The Destiny of Individuals and of Nations
GA 157
6 July 1915, Berlin
14. The Cosmic Significance of Our Sensory Perceptions—Our Thinking, Feeling and Will Activity
Dear friends, once again let us first of all remember those who are out there at the front, in the great arena of present-day events:
Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,
On your wings let there be borne
The prayer of love from our souls
To those whom you guard here on earth.
Thus, united with your might,
A ray of help our prayer shall be
For the souls it seeks out there in love.
And for those who because of those events have already gone through the gate of death:
Spirits of your souls, guardian guides,
On your wings let there be borne
The prayer of love from our souls
To those whom you guard here on earth.
Thus, united with your might,
A ray of help our prayer shall be
For the souls it seeks out there in love.
May the spirit we are seeking as we work towards spiritual knowledge, the spirit who has gone through the Mystery of Golgotha for the good of the earth, for the freedom and progress of man, be with you and the hard duties you have to perform.
There are a number of things I want to recall in this extra session today, themes spoken of in different lectures which we shall bring together and consider from a particular point of view today. The rays of light which arise will then be directed at subjects we have previously considered from one angle or another. There is a particular prejudice, a feeling people have, which stops them from accepting spiritual science in the present age. People have so little idea of how small a proportion of whatever a human being accomplishes at any hour, any moment, basically is within his ordinary awareness of being a human individual in the physical world. Just consider how little we would be able to function as human beings if we were fully conscious of everything we needed in order to live as human beings. It is often stressed, and quite rightly so, that modern man knows very little—taking first of all the purely physical functions in life—how his brain, liver, heart and so on really work in order to accomplish what man has to accomplish to enable him to live on this earth as a physical entity. All the things man has to accomplish merely to let his external physical life progress—all those things he simply has to accomplish. But consider how little man is able to follow this with his conscious mind. Just consider some quite minor thing happening in everyday life and you'll immediately see that man as an entity in this world, an entity on earth, is one thing, and what may be called ‘conscious man’ is something quite different. In relation to what man is within his whole compass, this conscious man is small, very small indeed. It should therefore not come as a surprise that man feels a natural urge to extend this small conscious man more and more into the region that opens up when we consider man as part of the cosmos. We shall do this today by returning to aspects considered in earlier lectures and considering them in a different context.
Our conscious existence as a human being starts, in a way, with sensory perception, with everything our senses perceive of the world outside us. Sensory perception—the fact that impressions are made on our senses, with those impressions arising on the basis of certain processes, is something quite different from our being aware of this. Imagine you are sleeping with your eyes open, not closed. Hares are capable of this. Unless it were pitch dark the environment would constantly leave impressions on the eye, only you would not be aware of those impressions. Our ears are of course always open, and every sound, all the things we are constantly aware of during the day when we are awake, are of course also processed in the ear when we are asleep. Our sense organs may always be engaged in the whole process of earth life; yet any significance they may hold for us depends on our following this process in the sense organs in conscious awareness' Only the things we take into conscious awareness are actually ours in this life on earth.
Do these sensory perceptions as we call them, the ability of our eyes, ears and so on to perceive, have significance only for us as human beings living on earth, or do they also hold a wider, cosmic significance?
To answer this question we need to use clairvoyant insight to fain an opinion as to what it is that we actually see of the stars in the universe. I think we may say that people taking the point of view of materialistic physics would say: ‘Well, when we see a planet, the light of the sun has fallen on it and been reflected, and that is how we see the planet.’ That is, in fact, the way objects on earth are seen. Physicists therefore concluded, on the basis of mere analogy, that planets are seen in the same way. There is no reason at all why something applicable on earth—the conclusion that light falls on objects and these objects become visible through that light being reflected—should also apply to heavenly bodies. There is absolutely no reason to say that this conclusion also applies to the universe. As to the fixed stars, well, the physicists say these give off their own light. I remember how, as quite a young fellow, I asked a former schoolmate from our village school: ‘What are they teaching you about light?’ Even in those days I had listened with a certain youthful scepticism to what was said of the 'real' origin of light, of all the tiny dancing particles of ether and of light-waves. The other boy, who had had his further education at a seminary, had heard nothing of this as yet. He told me: ‘Whenever the question came up as to the nature of light we were simply told: “Light is what makes bodies luminous”.’ Well, you see that really is saying something quite brilliant about light, to say that light is what makes bodies luminous. Yet modern materialistic physicists are not really saying much more than that when they say that we see heavenly bodies because they radiate light. It is very much the same in principle.
I did mention on another occasion that materialistic physicists might get quite a surprise if they were able to travel to the sun to look and see what the sun really is like. I said that because in fact there is nothing at all there in the place where the sun is. What we would find would be a composite of purely spiritual entities and energies. There is nothing material there at all.
If we use clairvoyant awareness to investigate the stars and inquire into the reason for their luminosity we find that what is actually there, what we call their luminosity, really consists in the ability to perceive, an ability which is rather crude in man and more highly developed in other entities. If some entity were to look down on the earth from Venus or Mars and find the earth luminous, it would have to say to itself: ‘This earth is luminous not because it reflects the rays of the sun, but because there are men on earth who perceive with their eyes.’ The process of visual perception holds significance not only for our own conscious awareness but radiates out into the whole of outer space. The light of this particular heavenly body consists in what men do in order to see. We do not merely see in order to become aware of the results of visual perception, we also see in order that because of this process the earth becomes radiant to outer space. And it is a fact that every one of our sense organs has the function not only to be what it is for us but also has a function within the universe. Through sensory perception man is an entity within the cosmos. He is not merely the entity his conscious mind presents to him as a human being on earth, he is also a cosmic entity.
Considering the inner configuration of the soul at a deeper level, we come to our thinking activity. We are even more inclined to consider our thoughts our own. Not only are ‘thoughts free from toll’, as the saying goes, indicating that thoughts really hold significance only for the individual person, but it is widely thought that people merely go through an inner process when they think and that this thinking activity more or less holds only personal significance for them. The truth is very different. Thinking activity is, in fact, a process occurring in the ether body. And people know extremely little of what really goes on when they are thinking. Extremely little of what goes on when he is thinking enters into man's conscious awareness. As he thinks, he is aware of part of what he is thinking. Yet infinitely more thinking activity is associated with this even when we think in the daytime. What is more, we continue to think during the night, when we are asleep. It is not true that we stop thinking when we go to sleep and start again on waking. Thinking activity is continuous. There are many different dream processes, processes in our dream-life, and part of all this is that man's ego and astral body enter into his ether body and physical body on waking. He comes in with these two principles and finds himself in the surging billows of something very active and alive. Giving just a little consideration to this he will realize that these are weaving thoughts and that he is becoming immersed in an ocean consisting entirely of weaving thoughts. People often say to themselves on waking: ‘If only I could remember what I was thinking just now. Those were very sensible ideas, something that could help me enormously if only I could remember!’ And they are not mistaken. There really is something like a billowing ocean down there. It is the billowing, weaving, etheric world, and this is not simply a more subtle form of matter, the way English theosophists like to present it,84Rudolf Steiner was probably referring above all to the works of Charles Webster Leadbeater (1847 –1934). but the world of weaving thoughts, something genuinely spiritual. We become immersed in a world of weaving thoughts.
As human beings we are really much more sensible and intelligent than we are just as conscious human beings. This is something that has to be admitted. It would indeed be most regrettable if we were no more sensible at the unconscious level than we are at the conscious level. For we could do nothing else in that case but repeat ourselves at the same level of intelligence life after life. In fact, we already have within us during our present life the potential for our next life; this will be the fruit. If we were always able to catch hold of this element we become immersed in, we would catch hold of much of what we will be in our next life. So there is billowing, weaving life down there. It is the germ of our next incarnation and this is what we take into ourselves. Hence the prophetic nature of our dream life.
Thinking is an immensely complicated process and man only takes a small proportion of what it involves into his consciousness. A thought involves something which is a process in time. Our sensory perceptions made in conscious awareness also make us part of the cosmos. The activity of seeing causes the earth to grow luminous and this makes us part of cosmic space. The processes involved in thinking activity make us part of cosmic time; all that happened before we were born and all that is going to happen after death plays its part in this. Through our thinking, then, we take part in the whole cosmic process of time, through our sensory perception in the whole cosmic process of space. Only the earth-based process of sensory perception is for ourselves.
Let us move on to feeling. We are even less aware of feeling activity than we are of sensory perception and of thinking activity. Feeling is a very profound process. You see, to discover the true significance of thinking, to find the real truth—that thinking has cosmic significance—it is necessary to progress to imaginative perception, as described in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.85Rudolf Steiner: Wie erlangt man Kenntnisse der höheren Welten? (GA 10); in English as Knowledge of the Higher Worlds: How is it Achieved? (tr. not mentioned) Rudolf Steiner Press. London 1976. Stripping our thinking of the abstract nature we consciously associate with it, and entering into that ocean of weaving thoughts, we encounter the necessity to have not only the abstract thoughts in there that we have as citizens of the earth but to conceive images in it. For everything is created from images. Images are the true or origins of things; images are behind everything around us; and it is into these images we enter when we immerse ourselves in the ocean of weaving thoughts. Those are the images Plato spoke of; they are the images all who have spoken of spiritual primary causes had in mind, the images Goethe had in mind with his archetypal plant. These images are to be found in imaginative thinking. This imaginative thinking is a reality and we become immersed in it when we enter the billowing world of thoughts that move with the stream of time.
