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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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The Younger Generation
GA 217

15 October 1922, Dornach

Lecture XIII

Naturally a great deal more could be said in conclusion to what I have put before you here. In speaking one is obliged to explain things in words and ideas. What is intended is the unity of character, the unity of force, that one would wish to make stream through the words and ideas. Let me sum up by using a half pictorial form to convey what I still wish to say to you. Elaborate it for yourselves and you will perhaps understand better what I mean.

Now from various aspects I have drawn your attention to how every civilized human being today lives in intellectualism in a life of concepts, which in our epoch has developed in the most intense, penetrating way. Mankind has worked itself up to the most abstract concepts. You need only compare, for instance, how in an age preceding our own, Dante received descriptions of the world from his teacher. Everything was still permeated with soul, everything was still of a spiritual nature; it wafted like a magic breath through the whole of Dante's great poem. Then came the time when humanity molded what was experienced inwardly into abstract concepts. Men have always had concepts but, as I have already explained to you, they were revealed concepts, not concepts that no longer corresponded to inner revelations of the soul. Only when men had wrestled through to concepts no longer springing from revelations did they evolve concepts from observation of external Nature, and from outer experiments—only then did they allow validity to what was received from outside through mere observation.

If we go deeply into the old world of thought, into that of the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we have the feeling that it was united with the inner being of the soul. There was still an inner life then, a living from within outwards, an experiencing which arose in man because he had united himself with this life.

The conceptual system even of the most primitive human being is acquired from outside today, from external Nature observed by the senses. And even those who still cling to the older concepts no longer hold to this belief with any depth of conviction, not even the peasant. When something is passed on from outside, something established scientifically and verified by Nature, it becomes the ideal towards which people strive. But concepts, ideas, arising out of the inner life of the soul, have the characteristic by thus struggling out of the soul, as I have already explained, of becoming dead concepts. And the human being feels it right that, in so far as they are born out of his inner being, these concepts shall die. But the strange thing that has come to pass during the last few centuries, reaching its culmination in the nineteenth century, is that the concepts dying in the inner being took on fresh life from the outer world. It can actually be proved by a historical phenomenon. Think how Goethe out of his inner being built up a whole conception of evolution. It reached its zenith in his concept of metamorphosis. We have the feeling that we are working out of the living into the dead, but that the human being has to work into what is dead because the living implies coercion. Freedom could only arise by concepts becoming dead. Yet these concepts have taken on new life from outer Nature. Inasmuch as Darwinism, for instance, has come upon the scene—even in our Middle European civilization—we have concepts and ideas which acquire new life from outer Nature. But it is a life which devours the human being.

Today we must feel the full intensity of being surrounded by a thinking bound to Nature but which devours the human being. How does it devour the human being? With the ideas the most advanced kind of thinking draws from Nature, we can never understand man. What does our magnificent theory of evolution provide? It gives us a survey of how animals evolve from animals, and how man stands before us—but only as the culminating point in the ranks of the animal kingdom, and not what we are as men.

This is what modern civilization tells us. Previous civilizations understood the kingdoms of Nature as arising out of man, modern civilization grasps man as arising out of Nature, as the highest animal. It does not grasp to what extent animals are imperfect men. If we fill our soul with what our thinking has become through Nature, there appears in the picture of the man-devouring dragon what is the most potent factor in modern civilization. Man feels himself confronting a being who is devouring him.

Consider how this devouring has taken effect. Whereas from the fifteenth century onwards natural science has been triumphantly progressing, knowledge of man has been more and more on the downgrade. The human being could only keep going with difficulty, by preserving and handing on the old no longer living ideas and traditions. Only with difficulty could man protect himself from having his innermost life devoured by the dragon. And in the last third of the nineteenth century the dragon stood with particular intensity before the human being, threatening in the most terrible way to devour the individual life of the soul. Those who had within them a fully developed life of soul felt how the dragon, who was destined for death, had acquired fresh life in the new age through observation and experiment, but it was a life that devoured the human being.

In more ancient times men played a part in producing the dragon, but endowed with the necessary amount of death-forces, they could master him. In those days man contributed to his experience only as much intellectuality as he could master through forces of the heart. Now, the dragon has become sternly objective; he meets us from outside and devours us as beings of soul.

This is the essential characteristic of civilization from the fifteenth century on into the nineteenth. We see it correctly only when we consider the picture of the dragon; in olden times it had a prophetic meaning and pointed to what would come in the future. But olden times were conscious of having given birth to the dragon, and also of having given birth to Michael or St. George, to forces capable of overcoming the dragon.

But from the fifteenth century and on into the nineteenth, humanity was powerless against this. It was the epoch that has gradually succumbed to complete belief in the material world. As a result it had become so paralyzed in its soul-life that in respect of the deepest treasures of the soul, truthfulness had gone. An era which made the world arise out of the Kant-Laplace primeval nebula which densifies into a globe, and in this process engenders living beings and finally man—could but say: Ultimately such activity must disappear into universal death by warmth, but that will also be the death of everything man has developed in the moral sphere! There have always been people who sought to prove that the moral world-order could find a place in a world-order as conceived by Kant-Laplace, ending with universal death, yet such a view is not sincere. And by no means sincere, by no means honest, was the view that considered moral development to originate in illusions and disappear when the universal death through warmth brings about complete annihilation.

Why did such a view of the world ever arise? Why does it fundamentally live in all souls today? Because the dragon penetrates even to the remotest country cottage—though not consciously recognized—and slays the heart. Why is this so? It comes about because man can no longer understand man.

For what takes place in man? There is taking place every moment in man what occurs nowhere else in the earthly world around us. He takes in the foodstuffs from the surrounding world. He takes them from the kingdom of the living and only to a small extent from what is dead. But foodstuffs as they pass through the digestive system are destroyed, even the most living ones. Man takes in living substance and completely destroys it in order to infuse his own life into what has been killed. And not until the foodstuffs pass into the lymph ducts is the dead made living again in man's inner being.

One can see if one penetrates the being of man that in the human organic process, permeated as it is with soul and spirit, matter is completely destroyed and then created anew. In the human organism we have a continual process of destruction of matter so that matter within the human organism can be newly created. Matter is continually being changed into nothingness and newly created in us.

The door to this knowledge was firmly barred in the nineteenth century, when man arrived at the law of the conservation of matter and of energy, and believed that matter is also conserved in the human organism. The establishment of the law of the conservation of matter is clear proof that the human being is no longer inwardly understood.

But now consider how infinitely difficult it is today not to be considered a fool if one fights against what is regarded in modern physics as a definite fact. The law of the conservation of matter and of energy simply means that science has entirely barred the way leading to man. There the dragon has entirely devoured human nature. But the dragon must be conquered, and therefore the knowledge must gain ground that the picture of Michael overcoming the dragon is not merely an ancient picture but that it has reached the highest degree of reality just at this time! It was created in ancient times because men still felt Michael within themselves permeating their unconscious, and by which they unconsciously overcame what arose out of intellectualism. Nowadays the dragon has become quite external. Nowadays the dragon encounters us from outside, threatening continually to kill the human being. But the dragon must be conquered. He can be conquered only through our becoming aware how Michael, or St. George, also comes from outside. And Michael, or St. George, who comes from outside, who is able to conquer the dragon, is a true spiritual knowledge which conquers this center of life (which, for man's inner being is a center of death)—the so-called law of the conservation of energy so that in his knowledge man can again become man in a real sense. Today we dare not; for so long as there is a law of the conservation of matter and of energy, moral law melts away in the universal death through warmth—and the Kant-Laplace theory is no mere phrase!

Man's shrinking away from this consequence is the fearful untruth that has penetrated right into the human heart, into the human soul, and has seized hold of everything in the human being, making him a being of untruth upon the earth. We must acquire the vision of Michael who shows us that what is material on earth does not merely pass through the universal death through warmth, but will at some time actually disperse. He shows us that by uniting ourselves with the spiritual world we are able to implant life through our moral impulses. Thus what is in the earth begins to be transformed into the new life, into the moral.

For the reality of the moral world-order is what the approaching Michael can give. The old religions cannot do this; they have allowed themselves to be conquered by the dragon. They accept the dragon who kills man, and by the side of the dragon establish some special, abstractly moral divine order. But the dragon does not tolerate this; the dragon must be conquered. He does not suffer men to found something alongside him. What man needs is the force that he can gain from victory over the dragon.

You see how profoundly this problem must be grasped. But what has happened in modern civilization? Well, every science has become a metamorphosis of the dragon, all external culture too is an outcome of the dragon. Certainly, the outer world-mechanism, which lives not only in the machine, but also in our social organism, is rightly called a dragon. But besides, the dragon meets us everywhere, whether modern science tells us about the origin of life, about the transformation of living beings, about the human soul, or even in the field of history—everywhere the result proceeds from the dragon. This had become so acute in the last third of the nineteenth century, at the turn of the nineteenth century and on into the twentieth, that the growing human being, who longed to know what the old had received, saw the dragon coming towards him in botany, zoology, history, out of every science—saw himself confronted in every sphere by the dragon waiting to devour the very core of his soul.

