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The Concealed Aspects of Human Existence and the Christ Impulse
GA 218

5 November 1922, The Hague

Translated by Katharine L. Federschmidt

In connection with the public lectures and public gatherings, it always affords me a satisfaction also to be able to address this Group here in The Hague, and I shall try this evening to say some things that may be to you a more intimate continuation, a supplement, of what I was able to express in the public lectures.1Lectures given in The Hague, Rotterdam, and Delft, Holland, from October 31 to November 6, 1922

In order to have knowledge of the spiritual world and for the acquirement of an inner life with the spiritual world, it is necessary most of all to see in the right light that which one might call the concealed aspects of human existence. Indeed, the concealed aspects of human existence are the more important aspects for the comprehensive judging and evaluation of human life. This may not be admitted willingly by people who merely think superficially and materially, but it is none the less true. No one can become acquainted with human existence, unless he is able to enter into its concealed aspects.

One could, perhaps, if I may thus express myself, demur against the Gods and say that they have put the most precious thing for man into the concealed aspects of his life; that they have not afforded him what is most precious in the visible aspect of life. If this had been done, man would in a higher sense remain impotent. We acquire spirit-soul strength, which then can permeate our whole being, through the very fact that we must first achieve our genuine human dignity and our human nature, that we must first do something in the realm of our soul and spirit in order to become man at all in the right sense of the word. And in this victory, in this necessity of having first to accomplish something to become man, in this lies that which can fill us with strength, which can permeate with forces the innermost depth of our being.

In order, therefore, to explain more definitely this leading theme which I have introduced today, I will speak to you again from a certain viewpoint about that concealed aspect of human existence which is enveloped in the unconsciousness of sleep. And then I will bring to your attention something of that which lies enveloped in states of existence that remain unconscious during earth life: those states of existence in pre-earthly life and the life after death.

The sleep life takes place in such a way for man that, after the transition through dreams—which have, however, but a very dubious existence and a very dubious significance for human life, if one simply accepts them as they present themselves—he falls into the unconsciousness of sleep, out of which he emerges only on awakening, when he immerses himself with his ego and his astral body in the ether body and physical body; that is, when he makes use of both these principles as a tool in order to perceive his physical environment and then to work within this physical environment through his will. But that which lies beyond birth and death is enveloped in that very part of man's being which becomes unconscious when he falls asleep... And the conditions which the human being experiences there I will describe to you as though they were conscious. They can become conscious only to the imaginative, the inspirative, and the intuitive consciousness. But the difference between this and what every man experiences in the night is only a difference in knowledge. The individual who, as a modern initiate, looks into the sleep life knows how it is, but this does not make the life of sleep into something different for him from what it is for every man, even for the one who passes through it quite unconsciously. Thus our description can be in conformity with reality when we describe that which remains unconscious as though the human being experienced it consciously. And this is what I shall now do.

After the transition through dreams—as I intimated before—man passes, as regards the normal consciousness, into unconsciousness. But the reality of this unconscious state, as it manifests itself to the higher, supersensible knowledge, is that, directly after falling asleep, man enters into a sort of contourless existence. If he should realize his condition consciously, he would feel himself poured out into an etheric realm. He would feel himself outside of his body, not limited, however, but widely diffused; he would sense or observe his body as some object outside of himself. If this condition should become conscious, it would be filled, as regards man's soul nature, with a certain inner anxiety or uneasiness. He feels that he has lost the firm support of the body, as though he stood before an abyss.

What is called the Threshold of the Spiritual World has to exist for the reason that the human being must first prepare himself to have this feeling, the feeling of having lost that support which the physical body affords, and to bear that anxiety in the soul which is caused by his facing something entirely unknown, something indeterminate.

As I stated, this feeling of anxiety does not exist for the ordinary sleeper; it is not in his consciousness, but he does pass through it, nevertheless. That which constitutes anxiety, for instance, in every-day physical existence is expressed in certain processes, even though they be subtle processes of the physical body: when man senses anxiety, certain vascular activities in the physical body are different from what they are when he feels no anxiety. Something occurs objectively besides what the human being feels as anxiety, restlessness, etc., in his consciousness. This objective element of a soul-spirit anxiety man experiences while he enters through the portal of sleep into the sleep state. But with the feeling of anxiety something else is connected: a feeling of deep longing for a Divine-Spiritual Reality that streams and weaves through the cosmos.

If man should experience in full consciousness the first moments after falling asleep—or even hours, perhaps, in the case of many persons—he would be in this state of anxiety and of longing for the Divine. The fact that we feel religiously inclined at all during the waking life depends first of all upon the fact that this feeling of anxiety and this longing for the Divine which we experience in the night have their after-effects upon the mood of the day. Spiritual experiences projected, so to speak, into physical life fill us with the after-effect of that anxiety which impels us to crave to know the Real in the world; they fill us with the after-effect of the longing we bear while asleep, and they express themselves as religious feelings during the waking hours of the day.

But such is the case only during the first stages of sleep. If sleep continues, something peculiar occurs; the soul exists as though split, as though split up into many souls. If the human being should experience this condition consciously—which only the modern initiate can completely behold—he would have the sensation of being many souls and consequently think that he had lost himself. Every one of these soul beings, which really are merely shadowy images of souls, represents something in which he has lost himself. In this state of sleep the human being has a different appearance according as we observe him before or after the Mystery of Golgotha. Namely, the human being requires cosmic aid from without in regard to this condition, if I may so express it, of being split into many soul reflections.

In olden times, preceding the Mystery of Golgotha, the initiates, the old initiates, gave to the people indirectly through their pupils, through the teachers whom they sent out into the world for mankind, certain religious instructions which evoked feelings during their waking life. And these instructions, which were expressed by the people in ritual acts, strengthened their souls so that the human being carried, in turn, a sort of after-effect of this religious mood over into his sleep life.

You can see the reciprocal action between being asleep and being awake! On the one hand the human being, in his longing for the Divine during the first stage of sleep, experiences that which induces him to develop religion during waking life. If this religion is developed during the waking life—and it was developed through the influence of the initiates—it has its effect again upon the second stage of sleep: through the after-effect of this religious mood the soul has then sufficient strength to bear the sensation of being split—at least to exist at all amidst this plurality.

This truly is the difficulty that irreligious people have: they have no such aid during the night in regard to this being split into many souls and thus they carry these experiences over into the waking life without the strength that religion affords. For every experience we have during the night has its aftereffect in the waking life. It has not yet been a very long time since irreligion and non-religiousness began to play so large a, part among mankind as it did during the last century, the 19th century. People still experienced the aftereffect of the influence of what earlier, more sincere, religious times meant to the human being. But, since the irreligious times continue, the ultimate result will be significant: people will carry the after-effect of this splitting of their souls from their sleep state over into their waking life, and this will principally contribute to the fact that they will not have the forces of coherence in their organism to distribute properly the nourishing effect of the food in their organism. And mankind will be afflicted with significant diseases in the near future as a consequence of this irreligion.

We must, indeed, not think that the spirit-soul part of our being has no bearing upon the physical! Its relation is not such that irreligious development will be immediately punished with disease by some kind of demoniacal gods—life does not run its course in such a superficial manner—but there does exist, nevertheless, an intimate relation between our experience in the realm of soul and spirit and our physical constitution. In order to possess health during the waking hours of the day, it is essential that we carry into our sleep life the feeling of our unity with the divine-spiritual Beings, in whose realm of activity we immerse the eternal kernel of our own being. And it is only by a right existence within a spirit-soul world between falling asleep and awakening that we can produce the right and health-bringing forces of a spirit-soul element, so necessary for our waking life.

During this second stage of sleep the human being acquires, not a cosmic consciousness, but a cosmic experience in lieu of the ordinary physical consciousness. As stated before, only the initiate goes through this cosmic experience consciously, but everyone has this experience in the night between falling asleep and waking up. And in this second stage of sleep the human being is in such a state of life that his inner nature carries out imitations of the planetary movements of our solar system. During the days we experience ourselves in our physical body. When we speak of ourselves as physical human beings, we say that inside of us are our lungs, our heart, our stomach, our brain, etc. ... this constitutes our physical inner nature. In the second stage of sleep the movement of Venus, of Mercury, of the sun, and of the moon constitute our inner spirit-soul nature. This whole reciprocal action of the planetary movements of our solar system, we do not bear it directly within us, not the planetary movements themselves; but facsimiles, astral facsimiles of them then constitute our inner organism. To be sure, we are not spread out into the entire planetary cosmos, but we are of extraordinary size, compared with our physical size in the daytime. We do not bear within us the real Venus each time that we are in the state of sleep, but a facsimile of its movement. In the second stage of sleep, between falling asleep and awakening, that which occurs in the spirit-soul part of our being consists of these circulations of the planetary movements in astral substance, just as our blood circulates through our physical organism during the day, stimulated by the movement of breathing. Thus through the night we have circulating within us as our inner life, so to speak, a facsimile of our cosmos.

Before we can experience this circulation of the planetary after-effects we must first experience the splitting of the soul. As I said before, the people of olden times, previous to the Mystery of Golgotha, received instructions from their initiates, in order that they might be able to bear this splitting of the soul and that the soul should find its way within these movements which now constituted its inner life. Since the Mystery of Golgotha something else has taken the place of this old teaching. Namely, something has occurred which the human being can now appropriate inwardly to himself as a feeling, a sentiment, a soul life, and a soul mood, when he really feels himself one with the deed which was accomplished for mankind by the Christ Being through the Mystery of Golgotha here on earth. The individual who truly feels his unity with the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha to the degree that in him are fulfilled the words of St. Paul: “Not I, but the Christ in me”, he has, through this unity with the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha, developed something in his feeling which has its after-effect in sleep, so that he now has the strength to overcome the splitting of his soul and the power to find his way in the labyrinth of the planetary orbits which now constitute his inner self. For we must find our way, even though we are not conscious in our inner being of that which constitutes for the soul the planetary circulation in place of the blood circulation during the day, which now continues in the physical body we have abandoned.

After this experience, we enter the third stage of sleep. In this third stage we have an additional experience—of course, the experiences of the preceding stage always remain and the experiences of the next stage are added thereto—in the third stage is included, what I should like to call the experience of the fixed stars. After experiencing the circulation of the planetary facsimiles we actually experience the formations of the fixed stars, that which in former times, for instance, was called the images of the Zodiac. And this experience is essential to the soul aspect of the human being, because he has to carry the after-effect of this experience with the fixed stars into his waking life in order to have the strength at all to control and vitalize his physical organism at all times through his soul.

It is a fact that, during the night, every human being first experiences an etheric preliminary state of cosmic anxiety and longing for the Divine, then a planetary state, as he feels the facsimiles of the planetary movements in his astral body, and he has the experience of the fixed stars in that he feels—or would feel if he were conscious—that he experiences his own soul-spiritual inner self as a facsimile of the heavens, of the fixed stars.

Now, my dear friends, for the one who has insight into these different stages of sleep, a significant question arises, I might say, every night. The human soul, the astral organism, and the ego being, leave the physical body, their inner self is filled with facsimiles of the planetary movements and of the constellations of the fixed stars. The question arising now is this: “How is it that every morning, after each sleep, the human being returns to his physical body again?”

And it is here where the science of initiation discovers that the human being would actually not return if, on entering the planetary movements and the constellations of the fixed stars, he did not also live his way into the forces of the moon while expanding outward into the facsimiles of cosmic existence. He lives his way into the spiritual forces of the moon, into those cosmic forces which are reflected in the physical moon and in the moon-phases.

While all other planetary and fixed star forces actually draw the human being out of his physical body, it is the lunar forces which again and again return him, when he wakes, to his physical body. The moon is connected in general with all that brings the human being from his spiritual life into the physical life. It, therefore, makes no difference—the physical constellation is not the thing to be considered, although a certain significance attaches thereto—whether we have to do with new moon, full moon, the first or last quarter of the moon; in the spiritual world the moon is always present. It is the lunar forces which lead the human being back into the physical world, into his physical body.

You can see, my dear friends, that, as I briefly describe to you the experience the human being has between falling asleep and awakening, I am, upon the whole, giving you something of a general description of his sojourn in the spiritual world. And this is the state of the matter. Fundamentally, we experience every night a reflection of the life between death and a new birth. If we look into pre-earthly life with the imaginative, the inspirative, and the intuitive consciousness, we see ourselves first of all as spirit-soul human beings in a very early state of pre-earthly existence. We see ourselves possessed of a cosmic consciousness. Our life there is not a reflection of the cosmos, as is our sleep life, but we are actually diffused through the real cosmos. About the middle of our life between death and a new birth we feel ourselves as spirit-soul beings, fully conscious—in fact with a much clearer and more intensive consciousness than we could possibly have anywhere upon the earth—surrounded by divine-spiritual Beings, by the divine-spiritual Hierarchies. And, just as we work with nature's forces here on earth, just as we use external objects of nature as tools, so in the same way does work take place between us and the Beings of the higher spiritual Hierarchies.

And what manner of work is this? This work consists in the fact that the spirit-soul human being, conjointly with an enormous number of sublime spiritual Beings of the cosmos, is weaving the cosmic spirit-germ of his physical human body in the spiritual realm. However peculiar this may seem to you—to weave the physical human body as spiritual germ out of the whole cosmos—it is the greatest, the most significant piece of work conceivable in the cosmos. And not only does the human soul in the state described work at this, but the human soul works at it conjointly with whole hosts of divine-spiritual Beings. For, if you visualize the most complicated thing that can be formed here on earth, you find it primitive and simple in contrast with that mighty fabric of cosmic vastness and grandeur which is woven there and which, compressed and condensed through conception and through birth, becomes permeated with physical earth matter and then becomes the human physical body.

When we refer to a germ here on earth, we think of it as a small germ which afterwards becomes relatively large. But, when we refer to the cosmic spirit-germ in relation to the human body as a product of the spiritual, this germ is of gigantic size. And from that moment on, which I have pointed out to you, when the soul is coming towards its birth, the soul-spiritually magnificent human germ is gradually diminishing. The human being continues to work at it with the aim constantly in view that this will be woven together, pressed together, condensed into the physical human body.

It was really not without reason that the older initiates—through a kind of clairvoyance which, to be sure, is no longer suitable to us, although the more recent science of initiation shows the same fact—that the older initiates called the human body the Temple of the Gods. It is the Temple of the Gods, for it is woven out of the cosmos by the human soul conjointly with divine Beings each time between death and a new birth. Later on—in a manner still to be described—the human being is given his physical form. While the human being is weaving the spirit-germ of his physical body at the stage indicated, he is, as regards his soul being, in a condition, in a mood, that can only be compared with what the modern initiates call intuition. The human being lives with his soul within the activity of Gods. He is wholly diffused in cosmic-divine existence. In this state halfway between death and a new birth he is participating in the life of the Gods.

