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Preparing for the Sixth Epoch
GA 159

15 June 1915, Düsseldorf

Translator Unknown

We have come here today for the opening of the group founded by our friend, Professor C. This group wishes to dedicate itself to the spiritual life of the present and future in the way that is customary in our Movement. On such an occasion it is always good to remember why we associate in groups and to ask ourselves why we found working groups and cultivate in them the spiritual treasure to which we dedicate our forces.

If this question is to be answered truly, we must realize that we make a distinction, even if only in thought, between the work we do in a group like this and our other work in the world. Those who are unwilling to enter deeply into more intimate truths connected with the spiritual progress of humanity, might ask if we could not cultivate spiritual science without forming ourselves into groups, but simply by finding lecturers and providing opportunities for people who may not know each other to come together and have access to the spiritual treasure of which we speak. We could, of course, proceed in this way. But as long as it is at all possible to establish, in the wider and narrower senses, associations of human beings who are known to one another and who come together in friendship and brotherliness within these working groups, we will continue to found them in full consciousness of the attitude of soul that is part and parcel of spiritual science. It is not without meaning that among us there are human beings who want to cultivate the more intimate side of spiritual knowledge and who sincerely intend to work together in brotherliness and harmony. Not only are relationships and intercourse affected by the fact that we can speak quite differently among ourselves, knowing that we are speaking to souls consciously associated with us—not only is this so, but something else is also to be remembered. The establishment of individual groups is connected with the whole conception that we hold of our Movement if we understand its inmost nature. We must all be conscious that our Movement is significant not only for the existence known to the senses and for the existence that is grasped by the outward turned mind of man, but that through this Movement our souls are seeking a real and genuine link with the spiritual worlds. Again and again, in full consciousness, we should say to ourselves that by the cultivation of spiritual science we transfer our souls as it were into spheres that are peopled not only by beings of earth but also by the beings of the higher hierarchies, the beings of the invisible worlds. We must realize that our work is of significance for these invisible worlds, that we are actually within these worlds. In the spiritual world, the work performed by those who know one another within such groups is quite different from work carried on outside such a group and dispersed about the world. The work carried out in brotherly harmony within our groups has quite a different significance for the spiritual world than other work we may undertake. To understand this fully we must remind ourselves of truths we have studied in many aspects during recent years.

Earth evolution in the post-Atlantean age was sustained in the beginning by the culture of the ancient Indian period of civilization. This was followed by the ancient Persian epoch—the designation is only more or less appropriate but we need not go into that now. Then came the Egypto-Chaldean-Babylonian period of culture, then the Greco-Latin, then our fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Each of these epochs has, on the one side, to cultivate a particular form of culture and of spiritual life primarily concerned with the external and visible world. But each epoch must at the same time prepare, bear within it in a preparatory stage, what is to come in the ensuing period of culture.

Within the womb, as it were, of the ancient Indian epoch, that of ancient Persia was prepared; within the ancient Persian culture, that of the Egypto-Chaldean epoch was prepared, and so on. Our fifth post-Atlantean epoch must prepare the coming sixth epoch of culture. Our task in spiritual science is not only to acquire spiritual treasure for ourselves, for the eternal life of the soul, but to prepare what will constitute the content, the specific external work of the sixth epoch of culture. Thus it has been in each of the post-Atlantean epochs. The centers of the mysteries were the places in which the form of external life belonging to the next epoch of culture was prepared. The mysteries were associations of human beings among whom other things were cultivated than those cultivated in the outer world. The ancient Indian epoch was concerned with the cultivation of the human etheric body, the ancient Persian epoch with the cultivation of the astral body, the Egypto-Chaldean with that of the sentient soul, the Greco-Latin with that of the intellectual or mind soul. Our own epoch, throughout its duration, will develop and unfold the consciousness or spiritual soul. But what will give to external culture in the sixth epoch its content and character, must be prepared in advance. Many characteristics of the sixth epoch of culture will be entirely different from those of our age. Three characteristic traits can be mentioned, of which we must realize that they should be carried in our hearts for the sixth epoch of culture and that it is our task to prepare them for this sixth epoch.

There is lacking in human society nowadays a quality that, in the sixth epoch, will be a characteristic of those men who reach the goal of that epoch, and have not fallen short of it. It is a quality that will not, of course, be found among those who in the sixth epoch have still remained at the stage of savages or barbarians. One of the most significant characteristics of men living on the earth at the peak of culture in the sixth epoch, will be a certain moral quality. Little of this quality is perceptible in modern humanity. A man today must be delicately organized for his soul to feel pain when he sees other human beings in the world in less happy circumstances than his own. It is true that more delicately organized natures feel pain at the suffering that is so widespread in the world, but this can only be said of the people who are particularly sensitive. In the sixth epoch, the most highly cultured will not only feel pain such as is caused today by the sight of poverty, suffering and misery in the world, but such individuals will experience the suffering of another human being as their own suffering. If they see a hungry man they will feel the hunger right down into the physical, so acutely indeed that the hunger of the other man will be unendurable to them. The moral characteristic indicated here is that, unlike conditions in the fifth epoch, in the sixth epoch the well-being of the individual will depend entirely upon the well-being of the whole. Just as nowadays the well-being of a single human limb depends upon the health of the whole body, and when the whole body is not healthy the single limb is not up to doing its work, so in the sixth epoch a common consciousness will lay hold of the then civilized humanity and in a far higher degree than a limb feels the health of the whole body, the individual will feel the suffering, the need, the poverty or the wealth of the whole. This is the first preeminently moral trait that will characterize the cultured humanity of the sixth epoch.

A second fundamental characteristic will be that everything we call the fruits of belief today will depend to a far, far higher degree than is the case today, upon the single individuality. Spiritual science expresses this by saying that in every sphere of religion in the sixth epoch, complete freedom of thought and a longing for it will so lay hold of men that what a man likes to believe, what religious convictions he holds, will rest wholly within the power of his own individuality. Collective beliefs that exist in so many forms today among the various communities will no longer influence those who constitute the civilized portion of humanity in the sixth epoch of culture. Everyone will feel that complete freedom of thought in the domain of religion is a fundamental right of the human being.

The third characteristic will be that men in the sixth epoch will only be considered to have real knowledge when they recognize the spiritual, when they know that the spiritual pervades the world and that human souls must unite with the spiritual. What is known as science today with its materialistic trend will certainly not be honored by the name of science in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch. It will be regarded as antiquated superstition, able to pass muster only among those who have remained behind at the stage of the superseded fifth post-Atlantean epoch. Today we regard it as superstition when, let us say, a savage holds the view that no limb ought to be separated from his body at death because this would make it impossible for him to enter the spiritual world as a whole man. Such a man still connects the idea of immortality with pure materialism, with the belief that an impress of his whole form must pass into the spiritual world. He thinks materialistically but believes in immortality. We, today, knowing from spiritual science that the spiritual has to be separated from the body and that only the spiritual passes into the super-sensible world, regard such materialistic beliefs in immortality as superstition. Similarly, in the sixth epoch all materialistic beliefs including science, too, will be regarded as antiquated superstition. Men as a matter of course will accept as science only such forms of knowledge as are based upon the spiritual, upon pneumatology.

The whole purpose of spiritual science is to prepare in this sense for the sixth epoch of culture. We try to cultivate spiritual science in order to overcome materialism, to prepare the kind of science that must exist in that epoch. We found communities of human beings within which there must be no dogmatic beliefs or any tendency to accept teaching simply because it emanates from one person or another. We found communities of human beings in which everything, without exception, must be built upon the soul's free assent to the teachings. Herein we prepare what spiritual science calls freedom of thought. By coming together in friendly associations for the purpose of cultivating spiritual science, we prepare the culture, the civilization of the sixth post-Atlantean epoch.

But we must look still more deeply into the course of human evolution if we are fully to understand the real tasks of our associations and groups. In the first post-Atlantean epoch, too, in communities that in those days were connected with the mysteries, men cultivated what subsequently prevailed in the second epoch. In the associations peculiar to the first, the ancient Indian epoch, men were concerned with the cultivation of the astral body, which was to be the specific outer task of the second epoch. It would lead much too far today to describe what, in contrast to the external culture of the time, was developed in these associations peculiar to ancient India in order to prepare for the second, ancient Persian epoch. But this may be said that when those men of the ancient Indian epoch came together in order to prepare what was necessary for the second epoch, they felt: We have not yet attained, nor have we in us, what we shall have when our souls are incarnated in the next epoch. It still hovers above us. It was in truth so. In the first epoch of culture, what was to descend from the heavens to the earth in the second epoch still hovered over the souls of men. The work achieved on earth by men in intimate assemblies connected with the mysteries was of such a nature that forces flowed upwards to the spirits of the higher hierarchies, enabling them to nourish and cultivate what was to stream down into the souls of men as substance and content of the astral body in the second, ancient Persian epoch. The forces that descended at a later stage of maturity into the souls incarnated in the bodies of ancient Persian civilizations were like little children in the first epoch. Forces streaming upwards from the work of men below in preparation for the next epoch were received and nurtured by the spiritual world above. So it must be in every epoch of culture.

In our epoch it is the consciousness or spiritual soul that has developed in us through our ordinary civilization and culture. Beginning with the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, science and materialistic consciousness have laid hold of the human being. This will gradually become more widespread, until by the end of the fifth epoch its development will have been completed. In the sixth epoch, however, it is the spirit self that must be developed within the souls of men, just as now the consciousness soul is being developed. The nature of spirit self is that it must pre-suppose the existence in human souls of the three characteristics of which I have spoken: social life in which brotherliness prevails, freedom of thought, and pneumatology. These three characteristics are essential in a community of human beings within which the spirit self is to develop as the consciousness soul develops in the souls of the fifth epoch. We may therefore picture to ourselves that by uniting in brotherliness in working groups, something hovers invisibly over our work, something that is like the child of the forces of the spirit self—the spirit self that is nurtured by the beings of the higher hierarchies in order that it may stream down into our souls when they are again on earth in the sixth epoch of civilization. In our groups we perform work that streams upward to those forces that are being prepared for the spirit self.

So you see, it is only through the wisdom of spiritual science itself that we can understand what we are really doing in respect of our connection with the spiritual worlds when we come together in these working groups. The thought that we do this work not only for the sake of our own egos, but in order that it may stream upward into the spiritual worlds, the thought that this work is connected with the spiritual worlds, this is the true consecration of a working group. To cherish such a thought is to permeate ourselves with the consciousness of the consecration that is the foundation of a working group within the Movement. It is therefore of great importance to grasp this fact in its true spiritual sense. We find ourselves together in working groups which, besides cultivating spiritual science, are based on freedom of thought. They will have nothing to do with dogma or coercion of belief, and their work should be of the nature of cooperation among brothers. What matters most of all is to become conscious of the true meaning of the idea of community, saying to ourselves: Apart from the fact that as modern souls we belong to the fifth post-Atlantean epoch of culture and develop as individuals, raising individual life more and more out of community life, we must in turn become conscious of a higher form of community, founded in the freedom of love among brothers, as a breath of magic that we breathe in our working groups.

The deep significance of West European culture lies in the fact that the quest of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is the consciousness soul. The task of West European culture, and particularly of Central European culture, is that men shall develop an individual culture, individual consciousness. This is the task of the present age. Compare this epoch of ours with that of Greece and Rome. The Greek epoch exhibits in a particularly striking form, especially among the civilized Greeks, a consciousness of living within a group soul. A man who was born and lived in Athens felt himself to be first and foremost an “Athenian.” This community between city and what belonged to the city meant something different to the individual from what community between human beings means today. In our time the individual strives to grow out of and beyond the community, and this is right in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. In Rome, the human being was first and foremost a Roman citizen, nothing else. But in the fifth epoch we strive above all else to be man in our innermost being, man and nothing else. It is a painful experience in our day to see men fighting against one another on the earth, but this, after all, is just a reaction to the perpetual striving of the fifth epoch for free development of the “human universal.” Because the different countries and peoples shut themselves off today from one another in hostility, it is all the more necessary to develop, as resistance to this, the force that allows human beings to be men in the full sense, allowing the individual to grow out of and beyond every kind of community. But on the other hand the human being must, in full consciousness, make preparation for communities into which he will enter entirely of his own free will in the sixth epoch. There hovers before us as a high ideal a form of community that will so encompass the sixth epoch of culture that civilized human beings will quite naturally meet each other as brothers and sisters.

From many lectures given in past years, we know that Eastern Europe is inhabited by a people whose particular mission it will be in the sixth epoch, and not until the sixth epoch, to bring to definite expression the elementary forces that now lie within them. We know that the Russian peoples will not be ready until the sixth epoch of culture to unfold the forces now within them in an elementary form. The mission of Western and Central Europe is to introduce into men qualities that can be introduced by the consciousness soul. This is not the mission of Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe will have to wait until the spirit self comes down to the earth and can permeate the souls of men. This must be understood in the right sense. Understood in the wrong sense it may easily lead to pride and superciliousness, precisely in the East. The height of post-Atlantean culture is reached in the fifth epoch. What will follow in the sixth and seventh epochs will be a descending line of evolution. Nevertheless, this descending evolution in the sixth epoch will be inspired, permeated by the spirit self. Today the man of Eastern Europe feels instinctively, but often with perverted instinct, that this is so; only his consciousness of it is, for the most part, extremely hazy and confused. The frequent occurrence of the term, “the Russian man,” is quite characteristic. Genius expresses itself in language when, instead of saying as we do in the West: the British, the French, the Italian, the German—Eastern Europe says, “the Russian man.” Many of the Russian intelligentsia attach importance to the use of the expression, “the Russian man.” This is connected deeply with the genius of the particular culture. The term refers to the element of manhood, of brotherhood that is spread over a community. An attempt is made to indicate this by including a word that brings out the “manhood” in the term. But it is also obvious that the height to be reached in a distant future has not yet been attained, inasmuch as the term includes a word that glaringly contradicts the noun. In the expression, “the Russian man.” the adjective really nullifies what is expressed in the noun. For when true manhood is attained there should be no adjective to suggest any element of exclusiveness.

