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Third Scientific Lecture-Course:
Astronomy
GA 323

6 January 1921, Stuttgart

Lecture VI

You will have seen, from what has been said so far, that in the explanation of natural phenomena we need to find a path leading beyond the intellectually mathematical domain. That we do not dispute the justification of a mathematical approach is implicit in the whole spirit of these lectures. But we were able sharply to define the point beyond which it is impossible to go with mathematical thought-forms, in the celestial spaces on the one hand, and in the realm of embryology on the other. We must hew out a path to other methods of cognition. It is the purpose of these lectures to show the scientific need of other methods.

I shall try to show that what is looked for nowadays merely by gazing outward into celestial space—whether with the unaided eye or with the help of optical instruments—needs to be put on a far wider basis, so that not only a part but the whole of man becomes the ‘reagent’ for a deeper penetration of the Heavens. Today I shall try, if not to prove, at least to indicate the validity of such a widening of method, by approaching the problem from quite another side. It may seem paradoxical in relation to our present theme, but the reason will soon become plain.

In studying the evolution of mankind on Earth we must surely find something within human evolution itself to guide us to the essential source of the celestial phenomena. For otherwise we should be assuming that what goes on in the Universe beyond the Earth is without influence on man,—on human evolution. No-one will make such an assumption, although admittedly the influences may be over-estimated by some and under-estimated by others. It will therefore be plausible—at least from a methodic point of view—to put the question: ‘Can we find anything in the evolution of mankind itself to indicate ways of access to the secrets of celestial space?’ Asking this question, we will take our start, not from Spiritual Science, but from the facts which anyone can gather for himself by empirical, historical research.

Looking back in the evolution of mankind in the realm where human thoughts, the human faculties of knowledge find expression, where, so to speak, the relation of man to the world takes on the most highly sublimated forms—we are led back, to begin with (as you may gather from my ‘Riddles of Philosophy’), only a few centuries into the past. Indeed I have often pointed to a certain moment during the 15th century, one of the most essential in the more recent phase of human evolution. The indication is of course approximate. We have to think of the period about the middle of the Middle Ages. Needless to say, we are referring only to what was going on within civilized mankind.

It is not generally seen clearly or sharply enough, how deep and incisive a change was then taking place in human thought and cognition. There has unfortunately for some time been a downright aversion—among philosophers especially—to a real study and appreciation of the epoch in European civilization which may be called the Age of Scholasticism. During that age, deeply significant questions came to the surface of man's life of knowledge. It one goes into them deeply enough, one feels that these questions did not merely spring from the realm of logical deduction—the form in which the Middle Ages used to clothe them—but from the very depths of man's being.

One need only recall what then became a fundamental question in human knowledge—the question of Nominalism and Realism. Or again, what it betokened in the spiritual development of Europe that attempts were made to prove the existence of God. There was for instance the so-called ontological proof of the existence of God. From thought itself—from the pure concept—men wanted confirmation of God's existence. Think what it means in the whole evolution of human knowledge. Something was stirring in the inmost depths of human being; in the philosophical deductions of the time it only found fully conscious expression. Men were perplexed as to whether the concepts and ideas, which man forms and puts into words, in some way stand for a reality, or whether they are merely formal summarizations of the external sensory data. The Nominalists regarded the general concepts which man creates for himself as a mere formal summary, having no significance for the external reality but only helping man to find his way about—to orientate himself in an otherwise confusing outer world. The Realists (an expression used in a rather different sense than today) declared that something real is to be found in general or universal concepts,—that in these concepts man in his inner life takes hold of something real,—that they are no mere convenient generalizations or abstractions from the world.

Often in more public lectures I have related how my old friend Vinsenz Knauer—a latter-day scholastic, though he would not have claimed to be one—showed himself very clearly, in his interesting work “The Central Problems of Philosophy, from Thales to Robert Hamerling”, to be thoroughgoing Realist. The Nominalists, he said, assert that the concept ‘lamb’ is nothing but a convenient generalization arising in the human mind; so too the concept ‘wolf’. Matter is only put together in a different way in the lamb and in the world. We only summarize it in the convenient abstraction, ‘lamb’ or ‘wolf’ as the case may be. Well, he suggested, try for some time to keep a wolf away from all other food and give it only lambs to eat, after the necessary lapse of time the matter in the wolf will be nothing but lamb, and yet it will not have lost its wolfishness. Therefore the wolf-nature, expressed in the general concept ‘wolf’ must be something real.

Now the fact that the so-called ‘ontological’ proof of God's existence could arise at all, bears witness to a deep and thorough going change then taking place in human nature. Quite a short time before, it simply would not have occurred to anyone within European culture to want to prove God's existence, for this was felt to be self-evident. Only when this feeling was no longer alive in men, did they begin to crave for proof. If you have living inner certainty about a thing, you do not want to prove it. But at that time something was slipping away from man, which until then had been alive in him quite as a matter of course, and the human spirit was thus led into quite other channels—quite other needs. I could adduce many another example, showing precisely at the highest levels of thought and knowledge (though you may take the word 'highest' with a grain of salt) what a deep stirring and rumbling was going on in human nature during that period of the Middle Ages.

Now we can surely not deny that there must be some connection between what is going on in the life of mankind and the phenomena in the Heavens beyond the Earth. In the most general sense, we must assume that there is some connection; what it is in detail, we shall discover in due course. Hence we may ask—we want to proceed very carefully, so we need only ask—‘How were these inner experiences which man on Earth was undergoing at that time, connected with the evolution of the Earth-plant altogether?’,—a question which may obviously lead us into realms beyond the earth. Was it perhaps a special moment in the evolution of the Earth a such? Is there anything that we can point to as a more definite criterion of what this moment was in human evolution?

We can indeed point to something of significance in this connection. There was another time which made a deep incision in the name regions of the Earth where in the Middle Ages these events were taking place in the most highly sublimated realm of human life the spiritual life of thought. The medieval time, when this deep moving and stirring of humanity took place, lies in the very midst between two end-points, as it were, in the scale of time. For European regions these ‘end-points’ do not represent the kind of times in which intense activity of human life and culture would be possible at all. In effect, if from this medieval moment, which I will call A (Fig. 1), we go backward and forward an equal length of time into a fairly distant past and future, we come to points of time representing a certain barrenness and death of civilization in the very regions where this deep stirring of human life was going on in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. About 10,000 years forward and 10,000 years back from this moment (A in Figure 1) we reach the maximum development of the Ice Ages in these very regions Ice Ages certainly would not allow of any outstanding development in human life and culture.

Figure 1

Surveying therefore the evolution of these European regions we find an Ice Age—a laying-waste of civilization—10,000 years before the Christian era, and we should find the same again 10,000 years after this time. The deep stirring of human life, of which we have been speaking, happened midway between two such barren epochs.

As I said just now, there is a certain reluctance to pay attention to this period in the development of philosophy—the 13th and 14th centuries;—it is not seen clearly and accurately for what it is. Yet if one has a feeling for the evolution of the life of knowledge in mankind, one is aware that to this day our philosophic history is influenced by the after-effects of what was stirring and rumbling in the life of mankind at that time. It showed itself in other domains of civilization too; it only came to expression most clearly and symptomatically in this phase of development of the life of thought and knowledge.

Now as you know, this phase of development—appearing about the middle of the Middle Ages—was an incisive one in European civilization. I have often spoken of it in anthroposophical lectures. It was an incision. Something was changed in the whole trend of human evolution. It had been beginning long before—in the 8th century B.C. We may describe it as a most intense development of human intellectuality.

Since then, in the life and civilization of mankind, we have been looking especially at the development of Ego-consciousness. All aberrations and all wisdom gained in the general life of humanity since that medieval time are really due to this Ego-development to the ever-growing elaboration of the consciousness of “I” in man. The consciousness of the ancient Greeks and even of the Latins (both the ancient Latins and their descendants, the Latin peoples of today) did not lay so much stress on the Ego. Even in language for the most part, in grammar and syntax, they do not pronounce the “I” so outspokenly, but still include it in the verb. The “I” is not yet so blatantly set forth. Take Aristotle and Plato, and above all the greatest philosopher of antiquity, Heraclitus. Throughout their work the Ego is not yet so prominent. The way in which they take hold of the world-phenomena with the intellectual reasoning principle is as yet rather more selfless. (Please do not over stress this, but in a relative sense the word ‘selfless’ may be used.) There is not yet so sharp a dissociation of the self from the world-phenomena as there tends to be in the new age—the Age of Consciousness in which we are now living.

Going still farther back—beyond the 8th century B.C.—we come into the Egyptian and Chaldean Age as I have called it (you will find the details in my “Occult Science”). Once again, the condition of the human soul was different. During this age—which like the others, lasted for over 2,000 years—man was not yet relating external phenomena to one-another by intellectual reasoning at all. He apprehended the world—the Heavens too—rather in feeling and direct sensation. It is mistaken and fruitless to approach what is still extent of the Astronomy of Egypt and Chalden with present-day intellectual judgments—the kind of judgment which we ourselves have inherited from the Graeco-Latin Age. We must achieve a certain metamorphoses or soul so as to enter into the quite different soul-condition then prevailing, where man took hold of the world in simple feeling and sensation (where the concept was not yet separated from the sensation).

