erscheint uns zugleich als eine Fortsetzung des vorhergehenden und immer als etwas Neues, was der Menschheit gegeben werden mußte. Aber woraus mußte dashervorwachsen, was sich so von Epoche zu Epoche weiterentwickelt?

Denken Sie an alles, was jedes einzelne Volk mit seinem Kulturgebiet erlebt! Denken Sie an alles, was in jedem einzelnen Volke vorgegangen sein muß als eine Summe von Gefühlen und Empfindungen bei unzähligen Menschen, von Wünschen und Enthusiasmus für das, was als das am höchsten Begehrenswerte erscheinen muß und was gerade auf diesem Gebiete als Kultureinschlag gegeben werden soll! Denken Sie, wie die Seelen der einzelnen Menschen bei dem einzelnen Kultureinschlag mit dem, was sie wünschen und erstreben, ganz dabei sein müssen! Und außerdem war notwendig durch unzählige Jahrhunderte der Menschheitsentwickelung hindurch, daß die Völker, wie sie die einzelnen aufeinanderfolgenden Kultureinschläge entwickelten, immer in einer Art Illusion lebten - in der Illusion, daß jedes solche Volk gerade den Kulturschatz, den es selber auszuarbeiten hatte, als etwas Ewiges und Unvergängliches betrachtete, was nimmermehr von ihm genommen werden könnte. Dadurch erst war das hingebungsvolle Arbeiten der einzelnen Völker an der Kultur möglich, daß diese Illusion immer wieder und wieder auftauchte: daß das, was da geschaffen wurde, mit allem, was daran hing, einen ewigen Bestand haben würde. Auch heute ist diese Illusion ja vorhanden; und wenn man sich ihr auch nicht mehr in so positiver Weise hingibt und von der «Ewigkeit» dieser oder jener Kultur redet, so ist sie doch in der Form vorhanden, daß man nicht an das Ende denkt - nicht im Kleinen und nicht im Großen -, daß man sozusagen keine Aufmerksamkeit darauf verwendet.

Da haben Sie zweierlei, was die Volkskulturen brauchten und was im Grunde genommen erst in unserer Zeit anfängt eine Art von Änderung zu erfahren. Denn das erste Gebiet menschlichen Geisteslebens, wo gründlich solche Illusionen nicht mehr erwachen werden, das wird das theosophische Geistesleben sein. Denn es wäre ein arges Mißverständnis, wenn jemand, der fest auf dem Boden unserer Geistesbewegung steht, glauben wollte, daß die Formen, in welche wir unsere Erkenntnisse gießen, daß die Gedankenausführungen, die wir heute geben können, daß das, was wir heute aus unserem theosophischen Denken, Fühlen und Wollen geben können, einen ewigen Bestand hätte. Sehr kurzsichtig wäre es, zu behaupten, in drei Jahrtausenden würde es noch Menschen geben, die genau ebenso sprechen würden von den theosophischen Wahrheiten, wie wir es heute tun. Wir wissen, daß wir durch unsere Zeitverhältnisse veranlaßt sind, etwas von dem fortlaufenden Entwickelungsprodukt in die gegenwärtigen Formen zu prägen und daß unsere Nachfahren in ganz anderen Formen des Erlebens diese Dinge zum Ausdruck bringen werden. Warum ist das so? Aus einem ähnlichen Grunde, weshalb es durch viele Jahrhunderte und Jahrtausende der Menschheitsentwickelung hindurch geschah, daß Volkskultur über Volkskultur die einzelnen Menschen vieles erleben lassen mußte, damit der Beitrag sich aus der gesamten Volksentwickelung herausbilden konnte. Denken Sie an die unzähligen Erlebnisse, die im alten Griechenland durchgemacht wurden, und denken Sie an das, was sich als Extrakt daraus für die spätere gesamte Menschheit ergeben hat! Da werden Sie sagen: Es steckt noch mehr darin als nur die einzelnen Strömungen. Es geschehen viele Dinge um dieser Kernströmung willen.

Deshalb haben wir zwei Dinge zu beobachten: Erstens etwas, was entstehen und zugrunde gehen muß, damit aus diesem Ganzen das zweite — der Quantität nach der kleinste Teil - als ein Bleibendes fortdauern kann. Wenn wir wissen, daß, seitdem das menschliche Einzelkarma besteht, in der Menschheitsentwickelung zwei Mächte wirken, die wir immer wirksam gefunden haben, Luzifer und Ahriman, dann erst werden wir den Fortgang der Menschheitsentwickelung verstehen. Denn das müssen wir zum Plan der Menschheitsentwickelung rechnen, daß zuletzt, wenn die Erde an ihrem Ziel angelangt sein wird, die Ergebnisse, die so aus den einzelnen Kulturen nach und nach der gesamten Menschheitsentwickelung einverleibt werden, fruchtbar gemacht werden für alle einzelnen Individualitäten, ganz gleichgültig, welcheSchicksale sie durchgemacht haben. Auf dieses Ziel blicken wir aber erst dadurch, daß wir die Weltentwickelung in theosophischem Sinne ansehen. Denn man gebe sich keiner Täuschung hin: Solches Ziel in der richtigen Weise zu denken, unter vollem Bestande der menschlichen Individualität, ohne ein Verschwimmen der Individualität in irgendeine nebulose pantheistische Einheit, sondern so, daß die Individualität voll erhalten bleibt und wieder in sie dasjenige einfließt, was sich die Menschheit im Großen erobert hat - klar und scharf kann dieses Ziel erst der theosophischen Seelenkultur vor Augen stehen.

Wenn wir also auf die früheren Kulturen zurückblicken, können wir uns von vornherein sagen: Seit überhaupt menschliche Individualitäten sich inkarnieren, sind beteiligt an der Menschheitsentwickelung Luzifer und Ahriman. Luzifer ist daran so beteiligt, daß er an dem fortlaufenden Kulturstrom immer teilzunehmen sucht, indem er sich einnistet in die menschlichen Astralleiber und sie imprägniert mit dem luziferischen Impuls. Das ist, was Luzifer im Gange der Menschheitsentwickelung vollführt; er wirkt hinein in die menschlichen Astralleiber. Die Menschen könnten das, was Luzifer ihnen gibt, niemals bloß von denjenigen Mächten erhalten, welche den fortlaufenden, eben charakterisierten Kulturstrom bewirken. Trennen Sie diesen Kulturstrom aus dem ganzen Fortgang der Menschheit heraus, dann haben Sie das, was die normal fortschreitenden Geistwesen der Hierarchien herunterströmen lassen in die Menschheit als immer neue Reichtümer. Indem wir hinaufschauen zu.den Hierarchien, müssen wir sagen: Diejenigen Geistwesen, welche ihre normale Entwickelung durchmachen, gaben der irdischen Kultur das, was bleibendes Gut der Menschheit ist, was zwar später umgewandelt wurde, aber doch bleibendes Gut der Menschheit geworden ist. Es ist gleichsam so, wie wenn wir einen Baum haben und in ihm das Mark. So gewinnen wir einen fortlaufend lebendigen Strom der fortlaufenden Kultur.

Durch diese Mächte, die eine normale Entwickelung für sich durchmachen, hätte es auf diese Weise geschehen können, daß der Mensch sein Ich immer mehr und mehr erfüllt hätte mit dieser fortschreitenden Bereicherung der menschlichen Entwickelung. Hineinfließen würde von Zeit zu Zeit das, was den Menschen weiterbringt; der Mensch würde sich immer mehr anfüllen mit den Gaben der geistigen Welt, und zuletzt, wenn die Erde an ihrem Ziel sein würde, wäre es selbstverständlich, daß der Mensch alles, was aus den geistigen Welten gegeben worden wäre, in sich hätte. Aber eines wäre nicht möglich: daß der Mensch ureigensten, heiligen Eifer entwickelte, Hingebung und Feuer für das, was da geschaffen wird von Kulturepoche zu Kulturepoche. Aus demselben Untergrunde, aus dem jeder Wunsch und jede Begierde herauswächst, erwächst auch der Wunsch nach den großen Idealen, erwächst auch die Begierde nach Menschenbeglückung, nach Leistungen der Künste in den aufeinanderfolgenden menschlichen Kulturepochen. Aus demselben Grunde, aus dem verderbliche, nach dem Bösen gehende Begierden erwachsen, erwachsen auch die Bestrebungen nach dem Höchsten, was auf der Erde geleistet werden kann. Und es würde das nicht da sein, für was die menschliche Seele als für ein höchstes Gut entbrennt, wenn es nicht auf der andern Seite möglich wäre, daß dieselbe Begierde auch nach der andern Seite in das Laster und in das Böse hinuntersinken kann. Daß es diese Möglichkeit in der Menschheitsentwikkelung gibt, das ist das Werk der luziferischen Geister. So dürfen wir nicht verkennen, daß die luziferischen Geister für die Menschen Freiheit gebracht haben zugleich mit der Möglichkeit des Bösen, freie Empfänglichkeit für das, was sonst in die menschliche Seele nur einfließen würde.

