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The Destiny of Individuals and of Nations
GA 157

17 January 1915, Berlin

4. The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It—I

Dear friends, as on other occasions when I have been able to speak to you since the serious events of the present time took their beginning, let our thoughts go out at this moment to those who are at the front offering their souls and their bodies in sacrifice for the tremendous demands made in our time and having to take up, with the whole of their physical existence, the challenge of the time:

Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,
On your wings let there be borne
The prayer of love from our souls
To those whom you guard here on earth.
Thus, united with your might,
A ray of help our prayer shall be
For the souls it seeks out there in love.

And the spirit who has gone through the Mystery of Golgotha, the spirit we have long been seeking in our movement, may he be with You and guide you to the goals that you have to seek.

Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,
On your wings let there be borne
The prayer of love from our souls
To those whom you guard here on earth.
Thus, united with your might,
A ray of help our prayer shall be
For the souls it seeks out there in love.

My particular intention with the words I spoke here on the last occasion was to let a truth flow into your minds, a truth to be found through spiritual science, that the great and serious events in life really enable us to see how outward appearances have to be regarded in the light that comes to us from spiritual science. It is only then that they will no longer appear to us as Maya, the great illusion, but in their profound truth. This is not to say that these outward appearances in themselves are Maya or illusion—that is an erroneous view people often pick up from a philosophy with a more oriental orientation—but that our senses and our intellect err in the interpretation, in their comprehension, of outer events unless we illumine those external events with the light that comes to us from an understanding of the spiritual world.

Today I want to take certain individual facts that have already been touched on during the years of our anthroposophical work and present them in a perspective that is somehow in accord with our time.

We are fully conversant with the thought that since the Mystery of Golgotha intervened in events on earth, the impulses, the forces and entities that have gone through this Mystery of Golgotha have played an active role, as living forces, in all that happened in human evolution on earth. In other words, and to put it more concretely, I want to say: In all major events, in all the important and essential things that have happened, the Christ impulse has been active through those who are his servants, his spiritual helpers. At the present time the term Christianity is generally understood to cover only what men have been able to comprehend. But, as I stressed on many occasions, what has come into the world through Christianity is so great, so tremendous, that human reason, the human intellect, is in no position, or has not been in a position to the present moment, really to grasp even the most elementary aspects of the powers of the Christ impulse. If Christ had worked only on the basis of what men have been able to grasp of him, he would have been able to achieve little. But what matters is not what has entered into mankind through human reason and understanding, what concept men have been able to form of the Christ, but rather the fact that he has been present since the Mystery of Golgotha, active right among men and in their ways of doing things. It is not a question of how far men have understood him but that he has been present as a living entity and has entered wholly into all significant events in evolution.

Of course, our spiritual science enables us to grasp only a little of the profundity of the Christ impulse even today. Future times will come to understand and see more and more. There is no reason to feel pride in such understanding of the Christ impulse as we have so far achieved. Spiritual science will grasp a little more today than it has been possible to grasp of the Christ in the past. In past times people were able only to reflect on the Christ by using the means available through external intellect, external reason, external research. Now we have spiritual science as well, and with this we see into the supersensible worlds, and out of the supersensible worlds we are able to provide many answers concerning the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. Immediate comprehension of what the Christ is, and what the spiritual powers are that serve him as folk souls and the like, has been least possible for the peoples living in regions where the Christ still had to enter, as it were. Yet the Christ impulse had to come in, for instance in the Roman world. And there is one particular example which we have already considered in another context that will be the best way of demonstrating how the Christ is at work as a living power, directing his spiritual servants when events have to be brought about that are essential in evolution, to bring real progress for mankind.

The event I mean is one I should like to mention again. It happened in AD 312 that the man through whom Christianity became the official state religion, Constantine,16Heraclitus (c. 540–480 BC), Greek philosopher of Ephesus: Fragment B53 in H. Diels Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, Vol. I. son of Constantinus Chlorus, entered the field with his army against Maxentius, then the ruler of Rome. Of course, if one considers those two armies facing each other one would have to say that the situation was the worst possible for Constantine, his army being five times smaller than that of Maxentius. It is possible to imagine, however, that considering the state of the art of war at the time, both armies had a number of outstanding generals. Yet what mattered particularly at that time was not the the skill of men but that opportunity was given for the ongoing Christ impulse to influence mankind in a way commensurate with the needs of the time.

It is possible to see how much of the Christ impulse could be understood at the time, how much of that Christ impulse human hearts had been able to absorb in the state of consciousness then prevailing if we consider what happened a few decades later around Rome and out of Rome. Julian the Apostate17Constantine I (the Great) (274 –337), Roman emperor 306-337 (sole ruler from 323). Victory over Maxentius at Pons Milvius, a bridge crossing the Tiber to the north of Rome, in 312. See also the lecture given by Rudolf Steiner at Dornach on 30 January 1915 in Wege der geistigen Erkenntnis und der Erneuerung künstlerischer Weltanschauung (GA 161). fought Christianity out of honest conviction, on the basis of what could be gleaned from human knowledge in those times. Anyone considering the way Julian and his followers fought Christianity can say to himself: ‘There is no doubt that as far as human knowledge was concerned, Julian and his followers were very advanced for their time; they were much more enlightened in this respect than the Christians of their day, although they had reverted to worship of the old gods.’ They stood for what might be considered to represent human knowledge at that time. Yet in AD 312 it was not the stand of human knowledge that determined the issue; it was rather that the potential had to be there for the Christ and his servants to intervene in the historical evolution of mankind. However much Maxentius and his army were able to rely on the skills of their generals and on anything else human knowledge and human wisdom may have achieved at that time, if nothing else had happened, then, undoubtedly, something destined to emerge at that time would not have emerged. And what did happen?

What happened was the following. The continuing Christ impulse flowed into soul activities that were not within men's consciousness, into activities men were not aware of. And it did indeed guide men in such a way that what had to come about did come about. The battle between Constantine and Maxentius was fought by the Red Rock, the Saxa Rubra, on 28 October 312. It was decided not by human skill, but—and enlightened minds may refuse to accept this as much as they like—by dreams; that is by what is generally called ‘dreams’, though they are not just dreams to us. For through their dreams there entered into the souls of the two army leaders what could not enter into them out of human reason. Maxentius had a dream before the battle that he would have to leave his city. He consulted the Sibylline Oracle and was told that he would achieve what was to happen if he dared to join battle outside the city and not within it. It was the most unwise thing he could have done, particularly as his army was so much more powerful than Constantine's. He should have known that anything received from the higher worlds first had to be interpreted and that the oracle would mislead him. Constantine in his turn was told in a dream that he would win if he led his troops into battle under the sign of Christ. He acted accordingly. What had entered into the souls of these men by the roundabout route of a dream became deed, and as a result the world was greatly changed at that time. We need only reflect a little to be able to say: What would have become of the Western world if supersensible powers had not taken a hand in events in a way that is indeed perfectly apparent.

Let us now look at those events in more details. At the time souls had incarnated in the West and South of Europe who were destined to be bearers of Christianity. Even the most enlightened souls were unable to become bearers of the Christ impulse at the time by using their minds, their intellect, because the time for this had not come. They had to find the way to Christianity through what had been created around them, externally. We may say they assumed Christianity like a garment. Their deeper nature was not greatly affected by it. They became serving members rather than receiving the Christ impulse into their innermost being. Fundamentally speaking, that was to hold true for the best souls in the western parts of Europe for a long time to come, into the 8th and 9th centuries and beyond. They needed to assume Christianity as a garment, to wear this garment of Christianity in such a way that they wore it in their ether bodies and not in their astral bodies. You can judge what it means when I say they bore Christianity in the ether body. It means they assumed it in such a way that they were Christians when awake but were unable to take their Christianity with them when outside their physical and ether bodies. The way they went through the gate of death also was such that we can say: they were able to look down from the realm through which man has to pass between death and rebirth, look down at what they had been in their last earth life. But one thing that was not immediately possible for them at the time was to take the Christian impulses arising from their former life into their future life. They wore Christianity more as a garment.

Because of something I will come to shortly, let us hold on to this way in which the souls accepted Christianity in their outward lives and the way Christianity was not part of what souls were able to take with them through the spiritual world, when passing through the gate of death, to prepare for a new life on earth. Let us remember that these souls were only able to enter into a new earth life having forgotten Christianity. For we do not in a later earth life remember what we merely wore as a garment in our former life. If it were otherwise our children would not have to learn Greek again at grammar school, for many of them did once incarnate in Greece. They have no memory of their Greek incarnation, however, and therefore have to learn Greek again. Those souls who had incarnated in the West of Europe were unable to carry their Christianity through the life they had to go through between death and rebirth because they had not integrated these impulses inwardly with their ego and astral body. That was the particular way in which those souls lived on into later incarnations. Let us remember this and now move on to another fact, one I have also mentioned before.

We know that the time we live in now, the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, began mainly around the 15th-16th centuries. That was the time when preparation was to be made for the European world for elements that were predominantly to lead to the development of the spiritual soul. That is really what our fifth epoch of civilization is about. Whatever had to be achieved there had to be achieved with regard to the fact that in the external aspect of earth life, too, conditions were arising on earth that were particularly favourable for the evolution of the spiritual soul—the soul able to develop by directing itself towards material earth life, the external facts of physical existence. That had to take its beginning and it did take its beginning. We merely need to recall how horizons expanded in Europe as the great discoveries were made and with everything they brought with them. The spiritual soul, therefore, had to develop primarily under the influence of the material world. We merely need to think of one thing, and again reference has already been made to this: the evolution and development of the spiritual soul is the special mission, the one-sided mission, of that which belongs to the sphere Of the British folk soul. Considering all the details, one could hardly imagine anything proceeding more according to plan than the way the British folk soul was directed towards these material roles in life. This was definitely predestined in the evolution of mankind.

Let us imagine, for instance, that during the 15th century England had been deflected from its propensity for those regions of the earth towards which it had been directed as the vast lands outside Europe were discovered, and that the British folk soul had instead experienced large territorial gains on the Continent of Europe. Let us imagine that the map of Europe had been changed to this effect. Then it would have been impossible in the first place to achieve what had to be achieved in the sphere of material civilization and, secondly, to achieve what had to be achieved in Europe by developing the inner life. This inner development proceeded specifically from that point onwards, overcoming all kinds of obstacles, with a role played also by Protestantism which in turn was influenced in many ways by German mysticism. Intervening in the process of evolution the Christ impulse had to ensure that the British Isles were kept away from the region where souls still had to be prepared to become outward, external bearers of the Christ impulse.

The Christ impulse had to flow into the deeds done on the Continent of Europe. It had to act in such a way that it achieved a great deal more than could come about through mankind, through the arts and skills of man. And what happened?

The marvellous thing happened that a poor shepherd girl from Orleans, Joan of Arc, [16 January 1412–30 May 1431] did everything those who were very advanced for their time had not been able to do. At that time it was indeed the Christ impulse acting in Joan of Arc, through its Michaelic servants, that prevented a possible merging of France and England, causing England to be forced back onto its island. And this achieved two things: first, France continued to have a free hand in Europe. This can be seen if we study the history of France over the following centuries—the essential element of the French spirit was able to influence European culture entirely without hindrance. The second thing which was achieved was that England was given its domain outside the continent of Europe. This deed, brought in through Joan of Arc, was a blessing not only for the French but also for the English, compelling them to take up their domain.

If we consider this in connection with what is implied by the advance of the Christ impulse on earth, the deed of Joan of Arc achieved something about which the following may be said: The degree to which she understood those things in a genuine human intellectual way was as good as zero compared to the deed which has given the map of Europe its present form. Events had to take that course so that the Christ impulse could spread in the right way. There we see the living Christ erupting into historical events out of the subterranean depths of human nature. That is not the Christ men think they know, for the Christ impulse may be seen in two ways. On the one hand we may ask ourselves: What did the people of that time understand of the Christ impulse? If we open our history books and study the history of mankind we find that over the centuries theologians were in dispute, defending or contending all kinds of theories, attempting to show how human freedom, the Holy Trinity and other things should be understood. So we see countless theologians fighting each other, acknowledging each other as orthodox theologians or else accusing each other of heresy. We observe how Christian doctrine spread entirely in accord with the situation as it was at the time. That is one side of it. But it is not the thing that matters, just as now it does not matter what people are able to do with their ordinary intellect. What matters is that the Christ lives among men, unseen but a living entity, and is able to stream up from depths beyond our perception and enter into the deeds of men. And he has done so at a point where there was indeed simply no need for him to come in through the human intellect, through a reasoning mind, but where he was able to come in through the soul of a girl of simple mind, through the soul of the Maid of Orleans. And when he came in like this, what was the attitude of those who were able to grasp Christianity in form of the orthodox doctrine? Well, they found they had to burn the girl who bore the Christ impulse at the stake. It has taken some time for official doctrine to take a different view. There may have been a point to it where official doctrine is concerned, but canonizing Joan of Arc is not exactly the right response to the events of that time.