In our own epoch the battle of Michael with the dragon has for the first time become real, to the highest degree. When we penetrate into the spiritual texture of the world, we find that with the culmination of the dragon's power there also came—at the turn of the nineteenth century—Michael's intervention with which we can unite ourselves. The human being can have, if he will, Spiritual Science; that is to say, Michael actually penetrates from spiritual realms into our earthly realm. He does not force himself upon us. Today everything must spring out of man's freedom. The dragon pushes himself forward, demanding the highest authority. The authority of science is the most powerful that has ever been exercised in the world. Compare the authority of the Pope; it is almost as powerful. Just think—however stupid a man may be yet he can say: “But science has established that.” People are struck dumb by science, even if one has a truth to utter. There is no more overwhelming power of authority in the whole of man's evolution than that of modern science. Everywhere the dragon rears up to meet one.

There is no other way than to unite ourselves with Michael, that is to say to permeate ourselves with real knowledge of the spiritual weaving and being of the world. Only now does this picture of Michael truly stand before us; for the first time it has become our essential concern as man. In olden times this picture was still seen in Imagination. That is not possible today for external consciousness. Hence any fool can say that it is not true that external science is the dragon. But it is the dragon all the same.

Yet some saw themselves confronting the dragon but were not able to see Michael: those who grew up with science and were not so bewitched by the dragon that they quietly let themselves be devoured, who reacted against the soul being investigated by apparatus for testing the memory—who found no answer to their search for man, because the dragon has devoured him. This lived in the hearts of many human beings at the beginning of the twentieth century—they felt instinctively that they saw the dragon, but could not see Michael. Hence they removed themselves as far as possible from the dragon. They sought for a land which could not be reached by the dragon; they wanted to know nothing more of the dragon. The young are running away from the old because they want to escape from the region of the dragon. That also is an aspect of the Youth Movement. The young wanted to flee from the dragon because they saw no possibility of conquering the dragon. They wanted to go where the dragon was not.

But here there is a mystery and it consists in the fact that the dragon can exercise his power everywhere, even where he is not spatially present. And when he does not succeed in killing man directly through ideas and intellectualism, he succeeds by so rarefying the air everywhere in the world that one can no longer breathe.

And this will certainly be the case—young people who ran from the dragon so as not to be injured, and who came into such rarefied air that they could not breathe the future, felt intensely the nightmare of the past because the air had become unwholesome where it was formerly possible to escape the immediate influence of the dragon. The nightmare that comes from within is, as regards human experience, not very different from the pressure that comes from without, from the dragon.

In the last third of the nineteenth century, the older generation felt direct exposure to the dragon. The young people then experienced the nightmare of the air corrupted by the dragon—air that could not be breathed. Here, the only help is to find Michael who conquers the dragon. Man needs the power of the victor over the dragon, for the dragon receives his life out of a world quite different from that in which the human soul can live. The human soul cannot live in the world out of which the dragon receives his life-blood. But in the overcoming of the dragon the human being must acquire the strength to be able to live. The epoch from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth, which has developed the human being so that he has become quite empty, must be overcome. The age of Michael who conquers the dragon must now begin, for the power of the dragon has become great!

But it is this above all that we must set going if we want to become true leaders of the young. For Michael needs, as it were, a chariot by means of which to enter our civilization. And this chariot reveals itself to the true educator as coming forth from the young, growing human being, yes, even from the child. Here the power of the pre-earthly life is still working. Here we find, if we nurture it, what becomes the chariot by means of which Michael will enter our civilization. By educating in the right way we are preparing Michael's chariot for his entrance into our civilization.

We must no longer nurture the dragon by cultivating a science with thoughts unconcerned with penetrating into the human soul, into man, so as to develop him. We must build the chariot, the vehicle for Michael. This needs living manhood, a living humanity such as flows out of super-sensible worlds into the earthly life and manifests there, precisely in the early periods of human life. But for such an education we must have a heart. We must learn—speaking pictorially—to make ourselves allies of the approaching Michael if we want to become true teachers. More is accomplished for the art of education than by any theoretical principles, if what we receive into ourselves works so that we feel ourselves Michael's confederates, allies of the spiritual being who is entering the earth, for whom we prepare a vehicle by carrying out a living art of education of the young. Far better than all theoretical educational principles is to lift up our eyes to Michael who, since the last third of the nineteenth century, has been striving to enter our outworn dragon-civilization.

This is the fundamental impulse of all educational doctrine. We must not receive this art of education as a theory, we must not take it as something we can learn. We should receive it as something with which we can unite ourselves, the advent of which we welcome, something which comes to us not as dead concepts but as a living spirit to whom we offer our services because we must do so, if men are to experience progress in their evolution. This means to bring knowledge to life again, it means to call forth in full consciousness what once was there in man's unconscious.

My dear friends, in olden times when an atavistic clairvoyance was still natural to human beings, there were Mystery centers. In these Mystery centers, which were at the same time church, school, and center of art, the pupils sought also for knowledge, though more of a soul nature, in their development. Many things could be found in such centers—but libraries did not exist. Do not misunderstand me—no library in our own sense. Something existed akin to our library, that is to say, things were written down; but everything that was written down was read with the purpose of working upon the soul. Nowadays a great deal of what constitutes a library is only there to be stored up, not to be read. The bulk is used only when a thesis must be written because there such things are discussed. But people would prefer entirely to eliminate livingness. What is supposed to come into these theses must be quite mechanical. The aim is for the human being to enter into them as little as possible. Man's participation in spirituality has been wrested from him.

Spirituality, but now in full consciousness, must become living again, that we do not merely experience what can be perceived by the senses but experience once more what can be perceived by the spirit. The age of Michael must begin. In fact everything that has fallen to man's lot since the fifteenth century has come to him from outside. In the age of Michael the human being will have to find his own relation to the spiritual world. And learning, knowledge, will acquire a quite different kind of value.

Now in the ancient Mysteries what was in the libraries was more of the nature of monuments upon which was inscribed what was intended to pass into man's memory. These libraries contained what cannot be compared in any way with our books. For all leaders in the Mysteries directed their pupils to another kind of reading. They said: Yes, there is a library—but they did not call it so—and this library is out there in the human beings walking about. Learn to read them! Learn to read the mysteries that are inscribed in every man. We must return to this. Only we must come to it, as it were, from another side so that as teachers we know: All accumulation of learning, of knowledge, is worthless. As such it is dead and gets its life only from the dragon. We should have the feeling that in wishing “to know,” knowledge cannot be stored up here or there, for then it would at once fall apart. In literature, what is Spirit can only be touched upon lightly.

How can you really find within a book what is Spirit? For the spiritual is something living. The spiritual is not like bones. The spiritual is like the blood. And the blood needs vessels in which to flow. What we recognize as spiritual needs vessels. These vessels are growing human beings. Into these vessels we must pour the spiritual in order that it may hold together. Otherwise we shall have the spirit so alive that it immediately flows away. We must so preserve our knowledge that it can flow into the developing human being.

Then we shall make the chariot for Michael, then we shall be able to become Michael's companions. And what you seek, my dear friends, you will best attain through being conscious of wishing to become companions of Michael.

You must once again be able to follow a purely spiritual Being who is not incarnated on the earth. And you will have to learn to have faith in a human being who shows you the way to Michael. Humanity must understand in a new and living way the words of Christ: “My Kingdom is not of this world.” For it is just through this that it is in the true sense “of this world!” For the task of man is to make the Spirit, which without Him would not be on earth, into a living content of this world. The Christ Himself came down to earth. He did not take man away to an earthly life in the heavens. The human being must permeate his earthly life by a mediating spirituality which gives him power to conquer the dragon.

This must be understood so thoroughly that one can answer the question: Why did human beings tear each other to pieces during the second decade of the twentieth century?—They tore each other to pieces because they carried the battle into a region where it does not belong, because they did not see the real enemy, the dragon. To the conquest of the dragon belong the forces which, only when developed in the right way, will bring peace upon earth.

In short, we must take seriously our entrance into the Michael age. With the means available at present, we shall have to guide man again to the experience of being surrounded by the picture of Michael, powerful, radiant; for Michael, through the forces developing in man towards a full life of soul, can overcome the dragon preying on humanity. Only when this picture can be received in a more living way than formerly into the soul, will there come forces for the development of inner activity out of man's knowledge that he is of the company of Michael. Only then shall we participate in what can lead to progress and bring peace between the generations, in what can guide the young to listen to the old, and the old to have something to say which the young long to receive and understand.

Because the older generation dangled the dragon in front of youth, they fled to regions poor in air. A true youth movement will only reach its goal when instead of being offered the dragon, the younger generation finds in Michael the forces to exterminate the dragon. This will show itself by older and younger generations having something to say to each other and something to receive from each other.

For, in fact, if the educator is a complete human being he receives as much from the child as he gives to the child. Whoever cannot learn from the child what he brings down from the spiritual world, cannot teach the child about the mysteries of earthly existence. Only when the child becomes our educator by bringing his message to us from the spiritual world will the child be ready to receive from us tidings of earthly life.

It was not for the sake of mere symbolism that Goethe sought everywhere for things that suggest a breathing—outbreathing, inbreathing; outbreathing, inbreathing—Goethe saw the whole of life as a picture of receiving and giving. Everyone receives, everyone gives. Every giver becomes a receiver. But for the receiving and the giving to find a true rhythm it is necessary that we enter the Michael Age.

So I want to conclude with this picture for you to see how the preceding lectures were actually meant. Their aim was that you should not merely carry away in your heads what I have said here, and ponder over it. What I should prefer is for you to have something in your hearts and then to transform what you carry in your hearts into activity. What the human being carries in his head will in time be lost. But what he receives into his heart, the heart preserves and carries into all spheres of activity in which man is involved. May what I have ventured to say to you not be carried away merely in your heads—for then it will certainly be lost—but if it is carried away in your hearts, in the whole of your being, then, my dear friends, we have been talking together in the right way.

