The Mystery of the Trinity
Part 2: The Mission of the Spirit
GA 214
22 August 1922, Oxford
II. The Cosmic Origin of the Human Form: The Need to Return to the Spiritual Life
Today we would like to look at some things that will bring together for a wider circle of anthroposophists many of the truths already known to us. Perhaps you are already familiar with the description I have given in my book Theosophy31Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man, (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986). I described there the worlds that the human being has to live through between death and a new birth. Today I will describe something of these worlds from a point of view somewhat different from the one given in that book.
For the most part in that book Imaginations are used for the soul and spiritual worlds through which a human being passes—after going through the gate of death—in order to develop and advance to a new life on earth. Today I will describe these things not so much from an Imaginative point of view, but rather from a point of view resulting more from Inspiration.
In order to acquire the possibility of understanding at all, we can begin with the experiences we have during earthly life. At any given point in time between birth and death we stand here in our physical body confronted with the outer world. What is contained within our skin, what is contained within our physical bodies, we call ourselves, our human being. We assume that this human being contains not only anatomical and physiological processes, but we also assume that somehow soul and spiritual processes are going on in there. We speak of “ourselves” and mean thereby what is contained within our skin. We look out into the world and see it around us; this we call our “outer world.” Now, we know that we make mental pictures of this outer world and then these mental pictures live within us. We have, then, the outer world around us and something like mirror images of the outer world within our soul life.
When we are in the life between death and a new birth we are in the very same world that is outside of us here on earth. All that you can see clearly, or only dimly sense, as an external world, becomes then your inner world. To all that you then say “my I.” Just as you now regard your lung as belonging to your I, so do you regard—in the life between death and a new birth—the sun and moon as your organs, as being in you. And the only outer world that you then have, is you yourself, as you are on the earth, that is, your earthly organs.
While on the earth we say: In us is a lung, in us is a heart; outside us is a sun, outside us is a moon, outside us is a zodiac. But during the life between death and a new birth we say: In us is a zodiac, in us is the sun, in us is the moon, outside us is a lung, outside us is a heart. Between death and a new birth everything we now carry within our skin becomes more and more our outer world, our universe, our cosmos. Our view of the relationship between world and man is exactly opposite when we are living between death and a new birth.
So it is that when we live through death, that is, when we go through the gate of death, we have, to begin with, a distinct picture of what was before, of how we were on earth. But it is only a picture. Yet you must think of this picture as having an effect on you like the outer world. At first you have this picture like a kind of appearance within you. In the first period after death, you still have a consciousness of what you were on earth as a human being—consciousness in the form of earthly memories and earthly pictures. These do not last long; in your view of the human being you advance more and more to the following: I is the world; the universe is the human being. This is more and more the case. But you must not imagine that the human lung, for instance, looks the same as it does now; that would not be a sight to compensate for the beauty of the sun and the moon. What the lung and heart will be then is something much greater, something much more wonderful than what the sun and moon are now to the human eye.
Only in this way do you really get an impression of what maya is. People speak of maya, that this present earthly world is a great illusion, but they do not really believe it. Deep down people still believe that everything is just as it appears to earthly eyes. But that is not the case. The human lung as we see it now is mere semblance; so is the heart. The truth is that our lung is only a magnificent part of our cosmos, our heart even more so. For in its true essence our heart is something much more majestic, something vastly greater than any sun.
We gradually begin to see a mighty cosmic world arising—a world in which we can say that below us are the heavens. What we actually mean is that below us is what is preparing the human head for the next incarnation. Above, we then say, is what was below. Everything is turned around. Above are all the forces that prepare man for his earthly life, so that in his next earth life he can stand and walk on two legs.
All this we can then sum up in these words: The closer we approach to a new life on earth, the more this universe that is the human being contracts for us. We become increasingly aware of how this majestic universe—it is most especially majestic in the middle period between death and a new birth—how this majestic universe, so to speak is shrinking and contracting, how, out of the weaving of the planets that we bear within us, something is created that then pulsates and surges through the human etheric body, how out of the fixed stars of the zodiac something is formed that builds our life of nerves and senses. This all shrinks together, it shapes itself to become first a spiritual and then an etheric body. And not until it has grown very, very small is it taken up into the mother's womb and clothed there with earthly matter.
Then comes the moment when we draw near to earthly life, when we feel the universe that was “ours” until recently vanishing from us. It shrinks together and becomes smaller. This experience begets in us the longing to come down again to earth and once more unite with a physical body. We long for the earth because this universe is withdrawing from our spiritual sight. We look to where we are becoming a human being.
However, we must reckon here with a very different scale of time. Life between death and rebirth lasts for many centuries. If a person is born in the twentieth century, his or her descent has been prepared for gradually, even as early as the sixteenth century. And the person himself has been working down into the earthly conditions and events.
A great, great ... grandfather of yours, way back in the sixteenth century, fell in love with a great, great ... grandmother. They felt the urge to come together, and there, in this urge, you were already working into the earthly world from spiritual worlds. And in the seventeenth century when a less distant great, great ... grandfather and great, great ... grandmother loved each other, you were, in a sense, once again the mediator. You summoned all these generations together so that finally those who could become your mother and father could emerge.
In the mysterious and indeterminate aspect of such earthly love relationships, forces are at work that proceed from human souls seeking future incarnations. Therefore full consciousness and complete freedom are never present in the external conditions that bring men and women together. These are things that still lie entirely outside the range of human understanding.
What we call history today is actually only something very external. Little is known to us in outer life today of the soul history of human beings. People today are completely unaware that the souls of human beings even in the twelfth or thirteenth century A.D. felt very differently than they do now. Not as distinctly as I have just described but in a more dreamlike way, the men and women in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries knew of these mysterious forces working down to earth from spiritual worlds, working down, in effect, from human souls. In the West little was said about repeated earthly lives, about reincarnation, but there were human beings everywhere who knew about it. Only the Churches always excluded or even anathematized all thoughts concerning repeated earth lives. But you should actually know that there were many people in Europe, even into the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who were aware that a human being passes through repeated lives on earth.
Then came the time during which humanity in the Western world had to develop through the stage of intellectuality. Man must gradually achieve freedom. There was no freedom in ancient times when dreamlike clairvoyance prevailed. Neither is there freedom—there is, at most, belief in freedom—in those affairs of human life, governed, shall we say, by earthly love such as I have just described. For here the interests of other souls on their way down to earth are always in play.
Yet within the course of earth evolution humankind must grow freer and freer. For only if mankind becomes freer and freer will the earth reach its evolutionary goal. For this to happen it was necessary that intellectuality reign in a certain age. The age in question is, of course, our own. For if you look back into earlier times and conditions upon earth when human beings still had a dreamlike clairvoyance, you will see that spiritual beings were always living in this dreamlike clairvoyance. A person at that time could never say, “I have my thoughts in my head.” That would have been quite false. In ancient times one had to say, “I have the life of angels in my head;” and then in later times one had to say “I have the life of the spirits of elemental beings in my head.” Then came the fifteenth century; and in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries we no longer have anything spiritual in our heads; only thoughts are in our heads—mere thoughts. By not having any higher spiritual life but only thoughts in our heads, we can make pictures of the outer world for ourselves. Through the fact that we no longer have any kind of higher spirituality within ourselves, but only thoughts, we are able to form pictures of the external world within ourselves.
Could human beings be free, so long as spirits were indwelling them? No, they could not. For spirits directed them in everything; everything was due to them. We could only become free when spiritual beings no longer directed us—when we had mere pictures, mere images, in our thoughts. Thought pictures cannot compel one to do anything. If you stand in front of a mirror the reflections of other people, no matter how angry they may be, will never be able to give you a box on the ears, never a real box on the ear because they have no reality; they are mere pictures. If I decide to do something, I can arrange for this to be reflected in a mirror but the reflection itself, the picture, cannot decide on anything.
In the age when intellectuality puts only thoughts into our heads, freedom can arise because thoughts have no power to compel. If we allow our moral impulses to be only pure thoughts—as described in my book, The Philosophy of Freedom—then we can achieve true freedom in our age.32Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (The Philosophy of Freedom), (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986). The intellectual age, therefore, had to arise.
Yet strange as it may sound, in essence the time is already past in which it was right for us to develop mere intellectuality, mere thinking in pictures. Along with the nineteenth century, that has become a thing of the past. If we now continue to develop mere thoughts as images then our thoughts will fall prey to Ahrimanic powers. The Ahrimanic powers will then find access to us and, having just reached our freedom, we will lose it—lose it to Ahrimanic powers. Humanity is confronted with this danger right now. Human beings today are faced with the choice: either to comprehend the spiritual life—to understand that the kinds of things I have described to you today are realities—or to deny this. But if we deny the spiritual today we will no longer be able to think freely. Rather Ahriman, Ahrimanic powers, will then begin to think in mankind. And then all humanity will undergo a downhill evolution.
Therefore, in the highest degree, it is necessary that an increasing number of human beings in our time understand the need to return to the spiritual life. This feeling that we must return to a spiritual life is what people today should seek to awaken within themselves. If they fail to seek this, humanity will fall prey to Ahriman. Seen from a higher standpoint, this is how serious the situation of humankind on earth is today. We should actually put this thought before all others. All other thoughts should be seen in the light of this one. This is what I wanted to present as the first part of today's lecture.
Descriptions such as these may help illustrate the fact that the life we go through in the spiritual world between death and new birth is entirely different from what we go through here between birth and death. Therefore, pictures taken from the earthly life, however brilliantly conceived, will always be inadequate to characterize the actual spiritual life of the human being. We can only slowly and gradually be led to an understanding of the kind of reality present in spiritual worlds. Let me give some examples.
Suppose a human being leaves his earthly body and, with his life of soul and spirit, enters the world of soul and spirit. And let us suppose that someone here on earth, who has achieved initiation knowledge in the deeper sense, is able to observe human souls in their continued life after death. Much preparation is necessary for this to happen; also necessary is a certain karma that connects the human being upon earth with the one on the other side. What is of importance is that we find some means of mutual understanding with the deceased. I am speaking to you here of spiritual experiences that are extraordinarily difficult to achieve. In general it is easier to describe the world spiritually than to approach a departed soul. People like to believe that it is not so difficult to approach a deceased person. But it is actually far more difficult to really come close to the dead than to achieve spiritual knowledge in general.
