Planetary Spheres and Their Influence on Man's Life on Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds
GA 218
19 November 1922, London
VI. Christ and the Metamorphoses of Karma
To-day I would like to bring our recent studies to a certain conclusion. To begin with, as I may remind you, you are already aware what awaits the human being immediately after death. His physical body being laid aside, he is in a condition in which he can never be, in the prevailing consciousness of our time, during earthly life. Within and about him he has his I, his astral body and his ether-body. From birth till death, as you know, the ether-body remains united with the physical. Even in sleep it is only with the I and astral body that the human being is outside the physical,—and thus outside the etheric body too. Now, however, then for a short while after death (only a matter of days, you will remember), man still inhabits his etheric body—his body of formative forces—and he is thereby enabled to look back on the whole course of his past earthly life, which is in fact always contained in the etheric body. As I have mentioned in the recent public lectures, this can happen in Initiation too; when man is able to set the etheric body free, he beholds the entire vista of his earthly life.
Yet it is not for long that we can retain the etheric body after death. Belonging as it does to the entire Cosmos, the ether-body is always wanting to expand. Even during life, if we lost hold of our physical body for a single instant, our ether-body would at once be tending—drawing as it were by an elastic power—to dissolve into the whole Cosmos. Only the physical body, in which it stays throughout our life, holds it together. And then when the physical body’s coherent power, is no longer ours, straightway the ether-body begins to expand, so much so that in a few days' time it is there for us no longer. It is as when you take a little drop of water; the drop is there before you; warm it and it evaporates and expands in all directions; then it is there no more—you can no longer see it. So does the ether-body expand into the Cosmos after death; after a very few days it is there no more.
Initiation-wisdom shows that this can last only for few days. For by Initiation we are able—as it were, artificially—to make use of the ether-body even during earthly life. Though it remains in the physical body, we become able to disregard the latter, using the ether-body as such. At once we have the panorama of our earthly life until the given moment. Yet at the same time we see glistening and shining forth in our etheric body a reflection of the great Universe. The entire starry Heavens are there in the etheric body. Indeed you cannot ever see the ether-body apart from the physical without its showing you at once the starry world on every hand—the planets and the fixed stars too. It is the planets and the fixed stars which at long last receive our etheric body. Initiation-science shows that we can hold the pictures in our etheric body only for three or four days at the most; then they vanish, and to avoid being disconnected altogether we must return into our physical body before this happens, otherwise the ether-body will no longer hold together. And thus indeed, a few days after death the ether-body vanishes, we have it no longer. Yet we ourselves are thereby progressively received into the world of stars.
At first, when divested of our ether-body, we feel like strangers amid the world of stars. Only the Moon, only the Lunar forces seem as it were familiar to us there. The Moon emerges on the one hand as in an after-image of its physical appearance. Yet at the same time we now begin to discover what kind of spiritual forces are connected with it. We realise how with the Moon the Jahve-power of the Universe is connected, as was explained in our last lecture. For the soul who has passed through the Gate of Death, the Moon is transformed, as it were, into a colony of spiritual Beings, and Jahve is their Leader. Now after death, we really learn to know what Initiation Science tells of, for pictures of these spiritual truths can be received by Initiation Science even into earthly life. We learn to know what it signifies that man on Earth must die. Yes, it is through the Moon—through the Jahve Powers—that we learn the significance of death.
Looking at death from the earthly standpoint, we see the physical body of a human being rendered lifeless, while all the soul and spirit and the etheric life that filled it hitherto have disappeared. The physical body is received by the forces of the Earth, that is to say, the Elements,—earth and water if it is buried, or air and fire if cremated. The human physical body, laid aside by the human being who indwelt it, is now received by the forces of the Earth. Yet we must ask: What does it mean for the physical body to be thus laid aside by man and given over to destruction? Truth is: When man is born and has in him the force of childlike growth—nay, even before his birth, when, as an embryo in his mother's womb, as to the body he belongs already to the Earth—it is these very forces, made manifest as destroying forces when man dies, which help to build his body. The self-same forces which take leave of the human physical body at death, made manifest in death in that the physical body is disintegrated, play an essential part in building up this very body. Through his ethereal and subsequent astral experiences the man himself goes on into the Spiritual World, yet something of importance happens also here on Earth. From the physical body a spiritual apparition is released, emerging, as it were, out of the human body. While the real human being goes upon his way, here on the other hand, we might say, another being issues from the human body. Truly it is so when a human being dies. There lies his physical body the man himself is departing from it, and simultaneously another being leaves it. What is this other being? It is the forces of the Moon, living as they do also here on Earth. Concentrated though they be in the cosmic entity we call the Moon, the range of these forces extends far and wide, and on the Earth they are made manifest in the powers of Death. Moreover the powers of Death are at the same time those of Birth. They lead the human being into earthly life and are made manifest when he leaves it. We thus begin to realize the deep connection between birth and death. Take all the human beings who die in successive times. From each of them in turn the apparition of death, as it were, comes forth and joins a spiritual atmosphere which is there around the Earth no less than is the air we breathe. This spiritual atmosphere contains what death gives up and birth receives. From the very forces that soar upward, as it were, from human corpses, human beings in their turn, are born. Spiritually, our powers of growth are intimately connected with this sphere of death-force—or forces made manifest in death—which surrounds the Earth.