Out of this feeling, let me give you my farewell greeting today by saying: Take what I have tried to express as if I had wanted, above all, to let something that cannot be uttered in words penetrate to your hearts. If hearts have found some connection with what is meant here by the Living Spirit, then at least in part what we wanted to achieve in these gatherings will have been fulfilled. With this feeling we will separate today; with this feeling, however, we shall also come together again. Thus we shall find association in the Spirit, even though we work apart in different spheres of life. The chief thing will be that in our hearts we have found each other; then the spiritual, all that belongs to Michael, will also flow into our hearts.

Dreizehnter Vortrag

[ 1 ] Es wäre noch vieles zu sagen, um das in den vorangehenden Tagen vor Ihnen hier Entwickelte zu einer Art von Abschluß zu bringen. Denn indem man spricht, muß man eben die Dinge in Worte und Ideen auseinanderlegen; was man meint, ist aber der einheitliche Zug und die einheitliche Kraft, die man durch die vielen auseinandergelegten Worte und Ideen hindurchströmen lassen möchte. Damit aber vielleicht doch manches, was ich noch in vielen Worten sagen könnte und eigentlich sagen müßte, in einer gewissen Weise wiederum auch zusammenfassend gesagt wird, lassen Sie mich dasjenige, was ich heute noch zu Ihnen sprechen will, halb bildlich vorbringen. Sie werden das Halb-bildliche verarbeiten und dann vielleicht besser verstehen, was ich meine.

[ 2 ] Ich habe Sie von den verschiedensten Seiten her darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß heute jeder Mensch, der mit der Zivilisation lebt, im Intellektualismus lebt, in jenem Begriffsleben, das sich gerade in unserem Zeitalter in intensivster, eindringlichster Weise ausgebildet hat. Die Menschheit hat es dazu gebracht, sich bis zu den abstraktesten Begriffen heraufzuarbeiten. Sie brauchen nur daran zu denken, wie in jener Zeit, die der unsrigen unmittelbar vorangegangen ist, Dante von seinem Lehrer die Welt beschrieben erhalten hat. Da war noch alles seelisch, alles geistig, und das webt noch wie ein Zauberhauch durch Dantes große Dichtung. Dann kam das Zeitalter, wo die Menschheit das innerlich Erlebte in abstrakte Begriffe gießen wollte. Begriffe haben die Menschen immer gehabt. Aber es waren, wie ich Ihnen auseinandergesetzt habe, geoffenbarte Begriffe. Es waren nicht Begriffe, die gar keiner inneren seelischen Offenbarung mehr entsprachen. Erst als sich die Menschen zu Begriffen durchgerungen hatten, die gar keiner seelischen Offenbarung mehr entsprangen, kamen sie dazu, alle ihre Begriffe in der äußeren Naturbeobachtung, ja sogar an dem äußeren Experiment zu entwickeln und nur noch dasjenige gelten zu lassen, was von außen durch die Beobachtung aufgenommen wird.

[ 3 ] Man hat immer das Gefühl, wenn man sich in die alte Gedankenwelt vertieft, selbst in diejenige des zwölften, dreizehnten, vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, daß man da etwas hat, was sich mit dem inneren Seelenwesen verbindet. Man hat das Gefühl, daß man noch ein inneres Leben hat, ein Leben von innen heraus, ein Erleben, das dadurch entstanden ist, daß der Mensch sich damit verbunden hat.

[ 4 ] Das Begriffssystem des primitivsten Menschen ist heute von außen her erworben, von der äußeren Natur, die sinnlich beobachtet wird. Und selbst diejenigen Menschen, die heute noch in einer gewissen Gläubigkeit an den älteren Begriffen festhalten, haben zu dieser Gläubigkeit nicht mehr das intensive Verhältnis, das man früher hatte, selbst nicht der Bauer. Dem Menschen irgend etwas von außen her zu überliefern, was wissenschaftlich feststeht, was an der Natur verifiziert ist, ist heute ein Ideal, nach dem man hinstrebt. Aber Begriffe, Ideen, die aus dem Innern der Seele auftauchen, die haben ja, wie aus meiner Auseinandersetzung hervorgeht, das Eigentümliche, daß sie, indem sie aus dem inneren Seelischen sich herausringen, als Begriffe dann sterben. Und der Mensch fühlt es als richtig, daß seine Begriffe, insofern sie aus seinem Inneren heraus geboren werden, ersterben. Aber das Eigentümliche, was geschehen ist seit einigen Jahrhunderten und eben im neunzehnten Jahrhundert seine Kulmination hatte, war, daß die im Innern ersterbenden Begriffe sich an der Außenwelt wieder belebten. Wir können das wirklich an einer historischen Erscheinung nachweisen. Denken Sie einmal, wie Goethe sich aus seinem Inneren heraus eine ganze Entwickelungsanschauung gebildet hat, die in seinen Metamorphose-Begriffen gipfelt. Man hat das Gefühl, daß man sich aus dem Lebendigen herausarbeitet in das Tote, daß das aber so sein muß, weil das Lebendige Zwang ist. Freiheit konnte erst entstehen, nachdem die Begriffe zum Toten hin gekommen waren. Aber gleichzeitig haben sich diese Begriffe wieder an der äußeren Natur belebt: Indem so etwas wie der Darwinismus — auch in unserer mitteleuropäischen Zivilisatiou — an die Stelle des Goetheschen Entwickelungsgedankens tritt, haben wir Begriffe, Ideen, die an der äußeren Natur wieder Leben gewinnen. Das ist aber ein Leben, das den Menschen verschlingt!

[ 5 ] Das muß man in seiner ganzen Intensität fühlen, wie wir heute von einem Denken umgeben sind, das sich mit der Natur verbunden, von der Natur Lebenskraft gewonnen hat, das aber den Menschen verschlingt. Wie verschlingt? Nun, mit alledem, was gerade die vorgerückteste Denkweise an Ideen aus der Natur herausholt, können wir niemals den Menschen begreifen. Was gibt uns unsere großartige Entwickelungslehre? Sie zeigt uns, wie Tiere aus Tieren sich entwickeln. Dann steht der Mensch vor uns, aber doch nur als Schlußpunkt der Tierreihe und nicht, wie er als Mensch ist.

[ 6 ] Das sagt uns die heutige Zivilisation. Frühere Zivilisationen begriffen vom Menschen aus die Naturreiche; unsere Zivilisation heute begreift den Menschen von der Natur aus als das höchste Tier. Aber was sie nicht begreift, das ist, inwiefern die Tiere unvollkommene Menschen sind. Wenn wir uns in unserer Seele erfüllen mit dem, was unser Denken an der Natur geworden ist, dann erscheint uns in dem Bilde des den Menschen verschlingenden Drachens dasjenige, was heute gerade das Intensivste in unserer Zivilisation ist. Wir fühlen uns als Mensch einem Wesen gegenüber, das uns verschlingt.

[ 7 ] Sehen Sie nur einmal, wie dieses Verschlingen Platz gegriffen hat. Indem seit dem fünfzehnten Jahrhundert die Naturwissenschaft sich immer weiter und weiter auf geradezu triumphale Art ausgebildet hat, ist die Menschenkunde immer mehr in Verfall geraten. Die Menschen konnten sich nur mit Mühe gegenüber dem ihr innerstes Leben verschlingenden Drachen halten, indem sie die alten, aber nicht mehr lebendigen Traditionen aufbewahrten und fortpflanzten. Und im letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts stand der Drache, der das menschliche Seelenleben in der furchtbarsten Weise zu verschlingen drohte, mit besonderer Intensität vor den Menschen. Diejenigen, die noch ein volles seelisches Leben in sich hatten, fühlten, wie der Drache, der zum Tode bestimmt war, in der neuesten Zeitentwickelung durch Beobachtung und Experiment Leben gewonnen hatte, aber ein Leben, das den Menschen verschlingt.

[ 8 ] In älteren Zeiten war der Mensch an dem Hervorbringen des Drachens noch beteiligt, doch hatte er die nötige Dosis von Todeskraft mitbekommen, so daß er ihn noch bezwingen konnte. Der Mensch hat damals dem Erleben nur soviel Intellektualität mitgegeben, daß er sie noch durch die Herzenskräfte überwinden konnte. Jetzt ist der Drache streng objektiv geworden, jetzt lebt er so, daß er uns von außen begegnet und uns als seelisches Wesen verschlingt.

[ 9 ] Das war im wesentlichen die Signatur der Zivilisation vom fünfzehnten bis ins neunzehnte Jahrhundert hinein: Wir sehen sie nur richtig, wenn wir auf das Bild des Drachens hinschauen, das in alten Zeiten prophetisch gemeint war und hindeutete auf das, was in zukünftiger Zeit erst kommen wird. Aber jene alten Zeiten waren sich bewußt, daß, indem sie den Drachen aus sich heraus gebären, sie auf der anderen Seite den Michael oder den St.Georg gebären, nämlich das, was den Drachen überwinden kann.