Even in the realm of actual sensations or sense-impressions—as can be shown historically and philologically—they attached no great importance to the precise description of the blue and violet shades of color, whereas (they had a very keen sensation of the red and yellow regions of the spectrum. Indeed the sensation of the dark colors can be seen to have arisen simultaneously with the capacity for intellectual concepts.

The Egypto-Chaldean Age—from 747 B.C. about 2160 years into the past,—takes us to the beginning of the third millennium BC. Still earlier, say in the fourth or fifth millennium BC, we come into an age when man's whole outlook and mode of perception were so different from ours today that it is hard for us, without recourse to spiritual-scientific methods, to transplant ourselves at all into the way in which the man of that time was the world around him. It was not only a feeling and sensing,—it was a living with the outer happenings, being right in them. Man felt himself a part and member of all Nature around him, much as my arm, if it were conscious, would feel itself a member of my body.

Here therefore was an altogether different trend and quality in man's relation to the world. And if we go still farther back, we find this union of man with the surround world even more enhanced. In those very early times, civilizations were only able to develop where special geographical conditions made it possible. I mean the time described in my Occult Science as the Ancient Indian civilization—much earlier than the culture of the Vedas, which was but a later echo of it. The Ancient Indian epoch comes very near to the time when glacial conditions prevailed in our regions of the Earth. A culture like the Ancient Indian could only develop when such climatic conditions, more or less, as we enjoy in the Temperate zone today, extended to what is now the Equator. You can deduce it simply from the relative advance or retreat of the ice; tropical conditions did not come about in India until a must later time, when in more northerly regions the ice had receded.

We see therefore how the inner evolution of mankind undergoes modifications hand in hand with changing terrestrial conditions—changing conditions, that is to say, on the Earth's surface. Only those who take a very short-term view of mankind's evolution upon Earth will imagine that the scientific ideas we entertain today have any absolute validity—that we have now at last got through to the scientific truth, so to speak. To anyone who looks more deeply into these regions of the Earth which are today enjoying certain forms of cultural and spiritual life will at some future time inevitably be laid waste again; they will be desolate once more. From the past length of time you may reckon out how long ahead it will be till a new glacial age overtakes our present civilization. Moreover assuming that we can find some connection between the celestial phenomena and these facts of earthly evolution—the successive Ice-ages and the mid-point between them—this will lead on to a further insight. That which take place on Earth in the most highly sublimated realms of cultural life—in the life of thought and knowledge—will be related now not only to these changing conditions on the Earth itself, but to conditions in the outer Cosmos. Purely empirical reflection shows that man is what he is by virtue of conditions on the planet Earth and in the Universe beyond.

Once more then taking the facts empirically as is usual in Science, only with a somewhat wider range, our vision is extended until we recognize such a relationship as we have just been describing. Now in a sense, even in present time we can perceive how the quality and trend of human spiritual life is brought about by the relation between the Earth and the celestial bodies. In an earlier lecture it was pointed out how different the spiritual configuration of mankind tends to be in Equatorial and in Polar regions. Investigating this more closely, the different relation of the Earth to the Sun proves to be the determining factor. It makes man in the Polar regions less free of his bodily nature. Man in the Polar regions is less able to lift himself out of the bodily organism,—to pain free use and manipulation of his life of soul (As to the different mutual relations of Earth and Sun, there will be more in it than that, as we shall find in due course; but to begin with we can take our start from the conventional notions.)

We need only picture to ourselves how differently the men of Polar regions are taken hold of by something which in ourselves keeps more in the background. We of the Temperate zone have the quick alternation of day and night. Think how long this alternation becomes as you approach the Polar zone. It is as though the day were to lengthen out into a year. I told you of what works in the little child, deep in the bodily nature from year to year, from birth to the change of teeth, and of how the independent working of the life of soul, given up as it is to the quicker rhythm of the day, gradually frees and detaches itself from this more bodily working. This is not possible to the same extent in Polar regions. It is the yearly rhythm which will there tend to make itself felt. The emphasis is more on the bodily side. The human being will not wrest himself free to the same extent from what works within the body.

Think now of the scanty relics that have been preserved from the civilization of very early times,—that have survived the Ice Age. Then you will see that there were times in which a kind of ‘Polarization’ (giving the word its proper meaning in this context) extended right across the present Temperate zone, so that conditions were prevailing here not unlike those in the present Polar regions. You can use this comparison for what was working in the Ice Age; you can truly say: What is now pressed back towards the North Pole, extended then over a considerable part of the Earth. (Please keep this free of present-day explanations and ideas, for otherwise the pure phenomenon will be obscured. Take only the pure phenomenon as such.)

Conditions on the Earth today are such that we have the three types; the human beings of the Tropical, the Temperate and the Polar zones respectively. Of course they influence each other, so that in outer reality the phenomenon does not appear quite so purely. Nevertheless, what you here have in a spatial form—you find it again in time as you go backward. Going back in time, we come to a ‘North Pole’, as it were, in time—in the history of civilization. Going forward, we come to a Pole again. Remembering that the Polar influence on man is connected with the mutual relations between Earth and Sun. We must conceive that the change which has taken place since the Ice Age—the de-polarization, so to speak—is connected with a changed relation between Earth and Sun. Something must have happened as regards the mutual relation between Earth and Sun. What was it then? The facts themselves suggest the question. What is the source of this in the celestial spaces?

Consider it more nearly. Of course these things will be different in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, but the facts remain. We shall at most have to extend our picture, adapting it to the real facts. We can only take our start from the empirically given data. What is revealed then, if we approach the phenomena without preconceived ideas? The Earth and the events on Earth appear as an expression of cosmic happenings—cosmic happenings which manifest themselves in certain rhythms. Something that showed itself about the tenth millennium before the origin of Christianity, will show itself again about the eleventh millennium after. What is in between, will also in a sense be repeated. What we here have between the two Ice Ages, will undoubtedly have been there before—in former cycles. It is a rhythm; our attention is drawn to a rhythmic process.

And now look out into the celestial phenomena. To emphasize one fact especially, which I have often pointed to in my lectures, you have the following. (I will only characterize it roughly.) You know that the vernal point—where the Sun rises in spring-time gradually moves through the Ecliptic. Today the vernal point is in the constellation of Pisces; before, it was in Aries; still earlier in Tauraus,—that was the time of the cult of the Bull among the Egyptians and Chaldeans. Still earlier, it was in the constellation of Gemini, and then in Cancer; in Leo. This already brings us very nearly to the last Ice Age. Thinking it through to a conclusion, we know that the vernal point goes all the way round the Ecliptic, and that the time it takes is called the Platonic Year—the great Cosmic Year, lasting approximately 25,920 years.

A whole number of processes are comprised in these 25,920 years, involving among other things this rhythmic alternation on the Earth; Ice Age., intermediate period, Ice Age, intermediate period, and so on. At the time we spoke of, when there was that deep stirring of the spiritual life in mankind, the vernal point was entering the sign of Pisces. In the Graeco-Latin Age it had been in the sign of Aries, previous to that in Taurus, and so on. We get back to Leo or Virgo, more or less, during the time when glacial conditions prevailed over the greater part of Europe and in America too. Looking into the future, there will be another Ice Age in these regions when the vernal point reaches the sign of Scorpio. This rhythm is contained within what takes its course in 25,920 years. Although admittedly of vast extent, it is a true rhythm none the less.

Now as I have often mentioned, this rhythm is reminiscent—purely numerically—of another rhythm. If it is simply a question of rhythms and the rhythms are expressible in numbers, if the numbers are the same the rhythms too are the same. You know that the number of breaths man takes—in breathing and out breathing—is approximately 18 to the minute. Reckon out the number of breaths in a 24-hour day and you get the same number as before—25,920. Man therefore shows in his daily life the same periodicity, the same rhythm, as is revealed by the movement of the vernal point in the great Cosmic Year. Now it is in the day that man shows this rhythm. A day therefore, with respect to breathing, corresponds to the Platonic Year. The vernal point—connected as it is with the Sun—goes round apparently in 25,920 years. But there is also the apparent movement of the Sun through the 24 hour day, while man is taking 25,920 breaths. It is the same picture here as in the great Universe. If then there were a Being who breathed in and out once a year (a simple-minded hypothesis no doubt, but we will use it for comparison),—such a Being, if living long enough, would undergo in 25,920 years the same process as man does in a day. Man reproduces, as it were in miniature, what is manifested in the great cosmic process.

These things make little impression on the people of today, for they are not accustomed to look at the qualitative aspect of the world. Quantitatively, the mere rhythm appears less important. Therefore the scientists are out to find other relations between numbers than these that find expression in pure rhythms. They pay less heed to the latter: But in the epochs when man experienced more nearly the relation between himself and the Universe—when he felt himself more immersed in the phenomena of the Cosmos—these things made a deep impression on him. As we go back in the history of mankind—beyond the second or third millennium B.C.—we find great attention paid to the Platonic Year. I mentioned yesterday not to explain it, but by way of illustration—the ancient Indian Yoga system. Man entered deeply into a living inner experience of the breathing process, trying to make it conscious. In doing so there dawned upon him this relation between the rhythm that goes on in man—breathed, as it were, into man in a concentrated and contracted form—and the phenomena of the great Universe. Therefore he spoke of his own in- and out-breathing and of the mighty in- and out-breathing of Brahma, a single breath spanning an entire year, for which 25, 920 years are a day—a day of the Great Spirit.