Now, my dear friends, think of the following: These spiritual forces—at once of death and birth, as we have seen—are forces of the Moon, and into them is mingled all that the dead human being, all along the way from birth till death, accumulated by way of moral powers, moral values. Have you been good in any way,—in the sphere of these death-Moon-forces you will find, as it were, a specific being, imbued with inner force deriving from your goodness. Yet the same being is imbued with all that derives from your badness. It is a being we ourselves engender, all the time, while living on the Earth. Unaware of it as we are in our normal consciousness, we bear it in us. We leave it every night when we are sleeping, for in effect this entity remains in the physical body when we but go out of it in sleep. I told you, did I not, that our moral and religious feelings are left behind in sleep in the physical and ether-body? There too is left behind this real being which we ourselves give birth to during earthly life—the bearer of our Karma.
This being now remains with us after death so long as we are in the realm of the Moon forces. Indeed, just because this being keeps us amid the Moon-forces, that is, in the near neighbourhood of Earth, during the first time after death we are obliged to remain connected with these Lunar forces and with our own Karma, so much so that we live again through all the deeds we did on Earth from birth till death. We have to live them through again in a spiritual form of being, three times as fast as we did on Earth. We live them through again in backward order. So do we spend a period of time after death, obliged to do things intimately connected with our earthly deeds. We are united, it is true, no longer through the physical body with the Moon-forces of death (for we have laid the physical body aside), and yet as beings of soul and spirit we are obliged to carry out deeds intimately connected with our deeds on Earth. And as we thus go through our life again in backward order, our Karma is ever more convincingly brought home to us.
Yet with all this, my dear friends, you must remember to mostly judge spiritual matters in a spiritual way. If you were fond of a human being on the Earth, you may now be feeling: Today, alas, after his death, he will be living again through all that was bad or faulty in his actions! From your physical and earthly standpoint you are sorry for him. But if you asked the soul himself who has gone through the gate of death, whether he too judges it thus, he would answer: “No. I should not want to be undergoing this after-death life in any other way than with the judgment which is mine here and now, as a being of pure soul and spirit experiencing all things again, so to impress them ever more deeply into the true being of my soul. If I have been responsible for any deed which makes me appear a morally imperfect man, and if I were not to go through it all again deeply and inwardly as I am doing now, I should not feel the strong impulsion to make it good. I should not want to free myself from this my failing. Precisely by experiencing the deed all over again in soul and spirit, the urge is born in me to overcome it by a better action.” Not for anything in the world would the dead forgo this opportunity to make good again, for this alone will give him power to achieve his full humanity,—will give him strength to be made whole. In this respect you may be sure, even as a landscape looks very different seen from the valley or from a mountain-top, so life itself looks different seen from this physical world where we are now and from yonder side. Only too often the relationships of earthly life to the life after death, which after all transcends the physical, are misjudged for this reason. Think of another example, my dear friends. Maybe you are a really good anthroposophist, very keen on spiritual science, but you are living in the same house and in very close connection with someone else who detests it, who regards Anthroposophy as his greatest enemy. Now you may say, you are extremely sorry to be causing him so much pain by your attachment to what he detests. From the aspect of earthly life this may be rightly judged. Seen from the other side however, very often it turns out in such a case that it lay in the other person's Karma not to be able to come near to Anthroposophy owing to hindrances brought from a former life, making him in his head a very hater of it. As to his head, he simply cannot bear it. He becomes vexed and excited every time he hears tell of anthroposophical truths. Yet all the time, in his inmost heart he may not be averse to them at all, and when he dies it may well be that he has after death a very deep longing for Anthroposophy. Often therefore you will be doing just what is needed for one who hated it during earthly life, if after his death, you turn to him with thoughts derived from Anthroposophy, so as to bring them to him. Paradoxical as it may sound, not a few relatives who raged and stormed when another member of the family became [an] anthroposophist have become deeply attached to it after death. In this respect once more, you must take seriously what I said during my last sojourn here: we judge life very differently from yonder side than we do from this side.