This is a real example of how the Christ intervened in human evolution through his servants. As I said, he acted through his Michaelic spirit in the case of the Maid of Orleans. He intervened as a living entity, not merely through whatever men were able to understand of him. This particular example also shows something else, however. Christianity did exist. The people who were there around the Maid of Orleans, as it were, did call themselves Christians. Their Christianity did mean something to them. But all we can say about their understanding is: He whom you seek is not here,19See Matthew 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5,6. and the one who is here is not the one you seek, for you do not know him.

It must be clearly understood, however, that it was essential for Christ evolution to proceed within the evolution of Europe also in the form of an external garment. Souls were part of this development that were able to assume Christianity exactly as such an outer garment, who were able to wear it on the outside as it were. They were souls trailing behind, souls that had been incarnated there earlier and still did not take the Christ into their ego, merely into the ether body. The great difference between Joan of Arc and the others was that she had taken the Christ impulse into the very depths of her astral body and was acting for the Christ impulse out of the deepest forces of her astral body. This is one of the points where we can gain a clear understanding of something that really must become clear to us: the difference between the progressive evolution of nations and the progressive evolution of individual human personalities.

If we consider the French as they are today, for example, it is of course true that a number of individual human personalities exist within the French nation. These individual personalities were not, of course, part of the nation in their previous incarnation, part of a nation that had assumed the outer garment of Christianity there in the West of Europe. It was because a number of people had to assume Christianity as an outer garment in the West of Europe that they were in a condition on passing through the gate of death that necessitated their being united with Christianity in their astral body and ego in their next life, under different conditions. It was because they had been incarnated in the West of Europe that the necessity arose for them to have their next incarnation somewhere else. It is indeed very uncommon—note that I am saying uncommon, though it does not always have to be so—that a soul belongs to the same community on earth through a number of consecutive incarnations. Souls pass from one earthly community to another.

We have one example, however—and I am saying this without wishing to rouse sympathies or antipathies, and with no intention of flattering anyone—we have one example of souls actually assuming the same nationality a number of times. That is the case with the people of Central Europe. These Central European people include many souls that are incarnated among them today and have also been incarnated in the Germanic tribes in the past. This is a fact we are able to trace. It cannot always be fully explained with the means now available in occult science, but it exists nevertheless. A fact like that presented in last Thursday's public lecture on The Ancient Germanic Soul and the German Spirit,20Lecture given on 14 January 1915 ‘Die germanische Seele und der deutsche Geist vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft’ (GA 64). for example, is illumined when we know that souls make repeated appearances within the Central European community. The fact is that cultural epochs were cut short within this particular community.

We only have to realize what it means that there was an epoch at the dawn of Germanic culture when the writers of the German poem the Nibelungenlied lived, or Walther von der Vogelweide (German lyric poet, minnesinger, c. 1170–12301 and others. And we need to realize that later there was a' time when a new flowering of German culture began and the first had been completely forgotten. For when Goethe was young nothing was known, as it were, of the first flowering of Germanic culture. It is because the souls return to the same community that it was necessary to forget what had gone before, so that the souls would find something new on their return and could not pick up the threads of what remained from earlier times. It has not happened with any other people that a metamorphosis was gone through, as it were, the way it happened in the case of the Central European people: from the height that had been reached in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries to that later height that came about the time between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries and which we may hope will continue. There is no continuous line from the first to the second of these periods, and this can only be explained once we know that souls do return particularly in this culture. It is possible that another deeply moving fact I have already mentioned to you is also connected with this, the fact that it was noted how the Central European fighters of the present continue the struggle once they have gone through the gate of death, that soon after they have passed through the gate of death it is possible to see how they continue to join the struggle. This fact can raise wonderful hopes for the future, because one can see how not only the living, in the physical sense living, but also the dead, those who have died, are making their contribution to events.

Let us now pose the question: What is the situation with souls that were incarnated in Western Europe at the time when Christianity was assumed like an outer garment, that is in the 6th, 7th 8th and 9th centuries, and accepted Christianity there, or also under the Romans, though they were not yet able to unite it with their astral body and their ego? What is the situation with those souls?

Grotesque as it may seem to modern man with his materialistic thinking, the things spiritual science can teach achieve real meaning for life if the concrete facts are considered. People still think reference to repeated earth lives is a matter of mere fantasies produced by a handful of foolish dreamers. The idea is one that is not accepted, though it is once again considered excusable to make reference to it in view of the fact that in an hour of weakness even the great Lessing accepted the idea of repeated earth lives.21Gotthold Ephraim Lessing: Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlecthtes (1780) paragraph 98:

‘Why should I not return as often as I am sent to gain new knowledge, new skills? Do I carry off so much at one go that it is not worth the effort to return?’
Yet if we take the findings made in occult research seriously we cease to be fools begging the forgiveness of greatly enlightened folk. It will be necessary for us to consider some of the things arising from occult research in detail, for that will be the only way of throwing light on something which otherwise has to remain a great illusion.

It is a strange thing that a great many souls that lived to the west of us towards the end of the Roman epoch, when Christianity was slowly gaining influence, finally becoming the established church, now come from the East, as souls growing up in the East, souls now among Russia's fighters. I said we must remember the fact I referred to earlier. For among the people killed in the East, those who are fighting there and being taken prisoners, are souls who towards the end of the Roman epoch lived in the western part of Europe. They now come towards us from the East, people who in those past times allowed the Christian faith to flow into their ether bodies and now, in a civilization that is relatively speaking at a lower level, take Christianity into their souls in a waking state and do so in such a way, due to the peculiarities of life in the East, that they have an emotional, instinctive bond with it. They are thus linking themselves to the Christ impulse in their astral bodies, doing now what they had been unable to achieve in their previous incarnations. This is a very strange fact brought to light by occult research in the present day. Many facts that deeply move the soul may come within the occult horizon triggered by the events of our time and this is one among them. What, then, can we learn from these facts?

We have to be clear about the following. We have to remember that is it part of the direct progress of the life of the spirit in Central Europe that the soul life of the German peoples is very consciously linked with the Christian faith, that it is taken upwards to the heights of a straight Christian culture. The streams, the paths, leading to this have been most marvelously laid out in advance over centuries. We see it all taking shape. It is specifically when we look at our own age with all its errors and mistakes that we see how the seed is there in Central European culture, how preparations have been made and no effort spared in the German folk spirit, the folk soul of the German-speaking peoples, so that now the Christ impulse may be taken hold of in conscious awareness.

That is a fact of infinitely greater importance than the 15th century event when Joan of Arc had to save France because that country had an important mission at that time. We therefore have before us the significant fact that the German spirit is called upon to take in the Christ impulse more and more consciously in future, take it in with the elements that have come into the life of the spirit in German countries and do so in a state of full waking consciousness. This Christ impulse had to announce itself in what went on at subconscious level over the centuries, as we have consistently shown. In the future it will have to unite with souls in such a way that there will be people—and in Central Europe there will have to be such souls—who in full awareness unite also their ego and astral body with the Christ impulse, exerting the powers of their conscious mind and not only the powers inherent in their physical and ether bodies. We can see efforts being made among the best. Let us take the best of them all: Goethe. We may quote Goethe as an outstanding example, but all souls have the potential within them, so long as they strive for it, however darkly.

Goethe showed Faust, the representative of mankind, to be striving for the highest.22See Rudolf Steiner, Geisteswissenschafiliche Erläuterringen zu Goethes ‘Faust’ (Vol. I ‘Faust, der strebende Mensch’; Vol. 2 ‘Das Faust-Problem’ (GA 272 and 273). Engl. GA 272 in part translated and published in different books and journals: GA 273. The Problem of Faust in R Series of typescript lecture courses at Rudolf Steiner Library, London. In Part 2 of the play he transports him to Greek civilization to share the experience of nations, guiding him into this in such a way that Faust has a significant experience of the future when he desires to wrest land from the sea and establish something that to him lies in the far distant future. And where does Goethe take Faust in the end? Goethe himself once expressed it like this in conversation with Eckermann: he had to make use of the vivid images of Christianity23See J. P. Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe in den letzten Jahren seines Lebens, 6 June 1831:

‘And of course you'll admit that the conclusion, where the soul which has been saved is taken upwards, was very difficult to do. With something so noumenal, scarely to be intuited, I could so easily have ended up in vagueness, but I used the sharply defined figures and concepts of the Christian church to give my poetic intentions the much needed form and consistency.’
to show Faust ascending into the spiritual world. And if you consider the profoundly beautiful picture of Faust's soul being received by the Mater gloriosa. you see it as the opposite image to that which led Raphael [1483–1520] to paint his famous Sistine Madonna, where the virgin mother is bringing the soul down. In the last scene of Faust we see the virgin mother upwards. That is the birth of the soul in death. And so we see a deeply inward striving arising from the human spirit in full conscious awareness. It is striving always to gain all that can be gained from Christianity in such a way that it may be borne through the gate of death and into the life man is going to live through in the new earth life that will follow preparation between death and rebirth. What we see there in Goethe himself is a character trait of the German people. It can give an indication as to the mission given to human beings. The mission is, and we can present this very clearly to our souls, that true benefit for the progress of mankind will arise only if within a certain group of people a harmonious relationship is established between Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

It is possible to visualize Eastern Europe expanding westwards, across Central Europe, by brute force. It is possible to visualize this happening. That, however, would be equivalent to a situation where Joan of Arc had not done her deed in the 15th century and England had annexed France in those days. If it had come to that, and I state this emphatically, something would have come about that would not only have brought calamity to France but would have meant calamity also for England. And if German culture were now to suffer through what may come from the East, this would be to the detriment not only of German culture but also of the East. The worst that can happen to the East is that it might expand for a time and have an adverse effect on German culture. For as I said, the souls formerly incarnated in Western Europe or on the Italian peninsula and now growing up in the East unite with the Christ impulse as though instinctively, in the unconscious depths of the astral body. Yet the Christ impulse that is to grow within them can never arise through linear progression of the instinctive element that lives in their souls under the name of orthodox catholicism which, on the whole, is Byzantine of course, for this is a name not an impulse. It is just as impossible for this to evolve into what it is predestined to become as it is impossible for a woman without a man to have a child. What is preparing in the East can only come to something if Central Europe strongly and consciously—that is in a state of full awareness—unites the force of the human ego and human powers of insight with the Christ impulse' out of what souls are striving for out of egoic nature.

What has to come about for the civilization and culture of the future will only come about if the German folk spirit finds souls that transplant the Christ impulse into their astral body and ego the way it can indeed be implanted there in a state of full conscious awareness' It has to come about through harmony being established, by uniting with that which is consciously achieved in Central Europe—more and more consciously.

This will need not just one or two centuries, but a very long time. The time needed will be so long that we may reckon on about two thousand years, I would say, counting from the year 1400. Adding two thousand years to 1400 we get the approximate time when something will emerge in the evolution of the earth that has had its seeds in the German life of the spirit, ever since there has been such a life of the spirit. We therefore realize that we have to consider a future lying not just centuries ahead but more than a thousand years. And the mission of the Central European, the German folk spirit, a mission already before us, is that there will have to be more and more of that nurturing of the life in the spirit through which men take op in conscious awareness—right into the astral body and ego—a comprehension of the Christ impulse that in earlier times moved through the peoples of Europe as a living but unconscious impulse. Once evolution takes this course then the East, too, will gradually, by twining upwards, reach the level reached in Central Europe because of what is already inherent there. That is the intention of the cosmic intelligence. We only interpret the intention of the cosmic intelligence rightly when we say to ourselves: It would be the greatest misfortune also for the East of Europe to harm the very spiritual power it needs to use as a support in twining upwards, a power the East should indeed revere, revere in friendship, foster and cherish. It will have to come to this. For the moment the East is very far indeed from achieving this. The very best of them still fall far short. Short-sightedly. they still refuse to accept what Central European culture in particular is able to give.

I went into this already in my first public lecture here in Berlin.5Lecture given on 29 October 1914 entitled ‘Goethes Geistesart in unsern schicksalsschweren Tagen und die deutsche Kultur’ in Aus schicksaltragender Zeit (GA 64). In The Dramatic Art of the Goethenaum I (tr. L. Dreher) London: Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co. 1936. Tonight you can see the deeper occult reasons behind what in the public lecture I was able only to put exoterically. in an extraneous way. This is of course something one always has to be careful about, to speak in terms close to the understanding of one's listeners in public lectures. The real impulses to say one thing and omit another, looking for the one context or the other, always have their occult reasons. At all events it is possible to see from what has been discussed today that when we look at things in an external way they present to us the great illusion, Maya. It is not that the outside world in itself is Maya. It is not. But we only gain understanding for it if we illumine it with the truths derived from the spiritual world. In the present case, the truths streaming from the spiritual world show that it is essential for Central Europe not to be overcome by Eastern Europe today, just as in 1429–1430 it was essential for France not to be overcome by England. It will of course be obvious, from what has been said, that for those in the East of Europe it is quite impossible to understand the crux of the matter and that, fundamentally speaking, this can be understood only in Central Europe. Surely this is understandable. In all humility, therefore, without any feeling of superiority, we must take on this mission, and we shall have to accept that it will be possible to misunderstand us. We must find that perfectly understandable. For what is preparing in the East will only be rightly understood in the East itself in time to come.