We only enter into the depths of feeling when we attain to what is called Inspiration. This is a higher form of perception compared to Imagination. Everything that lies at the root of feeling in us really is a surging sea of Inspirations. Just as the image reflected in the mirror is merely an image of the object which exists in the world outside, so our feelings are merely reflections mirrored in our own organism of Inspirations that come to us from the universe. They are a mirror image which relates to the flowing movement in the universe the way a dead mirror image relates to the living creature it is reflecting. Each of those images reflects the attributes of entities belonging to higher hierarchies who express themselves in the world through Inspiration. If we do not stop at feeling activity but progress to clairaudient perception we perceive the world as the united activity of a great multitude of entities within hierarchies. The world is this entity arising out of the united actions of entities from the hierarchies. The deeds of the higher hierarchies are happening in the world. And we are involved. We are in the mirror. And the deeds of the higher hierarchies are reflected in our mirror. We then perceive what has been reflected—through conscious awareness. As human beings active in feeling, we live in the womb of the attributes of the hierarchies, perceiving those attributes because we have consciousness.
When it comes to being conscious of his feelings, man is even smaller compared to what he really is in his ability to feel than he is compared to his sensory perceptions and his thinking activity. As feeling human beings we are also part of the hierarchies, are also working in the sphere where the hierarchies are at work. We are active in creating the fabric. We perform deeds that are not for ourselves alone, deeds through which we share in the great work of building the world. Through our feelings we are the servants of the higher entities that are the world builders. We may think, as we stand before the Sistine Madonna for example, that this merely meets certain emotional needs in us. The fact however is that when a human being stands before the Sistine Madonna and responds to the painting emotionally this is an entirely real process. If there were no emotional element, no element of feeling, the entities which one day are to share in the work of building Venus as a heavenly body would lack the powers they need to do this work. Our feelings are needed for the world the gods are building, the way bricks are needed in building a house. Again we have only partial knowledge of our feelings. We know the joy we experience as we stand before the Sistine Madonna, yet what is happening there is one element within the universal whole, irrespective of whether we have conscious awareness of this or not.
As to our will activity, this, too, is but a mirror, though in this case the essential nature of individual members of the hierarchies is reflected. We are also an entity within the hierarchies but at a different level. Our reality lies in our will. We give substance to the world by somehow or other letting our will live in reality. Again it holds true that, in so far as we follow our will activity in conscious awareness, this has significance only for us as human beings. But apart from this, our will activity is a reality which is the material the gods used to build the world.
So you see how our sensory perceptions, our thinking, feeling and will activity, have cosmic significance; how they are an integral part of the whole of cosmic life. It really seems that modern man should have a fair degree of understanding and should, with some good will, be able to accept these things. Occasionally we come across evidence of someone being aware that there is a small human being—the conscious human being—and a big human being who is the cosmic reality. Friedrich Nietzsche spoke of this in his Zarathustra, for he had some idea of it. The same holds true for many other people, except that they do not make the effort to follow the paths that will show how we progress from being a small human being to being the greater one. It is really necessary, however, that a fair number of people come to realize that the times have passed when it was possible to manage without such insight.
In the past, something still remained of the old clairvoyance that enabled people to see into the spiritual world. In those days they really were able to see the way man does today when he is outside his .physical and ether bodies with his astral body and ego and out there in the cosmos. Man would never have achieved complete freedom as an individual and dependence would have been his lot if the old clairvoyance had persisted. It was necessary for man to take possession, as it were, of his physical ego. The form of thinking he would develop if he perceived the surging ocean of thinking, feeling and will activity that exists below consciousness would be a heavenly form of thinking but not independent thinking. How does man achieve independent thinking?
Well, imagine it is night-time and you are lying asleep in your bed. It is the physical body and the ether body which are lying in your bed. As you wake up the ego and the astral body enter from outside. Thinking activity continues in the ether body. And now the ego and the astral body enter, first of all taking hold of the ether body. This does not take long, however, for at that very moment the thought may flash up: ‘What have I been thinking? Those were sensible thoughts.’ However, the human being has a strong desire to take hold of the physical body as well, and the moment he does so everything vanishes. Now the human being is wholly within the sphere of earth life. It is because man immediately takes hold of his physical body that he is unable to gain awareness of the subtle swell of etheric thinking. To have the awareness 'It is I who am thinking' man simply has to take hold of his physical body and make it his instrument; otherwise he would not feel 'It is I who am thinking' but ‘It is the angel guarding me who is thinking’. The conscious thought ‘I am thinking’ is possible only if the physical body is taken hold of. Man therefore must be able to use his physical body. In the time that lies ahead he will have to make use of what the earth is giving him and take hold of his physical body more and more. His justifiable egoism will grow and grow. This will have to be counteracted by taking hold of the insights provided through spiritual science. We are now at the beginning of this era. People might say:
No need to concern ourselves with this. What do we care as to the intentions of the gods? We have no desire to enquire into the will of the gods. We'll accept whatever they offer us in the course of life on this earth; they give us the physical body to be an ever more powerful instrument for physical thinking. But to feel concerned that we should start to gain something else that is more than just power—that is too much of an effort. And we do not really have to. The gods could take another course.
That, too, is what people say, only they say it by inventing philosophies and so forth.
It has to be clearly understood that in the world it really makes no difference if we decide to put a limit on what is to happen, a limit to suit our reluctance to be personally involved. It is quite impossible for the measure meted out to man to be reduced. If man is intended to develop certain powers within a particular era and only develops part of them, the rest will nevertheless emerge. It is not true to say that they do not emerge. When you heat up an engine the excess heat supplied does not disappear; it radiates from the engine. In the same way nothing that exists in human life can disappear. It is not true, therefore, that mystical powers—so much despised by modern man—do not exist. Man is able to deny them, yet they continue to exist as part of this world. You can deny them, you can be a great materialist in your conscious mind, but you cannot be a materialist with the whole of your being. What happens is that those powers will, unknown to man, develop in such a way that he will offer to Lucifer and Ahriman what he would otherwise have offered to the legitimate gods. Everything you suppress in your conscious mind, everything you will not allow to unfold, you offer to Ahriman and Lucifer.
No culture in the present age, dear friends, can have been more intensely materialistic down to the last fibre of the soul than the Italian culture. Present-day Italian culture, the culture of the Italian nation, has developed through the influence of the folk soul on the sentient soul. It is the current mission of English culture to develop materialism. Materialism will be on the surface there, but it will be the way it ought to be. The earth does need a certain materialism and this is developing there. It is the mission of the British to bring materialism into earth evolution. With them it cannot take root in the soul as deeply as it does with the Italians. An Italian feels everything deeply and in him materialism takes root at the very deepest level. This is why present-day Italian culture goes into positive frenzies of nationalistic materialism and does so with all its soul, when in fact materialism cannot be accepted with the whole of one's soul. We may be its protagonists in the world but we cannot really develop an enthusiasm for it—unless we are part of the Italian folk soul. It is true that the present age is the most materialistic ever. It is equally true that among the people living in the south of Europe the most materialistic attitudes of all arise from the sentient soul. Fichte said: `Anyone who believes in freedom within the life of the spirit is really one of us.’86Fichte, Johann Gottlieb: Reden an die deutsche Nation: Nr. 7 (Addresses to the German Nation No. 7) (Berlin 1808). His conception of nationalism was one entirely determined by the spirit. There is nothing of this in the Italian concept of nationalism. In their case it is entirely a matter of blood substance—their nationalism is entirely naturalistic. One man's idea of what constitutes a nation is quite different from that of another. An utterly nationalistic materialism is alive among the Italian people. This, of course, only relates to the present day.
You must realize that when the soul is so determinedly aiming for naturalistic materialism in what a nation is intending, the sense for the mystical cannot be lost on account of this. It persists. It is merely thrust out from consciousness and comes to rest elsewhere. It is not thrust out from man's true and innermost being. It now serves the powers we refer to by the technical terms of Lucifer and Ahriman. Those human faculties are then not directed along the path of the progressive deities but into the path,. of Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers.
One would assume that something will have to emerge in those nations when powers of a mystical nature are thrust out into public life. Can we find something of this kind in the South, a stream of mystical will that has been thrust out?
It was in May 1347, on Whitsunday, that Cola di Rienzi87di Rienzi, Nicholas (or Cola) (c. 1313–1354), Tribune of the People at Rome. See Robert Davidssohn: ‘Vom Mittelalter zu unscren Tagcn’ in Süddeutsche Monatshefte 12: 121. 1915. walked up to the Capitol in Rome at the head of a great procession. He was wearing ancient Roman armour, which was in accord with the sentiments of that time, and had four standards. The Capitol is the place from which speeches concerning Rome civilization were traditionally addressed to the Romans. Rienzi proclaimed that he had come to speak in the name of Jesus Christ, as a man compelled to speak to the Romans in the name of freedom for the whole world. Rhetoric was very much the order of the day at the time. It did have a certain significance then—in 1347—but no reality. The whole was something like a puff of smoke. But that is not really my point. I want to draw your attention to the fact that this happened on a Whitsunday—on 20 May 1347. It was then that the man representing this whole stream called himself an ambassador of Christ. Later, when he had further elaborated his message, he also called himself a man inspired by the Holy Spirit.