I do not wish to make an unkind remark, my dear friends, but we do here begin to get some notion of the great distance which men at one time felt between themselves and the Spirit of the Macrocosm whom they revered. Man felt himself about as far beneath the Spirit of the Macrocosm as a day is beneath 25,920 years. It was indeed a great Spirit—a very great Spirit—whom man conceived in this way and whose relation to himself he experienced with due modesty. It would not be uninteresting to compare how great is the distance often felt by modern man between himself and his God. Does he not often conceive the Deity as little more than a slightly idealized human being?

This may not seem very relevant to our subject, but in fact it is. If we want to develop real means of knowledge in this sphere, we must find our way from what is merely calculable into quite other realms. Indeed our study of Kepler's Laws and all that followed from them showed how our very calculations, leading as they do to incommensurable numbers, impel us of their own accord into a realm beyond mere calculation.

Sechster Vortrag

[ 1 ] Sie werden aus den bisherigen Auseinandersetzungen, die hier gepflogen worden sind, ersehen haben, daß es darauf ankommt, einen Weg zu finden in die Erklärung der Naturerscheinungen, welcher hinausführt aus dem Verstandesmäßig-Mathematischen. Es soll selbstverständlich nicht — das geht aus dem ganzen Geiste der Auseinandersetzungen hervor — die Berechtigung des Mathematischen irgendwie angefochten werden, aber es handelt sich darum, daß wir ja scharf aufzeigen konnten den Punkt, wo es mit der Zugrundelegung der mathematischen Vorstellungen im Himmelsraum auf der einen Seite und gegenüber den embryologischen Tatsachen auf der anderen Seite nicht weitergeht. Wir müssen uns also einen Weg bahnen gewissermaßen zu Erkenntnismitteln. Es wird sich darum handeln, die Berechtigung gewisser Erkenntnismittel gerade durch diese Vorträge anschaulich zu machen. Ich werde versuchen, die Berechtigung davon zu zeigen, daß dasjenige, was sonst eigentlich nur durch den Augenschein und durch dasjenige, was erweiterter Augenschein ist, im Himmelsraum aufgesucht wird, auf einer breiteren Basis aufgesucht werden muß, so daß man gewissermaßen den ganzen Menschen zum Reagens macht für dasjenige, was man mit Bezug auf die Himmelserscheinungen erkunden will. Die Berechtigung davon werde ich heute zu zeigen oder wenigstens anzudeuten versuchen, indem ich von einer ganz anderen Seite her unser Problem ins Auge fasse, und zwar von einer Seite her, die manchem gerade gegenüber unserem Thema als außerordentlich paradox erscheinen wird. Aber die Gründe, warum man auch von diesem Ende aus sich unserem Problem nähern muß, die werden sich Ihnen ja ergeben.

[ 2 ] Wenn wir die Entwickelung der Menschheit auf der Erde betrachten, so muß sich eigentlich aus dieser Menschheitsentwickelung irgend etwas ergeben, was uns auf die Genesis der Himmelserscheinungen hinweist, Wir müßten ja sonst, was ja gewiß nicht der Fall ist, annehmen, daß die außertellurischen Vorgänge auf den Menschen beziehungsweise auf die Menschheitsentwickelung keinen Einfluß haben. Das wird ja niemand annehmen, obwohl der eine diesen Einfluß überschätzt, der andere ihn unterschätzt. So mag es schon berechtigt erscheinen, zunächst wenigstens methodisch berechtigt erscheinen, wenn wir uns fragen: Was zeigt sich in der Entwickelung der Menschheit selber, das uns dann irgendwie hinweisen könnte auf Wege, die uns in die Himmelsräume hinausführen? Nun wollen wir keine geisteswissenschaftlichen Tatsachen zunächst ins Auge fassen, sondern diejenigen Tatsachen, die eigentlich ein jeder empirisch aus der Geschichte sich zusammentragen kann.

[ 3 ] Wenn wir zurückblicken in der Entwickelung der Menschheit auf dem Gebiete, wo sich die Gedanken der Menschen ausleben, wo sich das Erkenntnisvermögen auslebt, wo sich also gewissermaßen das Wechselverhältnis und die Beziehung zur Welt in dem sublimiertesten Sinne beim Menschen auslebt, da werden wir, wie Sie ja auch aus meinem Buche «Die Rätsel der Philosophie» entnehmen können, bis zu einem Umschwung zurückgeführt eigentlich zunächst nur um ein paar Jahrhunderte. Es wird von mir immer als einer der wichtigsten Zeitpunkte in der letzten Phase der Menschheitsentwickelung derjenige angegeben, der im 15. Jahrhundert liegt. Das ist natürlich nur eine approximative Bestimmung. Es ist eben gemeint das Zeitalter um die Mitte des Mittelalters. Und selbstverständlich fassen wir zunächst auch wiederum nur dasjenige ins Auge von dieser Menschheitsentwickelung, was sich innerhalb der zivilisierten Menschheit ergibt.

[ 4 ] Man betrachtet immer nicht genau genug, wie stark ausdrucksvoll der Umschwung ist, der in diesem Zeitalter in der Gedanken- und Erkenntnis-Entwickelung der Menschheit eingetreten ist. Es ist sogar eine Zeitlang eine rechte Abneigung gewesen namentlich unter den Philosophen und denjenigen, die ihnen in der Weltbetrachtung verwandt sind, gegen die Erfassung gerade desjenigen Zeitalters europäischer Zivilisationsentwickelung, das man nennen könnte das Zeitalter der Scholastik, in welchem bedeutsame Fragen an die Oberfläche des menschlichen Erkennens heraufgetrieben worden sind. Fragen, bei denen man fühlt, wenn man sie nur genau genug betrachtet, wie sie nicht etwa bloß aus der logischen Deduktion herausfließen, in die sie gewöhnlich eingekleidet werden im Mittelalter, sondern von denen man empfindet, daß sie aus tiefen menschlichen Untergründen hervorgehen. Man braucht sich nur zu erinnern an dasjenige, was dazumal eine gründlich tiefe Frage war der Menschheitserkenntnis, die Frage nach dem Realismus, dem Nominalismus. Oder man braucht sich nur zu erinnern, was in der Geistesentwickelung Europas das eigentlich bedeutet hat, daß solche Gottesbeweise, wie der sogenannte ontologische Gottesbeweis, heraufkamen, wo man aus dem Begriff heraus selber zu einem Beleg, einem Erhärten der Existenz Gottes kommen wollte. Man erinnere sich, was das eigentlich in der ganzen Entwickelung der menschlichen Erkenntnis bedeutet. Da wühlte etwas im innersten Untergrund der ganzen menschlichen Wesenheit. Das drückt sich nur aus im Vollbewußtsein durch jene Deduktionen, die da gepflogen wurden. Die Menschen werden in dieser Zeit gewissermaßen irre daran, ob die Begriffe, die Vorstellungen, die sie sich ausbilden, irgendwie, wenn sie in Worte gekleidet werden, etwas Reales darstellen, oder ob sie nur eine formale Zusammenfassung der äußeren, sinnlichen Tatbestände sind. Die Nominalisten sehen in den allgemeinen Begriffen, die sich der Mensch bildet, eine formale Zusammenfassung, die keine Bedeutung hat für die äußere Realität, sondern die den Menschen nur die Möglichkeit bieten soll sich zurechtzufinden, eine Orientierung zu haben in der verwirtenden äußeren Welt. Die Realisten dagegen - der Ausdruck wurde ja anders gebraucht dazumal als heute - behaupteten, in den allgemeinen Begriffen etwas Reales zu finden, etwas Reales, in dem sie leben, innerlich zu haben, nicht bloß Weltzusammenfassungen oder abstrakte Schemen.

[ 5 ] Ich habe ja in den Vorträgen, die ich sonst mehr populär gehalten habe, oftmals erwähnt, wie mein alter Freund Vincenz Knauer auf diese Fragen aufmerksam machte. Er war, ich möchte sagen, als ein Spätscholastiker - er hat das sicher selber nicht sein wollen, aber er war es wenigstens in erkenntnistheoretischen Fragen - durch und durch Realist und hat daher in seinem immerhin sehr interessanten Buche über «Die Hauptprobleme der Philosophie in ihrer Entwicklung und teilweisen Lösung von Thales bis Robert Hamerling» gesagt: Nun ja, da behaupten die Nominalisten, daß der Allgemeinbegriff «Lamm» nichts anderes sei als eine im menschlichen Geiste entstandene Zusammenfassung und der Begriff «Wolf» auch eine im menschlichen Geiste entstandene Zusammenfassung; daß also nur die Materie in verschiedener Weise verknüpft sei im Lamm und im Wolf. Diese fasse man einmal unter dem Schema des Lammes, ein andermal unter dem Schema des Wolfes zusammen. Und er meint, man solle nur einmal probieren, einen Wolf von aller sonstigen Nahrung abzuhalten und ihm nur Lämmer zu fressen zu geben, dann wird er zwar nach der nötigen Zeit ganz aus Lammesmaterie bestehen, aber er wird durchaus seine Wolfsnatur nicht aufgeben! Also diese Wolfsnatur, die durch den Allgemeinbegriff «Wolf» ausgedrückt wird, muß etwas Reales sein.

