The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness
GA 177
30 September 1917, Dornach
2. Humanity's Struggle for Morality
Today's lecture will add further details to an image which I finally hope to present in its entirety tomorrow.
We are living at a time—yesterday's lecture will have given you an idea of this—of which we can say that much will have to change in the way people think, feel and use their will. Our inner aims will have to change. It is especially with regard to our innermost being that old, inherited and acquired habits will have to go and a new way of thinking and feeling develop. This is what our time demands. I think it can have a profound and truly significant effect on people to ponder the truth I presented yesterday which is, to put it simply, that there can only be one of two things: destructive processes here on the physical plane, or the spiritual development of humanity. Just think what it means—that, knowing this truth, we shall be compelled to feel socially at one with the dead, the departed. Our inner response to present events on this physical plane is one of deep pain, and it is right this should be so; on the other hand, we should not forget that the number of people who have taken up spiritual life in recent decades is small, and the souls of those who have not done so are thirsting for destructive processes here on the physical plane because these will give them the powers they need for the life of soul and spirit which comes after death. In practice this means we are challenged to do everything we can to encourage spiritual life as the only way of freeing future humanity from those destructive forces. It has to be clearly understood, of course, that this was different in the past, when the fact that an age of materialism must inevitably summon up an age of wars and devastation did not hold true to the same degree. It will, however, hold true in future.
Humanity is labouring under numerous illusions that have their origin in the past. The consequences of these have not been as serious in the past as they will be in the future evolution of humanity. I think it is fair to say that, generally speaking, human souls are still very much asleep at the present time, and fail to notice many of the tremendous changes now taking place. Sometimes, however, some of this comes through at an instinctive level, and individuals are then aware of the great riddles of the age. However, many are not fully active inwardly and therefore not yet able to experience these riddles in their full depth.
Taking note of the turbulent and destructive events of today, some individuals are becoming aware of one such riddle. Yet they are in many respects quite unable to find the answers. The riddle I am speaking of is the discrepancy between intellectual and moral development in human evolution. Strangely enough, recent developments in materialistic thinking have lead none other than the Darwinists to this conclusion. Haeckel, too, has commented to this effect in his Welträtsel.1Ernst Heinrich Haeckel (1834–1919), German naturalist. His Welträtsel first appeared in 1899. Rudolf Steiner was probably referring to the following statement from the first chapter:
Today we feel justifiably proud as we see the tremendous advances made in the pure and applied science of nature in the nineteenth century. Unfortunately the picture is entirely different and far from pleasing when we consider other aspects of modern civilization that are no less important. Much to our regret, we have to agree with Alfred Wallace who wrote that compared to our remarkable progress in the physical sciences and their practical application, our system of government, the justiciary, national education and the whole of our social and moral organization was still in a state of barbarism. Now, in these times of war, it can be seen again and again that this imbalance between intellectual and moral life in human evolution is beginning to puzzle people. They say to themselves, quite rightly, that the life of the intellect, the rational mind, has made tremendous advances. This is what many people call the realm of science today; it provides the basis for the modern materialistic view. Consider the tremendous advances made as the laws of nature have been penetrated, studied and finally used to build all kinds of instruments—most recently especially the instruments for murder! People will also begin to consider other things in the light of this science of theirs. They will analyse foods for their constituents and manufacture chemical foods, never realizing that chemical foods are not the same as those provided by nature, even if they do have the same constituents.
Intellectual, or we may also say scientific, development has shown an upward trend. Moral development has not progressed to the same extent. Surely the present world catastrophe could not have arisen, or taken the course it has taken, if moral development had kept pace with intellectual development. It would be right to say that because moral development has not progressed, intellectual development has assumed something of an amoral character and has in many respects become downright destructive. Many people are beginning to notice that the moral development has not been keeping pace with the intellectual development of humanity today. However, no one asks at the present time that issues like these should be gone into sufficiently deeply so that they may serve a truly human evolution. No one asks that they should be tackled at the point where it is fully evident that modern people simply cannot penetrate to the deeper sources of human thinking and human actions, because elements which are separate and distinct in man and relate to quite different regions of the universe are all mixed up in people's minds.
Modern scientists are faced with a human being consisting of physical body, etheric body—the body of generative powers—astral body and ego; but everything is mixed up. People do not make the distinction in modern science. How can we arrive at a science that will enable us to grasp these things if everything is mixed up together? The truth is that these different aspects of human nature belong to entirely different regions and spheres of the universe. Our physical body and our generative powers relate to the physical world; with the astral body and the ego we enter a totally different world every night, and initially this has extraordinarily little to do with the world in which we are awake during the day. The two worlds really only work together in so far as they are brought together in the human realm.
Consider also that the human ego and astral body are much younger than the physical and etheric bodies. The first beginnings of the physical body go back to the time of ancient Saturn. That early body progressed through four stages—Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth—to reach its present level of evolution on earth. The etheric body has gone through three stages, the astral body through two stages. The ego has only come in during Earth evolution; it is young and belongs to an entirely different cosmic age. The apparatus or instrument of our human intellect is intimately bound up with the physical body. It has reached a great level of perfection because the physical body has gone through such a comprehensive process of development in the Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth periods. We can see this from the level to which the nerves, the brain and the blood have developed. This, then, is the highly developed instrument we use for our intellectual activity.
On a previous occasion here in Dornach I suggested that the human being is much more complex than we are inclined to think. When we say ‘physical body’ we are speaking of something that is far from simple. It is based on principles that go back to ancient Saturn. Then the etheric body was added. This created its own element in the physical body; the astral body also created its own element in the physical body, and so did the ego. The physical body thus really has four elements to it. One of these relates to the physical body as such, one to the etheric body, one to the astral body and one to the ego. The etheric body has three elements—one related to itself, one to the astral body, one to the ego.
Let us stay with the physical body for the moment. We find that during the night, when we are asleep, the element of the physical body relating to the physical body continues in the usual way. The element relating to the etheric body can also continue, for the etheric body stays with the physical body. But what happens to the element relating to the astral body, which is organized to meet the needs of an astral body that wants to go outside, and with the element relating to an ego which has also gone outside? During the night, these two elements—let us call them the astral physical body and the ego's physical body—are forsaken by the principles on which their whole organization is based. The ego and the astral body are then outside the parts of the physical body to which they belong. For as long as we live between birth and death we are really leaving something behind in bed every night which is not taken care of by the principle to which it relates. It clearly has to function differently during the night than it does during the day; I think you can see this. During the day the astral body and the ego are active and aglow in it; during the night they are not. People do not enquire into these things today because everything has merged into one and become mixed up in their minds, as I have said. They do not distinguish between the different aspects of their body, though these can be quite clearly distinguished.
During the night when we are asleep the ‘astral physical’ element in the physical body exercises powers very similar to the powers of Mercury, the mercurial powers that make mercury liquid, and so on. The part of the physical body relating to the ego acts like salt during sleep. Human beings thus have Salt and Mercury flowing through them during sleep.
Up to the fourteenth century, those alchemists who must be taken seriously still knew of these things. After this, sectarianism came into alchemy and the books were written which are generally read today. The old knowledge was still to be found with Jacob Boehme,2Jacob Boehme (1575–1624), shoemaker in Goerlitz, Germany,. was a mystic whose influence went beyond Germany to Holland and England. He was studied by Henry More, Newton and William Law among others. His main works were Aurora (1612), Vom irdischen und himmlischen Mysterium (title translates as ‘The mystery of earth and heaven’—not available in English) and Der Weg zu Christo in acht Buchern (title translates as ‘The road to Christ in eight books’—not available in English). however, who used the terms Salt, Mercury and Sulphur.
These are some of the secrets of human nature. We say, then, that when we are asleep we look down on a body that has become mercurial and salty. The fact that the body becomes mercurial has highly significant consequences and we may be able to say more about this in the course of these weeks. The fact that it becomes salty—well, I think it is not at all difficult for people to discover this for themselves when they get up in the mornings.
What is the significance, however? It is more or less like this: On waking, the ego and astral body, having been outside in the world of the spirit during sleep, enter into the salty, or mineral, principle in the human body and into the mercurial principle, which flows within the human being as a vitalizing principle. Principles which have been separated during the night now come together. As they interact, opportunity is given for the things acquired in the world of the spirit to be brought in. Mercury and Salt have been resting; now the ego and astral body enter and fill them with what they have gained in the world of the spirit. As a result, the physical body, the instrument which has evolved from ancient Saturn, is enriched still further. On the one hand the physical body is the instrument we use for intellectual activity and it is truly venerable and highly developed because it has evolved over such a long time. Yet, on the other hand, the process I have just described can bring the influence of the spiritual world to bear in the present time. As a result, human beings are now able to influence the instrument of the intellect from the world of the spirit and intellectual thinking can play such a significant role in the present age.
The world in which we are between going to sleep and waking up again does, however, have one peculiarity—there is nothing in it by way of moral laws. Strange as it may seem, between going to sleep and waking up again you are in a world devoid of moral laws. We might also say it is a world that is not yet moral. When we wake up, the impulses we bring from this world may take hold of the physical body and the etheric body with regard to the intellect, but cannot in any way take hold of them in any moral sense. This is quite impossible, for the world in which we are between going to sleep and waking up again does not have moral laws. People who think it would have been better for the gods to arrange things in such a way that humans did not have to live on the physical plane at all are very much mistaken; for in that case people could never become moral. Human beings acquire morality by living here on the physical plane. In short, we bring wisdom to the physical body from the world of the spirit, but not morality.
This is tremendously important and significant, for it explains why humanity must inevitably lag behind when it comes to moral principles, whereas the gods have made excellent provision for their intellectual development, not only providing them with an instrument which has evolved through the Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth periods, but also giving them the wherewithal by which to maintain the intellect by filling them with wisdom in the world which they enter during sleep. It will not be until later periods, in the second half of Venus evolution, that we make connection with a moral world during sleep. Clearly, it is therefore tremendously important for us to see to it that our social life becomes truly moral.