[ 10 ] Vom fünfzehnten bis ins neunzehnte Jahrhundert wurde die Menschheit dem Drachen gegenüber ohnmächtig. Es war das Zeitalter, das nach und nach ganz dem Glauben an die materielle Welt verfallen ist. Dadurch ist dieses Zeitalter in seinem Innersten seelenhaft so ertötet worden, daß in bezug auf die innersten Seelenschätze keine Wahrhaftigkeit mehr da war. Eine Zeit, welche die Welt herausentstehen läßt aus dem Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel, der sich zusammenballt und in seiner Zusammenballung die Lebewesen und zuletzt die Menschen hervorbringt, muß sagen: Ein solches Zusammenwirken kann schließlich auch nur in den Wärmetod hinein verschwinden. Aber dann wird auch das tot sein, was die Menschen sich moralisch erarbeitet haben! Wenn man immer wieder versucht hat, den Beweis zu liefern, die moralische Weltordnung könne Platz haben in einer Welt, an deren Anfange der sogenannte Kant-Laplacesche Urnebel und an deren Ende der Wärmetod steht, so ist das nicht aufrichtig. Und schon gar nicht aufrichtig und gar nicht ehrlich ist es, die moralische Entwickelung so aufzufassen, daß sie aufsteigt mit den Infusorien und verschwindet, wenn der Wärmetod den Untergang bewirken wird.

[ 11 ] Und warum kam man zu einer solchen Weltanschauung? Warum lebt das heute im Grunde genommen in allen Seelen? Weil bis in die äußerste Landhütte, wenn es auch nicht bewußt wird, der Drache hindurchdringt und das Herz ertötet. Und warum ist das so? Weil der Mensch den Menschen nicht mehr erfassen kann. Was geschieht denn im Menschen? Im Menschen geschieht in jedem Augenblick etwas, was sonst nirgends in der irdischen Umwelt geschieht: Der Mensch nimmt die Nahrungsmittel aus der äußeren Umwelt auf, er nimmt sie auf aus dem Lebensreiche und nur weniges aus dem toten Reiche; aber indem die Nahrungsmittel durch den Verdauungsapparat dringen, werden auch die lebendigsten Nahrungsmittel ertötet. Der Mensch zerstört das, was er lebendig aufnimmt, vollständig, um dem Ertöteten das eigene Leben einzuflößen, und erst wenn die Nahrungsmittel in die Lymphgefäße übergehen, wird im Innern des Menschen das Tote wiederum lebendig gemacht.

[ 12 ] Im ganzen durchseelten und durchgeistigten organischen Prozeß — wenn man die Menschenwesenheit ganz erkennt und durchschaut, so stellt sich das heraus — wird die Materie vollständig vernichtet, um neu geschaffen zu werden. Wir haben im menschlichen Organismus immer einen Vernichtungsprozeß der Materie, damit diese Materie neu geschaffen werden kann. In uns wird fortgesetzt Materie in Nichts verwandelt und wiederum neu geschaffen.

[ 13 ] Zu dieser Erkenntnis wurde die Tür dicht verriegelt im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, in dem man zu dem Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Kraft gekommen ist und glaubte, die Materie erhalte sich auch durch den menschlichen Organismus hindurch. Die Statuierung des Gesetzes von der Erhaltung der Materie ist ein deutlicher Beweis dafür, daß man den Menschen nicht innerlich erkennt.

[ 14 ] Nun stellen Sie sich aber vor, wie unendlich schwierig es ist, heute nicht für einen Toren gehalten zu werden, wenn man gegen dasjenige kämpft, was in der heutigen Physik als das Sicherste angesehen wird! Das Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Materie und der Erhaltung der Kraft bedeutet nichts anderes, als daß die Naturwissenschaft den Weg zum Menschen dicht verriegelt hat. Da hat der Drache die menschliche Natur ganz verschlungen. Aber der Drache muß besiegt werden, und deshalb muß die Erkenntnis Platz greifen, daß das Bild von dem Michael, der den Drachen besiegt, nicht nur ein altes Bild ist, sondern ein Bild, das in unserer Zeit den höchsten Grad seiner Realität erreicht hat. Ältere Zeiten haben es ausgebildet, weil die Menschen in sich noch den Michael fühlten als etwas, was sie unbewußt durchdrang und unbewußt das überwindet, was aus der bloßen Intellektualität kommt. Jetzt ist der Drache ganz äußerlich geworden. Jetzt begegnet uns der Drache von außen und droht fortwährend, den Menschen zu ertöten. Aber der Drache muß besiegt werden, und er kann nicht anders besiegt werden, als indem wir gewahr werden, wie auch der Michael, der St.Georg, von außen kommt. Und dieser Michael, dieser St.Georg, der von außen kommt, der imstande ist, den Drachen zu besiegen, ist nichts anderes als eine wirkliche geistige Erkenntnis, die auch noch dieses Lebenszentrum, das aber für das Innere des Menschen ein Todeszentrum ist — das sogenannte Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Energie — besiegt, so daß die Menschen bis in die Erkenntnis hinein wieder Menschen sein können. Heute dürfen sie es nicht; denn wenn es ein Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Materie und der Erhaltung der Kraft gibt, so zerfließt das moralische Gesetz in den Wärmetod, und die Kant-Laplacesche Theorie ist keine Phrase.

[ 15 ] Daß man immer zurückgeschreckt ist vor dieser Konsequenz, das ist das Unwahre, das bis in das menschliche Herz, bis in die menschliche Seele gedrungen ist, alles am Menschen ergriffen und ihn zu einem unwahren Menschen auf dem Erdenrund gemacht hat. Wir müssen den Aufblick zu Michael gewinnen, der uns zeigt, daß das, was auf der Erde materiell da ist, nicht bloß durch den Wärmetod durchgeht, sondern einmal wirklich zerstiebt, und daß wir imstande sind, durch Verbindung mit der geistigen Welt mit unseren moralischen Impulsen Leben zu pflanzen. Und da tritt ein die Umbildung dessen, was in der Erde ist, in das neue Leben, in das Moralische. Denn Realität der moralischen Weltordnung ist dasjenige, was der an uns herantretende Michael uns geben kann. Das können die alten Religionen nicht, denn sie haben sich von dem Drachen besiegen lassen. Sie nehmen einfach den Drachen, der den Menschen ertötet, hin und begründen neben dem Drachen irgendeine besondere, abstrakt-moralische, göttliche Ordnung. Aber der Drache duldet so etwas nicht; der Drache muß besiegt werden. Er duldet nicht, daß man bloß neben ihm etwas begründet. Denn was der Mensch braucht, ist die Kraft, die er aus der Besiegung des Drachens gewinnen kann.

[ 16 ] Sie sehen, wie tief das Problem gefaßt werden muß. Aber was hat die neuzeitliche Zivilisation uns gegeben? Das hat sie uns gegeben, daß uns jede Wissenschaft eine Metamorphose des Drachens war, daß uns alle äußere Kultur auch ein Ergebnis des Drachens war. Gewiß, der äußere Weltmechanismus, der nicht nur in der Maschine, sondern auch in unserem ganzen sozialen Organismus lebt, ist mit Recht ein Drache, Aber der Drache tritt uns ja auch sonst überall da entgegen, wo die heutige Wissenschaft von dem Ursprunge des Lebens, von der Verwandlung der Lebewesen, von der menschlichen Seele zu uns spricht. Auch wo über Geschichte gesprochen wird, ist das Ergebnis ein solches, daß es eigentlich vom Drachen ausgeht. Und das war so arg geworden im letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, um die Wende des neunzehnten, zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts und in das zwanzigste Jahrhundert hinein, daß der aufwachsende Mensch, der danach gelechzt hat, etwas zu erfahren von dem, was die älteren Menschen wußten, überall, in der Botanik, Zoologie, Geschichte und so weiter, aus allen Wissenschaften den Drachen sich entgegenkommen sah, denjenigen sich entgegenkommen sah, der eigentlich das innerste Wesen seiner Seele verschlingen will.

[ 17 ] Im intensivsten Grade real ist der Kampf des Michael mit dem Drachen erst in unserem Zeitalter geworden. Und wenn man in das geistige Gefüge der Welt eindringt, so findet man, daß gleichzeitig mit derKulmination der Macht des Drachens auch das Eingreifen des Michael, mit dem wir uns verbinden können, um die Wende des neunzehnten, zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts eingetreten ist. Der Mensch kann, wenn er will, Geisteswissenschaft haben, das heißt, Michael dringt wirklich aus den geistigen Reichen bis in unser Erdenreich herein, doch drängt er sich uns nicht auf, denn heute muß alles aus der Freiheit des Menschen entspringen. Der Drache aber drängt sich vor, er fordert die höchste Autorität. Es hat niemals in der Welt eine so mächtig auftretende Autorität gegeben wie diejenige, die heute von der Wissenschaft ausgeübt wird. Vergleichen Sie sie mit der päpstlichen Autorität; sie ist fast ebenso groß. Man kann der dümmste Kerl sein, aber man kann sagen: Die Wissenschaft hat festgestellt. — Denken Sie nur, wie die Menschen von der Wissenschaft mundtot gemacht werden, auch wenn man etwas Wahres sagt. Es gibt keine erdrückendere Autorität in der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung als diejenige der heutigen Wissenschaft. Überall springt einem der Drache entgegen.

[ 18 ] Es gibt kein anderes Mittel dagegen, als sich mit Michael zu verbinden, das heißt, sich mit dem geistigen Weben und Wesen der Welt in wirklicher Erkenntnis zu durchdringen. Erst Jetzt steht dieses Bild des Michael so recht vor uns, und erst jetzt ist es unsere ureigenste Menschenangelegenheit geworden. In alten Zeiten hat man dieses Bild noch im Imaginativen gesehen. Heute ist das für das äußereBewußtsein nicht möglich. Daher kann jeder Tor sagen, es sei eine Unwahrheit, wenn man die äußere Wissenschaft als den Drachen bezeichne. Aber sie ist der Drache.