Aber wir haben auch gesehen, daß alles, was Luzifer herausfordert, seine Antwort findet durch Ahriman. So sehen wir Luzifer mit seinem ganzen Heere wirken in dem, was dann im Konkreten den Einschlag der griechischen Kultur der ganzen menschlichen Entwickelung geben soll: in den griechischen Heroen, in den griechischen Helden und Künstlern. Luzifer dringt hinein in die astralischen Leiber, läßt sie entbrennen für das, was sie als das Höchste verehren. So wird dasjenige, was mit dem Griechentum in die Entwickelung einfließen soll, zugleich zum Enthusiasmus der Volksseele. Gerade da steckt Luzifer darinnen. Und weil Luzifer der Mond-, nicht der Erdentwickelung seine Kraft verdankt, fordert er Ahriman heraus; und indem Luzifer von Zeitepoche zu Zeitepoche seine Tätigkeit entwickelt, gliedert sich Ahriman dazu — und verdirbt dasjenige stückweise, was Luzifer auf der Erde bewirkt hat. — Es ist die Weltentwickelung der Menschen ein fortwährendes Wirken zwischen Ahriman und Luzifer. Wirkte Luzifer nicht in der Menschheit, so fehlte der Eifer und das Feuer für den fortlaufenden Strom der Menschheitsentwickelung; wäre Ahriman nicht da, der von Volk zu Volk wieder zerstört, was nicht aus dem fortlaufenden Strom, sondern nur aus dem luziferischen Einschlag kommt, dann würde Luzifer die Einzelkulturen ewig fortführen wollen. So sehen Sie hier Luzifer sein eigenes Karma sich heraufbeschwören, das eine notwendige Folge der Entwickelung auf dem alten Monde ist. Und die Folge ist nun, daß er Ahriman immerfort an seine Ferse ketten muß. Ahriman ist die karmische Erfüllung des Luzifer.

Da blicken wir hinein in das Karma der höheren Wesenheiten an dem Beispiel der ahrimanischen und luziferischen Wesenheiten. Da oben ist auch Karma. Überall ist Karma, wo Iche sind. Und Luzifer und Ahriman bergen natürlich Iche in sich; deshalb können die Wirkungen ihrer Taten auf sie selber zurückschlagen. Auf viele dieser Geheimnisse wird erst im Sommer bei dem Zyklus über die biblische Schöpfungsgeschichte hingewiesen werden können; nur auf eine Stelle möchte ich schon hier hinweisen, die Ihnen so recht wird zeigen können, von wie unendlicher Tiefe jedes einzelne Wort in den wahren okkulten Urkunden ist.

Haben Sie nie darüber nachgedacht, warum in der biblischen Schöpfungsgeschichte am Ende eines jeden Schöpfungstages der Satz steht: «Und die Elohim sahen das Werk, und sie sahen, daß es sehr gut war», daß es «aufs beste war»? Das ist ein bedeutungsvolles Wort. Warum steht es da? Der Satz zeigt ja selber, daß er als eine Charakteristik der Elohim gemeint ist, die sich auf dem Monde in normaler Weise entwickelt haben und deren Gegner Luzifer ist. Es ist etwas, das zur Charakteristik der Elohim gehört, daß sie nach jedem Schöpfungstag sahen, daß es «aufs beste war». Aus dem Grunde wird es angegeben, weil dieser Grad die Errungenschaft der Elohim war. Sie konnten auf dem Monde das Werk nur so lange sehen, als sie es taten, konnten nicht ein nachträgliches Bewußtsein davon haben. Daß sie nachträglich zurückschauen können im nachschauenden Denken auf das Werk, das ist eine besondere Stufe im Bewußtsein der Elohim. Das war erst auf der Erde möglich; und zwar zeigt sich ihr innerer Charakter darin, daß das Willensmäßige so herausströmt aus ihrem Wesen, daß, wenn sie es ansahen, sie sahen, daß es aufs beste war. Das waren die Elohim, welche ihr Werk auf dem Monde abgeschlossen hatten und die, wenn sie es auf der Erde hinterher beschauten, sagen konnten: Es kann bleiben, es ist aufs beste! — Dazu mußte aber die alte Mondentwickelung vollendet sein.

Wie ist es nun mit den luziferischen Wesenheiten, also mit denjenigen Wesenheiten, die ihre Mondentwickelung nicht vollendet haben? Die werden also auf der Erde auch versuchen müssen, ihr Werk hinterher anzuschauen, so zum Beispiel wenn sie den Beitrag gegeben haben an Feuer und Enthusiasmus in der griechischen Kultur. Und sie werden dann sehen, wie es ihnen stückweise Ahriman abgebröckelt hat! Und sie werden sagen müssen, weil sie es nicht vollendet haben: Sie sahen ihr Tagewerk, und sie sahen, daß es nicht zum besten war, daß es ausgelöscht werden mußte!

Das ist die große Enttäuschung der luziferischen Geister, daß sie immer von neuem ihr Werk versuchen, immer von neuem das Pendel nach der andern Seite zum Ausschlag bringen wollen - und immer von neuem ihr Werk durch Ahriman zerstört finden. Sie müssen sich innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung ein Auf-und-ab-Wogen denken, ein fortwährendes Anfachen von neuen Kräften durch Wesenheiten, die höher sind als wir selber, und daß diese Wesenheiten fortwährende Enttäuschungen erleben. Das ist enthalten in dem Erleben der luziferischen Geister in der Erdentwickelung. Und dieses Karma mußte die Menschheit in sich aufnehmen, weil der Mensch nur dadurch zur wirklichen Freiheit kommen konnte. Freiheit kann nur dadurch ersprießen, daß der Mensch sich den höchsten Inhalt seines Erden-Ich selber gibt. Dasjenige Ich, das der Mensch haben würde, wenn ihm alle Ziele am Ende der Erdentwickelung gegeben würden, kann nicht frei sein; denn es ist von vornherein bestimmt gewesen, alle Güter der Erdentwickelung in die Menschen einfließen zu lassen. Frei werden konnte der Mensch nur, indem er zu diesem Ich ein anderes, irrtumfähiges Ich hinzuschafft, das in der Lage ist, immer wieder und wieder nach der Seite des Guten und nach der Seite des Bösen zu pendeln und das immer wieder hinaufstreben kann zu dem, was der Inhalt aller Erdentwickelung ist. Das niedere Ich mußte dem Menschen beigegeben werden durch Luzifer, damit das Hinaufarbeiten des Menschen zum höheren Ich seine ureigenste Tat sein kann.

Nur so ist auch freier Wille in der Menschheit möglich. Freier Wille ist etwas, was sich der Mensch nach und nach erringen kann; denn der Mensch ist dazu so gestellt, daß ihm im Leben der freie Wille als ein Ideal vorschwebt. Wo ist denn in einem Mittelzustand der Entwickelung der menschliche Wille frei? Er ist niemals frei, weil er in jedem Augenblick dem luziferischen und ahrimanischen Element verfallen kann; er ist nicht frei, weil jeder Mensch, wenn er die Pforte des Todes durchschritten hat, in der aufsteigenden Zeit der Läuterung - vielleicht durch Jahrzehnte hindurch - einen ganz bestimmten Eindruck hat. Das ist das Wesentliche des Kamalokalebens, daß wir sehen, in welchem Grade wir selber unvollkommen sind durch das, was wir an Unvollkommenem in der Welt getan haben, daß wir Stück für Stück sehen, in welcher Weise wir unvollkommen geworden sind. Daraus geht dann die entschiedene Absicht hervor, alles wieder auszumerzen, was wir unvollkommen gemacht haben. So ist das Leben in der Kamalokazeit, daß Absicht zu Absicht gefügt wird und der Gesamtentschluß gefaßt wird: Du mußt alles das wieder ausbessern, was du so gedacht und getan hast, daß es dich heruntergebracht hat! - Was der Mensch da fühlt, das prägt er seinem weiteren Leben ein und tritt mit dieser Absicht bei der Geburt ins Dasein — und ladet dadurch sein Karma auf sich. Daher können wir nicht sagen, daß wir, wenn wir durch die Geburt ins Dasein getreten sind, einen freien Willen haben. Einzig und allein können wir davon sprechen, daß wir uns einem freien Willen in dem Maße nähern, als es uns gelungen ist, Herr zu werden über die Einflüsse Luzifers und Ahrimans. Und Herr werden über die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Einflüsse können wir durch nichts anderes als durch Erkenntnis. Einmal durch Selbsterkenntnis, indem wir uns immer fähiger machen — auch im Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod -, unsere Schwachheiten in allen drei Seelenmerkmalen kennenzulernen, in Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Wenn wir uns immer mehr bemühen, uns keiner Illusion mehr hinzugeben, dann wächst ja in unserem Ich die Kraft, den luziferischen Einfluß entbehren zu können, denn dann werden wir immer mehr fähig, zu entscheiden, welche Hingabe die Güter der Menschheit, die nach und nach erobert wurden, verdienen. Sodann durch Erkenntnis der Außenwelt, die sich ergänzen muß mit der Selbsterkenntnis; beide müssen zusammenwirken. Selbsterkenntnis und Erkenntnis der Außenwelt müssen wir mit unserem Wesen vereinigen; dann werden wir imstande sein, ein klares Verhältnis zu Luzifer zu gewinnen.