These are the things modern humanity does not want to consider. Some are aware of the riddles, as I have said, but people do not want to consider the deeper reasons, for that would be too much of an effort. They want to take human nature as it presents itself and refuse to consider that in many respects it extends into the worlds of the cosmos, beyond space and beyond time, and that human nature cannot be explained if we merely look at it the way in which it normally comes to expression and do not take account of these other aspects. It is a magnificent and awesome truth that sleep helps our intellectual thinking, even our genius—for geniuses, too, bring back elements from sleep that enter into their mercurial and salt principles—in fact, it is this which makes someone a genius; but morality can only be provided for if human beings gradually let the moral element enter into them here on the physical plane.
For humanity here on earth, the Christ impulse is the heart of the moral life. It is therefore most important—I have stressed this before, from other points of view—that human beings encounter the Christ impulse here on the physical plane. We have to look at this from many different points of view. So it seems we can now understand why people who have all kinds of impulses based on wisdom at an instinctive level—for these impulses are given in sleep—and are able to invent tremendously complex machines, playing a role in the advance of science and technology, need not connect this in any way with morality, for morality belongs to a totally different sphere.
People do not like to hear or know such things today. Yet they will have to be known if we are to escape from the chaos that has arisen in the world. And this is a very serious matter. Human evolution will not progress unless these truths become part of our life on earth. The gods did not intend human beings to become automatons which they could influence like automatic machines. They wanted them to be free individuals who realize what will take them forward. It is wrong to ask why the gods do not intervene. Attempts have to be made; and if one such undertaking should go awry, we should not draw the wrong conclusions. Instead, those who come later must let this give them an even greater impetus to work in a way that helps to encourage such an attempt at further development in the spirit. I have recently been much concerned with a significant attempt made in the past which did not entirely come off. I discussed this in the first part of my essay on The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz: Anno 1459—it is to be continued in Das Reich.3Das Reich was a quarterly published in Munich and Heidelberg by Alexander Freiherr von Bernus. Rudolf Steiner contributed three consecutive essays on the subject in Nos. 3 and 4 of the second and No. 1 of the third volume (October 1917 and January and April 1918). These have been Philosophie und Anthroposophie (GA 35) 1965. Johann Valentin Andreae's (1586–1654) work was translated into modern German and published by Walter Weber in Dornach in 1942; 2nd improved edition, Stuttgart 1957. Available in English as The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz: Anno 1459, as translated by Edward Foxcroft in 1690. Minerva Books, London (no date). The work was written in the early seventeenth century. People were given it to read as early as 1603, and it was published in 1616. The author, Johann Valentin Andreae, also wrote Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Rosicruci, unusual works which attracted all kinds of comment, some sensible but most of them absurd. All I want to say about them today is that although they may at first sight appear to be satirical, they nevertheless represent one great impulse—to deepen insight into nature in its spiritual aspect to a point where deeper knowledge of the laws of nature also discovers the laws that govern human social life.
This is an area where people find it particularly difficult to distinguish between maya—illusion—and reality. The motives we ourselves or others tend to ascribe to our actions are not the true ones. It is painful to have to realize this, but—I have spoken of this on several occasions—they are not our true motives. Nor are the outward positions people hold in social life their true positions. People are usually completely different inside from the way they present themselves in the social sphere and also from the way they see themselves. People believe so strongly that their actions are based on a particular motive. Some think their motives are entirely selfless, when in reality they are nothing but the most brutal egotism. People are not aware of this because they have such illusions concerning themselves and their social connections. This is another area where we can only discover the truth if we look more deeply into the whole scheme of things.
Johann Valentin Andreae was someone who wanted to look more deeply. What mattered to him, among other things, was to see beyond maya into reality. He was not the kind of superficial person who thinks he can do this with all those harangues profound educationists and others today think will reform the world; he realized that one must look more deeply into the whole scheme which lies behind the world of nature if one is to find the spirit in nature. Then one will also find the threads which truly connect human beings with the spirit. And only then shall we really know the social laws that are needed. You cannot reflect on social relationships today if you think the way people do in modern science, for this will only give you the surface of nature and the surface of social life. Johann Valentin Andreae looked deep down to find nature and the social life, for only there do they come together. It really is like this: Think of the borderline between maya and reality—there you have a peep-hole on nature on the one side and a peep-hole on social life on the other. And you have to look deeper before you realize that they actually only meet a long way back.
People will never reach this point, however. They will continue to look at some of the laws of nature at a surface level and will then speak about social life out of their feeling, out of superficiality. This will not help us to see the scheffle of things, however, that Johann Valentin Andreae sought to find. At most we shall get to be—excuse me calling a spade a spade—a Woodrow Wilson. Andreae wanted to discover the scheme of things, and his desire to do so fills such works as his Fama Fraternitatis and Confessio Rosicruci. He was addressing the leaders, the statesmen of his time; it was an attempt to establish a social order based on truth and not illusion. The Fama appeared in 1614, the Confessio in 1615, and The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz in 1616, though it had already been written in 1603. The year 1618 marked the beginning of the Thirty Years War,4The Thirty Years War, 1618–1648, devastated Central Europe. It held great terrors for the civilian population, which have lived on in people's memories, in tales, legends and in the literature and were still very real to people in Germany up to the Second World War. (Trans.) which brought conditions in which the truly great things aimed at in the Fama and the Confessio were swept away.
We are now living in an age when one year of war is equal to more than ten years of war in the seventeenth century, because war has become so much more destructive. By the standards of those times we have more than a Thirty Years War behind us already.
Try and see this as something that can guide you towards the will and endeavour that arose in the seventeenth century but was brought to a halt by the Thirty Years War. As I have said, if there have been such attempts and a beginning has been made, we must not let ourselves be put off by this but rather let it spur us on to even greater activity; then a later attempt may not end in failure. The first condition is, however, that we really come to know life.
I now want to relate this to matters I discussed with you last year and at the beginning of this year. I drew your attention to the strange course that the whole of human life and human evolution is taking. Individuals will gain in years, being 1, 2, 3, 4, years old, and later 30, 35, 40, and so on, years old; but the opposite is true for humanity as a whole. Humanity was old to begin with and is getting younger and younger. If we go back in time—for our present purposes we need only go back as far as the watershed between Atlantean and post-Atlantean life when the catastrophe happened on Atlantis—we come first of all to ancient Indian times. Conditions were very different then; humanity as a whole remained capable of further development beyond the 50s. Today we are only capable of developing in such a way in childhood and up to a certain time of our youth, for only then is our physical development directly connected with the development of soul and spirit, and the two run parallel. This soon comes to an end, however. In ancient Indian times, development in soul and spirit continued to be dependent on physical development until well into the 50s. People went on developing the way a child develops, and this only came to an end when they were old men and women. This is the reason why people looked up with such humility to their old people.
During the time of ancient Persia, people were no longer able to develop to such a high level but only into their 40s and early 50s; and in Egyptian and Chaldean times only into their 40s. In Graeco-Latin times, this kind of development went only as far as the thirty-fifth year. Then came a time—you will remember, the Graeco-Latin age began in the eighth century before the Mystery of Golgotha—when human beings were only capable of development up to their thirty-third year. That was the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place. The age of humanity then matched the age at which Christ went through the Mystery of Golgotha.
After this, the human race got younger and younger. By the beginning of the fifth post-Atlantean age, in the fifteenth century, humanity was only able to develop up to the age of 28, with no further development after this, and today we have reached a point where people only reach the age of 27, if this is left to nature. In the past, human beings naturally remained capable of development into a ripe old age. Today people must conclude such development as comes of its own accord and is tied to the physical body by the age of 27, unless they take up a spiritual impulse in their inner life and push on from within. People who do not take up anything spiritual remain 27 years old even if they live to be 100. It means they have the characteristics of 27-year-olds. And with people refusing to look for inner spiritual impulses we now have a culture and a social life that is 27 years of age. We do not grow beyond the age of 27 in our outer social life. This age now rules humanity. If we go on like this, humanity will go down to 26, 25 and 24 years, then in the sixth post-Atlantean age to the twenty-first and later to the fourteenth year.
These things must be looked into, and they should not be taken pessimistically; instead they should give us the inner impulse to go towards the life of the Spirit and set out on an inner quest to look for the elements nature is unable to provide.
This is another point of view from which it is apparent that spiritual impulses are needed in civilization. The most characteristic people of our age, those who take the lead today, are people who do not get beyond their twenty-seventh year. The question is, what would really make someone a present-day leader? Well, let us say we have someone who is born and is very much alive, who does not take in much by way of tradition but only what comes by nature, without undue influence from outside; this individual would be very much determined by what comes of its own accord. Education usually gives colour and nuance to this in most people. But let us take a really typical individual who essentially shows only the characteristics of the present age, someone born into poverty perhaps and not given an education that puts much emphasis on tradition, but who would only be influenced by whatever arises from circumstance. Such a person would grow up, would be very active initially, for it is Part of the present age that one is active up to the seventh, fourteenth and twenty-first year, and perhaps be a forceful personality up to his twenty-first year. But unless he is able to develop spiritually, then, being very much a representative of the age, he will come to a halt at the age of 27. Now if he were to be truly representative of the age, something like the following would have to happen: At the age of 27 he would come to a key point in his life, to such effect that the circumstances he creates for himself at the age of 27, committing himself for life, would not allow him to progress beyond this. In modern life this could take the form, for instance, that such a person, a self-made man with tremendous energies and all kinds of impulses arising from the time itself, gets himself elected to parliament at the age of 27. To get oneself elected to parliament means one has committed oneself and there are some things that now have to be maintained. And so the individual remains as he is—which is entirely due to this development in the present age—and he is highly representative of the present age. Parliament being the great ideal in the present day and age, this would be a key point in the life of an individual who would then refuse to accept anything capable of growth for the future and who would have become completely adapted to external circumstances or, in a word, remained 27 years of age. And so at the age of 27 this would be a strong, powerful individual imbued with the impulses of the age who now entered parliament. After some time he would even be a minister and advance to become one of the leading figures. But he would merely be a man of our time, a typical 27-year-old.