[ 6 ] Nun, daß der Gottesbeweis, den man den ontologischen nennt, überhaupt aufkommen konnte, das zeugt schon von einer durchgreifenden Bewegung innerhalb der menschlichen Natur. Denn im Grunde genommen hätte kurz vor dem Aufbringen dieses ontologischen Gottesbeweises dem Menschen innerhalb des europäischen Lebens gar nicht der Einfall kommen können, das Dasein Gottes beweisen zu wollen, sondern man nahm es als eine Selbstverständlichkeit an. Und erst als die Zeit herankam, wo diese Selbstverständlichkeit nicht mehr im Menschen lebte, verlangte man nach einem Beweise. Dasjenige, was als eine Selbstverständlichkeit in einem lebt, das will man nicht beweisen. Also, es war den Menschen etwas abhanden gekommen, was bis dahin als Selbstverständlichkeit in ihnen war und es war etwas in sie hineingekommen, was den Geist in eine ganz andere Bahn und zu ganz anderen Bedürfnissen brachte. Ich könnte noch vieles anführen, was Ihnen zeigen würde, wie gerade — cum grano salis sei es gesagt - auf der höchsten Stufe der Gedanken- und Erkenntnisentwickelung um diese Zeit des Mittelalters es in der menschlichen Natur wühlte.

[ 7 ] Nun, wenn man - was eben nicht abgeleugner werden kann einen Zusammenhang desjenigen, was in der Menschheit vorgeht, mit den aussertellurischen Erscheinungen, mit den Himmelserscheinungen annimmt, zunächst ganz im allgemeinen, das Speziellere wird uns dann schon zu beschäftigen haben, dann darf man fragen — zunächst nur fragen, denn wir wollen ganz vorsichtig vorgehen in unseren Auseinandersetzungen -: Wie stellt sich in die Erdenentwickelung, die uns dann vielleicht aus sich auch wiederum herausführen wird, dasjenige selber herein, was die Menschen dazumal (um die Mitte des Mittelalters) auf der Erde erlebt haben? Steht das irgendwie in der Erdenentwickelung an einem besonderen Punkte? Könnten wir auf etwas hinweisen, was uns gewissermaßen eine konkrete Bestimmung dieses Punktes der Menschheitsentwickelung zeigt? Nun, da können wir auf etwas hinweisen, was in der Tat tief einschneidet nun wiederum in demselben Gebiete, demselben Erdengebiete, wo sich dies, was ich jetzt in dem sublimiertesten geistigen Leben dargestellt habe, zugetragen hat. Wir sehen, daß gerade der Zeitpunkt, in dem die Menschheit so aufgewühlt wird, in der Mitte zwischen zwei End-Zeitpunkten drinnen liegt; zwischen zwei Zeitpunkten, in denen innerhalb des Gebietes, wo dieses Wühlen stattgefunden hat, also innerhalb jener europäischen Gebiete, wo dieses besondere Ausleben der Zivilisation stattgefunden hat, ganz gewiß eine besonders intensive Betätigung des Menschengeschlechtes nicht hat stattfinden können. Wenn wir von diesem Zeitpunkte, den ich als A bezeichnen will (Figur), ebensoweit nach einer ziemlich fernen Zukunft vorwärts- und nach einer ziemlich fernen Vergangenheit rückwärtsgehen, dann finden wir Zeitpunke, in denen es da, wo gerade dieses Wühlen stattfand im 13., 14., 15. Jahrhundert, eine gewisse Ödigkeit, einen Tod der Zivilisation gab. Denn da finden wir, wenn wir etwa 10000 Jahre vorwärtsgehen und 10000 Jahre zurückgehen von diesem Zeitpunkt, die größtmögliche Ausbildung der Eiszeiten in diesen Gegenden, jener Eiszeiten, welche ganz gewiß eine besondere menschliche Entwickelung nicht aufkommen lassen.

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[ 8 ] Wir haben also, wenn wir so die Entwickelung dieses Gebietes von Europa überblicken, im 10. Jahrtausend vor der christlichen Zeitrechnung eine eiszeitliche Verödung in der Kultur, und werden sie wieder haben etwa 10000 Jahre nach diesem Zeitpunkte. Mitten darinnen, also zwischen zwei Verödungen in der menschlichen Entwickelung, liegt dieses Wühlen. Und wer einen Sinn hat für die Betrachtung der menschlichen Erkenntnisentwickelung, der weiß, wie sehr, trotzdem wir eine Abneigung haben, gerade dieses Gebiet der philosophischen Entwickelung, das im 13., 14. Jahrhundert liegt, zu betrachten - die Leute betrachten es eben noch nicht genau - im Grunde genommen die philosophische Entwickelung durchaus noch immer unter der Nachwirkung desjenigen steht, was da in der Menschheit gewühlt hat, was sich auch auf anderen Gebieten der menschlichen Zivilisation geltend gemacht hat, was sich aber insbesondere symptomatisch klar in dieser Entwickelungsphase der Erkenntnis zeigt.

[ 9 ] Nun ist diese Entwickelungsphase, die sich uns da zeigt in der Mitte des Mittelalters, ja eine einschneidende in der europäischen Zivilisation, wie Sie wissen. Ich habe das ja öfter in den anthroposophischen Vorträgen auseinandergesetzt. Es ist ein Einschnitt. Es ändert sich da etwas in dem ganzen Duktus der Menschheitsentwickelung, was eigentlich schon begonnen hat im 8. vorchristlichen Jahrhundert und was man nennen kann die intensivste Entwickelung der menschlichen Verständigkeit. Was wir seither in der Menschheitskultur ausbilden, das ist die besondere Entwickelung des Ich-Bewußtseins. Alle Verirrungen und alle Weistümer, die wir seit dieser Zeit des Mittelalters uns erobert haben als allgemeine Menschheit, beruhen eigentlich auf dieser Ich-Entwickelung, auf dem immer stärkeren Herausarbeiten des Ich-Bewußtseins im Menschen, während das griechische Bewußtsein, auch das Bewußtsein der Lateiner das zeigen sowohl die Lateiner des eigentlichen lateinischen Zeitalters wie ihre Nachkommen, die heutigen romanischen Völker noch nicht das entsprechende Gewicht gelegt haben auf die IchEntwickelung. Zum großen Teil bedienen sie sich sogar in der Sprache, im Satzbau, nicht des deutlichen Aussprechens des Ich, sondern sie legen das eben in das Verb hinein. Es ist noch nicht das Ich so scharf herausgekehrt. Nehmen Sie Aristoteles, Plato, besonders den größten Philosophen des Altertums, Heraklit. Sie finden überall, daß da nicht das Hervorheben des Ich ist, sondern ein noch mehr oder weniger selbstloses - ich bitte den Ausdruck durchaus nicht zu pressen, aber man kann ihn anwenden, relativ - Ergreifen der Welterscheinungen mit dem verständigen Prinzip, ohne daß man sich in einer so scharfen Weise selber heraushebt aus den Welterscheinungen, wie das angestrebt wird im neuen Zeitalter, in dem Bewußtseinszeitalter, in dem wir jetzt leben.

[ 10 ] Dann kommen wir zurück, wenn wir hinter das 8. vorchristliche Jahrhundert gehen, in das Zeitalter hinein, das ich genannt habe das ägyptisch-chaldäische Zeitalter - Sie finden alles Nähere darüber in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft», in dem es nun wiederum eine ganz andere Seelenverfassung gab. Dieses Zeitalter, das ja natürlich auch, wie das andere, mehr als zwei Jahrtausende gedauert hat, es zeigt uns den Menschen so, daß er noch nicht in verstandesmäßiger Weise die äußeren Erscheinungen verknüpft, sondern bis in die Himmelsrichtung hinein empfindungsmäßig die Welt erfaßt. Es ist ganz falsch und zu keinem Resultat führend, wenn man das, was erhalten ist in der ägyptischen, in der chaldäischen Astronomie, decken will mit jenen Verstandesurteilen, die wir selber haben, die wir noch als eine Erbschaft aus der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit haben. Es ist schon notwendig, daß man da etwas das Seelische metamorphosiert innerlich, daß man sich hineinversetzt in diese ganz andere Seelenverfassung, wo der Mensch noch durchaus die Welt nur in der Empfindung auffaßte; wo sich der Begriff noch nicht lossonderte von der Empfindung; wo es zum Beispiel so war, daß der Mensch auch in der Sinnesempfindung keinen besonderen Wert legte - das läßt sich auch noch geschichtlich-philologisch nachweisen - auf die sprachliche Nuancierung der blauen oder violetten Farbe, während er eine sehr scharfe Empfindung hatte für den roten und gelben Teil des Spektrums. Wir sehen geradezu, wie mit dem Heraufkommen der Empfindung für die dunkeln Farben zu gleicher Zeit das verstandesmäßige Begriffsvermögen heraufkommt. Dieses Zeitalter geht nun zurück bis ins 3. Jahrtausend etwa, also von 747 - es sind etwa 2160 Jahre - bis in den Beginn des 4. Jahrtausends. Dann kommen wir weiter zurück zu dem Zeitalter, in dem die Anschauungsweise der Menschen von der gegenwärtigen schon so verschieden war, daß wir es außerordentlich schwierig haben, ohne Zuhilfenahme von geisteswissenschaftlichen Methoden uns überhaupt zu versetzen in die Art und Weise, wie im 4. Jahrtausend oder 5. Jahrtausend die Menschheit die Welt um sich herum eigentlich anschaute. Das war nicht ein Empfinden allein, sondern das war ein Miterleben der äußeren Ereignisse, ein Drinnenstecken in den äußeren Ereignissen. Es war etwas, wo der Mensch sich noch so als ein Glied der ganzen äußeren Natur fühlte, wie etwa mein Arm sich fühlen würde als ein Glied meines Organismus, wenn er ein Bewußtsein hätte.