But at a much, much deeper level there lies in members of the Russian intelligentsia the realization that a conception of community, of brotherhood must prevail in times still to come. The Russian soul feels that spirit self is to descend, but that it can only descend into a community of men permeated with the consciousness of brotherhood, that it can never spread over a community where there is no consciousness of brotherhood. That is why the Russian intellectuals, as they call themselves, make the following reproach to Western and Central Europe. They say, “You pay no heed at all to a life of true community. You cultivate only individualism. Everyone wants to be a person on his own, to be an individual only. You drive the personal element, through which every single man feels himself an individuality, to its highest extreme.” This is what echoes across from the East to Western and Central Europe in many reproaches of barbarism and the like. Those who try to realize how things really are, accuse Western and Central Europe of having lost all feeling for human connections. Confusing present and future as they do now, these people say, “it is only in Russia that there is a true and genuine community of life among men, a life where everyone feels himself the brother of the other, as the ‘Little Father’ or the ‘Little Mother’ of the other.” The Russian intelligentsia say that the Christianity of Western Europe has not succeeded in developing the essence of human community, but that the Russian still knows what community is.

Alexander Herzen, an excellent thinker who lived in the nineteenth century and belonged to the Russian intellectuals, brought this to its ultimate conclusion by saying, “In Western Europe there can never be happiness.” No matter what attempts are made, happiness will never come to Western European civilization. There humanity will never find contentment. Only chaos can prevail there. The one and only salvation lies in the Russian nature and in the Russian form of life where men have not yet separated themselves from community, where in their village communities there is still something of the nature of the group soul to which they hold fast. What we call the group soul, out of which mankind has gradually emerged and in which the animal kingdom still lives, that is what is revered by the Russian intelligentsia as something great and significant among their people. They cannot rise to the thought that the community of the future must hover as a high ideal, an ideal that has yet to be realized. They adhere firmly to the thought: We are the last people in Europe to retain this life in the group soul; the others have risen out of it; we have retained and must retain it for ourselves.

Yes, but this life in the group soul does not in reality belong to the future at all, for it is the old form of group soul existence. If it continued it would be a Luciferic group soul, a form of life that has remained at an earlier stage, whereas the form of group soul life that is true and must be striven for, is what we try to find in spiritual science. But be that as it may, the urge and the longing of the Russian intellectuals show how the spirit of community is needed to bring about the descent of spirit self. Just as it is being striven for there along a false path, so must it be striven for in spiritual science along the true path. What we should like to say to the East is this: It is our task to overcome entirely just what you are trying to preserve in an external form, namely, an old Luciferic-Ahrimanic form of community. In a community of a Luciferic-Ahrimanic character there will be coercion of belief as rigid as that established by the Orthodox Catholic Church in Russia. Such community will not understand true freedom of thought; least of all will it be able to rise to the level where complete individuality is associated with a social life in which brotherhood prevails. That other form of community would like to preserve what has remained in blood brotherhood, in brotherhood purely through the blood. Community that is founded not upon the blood, but upon the spirit, upon community of souls, is what must be striven for along the paths of spiritual science. We must try to create communities in which the factor of blood no longer has a voice. Naturally, the factor of blood will continue, it will live itself out in family relationships, for what must remain will not be eradicated. But something new must arise! What is significant in the child will be retained in the forces of old age, but in his later years the human being must receive new forces.

The factor of blood is not meant to encompass great communities of human beings in the future. That is the error that is filtering from the East into the dreadful events of today. A war has blazed up under the heading of community of blood among the Slavic peoples. Into these fateful times all those elements are entering of which we have just heard, elements that in reality have in them the right kernel, namely, the instinctive feeling that the spirit self can only manifest in a community where brotherhood prevails. It must not, however, be a community of blood: it must be a community of souls. What grows up as a community of souls is what we develop, in its childhood stage, in our working groups. What holds Eastern Europe so firmly to the group soul, causing it to regard the Slavic group soul as something that it does not want to abandon but, on the contrary, regards as a principle for the whole development of the state—it is this that must be overcome.

A great and terrible symbol stands before the eyes of the world. Think of the two states where the war had its starting-point. On the one side, Russia with the Slavic world in general, declares that the war is based on brotherhood of blood, and on the other side, there is Austria, which comprises thirteen distinct peoples and thirteen different languages. The mobilization order in Austria had to be issued in thirteen languages because Austria encompasses thirteen racial stocks: Germans, Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Rumanians, Magyars, Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians, Slovenes (among whom there is a second and separate dialect), Bosnians, Dalmatians and Italians. Thirteen different racial stocks, apart from all minor differentiations, are united in Austria. Whether the implications of this are understood or not, it is obvious that Austria consists of a collection of human beings among whom community can never be based on blood relationship, for what its strange boundaries contain shoots out into thirteen different lineages. The most highly composite state in Europe stands in opposition to the state that strives most intensively for life in a group soul, or for conformity. But this striving for life in a group soul brings a great many other things in its train. This leads us to another matter, the significance of which we will think about today.

In the public lecture yesterday I mentioned the great philosopher Soloviev, one of the most significant thinkers of all Russia. Soloviev is an eminent thinker, but a thoroughly Russian thinker, a mind that is exceedingly difficult to understand from the Western European point of view. Anthroposophists, however, should study his work and try to understand him. I propose to speak from our more intimate standpoint about Soloviev's main and central idea. Soloviev is far too good a philosopher to adopt for himself without question the principle of life in a group soul. He has difficulties with it and he disagrees in many respects. But one idea predominates in him, not quite consciously it is true, but in such a way that one only wishes he were clairvoyant and could thus anticipate what his soul will have to wait to see on the earth when he is incarnated in the sixth epoch of culture. The following conception that is extremely difficult for the men of West and Central Europe to understand became the main and central idea in Soloviev's mind.

In Western Europe, as a preparation for the sixth epoch, we try among many other things to grasp the meaning of death, the significance of death for life. We try to understand how death is the manifestation of a form of existence, how the soul is transformed in death into another form of existence. We describe the life of a man within his body and the manner of life between death and new birth. We endeavor to understand death, to overcome death by realizing that it is only semblance, that the soul in very truth lives on when it has passed through death. It is an essential aim with us to overcome death through understanding. But here we come to one of the points, indeed to one of the most vital points, where spiritual science deviates altogether from the central idea held by the great Russian thinker, Soloviev. His idea is this: There is evil in the world, wickedness in the world. If we, with our senses, behold the evil and wickedness, we cannot deny that the world is full of both. This, says Soloviev, refutes the divinity of the world, for when we behold the world with our senses, how can we believe in a divine world, since a divine world can certainly not exhibit evil! But the senses perceive evil everywhere and the extreme evil is death. Because death is in the world, the world is revealed in all its evil and wickedness. The arch-evil is death!

Thus does Soloviev characterize the world. He says—and I am quoting almost word for word: Look at the world with your ordinary senses; try to understand the world with your ordinary mind. You can never deny the existence of evil in the world, and to desire to understand death would be absurd! Death exists. Knowledge acquired through the senses reveals a world of wickedness, a world of evil. Can we believe, asks Soloviev, that this world is divine when it shows us that it is full of evil, when it shows us death at every step? Nevermore can we believe that a world that shows us death is a divine world. For in God there can be no evil, no wickedness, above all, not the arch-evil death. In God there cannot be death. If, therefore, God were to come into the world (I am repeating what Soloviev says practically word for word)—if God were to appear, should we be able immediately to believe him to be God? No, we should not! He would have to establish his identity first. If a being claiming to be God were to appear, we should not believe him. He would have to prove his identity by producing something of the nature of a world document that would enable us to recognize him as God! Nothing of the kind exists in the world. God cannot prove his identity through what is in the world, for everything in the world contradicts the divine nature. By what means, then, can he prove his identity? Only by showing, when he comes into the world, that he has conquered death, that death can have no power over him. We should never believe Christ to be God if He did not prove his identity. But Christ did so, inasmuch as He has risen, inasmuch as He has shown that the arch-evil, death, is not in Him.

This is what Soloviev says. It is a consciousness of the divine that is based solely upon the actual, historical resurrection of Christ, Who, as God, proves His identity. Soloviev goes on to say: Nothing in the world, with the single exception of the Resurrection, enables us to realize that a God exists. If Christ had not risen, all our belief would be vain, and everything we could say about a divine nature in the world, this too would be vain. Soloviev quotes these words of St. Paul again and again.

This, then, is the fundamental outlook of Soloviev. If we look at the world we see therein only evil, wickedness, degeneration, senselessness. If Christ had not risen, the world would be meaningless, therefore Christ has risen! Note this sentence well, for it is a cardinal saying of one of the greatest thinkers of Eastern Europe: “If Christ had not risen the world would be senseless, therefore Christ has risen.” Soloviev has said: “There may be people who think it illogical when I say, if Christ had not risen the world would be senseless; therefore Christ has risen—but this is far better logic than any you can adduce against me.”

In this curious example of a document for proving God's divinity, which we find in Soloviev's writings, I have given you a concrete instance of the strangeness of thought in Eastern Europe. Curious thoughts crop up in the attempt to understand by what means God reveals indisputably that he is God. How different it is in the West and in Central Europe! What is the aim of spiritual science? Try to review and to compare what we try to cultivate in spiritual science. What is its aim and direction? It is our desire and aim to recognize out of knowledge that the world has meaning, significance and purpose, and that the world is not filled merely with evil and degeneration. It is our aim to realize through direct knowledge that the world has meaning. By this realization we try to prepare for actual experience of the Christ. We desire to comprehend the living Christ, accepting all these things, of course, as a gift, as grace. We realize the portent of the words: “I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” We accept all that the Christ unceasingly promises us. For He speaks not only through the Gospels; He also speaks within our souls. That is what He means by the words: “I am with you always even unto the end of the world.” Always He can be found as the living Christ. We want to live in Him, to receive Him into ourselves.

“Not I but the Christ in me!” Of all St. Paul's sayings this is the most significant for us. “Not I but the Christ in me.” For thereby we realize: Wherever we may turn, meaning and purpose are revealed. Faust expressed the same truth when he clothed his philosophy in the following words:

Spirit sublime, thou gav'st me, gav'st me all
For which I prayed. Not unto me in vain
Hast thou thy countenance revealed in fire.
Thou gav'st me Nature as a kingdom grand,
With power to feel and to enjoy it. Thou
Not only cold, amazed acquaintance yield'st
But grantest, that in her profoundest breast
I gaze, as in the bosom of a friend.
The ranks of living creatures thou dost lead
Before me, teaching me to know my brothers
In air and water and the silent wood.
And when the storm in forests roars and grinds,
The giant firs, in falling neighbor bough
And neighbor trunks with crushing weight bear down,
And falling, fill the hills with hollow thunders;
Then to the cave secure thou leadest me,
Then show'st me mine own self, and in my breast
The deep mysterious miracles unfold.

These words indicate a spiritual understanding of the outer and the inner worlds, of universal purpose, of the meaning of death itself and the realization that death is the passage from one form of life to another. In seeking the living Christ we also follow Him through death and through the Resurrection. We do not, as the man of Eastern Europe, take the Resurrection as our starting point. We follow the Christ, letting His inspiration now into us, receiving Him into our imaginations. We follow the Christ until death. We follow Him not only by saying: Ex Deo Nascimur, Out of God we are born; but by also saying: In Christo Morimur, In Christ we die.

We scrutinize the world and know that the world itself is the document through which God expresses His divinity. As we try to experience and understand the weaving power of the spiritual, we in the West cannot say that if God were to come into the world we would need a document to establish His identity, but rather we seek for God everywhere, in nature and in the souls of men.

So this Fifth post-Atlantean epoch of civilization needs what we develop and cultivate in our groups. It needs the conscious cultivation of the spiritual aura that still hovers above us, cherished by the spirits of the higher hierarchies, and that will flow into the souls of men when they live in the sixth epoch. It is not our way to turn as in Eastern Europe to the group soul life that is dead, to a form of community that is a mere survival of the old. Our efforts are to cherish and cultivate a living reality from its childhood—such is the community of our groups. It is not our way to look for what speaks in the blood, calling together only those who have blood in common, and to cultivate this in community. Our aim is to call together human beings who resolve to be brothers and sisters, and above whom hovers something that they strive to develop by cultivating spiritual science, feeling the good spirit of brotherhood hovering over and above them.

At the opening of one of our groups, this is the dedicatory thought we will receive into ourselves. Hereby we consecrate a group at its founding. Community and quickening life! We seek for community above us, the living Christ in us, the Christ Who needs no document nor has first to be authenticated because we experience Him within ourselves. At the foundation of a group we will take this as our motto of consecration: Community above us; Christ in us. We know furthermore that if two, or three, or seven, or many are united in this sense in the Name of Christ, the Christ lives in them in very truth. All those who in this sense acknowledge Christ as their Brother, are themselves sisters and brothers. The Christ will recognize as His brother that man who recognizes other men as brothers.

If we are able to receive such words of consecration and carry on our work in accordance with them, the true spirit of our Movement will hold sway in whatever we do. Even in these difficult times, friends from outside have associated themselves with those who have founded the group here. This is always a good custom, for thereby those who are waking in other groups are able to carry to other places the words of consecration. They pledge themselves to think constantly of those who have undertaken in a group to work together in accordance with the true spirit of the Movement. The invisible community, which we should like to found through the manner of our work, will thus grow and prosper. If this attitude, uniting with our work, becomes more and more widespread, we shall put to good account the demands made by spiritual science for the sake of the progress of mankind. Then we may believe that those great masters of wisdom who guide human progress and human knowledge will be with us. To the extent to which you here work in the sense of spiritual science, to that extent I know full well that the great masters who guide our work from the spiritual worlds will be in the midst of your labors.