There is such an individual, someone born into such circumstances who only took in what came, nothing by way of tradition. He grew strong and powerful under these circumstances—someone who would go through thick and thin for anything that came to him in the first twenty-seven years of his life and who did, in fact, become a Member of Parliament at the age of 27. He was a thorn in the flesh at first, being in opposition, but soon rose further and has become a kind of axis of rotation at the present time—and this is Lloyd George.5David Lloyd George, later Lloyd George of Dwyfor (1863–1945), elected as an Advanced Liberal for Carnarvon Boroughs in 1890, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1916 to 1922. No one is more characteristic of the present age than Lloyd George. ‘His own man’, he committed himself for life within a week of his twenty-seventh year by getting himself elected to the House of Commons. This and the rest of his life story show him to be a typical representative of life in the present age, a life we should not follow, for spiritual impulses should have taken over in the twenty-seventh year.
If one is able to penetrate the inner aspects of life one sees the most important events of the present time to be events to which other people are asleep. To anyone who can take a wider view it is immensely significant that such a self-made man is elected to the British Parliament exactly at the age of 27 and thus commits himself.
These are the realities which people must gradually learn to observe and consider, for they reveal the deeper connections in life. People like to skip over them today because they are not easy. Reluctance is felt because people prefer to give free rein to their passions, the emotions they create for themselves in the outer world and to their instincts, rather than seek to gain insight. They want to live the life of the world, basing themselves on these emotions and not on their true selves.
Zweiter Vortrag
Heute möchte ich einiges mehr zur Vorbereitung für das Bild geben, das ich dann morgen in einem umfassenderen Sinne zum Abschluß bringen werde.
Die Gegenwart ist eine Zeit - Sie werden es wiederum aus dem Inhalt der gestrigen Betrachtungen gefühlt haben -, von der man sagen kann, daß sich viel wird ändern müssen im Denken, im Fühlen, im Wollen der Menschen. Die Seelenrichtungen werden andere werden müssen. Gerade mit Bezug auf das innerste Seelenleben werden alte, vererbte, anerzogene Gewohnheiten schwinden müssen, und eine neue Form des Denkens und Fühlens wird auftreten müssen. Das wird die Zeit fordern. Ich denke, es kann auf jeden einen bedeutsamen und tief in die Seele gehenden Eindruck machen, wenn er die Wahrheit, die gestern besprochen worden ist, auf seine Seele wirken läßt, die Wahrheit, trivial gesprochen, von der Austauschbarkeit zerstörender Vorgänge hier auf dem physischen Plan und der Spiritualisierung der Menschheit. Denn bedenken wir nur einmal, daß wir unter dem Eindruck einer solchen Wahrheit genötigt sind, uns mit den Toten, mit den Hinweggegangenen als eine, sagen wir soziale Einheit zu fühlen. Man kann gewiß mit tiefem Schmerze empfinden, was hier auf dem physischen Plane geschieht, und man soll es; aber man darf auf der andern Seite nicht vergessen, daß die Seelen, die nicht zu den wenigen gehören, die in den letzten Jahrzehnten spirituelles Leben aufgenommen haben, dürsten nach zerstörenden Vorgängen hier auf dem physischen Plan, weil sie aus diesen zerstörenden Vorgängen Kräfte für das geistig-seelische Leben nach dem Tode schöpfen. Und wir bekommen daraus die praktische Aufforderung, alles, was an uns ist, zu tun, um das einzige, was in der Zukunft von der Menschheit die zerstörenden Kräfte wird hinwegnehmen können - das spirituelle Leben -, zu fördern. Wir müssen es uns nur ganz klarmachen, daß für vergangene Zeiten es anders war, daß da noch nicht in solchem Ausmaße galt, daß jedes materialistische Zeitalter ein Zeitalter der Kriege, der Verwüstungen hervorrufen muß. Aber in der Zukunft wird es so sein.
Die Menschheit leidet ja unter vielen von alters her gekommenen Illusionen. Diese Illusionen waren bisher nicht so schlimm, wie sie in der künftigen Entwickelung der Menschheit sein werden. Nun kann man ja im allgemeinen sagen, daß die Seelen der zeitgenössischen Menschen noch recht sehr schlafen und vieles von dem nicht bemerken, was sich in unserer Gegenwart so gewaltig ändert. Aber manchmal kommt dies oder jenes doch instinktiv durch. Mancher empfindet dann die großen Rätsel der Gegenwart. Nur sind viele noch nicht veranlagt dazu, sie in aller Tiefe, mit aller Energie zu empfinden.
Ein solches Rätsel wird jetzt unter dem Eindrucke der stürmischen, zerstörerischen Ereignisse von einigen Menschen bemerkt. Aber in vieler Beziehung sind diese Menschen hilflos, sich Antwort zu geben auf solche Rätsel. Das Rätsel, das ich meine, ist die in der Menschheitsentwickelung vorhandene Diskrepanz zwischen der intellektuellen Entwickelung und der moralischen Entwickelung. Zum ersten Mal ist dieses ja auch in der neueren Zeit, der Zeit der materialistischen Vorstellungen, wiederum gerade den Darwinisten aufgegangen; auch Haeckel hat eine ähnliche, dahingehende Bemerkung in seinen «Welträtseln» gemacht. Aber jetzt während dieser Kriegszeit merkt man immer mehr und mehr, wie diese Disharmonie zwischen dem intellektuellen und dem moralischen Leben der Menschheit in ihrer Entwickelung für gewisse Seelen ein Rätsel wird. Die Leute sagen sich mit Recht: Welche ungeheuren Fortschritte hat das intellektuelle, das Verstandesleben gemacht, dasjenige Leben, welches heute viele Menschen wissenschaftliches Leben nennen, worauf sie die heutige materialistische Weltanschauung bauen, welche ungeheuren Fortschritte hat der Verstand des Menschen gemacht, die Durchdringung der Naturgesetze; die Beherrschung der Naturgesetze, um allerlei Instrumente - in der neueren Zeit insbesondere Mordinstrumente - zu bauen! Über anderes werden die Menschen noch aus dieser ihrer Wissenschaft heraus nachdenken; sie werden zum Beispiel analysieren, woraus die Nahrungsmittel bestehen und werden chemische Nahrungsmittel fabrizieren, ohne Ahnung davon, daß chemische Nahrungsmittel nicht in demselben Sinne Nahrungsmittel sind wie diejenigen, welche die Natur liefert, trotzdem sie aus demselben Stoff bestehen können.
Die intellektualistische, die, wenn wir so sagen wollen wissenschaftliche Entwickelung ist in aufsteigender Linie verlaufen. Nicht in demselben Maße hat sich das Moralische der Menschen entwikkelt. Wie hätte die gegenwärtige Weltkatastrophe hereinbrechen können, wie hätte sie verlaufen können in der Weise, wie sie heute verläuft, wenn die moralische Entwickelung der Menschen in gleichem Maße fortgeschritten wäre wie die intellektuelle! Ja man kann sagen: Gerade dadurch, daß die moralische Entwickelung der Menschen nicht fortgeschritten ist, hat die intellektuelle Entwickelung eine gewisse unmoralische Signatur angenommen, ist geradezu in vieler Beziehung zu einem Zerstörerischen fortgeschritten. — Das bemerken heute schon viele Menschen, daß eine Diskrepanz, eine Disharmonie vorhanden ist zwischen der moralischen und der intellektuellen Entwickelung der Menschen. Nur fordert es die heutige Zeit nicht, daß solche Fragen, wenn sie der wirklichen Evolution der Menschheit nützen sollen, tief genug angefaßt werden, daß sie da angefaßt werden, wo man wirklich sieht: Der heutige Mensch kann sich ja über die tieferen Untergründe des menschlichen Denkens und Handelns gar nicht unterrichten, weil ihm sich alles vermischt, was im Menschen getrennt und ganz verschiedenen Gebieten des Weltenalls zugeordnet ist.
Die heutige Wissenschaft hat den Menschen vor sich - physischer Leib, Bildekräfte- oder Ätherleib, astralischer Leib, Ich -, aber das alles durcheinandergemischt. Die Wissenschaft unterscheidet das nicht. Aber wie kann es denn zu einer Wissenschaft, die ausreichend ist, um die Dinge zu begreifen, überhaupt kommen, wenn man alles durcheinandermischt, da doch diese verschiedenen Glieder der Menschennatur ganz verschiedenen Gebieten des Weltenalls zugeteilt sind, mit ganz verschiedenen Sphären des Weltenalls zusammenhängen? Mit unserem physischen Leib und unseren Bildekräften sind wir hier in der physischen Welt; mit unserem astralischen Leib und unserem Ich gehen wir jede Nacht in eine ganz andere Welt hinein, in eine Welt, die zunächst außerordentlich wenig zu tun hat mit der Welt, in der wir das Tagwachen zubringen. Die beiden Welten wirken eigentlich nur dadurch zusammen, daß sie eben in der menschlichen Natur zusammenkommen.
Und dann bedenken Sie, um wieviel jünger das menschliche Ich und der menschliche astralische Leib sind als der physische Leib und der Ätherleib! Die erste Anlage zu unserem physischen Leib, wir haben sie erhalten während der alten Saturnzeit. Sie hat vier Stadien durchgemacht: durch die Saturn-, Sonnen-, Monden-, Erdenzeit bis zur heutigen Erdenentwickelung. Drei Stadien hat der Ätherleib, zwei Stadien hat der Astralleib durchgemacht. Das Ich ist erst während der Erdenzeit dazugekommen, das ist jung; das gehört also einem ganz andern kosmischen Zeitalter an. Nun ist aber der Apparat für unsere Intellektualität, dasjenige, was als Werkzeug dient unserer Intellektualität, innig zusammenhängend mit unserem physischen Leib. Nur dadurch, daß unser physischer Leib eine so umfassende Entwickelung durch die Saturn-, Sonnen-, Monden-, Erdenzeit durchgemacht hat, nur dadurch ist er dieses vollkommene Instrument geworden, welches wir erkennen in der Nervenentwikkelung, in der Gehirnentwickelung, in der Blutentwickelung. Dieses vollkommene Instrument benützen wir, wenn wir intellektualistisch tätig sind.