[ 19 ] Diejenigen, welche mit der Wissenschaft aufgewachsen sind und von dem Drachen nicht so in Bann gehalten wurden, daß sie sich ruhig verschlingen ließen, die nicht so weit gehen konnten, das Seelische durch allerlei Apparate erforschen zu lassen, um Gedächtnis- und Erinnerungsvermögen zu prüfen, diejenigen, die mit ihr aufgewachsen sind als Menschen, aber denen nicht mehr gesagt wurde, was der Mensch ist, weil es nicht mehr gewußt wurde, weil der Drache den Menschen verschlungen hat, die sahen sich zunächst dem Drachen gegenüber und sahen noch nicht den Michael. Das ist es, was in den Herzen vieler Menschen gerade im Beginne des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts lebte, daß sie gefühlsmäßig-instinktiv den Drachen vor sich sahen, aber nicht den Michael sehen konnten. Daher gingen sie so weit als möglich von dem Drachen weg. Sie wollten sich ein Land suchen, wo der Drache nicht hinkommen kann, sie wollten nichts mehr wissen von dem Drachen. Und so sehen wir, wie die Jugend dem Alter entläuft, weil sie aus dem Gebiete des Drachens herauskommen will. Das ist auch eine Seite der Jugendbewegung. Die Jugend wollte dem Drachen entfliehen, weil sie keine Möglichkeit sah, den Drachen zu besiegen. Sie wollte irgendwo hingehen, wo der Drache nicht war.

[ 20 ] Aber da gibt es nun ein Geheimnis und das besteht darin, daß der Drache seine Macht überall ausüben kann, auch da, wo er nicht räumlich vorhanden ist. Und wenn es ihm nicht gelingt, direkt durch Ideen, durch den Intellektualismus den Menschen zu ertöten, dann gelingt es ihm dadurch, daß er überall in der Welt die Luft so dünn gemacht hat, daß man in ihr nicht mehr atmen kann. Und das wird wohl das Wesentliche sein: Diejenige Jugend, die hinweggegangen war von dem Drachen, um von ihm keinen Schaden zu erleiden, und die dadurch, daß sie in eine zu dünne Lebensluft gekommen ist, keine Zukunft atmen konnte, die fühlte höchstens den Albdruck der Vergangenheit, weil die Luft auch in jenen Gegenden ungesund geworden war, wo man sich dem unmittelbaren Einflusse des Drachens entziehen konnte. Aber der Albdruck, der von innen kommt, ist in bezug auf die menschlichen Erlebnisse nicht viel anders als der Druck, der von außen, von dem Drachen kommt.

[ 21 ] So war es das unmittelbare Dem-Drachen-Ausgesetztsein, was eine ältere Generation im letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts fühlte, und es war der Albdruck der durch den Drachen verdorbenen Luft, die keine Atemluft abgab, den dann die Jugend erlebte. Hier hilft nur dasFinden desMichael, der den Drachen besiegt. Denn man braucht die Kraft des Drachenbesiegers, weil der Drache ja sein Leben aus einer ganz anderen Welt erhält als diejenige ist, in der die Menschenseele leben kann. Die Menschenseele kann nicht leben in der Welt, aus der der Drache sein Lebensblut entnimmt; aber der Mensch muß in der Überwindung des Drachens die Kraft gewinnen, um leben zu können. Daher sagen wir heute richtig: Jenes Zeitalter, vom fünfzehnten bis neunzehnten Jahrhundert, das den Menschen so entwickelt hat, daß alles aus ihm herausging, muß überwunden werden. Es muß das Zeitalter des Michael beginnen, der den Drachen besiegt. Denn des Drachens Macht ist groß geworden!

[ 22 ] Das ist es aber auch, was wir insbesondere zuwege bringen müssen, wenn wir richtige Führer der Jugend werden wollen. Denn Michael brauchtgewissermaßen einen Wagen, durch den er in unsere Zivilisation hereinkommt. Und dieser Wagen ist dasjenige, was sich dem wirklichen Erzieher enthüllt, wenn es aus dem jugendlichen, werdenden Menschen hervortritt, ja schon aus dem Kinde. Da arbeitet noch das, was Kraft des vorirdischen Lebens ist. Da ist es real vorhanden, was, wenn wir es pflegen, für Michael der Wagen wird, mit dem er in unsere Zivilisation hereinfahren wird. Erziehen wir in der richtigen Weise, so bereiten wir Michael das Fahrzeug, damit er hereinkommen kann in unsere Zivilisation.

[ 23 ] Wir dürfen nicht weiterhin den Drachen pflegen, indem wir eine Wissenschaft mit Gedankenformen ausbilden, bei denen wir gar nicht daran denken, daß sie eindringen wollen in eine Menschenseele, in den Menschenkörper, in den Menschen selber und den Menschen heranbilden wollen. Wir müssen Michael den Wagen, das Fahrzeug bauen. Dazu brauchen wir lebendige Menschlichkeit, wie sie aus übersinnlichen Welten in das irdische Menschenleben sich hineinlebt und darinnen sich manifestiert, gerade in den ersten Zeiten des Menschenlebens. Aber wir müssen ein Herz haben für eine solche Erziehung. Wir müssen gewissermaßen lernen — wenn wir im Bilde sprechen -, uns zum Bundesgenossen des hereinziehenden Michael zu machen, wenn wir richtige Erzieher werden wollen. Mehr als mit allen theoretischen Grundsätzen ist für die Erziehungskunst getan, wenn dasjenige, was wir in uns aufnehmen, so wirkt, daß wir uns als Bundesgenossen Michaels fühlen, des auf die Erde hereinfahrenden Geisteswesens, dem wir das Fahrzeug bereiten durch eine lebendige, künstlerisch geführte Erziehung der Jugend. Was uns aus diesem Impuls werden kann, ist viel besser als alle theoretischen Erziehungsgrundsätze. Wir müssen dahin gelangen, daß wir aufschauen zu dem mit dem letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts in unsere altgewordene Drachenkultur hereinstrebenden Michael.

[ 24 ] Das ist der eigentliche Grundimpuls aller Erziehungslehre. Wir müssen diese Erziehungskunst nicht aufnehmen als eine "Theorie, nicht als etwas, was wir lernen können. Wir müssen sie aufnehmen wie etwas, mit dem wir uns verbünden, dessen Ankunft wir begrüßen, das nicht wie tote Begriffe, sondern wie ein lebendiges Geistwesen zu uns kommt, dem wir unsere Dienste anbieten, weil wir sie ihm anbieten müssen, wenn die Menschheit den Fortgang ihrer Entwickelung finden soll. Das heißt: Erkenntnis wiederum zum Leben erwecken, mit aller Bewußtheit wieder heraufbringen, was im Unbewußten einmal in der Menschheit da war.

[ 25 ] Meine lieben Freunde! In alten Zeiten, als das atavistische Hellsehen unter den Menschen noch heimisch war, hat es Mysterienstätten gegeben. In diesen Mysterienstätten, die gleichzeitig Kirche, Schule und Kunststätte waren, suchten diejenigen, die dort ihre menschliche Entwickelung durchmachten, auch an die Kräfte der Erkenntnis heranzukommen, aber eben mehr in seelischer Weise. In diesen Mysterienstätten war damals so mancherlei anzutreffen-aber eineBibliothek in unserem Sinne gab es nicht. Mißverstehen Sie mich nicht: eine Bibliothek in unserem Sinne gab es nicht. Etwas Bibliothekartiges, das heißt Dinge, die aufgeschrieben waren, gab es wohl, aber alles Aufgeschriebene war da, um gelesen zu werden, um auf Seelen zu wirken. Heute ist ein großer Teil des Bibliothekmaterials nur da, um aufgespeichert, nicht um gelesen zu werden. Man nimmt es sich nur vor, wenn man eine Dissertation zu schreiben hat, weil man es da berücksichtigen muß. Aber man möchte am liebsten die Lebendigkeit ganz ausschalten. Ganz Mechanisches soll hineinkommen in die Dissertationen. Man will, daß der Mensch möglichst wenig Anteil daran habe. Es ist aller Anteil des Menschen an der Geistigkeit aus dem Menschen herausgerissen.

[ 26 ] Das muß wiederkommen und jetzt in voller Bewußtheit: daß die Geistigkeit ein Lebendiges wird, daß wir nicht bloß erfahren, was äußerlich mit den Sinnen gesehen werden kann, sondern daß wir wieder erfahren, was im Geiste geschaut werden kann. Es muß das Zeitalter des Michael eintreten. Im Grunde genommen ist alles, was den Menschen vom fünfzehnten Jahrhundert an zuteil geworden ist, von außen eingeflossen. Im Zeitalter des Michael wird der Mensch sein eigenes Verhältnis zur geistigen Welt finden müssen. Und Wissen, Erkennen wird in einer ganz anderen Weise wertvoll werden.