I call down upon the labors of this group, the power and the grace and the love of those masters of wisdom who guide and direct the work we perform in brotherhood within such groups. I call down the grace and the power and the love of the masters of wisdom who are directly connected with the forces of the higher hierarchies. May there be with this group the spirit of good that is in you, great masters of wisdom, and may there also prevail and work in this group the true spirit of the Movement!

Gemeinsamkeit Über Uns Christus In Uns

Wir haben uns heute hier versammelt, meine lieben Freunde, in erster Linie, um die Feier der Einrichtung jenes Zweiges zu begehen, welcher von unserem lieben Freunde Professor Craemer begründet worden ist, und welcher in der innerhalb unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung gehaltenen Art und Weise seine Kräfte dem geistigen Leben der Gegenwart und der Zukunft weihen will. Bei einer solchen Gelegenheit ist es immer gut, zu gedenken des eigentlichen Sinnes unserer Vereinigung in einzelnen Zweigen, uns zu fragen: Warum schließen wir uns zu Arbeitsgruppen zusammen, und warum pflegen wir innerhalb solcher Arbeitsgruppen das Geistesgut, dem wir unsere Fähigkeiten widmen wollen? Wenn wir uns diese Frage im rechten Sinne beantworten wollen, müssen wir klar darüber sein, daß wir unsere Arbeit, die wir hier leisten, in einer gewissen Weise noch abtrennen, wenn auch nur in Gedanken abtrennen, von der Art und Weise, wie wir uns in bezug auf unsere sonstige Arbeit einrichten.

Derjenige Mensch in unserer Gegenwart, der sich überhaupt mit gewissen intimeren Wahrheiten des geistigen Fortschrittes der Menschheit nicht genau bekanntmachen will, der könnte fragen: Könntet ihr denn nicht, auch ohne daß ihr euch in einzelnen abgeschlossenen Gruppen zusammenschließt, einfach dadurch diese Geisteswissenschaft treiben, daß sich Vortragende dieser Gruppen finden und in ganz freier Weise Menschen, die sich auch nicht besonders kennen, zusammenkommen lassen, sie zusammenrufen, um an ihre Seelen das geistige Gut, von dem ihr sprecht, herangelangen zu lassen? - Selbstverständlich könnten wir auch so verfahren. Aber solange es uns in irgendeiner Weise möglich ist, Verbindungen herzustellen im weiteren und im engeren Sinne von Menschen, die sich kennen, die sich in gewisser Beziehung freundschaftlichst und brüderlichst in diesen Arbeitsgruppen vereinigen, so lange wollen wir dieses aus vollem Bewußtsein unserer mit der Geisteswissenschaft verbundenen Gesinnung heraus tun. Denn es ist nicht umsonst, daß sich bei uns Menschen treffen zur Pflege des intimeren Teiles unseres Geistesgutes, die sich ernst geloben, in brüderlicher Liebe und Eintracht zusammenzusein. Nicht nur, daß es eine gewisse Bedeutung hat für die Art und Weise, wie wir zueinander stehen, wie wir miteinander verkehren, daß wir in ganz anderer Weise sprechen können, wenn wir wissen, wir sprechen zu uns verwandten, mit uns bewußt verbundenen Seelen, nicht nur, daß dies so ist, sondern es ist noch etwas anderes. Wir verrichten in der Tat mit solcher Vereinigung in den einzelnen Zweigen etwas, was innig zusammenhängt mit der ganzen Auffassung, die wir von unserer geistigen Bewegung haben müssen, wenn wir sie im tiefsten Inneren verstehen. Unsere geistige Bewegung muß ja uns alle durchdringen mit dem Bewußtsein, daß sie nicht nur eine Bedeutung hat für dasjenige Dasein, welches die Sinne umfassen können, und für das Dasein, welches der auf das Äußere gerichtete Verstand der Menschen umfassen kann; unsere geistige Bewegung muß sich klar darüber sein, daß unsere Seelen durch sie eine echte und wahre Verbindung mit den geistigen Welten suchen. Wir müssen uns gleichsam mit Bewußtsein immer wieder und wiederum sagen: Indem wir Geisteswissenschaft treiben, versetzen wir in gewissem Sinne unsere Seelen hinein in jene Welten, welche nicht nur Erdenwesen bewohnen, sondern welche als ihren Daseinsort die Wesen der höheren Hierarchien bewohnen, die Wesen der unsichtbaren Welten. Daß wir gewissermaßen darinnen sind und daß unsere Arbeit für diese unsichtbaren Welten eine Bedeutung hat, daß wir in diesen unsichtbaren Welten wirklich darinnen sind — das ist es, was uns bei unserer Arbeit zum vollen Bewußtsein kommen muß. Nun ist es in der Tat so, daß innerhalb der geistigen Welt die geistige Arbeit, die wir verrichten, indem wir, uns kennend, in einzelnen Arbeitsgruppen zusammenarbeiten, eine ganz andere Bedeutung hat, als wenn wir eine solche Arbeit nicht innerhalb solcher Arbeitsgruppen, sondern außerhalb derselben, zerstreut in der Welt leisten würden. Also eine ganz andere Bedeutung für die geistigen Welten als eine Arbeit, die wir sonst leisten könnten, hat die Arbeit, die wir innerhalb unserer Gruppen in brüderlicher Eintracht zusammen leisten. Um das in vollständigem Sinne zu verstehen, müssen wir uns an Bedeutsames erinnern, das uns bei unserem geisteswissenschaftlichen Arbeiten der letzten Jahre in mannigfaltiger Weise vor die Seele hat treten können.

Gedenken wir einmal dessen, daß sich unsere Erdenentwickelung für uns Menschen so vollzogen hat, daß in der nachatlantischen Zeit zuerst diese Erdenentwickelung getragen worden ist von derjenigen Kulturgemeinschaft, die wir die altindische Kulturperiode nennen. Daß dann fortgesetzt worden ist diese Kulturperiode von dem, was wir mit einem mehr oder weniger passenden Ausdruck — darauf kommt es jetzt nicht an - die urpersische Kulturperiode nennen. Dann kam die ägyptisch-chaldäisch-babylonische Kulturperiode, dann die griechisch-lateinische, dann unsere fünfte nachatlantische Kulturperiode. Jede solche Kulturperiode hat auf der einen Seite dasjenige an Kultur und an geistigem Leben besonders zu pflegen, was ihr zunächst für die äußere sichtbare Welt zugeteilt ist. Aber eine jede solche Kulturperiode muß zugleich vorbereiten, gewissermaßen in ihrem Schoße vorbereitend tragen dasjenige, was da kommen soll in der nächstfolgenden Kulturperiode.

Die erste nachatlantische Kulturperiode, die altindische, mußte in ihrem Schoße die urpersische vorbereiten, die urpersische wiederum die ägyptisch-chaldäische und so weiter. Und unsere fünfte nachatlantische Kulturperiode muß die sechste Kulturperiode der nächsten Zeit vorbereiten. Öfter ist es nun gesagt worden, daß es unsere geisteswissenschaftliche Aufgabe ist, durch dasjenige, was wir uns aneignen, nicht nur, was ja ganz recht, aber nicht das einzige ist, Geistesgut für unsere einzelnen Seelen zu gewinnen — das wird uns zugeteilt für das ewige Leben unserer Seele -, aber es ist auch unsere Aufgabe, dasjenige vorzubereiten, was dann die sechste Kulturperiode zu ihrem Inhalte, zu ihrer besonderen äußerlichen Arbeit haben soll. So war es in jeder der einzelnen nachatlantischen Kulturperioden. Und diejenigen Stätten, in welchen immer dasjenige vorbereitet wurde, was für die nächste Kulturperiode das bedeutsame Äußere war, das waren die Mysterienstätten. Das waren diejenigen Vereinigungen von Menschen, in denen anderes gepflegt worden ist, als die äußere Welt pflegt.

Nun wissen Sie auch, daß es bei der ersten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode, bei der altindischen Kulturperiode, vorzüglich darauf ankam, daß durch diese altindische Kultur gepflegt wurde des Menschen Ätherleib, bei der urpersischen der Astralleib, durch die ägyptisch-chaldäische die Empfindungsseele, durch die griechisch-lateinische die Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele. Unsere Kulturperiode pflegt und wird zur Ausbildung bringen bis zu ihrem Ende dasjenige, was man Bewußtseinsseele nennt. Vorbereitet aber muß dasjenige werden, was dann in der sechsten Kulturperiode gewissermaßen den Inhalt, den Charakter der äußeren Kultur abgeben wird. O diese sechste Kulturperiode, sie wird mancherlei Züge in sich tragen, mancherlei Charakterzüge, die sich gar sehr unterscheiden von den Charakterzügen unserer Zeit. Vor allen Dingen können wir drei Charakterzüge hervorheben, von denen wir wissen müssen, daß wir sie als unsere Ideale für die sechste nachatlantische Kulturperiode schon im Herzen tragen müssen, daß wir sie vorzubereiten haben für diese sechste Kulturperiode.

Jetzt ist etwas noch nicht in der Menschengemeinschaft vorhanden, was in der sechsten Kulturperiode da sein wird bei denjenigen Menschen, die gelten werden als solche, die das Ziel der sechsten Kulturperiode erreicht haben, die nicht zurückgeblieben sind hinter diesem Ziele; also nicht innerhalb derer, die in der sechsten Kulturperiode Wilde oder Barbaren sind. Von diesen Bewohnern der Erde in der sechsten Kulturperiode — von denen also, die dann auf der Höhe der Kultur stehen werden - wird einer der wichtigsten Charakterzüge ein gewissermaßen moralischer Charakterzug sein. Jetzt ist noch wenig innerhalb der Menschheit von diesem Charakterzug zu bemerken. Der Mensch muß heute schon feiner organisiert sein, wenn es ihm in der Seele weh tun soll, daß er außer seinem eigenen Dasein andere Menschen in der Welt anschauen, betrachten, sehen muß, denen es schlechter geht als ihm. Gewiß, feiner organisierte Naturen empfinden auch heute schon Leid über das Leid, das über viele Menschen in der Welt ausgegossen ist - aber es müssen eben feiner organisierte Naturen sein. In der sechsten Kulturperiode wird bei denjenigen Menschen, die ganz auf der Höhe dieser Kultur stehen werden, nicht nur jenes Gefühl vorhanden sein, das wir heute als Schmerz empfinden über Elend, Leid und Armut, die verbreitet sind in der Welt, sondern der Mensch wird dann auf der Höhe der Kultur der sechsten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode jedes fremde Leid als sein eigenes Leid empfinden. Wenn er einen Hungernden sieht, wird er den Hunger so lebhaft empfinden bis ins Physische herunter, daß ihm dieser Hunger des andern unerträglich sein wird. Dasjenige, wovon hier angedeutet ist, daß es in der sechsten Kulturperiode nicht mehr so sein wird wie noch in der fünften, daß vielmehr in der sechsten Kulturperiode das Wohl des einzelnen voll abhängen wird von dem Wohl der Gesamtheit, ist ein moralischer Charakterzug. So wie jetzt nur das Wohl eines einzelnen menschlichen Gliedes von der Gesundheit des ganzen Leibes abhängt, und wenn der ganze Mensch nicht gesund ist, sich auch das einzelne Glied nicht aufgelegt fühlt, dieses oder jenes zu tun -, so wird in der sechsten Kulturperiode ein Gemeinsames die dann zivilisierte, die dann kultivierte Menschheit ergreifen, und der einzelne wird in viel höherem Maße, wie ein Glied des Ganzen, das Leiden, die ganze Not, die ganze Armut oder den Reichtum mitempfinden. Das ist der erste, vorzugsweise moralische Wesenszug, der die zivilisierte Menschheit der sechsten Kulturperiode charakterisieren wird.

Ein zweiter Grundzug wird dann sein, daß all dasjenige, was wir heute Glaubensgüter nennen, in einem viel, viel höheren Maße abhängen wird von der Individualität des einzelnen, als das heute der Fall ist. Die Geisteswissenschaft drückt das so aus, daß auf jeglichem religiösen Gebiet in der sechsten Kulturperiode vollständige Gedankenfreiheit und Sehnsucht nach der Gedankenfreiheit die Menschen ergreifen werden, so daß all dasjenige, was ein Mensch glauben will, wovon ein Mensch namentlich in religiöser Beziehung überzeugt sein will, in die Kraft seiner Individualität gestellt sein wird. Glaubenszusammenhang, wie er heute noch so vielfach existiert, Glaubenszusammenhang, der in der verschiedensten Weise unter den einzelnen Menschengemeinschaften herrscht, wird in dem Teile der Menschheit in der sechsten Kulturperiode, der dann der zivilisierte sein wird, nicht mehr herrschen. Jeder wird als notwendige Eigentümlichkeit der Menschen empfinden, daß auf religiösem Gebiet vollständige Gedankenfreiheit herrscht.