[ 11 ] Also, wir kommen da zu einem ganz anderen inneren Duktus in der Stellung des Menschen zur Welt. Und gar wenn wir in noch frühere Zeiten zurückgehen, ist noch eine Erhöhung des Verwachsenseins des Menschen mit seiner Umgebung da. Da kommen wir aber zurück in Zeiten, welche Kulturen nur da entwickeln können, wo ganz besondere Erdverhältnisse dies möglich machen; in jene Zeit, die ich in der «Geheimwissenschaft» geschildert habe als die urindische Kultur, die der Vedenkultur vorangeht, von der die Vedenkultur nur ein letzter Nachklang ist. Wir kommen zurück in ein Zeitalter, das sich durchaus nähert in merkwürdiger Weise dem Zeitalter, wo unsere Gegenden vereist sind. Wir nähern uns da jenem Entwickelungsalter in der Menschheitsentwickelung, welches eben eine Kultur, die so war wie die urindische Kultur, nur dort entwickeln konnte, wo dasjenige, was wir jetzt erleben mehr oder weniger in den gemäßigten Zonen, eigentlich bis gegen den heutigen Äquator hin vorhanden war. Denn das Tropenmäßige - das ergibt sich einfach aus der Betrachtung des Vorschreitens und Rückgehens des Eises - ist in Indien ja erst später eingetreten, als die Vereisung der nördlichen Welt wiederum zurückgegangen war.

[ 12 ] Wir sehen also, wie die Entwickelung der Menschheit in einer gewissen Weise sich modifiziert, indem sich die Verhältnisse auf der Erde, auf der Erdoberfläche in der angedeuteten Weise modifizieren. Nur derjenige, der sozusagen sehr kurzfristig die Menschheitsentwickelung der Erde ansieht, kann glauben, daß unsere gegenwärtigen Vorstellungen, wie wir sie uns machen in den verschiedensten Wissenschaften, nun irgend etwas Absolutes darstellen, was wir uns endlich errungen haben. Derjenige jedoch, der einen tieferen Blick tut in die Umwandlung, in das Metamorphosenhafte der menschlichen Geistesentwickelung, wird ohne weiteres erkennen, wie dieses Metamorphosieren fortschreiten wird und wie gewisse Gegenden der Erde, die heute eine gewisse Konfiguration ihres Geisteslebens haben, zusteuern wiederum einer Art von Verödung, die vor uns liegt. Und Sie können sich ja, wenn Sie die Zahl nehmen, die nach rückwärts weist, ausrechnen, wie das in der Zukunft kommen wird, wenn eine neue Eisperiode über diese Zivilisation hereinbricht. Aber Sie schen daraus auch, daß wir, wenigstens zunächst unter der Voraussetzung, daß wit vielleicht herausfinden können irgendeinen Zusammenhang der Himmelserscheinungen mit den Tatsachen, die da vorliegen in der Erdenentwickelung bei einer Eiszeit und bei dem, was in der Mitte liegt, dann auch haben werden dasjenige, was auf der Erde in dem feinsten Gebiete des Zivilisationslebens, dem Erkenntnisleben sich ergibt. Das haben wir sogar zu beziehen auf die Verhältnisse auf der Erde. Wir können sagen: Es weist uns dann die rein empirische Betrachtungsweise darauf hin, wie der Mensch dasjenige, was et ist, nicht bloß durch die Erdenverhältnisse ist, sondern durch außerirdische Verhältnisse.

[ 13 ] Wenn wir also in einer ganz empirischen Art einfach die Tatsachen nehmen - sie werden ja sonst in der Wissenschaft auch so genommen, nur dehnt man sich nicht aus über solch weite Territorien -, so erweitert sich der Blick selber zu einem solchen Zusammenhang, wie wir ihn charakterisiert haben. Nun können wir ja in einer gewissen Weise heute noch sehen, wie ein Zusammenhang der Verhältnisse zwischen der Erde und den außerirdischen Himmelskörpern eine gewisse Geistesart der Menschen bewirkt. Wir haben das schon auseinandergesetzt in diesen Vorträgen, haben darauf hingewiesen, wie in der Äquatorialzone auch heute eine andere Geisteskonfiguration vorhanden ist als in den polarischen Gegenden. Und wenn man nachforscht, was da eigentlich tätig ist, findet man heraus: die besondere Stellung der Erde zur Sonne. Sie bedingt - vielleicht ist etwas anderes noch darin, das werden wir schon finden, aber nehmen wir jetzt einmal diejenigen Dinge, deren wir uns bedienen können nach gebräuchlichen Vorstellungen -, sie bedingt, daß einfach in der Polarzone der Mensch weniger frei wird von seinem Organismus. Der Mensch kommt aus seinem Organismus weniger heraus zu einer freien Handhabung des Seelenlebens.

[ 14 ] Wir brauchen uns nur ein Bild davon zu machen, wie anders die Menschen in der Polarzone ergriffen werden von demjenigen, was bei uns nur im Hintergrund steht. Bei uns Menschen der gemäßigten Zone haben wir einen kurzfristigen Wechsel zwischen Tag und Nacht. Bedenken Sie, wie lang dieser Wechsel, wie lang Tag und Nacht eigentlich werden, je mehr man sich der Polarzone nähert. Der Tag dehnt sich sozusagen aus zum Jahr. Ich habe Ihnen geschildert dasjenige, was von der Geburt bis zum Zahnwechsel beim Kinde wirkt von Jahr zu Jahr, dieses Wirken in der Organisation. Aus dem reißt sich heraus das selbständige Wirken des Seelischen, das dem kurzfristigen Tag hingegeben ist. Das kann da im Polarischen nicht so wirken. Da wird mehr dasjenige sich geltend machen, was gegen das Jahr hingeht. Es wird mehr an der menschlichen Organisation gearbeitet. Der Mensch wird nicht so herausgerissen aus dem Arbeiten in der Organisation.

[ 15 ] Und wenn Sie jetzt nehmen die spärlichen Überreste, die von der Kultur aus früheren Zeiten über die Eiszeit herübergerettet worden sind, wenn Sie dasjenige nehmen, was da war, so werden Sie sehen: Es waren ganz gewiß Zeiten da, in denen eine - bitte nehmen Sie den Ausdruck nur im richtigen Sinn - «Polarisierung» über die heutige gemäßigte Zone sich verbreitete, in denen so etwas stattfinden mußte, wie es stattfindet in den heutigen Polargegenden. Da dehnte sich einfach über einen großen Teil der Erde dasjenige aus, was nun zurückgedrängt ist nach dem Nordpol zu.

[ 16 ] Ich bitte davon ganz loszulösen, was an heutigen Vorstellungen zur Erklärung da ist, sonst kommt man nicht zum reinen Phänomen, sondern nehmen Sie nur das reine Phänomen als solches. Heute ist es auf der Erde so, daß wir gewissermaßen haben die Menschen der tropischen Zone, die Menschen der gemäßigten Zone, die Menschen der Polarzone. Natürlich beeinflussen sie sich gegenseitig, so daß in der äußeren Wirklichkeit das Phänomen sich nicht so ganz rein darstellt. Was wir aber da räumlich haben, wir finden es, indem wir zurückgehen, zeitlich. Wir kommen gewissermaßen zum Nordpol der Zivilisationsentwickelung, indem wir zurückgehen in der Zeit, und wir haben wiederum einen anderen Pol, indem wir in der Zeit vorschreiten. Und wenn man sich vorstellt, daß dasjenige, was als polarischer Einfluß auf den Menschen sich äußert, zusammenhängt mit den Wechselverhältnissen von Erde zu Sonne, dann muß man sich vorstellen, daß diese Änderung, die sich da vollzogen hat, dieses Entpolarisieren, zusammenhängt mit einer Veränderung, die geschehen sein muß im Wechselverhältnis von Erde zu Sonne. Und es springt für uns die Frage heraus aus den Tatsachen: Was ist denn da geschehen? Auf was in der Genesis des Himmelsraumes weist uns denn dieses eigentlich hin?