Nun habe ich einmal gerade hier an diesem Orte angedeutet, wie ja der Mensch viel komplizierter ist, als man eigentlich denkt. Wenn wir so sagen: «physischer Leib» - so ist das wiederum nicht ein Einfaches. Dieser physische Leib trägt nämlich in sich die vom Saturn herübergebrachten Anlagen. Dann kam der Ätherleib dazu. Aber dieser Ätherleib hat sich wiederum ein Glied im physischen Leib errichtet, der Astralleib wieder ein Glied im physischen Leib, das Ich wieder ein Glied im physischen Leib. So daß dieser physische Leib eigentlich für sich viergliedrig ist: Ein Teil des physischen Leibes ist sich selber zugeordnet, ein Teil dem ätherischen Leib, ein Teil dem Astralleib, ein Teil dem Ich. Sehen wir einmal ab vom Ätherleib, der ja wiederum dreiteilig ist, weil ein Glied des Ätherleibes sich selbst zugeteilt ist, ein Glied dem Astralleib, ein Glied dem Ich, bleiben wir beim physischen Leib. Da zeigt sich uns, daß in der Nacht, wenn wir schlafen, dasjenige im physischen Leibe, was sich selbst zugeteilt ist, selbstverständlich sein Leben fortsetzt; das, was dem Ätherleib zugeteilt ist, kann auch sein Leben fortsetzen, denn der Ätherleib ist beim physischen Leib dabei. Aber wie ist es denn in der Nacht bei demjenigen Teil des physischen Leibes, der dem astralischen Leib zugeteilt ist, der darauf hinorganisiert ist, daß der astralische Leib hinaus will - der astralische Leib ist ja heraußen in der Nacht -, und wie ist es bei demjenigen Teile, der dem Ich zugeteilt ist? Das Ich ist auch heraußen. Diese zwei Glieder — nennen wir sie astral-physischen Leib und das andere Ich-physischen Leib -, diese zwei Glieder sind in der Nacht von dem, was sie eigentlich durchorganisiert, verlassen. Wir sind ja mit unserem Ich und mit unserem Astralleib heraus aus dem, wozu sie im physischen Leib gehören. Wir lassen also eigentlich im Bette etwas zurückliegen, solange wir da zwischen Geburt und Tod leben, das unversorgt bleibt, unversorgt von demjenigen Teil, dem es zugeordnet ist. Das muß anders wirken im Schlafe, als es während des Tageslebens wirkt; das können Sie ja einsehen. Denn während des Tageslebens wird es durchströmt und durchglüht vom astralischen Leib und vom Ich, während der Nacht, während des Schlafes nicht. Heute frägt der Mensch nicht, wie das ist, weil, wie gesagt, ihm alles durcheinanderschwimmt und durcheinandergemischt ist, weil er nicht unterscheidet diese voneinander sehr deutlich zu unterscheidenden Glieder seiner Leiblichkeit.
Dasjenige im menschlichen physischen Leib, das man das AstralPhysische nennen könnte, das wirkt während des Schlafens in der Nacht mit Kräften, die sehr ähnlich sind den Kräften des Merkur, den Merkurialkräften, den Kräften, die das Merkur flüssig machen und so weiter. Dagegen das, was im physischen Leib zugeteilt ist dem Ich, das wirkt während des Schlafens wie Salz, so daß der Mensch eigentlich während des Schlafens durchwogt ist von Salz und Merkur. Solche Dinge haben die ernstzunehmenden Alchimisten vor dem 14. Jahrhundert noch gewußt. Nachher erst ist die alchimistische Sektiererei gekommen und auch die Bücher, die man heute gewöhnlich liest. Nachgewirkt haben allerdings solche Erkenntnisse bei Jakob Böhme, der von Salz, Merkur, Schwefel spricht.
Das sind gewisse Geheimnisse der Menschennatur. Und dasjenige, wovon wir eben gesprochen haben, könnten wir so bezeichnen, daß wir sagen: Wir sehen hinunter, wenn wir schlafen, auf einen merkurial-salzig gewordenen Leib. Daß der Leib merkurialisch wird, das hat sehr bedeutsame Folgen, von denen wir vielleicht im Laufe dieser Wochen sprechen werden. Daß der Leib salzig wird, ich meine, das wäre gar nicht einmal so schwierig für den Menschen selbst zu bemerken, wenn er des Morgens aufsteht.
Was bedeutet das aber? Gewissermaßen in das, was salzig, also mineralisch geworden ist, was in dem Menschen eingeschlossen ist, und in dasjenige, was merkurialisch ist, was wiederum in dem Menschen wie Belebendes ihn durchströmt — denn das Merkurialische ist in Wirklichkeit ein Belebendes -, in das fährt beim Aufwachen hinein das Ich und der astralische Leib, welche während des Nachtschlafes in der geistigen Welt gewesen sind. Es treffen also Dinge zusammen, die während des Nachtschlafes nicht beieinander sind. In diesem Aufeinanderwirken gibt es die Möglichkeit, das herauszutragen, was man sich in der geistigen Welt aneignet. Merkur, Salz haben geruht; jetzt kommt Ich und astralischer Leib hinein, durchdringen sie mit dem, was sie erlebt haben in der geistigen Welt. Dadurch wird das Instrument des physischen Leibes, das seit dem Saturn sich entwickelt hat, sogar noch bereichert. Haben wir auf der einen Seite im physischen Leibe ein Instrument, dessen wir uns ja bedienen bei unserer intellektuellen Tätigkeit, das so altehrwürdig und gut ausgebildet ist, weil es so lange Zeiträume der Entwickelung hinter sich hat, so kann außerdem durch den Vorgang, den ich Ihnen eben beschrieben habe, ein Einfluß aus der geistigen Welt in der Gegenwart hinzutreten. Daher kommt es, daß die Menschen heute auf das Werkzeug der Intellektualität aus der geistigen Welt heraus wirken können und daß die Intellektualität so bedeutsam sein kann in der Gegenwart.
Aber die Welt, in der wir sind vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen, sie hat eine bestimmte Eigentümlichkeit: sie hat nichts in sich von moralischen Gesetzen. So sonderbar Ihnen das scheinen kann, vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen sind Sie in einer Welt, die nichts von moralischen Gesetzen in sich hat. Es ist eine Welt, welche, man könnte auch sagen, noch nicht moralisch ist. Heraus bringen wir, wenn wir aufwachen, aus dieser Welt zwar Impulse, die dann den physischen Leib, den Ätherleib ergreifen können nach der Richtung der Intellektualität, die ihn aber nicht ergreifen können aus dieser geistigen Welt heraus in der Richtung der Moralität. Das ist ganz ausgeschlossen, denn in der Welt, in der wir vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen sind, gibt es keine moralischen Gesetze. Diejenigen Menschen, die da glauben, daß es gescheiter wäre, wenn die Götter die Sache so angeordnet hätten, daß der Mensch nicht auf dem physischen Plan zu leben brauchte, diese Menschen irren gar sehr, denn der Mensch könnte dann nie moralisch werden. Das Moralische eignet sich der Mensch nämlich gerade durch sein Leben hier auf dem physischen Plane an. Moralisch können die Menschen nur auf dem physischen Plan werden. Also wir tragen aus der geistigen Welt wohl Weisheit hinein in den physischen Leib, wir tragen aber nicht Moralität hinein.
Das ist ein sehr Wichtiges, Bedeutsames, das uns nun aufklärt darüber, warum die Menschen in bezug auf das Moralische zurückgeblieben sein müssen, während die Götter sehr gut vorgesorgt haben für die Intellektualität der Menschen, die sie den Menschen nicht nur zugeleitet haben durch das Werkzeug von Saturn-, Sonnen-, Monden- und Erdenzeit, sondern für die sie ihnen auch noch Zehrgelder geben, indem sie sie in der Welt mit Weisheit durchdringen, in die der Mensch eingeht während des Schlafens. Ähnliche Zustände, wo man während des Schlafens mit einer moralischen Welt in Zusammenhang kommt, werden wir erst in späteren Zeiträumen, in der zweiten Hälfte der Venusentwickelung erleben. Das ist eine Tatsache, die uns zeigt, von welch unendlicher Bedeutung es ist, darauf zu sehen, daß unser soziales Leben von Moralität durchdrungen werde.
Diese Dinge sind es, an welche die gegenwärtige Menschheit nicht heran will. Die Rätsel werden zuweilen empfunden, wie ich Ihnen sagte; aber an die tieferen Gründe wollen die Menschen nicht heran, weil ihnen das unbequem ist, weil sie den Menschen nehmen wollen so, wie er dasteht, und nicht bedenken, daß dieses Menschenwesen Zusammenhänge in sich schließt, die in die Welten des Kosmos hinausgehen, über den Raum und über die Zeit hinaus, und daß der Mensch gar nicht erklärlich ist in seinem gewöhnlichen SichAusleben, wenn man diese Zusammenhänge nicht berücksichtigt. Das ist die großartige, gewaltige Tatsache, daß uns der Schlaf wohl für die Intellektualität, ja sogar für das Genie nützt - denn auch das Genie bringt aus dem Schlafe das mit, womit es seinen merkurialen Bestandteil und seinen Salzbestandteil durchdringt, und darauf beruht sogar die Ausbildung des Genies -, daß aber für die Moralität nur gesorgt werden kann, indem der Mensch nach und nach hier auf dem physischen Plan sich durchdringt mit dem, was eben Moralität darstellt.