Das ist gerade die Eigentümlichkeit dessen, was wir uns als theosophische Erkenntnis aneignen, daß wir Aufschluß gewinnen darüber, wie weit an jedem menschlichen Tun Neigung und Leidenschaft, Luzifer und Ahriman beteiligt sind. Was haben wir in dieser Reihe von Vorträgen anderes getan, als uns Aufklärung verschafft darüber, wie luziferische und ahrimanische Kräfte in der mannigfaltigsten Weise in unser Leben hineinwirken! In dem gegenwärtigen Zeitalter aber kann die Aufklärung über die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräfte beginnen. Und der Mensch muß aufgeklärt sein, wenn er wirklich etwas beitragen will zur Erreichung des Erden-Menschheitszieles. -— Wohin Sie den Blick richten, überall wo menschlich gefühlt und gedacht wird, können Sie sehen, wie weit die Menschen noch entfernt sind von einer echten, wahren Aufklärung über die Einflüsse Luzifers und Ahrimans. Da sehen Sie den weitaus größten Teil der Menschheit überhaupt keine solche Aufklärung wollen. Da sehen Sie einen großen Teil der Menschen in einen gewissen religiösen Egoismus verfallen: nur ja mit dieser Seele selbst jenen Zustand des Wohlbefindens zu erreichen, den man sich nur vorstellen kann. Das ist ein Egoismus, von dem sich die Menschen gar nicht bewußt sind, daß sich da die größten Begierden hineinmischen können. Und nirgends mischt sich Luzifer mehr in unsere Gefühle hinein als da, wo die Menschen aus ihren Leidenschaften und Begierden heraus nach dem Göttlichen streben, ohne das Göttliche durchleuchtet zu bekommen mit dem Licht der Erkenntnis. Glauben Sie nicht, daß Luzifer gerade da vielfach am Werke ist, wo die Menschen glauben, nach dem Höchsten zu streben? Aber die Formen, die in dieser Weise erstrebt werden, werden ebenfalls zu den Enttäuschungen Luzifers gehören müssen. Und diejenigen, die nun glauben, aus den wüsten Begierden diese oder jene Form einer geistigen Kultur erhalten zu können, die immer wieder und wieder predigen, daß diese Theosophie so schlimm ist, weil sie etwas Neues glaubt, die sollten bedenken, daß es nicht vom Menschenwillen abhängt, wenn sich Ahriman an die Fersen des Luzifer heftet. Und was entstanden ist im Laufe der Entwickelung an Formen, das wird, weil Ahriman sich hineinmischt, durch Luzifer auch wieder untergehen. Retten wird sich allein der fortlaufende Strom der Menschheitsentwickelung.

So schauen wir dadurch zurück auf eine vorangegangene Entwickelung, wo als Opfer für uns zurückgeblieben sind gewisse Wesenheiten. Wir wissen jetzt, daß diese Wesenheiten ihr Karma ausleben müssen um unsertwillen, damit wir in normaler Weise ausleben können, was diese Wesenheiten uns einflößen können. Ja, wahrhaftig, Jahve hat dem Menschen ursprünglich eingeflößt durch den göttlichen Odem die Fähigkeit zum Ich; aber wäre nur der göttliche Odem gekommen, der im menschlichen Blut pulsiert, und nicht auch das, was immer wieder abirren kann von dem, was der Jahve-Odem geben kann, würden nicht darinnen arbeiten sowohl luziferische wie ahrimanische Impulse, so würde der Mensch zwar das Was erlangen können der Jahve-Gabe, aber nicht das Wie: daß er es mit einem selbstbewußten freien Ich empfindet. So liegt es doch im Sinne der Weltentwickelung, daß gewisse Wesenheiten auf dem alten Monde zurückgeblieben sind.

Wir leben heute in einem Zeitalter, wo wir in der Tat zurückblicken dürfen auf viele Enttäuschungen Luzifers, wo wir aber auch hinblicken können auf eine Zukunft, in der wir immer mehr verstehen lernen, was der fortlaufende Strom der Entwickelung ist. Und Theosophie wird das Instrument sein zum Verständnis für diesen fortlaufenden Strom der Entwickelung, damit wir uns immer bewußter zu den Einflüssen Luzifers stellen können und immer mehr in die Lage kommen können, luziferische Impulse in uns selber zu erkennen und sie in der richtigen Weise nutzbringend für die Menschheitsentwickelung bewußt zu verwerten, während sie vorher in der Menschheit als ein dunkler Drang gewirkt haben, dessen sich der Mensch nicht bewußt war. Und ebenso ist es mit den ahrimanischen Einflüssen.

Hier ist eines der Gebiete,wo man darauf aufmerksam machen kann, wie sozusagen gerade in der Gegenwart eine wichtige Entwickelungsepoche der Menschheit vorliegt, nämlich jene Epoche, in der in gewisser Beziehung tatsächlich die Seelenkräfte sich umkehren. Für viele von Ihnen ist es ja schon charakterisiert worden, daß wir vor einer Epoche stehen, in welcher gewisse Menschen, einzelne Menschen, andere Seelenfähigkeiten entwickeln werden als diejenigen, die man heute gelten läßt. Was heute zum Beispiel die Theosophie aus den Erkenntnissen der Geistesforschung heraus zu sagen weiß, daß der Mensch einen Ätherleib hat außer dem physischen Leib, das wissen aus der Anschauung heraus heute nur die, welche eine methodische Schulung durchgemacht haben. Aber noch vor Ablauf der Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts — das wissen wir aus dem Lesen der Akasha-Chronik — wird es Menschen geben, die eine natürliche Entwickelung haben werden für ein ätherisches Hellsehen und die, weil die Menschheit an diesen Zeitpunkt gekommen ist, wo sich diese Dinge als natürliche Gabe entwickeln werden, als den physischen Leib durchdringend und am Rande über ihn hinausragend den Atherleib wahrnehmen werden. Wie der Mensch von einem Hineinschauen in die geistige Welt sich herunterentwickelt hat zum heutigen nur äußerlichen physischen Wahrnehmen und verstandesmäßigen Begreifen der Außenwelt, so beginnt er sich jetzt zu neuen, aber bewußstten Fähigkeiten nach und nach zu entwickeln. Diese neuen Fähigkeiten treten zu den alten hinzu, und eine besondere Fähigkeit wird die sein, die ich so charakterisieren kann:

Es wird Menschen geben - einzelne zunächst, denn erst im Laufe der nächsten zwei bis drei Jahrtausende wird sich bei einer größeren Anzahl diese Fähigkeit entwickeln, und die ersten Vorläufer werden da sein noch vor Ablauf der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts -, bei denen wird etwa folgendes eintreten: Die Menschen werden irgendeine Tat erlebt haben, und sie werden versucht sein, etwas zurückzutreten von der Tat. Sie werden dann ein Bild vor sich haben, das von der betreffenden Tat kommt. Sie werden es zuerst nicht kennen, werden keinen Bezug finden zu dem, was sie getan haben. Aber dann werden sie vielleicht schon etwas von der Geisteswissenschaft gehört haben, und dann werden sie erfahren, daß dieses Bild, das ihnen wie eine Art bewußtes Traumbild erscheint, das Gegenbild der eigenen Handlung ist, das Bild für jene Handlung, die geschehen muß, damit das, was eben getan worden ist, seine karmische Erfüllung findet.

