The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness
GA 177
8 October 1917, Dornach
6. The New Spirituality
If we are to continue in the right way today, we must consider something of the nature of the human being and how human beings are part of historical evolution. First of all we consider the fact that human beings have the power, or the gift, of the intellect. What does this mean? It means that we are able to form ideas. For the moment we need not reflect on where these ideas come from. The life of thought is with us wherever we are in waking consciousness. And we also feel, for instance, that when we walk, stand or do anything else, we are guided by our thoughts, by something which exists first of all in the mind. Later on we shall discuss if this really is the case. For the moment I merely want to establish what fills the conscious mind in everyday life. It is our thoughts. But when it comes to the world of thought as such, the matter is really quite different. And we shall not understand how human beings really relate to their thoughts unless we first consider the true nature of the world of thought.
In reality we are always, wherever we are—whether sitting, standing or lying down—not only in the world of air and light and so on, but also in a world of surging thoughts. You will find it easiest to get an idea of this if you look at it like this: When you walk on earth as an ordinary physical human being you are also a breathing human being, walking in a space filled with air. And in more or less the same way you move in a space filled with thoughts. Thought-substance fills the space around you. It is not a vague ocean of thoughts, nor the kind of nebulous ether people sometimes like to imagine. No, this thought-substance is actually what we call the elemental world. When we speak of entities which are part of the elemental world in the widest sense of the word, they consist of thought-substance, actual thought-substance. There is, however, a difference between the thoughts flitting around out there, which really are living entities, and the thoughts we have in our minds. I have spoken of this difference on a number of occasions. In my book due to be published shortly, and which I mentioned yesterday,1Riddles of the Soul. See Note 1 of lecture 5. you will find further references to this difference.
You may well ask yourself: If there is such an elemental principle out there in thought-space and if I, too, have thoughts in my head—what is the relationship between the two? To get the right idea of how your own thoughts relate to the thought-entities out there you have to visualize the difference between a human corpse which has been left behind when someone has died and a living person who is walking about. The kind of thoughts you have to consider in this respect are the kind you gain from the world you perceive with the senses when in waking consciousness. Our own thoughts are actually thought-corpses. This is the essential point. The thoughts coming from the world we perceive with the senses and drag around with us when in waking consciousness are thought-corpses—thoughts that have been killed. Outside us they are alive, which is the difference.
We are part of the elemental world of thought in so far as we kill its living thoughts when we develop ideas on the basis of what our senses have perceived in the world around us. Our thinking consists in having those corpses of thoughts inside us, and this makes our thoughts abstract. We have abstract thoughts because we kill living thoughts. It is really true that in our state of consciousness we walk around bearing thought corpses which we call our thoughts and ideas. This is the reality.
The living thoughts in the outside world are certainly not unrelated to us; there is a living relationship. I can demonstrate this to you, but do not be frightened by the grotesque nature of this unaccustomed idea. Imagine you are lying in bed and it is morning. You can get up in two different ways. Ordinarily, you are not aware of the difference between them because you are not in the habit of making the distinction, and anyway you do not pay attention to this particular moment of getting up. Nevertheless, you can get up out of habit, without thinking about it, or you can actually produce the thought: I am now going to get up. There are people, however, who get themselves up out of sheer habit, and yet there is just a touch of the idea: I am going to get up now. To repeat, many people do not make the distinction, but it can be made in the abstract, and the difference is enormous. If you get up without giving it a thought, out of sheer habit and training, you are following impulses given by the Spirits of Form, the Elohim, when they created human beings as dwellers on earth at the beginning of earth evolution. So you see, if you switch off your own thinking and always get up like a machine, you are not getting up without thought having gone into it, but it is not your own thought. The form of movement involved in getting up involves thoughts—objective, not subjective, inner thoughts; these are not your thoughts but those of the Spirits of Form.
If you were a terribly lazy person who really did not want to get up at all, if it really was not in your nature to get up and you would only get up on reflection, against your nature, out of purely subjective thought, you'd be following ahrimanic tendencies; you would be following only your head, and therefore Ahriman. As I said, the distinction is not made in ordinary life. And everything else we do is really done in the same way as our getting up. Human beings truly are made up of two entities which can be outwardly distinguished as the head and the rest of the body. The human head is an extraordinarily significant instrument and much older than the rest of the body. The construction of the human head is such—I spoke about this last year2In a lecture given in Dornach on 21 October 1916, for example. (GA 171. Not available in English.)—that the basic shape arose during Moon evolution, though the head has, in fact, come down through Saturn, Sun and Moon evolution. Humans would look quite different if they still had the shape they had during Moon evolution.
In very general terms we might say people would look like spectres, with only the form of the head emerging somewhat more clearly, which was the original intent. The rest of the body was not meant to be as visible as it is now. These things have to be considered, otherwise we cannot really understand human evolution on earth. The rest of the body was meant to be purely elemental by nature. In the head, everything would come into effect which has come down as Moon existence transformed by earth; let us call it ‘a’. But this inherited Moon existence transformed by earth is the actual human being, for the human being is really a head with only a very insignificant attachment.
The rest of the human being—let us call it ‘b’ and to begin with let us simply consider it to be this elemental, airy principle—is a manifestation of the higher hierarchies, from the Spirits of Form downwards. The right and only way of seeing the human being is to realize that everything shown here as ‘b’ has been created by the cosmic hierarchies. The human being which has evolved from the time of Saturn emerged against the background of the cosmic hierarchies. If you visualize the essential nature of the parts of the human being which are not head—you must think of it as all spirit, or at least all air—then you have the body of cosmic hierarchies (drawing on the board).
However, luciferic seduction entered into the whole process of evolution. The outcome was that this whole, more elemental, body condensed to become the rest of the human body, which of course also had an effect on the head. This will give you an idea of the true nature of the human being. Apart from the head, which is their own, having come from earlier evolution, human beings would be an outward manifestation of the Elohim if their bodies had not become sensuous flesh. It is entirely due to the temptations of Lucifer that this outward manifestation of the Elohim has condensed to become flesh.
Something very strange has arisen as a result, an important secret to which I have referred a number of times. What has happened is that the human being has become the image of the gods in the very organs which are normally called the organs of his lower nature. This image of the gods has been debased in human beings as they are on earth. The highest principle in human beings, the spiritual principle coming from the cosmos, has become their lower nature. Please, do not forget that this is an important secret of human nature. Our lower nature, which is due to Lucifer's influence, was actually destined to be our higher nature. This is the contradictory element in human nature. Rightly understood, it will solve countless riddles in the world and in life.

We are thus able to say: In the course of human evolution man has, thanks to the luciferic element, made the part of him that should be constantly emerging from the cosmos into his lower nature. Many historical phenomena will find their explanation if you consider that this was known to the leaders of the ancient Mysteries, people who were not as facetious, cynical and narrow-minded as people are today. Certain symbols taken from the lower nature and used in the past, symbols that today are merely seen as sexual symbols, are explained by the fact that the priests who used them in the ancient Mysteries did so in order to give expression to the higher reality of the lower nature of man.
You can see how sensitive we have to be in dealing with these things if we are not to be facetious. Modern people slip easily into facetiousness, because they cannot even imagine that there is more to human beings than mere sensuality—which, in fact, is the luciferic element in our higher nature. Thus historical symbols are easily given entirely the wrong interpretation. It takes some nobility of spirit not to interpret the old symbols in a lower sense, even though they often can be interpreted in that way.
With this, you will also begin to realize that if thoughts from the elemental world come to us—they are living thoughts, not abstract, dead ones that come from the head—they must be coming out of the whole human being. Mere reflection will not achieve this. Today the idea is that we only arrive at our thoughts by reflection. Today the idea is: If human beings will just reflect, they can think about anything, providing the things they want to think about are accessible. This is nonsense, however. The truth is that the human race is in a process of evolution, and the thoughts developed by Copernicus, for example, or Galileo, at a particular time could not be reached by mere reflection before that time. You see, people fabricate the thoughts they have in their heads. But when a thought which marks a real change arises in world history, this thought is given by the gods and through the whole human being. It flows through the human being, overcoming the luciferic element, and only reaches the head out of the whole human being. I think this is something you can understand. In certain ages, particular thoughts just have to be waited for and expected; then human beings are not merely reflecting, nor is something conveyed through their eyes or ears, but inspiration comes from the world of the hierarchies and it comes through the whole essential human being, which is the image of the hierarchies.
If you consider this, some of the things I said yesterday can also tell you great deal. In the present age, from the fifth post-Atlantean age, we are living much more inwardly than before—in ancient Greek times, for example, when the outer environment provided much more that was spiritual. This inwardness of life relates to the process in which thoughts come up through the whole human being. In earlier times, in the fourth post-Atlantean age, the relationship between human beings and the gods was much more of an exterior thing; today it has become much more intimate. Human beings are always associating with the gods; their heads do not normally know anything about this, however, because they only hold human thoughts, or rather the corpses of thoughts.
Human beings always associate with the gods as whole human beings, and this association is more intimate today than it was in the past. Even the nature of clairvoyance is such that the relationship to the gods and to disembodied spirits is altogether different from what it was before. When a human soul associates with spirits or with the dead, the association is a very subtle one. It is more or less similar to the way in which our own thoughts associate with our own will in the soul. It is very intimate, and this intimacy belongs to the present age. It corresponds to the essential nature of human beings here on earth and also to that of the dead, of those who are going through the gate of death to enter the world of the spirit at this time. This intimate association has become possible because in some ways the relationship between man and cosmos has changed. If the relationship which some human beings have to the world of the spirit comes to conscious awareness, it shows itself to be a much more intimate one, even today, than it was before.
Certain abilities had to be lost, so that this intimate association with the gods could develop. During the times of ancient Greece and Rome and after, right into the Middle Ages, people still had direct perception of spiritual elements in the world around them; as I said, they did not merely see physical colours in the way we do today, or hear physical sounds, but perceived spiritual elements in colours and sounds. They were also able to use the element which for us has turned into chaotic dreams as a means of entering into the world of the spirit and they did so in a way that was much less subtle than is possible today. It was relatively easy to approach the Spirits and the dead in the past. Today our ordinary dreams no longer have the same quality, though this did continue well into the Middle Ages. Some people still had it for a long time afterwards. Those earlier people also perceived as in a dream all that happened around them in the elemental thought-world of which I have spoken. They were not yet cut off from that surrounding world, and their own essential nature still extended into it. People were aware of this and acted and behaved accordingly.
Today these things are, of course, considered to be an old superstition. Yet when something significant occurs in connection with this ‘old superstition’, modern science does not know what to do with it. Let me give you just one example: Cimon, a well-known historical figure, had a friend called Astyphilos who knew how to interpret dreams. Astyphilos was able to interpret dreams intellectually. When Cimon had dreamed of a vicious, yapping dog before the Egyptian campaign, Astyphilos forecast his death, saying: ‘You have dreamt of a vicious, yapping dog; you will die in this campaign.’ The story was told by Horace.3Plutarch also teils the story in his Life of Cimon.
A modern sage who has written about dreams, though in materialistic terms, does of course believe that Cimon had an ordinary dream and Astyphilos was a mountebank who interpreted dreams. Yet he also makes a strange comment: ‘Chance willed it, however, that his prophesy came true.’ I could show you books which give irrefutable evidence of prophesies which have come true,4For example, Rudolf Steiner's library in Dornach includes a book by Max Kernmerich called Prophezeiungen, alter Aberglaube oder neue Wahrheit (translates as: “Prophesies, an old superstition or a new truth”), Munich 1911; it includes prophesies which have since come true. but people will say: ‘Chance willed it.’ This is one of many examples. People imagine that the inner life has always been the same as it is today and that there has been no development in the inner life of man.