I would like now to relate some features characteristic of communication with the dead. To begin with, it is only possible to communicate with them by entertaining memories of the physical world that can still live within them. For example, the dead still have an echo of human speech, even of the particular language that they spoke most of the time while on earth. But their relationship to language undergoes a change. So, for example, when conversing with a soul who has died, we soon notice they have no understanding, not the least, for nouns. The living can address such words to a dead person; a dead person, if I may use the term, simply does not hear them. On the other hand the dead retain an understanding for all verbs, words expressing action, for a relatively long time after death.
As a general rule you will only be able to converse with a deceased person if you know the right way to put your questions to him. With these questions you must sometimes proceed as follows. One day you try to live with him in something concrete and real, for he has pictures in his soul rather than abstract thoughts. Therefore you must concentrate on some real, concrete experience which he very much enjoyed during earthly life; then you will gradually get near him.
As a rule you will not get an immediate answer. Often you will have to sleep on it, perhaps for several days, before you get the answer. But you will never get an answer from the dead if the question is posed in nouns. You must try to clothe all nouns in verbal form. Such preparation is absolutely necessary. What the deceased understands most readily are verbs made as pictorial and vivid as possible. The deceased will never understand for example, the word “table,” but if you manage to imagine vividly what is happening when a table is being made, which is a process of becoming rather than a finished thing, then you will gradually become intelligible to him. He will understand your question and you will get an answer. But the answers too will always be in verbal form, or often they will not even be in verbal form; they may only consist of what we on earth would call interjections, exclamations.
Above all, the dead speak in the actual sounds of the alphabet—sounds and combinations of sound. The longer a soul has lived in the spiritual world after death, the more he will come to speak in a kind of language we on the earth must first acquire. We do this when we develop the ability to understand and distinguish the sounds of earthly language, when we go beyond the abstract meaning of words and enter into the feeling content of the sounds. It is just as I was saying in the educational lectures held here. With the sound a (a as pronounced in father) we experience something like astonishment and wonder. In a certain sense we even take this sense of wonder into our soul when we not only say a but ach (ch here pronounced as in the German or Scottish Loch. Ach is the German equivalent of the exclamation ah!). Ach signifies: A—I feel wonder, and with the sound ch the sense of wonder goes right into me. And if I now put an m in front and say mach (German for make or do) the result is a kind of following of what awakened wonder in me as if it were approaching me step by step—mmm—until I am entirely within it. The answers of the dead often come in this kind of understanding, an understanding carried by the meaning in sounds. The dead do not speak in English, they do not speak in German, nor in Russian; they speak in such a way that only heart and soul can understand them—if heart and soul are connected with the ears that hear. I said just now that the human heart is greater and more majestic than the sun. Seen from the earthly point of view the heart is somewhere inside us, and if we cut it out anatomically it will not be a pretty sight. But in reality the heart is present in the entire human being, permeating all the other organs; it is also in the ear.
More and more we must get used to the language of the heart used by the dead, if I may so describe it. We get used to it as we gradually eliminate all nouns and noun-like forms and begin to live more in verbal forms. The dead understand words of activity and becoming for a relatively long time after death. At a later stage they understand a language that is no ordinary language. What we then receive from the dead must first be translated back into an earthly language.
Thus the human being grows out of his body and ever more into the spiritual world, as his entire life of soul becomes altogether different. And when the time approaches for him to come down to earth again he must once again change his entire life of soul. For then the moment draws ever nearer when he is confronted with a mighty task, when he himself must put together, first in the astral form and then in the etheric form, the whole future human being who will be standing here physically on earth. What we do here on the earth is external work. When our hands are at work then something happens in the external world. When we are between death and a new birth our soul is occupied with the work of putting our body together. It only seems as if we come into existence through hereditary forces. Actually we are only clothed in the outermost physical sheath through heredity. But even the forms of our organs we must develop for ourselves. I will give you an example of this, but I would like to borrow a glove for this purpose.
When a human being approaches a new earthly life, he still has the sun and moon within him. But gradually the sun and moon begin to contract together. It is as though you were to feel the lobes of your lungs shrinking together within you. In this way you feel your cosmic existence, your sun- and moon-organ shrinking together. Then something detaches itself from the sun and from the moon. Instead of having the sun and moon within you as before you have before you a kind of copy or image of the sun and moon. Glistening and luminous, you have before you two, at first, gigantic spheres, one of which is the spiritualized sun, the other the spiritualized moon. One sphere is a bright and shining light, the other sphere is glimmering in its own warmth, more fiery warm, holding the light more to itself in an egotistical way.
These two spheres that separate themselves from the cosmically transformed human being—that is, from this Adam Kadmon that still exists to this day—these two spheres draw closer and closer to one another. On our way down to earth we say: Sun and moon are becoming one. And this is what guides and leads us through the last few generations of ancestors until finally we reach the mother who will give us birth. As the sun and moon draw ever closer together they guide us.
Then we see another task before us. We see, far in the distance like a single point, the human embryo that is to be. We see, like a single entity, what has become of sun and moon drawing near our mother. But we see a task before us, which I can describe as follows. Think of this glove as the sun and moon united and going before us, leading us. We know that when our cosmic consciousness has completely vanished, when we go through a darkness (this happens after conception when we become submerged in the embryo), that we will then have to turn this inside out. What is on the inside then comes to the outside. What the sun and moon have been you must turn inside out and then a tiny opening appears; through this you must go with your I, your ego, and this becomes a copy or image of your human body upon earth. And, actually, this is the pupil of the human eye. For what was one, again becomes two, as though two mirror images were to arise. These are the two human eyes; at first they were united, as the united sun and moon, and then they turned inside out.
This is the task that then confronts you, and you fulfill it unconsciously. You must turn the whole thing around and push what is on the inside outward and go through the tiny opening. Then it separates into two. In the embryonic state two physical images are formed. The physical embryonic eyes are two pictures representing what has become of sun and moon.
In this way we work out the formation of the several parts of the human body. We gather together what we experience as the entire universe and give to every part its destined form. Only then does what has been formed in the spirit get clothed in, and permeated by, a plastic material—matter. The matter is only taken on; but the forces that form and shape us we ourselves had to develop from the entire universe.
Say, for example, that in the time between death and a new birth we pass through the sun while it is in the sign of Leo. (It need not be at birth; it can be farther back in time.) We do not then form the eyes that are made of the sun and moon—that occurs at a different time. But during this time we unite with the interior of the sun. If we could walk in the interior of the sun it would look very different from what contemporary physicists imagine. This physical imagination of theirs lacks even a suspicion of the truth. The interior of the sun is not a ball of gas; it is something even less than space—a realm where space itself has been taken away. If you begin by imagining space as something extended, with pressure everywhere present within it, then you must picture the interior of the sun as negative space, as space that is emptier than empty, a realm of suction. Few people have an adequate idea of what this means. Now, when you pass through there, you experience something that can be elaborated and worked upon, something that can be formed into the human heart. It is not the case that only the form of the eyes is made out of sun and moon; the heart form is also fashioned from the sun. But this is only possible when the sun also contains the forces that come from the constellation of Leo.
So the human being builds his entire body from the constellations of the stars and their movements in the universe. The human organism is indeed a kind of copy or image of the world of stars. A large part of the work we have to do between death and new birth consists in this—that we build our body from the universe. Standing on the earth the human being is indeed a universe, but a shrunken universe. Natural science is so naive as to suppose that the human form is produced from the physical embryo alone. This is as naive as it would be for someone who sees the needle of a magnet pointing to the north and south magnetic poles to imagine that the forces causing it to point are only within the needle itself, not realizing that the earth itself is a magnet. It is exactly the same when someone says that the human being comes from the embryo.
The human being does not come from the embryo at all but rather from the entire universe. Furthermore, his life of soul and spirit between death and a new birth consists in working with the spiritual beings on the super-sensible form of the human being. This form is created first in the astral and etheric realms and only then shrinks and contracts in order to be clothed in physical matter. The human being is really only the arena for what the universe—and he himself with his transformed powers—achieves with his physical body.
Thus the human being gradually develops himself. It begins with language, as he no longer uses nouns but finds his way into a special language, a more verbal form of speech. He then goes on to an inner beholding of the world of stars; then he lives within the world of stars. And from the world of stars he then begins to separate out what he himself is to become in his next incarnation. This is man's path: out of the physical through the transformation of language into the spiritual, and then back again through the transforming of the universe once again into the human being. Only if we can understand how the soul-spiritual part of the human being, which thus loses itself in language, becomes one with the world of stars and then draws itself back from the world of stars—only then do we understand the complete cycle of human life between death and a new birth.
These things were still clear to many people at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place on earth. At that time people never thought of Christ Jesus as merely the being whom they saw developing on the earth. They thought that Christ Jesus was formerly in the same world to which they themselves belonged during the life between death and new birth. They thought about the question: How did he descend and enter into the life of earth? It was the Roman world that then exterminated the science of initiation. They wanted only the old dogmas to remain. In Italy in the fourth century of our era there was a special organization, a specific body of people who made every effort to insure that the old methods of initiation should not be transformed into new ones. Only the knowledge of the outer physical world should be left to human beings on earth. Only the old dogmas could have any say concerning the super-sensible. Gradually these old dogmas were received into the intellect as mere concepts that could no longer even be understood but only believed. So the knowledge that at one time had in fact existed was split in two: into a knowledge of the earthly world and faith in another world. This faith has even shrunk to the point where, for some, it only consists of a sum of dogmas no longer understood, while for others it is nothing more than a mere basis for believing anything at all. What then is the substance of modern man's belief, when he no longer holds to the dogmas of the Trinity? He believes something altogether nebulous. He believes in a generalized, vague kind of spirituality.
We now need to return to a genuine perception of the spiritual, one made possible by living into the spiritual itself. That is, we need a science of initiation once again, a science that can speak to us about things such as the human eye, which we should look at with wonder, for it is actually a little world in itself. This is no mere picture or figure of speech; it is a reality for the reasons I have explained. For in the life between death and new birth this eye of ours was single, and this unity which was then turned inside out was actually a flowing together of the images of sun and moon.