But then, as the human being proceeds on his way, as he comes closer to conception or birth, a change takes place. In a certain way, his consciousness is then impressed with the fact that the divine-spiritual Beings of the Higher Hierarchies are withdrawing from him. And there appears to him only something like a revelation, like a reflection, as if the Gods had withdrawn and only their nebulous images were still standing before the human soul, and as if a kind of veil were being woven as a nebulous imitation of that which in reality had been woven before. The intuitive consciousness he formerly possessed now changes to a cosmic inspired consciousness. The human being lives no more with the divine-spiritual Beings of the Higher Hierarchies; he lives with their manifestation. But in place of this an inner ego develops more and more within the soul consciousness. During the climax, I might say, of life between death and a new birth, the human being lives entirely with the divine-spiritual Beings of the Higher Hierarchies; the ego has no inner strength; it becomes conscious again of its inner self only when the Gods withdraw and only their manifestation remains. The glory of the Gods, their radiation, enters a kind of inspired consciousness; but, as a recompense, the human being feels himself as a self-existent being. And that which now awakens first in him is, I might say, an eager desire, a kind of craving.

Midway between death and a new birth, the human being works at the spirit-germ of his physical body, so to speak, out of a deep inner satisfaction. Although he realizes that the ultimate goal will be his physical body in his next earthly life, he is not permeated with an eager desire, but only—we might say—with admiration for this physical human body, considered from a universal standpoint. At the moment when the human beings is living no more in divine worlds, but only in the manifestations of divine worlds, the eager desire arises in him to reincarnate upon the earth. Just while the ego consciousness is becoming continually stronger does this eager desire awaken. We withdraw, so to speak, from the divine worlds and come closer to what we shall become as earthly human beings. This eager desire becomes continually stronger, and what we see around us is also undergoing a change. Prior to this, we were living in nothing but Beings, in the divine-spiritual Hierarchies; we knew ourselves to be one with them. When we spoke of our inner self we were really speaking of the cosmos—but the cosmos itself consisted of Beings, Beings in sublime stages of consciousness with whom we were living. Now an outer glory is to be seen, and in this outer glory the first images gradually appear of that which, ultimately, are the physical reflections of the divine-spiritual Beings. This glory emanates from the Being which man knew there beyond as the Sublime Solar Being, and in this glory appears, so to speak, the sun as seen from without, or as seen from the world. Here on earth we look up to the sun. There, while descending to the earth, we at first see the sun from the other side. But the sun emerges, the fixed stars emerge, and behind the fixed stars the planetary movements emerge. And with the emergence of the planetary movements a quite definite kind of forces emerges: the spiritual forces of the moon; they now take control of us. It is these lunar forces which, little by little, carry us back into the earthly life.

Such is actually the aspect of things which the human being beholds on his descent from cosmic worlds to earthly existence: that, after an experience of divine-spiritual Hierarchies, he proceeds to images of them. But these images of Beings gradually become star-images, and the human being enters into something which, I might say, he first sees from behind: he enters that which is manifest from the earth as the cosmos. The details of what the human being there consummates can be discerned, and the modern science of initiation can penetrate quite deeply into what man there experiences.

Just through details in this domain do we begin to become acquainted with life. For no one knows life who is able to see the human being in connection with earthly existence alone. What great value does our connection with the earthly existence have for us then? During the enormously long stretches of time between death and a new birth the earth, at first, really means nothing to us, and that which gleams towards us, as the external, so to speak, is transmuted into entire worlds of Gods, in which we live during these long stretches of time and which appear externally to us again as stars only when we are nearing the earth for another earthly existence.

What the human being at first wove, as the spirit-germ of his physical body, he knows, for the time being, to be one with the whole universe, with the spiritual universe. Later, when he sees only the manifestation of the divine-spiritual worlds, this germ gradually becomes his body, which is now also a facsimile of the cosmos. And out of this—his body—arises the eager desire for an earthly existence, for an ego consciousness in his body.

This body now still contains much which is untouched by the earthly existence, for it is a spirit body. As regards this body, the fact still remains entirely undetermined at a certain stage whether, for instance, the human being will be a male or a female personality in his next earthly existence. For, during this whole time between death and a new birth, up to a very late stage, before we are born upon the earth, there is no meaning in the question of man or woman. The conditions there differ entirely from those that are reflected on earth as man and woman. There are also conditions which occur in the spiritual existence and are reflected on the earth; but that which appears on earth as man and woman acquires significance only relatively late, prior to our descent to earth. When the human being, according to certain former karmic connections, thinks it best to experience his next incarnation on earth as a woman, we can trace in detail how, on his descent to the earth in order to unite with the physical embryo, he chooses that time which is known here on earth as the time of full moon.

We can say, therefore, when we are looking from any region here on earth at the full moon, that we then have the time which the beings choose for their descent to the earth who desire to become women, for then only is this decision made. And the time of new moon is the time which beings choose who wish to become men.

Thus, you see, the human being enters his earthly existence through the portal of the moon. But the force which the male requires in order to enter life on earth is then flowing out into the cosmos; we move toward it as we come in from the cosmos, and this force is radiated by the moon when it is known as new moon for the earth. The force which the female requires is radiated from the moon when it is the full moon; then its illuminated side is turned toward the earth, and its unilluminated side is toward the cosmos—and this force, which the moon can send out into the cosmos from its unilluminated side, the human being requires if he wishes to become a woman.

What I have now been describing to you shows that the ancient concept of astrology, which nowadays has been brought to a complete decadence by the ordinary astrologers, was well grounded. Only, we must be able to achieve an inner view of the connection of things. We must not look merely at the physical constellation in a calculating manner, but must see into the corresponding spiritual element. There it is really possible to enter into details.

As you know, the human being descends from the cosmos in a definite state. From the spiritual cosmos he enters the etheric cosmos. Now I am still speaking of the etheric cosmos alone; the physical aspect of the stars is, in this connections, taken less into consideration, as is, likewise, the physical aspect of the moon. The essential moment when the human being decides to descend to the earth depends, as I have stated, upon the phase of the moon during this descent, and thus it may happen that he exposes himself to a decisive new moon in order to become a man, or to a decisive full moon to become a woman. But then—since the descent is not made so very rapidly, but he remains exposed for some time—if he is descending through the new moon as a man, he may still, for one reason or another, decide to expose himself to the coming full moon. Thus he has made the decision to descend as a male; he has made use to this end of the forces of the new moon; but, during his descent, he still has at his disposal the remainder of the moon's cycle, the phase of the full moon. He then fills himself with lunar forces in such a way that they do not affect his condition as man or woman, but rather the organization of his head, and what is connected with the organization of his head from without, from the cosmos, if that constellation occurs of which I have just spoken. Thus, after the human being has made the decision; “I shall become a man through the time of the new moon”, and continues living in the cosmos, so that he has not passed completely through the lunar influence but is still exposed to the next full moon, then, through the influence of the lunar forces in this condition he will, for instance, have brown eyes and black hair. Thus we may say that the manner in which the human being passes the moon determines not only his sex, but also the color of his eyes and hair. If, for instance, the human being has passed the full moon as a woman and is later exposed to a new moon, the result may be a woman with blue eyes and blond hair.

Grotesque as this may seem, we are absolutely predestined by the manner of our experience through the cosmos, as to the way in which our soul-spirit organism works its way into our physical and our etheric organism. Prior to this time there has been no decision made as to our becoming a blond or a brunette; this is determined only by the lunar forces as we pass them, on our descent from the cosmos into earthly existence.

And just as we pass by the moon, which really guides us into earthly existence, so do we pass by the other planets. It is not immaterial, for example, whether we pass Saturn in one or another way. We may pass by Saturn, for instance, when the constellation is such that the force of Saturn and the force of Leo in the Zodiac co-operate. Because of our passing the region of Saturn just as its force is being increased through Leo in the Zodiac, our soul will—conditioned, of course, by our preceding karma—acquire the strength to meet intelligently the outer contingencies of life so that they do not defeat us over and over again. If, however, Saturn is being dominated more by Capricorn, we shall become weak human beings that do succumb to the outer contingencies of life.

All these experiences we bear within us as we prepare from the cosmos our earthly existence. Of course, we can overcome this through an appropriate training, but not by voicing the opinion of the materialists that all this is nonsense, that we need not pay any attention to it at all. On the contrary, it can be overcome by the fact that we develop these forces, really develop them. And in the future mankind will learn again, not only to insure that a child shall have good milk to drink and good food to eat—although no objection is to be made to this—but mankind will learn again to observe whether this or that person has within him forces of Saturn or Jupiter active under this or that influence.

Let us suppose that we find that a human being has within him, through his karma, forces of Saturn under the most unfavorable influence—of Capricorn or of Aquarius, for instance—so that he is exposed to all life's difficulties. Then, in order to strengthen him we shall search most carefully for other forces within him. For instance, we shall ask ourselves whether he has experienced the passage through the sphere of Jupiter, of Mars, or through any other sphere. And we shall always be able to correct and annul one condition by means of the other.

We shall simply have to learn to think of the human being not only in relation to what he begins to eat and drink in the earthly existence, but we shall have to consider him in relation to what he becomes, because of his having passed through the cosmic worlds between death and a new birth.

When the human being is close to his earthly course of life, then he experiences a sort of loss of his being. You know from my description that he was connected with what he has woven as the spirit-germ of his physical body. Into this spirit-germ he has woven, besides, the experiences during the descent through fixed stars and planets. At a definite stage, actually quite close to conception and birth, this spirit-germ is no longer there. It has, in the meanwhile, descended with its forces as a system of forces to the earth. It has fallen from the human being. It has united itself on the earth independently with the physical substance of heredity which the ancestors, father and mother, afford. What is being woven there in the organism descends to the earth sooner than the human being himself as a spirit-soul being. And then, when the human being realizes that he has actually surrendered to the parents that which he himself had woven in the cosmos, he is able, in the last stage prior to his earthly existence, to take to himself from the etheric world what is essential for his own etheric organism—since there is no longer a necessity to do any more weaving on his physical body, which is essentially complete and has been surrendered to and been made a part of the flow of heredity. Now he draws together his etheric organism; and, together with this latter, he unites with that which he himself has prepared through his parents. He takes possession of his physical body, in which all this cosmic fabric of the spirit-germ is drawn together, and which is interwoven with what the human being himself united with it as he descended through this or that stellar region. It is, indeed, not arbitrarily that he passes through new moon or full moon and causes himself to become man or woman, or to have black or blond hair or blue or brown eyes, but all this is intimately connected with the results of his preceding karma.

This shows you that, whereas the human being in the sleep state experiences as his inner nature merely facsimiles of the planetary world, the world of the fixed stars, he now passes through these worlds in their reality between death and a new birth. He passes through these worlds; they become his inner nature. And it is always the lunar forces which bring us back to the earth. They differ essentially from all other stellar forces in this respect, in that they bring us back to the earth. In the sleep state they bring us back to the earth; they bring us back also after we have experienced all that I have briefly described, in order to enter once more a life course on the earth.

But let us consider once again that which is there outside of the physical body, in the form of astral body and ego organization, between falling asleep and awakening. It is not fabricated from physical bones and physical blood; it is a spirit-soul entity. But our whole moral intrinsic quality is woven into it. Just as we consist, when awake, of bones, blood, and nerves, so does that which leaves us during sleep and returns on awakening consist of the actualized judgments of our moral deeds. If I have accomplished a good deed during the day, its effect is reflected in my sleep body within the spirit-soul substance that leaves me during sleep. My moral quality lives within this. And, when the human being passes through the Portal of Death, he takes with him his whole actualized moral evaluation. It is a fact that, between birth and death in the earthly life, the human being creates within himself a second being. This second human being, who leaves the body every night, is the result of our moral or immoral life, and we take it with us through the Portal of Death. This result, which is merged with our eternal essential being, is not the only element we possess within the spirit-soul substance which passes out of us during the night. Just after death, however, when we are first in the ether body and then in the astral body, we hardly see anything in ourselves but this moral entity of our being. Whether we were good or bad, this is what we behold; we are this. Just as here on earth we are a, human being in whom the skin forces, or the nerve forces, or the blood forces, or the bone forces predominate, so, after death, we are, to our own perception, what we were, morally or immorally.

And now after death we proceed on our way, first through the sphere of the moon, then through the sphere of the fixed stars... until the time arrives when we can begin to work with the Beings of the Higher Hierarchies on the spirit-germ of our future physical body. But, if we were to take this moral element up into the highest worlds, where we are to weave our future physical organism in its spirit-germ, this physical organism would turn out to be a monstrosity. For a certain length of time between death and a new birth, the human being must be separated from what constitutes his moral quality. Indeed, he leaves his moral quality behind in the moon sphere.

It is an actual fact that, when leaving the moon sphere, we leave our moral and immoral human being in the moon sphere and enter into the pure sphere of the Gods, where we can weave our physical body.

I must now revert again to the difference between the times prior to the Mystery of Golgotha and those following it, including the present. The older initiates made very clear to their pupils—and through them to all mankind of the civilization of that time—that, in order to be able to find the transition from the world which I called in my book Theosophy the soul-world, and which we really experience in its entirety while still in the moon sphere, into the world which I called the spirit-land, the human being must develop on earth the feelings that enable him to be led upward by the spiritual Sun Being, after having left behind the whole bundle of his moral after-effects in the moon sphere.

All that history relates to us in regard to the first three Christian centuries, and even the fourth century, is fundamentally a falsification; for in those centuries Christianity was quite different from the thing described. It was something quite different for the reason that within it there held sway the conception which came from understanding the ancient science of initiation. From this wisdom of initiation it was known that, in the life after death, the sublime Sun Being led the human being out of the moon sphere, after he had left behind his moral bundle, and, on his return, led him back again into the moon sphere. This gave the human being the strength—which he could not have had through himself—to make this moral being a part of himself, at a certain time before his birth, in order to fulfill his destiny on earth within his soul, and to prevent it from entering his body. For otherwise, the human being would be born a monstrosity and be utterly diseased in his body. This moral bundle had to be taken over again in the moon sphere, during the descent, in order that it should not enter into the body.

Those initiates who were living at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, and even in the three or four centuries following thereafter, said to their pupils: Previously the sublime Sun Being was only above in the spiritual worlds. But, as mankind progressed, the ego consciousness has become so bright upon the earth that it becomes all the more obscured in the spiritual world. In other words, the brighter our ego consciousness is by means of the physical body only, here below on the earth, the darker is it above. The human being would no longer come into contact with the Sun Being, he would not find through his own power the transition after death from the moon sphere to the higher spheres, had the Christ not descended and passed through the Mystery of Golgotha. The Being whom the human being met formerly after death only in the spiritual world has now descended; He has lived here upon earth ever since the Mystery of Golgotha; and now the human being can establish a relation to Him according to the words of St. Paul: “Not I, but the Christ in me”. In this way the human being takes strength from the earth with him, strength given to him by the Christ here on this earth, which enables him to leave behind in the moon sphere his moral being which he creates within himself and to proceed to higher spheres, there to work on the spirit-germ of his physical body. It also gives him the strength on his descent through the moon sphere to take up his karma again of his own free will, take up the after-effects of his good and evil deeds. In the course of historical evolution, we have become free human beings. But the reason we have become such is that the Christ force we have acquired has enabled us through free inner strength to take over our karma on our descent through the moon sphere. No matter whether we like this or do not like it here on earth, we do this at the stage I have described, if we have become true Christians on earth.