[ 27 ] Sehen Sie, was von den alten Mysterien in den Bibliotheken war, waren mehr Denkmäler, in denen aufgezeichnet wurde, was in die Erinnerung aller übergehen sollte. Mit unseren Büchern lassen sich jene Bibliotheken gar nicht vergleichen. Denn alle Mysterienführer haben ihre Zöglinge zu einer anderen Lektüre angewiesen. Sie haben gesagt: Es gibt eine Bibliothek — und diese Bibliothek sind die Menschen, die draußen herumlaufen. An denen lernt lesen! Lernt lesen die Geheimnisse, die in jedem Menschen eingezeichnet sind! — Dazu müssen wir wieder kommen. Wir müssen nur gewissermaßen von einer andern Seite dazu kommen, so dazu kommen, daß wir als Erzieher wissen: Alle Erkenntnis, alles Wissen als Aufstapelung hat keinen Wert. Da ist es tot und bekommt sein Leben nur vom Drachen. Wir aber müssen, indem wir überhaupt «wissen» wollen, die Empfindung haben, daß dieses Wissen etwas ist, was nicht da und dort aufgestapelt werden kann, weil es gleich auseinanderfließen würde. Wir müssen lernen, daß in der Literatur dasjenige, was Geist ist, eigentlich nur angedeutet werden kann.

[ 28 ] Wie können Sie in einem Buche das wirklich umfaßt haben, was Geist ist? Ist doch das Geistige ein Lebendiges! Das Geistige gleicht nicht den Knochen, es gleicht dem Blute. Und das Blut braucht Gefäße, in denen es rinnt. Was wir als Geistiges erkennen, braucht Gefäße. Diese Gefäße sind die aufwachsenden Menschen. Da müssen wir es hineingießen, damit es überhaupt zusammenhält. Sonst müssen wir den Geist haben als etwas, das so lebendig ist, daß es gleich zerrinnt. Wir müssen alle unsere Erkenntnisse schon so bewahren, daß sie rinnen können in den sich entwickelnden Menschen. Dann werden wir Michael das Fahrzeug zimmern, werden die Genossen des Michael werden können. Und dasjenige, was Sie wollen, meine lieben Freunde, werden Sie am besten dadurch erreichen, daß Sie sich bewußt werden: Sie wollen Genossen des Michael werden.

[ 29 ] Sie müssen wiederum dazu kommen, folgen zu können einem rein geistigen Wesen, das nicht auf der Erde verkörpert ist, und Sie werden lernen müssen, an einen Menschen dadurch zu glauben, daß er Ihnen den Weg zu dem Michael vermittelt. Die Menschheit muß in einer neuen, lebendigen Weise das Christus-Wort verstehen: «Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt.» Dadurch ist es nämlich erst recht von dieser Welt! Denn der Mensch ist dazu da, daß er den Geist, der nicht ohne ihn in dieser Welt ist, zum Inhalt dieser Welt mache. Der Christus ist selber auf die Welt gekommen. Nicht hat er den Menschen zu einem irdischen Leben in den Himmel genommen, sondern der Mensch muß sein irdisches Leben durchdringen mit einer Geistigkeit, die mitteilbar ist und die dem Menschen wiederum die Möglichkeit gibt, den Drachen zu besiegen.

[ 30 ] So etwas muß man so gründlich verstehen, daß man sich selbst die Frage beantworten kann, warum sich die Menschen im zweiten Jahrzehnt des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts zerfleischt haben. Sie haben sich zerfleischt, weil sie den Kampf auf ein Gebiet getragen haben, wo er nicht hingehört, weil sie den eigentlichen Feind, den Drachen, nicht gesehen haben. Zu seiner Besiegung gehören die Kräfte, die erst dann, wenn sie in der richtigen Weise entwickelt werden, auf die Erde den Frieden bringen werden.

[ 31 ] Kurz, wir müssen ernst nehmen das Einziehen in das Michaelszeitalter. Erst wenn mit den Mitteln der Gegenwart erreicht wird, daß den Menschen wiederum das Bild umschwebt des von Lichtglanz umflossenen starken Michael, der den die Menschheit aussaugenden Drachen zu besiegen vermag durch dieKraft des zu lebendigem Seelenleben sich entwickelnden Menschen — erst wenn man dieses Bild viel lebendiger, als man es früher vor Augen hatte, in seine Seele wieder aufnehmen kann, werden einem die Kräfte kommen, innere Regsamkeit zu entwickeln, weil man sich in der Genossenschaft des Michael weiß. Dann erst wird man teilnehmen an allem, was Fortschritt und zwischen den Generationen Frieden bringen kann, was die Jugend dahin bringt, auf das Alter hinzuhören, was macht, daß die Alten etwas zu sagen haben, was die Jugend wissen und aufnehmen will.

[ 32 ] Weil das Alter der Jugend den Drachen entgegengehalten hat, floh sie in luftarme Gegenden. Erst wenn nicht der Drache entgegengehalten wird, sondern aus der Kraft des Michael heraus dasjenige gefunden werden kann, was ihn austilgt, dann wird eine echte Jugendbewegung ihr wahres Ziel erringen. Das wird sich darin offenbaren, daß die Generationen sich etwas zu sagen haben, daß die Generationen etwas voneinander aufnehmen können. Denn in Wahrheit nimmt der Erzieher, wenn er nur ein ganzer Mensch ist, für sich ebensoviel von dem Kinde, als er dem Kinde gibt. Wer nicht vom Kinde lernen kann, was es ihm als Botschaft herunterbringt aus der geistigen Welt, kann dem Kinde auch nichts beibringen über die Geheimnisse des Erdendaseins. Nur wenn das Kind unser Erzieher wird, indem es Botschaften aus der geistigen Welt herunterbringt, wird es sich bereitfinden, die Botschaften, die wir ihm aus dem Erdenleben entgegenbringen, aufzunehmen.

[ 33 ] Goethe hat nicht um eines bloßen Symboles willen überall nach Dingen gesucht, die so sind wie etwa das Atmen — Ausatmen, Einatmen, Ausatmen, Einatmen -, sondern Goethe sah das ganze Menschenleben im Bilde vom Nehmen und Geben. Jeder gibt und jeder nimmt. Jeder Gebende wird ein Nehmender. Aber damit das Nehmen und das Geben in einen richtigen Rhythmus komme, dazu ist notwendig, daß wir in das Michaelzeitalter eintreten.

[ 34 ] So möchte ich mit diesem Bilde schließen, damit Sie sehen, wie eigentlich die vorhergehenden Betrachtungen gemeint waren. Sie waren so gemeint, daß Sie nicht dasjenige, was ich hier gesprochen habe, in Ihren Köpfen davontragen und darüber nachdenken, sondern was ich wünsche ist, daß Sie etwas in Ihren Herzen haben, und daß Sie das, was Sie in ihren Herzen tragen, in Wirksamkeit umsetzen. Was der Mensch im Kopfe trägt, verliert er unterwegs. Aber was er in das Herz aufnimmt, das bewahrt das Herz in alle Wirkungskreise hinein, in die der Mensch versetzt werden wird. Wenn es möglich ist, daß dasjenige, was ich zu Ihnen habe sagen dürfen, von Ihnen nicht bloß mit den Köpfen weggetragen wird — denn da würde es sicher sehr bald verloren sein -, wenn es hinweggetragen wird mit Ihren Herzen, mit Ihrem ganzen Menschen, dann, meine lieben Freunde, haben wir hier in der richtigen Weise miteinander gesprochen.

[ 35 ] Und von diesem Gesichtspunkte, aus diesem Gefühl, aus dieser Empfindung heraus möchte ich heute Ihren Herzen den Abschiedsgruß sagen, indem ich Ihnen zurufe: Nehmen Sie das, was ich in Worten auszusprechen versuchte, so hin, als ob ich vor allem etwas in Ihre Herzen hätte dringen lassen wollen, was in Worten nicht ausgesprochen werden kann. Wenn sich die Herzen nur ein bißchen zusammengefunden haben mit dem, was hier als lebendiger Geist gemeint ist, dann ist, wenigstens zu einem Teile, erfüllt, was wir erreichen wollten, als wir hier zusammenkamen. Mit diesem Gefühl wollen wir auseinandergehen, mit diesem Gefühle wollen wir aber auch wieder zusammenkommen. So werden wir den Zusammenhang im Geiste finden, wenn wir auch auf den verschiedensten Gebieten des Lebens einzeln wirken. Die Hauptsache wird sein, daß wir uns gefunden haben in unseren Herzen. Dann wird auch einfließen das Geistige, das Michaelhafte in unsere Herzen.

Thirteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] There is still much to be said in order to bring what has been developed here before you in the preceding days to some kind of conclusion. For when one speaks, one must express things in words and ideas; but what one means is the unified trait and the unified force that one wishes to let flow through the many words and ideas that have been laid out. However, so that some of what I could still say in many words, and indeed ought to say, may perhaps be summarized in a certain way, let me present what I still wish to say to you today in a semi-figurative manner. You will process the semi-figurative and then perhaps understand better what I mean.

[ 2 ] I have drawn your attention from various angles to the fact that today every person who lives with civilization lives in intellectualism, in that conceptual life that has developed in the most intense and penetrating way in our age. Humanity has managed to work its way up to the most abstract concepts. You need only think of how, in the era immediately preceding ours, Dante's teacher described the world to him. Everything was still spiritual, everything was still intellectual, and this still weaves like a magical breath through Dante's great poetry. Then came the age when humanity wanted to cast its inner experiences into abstract concepts. People have always had concepts. But, as I have explained to you, these were revealed concepts. They were not concepts that corresponded to any inner spiritual revelation. Only when people had struggled to arrive at concepts that no longer sprang from any spiritual revelation did they come to develop all their concepts in the observation of external nature, even in external experimentation, and to accept as valid only what was perceived from outside through observation.