Furthermore, we have two eyes because if we were equipped with only one, like the Cyclops, we could never develop a sense of self, an 1, in an outward and visible world; we would develop it only in the inner world of feeling. Helen Keller for example has an inner world of feeling and ideas very different from that of other people; she is only able to make herself understood because language has been taught her. Without this we would never be able to develop the idea of our I, or self. We reach the idea of 1 because we can lay our right hand over our left, or, more generally speaking, because we can bring any two symmetrical members together. We develop a delicate sense of self or I because we cross the axis of vision of our two eyes when focusing upon the outer world. Just as we cross our hands, so do we cross our eyes' axes of vision whenever we look at anything.
Materially two, our eyes are one in spirit. This single spiritual eye is located behind the bridge of the nose. It is then reproduced in a twofold image—in the two outer eyes you see. By having a left and a right hand side, the human being is able to feel and be aware of himself. If he were only right or only left, if he were not a symmetrical being, all his thinking and ideation would flow out into the world; he would not become self-possessed in his own 1.
By uniting the twin images of sun and moon into one, we are preparing ourselves for the coming incarnation. It is as though we were saying to ourselves: You must not disintegrate into the widths of the whole world. You cannot become a sun man and have the lunar man there beside you. You must become a unified being. But then, so that you can also feel this oneness, this unified, single sun-moon eye of man comes into being, and metamorphoses into the eye as we know it. For our two eyes are copies, or images, of the single, archetypal sun-moon eye of man.
These are the things I wished to tell you today, my dear friends, about the entirely different kind of experience we have when we are in the spiritual world, so very different from our experiences in the physical. But the two experiences are related to one another. The relationship is such that we are turned completely inside out. Suppose that you could take the human being as you see him here and turn him inside out so that his inside—the heart, for instance—would become the outer surface. Then he would not remain alive as a physical human being—you can believe that. But if this could be done taking hold of him in the inmost heart and turning him inside out like a glove, then man would not remain man as we see him here; he would enlarge into a universe. For if we had the faculty to concentrate in a single point within our heart, and then to turn ourselves inside out in spirit, we could become this world that we otherwise experience between death and a new birth. That is the secret of the inner side of the human being. Only while he exists in the physical world the human being cannot be turned inside out. The heart of the human being is also a world turned inside out. That is how the physical, earthly world is really connected to the spiritual world. We must get used to this “turning inside out.” If we do not, we will never get the right idea concerning how the physical world that surrounds us here relates to the spiritual world.
Neunter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Heute wollen wir einiges betrachten, was manche von den uns bekannten Wahrheiten für einen weiteren Kreis von Anthroposophen zusammenfassen kann. Sie kennen vielleicht die Art der Beschreibung, die ich in meinem Buche «Theosophie» gegeben habe, von jenen Welten, die der Mensch zu durchleben hat zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Ich will heute einiges aus diesen Welten zunächst von einem etwas anderen Gesichtspunkte aus schildern, als es in jenem Buche gegeben ist.
[ 2 ] In jenem Buche sind zum größten Teil Imaginationen gebraucht für die seelische und für die geistige Welt, durch die der Mensch durchgeht, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten ist, um sich hinauf zu entwickeln zu einem neuen Erdenleben. Ich will heute nicht so sehr von einem imaginativen Standpunkte aus Ihnen die Sache schildern, als von dem Standpunkte, der sich mehr der Inspiration ergibt. Da können wir, um überhaupt die Möglichkeit eines Verständnisses zu gewinnen, von den Erlebnissen, die wir innerhalb des Erdenlebens haben, ausgehen.
[ 3 ] Da stehen wir in irgendeinem Zeitpunkte zwischen Geburt und Tod in unserem physischen Leib der Welt gegenüber. Wir nennen dasjenige, was innerhalb unserer Haut ist, was innerhalb unseres physischen Leibes ist, eben unseren Menschen, unser Menschenwesen. Wir setzen voraus, daß dieses Menschenwesen nicht nur die anatomischen und die physiologischen Vorgänge birgt, sondern setzen voraus, daß da drinnen auch irgendwie die seelischen und geistigen Vorgänge spielen. Aber wir sprechen von uns, indem wir dabei dasjenige meinen, was innerhalb unserer Haut liegt, und wir sehen in die Welt hinaus, die Welt ist um uns herum, die nennen wir unsere Außenwelt. Nun wissen wir, daß wir uns Vorstellungsbilder machen von dieser Außenwelt, diese Vorstellungsbilder leben dann in uns. So daß wir um uns herum die Außenwelt haben und gewissermaßen Spiegelbilder der Außenwelt in unserem Seelenleben drinnen.
[ 4 ] Wenn wir nun in dem Leben sind zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, da sind wir in derselben Welt drinnen, die jetzt unsere Außenwelt ist hier auf Erden. Alles dasjenige, was Sie genauer sehen können oder nur ahnen können als Außenwelt, das ist dann Ihre Innenwelt. Zu dem sagen Sie dann: Mein Ich. - So wie Sie jetzt zu Ihrem Ich gehörend Ihre Lunge ansehen, so sehen Sie dann zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt die Sonne und den Mond als Ihre Organe an, als dasjenige, was in Ihnen drinnen ist. Und die einzige Außenwelt, die Sie dann haben, das sind Sie selbst, wie Sie auf Erden sind, das sind Ihre irdischen Organe.
[ 5 ] Wenn wir hier auf der Erde sagen: In uns eine Lunge, in uns ein Herz; außer uns eine Sonne, außer uns ein Mond, außer uns ein Tierkreis —, so sagen wir in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt: In uns ein Tierkreis, in uns die Sonne, in uns der Mond, außer uns Lunge, außer uns Herz. — Alles dasjenige, was wir jetzt innerhalb unserer Haut tragen, das wird immer mehr und mehr zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt unsere Außenwelt, unser Universum, unser Kosmos. Es ist die Anschauung über das Verhältnis von Welt und Mensch völlig entgegengesetzt, wenn wir leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.
[ 6 ] Und so ist es, daß, wenn wir den Tod durchleben, wenn wir also durch die Pforte des Todes schreiten, wir zunächst ein deutliches Bild haben von dem, was da war, wie wir auf Erden waren — nur ein Bild. Sie müssen sich vorstellen, daß dieses Bild auf Sie den Eindruck der Außenwelt macht. Zuerst haben Sie dieses Bild als eine Art Erscheinung in sich. Und Sie haben nach dem Tode zuerst noch ein Bewußtsein von dem, was Sie auf Erden hier als Mensch waren, in der Gestalt von irdischen Erinnerungen und irdischen Bildern.
[ 7 ] Aber die hören immer mehr und mehr auf, und Sie schreiten immer mehr und mehr fort in der Anschauung des Menschen: Ich-Welt, Universum-Mensch. Das steigert sich immer mehr und mehr. Nur müssen Sie nicht sich vorstellen, daß dann die Lunge so aussieht, wie sie jetzt aussieht. Es würde nicht ein Anblick sein, der Ihnen ersetzen könnte den schönen Anblick von Sonne und Mond; aber dasjenige, was dann Lunge ist, was Herz ist, das ist etwas viel Großartigeres, etwas viel Gewaltigeres, als was jetzt Sonne und Mond vor dem menschlichen Auge sind.
[ 8 ] Man bekommt auf diese Weise wirklich erst einen Eindruck von dem, was eigentlich Maja ist. Die Menschen sprechen von Maja, von der großen Täuschung, die die irdische Welt hier ist, aber sie glauben nicht recht daran; die Menschen, sie glauben doch immer im Geheimen, daß alles so ist, wie es hier vor irdischen Augen ausschaut. Das ist aber nicht der Fall. Die Lunge ist nur ein Scheingebilde, das Herz ist nur ein Scheingebilde. In Wahrheit ist unsere Lunge nur ein großartiger Teil unseres Kosmos, und unser Herz erst recht; denn unser Herz ist in seiner Wahrheit etwas viel Majestätischeres, etwas viel Großartigeres als eine Sonne.
[ 9 ] Wir sehen allmählich tatsächlich eine ungeheure kosmische Welt aufgehen, von der wir so sprechen, daß wir dann auch sagen: Unten ist der Himmel. Aber wir meinen eigentlich: Unten ist dasjenige, was das menschliche Haupt vorbereitet in der nächsten Inkarnation; oben, sagen wir dann, ist das Untere. Es kehrt sich alles um. Dort sind alle die Kräfte, welche den Menschen vorbereiten, um zu der Erde zu gehen, um gewissermaßen im nächsten irdischen Leben auf seinen zwei Beinen zu stehen.
[ 10 ] Das können wir dann zusammenfassen in die Worte: Je mehr wir uns einem neuen Erdenleben nähern, desto mehr zieht sich gewissermaßen das Universum Mensch für uns zusammen. Wir werden immer mehr und mehr gewahr, wie dieses zuerst majestätische Universum — majestätisch ist es insbesondere in der Mitte zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt -, wie dieses majestätische Universum Mensch gewissermaßen zusammenschrumpft, wie aus den Planeten, die wir in uns tragen, aus dem Weben der Planeten dasjenige wird, was dann im menschlichen Ätherleib vibriert, pulsiert; wie aus demjenigen, was die Fixsterne im Tierkreis sind, dasjenige wird, was unser Sinnes-Nervenleben ausbildet. Das schrumpft zusammen, das bildet sich, wird ein zuerst geistiger, dann ätherischer Leib. Er wird erst dann aufgenommen vom mütterlichen Schoß und mit irdischer Materie umkleidet, wenn er ganz klein geworden ist.
[ 11 ] Und da kommt dann der Augenblick, wo wir uns dem irdischen Leben nähern, wo wir gewissermaßen entschwinden fühlen das Universum, das wir früher gehabt haben. Es schrumpft zusammen, es wird kleiner. Und das erzeugt in uns die Sehnsucht, wiederum herunterzukommen auf die Erde, uns wiederum zu verbinden mit einem physischen Leib, weil gewissermaßen vor dem geistigen Blick dieses Universum sich zurückzieht. Wir sehen hin, wie wir Mensch werden. Und wir müssen da mit ganz anderen Zeiträumen rechnen. Das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ist Jahrhunderte lang, und wenn ein Mensch im 20. Jahrhundert geboren ist, so bereitet sich langsam, etwa schon im 16. Jahrhundert, sein Herunterstieg vor. Und da ist er es, der Mensch, der dann in einer gewissen Beziehung auf die irdischen Verhältnisse herunterwirkt.