[ 17 ] Betrachten wir die Sache einmal näher. Natürlich sind diese Verhältnisse für die nördliche und südliche Halbkugel der Erde anders, aber das tut ja nichts zur Sache. Das wird uns höchstens dazu bringen, entsprechende Bilder zu schaffen für dasjenige, was reale Vorgänge sind. Aber wir müssen zunächst von den empirischen Tatsachen ausgehen. Und was enthüllt sich uns denn da, wenn wir ohne Hypothese, ohne irgendwelche vorgefaßte Meinung an die Erscheinungen einfach herangehen? Was enthüllt sich uns da? Da müssen wir sagen: Die Erde und die Geschehnisse auf der Erde sind ein Ausdruck für Weltenverhältnisse, die in gewissen Rhythmen offenbar werden. Denn eine Erscheinung, die etwa im 10, Jahrtausend vor der Entstehung des Christentums da war, die wiederholt sich etwa im 11. Jahrtausend nach der Entstehung des Christentums. Und dasjenige, was dazwischen ist, es muß sich auch in einer gewissen Weise wiederholen. Das, was hier (zwischen den beiden Eiszeitperioden) dazwischen ist, war gewiß auch vorher vorhanden. Wir haben da einen Rhythmus. Wir werden da auf einen rhythmischen Gang hingewiesen.

[ 18 ] Nun, wenn Sie jetzt den Blick hinauswenden zu den Himmelserscheinungen und eine Tatsache besonders herausheben, die ich in meinen Vorträgen schon öfter hervorgehoben habe, werden Sie folgendes finden können. Wir wissen ja — ich will die Sache nur ganz skizzenhaft charakterisieren -, daß der Frühlingspunkt, der Sonnenaufgangspunkt im Frühling, in der Ekliptik fortrückt. Wir wissen ja auch, daß dieser Frühlingspunkt heute im Sternbild der Fische liegt, vorher im Sternbild des Widders gelegen hat, vorher im Sternbild des Stieres - das war die Zeit, in der besonders der Stierdienst bei den Ägyptern und Chaldäern gepflegt wurde -, vorher war er im Sternbild der Zwillinge, vorher im Sternbild des Krebses, des Löwen. Da kommen wir aber schon zurück in die Zeiten, die beinahe die sind der Eiszeitentwickelung. Und wenn wir uns dasjenige, was da vorliegt, zu Ende vorstellen, so müssen wir sagen, dieser Frühlingspunkt rückt in der ganzen Bahn der Ekliptik herum. Wir wissen ja, daß wir das das platonische Jahr nennen, das große Weltenjahr. Und wir wissen, daß es approximativ eine Länge hat von 25920 Jahren, so daß wir sagen können, diese 25 920 Jahre, die umschließen eine Summe von Vorgängen. Diese Vorgänge sind so, daß sich innerhalb dieser auf der Erde eine rhythmische Bewegung von Eiszeit, mittlerer Zeit, Eiszeit, mittlerer Zeit zeigt. Wir sehen, daß eintritt in der Zeit, in der die Menschheit geistig durchwühlt wird, der Frühlingspunkt in das Zeichen der Fische. In der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit war er im Zeichen des Widders, vorher im Zeichen des Stieres und so weiter. Wir kommen ungefähr zum Löwen, respektive zut Jungfrau zurück in derjenigen Zeit, in der es gerade in unseren Gegenden und weit über Europa hin, auch über Amerika, eisig wird. Und wir werden den Frühlingspunkt zu suchen haben im Zeichen des Skorpions, wenn wir wiederum in diesen Gegenden Eiszeit haben werden. Da umschließt also dasjenige, was in 25920 Jahren sich abwickelt, etwas Rhythmisches; etwas Rhythmisches, das allerdings ein weit Ausgedehntes ist.

[ 19 ] Aber dieser Rhythmus erinnert, wie ich ja auch schon öfter erwähnt habe, an einen anderen Rhythmus, rein als Zahlenchythmus. Wir wollen ja auch nicht mehr hineinlegen. Aber wenn es sich um einen Rhythmus handelt und wenn man das zahlenmäßig ausdrückt und wenn die entsprechenden Zahlen die gleichen sind, so sind es gleiche Rhythmen, mit denen man es zu tun hat. Sie wissen, daß die Zahl der Atemzüge eines Menschen - Einatmung und Ausatmung - approximativ etwa 18 in der Minute ist. Wenn Sie diese Zahl der Atemzüge für den Tag ausrechnen, dann bekommen Sie wiederum die gleiche Zahl 25920. Das heißt, der Mensch zeigt in seinem täglichen Leben dieselben Zeiten, denselben Rhythmus wenigstens, welche sich uns im großen Weltenjahr enthüllen durch das Herumgehen des Frühlingspunktes. Das ist im Tag, wo der Mensch diesen Rhythmus zeigt, 772 Tag! Der Tag entspricht also mit Bezug auf die Atmung diesem platonischen Jahr. Nun, der Frühlingspunkt, also etwas, was mit der Sonne zusammenhängt, geht scheinbar herum in 25920 Jahren. Aber das geht ja auch im Tag herum. Das geht im Tag herum in 25920 menschlichen Atemzügen. Das ist dasselbe Bild wie draußen im Weltenall. Wenn es also natürlich, so etwas ist eine törichte Hypothese, die nur etwas klarmachen will - ein Wesen gäbe, welches jedes Jahr einmal aus- und einatmete, so würde es, wenn es so lange lebte, in 25920 Jahren denselben Prozeß durchmachen, wie der Mensch in einem Tag. Jedenfalls sehen wir, wie da der Mensch gewissermaßen im Kleinen nachbildet dasjenige, was in einer anderen Form im großen Weltenprozeß sich darstellt.

[ 20 ] Diese Dinge machen heute auf den Menschen einen sehr geringen Eindruck, weil er nicht gewöhnt ist, nach dem Qualitativen die Welt zu betrachten. Und in bezug auf das Quantitative spielen diese Dinge, die nur Rhythmen ausdrücken, keine so große Rolle. Da will man andere Beziehungen zwischen den Zahlen haben als solche, die in Rhythmen sich ausleben. Daher beachtet man diese Dinge heute weniger. In einer Zeit aber, in welcher man mehr empfunden hat den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit dem Weltenall, in welchem man überhaupt als Mensch sich mehr drinnen fühlte in den Welterscheinungen, da empfand man das stark. Und deshalb finden wir, indem wir zurückgehen in der Menschheitsentwickelung, wenn wir hinter das 2., 3. Jahrtausend zurückkommen, überall ein starkes Hinschauen auf dieses platonische Jahr. Und in dem, was ich auch gestern erläuternd - nicht etwa erklärend, aber erläuternd - heranzog, im indischen Jogasystem, wo der Mensch sich hineinlebte ins Atmen, wo er versuchte, den Atmungsprozeß bewußt zu machen, da ging ihm auch dieses Verhältnis auf zwischen dem, was da im Menschen als Rhythmus sich abspielt, was er zusammengedrängt innerlich eratmet, und den großen Welterscheinungen. Daher sprach er von seinem Ein- und Ausatmen und von dem großen Ein- und Ausatmen des Brahma, das ein Jahr umfaßt und für das 25920 Jahre ein Tag sind, ein Tag des großen Geistes.

[ 21 ] Ja, ich möchte nicht eine boshafte Bemerkung machen, aber in einer gewissen Weise bekommt man doch Respekt vor diesem Abstand, den einmal die Menschen da fühlten zwischen sich und dem Geiste des Makrokosmos, den sie verehrten. Denn ungefähr das stellte sich einmal der Mensch vor, daß er so weit unter dem Geiste des Makrokosmos stehe, wie ein Tag unter 25920 Jahren. Das ist schon ein sehr großer Geist, den sich da der Mensch vorstellte. Und das Verhältnis zu ihm, das stellte sich der Mensch wahrhaftig recht bescheiden vor. Und es würde immerhin nicht uninteressant sein, damit zu vergleichen, wie groß der wirklich innerlich erfaßte Abstand des modernen Menschen vielfach ist von seinem Gotte, wie dieser moderne Mensch sehr häufig in dem Gotte nichts anderes hat als einen ein wenig idealisierten Menschen.

[ 22 ] Nun, nur scheinbar gehört das nicht in unser Thema hinein. Denn wenn wir zu wirklichen Erkenntnismitteln auf diesem Gebiet kommen wollen, müssen wir uns eben herausfinden aus bloß errechenbaren Gebieten in ganz andere hinein, weil uns ja die Betrachtung der Keplerschen Gesetze und ihrer Zusammenhänge selbst gezeigt hat, wie wir beim Rechnen in inkommensurable Zahlenansätze kommen und das Rechnen uns einfach über sich selbst hinausdrängt.

Sixth Lecture

[ 1 ] You will have seen from the discussions that have taken place here so far that it is important to find a way to explain natural phenomena that goes beyond the intellectual and mathematical. Of course, as is clear from the whole spirit of the discussions, the validity of mathematics is not to be challenged in any way, but the point is that we have been able to clearly show the point where, on the one hand, the use of mathematical mental images in the celestial sphere and, on the other hand, the embryological facts, lead us nowhere. We must therefore, as it were, forge a path to means of knowledge. The aim of these lectures will be to illustrate the validity of certain means of knowledge. I will attempt to show the justification for the fact that what is otherwise only sought in the heavens through visual observation and extended visual observation must be sought on a broader basis, so that, in a sense, the whole human being becomes the reagent for what one wants to explore in relation to celestial phenomena. I will try to show or at least hint at the justification for this today by looking at our problem from a completely different angle, one that may seem extremely paradoxical to some in relation to our topic. But the reasons why we must also approach our problem from this angle will become clear to you.