Thus the outer senses perceived more of the spiritual, and at the same time the relationship with the surrounding elemental thought-world was, in a way, based more on images. Dreams still had the quality of images which pointed to the future. Just as memory relates to the past, so the images pointed to the future, though not in the same way, of course. The constitution of the human soul was therefore entirely different in the past. Blurred dream images came into everyday sensory perception, images which nevertheless related to real happenings in the elemental world. We might put it like this: The physical world of sensory perception had not yet condensed and become solid and mineral in quality. Everywhere colour and sound still sparkled with spiritual qualities. At the same time people still had the ability to live in waking dreams, and these were reality in the elemental, objective world of thought. Then humanity was deprived of this relationship with the outside world in order to establish and strengthen human freedom; the inner life became more intimate in the way I have described.
There is something we must consider which is most important. We can use the powers of the normal intellect to reflect on the phenomena belonging to the world of nature, but we cannot use this intellect to reflect on social phenomena. People believe that the way of thinking which enables them to reflect on the events of the physical world can also be used to establish social laws and political impulses. They are actually doing so now, but the laws and impulses are of correspondingly poor quality. The kind of thing you find in Roman history, and you would also find it in later history if it had not all been turned into romance—for instance, that Numa Pompilius took his inspiration from a nymph called Egeria in certain matters of state5Numa Pompilius (probably 715–673 BC) succeeded Romulus as King of Rome. See Livy's History of Rome, Book 1, Chapter 19.—indicates that in those days people appealed to the gods when matters of state had to be dealt with. They would not have thought it possible to create political structures merely by thinking about them. Today the idea is that individuals are not able to do this, but if you multiply the individual by so and so many times, then it can be done. So if you have a modern democracy and an enlightened parliament, three hundred heads are able to achieve by reflection what a single head cannot do, of course. This goes against one of Rosegger's statements which I have quoted a number of times: ‘One's a human being; if there are several, you've people; if you have lots of them, they're beasts!’6Peter Rosegger (1843–1918), Austrian poet and novelist. Some of his works were in the Styrian dialect, which also applies to the quoted sentences.—but surely it is not what you would do in practice! And just imagine what the whole enlightened modern world would say if news were to get around—not in the old form but in a new one—that Woodrow Wilson had taken his inspiration for some decree or other from a nymph.
These things have changed, even if they are not exactly more intelligent. It will, of course, be difficult to grasp, but it is something we have to realize, that real and appropriate ideas concerning social structures will only come when people appeal again to the spirit. They are not forced to do so, and the form will be different, but this appeal to the spirit must be made again. Otherwise, everything people produce by way of political principles, social structures and ideas will be mere nothingness. There has to be living awareness of the fact that we live in the world of elemental thought and have to take our inspiration from it.
People are still able to laugh about such things today. But humanity will have to struggle through pain and suffering to gain awareness of inspiration in the creative sphere of the social order. Here we have an even more subtle indication of something that will become more and more necessary for humanity.
People will have to realize that they must now prepare themselves to make a connection again with the world of the spirit, so that they may bring into the kingdom of this world a kingdom which is not of this world but is present everywhere in the kingdom of this world. Only then will salvation come for a social sphere where chaos now reigns.
It will, however, be necessary for people to overcome the unease and reluctance they feel about concerning themselves with the intimate relationship between man and world. In the more important fields of human activity, people will have to go more deeply into the nature of this relationship as it was in the fourth post-Atlantean age. This will give them the necessary orientation so that they can really see how human beings related differently to the world around them than they do now. It is possible to study this, but we must overcome this mythology—mythology in the bad sense—we call the study of history today. We need to consider historical reality, going back at least as far as the Mystery of Golgotha, and this will be possible if the study of external history is enriched by the study of spiritual science. People will simply have to make the effort to enter into a study of spiritual science. The whole way of thinking, of course, is such nowadays that people often feel everything to be utterly grotesque when they begin to enter into the world of the spirit; people instinctively think that things will look just the same there as they do in the physical world. All they are prepared to accept is that they will find a more refined, subtle form of this world, and they fail to understand that they will find it completely different, so much so that even the smallest detail will come as a surprise.
Let us assume a modern philosopher, your normal kind of university professor, were to have some kind of Inspiration7Rudolf Steiner generally made careful distinction between ‘imagination’ in the ordinary sense, using the ordinary German terms for this, and ‘Imagination’ as the ability to see images of spiritual realities, which is generally achieved in the course of initiation. The same applies to the terms ‘Intuition’ and ‘Inspiration’. The three should be treated as technical terms in the field of anthroposophy. The convention in English versions of his works has become to use capitals for the higher faculties described by these words.
In this text, capital first letters are put where Steiner is using them as technical terms.—it would be a small miracle, but let us assume such a miracle were to happen—so that for five minutes he were in a position to ask the world of the spirit if he was a true philosopher with a true inner vocation. What do you think the answer would be? He would be given an image; this would be the right answer, only it would need to be correctly interpreted. This is really true; I am telling you something which has happened innumerable times. The answer would be that the philosopher is given ass's ears. And the interpretation of this would be: ‘I am indeed a real philosopher.’ This is not a joke. The point is that some ideas mean one thing in the physical world and exactly the opposite in the spiritual world. In the physical world it is not a distinction to have ass's ears; in the spiritual world, having ass's ears as an image is worth much, much more than the highest distinction ever awarded to a professor of philosophy. But imagine someone who is only used to the physical world and who suddenly—as I said, by a miracle—becomes clairvoyant and sees himself wearing ass's ears. He would think he was being made a fool of, that he was being taken in. And he would immediately call this an illusion. Things are different in the world of the spirit, down to the last detail, and it is necessary to translate everything we meet there, in order to find the right correspondence and interpretation in the physical world. I was not simply telling a joke when I spoke of those ass's ears. If you read the writings of ancient times you will find the dreams dreamt by philosophers to convince them of their inner vocation. The dream I have described is quite typical of that kind of thing. Philosophers had to see themselves with ass's ears to be convinced of their vocation.
People will inevitably be surprised and taken aback when they want to get acquainted again with the specific nature of the spiritual world. Reading The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz Anno 1459,8See Note 3, lecture 3. you will sometimes feel that the grotesque things said in it are enough to make you laugh. Yet they are deeply significant, for the path to which the work refers should not be considered in a sentimental way, but with a certain superior humour.
As I have said, later times also have events analogous to Numa Pompilius receiving instruction from Egeria. These things are no longer made known, which is, of course, the reason why history has become mere conventional fiction. Consider, it was as late as the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century when Jacob Boehme9See Note 2, lecture 3. had his profound Intuitions; truly great, tremendous grand visions which contained Intuitions from an earlier time. His followers included many people who lived in later times. One of the last to be consciously a follower of Jacob Boehme was Saint-Martin.10Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743–1803) took up German at the age of 49 so that he might translate Jacob Boehme's writings into French. His Des erreurs et de la vrit ou les hommes rappels au principe universel de la science par un Ph(ilosophe) inc(onnu) of 1775 was translated into German by Matthias Claudius in 1782. A new edition of the translation was published by Der Kommende Tag in Stuttgart in 1925. He based himself entirely on Jacob Boehme, especially in his book Des erreurs et de la vrit, though it is a somewhat dematerialized Boehme. Still, he had enough of what had come through from older times to realize: If one wants to have ideas concerning social structures, if one wants to have real, effective political ideas, these must not merely be thought up, they must have come from the spiritual world. In his book, Saint-Martin presents not merely ideas concerning the world of nature and its progress, and of history and its progress, but also quite specific political ideas. Today, when states are the only kind of political structure, one would call them ideas on the political state. His discussions do, however, include one idea of special significance, and it is characteristic that this is in the forefront of his political ideas. Saint-Martin refers to ‘original human adultery’, which he says took place at a time when sexual relations did not yet exist between male and female on earth. He is therefore not referring to adultery in the usual sense. He means something quite different, something he keeps deeply veiled, and to which The Bible refers with the words: ‘The sons of the gods saw how beautiful these daughters were and they took for themselves such women as they chose.’11Genesis 6:2. Revised English Bible. This event brought chaos to the world of Atlantis; there is also a mysterious connection between this and the way in which human beings had made their elemental spiritual nature sensual. All one can do is hint at the event which Saint-Martin calls ‘original adultery’; he, too, was merely hinting at it.
It is evident that Saint-Martin realized that to consider politics, one must not merely take account of outer human situations, as people do today, but find a way of going back to earlier times when one had to go beyond the world of the senses and into the world of the spirit if one wanted to know anything about the human being. The principles of political thinking must be evolved out of the world of the spirit. Saint-Martin still knew this at the end of the eighteenth century—he only died in 1804, and what he said in Des erreurs et de la vrit has also been translated into German. It is not without interest to say this, because a certain cleric who is against we who want to serve the life of the spirit here in Dornach—he lives quite near to here12This was the parish priest at Arlesheim, which is next to Dornach. For further details see Necessity and Freedom (GA 166), translated by P. Wehrte, the lecture given in Berlin on 25 January 1916, Anthroposophic Press N.Y.; and ‘Things of the Present and of the Past in the Spirit of Man’ (GA 167), MS translation C42, Rudolf Steiner House Library, London.—has said that in the face of all this folly people should remember plain, simple Matthias Claudius, and he quoted a verse by Claudius in his support.13Matthias Claudius (1740–1815), German poet and writer. The ‘verses’ in question are the third and fourth verses of his evening hymn Der Mond ist aufgegangen. It was Matthias Claudius, however, who translated Saint-Martin's Des erreurs et de la vrit in order to make the spiritual science of that time accessible to his people. The gentleman in question therefore demonstrated his colossal ignorance where Matthias Claudius is concerned, quite apart from the fact that he quoted only one verse; if he had quoted the preceding verse he would have contradicted himself. Still, he was satisfied with the one verse which he thought suited his purpose, which was to quote something against anthroposophy.
As late as the eighteenth century, Saint-Martin knew that if we are to have fruitful political ideas there has to be a bridge between human thoughts and the spiritual influences which come from higher worlds. No previous century has been as godforsaken, really, as the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. It is important to realize this. Nor was any earlier century so vain and so proud of being godforsaken. Still, if people were to read about the statesmanship advocated by Saint-Martin—I think all those clever people who now get together and want to guide the destinies of the world would feel their stomachs turn. For it is the tendency today to get to know as little as possible about the real world around us. It is, of course, possible to erase from our minds the thoughts which come from the living spirit, and we can decide to work only with thought-corpses. People's actions do not relate to this, however, but become part of a web of living thought. And when people with thought-corpses refuse to enter into those living thoughts, the outcome will be chaos. This chaos has to be overcome, which calls for the clear insights of which I have spoken before, as well as in these lectures. It does, however, require a complete change of direction from what is considered to be right today and the absolute ideal.
Above all, this change of direction will have to come soon. And it would be best if it were to come right now and be as widespread as possible in the field where educators are appointed for both young and old. There is no other field where humanity has entered as deeply into materialism as it has in education.
Let me conclude by presenting a thought which will be occupying us in the days ahead, for it is very interesting and very important for all humanity. I would like to present it in such a way, however, that you will be able to turn it over in your own inner mind for a few days. You will then be better prepared to consider this thought.