[ 12 ] Ein Ururgroßvater von Ihnen hat im 16. Jahrhunderte sich verliebt in eine Ururgroßmutter; die fühlten einen Drang, zueinander zu kommen. Da, in diesem Drang zusammenzukommen, da wirkten Sie schon aus den geistigen Welten herein. Und als dann im 17. Jahrhundert ein weniger ferner Ururgroßvater eine weniger ferne Ururgroßmutter liebte, da waren Sie wiederum in gewissem Sinne der Vermittler. Sie suchten sich die ganze Generation zusammen, damit zuletzt dasjenige herauskomme, was Ihre Mutter und Ihr Vater sein konnten.
[ 13 ] Und in diesem mysteriösen Unbestimmten, das in den irdischen Liebeverhältnissen liegt, sind die Kräfte im Spiele, die von denen ausgehen, welche künftige Inkarnationen suchen. Daher ist auch niemals völlige Freiheit, völliges Bewußtsein bei dem, was für die äußeren Verhältnisse zusammenführt die männlichen und die weiblichen Personen. Das sind Dinge, die heute ganz außerhalb des Verständnisses der Menschen liegen.
[ 14 ] Was wir heute Geschichte nennen, ist ja eigentlich nur etwas ganz Außerliches. Von der Seelengeschichte der Menschen haben wir ja im äußeren Leben heute nicht viel drin. Daß die Seelen der Menschen ganz anders gefühlt haben im 12.,13. Jahrhundert noch, davon wissen ja die heutigen Menschen nichts. Nicht so deutlich, wie ich es jetzt ausgesprochen habe, mehr traumhaft wußten die Menschen im 10., 11., 12. Jahrhunderte noch von solchen geheimnisvollen Kräften, die aus der geistigen Welt hereinwirken, aber von Menschenseelen hereinwirken. Man hat nicht viel im Abendlande ausgesprochen von den wiederholten Erdenleben, von der Reinkarnation. Aber überall hat es Menschen gegeben, die von diesen Dingen gewußt haben. Nur die Kirchen haben immer alle Gedanken gerade an wiederholte Erdenleben ausgeschaltet, verdammt. Und Sie müssen sich eigentlich eine Vorstellung darüber machen, daß viele Menschen in Europa bis ins 12., 13. Jahrhundert herein gewußt haben, daß der Mensch wiederholte Erdenleben durchmacht.
[ 15 ] Dann kam die Zeit, in welcher die Menschheit des Abendlandes sich entwickeln sollte durch die Intellektualität hindurch. Der Mensch muß sich allmählich seine Freiheit erwerben. Freiheit gab es nicht in alten Zeiten, wo traumhaftes Hellsehen ‚war. Freiheit gibt es auch nicht in jenen Menschenverhältnissen — höchstens einen Glauben an die Freiheit -, die, sagen wir, von der irdischen Liebe beherrscht sind, wie ich sie jetzt eben geschildert habe. Da ist immer das Interesse der auf die Erde herabkommenden Seelen im Spiele.
[ 16 ] Aber die Menschheit muß doch innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung immer freier und freier werden. Nur dann erreicht die Erde das Ziel der Entwickelung, wenn die Menschheit immer freier und freier wird. Dazu ist aber Intellektualität in einem bestimmten Zeitalter notwendig gewesen. Dieses Zeitalter ist das unsrige. Denn wenn Sie zurückschauen in frühere Erdenverhältnisse, wo die Menschen ein traumhaftes Hellsehen gehabt haben, da lebten in dem traumhaften Hellsehen immer geistige Wesenheiten darinnen. Der Mensch konnte damals nicht sagen: Ich habe meine Gedanken im Kopfe. — Das wäre falsch gewesen. Er mußte in alten Zeiten sagen: Ich habe das Leben von Engeln im Kopfe. — Und später mußte er sagen: Ich habe das Leben von Elementargeistern im Kopfe. - Dann kam erst das 15. Jahrhundert, und im 19., 20., da hat der Mensch gar nichts mehr von Geistigem im Kopfe, nur Gedanken hat er im Kopfe, Gedanken.
[ 17 ] Dadurch, daß er nichts mehr von einem höheren Geistigen in sich hatte, nur Gedanken, dadurch konnte er sich Bilder von der Außenwelt machen. Aber konnte der Mensch frei sein, solange die Geister in ihm lebten? Das konnte er nicht. Die dirigierten ihn ganz und gar, gaben alles. Der Mensch konnte erst frei werden, als keine Geister ihn mehr dirigierten, als er nur Gedankenbilder hatte.
[ 18 ] Gedankenbilder können Sie zu nichts zwingen. Wenn Sie sich vor den Spiegel stellen — die Spiegelbilder können noch so böse Menschen sein, sie werden Ihnen nie eine Ohrfeige geben; eine wirkliche Ohrfeige nie, weil sie keine Realität haben, weil sie Bilder sind. Wenn ich mich zu etwas entschließen will, so kann ich das im Spiegelbild nachbilden lassen; aber das Bild kann sich zu nichts entschließen.
[ 19 ] In dem Zeitalter, wo die Intellektualität nur Gedanken in unseren Kopf setzt, da entsteht die Freiheit, denn Gedanken können nicht zwingen. Wenn wir unsere moralischen Impulse nur reine Gedanken sein lassen, wie ich es in meiner «Philosophie der Freiheit» dargestellt habe, dann können wir uns die Freiheit in unserem Zeitalter erringen. So mußte die intellektualistische Zeit heraufkommen. Es klingt sonderbar, aber es ist so: Im wesentlichen ist die Zeit vorüber, in der die Menschen die bloße Intellektualität, das bloße Bilddenken ausbilden durften. Das ist mit dem 19. Jahrhundert vorübergegangen. Und wenn jetzt die Menschen weiter diese bloßen Bildgedanken ausbilden, dann verfallen die Gedanken den ahrimanischen Mächten, dann finden die ahrimanischen Mächte den Zugang zum Menschen, dann verliert er seine Freiheit wiederum an die ahrimanischen Mächte. Und vor dieser Gefahr steht die Menschheit gegenwärtig.
[ 20 ] Die Menschheit steht gegenwärtig vor der Eventualität, entweder das spirituelle Leben zu begreifen, zu begreifen, daß so etwas Realität ist, wie ich es heute im Anfang dieser Auseinandersetzung geschildert habe, oder es zu leugnen. Dann kann man aber nicht mehr frei denken, wenn man es heute leugnet, sondern dann fängt Ahriman - die ahrimanischen Mächte fangen dann an, in der Menschheit zu denken Und dann geht die ganze Menschheitsentwickelung in einer absteigenden Linie vor sich.
[ 21 ] Es ist also im höchsten Grade notwendig, daß immer mehr und mehr Menschen der Gegenwart begreifen: Man muß wiederum zum spirituellen Leben zurück. Und dieses Fühlen, daß man wiederum zum spirituellen Leben zurück muß, das ist das, was heute die Menschen in sich suchen sollten. Wenn sie es nicht suchen, so verfällt die Menschheit dem Ahriman. So ernst ist von einem höheren Gesichtspunkte angesehen heute die Lage der Erdenmenschen. Und man sollte jedem anderen Gedanken eigentlich diesen Gedanken voranstellen, jeden anderen Gedanken im Lichte dieses Gedankens betrachten.
[ 22 ] Das wollte ich als den ersten Teil der heutigen Betrachtung geben. Vielleicht ist Herr Kaufmann so liebenswürdig, den ersten Teil zu übersetzen. Ich werde dann weitersprechen.
[ 23 ] Durch solche Darstellungen wird es vielleicht anschaulich, daß das Leben, das wir durchmachen in der geistigen Welt zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, durchaus verschieden ist von dem, was wir hier zwischen Geburt und Tod durchmachen. Daher genügen auch Bilder, die von dem Erdenleben genommen sind, wenn sie noch so geistreich sind, nicht dazu, das eigentliche Geistesleben des Menschen zu charakterisieren, sondern man kann nur langsam und allmählich zu einem Verstehen desjenigen hinführen, was in der geistigen Welt Realität ist. Ich will dafür Beispiele anführen.
[ 24 ] Nehmen Sie an, der Mensch verläßt hier seinen irdischen Leib und geht mit seinem seelisch-geistigen Leben über in die geistig-seelische Welt. Und nehmen wir an, es wird jemandem, der sich im intimeren Sinne Initiationserkenntnis erworben hat, hier möglich, die Seelen in ihrem Leben nach dem Tode weiter zu beobachten. Dazu sind viele Vorbereitungen notwendig, dazu ist ein bestimmtes Karma notwendig, das den Menschen hier mit dem Menschen drüben verbindet. Da handelt es sich darum, daß man nun eine Verständigungsmöglichkeit gewinnt mit einem Verstorbenen. Ich rede Ihnen dabei von außerordentlich schwierigen geistigen Erlebnissen, denn es ist im allgemeinen leichter, die Welt geistig zu beschreiben, als nur im geringsten an einen Toten heranzukommen. Die Menschen glauben leicht, daß es nicht schwer wäre, an einen Toten heranzukommen; es ist viel schwerer, an den Toten wirklich heranzukommen, als allgemeine spirituelle Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen.
[ 25 ] Nun möchte ich Ihnen einige Eigentümlichkeiten des Verkehrs mit den Toten angeben. Zunächst ist es ja nur möglich, mit den Toten zu verkehren, indem man sich versetzen kann in ihr Erinnerungsvermögen an die physische Welt. Die Toten. haben noch einen Anklang an die menschliche Sprache, sogar an die besondere Sprache, die sie hier auf der Erde hauptsächlich gesprochen haben. Aber es verändert sich ihr Verhältnis zur Sprache. So zum Beispiel bemerkt man, wenn man mit einem Toten verkehrt, daß er sehr bald kein Verständnis, nicht das geringste Verständnis mehr hat für Hauptwörter, für Substantiva. Die Substantiva sind Wörter, die der Lebende hier an den Toten richten kann, der Tote, wenn ich mich des Ausdrucks bedienen darf, hört sie einfach nicht. Dagegen behält der Tote für alle Verben, also Tätigkeitswörter, verhältnismäßig lange noch ein Verständnis.
[ 26 ] Sie bekommen in der Regel nur eine Verständigung mit dem Toten, wenn Sie verstehen, in der richtigen Weise Fragen an ihn zu stellen. Man muß manchmal mit diesen Fragen so vorgehen, daß man an einem Tage möglichst in vollständiger Ruhe sich auf den Toten konzentriert, mit ihm in etwas lebt, was recht konkret ist — denn Bilder hat er nach dem Tode mehr in seiner Seele als abstrakte Vorstellungen -, also man muß sich auf etwas konzentrieren, was ein reales konkretes Erlebnis ist, das er gern hier gehabt hat im Leben, da kann man allmählich an den Toten herankommen. .