[ 3 ] When one delves into the old world of thought, even that of the twelfth, thirteenth, or fourteenth centuries, one always has the feeling that one has something that connects with the inner soul. One has the feeling that one still has an inner life, a life from within, an experience that has arisen from the fact that human beings have connected themselves with it.

[ 4 ] The conceptual system of the most primitive human being today is acquired from outside, from external nature as observed by the senses. And even those people who still cling to the older concepts with a certain degree of faith no longer have the intense relationship to this faith that people used to have, not even farmers. To pass on to people something from outside that is scientifically established, that has been verified in nature, is today an ideal to which we aspire. But concepts and ideas that emerge from the inner soul have, as my discussion shows, the peculiar characteristic that, in breaking free from the inner soul, they then die as concepts. And people feel it is right that their concepts, insofar as they are born from within, should die. But the peculiar thing that has happened over the last few centuries, culminating in the nineteenth century, is that the concepts that died within us were revived in the outside world. We can actually prove this with a historical phenomenon. Think of how Goethe formed a whole view of development from within himself, culminating in his concepts of metamorphosis. One has the feeling that one works one's way out of the living into the dead, but that this must be so because the living is compulsion. Freedom could only arise after the concepts had come to the dead. But at the same time, these concepts have been revived in external nature: as something like Darwinism—even in our Central European civilization—has replaced Goethe's concept of development, we have concepts and ideas that are regaining life in external nature. But this is a life that devours human beings!

[ 5 ] We must feel with all our intensity how we are surrounded today by a way of thinking that is connected with nature, that has gained its vitality from nature, but that devours human beings. How does it devour? Well, with all the ideas that the most advanced way of thinking extracts from nature, we can never understand human beings. What does our magnificent theory of evolution give us? It shows us how animals develop from animals. Then human beings stand before us, but only as the final link in the animal chain and not as human beings.

[ 6 ] That is what today's civilization tells us. Earlier civilizations understood the natural kingdoms from the perspective of man; our civilization today understands man from the perspective of nature as the highest animal. But what it does not understand is the extent to which animals are imperfect human beings. When we fill our souls with what our thinking has made of nature, then what appears to us in the image of the dragon devouring man is precisely what is most intense in our civilization today. We feel ourselves as human beings facing a being that devours us.

[ 7 ] Just look at how this devouring has taken hold. Since the fifteenth century, as natural science has developed further and further in a truly triumphant manner, the study of human nature has fallen more and more into decline. People could only struggle to hold their own against the dragon devouring their innermost lives by preserving and propagating old traditions that were no longer alive. And in the last third of the nineteenth century, the dragon that threatened to devour the human soul in the most terrible way stood before humanity with particular intensity. Those who still had a full spiritual life within themselves felt how the dragon, which was doomed to die, had gained life in the latest stage of development through observation and experimentation, but a life that devours human beings.

[ 8 ] In earlier times, humans were still involved in the creation of the dragon, but they had received the necessary dose of death force so that they could still defeat it. At that time, humans endowed experience with only enough intellectuality that they could still overcome it through the forces of the heart. Now the dragon has become strictly objective; now it lives in such a way that it encounters us from outside and devours us as spiritual beings.

[ 9 ] This was essentially the hallmark of civilization from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century: We can only see it correctly when we look at the image of the dragon, which in ancient times was meant prophetically and pointed to what was to come in the future. But those ancient times were aware that by giving birth to the dragon from within themselves, they were also giving birth to Michael or St. George, namely that which can overcome the dragon.

[ 10 ] From the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, humanity became powerless against the dragon. It was an age that gradually fell completely into belief in the material world. As a result, this age was so spiritually dead at its core that there was no longer any truthfulness in relation to the innermost treasures of the soul. An age that allows the world to emerge from Kant and Laplace's primordial nebula, which clumps together and, in its clumping, brings forth living beings and finally human beings, must say: Such interaction can ultimately only disappear into heat death. But then what humans have achieved morally will also be dead! If one has repeatedly attempted to prove that the moral world order can have a place in a world that began with the so-called Kant-Laplace primordial nebula and will end in heat death, this is not sincere. And it is certainly not sincere or honest to view moral development as rising with the infusoria and disappearing when heat death brings about the end of the world.

[ 11 ] And why did such a worldview come about? Why does it live in all souls today? Because even in the remotest cottage, though it may not be consciously perceived, the dragon penetrates and kills the heart. And why is that so? Because man can no longer comprehend man. What happens within human beings? At every moment, something happens within human beings that happens nowhere else in the earthly environment: human beings take in food from the external environment, they take it in from the realm of life and only a little from the realm of death; but as the food passes through the digestive system, even the most living food is killed. Human beings completely destroy what they take in alive in order to infuse their own life into what has been killed, and only when the food passes into the lymphatic vessels is what is dead made alive again within human beings.

[ 12 ] In the entire organic process, which is permeated by soul and spirit—if one fully recognizes and understands human nature—matter is completely destroyed in order to be recreated. In the human organism, there is always a process of destruction of matter so that this matter can be recreated. Within us, matter is continually being transformed into nothingness and then recreated anew.

[ 13 ] The door to this insight was firmly closed in the nineteenth century, when the law of conservation of energy was discovered and it was believed that matter was also conserved through the human organism.

The establishment of the law of conservation of matter is clear proof that human beings are not understood inwardly.

[ 14 ] Now imagine how infinitely difficult it is today not to be considered a fool when you fight against what is regarded as the most certain thing in modern physics! The law of conservation of matter and conservation of energy means nothing other than that natural science has closed the door to the human being. The dragon has completely devoured human nature. But the dragon must be defeated, and therefore the realization must take hold that the image of Michael defeating the dragon is not just an old image, but an image that has reached the highest degree of reality in our time. Older times developed it because people still felt Michael within themselves as something that unconsciously permeated them and unconsciously overcame what comes from mere intellectuality. Now the dragon has become entirely external. Now the dragon confronts us from outside and constantly threatens to kill us. But the dragon must be defeated, and it can only be defeated by becoming aware that Michael, St. George, also comes from outside. And this Michael, this St. George, who comes from outside, who is able to defeat the dragon, is nothing other than real spiritual knowledge, which also defeats this center of life, which is, however, a center of death for the inner being of man—the so-called law of conservation of energy—so that human beings can once again be human beings in their very consciousness. Today they cannot do so; for if there is a law of the conservation of matter and the conservation of energy, then the moral law dissolves into heat death, and the Kant-Laplace theory is not a mere phrase.

[ 15 ] The fact that people have always shied away from this consequence is the untruth that has penetrated into the human heart, into the human soul, has seized everything in man and made him an untrue human being on earth. We must raise our gaze to Michael, who shows us that what is materially present on earth does not merely pass through heat death, but is truly destroyed, and that we are capable of planting life through connection with the spiritual world with our moral impulses. And then the transformation of what is in the earth into new life, into morality, takes place. For the reality of the moral world order is what Michael, who is approaching us, can give us. The old religions cannot do this, for they have allowed themselves to be defeated by the dragon. They simply accept the dragon that kills human beings and establish some special, abstract, moral, divine order alongside the dragon. But the dragon does not tolerate such a thing; the dragon must be defeated. It does not tolerate anything being established alongside it. For what man needs is the strength he can gain from defeating the dragon.

[ 16 ] You see how deeply the problem must be understood. But what has modern civilization given us? It has given us that every science was a metamorphosis of the dragon, that all external culture was also a result of the dragon. Certainly, the external mechanism of the world, which lives not only in machines but also in our entire social organism, is rightly a dragon. But the dragon also confronts us everywhere else where modern science speaks to us about the origin of life, the transformation of living beings, and the human soul. Even when we talk about history, the result is such that it actually originates from the dragon. And this had become so bad in the last third of the nineteenth century, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and into the twentieth century, that the growing human being, who longed to learn something of what older people knew, everywhere, in botany, zoology, history, and so on, in all sciences, saw the dragon coming toward them, saw the one coming toward them who actually wants to devour the innermost essence of their soul.

[ 17 ] The battle between Michael and the dragon has only become real in the most intense degree in our age. And when one penetrates into the spiritual structure of the world, one finds that at the same time as the culmination of the dragon's power, the intervention of Michael, with whom we can connect, also occurred at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. If they want to, people can have spiritual science, which means that Michael really comes from the spiritual realms into our earthly realm, but he doesn't force himself on us, because today everything has to come from people's freedom. The dragon, though, pushes himself forward and demands the highest authority. There has never been such a powerful authority in the world as that exercised by science today. Compare it with papal authority; it is almost as great. One can be the stupidest fellow, but one can say: Science has determined it. Just think how people are silenced by science, even when they say something true. There is no authority more oppressive in the entire history of mankind than that of modern science. Everywhere the dragon leaps at you.

[ 18 ] There is no other remedy than to connect with Michael, that is, to penetrate the spiritual fabric and essence of the world with true knowledge. Only now does this image of Michael stand before us, and only now has it become our very own human concern. In ancient times, this image was still seen in the imaginative realm. Today, this is not possible for the outer consciousness. Therefore, any fool can say that it is untrue to describe outer science as the dragon. But it is the dragon.