The children who are born today—we must consider them in the knowledge that the outer form is withering and splitting up, as I have shown in these days. But deep inside is the true human being. This no longer comes to outward expression in the way it did until the fifteenth century. We will have to get more and more used to the thought that, especially in the case of children, the inward human being cannot be fully revealed by the way people present themselves, nor by the way they think and the gestures they make. In many respects these children are something quite different from what comes to outward expression. We even know extreme cases. Children may appear to be the worst of rascals and yet there is so much good in them that they will later be the most valuable of human beings. But you will also find many children who are very good and not the least bit bad, never putting a finger in their mouths nor thumbing their noses at people. They will study well, perhaps be good bank managers one day, or good schoolteachers according to present-day ideas, and indeed good lawyers. But—forgive these harsh words—they will not be good people, because they cannot achieve inner harmony between themselves and the true world around them. It is specifically in the field of education and training where the principle must be established that people are very different inside today from what they appear to be. It will therefore be necessary in future to appoint teachers on entirely different principles. To be able to see into something which is inside and does not come to expression on the outside requires something of a prophetic gift. Examinations for prospective teachers must therefore be organized in such a way that candidates with intuitive and prophetic gifts do particularly well. Candidates who do not have such gifts must be made to fail their exams, however great their knowledge.
The last thing we do today is to consider the prophetic gifts of people who are to become teachers. We still have a long way to go with regard to many things that will have to be done. Yet the course of human evolution will eventually force people to accept such principles. Many of the materialists of our age would, of course, consider it a crazy notion to say that teachers should be prophets. But it will not be for ever. Humanity will be forced to recognize these things.
Sechster Vortrag
Heute müssen wir, wenn wir in der richtigen Art in diesen Betrachtungen fortfahren wollen, etwas vom Wesen des Menschen und seinem Hineingestelltsein in die geschichtliche Entwickelung ins Auge fassen. Zuerst lenken wir unseren Blick darauf, daß der Mensch eine intellektuelle Kraft in sich hat, eine intellektuelle Begabung. Worin besteht diese intellektuelle Begabung? Nun, darin, daß wir Gedanken fassen können. Wir brauchen zunächst nicht darüber nachzusinnen, woher diese Gedanken kommen, wenn wir dies oder jenes uns vorstellungsgemäß zurechtlegen. Dieses Gedankenleben begleitet uns ja während des ganzen wachen Bewußtseins; und wir haben zum Beispiel auch das Gefühl, wenn wir gehen, stehen oder irgend etwas anderes ausführen, daß unsere Gedanken es sind, die uns leiten, daß wir dem folgen, was zuerst in unseren Gedanken vorliegt. Nun, ob das wirklich so ist, darüber wollen wir im Verlauf dieser Vorträge dann noch sprechen. Ich will jetzt nur konstatieren, was wir so im gewöhnlichen, alltäglichen Bewußtsein haben: Das sind unsere Gedanken. Aber mit der Gedankenwelt als solcher ist es doch noch etwas ganz anderes. Und man versteht auch des Menschen Verhältnis zu seinen Gedanken nicht, wenn man nicht ins Auge faßt, was es mit der Gedankenwelt als solcher eigentlich auf sich hat.
Wir sind nämlich in Wirklichkeit überall, wo wir stehen, gehen und liegen, nicht nur in der Welt von Luft und Licht und so weiter, sondern wir sind immer in einer flutenden Gedankenwelt. Sie können sich das am besten vorstellen, indem Sie sich die Sache so zurechtlegen: Wenn Sie durch den Raum gehen als gewöhnlicher, physischer Mensch, gehen Sie atmend hindurch, Sie gehen durch den lufterfüllten Raum. So aber bewegen Sie sich gewissermaßen auch durch den gedankenerfüllten Raum. Die Gedankensubstanz, die erfüllt den Raum um Sie herum. Und diese Gedankensubstanz ist nicht ein unbestimmtes Gedankenmeer. Das ist nicht so etwas wie ein nebuloser Äther, wie man es sich zuweilen gern vorstellen möchte, sondern diese Gedankensubstanz ist eigentlich das, was wir die elementarische Welt nennen. Wenn wir von Wesen der elementarischen Welt sprechen im weitesten Sinne des Wortes, dann bestehen diese Wesen der elementarischen Welt aus dieser Gedankensubstanz, richtig aus dieser Gedankensubstanz. Es ist nur ein gewisser Unterschied zwischen den Gedanken, die da draußen herumschwirren, die eigentlich lebendige Wesen sind, und den Gedanken, die wir in uns haben. Ich habe hier schon öfter darauf hingewiesen, was da für ein Unterschied ist. In meinem demnächst erscheinenden Buch, das ich gestern schon erwähnt habe, werden Sie wiederum Hinweise finden auf diesen Unterschied.
Sie können sich nämlich die Frage vorlegen: Wenn wir da draußen im Gedankenraum irgendsoein Wesen, ein elementarisches Wesen haben und in mir ich doch auch Gedanken habe - wie verhalten sich meine Gedanken zu den Gedankenwesen, die da draußen im Gedankenraum sind? Sie bekommen eine richtige Vorstellung von diesem Verhältnis der eigenen Gedanken zu den Gedankenwesen draußen im Raum, wenn Sie sich das Verhältnis vorstellen eines menschlichen Leichnams, der, nachdem der Mensch gestorben ist, zurückgeblieben ist, zu dem lebendigen Menschen, der herumwandelt. Dabei müssen Sie allerdings solche Gedanken ins Auge fassen, die Sie an der äußeren Sinneswelt im wachen Bewußtsein gewinnen. Unsere Gedanken sind nämlich Gedankenleichen. Das ist das Wesentliche. Die Gedanken, die wir von der äußeren Sinneswelt so durch das wache Bewußtsein mit uns schleppen, das sind eigentlich Gedankenleichen, sind abgelähmte, abgetötete Gedanken; draußen sind sie lebendig. Das ist der Unterschied.
Nun sind wir also eigentlich dadurch in die Gedankenelementarwelt eingespannt, daß wir, indem wir aus der Umwelt unsere Wahrnehmungen aufnehmen und diese Wahrnehmungen zu Gedanken verarbeiten, die lebendigen Gedanken töten. Und indem wir sie dann in uns haben, diese Gedankenleichen, denken wir. Daher sind unsere Gedanken abstrakt. Unsere Gedanken bleiben gerade aus dem Grunde abstrakt, weil wir die lebendigen Gedanken töten. Wir gehen wirklich mit unserem Bewußtsein eigentlich so herum, daß wir Gedankenleichen in uns tragen und diese Gedankenleichen unsere Gedanken, unsere Vorstellungen nennen. So ist es in der Wirklichkeit.
Diese lebendigen Gedanken aber, die draußen sind, die sind nun durchaus nicht ohne Verhältnis, ohne Beziehung zu uns; sie haben eine lebendige Beziehung zu uns. Das kann ich Ihnen gleich klarmachen. Aber Sie müssen nicht erschrecken vor dem Grotesken dieser ungewohnten Vorstellung. Denken Sie sich, Sie liegen morgens im Bett; Sie können auf zweierlei Arten aufstehen. Im gewöhnlichen Leben merken Sie den Unterschied zwischen diesen beiden Arten des Aufstehens nicht, weil Sie die beiden Arten meist durcheinandermischen und weil Sie überhaupt nicht achtgeben gerade auf den Moment des Aufstehens. Aber Sie können auf zweierlei Arten aufstehen. Sie können so aufstehen, daß Sie eigentlich gar nicht darüber nachdenken, sondern aus Gewohnheit aufstehen oder indem Sie sich genau den Gedanken bilden: Ich werde jetzt aufstehen. - Ich sage, Sie mischen das durcheinander; «halb zog es ihn, halb sank er hin». Es geschieht bei manchem Menschen im gewöhnlichen Leben eben doch so, daß er, der Gewohnheit, der Notwendigkeit folgend, sich aufstehen läßt, und dann auch leise anklingend den Gedanken hat: Ich werde jetzt aufstehen. — Wie gesagt, mancher mischt das durcheinander, aber man kann es in abstracto unterscheiden. Das sind die extremen Fälle, welche man unterscheiden kann. Gedankenlos, ganz gedankenlos, ohne daß Sie selbst etwas dazu denken, können Sie aufstehen oder aber vollbewußt. Zwischen diesen zwei Arten des Aufstehens ist ein großer Unterschied. Wenn Sie ganz gedankenlos aufstehen, bloß der anerzogenen Gewohnheit nach, dann folgen Sie den Impulsen der Geister der Form, der Elohim, so wie diese im Beginne des Erdenwerdens den Menschen als Erdenmenschen gebildet haben. Also denken Sie sich, Sie würden Ihr eigenes Denken ausschalten und immer so aufstehen wie eine Maschine, dann stehen Sie nicht ohne Gedanken auf, nur ohne Ihre eigenen Gedanken. Aber daß Sie aufstehen können, in dieser ganzen Bewegungsform, darin liegen Gedanken, objektive, nicht subjektive, innere Gedanken; und diese Gedanken sind nicht Ihre Gedanken, sondern die Gedanken der Geister der Form.
Wenn Sie ganz entsetzlich faul wären und eigentlich gar nicht aufstehen möchten, wenn es gar nicht in Ihrer Natur läge aufzustehen und Sie nur aus Überlegung aufstehen würden, wenn Sie aufstehen würden gegen Ihre Natur, aus dem bloßen subjektiven Gedanken heraus, dann würden Sie ahrimanischer Geistigkeit folgen, Sie würden nur Ihrem Kopf folgen; Sie würden in diesem Falle Ahriman folgen. Im gewöhnlichen Leben mischt man, wie gesagt, die Dinge durcheinander. Wie es da beim Aufstehen ist, so ist es eigentlich bei allem, was der Mensch tut. Denn der Mensch besteht wirklich aus diesen zwei Wesenheiten, die äußerlich, physisch sich unterscheiden nach dem Kopf und der andern Körperlichkeit. Der Kopf des Menschen ist ja ein außerordentlich bedeutungsvolles, weit älteres Instrument als die übrige Körperlichkeit. So wie der Kopf des Menschen konstruiert ist — ich habe darüber schon im vorigen Jahre gesprochen -, ist er eigentlich in seiner Grundform schon das Ergebnis der Mondenentwickelung. Er ist da schon herübergekommen von der Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenentwickelung. Aber wenn der Mensch so sich auf der Erde ausgebildet hätte, wie er von der Mondenentwickelung herübergekommen ist, dann wäre er nicht so geworden, wie er jetzt ist, da würde der Mensch anders ausschauen. Wenn die Menschen einander sehen würden, so würden sie einander anders sehen, als sie sich jetzt sehen.
Schematisch könnte man sagen (es wird gezeichnet, Zeichnung links): Der Mensch wäre eine Art Gespenst, aus dem nur etwas deutlicher die Kopfesform herausragen würde. Dazu war eigentlich der Mensch bestimmt. Die übrige Körperlichkeit sollte gar nicht so sichtbar sein, wie sie jetzt sichtbar ist. Man muß diese Dinge einmal ins Auge fassen, weil man sonst eigentlich die Entwickelung des Menschen auf der Erde nicht versteht. Die übrige Körperlichkeit würde elementarische Wesenheit sein, bloße elementarische Wesenheit; und es würde dann wirksam sein in seinem Haupte alles dasjenige - ich nenne es «a» -, was Erbstück ist des von der Erde verwandelten Mondenseins. Also das, was ich da «a» nenne, das Erbstück des von der Erde verwandelten Mondenseins, das ist eigentlich der Mensch. Der Mensch in Wirklichkeit ist eigentlich das Haupt mit nur einem ganz geringen Ansatz.