[ 27 ] Man bekommt in der Regel nicht gleich Antwort. Man muß oftmals darüber schlafen, vielleicht mehrmals schlafen, und man bekommt nach Tagen Antwort. Aber man bekommt eigentlich nie von Toten Antwort, wenn man die Frage an sie stellt mit Substantiven. Man muß versuchen, alles Substantivische in Verbalform zu kleiden. Diese Vorbereitung ist durchaus notwendig. Das beste, was der Tote versteht, sind Verben, die man recht anschaulich macht. Also der Tote versteht zum Beispiel niemals das Wort «Tisch»; aber wenn es einem gelingt, etwas lebhaft vorzustellen von dem, was in Tätigkeit ist, wenn ein Tisch gemacht wird, was also ein Werdendes ist, dann kann man allmählich für den Toten so verständlich werden, daß er die Frage auffaßt und daß man Antworten bekommt, die immer in Verbalform sind, die aber sehr häufig nicht einmal in Verbalform sind, sondern die in dem sind, was wir hier auf der Erde als Interjektion, als Empfindungswörter ansprechen würden.
[ 28 ] Namentlich spricht der Tote in Buchstaben-, in Lautzusammensetzungen. Und er kommt, je länger er in der geistigen Welt verweilt nach dem Tode, desto mehr dazu, in einer Sprache zu sprechen, die man sich erst aneignet, wenn man für die irdische Sprache ein Unterscheidungsverständnis sich erwirbt, wenn man sich nicht mehr hält an die abstrakte Bedeutung der Worte, sondern wenn man eindringt in den Empfindungsgehalt der Laute.
[ 29 ] Es ist ja so, wie ich auch in den Vorträgen über Erziehung gesagt habe: Bei A empfinden wir etwas wie Staunen. Das Staunen nehmen wir gewissermaßen in unsere eigene Seele herein, wenn wir nicht bloß A sagen, sondern Ach. Das heißt: A= ich staune, und das Staunen geht in mich herein: ch. Und wenn ich jetzt noch m voranstelle und sage: mach - so habe ich ein Verfolgen desjenigen, was mich erstaunen macht, so wie wenn es in Schritten - m — herankäme, und ich bin völlig drin! In diesen Lautverständnissen kommen oftmals die Antworten der 'Toten. Die sprechen nicht englisch, die sprechen nicht deutsch, nicht russisch, die sprechen so, daß es nur Seele und Herz verstehen kann, wenn Seele und Herz mit den Ohren zusammenhängen.
[ 30 ] Ich habe Ihnen vorhin gesagt: Das Herz ist majestätischer als die Sonne. Für die irdische Anschauung ist das Herz da irgendwo drinnen, und wenn wir es anatomisch herausschneiden, bietet es keinen schönen Anblick. In Wahrheit ist das Herz im ganzen Menschen, durchdringt alle übrigen Organe, sitzt auch im Ohre. Wir müssen uns immer mehr gewöhnen an diese Herzenssprache der Toten, wenn ich sie so nennen darf. |
[ 31 ] Daran gewöhnen wir uns, wenn wir nach und nach alles Substantivische wegwerfen, ins Verbale hineinkommen. Die Tätigkeit, das Werden, das versteht der Tote noch ziemlich lange nach dem Tode. Aber später versteht er eine Sprache, die keine wirkliche Sprache ist. Das, was wir dann vom Toten empfangen, müssen wir erst rückübersetzen in eine irdische Sprache.
[ 32 ] So wächst der Mensch heraus aus seinem Leibe und wächst allmählich in die geistige Welt hinein, indem sein ganzes Seelenleben ein anderes wird. Und wenn nun die Zeit allmählich herankommt, wo der Mensch zur Erde heruntersteigt, da muß er wiederum sein ganzes Seelenleben ändern, denn da rückt immer mehr und mehr der Augenblick nahe, wo er vor einer gewaltigen Aufgabe steht, wo er zuerst die Astralform und dann die Ätherform des ganzen künftigen, hier auf der Erde physisch stehenden Menschen selber zusammensetzen muß.
[ 33 ] Was wir hier auf der Erde tun, ist äußerliche Arbeit. Es betätigen sich unsere Hände an irgend etwas, was äußerlich geschieht. Wenn wir zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt sind, da beschäftigt sich unsere Seele damit, unseren Leib zusammenzustellen. Daß der Mensch durch Vererbung entsteht, ist nur scheinbar. Durch Vererbung wird ihm nur die alleräußerste physische Hülle umkleidet, aber die Form seiner Organe sogar muß der Mensch entwickeln. Dafür will ich Ihnen ein Beispiel geben, möchte aber dazu einen Handschuh haben.
[ 34 ] Wenn der Mensch sich nähert dem irdischen Leben, dann hat er ja Sonne und Mond noch in sich. Aber allmählich schrumpfen Sonne und Mond zusammen. Sie empfinden dann in sich so, wie wenn Sie in sich die beiden Lungenflügel zusammenschrumpfen fühlen würden. So fühlen Sie dann Ihr kosmisches Dasein, Ihr Sonnen- und Mondorgan zusammenschrumpfen. Und dann löst sich etwas von der Sonne los, und etwas vom Monde los. Nun hat man dann - statt daß man früher Sonne und Mond in sich gehabt hat - vor sich etwas, das eine Art Abbild ist von Sonne und Mond. Erglänzend, glitzernd hat man vor sich zwei zunächst riesige Kugeln, wovon die eine Kugel die vergeistigte Sonne, die andere Kugel der vergeistigte Mond ist: die eine Kugel in hellglänzendem Lichte, die andere Kugel glimmend, mehr in sich warm, wärmend feurig und mehr das Licht wie egoistisch an sich haltend.
[ 35 ] Diese zwei Kugeln, die sich loslösen von dem kosmisch umgewandelten Menschen — von diesem heute noch bestehenden Adam Kadmon -, diese zwei Kugeln, die sich loslösen, die nähern sich immer mehr und mehr. Man sagt dann, wenn man herunterkommt zur Erde: Sonne und Mond werden eins. Und das ist dasjenige, was einen führt, das ist dasjenige, was einen — schon von Urururgroßmutter, Ururgroßmutter, Urgroßmutter, Großmutter her und so weiter — hinführt, hinleitet bis zuletzt zu derjenigen Mutter, die einen gebären soll. Da leiten einen Sonne und Mond, die sich aber dabei immer mehr und mehr nähern.
[ 36 ] Und dann sieht man eine Aufgabe vor sich. Dann sieht man gewissermaßen wie einen einzigen Punkt dasjenige, was noch fern ist im menschlichen Embryo. Und man sieht das, was da aus Sonne und Mond wie ein Einheitliches entstanden ist, sich der Mutter nähernd. Aber man sieht eine Aufgabe vor sich, die ich so charakterisieren kann.
[ 37 ] Denken Sie sich, dieses hier [der Handschuh] wäre nun dasjenige, was als vereinigte Sonne und Mond vor einem herzieht, und man weiß: Wenn nun dein kosmisches Bewußtsein ganz geschwunden sein wird, wenn du durch eine Finsternis durchgehen wirst — das ist nach der Empfängnis, nach der Konzeption, wenn der Mensch untertaucht in den Embryo -, so wirst du das umstülpen müssen, so daß das Innere nach außen kommt. Das, was Sonne und Mond gewesen sind, mußt du umstülpen, und da entsteht eine kleine Öffnung, durch diese mußt du hinein mit deinem Ich, und dies wird im Abbild dann dein Menschenkörper auf der Erde sein.
[ 38 ] Sehen Sie, das ist die Pupille im menschlichen Auge. Aus demjenigen, was da dieses Eins ist, wird dann die Zwei gemacht, wie wenn zwei Spiegelbilder entstehen würden: Das sind die beiden menschlichen Augen, zunächst vereinigt für sich, aber als vereinigte Sonne und Mond, dann da sich umstülpend.
[ 39 ] Es obliegt einem diese Aufgabe, die man unbewußt vollzieht: Man muß das Ganze umdrehen, das Innere nach außen stülpen und durch die kleine Öffnung hineingehen. Dann geht das auseinander: Es werden im embryonalen Zustande zwei physische Abbilder gebildet. Denn die physischen embryonalen Augen sind zwei Bilder: dasjenige, was aus Sonne und Mond entstanden ist.
[ 40 ] So arbeitet man — indem man dasjenige, was man als das ganze Universum erlebt, zusammennimmt, indem man eine bestimmte Form dem gibt — die einzelnen Teile des menschlichen Organismus aus, die dann nur aus dem plastischen Material, aus der Materie sich durchkleiden und umkleiden. Das nehmen sie nur an. Aber die Kräfte, die bildet man aus: die bildet man aus dem Universum heraus.
[ 41 ] Es ist zum Beispiel so, daß wenn man in der vor der Geburt zurückliegenden Zeit durch die Sonne so durchgeht, daß die Sonne im Zeichen des Löwen steht — es braucht das nicht bei der Geburt zu sein, es kann weiter zurückliegen —, man sich in dieser Zeit nicht aus Sonne und Mond das Auge macht, das geschieht zu einer anderen Zeit; in dieser Zeit aber vereinigt man sich mit dem Inneren der Sonne. Dieses Innere der Sonne, wenn man es betreten würde, würde ganz anders ausschauen, als sich die Physiker heute vorstellen. Jene physische Vorstellung ist so ahnungslos! Dieses Innere der Sonne ist nicht ein Gasball, sondern etwas, was weniger ist als Raum, wo der Raum sogar weggenommen ist. Wenn man sich den Raum als etwas Ausgedehntes denkt, was drückt, so müßte man sich das Innere der Sonne als saugend vorstellen, negativer Raum, leerer als der Raum! Die wenigsten Menschen kommen zu einer adäquaten Vorstellung. Wenn man da durchgeht, dann erlebt man etwas, was nun wiederum ausgebildet werden kann, und was sich zum Beispiel dann weiter formt zum menschlichen Herzen.