So steht die Menschheit in der Tat vor einer Epoche, in der sie anfangen wird, Karma nicht nur zu begreifen nach den Lehren und Darstellungen der Geisteswissenschaft, sondern wo sie anfangen wird, Karma nach und nach zu schauen. Während bisher Karma für die Menschen ein dunkler Drang, eine dunkle Begierde war und erst im nächsten Leben ausgelebt werden konnte, erst im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt umgewandelt werden konnte in eine Absicht, entwickeln sich allmählich die Menschen dahin, daß sie in die Lage kommen, bewußt die Schöpfungen Luzifers wahrzunehmen, zu sehen, wie sie sich ausnehmen werden in ihren Wirkungen. Allerdings werden mit diesem ätherischen Hellsehen nur diejenigen Menschen etwas anfangen können, die Erkenntnis und Selbsterkenntnis angestrebt haben. Immer mehr und mehr werden die Menschen im normalen Zustande vor sich haben die karmischen Bilder für ihre Handlungen. Das wird etwas sein, was die Menschen immer weiterbringen wird, weil sie dadurch wissen werden, was sie der Welt noch schuldig sind, was in ihrem Karma noch als Schuldkonto dasteht. Das ist es ja, was den Menschen unfrei macht, daß er nicht weiß, was er der Welt noch schuldig ist. So darf man also beim Karma gar nicht von vornherein von einem freien Willen sprechen. Das Wort «freier Wille» ist schon falsch; denn man muß sagen: Frei wird der Mensch erst durch seine sich immer steigernde Erkenntnis und dadurch, daß er immer höher steigt und immer mehr hineinwächst in die geistige Welt. Dadurch erfüllt er sich immer mehr und mehr mit dem Inhalt der geistigen Welt und wird immer mehr ein Wesen, das seinen Willen bestimmt. Nicht der Wille kann frei werden, sondern der Mensch als solcher kann frei werden, indem er sich durchdringt mit dem, was er auf dem vergeistigten Gebiet des Weltendaseins erkennen kann.

So blicken wir auf die Enttäuschungen Luzifers und seine Taten und sagen: So ist seit Jahrtausenden der Grund gelegt zu dem, wo wir stehen; denn würden wir nicht dort stehen, wo wir stehen, so würden wir uns nicht zur Freiheit entwickeln können. Nachdem wir uns aber Aufklärung verschaffen können über Luzifer und Ahriman, können wir ein anderes Verhältnis zu diesen Mächten gewinnen, können die Früchte ziehen von dem, was getan worden ist, können Luzifer und Ahriman sozusagen ihre Arbeiten abnehmen. Da werden sich allerdings die Taten des Luzifer, die er bewirkt hat und die immerfort zu Enttäuschungen geführt haben, wenn sie von uns selbst begangen werden, sich in ihr Gegenteil verkehren müssen. Die Taten Luzifers mußten Begierden erregen, mußten den Menschen hinführen zu dem, was in das Böse einmünden konnte. Wir haben ja gesehen, was für eine gegenteilige Kraft es sein muß, die Luzifer entgegenwirkt: Wenn wir selber Luzifer entgegenwirken sollen, wenn wir seine Angelegenheiten in der Zukunft besorgen sollen, wird es bei uns nur die Liebe sein können, die an die Stelle der Taten des Luzifer treten kann; die Liebe aber wird es sein können. Und ebenso wird es dasjenige sein können, was uns auch aus der Außenwelt fließt, indem wir immer mehr die Dunkelheit wegnehmen, die wir einweben in die äußere Materie. Wenn wir immer mehr diese Dunkelheit hinwegbringen, wenn sie schwindet, und wir dazu gelangen, den ahrimanischen Einfluß auf diese Weise völlig zu überwinden, dann werden wir in der Lage sein, die Welt so zu erkennen, wie sie wirklich als Erdenwelt ist. Dann werden wir uns allmählich nähern solcher Erkenntnis, wie sie heute nur Gut der Geisteswissenschaft sein kann: Wir werden durchdringen zu dem, was die Materie wirklich ist, zu der Natur des Lichtes. Heute gibt sich selbst die Wissenschaft immer noch über die Natur des Lichtes den mannigfaltigsten Täuschungen hin. Mancher glaubt, daß man das Licht mit physischen Augen sieht. Das ist nicht richtig. Mit physischen Augen sieht man nicht Licht, sondern nur beleuchtete Körper; man sieht Farben an den Körpern. Man sieht nicht Licht, sondern man sieht durch das Licht. Alle solche Täuschungen werden weggeräumt sein. Dadurch wird sich verwandeln das Bild der Welt, das notwendigerweise unter dem Einflusse Ahrimans von Irrtum durchwoben sein mußte, und es wird sich durchsetzen mit dem Inhalt der Weisheit. Indem der Mensch zum Licht vordringt, wird er selbst das seelische Gegenbild des Lichtes entwickeln. Und das seelische Gegenbild des Lichtes ist die Weisheit.

Dadurch wird Liebe und Weisheit in die menschliche Seele einziehen. Und Liebe und Weisheit werden die praktische Kraft sein, der eigentliche Lebensimpuls, der sich aus der theosophischen Weltanschauung ergeben soll und ergeben wird. Weisheit, die das innere Gegenbild des Lichtes ist, Weisheit, die sich verbinden kann mit der Liebe, und Liebe, die sich mit Weisheit durchdringt, werden den rechten Weg finden, um wieder zurückzuwirken auf das, was in die Weisheit der äußeren Welt eingetaucht ist. Wenn wir nach und nach der andern Hälfte der Entwickelung teilhaftig werden sollen, Luzifer und Ahriman wieder zu überwinden, dann müssen wir uns durchdringen mit Weisheit und Liebe. Indem wir Weisheit und Liebe entwickeln, entwickeln wir diejenigen Elemente, die wieder von unseren Seelen selber ausfließen werden als Gaben für die, die in der ersten Hälfte der Erdentwickelung sich hingeopfert haben als luziferische und ahrimanische Mächte, um uns das zu geben, was wir zur Erringung unserer Freiheit brauchen. Diesen Mächten werden wir geben müssen, was wir an Weisheit und Liebe so entwickeln werden. Wir müssen uns aber bewußt sein: Weil Leben in der Welt sein muß, müssen wir Kulturen annehmen, die uns Ausdrucksmittel dieses Lebens sind. Wir wollen uns gern und mit Liebe einer theosophischen Kultur hingeben, die nicht ewig sein wird, aber wir wollen es mit Enthusiasmus hinnehmen und mit Liebe das schaffen, wozu wir früher unter dem Einfluß Luzifers getrieben worden sind. Weil wir jetzt erkennen, daß wir aus Liebe das schaffen müssen, wozu wir früher durch den luziferischen Einfluß, durch Begierden und Leidenschaften getrieben werden mußten, werden wir jetzt hinter alldem desto mehr überschüssige Liebe entwickeln. Wenn wir nur die notwendige Liebe entwickeln würden, würden wir es nicht dahin bringen, Kultur über Kultur zu entwickeln. Theosophie soll etwas sein, was jede der Zeit entsprechende Forderung mit Hingabe und Liebe leistet, mit demselben Enthusiasmus, mit dem einst die Menschen unter dem Einflusse Luzifers gewirkt haben. Wir werden nicht mehr die Illusion haben, daß das, was wir tun, ewig dauern wird. Aber indem wir in immer sich steigernder Liebe Kultur über Kultur schaffen, schaffen wir damit überschüssige Liebe. Die kommt Luzifer zugute; dadurch werden auch seine Enttäuschungen gutgemacht. An uns liegt es, daß an Luzifer wieder das gutgemacht werden kann, was er an Enttäuschungen erleiden muß, wenn wir nach der andern Seite das zurückgeben, was für uns geleistet worden ist.

Das ist der andere Teil des Karma der höheren Wesenheiten, daß wir eine Liebe entwickeln, die nicht bloß in der Menschheit bleibt, sondern die dazu berufen ist, in den Kosmos einzudringen. In Wesenheiten, die höher sind als wir, werden wir die Liebe einströmen lassen können, und diese Wesenheiten werden sie als Opfer empfinden. Es wird Seelenopfer sein. Seelenopfer wird hinaufströmen zu denen, die einst ihre Gaben herunterströmen ließen, wie einst die Rauchopfer hinaufstrebten zu den Geistern in Zeiten, wo Menschen die spirituellen Güter noch hatten. Damals konnten die Menschen nur die symbolischen Rauchopfer zu den Göttern hinaufsenden. In der Zukunft werden die Menschen Liebesströme hinaufsenden zu den Geistern, und aus dem Liebesopfer wird wieder etwas herunterströmen: dem Menschen werden zuströmen höhere Kräfte, die, von Geistigem dirigiert, mit immer größerer Macht eingreifen werden in unsere physische Welt. Das werden dann im wahren Sinne magische Kräfte sein.