It was also a Whitsunday that war was declared against Austria. Immediately before that a man who did not call himself an ambassador of Christ but nevertheless let it appear in what he said that he was filled with the Holy Spirit, had walked at the head of a large procession and made speeches in Rome. There certainly was no vestige in the soul of this man of the mysticism out of which Rienzi had formerly spoken. Yet—and here we get an element of mysticism that has been thrust out—the words were again spoken on a Whitsunday. Yet they were spoken in the service of those other powers. The Christ impulse had been thrust out from consciousness. And that it was very much the Ahrimanic element—an element we must of course expect in the present age—is evident from just a few words that were said at the time. A 20th century orator could not, of course, arrive in Roman armour and with four standards and so he came in a car. That is the kind of sacrifice one has to make in this materialistic age. But somehow he had to bring to expression—perhaps unconsciously—that an element of mystical power thrust out by man had been ceded to another power and was now on the move in the outside world, having been turned into its opposite. This man who calls himself d'Annuncio—in reality he is called something else89At a later date Rudolf Steiner changed the line ‘Dich. tönend von Lob and Macht’ to ‘Dich, tönend von Licht und Macht’ (‘Thee ringing with praise and power’ to ‘Thee ringing with light and power’). See Wahrspruchworte—Richtspruchworte. Dornach 1951 ( proposed GA 41).—spoke in such a way that people might have believed all the great flaming speeches of Rienzi were coming to life again—it is easy to do this in Italian—deliberately making every sentence reminiscent of him. After his oration, which to the Central European mind consists of nothing but empty words, he picked up a ceremonial sword and he kissed this sword to indicate that the power of his oratory should pass into this sword. The sword was the property of the editor of a magazine one commonly sees around when one goes to Italy. The editor of a magazine had presented the sword to the Mayor of Rome as a sacred relic on this occasion. The sword belonged to the editor of the cosmic paper Asino. In time to come a world judging these things on a different basis from that prevailing today will realize that many of the things happening at the present time have to be judged from the point of view I have presented—that much of what is present in man by way of mystical powers is thrust out, handed over to the world process, but does not get lost. It becomes the spoil of Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers. Rarely is the irony inherent in world history as obvious to the eye as in the case I have just presented.
Let us use all we have been able to absorb out of the work we have been doing these last years and try to understand clearly that there is a certain measure of spiritual power that is given to human nature. Mystical spirituality has to be thrust out of human consciousness in order that mankind can grow free in taking hold of the physical body. Yet on the other hand this mystical spirituality must be made part of our conscious life, otherwise Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers will take hold of what has been thrust out from conscious awareness. Again and again I want to remind you, dear friends, that having made such efforts for many years to absorb this into our conscious mind, we also have the feeling arise in us that something will have to emerge from the bloodshed of the present time that will lead mankind towards spirituality, towards recognition of the spirit. This means, as I have often said, that there will have to be souls who have grown able, through spiritual science, to look up into the spiritual world where all the ether bodies that have come from young people are present. These have reached the spiritual world and will continue to be present because on that plane, too, powers are not lost. We must look up towards them. They will unite with the powers shining down for us from the spiritual world and what the dead have to say will form the impulses of the future—if souls are present who understand their language. It it in this spirit that once again we say these simple words:
Out of courage shown in battle,
Out of the blood shed in war,
Out of the grief of those who are left,
Out of the people's deeds of sacrifice
Spirit fruits will come to grow
If souls with knowledge of the spirit
Turn their mind to spirit realms.
Vierzehnter Vortrag
Meine lieben Freunde, wir gedenken wiederum zuerst derjenigen, die draufßen auf den großen Feldern der Ereignisse der Gegenwart stehen:
Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Erdenmenschen,
Daß, mit eurer Macht geeint,
Unsre Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.
Und für diejenigen, die infolge dieser Ereignisse schon durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind:
Geister eurer Seelen, wirkende Wächter,
Eure Schwingen mögen bringen
Unserer Seelen bittende Liebe
Eurer Hut vertrauten Sphärenmenschen,
Daß, mit eurer Macht geeint,
Unsre Bitte helfend strahle
Den Seelen, die sie liebend sucht.
Der Geist, den wir durch unsere erstrebte Geist-Erkenntnis suchen, der Geist, der zu der Erde Heil, zu der Menschheit Freiheit und Fortschritt durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist, der sei mit euch und euren schweren Pflichten!
An mancherlei möchte ich in dieser heutigen außerordentlichen Betrachtung erinnern, was den Gegenstand unserer verschiedenen Auseinandersetzungen bildete und was wir heute unter einem bestimmten Gesichtspunkt zusammenfassen wollen, indem wir von da und dort auf schon Betrachtetes Lichtstrahlen, die sich uns ergeben werden, werfen werden. Das ist es ja, was als ein Vorurteil, als eine Vorempfindung, ein Vorgefühl der Annahme geisteswissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis in unserer Zeit gegenübersteht, daß so wenig geahnt wird, welch ein geringer Teil von dem, was der Mensch eigentlich im Grunde genommen in jeder Stunde, in jedem Augenblick vollbringt, dasjenige ist, was der Mensch in seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein als Mensch der physischen Welt hat. Man braucht ja nur zu bedenken, wie wenig man imstande wäre, als Mensch überhaupt zu leben, wenn man alles dasjenige im Bewußtsein haben wollte, was man nötig hat, um als Mensch zu leben. Es wird mit Recht immer wieder und wieder betont, wie wenig der Mensch heute noch weiß — nehmen wir nur zunächst die rein physischen Verrichtungen seines Lebens —, wie Gehirn, Leber, Herz und so weiter eigentlich arbeiten, um das zustande zu bringen, was der Mensch eben zustande bringen muß, damit er als ein physisches Wesen auf der Erde lebt. Das alles aber, was der Mensch auf diese Weise bloß zur Entwickelung seines äußeren physischen Lebens zustande bringen muß, das alles muß er ja tun. Und bedenken Sie, wie wenig das der Mensch mit seinem Bewußtsein begleiten kann. Man braucht nur das allergeringste Geschehnis des Lebens ins Auge zu fassen, so sieht man schon: der Mensch als Weltwesen, als Erdenwesen ist eines, und das, was man den bewußten Menschen nennen kann, ist etwas ganz anderes; das ist etwas, was im Verhältnis zu dem, was der Mensch in seinem ganzen Umfange ist, etwas sehr Kleines, wirklich recht Kleines ist. Und so könnte es eigentlich niemand wundern, daß in der menschlichen Natur der Trieb entsteht, immer zu erweitern diesen kleinen bewußten Menschen über dasjenige Gebiet hin, das sich eröffnet, wenn man den Menschen als Weltenwesen ins Auge faßt. Wir wollen dies heute tun eben nach Gesichtspunkten, die sich uns schon dargeboten haben, die wir nur noch einmal in anderem Zusammenhang ins Auge fassen wollen.
Unser bewußtes Dasein als Mensch beginnt ja in einer gewissen Beziehung durch unsere Sinneswahrnehmungen, durch das, was wir mit unseren Sinnen an der Außenwelt wahrnehmen. Daß unsere Sinne wahrnehmen, das heißt, daß Eindrücke auf unsere Sinne gemacht werden, und diese Eindrücke durch gewisse Vorgänge entstehen, das ist etwas ganz anderes, als daß wir ein Bewußtsein davon haben. Denken Sie sich einmal, Sie würden — Hasen tun es ja nicht mit zugemachten, sondern mit offenen Augen schlafen, so würde die Umgebung des Auges, wenn es nicht gerade stockfinster ist, immer Eindrücke auf die Augen machen, und nur das Bewußtsein von diesen Eindrücken würde fehlen. So sind ja im Grunde genommen die Ohren immer offen, und jedes Geräusch, alles, was bei Tag im wachen Zustand von Bewußtsein begleitet wird, spielt sich selbstverständlich in den Vorgängen des Ohres ebenso ab, wenn der Mensch schläft. Alle unsere Sinnesorgane können immer eingespannt sein in den ganzen Prozeß des Erdenlebens; aber dasjenige, was sie als Bedeutung für uns haben, hängt davon ab, daß wir diesen Prozeß der Sinnesorgane mit dem Bewußtsein begleiten. Denn nur das, was wir in unser Bewußtsein aufnehmen, ist unser als Erdenmensch.
Hat nun dasjenige, was wir unsere Sinneswahrnehmungen nennen, die Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit unserer Augen, Ohren und so weiter, nur eine Bedeutung für uns als Erdenmenschen oder hat das noch irgendeine andere Weltenbedeutung? Diese Frage kann man nur beantworten, wenn man versucht, sich mit Hilfe der hellseherischen Erkenntnis eine Ansicht zu bilden darüber, was es eigentlich ist, was wir von den Sternen des Weltenraumes sehen. Nicht wahr, derjenige, der auf dem Standpunkt unserer materialistischen Physik steht, der sagt: Nun, wenn wir den Planeten sehen, so ist es das Licht der Sonne, das dort hinfällt und wieder zurückgeworfen wird, und auf diese Weise sieht man den Planeten. — So sieht man Gegenstände unserer Erde. Daß man so auch Planeten sieht, das wird bloß aus einer Analogie heraus von den Physikern geschlossen, denn es ist gar nicht irgendein auch nur im geringsten irgendwie gelten könnender Grund da, daß das, was für unsere Erde anwendbar ist — der Schluß, daß das Licht die Gegenstände bestrahlt und, wenn es zurückgeworfen wird, die Gegenstände sichtbar werden -, daß das auch für Himmelskörper gilt. Gar kein Grund ist vorhanden, diesen Schluß auf das Weltall auszudehnen. Bei den Fixsternen sagen nun diese Physiker: Nun ja, sie leuchten eben selber. Ich weiß noch, als ich ein ziemlich junger Bursche war, da hatte ich einen ehemaligen Kameraden der Dorfschule gefragt: Wie lernt man denn bei euch über das Licht? Ich hatte dazumal schon mit einer etwas kindlichen Skepsis gehört von der sogenannten realen Ursache des Lichts, nämlich von all den tanzenden kleinen Ätherkügelchen und Lichtwellen, aber der Junge, der dazumal auf dem Seminar ausgebildet war, der hatte davon noch nichts gehört und sagte: Wir haben immer nur sagen hören, wenn die Frage entstanden war: Was ist das Licht? Licht ist die Ursache des Leuchtens der Körper. — Nun sehen Sie, damit ist selbstverständlich etwas riesig «Gewaltiges» gesagt über das Licht, wenn man sagt: Licht ist die Ursache des Leuchtens der Körper. Aber im Grunde ist es nicht viel mehr, wenn die heutige marienalistische Physik sagt: Man sieht eben die Weltkörper, wenn sie Licht ausstrahlen. Es ist im Grunde ganz dasselbe.