[ 42 ] Es ist nicht so, daß etwa aus Sonne und Mond nur die Augenform gebildet wird; es wird auch die Herzform aus der Sonne gebildet, aber nur, wenn die Sonne zugleich die Kräfte in sich enthält, die aus dem Sternbilde des Löwen kommen.
[ 43 ] So baut der Mensch tatsächlich, sei es aus den Bewegungen, sei es aus den Konstellationen der Sterne im Universum, seinen ganzen menschlichen Organismus auf. Dieser menschliche Organismus ist ein Abbild der Sternenwelt, und ein großer Teil der Arbeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt besteht darinnen, daß wir aus dem Universum unseren Leib herausarbeiten. Das menschliche Wesen, wie es dasteht auf der Erde, ist ein Universum, aber ein zusammengeschrumpftes. Und die Naturwissenschaft ist so naiv, daß sie meint, der Mensch entstehe nur aus dem physischen Menschenkeim! Das ist gerade so naiv, wie wenn einer eine Magnetnadel sich anschaut, die immer nach Norden mit dem einen Ende zeigt, mit dem anderen Ende nach Süden — und er sucht die Kräfte, durch die sie sich gerade so stellt, nur in der Magnetnadel darinnen, sieht nicht die ganze Erde als einen Magneten an.
[ 44 ] So ist es, wenn einer sagt: Aus dem physischen Menschenkeim entsteht der Mensch. — Er entsteht gar nicht aus dem physischen Menschenkeim, sondern aus dem ganzen Universum heraus. Und sein GeistigSeelisches zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt ist ein Mitarbeiten an der übersinnlich-ätherisch-seelischen Menschenform, die dann nur so zusammenschrumpft, daß sie sich mit der physischen Materie umkleiden kann. Der Mensch ist wirklich nur der Schauplatz desjenigen, was das Universum und was er selber mit seinen umgewandelten Kräften an seinem Physischen vollzieht.
[ 45 ] So entwickelt sich der Mensch allmählich. Mit der Sprache fängt es an, indem er mit dem Gebrauch der Substantive aufhört und in eine besondere Sprache, in das Verbale hineingeht. Dann geht es von der Sprache über zum innerlichen Anschauen der Sternenwelt, dann lebt er in der Sternenwelt. Und dann fängt er an, aus der Sternenwelt heraus abzugliedern, zu formen dasjenige, was er wird, was er in der nächsten Inkarnation wird. So geht es aus dem Physischen durch das Umformen der Sprache ins Geistige hinein; so geht es wiederum zurück durch das Umformen des Universums zum Menschen. Und in der Tat, nur wenn man begreift, wie das Geistig-Seelische, das sich in der Sprache so verliert, eins wird mit der Sternenwelt und dann sich wiederum zurücknimmt aus der Sternenwelt, begreift man diesen ganzen Lebenskreis des Menschen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. |
[ 46 ] Diese Dinge, sie waren vielen Menschen noch klar zur Zeit, als das Mysterium von Golgatha auf der Erde sich vollzogen hat. Da hat man eigentlich niemals die Meinung gehabt, der Christus Jesus sei hauptsächlich dasjenige Wesen, das sich auf der Erde entwickelt hat, sondern da hat man die Meinung gehabt: Der Christus Jesus war früher in derjenigen Welt, der man selber zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt angehört — und man hat nachgedacht, wie er da heruntergestiegen ist und in die Erde übergegangen ist.
[ 47 ] Die Initiationswissenschaft wurde gerade von der römischen Welt ausgerottet; da sollten nur die alten Dogmen bleiben. Eine besondere Körperschaft, die im 4. Jahrhunderte unserer Zeitrechnung nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha in Italien war, die hat alle Anstrengungen gemacht, daß die alten Initiationsmethoden sich nicht in neue verwandeln sollten; es sollte den Menschen nur die Erkenntnis der äußeren physischen Welt bleiben, und von den übersinnlichen Welten sollten nur die alten Dogmen künden, die sie allmählich mit ihrem Intellekt nur als Begriffe aufnehmen und nicht einmal mehr begreifen, sondern nur an sie glauben sollten. Und so wurde zerrissen das Wissen, das es schon einmal gegeben hat, in ein Wissen von der irdischen Welt und in ein Glauben an eine andere Welt, bis dann dieses Glauben so zusammengeschrumpft ist, daß es für die einen nur noch aus einer Summe von Dogmen besteht, die nicht mehr verstanden werden, die für die anderen überhaupt nur ein Anhaltspunkt sind, um glauben zu können. Was glaubt denn der moderne Mensch, der nicht mehr an den Dogmen der Trinität festhält? Er glaubt etwas Verschwommenes, ganz allgemein Geistiges. Aber wir müssen wiederum zurückkommen zu der wirklichen Anschauung, bei der wir uns hineinleben ins Geistige; das heißt, wir brauchen wiederum eine Initiationswissenschaft, eine Wissenschaft, die uns aber von solchen Dingen spricht wie: Bewundere das menschliche Auge, das ja eine kleine Welt für sich ist. — Es ist nicht ein bloßes Bild, es ist etwas Reales aus den Gründen, die ich Ihnen jetzt eben gesagt habe. Denn dieses Auge war einmal, als wir zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt waren, eines, und diese Einheit, die sich dann umgestülpt hat, die war eigentlich ein Zusammenfluß der Abbilder von Sonne und Mond. Und wir haben aus dem Grunde zwei Augen, weil, wenn wir veranlagt wären, nur mit einem Auge zu sehen wie die Zyklopen, wir niemals das Ich in einer sichtbaren Welt entwickeln könnten; wir würden es nur in der Gefühlswelt entwickeln.
[ 48 ] Helen Keller hat eine andere Gefühls-, eine andere Vorstellungswelt als die anderen Menschen; sie kann sich nur verständigen, weil ihr die Sprache klargemacht worden ist. Ohne diese würden wir nicht eine Ich-Vorstellung entwickeln. Wir entwickeln sie ja dadurch, daß wir die rechte Hand über die linke Hand legen können, insbesondere wenn wir die symmetrischen Glieder übereinanderlegen. So entwickeln wir auch eine feine Vorstellung vom Ich, weil wir mit den zwei Augen die Augenachse kreuzen beim Visieren. Geradeso wie wir die Hände kreuzen, so kreuzen wir die zwei Augenachsen. Immer, wenn wir etwas anschauen, kreuzen wir die Augen.
[ 49 ] Die materiellen zwei Augen sind im Geistigen eines. Und das sitzt hier hinter der Nasenwurzel, dieses eine Auge, dieses geistige, das sich abbildet und zu den zwei Augen wird. Dadurch, daß der Mensch ein rechter und ein linker Mensch sein kann, kann er sich als Mensch fühlen. Wenn er nur rechts oder nur links wäre, nicht ein symmetrisches Wesen wäre, so würde alles Vorstellen in die Welt hinauslaufen; man würde nicht zu einem geschlossenen Ich kommen.
[ 50 ] Indem wir die zwei Abbilder von Sonne und Mond in eines bilden, erbilden wir uns so für die künftige Inkarnation. Wir sagen uns: Du kannst aber doch nicht in die ganze Welt zerfallen; du kannst doch nicht ein Sonnenmensch werden und neben dir den Mondenmenschen haben. Du mußt ein einheitlicher werden. - Dann aber, damit man dieses Einheitliche auch fühlen kann, entsteht wiederum jenes einheitliche Sonnenmond-Menschenauge. Das Sonnenmond-Menschenauge ist das Umwandeln in der Gestalt desjenigen, was wir dann als Auge an uns tragen, und unsere zwei Augen sind eben die Abbilder des einheitlichen Sonnenmond-Menschenauges.
[ 51 ] Das ist dasjenige, was ich Ihnen heute sagen wollte, meine lieben Freunde, über die ganz andersartige Erfahrung, die wir haben, wenn wir in der geistigen Welt sind, als hier in der physischen. Und doch wiederum hängen die Dinge zusammen. Aber sie hängen so zusammen, daß wir ganz umgestülpt sind. Wenn wir hier den Menschen so umstülpen könnten, daß wir sein Inneres nach außen wenden würden, daß also zum Beispiel das Innere, das Herz dann die Oberfläche des Menschen wäre — er würde dabei nicht leben bleiben als physischer Mensch, das können Sie ja glauben -, aber wenn man ihn umstülpen könnte, im Herzen innerlich anfassen und ihn so wie einen Handschuh umstülpen, dann bliebe er nicht ein solcher Mensch, wie er hier ist, dann vergrößerte er sich zu einem Universum. Denn wenn man sich in einen Punkt, ins Herz hinein konzentriert und dann die Fähigkeit hat, im Geiste sich selber umzustülpen, dann wird man diese Welt, die man sonst erlebt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Das ist das Geheimnis des menschlichen Inneren, welches nur in der physischen Welt nicht nach außen gestülpt werden kann. Aber das menschliche Herz ist eine umgestülpte Welt auch, und so hängt wiederum zusammen die physische Erdenwelt mit der geistigen Welt. Wir müssen uns gewöhnen an dieses Umstülpen. Wenn wir uns nicht daran gewöhnen, so bekommen wir nie eine richtige Vorstellung von dem, wie sich eigentlich die hiesige physische Welt zu der geistigen Welt verhält.
Ninth Lecture
[ 1 ] Today we want to consider some things that can summarize some of the truths known to us for a wider circle of anthroposophists. You may be familiar with the description I gave in my book Theosophy of the worlds that human beings have to pass through between death and a new birth. Today I would like to describe some aspects of these worlds from a slightly different perspective than in that book.
[ 2 ] In that book, imaginations are used for the most part to describe the soul and spirit worlds through which human beings pass when they have crossed the threshold of death in order to develop upward to a new life on earth. Today, I do not want to describe the matter to you so much from an imaginative point of view as from a point of view that is more inspired. In order to gain any possibility of understanding at all, we can start from the experiences we have within earthly life.
[ 3 ] At some point between birth and death, we stand facing the world in our physical body. We call what is inside our skin, what is inside our physical body, our human being, our human nature. We assume that this human nature not only encompasses anatomical and physiological processes, but also that spiritual and mental processes are somehow at work within it. But we speak of ourselves by referring to what lies within our skin, and we look out into the world around us, which we call our external world. Now we know that we form mental images of this external world, and these mental images then live within us. So we have the external world around us and, in a sense, mirror images of the external world within our soul life.