Der Mittelpunkt des moralischen Lebens ist doch für die Erdenmenschheit der Christus-Impuls. Daher ist es von solcher Bedeutung — ich habe das öfter von andern Gesichtspunkten aus hervorgehoben -, daß der Mensch gerade hier auf dem physischen Plan mit dem Christus-Impuls zusammenkommt. Das ist etwas, was erfaßt werden muß von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus. Daher wird es begreiflich erscheinen, daß, wenn jemand noch so sehr durch Instinkt Weisheitsimpulse hat - denn im Schlafe teilen sich Weisheitsimpulse mit -, so daß er die kompliziertesten Maschinen erfinden kann, teilnehmen kann an dem wissenschaftlich-technischen Fortschritt, daß dies gar nicht mit der Moralität zusammenzuhängen braucht, weil die Moralität eigentlich in einer ganz andern Sphäre liegt.
Solche Dinge sind heute den Menschen unbequem zu erfahren und unbequem zu wissen. Und dennoch müssen sie bekannt werden, wenn wir aus dem Chaos, in das die Welt geraten ist, herauskommen wollen. Und es ist außerordentlich ernst mit diesen Wahrheiten. Es geht die Entwickelung der Menschheit nicht weiter, wenn diese Wahrheiten nicht Fuß fassen im Erdenleben, denn die Götter haben die Menschen nicht zu Automaten machen wollen, um gewissermaßen automatisch auf sie zu wirken, sondern sie haben sie zu freien Wesen machen wollen, die erkennen können, wodurch sie vorwärtsgebracht werden. Der Einwand: Warum greifen die Götter nicht ein? - gilt nicht. Ansätze müssen gemacht werden; aber wenn ein solcher Ansatz zur spirituellen Erkenntnis einmal nicht glückt, so darf kein falscher Schluß daraus gezogen werden, sondern die Späterkommenden müssen daraus um so mehr den Impuls fassen, in dem Sinne zu wirken, der solchem Ansatz für spirituelle Weiterentwickelung entgegenkommt.
Ich habe mich in der letzten Zeit viel mit einem bedeutsamen Ansatz beschäftigen müssen, der gemacht worden ist und der dazumal nicht in umfänglicher Art geglückt ist. Es war, als ich für die Zeitschrift «Das Reich» den ersten Teil meines Aufsatzes — der aber weiter fortgesetzt werden wird - über «Die Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreutz anno 1459» geschrieben habe. Diese «Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreutz anno 1459» ist geschrieben im Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts. 1603 haben sie schon Leute zu lesen bekommen; 1616 ist sie erschienen. Johann Valentin Andreae hieß der Verfasser, aber Andreae hat auch andere Schriften geschrieben: die sogenannte «Fama fraternitatis» und die «Confess10» -— merkwürdige Schriften, über welche die Leute alle möglichen gereimten, aber meistens ungereimten Meinungen geäußert haben. Ich will heute nichts anderes über diese Schriften andeuten, als daß sie, trotzdem sie zunächst den Eindruck von Satiren machen können, doch einen großen Impuls hatten, den Impuls, zu vertiefen die Naturerkenntnis im Geistigen — man könnte sagen: die GeistErkenntnis der Natur — bis zu jenem Punkt, wo man durch eine tiefere Erfassung der Naturgesetze auch die Gesetze des sozialen Menschenlebens entdeckt, die Gesetze des menschlichen Zusammenlebens findet.
Auf diesem Gebiete wird es ja den Menschen ganz besonders schwer, die Maja, die Täuschung, von der Wirklichkeit zu unterscheiden. Diejenigen Motive, die wir uns bei unserem Handeln oftmals zuschreiben oder die uns andere zuschreiben, sind ja nicht die wahren. Das schmerzt den Menschen, daß es so ist, aber - ich habe ja das öfter auseinandergesetzt — es sind nicht die wahren. Und diejenigen Positionen im äußeren sozialen Leben, die die Menschen einnehmen, sind auch nicht die wahren. Der innere Mensch ist doch in den meisten Fällen ein ganz anderer als der äußere Mensch im sozialen Dasein und als er sich vor sich selbst erscheint. Wie stark glauben die Menschen, wenn sie dies oder jenes tun, sie handeln aus diesem oder jenem Motiv heraus! Mancher meint, recht selbstlose Motive zu haben, während seine wirklichen Motive nichts anderes als brutalste Selbstsucht sind. Aber das weiß er nicht, weil man über sich selber und über seine sozialen Zusammenhänge in der Maja lebt. Und über die Wirklichkeit kann man sich auch auf diesem Gebiete nur aufklären, wenn man tiefer in der Wesen Zusammenhänge hineinsieht.
Unter anderem war auch Johann Valentin Andreae einer, der tiefer hineinsehen wollte in diese Zusammenhänge. Hineinzuschauen in die Wirklichkeit, über die Maja hinaus: darauf kam es unter anderem auch Johann Valentin Andreae an. Aber er war natürlich kein solcher Trivialling, der da glaubte, das könne man mit all den Tiraden machen, mit denen die heutigen tiefen Pädagogen und dergleichen die Welt reformieren wollen, sondern er war sich klar darüber, daß man zuerst tiefere Blicke hineintun muß in die Zusammenhänge der Natur, um in der Natur den Geist zu finden. Dann findet man auch die Fäden, durch die der Mensch wirklich mit dem Geistigen zusammenhängt. Dann kann man aber auch erst wissen, welche wirklichen sozialen Gesetze man braucht. Man kann nicht über soziale Zusammenhänge nachdenken, wenn man ein naturforscherisch denkender Mensch im heutigen Sinne ist, weil man da die Natur an der Oberfläche und das soziale Leben an der Oberfläche hat. Johann Valentin Andreae suchte die Natur in den Tiefen und das soziale Leben in den Tiefen. Da kommen sie erst zusammen. In Wirklichkeit ist es so: Wenn Sie sich die Grenze zwischen der Maja und der Wirklichkeit denken, so haben Sie auf der einen Seite ein Guckloch für die Natur und auf der andern Seite ein Guckloch für das soziale Leben. Und nur dann, wenn man tiefer hineinsieht, sieht man: Da treffen sie sich rückwärts.
Aber dahin werden die Menschen nicht kommen; sie werden dabei stehenbleiben, einige Naturgesetze an der Oberfläche zu beobachten, und werden dann alles mögliche aus ihrem Empfinden, aus ihrer Oberflächlichkeit heraus über das soziale Leben reden. Da wird man aber kein Erkenner des Zusammenhanges, wie es bei Johann Valentin Andreae angestrebt wurde; da wird man höchstens - verzeihen Sie, man muß manchmal die Dinge beim rechten Namen nennen -, da wird man höchstens ein Woodrow Wilson; da bleiben die Dinge ohne Zusammenhang. Johann Valentin Andreae wollte den Zusammenhang. Dieses Streben durchpulst solche Werke wie seine «Fama fraternitatis», seine «Confessio fraternitatis». Es war eine Adresse an die Staatsoberhäupter, an die Staatsmänner seiner Zeit, es war ein Versuch, eine soziale Ordnung zu begründen, die dem wahren, nicht dem Majawesen entsprechen sollte. 1614 erschien die «Fama fraternitatis», 1615 die «Confessio», 1616 die schon 1603 geschriebene «Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz». 1618 kam der Dreißigjährige Krieg, der durch seine Verhältnisse hinwegfegend war für Edelstes, das angestrebt war durch die «Fama fraternitatis», durch die «Confessio».
Wir leben heute in einem Zeitalter, in dem ein Jahr Krieg durch sein Zerstörerisches reichlich so viel bedeutet wie dazumal zehn Jahre. Wir haben schon reichlich einen Dreißigjährigen Krieg, an dem Maßstab der damaligen Zeit gemessen, hinter uns. Dies, meine lieben Freunde, versuchen Sie zu erfassen als einen Gedanken, der Sie hineinführen kann in das Wollen und Streben, das in einer ähnlichen Weise im 17. Jahrhundert aufgetreten ist, aber durch die Tatsachen des Dreißigjährigen Krieges unterbrochen worden ist. Und ich sagte schon: Wenn solche Dinge als Ansatz da sind, muß man sich später nicht abhalten lassen, sondern im Gegenteil sich zu umso stärkerer Tätigkeit anspornen lassen, damit ein folgender Versuch nicht wiederum mißglückt. Aber dazu ist es notwendig, das Leben wirklich kennenzulernen.
Nun will ich diese Betrachtungen anknüpfen an Betrachtungen, die ich im vorigen Jahr und im Beginne dieses Jahres hier gepflogen habe. Ich habe Sie aufmerksam gemacht auf einen merkwürdigen Verlauf des gesamten Menschenlebens, der gesamten Menschheitsevolution. Ich habe Sie aufmerksam darauf gemacht, daß, während der einzelne Mensch, der individuelle Mensch, an Jahren zunimmt, also 1, 2, 3, 4, später 30, 35, 40 und so weiter Jahre alt wird, es bei der Menschheit als Gesamtheit umgekehrt ist. Die Menschheit als Gesamtheit war erst alt und wird immer jünger und jünger. Wenn wir in der Zeit zurückgehen — wir brauchen für diese Betrachtungen nur bis zur Grenze zwischen dem atlantischen Leben und dem nachatlantischen Leben, bis zur atlantischen Katastrophe zurückzugehen -, da kommen wir zuerst in die altindische, in die urindische Epoche zurück. Da waren die Verhältnisse im äußeren Leben ganz anders; da war die Menschheit als Ganzes so, daß sie entwickelungsfähig blieb bis über die Fünfzigerjahre hinaus. Wir sind heute nur in den Kindheitsjahren bis zu einem bestimmten Jugendjahre so entwickelungsfähig, daß die körperliche Entwickelung zusammenhängt mit der seelisch-geistigen. Wenn wir Kind sind und dann heranwachsen als Jüngling oder Jungfrau, da geht die physische Entwickelung der seelisch-geistigen Entwickelung parallel. Dann hört das aber auf. - So ging es nun fort, daß also in der altindischen Zeit die Menschen in der seelisch-geistigen Entwickelung abhängig blieben von ihrer körperlichen Entwickelung bis in die Fünfzigerjahre hinauf. Man entwickelte sich immer hinauf so wie ein Kind, und das war erst dann abgeschlossen, wenn man ein Greis war. Daher gab es dazumal jenes unbedingte, demutvolle Hinaufsehen zu alten Menschen.