That is the one thing arising from what I have to say. The other is that we consider the great transition occurring in human evolution in our time exactly on a basis such as this. On previous occasions we have considered it from many different aspects. Now we consider it in such a way that we are able to see how the element which entered into man's evolution on earth through the Mystery of Golgotha needs to be understood in increasingly greater conscious awareness in our day, by those who are able to do so after this incarnation. In the days of Constantine or of Joan of Arc, for instance, it would have been impossible for the Christ impulse to bring about at a conscious level what it had to bring about at an unconscious level. But the time will have to come when it will be able to act at a fully conscious level. That is why we receive out of spiritual science what we are able to take into our soul in increasingly greater conscious awareness. Again it is possible to point to a particular fact—honestly, without getting worried about any sympathies or antipathies that may arise and with no intention of flattering anyone. After all, it is always better to base one's views on facts rather than on what they are so often based on today. For if we look out into the world a little bit we shall see that opinions really and truly are not always based on facts but on passion, on strong national feelings. Yet it is also possible to base the views that determine the attitude of the human mind on facts.

Anatole France24Anatole France, Vie de la Jeanne d 'Arc (49th edn, 2 Vols.) Paris 1927. was a man who considered Joan of Arc from the rationalistic and materialistic point of view now current. In the cultural sphere of Germany it has been quite natural to understand Joan of Arc out of a supernatural context since Schiller's great deed.25Friedrich Schiller, 3rd verse of the poem Das Mädchen von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans). There are people even in Germany today who think Schiller made a big mistake; but those are the literary historians and in their case that is understandable. After all, it is their function to 'understand' art and literature—which is why they are unable to understand it. No, the essential thing is for us to let arise before our eyes, from the depths of spiritual life as though glorified, the figure of which Schiller said: ‘The world indeed loves to blacken all that is radiant and drag down into the dust all that is sublime.’

And so it is indeed that acknowledgement of the fact that the Christ impulse intervened in a human individual in a situation not affecting our own nation can bring us the confidence to accept what I have put forward in my public lecture: that it is possible to perceive in the life of the spirit in Germany how it tends towards spirituality the way it has evolved, tends towards spiritual science. We can see that it is its special—though not exclusive—mission to take all that has been achieved and aimed for the life of the spirit in Germany and carry it upwards to perception and understanding of the spirit in the spirit. That is the mission of the German people. The other missions, being the same soul mission expressed in bodily form, as it were, have to serve it. What has to come to pass, out of cosmic wisdom, will come to pass. But, as I have said before, it will be necessary for the twilight we live in today to evolve into a true Sun-age for the future. To make this possible, there will have to be people in the future who have a connection with the spiritual worlds in order that the soil now being prepared with the blood and suffering of so many will not have been prepared in vain. The existence of souls capable of bearing within them their connection with the spiritual worlds justifies everything that happens, even the most horrific, terrible and fearsome, events, so that the Central European mission in spiritual life may be achieved. This, however, will depend on individual souls being able to get in touch with this spiritual life through their karma, and taking it wholly into themselves. Then, when the sun of peace is once again shining over the fields of Central Europe, they shall bear perception of things spiritual, a feeling for things spiritual, within them. Then the inclination developed in a few souls that are capable of this in their present incarnation will make it possible for that to happen which I want to condense in the following words. These words sum up all I wanted to put to you, so that we write the device into our souls under which souls will be able to grow in the right way towards the potential for the future that may arise out of these difficult times:

Out of courage shown in battle,
Out of the blood shed in war,
Out of the grief of those who are left,
Out of the people's deeds of sacrifice
Spirit fruits will come to grow
If souls with knowledge of the spirit
Turn their mind to spirit realms.

Vierter Vortrag

Meine lieben Freunde, wie bei andern Gelegenheiten, wo ich seit dem Anbruch unserer ernsten gegenwärtigen Zeit zu Ihnen sprechen durfte, seien auch in diesem Moment unsere ersten Gedanken hingelenkt zu denjenigen, die draußen im Felde stehen, ihre Seelen und ihre Leiber zum Opfer bringen den großen Forderungen unserer Zeit und mit ihrem ganzen physischen Sein einzustehen haben für diese Forderungen der Zeit:

Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Erdenmenschen,
Daß, mit eurer Macht geeint,
Unsre Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.

Und für die schon durch die Pforte des Todes Gegangenen sagen wir:

Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Sphärenmenschen,
Daß, mit eurer Macht geeint,
Unsre Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.

Und der Geist, der durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist, den wir suchen seit langem in unserer Bewegung, er sei bei euch und führe euch zu den Zielen, die ihr suchen müßt!

Was ich insbesondere bei unserer letzten Betrachtung hier fließen lassen wollte durch die Worte, die damals gesprochen worden sind, das war die geisteswissenschaftlich zu erkennende Wahrheit, wie man gerade an den großen, ernsten Ereignissen des Lebens zu sehen in der Lage ist, daß die äußeren Erscheinungen in dem Lichte betrachtet werden müssen, das uns die Geisteswissenschaft gibt. Dann erst erscheinen sie uns nicht mehr als Maja, als die große Täuschung, sondern dann erscheinen sie uns in ihrer tiefen Wahrheit. Nicht als ob diese äußeren Erscheinungen selber Maja oder Täuschung wären, was eine orientalisierende Weltanschauung leicht als Mißverständnis an die Seelen heranbringen könnte, sondern so ist es, daß unsere Sinne und unser Verstand in der Auslegung, in dem Begreifen der äußeren Ereignisse irren, wenn wir diese äußeren Ereignisse nicht beleuchten mit dem Licht, das uns durch die Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt kommt.

An einzelne Tatsachen möchte ich heute anknüpfen, die in den Jahren unseres anthroposophischen Strebens schon berührt worden sind und die ich heute in eine etwas unserer Zeit entsprechende Perspektive rücken möchte.

Wir sind ja davon durchdrungen, daß, seitdem das Mysterium von Golgatha in die Erdenereignisse eingegriffen hat, diejenigen Impulse, diejenigen Kräfte und Wesenheiten, welche durch dieses Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen sind, als lebendige Kräfte eingegriffen haben in alles Geschehen der Menschheitsentwickelung auf der Erde. Mit andern Worten, ich möchte, konkreter ausgesprochen, sagen: In allen maßgebenden Ereignissen, in alledem, was sich als wichtig und wesentlich zugetragen hat, ist der Christus-Impuls darinnen tätig durch die, welche seine Diener, seine spirituellen Gehilfen sind. Gegenwärtig nennt man ja so häufig Christenrum nur dasjenige, was von den Menschen hat verstanden werden können. Aber ich habe es öfter betont: Was durch das Christentum in die Welt gekommen ist, das ist so groß, so gewaltig, daß die menschliche Vernunft, der menschliche Verstand, bis zu unserer Gegenwart keineswegs in der Lage waren, auch nur das Elementarste aus den Kräften des Christus-Impulses wirklich zu begreifen. Wenn der Christus nur durch das hätte wirken sollen, was die Menschen von ihm haben begreifen können, dann würde er wenig haben wirken können. Aber nicht auf das kommt es an, was durch die menschlichen Vernunftbegriffe in die Menschheit eingegangen ist, was die Menschen sich haben vorstellen können von dem Christus, sondern daß er seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha da ist, unter den Menschen unmittelbar wirksam und in ihren Handlungsweisen tätig. Nicht darauf, inwiefern er von den Menschen begriffen worden ist, kommt es an, sondern daß er als lebendiges Wesen da war und sich hat hineinfließen lassen in das, was als maßgebende Tatsachen in der Entwickelung geschehen ist. Gewiß, wir sind durch unsere Geisteswissenschaft auch heute nur imstande, ein wenig von der Tiefe des Christus-Impulses zu begreifen; kommende Zeiten werden immer mehr und mehr davon begreifen und schauen. Zum Hochmut kann uns das nicht veranlassen, was wir heute von dem Christus-Impuls begreifen können. Die Geisteswissenschaft will einiges mehr begreifen, als man in verflossenen Zeiten von dem Christus hat begreifen können. In verflossenen Zeiten hat man über den Christus nur nachdenken können mit den Mitteln, die der äußere Verstand, die äußere Vernunft, die äußere Forschung geben. Jetzt bekommen wir dazu die Geisteswissenschaft, sehen dadurch in die übersinnlichen Welten hinein, und aus den übersinnlichen Welten können wir uns manche Antwort geben über die Bedeutung des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Am wenigsten waren in der Lage, gleich zu begreifen, was der Christus ist, und was diejenigen spirituellen Mächte sind, welche als die Volksseelen und dergleichen in seinem Dienste stehen, diejenigen Menschen, in deren Gebiet sozusagen der Christus zuerst einziehen mußte. Dennoch mußte der Christus-Impuls hineinfließen — zum Beispiel in die römische Welt. Und gerade an einem Beispiele, das wir in einem andern Zusammenhange schon angeführt haben, können wir am allerbesten sehen, wie der Christus als eine lebendige Macht tätig ist und seine spirituellen Diener anführt, wenn es sich darum handelt, diejenigen Tatsachen zu bewirken, die einfließen müssen in die Entwickelung zum rechten Fortschritt der Menschheit.

Auf die Tatsache, die ich meine, möchte ich noch einmal hinweisen. Im Jahre 312 unserer Zeitrechnung ist es geschehen, daß derjenige, durch den innerhalb des Römischen Reiches das Christentum zur Staatsreligion wurde, Konstantin, Sohn des Konstantius Chlorus, mit seinem Heere dem damaligen Beherrscher von Rom, Maxentius, gegenüberstand. Gewiß, so wie die beiden Heere sich gegenüberstanden, mußte man sagen: so ungünstig wie möglich standen die Bedingungen für Konstantin, denn sein Heer war fünfmal kleiner als das des Maxentius. Wir können uns aber vorstellen, daß nach dem Stande der damaligen Kriegskunst in beiden Heeren ganz bedeutende Heeresleiter waren. Aber es kam gerade damals nicht auf Menschenkunst an, sondern darauf, daß dem fortfließenden Christus-Impuls die Möglichkeit gegeben wurde, auf die auch von der damaligen Zeit geforderte Weise in die Menschheit einzugreifen. Was man damals vom Christus-Impuls verstehen konnte, was die Herzen der Menschen vom Christus-Impuls aufgenommen hatten aus dem damaligen Zeitbewußtsein heraus, davon können wir uns überzeugen, wenn wir uns anschauen, was ein paar Jahrzehnte später sich um Rom und aus Rom vollzogen hat: wenn wir sehen, wie Julian, der Apostat, aus der ehrlichen Überzeugung dessen, was man damals aus Menschenwissen gewinnen konnte, das Christentum bekämpft hat. Und wer sich auf die Art einläßt, wie Julian und die Seinigen das Christentum bekämpften, der wird sich sagen: Ganz gewiß, vom Menschenwissen aus waren Julian und seine Anhänger auf der Höhe ihrer Zeit; von diesem Standpunkte aus waren sie viel aufgeklärter als die Christen ihrer Zeit, trotzdem sie wieder zum Heidentum übergegangen waren. Von ihnen kann man sagen: sie vertraten, was man als Menschenwissen damals vertreten konnte. Aber was Menschenwissen ist, das durfte nicht im Jahre 312 das Entscheidende sein, sondern es mußte die Möglichkeit gegeben sein, daß der Christus und seine Diener in die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Menschheit eingriffen. Aber wenn Maxentius und die Seinigen sich noch so sehr auf die Feldherrnkunst der Ihrigen hätten stützen können wie auch auf das, was man sonst mit Menschenwissen und Menschenweisheit damals hätte erreichen können, und weiter nichts geschehen wäre, dann würde ganz zweifellos nicht das zum Vorschein gekommen sein, was damals hatte zum Vorschein kommen müssen. Was geschah also?