Das andere, was der Mensch noch hat - nennen wir es «b» und betrachten wir es zunächst jetzt nur als dieses elementare, luftartige Wesen -, ist nicht in Wirklichkeit der Mensch, sondern dieses andere, «b», ist die Erscheinung der Geister der höheren Hierarchien, von den Geistern der Form nach abwärts. «b» können wir nennen: die Gestaltung der kosmischen Hierarchien. Richtig stellen Sie sich den Menschen vor, wenn Sie sich ihn so vorstellen, daß die kosmischen Hierarchien das geschaffen haben, was ich hier als «b» zusammengefaßt habe. Und wie aus dem Schoße der kosmischen Hierarchien ragt der Mensch, dasjenige, was von ihm seit der Saturnzeit geworden ist, heraus. Wenn Sie sich also die außerkopfliche Natur des Menschen vergeistigt denken — aber Sie müssen sie sich vergeistigt denken, wenigstens verluftigt -, haben Sie eigentlich den Körper kosmischer Hierarchien.

Nun kam in diese ganze Entwickelung hinein die luziferische Verführung (es wird weiter gezeichnet, Zeichnung rechts), die bewirkte, daß diese ganze mehr elementarische Leiblichkeit verdichtet wurde zum übrigen Menschenkörper. Das hat natürlich auch seine Wirkung für das Haupt gehabt. Daraus bekommen Sie eine Vorstellung, was der Mensch eigentlich in Wirklichkeit ist. Der Mensch, wenn wir von seinem Haupte absehen, das sein Eigentum aus der früheren Entwickelung ist, der Mensch wäre eigentlich, wenn sein Körper nicht ins sinnliche Fleisch geschossen wäre, die äußere Erscheinung der Elohim. Und nur durch die luziferische Versuchung hat sich hineinverdichtet in diese äußere Erscheinung der Elohim seine Fleischlichkeit.
Dadurch ist aber etwas sehr Merkwürdiges zustandegekommen worauf ich öfter als ein wichtiges Geheimnis hingedeutet habe -, dadurch ist zustande gekommen, daß der Mensch gerade in den Organen, die man gewöhnlich die Organe seiner niederen Natur nennt, das Ebenbild der Götter ist. Nur ist dieses Ebenbild der Götter, so wie der Mensch auf der Erde ist, verdorben. Gerade das, was das Höhere ist am Menschen, was geistig sein sollte vom Kosmos aus, gerade das ist seine niedere Natur geworden. Bitte vergessen Sie nicht, daß das ein wichtiges Geheimnis der menschlichen Natur ist. Dasjenige, was des Menschen niedere Natur jetzt ist, ist niedrig durch den luziferischen Einschlag; es ist eigentlich bestimmt, seine höhere Natur zu sein. Das ist das Widerspruchsvolle im Wesen des Menschen. Das ist etwas, das unzählige Welten- und Lebensrätsel löst, wenn man es in der richtigen Weise erfaßt.
Man kann also sagen: Die Entwickelung des Menschen ging so vor sich, daß der Mensch durch den luziferischen Einschlag dasjenige, was ihm fortwährend auftauchen sollte aus dem Kosmos, zu seiner niederen Natur gemacht hat. Sogar viele geschichtliche Erscheinungen werden Ihnen erklärlich sein, wenn Sie das ins Auge fassen, was die Leiter der alten Mysterien gewußt haben, die noch nicht so frivol, so zynisch und so philiströs waren wie die heutigen Menschen. Gewisse Symbole der alten Völker, die man heute nur im sexuellen Sinne auffaßt, Symbole, die von der niederen Natur genommen sind, die werden erklärlich dadurch, daß diejenigen alten Mysterienpriester, die sie eingesetzt haben, eigentlich in diesen Symbolen das Höhere der niederen Natur des Menschen zum Ausdruck bringen wollten.
Sie sehen, wie fein diese Dinge angefaßt werden müssen, die in den Symbolen enthalten sind, wenn man nicht ins Frivole verfallen will, in das natürlich der heutige Mensch leicht verfällt, denn der kann sich ja gar nicht denken, daß am Menschen noch etwas anderes ist als die Versinnlichung, die aber eigentlich das Luziferische der höheren Natur ist. Daher kann es ihm sehr leicht passieren, daß er auf diesem Gebiete die historischen Symbole ganz falsch deutet. Es gehört ein gewisser vornehmer Sinn dazu, die alten Symbole nicht in niederem Sinne zu deuten, trotzdem sie häufig so gedeutet werden können. Dadurch aber wird Ihnen auch klar, daß, wenn Gedanken aus der Elementarwelt, also die lebendigen, nicht die abstrakten, toten Gedanken, die im Kopfe entstehen, sondern wenn lebendige Gedanken dem Menschen kommen, dann diese lebendigen Gedanken aus dem ganzen Menschen kommen müssen. Und das geschieht nicht durch bloßes Nachdenken. Heute glaubt man: Man kann überhaupt durch bloßes Nachdenken immer zu Gedanken kommen. Heute glaubt man: Wenn der Mensch nur nachdenkt, dann kann er über alles denken, wenn ihm nur die Dinge zugänglich sind, über die er denken will. Das ist aber ein Unsinn. Die Wahrheit ist vielmehr, daß das Menschengeschlecht in einer Entwickelung ist und daß zum Beispiel die Gedanken, die Kopernikus gefaßt hat, die Galilei gefaßt hat in einer bestimmten Zeit, vorher nicht durch bloßes Nachdenken gefunden werden konnten. Warum? Weil durch Nachdenken der Mensch die Gedanken fabriziert, die im Kopfe walten. Wenn aber solch ein Gedanke weltgeschichtlich auftaucht, wenn er so auftaucht, daß er als Einschlag kommt in die ganze menschliche Entwickelung hinein, dann wird er von den Göttern gegeben durch den ganzen Menschen hindurch. Dann wallt er zuerst, indem er das Luziferische überwindet, durch den ganzen Menschen und vom ganzen Menschen aus erst in den Kopf. Ich glaube, es ist das schon zu verstehen. Daher können bestimmte Gedanken in bestimmten Zeitaltern nur erwartet werden, wenn nicht der Mensch bloß nachdenkt, wenn dem Menschen nicht bloß durch seine Augen, seine Ohren etwas vermittelt wird, sondern wenn ihm durch sein ganzes Wesen, das ein Abbild der Hierarchien ist, etwas hereininspiriert wird aus der hierarchischen Welt.
Wenn Sie dies bedenken, dann werden Sie auch finden, daß viel gesagt ist mit dem, was gestern angedeutet worden ist. Wir leben in diesem Zeitalter, von der fünften nachatlantischen Zeit an, eben viel mehr innerlich als früher, als zum Beispiel im griechischen Zeitalter, wo die äußere Umwelt viel mehr Spirituelles hergab. Das innerliche Leben bezieht sich auf dieses Heraufkommen der Gedanken durch den ganzen Menschen. Der Umgang des Menschen mit den Göttern war in früheren Zeiten, im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitalter, viel äußerlicher, als er jetzt ist. Er ist jetzt viel intimer geworden. Der Mensch geht immer mit den Göttern um; nur sein Kopf weiß in der Regel nichts davon, weil der Kopf eben nur die menschlichen Gedanken faßt, eigentlich nur die Gedankenleichen. Als ganzer Mensch pflegt der Mensch immer den Umgang mit den Göttern. Aber dieser Umgang ist intimer geworden in der neueren Zeit. Daher ist sogar die Natur des Hellsehens heute von einer andern Beziehung zu den Göttern und zu den entkörperten Geistern überhaupt, als das früher der Fall war. Wenn heute die Menschenseele mit Geistern oder mit Toten verkehrt, so ist der Verkehr ein sehr subtiler. Man verkehrt mit geistigen Wesenheiten etwa so, ich möchte sagen, wie der eigene Gedanke mit dem eigenen Willen in der Seele verkehrt. Das ist sehr intim. Und diese Intimität entspricht der heutigen Zeit. Sie entspricht sowohl dem Wesen des Menschen hier auf der Erde wie auch dem Wesen der Toten, die heute durch die Pforte des Todes in die geistige Welt gehen. Damit dieser intime Verkehr eintreten konnte, mußten gewisse Beziehungen des Menschen zum Kosmos eine andere Gestalt annehmen, als sie früher hatten. Jetzt gibt es Menschen, welche ein Verhältnis haben zur geistigen Welt, das sich in viel intimerer Weise heute ausdrückt, wenn es bewußt wird, als es sich früher ausgedrückt hat. Gewisse Fähigkeiten mußten verlorengehen, damit dieser intimere Verkehr mit den Göttern sich entwickle. Daher kam es, daß während der griechisch-lateinischen Epoche und sogar noch tief ins Mittelalter herein die Menschen, wie gesagt, noch aus der äußeren Umwelt unmittelbar Spirituelles wahrnahmen, nicht bloß wie wir heute materielle Farben sehen, materielle Töne hören, sondern in Farben und Tönen noch Spirituelles wahrnahmen. Und es war ihnen auch noch die Möglichkeit gegeben, das, was heute zum chaotischen Traum geworden ist, als Mittel zu benutzen, um in einer viel weniger subtilen Weise in die geistige Welt hineinzukommen, als das heute der Fall ist. Ich möchte sagen: Der Verkehr mit der geistigen Welt war in früheren Zeiten ein gröberer als heute; heute ist er ein feinerer geworden. Früher war verhältnismäßig leicht heranzukommen an die Geister und an die Toten. Heute haben die gewöhnlichen Träume nicht mehr denselben Wert; aber sie hatten ihn noch bis tief ins Mittelalter hinein. Manche Menschen bewahrten sich die Fähigkeit noch lange fort. Auch alles Geschehen ringsumher in der Ihnen geschilderten gedanklichen Elementarwelt nahmen daher die früheren Menschen traumhaft wahr. Der Mensch war nicht so abgeschlossen von der umliegenden geistigen Welt, sondern er ragte noch mit seinem Wesen hinein. Und er war sich dessen bewußt und handelte danach, verhielt sich danach.
Jetzt glaubt man natürlich an diese Dinge nur in dem Sinne, daß man sie als einen alten Aberglauben betrachtet. Aber wenn innerhalb dieses «alten Aberglaubens» etwas Bedeutsames auftritt, dann kommt die heutige Wissenschaft mit der Sache nicht mehr zurecht. Ich will nur ein Beispiel dafür anführen: Die bekannte historische Persönlichkeit Kimon hatte einen Freund Astyphilos; Astyphilos war einer, der sich auf die Deutung, auf die richtige intellektuelle Deutung von Träumen verstand, und er verkündigte dem Kimon, der vor dem ägyptischen Feldzuge von einem bösen, kläffenden Hunde geträumt hatte, seinen Tod, indem er sagte: Du hast von einem bösen, kläffenden Hund geträumt, du wirst bei diesem Feldzug den Tod erleiden. - Das erzählt Horaz.