Nun habe ich bei einer anderen Gelegenheit schon erwähnt, daß es für die materialistischen Physiker recht sehr überraschend sein würde, wenn sie nach der Sonne fahren könnten und dort nachsehen könnten, was die Sonne eigentlich ist. Das habe ich gesagt, weil in der Tat dort gar nichts ist, wo die Sonne ist. Sondern das, was man finden würde, würde ein Zusammenhang von rein geistigen Wesenheiten und Kräften sein; etwas Materielles ist dort überhaupt nicht. Nun, wenn man mit diesem hellseherischen Bewußtsein die Sterne untersucht und nach dem Grunde ihres Leuchtens fragt, dann findet man, daß das, was da eigentlich vorhanden ist und von uns als ihr Leuchten bezeichnet wird, eigentlich in der Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit, in der mehr oder weniger groben, wie es bei den Erdenmenschen ist, oder feiner gestalteten Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit von Wesen besteht. Und wenn irgendein Wesen auf Venus oder Mars auf die Erde herunterschauen würde, so würde dieses Wesen, wenn es die Erde leuchten sähe, sich sagen müssen: diese Erde leuchtet, nicht weil da Sonnenstrahlen zurückgeworfen werden, sondern weil auf der Erde Menschen sind, die durch ihre Augen wahrnehmen. Dieser Vorgang des Sehens bedeutet nicht nur etwas für unser Bewußtsein, sondern er strahlt hinaus in den ganzen Weltenraum, und was die Menschen tun, indem sie sehen, ist das Licht des betreffenden Weltkörpers. Wir sehen nicht nur, damit wir mit unserem Bewußtsein die Resultate des Gesehenen aufnehmen, sondern wir sehen, damit durch unseren Prozeß des Sehens die Erde hinausleuchte in den Weltenraum. So hat in der Tat jedes unserer Sinnesorgane die Aufgabe, nicht nur das zu sein, was es für uns ist, sondern hat außerdem eine Weltaufgabe. Der Mensch ist durch seine sinnliche Wahrnehmung ein Weltenwesen. Er ist nicht nur das Wesen, das er durch sein Bewußtsein als Erdenmensch ist, er ist ein Weltenwesen.
Wenn wir weiter in die Innenformation unserer Seele hineingehen, so haben wir das Denken. Dieses Denken, das fassen wir noch mehr eigentlich als unser bloßes Eigentum auf, denn nicht nur, daß das Sprichwort besteht, Gedanken seien zollfrei, womit angedeutet werden soll, daß Gedanken wirklich nur Bedeutung haben für unser Einzelindividuum, sondern es besteht ja auch in weitesten Kreisen das Bewußtsein, daß jeder mit seinem Denken nur einen inneren Vorgang ausführt, daß dieses Denken mehr oder weniger nur eine Bedeutung für ihn selbst hat. Die Wirklichkeit ist aber eine ganz andere. Dieses Denken ist eigentlich ein Vorgang unseres Ätherleibes. Und von dem, was eigentlich geschieht beim Denken, weiß der Mensch das Allerwenigste. Das Allerwenigste von dem, was geschieht in seinem Denken, begleitet der Mensch mit seinem Bewußtsein. Indem der Mensch denkt, weiß er ja einiges von dem, was er denkt. Aber unendlich viel mehr wird als begleitendes Denken entfaltet schon beim Tagesdenken. Und dazu kommt, daß wir in der Nacht, wenn wir schlafen, fortdenken. Es ist nicht wahr, daß das Denken mit dem Einschlafen aufhört und mit dem Aufwachen wieder anfängt. Das Denken dauert fort. Und unter den mancherlei Traumesvorgängen, Vorgängen des Traumlebens, sind auch diese, daß der Mensch beim Aufwachen mit seinem Ich und astralischen Leib in seinen Ätherleib und physischen Leib untertaucht. Da taucht er unter und kommt in ein Gewoge hinein, in ein webendes Leben, von dem er, wenn er nur ein wenig zuschaut, wissen kann: das sind webende Gedanken, da tauche ich unter wie in ein Meer, das nur aus webenden Gedanken besteht. Mancher hat schon beim Aufwachen dann sich gesagt: Wenn ich mich nur erinnern könnte, was ich da gedacht habe, das war etwas sehr Gescheites, das würde mir ungeheuer viel helfen, wenn ich es mir jetzt erinnern könnte! Das ist kein Irrtum. Da unten ist wirklich etwas wie ein wogendes Meer; das ist eben die wogende, webende, ätherische Welt, die nicht so bloß eine etwas dünnere Materie ist, wie es so gerne die englische Theosophie darstellt, sondern die webende Gedankenwelt selbst ist, wirklich Geistiges ist. Man taucht in eine webende Gedankenwelt unter.
Das, was wir als Menschen sind, ist wirklich viel gescheiter als das, was wir als bewußte Menschen sind. Da bleibt nichts übrig, als es zu gestehen. Es wäre auch traurig, wenn wir nicht unbewußt gescheiter wären, als wir bewußt sind, denn sonst könnten wir nichts tun, als uns in jedem Leben auf der gleichen Stufe der Gescheitheit zu wiederholen. Aber wir tragen in der Tat schon im gegenwärtigen Leben mit uns, was wir werden können im nächsten Leben; denn das wird die Frucht sein. Und würden wir wirklich immer imstande sein, das zu erhaschen, in das wir da untertauchen, so würden wir viel erhaschen von dem, was wir im nächsten Leben sein werden. Also da unten wogt es und webt es; da ist der Keim für unsere nächste Verkörperung, und das nehmen wir in uns auf. Daher das Prophetische des Traumlebens. Das Denken ist etwas ungeheuer Kompliziertes, und nur einen Teil von dem, was da im Denken vor sich geht, nimmt der Mensch in sein Bewußtsein auf. Denn im Gedanken geht vor sich, was einen Zeitenprozeß bedeutet. Indem wir wachen Sinnes wahrnehmen, sind wir zugleich kosmische Menschen. Unser Vorgang des Sehens bewirkt das Leuchten, da sind wir kosmische Raumesmenschen. Durch das, was im Denken sich vollzieht, sind wir kosmische Zeitenmenschen, da wirkt alles mit, was schon vor unserer Geburt geschehen ist, was nach unserem Tode geschieht und so weiter. So nehmen wir durch unser Denken am ganzen kosmischen Prozeß der Zeit teil, durch unser Sinneswahrnehmen am ganzen kosmischen Prozeß des Raumes. Und nur der irdische Prozeß des Sinneswahrnehmens ist für uns selber. Nun schreiten wir zum Fühlen vor. Vom Fühlen haben wir noch viel weniger als vom Sinneswahrnehmen und vom Denken in unserem Bewußtsein. Dieses Fühlen ist ein tiefer, tiefer Prozeß. Will man nämlich die eigentliche Bedeutung des Denkens kennenlernen, will man kennenlernen das wirklich Wahre, daß das Denken diese kosmische Bedeutung hat, dann muß man sich erheben zu der imaginativen Anschauung, wie es in «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» beschrieben ist. Sowie man dem Denken jene Abstraktheit abstreift, die es für unser Bewußtsein hat, und untertaucht in jenes Meer der webenden Gedankenwelt, kommt man in die Notwendigkeit, dadrinnen nicht nur solche abstrakte Gedanken zu haben wie der Erdenmensch, sondern dadrinnen Bilder zu haben. Denn aus Bildern ist alles geschaffen, Bilder sind die wahren Ursachen der Dinge, Bilder liegen hinter allem, was uns umgibt, und in diese Bilder tauchen wir ein, wenn wir in das Meer des Denkens eintauchen. Diese Bilder hat Plato gemeint, diese Bilder haben alle gemeint, die von geistigen Urgründen gesprochen haben, diese Bilder hat Goethe gemeint, wenn er von seiner Urpflanze sprach. Diese Bilder findet man im imaginativen Denken. Aber dieses imaginative Denken ist eine Wirklichkeit, und darin tauchen wir ein, wenn wir in das wogende, im Strom der Zeit dahingehende Denken eintauchen.