Und das dritte wird sein, daß die Menschen in der sechsten Kulturperiode Erkenntnisse überhaupt nur zu haben vermeinen werden, wenn sie Geistiges erkennen, wenn sie erkennen, daß in der Welt das Geistige ausgebreitet ist und daß die Menschenseelen sich mit dem Geistigen verbinden müssen. Was man heute Wissenschaft nennt, und was als Wissenschaft eine materialistische Färbung trägt, wird in der sechsten Kulturperiode gar nicht mehr Wissenschaft heißen. Das wird man betrachten als einen alten Aberglauben, der nur denjenigen Menschen eigentümlich sein kann, die auf der Stufe der fünften, dann überstandenen nachatlantischen Kulturperiode zurückgeblieben sind. Heute betrachten wir es als alten Aberglauben, sagen wir, wenn der Neger meint, daß kein Glied seines Leibes nach seinem Tode abgetrennt werden dürfe von seinem Leibe, weil er dann nicht als ein ganzer Mensch in die geistige Welt eintreten könne. Es verknüpft heute noch der Neger den Unsterblichkeitsgedanken mit reinem Materialismus, mit dem Glauben nämlich, daß irgendein Abdruck seiner gesamten Form in die geistige Welt eingehen müsse. Wie er also im Grunde materialistisch denkt, aber an Unsterblichkeit glaubt, während wir heute, da wir aus unserer Geisteswissenschaft wissen, daß wir das Geistige vom Leibe zu trennen haben und daß nur das Geistige in die übersinnliche Welt eingeht, wie wir heute jenen materialistischen Unsterblichkeitsglauben als einen Aberglauben betrachten müssen, so wird aller materialistischer Glaube, auch in der Wissenschaft, in der sechsten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode als alter Aberglaube da sein. Und als Wissenschaft wird ganz selbstverständlich für die Menschen nur dasjenige gelten, was, wie die Geisteswissenschaft sagt, Pneumatologie, Geistiges zur Grundlage hat.

Sie sehen, unsere Geisteswissenschaft ist ganz darauf angelegt, die Dinge, die eben genannt worden sind, für die sechste Kulturperiode vorzubereiten. Wir versuchen, Geisteswissenschaft zu pflegen, um den Materialismus zu überwinden, um vorzubereiten dasjenige, was in der sechsten Kulturperiode an Wissenschaft da sein muß. Wir begründen Menschengemeinschaften, in denen gar nichts herrschen darf von irgendeinem Autoritätsglauben, von Anerkennung einer Lehre, nur weil sie von der einen oder andern Persönlichkeit geliefert wird. Wir begründen Menschengemeinschaften, in denen alles, alles gebaut sein muß auf die freie Zustimmung der Seele zu den Lehren. Damit bereiten wir dasjenige vor, was die Geisteswissenschaft Gedankenfreiheit nennt. Und dadurch, daß wir uns zusammenschließen, uns in brüderlichen Vereinigungen verbinden, um unsere Geisteswissenschaft zu treiben, bereiten wir dasjenige vor, was als Kultur, als Zivilisation die sechste nachatlantische Kulturperiode durchdringen soll.

Aber noch tiefer müssen wir in den Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung hineinschauen, wenn wir ganz verstehen wollen, um was es sich bei unseren brüderlichen Vereinigungen eigentlich handelt. In der ersten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode hat man auch in Gemeinschaften, die dazumal ihren Mysteriencharakter hatten, dasjenige gepflegt, was dann in der zweiten Kulturperiode herrschte. Das heißt, man hat schon in den besonderen Vereinigungen der ersten nachatlantischen, der urindischen Kulturperiode dasjenige gepflegt, was dann herrschen sollte als Pflege des Astralleibes. Es würde viel zu weit führen, wollte man heute beschreiben, was in diesen besonderen Vereinigungen des alten Indien gepflegt worden ist, abweichend von dem, was äußere altindische Kultur war, um vorzubereiten die urpersische Kulturepoche. Aber das soll gesagt werden, wenn sich diese Menschen der altindischen Kulturperiode vereinigten, um das vorzubereiten, was für die zweite Kulturperiode vorzubereiten war, dann fühlten sie: Das ist noch nicht erreicht, das ist noch nicht bei uns, was bei uns sein wird, wenn unsere Seelen in der nächsten Kulturperiode wiederverkörpert sein werden. Das schwebt gleichsam noch über uns. — Und so ist es auch. In dieser ersten Kulturperiode war das, was in der zweiten erst, man möchte sagen, vom Himmel auf die Erde heruntersteigen sollte, noch über den Seelen schwebend. Und die Arbeit wurde so eingerichtet, daß die Geister der höheren Hierarchien durch die Arbeit, welche die Menschen auf der Erde in engeren Vereinigungen, in Mysterienvereinigungen verrichteten, heraufflieBend hatten Kräfte, durch die sie pflegen konnten dasjenige, was dann als Inhalt des Astralleibes in die Seelen der Menschen in der zweiten, der urpersischen Kulturperiode herunterströmen sollte. Man möchte sagen, als kleine Kinder waren sie noch vorhanden, die Kräfte, welche dann, etwas erwachsen, herabstiegen in die Seelen, die in altpersischen Leibern verkörpert waren. Oben in der geistigen Welt empfingen sie die Kräfte von der Menschenarbeit, die von unten heraufströmten, vorbereitend die nächste Kulturperiode, und durch diese Kräfte wurden herangepflegt jene Kräfte, die dann herunterströmen sollten. Und so muß es in jeder weiteren Kulturperiode sein.

In unserer Kulturperiode muß es so sein, daß wir uns bewußt werden: Das, was sich in uns durch die gewöhnliche Zivilisation, durch die gewöhnliche Kultur ausgebildet hat, muß die Bewußtseinsseele sein; das muß dasjenige sein, was seit dem 14., 15., 16. Jahrhundert angefangen hat, als Wissenschaft, als äußeres materialistisches Bewußtsein die Menschen zu ergreifen, was sich immer weiter und “weiter ausbreiten wird, und was nach Ablauf der fünften Kulturperiode, bis an das Ende der fünften Kulturperiode sich ganz und gar durchentwickelt haben wird. Dasjenige aber, was die sechste Kulturperiode ergreifen muß, muß das Geistselbst sein. Das Geistselbst muß dann in den Seelen darinnen selber ausgebildet werden, wie jetzt die Bewußtseinsseele ausgebildet wird. Das ist aber die Eigentümlichkeit des Geistselbst, daß es diese drei Charakterzüge, von denen ich gesprochen habe, in den Menschenseelen voraussetzt, wie Geisteswissenschaft es sagt: Brüderliches soziales Zusammenleben, Gedankenfreiheit und Pneumatologie. Eine Menschengemeinschaft, innerhalb welcher das Geistselbst so ausgebildet wird wie in unseren Seelen der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode durch die äußere Kultur die Bewußtseinsseele, braucht eben diese Charakterzüge. Daher dürfen wir uns vorstellen, daß dadurch, daß wir uns in Arbeitsgruppen brüderlich vereinigen, unsichtbar über unserer Arbeit schwebt dasjenige, was wie das Kind jener Kräfte ist, welche die Kräfte des Geistselbst sind, das von den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien gepflegt wird, damit es dann herunterströmen kann in unsere Seelen, wenn sie wieder da sein werden in der sechsten Kulturperiode. Arbeit leisten wir in unseren brüderlichen Arbeitsgruppen, die heraufströmt zu den für das Geistselbst vorbereitet werdenden Kräften.

So sehen Sie, wie wir im Grunde nur aus dem Weisheitsgut unserer Geisteswissenschaft heraus verstehen können, was wir eigentlich in bezug auf unseren Zusammenhang mit den höheren, den geistigen Welten tun, wenn wir uns in solchen Arbeitsgruppen vereinigen. Und der Gedanke, daß wir solches tun, daß wir die Arbeit, die wir in unseren Arbeitsgruppen verrichten, nicht allein um unserer Egoität willen verrichten, sondern daß wir sie verrichten dafür, daß sie hinaufströme in geistige Welten, der Gedanke an dieses Arbeiten im Zusammenhang mit den geistigen Welten gibt einem Arbeitszweige die rechte Weihe. Und indem wir einen solchen Gedanken hegen, durchdringen wir uns mit dem Weihegedanken, der eine solche Arbeitsgruppe innerhalb unserer geistigen Bewegung begründet. Daher ist es von einer besonderen Bedeutung, daß wir diese Tatsache so recht geistig erfassen. Wir finden uns in Arbeitsgruppen zusammen, welche neben dem, daß sie Geisteswissenschaft, pneumatologische Wissenschaft treiben, neben dem, daß sie auf Gedankenfreiheit aufgebaut sein wollen und nichts von einem Dogma, nichts von einem Glaubenszwang kennen, ihre Arbeit tauchen in brüderliches Zusammenarbeiten. Darauf kommt es an, daß wir diesen Gemeinschaftsgedanken in der richtigen Weise wirklich in unser Bewußtsein aufnehmen, daß wir uns gewissermaßen sagen: Außer dem, daß wir als gegenwärtige Seelen angehören der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode und da ganz individuell uns entwickeln, immer mehr und mehr das Einzelpersönliche herausholen aus dem Gemeinschaftsleben, müssen wir wiederum eine höhere Gemeinschaft, die wir auf freie brüderliche Liebe begründen, wie den Zauberhauch empfinden, den wir einatmen in unseren Arbeitsgruppen.

Das ist die ganz tiefe Bedeutung der westeuropäischen Kultur: daß die Bewußtseinsseele gesucht werden soll innerhalb der fünften nachatlantischen Kultur. Es ist die Aufgabe der westeuropäischen und ganz besonders der mitteleuropäischen Kultur, daß die Menschen immer mehr und mehr in ihrer Seele eine individuelle Kultur, ein individuelles Bewußtsein entwickeln. Darauf kommt es an in der Gegenwart. Wir können vergleichen diese unsere Kulturperiode mit der griechischen, der römischen. In der griechischen Kulturperiode, da sehen wir es besonders auffällig: es herrscht noch ganz besonders Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit, ein Bewußtsein von einer Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit gerade bei den zivilisierten Griechen. Derjenige, der in Athen lebte und geboren war, fühlte sich vor allen Dingen als Athener. Diese Gemeinschaft der Stadt mit dem, was dazugehört, hatte eine andere Bedeutung für den einzelnen Menschen als heute eine menschliche Gemeinschaft. Heute will der Mensch herauswachsen aus der Gemeinschaft, und das ist die richtige Aufgabe der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode. In Rom war der Mensch vor allen Dingen nicht etwas anderes als römischer Bürger; das war dasjenige, was er in erster Linie war. Die Zeit aber ist heraufgestiegen in der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode, wo wir vor allen Dingen Mensch sein wollen, Mensch und nichts als Mensch in unserem innersten Wesen.

Was uns heute so schmerzlich erleben läßt, wie die Menschen gegeneinanderstreben auf der Erde, ist ja nur eine Reaktion auf das unablässige Streben der fünften Kulturperiode nach freier Ausbildung des allgemein Menschlichen. Durch die feindselige Abschließung der einzelnen Länder und Völkerschaften heute soll nur um so mehr im Widerstand die Kraft entwickelt werden, die den Menschen vor allen Dingen ganz Mensch sein läßt, die Kräfte, die den Menschen herauswachsen lassen aus jeglicher Art von Gemeinschaft. Dafür aber muß er vorbereiten wiederum Gemeinschaften, die auf vollem Bewußtsein aufgebaut sind, in die er in der sechsten Kulturperiode frei eintreten wird, die er sich ganz allein selber auferlegt. Wie ein hohes Ideal schwebt vor uns diese Gemeinschaft, die die sechste Kulturperiode so umschließen wird, daß sich die zivilisierten Menschen selbstverständlich, aus ihrer Seele heraus wie Brüder und Schwestern gegenüberstehen werden.

Wir wissen nun eines aus den zahlreichen Vorträgen, die in den verflossenen Jahren gehalten worden sind: daß im Osten Europas ein Volk lebt, welches insbesondere dazu berufen sein wird, dasjenige, was an elementaren Kräften in ihm ist, erst in der sechsten Kulturperiode zur besonderen Ausprägung zu bringen. Wir wissen, daß das russische Volk erst in der sechsten Kulturperiode reif sein wird, die Kräfte, die in ihm heute elementar vorhanden sind, zur Ausprägung zu bringen. West- und Mitteleuropa ist dazu berufen, dasjenige in die Menschenseelen hineinzubringen, was durch die Bewußtseinsseele hineingebracht werden kann. Dazu ist der Osten nicht berufen. Der Osten Europas wird warten müssen, bis das Geistselbst herabsteigt auf die Erde und die Menschenseelen durchdringen kann. Das ist oftmals erwähnt worden; wir müssen es im rechten Sinne verstehen. Im unrechten Sinne verstanden, kann es sehr leicht zu Hochmut und zu Überhebung gerade im Osten führen. Die Höhe der nachatlantischen Kultur ist schon in der fünften nachatlantischen Kulturperiode zu erreichen. Dasjenige, was folgen wird in der sechsten und siebenten Kulturperiode, das wird eine absteigende Entwickelung sein. Dennoch aber wird es so sein, daß diese absteigende Kulturentwickelung in der sechsten Kulturperiode inspiriert sein wird, durchdrungen sein wird von dem Geistselbst. Heute fühlt instinktiv, aber man möchte sagen, oftmals recht verkehrt instinktiv, der Mensch des Ostens, derjenige, der von den Geistern des Ostens selbst «der russische Mensch» genannt wird, er fühlt, daß das mit ihm so steht; er hat nur meistens ein höchst unklares Bewußtsein davon. Schon charakteristisch ist es, daß so vielfach heraufkommen konnte dieser Ausdruck «der russische Mensch». In der Sprache herrscht ein Genius, wenn so etwas aus der Sprache herausgeholt wird und man nicht sagt, wie im Westen: der Brite, der Franzose, der Italiener, der Deutsche, sondern «der russische Mensch». Und viele der russischen Intellektuellen legen einen Wert darauf, daß immer gesagt werde «der russische Mensch». Das liegt tief begründet in dem ganzen Genius der entsprechenden Kultur. Man meint schon dasjenige, was sich als Menschentum, gleichsam als Brüderlichkeit über eine Gemeinsamkeit ausbreitet. Man will es andeuten dadurch, daß man eben das Menschsein im Ausdruck gebraucht. Aber man zeigt zugleich, daß man noch nicht auf der vollen Höhe ist, die man zu erreichen hat in ferner Zukunft, indem man dazusetzt etwas, was im Grunde grell widersprechend ist dem Hauptwort. Der «russische» Mensch: man nimmt gleichsam imEigenschaftswort das zurück, was man im Hauptwort ausspricht. Denn wenn das Menschentum erreicht werden soll, so darf es kein solches Eigenschaftswort haben, welches dieses Menschentum ja wiederum zu etwas Ausschließendem macht.