Dann kam die urpersische Zeit. Da waren die Menschen nicht mehr so hoch hinauf entwickelungsfähig, sondern nur bis in die Vierziger- und Fünfzigerjahre, anfangs der Fünfzigerjahre; dann in der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Zeit nur bis in die Vierzigerjahre. Dann kam die griechisch-lateinische Entwickelung; da blieben die Menschen nur bis zum 35. Jahre entwickelungsfähig. Und dann kam die Zeit — Sie wissen ja, die griechisch-lateinische Zeit beginnt im 8. Jahrhundert vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha -, in welcher die Menschheit nur bis zum 33. Jahre entwickelungsfähig blieb. Das war die Zeit, in der das Mysterium von Golgatha stattfand. Die Menschheit begegnete sich in ihrem Alter mit dem Alter, in dem der Christus durch das Mysterium von Golgatha ging.
Aber dann wurde die Menschheit immer jünger und jünger. Nachdem beim Aufgange des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitraumes, im 15. Jahrhundert, die Menschheit nur noch bis 28 Jahre entwickelungsfähig war und dann stehenblieb, sind wir heute bereits dahingekommen, daß die Menschen, durch die Natur sich selbst überlassen, überhaupt nur 27 Jahre alt werden. Während in alten Zeiten die Menschen bis ins hohe Alter hinauf von selber entwickelungsfähig blieben, muß heute ein Mensch seine Entwickelung, die von selber kommt, die an seine Körperlichkeit gebunden ist, mit 27 Jahren abschließen, wenn er nicht einen inneren, seelischen Impuls spirituell aufnimmt und von innen sich weitertreibt. Diejenigen, bei denen das nicht der Fall ist, die sich nicht von innen weitertreiben, die nicht Spirituelles aufnehmen, die bleiben heute 27 Jahre alt, und wenn sie 100 Jahre alt werden. Das heißt, sie tragen die Charakteristiken, die Merkmale des Siebenundzwanzigjährigen an sich. Daher haben wir heute, weil die Menschen es ablehnen, innerliche, spirituelle Impulse zu suchen, eine Kultur, ein soziales Leben, das siebenundzwanzigjährig ist. Wir wachsen nicht hinaus im äußeren sozialen Leben über das Siebenundzwanzigjährige. Das Siebenundzwanzigjährige beherrscht die Menschheit. Wenn es noch so weitergeht, wird die Menschheit bis 26, 25, 24 Jahre herabkommen, im sechsten nachatlantischen Zeitalter nur bis zum 21. Jahre und später bis zum 14. Jahre.
In alle diese Dinge muß hineingeschaut werden, und alle diese Dinge müssen nicht pessimistisch aufgenommen werden, sondern so, daß sie in uns den Impuls bilden, zum spirituellen Leben zu gehen und das, was uns die Natur nicht mehr geben kann, von innen heraus zu suchen.
Das zeigt von einer andern Seite, wie notwendig spirituelle Impulse in der Kultur sind. Die charakteristischsten Menschen, die führenden Menschen der Gegenwart sind heute solche, die nicht über das 27. Jahr hinauswachsen. Sie sind tonangebend. Was wäre denn ganz besonders tonangebend? Nun, sagen wir, wenn heute ein Mensch mit einem regen Leben geboren würde und nicht viel Traditionelles, sondern gerade das, was die Natur hergibt, ohne viel Einflüsse von außen in sich aufnehmen würde, dann würde er sozusagen das, was von selber kommt, so recht charakteristisch in sich tragen. Bei vielen färbt und nuanciert das die Erziehung. Aber nehmen wir einen ganz charakteristischen Menschen, der so recht nur die Merkmale der Gegenwart an sich trüge, der vielleicht in ärmlichen Verhältnissen geboren wäre und nicht eine Erziehung aufnehmen würde, die viel auf Tradition baut, sondern der nur das auf sich wirken ließe, was gerade aus den Verhältnissen in ihn hineinfließen kann: Da würde er aufwachsen, würde zunächst recht rege werden, weil das der heutigen Zeit angemessen ist, daß man bis zum 7., 14., 21. Jahre rege wird, und würde vielleicht ein sehr energischer Mensch werden bis zum 21. Jahre hin. Aber wenn er nicht spirituell sich entwickeln kann, wenn er so ein recht repräsentativer Mensch der Gegenwart ist, dann wird er gerade mit 27 Jahren stehenbleiben. Würde er ein ganz repräsentativer Mensch für die Gegenwart sein, dann würde etwa das folgende geschehen müssen: Er würde mit diesen 27 Jahren einen markanten Einschnitt in sein Leben machen, einen so markanten Einschnitt, daß gewissermaßen die Verhältnisse, in die er sich mit 27 Jahren bringt, ihn dann nicht mehr weiterkommen lassen, weil er sich engagiert für das Leben. Das würde unter den heutigen Verhältnissen etwa dadurch eintreten können, daß ein solcher Mensch, nachdem er eine Art Selfmademan mit großer Energie, mit allen möglichen Impulsen, welche die Zeit von selber hergibt, geworden ist, just mit 27 Jahren in ein Parlament gewählt würde. Wenn man in ein Parlament gewählt wird, so hat man sich engagiert, dann kann man nicht mehr von gewissen Dingen zurück, dann bleibt man so — das kommt gerade von dieser Entwickelung der heutigen Zeit -, dann ist man so recht repräsentativ für diese Entwickelung der heutigen Zeit. Und da das Parlament das Ideal der gegenwärtigen Zeit ist, so würde das gerade ein markanter Einschnitt sein können für einen Menschen, der alles ablehnt, was in die Zukunft hineinwachsen soll, der so ganz hineingewachsen ist in die äußeren Verhältnisse, der mit einem Worte siebenundzwanzigjährig bleibt. Ein solcher Mensch würde also mit 27 Jahren als ein starker, kräftiger Mensch, der die Impulse der Zeit an sich trägt, ins Parlament eintreten. Nach einiger Zeit würde er sogar als Minister aus dem Parlament hervorgehen. Man kommt dann weiter; man wird ein tonangebender Mensch der Gegenwart. Aber man wird ein Mensch rur der Gegenwart, ein charakteristischer siebenundzwanzigjähriger Mensch.
Es gibt einen solchen Menschen. Es gibt einen Menschen, der so in Verhältnisse hineingeboren ist, daß er nur dasjenige aufgenommen hat, was ihm die Verhältnisse selbst hergaben, nichts Traditionelles, der ein starker, kräftiger Mensch geworden ist aus diesen Verhältnissen heraus, ein Mensch, der durch dick und dünn geht für dasjenige, was man in den ersten 27 Jahren seines Lebens aufnimmt, und der gerade mit 27 Jahren ins Parlament gewählt wurde, sogar im Parlament unbequem wurde zunächst als einer, der Opposition machte, dann aber rasch weiter aufgestiegen ist und gewissermaßen zu einer Art Drehungsachse der Gegenwart geworden ist: das ist Lloyd George. Es gibt keinen charakteristischeren Menschen für die gegenwärtige Zeit als Lloyd George. Und die einfache Tatsache, daß dieser «Aussichselbstmann» just auf die Woche hin in seinem 27. Lebensjahr sich engagierte für das Leben, indem er ins Parlament gewählt wurde, und dann auch sein ganzer Lebensgang, das weist darauf hin, wie er repräsentativ, charakteristisch für das Leben der Gegenwart ist, für jenes Leben der Gegenwart, mit dem gebrochen werden muß und an dessen Stelle im 27. Lebensjahre die spirituellen Impulse hätten treten müssen.
So blickt man hinein, wenn man das Leben innerlich durchschauen kann, erblickt in denjenigen Tatsachen, welche die andern Menschen verschlafen, die wichtigsten Ereignisse der Gegenwart. Für den, der die Zusammenhänge kennt, bedeutet das etwas ungeheuer Bedeutsames, daß ein solcher Selfmademan gerade mit 27 Jahren ins Parlament hineingewählt worden ist und sich da engagiert hat.
Das sind Tatsachen, die die Menschen allmählich beobachten und beachten müssen, aus denen sie kennenlernen müssen die tieferen Zusammenhänge, die im Leben vorhanden sind und an denen die Menschen heute so gern vorbei möchten, weil sie unbequem sind. Unbequem, weil die Menschen ihre Leidenschaften, ihre Emotionen, die sie sich selbst in der äußeren Welt ausbilden, lieber instiinktiv ausleben, als daß sie zur Erkenntnis greifen, weil sie von diesen Emotionen aus die Welt ausleben wollen und nicht aus sich selber heraus.
Davon wollen wir dann morgen weiter reden.
Second Lecture
Today I would like to provide some more information in preparation for the picture that I will then complete tomorrow in a more comprehensive sense.