In das Fühlen versenken wir uns erst, wenn wir zur sogenannten Inspiration kommen, die die höhere Art von Erkenntnis ist gegenüber der Imagination. Alles das, was unserem Fühlen zugrunde liegt, ist eigentlich ein Gewoge von Inspirationen. Und so wie das Bild, das der Spiegel zurückwirft, nur ein Bild ist von dem, was draußen in der Welt als Gegenstand vorhanden ist, so sind unsere Gefühle auch nur durch unseren eigenen Organismus zurückgeworfene Spiegelbilder der Inspirationen, die aus dem Weltall an uns herankommen. Aber so wie der Spiegel nicht imstande ist, alles wiederzugeben - er kann nur äußere Formen wiedergeben, spiegelt nur das Unorganische, nicht das Leben —, so können auch unsere Gefühle nicht das wiedergeben, was in dem Element der Welt als Inspiration liegt, sondern sie sind ein Spiegelbild, das sich nur so verhält zu dem, was da strömt in der Welt, wie sich das tote Spiegelbild verhält zu dem lebenden Wesen, das es spiegelt. Denn in jedem dieser Bilder spiegeln sich die Eigenschaften der Wesen der höheren Hierarchien, die sich in der Welt aussprechen durch Inspiration. Und so wie wir nicht bei Gefühlen stehenbleiben, sondern fortschreiten zu dem hellhörenden Erkennen, nehmen wir wahr die Welt, wie sie zusammenwirkt aus einer großen Mannigfaltigkeit von lauter Wesen der höheren Hierarchien. Die Welt ist diese Wesenheit, dieses Zusammenwirken der Wesen der Hierarchien. In der Welt geschehen die Taten der höheren Hierarchien. Und wir sind eingespannt, sind im Spiegel darinnen, und die Taten der höheren Hierarchien werden durch unseren Spiegel zurückgeworfen. Wir nehmen dieses Zurückgeworfene dann durch unser Bewußtsein wahr. So leben wir im Schoße der Eigenschaften der Hierarchien als fühlende Menschen und nehmen die Eigenschaften durch unser Bewußtsein wahr. Noch kleiner ist der Mensch, der die Gefühle mit seinem Bewußtsein begleitet, gegenüber dem, was er durch seine Gefühle eigentlich ist, als das in den anderen Fällen beim bewußten Menschen mit seinen Sinneswahrnehmungen und seinem Denken war. Denn dadurch, daß wir fühlende Menschen sind, sind wir auch Wesen der Hierarchien, wirken auch dadrinnen, wo die Hierarchien wirken. Wir wirken in diesem Gewebe, tun Taten, die nicht nur für uns sind, sondern durch die wir mitwirken an dem ganzen Aufbau der Welt. Wir sind durch unsere Gefühle Diener der die Welt bauenden höheren Wesenheiten. Und während wir glauben, daß wir, ich will sagen, der Sixtinischen Madonna gegenüberstehen und nur unser Gefühl befriedigen, das in uns aufsteigt, ist es eine Tatsache, daß hier ein Mensch steht vor der Sixtinischen Madonna, und indem er seine Gefühle auf sie richtet, ist da ein realer Prozeß vorhanden - ein realer Vorgang! Würde dieses Gefühl nicht da sein, würden solche Gefühlselemente nicht da sein, so würden diejenigen Wesenheiten, die einstmals mitwirken sollen an dem Aufbau des Himmelskörpers Venus, nicht die Kräfte haben, die sie dazu brauchen. Unsere Gefühle sind notwendig für das Haus, das die Götter als Welt aufbauen, wie die Ziegelsteine, die verwendet werden zum Aufbauen des Hauses; und was wir wissen über unsere Gefühle, ist wiederum nur ein Teil. Wir wissen, was es uns für eine Freude macht, wenn wir vor der Sixtinischen Madonna stehen -, das aber, was da geschieht, ist Teil im Weltenganzen, ganz einerlei, wie wir es mit unserem Bewußtsein begleiten.
Und wenn wir auf unser Wollen blicken, ist das auch wieder nur Spiegel, aber nun der Wesenheit der einzelnen Mitglieder der Hierarchien. Wir sind ebenso ein Wesen der Hierarchien, nur auf einer anderen Stufe. Unsere Realität besteht in unserem Willen, wir geben der Welt Substanz, indem wir unseren Willen irgendwie in der Wirklichkeit leben lassen. Wieder ist es so: Daß wir unser Wollen mit dem Bewußtsein begleiten, das hat nur Bedeutung für uns als Menschen; daneben steht unser Wollen als Realität, das ist der Stoff für die Götter, um daraus die Welt aufzubauen.
Sie sehen, wie unsere Sinneswahrnehmungen, unser Denken, Fühlen und Wollen kosmische Bedeutung haben, wie sie sich hineinfügen in das ganze kosmische Leben. Und es scheint doch, als wenn der Mensch schon in der Gegenwart wirklich nicht gar zu wenig Verständnis haben sollte, um bei gutem Willen dieses aufzunehmen. Manchmal kommt es heraus, daß Menschen ein Bewußtsein dafür haben, daß ein kleiner Mensch da ist, der bewußte, und ein großer Mensch, die kosmische Realität. Friedrich Nietzsche in seinem Zarathustra sprach auch von dieser Tatsache, ahnte etwas von dieser Tatsache. Und so ist es bei vielen, nur daß sie nicht die Mühe sich nehmen, um die Wege zu gehen, durch die man erkennt, wie man vom kleinen Menschen in den größeren Menschen hinauf kommt. Aber es ist wirklich notwendig, daß eine größere Zahl von Menschen einsieht, daß die Zeiten vorüber sind, wo man auskommen kann ohne diese Einsicht. Die alte Zeit hat noch Überbleibsel gehabt vom alten Hellsehen, durch das in uralter Zeit die Menschen hineingeschaut haben in die geistige Welt, wo sie wirklich gesehen haben, wie es der Mensch tut, wenn er mit Ich und astralischem Leib draußen ist aus dem physischen und Ätherleib und im Kosmos draußen. Da würde der Mensch nie zur vollen Freiheit gekommen sein, zur Individualität; Unselbständigkeit wäre eingetreten, wenn es beim alten Hellsehen geblieben wäre. Der Mensch mußte das alte Hellsehen verlieren; er mußte gleichsam Besitz ergreifen von seinem physischen Ich. Das Denken, das er entwickeln würde, wenn er das ganze Gewoge unter dem Bewußtsein sehen würde, das als Denken, Fühlen, Wollen dort vorhanden ist, das würde ein himmlisches Denken sein, aber nicht das selbständige Denken. Wie kommt der Mensch zu diesem selbständigen Denken?
Nun, denken Sie sich, daß Sie in der Nacht schlafen, Sie liegen im Bette. Das heißt, im Bette liegt der physische Leib und Ätherleib. Nun kommen beim Aufwachen von außen das Ich und der astralische Leib herein. Da wird fortgedacht im Ätherleib. Da tauchen jetzt das Ich und der astralische Leib unter, die fassen nun zunächst den Ätherleib. Aber es dauert nicht lange, denn in diesem Augenblick kann aufblitzen jenes: Was habe ich da nur gedacht, was war das doch Gescheites? Aber der Mensch hat die Begierde, gleich auch den physischen Leib zu ergreifen, und in diesem Moment entschwindet das alles; jetzt ist der Mensch ganz in der Sphäre des Erdenlebens darinnen. Es kommt also daher, daß der Mensch gleich den Erdenleib ergreift, daß er das feine Gewoge des ätherischen Denkens sich nicht zum Bewußtsein bringen kann. Der Mensch muf3 eben, um das Bewußtsein entwickeln zu können «ich bin es, der da denkt», seinen Erdenleib als Instrument ergreifen, sonst würde er nicht das Bewußtsein haben «ich bin es, der da denkt», sondern «der mich beschützende Engel ist es, der da denkt». Dieses Bewußtsein «ich denke» ist nur möglich durch das Ergreifen des Erdenleibes. Darum ist es notwendig, daß im Erdenleben der Mensch befähigt wird zum Gebrauche seines Erdenleibes. In der nächsten Zeit wird er immer mehr und mehr durch das, was die Erde ihm gibt, diesen Erdenleib ergreifen müssen. Sein berechtigter Egoismus wird immer größer und größer werden. Dem muß eben das Gegengewicht geschaffen werden dadurch, daß man auf der anderen Seite die Erkenntnisse gewinnt, die die Geisteswissenschaft gibt. Im Ausgangspunkt dieser Zeit stehen wir. Nun könnten die Leute sagen: Darüber wollen wir uns nicht weiter Skrupel machen, was kümmert uns das, was die Götter mit uns wollen. Wollen wir nicht erst den Willen der Götter erforschen! Was uns die Götter geben im Laufe des Erdenlebens, das nehmen wir an; da geben sie uns den physischen Leib als ein immer stärkeres Instrument des physischen Denkens; aber sich da erst Skrupel darüber zu machen, daß wir erst anfangen sollen, irgend etwas anderes als Kraft uns zu erwerben, das ist recht unbequem. Und man muß es ja nicht gerade; mögen die Götter einen anderen Weg einschlagen! So sagen die Menschen auch, nur sagen sie es so, daß sie Philosophien und so weiter erfinden.
Man muß sich klar sein, daß es in der Welt wirklich nicht davon abhängt, daß man das, was geschehen muß, nach seiner subjektiven Bequemlichkeit einschränken will; es ist ganz unmöglich, daß ein gewisses Maß3 desjenigen, was dem Menschen zugeteilt ist, verkleinert wird. Und wenn der Mensch in einem bestimmten Zeitalter bestimmte Kräfte entwickeln soll und er entwickelt nur einen Teil, so kommen die anderen doch heraus. Es ist nicht wahr, daß sie nicht herauskommen! So wenig wie, wenn Sie eine Maschine heizen, das, was darüber geheizt wird, verschwindet, sondern hinausstrahlt, ebensowenig kann im Menschenleben das, was da ist, verschwinden. So ist es nicht wahr, daß das, was der Mensch heute so verachtet, die mystischen Kräfte, nicht vorhanden wäre. Der Mensch kann es verleugnen. Aber in dem, was zur Welt gehört, bleibt es vorhanden. Das können Sie ableugnen, Sie können ein großer Materialist sein in Ihrem Bewußtsein, aber Sie können es nicht als ganzer Mensch sein. Das wird sich dann, ohne daß er es weiß, so entwickeln, daß er das, was er sonst den regulären Göttern darreichen würde, Ahriman und Luzifer darreicht. Denn alles, was Sie in Ihrem Bewußtsein unterdrücken, nicht zur Entfaltung kommen lassen, reichen Sie Ahriman und Luzifer dar.
Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, es kann gewiß keine zeitgenössische Kultur in der Gegenwart geben, die bis in die innersten Fasern des Seelenlebens hinein einen intensiveren Materialismus getrieben hat als die italienische Kultur. Die italienische Kultur der Gegenwart, sie ist Ja als nationale Kultur eine Kultur, die dadurch entstand, daß die Volksseele durch die Empfindungsseele der Menschen wirkt. Wenn die englische Kultur Materialismus hervorbringt, so ist das ihre Mission; der Materialismus wird dort Oberfläche sein, wird aber so sein, wie er sein soll. Da kommt das zustande, was die Erde einmal an Materialismus braucht. Das ist die Mission des britischen Volkes, der Erdenentwickelung den Materialismus zu geben. Da kann sich das nicht so tief in die Seele hineinnisten wie beim Italiener, der alles in die tiefsten Empfindungen aufnimmt, da lebt sich der Materialismus bis in die tiefsten Gründe hinein. Darum hat die italienische Zeitkultur gegenwärtig förmliche Tobsuchtsanfälle des nationalistischen Materialismus mit ganzer Seele, während sich der Materialismus eben nicht mit ganzer Seele ergreifen läßt. Man kann ihn vertreten gegenüber der Welt, aber man kann sich nicht für ihn begeistern, außer man ist ein Angehöriger der italienischen Volksseele. Aber so wahr es ist, daß unsere Zeit überhaupt die materialistischste ist, ebenso wahr ist es, daß bei den südlichen Völkern gerade aus der Empfindungsseele heraus die materialistischsten Empfindungen kommen. Denken Sie, was Fichte ausgesprochen hat: Wer an Freiheit der Geistigkeit glaubt, der gehört eigentlich zu uns! — Bei ihm ist ganz und gar durch den Geist charakterisiert das, was Nationalität in seinem Sinne sein soll: ein Geistbegriff. Nichts von dem ist im italienischen Nationalitätsbegriff; die Materie des Blutes ist es hier, worauf es ankommt, ein ganz naturalistischer Nationalismus ist das. Wenn der eine von Nation spricht, meint er etwas ganz anderes, als wenn der andere von Nation spricht. Ein ganz nationalistischer Materialismus lebt im italienischen Volk. Selbstverständlich bezieht sich das alles nur auf die heutige Zeit. Nun denken Sie, wenn in einer so entschiedenen Weise die Seele hinstrebt nach einem naturalistischen Materialismus in den Absichten des Landes, dann kann nicht verlorengehen deshalb der mystische Sinn; der bleibt. Er wird nur aus dem Bewußtsein herausgeworfen und legt sich dann auf etwas anderes, er wird nicht aus dem wahrsten innersten Sein herausgeworfen, nur kommt er in den Dienst derjenigen Mächte, die wir mit dem technischen Namen der ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte bezeichnen; die Kräfte werden dann nicht in die Bahn der fortschreitenden Gottheiten geleitet, sondern in die Bahn der ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte. Man kann annehmen, irgend etwas wird unter diesen Völkern hervorkommen dadurch, daß mystisch geartete Kräfte herausgeworfen werden in das öffentliche Leben. Finden wir so etwas im Süden, als eine richtig herausgeworfene mystische Willensströmung?
1347 war es, am Pfingstsonntag des Mai, als in Rom Cola di Rienzi an der Spitze eines großen Zuges im altrömischen Panzer nach der Empfindung der damaligen Zeit, mit vier Standarten, hinaufgegangen ist nach dem Kapitol, nach der Stätte, von wo aus man immer gesprochen hat, wenn man zu den Römern über das Römertum gesprochen hat. Und Rienzi verkündete von da aus das, was er zu verkünden hatte, wie er selbst sagte, als der Beauftragte des Jesus Christus und als der, der im Namen der Freiheit der ganzen Welt zu den Römern zu sprechen hatte. Dazumal wurden tatsächlich unglaublich viele Phrasen gesprochen. Sie hatten in der damaligen Zeit — 1347 — eine gewisse Bedeutung, aber sie hatten keine Realität. Das Ganze war etwas, das wie im Feuer verpuffte. Aber das meine ich noch nicht. Ich möchte hinweisen darauf, daß das geschehen ist am Pfingstsonntag, 20. Mai 1347. Das war dazumal, als sich der Vertreter dieser ganzen Strömung als ein Beauftragter des Christus bezeichnete. Und später, als er immer mehr ausbildete seine Lehre, da nannte er sich auch den Inspirierten vom Heiligen Geist. Und wieder an einem Pfingstsonntag ist die Kriegserklärung an Österreich erfolgt. Vorangegangen ist, daß derjenige, der sich allerdings nicht den Beauftragten des Christus genannt hat, aber der doch so leicht durchtönen ließ, daß er vom Heiligen Geist durchdrungen ist, an der Spitze eines großen Zuges unmittelbar vorher in Rom gesprochen hat. Einer, der ganz gewiß nicht eine Spur jener Mystik in seiner Seele hatte, in deren Namen Rienzi damals sprach. Aber - da haben Sie das Herausgeworfene der Mystik - am richtigen Tag, nämlich da wieder Pfingstsonntag war, war es gesprochen. Aber es ist im Dienste der anderen Mächte gesprochen. Es ist der Christus-Impuls aus dem Bewußtsein herausgeworfen. Und wie sehr es das Ahrimanische war, das ja schließlich in dieser Zeit erwartet werden muß, das zeigen wenige Worte, die damals gesprochen worden sind. Selbstverständlich konnte im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert der Sprecher diesmal nicht im Panzer mit vier Standarten kommen, sondern er ist im Auto gekommen. Das ist selbstverständlich dasjenige, was unserer materialistisch gerichteten Zeit zum Opfer gebracht werden muß. Aber er mußte ja schließlich — unbewußt vielleicht — ein wenig Rechnung tragen dem, daß einer anderen Macht übergeben ist dasjenige, was eigentlich als mystische Menschenkraft herausgeworfen ist und das nun draußen in der Welt strömt - in sein Gegenteil verkehrt. Er hat ja nach seiner Rede — der Mann, der nach seiner eigenen Namengebung d’Annunzio heißt, in Wirklichkeit heißt er ja anders — nicht nur so gesprochen, daß geglaubt werden konnte - in der italienischen Sprache ist das ja leicht zu machen -, alle die großen flammenden Worte des Rienzi leben wieder auf, an die er so deutlich in jedem Satz erinnern wollte, sondern er hat, nachdem er diese Rede gehalten hat, in der allerdings mitteleuropäisches Bewußtsein nur Phrasen sehen kann, nachher einen Degen in die Hand genommen, diesen Degen geküßt, zum Zeichen, daß er jetzt an des Degens Kraft die Kraft der Rede abgeben wolle. Dieser Degen, er gehörte dem Redakteur einer Zeitschrift, die man öfter sieht, wenn man nach Italien kommt. Es war der Degen, den der Redakteur einer Zeitschrift dem Bürgermeister von Rom bei dieser Gelegenheit als ein heiliges Vermächtnis übergab. Dieser Degen gehörte dem Redakteur des Witzblattes «Asino». Die Welt wird einmal in der Zukunft einsehen, wenn sie aus anderen Untergründen heraus urteilt als aus denen, aus denen heute so oft geurteilt wird, daß? so manches, was in unserer Gegenwart geschieht, eben von dem Gesichtspunkt zu beurteilen ist, wie manches, was als mystische Kraft im Menschen vorhanden ist, herausgeworfen wird, dem Weltprozeß übergeben wird, aber nicht verlorengeht, sondern die Beute der ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte wird. Und selten zeigt in der unmittelbaren Anschauung die Ironie der Weltgeschichte so klar, was hier geschieht, wie in dem eben angedeuteten Fall.
Wir wollen gerade aus dem, was wir aufnehmen konnten in uns durch unser in den letzten Jahren verlaufenes Streben, versuchen, uns klar darüber zu sein, daß ein gewisses Maß spiritueller Kräfte der Menschennatur angemessen ist. Und weil aus dem Bewußtsein auf der einen Seite dadurch, daß die Menschheit frei werden kann durch die Ergreifung des Leiblichen, herausgeworfen werden muß die mystische Spiritualität, muß es auf der anderen Seite in das Bewußtsein hereingenommen werden, sonst wird das aus dem Bewußtsein Herausgeworfene von den ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächten ergriffen. Das ist es, woran ich immer wieder von neuem erinnern möchte, meine lieben Freunde, daß wir, indem wir jahrelang gestrebt haben, dies in unser Bewußtsein aufzunehmen, in uns selber auch ein Gefühl erzeugen, daß aus diesen blutigen Ereignissen der Gegenwart etwas hervorgehen muß, was die Menschheit zur Spiritualität, zur Anerkennung der Geistigkeit hinführt. In dem Sinne, wie ich öfter davon gesprochen habe, daß sich Seelen finden müssen, die durch Geisteswissenschaft geeignet sind, hinaufzuschauen in die geistige Welt, wo alle die Ätherleiber sind, die aus jungen Menschen herausgekommen sind - hinaufgekommen sind in die geistige Welt - und die nun vorhanden bleiben, weil auch auf diesem Felde die Kräfte nicht verlorengehen. Zu ihnen sollen wir nun hinaufblicken; sie werden sich verbinden mit den Kräften aus der geistigen Welt, die uns entgegenleuchten, und es wird das, was die Toten zu sagen haben, in der Zukunft zu Impulsen werden, wenn Seelen da sind, die ihre Sprache verstehen. In diesem Sinne sprechen wir wieder die schlichten Worte:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht —
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
Fourteenth Lecture
My dear friends, we once again remember first those who stand outside on the great fields of present events:
Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To those earthly beings entrusted to your care,
That, united with your power,
Our plea may shine helpfully
Upon the souls that seek it lovingly.
And for those who have already passed through the gates of death as a result of these events:
Spirits of your souls, active guardians,
May your wings bring
The pleading love of our souls
To the people of the spheres whom you protect,
That, united with your power,
Our plea may shine helpfully
To the souls that seek them lovingly.
The spirit that we seek through our striving for spiritual knowledge, the spirit that has gone to the earth to bring salvation, freedom, and progress to humanity through the mystery of Golgotha, may it be with you and your difficult duties!