Yes, man becomes very different after his death. For you should also think of this: In physical and earthly life there is your brain inside the cavity of your skull; a little farther down there is the lung, and then the other organs. More outwardly, towards the surface of the body, there are your senses. Through all that is thus contained within the limits of your skin, you are enabled to perceive the outer world. Now after death you yourself go out into the world. At first the stars are only shining into your etheric body, but when the etheric body too has been laid aside, you will actually identify yourself with the stars. Before, you had in you a brain; now you will have in you the Spiritual essences of Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and so on. You can truly say: Even as on the Earth I had in me my lung, my heart, my kidneys and so forth, so Moon and Mercury and Sun are in me now. You in your inner being are at one with the great Universe. Do you imagine that the Universe will provide you with the same kind of perception and understanding as your brain does? The world will look very different to you now! The Earth itself looks different when we behold it from the Sun than when we ourselves are on Earth and looking upwards to the Sun.
So then we undergo in all reality this backward recapitulation of our life, during which time we still remain in close connection with Moon and Mercury and Venus, while our relation to the more distant stars—to Mars and Jupiter and Saturn, and to the Fixed Stars above all—is as yet feebly developed.
When we have thus retraced our actions all the way backward until birth, then do we judge them from the standpoint of the stars; and in our judgment of ourselves we are no longer merely looking backward now, but forward. We have the kind of judgment which tells us: You must do thus to balance out this action, and thus to balance out another action, and so on.
We are immersed in the recapitulation of our life during the first twenty or thirty years after death, according to the age we reached,—it takes a third as long as earthly life. (Children who have died go through it quickly: while for very little children, you will easily conclude, it scarcely comes into question.) Connected still in soul and spirit with your past earthly life, you live it through again in backward sequence. And when at last you have arrived at birth, only the “memory” of it will remain with you. It is as though at this moment you were to lay aside yet another body. We are accustomed to say, we lay aside the astral body. What happens in reality is that the living action in which you were hitherto immersed is now transformed for you into a thought-picture,—only it is a consciousness pertaining to the stars that thinks it, whilst here on Earth an earthly consciousness was thinking.
As you set forth now on your further way within the spiritual world you will be living with the Beings of whom the physical refulgence are the Sun and Moon and Stars. With the spiritual Beings of the Stars you will now live on. Moreover into this life amid the Stars you bear with you the memory of the Karmic entity you had to lay aside with your astral body. Once more, the “laying aside” means nothing else than that the life we were immersed and actively engaged in is but a memory to us now—a memory which we as cosmic Man take with us. Weighted with this memory—the legacy of our earthly life—we step forth into a purely spiritual world.
While undergoing the aforesaid recapitulation of his past earthly life, man is essentially within the planetary sphere. Advancing from the spiritual forces of the Moon to those of Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and at last Saturn,—living therefore between the spheres of Moon and Saturn, feeling within himself the Planetary Cosmos—throughout this time man is still undergoing the backward recapitulation of his recent Earth-life. A few days ago I was telling you of how the Moon- and Saturn-forces counteract each other. Whereas the Moon harbours the forces which bring man down into the earthly realm, seeking ever and again to hold him fast on Earth, Saturn on the other hand seeks to bear him out into the Universe of Stars. Yet we must understand this truly, for when man goes into the Universe of Stars between death and new birth, he is no longer seeing the physical reflection of the Stars; he is living now with the Beings, to whom the several Stars belong.
When after death we have passed the sphere of Saturn, we become ripe to experience the pure spiritual world. In the book Theosophy this moment is described as the passage from the soul-world into Spirit-land. Trammeled however as he is by the memory of his past earthly life, man is unable to achieve the crossing by himself. He needs a helper in the spiritual world,—and of this too, you will recall, I was telling in recent lectures. In the age before the Mystery of Golgotha, the Initiates in the Mysteries could say to their disciples: If you have duly sent your religious offerings up into the spiritual world, you will be able to find the sublime Being of the Sun who goes with you from the time when you with yourself take leave of the Sun-sphere. He in His spiritual Being will accompany you to the other side, where, so to speak, the Sun shines spiritually outward into cosmic space, even as He himself shines physically down on to the Earth. The sublime Being of the Sun will then go with you; He will escort you to the Saturn sphere and farther out from thence into the sphere of Stars. The spiritual Sun will, as it were, be shining for you; thus and thus only will you win your passage from the soul-world into Spirit-land.