[ 2 ] If we consider the development of humanity on Earth, then something must actually result from this human development that points us to the genesis of celestial phenomena. Otherwise, we would have to assume, which is certainly not the case, that extraterrestrial events have no influence on humans or on human development. No one would assume this, although some overestimate this influence and others underestimate it. So it may seem justified, at least methodologically, to ask ourselves: What can we see in the development of humanity itself that could somehow point us toward paths that lead us out into the heavens? For now, let us not consider spiritual-scientific facts, but rather those facts that anyone can empirically gather from history.

[ 3 ] If we look back at the development of humanity in the realm where human thoughts are lived out, where the faculty of cognition is lived out, where, in a sense, the interrelationship and relationship to the world is lived out in the most sublime sense in human beings, we are led back, as you can also see from my book “The Riddles of Philosophy,” to a turning point only a few centuries ago. I always refer to the 15th century as one of the most important moments in the last phase of human development. This is, of course, only an approximate determination. It refers to the era around the middle of the Middle Ages. And, of course, we are initially only considering that part of human development which takes place within civilized humanity.

[ 4 ] People do not always consider carefully enough how significant the change was that occurred in the development of human thought and knowledge during this age. For a time, there was even a real aversion, especially among philosophers and those who shared their worldview, to understanding precisely that era of European civilizational development which could be called the age of scholasticism, in which significant questions were brought to the surface of human knowledge. Questions which, when considered closely enough, one senses do not merely flow from logical deduction, in which they are usually clothed in the Middle Ages, but which one feels arise from deep human foundations. One need only recall what was then a thoroughly profound question of human knowledge, the question of realism and nominalism. Or one need only remember what it actually meant in the spiritual development of Europe that such proofs of God, such as the so-called ontological proof of God, arose, where one wanted to arrive at a proof, a confirmation of the existence of God, from the concept itself. One should remember what this actually meant in the whole development of human knowledge. Something was stirring in the innermost depths of the whole human being. This is expressed in full consciousness only through those deductions that were made. During this period, people become somewhat confused as to whether the concepts and mental images they form, when clothed in words, represent something real, or whether they are merely a formal summary of external, sensory facts. Nominalists see in the general concepts that humans form a formal summary that has no meaning for external reality, but which is only intended to offer humans the opportunity to find their way around, to have orientation in the confusing external world. Realists, on the other hand—the term was used differently then than it is today—claimed to find something real in general concepts, something real in which they live, something internal, not merely summaries of the world or abstract schemata.

[ 5 ] In the lectures I have given, which were otherwise more popular in nature, I have often mentioned how my old friend Vincenz Knauer drew attention to these questions. He was, I would say, as a late scholastic—he certainly did not want to be one himself, but he was at least in epistemological questions—a realist through and through, and therefore said in his very interesting book on “The Main Problems of Philosophy in Their Development and Partial Solution from Thales to Robert Hamerling”: Well, the nominalists claim that the general concept of “lamb” is nothing more than a summary created in the human mind, and that the concept of “wolf” is also a summary created in the human mind; that, in other words, only matter is linked in different ways in the lamb and in the wolf. Sometimes this is summarized under the schema of the lamb, sometimes under the schema of the wolf. And he believes that one should only try to prevent a wolf from eating any other food and feed it only lambs, then after the necessary time it will consist entirely of lamb matter, but it will by no means give up its wolf nature! So this wolf nature, which is expressed by the general concept of “wolf,” must be something real.

[ 6 ] Well, the fact that the proof of God's existence, known as the ontological argument, could arise at all is evidence of a profound movement within human nature. For, basically, shortly before the introduction of this ontological proof of God's existence, it would not have occurred to people in European life to want to prove the existence of God; rather, it was taken for granted. And it was only when the time came when this matter of course no longer lived in people that they demanded proof. People do not want to prove something that lives in them as a matter of course. So, people had lost something that had been a matter of course in them until then, and something had entered them that took their minds in a completely different direction and led to completely different needs. I could cite many other examples that would show you how, cum grano salis, so to speak, at the highest level of thought and knowledge development around this time of the Middle Ages, human nature was in turmoil.

[ 7 ] Now, if one assumes — which cannot be denied — a connection between what is happening in humanity and the extra-terrestrial phenomena, the celestial phenomena, first in general terms, the more specific details will then occupy us, then one may ask — first only ask, because we want to proceed very cautiously in our discussions —: How does what people experienced on Earth at that time (around the middle of the Middle Ages) fit into the development of the Earth, which may then in turn lead us out of it? Does this occur at a particular point in Earth's development? Could we point to something that shows us, in a sense, a concrete definition of this point in human development? Well, we can point to something that indeed cuts deeply into the same area, the same area of the Earth, where what I have now described in the most sublime spiritual life took place. We see that the very moment when humanity is so agitated lies in the middle between two end points; between two points in time when, within the area where this agitation took place, that is, within those European areas where this particular expression of civilization took place, there certainly could not have been any particularly intense activity on the part of the human race. If we go forward from this point in time, which I will designate as A (figure), to a fairly distant future and backward to a fairly distant past, we find points in time when, where this turmoil took place in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, there was a certain desolation, a death of civilization. For if we move about 10,000 years forward and 10,000 years backward from this point in time, we find the greatest possible development of the ice ages in these regions, those ice ages which certainly did not allow for any particular human development.

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[ 8 ] So, when we look at the development of this area of Europe, we see an ice age desolation of culture in the 10th millennium BC, and we will see it again about 10,000 years after that point in time. In the middle of this, between two periods of desolation in human development, lies this turmoil. And anyone who has a sense for observing the development of human knowledge knows how much, despite our aversion, this area of philosophical development, which lies in the 13th and 14th century, people do not yet consider it closely — basically, philosophical development is still very much under the influence of what has been stirring in humanity, what has also made itself felt in other areas of human civilization, but which is particularly symptomatically clear in this phase of the development of knowledge.

[ 9 ] Now, this phase of development, which we see in the middle of the Middle Ages, is indeed a decisive one in European civilization, as you know. I have often discussed this in my anthroposophical lectures. It is a turning point. Something changes in the whole course of human development, something that actually began in the 8th century BC and can be called the most intensive development of human understanding. What we have been developing in human culture since then is the special development of ego consciousness. All the aberrations and all the wisdom that we have acquired as humanity in general since this time of the Middle Ages are actually based on this development of the ego, on the ever-stronger development of ego consciousness in human beings, whereas Greek consciousness, and also the consciousness of the Latins, as shown by both the Latins of the actual Latin age and their descendants, the Romance peoples of today, have not yet placed the corresponding emphasis on the development of the ego. For the most part, even in language and sentence structure, they do not make explicit use of the ego, but rather place it in the verb. The ego has not yet been brought out so sharply. Take Aristotle, Plato, and especially the greatest philosopher of antiquity, Heraclitus. You will find everywhere that there is no emphasis on the ego, but rather a more or less selfless—I ask you not to take the expression too literally, but it can be applied relatively grasping of world phenomena with the understanding principle, without distinguishing oneself so sharply from world phenomena, as is striven for in the new age, in the age of consciousness in which we now live.

[ 10 ] Then we come back, when we go beyond the 8th century BC, to the age that I have called the Egyptian-Chaldean age — you will find all the details about this in my “Occult Science,” in which there was now a completely different state of mind. This age, which of course, like the other, lasted more than two millennia, shows us human beings who do not yet connect external phenomena in an intellectual way, but rather perceive the world intuitively, even in terms of the cardinal directions. It is completely wrong and leads nowhere to try to reconcile what has been preserved in Egyptian and Chaldean astronomy with the intellectual judgments that we ourselves have, which we still have as a legacy from the Greco-Latin period. It is necessary to undergo a kind of inner metamorphosis of the soul, to put oneself in this completely different state of mind, where people still perceived the world solely through their senses; where the concept had not yet separated itself from the sensation; where, for example, it was the case that human beings did not attach any particular value – as can also be proven historically and philologically – to the linguistic nuance of the color blue or violet in their sensory perception, while they had a very keen perception of the red and yellow parts of the spectrum. We can see how, with the emergence of the perception of dark colors, the intellectual capacity for concepts also emerged. This era goes back to around the 3rd millennium, i.e., from 747—that is, about 2160 years—to the beginning of the 4th millennium. Then we go further back to the age in which people's way of seeing things was so different from the present that it is extremely difficult for us, without the aid of spiritual scientific methods, to even begin to imagine how humanity in the 4th or 5th millennium actually saw the world around them. This was not just a feeling, but a sharing in external events, a being inside external events. It was something where human beings still felt themselves to be a part of the whole of external nature, just as my arm would feel itself to be a part of my organism if it had consciousness.