[ 19 ] Those who grew up with science and were not so captivated by the dragon that they allowed themselves to be quietly devoured, those who could not go so far as to let the soul be explored by all kinds of apparatus to test memory and recollection, those who grew up with it as human beings but were no longer told what man is, because it was no longer known, because the dragon had devoured man, they first saw the dragon and did not yet see Michael. This is what lived in the hearts of many people at the beginning of the twentieth century, that they sensed and instinctively saw the dragon before them, but could not see Michael. Therefore, they went as far away from the dragon as possible. They wanted to find a land where the dragon could not reach them; they wanted nothing more to do with the dragon. And so we see how youth is fleeing from old age because it wants to leave the dragon's domain. This is also one side of the youth movement. Youth wanted to escape the dragon because it saw no way to defeat it. It wanted to go somewhere where the dragon was not.

[ 20 ] But there is a secret, and that is that the dragon can exercise its power everywhere, even where it is not physically present. And if it does not succeed in killing people directly through ideas, through intellectualism, then it succeeds by making the air so thin everywhere in the world that it is impossible to breathe. And that is probably the essence of it: The young people who had fled from the dragon in order not to suffer harm from him, and who, having come into an atmosphere that was too thin to breathe, could not breathe a future, felt at most the nightmare pressure of the past, because the air had also become unhealthy in those regions where it was possible to escape the direct influence of the dragon. But the nightmare that comes from within is not much different from the pressure that comes from outside, from the dragon, in terms of human experience.

[ 21 ] Thus, it was the direct exposure to the dragon that an older generation felt in the last third of the nineteenth century, and it was the nightmare of the air corrupted by the dragon, which gave off no breathable air, that the youth then experienced. The only thing that can help here is to find Michael, who defeats the dragon. For one needs the power of the dragon slayer, because the dragon draws its life from a world completely different from that in which the human soul can live. The human soul cannot live in the world from which the dragon draws its lifeblood; but in overcoming the dragon, man must gain the power to live. That is why we say today that the age from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, which developed human beings to the point where everything came out of them, must be overcome. The age of Michael, who defeats the dragon, must begin. For the dragon's power has grown great!

[ 22 ] But this is also what we must achieve in particular if we want to become true leaders of youth. For Michael needs, in a sense, a vehicle through which he can enter our civilization. And this vehicle is what is revealed to the true educator when it emerges from the young, developing human being, indeed from the child. What is still at work here is the power of pre-earthly life. What is really present here is what, if we nurture it, will become the vehicle for Michael with which he will enter our civilization. If we educate in the right way, we prepare the vehicle for Michael so that he can enter our civilization.

[ 23 ] We must not continue to nurture the dragon by developing a science with thought forms, without even considering that they want to penetrate the human soul, the human body, the human being himself, and shape him. We must build Michael the chariot, the vehicle. To do this, we need living humanity, as it lives its way into earthly human life from supersensible worlds and manifests itself there, especially in the early stages of human life. But we must have a heart for such an education. We must, so to speak, learn — if we speak figuratively — to make ourselves allies of the incoming Michael if we want to become true educators. More than all theoretical principles, the art of education is served when what we take in has such an effect that we feel ourselves to be allies of Michael, the spirit being entering the earth, for whom we are preparing the vehicle through a living, artistically guided education of the youth. What can become of us from this impulse is much better than all theoretical principles of education. We must come to look up to Michael, who entered our aging dragon culture in the last third of the nineteenth century.

[ 24 ] This is the real basic impulse of all educational theory. We must not take up this art of education as a “theory,” not as something we can learn. We must take it up as something with which we ally ourselves, whose arrival we welcome, which comes to us not as dead concepts but as a living spirit being to whom we offer our services because we must offer them if humanity is to find the way forward in its development. This means bringing knowledge back to life, bringing back with full consciousness what once existed in the unconscious of humanity.

[ 25 ] My dear friends! In ancient times, when atavistic clairvoyance was still common among people, there were mystery centers. In these mystery centers, which were simultaneously churches, schools, and centers of art, those who were undergoing their human development also sought to gain access to the powers of knowledge, but in a more spiritual way. At that time, many things could be found in these mystery centers—but there was no library in our sense of the word. Do not misunderstand me: there was no library in our sense of the word. There was something like a library, that is, things that were written down, but everything that was written down was there to be read, to have an effect on souls. Today, a large part of library material is only there to be stored, not to be read. People only take it up when they have to write a dissertation because they have to take it into account. But they would prefer to switch off the liveliness altogether. Dissertations are supposed to be completely mechanical. People want human involvement to be as minimal as possible. All human involvement in intellectual matters has been torn out of people.

[ 26 ] This must come back, and now in full consciousness: that spirituality becomes something living, that we do not merely experience what can be seen externally with the senses, but that we once again experience what can be seen in the spirit. The age of Michael must dawn. Basically, everything that has come to humanity since the fifteenth century has flowed in from outside. In the age of Michael, human beings will have to find their own relationship to the spiritual world. And knowledge and recognition will become valuable in a completely different way.

[ 27 ] You see, what was in the libraries of the ancient mysteries were more like monuments in which was recorded what was to pass into the memory of all. Our books cannot be compared to those libraries. For all the mystery teachers instructed their pupils to read different books. You said: There is a library—and this library is the people walking around outside. Learn to read from them! Learn to read the secrets that are written in every human being! We must come back to this. We must only approach it from a different angle, so that we, as educators, know that all knowledge, all accumulated information, has no value. There it is dead and only gets its life from the dragon. But we, in wanting to “know” at all, must have the feeling that this knowledge is something that cannot be piled up here and there, because it would immediately flow apart. We must learn that in literature, that which is spirit can really only be hinted at.

[ 28 ] How can you really encompass what spirit is in a book? The spiritual is a living thing! The spiritual is not like bones, it is like blood. And blood needs vessels in which to flow. What we recognize as spiritual needs vessels. These vessels are growing human beings. We must pour it into them so that it holds together at all. Otherwise we must have the spirit as something so alive that it immediately dissolves. We must preserve all our knowledge in such a way that it can flow into the developing human being. Then we will build Michael a vehicle and become Michael's comrades. And what you want, my dear friends, you will best achieve by becoming aware that you want to become Michael's comrades.

[ 29 ] You must again come to be able to follow a purely spiritual being who is not embodied on earth, and you will have to learn to believe in a human being because he shows you the way to Michael. Humanity must understand the words of Christ in a new, living way: “My kingdom is not of this world.” For that is precisely why it is of this world! For human beings are here to make the spirit, which cannot exist in this world without them, the content of this world. Christ himself came into the world. He did not take human beings to heaven for an earthly life, but human beings must permeate their earthly life with a spirituality that can be communicated and that in turn gives human beings the opportunity to defeat the dragon.

[ 30 ] One must understand this thoroughly enough to be able to answer the question of why people tore each other apart in the second decade of the twentieth century. They tore each other apart because they carried the battle into a realm where it did not belong, because they did not see the real enemy, the dragon. To defeat it, forces are needed which, only when developed in the right way, will bring peace to the earth.

[ 31 ] In short, we must take seriously the transition into the Michaelic age. Only when the means of the present are used to ensure that people are once again surrounded by the image of the strong Michael, bathed in light, who is able to defeat the dragon that is sucking the life out of humanity through the power of human beings developing into living soul life — only when we can take this image into our souls again, much more vividly than we had it before, will we gain the strength to develop inner activity, because we know that we are in Michael's fellowship. Only then will one participate in everything that can bring progress and peace between generations, that leads young people to listen to the elderly, that gives the elderly something to say that young people want to know and accept.

[ 32 ] Because old age has held the dragon up to the youth, they have fled to airless regions. Only when the dragon is not held up, but when that which destroys it can be found through the power of Michael, will a genuine youth movement achieve its true goal. This will be revealed in the fact that the generations have something to say to each other, that the generations can learn something from each other. For in truth, if the educator is a complete human being, he takes as much from the child as he gives to the child. Those who cannot learn from the child what it brings down to them as a message from the spiritual world cannot teach the child anything about the mysteries of earthly existence. Only when the child becomes our educator by bringing down messages from the spiritual world will it be ready to receive the messages we offer it from earthly life.

[ 33 ] Goethe did not search everywhere for things that are like breathing — exhaling, inhaling, exhaling, inhaling — for the sake of a mere symbol, but rather saw the whole of human life in the image of giving and taking. Everyone gives and everyone takes. Every giver becomes a taker. But in order for giving and taking to come into the right rhythm, it is necessary for us to enter the Michael era.

[ 34 ] I would like to conclude with this image so that you can see what the previous considerations actually meant. They were meant so that you do not carry away what I have said here in your minds and think about it, but rather what I wish is that you have something in your hearts and that you put what you carry in your hearts into action. What a person carries in their mind is lost along the way. But what he takes into his heart, the heart preserves in all spheres of activity into which man will be placed. If it is possible that what I have been allowed to say to you will not be carried away by your minds alone—for then it would surely be lost very soon—if it is carried away with your hearts, with your whole being, then, my dear friends, we have spoken to one another here in the right way.

[ 35 ] And from this point of view, from this feeling, from this sense, I would like to bid farewell to your hearts today by calling out to you: Take what I have tried to express in words as if I wanted above all to let something penetrate your hearts that cannot be expressed in words. If your hearts have come together even a little with what is meant here as a living spirit, then at least in part what we wanted to achieve when we came together here has been fulfilled. Let us part with this feeling, but let us also come together again with this feeling. In this way we will find the connection in spirit, even if we work individually in the most diverse areas of life. The main thing will be that we have found each other in our hearts. Then the spiritual, the Michaelic, will also flow into our hearts.