Was geschah, war folgendes: Der fortlaufende Christus-Impuls floß hinein in diejenigen Tätigkeiten der Seelen, die nicht im Bewußtsein der Menschen lagen, von denen die Menschen nichts wußten. Und er lenkte tatsächlich die Menschen so, daß das zustande kam, was zustande kommen sollte. Denn es wurde die Schlacht zwischen Konstantin und Maxentius, die am 28. Oktober 312 am Saxa Rubra stattfand, nicht entschieden durch Menschenkunst; sondern sie wurde entschieden — so sehr sich auch die heutige Aufklärung dagegen sträuben mag, das anzuerkennen — durch Träume, das heißt, was man so «Träume» nennt, aber was sie für uns nicht sind. Denn alles dasjenige floß durch die Träume in die Seelen der beiden Feldherren hinein, was durch die menschliche Vernunft nicht in sie fließen konnte. Maxentius träumte vorher, daß er seine Stadt verlassen müßte. Er wandte sich auch noch an das Sibyllinische Orakel; das sagte ihm, er werde das, was geschehen sollte, erreichen, wenn er nicht innerhalb, sondern außerhalb der Stadt den Kampf wagen würde. Es war das Unklügste, was er hatte tun können, insbesondere noch dadurch, daß sein Heer um so viel stärker war als das des Konstantin. Er hätte wissen müssen, daß er das, was er aus den höheren Welten bekam, erst hätte deuten müssen, und daß der Orakelspruch ihn irreführen würde. Konstantin wieder hatte einen Traum, der ihm sagte, er werde siegen, wenn er unter dem Zeichen Christi sein Heer in den Kampf führen würde, und so richtete er seine Taten dementsprechend ein. Was auf dem Umwege des Traumes in die Seelen hineinfloß, das ging in die Tat über, und das führte das herbei, was damals die Welt so verändert hat, so daß man nur ein wenig nachzudenken braucht, um sich zu sagen: Was wäre aus der Welt des Abendlandes geworden, wenn eben nicht übersinnliche Mächte in einer so anschaulichen Weise in die Ereignisse eingegriffen hätten?

Aber nun sehen wir uns die Ereignisse näher an. Seelen waren damals im Westen und Süden Europas inkarniert, die das Christentum annehmen sollten, die zum Träger des Christentums werden sollten. Durch ihren Verstand, durch ihre Vernunft konnten gerade die erleuchtetsten Seelen damals nicht dazu kommen, Träger des Christus-Impulses zu werden, weil die Zeit nicht dazu angebahnt war. Sie mußten durch das, was äußerlich um sie herum geschaffen worden ist, zum Christentum kommen. Man kann von diesen Menschen sagen: sie zogen das Christentum gleichsam als ein Kleid an, und sie wurden gar nicht in ihrem tieferen Wesen allzu sehr davon ergriffen. Sie wurden mehr dienende Glieder, als daß sie unmittelbar in ihrem tiefsten Wesen von dem Christus-Impuls wären ergriffen worden. So war es im Grunde genommen noch lange Zeit hindurch mit den besten Seelen im westlichen Gebiet Europas, bis ins achte, neunte Jahrhundert hinein und noch weiter. Es war für sie nötig, das Christentum als ein Kleid anzunehmen, dieses Kleid des Christentums so zu tragen, daß sie es in ihrem Ätherleibe trugen und nicht in ihrem astralischen Leibe. Sie ermessen, was es bedeutet, wenn ich sage, sie trugen das Christentum im Ätherleibe. Das heißt, sie nahmen es so an, daß sie Christen waren im Wachzustande, daß sie das Christentum aber nicht mitnehmen konnten, wenn sie aus dem physischen und ätherischen Leibe heraus waren. Und so gingen sie auch durch die Pforte des Todes, daß wir von ihnen sagen können: sie konnten aus dem Reiche, das der Mensch durchzumachen hat zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, hinunterschauen auf das, was sie in dem verflossenen Erdenleben waren. Aber die christlichen Impulse, die aus dem damaligen Leben hervorgingen, mitzunehmen für ihr weiteres Leben, das war ihnen damals nicht unmittelbar möglich. Sie trugen eben das Christentum mehr als ein Kleid.

Merken wir uns für eine Betrachtung, die ich gleich nachher anstellen will, diesen Zusammenhang: wie die Seelen das Christentum im äußeren Leben annahmen, und wie dieses Christentum nicht zu demjenigen gehörte, was die Seelen, wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, durch die geistige Welt hindurch mit hinübernehmen konnten, um sich zu einern neuen Erdendasein vorzubereiten. Merken wir uns, daß diese Seelen in ein neues Erdendasein nur so kommen konnten, daß sie das Christentum vergessen hatten. Denn man erinnert sich in einem späteren Erdenleben nicht bewußt an das, was man im früheren Leben als Kleid getragen hat. Wenn das der Fall wäre, brauchten unsere Gymnasialschüler das Griechische nicht wieder zu lernen, da viele von ihnen in Griechenland verkörpert waren; sie erinnern sich aber nicht an ihre griechische Inkarnation und müssen daher das Griechische neu lernen. Aber durch das Leben, das jene im Westen Europas inkarniert gewesenen Seelen durchgemacht hatten zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, konnten sie das Christentum nicht forttragen, weil sie diese Impulse nicht innerlich verwoben hatten mit dem Ich und dem astralischen Leib. Das war das Eigentümliche, wie sich diese Seelen in spätere Verkörperungen hinüberlebten. Merken wir uns das, und betrachten wir nun eine andere Tatsache, auf die ich auch schon hingewiesen habe.

Wir wissen, daß die Zeit, in der wir jetzt leben, der fünfte nachatlantische Kulturzeitraum, hauptsächlich so um das fünfzehnte, sechzehnte Jahrhundert begonnen hat, damals, als sich für die europäische Welt das vorbereiten sollte, was vorzugsweise in unserer Zeit zur Entwickelung der Bewußtseinsseele führen sollte. Das ist ja das, um was es sich in unserm fünften Kulturzeitraum handelt. Was da bewirkt werden sollte, das mußte bewirkt werden im Hinblick darauf, daß auch äußerlich im Erdendasein diejenigen Erdenverhältnisse eintraten, welche gerade dem Entwickeln der Bewußtseinsseele günstig waren, jener Seele, die sich entwickeln kann, wenn sie sich hinlenkt auf das materielle Erdendasein, auf die äußeren Tatsachen des physischen Daseins. Das mußte beginnen, und das begann auch. Wir brauchen uns nur daran zu erinnern, wie der Gesichtskreis Europas über die Erde hin durch die großen Entdekkungen und durch das, was sie im Gefolge hatten, erweitert wurde, so daß die Bewußtseinsseele sich vorzugsweise unter materiellem Einfluß entwickeln mußte. Wir brauchen dabei nur an eines zu denken, worauf wir auch hingewiesen haben: zur Entfaltung und Entwickelung der Bewußtseinsseele ist besonders berufen, einseitig berufen, was zum Gebiete der britischen Volksseele gehört. Und man kann sich kaum denken, wenn man alle Einzelheiten prüft, daß irgend etwas so planvoll vor sich gegangen war, wie dieses Hinlenken der britischen Volksseele zu diesen materiellen Aufgaben des Lebens. Das lag im Bereiche der Entwickelung der Menschheit durchaus vorgezeichnet.

Stellen wir uns nun einmal vor, daß England im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert abgelenkt worden wäre von seinem Hinneigen gerade zu denjenigen Gebieten der Erde, auf die es durch die Entdeckung der großen außereuropäischen Gebiete hingelenkt worden war, und daß die britische Volksseele im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert dahin gekommen wäre, bedeutende Gebietserweiterungen auf dem europäischen Kontinent zu erleben. Stellen wir uns vor, daß also die Landkarte Europas in dieser Weise verändert worden wäre. Unmöglich wäre es dann gewesen, erstens das zu erreichen, was eben auf dem Gebiete der materiellen Kultur erreicht werden mußte, und zweitens das zu erreichen, was in Europa erreicht werden mußte durch jene Verinnerlichung des Lebens, die unter mancherlei Hindernissen gerade von jenem Zeitpunkte an vor sich gegangen ist unter der Mitwirkung des ja doch durch die deutsche Mystik vielfach beeinflußten Protestantismus. Griff aber der Christus-Impuls in die Entwickelung ein, so mußte er dafür sorgen, daß die britischen Interessen ferngehalten wurden von dem Gebiete, wo die Seelen noch vorbereitet werden sollten, um äußere, äußerliche Träger des Christus-Impulses zu sein.

Der Christus-Impuls mußte einfließen in die Taten des europäischen Kontinentes. Er mußte so wirken, daß er viel mehr bewirkte als das, was durch die Menschheit, durch ihre Menschheitskünste, geschehen konnte. Und was geschah?

Das Wunderbare geschah, daß alles dasjenige, was diejenigen nicht haben leisten können, die auf der Höhe ihrer Zeit standen, das arme Hirtenmädchen von Orleans, Jeanne d’Arc, leistete. Damals war es wirklich der durch seinen michaelischen Diener in der Jeanne d’Arc wirkende Christus-Impuls, der verhinderte, daß Frankreich etwa mit England zusammenfließen würde, und der bewirkte, daß England auf seine Insel zurückgedrängt wurde. Und das Doppelte wurde damit erreicht: einmal, daß Frankreich die Hände in Europa frei behielt, was wir studieren können, wenn wir die folgenden Jahrhunderte in Frankreichs Geschichte verfolgen, und daß dasjenige, was im französischen Volksgeiste noch lag, durchaus ungehindert auf die europäische Kultur wirken konnte; und das andere, was erreicht wurde, war, daß England sein Gebiet angewiesen bekam außerhalb des europäischen Kontinentes. Diese Tat, welche so durch die Jeanne d’Arc hingestellt wurde, war nicht erwa bloß für die Franzosen ein Segen, sondern auch für die Engländer selbst, indem sie auf ihr Gebiet gedrängt wurden.

Wenn wir es aber im Zusammenhange betrachten mit dem, was im Fortschritt des Christus-Impulses auf der Erde liegt, so wurde durch die Tat der Jeanne d’Arc etwas bewirkt, von dem wir sagen können: Was sie davon mit einem wirklichen menschlichen Verstande verstanden hat, das ist gleich Null gegenüber dem, was der Karte von Europa die heutige Gestalt gegeben hat. $o mußten eben die Ereignisse verlaufen, damit der Christus-Impuls in der richtigen Weise sich ausbreiten konnte. Da sehen wir, hereinbrechend in die geschichtlichen Ereignisse aus den unterirdischen Gründen der Menschennatur heraus, was der lebendige Christus ist; nicht der, den die Menschen verstehen. Denn wir können den Christus-Impuls in zweifacher Weise betrachten. Einmal können wir uns fragen: Was verstanden damals die Menschen von dem Christus-Impulse? Wenn wir die Geschichte aufschlagen und die Menschheitsgeschichte verfolgen, so finden wir in den verflossenen Jahrhunderten streitende Theologen, die alle möglichen Theorien verteidigen oder bekämpfen, die darzulegen versuchen, wie man die menschliche Freiheit, die göttliche Trinität und so weiter aufzufassen habe. Unzählige Theologen sehen wir so sich streiten, indem sie sich gegenseitig als rechtgläubige Theologen anerkennen oder im anderen Falle verketzern. Daher sehen wir eine christliche Lehre sich ausbreiten, ganz nach den Möglichkeiten der damaligen Zeit. Das ist das eine. Aber darauf kommt es nicht an, ebensowenig wie es jetzt darauf ankommt, was die Menschen mit dem gewöhnlichen Verstande tun können. Sondern darauf kommt es an, daß der Christus unsichtbar unter den Menschen lebt als lebendiges Wesen und aus den unsichtbaren Gründen herauf in die Taten der Menschheit einfließen kann. Und das tat er an einer Stelle, wo er eben gar nicht einzufließen brauchte durch den menschlichen Verstand, durch die menschliche Vernunft, sondern wo er einfließen konnte durch die Seele einer «Unverständigen», durch die Seele der Jungfrau von Orleans. Und als er einfloß, wie verhielten sich da diejenigen, welche das Christentum als die offizielle Lehre begreifen konnten? Nun, sie fanden, daß sie den Träger des Christus-Impulses verbrennen mußten! Es hat einige Zeit gebraucht, bis diese offizielle Lehre zu einer anderen Ansicht gekommen ist. Für die offizielle Lehre mag das von seinem Wert sein, aber für die damaligen Ereignisse ist die Heiligsprechung der Jungfrau von Orleans nicht gerade die rechte Reputation.