Aber noch viel, viel tiefer ist gegenwärtig gerade in den Mitgliedern der russischen Intelligenz das darinnen begründet, daß eine gewisse, in der Zukunft zu verstehende Gemeinschaftlichkeitsidee, eine Brüderlichkeitsidee herrschen müsse. In dieser Beziehung fühlt die russische Seele schon: Das Geistselbst soll einmal herabsteigen, es kann aber nur herabsteigen in eine Menschengemeinschaft, welche von Brüderlichkeit durchdrungen ist. Niemals kann es sich ausbreiten in einer Menschengemeinschaft, die nicht von Brüderlichkeit durchdrungen ist. Deshalb ist es, daß die russischen Intellektuellen, wie sie sich nennen, dem Westen Europas und auch Mitteleuropa folgenden Vorwurf machen. Sie sagen: Ihr achtet ja gar nicht auf dasjenige, was echtes Gemeinschaftsleben ist, ihr pflegt nur den Individualismus. Jeder will ein Eigener sein, jeder will nur eine Individualität sein. Ihr treibt das Persönliche, durch das sich jeder einzelne Mensch als Selbst, als Individualität fühlt, auf die höchste Spitze. — Das ist dasjenige, was in sehr vielen Vorwürfen in bezug auf Barbarei und so weiter Mitteleuropa und Westeuropa vom Osten her entgegentönt. Und diejenigen, die sich bewußt werden wollen über das, was da eigentlich vorliegt, sagen: Dieses ganze West- und Mitteleuropa hat schon alles Gefühl für menschliche Zusammenhänge verloren. Und indem man jetzt Gegenwart und Zukunft verwechselt, sagt man: Wirkliche menschliche Zusammenhänge, wo sich jeder als der Bruder des andern fühlt, wo sich derjenige, der über dem andern steht, fühlt als dessen «Väterchen» und «Mütterchen», wirkliches menschliches Gemeinschaftsleben ist nur in Rußland. - So sagt die russische Intelligenz. Und sie sagt, deshalb hat es das westeuropäische Christentum nicht zustande gebracht, das wirkliche menschliche Gemeinschaftswesen zu pflegen. Der Russe kennt noch, so sagen sie, die Gemeinschaft. Und ein solcher ausgezeichneter russischer Intellektueller wie der im 19. Jahrhundert lebende Alexander Herzen kam, als auf die letzte Konsequenz, dazu, zu sagen: In Westeuropa kann niemals Glück entstehen. Was man auch für Versuche machen mag in der westeuropäischen Kultur und Zivilisation, niemals wird da Glück entstehen. Niemals wird die Menschheit zufrieden sein können. Da kann nur das Chaos herrschen. Der einzige Segen liegt im russischen Wesen, wo die Menschen sich noch nicht von der Gemeinschaft getrennt haben, wo sie in ihren Dorfgemeinden noch etwas haben wie Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit, an dem sie festhalten.

Was wir Gruppenseele nennen, aus dem sich die Menschheit nach und nach herausgearbeitet hat und in dem noch ganz und gar die Tierheit drinnen lebt, das verehren gerade die russischen Intellektuellen bei ihrem Volk als etwas besonders Großes und Bedeutsames. Sie können sich nicht erheben zu dem Gedanken, daß die Zukunftsgemeinschaftlichkeit als hohes Ideal vorschweben soll, ein Ideal, das erst geltend gemacht werden muß. Sie halten an dem Gedanken fest: Schauen wir, was uns als den letzten in Europa geblieben ist! Die andern haben schon sich herausgehoben aus der Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit, wir haben sie uns noch bewahrt; wir müssen sie uns bewahren. — Diese Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit wird in Wirklichkeit gar nicht sein dürfen für die Zukunft, denn das ist die alte Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit. Es würde nur eine luziferische Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit, eine auf früherer Stufe zurückgebliebene Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit sein, während die wahre, die zu erstrebende Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit diejenige ist, die wir innerhalb unserer Geisteswissenschaft suchen. Aber gerade an dem Drang und der Sehnsucht der russischen Menschen, namentlich der Intellektuellen, ist zu erkennen, wie man zum Herabsteigen des Geistselbst den Geist der Gemeinschaft braucht. Wie er dort nur auf falschem Wege gesucht wird, so muß er in unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Strömung auf rechtem Wege gesucht werden. Und wir möchten hinüberrufen nach dem Osten: Gerade das müssen wir bis ins Äußerste überwinden, was ihr auf äußere Art zu bewahren sucht: die alte luziferisch-ahrimanische Gemeinschaft. — Die Gemeinschaftlichkeit luziferischer und ahrimanischer Art, sie wird einen so festen Glaubenszwang haben, wie ihn begründen mußte die orthodox gebliebene katholische Kirche in Rußland. Diese Gemeinschaftlichkeit wird nicht verstehen, was Gedankenfreiheit ist, und sie wird am allerwenigsten sich zur völligen Individualität und doch zum sozialen brüderlichen Zusammenleben heraufschwingen können. Daher möchte sie das bewahren, was in Blutsbrüderschaft geblieben ist, in bloßer Zusammengehörigkeit durch das Blut. Eine Gemeinschaft, die sich nicht auf das Blut, sondern auf den Geist, auf die Gemeinschaft der Seelen gründet, das ist, was angestrebt werden muß auf geisteswissenschaftlichem Wege. Und das ist es, was wir anstreben, indem wir uns sagen: Gemeinschaften müssen wir anstreben, in denen das Blut nicht mehr spricht. Es wird fortbestehen selbstverständlich, das Blut, es wird in Familienzusammenhängen sich ausleben — was bleiben muß, das wird nicht ausgerottet, aber etwas Neues muß entstehen! Das, was in dem Kind bedeutsam ist, wird in den Greisenkräften erhalten sein, aber der Mensch muß im späteren Lebensalter Neues hinzubekommen.

Dasjenige, was das Blut bringt, darf nicht so umgedeutet werden, als ob es die großen Menschengemeinschaften der Zukunft umfassen würde, Das ist der große Irrtum, der vom Osten in die heutigen blutigen Ereignisse hineinspielt, daß man einen Krieg entbrannt hat unter dem Titel einer Gemeinschaft des Blutes der slawischen Völker. Da spielt in unsere schicksaltragende Zeit all dasjenige hinein, was jetzt eben auseinandergesetzt worden ist, was aber im Grunde wiederum den richtigen Kern in sich enthält, nämlich das instinktive Fühlen: das Geistselbst kann nur in einer brüderlichen Gemeinschaft erscheinen. Es darf aber nicht eine Gemeinschaft des Blutes sein, sondern es muß eine Gemeinschaft der Seelen sein. Was dann erwächst als Gemeinschaft der Seelen, was das sein soll, das pflegen wir in seiner Kindhaftigkeit in unseren Arbeitsgemeinschaften, in unseren Zweigen. Dasjenige, was so wie der Osten Europas an der Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit festhält, indem er zum Beispiel die slawische Gruppenseele als etwas bezeichnet, aus dem er nicht heraus will, das er im Gegenteil zum umfassenden Prinzip für seine ganze Staatenbildung ansehen will, das ist etwas, was gerade überwunden werden muß.

Wie ein großes Symbolum steht es da, wie ein ungeheures Symbolum, daß die beiden Staaten, von denen der Krieg ausgegangen ist, auf der einen Seite Blutsbrüderschaft als den Grund des Krieges angeben — Rußland mit dem gesamten Slawentum -, und der andere Staat, der dem gegenübersteht, dreizehn offizielle Völkerschaften und dreizehn Staatssprachen hat. Der Mobilisationsbefehl in Österreich mußte in dreizehn Sprachen ausgestellt werden, weil dreizehn Völkerschaften in Österreich vereinigt sind: Deutsche, Tschechen, Polen, Ruthenen, Rumänen, Magyaren, Slowaken, Serben, Kroaten, Slowenen — dazu noch eine besondere Slowenen-Vulgärsprache -, Bosnier, Dalmatiner und Italiener. So sind dreizehn verschiedene Stämme, von allen kleinen Differenzierungen abgesehen, in Österreich vereinigt. Ob man das nun einsieht oder nicht, das zeigt, daß dieses Österreich aus einem Zusammenhang von Menschen besteht, wo die Gemeinsamkeit niemals begründet werden kann auf Blutsbrüderschaft, denn in dreizehn verschiedenen Geblüten entsprießt dasjenige, was in dieser eigentümlichen Grenze herrscht. Man möchte sagen, der am meisten zusammengesetzte Staat Europas steht gegenüber dem Staate, der am meisten nach Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit strebt oder nach Konformität. |

Aber dieses Streben nach Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit zieht manches andere noch nach sich. Und da kommen wir nun noch auf etwas weiteres, an das wir uns heute bedeutungsvoll erinnern mögen. Ich habe auch schon gestern im öffentlichen Vortrag als einen der bedeutendsten Geister des ganzen Rußland den großen Philosophen Solowjow genannt. Solowjow ist wirklich ein hervorragender Geist, aber ein ganz russischer Geist. Ein Geist, der außerordentlich schwierig zu verstehen ist vom westeuropäischen Gesichtspunkte aus. Aber Anthroposophen sollten ihn kennenlernen. Diejenigen, die auf dem Boden der Geisteswissenschaft stehen, sollten ihn kennenlernen, sie sollten sich zu einem gewissen Verständnis Solowjows hinaufschwingen können. Nun will ich eine, ich möchte sagen, die Haupt- und Zentralidee Solowjows einmal von unserem intimen Gesichtspunkte aus vor Ihre Seelen bringen. Solowjow ist viel zu sehr Philosoph, als daß er so ganz ohne weiteres die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit wirklich für sich annehmen könnte. Die Sache macht ihm Schwierigkeiten, und er kommt in mancherlei Widersprüche hinein. Aber von einer Idee ist er nicht ganz vollbewußt beherrscht, so beherrscht, daß man sagen muß: Ach, wenn dieser Solowjow nur ganz hellsichtig wäre, daß er vorausnehmen könnte dasjenige, was seine Seele erst einsehen wird auf der Erde, wenn sie in der sechsten Kulturperiode inkarniert sein wird!

Die Idee, die dem Westeuropäer in ihrem Ausgangspunkt recht schwer verständlich ist, selbstverständlich auch dem Mitteleuropäer, wurde zu einer Haupt- und Zentralidee bei Solowjow. Das ist die folgende. Wir in Westeuropa suchen gerade in dem, was wir als die Vorbereitung für die sechste Kulturperiode pflegen, unter vielem andern, den Tod zu begreifen in seiner Bedeutung für das Leben. Wir versuchen zu verstehen, wie der Tod das Erscheinen einer Daseinsform ist, wie die Seele sich im Tode verwandelt in eine andere Daseinsform. Wir schildern, wie der Mensch lebt in seinem Leibe, und was er für ein Leben führt zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Wir suchen den Tod zu verstehen. Wir suchen den Tod zu überwinden, indem wir ihn verstehen, indem wir zeigen, daß er nur ein Schein ist, daß die Seele in Wahrheit lebt, indem sie durch den Tod geht. Aber das ist uns mit eine Hauptsache, daß wir den Tod durch das Verstehen zu überwinden suchen.

Da stehen wir aber zum Beispiel auf einem der Punkte, und zwar gerade einem der hauptsächlichsten Punkte, wo sich geisteswissenschaftliches Streben ganz und gar differenziert von dem, was Solowjow, der große russische Geist, als seine Idee hat: Es gibt Übel in der Welt, es gibt Böses in der Welt. Das Böse in der Welt, die Übel sind da. Schauen wir mit unseren Sinnen die Übel, das Böse an, dann können wir nicht leugnen, daß die Welt voll von Bösem ist. Das spricht dagegen, sagt Solowjow, daß die Welt göttlich ist. Denn wie kann man, wenn man die Welt mit seinen Sinnen anschaut, an eine göttliche Welt glauben, da eine göttliche Welt doch nicht das Böse darstellen kann! Aber die Sinne sehen es überall, das Böse, und das ärgste Böse ist der Tod. Dadurch, daß der Tod in der Welt ist, zeigt sich die Welt in ihrer ganzen Bösheit, in ihrem ganzen Übel. Das Urübel ist der Tod.