I have been endeavoring, my dear friends, to show you a little of the way in which the modern science of initiation can see into worlds which we might call the concealed aspects of human existence, to show you how really everything pertaining to the human being can be elucidated only as we are able to see into these concealed aspects. And at the same time I tried to show you in connection therewith what the Christ Impulse means to mankind of the present time; for we will have constantly to revert to it. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, we cannot be a whole human being, unless we find the way to this Christ Impulse. Therefore it is necessary that Anthroposophical spiritual science shed light more and more upon the Christ Impulse in the right way. For the manner in which light was shed on the Christ Impulse in the past, when man's consciousness was obscured, would, if continued, deprive a large part of mankind—just think of the Orientals, think of the inhabitants of other continents—of the possibility of embracing Christianity. But that Christianity which is rooted deeply in Anthroposophical spiritual science will actually—if once the essence of spiritual science, as it is here intended, is understood thoroughly—be eagerly grasped particularly by the Orientals, who are endowed with an ancient spirituality, even though it is in decadence.

In this way only can that peace prevail on earth which must proceed from the soul and spirit of men, and which is so indispensable to the earth, as every impartial person feels today. We shall have to be much more convinced of the fact that all present-day thinking concerning outer institutions is really worthless, and that it is very necessary on the other hand, to appeal directly to human souls. But we can appeal to the souls only if we are able to say something to them about the true home of the soul, about the experiences of the human being that lie beyond his physical existence, in those states of consciousness I have been describing to you today. Even if those states of consciousness do not exist during the earth life, their effects do exist. Oh, my dear friends, the one who has insight into life sees in the countenance of every human being a reflection of cosmic destinies which the individual has experienced between death and a new birth!

I have described to you today how destiny—whether one has become a man or a woman—can be understood by means of the cosmos, even how the color of the eyes and hair can be understood only when we can look into cosmic existence. Nothing in this world is comprehensible unless it can be understood by means of the cosmos. The human being will feel himself to be truly a human being only when we can inform him through true spiritual knowledge of his relation with that which is back of the sensuous-physical existence. Even though the human beings on earth are not yet aware of it, mankind unconsciously thirsts for such a knowledge. What is developing convulsively today in all domains, be it the domain of the spiritual, the externally juridical, or the economic life, all is ultimately a result of the spiritual. Only as the human being learns again to know of his relation with extra-physical existence, can all this be transformed from forces of decadence into upward moving forces. For physical existence is meaningless unless seen in connection with super-physical existence. The physical human body becomes significant only then when we can see it, so to speak, as the confluence of all those sovereign forces that are woven between death and a new birth. This is the tragic character of materialistic knowledge of the world that, in the final analysis, it does not know matter itself. We lay the human body upon the dissecting table; we examine it most carefully as to its tissues and its individual physical component parts. This is done in order to acquire a knowledge of matter. But we do not learn to know it in this way, for it is the product of spirit, and only as we are able to trace it back to those stages where it is woven out of spirit do we know it. Human beings will comprehend precisely this physical-material existence only when their souls are led cosmically into the realm of soul and spirit.

If we permeate ourselves with the consciousness that we should comprehend more and more our connection with the spirit-soul realm of the cosmos, we then become true Anthroposophists. And you, my dear friends, will surely not ridicule me when I say that the world is in need today of true Anthroposophists who will bring about an ascent for humanity through that consciousness which results from experiencing the spiritual, even though at first we should only grasp it as a reflection and not ourselves have attained to clairvoyant knowledge. We need not be clairvoyant in order to work beneficently after we possess spiritual knowledge. Just as little as a person needs to know what constitutes meat when he is eating it and it nourishes him, just as little does a person need to be clairvoyant in order to be efficacious through his work and through his whole association with the life of the higher worlds. If we accept spiritual science before we are clairvoyant, it is as though we were consuming it. Fundamentally, clairvoyance adds nothing to what we can become for the world through spiritual knowledge. It satisfies merely our knowledge. This knowledge must, indeed, exist. Of course, there have to be people who examine the composition of meat, but this knowledge is not required in order to eat. Likewise there must be clairvoyant persons today who can investigate the nature of man's connection with the spiritual world; but, in order to bring about that which is essential to mankind, it is necessary that we be healthy human souls. If they are informed of the science of the spirit, they will sense the digestive power of the soul nature; they will appropriate this spiritual science, digest it, and assimilate it into their work. And this is what we need today throughout the civilized world: external human work which is spiritualized through and through in the right and true sense.

Die Verborgenen Seiten Des Menschendaseins Und Der Christus-Impuls

[ 1 ] Es ist mir immer eine Befriedigung, im Anschlusse an die öffentlichen Vorträge und öffentlichen Veranstaltungen, auch in dem Zweige hier im Haag sprechen zu können, und ich werde heute abend versuchen, Ihnen einiges zu sagen, das eine intimere Fortsetzung, eine Ergänzung sein kann dessen, was ich in der Lage war, in den öffentlichen Vorträgen auszusprechen. Es kommt ja vor allen Dingen für die Erkenntnis der geistigen Welt und für das Erringen eines inneren Zusammenlebens mit der geistigen Welt darauf an, dasjenige im richtigen Lichte zu sehen, was man nennen könnte die verborgene Seite des menschlichen Daseins. Die verborgenen Seiten des menschlichen Daseins sind es ja, welche für die Gesamtbeurteilung und Gesamtbewertung des menschlichen Lebens die wichtigeren sind. Das mag von äußerlich und materialistisch denkenden Menschen nicht gerne zugegeben werden, aber es ist doch so. Niemand kann das menschliche Dasein kennenlernen, der nicht auf dessen verborgene Seiten einzugehen vermag.

[ 2 ] Vielleicht könnte man, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, gegen die Götter einwenden, daß sie gerade das Wertvollste für den Menschen in seine verborgenen Lebensseiten hineingelegt haben, daß sie ihm nicht gewissermaßen in dem Offenbaren entgegengetragen haben, was ihm das Wertvollste ist. Wäre das so, dann würde der Mensch in einem höheren Sinne kraftlos bleiben. Gerade dadurch kommen wir ja zu geistig-seelischen Kräften, die dann unser ganzes Dasein durchdringen können, daß wir uns unsere eigentlicheMenschenwürde und unser Menschenwesen erst erringen müssen, daß wir erst geistig-seelisch etwas tun müssen, um überhaupt im rechten Sinne Menschen zu werden. Und in diesem Überwinden, in dieser Notwendigkeit, erst etwas zu tun, um Mensch zu werden, liegt, was uns kraftvoll machen kann, was uns gerade im Innersten unseres Wesens mit Kräften durchdringen kann.

[ 3 ] Und so will ich denn heute, um gewissermaßen dieses Leitthema, das ich angeschlagen habe, näher auseinanderzusetzen, Ihnen wiederum von einem gewissen Gesichtspunkte aus über die verborgene Seite des Menschendaseins sprechen, die sich in die Bewußtlosigkeit des Schlafes hüllt. Und ich will Ihnen dann einiges von dem mitteilen, was sich in Daseinszustände hüllt, die während des Erdenlebens unbewußt bleiben: in die Daseinszustände des vorirdischen Lebens und des Lebens nach dem Tode.

[ 4 ] Das Schlafesleben spielt sich ja für den Menschen so ab, daß er mit dem Übergang der Träume — die aber ein höchst zweifelhaftes Dasein und eine höchst zweifelhafte Bedeutung für das menschliche Leben haben, wenn man sie einfach so hinnimmt, wie sie sich darstellen — in die Bewußtlosigkeit des Schlafes verfällt, aus der er erst wiederum herauskommt im Erwachen, wenn er mit seinem Ich und astralischen Leib untertaucht in seinen Ätherleib und physischen Leib, sich also dieser beiden Organisationen als eines Werkzeuges bedient, um seine physische Umgebung wahrzunehmen und dann innerhalb dieser physischen Umgebung durch seinen Willen zu arbeiten. Dasjenige aber, was über Geburt und Tod hinaus liegt, das hüllt sich gerade in jene Wesenheit des Menschen, die mit dem Einschlafen unbewußt wird. Und ich will Ihnen die Zustände, die da der Mensch durchmacht, so schildern, als wenn sie bewußt wären. Bewußt werden können sie nur für das imaginative, inspirierte und intuitive Bewußtsein. Aber es ist ja dies nur ein Erkenntnisunterschied gegenüber dem, was jeder Mensch in der Nacht durchmacht. Derjenige, der als ein moderner Eingeweihter, als ein moderner Initiierter in das Schlafesleben hineinschaut, der weiß, wie es ist. Aber dadurch wird das Schlafesleben auch für ihn selbst ja zu nichts anderem, als es für jeden Menschen ist, auch für denjenigen, der es ganz unbewußt durchmacht. Und so kann man schon wirklichkeitsgemäß schildern, wenn man das, was unbewußt bleibt, einfach so schildert, als wenn der Mensch es bewußt durchmachte. Und das werde ich nun zunächst tun.

[ 5 ] Nach dem Übergang über die Träume - ich deutete es schon an geht der Mensch für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein in die Bewußtlosigkeit über. Aber diese Bewußtlosigkeit stellt sich in ihrer Wirklichkeit für das höhere, für das übersinnliche Erkennen so dar, daß der Mensch unmittelbar nach dem Einschlafen wie in eine Art verschwimmenden Daseins kommt. Würde er seinen Zustand bewußt durchschauen, so würde er sich wie ausgegossen in einer ätherischen Welt fühlen. Er würde sich außerhalb seines Leibes fühlen, aber nicht engbegrenzt, sondern weit ausgegossen; seinen Leib würde er als etwas außer ihm befindliches Objektives verspüren, wahrnehmen. Dieser Zustand wäre eben, wenn er zum Bewußtsein kommen würde, im Seelischen des Menschen innerlich ausgefüllt von einer gewissen Angst oder Ängstlichkeit: man fühlt, man hat die feste Stütze seines Leibes verloren, man fühlt sich wie vor einem Abgrunde.

[ 6 ] Was man die Schwelle zur geistigen Welt nennt, muß ja da sein aus dem Grunde, weil der Mensch sich erst vorbereiten muß dazu, solch ein Gefühl zu haben: das Gefühl, jene Stütze verloren zu haben, die der physische Leib abgibt, und jene Ängstlichkeit in der Seele zu tragen, die daher kommt, weil man zunächst einem ganz Unbekannten, Unbestimmten gegenübersteht.

[ 7 ] Dieses Gefühl der Angstlichkeit, wie gesagt, ist nicht da für den gewöhnlichen Schläfer; im Bewußtsein ist es nicht da, aber der Mensch macht es durch. Und was zum Beispiel im physischen Tagesdasein Angst ist, das drückt sich, wenn auch in feinen Vorgängen des physischen Leibes, dennoch in eben solchen Vorgängen aus: es sind gewisse Gefäßtätigkeiten des physischen Leibes anders, wenn der Mensch in Angst ist, als wenn er nicht in Angst ist. Es geht also etwas objektiv vor, außer dem, was der Mensch im Bewußtsein als Unruhe und so weiter fühlt. Dieses Objektive einer seelisch-geistigen Angst, das macht der Mensch durch, indem er durch die Pforte des Schlafes in den Schlafzustand eintritt. Aber verbunden ist dieses Angstgefühl mit etwas anderem: mit einem Gefühl tiefer Sehnsucht nach einem GöttlichGeistigen, das die Welt durchflutet und durchwebt.

[ 8 ] Würde der Mensch die ersten Augenblicke — oder auch vielleicht für viele Menschen Stunden — nach dem Einschlafen vollbewußt erleben, er würde zunächst in dieser Angst und in dieser Sehnsucht nach dem Göttlichen sein. Daß wir uns überhaupt während des wachen Tageslebens religiös gestimmt fühlen, das ist in erster Linie davon abhängig, daß dieses Angstgefühl und diese Sehnsucht nach dem Göttlichen, die wir in der Nacht durchmachen, herüberwirken in die Stimmung des Tages. Es sind, gewissermaßen ins physische Leben hereinprojiziert, geistige Erlebnisse, welche uns mit der Nachwirkung jener Angst erfüllen, die uns überhaupt dazu treibt, erkennen zu wollen, was in der Welt das Wirkliche ist, und mit der Nachwirkung jener Sehnsucht erfüllen, die wir im Schlafe tragen und die sich im religiösen Fühlen während des Tagwachens aussprechen.

[ 9 ] Nun aber ist das nur in den ersten Stadien nach dem Einschlafen so. Wenn der Schlaf weitergeht, dann tritt etwas Eigentümliches ein: die Seele ist wie zerspalten, wie in viele Seelen auseinandergespalten. Der Mensch würde sich, wenn er bewußt diesen Zustand durchlebte, den heute nur eben der moderne Eingeweihte ganz schauen kann, als viele Seelen vorkommen, und dadurch würde er meinen müssen, er habe sich selbst verloren. Alle die einzelnen Seelenwesen, die eigentlich nur Schattenbilder von Seelen sind, die stellen etwas dar, in das er sich verloren hat. Für diesen Zustand des Schlafes nimmt sich das Menschenwesen schon verschieden aus, je nachdem wir es vor oder nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha betrachten. Der Mensch braucht nämlich eine äußere kosmische Hilfe gegenüber diesem, wenn ich so sagen darf, Zerspaltetsein in viele Seelenabbilder.

[ 10 ] In alten Zeiten, die dem Mysterium von Golgatha vorangegangen sind, haben die Eingeweihten, die alten Initüierten, den Menschen auf dem Umwege durch ihre Schüler, durch die Lehrer, die sie in die Welt für die Menschen hinausgeschickt haben, gewisse religiöse Anweisungen gegeben, welche Gefühle im wachen Tagesleben hervorgerufen haben. Und diese Anweisungen, die auch in Kultushandlungen dann von den Menschen ausgelebt worden sind, haben die Seelen verstärkt, so daß sie etwas wie eine Nachwirkung dieses religiösen Gestimmtseins nun wiederum hineingenommen haben in den Schlaf.

[ 11 ] Sie sehen die Wechselwirkung zwischen Schlafen und Wachen! Auf der einen Seite erlebt der Mensch in seiner Gottessehnsucht im ersten Stadium des Schlafes etwas, was ihn im Wachleben dazu stimmt, Religion zu entwickeln. Wird diese Religion im wachen Tagesleben entwickelt — und sie wurde in alten Zeiten durch die Initiierten entwikkelt -, dann wirkt das wiederum zurück auf das zweite Stadium nach dem Einschlafen: die Seele fühlt sich dann stark genug durch die Nachwirkung dieser religiösen Stimmung, gewissermaßen ihr Zerspaltetsein zu ertragen, überhaupt innerhalb der Vielheit wenigstens zu bestehen.

[ 12 ] Das ist ja die Schwierigkeit von nichtreligiösen Menschen, daß sie keine solche nächtliche Hilfe haben gegenüber dem Zerspaltetsein in viele Seelen, und daß sie dann das, was sie erleben, ohne die religiöse Stärkung herübertragen ins Tagesleben. Denn alles, was da in der Nacht durchgemacht wird, das wird in seiner Nachwirkung herübergetragen ins Tagesleben. Es ist ja noch nicht so lange her, daß die Irreligiosität und Areligiosität unter der Menschheit eine so große Rolle gespielt hat wie im letzten, im 19. Jahrhundert. Die Menschen haben immer noch Nachwirkungen gehabt von dem, was frühere, ehrlichere religiöse Zeiten dem Menschen waren. Aber indem die irreligiösen Zeiten immer weitergehen, werden sie eine bedeutungsvolle Folge haben: die Menschen werden sich aus ihren Schlafzuständen die Nachwirkung dieses Gespaltenseins der Seele herübertragen in das Tagesleben, und das wird namentlich dazu beitragen, daß der Mensch während des Tageslebens in seinem Organismus nicht die zusammenhaltenden Kräfte haben wird, um die Wirkung der Nahrungsmittel in der richtigen Weise in seinem Organismus zu verteilen. Und die Folge der Irreligiosität wird im Laufe von gar nicht so fernen Zukunftszeiten sich in bedeutungsvollen Krankheiten der Menschen ausleben.