Das ist so recht eines der Beispiele, an denen wir sehen können, wie der Christus durch seine Diener — ich sagte, durch die Jungfrau von Orleans wirkte er durch seinen michaelischen Geist — in die Menschheitsentwickelung eingriff als lebendiges Wesen, nicht bloß durch das, was die Menschen von ihm verstehen. Aber wir können auch noch etwas anderes gerade an diesem Beispiel sehen. Das Christentum war ja da. Die Leute nannten sich ja Christen, die gewissermaßen herum waren um die Jungfrau von Orleans. Sie verstanden ja etwas unter ihrem Christentum. Aber man müßte von dem, was sie verstanden, sagen: Der, den ihr sucht, der ist nicht da, und der da ist, den suchet ihr nicht, denn den kennt ihr nicht. Trotzdem müssen wir uns klar sein, daß es wichtig, daß es wesentlich war, daß die Christus-Entwickelung auch in diesem äußerlichen Gewande, in dem sie dort auftrat, durch die Entwickelung von Europa ging. Seelen gehörten dazu, die eben in diesem äußeren Gewande das Christentum annehmen konnten, die es gleichsam äußerlich tragen konnten. Sie waren noch immer die Nachzügler derjenigen Seelen, die früher dort verkörpert waren, Seelen also, die den Christus noch immer nicht in ihr Ich aufnahmen, sondern immer noch nur in den Ätherleib aufnahmen. Und der große Unterschied zwischen der Jungfrau von Orleans und den andern war der, daß sie in die tiefsten Gründe ihres astralischen Leibes den Christus-Impuls aufnahm und von den tiefsten Kräften des astralischen Leibes aus für den Christus-Impuls wirkte. Gerade hier haben wir einen der Punkte, wo wir uns klarmachen können, was uns klar werden muß: den Unterschied zwischen der fortlaufenden Entwikkelung der Völker und der fortlaufenden Entwickelung der einzelnen menschlichen Individualitäten.

Wenn wir zum Beispiel die heutigen Franzosen betrachten, so leben natürlich innerhalb des französischen Volkes eine Anzahl menschlicher Individualitäten. Diese Individualitäten sind nicht etwa diejenigen, welche zum Beispiel in ihrer früheren Inkarnation innerhalb des Volkes gelebt haben, das da im Westen von Europa das äußere Kleid des Christentums angenommen hat. Denn gerade dadurch, daß im Westen von Europa eine Anzahl von Menschen das Christentum als äußeres Kleid annehmen mußte, gingen diese Menschen so durch die Pforte des Todes, daß sie angewiesen waren, unter anderen Bedingungen im nächsten Leben in ihrem astralischen Leib und Ich mit dem Christentum vereinigt zu sein. Gerade dadurch, daß sie im Westen von Europa verkörpert waren, war für sie die Notwendigkeit gegeben, ihre nächste Verkörperung nicht in dem Westen von Europa zu haben. Es ist überhaupt sehr selten der Fall - selten sage ich, es braucht aber darum nicht immer so zu sein —, daß eine Seele aufeinanderfolgend in mehreren Inkarnationen etwa derselben Erdengemeinschaft angehört. Die Seelen gehen aus einer Erdengemeinschaft in die andere hinüber.

Aber ein Beispiel haben wir — ich sage das, ohne Sympathien oder Antipathien erregen zu wollen, noch um etwa jemandem schmeicheln zu wollen -, ein Beispiel haben wir, wo Seelen in der Tat mehrmals durch ein und dasselbe Volkstum durchgehen. Das ist der Fall beim mitteleuropäischen Volke. Dieses mitteleuropäische Volk hat viele Seelen, welche heute darin leben, und die auch früher innerhalb der germanischen Völker verkörpert waren. Solcher Tatsache können wir nachgehen. Wir können sie oftmals mit den Mitteln der okkulten Forschung, wie wir sie bis jetzt haben, gar nicht völlig erklären; aber sie steht da. Eine solche Tatsache, wie sie zum Beispiel im öffentlichen Vortrag am letzten Donnerstag «Die germanische Seele und der deutsche Geist» gezeigt wurde, bekommt Licht, wenn wir wissen, daß Seelen wiederholt innerhalb der mitteleuropäischen Volksgemeinschaft erscheinen. Das ist die Tatsache, daß wir gerade innerhalb dieser Volksgemeinschaft abgerissene Kulturepochen haben. Man soll sich nur vorstellen, was es bedeutet, daß innerhalb der Morgenröte der germanischen Kultur es eine Epoche gegeben hat, wie sie da war bei den Dichtern des Nibelungenliedes, bei Walther von der Vogelweide und anderen; und man soll sich vorstellen, daß später eine Zeit begann, in welcher eine neue Blütezeit der germanischen Kultur einsetzte, und wo die erste Blüte ganz vergessen war. Denn zur Zeit, als Goethe jung war, wußte man sozusagen nichts von der ersten Blüte germanischen Kulturlebens. Gerade weil die Seelen innerhalb dieser Volksgemeinschaft wiederkehren, mußte vergessen werden, was schon einmal da war, damit die Seelen etwas Neues fanden, wenn sie wiederkehrten, und nicht unmittelbar an das anknüpfen konnten, was aus den früheren Zeiten geblieben war. Bei keinem andern Volke ist es so, daß gewissermaßen solche Metamorphose durchgemacht worden wäre wie beim mitteleuropäischen Volke: von jener Höhe, welche vorhanden war im zehnten, elften, zwölften Jahrhundert, zu jener andern Höhe, die wieder da war um die Zeit vom Ende des achtzehnten und Beginn des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts und deren Fortwirken wir erhoffen dürfen. Von dem ersten zum zweiten Zeitpunkt geht kein fortlaufender Strom, was nur erklärlich wird, wenn wir wissen, daß gerade auf diesem Gebiete der Geisteskultur Seelen wiederkommen. Vielleicht hängt damit auch zusammen, was ich Ihnen gegenüber schon einmal eine erschütternde Tatsache genannt habe: daß eben wirklich nur zu bemerken war bei den mitteleuropäischen Kämpfern der Gegenwart, daß sie, wenn sie durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, weiter mitkämpfen; daß, bald nachdem sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, zu schauen ist, wie sie mitkämpfen. Daher kann man nach dieser Tatsache die schönsten Hoffnungen für die Zukunft haben, wenn man eben sieht, daß nicht nur die Lebendigen, im physischen Sinne Lebendigen, sondern auch die Toten, die Verstorbenen, mithelfen an dem, was geschieht.

Werfen wir nun die Frage auf: Wie ist es etwa mit denjenigen Seelen, die in den Zeiten, als das Christentum wie eine äußere Gewandung angenommen worden ist, namentlich in der Zeit des sechsten, siebenten, achten, neunten Jahrhunderts in Westeuropa verkörpert waren und dort, oder auch unter den Römern, das Christentum angenommen haben, es aber noch nicht vereinigen konnten mit ihrem astralischen Leib und ihrem Ich? Wie ist es mit diesen Seelen?

Ja, so grotesk es für die materialistisch denkenden Menschen der Gegenwart ist, so bedeutungsvoll werden die Lehren der Geisteswissenschaft für das Leben, wenn man auf die konkreten Tatsachen eingeht. Das betrachten die Menschen noch als das Hirngespinst einiger närrischer Träumer, wenn man von wiederholten Erdenleben spricht. Man nimmt diese Idee nicht an; aber man findet es verzeihlich, nachdem ja auch der große Lessing in einer schwachen Stunde seines Lebens die Idee der wiederholten Erdenleben angenommen hat, wenn auch heute wieder davon gesprochen wird. Aber wenn wirklich eingegangen wird auf die Ergebnisse der okkulten Forschung, dann ist man kein Verzeihung erheischender Narr mehr für die Menschen der großen Aufklärung. Dennoch aber müssen wir eingehen auf einiges, was uns die okkulte Forschung gibt; denn dadurch erst kommt Licht hinein in das, was sonst die große Täuschung bleiben muß.

Da ist das Merkwürdige, daß uns von den Seelen, die während der auslaufenden Römerzeit, als das Christentum allmählich Einfluß gewann und dann zur Staatsreligion wurde, damals im Westen lebten, jetzt eine ganz große Anzahl vom Osten entgegenkommt, Seelen also, die im Osten aufwachsen und unter den Kämpfern Rußlands sind. Ich sagte: merken wir uns die Tatsache, die wir vorhin anführten. Denn wir finden unter den Menschen, die im Osten getötet werden, die dort kämpfen oder gefangen genommen werden, solche Seelen, die in den letzten Römerzeiten im Westen Europas gelebt haben. Die kommen uns jetzt vom Osten entgegen, die damals das Christentum in den Ätherleib haben fließen lassen und die jetzt in den Leibern einer verhältnismäßig niedriger stehenden Kultur, durch das eigenrümliche Leben des Ostens, im Wachzustande das Christentum so in ihre Seelen hereinnehmen, daß sie sich gefühlsmäßig, instinktmäßig mit ihm verbinden. Also gerade in ihren astralischen Leibern verbinden sie sich mit dem Christus-Impuls und holen dadurch dasjenige nach, was sie in ihren vorhergehenden Inkarnationen nicht haben erreichen können. Das ist eine sehr merkwürdige Tatsache, die uns die okkulte Forschung in unseren Tagen zeigen kann. Unter den vielen erschütternden Tatsachen, die, angeregt durch unsere Zeitereignisse, in das okkulte Feld hereintreten können, ist auch diese. Was können wir uns nun aus diesen Tatsachen klarmachen?

Wir müssen uns das Folgende klarmachen. Wir müssen uns erinnern, wie es im geraden Fortschritt des mitteleuropäischen Geisteslebens liegt, das germanische Seelenleben ganz bewußt mit dem Christentum zu verbinden, es hinaufzuführen zu den Höhen einer geraden christlichen Kultur. Dazu sind ja die Strömungen, die Wege in wunderbarer Weise seit Jahrhunderten vorgezeichnet. Das sehen wir sich anbahnen. Gerade wenn wir unsere Zeit mit allen ihren Fehlern und Irrtümern in Betracht ziehen, da sehen wir, daß keimhaft veranlagt ist in der mitteleuropäischen Kultur, daß mit allen Kräften Vorbereitungen gemacht sind im deutschen Volksgeist, in der germanischen Volksseele, damit bewußt nun ergriffen werde der Christus-Impuls.

Das ist eine Tatsache von unendlich höherer Bedeutung noch als diejenige des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts, als das Mädchen von Orleans Frankreich zu retten hatte, weil Frankreich damals eine bedeutende Mission hatte. Wir stehen also vor der bedeutsamen Tatsache, daß in der Zukunft der deutsche Geist dazu berufen ist, im vollen Wachzustande mit den Tatsachen, die in das deutsche Geistesleben eingeflossen sind, den Christus-Impuls immer bewußter aufzunehmen. Er mußte wirken, dieser Christus-Impuls, durch die Jahrhunderte so, wie wir stets gezeigt haben, indem er sich in den Seelen durch die unterbewußten Vorgänge ankündigte. Und er muß sich in der Zukunft mit den Seelen in der Weise verbinden, daß es Menschen gibt — die es in Mitteleuropa geben muß -, die im Wachzustande, unter Anstrengung ihrer bewußten Geisteskräfte, nicht nur derjenigen, die im physischen Leibe und Ätherleibe sind, auch ihr Ich und ihren astralischen Leib mit dem Christus-Impuls verbinden. Wir sehen es bei den Besten angestrebt. Nehmen wir den Allerbesten: Goethe. Aber was bei Goethe als ein besonderes Beispiel angeführt werden kann, das liegt in allen Seelen, wenn sie es auch nur dunkel erstreben.

Wir sehen, wie Goethe den Repräsentanten der Menschheit, den Faust, hinstellt, den er streben läßt nach dem Höchsten. In die griechische Kultur hinein führt er ihn im zweiten Teile der Dichtung, führt ihn hinein in alles, was Völker erleben, führt ihn so hinein, daß Faust in bedeutsamer Weise die Zukunft vorauslebt da, wo er Land dem Meere abringen und etwas begründen will, was ihm eine ferne Zukunft ist. Und wozu läßt er ihn zuletzt kommen? Goethe hat es selbst einmal in einem Gespräche zu Eckermann gesagt: er mußte die anschaulichen Vorstellungen des Christentums zu Hilfe nehmen, um zu zeigen, wie Faust in die geistige Welt hinaufschwebt. Und wenn Sie das wunderbar schöne Bild nehmen, wie die Mater gloriosa Fausts Seele empfängt, so haben Sie das Gegenbild zu jenem, was Raffael angeregt hat zu seinem bekanntesten Bilde, der Sixtinischen Madonna: da bringt die jungfräuliche Mutter die Seele herab. Am Ende des «Faust» sehen wir, wie die Jungfrau-Mutter die Seele hinaufträgt: es ist die Todes-Geburt der Seele. So sehen wir ganz bewußt aus dem Menschengeist heraus das intimste Streben, das, was aus dem Christentum zu erringen ist, sich immer so zu erringen, daß es durch die Todespforte hindurch hineingetragen werden kann in das Leben, das der Mensch nach der Vorbereitung zwischen dem Tode und der nächsten Geburt in einem neuen Erdenleben durchlebt. Was wir so bei Goethe selbst sehen können, ist ein Charakterzug der deutschen Nation. Und an diesem können wir ermessen, welche Aufgabe für die Menschen da ist. Das ist die Aufgabe, und das können wir uns ganz klar vor die Seele hinschreiben: daß es zum wirklichen Segen des Menschheitsfortschrittes nur werden kann, wenn nun in einem bestimmten Kreise ein harmonisches Verhältnis geschaffen wird zwischen Mitteleuropa und Osteuropa.