Das ist die Weltcharakteristik von Solowjow. Er sagt - ich zitiere fast wörtlich —: Schaut nur die Welt an mit euren bloßen Sinnen! Versucht nur zu begreifen die Welt mit eurem bloßen Verstande. Da könnt ihr niemals die Übel in der Welt wegleugnen. Und den Tod verstehen zu wollen, wäre absurd! Der Tod ist da. Er zeigt sich. Niemals kann eine Sinnerierkenntnis den Tod erkennen. Daher zeigt die Sinnenerkenntnis eine böse Welt, eine Welt der Übel. Können wir nun glauben - sagt Solowjow -, daß diese Welt göttlich ist, wenn sie uns zeigt, daß sie voller Übel ist? Wenn sie uns den Tod auf Schritt und Tritt zeigt? Nimmermehr können wir glauben, daß diese Welt eine göttliche ist, die uns den Tod zeigt. Denn in Gott können nicht Übel, kann nicht das Böse sein, kann vor allen Dingen nicht das Urübel, das Urböse sein. In Gott kann nicht der Tod sein. Wenn also Gott in die Welt käme - ich wiederhole fast wörtlich, was Solowjow sagt -, wenn Gott in die Welt käme, wenn er in der Welt erschiene, könnten wir ihm so ohne weiteres glauben,.daß er Gott sei? Nein, wir könnten Gott nicht ohne weiteres glauben, daß er Gott sei! Er müßte sich erst legitimieren! Wenn ein Wesen käme und behauptete, es wäre Gott, dann würden wir ihm nicht glauben. Dann müßte es sich erst legitimieren. Es müßte erst etwas aufweisen — so spricht Solowjow — wie ein Weltdokument, etwas, wodurch wir erkennen können: Das ist Gott! Und so etwas können wir in der Welt nicht finden. Gott kann sich durch das, was in der Welt ist, nicht legitimieren, denn das alles, was in der Welt ist, widerspricht dem Göttlichen. Wodurch also kann er sich legitimieren? Dadurch allein kann er sich legitimieren, daß er, wenn er auf die Welt kommt, zeigt, daß er Sieger über den Tod ist, daß der Tod ihm nichts anhaben kann. Wir würden niemals glauben, daß der Christus Gott ist, wenn er sich nicht legitimierte. Und er hat es getan, indem er auferstanden ist, indem er gezeigt hat, daß das Urübel, der Tod, nicht in ihm ist. -— Also da haben wir ein Gottbewußtsein, das sich aufbaut nur auf einer wirklichen, historischen Auferstehung des Christus, die den Gott legitimiert als Gott. Nichts in der Welt als die Auferstehung läßt uns erkennen, daß es einen Gott gibt. Wäre Christus nicht auferstanden — dieser Paulus-Spruch ist es hauptsächlich, den Solowjow immer wieder anführt -, so wäre all unser Glaube eitel. Und eitel wäre alles, was wir sagen können über ein Göttliches in der Welt.

Daher der Satz Solowjows: Schauen wir die Welt an, so sehen wir in der Welt überall nur Übel und Böses und Verwesung und Sinnlosigkeit. Wäre Christus nicht auferstanden, so wäre die Welt sinnlos. Also ist der Christus auferstanden! — Merken Sie wohl diesen Satz! Denn dieser Satz, er ist ein Kardinalsatz eines der größten Geister des Ostens! Wäre Christus nicht auferstanden, so wäre die Welt sinnlos. Also ist der Christus auferstanden! — Solowjow hat gesagt: Es mag Leute geben, die glauben, es wäre nicht logisch, wenn ich sage: Wäre Christus nicht auferstanden, so wäre die Welt sinnlos; also ist er auferstanden! — Das ist aber eine viel bessere Logik — meint Solowjow -, als alle Logik, die ihr mir entgegenhalten könnt!

Ich habe Ihnen im Konkteten, gerade an diesem eigentümlichen Fordern eines Dokumentes für die Göttlichkeit von dem Gott, bei Solowjow gezeigt, wie eigentümlich im Osten die Gedanken sind; wie eigentümlich die Gedanken sich hinaufranken, um dasjenige, wodurch der Gott unmittelbar zeigt, daß er der Gott ist, einmal zu ergreifen. Wie anders ist es im Westen, wie anders in Mitteleuropa! Wofür wenden wir geisteswissenschaftliches Streben auf? Versuchen Sie zu vergleichen und zu überblicken all dasjenige, was wir in der Geisteswissenschaft treiben! Was hat es denn für ein Ziel, worauf wollen wir denn hinaus? Wir wollen aus dem Wissen, aus der Erkenntnis heraus, so daß wir es einsehen können, in der Welt erkennen, daß die Welt einen Sinn hat, daß die Welt Bedeutung hat, daß nicht bloß Übel und Verwesung in ihr sind. Unmittelbar durch die Erkenntnis wollen wir begreifen, daß die Welt einen Sinn hat. Und wir wollen uns gerade vorbereiten dadurch, daß wir begreifen, daß die Welt einen Sinn hat, für ein Miterleben der Christus-Wesenheit. Wir wollen den lebendigen Christus erfassen. Allerdings als eine Gabe, als eine Gnade des Christus wollen wir all das entgegennehmen. Wir wissen, daß es so ist, was uns gegeben werden kann nach dem Ausspruch: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an das Ende der Welt.» Wir wollen entgegennehmen all dasjenige, was uns der Christus fortwährend verspricht. Denn nicht bloß durch die Evangelien spricht er, sondern auch in unseren Seelen. Das meint er mit dem Ausspruch: «Ich bin bei euch alle Tage bis an das Ende der Welt.» Immer kann er gefunden werden als der lebendige Christus. Wir wollen in ihm leben, ihn in uns aufnehmen: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir!» Das ist unser hauptsächlichster Paulinischer Ausspruch: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir!» Damit wir durch ihn sehen: Überall, wo wir hinkommen, ist Sinn! Faust schon wollte das sagen, indem er seine ganze Weltanschauung in den Worten aussprach:

Erhabner Geist, du gabst mir, gabst mir alles,
Warum ich bat. Du hast mir nicht umsonst
Dein Angesicht im Feuer zugewendet.
Gabst mir die herrliche Natur zum Königreich,
Kraft, sie zu fühlen, zu genießen. Nicht
Kalt staunenden Besuch erlaubst du nur,
Vergönnest mir, in ihre tiefe Brust
Wie in den Busen eines Freunds zu schauen.
Du führst die Reihe der Lebendigen
Vor mir vorbei und lehrst mich meine Brüder
Im stillen Busch, in Luft und Wasser kennen.
Und wenn der Sturm im Walde braust und knatrrt,
Die Riesenfichte, stürzend, Nachbaräste
Und Nachbarstäimme quetschend, niederstreift,
Und ihrem Fall dumpf hohl der Hügel donnert,
Dann führst du mich zur sichern Höhle, zeigst
Mich dann mir selbst, und meiner eignen Brust
Geheime tiefe Wunder öffnen sich.

Äußeres und Inneres geistig erfassen, Sinn überall erfassen, den Tod selbst sinnvoll erfassen, daß er der Durchgang ist von einer Lebensform zur andern Lebensform! Und indem wir also den lebendigen Christus suchen, dann — den lebendigen Christus suchend - folgen wir ihm auch durch den Tod und durch die Auferstehung hindurch. Wir gehen nicht von der Auferstehung aus, wie der osteuropäische Mensch. Wir folgen dem Christus, von dem wir uns inspirieren lassen, dem Christus, den wir hineinnehmen in unsere Imaginationen. Wir folgen dem Christus bis zum Tode. Wir folgen ihm nicht nur, indem wir sagen: Ex deo nascimur -, sondern indem wir sagen: In Christo morimur. — Wir verfolgen die Welt und wissen, daß die Welt das Dokument ist, durch das Gott seine Göttlichkeit ausspricht. Wir können im Westen nicht sagen, indem wir erleben und erfassen wollen das geistige Weben und Walten: Wir brauchen ein Dokument, wenn Gott in die Welt hineinkommt und sich ausweisen soll -, sondern wir suchen überall den Gott. In der Natur und in den Menschenseelen suchen wir den Gott.

Daher bedarf aber auch diese fünfte nachatlantische Kulturepoche desjenigen, was wir pflegen in unseren brüderlichen Zweigvereinigungen. Sie bedarf der bewußten Pflege gleichsam jener geistigen Aura, die noch über uns schwebt, die von den Geistern der höheren Hierarchien gepflegt ist und hineinfließen wird in die Menschenseelen, wenn sie in der sechsten Kulturperiode leben werden. Wir wollen uns nicht an Totes wenden, wie der Osten an die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit, an die überbliebene Gemeinschaftlichkeit. Wir wollen das Lebendige pflegen von Kindheit auf, und das ist der Gemeinschaftsgeist unserer Zweige. Wir wollen nicht suchen, was da unten im Blute rumort, um zusammenzurufen bloß die, bei denen etwas Gemeinsames im Blut rumort, und das in irgendeiner Gemeinschaft pflegen. Wir wollen zusammenrufen die Menschen, die sich entschließen, Brüder und Schwestern zu sein, und die das über sich schwebend haben, was sie pflegen wollen, indem sie die Geisteswissenschaft pflegen und den guten Geist der Brüderlichkeit über sich schwebend fühlen.

Dieses ist dasjenige, was wir als einen Weihegedanken bei der ersten Entfaltung eines unserer Zweige in uns aufnehmen. Damit weihen wir einen Zweig, wenn wir ihn begründen, ein. Gemeinsamkeit und Lebendigkeit! Gemeinsamkeit suchen wir über uns, den lebendigen Christus in uns, der kein Dokument braucht, der nicht erst durch die Auferstehung sich. beglaubigen soll, der beglaubigt ist, weil wir ihn in uns selbst erleben. Die Gemeinsamkeit über uns, den Christus in uns: das machen wir zu unserem Wahlspruch, zu unserem Weihewahlspruch, indem wir einen Zweig begründen. Und wir wissen: Ob zwei oder drei oder sieben oder viele, viele in diesem Sinne im Namen des Christus vereinigt sind, in ihnen lebt der Christus. Und alle jene, die in diesem Sinne den Christus als ihren Bruder anerkennen, sind selbst Schwestern und Brüder. Und diesen will der Christus als seinen Bruder anerkennen, der den andern Menschen als seinen Bruder anerkennt.

Wenn wir in der Lage sind, solchen Weihewahlspruch in uns aufzunehmen, mit solcher Gesinnung unsere Arbeit zu verrichten, dann wird der rechte Geist unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung in dieser unserer Arbeit walten. Auch in dieser schwierigen Zeit haben sich unsere geisteswissenschaftlichen Freunde von auswärts vereinigt mit denjenigen, die hier ihren Zweig begründet haben. Das ist immer ein schöner Brauch. Denn dadurch tragen die Weihegedanken, den Weihewahlspruch auch die andern, die in andern Zweigen arbeiten, hinaus. Und sie geloben sich, immer wiederum zu denken an diejenigen, die in einem Zweige sich versprochen haben, miteinander im Sinne unserer Bewegung zu arbeiten. Und so wächst und wächst dasjenige, was wir als unsere unsichtbare Gemeinschaft durch die Art unserer Arbeit begründen wollen. Dann aber, wenn solche Gesinnung, mit unserer Arbeit sie verbindend, sich immer mehr ausbreitet, dann werden wir den durch die Geisteswissenschaft uns gestellten Forderungen für den Fortschritt der Menschheit gerecht. Und dann dürfen wir glauben, daß diejenigen, die da leiten als die großen Meister der Weisheit den menschlichen Fortschritt und das menschliche Wissen, bei unserer Arbeit unter uns sind. Und insoferne Sie, die Sie hier arbeiten, in dieser unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Gesinnung arbeiten, in demselben Sinne weiß ich, daß die hohen Meister, die wirklich unsere Bewegung leiten von den geistigen Welten aus, auch in der Mitte Ihres Arbeitens sein werden.

Von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus rufe ich heute die Kraft und die Gnade und die Liebe dieser Meister der Weisheit, die da lenken und leiten dasjenige, was wir als Arbeit in brüderlichen Vereinigungen in unseren Zweigen treiben, ich rufe die Gnade, ich rufe die Kraft, ich rufe die Liebe dieser Meister der Weisheit, die in unmittelbarem Zusammenhang stehen mit den Kräften der höheren Hierarchien, über die Arbeit auch dieses Zweiges hernieder. Möge das, was der gute Geist von Euch, Ihr großen Meister, und möge das, was der gute Geist unserer geisteswissenschaftlichen Bewegung ist, mit diesem Zweige sein. Möge es in ihm walten und wirken!

Communion About Us Christ in Us

We have gathered here today, my dear friends, first and foremost to celebrate the establishment of this branch, which was founded by our dear friend Professor Craemer and which, in the manner of our spiritual scientific movement, wishes to devote its energies to the spiritual life of the present and the future. On such an occasion, it is always good to remember the true meaning of our association in individual branches and to ask ourselves: Why do we join together in working groups, and why do we cultivate within such working groups the spiritual heritage to which we wish to devote our abilities? If we want to answer this question in the right sense, we must be clear that we still separate the work we do here, even if only in our minds, from the way we organize ourselves in relation to our other work.

Those among us today who do not wish to familiarize themselves with certain more intimate truths of the spiritual progress of humanity might ask: Could you not, even without forming separate, closed groups, simply pursue this spiritual science by finding lecturers for these groups and allowing people who do not know each other particularly well to come together in a completely free manner, calling them together to allow the spiritual good of which you speak to reach their souls? Of course, we could also proceed in this way. But as long as it is possible for us in any way to establish connections in the broader and narrower sense between people who know each other, who unite in these working groups in a spirit of friendship and brotherhood, we want to do so out of a full awareness of our attitude toward spiritual science. For it is not in vain that people meet here to cultivate the more intimate part of our spiritual heritage, vowing seriously to be together in brotherly love and harmony. Not only does it have a certain significance for the way we relate to one another, for the way we interact with one another, that we can speak in a completely different way when we know we are speaking to kindred souls who are consciously connected to us, not only is this so, but there is something else as well. With such unity in the individual branches, we are in fact doing something that is intimately connected with the whole conception we must have of our spiritual movement if we understand it in its deepest sense. Our spiritual activity must permeate us all with the awareness that it has meaning not only for the existence that the senses can comprehend and for the existence that the human mind, directed toward the external world, can comprehend; our spiritual activity must be clear that through it our souls seek a genuine and true connection with the spiritual worlds. We must, as it were, consciously say to ourselves again and again: in pursuing spiritual science, we are in a certain sense placing our souls in those worlds which are not only inhabited by earthly beings, but which are the dwelling place of the beings of the higher hierarchies, the beings of the invisible worlds. That we are, as it were, within them, and that our work has meaning for these invisible worlds, that we are truly within these invisible worlds — this is what must become fully conscious to us in our work. Now it is indeed the case that within the spiritual world, the spiritual work we do by working together in individual working groups, knowing ourselves, has a completely different meaning than if we were to do such work outside of such working groups, scattered throughout the world. The work we do together within our groups in brotherly harmony therefore has a completely different meaning for the spiritual worlds than work we could otherwise do. In order to understand this in its fullest sense, we must remember something significant that has come to our minds in many ways during our spiritual scientific work in recent years.