Ein weiser Mensch der Gegenwart, der über Träume geschrieben hat, aber im materialistischen Sinn, der glaubt natürlich: Das war ein gewöhnlicher Traum des Kimon, und Astyphilos war ein Gaukler, der Träume gedeutet hat. — Aber dieser moderne Gelehrte macht allerdings den merkwürdigen Zusatz: Und der Zufall hat es gewollt, daß seine Prophezeiung eintrat. — Ich könnte Ihnen Bücher vorweisen, aus denen unwiderlegbar hervorgeht, daß die Prophezerungen eingetroffen sind. Dann sagt man: Der Zufall hat es gewollt. — Das ist nur ein Beispiel für viele. Die Menschen denken heute eben, daß die Seelen immer so waren, wie sie heute sind, und daß eigentlich eine wirkliche Entwickelung der Seelen gar nicht vorhanden sei.
Wie also die äußere Sinnesanschauung noch spiritueller war, so war gewissermaßen auch der Zusammenhang mit der umliegenden Gedankenelementarwelt noch imaginativer. Die Träume hatten noch den Wert von Imaginationen, die in die Zukunft verweisen. So wie das Gedächtnis auf die Vergangenheit verweist, so verwiesen die Imaginationen auf die Zukunft, natürlich nicht in derselben Weise. Wir müssen uns also die Konstitution der Seelen in früheren Zeiten ganz anders denken: Gewissermaßen durchsetzt war das gewöhnliche sinnliche Anschauen des Tagwachens von verschwimmenden Traumgebilden, die aber auf Realitäten im Gang der elementaren Welt hinwiesen. Man möchte sagen: Die materielle Welt der Sinneswahrnehmungen war noch nicht so fest mineralisch verdichtet. Da sprühte noch überall aus Farben und Tönen Spirituelles heraus. Dafür war aber auch noch die menschliche Fähigkeit vorhanden, gewissermaßen wachend zu träumen, und dieses wachende Träumen war Realität in der elementaren, objektiven Gedankenwelt. Zur Begründung und zur Erkräftigung der Freiheit des Menschen wurde cben der Mensch aus diesem Zusammenhang mit der äußeren Welt herausgesetzt, und es wurde sein inneres Leben intimer, so wie ich es Ihnen charakterisiert habe.
Nun aber müssen wir eines ins Auge fassen, das sehr wichtig ist. Man kann über die Naturerscheinungen mit Hilfe der gewöhnlichen Intellektualität nachdenken, aber man kann nicht über soziale Erscheinungen mit Hilfe der gewöhnlichen Intellektualität nachdenken; das kann man nicht. Heute glaubt der Mensch: Das Denken, das ihn befähigt, über den äußeren Verlauf der Sinnenwelt nachzudenken, das kann er auch anwenden, um soziale Gesetze, um politische Impulse zu finden. Er tut es auch vorläufig, aber sie sind auch danach. So etwas, wie Sie es noch in der römischen Geschichte lesen und Sie könnten solche Dinge später auch noch verfolgen, wenn die Geschichte nicht gar zu sehr zu einer Legende gemacht worden wäre -, daß Numa Pompilius sich von der Nymphe Egeria zu seiner Staatseinrichtung inspirieren ließ, weist Sie darauf hin, daß man dazumal, wenn man Staatseinrichtungen machen wollte, an die Götter appellierte. Bloß durch Nachdenken politische Strukturen auszubilden, das hielt man nicht für möglich. Heute meint man, daß der einzelne allerdings nicht fähig ist, politische Strukturen auszudenken, aber wenn man den einzelnen soundso viel mal multiplizieren würde, dann würde er schon fähig. Wenn also die erleuchteten Parlamente zusammenkommen in den modernen Demokratien, dann wären dreihundert Köpfe durch Nachdenken zu dem fähig, zu dem natürlich einer nicht fähig ist. Es widerspricht das zwar einem Satz von Rosegger, den ich schon öfter angeführt habe: «Oaner is a Mensch, mehre san Leut, un viele san Viecher!», aber praktisch wird man so etwas doch nicht anwenden, nicht wahr! Und denken Sie sich einmal, was die moderne, aufgeklärte Welt ungefähr dazu sagen würde, wenn - nicht in der alten, aber in einer neuen Form —- etwa die Mitteilung eines Tages durch die Welt ginge, daß Woodrow Wilson sich von einer Nymphe zu irgendeinem Ukas hätte inspirieren lassen.
Also diese Dinge sind zunächst anders, wenn auch nicht gerade gescheiter geworden. Es wird das allerdings schwer zu verstehen sein, aber man muß sich bekanntmachen damit, daß wirkliche, richtige Gedanken für soziale Strukturen erst dann wiederum herauskommen, wenn die Menschen an den Geist appellieren. Es braucht das nicht in der alten Form zu sein, und es wird auch nicht in der alten Form sein, aber dieses Appellieren an den Geist muß wieder stattfinden, sonst werden die Menschen an politischen Grundsätzen, an sozialen Strukturen und Ideen bloß Nichtiges zutagefördern. Es muß das lebendige Bewußtsein entstehen, daß man in der gedankenelementaren Welt darinnen lebt und aus dieser heraus sich inspirieren lassen muß.
Heute kann man noch über diese Dinge lachen. Aber die Menschheit wird sich in Schmerzen und Leiden das Bewußtsein erringen müssen von der Inspiration auf dem schöpferischen Gebiete der sozialen Ordnung. Und damit deuten wir in einer noch intimeren Weise auf etwas hin, was von heute ab immer mehr und mehr der Menschheit notwendig sein wird.
Wenn der Mensch einsehen wird, daß er sich jetzt vorzubereiten hat, wiederum einen Anschluß zu suchen an die geistige Welt, um in das Reich von dieser Welt ein Reich hineinzubringen, das nicht von dieser Welt ist, das aber das Reich von dieser Welt überall durchdringt, dann erst wird Heil in die chaotische soziale Menschheitsstruktur hineinkommen.
Dazu wird allerdings notwendig sein, daß der Mensch die Unbequemlichkeit überwindet, sich mit dem intimen Verhältnis des Menschen zur umliegenden Welt zu befassen. Für die bedeutungsvolleren Zweige des Menschenwirkens wird eintreten müssen eine Vertiefung in die Art, wie das menschliche Verhältnis zur Umwelt war im vierten nachatlantischen Zeitraum, um sich daran zu orientieren, um wirklich zu erkennen, daß der Mensch einmal anders zu der Umwelt stand, als er jetzt steht. Man kann das noch studieren. Es muß nur diese Legende — im schlechten Sinne Legende - einmal überwunden werden, die man heute Geschichtswissenschaft nennt. Man muß in die historische Wirklichkeit, wenigstens bis zum Mysterium von Golgatha zurückgehen. Das kann dann geschehen, wenn die äußere geschichtliche Forschung befruchtet wird von der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung. Da müssen sich aber die Menschen eben bequemen, sich in die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung etwas einzuleben. Nur sind die Begriffe heute so, daß es dem Menschen manchmal ganz grotesk erscheint, wenn er anfängt, in die geistige Welt hineinzukommen, weil er eigentlich die instinktive Vorstellung hat, in der geistigen Welt müsse es geradeso aussehen wie in der sinnlichen Welt. Er will ja gar nichts anderes, als da nur eine verfeinerte sinnliche Welt finden. Daß ihm da etwas ganz anderes entgegentritt, was ihn selbst bei den kleinsten Einzelheiten überrascht, das kann der Mensch heute nicht begreifen. Ich sage Ihnen eine ganz wahre Sache, meine lieben Freunde. Aber denken Sie einmal, wie wenig glaubhaft dies der heute nur an den physischen Plan gewöhnte Philosoph finden wird.
Nehmen wir an, ein heutiger Philosoph, so ein normaler Universitätsprofessor, würde - es wäre ja ein kleines Wunder, aber nehmen wir an, daß das Wunder geschehen würde - fünf Minuten durch irgendeine Inspiration dazu kommen, an die geistige Welt die Frage zu stellen, ob er ein wirklicher Philosoph durch inneren Beruf sei. Was glauben Sie, wie diese Antwort ungefähr aussehen würde? Er würde eine Imagination haben, und diese Imagination würde die richtige Antwort sein, nur muß man Imaginationen im richtigen Sinne deuten. Wirklich, ich erzähle Ihnen nichts, was nicht in unzähligen Fällen da war. Solch ein Philosoph würde nämlich die Antwort dadurch bekommen, daß ihm Eselsohren aufgesetzt würden. Und aus dieser Imagination würde er sich zu deuten haben: Also bin ich ein richtiger Philosoph. — Das ist kein Scherz, sondern das beruht darauf, daß gewisse Vorstellungen, die auf diesem physischen Plane so und so beschaffen sind, auf dem geistigen Plane die gerade entgegengesetzten sind. Eselsohren zu haben, ist auf dem physischen Plan keine Auszeichnung; in der geistigen Welt ist Eselsohren zu haben als Imagination viel mehr wert als der höchste Orden auf dem physischen Plan für irgendeinen Philosophieprofessor.
Aber nun denken Sie sich jemand, der nur an den physischen Plan gewöhnt ist und der plötzlich - wie gesagt, durch ein Wunder - hellsichtig würde und sich mit Eselsohren sähe: er würde glauben, daß er verhöhnt würde, er würde glauben, daß er getäuscht würde. Schon deshalb würde er das für eine bloße Illusion erklären. Selbst in Einzelheiten sieht es eben ganz anders aus in der geistigen Welt als hier in der physischen Welt, und man hat schon nötig, das, was man in der geistigen Welt erlebt, sich zu übersetzen, wenn man das Entsprechende in der physischen Welt richtig deuten will. Ich wollte mit den Eselsohren nicht bloß einen Witz machen. Lesen Sie in alten Schriften nach, so werden Sie finden: Dort sind diese Träume, die die Philosophen gehabt haben, um sich von ihrem inneren philosophischen Beruf zu überzeugen, angeführt. Das ist eine typische Darstellung, ein typischer Traum, den ich Ihnen angeführt habe. Die Philosophen haben sich dadurch, daß sie sich selber mit Eselsohren gesehen haben, davon überzeugt, daß sie wirklich den philosophischen Beruf haben.
Einiges Überraschende, Frappierende werden die Menschen daher schon erleben müssen, wenn sie wiederum mit den Eigentümlichkeiten der geistigen Welt bekannt werden wollen. Wenn Sie «Die Chymische Hochzeit des Christian Rosenkreutz anno 1459» lesen, so werden Sie auch manchmal das Gefühl haben: Über die grotesken Dinge darin müßten Sie lachen. - Dennoch sind sie sehr tief bedeutsam, weil der Weg, der dort angedeutet wird, eben nicht bloß mit sentimentalem Gesicht aufgefaßt werden muß, sondern mit einem gewissen überlegenen Humor.