[ 4 ] When we are now in the life between death and a new birth, we are in the same world that is now our outer world here on earth. Everything that you can see more clearly or only sense as the outer world is then your inner world. You then say: My I. Just as you now regard your lungs as belonging to your self, so between death and a new birth you regard the sun and the moon as your organs, as that which is within you. And the only external world you then have is yourself as you are on earth, that is, your earthly organs.
[ 5 ] When we say here on earth: “Within us is a lung, within us is a heart; outside us is a sun, outside us is a moon, outside us is a zodiac,” we say in the life between death and a new birth: “Within us is a zodiac, within us is the sun, within us is the moon, outside us is a lung, outside us is a heart.” Everything that we now carry within our skin becomes more and more our outer world, our universe, our cosmos between death and a new birth. The view of the relationship between the world and the human being is completely opposite when we live between death and a new birth.
[ 6 ] And so it is that when we go through death, when we pass through the gate of death, we first have a clear picture of what was there, of how we were on earth — only a picture. You must imagine that this picture makes the impression of the outer world on you. At first you have this image as a kind of apparition within you. And after death you still have an awareness of what you were here on earth as a human being, in the form of earthly memories and earthly images.
[ 7 ] But these fade away more and more, and you progress more and more in your perception of the human being: the I-world, the universe-human being. This intensifies more and more. Only you must not imagine that the lungs then look as they do now. It would not be a sight that could replace the beautiful sight of the sun and moon; but what the lungs are then, what the heart is, is something much greater, something much more powerful than what the sun and moon are now to the human eye.
[ 8 ] In this way, one really gets an impression of what Maja actually is. People speak of Maja, of the great deception that is the earthly world, but they do not really believe it; people always believe secretly that everything is as it appears to earthly eyes. But that is not the case. The lungs are only an illusion, the heart is only an illusion. In truth, our lungs are only a magnificent part of our cosmos, and our heart even more so; for in its truth, our heart is something much more majestic, something much greater than a sun.
[ 9 ] We are gradually seeing an immense cosmic world emerge, about which we speak in such a way that we then also say: Below is heaven. But what we actually mean is: Below is that which the human head prepares for the next incarnation; above, we then say, is the lower. Everything is reversed. There are all the forces that prepare human beings to go to earth, to stand on their two feet, so to speak, in their next earthly life.
[ 10 ] We can then summarize this in the words: The closer we come to a new earthly life, the more the human universe draws together for us, so to speak. We become more and more aware of how this initially majestic universe — majestic especially in the middle between death and a new birth — how this majestic human universe shrinks, as it were, how the planets we carry within us, the weaving of the planets, becomes what then vibrates and pulsates in the human etheric body; how from what the fixed stars are in the zodiac, that becomes what forms our sensory-nervous life. This shrinks together, forms itself, becomes first a spiritual, then an etheric body. Only then, when it has become very small, is it taken up by the maternal womb and clothed in earthly matter.
[ 11 ] And then comes the moment when we approach earthly life, when we feel, as it were, that the universe we once had is disappearing. It shrinks, it becomes smaller. And this creates in us the longing to come down to earth again, to connect ourselves again with a physical body, because, in a sense, this universe withdraws from our spiritual gaze. We see how we become human beings. And we have to reckon with completely different time periods. The life between death and new birth lasts for centuries, and when a human being is born in the 20th century, his descent begins slowly, already in the 16th century. And there he is, the human being, who then works down in a certain relationship to earthly conditions.
[ 12 ] One of your great-great-grandfathers fell in love with a great-great-grandmother in the 16th century; they felt an urge to come together. There, in this urge to come together, you were already working from the spiritual worlds. And when, in the 17th century, a less distant great-great-grandfather loved a less distant great-great-grandmother, you were again, in a certain sense, the mediator. You sought out the entire generation so that, in the end, what could be your mother and father would come into being.
[ 13 ] And in this mysterious uncertainty that lies in earthly love relationships, forces are at work that emanate from those who are seeking future incarnations. That is why there is never complete freedom, complete consciousness in what brings male and female individuals together in external circumstances. These are things that are completely beyond human understanding today.
[ 14 ] What we call history today is actually only something completely external. We do not have much of the soul history of human beings in our outer life today. People today know nothing about the fact that human souls felt quite differently in the 12th and 13th centuries. Not as clearly as I have now expressed it, but in a more dreamlike way, people in the 10th, 11th, 12th centuries still knew more clearly about such mysterious forces that work from the spiritual world, but work through human souls. In the West, not much has been said about repeated lives on earth, about reincarnation. But everywhere there have been people who knew about these things. Only the churches have always suppressed all thoughts of repeated lives on earth, condemned them. And you must realize that many people in Europe until the 12th and 13th centuries knew that human beings go through repeated lives on earth.
[ 15 ] Then came the time when Western humanity was to develop through intellectuality. Man must gradually acquire his freedom. Freedom did not exist in ancient times, when dreamlike clairvoyance prevailed. Nor does freedom exist in those human relationships — at most a belief in freedom — which are dominated, let us say, by earthly love, as I have just described. There is always the interest of the souls descending to earth at stake.p>
[ 16 ] But humanity must become freer and freer within the course of Earth's evolution. Only then will the Earth reach the goal of its evolution, when humanity becomes freer and freer. For this, however, intellectuality was necessary in a certain age. That age is ours. For if you look back to earlier conditions on Earth, when people had dreamlike clairvoyance, spiritual beings always lived within that dreamlike clairvoyance. At that time, people could not say, “I have my thoughts in my head.” That would have been wrong. In ancient times, they had to say, “I have the life of angels in my head.” And later they had to say: I have the life of elemental spirits in my head. Then came the 15th century, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, human beings no longer had anything spiritual in their heads, only thoughts.
[ 17 ] Because they no longer had anything of a higher spiritual nature within them, only thoughts, they were able to form images of the outside world. But could human beings be free as long as the spirits lived within them? They could not. The spirits directed them completely, gave them everything. Man could only become free when no spirits directed him anymore, when he had only thought images.
[ 18 ] You cannot force thought images to do anything. When you stand in front of the mirror — no matter how evil the people in the mirror may be, they will never slap you in the face; never a real slap, because they have no reality, because they are images. If I want to decide to do something, I can have my reflection in the mirror do it; but the image cannot decide to do anything.
[ 19 ] In an age where intellectuality only puts thoughts into our heads, freedom arises, because thoughts cannot compel. If we allow our moral impulses to be pure thoughts, as I have described in my Philosophy of Freedom, then we can achieve freedom in our age. Thus, the intellectual age had to come about. It sounds strange, but it is true: essentially, the time when people were allowed to develop mere intellectuality, mere image thinking, is over. That came to an end with the 19th century. And if people now continue to develop these mere image-thoughts, then their thoughts will fall prey to the Ahrimanic forces, then the Ahrimanic forces will find access to human beings, and then they will lose their freedom again to the Ahrimanic forces. And humanity is currently facing this danger.
[ 20 ] Humanity is currently faced with the possibility of either understanding spiritual life, understanding that something like this is reality, as I have described at the beginning of this discussion, or denying it. But if we deny it today, we can no longer think freely, and Ahriman — the Ahrimanic forces — will begin to think within humanity. And then the entire development of humanity will proceed in a downward spiral.
[ 21 ] It is therefore extremely important that more and more people today understand that we must return to spiritual life. And this feeling that we must return to spiritual life is what people should be seeking within themselves today. If they do not seek it, humanity will fall prey to Ahriman. From a higher point of view, this is how serious the situation of human beings on Earth is today. And one should actually put this thought before every other thought, consider every other thought in the light of this thought.
[ 22 ] That was the first part of today's reflection. Perhaps Mr. Kaufmann would be so kind as to translate the first part. I will then continue.
[ 23 ] Such descriptions may make it clear that the life we go through in the spiritual world between death and a new birth is completely different from what we experience here between birth and death. Therefore, even images taken from earthly life, however ingenious they may be, are not sufficient to characterize the actual spiritual life of human beings. Instead, one can only slowly and gradually lead people to an understanding of what is real in the spiritual world. I will give some examples of this.
[ 24 ] Suppose that a person leaves their earthly body here and passes over with their soul-spiritual life into the spiritual-soul world. And suppose that someone who has acquired initiatory knowledge in the more intimate sense is able to continue observing souls in their life after death. This requires a great deal of preparation and a certain karma that connects the person here with the person over there. It is a matter of gaining the ability to communicate with a deceased person. I am talking about extremely difficult spiritual experiences, because it is generally easier to describe the spiritual world than to get even the slightest bit close to a dead person. People easily believe that it is not difficult to approach a dead person; it is much more difficult to really approach the dead than to gain general spiritual insights.
[ 25 ] Now I would like to tell you about some peculiarities of communicating with the dead. First of all, it is only possible to communicate with the dead by putting oneself in their memory of the physical world. The dead still have an echo of human language, even of the particular language they mainly spoke here on earth. But their relationship to language changes. For example, when communicating with a deceased person, one notices that they very quickly lose all understanding of nouns. Nouns are words that the living can address to the deceased, but the deceased, if I may use the expression, simply does not hear them. On the other hand, the dead retain an understanding of all verbs, i.e., words denoting actions, for a relatively long time.
[ 26 ] As a rule, you can only communicate with the dead if you understand how to ask them questions in the right way. Sometimes you have to approach these questions in such a way that you concentrate on the dead person in complete peace and quiet for a day, living with them in something that is quite concrete—because after death they have more images in their soul than abstract ideas— so you have to concentrate on something that is a real, concrete experience that they enjoyed here in life, and then you can gradually get closer to the deceased.
[ 27 ] You don't usually get an answer right away. You often have to sleep on it, perhaps several times, and you will receive an answer after a few days. But you never actually receive an answer from the dead if you ask them questions using nouns. You have to try to express everything in verbal form. This preparation is absolutely necessary. The best thing the dead understand are verbs that you make quite vivid. For example, the dead never understand the word “table”; but if you manage to vividly imagine something that is in action, such as a table being made, something that is in the process of becoming, then you can gradually become understandable to the dead person to such an extent that they understand the question and you get answers that are always in verbal form, but very often not even in verbal form, but in what we here on earth would call interjections, as words of feeling.
[ 28 ] Specifically, the dead speak in letter combinations and sound combinations. And the longer he remains in the spiritual world after death, the more he comes to speak in a language that one only acquires when one has gained a discerning understanding of earthly language, when one no longer clings to the abstract meaning of words, but penetrates into the sensory content of sounds.