Let us remember that our earthly evolution has unfolded for us humans in such a way that in the post-Atlantean period, this earthly evolution was first carried by the cultural community we call the ancient Indian cultural period. This cultural period was then continued by what we call, with a more or less appropriate expression — it does not matter now — the ancient Persian cultural period. Then came the Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian cultural period, then the Greek-Latin period, then our fifth post-Atlantean cultural period. Each such cultural period has, on the one hand, to cultivate in particular those aspects of culture and spiritual life that are initially assigned to it for the outer, visible world. But each such cultural period must at the same time prepare, carry within itself, as it were, what is to come in the next cultural period.

The first post-Atlantean cultural period, the ancient Indian, had to prepare within itself the ancient Persian, the ancient Persian in turn the Egyptian-Chaldean, and so on. And our fifth post-Atlantean cultural period must prepare the sixth cultural period of the next era. It has often been said that it is our spiritual scientific task, through what we acquire, not only to gain spiritual knowledge for our individual souls — which is quite right, but not the only thing — for that is assigned to us for the eternal life of our soul — but it is also our task to prepare what the sixth cultural period will then have as its content, as its special external work. This was the case in each of the individual post-Atlantean cultural periods. And the places where whatever was significant for the next cultural period was prepared were the mystery centers. These were associations of people in which things were cultivated that were different from what the outer world cultivates.

Now you also know that in the first post-Atlantean cultural period, the ancient Indian cultural period, it was especially important that this ancient Indian culture cultivated the etheric body of the human being, the astral body in the ancient Persian culture, the Egyptian-Chaldean culture cultivated the sentient soul, and the Greek-Latin culture cultivated the intellectual or emotional soul. Our cultural period cultivates and will develop to its conclusion what is called the consciousness soul. But what will then, in the sixth cultural period, provide the content and character of the outer culture must be prepared. Oh, this sixth cultural period will have many features, many characteristics that will be very different from the characteristics of our time. Above all, we can highlight three characteristics that we must know we already carry in our hearts as our ideals for the sixth post-Atlantean cultural period, that we must prepare for this sixth cultural period.

There is something that is not yet present in the human community that will be present in the sixth cultural period among those people who will be considered to have reached the goal of the sixth cultural period, who have not fallen behind this goal; that is, not among those who are savages or barbarians in the sixth cultural period. One of the most important characteristics of these inhabitants of the earth in the sixth cultural period — that is, of those who will then be at the height of culture — will be a moral characteristic, so to speak. At present, little of this characteristic can be observed within humanity. Human beings today must already be more finely organized if it is to hurt them in their souls to look at, contemplate, and see other people in the world who are worse off than they are. Certainly, more finely organized natures already feel suffering today over the suffering that is poured out upon many people in the world—but these must be more finely organized natures. In the sixth cultural period, those people who are completely at the height of this culture will not only have the feeling that we today experience as pain when we see misery, suffering, and poverty widespread in the world, but human beings will then, at the height of the culture of the sixth post-Atlantean cultural period, feel every foreign suffering as their own suffering. When they see someone hungry, they will feel that hunger so vividly, even physically, that the hunger of the other person will be unbearable to them. What is implied here is that in the sixth cultural period it will no longer be as it was in the fifth, but rather that in the sixth cultural period the welfare of the individual will depend entirely on the welfare of the whole. This is a moral characteristic. Just as now the well-being of a single human member depends on the health of the whole body, and if the whole person is not healthy, the individual member does not feel inclined to do this or that, so in the sixth cultural period a common feeling will seize the then civilized, then cultivated humanity, and the individual will, to a much higher degree, as a member of the whole, feel the suffering, all the hardship, all the poverty or wealth. This is the first, primarily moral trait that will characterize the civilized humanity of the sixth cultural period.

A second basic trait will then be that everything we today call religious beliefs will depend to a much, much greater extent on the individuality of the individual than is the case today. Spiritual science expresses this by saying that in the sixth cultural period, complete freedom of thought and a longing for freedom of thought will take hold of people in every religious sphere, so that everything a person wants to believe, everything a person wants to be convinced of, especially in a religious context, will be placed in the power of his individuality. The belief system that still exists in so many forms today, the belief system that prevails in various ways among individual communities, will no longer prevail in that part of humanity in the sixth cultural period, which will then be the civilized one. Everyone will feel it to be a necessary characteristic of human beings that complete freedom of thought prevails in the religious sphere.

And the third will be that in the sixth cultural period, people will only believe they have knowledge if they recognize the spiritual, if they recognize that the spiritual is spread throughout the world and that human souls must connect with the spiritual. What we call science today, and what has a materialistic coloring as science, will no longer be called science in the sixth cultural period. It will be regarded as an old superstition that can only be peculiar to those people who have remained at the level of the fifth, then overcome, post-Atlantean cultural period. Today we consider it an old superstition when, for example, Negroes believe that no part of their body may be separated from their body after death, because then they cannot enter the spiritual world as a whole human being. Even today, Negroes still associate the idea of immortality with pure materialism, namely with the belief that some impression of their entire form must enter the spiritual world. So, just as he thinks materialistically at heart but believes in immortality, while we today, knowing from our spiritual science that we must separate the spiritual from the body and that only the spiritual enters the supersensible world, we must regard that materialistic belief in immortality as superstition, so all materialistic belief, even in science, will be regarded as old superstition in the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. And as science, only that which, as spiritual science says, has pneumatology, the spiritual, as its basis will naturally be valid for human beings.

You see, our spiritual science is entirely geared toward preparing the things that have just been mentioned for the sixth cultural period. We are trying to cultivate spiritual science in order to overcome materialism and to prepare what must be present in science in the sixth cultural period. We establish human communities in which nothing is allowed to be ruled by any belief in authority or recognition of a doctrine simply because it is delivered by one personality or another. We establish human communities in which everything, everything must be built on the free consent of the soul to the teachings. In this way, we are preparing what spiritual science calls freedom of thought. And by joining together, by uniting in brotherly associations to pursue our spiritual science, we are preparing what is to permeate the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch as culture and civilization.

But we must look even deeper into the course of human development if we want to fully understand what our fraternal associations are all about. In the first post-Atlantean cultural period, communities that were then characterized by mystery cults cultivated what would later prevail in the second cultural period. This means that the special associations of the first post-Atlantean, or ancient Indian, cultural period already cultivated what would later prevail as the cultivation of the astral body. It would go too far to describe today what was cultivated in these special associations of ancient India, which differed from the external ancient Indian culture, in order to prepare for the original Persian cultural epoch. But it should be said that when these people of the ancient Indian cultural period united to prepare what was to be prepared for the second cultural period, they felt: This has not yet been achieved, this is not yet with us, what will be with us when our souls are reincarnated in the next cultural period. It still hovers above us, as it were. — And so it is. In this first cultural period, what was to descend from heaven to earth in the second period, one might say, still hovered above the souls. And the work was organized in such a way that the spirits of the higher hierarchies, through the work that human beings carried out on earth in close associations, in mystery societies, had powers that enabled them to nurture what was then to flow down into the souls of human beings in the second, the ancient Persian cultural period, as the content of the astral body. One might say that as small children they were still present, the forces which then, somewhat grown, descended into the souls embodied in ancient Persian bodies. Above, in the spiritual world, they received the forces from human work which flowed up from below, preparing the next cultural period, and through these forces those forces were nurtured which were then to flow down. And so it must be in every subsequent cultural period.

In our cultural period, we must become conscious that what has been formed in us through ordinary civilization, through ordinary culture, must be the consciousness soul; this must be what began in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries as science, as external materialistic consciousness, and which will continue to spread further and further, and which, after the end of the fifth cultural period, will have developed completely by the end of the fifth cultural period. But what the sixth cultural period must grasp must be the spirit itself. The spirit itself must then be developed in the souls themselves, just as the consciousness soul is now being developed. But it is the peculiarity of the spirit itself that it presupposes these three characteristics in human souls, as spiritual science says: brotherly social coexistence, freedom of thought, and pneumatology. A human community in which the spirit self is developed in the same way as the consciousness soul is developed in our souls during the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch through the outer culture, needs precisely these characteristics. Therefore, we can imagine that by uniting ourselves fraternally in working groups, something invisible hovers above our work, something that is like the child of those forces which are the forces of the spiritual self, which is nurtured by the beings of the higher hierarchies so that it can then flow down into our souls when they are there again in the sixth cultural period. We do our work in our brotherly working groups, and it flows up to the forces being prepared for the spirit itself.

So you see how, basically, it is only through the wisdom of our spiritual science that we can understand what we are actually doing in relation to our connection with the higher, spiritual worlds when we unite in such working groups. And the thought that we do this, that we do the work we do in our working groups not solely for the sake of our ego, but that we do it so that it may flow up into the spiritual worlds, the thought of this work in connection with the spiritual worlds gives a branch of work its proper consecration. And by cherishing such a thought, we permeate ourselves with the consecrated thought that establishes such a working group within our spiritual movement. It is therefore of particular importance that we grasp this fact in a truly spiritual way. We come together in working groups which, in addition to pursuing spiritual science and pneumatological science, and in addition to being based on freedom of thought and knowing nothing of dogma or coercion of belief, immerse their work in brotherly cooperation. It is important that we truly take this community idea into our consciousness in the right way, that we say to ourselves, in a sense: Apart from the fact that we, as present souls, belong to the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period and are developing there as individuals, bringing out more and more of our individual personalities from community life, we must again feel a higher community, which we base on free brotherly love, like the magical breath we breathe in our working groups.

This is the very profound meaning of Western European culture: that the consciousness soul must be sought within the fifth post-Atlantean culture. It is the task of Western European culture, and especially of Central European culture, that human beings develop more and more an individual culture, an individual consciousness, in their souls. That is what matters in the present. We can compare our cultural period with the Greek and Roman periods. In the Greek cultural period, we see this particularly clearly: there is still a very strong group soul, an awareness of a group soul, especially among the civilized Greeks. Those who lived and were born in Athens felt themselves to be Athenians above all else. This community of the city with all that belonged to it had a different meaning for the individual than a human community has today. Today, people want to grow out of the community, and that is the right task of the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period. In Rome, people were first and foremost Roman citizens; that was what they were in the first place. But the time has come in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period when we want above all to be human beings, human beings and nothing but human beings in our innermost being.

What causes us such pain today, seeing how people strive against one another on earth, is only a reaction to the relentless striving of the fifth cultural period for the free development of what is universally human. The hostile isolation of individual countries and peoples today is only intended to develop all the more in resistance the forces that allow human beings to be fully human above all else, the forces that allow human beings to grow out of any kind of community. But to achieve this, he must prepare communities built on full consciousness, which he will freely enter in the sixth cultural period, which he imposes on himself alone. This community, which will encompass the sixth cultural period, hovers before us like a lofty ideal, in which civilized human beings will naturally face each other as brothers and sisters from the depths of their souls.

We now know one thing from the numerous lectures that have been given in recent years: that there lives a people in Eastern Europe who will be particularly called upon to bring to fruition the elemental forces within them in the sixth cultural period. We know that the Russian people will only be ready in the sixth cultural period to bring out the powers that are already there in them. Western and Central Europe are meant to bring into people's souls what can be brought in through the consciousness soul. The East is not called upon to do this. The East of Europe will have to wait until the spirit itself descends to earth and can penetrate human souls. This has often been mentioned; we must understand it in the right sense. If understood in the wrong sense, it can very easily lead to arrogance and hubris, especially in the East. The height of the post-Atlantean culture will already be reached in the fifth post-Atlantean cultural period. What will follow in the sixth and seventh cultural periods will be a downward development. Nevertheless, this downward cultural development in the sixth cultural period will be inspired and permeated by the spirit itself. Today, the people of the East, those who are called “the Russian people” by the spirits of the East themselves, feel instinctively, but one might say often quite wrongly, that this is the case with them; they are usually only vaguely aware of it. It is characteristic that this expression “the Russian people” has come up so often. There is a genius in language when something like this is extracted from language and one does not say, as in the West: the Briton, the Frenchman, the Italian, the German, but “the Russian man.” And many Russian intellectuals attach importance to always saying “the Russian man.” This is deeply rooted in the whole genius of the corresponding culture. One already means that which spreads as humanity, as brotherhood, through a commonality. One wants to imply this by using the expression “human being.” But at the same time, one shows that one has not yet reached the full height that one must attain in the distant future by adding something that is fundamentally contradictory to the noun. The “Russian” human being: one takes back, as it were, in the adjective what one expresses in the noun. For if humanity is to be achieved, it must not have such an adjective, which in turn makes this humanity something exclusive.