Now through the Mystery of Golgotha it has grown different. The Being of the Sun came down to Earth,—took on a body in the Man, Jesus of Nazareth. By turning now in heart and mind and feeling to the Christ and to the Mystery of Golgotha, already here upon the Earth, man receives power that will enable him to get beyond the spheres of Sun and Saturn, so to gain entry into Spirit-land,—in other words, into the world of Stars.
Then comes the state in which man undergoes his further life between death and new birth. If I am now to tell you more about this state, in the way man of present time—after the Mystery of Golgotha—can undergo it by virtue of the power of Christ which he has received, I must insert the following. In the first place I must point out what it really means, when we are out yonder in the world of Stars, in Spirit-land, for us to have the “memory” of our earthly life. The following will help you understand it.
Getting beyond the Saturn sphere, we enter into what was named the Zodiac, in ancient world-conceptions. Though it was meant to typify the fixed-star-heavens as a whole—the Spirit-land, in other words—in the sum-total of the stars which constitute the Zodiac we have a comprehensive picture of the path which Man must undergo, to build from the entire Cosmos, with the help of the Beings of the Hierarchies, the Spirit-seed of his physical body for the next incarnation. If you should say: “Here upon Earth we have such interesting work to do, building up civilisation, working for our fellowmen and so on; how meagre it must be to be engaged only in forming a body for ourselves,” you would be making a great mistake. Nothing that you can ever do on Earth can be as great and manifold as what you have to do when from the starry worlds you build this temple of the Gods, the human body. This is by far the greater task and the more manifold. Nor do you merely make your own body for yourself. As we shall see in a moment, you really make it so that it belongs to mankind as a whole. Associated as you are by Karma with one human being or another, while building your new body you imbue it with the tendency to bring you together again in a beneficial way, so that you and they together can make good. You are working for mankind in a far higher degree out there than you are able to do while here on Earth. Now as to how you work amid the Stars, let me describe it in more detail, only remember please what I said before. Telling of yonder worlds sublime, I can speak only in pictures; the human concepts of our time are not so formed as to enable one to express it otherwise.
In its entirety, once more, you have to build the spiritual seed of your next physical body. From the ingredients of the whole Universe you built it. When for example you are living in and with those spiritual Beings who have their physical reflection in the constellation of Aries, the Ram, you will work with the Hierarchies of Aries in forming your future head, which is indeed a Universe in itself. No matter how contracted here in the physical body, in your head you carry the entire Cosmos—the Cosmos seen from the aspect of Aries. And while, upon the scene of Aries, you are at work with the Hierarchy of that constellation, meanwhile the planets are shining; as they shine physically down on to the Earth, so do they shine spiritually to the other side. Say for example that you have worked your way from Aries to the next constellation—Taurus, the Bull. While working with the Hierarchies in Taurus, you elaborate the region of your larynx in its connection with the lungs. Mars in the meantime, from the planetary spheres, shines up into the sphere of Taurus, and in the movements of Mars there is expressed all that you did with your organs of speech, rightly or wrongly, while you were on the Earth. Every untruth which a man uttered shines at him spiritually from the planet Mars while he is working through the Taurus sphere. You may imagine therefore, what is the nature of the “memory” we there retain of our own deeds. We find it after death, written into the Universe—nay, as the very Logos, speaking from the Universe towards that other side of world-existence.
Thus for the region of the speech-organs we have to work at our future body, hindered or helped according as we lied or told the truth. And so it is, to take another example, when we are going through the constellation of Leo. It is the Sun now that sheds spiritual light on all the imperfections of our heart—more or less deep or superficial as we have been in our feelings and in our sympathies and antipathies, belonging as these do to our temperament and blood-circulation while on Earth. So while we work and build at our future body, the language of the Planets, sounding into the cosmic spaces, utters forth the whole of our preceding life. It is so in deed and truth, strange as it may seem from an earthly standpoint. We watch the planetary movements from yonder side, even from without,—Mars for example moving in the face of Taurus. The movements form themselves into a cosmic writing, but the writing is not mute, it actually sounds into the Universe. Such is the writing of the Stars, by our own deeds inscribed into the cosmic spaces. Small wonder if on our return we prepare what will then be ours—the measure of our Karma. For we can only build the physical body for our future life under the ceaseless influence of this speaking of the Stars.