Ich sagte, man könne auch in späteren Zeiten Analoges finden für das, was in der römischen Geschichte von der Belehrung des Numa Pompilius durch die Nymphe Egeria erzählt wurde. Die Dinge werden heute den Menschen nicht mehr mitgeteilt; aber deshalb kennt man ja auch Geschichte wirklich nur als eine Fable convenue. Bedenken Sie, daß am Ende des 16., am Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts Jakob Böhme noch mit seinen tiefen Intuitionen auftaucht, die wirklich in großen, gewaltigen Überschauungen Intuitionen einer älteren Zeit hereinragen lassen. Zu den Schülern des Jakob Böhme gehörten viele Menschen der späteren Zeit; und einer der letzten bewußten Schüler Jakob Böhmes war Saint-Martin. Saint Martin, insbesondere in seinem Buche «Des erreurs et de la vérité», fußt ja ganz auf Jakob Böhme, nur ist es schon ein etwas verflüchtigter Jakob Böhme. Aber so viel hat er noch von dem, was aus früheren Zeiten herüberragt, daß er weiß: Will man Gedanken haben über soziale Strukturen, will man wirkliche, wirksame politische Gedanken haben, dann darf man sie nicht bloß ausdenken, dann müssen diese Gedanken aus der spirituellen Welt hereingeflossen sein. - Und Saint-Martin gibt ja in seinem Buche «Des erreurs et de la vérité» nicht bloß Gedanken über die äußere Natur und ihren Verlauf, über die Historie und ihren Verlauf, sondern er gibt auch politische Ideen, ganz bestimmte politische Ideen. Heute, wo die Staaten die einzige politische Struktur sind, würde man sie Staatsideen nennen. Aber innerhalb dieser Auseinandersetzungen findet sich eine ganz bestimmte, bedeutungsvolle Vorstellung, und es ist bezeichnend, daß sich solch eine Vorstellung gerade an der Spitze der Politik des Saint-Martin befindet. Da spricht er von dem «ursprünglichen menschlichen Ehebruch». Dieser Ehebruch habe einmal stattgefunden in der Zeit, in welcher ein Verkehr zwischen Mann und Weib in sexueller Beziehung auf der Erde noch nicht stattgefunden hat. Also einen gewöhnlichen Ehebruch meint er nicht; er meint etwas ganz anderes, er meint etwas, worüber er einen sehr starken, dichten Schleier webt, etwas, worauf etwa die Bibel deutet, indem sie sagt: «Und die Söhne der Götter fanden, daß die Töchter der Menschen schön waren, und verbanden sich mit ihnen.» Es ist ja dasjenige Ereignis, durch das dann die ganze Verwirrung in der atlantischen Welt stattfindet, das auch in einem geheimnisvollen Zusammenhang steht damit, daß der Mensch seine elementargeistige Natur versinnlicht hat. Man kann dieses Ereignis, das Saint-Martin «den ursprünglichen Ehebruch» nennt, eben nur andeuten; er deutet es auch nur an.
Aber das sieht man bei Saint-Martin, daß er die Notwendigkeit ins Auge faßt: Will man über Politik nachdenken, so darf man nicht bloß die äußeren Menschenzusammenhänge ins Auge fassen, wie man es heute tut, sondern da muß man in die Lage kommen, zurückzugehen bis in jene Zeiten, wo man über den Menschen nur etwas wissen kann, wenn man über die Sinnenwelt hinaus in die spirituelle Welt geht. Man muß eben von der spirituellen Welt aus die Grundlagen politischen Nachdenkens hinstellen. Das hat noch Saint-Martin am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts gewußt - denn er ist ja erst 1804 gestorben -, und was er in «Des erreurs et de la vérité» sagt, ist auch schon ins Deutsche übersetzt worden. Das Buch gibt es auch im Deutschen. Es ist ja nicht uninteressant, das zu sagen, weil ein gewisser Pfarrer gegen uns, die wir wiederum das spirituelle Leben hier pflegen wollen, ganz in der Nähe hier gesagt hat, gegen diese Tollheiten müsse man sich erinnern an den einfachen, biederen Matthias Claudius. Und dann hat er eine Strophe von Matthias Claudius zitiert, um uns zu widerlegen. Nun ist es aber just Matthias Claudius, der das Buch von Saint-Martin «Des erreurs et de la vérité» übersetzt hat, um dasjenige, was der spirituellen Wissenschaft in der damaligen Zeit entsprach, auch seinem Volke zugänglich zu machen. Der betreffende Herr bezeugte also damit nur seine kolossale Ignoranz über Matthias Claudius, abgesehen davon, daß er nur eine Strophe des Gedichts zitiert hat, denn wenn er die vorhergehende Strophe zitiert hätte, dann hätte er sich gleich selber widerlegt, aber es genügte ihm die eine Strophe, von der er glaubte, daß sie paßte, um sie gegen die Anthroposophie zu zitieren.
Also Saint-Martin weiß noch im 18. Jahrhundert, daß eine Brücke da sein muß zwischen den Gedanken der Menschen und dem spirituellen Wissen, den spirituellen Einwirkungen von höheren Welten, wenn man fruchtbare politische Gedanken haben will. So gottverlassen wie das 19. Jahrhundert, wie der Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, war eigentlich kein früheres Jahrhundert. Es ist wichtig, daß man das ins Auge faßt. Aber auch so eitel auf seine Gottverlassenheit war kein früheres Jahrhundert. Allerdings wenn die Menschen heute die Staatskunst, die Saint-Martin vertritt, lesen würden - ich glaube, allen, die jetzt als die Gescheiten zusammensitzen und die Geschicke der Welt lenken wollen, würde sich der Magen umdrehen. Denn es besteht einmal heute die Tendenz, sich möglichst wenig bekanntzumachen mit dem, was rings um uns herum wirklich ist. Nun kann man allerdings aus dem Bewußtsein die spirituell-lebendigen Gedanken streichen, man kann beschließen, nur mit Gedankenleichen zu operieren, aber das Tun der Menschen richtet sich nicht danach. Das, was die Menschen tun, das wird eingesponnen in die lebendigen Gedanken. Und wenn dann die Menschen mit ihren Gedankenleichen den lebendigen Gedanken gar nicht nachleben wollen, dann kommt eben das Chaos heraus. Dieses Chaos muß überwunden werden. Dazu sind jene klaren Einsichten notwendig, von denen ich jetzt auch in diesen Vorträgen wiederholt gesprochen habe. Dazu ist aber in mancher Beziehung eine völlige Umkehr nötig von dem, was gerade heute als das Richtige, als das Idealste angesehen wird.
Vor allen Dingen wird eine solche Umkehr recht bald notwendig sein, jaam besten wäre es, wenn diese Umkehr in der unmittelbaren Gegenwart im weitesten Umkreise da eintreten würde, wo es sich darum handelt, die Erzieher der Menschen - für die jüngsten und auch für die älteren Menschen - zu bestimmen. Denn auf keinem Gebiete ist die Menschheit so materialistisch geworden wie gerade auf dem Gebiete des Erziehungswesens.
Lassen Sie mich zum Schluß den Gedanken hinstellen, der uns in der nächsten Zeit beschäftigen wird, denn er ist für alle Menschen sehr interessant und sehr wichtig. Lassen Sie mich aber ihn so hinstellen, daß Sie ihn zunächst einmal ein paar Tage, ich möchte sagen, in Ihrer eigenen Seele umwenden können, damit Sie dann besser vorbereitet zu der Betrachtung dieses Gedankens sind.
Die Kinder, wie sie heute ins Leben treten, wir müssen sie Ja so betrachten, daß wir eigentlich wissen: Es ist ein vertrocknendes, ein sich zersplitterndes Äußeres, wie ich es in diesen Tagen auseinandergesetzt habe; aber tief im Innern ist etwas, was erst der wahre Mensch ist, was sich nicht mehr so wie bis ins 15. Jahrhundert herein im Äußeren zum Ausdruck bringt. Bekanntmachen wird man sich immer mehr und mehr müssen damit, daß gerade beim Kinde aus der Art, wie es sich darlebt, aus der Art, wie es denkt und spricht und Gesten macht, nicht voll der innere Mensch äußerlich erschlossen werden kann. Es kommt eben nicht mehr der innere Mensch im Äußeren ganz zum Ausdruck, und am ersten zeigt sich das am Kinde. Das Kind ist vielfach heute schon etwas ganz anderes, als was es äußerlich zum Ausdruck bringt. Man hat sogar schon extreme Fälle. Kinder können äußerlich aussehen wie die ungezogensten Rangen, und in ihnen kann ein so guter Kern stecken, daß sie die wertvollsten Menschen später werden, während man zahlreiche brave Kinder finden kann, die nicht ein bißchen ungezogen sind, die nicht einen Finger in den Mund stecken und auch nicht lange Nasen machen, die auch gut lernen, die vielleicht einmal gute Bankdirektoren werden, gute Schullehrer nach heutigen Begriffen, namentlich auch gute Juristen, die aber halt keine brauchbaren Menschen werden - verzeihen Sie das harte Wort -, weil sie nicht die innere Harmonie mit sich selber und der umgebenden wahren Welt finden. Gerade auf pädagogisch-erzieherischem Gebiete muß zuerst der Grundsatz Platz greifen, daß der Mensch heute innerlich etwas wesentlich anderes ist, als was äußerlich zum Ausdruck kommt. Das aber bedingt, daß man zukünftig die Pädagogen, die Erzieher nicht so bestimmt, wie man sie jetzt bestimmt, sondern nach ganz andern Grundsätzen, denn das Hineinsehen in ein Inneres, das sich nicht im Äußeren ausdrückt, erfordert ja etwas prophetische Gabe. Also wird es notwendig sein, die Examina für die Pädagogen so einzurichten, daß man diejenigen Menschen, die intuitive, prophetische Gaben haben, besonders gut durchkommen läßt und diejenigen, die nicht solche intuitive, prophetische Gaben haben, durchplumpsen läßt durchs Examen, so viel sie auch sonst wissen.
Man ist heute weit davon entfernt, auf die prophetischen Gaben der Menschen zu sehen, wenn man sie für den Erzieherberuf erzieht. Aber man ist eben von vielem, das eintreten muß, heute recht weit entfernt. Dennoch wird man sich durch den Zwang der Menschheitsentwickelung dazu entschließen müssen, solchen Grundsätzen allmählich zu huldigen. Allerdings mancher materialistisch Denkende der heutigen Zeit würde es als einen ganz verrückten Gedanken betrachten, wenn gesagt wird: Die Pädagogen sollen Propheten werden. - Aber es wird nicht immer so bleiben. Die Menschen werden gezwungen werden, gerade solche Dinge anzuerkennen.
Dann wollen wir das nächste Mal, von diesem Punkte ausgehend, die Verhältnisse weiter beleuchten.
Von unseren Zürcher Freunden bin ich gebeten worden, damit diese besser zurechtkommen, nicht am Sonnabend, Sonntag und Montag zu sprechen, sondern Freitag, Sonnabend und Sonntag. Wir werden uns also am Freitag um 7 Uhr, Sonnabend um 7 Uhr und Sonntag um 4 Uhr wieder treffen. Den Vortrag künstlerischer Art werde ich dann am Montag halten; der steht ja für sich da.
Sixth Lecture
Today, if we want to continue these reflections in the right way, we must consider something of the nature of the human being and his place in historical development. First, we turn our attention to the fact that human beings have an intellectual power within them, an intellectual gift. What does this intellectual gift consist of? Well, it consists in our ability to form thoughts. We do not need to ponder where these thoughts come from when we arrange this or that in our minds according to our imagination. This life of thought accompanies us throughout our entire waking consciousness; and we also have the feeling, for example, when we walk, stand, or do anything else, that it is our thoughts that guide us, that we follow what is first present in our thoughts. Now, whether this is really the case, we will discuss later in the course of these lectures. I just want to state what we have in our ordinary, everyday consciousness: these are our thoughts. But the world of thoughts as such is something completely different. And one cannot understand the relationship between human beings and their thoughts unless one considers what the world of thoughts as such actually is.