[ 11 ] So we come to a completely different inner attitude in man's position to the world. And if we go back even further in time, there is an even greater fusion of man with his environment. But then we come back to times when cultures could only develop where very special earthly conditions made this possible; to the time I described in “Occult Science” as the ancient Indian culture that preceded the Vedic culture, of which the Vedic culture is only a final echo. We are returning to an age that is strangely similar to the age when our regions were frozen over. We are approaching that age in human development in which a culture such as the ancient Indian culture could only develop where what we now experience more or less in the temperate zones actually existed up to the present-day equator. For the tropical climate — which can be seen simply from observing the advance and retreat of the ice — did not arrive in India until later, when the glaciation of the northern world had receded again.

[ 12 ] We can therefore see how the development of humanity is modified in a certain way as conditions on Earth, on the Earth's surface, change in the manner indicated. Only those who view the development of humanity on Earth in the very short term, so to speak, can believe that our current mental images, as we conceive them in the various sciences, now represent something absolute that we have finally achieved. However, anyone who takes a deeper look at the transformation, at the metamorphosis of human spiritual development, will immediately recognize how this metamorphosis will progress and how certain regions of the earth, which today have a certain configuration of their spiritual life, are heading toward a kind of desolation that lies ahead of us. And if you take the number that points backwards, you can calculate how this will come about in the future when a new ice age descends upon this civilization. But you can also see from this that we, at least initially, assuming that we may be able to discover some connection between the celestial phenomena and the facts that are present in the Earth's development during an ice age and in what lies in between, we will also have what results on Earth in the finest realm of civilized life, the life of knowledge. We even have to relate this to the conditions on Earth. We can say: the purely empirical approach then points out to us how human beings are what they are, not only through earthly conditions, but also through extraterrestrial conditions.

[ 13 ] So if we simply take the facts in a completely empirical way—they are taken that way in science anyway, only one does not extend over such wide territories—then the view itself expands to such a connection as we have characterized. Now, in a certain way, we can still see today how a connection between the conditions on Earth and the extraterrestrial celestial bodies brings about a certain spirit in human beings. We have already discussed this in these lectures, pointing out how even today there is a different spiritual configuration in the equatorial zone than in the polar regions. And if we investigate what is actually at work here, we discover that it is the special position of the Earth in relation to the Sun. This causes – perhaps there is something else involved, which we will find out, but let us now take those things that we can use according to common mental images – this causes people in the polar regions to be less free from their organism. Human beings are less able to step out of their organism and freely control their soul life.

[ 14 ] We need only imagine how differently people in the polar zone are affected by what is only in the background for us. We humans in the temperate zone experience a short-term change between day and night. Consider how long this change, how long day and night actually become, the closer one gets to the polar zone. The day expands, so to speak, to a year. I have described to you what affects the child from birth to the change of teeth, year after year, this effect in the organization. From this emerges the independent activity of the soul, which is devoted to the short day. This cannot work in the same way in the polar regions. There, what goes against the year will assert itself more. More work is done on the human organization. Man is not so torn away from working in the organization.

[ 15 ] And if you now take the sparse remnants that have been preserved from the culture of earlier times through the Ice Age, if you take what was there, you will see: There were certainly times when a “polarization” – please take the term in the right sense – spread over today's temperate zone, when something like what is happening in today's polar regions had to take place. What has now been pushed back to the North Pole simply spread over a large part of the earth.

[ 16 ] I ask you to detach yourself completely from today's mental images about explanation, otherwise you will not arrive at the pure phenomenon, but take only the pure phenomenon as such. Today, on Earth, we have, so to speak, the people of the tropical zone, the people of the temperate zone, and the people of the polar zone. Of course, they influence each other, so that in external reality the phenomenon does not present itself in a completely pure form. But what we have there spatially, we find by going back in time. We come, as it were, to the North Pole of civilization's development by going back in time, and we have another pole by moving forward in time. And if we form the mental image that what manifests itself as a polar influence on human beings is connected with the interrelationship between the Earth and the Sun, then we must form the mental image that this change that has taken place, this depolarization, is connected with a change that must have occurred in the interrelationship between the Earth and the Sun. And the question that springs to mind from the facts is: What has happened there? What does this actually point to in the genesis of the heavenly space?

[ 17 ] Let us take a closer look at the matter. Of course, these conditions are different for the northern and southern hemispheres of the Earth, but that is irrelevant. At most, this will lead us to create corresponding images for what are real processes. But we must first start from the empirical facts. And what is revealed to us when we approach the phenomena without hypothesis, without any preconceived opinion? What is revealed to us there? We must say: the Earth and the events on Earth are an expression of world conditions that manifest themselves in certain rhythms. For a phenomenon that existed in the 10th millennium before the emergence of Christianity, for example, repeats itself in the 11th millennium after the emergence of Christianity. And what lies in between must also repeat itself in a certain way. What lies in between (the two ice ages) certainly existed before. We have a rhythm here. We are being pointed to a rhythmic process.

[ 18 ] Now, if you turn your gaze to the phenomena of the heavens and highlight one fact in particular, which I have often emphasized in my lectures, you will find the following. We know — I will only sketch the matter very briefly — that the vernal equinox, the point of sunrise in spring, is moving forward in the ecliptic. We also know that this vernal equinox is now located in the constellation of Pisces, previously in the constellation of Aries, and before that in the constellation of Taurus — that was the time when the service of Taurus was particularly cultivated by the Egyptians and Chaldeans — before that it was in the constellation of Gemini, and before that in the constellation of Cancer and Leo. But then we are already back in the times that are almost those of the Ice Age development. And if we form a mental image of what is there to the end, we must say that this vernal point moves around the entire orbit of the ecliptic. We know that we call this the Platonic year, the great world year. And we know that it has an approximate length of 25,920 years, so that we can say that these 25,920 years encompass a sum of events. These events are such that within them a rhythmic movement of ice age, middle age, ice age, middle age appears on Earth. We see that this occurs at a time when humanity is undergoing spiritual upheaval, the vernal equinox in the sign of Pisces. In Greek-Latin times it was in the sign of Aries, before that in the sign of Taurus, and so on. We return to Leo, or rather Virgo, at the time when it is becoming icy in our regions and far beyond Europe, even across America. And we will have to look for the vernal equinox in the sign of Scorpio when we have another ice age in these regions. So what unfolds in 25,920 years encompasses something rhythmic; something rhythmic that is, however, very extensive.

[ 19 ] But this rhythm, as I have often mentioned, is reminiscent of another rhythm, purely as a numerical rhythm. We don't want to read anything more into it than that. But if it is a rhythm, and if you express it numerically, and if the corresponding numbers are the same, then you are dealing with the same rhythms. You know that the number of breaths a person takes – inhalation and exhalation – is approximately 18 per minute. If you calculate this number of breaths for the day, you again get the same number, 25,920. This means that in their daily lives, humans exhibit the same times, at least the same rhythm, which are revealed to us in the great world year through the movement of the vernal equinox. This is in the day when humans exhibit this rhythm, 772 days! In terms of breathing, the day corresponds to this Platonic year. Now, the vernal equinox, something related to the sun, apparently revolves in 25,920 years. But it also revolves in a day. It revolves in a day in 25,920 human breaths. This is the same image as outside in the universe. So if, of course, this is a foolish hypothesis that only wants to make something clear – if there were a being that breathed in and out once a year, then if it lived that long, it would go through the same process in 25,920 years as humans do in one day. In any case, we see how humans, in a small way, replicate what is represented in a different form in the great world process.

[ 20 ] These things make very little impression on people today because they are not accustomed to looking at the world in terms of quality. And in relation to the quantitative, these things, which only express rhythms, do not play such a big role. People want to have different relationships between numbers than those that are expressed in rhythms. That is why these things are less noticed today. But in a time when people felt more strongly the connection between the human being and the universe, when people felt more involved in world events, this was felt very strongly. And that is why, when we go back in human development, when we go back beyond the 2nd and 3rd millennia, we find everywhere a strong focus on this Platonic year. And in what I also referred to yesterday in an explanatory way — not explaining, but explaining — in the Indian yoga system, where people immersed themselves in breathing, where they tried to make the breathing process conscious, they also realized the relationship between what takes place in the human being as rhythm, what they breathe inwardly in a compressed form, and the great world phenomena. That is why they spoke of their inhalation and exhalation and of the great inhalation and exhalation of Brahma, which encompasses a year and for which 25,920 years are one day, a day of the great spirit.

[ 21 ] Yes, I do not wish to make a malicious remark, but in a certain way one does feel respect for this distance that people once felt between themselves and the spirit of the macrocosm they worshipped. For humans once mentally imaged that they stood as far below the spirit of the macrocosm as one day stands below 25,920 years. That is a very great spirit that humans mentally imaged. And humans truly mentally imaged their relationship to it to be quite modest. And it would not be uninteresting to compare this with how great the distance is that modern humans often feel within themselves from their God, how these modern humans very often have nothing in God other than a slightly idealized human being.

[ 22 ] Well, only apparently does this not belong to our topic. For if we want to arrive at real means of knowledge in this field, we must find our way out of merely calculable areas into completely different ones, because the consideration of Kepler's laws and their interrelationships has shown us how, when calculating, we arrive at incommensurable numbers and how calculation simply pushes us beyond ourselves.