[ 13 ] Man soll nur ja nicht glauben, daß das Gesstig-Seelische in keiner Beziehung steht zu dem Physischen! Es steht nicht in solcher Beziehung, daß unmittelbar dasjenige, was sich heute an Irreligiosität entwickelt, von irgendwelchen dämonischen Göttern mit Krankheit bestraft wird. In dieser äußerlichen Weise spielt sich allerdings das Dasein nicht ab, aber ein innerlicher Zusammenhang ist dennoch vorhanden zwischen dem, was der Mensch geistig-seelisch durchmacht, und dem, was seine physische Beschaffenheit ist. Damit der Mensch während des Tagwachens gesund sein kann, hat er nötig, in sein Schlafesleben das Gefühl seiner Zusammengehörigkeit mit den göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten hineinzutragen, in deren Geschehen er seinen eigenen ewigen Wesenskern während der Schlafenszeit einsenkt. Und nur aus dem richtigen Darinnensiehen in einer geistig-seelischen Welt zwischen dem Einschla AH fen und Aufwachen kann der Mensch die richtigen, auch geistig-seelisch gesundenden Kräfte für sein Tagwachen hervorholen.

[ 14 ] Während dieses zweiten Schlafstadiums gelangt nun der Mensch dahin, an der Stelle seines gewöhnlichen physischen Bewußtseins nicht ein kosmisches Bewußtsein, wohl aber ein kosmisches Erleben zu haben. Wie gesagt, erst der Eingeweihte bringt sich dieses kosmische Erleben zum Bewußtsein, aber erleben tut es jeder Mensch in der Nacht vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen. Und während dieses zweiten Stadiums des Schlafes ist der Mensch in einem solchen Lebenszustande, daß sein Inneres Nachbildungen der Planetenbewegungen unseres Sonnensystems vollführt. Während des Tages erleben wir uns in unserem physischen Leibe. Wenn wir von uns als physischen Menschen sprechen, so sagen wir: In uns sind unsere Lunge, unser Herz, unser Magen, unser Gehirn und so weiter, das ist unsere physische Innerlichkeit. Im zweiten Stadium des Schlafes ist unsere geistig-seelische Innerlichkeit die Bewegung der Venus, die Bewegung des Merkur, die Bewegung der Sonne, die Bewegung des Mondes. Dieses ganze Wechselspiel der Planetenbewegungen unseres Sonnensystems, wir tragen es nicht direkt in uns, nicht die Planetenbewegungen selbst, aber Nachbildungen, astralische Nachbildungen davon, die sind dann unsere innere Organisation. Wir sind nicht ausgedehnt etwa in den ganzen planetarischen Kosmos; wir sind aber von einer ungeheuren Größe gegenüber unserer physischen Tagesgröße. Wir tragen nicht die wirkliche Venus während jedes Schlafzustandes in uns, aber ein Nachbild ihrer Bewegung. Und was sich da in unserem Geistig-Seelischen zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen im zweiten Stadium des Schlafes zuträgt, das sind solche Zirkulationen der Planetenbewegungen in astralischer Substanz, wie — angeregt durch die Atmungsbewegung während des Tages unser Blut durch unseren physischen Organismus zirkuliert. So daß wir in der Nacht gewissermaßen ein Nachbild unseres Kosmos als unser Innenleben in uns zirkulieren haben.

[ 15 ] Wir müssen zuerst das Zerspaltensein der Seele durchmachen, dann können wir diese Zirkulation der planetarischen Nachwirkung erleben. Wie gesagt, den alten Menschen vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha gaben ihre Eingeweihten Anweisungen, damit sie dieses Zerspaltensein der Seele ertragen konnten und damit die Seele sich "zurechtfand in diesen Bewegungen, die jetzt ihr inneres Leben ausmachten. Nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha ist etwas anderes an die Stelle dieser alten Lehre getreten. Dasjenige ist eingetreten, was der Mensch innerlich als Gefühl, als Empfindung, als seelisches Leben und seelische Stimmung sich aneignen kann, wenn er sich so recht verbunden fühlt mit dem, was durch das Mysterium von Golgatha für die Menschheit auf der Erde durch den Christus geleistet worden ist. Wer sich verbunden fühlt mit Christus bis zu dem Grade, daß sich in ihm das Pauluswort erfüllt: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir», der hat in diesem Verbundensein mit dem Christus und dem Mysterium von Golgatha für seine Empfindung etwas entwickelt, was in den Schlaf hinein nachwirkt, so daß er nun die Stärke hat, die Zerspaltenheit der Seele zu überwinden und sich in dem Labyrinth der Planetenbahnen, die jetzt sein Inneres sind, zurechtzufinden. Denn zurechtfinden müssen wir uns doch, auch wenn wir nicht bewußt in unserem Inneren das tragen, was für die Seele die planetarische Zirkulation an der Stelle der Blutzirkulation während des Tages ist, die sich in dem zurückgelassenen physischen Leib fortsetzt.

[ 16 ] Nachdem wir dieses durchgemacht haben, kommen wir in das dritte Stadium des Schlafes. Im dritten Stadium tritt hinzu - es bleiben nämlich immer die Dinge des ersten Stadiums, nur kommen die Erlebnisse des nächsten Stadiums hinzu -, im dritten Stadium des Schlafes kommt hinzu dasjenige, was ich das Fixsternerlebnis nennen möchte. Nachdem wir die Zirkulation der planetarischen Nachbildungen erlebt haben, erleben wir tatsächlich die Formungen der Fixsterne, das, was in älteren Zeiten die Tierkreisbilder zum Beispiel genannt wurde. Und was da erlebt wird, das ist notwendig für die Seelenseite des Menschen, weil er die Nachwirkung dieses Erlebnisses mit den Fixsternen hereintragen muß in sein waches Tagesleben, um überhaupt die Kraft zu haben, jederzeit seinen physischen Organismus von der Seele aus zu beherrschen und zu beleben.

[ 17 ] Tatsächlich macht jeder Mensch während der Nacht ein ätherisches Vorstadium in Weltenangst und Gottessehnsucht durch, dann ein planetarisches Stadium, in dem er in seinem astralischen Leib die Nach fe} bilder der Planetenbewegungen fühlt, und er macht ein Fixsternerlebnis-Stadium durch, in dem er sich dann so fühlt — oder sich fühlen würde, wenn er Bewußtsein hätte -, daß er sein eigenes seelisch-geistiges Inneres als Nachbildung des Fixsternhimmels erlebt.

[ 18 ] Nun, für denjenigen, der diese Stadien des Schlafes durchschaut, entsteht, ich möchte sagen, jede Nacht eine bedeutungsvolle Frage. Die Menschenseele, der astralische Organismus, die Ich-Wesenheit treten aus dem physischen Leibe hinaus, ihr Inneres wird erfüllt von Nachbildungen der Planetenbewegungen und der Fixsternanordnungen. Die Frage, die da entsteht, ist diese: Warum kehrt denn der Mensch an jedem Morgen, nach jedem Schlafe, wiederum in sein physisches Dasein zurück?

[ 19 ] Und da stellt sich für die Initiationswissenschaft heraus, daß der Mensch tatsächlich nicht zurückkehren würde, wenn er nicht, indem er in die Planetenbewegungen und Fixsternformen eintritt, sich auch bei diesem Hinauswachsen in die Nachbildungen des kosmischen Daseins hineinleben würde in die Mondenkräfte,

[ 20 ] Er lebt sich in die geistigen Mondenkräfte hinein, in diejenigen Kräfte des Kosmos, welche im physischen Monde und in den Veränderungen des physischen Mondes ihre Nachbilder haben. Während alle anderen planetarischen und Fixsternkräfte eigentlich den Menschen hinausziehen aus dem physischen Leibe, sind es die Mondenkräfte, die ihn immer wieder und wieder beim Aufwachen zurückbringen in seinen physischen Leib. Der Mond hängt überhaupt mit alledem zusammen, was den Menschen aus dem geistigen Dasein zum physischen Dasein hinbringt. So ist es auch gleichgültig — es kommt ja nicht auf die physische Konstellation dabei an, obwohl diese eine gewisse Bedeutung hat -,, ob es sich um Neumond, Vollmond, Wende, abnehmenden Mond handelt, in der geistigen Welt ist ja der Mond immer da: die Mondenkräfte sind es, die den Menschen zurückgeleiten in die physische Welt, in seinen physischen Leib.

[ 21 ] Sie sehen, daß, indem ich Ihnen, wenn auch nur skizzenhaft schildere, was der Mensch durchmacht zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen, darin so etwas gegeben ist wie ein Abbild des Aufenthaltes des Menschen in der geistigen Welt überhaupt. Und so ist es auch. Wir erleben im Grunde genommen jede Nacht ein Abbild von dem, was wir durchmachen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Wenn wir durch Imagination, Inspiration und Intuition zurückschauen in das vorirdische Dasein, dann erblicken wir uns zunächst als geistig-seelische Menschenwesenheit in einem sehr frühen Stadium unseres vorirdischen Daseins. Wir erblicken uns so, daß wir ein kosmisches Bewußtsein haben. Da sind wir nicht in einem Leben, das nur Nachbildungen des Kosmischen in sich trägt wie im Schlafesleben, sondern da sind wir in der Tat ausgegossen über den wirklichen Kosmos. Und ungefähr um die Mitte des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt fühlen wir uns als geistig-seelische Wesen vollbewußt — ja mit einem viel klareren, intensiveren Bewußtsein, als wir nur irgendwie auf Erden haben können — umgeben von göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, von den göttlich-geistigen Hierarchien. Und so wie wir auf Erden mit den Naturkräften arbeiten, wie wir als Werkzeuge die äußeren Naturgegenstände haben, so spielt sich eine Arbeit ab zwischen uns und den Wesen der höheren geistigen Hierarchien.

[ 22 ] Und worin besteht diese Arbeit? Nun, diese Arbeit besteht darin, daß im Vereine mit einer ungeheuren Anzahl erhabener geistiger Wesenheiten des Weltenalls der geistig-seelische Mensch den kosmischen Geistkeim seines physischen Menschenleibes im Geistigen webt. So sonderbar Ihnen das erscheinen mag: den physischen Menschenleib als geistigen Keim herauszuweben aus dem kosmischen All, das ist die größte, bedeutsamste Arbeit, die überhaupt im Weltenall denkbar ist. Und daran arbeitet nicht nur die menschliche Seele in dem charakterisierten Zustande, daran arbeitet diese menschliche Seele im Zusammenhange mit ganzen Scharen göttlich-geistiger Wesenheiten. Denn wenn Sie sich das Komplizierteste vorstellen, was hier auf Erden gebildet werden kann, so ist das ein Primitives und Einfaches gegen jenes gewaltige Gewebe von kosmischer Größe und Grandiosität, das da gewoben wird und das dann zusammengeschoben, in sich verdichtet wird durch die Empfängnis und durch die Geburt, was mit physischer Erdenmaterie durchsetzt wird und physischer Menschenleib wird.

[ 23 ] Wenn man hier auf Erden von einem Keime spricht, spricht man von einem kleinen Keime, der dann verhältnismäßig groß wird. Wenn wir jetzt gegenüber dem Menschenleib als Produkt des Geistigen von seinem kosmischen Geistkeim sprechen wollen, so ist der von riesiger Größe. Und indem der Mensch von jenem Zeitpunkte, den ich Ihnen angedeutet habe, gegen seine Geburt zu lebt, verkleinert sich immer mehr und mehr der geistig-seelisch grandiose Menschenkeim. Der Mensch arbeitet ihn weiter aus fortwährend im Hinblick darauf: das wird zusammengewoben und zusammengeschoben, verdichtet zu dem physischen Menschenleib.

[ 24 ] Wirklich, nicht umsonst haben ältere Eingeweihte - allerdings aus einer Art von Hellsehen heraus, die nicht mehr die unsrige sein kann, aber die neuere Initiationswissenschaft zeigt uns dasselbe -, nicht umsonst haben diese Eingeweihten den menschlichen Leib einen «Tempel der Götter» genannt. Er ist es, denn er wird von der menschlichen Seele jedesmal zwischen dem 'Tode und einer neuen Geburt im Vereine mit Götterwesenheiten aus dem Weltenall heraus gewoben. Und dann, auf die noch zu schildernde Art, wird ihm seine physische Gestalt gegeben. Indem der Mensch in dem angezeigten Stadium an dem Geistkeime seines physischen Leibes webt, ist er in einer Seelenverfassung, in einer Seelenstimmung, die man nur vergleichen kann mit dem, was der moderne Eingeweihte die Intuition nennt. Der Mensch lebt mit seiner Seele in den Göttertaten drinnen. Er ist ganz ausgeflossen in kosmisches Götterdasein. Er erlebt in diesem mittleren Zustande zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt mit, was die Götter leben.

[ 25 ] Aber indem der Mensch dann weiterschreitet, indem er mehr gegen die Empfängnis oder die Geburt schreitet, ändert sich das. Gewissermaßen hat er dann für das Bewußtsein den Eindruck: Die göttlichgeistigen Wesen der höheren Hierarchien ziehen sich zurück von ihm. Und es erscheint ihm nur etwas wie eine Offenbarung, wie ein Abglanz, wie wenn die Götter sich zurückgezogen hätten und ihre Nebelnachbilder vor der Menschenseele noch stünden, und als ob eine Art Schleier gewoben würde als Nebelnachbild desjenigen, was früher in Realität gewoben worden ist. Das intuitive Bewußtsein, das man früher gehabt hat, geht jetzt über in ein kosmisches inspiriertes Bewußtsein. Man lebt nicht mehr mit den göttlich-geistigen Wesen, man lebt mit ihrer Offenbarung. Aber dafür bildet sich auch im Seelenbewußtsein immer mehr und mehr ein innerliches Ich heraus. Im, ich möchte sagen, Hochstadium des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt lebt man ganz mit den göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien; das Ich hat keine innere Stärke, es wird erst wiederum seiner selbst innerlich bewußt, wenn die Götter sich zurückziehen und nur die Offenbarung der Götter da ist. Der Schein der Götter, die Ausstrahlung, gelangt in eine Art inspiriertes Bewußtsein herein; dafür aber fühlt sich der Mensch als ein eigenes Wesen. Und was da in dem Menschen zunächst erwacht, das ist eine Art, ich könnte sagen, Begierde, eine Art Begehren.