So then we work our way through the spiritual realm. We spend the longer time upon this spiritual journey, the greater the proportion of our full consciousness in the past earthly life to the dim consciousness we had as a little child. For we are now in a state of consciousness transcending the consciousness we had on Earth, even as our earthly consciousness as grown-up men and women transcends the dreamy state of childhood. There are distinctly these three stages. If a man lived to the age of thirty and spent the first five years in the dream-consciousness of childhood, he will have lived in fuller consciousness six times as long. So now again he lives six times longer than his entire Earth-life in the still fuller consciousness which pertains to him out there amid the Stars. We understand it therefore quite simply: a child who dies will live only for a short time between death and new birth. The older a man grows, the longer must he spend there. For by his longer life on Earth his higher consciousness was darkened for a longer time,—I mean the higher-than-earthly consciousness which he underwent in the spiritual world after his former death. The longer this was darkened, the longer must he work to make it light again. For we must enter right fully into the light.
When we are fully in the light, then comes the time between death and new birth which you will find described in one of the Mystery Plays as the midnight hour in the spiritual life of man. It is about the middle of the time between death and new birth. This is the time when our consciousness, amid the Beings of the Hierarchies in the spiritual world, is most steeped in Spiritual light. Yet at this very time we also experience most deeply: Down yonder in the planetary sphere is the abiding record of all that you, man, did. You may not abandon it, you cannot leave it thus,—so say we to ourselves—nor can you ever alter it while you are here; you can change it only by going down to Earth. And so the urge arises, to descend again to Earth,—to resolve, as it were, between Moon and Saturn. The forces of the Moon are drawing for us once again and we resolve to follow them, so to set forth on our returning journey. If a man grew to adult life in his last incarnation, it will be centuries later.
The nearer we now come to the planetary sphere and notably to the spheres of Mercury, Venus and Moon, the more we lose the consciousness of community with the Beings of the Hierarchies. To tell it more precisely: the consciousness we enter into now contains only the revelations of these spiritual Beings, whereas we felt ourselves till lately living among them and within them. While preparing the human head of our next incarnation for example, we felt ourselves working, very intimately with them. Now they appear to us as if in pictures. Meanwhile the forces of the Moon arise within us. We feel once more: we are a being destined to live a life of our own. Although not yet in a physical body, we have a premonition of living in and by ourselves, a stranger to the Cosmos. No longer do we see the spiritual Beings as they really are; all that we now possess are the pictures of them.
Whilst we are going through these pictures, the spiritual seed of the physical body which we were preparing falls ever farther from us and disappears. We are obliged to witness this: the spiritual seed has fallen from us; it has gone down into a physical mother and father, entering into the forces of generation, into the stream of generation upon the physical Earth. So it is in all reality. The physical body we also were preparing shrinks and contracts and falls into the streams of generation,—into a physical father and mother upon Earth,—while we ourselves as soul and spiritual being are left behind, feeling that we belong to what has fallen from us, yet cannot unite with it directly. In this condition—it is our only means of re-uniting with it—we now begin to draw to ourselves the forces of the Ether that are there throughout the Cosmos; we begin to form our ether-body. We do this when the spirit-seed of our physical body has already fallen from us and is down there on Earth, preparing the physical body in the mother's womb, while we are gathering the forces with which we form our ether-body. With this etheric body we then unite ourselves, when the human seed has already been for a time in the mother's womb.
Such is the process of return to earthly life. We have been living with the pictures—no more than the pictures—of the spiritual Beings; now we incorporate what we can take into ourselves only through the forces of the Moon. What until now was but the “memory” of our own Karmic entity, we now take in as real effective forces, right into our ether-body. Therefore we afterwards appear on Earth in such a way that we of ourselves bring about the unfoldment of our destiny, our Karma. It is while passing through the Lunar forces that we conceive the longing thus to live and fulfil our Karma upon Earth.
Such, my dear friends, is the cycle through which man lives from death till birth. First he experiences the ascent to independent consciousness within the spirit-sphere. Thereafter, this consciousness is gradually steeped again in twilight; the Spirit-sphere remains with him in pictures only, and he receives into himself the will to Karma. He comes back to Earth, to work once more in a physical body. So he goes on, till through a sequence of such Earth-lives he shall become capable of yet another metamorphosis, another mode of being.