Man könnte sich denken, daß Osteuropa durch brutale Kraft sich ausdehnen könnte nach Westen hin, über Mitteleuropa. Man könnte sich denken, daß es dahin kommen könnte. Das würde aber genau dasselbe bedeuten, wie wenn im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert die Tat der Jeanne d’Arc nicht geschehen wäre und England damals Frankreich annektiert hätte. Wenn es dahin gekommen wäre, das sagte ich ausdrücklich, so wäre damit etwas geschehen, was nicht nur zum Unheile Frankreichs gewesen wäre, sondern auch England zum Unheil gereicht hätte. Und würde jetzt die deutsche Geisteskultur beeinträchtigt werden vom Osten herüber, so würde das nicht bloß die deutsche Geisteskultur schädigen, sondern auch den Osten mit. Das Schlimmste, was den Osten treffen könnte, wäre, daß er zeitweilig sich ausbreiten und die deutsche Geisteskultur schädigen könnte. Denn ich sagte: die früher in Westeuropa oder auf der italienischen Halbinsel verkörperten Seelen, die jetzt im Osten aufwachsen, sie vereinigen sich in den unterbewußten Untergründen des astralischen Leibes wie instinktiv mit dem ChristusImpuls. Was aber der Christus-Impuls in ihnen werden soll, das kann er nie werden durch eine gerade Fortentwickelung dessen, was da instinktiv unter dem Namen des orthodoxen Katholizismus, der ja im wesentlichen byzantinisch ist, in den Seelen lebt und der ein Name, nicht ein Impuls ist. Es ist ebenso unmöglich für ihn, das zu werden, was er werden soll, wie es unmöglich ist, daß eine Frau ohne einen Mann ein Kind haben könnte. Und wenn aus dem Osten selbst heraus, wie er jetzt ist, etwas werden soll, so gliche das dem törichten Bestreben, wie wenn eine Frau ohne einen Mann ein Kind bekommen wollte. Was im Osten sich vorbereitet, das kann nur dadurch etwas werden, daß in Mitteleuropa in kräftiger Weise, bewußt — das heißt im vollen Wachzustande — aus dem, was die Seelen aus der Ich-Natur heraus erstreben, die menschliche IchKraft und die menschlichen Erkenntniskräfte verbunden werden mit dem Christus-Impuls. Nur dadurch, daß der deutsche Volksgeist Seelen findet, welche so den Christus-Impuls in den astralischen Leib und in das Ich hineinverpflanzen, wie er hineinverpflanzt werden kann eben im vollen Wachzustande, nur dadurch kann für eine Kultur der Zukunft das entstehen, was entstehen muß. Und es muß entstehen durch eine Harmonisierung, durch eine Verbindung mit dem, was in Mitteleuropa bewußt, immer bewußster und bewußter erreicht wird.

Dazu werden nicht nur ein, zwei Jahrhunderte, sondern noch lange Zeiten notwendig sein. So lange Zeiten werden dazu gehören, daß ungefähr gerechnet werden kann, ich will sagen, vom Jahre vierzehnhundert an etwa zweitausendeinhundert Jahre. Rechnet man zum Jahre vierzehnhundert zweitausendeinhundert Jahre hinzu, dann bekommt man den Zeitpunkt, der annähernd in der Erdenentwickelung das erscheinen lassen wird, was sich keimhaft veranlagt hat im deutschen Geistesleben, seit es ein solches Geistesleben gibt. Daraus aber ersehen wir, daß wir hinblicken müssen auf eine Zukunft von nicht nur Jahrhunderten, sondern von mehr als einem Jahrtausend, in welchem der mitteleuropäische, der deutsche Volksgeist seine Aufgabe hat, seine Aufgabe, die schon daliegt und die darin besteht, daß immer mehr und mehr solche Pflege des Geisteslebens da sein muß, durch welche im Wachbewußtsein aufgenommen wird — bis in den astralischen Leib und das Ich hinein — das Verständnis dessen, was früheren Zeiten unbewußt, lebendig als der Christus-Impuls durch die europäischen Völker gegangen ist. Wenn aber die Entwickelung diesen Gang nehmen wird, dann kann nach und nach durch das Hinaufranken zu dem, was in Mitteleuropa also erreicht wird, im Osten diejenige Stufe erstiegen werden, die dort vermöge der besonderen Veranlagungen erstiegen werden kann. Das ist der Wille der Weltenweisheit. Diesen Willen der Weltenweisheit interpretieren wir nur dann im richtigen Sinne, wenn wir uns sagen: Das größte Unglück auch für den Osten Europas wäre es, wenn er diejenige geistige Macht schädigen würde, an der er sich gerade hinaufranken muß, die er gerade verehrend, freundschaftlich verehrend hegen und pflegen müßte. Er muß eben noch dazu kommen. Vorläufig fehlt ihm noch sehr, sehr vieles dazu; gerade den Besten fehlt dort noch sehr vieles dazu. In ihrer Kurzsichtigkeit lassen sie sich noch immer nicht ein auf das, was gerade das mitteleuropäische Geistesleben dem Osten geben kann.

Ich habe das im ersten öffentlichen Vortrage hier in Berlin bereits auseinandergesetzt. Sie können am heutigen Abend sehen, welche tieferen okkulten Gründe hinter dem liegen, was ich im öffentlichen Vortrage nur äußerlich, exoterisch habe sagen können. Aber das ist ja immer so, daß berücksichtigt werden muß, daß im öffentlichen Vortrage in den Formen zu sprechen ist, die dem Verständnis der Zuhörer naheliegen, und daß die eigentlichen Impulse, warum dieses gesagt, jenes ausgelassen wird, warum dieser oder jener Zusammenhang gesucht wird, bei den okkulten Tatsachen liegen. Aber jedenfalls kann aus dem, was heute auseinandergesetzt worden ist, das ersehen werden: wenn wir so äußerlich die Dinge überschauen, dann bieten sie uns die große Täuschung, die Maja dar. Nicht als ob die Außenwelt an sich eine Täuschung wäre, das ist sie nicht; aber sie wird erst für uns verständnisvoll, wenn wir sie mit den Tatsachen, die aus der geistigen Welt kommen, beleuchten. Und für unseren Fall können uns die Tatsachen, die aus der geistigen Welt fließen, zeigen, daß es notwendig ist, daß heute Mitteleuropa ebensowenig überwältigt werden darf von Osteuropa, wie Frankreich nicht überwältigt werden durfte von England im Jahre 1429/1430. Selbstverständlich zeigt das, was angeführt worden ist, daß im Osten Europas gar nicht verstanden werden kann, um was es sich handelt, sondern daß es im Grunde genommen nur in Mitteleuropa verstanden werden kann und daß wir dies also begreiflich finden müssen. So daß wir in aller Demut, ohne alle Überhebung diese unsere Aufgabe ins Auge zu fassen haben und daß wir es verständlich finden müssen, wenn man uns mißversteht. Ganz verständlich müssen wir es finden. Denn was sich im Osten vorbereitet, das kann eben im Osten selber erst in der Zukunft richtig verstanden werden.

Das ist das eine, was sich aus unseren Betrachtungen ergibt. Das andere ist das, daß wir den großen Übergang in der Menschheitsentwickelung für unsere Zeit gerade durch solche Dinge ins Auge fassen — wir haben ihn schon früher von den verschiedensten Seiten aus ins Auge gefaßt -, daß wir schen können, wie dasjenige, was durch das Mysterium von Golgatha in die Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit eingeflossen ist, in unserer Zeit von denen, die es können nach dieser Inkarnation, bewußter und immer bewußter erfaßt werden muß. In den Zeiten des Konstantin oder der Jeanne d’Arc zum Beispiel wäre es unmöglich gewesen, daß der Christus-Impuls bewußt hätte bewirken können, was er unbewußt wirken mußte. Aber einmal muß die Zeit kommen, in welcher er ganz bewußt wirken kann. Deshalb bekommen wir durch die Geisteswissenschaft das, was wir immer bewußter und bewußter in unsere Seelen aufnehmen können. Auch da dürfen wir — wirklich ohne sich wegen der Sympathien oder Antipathien, die etwa entstehen können, zu erregen und ohne irgendwie jemandem schmeicheln zu wollen — auf eine Tatsache hinweisen. Und besser ist es ja immer, sich seine Meinungen nach Tatsachen zu bilden als nach dem, wonach sie heute vielfach gebildet werden. Denn wenn wir heute ein wenig hinausschauen in die Welt, so sehen wir, daß die Meinungen wahrhaftig nicht immer nach Tatsachen, sondern nach Passionen, nach nationalen Leidenschaften gebildet werden. Aber man kann sich die Meinungen, die zur menschlichen Seelengesinnung werden, auch nach Tatsachen bilden.

Während wir in Anatole France einen Menschen haben, der vom aufklärerischen materialistischen Standpunkt der Gegenwart auf die Jeanne d’Arc hinblickt, ist es dem deutschen Geistesleben seit Schillers großer Tat natürlich, das Mädchen von Orleans aus dem Milieu des Übersinnlichen heraus zu begreifen. Selbst innerhalb Deutschlands gibt es noch Menschen, die das als einen großen Fehler Schillers betrachten; aber diese Menschen sind die Literarhistoriker, und bei denen ist es zu begreifen. Denn ihre Aufgabe ist es ja, die Literatur und die Kunst zu «verstehen» — und deshalb können sie es nicht. Aber was wesentlich ist: wir haben dieses Werk, das es unternimmt, aus den Untergründen des spirituellen Lebens heraus wie in Glorie auferstehen zu lassen die Gestalt, von der Schiller sagt: «Es liebt die Welt, das Strahlende zu schwärzen und das Erhabne in den Staub zu ziehn.»

So haben wir gerade an dieser Anerkennung des Eingreifens des Christus-Impulses in eine menschliche Persönlichkeit, da wo es nicht unser Volk selbst betrifft, eine Tatsache, die uns Vertrauen einflößen kann zu dem, was ich im öffentlichen Vortrage ausgeführt habe: daß man sehen kann im deutschen Geistesleben, daß es in der Art, wie es sich entwickelt hat, hintendiert nach der Spiritualität, nach der Geisteswissenschaft und daß es zu seiner besonderen aber nicht ausschließlichen — Aufgabe gehört, dasjenige, was im deutschen Geistesleben durch die Jahrhunderte errungen und angestrebt worden ist, hinaufzuführen zu der Geist-Erkenntnis. Und dieser Aufgabe, welche die Seelenaufgabe des deutschen Volkes ist, müssen die anderen Aufgaben dienen, die gleichsam leibliche Ausgestaltungen dieser Seelenaufgabe sind, müssen ihr zur Hand gehen. Und was durch die Weltenweisheit geschehen muß, das wird geschehen. Aber notwendig ist, was schon einmal vorgebracht worden ist, daß, wenn wir heute in einer Art von Dämmerung leben, sich eine wirkliche Sonnenzeit für die Zukunft entwickeln wird. Dazu ist aber nötig, daß es Menschen geben wird in der Zukunft, die ihren Zusammenhang haben werden mit den geistigen Welten, damit der Boden, der zubereitet wird mit dem Blut und dem Leid so vieler, nicht umsonst zubereitet worden ist. Denn dadurch, daß Seelen da sind, die ihren Zusammenhang mit den geistigen Welten in sich tragen können, wird gerechtfertigt - und wäre es das Greulichste, das Furchtbarste, das Schreckenerregendste — alles, was geschieht, wenn die mitteleuropäische Mission im Geistesleben erreicht wird. Das aber wird davon abhängen, daß einzelne Seelen, die durch ihr Karma an dieses Geistesleben herankommen können, sich damit durchdringen und dann, wenn wieder die Sonne des Friedens leuchten wird über die Gefilde Mitteleuropas, Geisteserkennen, Geisteserfühlen in sich tragen. Dann wird durch die Hiinneigung einiger Seelen, denen es durch die jetzige Inkarnation möglich ist, dasjenige sich vollziehen können, was ich in diese Worte zusammenziehen möchte, darin zusammenfassend, was ich zu Ihnen sprechen wollte, damit wir uns die Devise in die Seelen schreiben, unter welcher Seelen in rechter Weise demjenigen entgegenwachsen können, was aus unserer schweren Zeit werden kann:

Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht —
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.

Fourth Lecture

My dear friends, as on other occasions since the dawn of our grave present times when I have been permitted to speak to you, let our first thoughts at this moment also be directed to those who are out in the field, sacrificing their souls and their bodies to the great demands of our time and standing with their entire physical being for these demands of the times:

Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To those earthly beings entrusted to your care,
That, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth
To the souls that seek it lovingly.

And for those who have already passed through the gates of death, we say:

Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To the people of the spheres whom you protect,
That, united with your power,
Our plea may shine forth
To the souls it lovingly seeks.

And the spirit that has passed through the mystery of Golgotha, whom we have long sought in our movement, may he be with you and lead you to the goals you must seek!