[ 26 ] In der Mitte zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt arbeitet der Mensch gewissermaßen aus einer tieferen inneren Befriedigung heraus an seinem Geistkeim für den physischen Leib. Er schaut zwar hin auf das Ziel als auf seinen physischen Leib im nächsten Erdenleben, aber er ist nicht von Begierde durchdrungen, sondern nur, man möchte sagen, von Bewunderung, was eigentlich, universell angesehen, dieser physische Menschenleib ist. In dem Augenblicke, wo der Mensch nicht mehr in Götterwelten, sondern in den Offenbarungen der Götterwelten lebt, erwacht in ihm die Begierde, sich wiederum auf Erden zu verkörpern. Gerade indem das Ich-Bewußtsein immer stärker wird, erwacht diese Begierde, sich auf Erden wieder zu verkörpern. Man entfernt sich gewissermaßen von den Götterwelten, und man nähert sich dem, was man dann als Erdenmensch werden wird. Diese Begierde wird immer stärker und stärker, und auch das, was man äußerlich anschaut, verändert sich. Man hat ja vorher in lauter Wesen, in den göttlich-geistigen Hierarchien gelebt, man wußte sich eins mit diesen göttlichen Hierarchien. Wenn man von seinem Inneren sprach, so war das der Kosmos; aber der Kosmos, das waren Wesen, Wesen mit erhabenen Bewußtseinsstufen, mit denen man zusammenlebte. Jetzt ist ein äußerer Schein da, und in diesem äußeren Scheine treten allmählich die ersten Bilder desjenigen auf, was dann die physischen Nachbilder der göttlich-geistigen Wesen sind. Aus dem Wesen, das man drüben kennengelernt hat als hohes Sonnenwesen, kommt der Schein, und in dem Scheine tritt auf gewissermaßen die Sonne von außen gesehen, von der Welt herein gesehen. Hier von der Erde sehen wir hinauf zur Sonne. Wir sehen da zu a nächst, wenn wir herunterkommen, die Sonne von der anderen Seite. Aber es taucht die Sonne, es tauchen die Fixsterne auf, und es tauchen hinter den Fixsternen die Planetenbewegungen auf. Und indem die Planetenbewegungen auftauchen, taucht eben eine ganz bestimmte Art von Kräften auf: die geistigen Mondenkräfte, die nehmen uns jetzt gefangen. Sie sind es auch jetzt, die uns nach und nach in das Erdenleben zurücktragen.

[ 27 ] Das ist tatsächlich der Anblick, den der Mensch hat, indem er von den kosmischen Welten heruntersteigt zum irdischen Dasein: daß er aus einem Erleben göttlich-geistiger Hierarchien übergeht zu Bildern von ihnen. Aber die Wesensbilder werden allmählich Sternbilder, und der Mensch tritt ein in etwas, was er allerdings, ich möchte sagen, von hinten zunächst sieht: er tritt ein in das, was sich ihm hier von der Erde aus als Kosmos darstellt. Was da der Mensch vollbringt, das kann in seinen Einzelheiten durchschaut werden, und die moderne Initiationswissenschaft kann in dem Durchschauen dessen, was da der Mensch durchmacht, ziemlich weit kommen.

[ 28 ] Gerade durch Einzelheiten auf diesem Gebiete lernt man eigentlich das Leben erst kennen. Denn niemand kennt das Leben, der den Menschen nur im Zusammenhang mit dem Erdendasein zu betrachten in der Lage ist. Was ist uns denn da viel unser Zusammenhang mit dem Erdendasein? In den ungeheuer langen Zeiten zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt ist uns ja die Erde zunächst nichts, und dasjenige, was uns nur, ich möchte sagen, als Außerlichkeit entgegenleuchtet, das ist für uns in dieser langen Zeit in ganze Götterwelten gewandelt, in denen wir dann leben, und die erst wiederum sich in ihrer Außenseite als Sterne zeigen, wenn wir uns der Erde nahen für ein neues irdisches Dasein.

[ 29 ] Was der Mensch zuerst als den Geistkeim seines physischen Leibes gewoben hat, das weiß er zunächst eins mit dem ganzen Weltenall, mit dem geistigen Weltenall. Dann, indem er nur die Offenbarung der göttlich-geistigen Welten sieht, wird das immer mehr und mehr sein Leib, der jetzt auch ein Nachbild des Kosmos ist. Und aus diesem seinem Leibe tritt die Begierde für ein irdisches Dasein auf, ein IchBewußtsein in seinem Leibe.

[ 30 ] In diesem Leibe ist nun noch vieles unberührt vom Erdendasein, denn es ist ja ein Geistleib. So zum Beispiel ist es für diesen Leib zunächst in einem gewissen Stadium noch völlig unentschieden, ob der Mensch bei seinem nächsten Erdendasein eine männliche oder eine weibliche Persönlichkeit sein wird. Denn während dieser ganzen Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt bis in ein sehr spätes Stadium, bevor man auf Erden geboren wird, hat es gar keinen Sinn, nach Mann und Weib zu fragen. Das sind ganz andere Verhältnisse als die, welche sich auf Erden spiegeln als Mann und Weib. Es gibt auch Verhältnisse, die sich in dem geistigen Dasein abspielen und die sich auf Erden spiegeln; aber das, was als Mann und Weib auf Erden auftritt, das gewinnt erst eine Bedeutung verhältnismäßig spät, bevor man zur Erde heruntersteigt. Und wir können in den Einzelheiten verfolgen, wie das Menschenwesen — wenn es nach gewissen früheren, karmischen Zusammenhängen glaubt, im kommenden Erdendasein am besten dieses Erdendasein als Frau durchzumachen — beim Heruntersteigen nach dem irdischen Dasein, um sich dann mit dem physischen Menschenkeim zu verbinden, sich jene Zeit wählt, die hier auf Erden als die Vollmondszeit geschaut wird.

[ 31 ] Also wir können sagen: Blicken wir von der Erde aus in irgendeiner Gegend nach dem Vollmond, dann haben wir diejenige Zeit, die sich die Wesen wählen, um zur Erde herunterzusteigen, die Frauen werden wollen. Da erst wird das entschieden. Und die Neumondzeit ist diejenige Zeit, die sich die Wesen wählen, die Männer werden wollen. So daß also der Mensch durch das Mondentor in das irdische Dasein eintritt. Aber die Kraft, die der Mann braucht, um in das Erdenieben einzutreten, wird dann ins Weltenall hinausgeströmt; man geht ihr entgegen, indem man vom Weltenall hereinkommt, und sie wird vom Monde ausgestrahlt, wenn er für die Erde Neumond ist. Die Kraft, welche die Frau braucht, wird ausgestrahlt vom Monde, wenn er Vollmond ist; da ist seine beleuchtete Seite der Erde zu gerichtet, seine unbeleuchtete Seite geht ins Weltenall hinaus, und diese Kraft, die der Mond an seiner unbeleuchteten Seite ins Weltenall hinaussenden kann, die braucht das Menschenwesen, wenn es Frau werden will.

[ 32 ] Was ich Ihnen jetzt geschildert habe, das zeigt Ihnen, daß der alte Gedanke der Astrologie, der nur durch die landläufigen Astrologen heute vollständig in die Dekadenz gebracht worden ist, seine gute Begründung hatte. Man muß nur die Dinge innerlich anschauen können, wie sie zusammenhängen. Man muß auch nicht bloß rechnend auf die physische Konstellation hinschauen, sondern das entsprechende Geistige davon durchschauen, Da ist es wirklich möglich, in Einzelheiten einzugehen.

[ 33 ] Nicht wahr, in einem bestimmten Stadium kommt ja der Mensch aus dem Kosmos herunter. Aus dem geistigen Kosmos tritt er in den ätherischen Kosmos ein. Und ich rede eigentlich jetzt noch ganz vom ätherischen Kosmos; das Physische der Sterne kommt dabei weniger in Betracht, auch das Physische des Mondes kommt weniger noch in Betracht. Das wesentliche Moment, der wesentliche Augenblick, wo der Mensch die Entscheidung trifft, auf die Erde herunterzukommen, hängt, wie ich es geschildert habe, vom Mondstadium, von den Mondenverhältnissen ab. Aber der Mensch ist ja bei diesem Herunterkommen öfter dem Vollmond oder Neumond ausgesetzt, und so kann es sein, daß der Mensch sich zunächst gewissermaßen einem entscheidenden Neumond aussetzt, um Mann zu werden, oder einem entscheidenden Vollmond, um Frau zu werden. Dann aber — es geht ja das Heruntersteigen nicht so schnell, er bleibt längere Zeit exponiert —, dann kann er auch irgendwie sich noch entscheiden, wenn er durch den Neumond als Mann heruntersteigt, trotzdem noch dem kommenden Vollmonde sich auszusetzen. So daß er also die Entscheidung getroffen hat, als Mann herabzusteigen: er hat die Neumondkräfte dazu verwendet; aber er hat noch während seines Abstieges den weiteren Mondengang zu seiner Verfügung, den Vollmondgang. Da erfüllt er sich mit den Mondenkräften dann so, daß diese nun nicht auf sein Verhältnis als Mann oder Weib wirken, sondern vorzugsweise auf seine Hauptesorganisation und auf das, was mit der Hauptesorganisation von außen, vom Kosmos her zusammenhängt, wenn gerade die Konstellation eintritt, von der ich jetzt gesprochen habe. Wenn also der Mensch die Entscheidung getroffen hat: Ich werde Mann durch eine Neumondszeit - und dann noch im Weltenall weiterlebt, so daß er noch nicht ganz durch den Mondeneinfluß durchgegangen ist, sondern noch der nächsten Vollmondzeit ausgesetzt ist, dann bekommt er durch die Einwirkung der Mondenkräfte in diesem Zustande zum Beispiel braune Augen und schwarze Haare. So daß wir sagen können: Durch die Art und Weise, wie der Mensch an dem Mond vorbeikommt, wird nicht nur sein Geschlecht bestimmt, sondern seine Haarfarbe und seine Augenfarbe. Ist der Mensch zum Beispiel als Frau an dem Vollmond vorbeigegangen und setzt sich nachher noch dem Neumond aus, so kann er als Frau blaue Augen und blonde Haare bekommen.

[ 34 ] So grotesk sich das ausnimmt, so sind wir durchaus prädestiniert durch die Art unseres Erlebens aus dem Kosmos heraus, wie wir als Seelisch-Geistiges in unseren physischen und ätherischen Organismus hier hineinarbeiten. Es ist durchaus vorher nicht entschieden, ob wir ein Blondkopf oder ein Schwarzkopf werden. Das entscheiden erst beim Vorbeigehen, beim Heruntergehen aus dem Kosmos in das irdische Dasein die Mondenkräfte.

[ 35 ] Und ebenso wie wir am Monde vorbeikommen, der uns eigentlich hereingeleitet ins irdische Dasein, so kommen wir ja an den anderen Planeten vorbei. Es ist nicht einerlei, ob wir zum Beispiel in der einen oder in der anderen Art, sagen wir, am Saturn vorbeikommen. Wir können zum Beispiel am Saturn dadurch vorbeikommen, daß zusammenwirken durch die besondere Konstellation die Kraft des Saturn mit der Kraft des Löwen im Tierkreise. Dadurch, daß wir gerade die Region des Saturn passieren, wenn der Saturn in seiner Kraft verstärkt wird durch den Löwen im Tierkreise, dadurch gewinnen wir in der Seele, allerdings bedingt durch unser vorhergehendes Karma, die Kraft, äußeren Lebenszufällen gescheit zu begegnen, so daß sie uns nicht immer niederwerfen. Steht der Saturn mehr, sagen wir, unter der Gewalt des Steinbocks, dann werden wir schwache Menschen, die zusammensinken unter den äußerlichen Lebensverhältnissen.

[ 36 ] Alles das tragen wir in uns, indem wir von dem Kosmos herein unser irdisches Dasein vorbereiten. Natürlich kann das durch die entsprechende Erziehung besiegt werden, aber nicht dadurch, daß wir nach Ansicht der Materialisten sagen: Das ist alles Unsinn, das braucht man alles nicht zu berücksichtigen -, sondern gerade dadurch kann es besiegt werden, daß wir diese Kräfte entwickeln, daß wir sie wirklich

[ 37 ] 4 I entwickeln. Und die Menschheit wird in der Zukunft wiederum lernen, nicht bloß hinzuschauen — und gegen dieses Hinschauen soll gar nichts eingewendet werden —, ob ein Kind gute Milch bekommt und gute Nahrung, sondern die Menschheit wird auch wiederum lernen, hinzuschauen, ob in diesem oder jenem Menschen Saturnkräfte oder Jupiterkräfte unter diesem oder jenem Einfluß wirksam sind.

[ 38 ] Sagen wir, wir finden an einem Menschen, daß er durch sein Karma in sich trägt Saturnkräfte unter dem ungünstigsten Einfluß, zum Beispiel unter dem Einfluß des Steinbocks oder Wassermanns, so daß er allen Lebensschwierigkeiten ausgesetzt ist, dann werden wir sorgfältigst nach anderen Kräften in diesem Menschen suchen, wenn wir ihn stark machen wollen. Wir werden uns zum Beispiel fragen: Hat er den Durchgang durch die Jupitersphäre, durch die Marssphäre oder durch irgendeine andere Sphäre durchgemacht? — Und man wird immer eines durch das andere korrigieren und paralysieren können.

[ 39 ] Man wird eben lernen müssen, den Menschen nicht nur im Zusammenhange mit dem zu denken, was er im irdischen Dasein zu essen oder zu trinken beginnt, sondern man wird den Menschen im Zusammenhange betrachten müssen mit dem, was er dadurch wird, daß er durch die kosmischen Welten hindurchgeht zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.

[ 40 ] Wenn der Mensch schon nahe ist seiner irdischen Laufbahn, dann tritt eigentlich für ihn eine Art von Verlust seines Wesens ein. Er war ja, wie Sie aus meiner Darstellung ersehen, verbunden mit dem, was er sich als den Geistkeim seines physischen Leibes gewoben hat. Er hat dann diesen Geistkeim noch durchwoben mit den Erfahrungen des Heruntersteigens durch Fixsterne und Planeten. In einem bestimmten Stadium, ganz nahe schon an der Konzeption und Geburt, ist der Geistkeim nicht mehr da. Dieser Geistkeim ist mittlerweile mit seinen Kräften als Kraftsystem auf die Erde hinuntergestiegen. Er ist dem Menschen entfallen. Er hat sich auf Erden selbständig mit der physischen Vererbungssubstanz verbunden, die durch die Vorfahren, durch Vater und Mutter gegeben werden. Was da im Organismus gewoben wird, geht eher auf die Erde hinunter als der Mensch als geistig-seelisches Wesen selbst. Und dann, wenn der Mensch so fühlt, daß er eigentlich dasjenige, was er im Kosmos erst selbst gewoben hat, abgegeben hat an die Eltern, dann ist er im letzten Stadium vor seinem irdischen Dasein imstande — weil er eben nicht mehr zu weben hat an seinem physischen Leib, der im wesentlichen fertig und auch schon der Vererbungsströmung abgegeben und eingegliedert ist —, dann ist er imstande, aus dem Weltenäther heraus anzuziehen, was er selber als Ätherorganismus braucht. Jetzt zieht er seinen Ätherorganismus zusammen. Und zusammen mit diesem Ätherorganismus verbindet er sich mit dem, was er nun selber vorbereitet hat durch die Eltern. Er übernimmt seinen physischen Leib, in dem dieses ganze kosmische Gewebe des Geistkeimes zusammengezogen ist, und in das hineinverwoben ist, was der Mensch selber beim Heruntersteigen damit verbunden hat, indem er durch diese oder jene Sternenregion durchgegangen ist. Er geht ja nicht nach Willkür durch Neumond oder Vollmond durch und läßt sich dadurch etwa nach Willkür Mann oder Weib werden, oder schwarze oder bionde Haare haben, oder blaue oder braune Augen, sondern das alles hängt innig zusammen mit dem, was die Ergebnisse seines früheren Karma sind.