The present is a time—as you will have sensed from yesterday's reflections—when it can be said that much will have to change in people's thinking, feeling, and willing. The direction of the soul will have to change. Especially with regard to the innermost life of the soul, old, inherited, and learned habits will have to disappear, and a new form of thinking and feeling will have to emerge. This is what the times demand. I think it can make a significant and deep impression on everyone if they allow the truth discussed yesterday to sink into their souls, the truth, to put it trivially, of the interchangeability of destructive processes here on the physical plane and the spiritualization of humanity. For let us just consider that under the impression of such a truth we are compelled to feel ourselves united with the dead, with those who have passed away, as a social unit, so to speak. One can certainly feel deep sorrow for what is happening here on the physical plane, and one should; but on the other hand, one must not forget that the souls who do not belong to the few who have taken up spiritual life in recent decades thirst for destructive processes here on the physical plane, because they draw strength for their spiritual and soul life after death from these destructive processes. And this gives us the practical imperative to do everything in our power to promote the only thing that will be able to remove the destructive forces from humanity in the future—spiritual life. We must make it clear to ourselves that in past times it was different, that it was not yet true to such an extent that every materialistic age must bring about an age of wars and devastation. But in the future it will be so.
Humanity has suffered from many illusions since time immemorial. These illusions have not been as bad as they will be in the future development of humanity. Now, one can generally say that the souls of contemporary human beings are still very much asleep and do not notice much of what is changing so dramatically in our present time. But sometimes this or that comes through instinctively. Some people then sense the great mysteries of the present. But many are not yet predisposed to feel them in all their depth and with all their energy.
Such a mystery is now being noticed by some people under the impression of the stormy, destructive events. But in many respects these people are helpless to find answers to such mysteries. The mystery I am referring to is the discrepancy between intellectual development and moral development in human evolution. For the first time in modern times, the age of materialistic ideas, this has been recognized by Darwinists; Haeckel also made a similar remark in his “World Riddles.” But now, during this time of war, we are becoming increasingly aware of how this disharmony between the intellectual and moral life of humanity in its development is becoming a mystery to certain souls. People rightly ask themselves: What tremendous progress has been made in intellectual life, in the life of the mind, which many people today call scientific life, on which they base their present materialistic worldview? What tremendous progress has been made by the human mind in penetrating the laws of nature and mastering them in order to build all kinds of instruments—in modern times, especially instruments of murder! People will continue to think about other things based on their science; for example, they will analyze what food consists of and will manufacture chemical foods without realizing that chemical foods are not food in the same sense as those provided by nature, even though they may consist of the same substances.
Intellectual, or scientific, development, if we may call it that, has followed an upward trend. The moral development of human beings has not progressed to the same extent. How could the current world catastrophe have come about, how could it have unfolded in the way it is unfolding today, if the moral development of human beings had progressed to the same extent as their intellectual development? Yes, one can say that it is precisely because the moral development of human beings has not progressed that intellectual development has taken on a certain immoral character and has, in many respects, progressed toward destruction. Many people today already notice that there is a discrepancy, a disharmony between the moral and intellectual development of human beings. However, the present age does not demand that such questions, if they are to be of use to the real evolution of humanity, be addressed deeply enough, that they be addressed where one can really see: The human being of today cannot learn about the deeper foundations of human thinking and acting because everything that is separate in the human being and belongs to completely different areas of the universe is mixed together.
Contemporary science has before it the human being — the physical body, the form-body or etheric body, the astral body, the I — but it has mixed everything together. Science does not distinguish between these things. But how can there ever be a science that is sufficient to understand things if everything is mixed together, since these different parts of human nature are assigned to completely different areas of the universe and are connected to completely different spheres of the universe? With our physical body and our formative forces, we are here in the physical world; with our astral body and our ego, we enter a completely different world every night, a world that initially has very little to do with the world in which we spend our waking hours. The two worlds actually only interact through the fact that they come together in human nature.
And then consider how much younger the human ego and the human astral body are than the physical body and the etheric body! We received the first elements of our physical body during the ancient Saturn period. It has gone through four stages: through the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth periods to the present stage of Earth's development. The etheric body has undergone three stages, and the astral body two. The ego only came into being during the Earth period; it is young and therefore belongs to a completely different cosmic epoch. Now, however, the apparatus for our intellectuality, that which serves as the tool of our intellectuality, is intimately connected with our physical body. It is only because our physical body has undergone such a comprehensive development through the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth ages that it has become this perfect instrument, which we recognize in the development of the nerves, the brain, and the blood. We use this perfect instrument when we are intellectually active.
Now, right here in this place, I have indicated how much more complicated human beings are than one actually thinks. When we say “physical body,” this is not a simple thing. This physical body carries within itself the predispositions brought over from Saturn. Then the etheric body was added. But this etheric body in turn established a member in the physical body, the astral body again a member in the physical body, the I again a member in the physical body. So that this physical body is actually fourfold in itself: one part of the physical body is assigned to itself, one part to the etheric body, one part to the astral body, one part to the I. Let us leave aside the etheric body, which is itself threefold, because one part of the etheric body is assigned to itself, one part to the astral body, and one part to the I. Let us remain with the physical body. We see that at night, when we sleep, that part of the physical body which is assigned to itself naturally continues its life; that which is assigned to the etheric body can also continue its life, because the etheric body is present in the physical body. But what happens at night to that part of the physical body that is assigned to the astral body, which is organized so that the astral body wants to go out — the astral body is outside at night — and what happens to that part that is assigned to the I? The ego is also outside. These two members — let us call them the astral-physical body and the other ego-physical body — these two members are abandoned at night by that which actually organizes them. With our ego and our astral body, we are outside of that to which they belong in the physical body. So, as long as we live between birth and death, we actually leave something behind in bed that remains unattended, unattended by the part to which it belongs. This must have a different effect in sleep than it does during daytime life; you can understand that. For during daytime life it is permeated and infused by the astral body and the I, but not during the night, during sleep. Today, people do not ask how this is, because, as I said, everything is confused and mixed up for them, because they do not distinguish very clearly between these very distinct parts of their physical body.
That part of the human physical body which could be called the astral-physical body works during sleep at night with forces that are very similar to the forces of Mercury, the mercurial forces, the forces that make Mercury fluid, and so on. On the other hand, that which is assigned to the ego in the physical body acts during sleep like salt, so that during sleep the human being is actually permeated by salt and Mercury. Such things were still known to serious alchemists before the 14th century. It was only afterwards that alchemical sectarianism arose, along with the books that are commonly read today. However, such insights had a lasting effect on Jakob Böhme, who speaks of salt, mercury, and sulfur.
These are certain secrets of human nature. And what we have just spoken of could be described as follows: When we sleep, we look down upon a body that has become mercurial and salty. The fact that the body becomes mercurial has very significant consequences, which we will perhaps discuss in the course of these weeks. The fact that the body becomes salty, I mean, would not even be so difficult for people to notice themselves when they get up in the morning.
But what does that mean? In a sense, what has become salty, that is, mineral, what is enclosed in the human being, and what is mercurial, which in turn flows through the human being as something enlivening — for the mercurial is in reality something enlivening — into this, the I and the astral body, which have been in the spiritual world during the night's sleep, enter upon awakening. Thus, things come together that are not together during nighttime sleep. In this interaction, there is the possibility of carrying out what one has acquired in the spiritual world. Mercury and salt have rested; now the ego and the astral body enter and permeate them with what they have experienced in the spiritual world. In this way, the instrument of the physical body, which has developed since Saturn, is even enriched. If, on the one hand, we have in the physical body an instrument that we use in our intellectual activity, which is so venerable and well developed because it has undergone such long periods of development, then, on the other hand, through the process I have just described to you, an influence from the spiritual world can also come into play in the present. This is why people today can work on the tool of intellectuality from the spiritual world and why intellectuality can be so significant in the present.
But the world in which we are from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up has a certain peculiarity: it has nothing of moral laws in it. Strange as this may seem to you, from the moment you fall asleep until you wake up, you are in a world that has nothing of moral laws in it. It is a world which, one might say, is not yet moral. When we wake up, we bring impulses out of this world that can then take hold of the physical body, the etheric body, in the direction of intellectuality, but they cannot take hold of it from this spiritual world in the direction of morality. That is completely impossible, because in the world in which we are from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up, there are no moral laws. Those people who believe that it would be wiser if the gods had arranged things so that human beings did not have to live on the physical plane are very much mistaken, for then human beings could never become moral. It is precisely through their life here on the physical plane that human beings acquire morality. Human beings can only become moral on the physical plane. So we carry wisdom from the spiritual world into the physical body, but we do not carry morality into it.
This is a very important and significant point, which now explains why human beings must be backward in moral terms, while the gods have provided very well for their intellectual development. which they have not only guided them to through the tools of Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth time, but for which they also give them sustenance by permeating the world with wisdom, into which humans enter during sleep. Similar conditions, where one comes into contact with a moral world during sleep, will only be experienced in later periods, in the second half of the Venus evolution. This is a fact that shows us how infinitely important it is to ensure that our social life is permeated by morality.
These are the things that present humanity does not want to approach. The mysteries are sometimes felt, as I have told you, but people do not want to approach the deeper reasons because it is inconvenient for them, because they want to take human beings as they are and do not consider that this human being has connections within itself that extend into the worlds of the cosmos, beyond space and time, and that human beings cannot be explained in their ordinary way of life if these connections are not taken into account. This is the magnificent, powerful fact that sleep is useful for intellectuality, even for genius—for genius also brings from sleep that with which it permeates its mercurial component and its salt component, and that is even the basis for the development of genius—but that morality can only be ensured if human beings gradually permeate themselves here on the physical plane with what morality represents.
The center of moral life for humanity on Earth is the Christ impulse. That is why it is so important—I have emphasized this often from other points of view—that human beings encounter the Christ impulse here on the physical plane. This is something that must be understood from many different perspectives. It will therefore seem understandable that even if someone has such strong instinctive impulses toward wisdom—for wisdom impulses are communicated during sleep—that they can invent the most complicated machines and participate in scientific and technical progress, this need not have anything to do with morality, because morality actually lies in a completely different sphere.