So sehen wir den Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung, indem sich Menschheitskarma und Karma der höheren Wesenheiten auslebt. Und wir begreifen jetzt auch, wie sich der Plan der Entwickelung zum einzelnen menschlichen Karma stellt. Nehmen wir an, eine übermenschliche Individualität hätte im Jahre 1910 dieses oder jenes gewirkt, das dann auf dem physischen Plan durch einen Menschen ausgeführt wurde, so ist dadurch ein Kontakt geschlossen zwischen dieser übermenschlichen Individualität und dem Menschen. Der Mensch ist dann verwoben in das Karma der höheren Wesenheiten. Das ist eine abgeschlossene Korrespondenz. Dann strömt ihm aber zu aus den höheren Welten eine Strömung, die ihm etwas in sein Leben hineinbringt; darin hat er nun einen neuen Posten, der zu seinem Karma hinzugefügt ist und der nach der einen oder andern Seite den Ausschlag gibt. So wird menschliches Karma befruchtet von dem allgemeinen Karma, das durch die Welt strömt.

Sehen wir zum Beispiel auf Miltiades oder irgendeine andere Persönlichkeit: Da hatten sie zu stehen auf dem großen Plan der Geschichte ihres Volkes, da war dies oder jenes durch das Karma der höheren Mächte bedingt - und da wurden sie hingestellt auf ihren Posten. In ihr einzelkarmisches Konto strömte ein, was der ganzen Menschheit zuteil werden sollte. Und indem sie es ausführten, indem sie Taten und Leistungen daran anschlossen, wurde es ihr Einzelkarma. — So leben und weben wir auch mit unserem einzelnen Karma in dem Makrokosmos als eine kleine Welt, als ein Mikrokosmos.

Damit sind wir zwar am Ende des Kursus, wenn auch nicht am Ende der Sache. Aber das geht ja nicht anders. Wenn ich nur mit zwei Worten noch sagen darf, daß ich diese Reihe von Vorträgen, gerade über jene menschlichen Fragen, die so tief das menschliche Herz bewegen können und die doch wiederum mit dem größten Schicksal selbst höherer Wesenheiten zusammenhängen, wenn ich sage, daß ich diesen Kursus gehalten habe wirklich aus tiefster Seele heraus und froh bin, daß es möglich war, in einem theosophischen Zweige auch einmal über diese Dinge zu sprechen, unter theosophischen Freunden, die von allen Seiten herbeigeeilt waren, um sich den Betrachtungen über diese Fragen zu widmen, so spreche ich auch diese Worte aus tiefstem Herzen heraus. Diejenigen, welche Gelegenheit haben werden, weitere Kurse zu hören, werden sehen, daß mancherlei von dem sich beantworten wird, was jemand im Anschluß an diesen Zyklus auf der Seele haben wird. Aber auch die, welche diese Soemmerkurse nicht hören können, werden später Gelegenheit haben, so etwas mit mir zu besprechen. Und so darf ich auch diesmal wieder sagen, daß ich die Dinge, die zu besprechen waren, so entgegengenommen haben möchte, daß sie nicht bloß abstrakte Erkenntnisse sein sollen, sondern solche, die übergehen in unser ganzes Denken, Fühlen und Wollen, in unser ganzes Leben. So daß man an den Theosophen in der Welt sehen möchte Gleichnis und Bild dessen, was man die tiefsten theosophischen Wahrheiten nennen kann. Versuchen wir, uns ganz zu einem solchen Bild und Gleichnis zu machen; dann erst haben wir in der Welt eine theosophische Geistesströmung. In unserem engen Kreise muß diese theosophische Geistesströmung zunächst Betrachtung der spirituellen Erkenntnis sein. Dann aber müssen — zunächst in unserem Mitgliederkreise — diese Erkenntnisse Gesinnungen werden und als solche der Welt gegenübertreten. Und die Welt wird nach und nach einsehen, daß es nicht umsonst war, daß es um die Wende des 20. Jahrhunderts ehrliche und aufrichtige Theosophen gegeben hat, Leute, die aufrichtig und ehrlich an die Gewalt der spirituellen Mächte geglaubt haben. Und indem sie daran geglaubt haben, sind sie selbst durchsetzt worden mit der Kraft, auch dafür zu wirken. Schneller und schneller wird die Kultur in unserem Leben gehen, wenn Sie selber das, was Sie hören, umwandeln in Gesinnung, in Handlung und Tat. Nicht dadurch, daß wir die Menschen überzeugen! Dazu ist die gegenwärtige Kultur nur wenig geeignet. Wahrhaft überzeugt werden immer nur die werden, die aus tiefstem Drang des Herzens an die Theosophie herankommen; die andern werden nicht überzeugt werden. Dieses Karma haben wir auch in geistigen Kreisen als etwas, was der Materialismus hat hervorrufen müssen, und wir müssen diese Schädigungen als etwas betrachten, demgegenüber Geisteswissenschaft sich erweisen muß als eine geistige Macht.

So müssen wir das, was wir der Welt geben können, aus unserer Gesinnung heraus geben. Jeder, der Theosophie in das innere Leben der Seele umgewandelt haben wird, wird ein spiritueller Kraftquell sein. Und wer an das Übersinnliche glaubt, darf durchaus die Überzeugung haben, daß unsere theosophischen Erkenntnisse und Gesinnungen spirituell wirken, das heißt, sich unsichtbar in die Welt hinaus verbreiten, wenn wir uns wirklich zu einem bewußten, von dem theosophischen Leben durchdrungenen Werkzeug machen.

Eleventh Lecture

There is still much to be said about the various manifestations of karma. But since today is the last of our lectures and time is necessarily short for such a rich topic, you will understand that some of the things we have discussed, and perhaps some of the questions that are on your minds, cannot be dealt with fully at this time. But our movement will continue, and we will be able to carry on and complete what necessarily remains unfinished in one course in another.

What will have repeatedly struck you is that human beings experience karmic law as something that is, so to speak, completely determined at every moment of their lives, so that at every moment of our lives we can look back on what we have gone through, what we have done, thought, and felt in the incarnations that preceded the one in question in which we are making our observations. And we will always find that our present human inner and outer destiny can be summed up by the fact that we have, so to speak, a kind of “life account,” where we write down all our wise, intelligent, and good experiences on one side, and everything unintelligent, evil, and ugly on the other. On one side or the other, there will be a surplus, and in a moment of life, this surplus also means the fate of that moment.

Now, various questions may arise, and the next must be: How does what people do in their coexistence, what they accomplish as a human community, relate to what we call the individual karma of each person? We have already touched on these questions from other angles. When we look back on any event in history, for example the Persian Wars, you cannot possibly believe that this event, seen initially from the Greek side, represents something that should only be written in the book of fate of the individual people who are initially considered to be involved in it on the outer physical plane. Think of all the leaders of the Persian Wars, of all the people who sacrificed themselves at that time, think of everything that was done at that time, from the leaders down to the individual soldiers in the Greek army: If you allow such an event to affect you in any reasonably rational way, will you ever be able to attribute what the individual people did at that time to the karmic account of each individual personality? You will find that impossible. For you cannot possibly imagine that in events affecting an entire people or a large part of civilized humanity, nothing else happens than that each individual human being is merely living out his karma. And so, in the course of historical development, you must go from event to event, and you will see that meaning and significance can be found within human development itself, but that such events cannot be one and the same with the individual karma of each individual human being.

We can allow an event such as the Persian Wars to affect our soul and then ask ourselves: What significance do they have in the course of human development? A certain culture had developed in the East that had great, powerful aspects of light. But just as every light brings with it shadows, we must also be clear that the entire culture of the East could only be attained by humanity because various shadow aspects that should not have been carried forward in human development forced their way into that culture. Above all, one such dark side was that the Orient had the urge to expand more and more through external means of power that were purely on the physical plane. If this urge for expansion had not arisen, the entire Oriental culture would naturally never have come into being. One cannot be thought of without the other. But in order for humanity to develop further, Greek culture, for example, had to develop from completely different premises. Greek culture could not have had a direct beginning; it had to obtain certain prerequisites from elsewhere. And it did indeed borrow important prerequisites from Oriental culture. Various legends of heroes who migrated from Greece to the Orient represent nothing more than the fact that students of certain Greek schools migrated to the Orient and brought back to the Greeks those goods that could only be obtained within Oriental culture, but which could then be cultivated and transformed through what had developed from the Greek national character through the Greek national talent. But to do this, the dark side of these imported goods had to be eradicated: the urge to expand to the West as they were, through purely external means of power. Roman culture, which emerged later than Greek culture, and everything that was necessary for the further development of European humanity, could not have developed if the Greeks had not created the free ground for the further development of Oriental culture, if they had not repelled the Persians and everything that went with them. In this way, what had been created in Asia could be filtered by repelling the Asians.