In today's extraordinary reflection, I would like to recall in various ways what has been the subject of our various discussions and what we would like to summarize today from a certain point of view, by casting light on what we have already considered here and there, which will reveal itself to us. This is precisely what stands as a prejudice, a preconception, a pre-feeling of acceptance of spiritual scientific knowledge in our time, that so little is suspected of how small a part of what human beings actually accomplish every hour, every moment, is what human beings have in their ordinary consciousness as beings of the physical world. One need only consider how little one would be able to live as a human being at all if one wanted to have in consciousness everything that is necessary to live as a human being. It is rightly emphasized again and again how little human beings know today — let us take first the purely physical activities of their lives — about how the brain, liver, heart, and so on actually work to bring about what human beings must bring about in order to live as physical beings on earth. But everything that human beings must accomplish in this way merely for the development of their outer physical life, they must do. And consider how little human beings can accompany this with their consciousness. One need only consider the smallest event in life to see that the human being as a world being, as an earthly being, is one thing, and what we call the conscious human being is something quite different; it is something very small, indeed quite small, in relation to what the human being is in its entirety. And so it should come as no surprise that the human nature develops the urge to constantly expand this small conscious human being beyond the realm that opens up when one considers the human being as a world being. Today we want to do this from points of view that have already been presented to us, which we now want to consider once again in a different context.
Our conscious existence as human beings begins, in a certain sense, through our sensory perceptions, through what we perceive of the external world with our senses. The fact that our senses perceive, that is, that impressions are made on our senses and that these impressions arise through certain processes, is something quite different from our being conscious of them. Just imagine that you were sleeping with your eyes open—rabbits do this, after all—then, unless it were pitch dark, the surroundings of your eyes would constantly make impressions on them, and only the awareness of these impressions would be lacking. In the same way, our ears are always open, and every sound, everything that is accompanied by consciousness during the waking state, naturally takes place in the processes of the ear when a person is asleep. All our sense organs can always be involved in the whole process of earthly life, but what they mean to us depends on whether we accompany this process of the sense organs with consciousness. For only what we take into our consciousness is ours as earthly human beings.
Does what we call our sensory perceptions, the perceptive capacity of our eyes, ears, and so on, have meaning only for us as earthly human beings, or does it have some other meaning in the world? This question can only be answered if we try to form a view, with the help of clairvoyant knowledge, of what it is we actually see in the stars of the universe. Isn't it true that those who stand on the standpoint of our materialistic physics say: Well, when we see the planets, it is the light of the sun that falls there and is reflected back, and in this way we see the planets. — This is how we see objects on our Earth. That we see planets in the same way is merely concluded by physicists on the basis of analogy, for there is not the slightest reason why what applies to our earth — the conclusion that light illuminates objects and that when it is reflected back, the objects become visible — should also apply to celestial bodies. There is no reason whatsoever to extend this conclusion to the universe. In the case of fixed stars, these physicists say: Well, they just shine by themselves. I remember when I was a fairly young boy, I asked a former classmate from the village school: How do you learn about light? At that time, I had already heard with somewhat childish skepticism about the so-called real cause of light, namely all the dancing little ether particles and light waves, but the boy, who had been trained at the seminary, had never heard of this and said: “We have always only heard, when the question arose: 'What is light? Light is the cause of the shining of bodies. — Now, you see, it is of course saying something enormously “powerful” about light when one says: Light is the cause of the shining of bodies. But basically, it is not much more than that when today's materialistic physics says: One sees the bodies of the world when they emit light. It is basically the same thing.
Now, I have already mentioned on another occasion that it would be quite surprising for materialistic physicists if they could travel to the sun and see what the sun actually is. I said this because there is in fact nothing at all where the sun is. What one would find there would be a connection between purely spiritual beings and forces; there is nothing material there at all. Now, if one investigates the stars with this clairvoyant consciousness and asks about the reason for their shining, one finds that what is actually present there and what we call their shining actually consists in the faculty of perception, in the more or less coarse form that it has among earthly human beings, or in the more finely structured faculty of perception of beings. And if any being on Venus or Mars were to look down at the earth, that being, seeing the earth shining, would have to say to itself: this earth shines, not because sunbeams are reflected back, but because there are people on earth who perceive through their eyes. This process of seeing does not only mean something for our consciousness, but it radiates out into the whole of space, and what human beings do by seeing is the light of the world body in question. We do not only see in order to take in the results of what we see with our consciousness, but we see so that through our process of seeing, the Earth shines out into space. Thus, each of our sense organs has the task of not only being what it is for us, but also has a task in the world. Through their sensory perception, human beings are world beings. They are not only the beings that they are through their consciousness as earthly human beings, they are world beings.
If we go further into the inner formation of our soul, we have thinking. We consider this thinking to be even more our own than our mere possessions, for not only is there a proverb that says thoughts are duty-free, meaning that thoughts really only have meaning for our individual selves, but there is also a widespread awareness that everyone's thinking is merely an inner process and that this thinking has more or less only meaning for the individual himself. But the reality is quite different. This thinking is actually a process of our etheric body. And human beings know very little about what actually happens when they think. Human beings are only minimally aware of what happens in their thinking. When human beings think, they know something of what they are thinking. But infinitely more unfolds as accompanying thinking even during daytime thinking. And in addition, we continue thinking at night when we sleep. It is not true that thinking stops when we fall asleep and starts again when we wake up. Thinking continues. And among the various dream processes, processes of dream life, there are also those in which, upon awakening, the human being submerges with his ego and astral body into his etheric body and physical body. There they submerge and enter into a swirling mass, a weaving life, of which they can know, if they observe just a little, that these are weaving thoughts, that they are submerging as if into a sea consisting only of weaving thoughts. Many people have said to themselves upon waking: If only I could remember what I was thinking then, it was something very clever, it would help me enormously if I could remember it now! This is not a mistake. Down there is really something like a surging sea; this is the surging, weaving, ethereal world, which is not merely a slightly thinner form of matter, as English theosophy likes to portray it, but is the weaving world of thoughts itself, is truly spiritual. One plunges into a weaving world of thoughts.
What we are as human beings is really much more intelligent than what we are as conscious human beings. There is nothing left but to admit it. It would also be sad if we were not unconsciously more intelligent than we are consciously, because otherwise we could do nothing but repeat ourselves at the same level of intelligence in every life. But we already carry within us in our present life what we can become in the next life; for that will be the fruit. And if we were truly always able to grasp what we are immersed in, we would grasp much of what we will be in the next life. So down there it surges and weaves; there is the seed for our next incarnation, and we take that into ourselves. Hence the prophetic nature of dream life. Thinking is something immensely complicated, and only a part of what goes on in thinking is taken into human consciousness. For what goes on in thought is a process of time. By perceiving with our waking senses, we are at the same time cosmic human beings. Our process of seeing causes the light to shine; there we are cosmic beings of space. Through what takes place in our thinking, we are cosmic beings of time; everything that happened before our birth, everything that happens after our death, and so on, has an effect. Thus, through our thinking, we participate in the entire cosmic process of time, and through our sensory perception, we participate in the entire cosmic process of space. And only the earthly process of sensory perception is for ourselves. Now let us move on to feeling. We have even less awareness of feeling than we do of sensory perception and thinking. This feeling is a deep, deep process. For if we want to know the real meaning of thinking, if we want to know the real truth that thinking has this cosmic meaning, then we must rise to imaginative perception, as described in “How to Know Higher Worlds.” As soon as one strips thinking of the abstractness it has for our consciousness and submerges oneself in that sea of the weaving world of thoughts, one finds it necessary to have not only abstract thoughts like earthly human beings, but to have images. For everything is created from images; images are the true causes of things; images lie behind everything that surrounds us, and we immerse ourselves in these images when we immerse ourselves in the sea of thought. Plato meant these images, everyone who spoke of spiritual origins meant these images, Goethe meant these images when he spoke of his archetypal plant. These images are found in imaginative thinking. But this imaginative thinking is a reality, and we immerse ourselves in it when we immerse ourselves in the surging stream of time.
We only immerse ourselves in feeling when we reach what is known as inspiration, which is a higher form of knowledge than imagination. Everything that underlies our feelings is actually a surge of inspirations. And just as the image reflected by a mirror is only an image of what exists outside in the world as an object, so our feelings are only mirror images of the inspirations that come to us from the universe, reflected back by our own organism. But just as the mirror is incapable of reproduce everything—it can only reproduce external forms, reflecting only the inorganic, not life—so too our feelings cannot reproduce what lies in the element of the world as inspiration, but are a reflection that relates to what flows in the world in the same way that a dead reflection relates to the living being it reflects. For in each of these images are reflected the qualities of the beings of the higher hierarchies, which express themselves in the world through inspiration. And just as we do not remain with feelings, but progress to clear-hearing recognition, we perceive the world as it interacts out of a great diversity of beings of the higher hierarchies. The world is this entity, this interaction of the beings of the hierarchies. The deeds of the higher hierarchies take place in the world. And we are caught up in it, we are in the mirror within it, and the deeds of the higher hierarchies are reflected back through our mirror. We then perceive what is reflected back through our consciousness. Thus we live in the bosom of the qualities of the hierarchies as feeling human beings and perceive the qualities through our consciousness. The human being who accompanies his feelings with his consciousness is even smaller in relation to what he actually is through his feelings than was the case in the other instances with conscious human beings with their sense perceptions and their thinking. For by virtue of being feeling human beings, we are also beings of the hierarchies and also work within them where the hierarchies work. We work in this fabric, doing deeds that are not only for ourselves, but through which we participate in the entire structure of the world. Through our feelings, we are servants of the higher beings who build the world. And while we believe that we are, so to speak, standing before the Sistine Madonna and merely satisfying the feelings that arise within us, it is a fact that a human being is standing here before the Sistine Madonna, and by directing his feelings toward her, a real process is taking place—a real event! If this feeling were not there, if such emotional elements were not there, then those beings who are supposed to participate in the construction of the heavenly body Venus would not have the powers they need to do so. Our feelings are necessary for the house that the gods are building as the world, just like the bricks that are used to build a house; and what we know about our feelings is, in turn, only a part of it. We know what a joy it is for us to stand before the Sistine Madonna—but what happens there is part of the whole world, regardless of how we accompany it with our consciousness.