[ 41 ] Aus alledem aber werden Sie ersehen, daß der Mensch, während er im Schlafzustande nur Nachbilder der planetarischen Welt, der Fixsternwelt als sein Inneres durchmacht, er jetzt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt diese Welten in ihrer Wirklichkeit durchmacht. Er geht durch sie hindurch, sie werden sein Inneres. Und die Mondenkräfte sind es immer, die uns auf die Erde zurückbringen. Sie unterscheiden sich wesentlich dadurch von allen anderen Sternenkräften, daß sie uns auf die Erde zurückbringen. Sie bringen uns im Schlafe auf die Erde zurück, sie bringen uns auch auf die Erde zurück, wenn wir alles das, was ich skizzenhaft geschildert habe, durchgemacht haben, um wiederum zu einem Lebenslauf auf die Erde zu kommen.

[ 42 ] Aber sehen wir uns noch einmal dasjenige an, was da zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen als astralische und Ich-Organisation außerhalb des physischen Leibes ist. Aus physischen Knochen und physischem Blut ist es nicht gewoben, es ist ein Geistig-Seelisches. Aber hinein verwoben ist unser ganzer moralischer Wert. So wie wir hier wachend aus Knochen und Blut und Nerven bestehen, so besteht das, was beim Einschlafen aus uns herausgeht und beim Aufwachen in uns wieder hereingeht, aus den real gewordenen Beurteilungen unserer eigenen moralischen Taten.

[ 43 ] Habe ich während des Tages eine gute Handlung vollbracht, so ist ihre Wirkung abbildlich in meinem Schlafesleib in dem GeistigSeelischen drinnen, das in der Nacht herausgeht. Meine moralische Qualität lebt da drinnen. Und wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, da trägt er realisiert seine ganze moralische Bewertung mit. Der Mensch erzeugt in der Tat in sich einen zweiten Menschen zwischen Geburt und Tod im Erdenleben. Dieser zweite Mensch, der jede Nacht aus dem Leibe herausgeht, der ist das Ergebnis unseres moralischen oder unmoralischen Lebens, und das geht mit uns durch die Todespforte.

[ 44 ] Dieses Ergebnis, das unserem ewigen Wesenskern eingegliedert ist, es ist ja nicht das einzige, was wir in dem Geistig-Seelischen haben, das in der Nacht aus uns herausgeht. Aber gerade nach dem Tode, wo wir zuerst im Ätherleib, dann im Astralleib sind, sehen wir kaum etwas anderes an uns selbst als diese moralische Wesenheit des Menschen. Ob einer gut oder böse war, das schaut man an: man ist es. Wie man hier ein Haut- oder ein Nerven- oder ein Blut- oder ein Knochenmensch ist, so ist man dort in seiner eigenen Anschauung das, was man moralisch oder unmoralisch war.

[ 45 ] Und nun macht man nach dem Tode den Weg hinaus, zuerst durch die Mondensphäre, dann durch die Fixsternsphäre, bis eben in die Zeit hinein, wo man beginnen kann mit den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien zu arbeiten an dem Geistkeim des nächsten physischen Leibes. Aber trüge man dieses Moralische bis in die höchsten Welten hinauf, wo man seinen künftigen physischen Organismus im Geistkeime zu weben hat, da würde dieser physische Organismus eine richtige Mißgeburt werden. Es muß eben eine Zeitlang zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt der Mensch herausgehoben sein aus dem, was seine moralische Qualität ist. Ja, er läßt die moralische Qualität in der Mondensphäre zurück.

[ 46 ] Es ist in der Tat so, daß wir beim Hinausgehen aus der Mondensphäre unseren moralischen oder unmoralischen Menschen in der Mondensphäre zurücklassen und in die reine Sphäre der Götter eintreten, wo wir an unserem physischen Leibe weben können.

[ 47 ] Nun muß ich wiederum auf den Unterschied zwischen den älteren Zeiten vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha und denjenigen Zeiten, die dem Mysterium von Golgatha nachgefolgt und heute noch sind, zurückkommen. Die älteren Initiierten haben ihren Schülern und durch diese Schüler der ganzen Menschheit der damaligen Zivilisation klargemacht: Um den Übergang finden zu können aus derjenigen Welt, die ich in meiner «Theosophie» die Seelenwelt genannt habe, und die eigentlich noch ganz in der Mondensphäre durchgemacht wird, um den Übergang zu gewinnen in die Welt, die ich dann das Geisterland genannt habe, muß der Mensch jene Gefühle hier auf Erden sich aneignen, durch die er von dem geistigen Sonnenwesen hinaufgeleitet wird, nachdem er in der Mondensphäre dieses ganze Gepäck seiner moralischen Nachwirkungen zurückgelassen hat.

[ 48] Sehen Sie, alles dasjenige, was uns die Geschichte über die drei ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte, auch noch über das 4. Jahrhundert erzählt, ist ja im Grunde genommen eine Fälschung; denn das Christentum war in diesen Jahrhunderten etwas ganz anderes. Es war etwas anderes, weil diejenige Auffassung in ihm geherrscht hat, die noch aus dem Verstehen der alten Initiationswissenschaft herstammte. Man wußte aus dieser Initiationsweisheit, daß das ganz hohe Sonnenwesen den Menschen aus der Mondensphäre drüben in dem Leben nach dem Tode hinausführte, nachdem er sein moralisches Gepäck zurückgelassen hatte, und ihn wiederum hereinführte beim Zurückkehren in die Mondensphäre. Dadurch hatte der Mensch die Kraft — die er nicht durch sich selbst hätte haben können -, sich diesen moralischen Menschen in einer gewissen Zeit vor der Geburt einzugliedern, damit er dann auf Erden in der Seele sein Schicksal erfüllen könne, damit das nicht in den Leib hineingehe, denn sonst würde ja der Mensch als Mißgeburt geboren werden und ganz krank sein im Leibe. Es muß das wiederum in der Mondensphäre beim Heruntersteigen übernommen werden, damit es nicht in den Leib hineinkommt.

[ 49 ] Diejenigen Eingeweihten, die zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha, ja noch etwa drei bis vier Jahrhunderte hinterher gelebt haben, haben dann ihren Schülern gesagt: Das hohe Sonnenwesen war früher nur oben in den geistigen Welten. Aber mit dem Fortschritte der Menschheit ist das Ich-Bewußtsein auf Erden so hell geworden, daß es um so stärker verdunkelt wird in der geistigen Welt. Je heller nämlich unser Ich-Bewußtsein nur durch den physischen Leib hier unten auf Erden ist, desto dunkler ist es oben. Der Mensch könnte nicht mehr an das Sonnenwesen heran, er würde nicht den Übergang finden durch seine eigene Kraft nach dem Tode aus der Mondensphäre in die höheren Sphären, wenn der Christus nicht heruntergestiegen wäre und durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen wäre. Das Wesen, das der Mensch früher nach dem Tode nur in der geistigen Welt angetroffen hat, das ist heruntergestiegen, lebt nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha hier auf der Erde. Der Mensch kann ein Verhältnis zu ihm gewinnen nach dem Paulusworte: «Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir.» Dadurch nimmt sich der Mensch hier von dieser Erde Kraft mit, die ihm der Christus hier auf dieser Erde gibt, um sein Moralwesen, das er als ein selbständiges Wesen in sich erzeugt, in der Mondensphäre zurückzulassen, überzugehen in die höheren Sphären, um da nun zu weben an dem Geistkeim seines physischen Leibes. Und dadurch hat er die Kraft, dann wiederum beim Heruntersteigen durch die Mondensphäre, aus freier Wahl sein Karma zu übernehmen, seine guten und seine bösen Taten in ihren Nachwirkungen. Wir sind freie Menschen geworden im Verlaufe der geschichtlichen Entwickelung. Wir sind es aber deshalb geworden, weil wir schon aus freier innerer Stärke durch die ChristusKraft, die wir uns hier auf Erden erwerben, unser Karma beim Herunterstieg zur Mondensphäre übernehmen. Ganz gleichgültig, ob uns das hier auf Erden gefällt oder nicht gefällt, wir tun es, wenn wir hier auf Erden rechte Christen werden, in diesem Stadium, das ich eben beschrieben habe.

[ 50 ] So habe ich mich bemüht, Ihnen einiges zu zeigen von dem, wie die moderne Initiationswissenschaft hineinschauen kann in die Welten, die wir die verborgenen Seiten des Menschendaseins nennen können, wie eigentlich alles, was am Menschen ist, nur dadurch aufgeklärt werden kann, daß man in diese verborgenen Seiten hineinschaur. Und ich habe zugleich versucht, im Zusammenhange damit Ihnen zu zeigen, was für die jetzigen Menschen der Christus-Impuls ist; denn auf ihn müssen wir immer wieder zurückkommen. Der Mensch kann nicht ein volles Menschenwesen sein in der Zeit nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha, wenn er nicht den Weg zu diesem Christus-Impuls findet. Und daher muß er schon so werden, daß eine anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft gerade den Christus-Impuls in der rechten Weise immer mehr und mehr beleuchtet. Denn die Art und Weise, wie er aus einem verdunkelten Bewußtsein heraus beleuchtet worden ist in der Vergangenheit, die würde ja einem großen Teil der Menschheit — denken Sie an die Orientalen, denken Sie an die Bewohner anderer Erdteile — die Möglichkeit nehmen, sich zum Christentum zu bekennen. Dasjenige Christentum, das anthroposophisch geisteswissenschaftlich vertieft ist, wird in der Tat - wenn man nur einmal richtig den Nerv der Geisteswissenschaft, wie sie hier gemeint ist, verstehen wird — gerade von den Orientalen, die eine alte Geistigkeit, wenn auch in der Dekadenz, in sich haben, aufgefaßt werden, mit Sehnsucht aufgefaßt werden.

[ 51 ] Auf diesem Wege allein kann jener Friede über die Erde kommen, der aus der Seele und aus dem Geiste der Menschen kommen muß, und der der Erde — das fühlt jeder Unbefangene heute — so notwendig ist. Man wird sich noch viel mehr überzeugen müssen, wie wertlos im Grunde genommen heute alles Denken über äußere Institutionen ist, und wie notwendig es dagegen ist, unmittelbar sich an die Seelen zu wenden. An die Seelen aber kann man sich nicht wenden, wenn man diesen Seelen nicht etwas zu sagen weiß über die eigentliche Heimat der Seele, über das, was der Mensch erlebt jenseits des physischen Daseins in denjenigen Bewußtseinszuständen, von denen ich Ihnen heute gesprochen habe. Mögen diese Bewußtseinszustände auch während des irdischen Lebens nicht vorhanden sein, ihre Wirkungen sind vorhanden. Oh, derjenige, der das Leben durchschaut, er sieht in jedem Menschenantlitz ein Abbild der kosmischen Schicksale, die der Mensch durchgemacht hat zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt!

[ 52 ] Ich habe Ihnen heute geschildert, wie das Schicksal, ob man Mann oder Frau geworden ist, aus dem Kosmos heraus begriffen werden kann, wie selbst die Farbe der Augen, die Farbe der Haare erst begrifferi werden können, wenn man ins kosmische Dasein hineinschauen kann. Nichts in dieser Welt ist verständlich, wenn es nicht aus dem Kosmos heraus verstanden wird. Dann erst wird der Mensch sich richtig als Mensch fühlen, wenn wir ihm wieder aus einer wirklichen GeistErkenntnis heraus zu sagen wissen, welches sein Zusammenhang ist mit dem, was hinter dem sinnlich-physischen Dasein steht. Wenn es auch die Menschen der Erde heute noch nicht wissen, unbewußt lechzen sie nach einem solchen Wissen. Und was sich konvulsivisch heute entwickelt auf allen Gebieten, sei es auf dem Gebiete des geistigen, des äußeren rechtlichen oder des wirtschaftlichen Lebens, alles ist zum Schluß eine Wirkung des Geistigen. Alles das kann nur dadurch von Niedergangskräften zu Aufgangskräften gebracht werden, daß der Mensch wiederum etwas wissen lernt von seinem Zusammenhange mit dem außerphysischen Dasein; denn dieses physische Dasein ist nichts, wenn es nicht im Zusammenhange gesehen wird mit dem überphysischen Dasein. Dieser physische Menschenleib gewinnt erst seine Bedeutung, wenn wir ihn gewissermaßen als den Zusammenfluß all jener Hoheitskräfte sehen, die zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt gewoben werden. Das ist ja die Tragik der materialistischen Welterkenntnis, daß sie zuletzt das Materielle selber nicht kennt. Wir legen den menschlichen Leib auf den Seziertisch, durchforschen ihn sorgfältig nach seinen Geweben und nach seinen einzelnen physischen Bestandteilen. Wir tun das, weil wir die Materie kennenlernen wollen. Wir lernen sie aber auf diesem Weg nicht kennen, denn sie ist Wirkung des Geistes, und wir kennen sie erst, wenn wir sie in jene Stadien zurückverfolgen können, wo sie aus dem Geiste heraus gesponnen wird. Gerade das physisch-materielle Dasein wird für die Menschen erst verständlich werden, wenn sie mit ihrer Seele in das Seelische und Geistige kosmisch hineingeführt werden.

[ 43 ] Durchdringen wir uns mit dem Bewußtsein, daß wir immer mehr verstehen sollen, wie wir zusammenhängen mit dem Geistig-Seelischen des Kosmos, dann werden wir richtige Anthroposophen. Und bei Ihnen werde ich ja wohl nicht verlacht werden, wenn ich sage: Die Welt braucht heute richtige Anthroposophen, die aus jenem Bewußtsein heraus einen Aufstieg der Menschheit bewirken, das sich ergibt aus dem Erleben des Geistigen, wenn wir es zunächst auch nur in dem Abbilde begreifen sollten, wenn wir auch nicht selber hellsehend erkennen. Wir brauchen noch nicht hellseherisch zu sein, um wohltätig zu wirken im Besitze einer Geist-Erkenntnis. Geradesowenig wie der Mensch zu wissen braucht, woraus Fleisch besteht, wenn er Fleisch ißt, und dieses Fleisch ihn doch nährt, ebensowenig braucht der Mensch hellseherisch zu sein, um durch seine Arbeit seinen ganzen Zusammenhang mit dem Leben der höheren Welten zu bewirken. Wie wenn der Mensch das Geistige verzehren würde, so ist es, wenn er es annimmt vor dem Hellsehen. Und das Hellsehen fügt im Grunde genommen nichts zu dem hinzu, was wir durch das Geisteswissen der Welt werden können. Es befriedigt nur unsere Erkenntnis, die muß einmal da sein. Es müssen natürlich Leute da sein, die die Zusammensetzung des Fleisches untersuchen, aber zum Essen ist diese Erkenntnis nicht notwendig. So müssen auch Hellseher da sein in der neuen Zeit, die untersuchen können, wie des Menschen Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt ist; aber um das, was die Menschheit braucht, zu bewirken, ist notwendig, daß wir gesunde Menschenseelen sind. Die werden seelische Verdauungskraft fühlen, wenn ihnen von der Wissenschaft des Geistigen gesprochen wird, die werden dieses Geistige aufnehmen, es verdauen, es in ihre Arbeit eingliedern. Und das brauchen wir heute über die ganze zivilisierte Welt hin: äußere Menschenarbeit, die im rechten und wahren Sinne durchgeistigt ist.