Many events in world development must be viewed from this perspective, and one then obtains a peculiar picture. If, in a series of lectures lasting three to four years, we could develop this idea only for the documents of humanity that have been handed down to us historically, we would arrive at something that we could truly call a plan in the development of humanity. We would then have an overview of such a plan and say to ourselves: This had to be achieved; it had these dark sides that had to be eradicated; the good that was achieved had to be handed over to others and developed further there.

In this way, we would arrive at a plan for the development of humanity, and when discussing this plan, we would not even be able to entertain the thought: How did it come about that, for example, Xerxes or Miltiades or Leonidas had this or that individual karma? We must regard this individual karma as something that must be decided for itself and woven into the plan of human development. There is no other way of understanding it. And so it is with the spiritual scientific view. But if that is the case, we must say: In this planned progression of human development, we must see something that is interconnected in a similar way to the karmic events in individual human lives. And then we can ask further: What relationship does such a plan have to the individual karma of human beings in the whole of human development?

Let us first consider what we might call the destiny of human development itself. When we look back, we see how culture after culture, people's development after people's development, rise up. We see further how people after people achieve this or that new thing, how something remains as imperishable from the individual people's cultures, but how the peoples themselves must die in order to save the common heritage, the achievements of the individual peoples, for the corresponding later epochs of human development. We must therefore find understandable what spiritual science has to say, namely that in this continuous course of human development, two currents can initially be distinguished.

Consider, in the entire course of human development, what we can regard as a continuous current within which wave after wave develops, but in which the achievements of the preceding wave are preserved for the following one. We would get a picture of this if we look at the first culture of the post-Atlantean period, at the greatness that was achieved in ancient India. But if we compare this greatness with the faint echoes contained in the Vedas, which are still admirable, but are only a faint reflection of what the Rishis achieved and what spiritual science tells us about the great cultural impact of the Indians, then we must say: The original greatness of what this people had to offer humanity was already in decline when people began to preserve this cultural treasure of humanity in those magnificent poetic representations. But what Indian culture had to accomplish initially flowed into the entire course of human development. And only under this condition could what a young people needed develop later—not an aged people. First, the Indians had to be pushed back to the southern peninsula, and then the worldview of Zarathustra developed in Persia. What was so great about this worldview at the time it arose — and how did it fall into decay in such a relatively short time among the people who created it? We see the same process in Egyptian and Chaldean civilization. Then we see the transfer of Oriental wisdom to Greece, and we see how the Greeks reject what is Oriental on the outer physical plane. We then see how everything that the entire Orient had achieved was absorbed into the bosom of Hellenism and how it was interwoven with many things that had been achieved in other European regions up to that point. This then created a new cultural influence, which, through many detours, became capable of absorbing the Christian impulse and transplanting it to the West. And so we would also find a continuous cultural stream in which we can link one link to another, and each subsequent link appears to us at once as a continuation of the previous one and always as something new that had to be given to humanity. But from what did this have to grow, which developed so much from epoch to epoch?

Think of everything that each individual people experiences in its cultural sphere! Think of everything that must have gone on in each individual people as a sum of feelings and sensations among countless human beings, of desires and enthusiasm for what must appear as the highest desirable goal and what is to be given as cultural influence in this particular sphere! Think how the souls of individual people must be completely involved in the individual cultural impact with what they desire and strive for! And besides, it was necessary throughout countless centuries of human development that the peoples, as they developed the individual successive cultural influences, always lived in a kind of illusion—in the illusion that each such people regarded the cultural treasure that it had to develop itself as something eternal and imperishable, which could never be taken away from it. It was only because this illusion arose again and again that the devoted work of the individual peoples on their culture was possible: that what was created, with everything attached to it, would have eternal existence. This illusion still exists today; and even if we no longer indulge in it in such a positive way and talk about the “eternity” of this or that culture, it still exists in the form that we do not think about the end — neither in small things nor in big things — that we do not pay any attention to it, so to speak.

Here you have two things that folk cultures needed and that are only now beginning to undergo a kind of change. For the first area of human spiritual life in which such illusions will no longer arise will be theosophical spiritual life. For it would be a serious misunderstanding if anyone who stands firmly on the ground of our spiritual movement were to believe that the forms into which we pour our insights, that the thoughts we can express today, that what we can give today from our theosophical thinking, feeling, and willing, would have eternal validity. It would be very short-sighted to claim that in three millennia there will still be people who will speak about theosophical truths in exactly the same way as we do today. We know that our present circumstances cause us to imprint something of the ongoing product of evolution in the present forms, and that our descendants will express these things in completely different forms of experience. Why is this so? For a similar reason why, throughout many centuries and millennia of human development, folk culture had to allow individual people to experience many things so that the contribution could emerge from the entire development of the people. Think of the countless experiences that were undergone in ancient Greece, and think of what emerged from them as an extract for the whole of humanity later on! You will say: there is more to it than just the individual currents. Many things happen for the sake of this core current.

Therefore, we have two things to observe: First, something that must arise and perish so that the second—the smallest part in terms of quantity—can endure as something lasting from this whole. When we know that, ever since individual human karma has existed, two forces have been at work in human development, which we have always found to be effective, Lucifer and Ahriman, only then will we understand the progress of human development. For we must reckon it into the plan of human evolution that, when the earth has finally reached its goal, the results that have been gradually incorporated into the whole of human evolution from the individual cultures will be made fruitful for all individual beings, regardless of the destinies they have undergone. But we can only see this goal by viewing world evolution in a theosophical sense. For let us not deceive ourselves: To think of such a goal in the right way, with the full existence of human individuality, without blurring individuality into some nebulous pantheistic unity, but in such a way that individuality is fully preserved and that which humanity has conquered in the great whole flows back into it — only theosophical soul culture can clearly and sharply see this goal before its eyes.

So when we look back at earlier cultures, we can say from the outset: ever since human individualities have incarnated, Lucifer and Ahriman have been involved in the development of humanity. Lucifer is involved in such a way that he always seeks to participate in the ongoing stream of culture by nesting himself in the human astral bodies and impregnating them with the Luciferic impulse. This is what Lucifer accomplishes in the course of human evolution; he works into the human astral bodies. Human beings could never receive what Lucifer gives them merely from those powers that bring about the ongoing cultural stream just described. Separate this cultural stream from the entire progress of humanity, and you have what the normally advancing spirit beings of the hierarchies pour down into humanity as ever new riches. Looking up to the hierarchies, we must say: those spiritual beings who are undergoing their normal development gave earthly culture what is the lasting good of humanity, which was later transformed but has nevertheless become the lasting good of humanity. It is as if we have a tree and the marrow within it. In this way we gain a continuously living stream of ongoing culture.

Through these powers, which undergo a normal development of their own, it could have happened in this way that human beings would have filled their I more and more with this progressive enrichment of human development. From time to time, that which advances humanity would flow in; human beings would become increasingly filled with the gifts of the spiritual world, and finally, when the earth reached its goal, it would be natural for human beings to have within themselves everything that had been given from the spiritual worlds. But one thing would not be possible: that human beings would develop their own innermost, sacred zeal, devotion, and fire for what is created from one cultural epoch to the next. From the same source from which every desire and every craving springs, there also springs the desire for great ideals, the craving for human happiness, for achievements in the arts in the successive human cultural epochs. From the same source that gives rise to corrupt desires for evil, there also arise aspirations for the highest that can be achieved on earth. And that for which the human soul burns as the highest good would not exist if it were not possible, on the other hand, for the same desire to sink down into vice and evil. That this possibility exists in human development is the work of the Luciferic spirits. So we must not fail to recognize that the Luciferic spirits have brought freedom to human beings, together with the possibility of evil, free receptivity to what would otherwise flow into the human soul.