But even deeper, much deeper, especially among members of the Russian intelligentsia, is the belief that a certain idea of community, an idea of brotherhood, must prevail in the future. In this respect, the Russian soul already feels that the spirit itself must one day descend, but it can only descend into a human community that is permeated by brotherhood. It can never spread in a community of human beings that is not permeated by brotherhood. That is why the Russian intellectuals, as they call themselves, make the following accusation against Western Europe and also Central Europe. They say: You pay no attention at all to what genuine community life is; you only cultivate individualism. Everyone wants to be their own person, everyone wants to be an individual. You take the personal, through which each individual feels himself as a self, as an individuality, to the highest extreme. — That is what resounds from the East in so many accusations of barbarism and so on against Central Europe and Western Europe. And those who want to become aware of what is actually going on say: The whole of Western and Central Europe has lost all sense of human connection. And by confusing the present with the future, they say: Real human connections, where everyone feels like a brother to everyone else, where those who stand above others feel like their “little fathers” and “little mothers,” real human community life only exists in Russia. That is what the Russian intelligentsia says. And they say that this is why Western European Christianity has failed to cultivate a real human community. The Russians, they say, still know what community is. And such an outstanding Russian intellectual as Alexander Herzen, who lived in the 19th century, came to the ultimate conclusion that happiness can never arise in Western Europe. No matter what attempts are made in Western European culture and civilization, happiness will never arise there. Humanity will never be satisfied. Only chaos can reign there. The only blessing lies in the Russian character, where people have not yet separated themselves from the community, where they still have something like a group soul in their village communities, which they hold on to.

What we call group soul, from which humanity has gradually developed and in which animal nature still lives completely, is precisely what Russian intellectuals revere in their people as something particularly great and significant. They cannot rise to the idea that future community should be a high ideal, an ideal that must first be asserted. They cling to the idea: Let us see what has remained for us as the last in Europe! The others have already lifted themselves out of group soulhood; we have still preserved it; we must preserve it. — This group soulhood will in reality not be allowed to exist in the future, for it is the old group soulhood. It would only be a Luciferic group soul, a group soul that has remained at an earlier stage, whereas the true group soul, the one we should strive for, is the one we seek within our spiritual science. But it is precisely in the urge and longing of the Russian people, especially the intellectuals, that we can see how the spirit of community is needed for the descent of the spirit itself. Just as it is sought there in the wrong way, so it must be sought in the right way in our spiritual scientific stream. And we would like to call out to the East: It is precisely what you are trying to preserve in an external way that we must overcome to the utmost: the old Luciferic-Ahrimanic community. The communality of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic nature will have such a strong compulsion to believe as had to be established by the Catholic Church, which remained orthodox in Russia. This communality will not understand what freedom of thought is, and it will be least able to rise to complete individuality and yet to social brotherly coexistence. Therefore, it wants to preserve what has remained in blood brotherhood, in mere belonging together through blood. A community based not on blood but on the spirit, on the community of souls, is what must be strived for through spiritual science. And that is what we strive for when we say: We must strive for communities in which blood no longer speaks. Of course, blood will continue to exist; it will live out its role in family relationships — what must remain will not be eradicated, but something new must arise! What is significant in the child will be preserved in the powers of old age, but human beings must acquire something new in later life.

What the blood brings must not be reinterpreted as if it would encompass the great human communities of the future. That is the great error that has played into the bloody events of today from the East, that a war has been ignited under the banner of a community of the blood of the Slavic peoples. Everything that has just been discussed plays into our fateful times, but it actually contains the right core, namely the instinctive feeling that the spirit self can only appear in a brotherly community. However, it must not be a community of blood, but a community of souls. What then grows as a community of souls, what that should be, we nurture in its infancy in our working communities, in our branches. That which clings to group soulhood, as in Eastern Europe, for example, by describing the Slavic group soul as something from which it does not want to escape, but on the contrary wants to regard as the comprehensive principle for its entire state formation, is something that must be overcome.

It stands there like a great symbol, like an enormous symbol, that the two states from which the war originated cite blood brotherhood as the reason for the war — Russia with the entire Slavic people — and the other state, which stands opposite it, has thirteen official ethnic groups and thirteen official languages. The mobilization order in Austria had to be issued in thirteen languages because thirteen ethnic groups are united in Austria: Germans, Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Romanians, Magyars, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes—plus a special Slovenian vernacular—Bosnians, Dalmatians, and Italians. Thus, thirteen different tribes, apart from all minor differences, are united in Austria. Whether one understands this or not, it shows that Austria consists of a community of people whose commonality can never be based on blood brotherhood, for what prevails within these peculiar borders springs from thirteen different bloodlines. One might say that the most composite state in Europe stands in contrast to the state that strives most for group identity or conformity.

But this striving for group soulhood entails many other things. And this brings us to something else that we may well remember today. Yesterday, in my public lecture, I mentioned the great philosopher Solovyov as one of the most significant minds in all of Russia. Solovyov is truly an outstanding mind, but he is a thoroughly Russian mind. He is a spirit who is extremely difficult to understand from a Western European perspective. But anthroposophists should get to know him. Those who stand on the ground of spiritual science should get to know him; they should be able to rise to a certain understanding of Solovyov. Now I would like to present to you, from our intimate point of view, what I would call the main and central idea of Solovyov. Solovyov is far too much of a philosopher to be able to readily accept the group soul nature for himself. The matter causes him difficulties, and he falls into various contradictions. But he is not completely dominated by an idea, so dominated that one must say: Oh, if only this Solovyov were completely clairvoyant, so that he could foresee what his soul will only understand on earth when it is incarnated in the sixth cultural period!

The idea, which is quite difficult for Western Europeans to understand at first, and of course also for Central Europeans, became a central idea for Solovyov. It is as follows. We in Western Europe seek, among many other things, to understand death in its significance for life, precisely in what we cultivate as preparation for the sixth cultural period. We try to understand how death is the manifestation of a form of existence, how the soul is transformed into another form of existence in death. We describe how man lives in his body and what kind of life he leads between death and rebirth. We seek to understand death. We seek to overcome death by understanding it, by showing that it is only an illusion, that the soul truly lives by passing through death. But it is of primary importance to us that we seek to overcome death through understanding.

But here we stand, for example, at one of the points, indeed one of the main points, where spiritual scientific striving differs completely from what Solovyov, the great Russian spirit, has as his idea: there is evil in the world, there is evil in the world. Evil in the world, evil exists. If we look at evil with our senses, we cannot deny that the world is full of evil. This argues against the idea that the world is divine, says Solovyov. For how can one believe in a divine world when one looks at the world with one's senses, since a divine world cannot represent evil! But the senses see it everywhere, evil, and the worst evil is death. Through the fact that death is in the world, the world reveals itself in all its evil, in all its wickedness. The original evil is death.

This is Solovyov's characterization of the world. He says, and I quote almost verbatim: Just look at the world with your bare senses! Just try to understand the world with your bare mind. You will never be able to deny the evils in the world. And to want to understand death would be absurd! Death is there. It shows itself. Sensory perception can never recognize death. Therefore, sensory perception shows us an evil world, a world of evil. Can we now believe, says Solovyov, that this world is divine when it shows us that it is full of evil? When it shows us death at every turn? We can never believe that this world is divine when it shows us death. For in God there can be no evil, there can be no evil, and above all there can be no original evil, no original evil. In God there can be no death. So if God came into the world—I repeat almost word for word what Solovyov says—if God came into the world, if he appeared in the world, could we believe him without further ado that he was God? No, we could not readily believe that he was God! He would first have to prove himself! If a being came and claimed to be God, we would not believe him. He would first have to prove himself. He would first have to show us something—as Solovyov says—like a world document, something by which we could recognize: This is God! And we cannot find such a thing in the world. God cannot prove his legitimacy through what is in the world, because everything in the world contradicts the divine. So how can he prove his legitimacy? He can only prove his legitimacy by coming into the world and showing that he is victorious over death, that death cannot harm him. We would never believe that Christ is God if he did not legitimize himself. And he did so by rising from the dead, by showing that the original evil, death, is not in him. So here we have a consciousness of God that is based solely on the real, historical resurrection of Christ, which legitimizes God as God. Nothing in the world but the resurrection allows us to recognize that there is a God. If Christ had not risen—this is mainly the saying of Paul that Solovyov repeatedly quotes—then all our faith would be vain. And vain would be everything we can say about the divine in the world.

Hence Solovyov's statement: When we look at the world, we see only evil, wickedness, decay, and meaninglessness everywhere. If Christ had not risen, the world would be meaningless. Therefore, Christ has risen! — Remember this statement well! For this statement is a cardinal statement of one of the greatest minds of the East! If Christ had not risen, the world would be meaningless. Therefore, Christ rose from the dead! — Solovyov said: There may be people who believe that it is not logical when I say: If Christ had not risen from the dead, the world would be meaningless; therefore, he rose from the dead! — But this is much better logic — says Solovyov — than all the logic you can throw at me!

I have shown you in Solovyov, precisely in this peculiar demand for a document proving the divinity of God, how peculiar thoughts are in the East; how peculiar thoughts climb up in order to grasp that through which God immediately shows that he is God. How different it is in the West, how different in Central Europe! What do we use spiritual scientific striving for? Try to compare and survey all that we do in spiritual science! What is our goal, what are we striving for? We want to recognize in the world, out of knowledge and insight, so that we can understand, that the world has a meaning, that the world has significance, that there is not only evil and decay in it. We want to understand directly through insight that the world has a meaning. And we want to prepare ourselves precisely by understanding that the world has a meaning, so that we can share in the life of the Christ being. We want to grasp the living Christ. Of course, we want to accept all this as a gift, as a grace from Christ. We know that this is what can be given to us according to the saying: “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” We want to accept all that Christ continually promises us. For he speaks not only through the Gospels, but also in our souls. This is what he means by the saying, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He can always be found as the living Christ. We want to live in him, to take him into ourselves: “Not I, but Christ in me!” This is our most important Pauline saying: “Not I, but Christ in me!” So that we may see through him: everywhere we go, there is meaning! Faust already wanted to say this when he expressed his entire worldview in the words:

Sublime spirit, you gave me, gave me everything,
Why I asked. You did not turn your face toward me in vain in the fire.
You gave me the glorious nature as my kingdom,
The power to feel it, to enjoy it. No,
You do not allow only cold, astonished visitors,
You grant me to look into its deep bosom
As into the bosom of a friend.
You lead the ranks of the living
Before me and teach me to know my brothers
In the silent bush, in air and water.
And when the storm roars and crackles in the forest,
The giant spruce, falling, neighbors' branches
And neighboring trunks,
And their fall thunders hollowly through the hills,
Then you lead me to a safe cave, show
Me then to myself, and my own breast
Secret deep wonders open themselves.

To grasp the outer and inner spiritually, to grasp meaning everywhere, to grasp death itself meaningfully, that it is the passage from one form of life to another! And thus, by seeking the living Christ, then—seeking the living Christ—we also follow him through death and resurrection. We do not start from the resurrection, as Eastern Europeans do. We follow the Christ who inspires us, the Christ whom we take into our imaginations. We follow Christ until death. We follow him not only by saying, “Ex deo nascimur” (We are born from God), but by saying, “In Christo morimur” (We die in Christ). We pursue the world, knowing that the world is the document through which God expresses his divinity. In the West, we cannot say, as we experience and seek to comprehend the spiritual weaving and working of the world: We need a document when God enters the world and must identify himself — but rather we seek God everywhere. We seek God in nature and in the souls of human beings.

Therefore, this fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch also needs what we cultivate in our fraternal branch associations. It needs the conscious cultivation of the spiritual aura that still hovers above us, which is nurtured by the spirits of the higher hierarchies and will flow into human souls when they live in the sixth cultural epoch. We do not want to turn to dead things, as the East does to group soulhood, to the remnants of communality. We want to cultivate the living from childhood onwards, and that is the community spirit of our branches. We do not want to search for what is stirring in the blood below, in order to gather together only those in whose blood something common is stirring, and cultivate that in some community. We want to call together people who decide to be brothers and sisters and who have above them what they want to cultivate by cultivating spiritual science and feeling the good spirit of brotherhood hovering above them.

This is what we take up as a consecration thought within ourselves at the first unfolding of one of our branches. With this we consecrate a branch when we establish it. Commonality and vitality! We seek commonality above us, the living Christ within us, who needs no document, who does not first have to prove himself through the resurrection, who is authentic because we experience him within ourselves. The commonality above us, the Christ within us: we make this our motto, our motto of dedication, when we establish a branch. And we know: whether two or three or seven or many, many are united in this sense in the name of Christ, Christ lives in them. And all those who recognize Christ as their brother in this sense are themselves sisters and brothers. And Christ wants to recognize as his brother those who recognize other people as their brothers.

If we are able to take such a dedication motto into our hearts and carry out our work with such a mindset, then the right spirit of our spiritual scientific movement will prevail in our work. Even in these difficult times, our spiritual scientific friends from abroad have united with those who have established their branch here. This is always a beautiful custom. For in this way, the consecrated thoughts, the consecration motto, are also carried out by others who work in other branches. And they vow to always remember those who have promised each other in a branch to work together in the spirit of our movement. And so what we want to establish as our invisible community through the nature of our work grows and grows. But then, when such a mindset, connected with our work, spreads more and more, we will be fulfilling the demands placed on us by spiritual science for the progress of humanity. And then we may believe that those who guide us as the great masters of wisdom, human progress, and human knowledge are with us in our work. And insofar as you who work here work in this spiritual scientific attitude, I know that the high masters who truly guide our movement from the spiritual worlds will also be in the midst of your work.

From this point of view, I call today upon the power and grace and love of these masters of wisdom who guide and direct what we do as work in fraternal associations in our branches. I call upon grace, I call upon power, I call upon the love of these masters of wisdom, who are in direct connection with the forces of the higher hierarchies, to descend upon the work of this branch as well. May that which is the good spirit of you, great masters, and may that which is the good spirit of our spiritual scientific movement be with this branch. May it reign and work within it!