The Hidden Sides of Human Existence and the Christ Impulse

[ 1 ] It is always a satisfaction for me to be able to speak in the branch here in The Hague following the public lectures and public events, and I will try to tell you something this evening that can be a more intimate continuation, a supplement to what I was able to say in the public lectures. Above all, for the realization of the spiritual world and for the attainment of an inner coexistence with the spiritual world, it is important to see in the right light that which one could call the hidden side of human existence. It is the hidden side of human existence that is the more important for the overall assessment and evaluation of human life. This may not be readily admitted by outwardly and materialistically thinking people, but it is true. No one can get to know human existence if they are not able to enter into its hidden sides.

[ 2 ] Perhaps one could, if I may put it this way, object to the gods that they have placed precisely what is most valuable to man in the hidden aspects of his life, that they have not, as it were, revealed to him what is most valuable to him. If this were so, then man would remain powerless in a higher sense. It is precisely through this that we come to spiritual-soul forces that can then permeate our entire existence, that we must first acquire our actual human dignity and our human nature, that we must first do something spiritually and mentally in order to become human beings in the right sense. And in this overcoming, in this necessity to first do something in order to become human, lies what can make us powerful, what can imbue us with strength in the very core of our being.

[ 3 ] And so today, in order to elaborate on this central theme that I have touched upon, I would like to speak to you again from a certain point of view about the hidden side of human existence, which wraps itself in the unconsciousness of sleep. And I will then tell you something of what is wrapped up in states of existence that remain unconscious during life on earth: the states of existence of pre-earthly life and life after death.

[ 4 ] The life of sleep takes place for man in such a way that with the transition of dreams - which however have a highly dubious existence and a highly dubious meaning for human life, if one simply accepts them as they present themselves - he falls into the unconsciousness of sleep, from which he only comes out again in awakening, when he submerges with his ego and astral body into his etheric body and physical body, thus using these two organizations as a tool to perceive his physical surroundings and then to work within these physical surroundings through his will. But that which lies beyond birth and death is wrapped up in the very essence of the human being that becomes unconscious when he falls asleep. And I want to describe to you the states that the human being goes through as if they were conscious. They can only become conscious for the imaginative, inspired and intuitive consciousness. But this is only a difference in cognition compared to what every human being goes through in the night. The one who looks into the life of sleep as a modern initiate, as a modern initiate, knows what it is like. But in this way the life of sleep becomes for him nothing other than it is for every human being, even for those who go through it quite unconsciously. And so one can already describe it realistically if one simply describes what remains unconscious as if the person went through it consciously. And that is what I will now do first.

[ 5 ] After the transition via dreams - as I have already indicated - the human being passes into unconsciousness for ordinary consciousness. But this unconsciousness presents itself in its reality for the higher, for the supersensible cognition in such a way that immediately after falling asleep man comes into a kind of blurred existence. If he were to see through his state consciously, he would feel as if he had been poured out into an ethereal world. He would feel himself outside his body, but not narrowly limited, but poured out widely; he would feel and perceive his body as something objective outside him. This state, if it were to come to consciousness, would be inwardly filled with a certain fear or anxiety in the soul of the human being: one feels that one has lost the firm support of one's body, one feels as if before an abyss.

[ 6 ] What is called the threshold to the spiritual world must be there for the reason that the human being must first prepare himself to have such a feeling: the feeling of having lost that support which the physical body provides, and of carrying that anxiety in the soul which comes from the fact that one is initially confronted with something completely unknown and indeterminate.

[ 7 ] This feeling of anxiety, as I said, is not there for the ordinary sleeper; it is not there in consciousness, but man goes through it. And what is fear in the physical daytime existence, for example, expresses itself, even if in subtle processes of the physical body, nevertheless in just such processes: certain vascular activities of the physical body are different when man is in fear than when he is not in fear. So something is going on objectively, apart from what the human being feels in consciousness as unrest and so on. This objective feeling of mental-spiritual fear is what a person goes through when he enters the sleep state through the gate of sleep. But this feeling of fear is connected with something else: with a feeling of deep longing for a Divine-Spiritual that floods and weaves through the world.

[ 8 ] If man were to experience the first moments - or perhaps for many people hours - after falling asleep fully consciously, he would initially be in this fear and in this longing for the divine. The fact that we feel in a religious mood at all during the waking hours of the day depends primarily on the fact that this feeling of fear and this longing for the divine, which we experience during the night, carry over into the mood of the day. These are spiritual experiences, projected, as it were, into physical life, which fill us with the after-effect of that fear which drives us to want to recognize what is real in the world, and fill us with the after-effect of that longing which we carry in sleep and which expresses itself in religious feeling during the waking hours of the day.

[ 9 ] However, this is only the case in the first stages after falling asleep. When sleep continues, something peculiar occurs: the soul is as if split, as if divided into many souls. If man consciously lived through this state, which today only the modern initiate can fully see, he would appear to be many souls, and thus he would think that he had lost himself. All the individual soul beings, which are actually only shadow images of souls, represent something in which he has lost himself. For this state of sleep, the human being appears differently depending on whether we look at it before or after the Mystery of Golgotha. For man needs an external cosmic help against this, if I may say so, being split into many soul images.

[ 10 ] In ancient times, which preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, the initiates, the ancient initiates, through their disciples, through the teachers whom they sent out into the world for the people, gave people certain religious instructions which evoked feelings in waking daily life. And these instructions, which were then also lived out by the people in cult acts, strengthened the souls so that they in turn took something like an after-effect of this religious mood into their sleep.

[ 11 ] You see the interaction between sleeping and waking! On the one hand, in his longing for God, man experiences something in the first stage of sleep that makes him develop religion in waking life. If this religion is developed in waking daytime life - and it was developed in ancient times by the initiates - then this in turn has an effect on the second stage after falling asleep: the soul then feels strong enough through the after-effect of this religious mood to endure its being divided, so to speak, to at least exist within the multiplicity.

[ 12 ] This is the difficulty of non-religious people, that they have no such nocturnal help against being divided into many souls, and that they then carry over what they experience into daytime life without the religious strengthening. For everything that is experienced during the night is carried over into daytime life in its after-effects. It is not so long ago that irreligiosity and areligiosity played such a great role among mankind as in the last, 19th century. People have still had the after-effects of what earlier, more honest religious times were to man. But as the irreligious times go on and on, they will have a significant consequence: people will carry over the after-effects of this split soul from their sleeping states into their daytime life, and this will contribute in particular to the fact that during daytime life man will not have the cohesive forces in his organism to distribute the effect of food in the right way in his organism. And the consequence of irreligiosity will, in the course of the not so distant future, manifest itself in significant human illnesses.

[ 13 ] Just do not believe that the spiritual-soul has no relationship to the physical! It is not related in such a way that the irreligiousness that develops today is directly punished with illness by some demonic gods. Existence does not take place in this outward way, but there is nevertheless an inner connection between what man goes through spiritually and mentally and what his physical constitution is. In order for the human being to be healthy during the waking hours, he needs to bring into his sleeping life a feeling of belonging together with the divine-spiritual beings, into whose events he sinks his own eternal essence during the sleeping hours. And it is only from the right inner seeing in a spiritual-soul world between falling asleep and waking up that man can bring forth the right, also spiritually-spiritually healthy forces for his day awakening.

[ 14 ] During this second stage of sleep, the human being comes to have not a cosmic consciousness but a cosmic experience in the place of his ordinary physical consciousness. As I said, only the initiate becomes aware of this cosmic experience, but every human being experiences it during the night from the time he falls asleep until he wakes up. And during this second stage of sleep, man is in such a state of life that his inner being carries out imitations of the planetary movements of our solar system. During the day we experience ourselves in our physical body. When we speak of ourselves as physical human beings, we say: Within us are our lungs, our heart, our stomach, our brain and so on, that is our physical interiority. In the second stage of sleep, our spiritual-mental interiority is the movement of Venus, the movement of Mercury, the movement of the sun, the movement of the moon. This whole interplay of the planetary movements of our solar system, we do not carry it directly within us, not the planetary movements themselves, but replicas, astral replicas of them, which are then our inner organization. We are not extended into the whole planetary cosmos, for example; but we are of an enormous size compared to our physical daily size. We do not carry the real Venus within us during every state of sleep, but an afterimage of its movement. And what takes place in our spiritual-soul between falling asleep and waking up in the second stage of sleep are such circulations of the planetary movements in astral substance as - stimulated by the respiratory movement during the day - our blood circulates through our physical organism. So that at night we have, as it were, an afterimage of our cosmos circulating within us as our inner life.

[ 15 ] We must first go through the splitting of the soul, then we can experience this circulation of the planetary after-effect. As I said, the ancient people before the Mystery of Golgotha were given instructions by their initiates so that they could endure this splitting of the soul and so that the soul could "find its way in these movements which now constituted its inner life. After the Mystery of Golgotha something else took the place of this old teaching. That which man can inwardly appropriate as feeling, as sensation, as spiritual life and spiritual mood, has come in, if he feels himself so truly connected with what has been accomplished for mankind on earth through the Christ in the Mystery of Golgotha. Whoever feels connected with Christ to the extent that Paul's words are fulfilled in him: “Not I, but the Christ in me”, has developed something for his feelings in this connection with the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha which continues to have an effect in his sleep, so that he now has the strength to overcome the fragmentation of the soul and to find his way in the labyrinth of planetary orbits which are now his inner being. For we must find our way, even if we do not consciously carry within us what for the soul is the planetary circulation in the place of the blood circulation during the day, which continues in the physical body left behind.

[ 16 ] After we have gone through this, we enter the third stage of sleep. In the third stage there is added - for the things of the first stage always remain, only the experiences of the next stage are added - in the third stage of sleep there is added that which I would like to call the fixed star experience. After we have experienced the circulation of the planetary replicas, we actually experience the formations of the fixed stars, that which in older times was called the zodiacal pictures, for example. And what is experienced there is necessary for the soul side of man, because he must carry the after-effects of this experience with the fixed stars into his waking daily life in order to have the strength to control and enliven his physical organism from the soul at all times.

[ 17 ] In fact, during the night every human being goes through an etheric preliminary stage of fear of the world and longing for God, then a planetary stage in which he feels the afterimages of the planetary movements in his astral body, and he goes through a fixed star experience stage in which he then feels - or would feel if he had consciousness - that he is experiencing his own soul-spiritual inner being as a replica of the fixed star heaven.

[ 18 ] Now, for the one who sees through these stages of sleep, I would say, a meaningful question arises every night. The human soul, the astral organism, the I-entity step out of the physical body, their inner being is filled with reproductions of the planetary movements and the fixed star arrangements. The question that arises is this: Why does man return to his physical existence every morning, after every sleep?

[ 19 ] And there it turns out for the science of initiation that man would indeed not return if he did not, by entering into the planetary movements and fixed star forms, also live himself into the lunar forces during this outgrowth into the replicas of cosmic existence,

[ 20 ] He lives himself into the spiritual lunar forces, into those forces of the cosmos which have their afterimages in the physical moon and in the changes of the physical moon. While all other planetary and fixed star forces actually draw the human being out of the physical body, it is the lunar forces that bring him back into his physical body again and again when he wakes up. The moon is generally connected with everything that brings the human being from spiritual existence to physical existence. So it does not matter - it does not depend on the physical constellation, although this has a certain significance - whether it is a new moon, full moon, turning moon, waning moon, in the spiritual world the moon is always there: it is the lunar forces that lead man back into the physical world, into his physical body.

[ 21 ] You see that by describing to you, even if only sketchily, what man goes through between falling asleep and waking up, there is something like a reflection of man's stay in the spiritual world in general. And that is how it is. Basically, every night we experience an image of what we go through between death and a new birth. When we look back through imagination, inspiration and intuition into the pre-earthly existence, then we first see ourselves as a spiritual-soul human being in a very early stage of our pre-earthly existence. We see ourselves in such a way that we have a cosmic consciousness. There we are not in a life that only carries imitations of the cosmic as in the life of sleep, but there we are in fact poured out over the real cosmos. And around the middle of life, between death and a new birth, we feel fully conscious as spiritual-soul beings - indeed with a much clearer, more intense consciousness than we can possibly have on earth - surrounded by divine-spiritual beings, by the divine-spiritual hierarchies. And just as we work with the forces of nature on earth, just as we have the external objects of nature as tools, so a work takes place between us and the beings of the higher spiritual hierarchies.

[ 22 ] And what does this work consist of? Well, this work consists in the fact that, in union with an immense number of sublime spiritual beings of the universe, the spiritual-soul man weaves the cosmic spirit-germ of his physical human body in the spiritual. As strange as this may seem to you, weaving the physical human body as a spiritual germ out of the cosmic universe is the greatest, most significant work that is conceivable in the universe. And it is not only the human soul in the characterized state that is working on this, this human soul is working on it in connection with whole hosts of divine-spiritual beings. For if you imagine the most complicated thing that can be formed here on earth, it is a primitive and simple thing compared to that enormous fabric of cosmic size and grandiosity that is woven there and that is then pushed together, condensed into itself through conception and through birth, which is interspersed with physical earth matter and becomes the physical human body.

[ 23 ] When we speak of a germ here on earth, we speak of a small germ that then becomes relatively large. If we now want to speak of the human body as a product of the spiritual as its cosmic spirit-germ, then it is of enormous size. And as the human being lives from the time I have indicated to you towards his birth, the spiritually and emotionally grandiose human germ becomes smaller and smaller. The human being continues to work it out with a view to this: it is woven together and pushed together, condensed into the physical human body.

[ 24 ] Really, it is not for nothing that older initiates - albeit out of a kind of clairvoyance that can no longer be ours, but the newer science of initiation shows us the same thing - it is not for nothing that these initiates called the human body a “temple of the gods”. It is, for it is woven out of the universe by the human soul each time between death and a new birth in union with divine beings. And then, in the manner still to be described, he is given his physical form. While man is weaving the spirit-germ of his physical body at the stage indicated, he is in a state of soul, in a mood of soul, which can only be compared with what the modern initiate calls intuition. Man lives with his soul within the deeds of the gods. He has completely flowed into the cosmic existence of the gods. In this intermediate state between death and a new birth, he experiences what the gods live.

[ 25 ] But as man then moves on, as he moves more towards conception or birth, this changes. To a certain extent he then has the impression for his consciousness that the divine-spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies are withdrawing from him. And it only appears to him something like a revelation, like a reflection, as if the gods had withdrawn and their misty afterimages were still standing before the human soul, and as if a kind of veil were being woven as a misty afterimage of that which was previously woven in reality. The intuitive consciousness that one used to have now passes over into a cosmic inspired consciousness. One no longer lives with the divine-spiritual beings, one lives with their revelation. But on the other hand, an inner ego develops more and more in the consciousness of the soul. In the, I would say, high stage of life between death and a new birth, one lives entirely with the divine-spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies; the ego has no inner strength, it only becomes conscious of itself again when the gods withdraw and only the revelation of the gods is there. The appearance of the gods, the radiance, enters into a kind of inspired consciousness; but instead man feels himself to be his own being. And what awakens in man at first is a kind of, I could say, desire, a kind of craving.