But we have also seen that everything Lucifer provokes finds its answer through Ahriman. Thus we see Lucifer with his entire army at work in what is to give the Greek culture its concrete impact on the entire human development: in the Greek heroes, in the Greek heroes and artists. Lucifer penetrates into the astral bodies and inflames them for what they worship as the highest. Thus, what is to flow into development through Greek culture becomes at the same time the enthusiasm of the soul of the people. That is precisely where Lucifer is at work. And because Lucifer owes his power to the moon's development, not to the earth's, he challenges Ahriman; and as Lucifer develops his activity from epoch to epoch, Ahriman joins in — and gradually destroys what Lucifer has accomplished on earth. The world's development is a continuous struggle between Ahriman and Lucifer. If Lucifer did not work in humanity, there would be no zeal and fire for the continuous flow of human development; if Ahriman were not there to destroy from people to people what does not come from the continuous flow but only from the Luciferic influence, then Lucifer would want to perpetuate the individual cultures forever. So here you see Lucifer conjuring up his own karma, which is a necessary consequence of the development on the old moon. And the consequence is that he must constantly chain Ahriman to his heels. Ahriman is the karmic fulfillment of Lucifer.

Here we look into the karma of higher beings using the example of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings. There is also karma up there. Karma is everywhere where I's are. And Lucifer and Ahriman naturally harbor I's within themselves; that is why the effects of their deeds can rebound upon themselves. Many of these secrets will only be revealed in the summer during the cycle on the biblical story of creation; I would like to point out just one passage here that will show you the infinite depth of every single word in the true occult documents.

Have you ever thought about why, in the biblical account of creation, at the end of each day of creation, the sentence appears: “And the Elohim saw the work that they had made, and behold, it was very good,” that it was “the best”? This is a meaningful word. Why is it there? The sentence itself shows that it is meant as a characteristic of the Elohim, who developed normally on the moon and whose adversary is Lucifer. It is characteristic of the Elohim that after each day of creation they saw that it was “very good.” It is stated for this reason, because this degree was the achievement of the Elohim. On the moon, they could only see the work as long as they were doing it; they could not have any subsequent awareness of it. The fact that they can look back retrospectively in retrospective thinking on the work is a special stage in the consciousness of the Elohim. This was only possible on Earth; and its inner character is revealed in the fact that the volitional flows out of their being in such a way that when they looked at it, they saw that it was very good. These were the Elohim who had completed their work on the moon and who, when they looked back at it on Earth, could say: It can remain, it is very good! But for this, the old lunar evolution had to be completed.

What about the Luciferic beings, the beings who did not complete their lunar evolution? They will also have to look back at their work on Earth, for example, when they contributed fire and enthusiasm to Greek culture. And then they will see how Ahriman has crumbled their work piece by piece! And because they have not completed it, they will have to say: They saw their day's work, and they saw that it was not for the best, that it had to be destroyed!

This is the great disappointment of the Luciferic spirits, that they always try their work anew, always want to swing the pendulum to the other side—and always find their work destroyed by Ahriman. You must imagine a rising and falling tide within human evolution, a constant stirring up of new forces by beings higher than ourselves, and that these beings experience constant disappointment. This is contained in the experience of the Luciferic spirits in the evolution of the earth. And humanity had to take this karma upon itself, because only in this way could human beings attain true freedom. Freedom can only spring forth when human beings give themselves the highest content of their earthly ego. The ego that human beings would have if all goals were given to them at the end of Earth's development cannot be free, for it has been determined from the outset to allow all the goods of Earth's development to flow into human beings. Human beings could only become free by adding to this ego another ego capable of error, which is able to swing again and again between the side of good and the side of evil and which can always strive upward toward what is the content of all earthly evolution. The lower self had to be added to man by Lucifer so that man's working upward toward the higher self could be his own act.

Only in this way is free will possible in humanity. Free will is something that man can gradually achieve, for man is so constituted that free will is set before him as an ideal in life. Where, then, in a middle state of development is the human will free? It is never free, because at every moment it can fall prey to the Luciferic and Ahrimanic elements; it is not free because every human being, once he has passed through the gate of death, has a very definite impression during the ascending period of purification, which may last for decades. This is the essence of the Kamaloka life, that we see to what degree we ourselves are imperfect through what we have done that is imperfect in the world, that we see piece by piece how we have become imperfect. From this arises the determined intention to eradicate everything we have made imperfect. Such is life in the Kamaloka period, that intention is joined to intention and the overall decision is made: You must repair everything that you have thought and done that has brought you down! What a person feels there, he imprints on his further life and enters existence at birth with this intention — and thereby takes his karma upon himself. Therefore, we cannot say that we have free will when we enter existence through birth. We can only say that we approach free will to the extent that we have succeeded in mastering the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman. And we can master the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences through nothing other than knowledge. First, through self-knowledge, by making ourselves increasingly capable—even in the life between birth and death—of recognizing our weaknesses in all three soul characteristics: thinking, feeling, and willing. If we strive more and more to free ourselves from all illusions, then the power to dispense with Lucifer's influence will grow within our ego, for then we will become increasingly capable of deciding what devotion the goods of humanity, which have been conquered little by little, deserve. Then through knowledge of the external world, which must complement self-knowledge; both must work together. We must unite self-knowledge and knowledge of the external world with our being; then we will be able to gain a clear relationship with Lucifer.

This is precisely the peculiarity of what we acquire as theosophical knowledge, that we gain insight into the extent to which inclination and passion, Lucifer and Ahriman are involved in every human action. What else have we done in this series of lectures but provide clarification about how Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces work in our lives in the most diverse ways! In the present age, however, clarification about the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces can begin. And human beings must be enlightened if they really want to contribute to the achievement of the goal of humanity on earth. Wherever you look, wherever human beings feel and think, you can see how far they still are from a genuine, true enlightenment about the influences of Lucifer and Ahriman. You see that the vast majority of humanity does not want such enlightenment at all. You see that a large part of humanity has fallen into a kind of religious egoism: just to achieve with this soul the state of well-being that one can only imagine. This is an egoism of which people are completely unaware, that the greatest desires can interfere with it. And nowhere does Lucifer interfere more with our feelings than where people strive for the divine out of their passions and desires, without having the divine illuminated by the light of knowledge. Do you not believe that Lucifer is at work in many ways precisely where people believe they are striving for the highest? But the forms that are sought in this way will also have to belong to Lucifer's disappointments. And those who now believe that they can obtain this or that form of spiritual culture out of their wild desires, who preach again and again that this theosophy is so bad because it believes something new, should consider that it does not depend on human will whether Ahriman attaches himself to Lucifer's heels. And what has arisen in the course of the development of forms will, because Ahriman interferes, also perish again through Lucifer. Only the continuous stream of human evolution will save itself.

Thus we look back on a previous development in which certain beings have remained behind as sacrifices for us. We now know that these beings must live out their karma for our sake, so that we can live out in a normal way what these beings can instill in us. Yes, truly, Yahweh originally instilled in human beings, through the divine breath, the capacity for the I; but if only the divine breath had come, pulsing in human blood, and not also that whatever can repeatedly stray from what the Yahweh breath can give, and if neither Luciferic nor Ahrimanic impulses were working within it, then human beings would indeed be able to attain the what of the Yahweh gift, but not the how: that they feel it with a self-conscious, free ego. Thus, it is in the sense of world evolution that certain beings remained behind on the old moon.

We live today in an age where we can indeed look back on many disappointments caused by Lucifer, but where we can also look forward to a future in which we will learn to understand more and more what the ongoing stream of evolution is. And theosophy will be the instrument for understanding this ongoing stream of evolution, so that we can become increasingly aware of Lucifer's influences and increasingly able to recognize Luciferic impulses within ourselves and consciously use them in the right way for the benefit of human development, whereas previously they worked in humanity as a dark urge of which human beings were unaware. And it is the same with the Ahrimanic influences.

Here is one of the areas where we can draw attention to how, in the present, so to speak, an important epoch of human development is taking place, namely the epoch in which, in a certain sense, the soul forces are actually reversing themselves. Many of you have already been told that we are standing at the threshold of an epoch in which certain people, individual human beings, will develop soul faculties other than those that are recognized today. What theosophy, for example, knows today from the findings of spiritual research, namely that human beings have an etheric body in addition to the physical body, is known today only to those who have undergone methodical training. But before the middle of the 20th century — we know this from reading the Akashic Records — there will be people who will have a natural development toward etheric clairvoyance and who, because humanity has reached this point in time where these things will develop as natural gifts, will perceive the etheric body penetrating the physical body and extending beyond its edges. Just as human beings have degenerated from looking into the spiritual world to today's purely external physical perception and intellectual understanding of the external world, so they are now beginning to develop new, but conscious abilities. These new abilities will be added to the old ones, and one special ability will be what I can characterize as follows:

There will be people—individuals at first, for it will take the next two or three millennia for this ability to develop in larger numbers, and the first precursors will be there before the end of the first half of the 20th century—in whom the following will occur: People will have experienced some deed, and they will be tempted to step back from it. They will then have a picture in front of them that comes from the act in question. At first they will not recognize it, will find no connection to what they have done. But then they may have already heard something about spiritual science, and then they will learn that this image, which appears to them as a kind of conscious dream image, is the counter-image of their own action, the image of the action that must take place in order for what has just been done to find its karmic fulfillment.