For in reality, wherever we stand, walk, or lie, we are not only in the world of air and light and so on, but we are always in a flooding world of thoughts. You can best imagine this by thinking of it this way: When you walk through a room as an ordinary, physical human being, you walk through it breathing, you walk through the air-filled room. But in a sense, you are also moving through the space filled with thoughts. The substance of thought fills the space around you. And this substance of thought is not an indefinite sea of thoughts. It is not something like a nebulous ether, as people sometimes like to imagine, but this substance of thought is actually what we call the elemental world. When we speak of beings of the elementary world in the broadest sense of the word, these beings of the elementary world consist of this thought substance, precisely of this thought substance. There is only a certain difference between the thoughts that are floating around out there, which are actually living beings, and the thoughts that we have within us. I have often pointed out here what the difference is. In my forthcoming book, which I mentioned yesterday, you will find further references to this difference.
You can ask yourself the question: If we have some kind of being, an elemental being, out there in the thought space, and I also have thoughts within me, how do my thoughts relate to the thought beings out there in the thought space? You can get a real idea of this relationship between your own thoughts and the thought beings out there in space if you imagine the relationship between a human corpse, which remains after the person has died, and the living person who is walking around. However, you must consider thoughts that you gain from the external sensory world in your waking consciousness. Our thoughts are, in fact, thought corpses. That is the essential point. The thoughts that we carry around with us from the external sense world through our waking consciousness are actually thought corpses, paralyzed, dead thoughts; outside, they are alive. That is the difference.
So we are actually bound to the world of thought elements by the fact that, when we take in our perceptions from the environment and process these perceptions into thoughts, we kill the living thoughts. And then, when we have these thought corpses within us, we think. That is why our thoughts are abstract. Our thoughts remain abstract precisely because we kill the living thoughts. We actually go around with our consciousness in such a way that we carry dead thoughts within us and call these dead thoughts our thoughts, our ideas. That is how it is in reality.
But these living thoughts that are outside are by no means unrelated or unrelated to us; they have a living relationship with us. I can explain this to you right away. But you need not be alarmed by the grotesqueness of this unfamiliar idea. Imagine that you are lying in bed in the morning; you can get up in two ways. In ordinary life, you do not notice the difference between these two ways of getting up, because you usually mix the two ways together and because you do not pay any attention to the moment of getting up. But you can get up in two ways. You can get up without actually thinking about it, out of habit, or by forming the precise thought: I am now going to get up. I say you mix the two together; “half he pulled himself up, half he sank down.” In everyday life, some people simply allow themselves to get up out of habit or necessity, and then quietly think to themselves: I am going to get up now. As I said, some people confuse the two, but it is possible to distinguish between them in abstract terms. These are the extreme cases that can be distinguished. You can get up thoughtlessly, completely without thinking anything about it, or you can get up fully conscious. There is a great difference between these two ways of getting up. If you get up completely thoughtlessly, merely out of habit, then you are following the impulses of the spirits of form, the Elohim, just as they formed human beings as earth beings at the beginning of the earth's existence. So if you think that you are switching off your own thinking and always getting up like a machine, then you are not getting up without thoughts, only without your own thoughts. But the fact that you can get up, in this whole form of movement, involves thoughts, objective, not subjective, inner thoughts; and these thoughts are not your thoughts, but the thoughts of the spirits of form.
If you were terribly lazy and did not really want to get up, if it were not in your nature to get up and you only got up out of consideration, if you got up against your nature, out of mere subjective thought, then you would be following Ahrimanic spirituality, you would only be following your head; in this case, you would be following Ahriman. In ordinary life, as I said, things are mixed up. What happens when you get up is actually the case with everything a human being does. For human beings really consist of these two entities, which outwardly, physically, differ according to the head and the other physicality. The human head is an extraordinarily significant instrument, far older than the rest of the physical body. The way the human head is constructed — I spoke about this last year — is actually, in its basic form, already the result of lunar evolution. It has already come over from the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions. But if human beings had developed on Earth as they came over from the Moon evolution, they would not have become what they are now; human beings would look different. If people saw each other, they would see each other differently than they do now.
Schematically, one could say (drawing on the left): Man would be a kind of ghost, from which only the shape of the head would protrude more clearly. That was actually what man was intended to be. The rest of the physical body should not be as visible as it is now. One must consider these things, because otherwise one cannot really understand the development of man on Earth. The rest of the physical body would be elemental essence, mere elemental essence; and then everything that is a legacy of the moon being transformed by the Earth – I call it “a” – would be effective in the head. So what I call “a,” the legacy of the moon being transformed by the Earth, is actually the human being. Human beings in reality are actually the head with only a very small beginning.
The other thing that human beings still have — let us call it “b” and consider it for now only as this elementary, air-like being — is not in reality the human being, but this other thing, “b,” is the appearance of the spirits of the higher hierarchies, from the spirits downward in form. We can call “b” the configuration of the cosmic hierarchies. You can imagine human beings correctly if you imagine them as having been created by the cosmic hierarchies, which I have summarized here as “b.” And from the womb of the cosmic hierarchies, human beings emerge, that which has become of them since the Saturn era. So if you think of the extra-head nature of the human being as spiritualized — but you must think of it as spiritualized, at least as ethereal — you actually have the body of cosmic hierarchies.

Now the Luciferic temptation entered into this whole development (the drawing continues on the right), causing this whole more elemental physicality to be condensed into the rest of the human body. This naturally also had an effect on the head. From this you can get an idea of what human beings actually are in reality. If we disregard the human head, which is the result of earlier development, the human being would actually be the outer appearance of the Elohim if his body had not been shot into sensual flesh. And it is only through the Luciferic temptation that his fleshiness has condensed into this outer appearance of the Elohim.
But this has brought about something very remarkable, which I have often pointed out as an important secret—it has brought about that human beings are the image of the gods precisely in those organs which are usually called the organs of their lower nature. Only this image of the gods, as human beings are on earth, is corrupted. Precisely that which is higher in man, which should be spiritual from the cosmos, has become his lower nature. Please do not forget that this is an important secret of human nature. That which is now man's lower nature is low because of the Luciferic influence; it is actually destined to be his higher nature. This is the contradiction in human nature. It is something that solves countless mysteries of the world and of life, if one understands it in the right way.
One can therefore say that human development proceeded in such a way that, through the Luciferic influence, human beings turned what should have continually emerged from the cosmos into their lower nature. Even many historical phenomena will become understandable to you if you consider what the leaders of the ancient mysteries knew, who were not as frivolous, cynical, and philistine as people are today. Certain symbols of ancient peoples, which today are understood only in a sexual sense, symbols taken from the lower nature, become understandable when you realize that the ancient mystery priests who used them actually wanted to express in these symbols the higher aspect of the lower nature of human beings.
You see how delicately these things contained in symbols must be handled if one does not want to fall into frivolity, into which modern man naturally falls easily, because he cannot imagine that there is anything else in man than sensuality, which is actually the Luciferic element of the higher nature. Therefore, it is very easy for them to misinterpret the historical symbols in this area. It takes a certain refined sense not to interpret the old symbols in a base sense, even though they can often be interpreted that way. But this also makes it clear to you that when thoughts come from the elemental world, that is, living thoughts, not abstract, dead thoughts that arise in the head, but when living thoughts come to the human being, then these living thoughts must come from the whole human being. And this does not happen through mere thinking. Today people believe that one can always arrive at thoughts through mere thinking. Today, people believe that if a person merely thinks, then they can think about everything, provided that the things they want to think about are accessible to them. But that is nonsense. The truth is rather that the human race is in a state of development and that, for example, the thoughts that Copernicus conceived, that Galileo conceived at a certain time, could not have been found beforehand by mere thinking. Why? Because through thinking, humans fabricate the thoughts that reign in their heads. But when such a thought appears in world history, when it appears in such a way that it strikes the entire human development, then it is given by the gods through the whole human being. Then it first surges through the whole human being, overcoming the Luciferic, and only then does it enter the head from the whole human being. I believe this is already understandable. Therefore, certain thoughts can only be expected in certain ages if humans do not merely think, if something is not merely conveyed to humans through their eyes and ears, but if something is inspired into them from the hierarchical world through their entire being, which is a reflection of the hierarchies.
If you consider this, you will also find that much has been said with what was indicated yesterday. We live in this age, from the fifth post-Atlantean era onwards, much more inwardly than in the past, for example in the Greek age, when the external environment provided much more spirituality. The inner life relates to this emergence of thoughts through the whole human being. In earlier times, in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, people's relationship with the gods was much more external than it is now. It has now become much more intimate. People always interact with the gods; only their heads are generally unaware of this, because the head only grasps human thoughts, which are actually only thought corpses. As a whole, human beings always interact with the gods. But this interaction has become more intimate in recent times. Therefore, even the nature of clairvoyance today is based on a different relationship with the gods and with disembodied spirits than was the case in the past. When human souls interact with spirits or with the dead today, the interaction is very subtle. One communicates with spiritual beings in much the same way, I would say, as one's own thoughts communicate with one's own will in the soul. This is very intimate. And this intimacy corresponds to the present age. It corresponds both to the nature of human beings here on earth and to the nature of the dead who today pass through the gate of death into the spiritual world. In order for this intimate communication to take place, certain relationships between human beings and the cosmos had to take on a different form than they had in the past. Now there are people who have a relationship with the spiritual world that is expressed in a much more intimate way today, when it becomes conscious, than it was expressed in the past. Certain abilities had to be lost in order for this more intimate communication with the gods to develop. This is why, during the Greek-Latin epoch and even well into the Middle Ages, people still perceived the spiritual directly from their external environment, not merely as we today see material colors and hear material sounds, but as spiritual entities in colors and sounds. And they were also given the opportunity to use what has now become a chaotic dream as a means of entering the spiritual world in a much less subtle way than is the case today. I would say that communication with the spiritual world was coarser in earlier times than it is today; today it has become more refined. In the past, it was relatively easy to reach spirits and the dead. Today, ordinary dreams no longer have the same value, but they did until well into the Middle Ages. Some people retained this ability for a long time. Therefore, everything that happened around them in the elementary world of thoughts that I have described to you was perceived by the people of earlier times as if in a dream. Human beings were not so cut off from the spiritual world around them, but still extended into it with their whole being. And they were aware of this and acted and behaved accordingly.
Now, of course, people only believe in these things in the sense that they consider them to be old superstitions. But when something significant occurs within this “old superstition,” modern science is no longer able to cope with it. I will give just one example: The well-known historical figure Kimon had a friend named Astyphilos; Astyphilos was someone who understood the interpretation, the correct intellectual interpretation of dreams, and he announced to Kimon, who had dreamed of an evil, yapping dog before the Egyptian campaign, that he would die, saying: You dreamed of an evil, barking dog; you will die in this campaign. - That is what Horace says.
A wise man of the present day who has written about dreams, but in a materialistic sense, naturally believes: That was an ordinary dream of Kimon's, and Astyphilos was a charlatan who interpreted dreams. — But this modern scholar adds the strange remark: And chance would have it that his prophecy came true. — I could show you books which prove irrefutably that the prophecies came true. Then people say: Chance would have it. — That is just one example among many. People today think that souls have always been as they are today and that there is no real development of souls.