And when we look at our will, it is again only a mirror, but now of the essence of the individual members of the hierarchies. We are also beings of the hierarchies, only on a different level. Our reality consists in our will; we give substance to the world by somehow allowing our will to live in reality. Again, it is so: the fact that we accompany our will with consciousness has meaning only for us as human beings; alongside this stands our will as reality, which is the material from which the gods build the world.
You see how our sensory perceptions, our thinking, feeling, and willing have cosmic significance, how they fit into the whole of cosmic life. And yet it seems as if human beings in the present day should not really have too little understanding to take this in with good will. Sometimes it comes out that people are aware that there is a small human being, the conscious one, and a great human being, the cosmic reality. Friedrich Nietzsche also spoke of this fact in his Zarathustra, he sensed something of this fact. And so it is with many, only that they do not take the trouble to follow the paths through which one recognizes how one can ascend from the small human being to the greater human being. But it is really necessary that a greater number of people realize that the times are past when one can get by without this insight. The old days still had remnants of the old clairvoyance through which, in ancient times, people looked into the spiritual world, where they really saw what a human being does when he is outside with his ego and astral body, outside the physical and etheric bodies and out in the cosmos. Human beings would never have attained complete freedom, individuality; dependence would have set in if the old clairvoyance had remained. Human beings had to lose the old clairvoyance; they had to take possession, as it were, of their physical ego. The thinking that they would develop if they saw the whole turmoil beneath consciousness, which is present there as thinking, feeling, and willing, would be heavenly thinking, but not independent thinking. How does man attain this independent thinking?
Now, imagine that you are asleep at night, lying in bed. That is, the physical body and the etheric body are lying in bed. Now, when you wake up, the I and the astral body enter from outside. Thinking continues in the etheric body. The I and the astral body now submerge and initially grasp the etheric body. But this does not last long, because at that moment the following may flash through the mind: What was I just thinking, what was that clever idea? But the human being has the desire to immediately grasp the physical body, and at that moment everything disappears; now the human being is completely within the sphere of earthly life. It is therefore because human beings immediately grasp their earthly body that they cannot bring the subtle waves of etheric thinking to consciousness. In order to develop the consciousness “I am the one who thinks,” man must grasp his earthly body as an instrument, otherwise he would not have the consciousness “I am the one who thinks,” but rather “the angel who protects me is the one who thinks.” This consciousness, “I think,” is only possible through the grasping of the earthly body. That is why it is necessary that in earthly life, human beings be enabled to use their earthly bodies. In the near future, they will have to grasp this earthly body more and more through what the earth gives them. Their justified egoism will become greater and greater. A counterbalance to this must be created by gaining the insights provided by spiritual science. We are at the starting point of this period. Now people might say: We don't want to worry about that any more; what do we care what the gods want with us? Let us first investigate the will of the gods! We accept what the gods give us in the course of our earthly life; they give us the physical body as an ever stronger instrument of physical thinking; but to have scruples about whether we should first acquire something other than strength is quite inconvenient. And one does not have to do it; let the gods take another path! That is what people say, too, only they say it in such a way that they invent philosophies and so on.
One must be clear that it really does not depend on the world whether one wants to restrict what must happen according to one's subjective convenience; it is quite impossible for a certain measure3 of what is allotted to human beings to be reduced. And if man is supposed to develop certain powers in a certain age and he develops only a part of them, the others will still come out. It is not true that they will not come out! Just as when you heat a machine, what is heated does not disappear, but radiates out, so in human life what is there cannot disappear. So it is not true that what human beings today despise so much, the mystical powers, do not exist. Human beings can deny it. But it remains present in what belongs to the world. You can deny it, you can be a great materialist in your consciousness, but you cannot be one as a whole human being. Without knowing it, this will then develop in such a way that what you would otherwise offer to the regular gods, you will offer to Ahriman and Lucifer. For everything that you suppress in your consciousness, that you do not allow to unfold, you offer to Ahriman and Lucifer.
You see, my dear friends, there can certainly be no contemporary culture in the present that has driven materialism more intensely into the innermost fibers of the soul life than Italian culture. Contemporary Italian culture, as a national culture, is a culture that arose through the soul of the people working through the sentient soul of human beings. If English culture produces materialism, that is its mission; materialism will be superficial there, but it will be as it should be. What the earth once needs in materialism will come about. It is the mission of the British people to give materialism to the development of the earth. It cannot nestle so deeply in the soul as it does with the Italians, who absorb everything into their deepest feelings; there, materialism lives in the deepest foundations. That is why the Italian culture of the present day has formal fits of raving nationalistic materialism with the whole soul, while materialism cannot be grasped with the whole soul. One can defend it to the world, but one cannot be enthusiastic about it unless one is a member of the Italian national soul. But as true as it is that our age is the most materialistic of all, it is equally true that among the southern peoples it is precisely from the soul of feeling that the most materialistic feelings arise. Consider what Fichte said: “Those who believe in the freedom of the spirit actually belong to us!” For him, what nationality should be in his sense is characterized entirely by the spirit: a concept of the spirit. None of this is found in the Italian concept of nationality; here, it is the matter of blood that matters, a completely naturalistic nationalism. When one person speaks of nation, he means something completely different from when another speaks of nation. A completely nationalistic materialism lives in the Italian people. Of course, all this refers only to the present time. Now think, if the soul strives in such a decisive way toward a naturalistic materialism in the intentions of the country, then the mystical sense cannot be lost; it remains. It is only thrown out of consciousness and then settles on something else; it is not thrown out of the truest inner being, but only comes into the service of those powers which we designate with the technical name of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers; the forces are then not directed into the path of the advancing deities, but into the path of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces. One can assume that something will emerge among these peoples as a result of mystical forces being cast out into public life. Do we find something like this in the south, as a mystical will current that has been properly cast out?
It was in 1347, on Pentecost Sunday in May, when Cola di Rienzi, at the head of a large procession in ancient Roman armor, in keeping with the spirit of the time, with four standards, went up to the Capitol, the place from which one always spoke when speaking to the Romans about Romanism. And from there, Rienzi proclaimed what he had to proclaim, as he himself said, as the representative of Jesus Christ and as the one who had to speak to the Romans in the name of freedom for the whole world. At that time, an incredible number of phrases were spoken. They had a certain meaning at that time — in 1347 — but they had no reality. The whole thing was something that went up in smoke. But that is not what I mean. I would like to point out that this happened on Pentecost Sunday, May 20, 1347. That was when the representative of this whole movement called himself a representative of Christ. And later, as he developed his teaching more and more, he also called himself inspired by the Holy Spirit. And again on a Pentecost Sunday, the declaration of war against Austria was made. This was preceded by the fact that the one who did not call himself the representative of Christ, but who nevertheless let it be easily implied that he was imbued with the Holy Spirit, spoke at the head of a large procession in Rome immediately beforehand. This was someone who certainly did not have a trace of the mysticism in his soul in whose name Rienzi spoke at that time. But—and here you have the rejected element of mysticism—it was spoken on the right day, namely on Pentecost Sunday again. But it was spoken in the service of other powers. The Christ impulse has been thrown out of consciousness. And how much it was the Ahrimanic, which must ultimately be expected in this time, is shown by a few words that were spoken at that time. Of course, in the twentieth century, the speaker could not come in an armored car with four standards, but he came in a car. That is, of course, what must be sacrificed to our materialistically oriented time. But he had to take into account, perhaps unconsciously, that what has been cast out as mystical human power and is now flowing out into the world has been handed over to another power and is being turned into its opposite. After his speech—the man who, according to his own name, is called d'Annunzio, although his real name is different—he not only spoke in such a way that it was easy to believe him (which is easy to do in Italian), reviving all the great, fiery words of Rienzi, which he wanted to evoke so clearly in every sentence, but after delivering this speech, in which Central European consciousness can see only empty phrases, he took a sword in his hand, kissed it, as a sign that he now wanted to surrender the power of his speech to the power of the sword. This sword belonged to the editor of a magazine that one often sees when one comes to Italy. It was the sword that the editor of a magazine presented to the mayor of Rome on this occasion as a sacred legacy. This sword belonged to the editor of the satirical magazine “Asino.” The world will one day realize, when it judges from a different perspective than the one from which it so often judges today, that many things that are happening in our present day must be judged from the point of view of how many things that exist as mystical forces in human beings are cast out, handed over to the world process, but are not lost, instead becoming the prey of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces. And rarely does the irony of world history show so clearly in immediate perception what is happening here as in the case just mentioned.
We want to try, precisely from what we have been able to take in through our striving in recent years, to be clear that a certain measure of spiritual forces is appropriate to human nature. And because, on the one hand, mystical spirituality must be cast out of consciousness by the fact that humanity can become free through the grasping of the physical, it must, on the other hand, be taken into consciousness, otherwise what is cast out of consciousness will be seized by the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces. This is what I would like to remind you of again and again, my dear friends, that in striving for years to take this into our consciousness, we also create within ourselves a feeling that something must emerge from the bloody events of the present that will lead humanity to spirituality, to the recognition of spirituality. In the sense that I have often spoken of, that souls must be found who, through spiritual science, are able to look up into the spiritual world, where all the etheric bodies that have come out of young people are—have ascended into the spiritual world—and now remain there, because the forces are not lost in this realm either. We must now look up to them; they will connect with the forces from the spiritual world that shine toward us, and what the dead have to say will become impulses in the future when there are souls who understand their language. In this sense, we repeat the simple words:
From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruit of the spirit will grow —
Souls will consciously guide
Their minds into the spirit realm.