Humanity is indeed standing at the threshold of an epoch in which it will begin not only to understand karma according to the teachings and descriptions of spiritual science, but in which it will gradually begin to see karma. Whereas karma has hitherto been a dark urge, a dark desire for human beings, which could only be lived out in the next life, which could only be transformed into an intention in the life between death and rebirth, human beings are gradually developing to the point where they are able to consciously perceive Lucifer's creations and see what their effects will be. However, only those people who have strived for knowledge and self-knowledge will be able to make use of this etheric clairvoyance. More and more people in their normal state will see the karmic images of their actions before them. This will be something that will help people to progress further and further, because it will enable them to know what they still owe the world, what still stands as a debt in their karma. This is what makes people unfree, that they do not know what they still owe the world. So when it comes to karma, one cannot speak of free will from the outset. The word “free will” is already wrong; for one must say: Man only becomes free through his ever-increasing knowledge and through the fact that he rises ever higher and grows ever more into the spiritual world. In this way, he fills himself more and more with the content of the spiritual world and becomes more and more a being who determines his own will. It is not the will that can become free, but man as such can become free by permeating himself with what he can recognize in the spiritual realm of world existence.

Thus we look at Lucifer's disappointments and his deeds and say: This is how the foundation has been laid for thousands of years for where we stand today; for if we did not stand where we stand, we would not be able to develop toward freedom. But once we have gained insight into Lucifer and Ahriman, we can gain a different relationship to these powers, we can reap the fruits of what has been done, and Lucifer and Ahriman can, so to speak, take their work off their shoulders. Then, however, the deeds of Lucifer, which he has brought about and which have always led to disappointment when committed by ourselves, will have to be reversed. Lucifer's deeds had to arouse desires, had to lead people to what could lead to evil. We have seen what kind of opposing force must counteract Lucifer: if we ourselves are to counteract Lucifer, if we are to take care of his affairs in the future, it can only be love that can take the place of Lucifer's deeds; but love will be able to do so. And likewise, it will be what flows to us from the outer world as we increasingly remove the darkness that we weave into outer matter. If we remove this darkness more and more, if it disappears, and we succeed in completely overcoming the Ahrimanic influence in this way, then we will be able to recognize the world as it really is as the earthly world. Then we will gradually approach a level of knowledge that today can only be gained through spiritual science: we will penetrate to what matter really is, to the nature of light. Today, even science still indulges in the most varied delusions about the nature of light. Some believe that light can be seen with the physical eyes. This is not correct. With physical eyes, one does not see light, but only illuminated bodies; one sees colors on the bodies. One does not see light, but one sees through light. All such delusions will be dispelled. As a result, the image of the world, which under the influence of Ahriman had to be interwoven with error, will be transformed and replaced by the content of wisdom. As man advances toward the light, he will develop the soul counterpart of light. And the soul counterpart of light is wisdom.

Through this, love and wisdom will enter the human soul. And love and wisdom will be the practical force, the actual life impulse that should and will result from the theosophical worldview. Wisdom, which is the inner counterpart of light, wisdom that can connect with love, and love that permeates wisdom, will find the right way to work back upon that which is immersed in the wisdom of the outer world. If we are to gradually participate in the second half of evolution, overcoming Lucifer and Ahriman once again, then we must permeate ourselves with wisdom and love. By developing wisdom and love, we develop those elements that will flow out again from our souls as gifts to those who sacrificed themselves in the first half of Earth's development as Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces in order to give us what we need to attain our freedom. We will have to give these forces what we develop in wisdom and love. But we must be aware that because life must exist in the world, we must accept cultures that are means of expression for this life. We want to devote ourselves willingly and lovingly to a theosophical culture that will not be eternal, but we want to accept this with enthusiasm and lovingly create what we were previously driven to do under the influence of Lucifer. Because we now recognize that we must create out of love what we were previously driven to do by Lucifer's influence, by desires and passions, we will now develop all the more surplus love behind all this. If we only developed the necessary love, we would not be able to develop culture upon culture. Theosophy should be something that fulfills every demand of the times with devotion and love, with the same enthusiasm with which people once worked under the influence of Lucifer. We will no longer have the illusion that what we do will last forever. But by creating culture upon culture in ever-increasing love, we create surplus love. This benefits Lucifer; it also makes up for his disappointments. It is up to us to make up to Lucifer for the disappointments he must suffer when we give back to the other side what has been done for us.

This is the other part of the karma of the higher beings, that we develop a love that does not remain merely within humanity, but is called to penetrate the cosmos. We will be able to let love flow into beings higher than ourselves, and these beings will perceive it as a sacrifice. It will be a sacrifice of the soul. The sacrifice of the soul will flow upward to those who once let their gifts flow down, just as incense offerings once rose up to the spirits in times when people still had spiritual goods. At that time, people could only send symbolic incense offerings up to the gods. In the future, people will send streams of love up to the spirits, and something will flow down again from the sacrifice of love: higher forces will flow to people, which, directed by the spiritual, will intervene in our physical world with ever greater power. These will then be magical forces in the true sense of the word.

This is how we see the course of human evolution, in which the karma of humanity and the karma of higher beings are lived out. And we now also understand how the plan of evolution relates to individual human karma. Let us assume that a superhuman individuality did this or that in 1910, which was then carried out on the physical plane by a human being. This establishes a contact between this superhuman individuality and the human being. The human being is then woven into the karma of the higher beings. This is a completed correspondence. But then a current flows to him from the higher worlds, bringing something into his life; in this he now has a new item that is added to his karma and that tips the balance in one direction or another. In this way, human karma is fertilized by the general karma that flows through the world.

Let us look, for example, at Miltiades or any other personality: they had to stand on the great stage of their people's history, this or that was determined by the karma of the higher powers — and there they were placed in their positions. What was to be given to the whole of humanity flowed into their individual karmic account. And by carrying it out, by following it up with deeds and achievements, it became their individual karma. — Thus we also live and weave with our individual karma in the macrocosm as a small world, as a microcosm.

This brings us to the end of the course, though not to the end of the matter. But there is no other way. If I may say just two words more, I would like to say that I have given this series of lectures, precisely on those human questions that can move the human heart so deeply and yet are connected with the greatest destiny of higher beings themselves, that I have given this course truly from the depths of my soul and am glad that it was possible to speak about these things in a theosophical circle, among Theosophical friends who have come from all sides to devote themselves to the consideration of these questions, I also speak these words from the bottom of my heart. Those who will have the opportunity to hear further courses will see that many of the questions that will be on people's minds after this cycle will be answered. But even those who cannot attend these summer courses will have the opportunity to discuss such things with me later. And so I may say once again that I would like the things that were discussed to be received not merely as abstract insights, but as insights that permeate our entire thinking, feeling, and willing, our entire life. So that one may see in the theosophists of the world a parable and image of what can be called the deepest theosophical truths. Let us try to make ourselves wholly such an image and parable; only then will we have a theosophical spiritual current in the world. In our narrow circle, this theosophical spiritual current must first be the contemplation of spiritual knowledge. But then — first within our circle of members — these insights must become attitudes and as such face the world. And the world will gradually realize that it was not in vain that there were honest and sincere theosophists at the turn of the 20th century, people who sincerely and honestly believed in the power of spiritual forces. And because they believed in it, they themselves were imbued with the power to work for it. Culture will advance more and more rapidly in our lives if you yourselves transform what you hear into attitudes, into actions and deeds. Not by convincing people! The present culture is not very suitable for that. Only those who approach Theosophy from the deepest urge of their hearts will ever be truly convinced; the others will not be convinced. We also have this karma in spiritual circles as something that materialism has had to bring about, and we must regard these damages as something against which spiritual science must prove itself as a spiritual power.

So we must give what we can give to the world out of our own conviction. Everyone who has transformed Theosophy into the inner life of the soul will be a source of spiritual strength. And those who believe in the supersensible can be thoroughly convinced that our theosophical insights and attitudes have a spiritual effect, that is, they spread invisibly throughout the world when we truly make ourselves conscious instruments imbued with theosophical life.