Just as external sensory perception was more spiritual, so too was the connection with the surrounding world of thought elements more imaginative. Dreams still had the value of imaginations that pointed to the future. Just as memory points to the past, imaginations pointed to the future, though not in the same way, of course. We must therefore think of the constitution of souls in earlier times in a completely different way: The ordinary sensory perception of waking life was, in a sense, interspersed with blurred dream images that pointed to realities in the elementary world. One might say that the material world of sensory perceptions was not yet so densely mineralized. Spiritual elements still sparkled everywhere in colors and sounds. But then, too, the human ability to dream while awake, as it were, still existed, and this waking dream was reality in the elementary, objective world of thought. In order to establish and strengthen human freedom, human beings were removed from this connection with the external world, and their inner life became more intimate, as I have characterized it for you.
Now, however, we must consider something that is very important. One can think about natural phenomena with the help of ordinary intellectuality, but one cannot think about social phenomena with the help of ordinary intellectuality; that is not possible. Today, people believe that the thinking that enables them to reflect on the external course of the sensory world can also be used to find social laws and political impulses. They do this provisionally, but they continue to do so afterwards. Something like what you still read in Roman history, and you could also trace such things later if history had not been turned into legend, namely that Numa Pompilius was inspired by the nymph Egeria to establish his state, indicates that in those days, when people wanted to establish state institutions, they appealed to the gods. It was not considered possible to develop political structures through reflection alone. Today, it is believed that the individual is not capable of devising political structures, but that if you multiplied the individual by so many times, then he would be capable. So when enlightened parliaments come together in modern democracies, three hundred minds would be capable of achieving through reflection what one mind is naturally incapable of. This contradicts a statement by Rosegger that I have quoted many times before: “One is a human being, many are people, and many are animals!” But in practice, one would not apply such a thing, would one? And just imagine what the modern, enlightened world would say if—not in the old form, but in a new one—the news spread one day that Woodrow Wilson had been inspired by a nymph to issue some kind of ukase.
So these things are different now, even if they haven't necessarily become any smarter. It will be difficult to understand, but we must realize that real, correct ideas for social structures can only emerge when people appeal to the spirit. It does not have to be in the old form, and it will not be in the old form, but this appeal to the spirit must take place again, otherwise people will bring forth nothing but emptiness in political principles, social structures, and ideas. A living awareness must arise that we live in a world of elementary thoughts and must draw inspiration from it.
Today, one can still laugh about these things. But humanity will have to gain consciousness of inspiration in the creative realm of social order through pain and suffering. And with this, we point in an even more intimate way to something that will become increasingly necessary for humanity from now on.
When human beings realize that they must now prepare themselves to seek a connection with the spiritual world again in order to bring into the realm of this world a realm that is not of this world but permeates the realm of this world everywhere, only then will salvation come into the chaotic social structure of humanity.
To this end, however, it will be necessary for human beings to overcome their discomfort with dealing with the intimate relationship between human beings and the world around them. For the more meaningful branches of human activity, it will be necessary to delve deeper into the nature of the human relationship to the environment in the fourth post-Atlantean period in order to orient oneself and truly recognize that human beings once had a different relationship to the environment than they do now. This can still be studied. We just need to get past this legend—in the bad sense of the word—that we call historical science today. We need to go back to historical reality, at least as far as the mystery of Golgotha. This can happen when historical research is enriched by spiritual science research. But people will have to make themselves comfortable with spiritual science research. But today's concepts are such that it sometimes seems quite grotesque to people when they begin to enter the spiritual world, because they actually have the instinctive idea that the spiritual world must look exactly like the sensory world. They want nothing more than to find a refined sensory world there. People today cannot comprehend that they will encounter something completely different there, something that surprises them even in the smallest details. I am telling you something very true, my dear friends. But just think how implausible this will seem to philosophers today, who are accustomed only to the physical plane.
Let us suppose that a modern philosopher, a normal university professor, were to be inspired for five minutes — it would be a small miracle, but let us suppose that the miracle happened — to ask the spiritual world whether he was a true philosopher by inner calling. What do you think his answer would be? He would have an imagination, and this imagination would be the correct answer, but one must interpret imaginations in the right sense. Really, I am not telling you anything that has not happened countless times. Such a philosopher would receive the answer by having donkey ears put on him. And from this imagination he would have to interpret: So I am a real philosopher. — This is no joke, but is based on the fact that certain ideas, which are of a certain nature on the physical plane, are exactly the opposite on the spiritual plane. Having donkey ears is no distinction on the physical plane; in the spiritual world, having donkey ears as an imagination is worth much more than the highest order on the physical plane for any philosophy professor.
But now imagine someone who is accustomed only to the physical plane and who suddenly—as I said, through a miracle—becomes clairvoyant and sees himself with donkey ears: he would believe that he was being mocked, he would believe that he was being deceived. For that reason alone, he would declare it to be a mere illusion. Even in details, things look very different in the spiritual world than here in the physical world, and it is necessary to translate what one experiences in the spiritual world if one wants to interpret the corresponding phenomena in the physical world correctly. I did not mean to make a joke with the donkey ears. If you read old writings, you will find that the dreams that philosophers had in order to convince themselves of their inner philosophical vocation are recounted there. What I have told you is a typical example, a typical dream. By seeing themselves with donkey ears, the philosophers convinced themselves that they really had a philosophical vocation.
People will therefore have to experience some surprising and striking things if they want to become acquainted with the peculiarities of the spiritual world. When you read “The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz in the Year 1459,” you will sometimes feel that you should laugh at the grotesque things in it. Nevertheless, they are very profoundly meaningful, because the path indicated there must not be taken merely with a sentimental face, but with a certain superior humor.
I said that analogies could also be found in later times for what was told in Roman history about the instruction given to Numa Pompilius by the nymph Egeria. These things are no longer communicated to people today; but that is why history is really only known as a fable convenue. Consider that at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, Jakob Böhme still appeared with his profound intuitions, which truly allowed intuitions from an earlier time to shine through in great, powerful insights. Many people of later times were among Jakob Böhme's disciples, and one of Jakob Böhme's last conscious disciples was Saint-Martin. Saint Martin, especially in his book “Des erreurs et de la vérité,” is based entirely on Jakob Böhme, only it is already a somewhat diluted Jakob Böhme. But he still has so much of what stands out from earlier times that he knows: if you want to have thoughts about social structures, if you want to have real, effective political thoughts, then you cannot just think them up; these thoughts must have flowed in from the spiritual world. And in his book “Errors and Truth,” Saint-Martin does not merely offer thoughts on external nature and its course, on history and its course, but he also offers political ideas, very specific political ideas. Today, when states are the only political structure, one would call them ideas about the state. But within these debates there is a very specific, significant idea, and it is significant that such an idea is at the very forefront of Saint-Martin's politics. He speaks of “primordial human adultery.” This adultery took place at a time when sexual relations between men and women did not yet exist on earth. He does not mean ordinary adultery; he means something quite different, something over which he weaves a very thick veil, something to which the Bible alludes when it says: “And the sons of the gods found the daughters of men beautiful, and they took wives for themselves.” It is this event that causes all the confusion in the Atlantean world, which is also mysteriously connected with the fact that man has sensualized his elemental spiritual nature. One can only hint at this event, which Saint-Martin calls “the original adultery”; he himself only hints at it.
But one can see in Saint-Martin that he recognizes the necessity: if one wants to think about politics, one must not merely consider the external human relationships, as is done today, but one must be able to go back to those times when one could only know something about human beings by going beyond the sensory world into the spiritual world. One must establish the foundations of political reflection from the spiritual world. Saint-Martin still knew this at the end of the 18th century—for he died in 1804—and what he says in Des erreurs et de la vérité has already been translated into German. The book is also available in German. It is not uninteresting to mention this because a certain pastor who is opposed to us, who want to cultivate spiritual life here, said very close to here that in response to this madness, we must remember the simple, honest Matthias Claudius. And then he quoted a verse by Matthias Claudius to refute us. But it was Matthias Claudius who translated Saint-Martin's book “Des erreurs et de la vérité” in order to make what was spiritual science at that time accessible to his people. The gentleman in question thus only demonstrated his colossal ignorance of Matthias Claudius, apart from the fact that he quoted only one verse of the poem, for if he had quoted the preceding verse, he would have immediately contradicted himself. But the one verse he believed to be appropriate was enough for him to quote against anthroposophy.
So Saint-Martin knew even in the 18th century that there must be a bridge between human thoughts and spiritual knowledge, the spiritual influences of higher worlds, if one wants to have fruitful political ideas. No previous century was as godforsaken as the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It is important to bear this in mind. But no previous century was as vain in its godlessness. However, if people today were to read about the art of government as represented by Saint-Martin, I believe that all those who now sit together as the wise and want to direct the fate of the world would feel sick to their stomachs. For today there is a tendency to familiarize oneself as little as possible with what is really going on around us. Now, one can certainly remove spiritually alive thoughts from one's consciousness; one can decide to operate only with dead thoughts, but human actions are not guided by this. What people do is woven into living thoughts. And when people with their dead thoughts do not want to live according to living thoughts, then chaos ensues. This chaos must be overcome. To do this, we need the clear insights that I have repeatedly spoken about in these lectures. In some respects, however, this requires a complete reversal of what is currently regarded as right and ideal.
Above all, such a reversal will be necessary very soon. It would be best if this reversal took place in the immediate present, in the widest possible circle, where it is a matter of determining the educators of human beings — for the youngest and also for the older ones. For in no other field has humanity become as materialistic as in the field of education.
Let me conclude by presenting the idea that will occupy us in the near future, for it is very interesting and very important for all human beings. But let me present it in such a way that you can first ponder it for a few days, I would say, in your own soul, so that you will then be better prepared to consider this idea.
We must view children as they enter life today in such a way that we actually know: there is a withering, fragmented exterior, as I have described in recent days; but deep inside there is something that is the true human being, something that no longer expresses itself outwardly as it did until the 15th century. We will have to become more and more aware that, especially in children, the inner human being cannot be fully understood from the way they behave, think, speak, and gesture. The inner human being is no longer fully expressed in the outer world, and this is most evident in children. Today, children are often completely different from what they express outwardly. There are even extreme cases. Children can look like the most ill-mannered rascals on the outside, but they can have such a good core that they later become the most valuable people, while you can find numerous well-behaved children who are not in the least bit ill-mannered, who do not put a finger in their mouths or pull noses, who also learn well, who may one day become good bank managers, good school teachers according to today's standards, and even good lawyers, but who will not become useful people – forgive me for saying so – because they cannot find inner harmony with themselves and the true world around them. It is precisely in the field of education that the principle must first take hold that human beings today are essentially different on the inside than what is expressed on the outside. This, however, means that in future educators and teachers will not be chosen as they are now, but according to entirely different principles, for seeing into an inner life that is not expressed outwardly requires a kind of prophetic gift. It will therefore be necessary to organize the examinations for educators in such a way that those who have intuitive, prophetic gifts are allowed to pass with flying colors, while those who do not have such intuitive, prophetic gifts are allowed to fail the examination, no matter how much else they know.
Today, we are far from looking at people's prophetic gifts when we train them for the teaching profession. But we are also quite far from many things that must happen. Nevertheless, the compulsion of human development will force us to gradually adhere to such principles. Admittedly, many materialistic thinkers of today would consider it a completely crazy idea to say that educators should become prophets. But it will not always be so. People will be forced to recognize precisely such things.
Next time, starting from this point, we will continue to examine the situation.
Our friends in Zurich have asked me, so that they can better organize themselves, not to speak on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, but on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We will therefore meet again on Friday at 7 o'clock, Saturday at 7 o'clock, and Sunday at 4 o'clock. I will then give the artistic lecture on Monday; that stands on its own.