[ 29 ] It is just as I have said in my lectures on education: with A, we feel something like amazement. We take this amazement into our own soul, so to speak, when we do not merely say A, but Ah. That means: A = I am amazed, and the amazement enters into me: ch. And if I now add m and say: mach — then I have a sense of pursuing that which amazes me, as if it were approaching in steps — m — and I am completely immersed in it! The answers of the dead often come in these sounds. They do not speak English, they do not speak German, they do not speak Russian, they speak in such a way that only the soul and the heart can understand when the soul and the heart are connected to the ears.
[ 30 ] I told you earlier: the heart is more majestic than the sun. For earthly perception, the heart is somewhere inside, and when we cut it out anatomically, it is not a beautiful sight. In truth, the heart is in the whole human being, permeates all the other organs, and is also located in the ear. We must become more and more accustomed to this language of the heart of the dead, if I may call it that. |
[ 31 ] We become accustomed to this when we gradually discard everything that is noun-like and enter into the verbal realm. The dead understand activity and becoming for quite some time after death. But later they understand a language that is not really a language. What we then receive from the dead must first be translated back into an earthly language.
[ 32 ] In this way, the human being grows out of his body and gradually grows into the spiritual world, as his entire soul life becomes different. And when the time gradually approaches when the human being descends to earth, he must again change his entire soul life, for then the moment draws ever nearer when he stands before a mighty task, where he must first compose the astral form and then the etheric form of the whole future human being who will stand physically here on earth.
[ 33 ] What we do here on earth is external work. Our hands are busy with something that happens externally. When we are between death and a new birth, our soul is busy putting our body together. It is only apparent that human beings come into being through heredity. Heredity only provides the outermost physical shell, but human beings must develop the form of their organs themselves. I will give you an example of this, but I would need a glove to do so.
[ 34 ] When human beings approach earthly life, they still have the sun and moon within them. But gradually the sun and moon shrink together. You then feel within yourself as if you were feeling your two lungs shrinking together. This is how you feel your cosmic existence, your sun and moon organs, shrinking together. And then something detaches itself from the sun, and something from the moon. Now, instead of having the sun and moon within you, you have something in front of you that is a kind of image of the sun and moon. Shining and glittering, you have two initially huge spheres in front of you, one of which is the spiritualized sun, the other the spiritualized moon: one sphere in bright shining light, the other sphere glowing, more warm within itself, warming and fiery, and holding the light more selfishly to itself.
[ 35 ] These two spheres, which detach themselves from the cosmically transformed human being — from this Adam Kadmon who still exists today — these two spheres, which detach themselves, come closer and closer together. When one descends to earth, one says: the sun and moon become one. And that is what guides you, that is what leads you — already from your great-great-great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother, great-grandmother, grandmother, and so on — to the mother who is to give birth to you. The sun and moon guide you, but in doing so they come closer and closer together.
[ 36 ] And then you see a task before you. Then you see, as it were, like a single point, that which is still far away in the human embryo. And you see that which has emerged from the sun and moon as a unified whole, approaching the mother. But you see a task before you, which I can characterize as follows.
[ 37 ] Imagine that this here [the glove] were now what is moving toward you as the united sun and moon, and you know: when your cosmic consciousness has completely disappeared, when you pass through a darkness — that is after conception, when the human being submerges into the embryo — you will have to turn this inside out so that the inside comes out. You must turn inside out what has been the sun and moon, and there will be a small opening through which you must enter with your ego, and this will then be the image of your human body on earth.
[ 38 ] You see, that is the pupil in the human eye. From what is this one, two is then made, as if two mirror images were created: these are the two human eyes, initially united in themselves, but then turned inside out as united sun and moon.
[ 39 ] It is incumbent upon us to perform this task, which we do unconsciously: we must turn the whole thing upside down, turn the inside out, and enter through the small opening. Then it separates: two physical images are formed in the embryonic state. For the physical embryonic eyes are two images: that which has arisen from the sun and moon.
[ 40 ] This is how one works—by taking what one experiences as the whole universe, by giving it a certain form—the individual parts of the human organism, which then only clothe and re-clothe themselves from the plastic material, from matter. They only take this on. But the forces are formed from the universe.
[ 41 ] For example, if you pass through the sun in the time before birth in such a way that the sun is in the sign of Leo — it does not have to be at birth, it can be further back — you do not form your eyes from the sun and moon during this time; that happens at another time. during this time, however, you unite with the inner core of the sun. If you were to enter this inner core of the sun, it would look completely different from what physicists imagine today. That physical conception is so clueless! This inner core of the sun is not a ball of gas, but something less than space, where space itself has been taken away. If one thinks of space as something expansive that exerts pressure, then one would have to imagine the interior of the sun as sucking, negative space, emptier than space! Very few people arrive at an adequate conception. When one passes through it, one experiences something that can then be formed, and which then goes on to form, for example, the human heart.
[ 42 ] It is not the case that only the shape of the eyes is formed from the sun and moon; the shape of the heart is also formed from the sun, but only if the sun also contains the forces that come from the constellation of Leo.
[ 43 ] In this way, human beings actually build their entire human organism, whether from the movements or from the constellations of the stars in the universe. This human organism is a reflection of the starry world, and a large part of the work between death and a new birth consists in carving our body out of the universe. The human being, as it stands on earth, is a universe, but a shrunken one. And natural science is so naive that it believes that human beings arise solely from the physical human germ! This is just as naive as someone looking at a magnetic needle that always points north with one end and south with the other — and seeking the forces that cause it to do so only in the magnetic needle itself, without seeing the whole Earth as a magnet.
[ 44 ] It is the same when someone says: The human being arises from the physical human germ. — He does not arise at all from the physical human germ, but from the whole universe. And his spiritual soul between death and a new birth is a collaboration in the supersensible, etheric, soul form of the human being, which then shrinks only so much that it can clothe itself in physical matter. The human being is really only the stage for what the universe and what he himself accomplishes with his transformed forces on his physical body.
[ 45 ] This is how humans gradually develop. It begins with language, when they cease to use nouns and enter into a special language, into the verbal realm. Then they move from language to inner contemplation of the starry world, and then they live in the starry world. And then they begin to separate themselves from the starry world and form what they will become, what they will be in their next incarnation. Thus, through the transformation of language, they pass from the physical into the spiritual; and thus they pass back again through the transformation of the universe to the human being. And indeed, only when one understands how the spiritual-soul element, which is so lost in language, becomes one with the starry world and then withdraws again from the starry world, can one understand this entire circle of human life between death and a new birth. |
[ 46 ] These things were still clear to many people at the time when the mystery of Golgotha was taking place on earth. People never really believed that Christ Jesus was primarily the being who developed on earth. Rather, they believed that Christ Jesus had previously been in the world to which they themselves belonged between death and a new birth — and they thought about how he had descended and passed into the earth.
[ 47 ] The science of initiation had just been eradicated by the Roman world; only the old dogmas were to remain. A special body that existed in Italy in the 4th century AD, after the Mystery of Golgotha, made every effort to prevent the old methods of initiation from being transformed into new ones; that people should be left only with knowledge of the outer physical world, and that the supersensible worlds should be known only through the old dogmas, which they would gradually take in with their intellect as mere concepts, no longer even understanding them, but simply believing in them. And so the knowledge that had once existed was torn apart into knowledge of the earthly world and belief in another world, until this belief shrank so much that for some it consisted only of a sum of dogmas that were no longer understood, and for others they were merely a point of reference for believing. What does modern man believe, who no longer adheres to the dogmas of the Trinity? He believes in something vague, something generally spiritual. But we must return to the real view, in which we immerse ourselves in the spiritual; that is, we need a science of initiation, a science that speaks to us of things such as: Admire the human eye, which is a small world in itself. It is not merely an image; it is something real for the reasons I have just given you. For this eye was once, when we were between death and new birth, one, and this unity, which then turned inside out, was actually a confluence of the images of the sun and the moon. And we have two eyes for this reason, because if we were predisposed to see with only one eye, like the Cyclops, we would never be able to develop the I in a visible world; we would only develop it in the world of feelings.
[ 48 ] Helen Keller has a different emotional world, a different world of imagination than other people; she can only communicate because language has been made clear to her. Without this, we would not develop a concept of the self. We develop it by being able to place our right hand over our left hand, especially when we place the symmetrical limbs on top of each other. In the same way, we develop a subtle concept of the self because we cross the eye axis with our two eyes when we look at something. Just as we cross our hands, we cross the two axes of our eyes. Whenever we look at something, we cross our eyes.
[ 49 ] The two physical eyes are one in the spiritual realm. And this is located here behind the bridge of the nose, this one eye, this spiritual eye, which forms an image and becomes the two eyes. Because humans can be right-handed or left-handed, they can feel themselves to be human beings. If they were only right-handed or only left-handed, if they were not symmetrical beings, all their ideas would flow out into the world; they would not arrive at a closed ego.
[ 50 ] By forming the two images of the sun and moon into one, we form ourselves for future incarnation. We say to ourselves: You cannot fall apart into the whole world; you cannot become a sun-human being and have the moon-human being beside you. You must become one. - But then, in order to be able to feel this unity, the unified sun-moon human eye arises again. The sun-moon human eye is the transformation into the form of what we then carry as our eye, and our two eyes are precisely the images of the unified sun-moon human eye.
[ 51 ] That is what I wanted to tell you today, my dear friends, about the completely different experience we have when we are in the spiritual world compared to here in the physical world. And yet, things are connected. But they are connected in such a way that we are completely turned inside out. If we could turn a human being inside out here, so that we turned his inner self outward, so that, for example, the inner self, the heart, would then be the surface of the human being—he would not remain alive as a physical human being, you can believe that— but if you could turn them inside out, touch them inside their heart and turn them inside out like a glove, then they would not remain the same human beings as they are here, but would expand into a universe. For if one concentrates on a point, on the heart, and then has the ability to turn oneself inside out in the spirit, then one becomes this world that one otherwise experiences between death and a new birth. That is the secret of the human inner being, which cannot be turned inside out in the physical world. But the human heart is also an inverted world, and so the physical world is connected to the spiritual world. We must get used to this inversion. If we do not get used to it, we will never get a proper idea of how the physical world here actually relates to the spiritual world.