What I particularly wanted to convey in our last reflection here through the words that were spoken at that time was the truth that can be recognized through spiritual science, namely that the great, serious events of life show us that external appearances must be viewed in the light that spiritual science gives us. Only then do they no longer appear to us as Maya, as the great deception, but then they appear to us in their deep truth. Not as if these outer appearances themselves were Maya or deception, which an Oriental worldview could easily bring to the soul as a misunderstanding, but rather that our senses and our intellect err in the interpretation, in the understanding of outer events, if we do not illuminate these outer events with the light that comes to us through the knowledge of the spiritual world.

Today I would like to take up some individual facts that have already been touched upon in the years of our anthroposophical striving and which I would like to place in a perspective that is more appropriate to our time.

We are convinced that since the mystery of Golgotha intervened in earthly events, the impulses, forces, and beings that passed through this mystery of Golgotha have intervened as living forces in everything that has happened in the development of humanity on earth. In other words, I would like to say more concretely: in all decisive events, in everything that has happened that is important and essential, the Christ impulse is at work through those who are his servants, his spiritual helpers. At present, Christianity is so often referred to as only that which can be understood by human beings. But I have often emphasized that what has come into the world through Christianity is so great, so powerful, that human reason, the human intellect, has not been able to truly comprehend even the most elementary aspects of the forces of the Christ impulse until now. If Christ had been supposed to work only through what human beings could understand of him, then he would have been able to accomplish very little. But what matters is not what has entered into humanity through human concepts of reason, what human beings have been able to imagine about Christ, but that he has been present since the mystery of Golgotha, working directly among human beings and active in their actions. It does not matter to what extent he has been understood by human beings, but that he was there as a living being and allowed himself to flow into what happened as decisive facts in the course of evolution. Certainly, even today, through our spiritual science, we are only able to comprehend a little of the depth of the Christ impulse; future times will understand and see more and more of it. What we are able to understand today about the Christ impulse cannot cause us to be arrogant. Spiritual science wants to understand something more than what people in past times were able to understand about Christ. In past times, people could only think about Christ with the means provided by the outer intellect, outer reason, and outer research. Now we have spiritual science, which enables us to look into the supersensible worlds, and from the supersensible worlds we can give ourselves many answers about the meaning of the mystery of Golgotha. Those who were least able to immediately understand what Christ is and what spiritual powers are that serve him as the souls of the people and the like were those people in whose territory Christ had to enter first, so to speak. Nevertheless, the Christ impulse had to flow in—for example, into the Roman world. And it is precisely in an example that we have already cited in another context that we can see most clearly how Christ is active as a living power and leads his spiritual servants when it comes to bringing about those facts that must flow into the development of humanity's right progress.

I would like to refer once more to the fact I have in mind. In the year 312 of our era, Constantine, son of Constantius Chlorus, who made Christianity the state religion within the Roman Empire, confronted Maxentius, the then ruler of Rome, with his army. Certainly, as the two armies faced each other, one had to say that the conditions were as unfavorable as possible for Constantine, for his army was five times smaller than that of Maxentius. However, we can imagine that, given the state of the art of warfare at that time, there were very capable military leaders in both armies. But at that particular moment, it was not human skill that mattered, but rather that the Christ impulse, which was flowing out, was given the opportunity to intervene in humanity in the way that was required at that time. We can convince ourselves of what could be understood of the Christ impulse at that time, what the hearts of people had taken in from the Christ impulse out of the consciousness of that time, when we look at what took place around Rome and from Rome a few decades later: when we see how Julian, the apostate, fought against Christianity out of the honest conviction of what could be gained from human knowledge at that time. And anyone who engages in the way Julian and his followers fought against Christianity will say to themselves: Certainly, from the standpoint of human knowledge, Julian and his followers were at the height of their time; from this point of view, they were much more enlightened than the Christians of their time, even though they had returned to paganism. It can be said of them that they represented what could be represented as human knowledge at that time. But what human knowledge is could not be the decisive factor in the year 312; rather, there had to be the possibility that Christ and his servants could intervene in the historical development of humanity. But even if Maxentius and his followers had been able to rely as much as they did on the military skills of their generals and on what could otherwise have been achieved with human knowledge and wisdom at that time, and if nothing else had happened, then what had to come to light at that time would undoubtedly not have come to light. So what happened?

What happened was this: the continuous Christ impulse flowed into those activities of the souls which were not in the consciousness of human beings, of which human beings knew nothing. And it actually guided human beings in such a way that what had to come about came about. For the battle between Constantine and Maxentius, which took place on October 28, 312, at Saxa Rubra, was not decided by human artifice; rather, it was decided—as much as today's enlightenment may resist acknowledging this—by dreams, that is, by what we call “dreams,” but which are not dreams for us. For everything that could not flow into the souls of the two generals through human reason flowed into them through dreams. Maxentius dreamed beforehand that he would have to leave his city. He also turned to the Sibylline Oracle, which told him that he would achieve what was to happen if he dared to fight outside the city rather than inside it. It was the most unwise thing he could have done, especially since his army was so much stronger than Constantine's. He should have known that he first had to interpret what he received from the higher worlds, and that the oracle's prophecy would mislead him. Constantine had another dream that told him he would be victorious if he led his army into battle under the sign of Christ, and so he acted accordingly. What flowed into people's souls through the detour of the dream was put into action, and this brought about what changed the world so much at that time that one need only think about it a little to say to oneself: What would have become of the Western world if supernatural powers had not intervened in such a vivid way in the events?

But now let us take a closer look at the events. At that time, souls were incarnated in Western and Southern Europe who were to accept Christianity and become its bearers. Through their intellect, through their reason, even the most enlightened souls of that time could not become bearers of the Christ impulse because the time was not ripe for it. They had to come to Christianity through what had been created around them externally. One can say of these people that they put on Christianity as if it were a garment, and they were not really touched by it in their deeper being. They became more like serving members than people who had been directly touched by the Christ impulse in their deepest being. This was basically the case for a long time with the best souls in the western part of Europe, until the eighth or ninth century and even beyond. It was necessary for them to accept Christianity as a garment, to wear this garment of Christianity in such a way that they wore it in their etheric body and not in their astral body. You can appreciate what I mean when I say that they wore Christianity in their etheric bodies. That is to say, they accepted it in such a way that they were Christians in the waking state, but they could not take Christianity with them when they left their physical and etheric bodies. And so they also passed through the gate of death in such a way that we can say of them: they were able to look down from the realm that human beings must pass through between death and new birth upon what they had been in their past earthly life. But it was not immediately possible for them to take with them the Christian impulses that had arisen from their former life for their future life. They wore Christianity more like a garment.

Let us note for a consideration I will make shortly this connection: how souls accepted Christianity in their outer life, and how this Christianity did not belong to what souls could take with them through the spiritual world when they passed through the gate of death in order to prepare themselves for a new earthly existence. Let us remember that these souls could only enter a new earthly existence by forgetting Christianity. For in a later earthly life, one does not consciously remember what one wore as a garment in a previous life. If that were the case, our high school students would not need to learn Greek again, since many of them were incarnated in Greece; but they do not remember their Greek incarnation and therefore have to learn Greek anew. But because of the life that those souls who had been incarnated in Western Europe had gone through between death and rebirth, they could not carry Christianity with them, because they had not woven these impulses into their inner being, into their ego and astral body. That was the peculiar thing about how these souls carried themselves over into later incarnations. Let us remember this and now consider another fact that I have already pointed out.

We know that the time in which we now live, the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch, began mainly around the fifteenth, sixteenth centuries, at the time when the European world was to prepare for what was to lead primarily to the development of the consciousness soul in our time. That is what our fifth cultural epoch is all about. What was to be achieved there had to be achieved in view of the fact that, externally in earthly existence, those earthly conditions had to come about which were favorable to the development of the consciousness soul, that soul which can develop when it directs itself toward material earthly existence, toward the external facts of physical existence. This had to begin, and it did begin. We need only remember how the horizon of Europe was broadened across the earth through the great discoveries and their consequences, so that the consciousness soul had to develop primarily under material influence. We need only think of one thing, which we have already pointed out: what belongs to the realm of the British national soul is particularly suited, unilaterally suited, to the unfolding and development of the consciousness soul. And when one examines all the details, it is hard to imagine that anything could have happened so deliberately as this turning of the British national soul toward these material tasks of life. This was entirely predetermined in the course of human development.

Let us imagine for a moment that England in the fifteenth century had been diverted from its inclination toward precisely those areas of the earth to which it had been directed by the discovery of the great non-European territories, and that the British national soul in the fifteenth century had come to experience significant territorial expansion on the European continent. Let us imagine that the map of Europe had been changed in this way. It would then have been impossible, first, to achieve what had to be achieved in the realm of material culture, and second, to achieve what had to be achieved in Europe through the internalization of life that took place from that point on, despite various obstacles, with the cooperation of Protestantism, which was greatly influenced by German mysticism. But when the Christ impulse intervened in the development, it had to ensure that British interests were kept away from the area where souls still had to be prepared to be the outer, external carriers of the Christ impulse.

The Christ impulse had to flow into the deeds of the European continent. It had to work in such a way that it achieved much more than what could be achieved by humanity through its human arts. And what happened?

The miraculous happened: everything that those who were at the height of their time could not achieve was achieved by the poor shepherdess of Orleans, Joan of Arc. At that time, it was truly the Christ impulse working through his Michaelic servant in Joan of Arc that prevented France from merging with England, for example, and caused England to be pushed back to its island. And this achieved two things: first, France kept its hands free in Europe, which we can study if we follow the course of the following centuries in French history, and second, what still lay in the French national spirit was able to influence European culture completely unhindered; and the other thing that was achieved was that England was assigned its territory outside the European continent. This deed, which was accomplished by Joan of Arc, was not only a blessing for the French, but also for the English themselves, in that they were forced onto their own territory.

But if we consider it in connection with what lies in the progress of the Christ impulse on earth, the deed of Joan of Arc brought about something of which we can say: What she understood of it with a real human mind is nothing compared to what has given the map of Europe its present shape. The events had to unfold in this way so that the Christ impulse could spread in the right way. Here we see, breaking into historical events from the subterranean depths of human nature, what the living Christ is; not the Christ that people understand. For we can view the Christ impulse in two ways. First, we can ask ourselves: What did people understand about the Christ impulse at that time? When we open the history books and follow the history of humanity, we find theologians in past centuries arguing and defending or fighting against all kinds of theories, trying to explain how human freedom, the divine Trinity, and so on should be understood. We see countless theologians arguing with each other, recognizing each other as orthodox theologians or, in other cases, denouncing each other as heretics. Thus we see a Christian doctrine spreading, in accordance with the possibilities of the time. That is one thing. But that is not what matters, any more than it matters now what people can do with their ordinary intellect. What matters is that Christ lives invisibly among human beings as a living being and can flow into the deeds of humanity from invisible sources. And he did this at a point where he did not need to flow in through the human mind, through human reason, but where he could flow in through the soul of an “unintelligent” person, through the soul of the Virgin of Orleans. And when he flowed in, how did those who understood Christianity as the official doctrine behave? Well, they found that they had to burn the bearer of the Christ impulse! It took some time for this official doctrine to come to a different view. That may be its value for the official doctrine, but for the events of that time, the canonization of the Virgin of Orleans is not exactly the right reputation.

This is one of the examples where we can see how Christ, through his servants — I said through the Virgin of Orleans, he worked through his Michaelic spirit — intervened in human evolution as a living being, not merely through what people understand of him. But we can also see something else in this example. Christianity was there. The people who were gathered around the Virgin of Orleans called themselves Christians. They understood something about their Christianity. But one would have to say of what they understood: The one you are looking for is not here, and the one who is here is not the one you are looking for, for you do not know him. Nevertheless, we must be clear that it was important, that it was essential, that the Christ development also went through the development of Europe in this outer garment in which it appeared there. Souls belonged to it who were able to accept Christianity in this outer garment, who were able to carry it outwardly, as it were. They were still the stragglers of those souls who had previously been incarnated there, souls who still did not accept Christ into their egos, but only into their etheric bodies. And the great difference between the Maid of Orleans and the others was that she took the Christ impulse into the deepest depths of her astral body and worked for the Christ impulse from the deepest forces of the astral body. Here we have one of the points where we can make clear to ourselves what must become clear: the difference between the continuous development of peoples and the continuous development of individual human beings.

If we consider, for example, the French people of today, there are naturally a number of human individualities living within the French people. These individualities are not the same ones who, for example, lived in their previous incarnation within the people who took on the outer garment of Christianity in Western Europe. For it was precisely because a number of people in Western Europe had to take on Christianity as an outer garment that these people passed through the gate of death in such a way that they were destined to be united with Christianity in their astral body and ego under different conditions in their next life. Precisely because they were incarnated in Western Europe, it was necessary for them not to have their next incarnation in Western Europe. It is very rare—I say rare, but that does not mean it never happens—for a soul to belong to the same earthly community in successive incarnations. Souls pass from one earthly community to another.