[ 26 ] In the middle between death and a new birth, man works, as it were, out of a deeper inner satisfaction on his spiritual germ for the physical body. Although he looks towards the goal as his physical body in the next earthly life, he is not imbued with desire, but only, one might say, with admiration for what this physical human body actually is, viewed universally. At the moment when man no longer lives in the worlds of the gods, but in the revelations of the worlds of the gods, the desire awakens in him to embody himself again on earth. Just as the ego-consciousness becomes stronger and stronger, this desire to incarnate again on earth awakens. To a certain extent one moves away from the worlds of the gods and approaches what one will then become as an earthly human being. This desire becomes stronger and stronger, and what you look at externally also changes. Before, one lived in all beings, in the divine-spiritual hierarchies, one knew oneself to be one with these divine hierarchies. When one spoke of one's inner being, that was the cosmos; but the cosmos was beings, beings with sublime levels of consciousness with whom one lived. Now there is an outer appearance, and in this outer appearance the first images of what will then be the physical afterimages of the divine-spiritual beings gradually appear. From the being that we have come to know over there as a high solar being comes the semblance, and in the semblance the sun appears, as it were, seen from outside, seen from the world within. Here from the earth we look up to the sun. When we come down, we first see the sun from the other side. But the sun emerges, the fixed stars emerge, and the planetary movements emerge behind the fixed stars. And as the planetary movements emerge, a very specific type of force emerges: the spiritual lunar forces, which are now capturing us. They are now also the ones who are gradually carrying us back into earthly life.

[ 27 ] This is indeed the sight that man has when he descends from the cosmic worlds to earthly existence: that he passes from an experience of divine-spiritual hierarchies to images of them. But the images of beings gradually become constellations, and the human being enters into something that he first sees, I would like to say, from behind: he enters into that which presents itself to him here from the earth as the cosmos. What the human being accomplishes there can be seen through in its details, and modern initiation science can get quite far in seeing through what the human being goes through.

[ 28 ] It is precisely through details in this area that one actually gets to know life. For no one knows life who is only able to look at man in connection with his earthly existence. What is our connection with earthly existence to us? In the enormously long times between death and a new birth, the earth is initially nothing to us, and that which only, I would like to say, shines towards us as externality, is transformed for us in this long time into whole worlds of gods, in which we then live, and which only show themselves again in their outside as stars when we approach the earth for a new earthly existence.

[ 29 ] What man has first woven as the spirit-germ of his physical body, he knows at first to be one with the whole universe, with the spiritual universe. Then, seeing only the revelation of the divine-spiritual worlds, it becomes more and more his body, which is now also an afterimage of the cosmos. And from this body the desire for an earthly existence arises, an I-consciousness in his body.

[ 30 ] In this body much is still untouched by earthly existence, for it is a spiritual body. For example, at a certain stage it is still completely undecided for this body whether the human being will be a male or a female personality in his next earthly existence. For during this whole time between death and a new birth, up to a very late stage before one is born on earth, there is no point in asking about male and female. These are quite different relationships from those which are reflected on earth as man and woman. There are also relationships which take place in the spiritual existence and which are reflected on earth; but that which appears on earth as man and woman only gains significance relatively late, before one descends to earth. And we can follow in detail how the human being - if it believes, according to certain earlier karmic connections, that in the coming earthly existence it is best to go through this earthly existence as a woman - when descending after the earthly existence, in order to then connect with the physical human germ, chooses that time which is seen here on earth as the time of the full moon.

[ 31 ] So we can say: If we look from the earth in any region after the full moon, then we have that time which the beings choose to descend to earth who want to become women. Only then is it decided. And the time of the new moon is the time chosen by the beings who want to become men. So man enters earthly existence through the moon gate. But the power which the man needs to enter the earthly realm is then streamed out into the universe; one goes to meet it by coming in from the universe, and it is radiated from the moon when it is new moon for the earth. The power that the woman needs is radiated from the moon when it is full moon; then its illuminated side is directed towards the earth, its unlit side goes out into the universe, and this power, which the moon can send out into the universe on its unlit side, is what the human being needs if she wants to become a woman.

[ 32 ] What I have now described to you shows you that the old idea of astrology, which has only been brought completely into decadence by the popular astrologers of today, had its good justification. One must only be able to look at things inwardly and see how they are connected. One must also not merely look at the physical constellation in a calculating way, but see through the corresponding spiritual aspect of it, then it is really possible to go into details.

[ 33 ] Not true, at a certain stage man comes down from the cosmos. From the spiritual cosmos he enters the etheric cosmos. And I am actually still talking entirely about the etheric cosmos; the physical of the stars is less of a consideration here, and the physical of the moon is also less of a consideration. The essential moment, the essential moment when man makes the decision to come down to earth depends, as I have described, on the stage of the moon, on the conditions of the moon. But man is often exposed to the full moon or new moon during this descent, and so it can be that man first exposes himself to a decisive new moon, so to speak, in order to become a man, or a decisive full moon in order to become a woman. But then - the descent does not happen so quickly, he remains exposed for a longer time - he can also somehow still decide, when he descends through the new moon as a man, to still expose himself to the coming full moon. So that he has made the decision to descend as a man: he has used the new moon forces for this; but he still has the further moon course at his disposal during his descent, the full moon course. Then he fills himself with the lunar forces in such a way that they do not affect his relationship as man or woman, but preferably his main organization and that which is connected with the main organization from outside, from the cosmos, when the constellation occurs of which I have now spoken. In other words, when man has made the decision: I will become a man through a new moon period - and then still lives on in the universe, so that he has not yet completely passed through the lunar influence, but is still exposed to the next full moon period, then he gets, for example, brown eyes and black hair through the influence of the lunar forces in this state. So that we can say: The way in which a person passes by the moon determines not only his sex, but also his hair color and eye color. For example, if a person passes the full moon as a woman and then exposes herself to the new moon, she can get blue eyes and blond hair as a woman.

[ 34 ] As grotesque as it may seem, we are predestined by the nature of our experience out of the cosmos, how we as soul-spiritual beings work into our physical and etheric organism here. It is by no means decided beforehand whether we will become a blond head or a black head. This is only decided as we pass by, as we descend from the cosmos into earthly existence, by the forces of the moon.

[ 35 ] And just as we pass by the moon, which actually leads us into earthly existence, so we pass by the other planets. It is not the same whether we pass Saturn, for example, in one way or another. We can, for example, pass Saturn by the fact that through the special constellation the power of Saturn interacts with the power of Leo in the zodiac. By just passing the region of Saturn, when Saturn is strengthened in its power by Leo in the zodiac, we gain the strength in the soul, however conditioned by our previous karma, to meet external life coincidences cleverly, so that they do not always knock us down. If Saturn is more, let us say, under the power of Capricorn, then we become weak people who sink under the external circumstances of life.

[ 36 ] We carry all this within us by preparing our earthly existence from the cosmos. Of course this can be defeated by the appropriate education, but not by saying, according to the materialists, that this is all nonsense, that we need not take it all into account, but precisely by developing these forces, by really

>developing them.

[ 37 ] 4 I develop them. And in the future mankind will again learn not only to look - and there should be no objection to this looking - whether a child gets good milk and good food, but mankind will also again learn to look whether Saturn forces or Jupiter forces are at work in this or that person under this or that influence.

[ 38 ] If we find in a person that through his karma he carries Saturn forces under the most unfavorable influence, for example under the influence of Capricorn or Aquarius, so that he is exposed to all the difficulties of life, then we will look most carefully for other forces in this person if we want to make him strong. For example, we will ask ourselves: Has he passed through the Jupiter sphere, the Mars sphere or any other sphere? - And we will always be able to correct and paralyze one through the other.

[ 39 ] We will have to learn to think of man not only in connection with what he begins to eat or drink in earthly existence, but we will have to consider man in connection with what he becomes by passing through the cosmic worlds between death and a new birth.

[ 40 ] When man is already close to his earthly career, he actually experiences a kind of loss of his essence. As you can see from my description, he was connected with what he had woven for himself as the spiritual germ of his physical body. He then interwove this spiritual germ with the experiences of descending through fixed stars and planets. At a certain stage, very close to conception and birth, the spirit germ is no longer there. In the meantime, this spirit germ has descended to earth with its forces as a power system. It has slipped away from the human being. On earth it has united independently with the physical hereditary substance given by the ancestors, by father and mother. What is woven in the organism descends to earth rather than the human being himself as a spiritual-soul being. And then, when man feels that he has actually handed over to his parents that which he has first woven himself in the cosmos, then he is able in the last stage before his earthly existence - because he no longer has to weave his physical body, which is essentially finished and has also already been handed over and incorporated into the hereditary current - then he is able to attract out of the world ether what he himself needs as an ether organism. Now he draws together his ether organism. And together with this etheric organism it connects with what it has now prepared itself through the parents. He takes over his physical body, in which this whole cosmic fabric of the spirit-germ is drawn together and interwoven with that which the human being himself has connected with it on his descent by passing through this or that region of the stars. He does not pass at will through new moon or full moon and thereby allow himself to become man or woman at will, or to have black or brown hair, or blue or brown eyes, but all this is intimately connected with what are the results of his former karma.

[ 41 ] But from all this you will see that man, while in the state of sleep he only passes through afterimages of the planetary world, of the fixed star world as his inner being, he now passes through these worlds in their reality between death and a new birth. He passes through them, they become his inner being. And it is always the lunar forces that bring us back to earth. They differ essentially from all other star forces in that they bring us back to earth. They bring us back to earth in our sleep, they also bring us back to earth when we have gone through everything that I have sketchily described in order to come back to earth for a life course.

[ 42 ] But let us look again at what is there between falling asleep and waking up as astral and ego organization outside the physical body. It is not woven out of physical bones and physical blood, it is a spiritual-soul organization. But our entire moral value is woven into it. Just as we consist of bones and blood and nerves when we are awake, so what goes out of us when we fall asleep and enters us again when we wake up consists of the judgments of our own moral deeds that have become real.

[ 43 ] If I have performed a good deed during the day, its effect is reflected in my sleeping body in the spiritual soul that goes out at night. My moral quality lives in there. And when a person passes through the gate of death, he realizes that he carries his entire moral evaluation with him. In fact, man creates a second person within himself between birth and death in earthly life. This second person, who leaves the body every night, is the result of our moral or immoral life, and it goes with us through the gate of death.

[ 44 ] This result, which is incorporated into our eternal core of being, is not the only thing we have in the spiritual-soul that goes out of us at night. But especially after death, when we are first in the etheric body and then in the astral body, we hardly see anything else about ourselves than this moral essence of the human being. Whether a person was good or bad is something you look at: you are it. Just as one is here a skin- or a nerve- or a blood- or a bone-man, so one is there in one's own view what one was morally or immorally.

[ 45 ] And now one makes the way out after death, first through the sphere of the moon, then through the sphere of the fixed stars, until just into the time when one can begin to work with the beings of the higher hierarchies on the spirit-germ of the next physical body. But if one were to carry this moral up to the highest worlds, where one has to weave one's future physical organism in the spirit-germ, then this physical organism would become a real abortion. For a time between death and a new birth man must be lifted out of what is his moral quality. Yes, he leaves the moral quality behind in the sphere of the moon.

[ 46 ] It is indeed the case that when we leave the lunar sphere we leave our moral or immoral human being behind in the lunar sphere and enter the pure sphere of the gods, where we can weave on our physical body.

[ 47 ] Now I must again return to the difference between the older times before the Mystery of Golgotha and those times that followed the Mystery of Golgotha and are still today. The older initiates made it clear to their disciples and through these disciples to the whole of humanity of the civilization of that time: In order to be able to find the transition from that world which I have called in my “Theosophy” the world of the soul, and which is actually still passed through entirely in the lunar sphere, in order to gain the transition into the world which I then called the spirit-land, man must acquire those feelings here on earth through which he is led upwards by the spiritual solar being, after he has left behind in the lunar sphere all this baggage of his moral after-effects.

[ 48] You see, everything that history tells us about the first three Christian centuries, even about the 4th century, is basically a forgery; for Christianity was something quite different in those centuries. It was something different because it was dominated by a view that still stemmed from the understanding of the old science of initiation. It was known from this initiatory wisdom that the very high solar being led man out of the sphere of the moon over there in the life after death, after he had left his moral baggage behind, and led him in again when he returned to the sphere of the moon. Thus man had the power - which he could not have had through himself - to incorporate this moral man into himself in a certain time before birth, so that he could then fulfill his destiny on earth in the soul, so that this would not enter the body, for otherwise man would be born as a freak and be quite ill in the body. This in turn must be taken over in the sphere of the moon when descending, so that it does not enter the body.

[ 49 ] Those initiates who lived at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, indeed some three to four centuries later, then told their disciples: The high solar being was formerly only above in the spiritual worlds. But with the progress of mankind, the I-consciousness on earth has become so bright that it is darkened all the more in the spiritual world. The brighter our ego-consciousness is down here on earth only through the physical body, the darker it is above. Man could no longer approach the solar being, he would not find the transition through his own power after death from the lunar sphere into the higher spheres, if the Christ had not descended and passed through the Mystery of Golgotha. The being that man previously encountered only in the spiritual world after death has descended and lives here on earth after the Mystery of Golgotha. Man can gain a relationship with it according to St. Paul's words: “Not I, but the Christ in me.” In this way the human being takes strength with him from this earth, which the Christ gives him here on this earth, in order to leave his moral being, which he produces in himself as an independent being, behind in the sphere of the moon, to pass over into the higher spheres, in order to now weave there on the spiritual germ of his physical body. And through this he has the power, then again when descending through the sphere of the moon, to take on his karma of his own free choice, his good and his evil deeds in their after-effects. We have become free human beings in the course of historical development. But we have become so because we already take on our karma on our descent to the lunar sphere out of free inner strength through the power of Christ, which we acquire here on earth. Regardless of whether we like it here on earth or not, we do so when we become true Christians here on earth, at this stage that I have just described.

[ 50 ] So I have endeavored to show you something of how modern initiation science can look into the worlds that we can call the hidden sides of human existence, how actually everything that is in man can only be enlightened by looking into these hidden sides. And at the same time I have tried to show you, in connection with this, what the Christ-impulse is for people today; for we must always come back to it. Man cannot be a full human being in the time after the Mystery of Golgotha if he does not find the way to this Christ-impulse. And therefore he must become such that an anthroposophical spiritual science illuminates the Christ impulse more and more in the right way. For the way in which it has been illuminated in the past out of a darkened consciousness would deprive a large part of humanity - think of the Orientals, think of the inhabitants of other continents - of the possibility of professing Christianity. That Christianity which is anthroposophically deepened in spiritual science will indeed - if only the nerve of spiritual science, as it is meant here, is understood correctly - be grasped with longing precisely by the Orientals, who have an old spirituality within them, albeit in decadence.

[ 51 ] Only in this way can that peace come over the earth which must come from the soul and spirit of men, and which - as every unbiased person feels today - is so necessary for the earth.