Such things are uncomfortable for people to learn and uncomfortable to know today. And yet they must become known if we want to emerge from the chaos into which the world has fallen. And these truths are extremely serious. The development of humanity will not continue if these truths do not take root in earthly life, for the gods did not want to make human beings into automatons who would act automatically in accordance with them, but rather they wanted to make them free beings who could recognize what would bring them forward. The objection: Why don't the gods intervene? — is not valid. Approaches must be made; but if such an approach to spiritual knowledge does not succeed, no false conclusions should be drawn from this. Rather, those who come later must draw all the more from it the impulse to work in the sense that is conducive to such an approach for spiritual further development.
I have recently had to deal extensively with a significant approach that was made and did not succeed in a comprehensive manner at the time. It was when I wrote the first part of my essay — which will be continued — on “The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz in the Year 1459” for the magazine “Das Reich.” This “Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz in the Year 1459” was written at the beginning of the 17th century. People were already reading it in 1603, and it was published in 1616. Johann Valentin Andreae was the author, but Andreae also wrote other works: the so-called “Fama fraternitatis” and the “Confess10” — strange writings about which people have expressed all kinds of rhyming, but mostly unrhymed, opinions. I do not wish to say anything more about these writings today other than that, although they may initially give the impression of satire, they nevertheless had a great impact, the impact of deepening the spiritual understanding of nature — one could say: the spiritual knowledge of nature — to the point where, through a deeper understanding of the laws of nature, one also discovers the laws of social human life, the laws of human coexistence.
In this area, it is particularly difficult for people to distinguish between illusion and reality. The motives that we often attribute to ourselves in our actions, or that others attribute to us, are not the true ones. It pains people that this is so, but — as I have often explained — they are not the true ones. And the positions that people take in their external social life are not the true ones either. In most cases, the inner person is completely different from the outer person in social existence and from how they appear to themselves. How strongly people believe, when they do this or that, that they are acting out of this or that motive! Some people think they have quite selfless motives, while their real motives are nothing but the most brutal selfishness. But they do not know this because they live in the Maya about themselves and their social relationships. And in this area, too, one can only enlighten oneself about reality by looking deeper into the connections between beings.
Among others, Johann Valentin Andreae was someone who wanted to look deeper into these connections. To look into reality, beyond the Maya: that was one of the things that mattered to Johann Valentin Andreae. But of course he was not one of those trivial people who believed that this could be done with all the tirades with which today's profound educators and the like want to reform the world. He was well aware that one must first look more deeply into the connections of nature in order to find the spirit in nature. Then one also finds the threads through which human beings are truly connected with the spiritual. Only then can one know which real social laws are needed. One cannot think about social connections if one is a natural scientist in the modern sense, because then one has nature on the surface and social life on the surface. Johann Valentin Andreae sought nature in the depths and social life in the depths. That is where they come together. In reality, it is like this: if you imagine the boundary between Maya and reality, you have a peephole for nature on one side and a peephole for social life on the other. And only when you look deeper do you see that they meet backwards.
But people will not get there; they will remain where they are, observing a few laws of nature on the surface, and then talk about social life in all sorts of ways based on their feelings and superficiality. But that will not lead to an understanding of the connection, as Johann Valentin Andreae strove for; at best – forgive me, but sometimes one has to call a spade a spade – at best one becomes a Woodrow Wilson; things remain disconnected. Johann Valentin Andreae wanted connection. This striving pulsates through works such as his “Fama fraternitatis” and his “Confessio fraternitatis.” It was addressed to the heads of state, to the statesmen of his time; it was an attempt to establish a social order that should correspond to the true, not the majestic. Fama fraternitatis was published in 1614, Confessio in 1615, and Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz, which had already been written in 1603, in 1616. In 1618, the Thirty Years' War broke out, sweeping away everything that was most noble and had been strived for in the “Fama fraternitatis” and the “Confessio.”
We live today in an age in which one year of war, with all its destruction, means as much as ten years did back then. We have already had a Thirty Years' War, measured by the standards of that time. Try to grasp this, my dear friends, as a thought that can lead you into the will and striving that arose in a similar way in the 17th century but was interrupted by the events of the Thirty Years' War. And I have already said: when such things are in the offing, one must not allow oneself to be deterred later, but on the contrary, one must be spurred on to even greater activity so that a subsequent attempt does not fail again. But to do this, it is necessary to really get to know life.
Now I would like to follow up on these reflections with some observations I made here last year and at the beginning of this year. I drew your attention to a remarkable course of the entire human life, the entire evolution of humanity. I drew your attention to the fact that while the individual human being, the individual human being, grows older in years, that is, 1, 2, 3, 4, later 30, 35, 40, and so on, the opposite is true of humanity as a whole. Humanity as a whole was first old and is becoming younger and younger. If we go back in time — for these considerations we need only go back to the boundary between the Atlantic life and the post-Atlantic life, to the Atlantic catastrophe — we first come back to the ancient Indian, the primordial Indian epoch. There the conditions in outer life were quite different; there humanity as a whole was such that it remained capable of development beyond the age of fifty. Today, we are only capable of development during our childhood and up to a certain age in our youth, in such a way that physical development is connected with spiritual development. When we are children and then grow up as young men and women, physical development runs parallel to spiritual development. But then this stops. - So it continued that in ancient Indian times, people remained dependent on their physical development in their soul-spiritual development until they reached their fifties. They continued to develop like a child, and this process was only complete when they were old. That is why there was such unconditional, humble admiration for old people in those days.
Then came the ancient Persian period. At that time, people were no longer capable of developing so highly, but only until their forties and fifties, at the beginning of their fifties; then, in the Egyptian-Chaldean period, only until their forties. Then came the Greek-Latin development, when people were only capable of development until the age of 35. And then came the time—you know, the Greek-Latin period begins in the 8th century before the Mystery of Golgotha—when humanity remained capable of development only until the age of 33. That was the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place. Humanity encountered itself in its age with the age in which Christ passed through the Mystery of Golgotha.
But then humanity became younger and younger. After the dawn of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, in the 15th century, when humanity was only capable of developing until the age of 28 and then came to a standstill, we have now reached the point where, left to nature, people only live to the age of 27. Whereas in ancient times people remained capable of developing on their own until old age, today a person must complete their development, which comes naturally and is bound to their physicality, at the age of 27, unless they receive an inner, spiritual impulse and continue to develop from within. Those who do not do this, who do not drive themselves forward from within, who do not take in spiritual impulses, remain 27 years old today, even if they live to be 100. This means that they carry the characteristics, the traits of a 27-year-old within themselves. Therefore, because people today refuse to seek inner, spiritual impulses, we have a culture and a social life that is 27 years old. We do not grow beyond the age of twenty-seven in our outer social life. The twenty-seven-year-old dominates humanity. If things continue like this, humanity will decline to 26, 25, 24 years of age, in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch only to 21 years and later to 14 years.
All these things must be looked at, and all these things must not be taken pessimistically, but in such a way that they form an impulse within us to go to spiritual life and seek from within what nature can no longer give us.
This shows from another perspective how necessary spiritual impulses are in culture. The most characteristic people, the leading people of the present day, are those who do not grow beyond the age of 27. They set the tone. What would be particularly influential? Well, let's say that if a person were born today with a lively life and not much tradition, but absorbed into themselves precisely what nature provides, without much outside influence, then they would, so to speak, carry within themselves what comes naturally, in a very characteristic way. For many, this is colored and nuanced by their upbringing. But let us take a very characteristic person who really only has the characteristics of the present, who was perhaps born into poor circumstances and did not receive an upbringing based on tradition, but who only allowed what could flow into him from his circumstances to have an effect on him: He would grow up, initially becoming quite lively, because that is appropriate in today's world, where people become lively between the ages of 7, 14, and 21, and he would perhaps become a very energetic person by the age of 21. But if he cannot develop spiritually, if he is such a representative person of the present, then he will come to a standstill at the age of 27. If he were a very representative person of the present, then the following would have to happen: At the age of 27, he would make a striking break in his life, such a striking break that the circumstances he finds himself in at the age of 27 would prevent him from progressing any further because he is committed to life. Under today's circumstances, this could happen, for example, if such a person, after becoming a kind of self-made man with great energy and all the impulses that the times offer, were elected to parliament at the age of 27. When you are elected to parliament, you have committed yourself, you can no longer back down from certain things, you remain as you are — this is precisely the result of the development of the present age — and you become truly representative of this development of the present age. And since parliament is the ideal of the present age, this could be a striking turning point for someone who rejects everything that is supposed to grow into the future, who has grown so completely into external circumstances that, in a word, he remains 27 years old. Such a person would therefore enter parliament at the age of 27 as a strong, powerful individual who embodies the impulses of the times. After some time, he would even emerge from parliament as a minister. One then progresses further; one becomes a leading figure of the present. But one becomes a person of the present, a characteristic 27-year-old.
There is such a person. There is a person who was born into circumstances such that he only absorbed what those circumstances themselves gave him, nothing traditional, who became a strong, powerful person out of those circumstances, a person who goes through thick and thin for what one absorbs in the first 27 years of one's life, and who was elected to parliament at the age of 27, where he initially made himself unpopular as a member of the opposition, but then rose rapidly and became, in a sense, a kind of pivot of the present: that is Lloyd George. There is no one more characteristic of the present time than Lloyd George. And the simple fact that this “man of no prospects” committed himself to life at the age of 27 by being elected to parliament, and then his entire life course, points to how representative and characteristic he is of contemporary life, of that contemporary life that must be broken with and replaced at the age of 27 by spiritual impulses.
This is how one sees things when one can look inwardly through life and discern in those facts which other people overlook the most important events of the present. For those who understand the connections, it is tremendously significant that such a self-made man was elected to parliament at the age of 27 and committed himself there.
These are facts that people must gradually observe and take note of, from which they must learn about the deeper connections that exist in life and which people today would so much like to ignore because they are inconvenient. Uncomfortable because people would rather instinctively live out their passions and emotions, which they develop in the outside world, than seek knowledge, because they want to experience the world through these emotions and not from within themselves.
We will talk more about this tomorrow.