But we have an example — I say this without wishing to arouse sympathy or antipathy, nor to flatter anyone — we have an example where souls do indeed pass through the same ethnic group several times. This is the case with the Central European people. This Central European people has many souls living in it today that were also embodied in the Germanic peoples in the past. We can investigate such facts. We cannot yet fully explain them with the means of occult research available to us, but they are there. A fact such as that presented in last Thursday's public lecture, “The Germanic Soul and the German Spirit,” becomes clear when we know that souls appear repeatedly within the Central European community. This is the fact that we have broken cultural epochs precisely within this community. Just imagine what it means that within the dawn of Germanic culture there was an epoch such as that of the poets of the Nibelungenlied, Walther von der Vogelweide, and others; and imagine that later a time began in which a new flowering of Germanic culture set in, and the first flowering was completely forgotten. For at the time when Goethe was young, people knew nothing, so to speak, of the first flowering of Germanic cultural life. Precisely because souls return within this community of people, what had once been there had to be forgotten so that the souls could find something new when they returned and could not immediately pick up where they had left off in earlier times. No other people has undergone such a metamorphosis as the people of Central Europe: from the heights they reached in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries to the heights they reached again at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries, the effects of which we may hope will continue. There is no continuous stream from the first to the second point in time, which can only be explained if we know that souls are returning precisely in this area of intellectual culture. Perhaps this is also connected with what I have already mentioned to you as a shocking fact: that it was really only noticeable among the Central European fighters of the present day that when they pass through the gate of death, they continue to fight; that soon after they have passed through the gate of death, one can see how they continue to fight. Therefore, based on this fact, we can have the most beautiful hopes for the future, when we see that not only the living, in the physical sense, but also the dead, the deceased, are helping in what is happening.

Let us now raise the question: What about those souls who, in the times when Christianity was accepted as an outer garment, namely in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries in Western Europe, were incarnated there or among the Romans, accepted Christianity, but were not yet able to unite it with their astral body and their ego? What about these souls?

Yes, as grotesque as it may seem to the materialistic-minded people of today, the teachings of spiritual science become very meaningful for life when one considers the concrete facts. People still consider it the fantasy of a few foolish dreamers when one speaks of repeated lives on earth. They do not accept this idea; but they find it forgivable, since even the great Lessing, in a weak hour of his life, accepted the idea of repeated lives on earth, even if it is spoken of again today. But when one really enters into the results of occult research, one is no longer a fool begging forgiveness from the people of the great Enlightenment. Nevertheless, we must go into some of what occult research gives us, for only through this can light be shed on what would otherwise remain a great deception.

It is remarkable that a large number of souls who lived in the West during the late Roman period, when Christianity gradually gained influence and then became the state religion, are now coming to us from the East, souls who grew up in the East and are among the fighters of Russia. I said: let us remember the fact we mentioned earlier. For among the people who are being killed in the East, who are fighting there or have been taken prisoner, we find souls who lived in Western Europe during the late Roman period. They are now coming to us from the East, they who at that time allowed Christianity to flow into their etheric bodies and who now, in the bodies of a relatively lower culture, through the peculiar life of the East, take Christianity into their souls in their waking state in such a way that they connect with it emotionally and instinctively. Thus, precisely in their astral bodies, they connect with the Christ impulse and thereby make up for what they were unable to achieve in their previous incarnations. This is a very remarkable fact that occult research can show us today. Among the many shocking facts that, inspired by the events of our time, can enter the occult field, this is one of them. What can we now make clear to ourselves from these facts?

We must realize the following. We must remember how it lies in the direct progress of Central European spiritual life to consciously connect the Germanic soul life with Christianity, to lead it up to the heights of a direct Christian culture. The currents, the paths, have been wonderfully mapped out for centuries. We see this coming. Especially when we consider our time with all its mistakes and errors, we see that there is a germ in Central European culture, that preparations have been made with all our strength in the German national spirit, in the Germanic national soul, so that the Christ impulse may now be consciously grasped.

This is a fact of infinitely greater significance than that of the fifteenth century, when the Maid of Orleans had to save France because France had an important mission at that time. We are therefore faced with the significant fact that in the future the German spirit is called upon to take up the Christ impulse more and more consciously, in full awareness of the facts that have flowed into German spiritual life. This Christ impulse had to work through the centuries, as we have always shown, by announcing itself in the souls through subconscious processes. And in the future it must connect with souls in such a way that there will be people — and there must be people in Central Europe — who, in the waking state, through the effort of their conscious spiritual powers, not only those in the physical body and etheric body, but also their ego and their astral body, will connect with the Christ impulse. We see this being strived for by the best. Let us take the very best: Goethe. But what can be cited as a special example in Goethe lies in all souls, even if they only strive for it in a vague way.

We see how Goethe presents the representative of humanity, Faust, whom he lets strive for the highest. In the second part of the poem, he leads him into Greek culture, into everything that peoples experience, in such a way that Faust significantly anticipates the future where he wants to wrest land from the sea and establish something that is a distant future for him. And where does he ultimately lead him? Goethe himself once said in a conversation with Eckermann: he had to resort to the vivid images of Christianity to show how Faust soars up into the spiritual world. And if you take the wonderfully beautiful image of Mater gloriosa receiving Faust's soul, you have the counter-image to what inspired Raphael to paint his most famous picture, the Sistine Madonna: there, the virgin mother brings down the soul. At the end of Faust, we see the virgin mother carrying the soul upward: it is the death-birth of the soul. Thus, we see quite consciously, from the human spirit, the most intimate striving, that which is to be achieved through Christianity, always to be achieved in such a way that it can be carried through the gate of death into the life that human beings experience after their preparation between death and their next birth in a new earthly life. What we can see in Goethe himself is a characteristic trait of the German nation. And from this we can gauge what task lies ahead for human beings. That is the task, and we can write it down quite clearly in our souls: that it can only become a real blessing for the progress of humanity if a harmonious relationship is now created in a certain circle between Central Europe and Eastern Europe.

One might think that Eastern Europe could expand westward, across Central Europe, by brute force. One might think that this could happen. But that would mean exactly the same as if, in the fifteenth century, the deeds of Joan of Arc had not taken place and England had annexed France at that time. If that had happened, I said this explicitly, something would have happened that would not only have been disastrous for France, but would also have been disastrous for England. And if German intellectual culture were now to be impaired by influences from the East, this would not only damage German intellectual culture, but also the East. The worst thing that could happen to the East would be if it were to spread temporarily and damage German spiritual culture. For I said that the souls that were formerly embodied in Western Europe or on the Italian peninsula, which are now growing up in the East, are uniting in the subconscious depths of the astral body, as if instinctively, with the Christ impulse. But what the Christ impulse is to become in them can never come about through a straightforward development of what lives instinctively in souls under the name of orthodox Catholicism, which is essentially Byzantine and is a name, not an impulse. It is just as impossible for it to become what it is meant to become as it is impossible for a woman to have a child without a man. And if something is to come out of the East itself, as it is now, it would be like the foolish endeavor of a woman wanting to have a child without a man. What is being prepared in the East can only come to fruition if, in Central Europe, in a powerful and conscious way — that is, in a fully awake state — the human ego force and the human powers of knowledge are connected with the Christ impulse out of what the souls strive for out of their ego nature. Only when the German national spirit finds souls who transplant the Christ impulse into the astral body and into the ego, as it can be transplanted in a state of full wakefulness, only then can what must arise for a future culture come into being. And it must come about through harmonization, through a connection with what is being achieved consciously, ever more consciously, in Central Europe.

This will require not just one or two centuries, but a long time. Such a long time will be necessary that we can roughly calculate, I would say, from the year 1400 to about 2100. If we add two thousand one hundred years to the year fourteen hundred, we arrive at the point in the earth's evolution when that which has been germinating in German spiritual life since such spiritual life has existed will appear. From this, however, we see that we must look to a future of not only centuries, but of more than a millennium, in which the Central European, the German national spirit has its task, its task which already lies before it and which consists in the fact that there must be more and more of this cultivation of spiritual life through which the understanding of what in earlier times passed unconsciously and alive as the Christ impulse through the European peoples is taken up into the waking consciousness—into the astral body and the I. But if development takes this course, then gradually, by climbing up to what is thus achieved in Central Europe, the East will be able to ascend to the level that can be attained there by virtue of its special predispositions. This is the will of world wisdom. We interpret this will of world wisdom correctly only when we say to ourselves: The greatest misfortune for Eastern Europe would be if it were to damage the spiritual power that it must climb up to, that it must cherish and nurture with reverence and friendship. It must still come to this. For the time being, it still lacks very, very much; even the best among them still lack very much. In their short-sightedness, they still do not allow themselves to accept what Central European spiritual life can give to the East.

I have already discussed this in my first public lecture here in Berlin. This evening you will see the deeper occult reasons behind what I was able to say in my public lecture only in an external, exoteric way. But it is always the case that one must take into account that in public lectures one must speak in forms that are close to the understanding of the listeners, and that the actual impulses for why this is said, why that is omitted, why this or that connection is sought, lie in occult facts. But in any case, what has been discussed today shows that when we look at things in this external way, they present us with the great deception, the Maya. Not that the external world is in itself a deception, it is not; but it only becomes understandable to us when we illuminate it with the facts that come from the spiritual world. And in our case, the facts that flow from the spiritual world can show us that it is necessary that Central Europe today should not be overwhelmed by Eastern Europe, just as France should not have been overwhelmed by England in 1429/1430. Of course, what has been said shows that in Eastern Europe it is impossible to understand what is at stake, but that it can basically only be understood in Central Europe, and that we must therefore find this understandable. So we must approach our task with all humility, without any arrogance, and we must find it understandable if we are misunderstood. We must find it completely understandable. For what is being prepared in the East can only be properly understood in the East itself in the future.

That is one thing that emerges from our considerations. The other is that we are contemplating the great transition in human evolution for our time precisely through such things — we have already contemplated it from various angles in the past — that we can see how that which has flowed into the earthly evolution of humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha in our time, by those who are able to do so after this incarnation, must be grasped more and more consciously. In the times of Constantine or Joan of Arc, for example, it would have been impossible for the Christ impulse to consciously bring about what it had to work unconsciously. But the time must come when it can work completely consciously. That is why spiritual science gives us what we can take into our souls with ever greater consciousness. Here, too, we may point to a fact — truly without stirring up any sympathies or antipathies that may arise, and without wanting to flatter anyone in any way. And it is always better to form one's opinions based on facts than on what they are often based on today. For if we look a little out into the world today, we see that opinions are truly not always formed on facts, but on passions, on national passions. But opinions that become the disposition of the human soul can also be formed on the basis of facts.

While Anatole France is a man who views Joan of Arc from the enlightened materialistic standpoint of the present, it has been natural for German intellectual life since Schiller's great deed to understand the Maid of Orleans from the milieu of the supernatural. Even within Germany, there are still people who consider this a great mistake on Schiller's part; but these people are literary historians, and it is understandable that they should think so. For it is their task to “understand” literature and art — and that is why they cannot do so. But what is essential is that we have this work, which undertakes to raise from the depths of spiritual life, as if in glory, the figure of whom Schiller says: “The world loves to blacken what is radiant and drag the sublime into the dust.”

Thus, precisely in this recognition of the intervention of the Christ impulse in a human personality, where it does not concern our people themselves, we have a fact that can inspire confidence in what I have explained in my public lecture: that one can see in German spiritual life that, in the way it has developed, it tends toward spirituality, toward spiritual science, and that it is part of its special but not exclusive task to raise what has been achieved and strived for in German spiritual life over the centuries to spiritual knowledge. And this task, which is the soul task of the German people, must be served by the other tasks, which are, as it were, the physical manifestations of this soul task, and must assist it. And what must happen through world wisdom will happen. But it is necessary, as has already been said, that if we are living today in a kind of twilight, a real sun time will develop for the future. For this, however, it is necessary that there will be people in the future who will have a connection with the spiritual worlds, so that the ground that is being prepared with the blood and suffering of so many will not have been prepared in vain. For through the existence of souls who can carry within themselves a connection with the spiritual worlds, everything that happens when the Central European mission in spiritual life is accomplished will be justified — even if it is the most gruesome, the most terrible, the most terrifying thing imaginable. But this will depend on individual souls who, through their karma, are able to approach this spiritual life, to permeate themselves with it, and then, when the sun of peace shines again over the fields of Central Europe, to carry spiritual knowledge and spiritual feeling within themselves. Then, through the inclination of a few souls who are able to do so through their present incarnation, what I would like to summarize in these words, summarizing what I wanted to say to you, will be able to be accomplished, so that we may write in our souls the motto under which souls can grow in the right way toward what can come out of our difficult times:

From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruit of the spirit will grow —
Souls will consciously direct
Their minds to the spiritual realm.