In present earthly time it is as I have been relating. In his descent from the starry spheres, man has the memory of his former Earth-existence and from this memory he now takes his start. Having prepared it for himself within the starry spheres, at his descent he now unites with his own physical body. But we are living now in a very important period of Earth-existence, the significance of which we can understand only if we first know what has just been related—how in the starry spheres we prepare and work and win for ourselves the physical body which we eventually put on when we come down again to Earth. For at this very point something of great significance is about to happen in our epoch. I will say more of it in the third part of the lecture.
I have often drawn attention to the fact that in the last third of the 19th century changes whose origin is in the spiritual world began to affect the whole course of human earthly life. The gates of knowledge were in a way opened to the spiritual world. If man is duly active on his own part he can now reach into the spiritual world with true cognition, whereas for many centuries before, while material knowledge was developing, this possibility had not been given.
The change took place to begin with in the spiritual world, in that the Beings who had been leading hitherto were replaced by that spiritual Being who for his likeness in character to what is traditionally known by this name may be described as the Being of Michael. Michael, we may truly say, has taken over the Spiritual guidance of mankind. The fact that Michael is now entering the soul-life and spiritual life of mankind has its visible counterpart on Earth. An ever growing number of people begin to realize that man is livingly and constantly connected, not only through his physical body with the Earth, but through his soul and spirit with the spiritual world.
Man is thus growing into conscious spiritual knowledge. This is the one aspect of the leadership of Michael, but there is also another. To be sincerely filled with spiritual knowledge also affects the human heart, the human soul. The more the light of Spiritual Science spreads, the less will it remain a mere theory; it will pour out into human feeling,—it will be present in the form of true human love, in ever widening circles.
What, in effect, is the relation to the human being of all the learning and information accumulated in the last few centuries? It lives as knowledge in the human head; it does not reach the entire man,—it fails to flow from the head into the human being as a whole. Knowledge of this sort then becomes a kind of tumour in the soul. Failing to receive the proper forces from the rest of the human being, it gradually hardens. This is what happens when we merely grow more clever in our head, and the appropriate feelings, springing from the rest of our human being, no longer permeate our increasing cleverness. A kind of cancerous growth becomes established in our soul and spiritual life. The head itself cannot truly thrive if the whole human being is not living in the world with heartfelt love, and also willing what he loves.
Yet man will never understand what the leadership of Michael intends unless he goes out to meet it with his own active contribution—unless he opens out his mind to spiritual enlightenment and becomes filled with the human love which springs from such enlightenment. When he does this, then also will he realize with ever growing comprehension the significance of Michael's leadership and guidance.
The people of the Old Testament,—they too spoke of a leadership of Michael, and in so speaking they conceived Michael to be the servant of Jahve. Michael therefore, in the Old Testament times, worked with those spiritual forces which are the forces of Jahve. He was the minister of Jahve. He helped in the inexorable fight of which I spoke before—the fight with the Ahrimanic powers. In our age, on the other hand, Michael's leadership now begins to help regulate the historic destinies of mankind, it also is signifying that the word shall presently come true: the leadership of Christ will spread over the Earth. It is as though Michael goes before, bearing the light of spiritual knowledge, while after Him there comes the Christ, calling man to universal, all-embracing love. Now this entails a change not only for the Earth; it involves changes also for the life man undergoes between death and a new birth.
Since ancient times of earthly evolution it has been as I today described it. The human being prepares the spiritual seed of his own physical body, which he takes over when he steps forth into his new life on Earth. Now however, since the Christ-Michael-leadership has begun, men will be able ever increasingly to make another important decision before they come down to Earth. Today as yet only a few will do so; a growing number will as time goes on. For spiritual knowledge sheds its light not only on the Earth, but out into the higher realms as well. Through the present leadership of Michael man will now learn to make a very significant decision at the moment when he has already taken on his Karma—taken it into his new ether-body—but is still only setting out upon the way into the physical. With the increasing spread of spiritual knowledge on the Earth and with man’s growing experience within himself of universal human love, the following possibility will arise for mankind in coming time. When at the point of descending into a next earthly life, man will be able to say to himself: ‘This is the body I have been preparing; yet, having sent it down to Earth and having now received my Karma into the ether-body which I have drawn together from the Cosmos, I see how it is with this Karma. Through something that I did in former lives I see that I have gravely hurt some other human being.’ For we are always in the danger of hurting others through the things we do. The light of judgment as to what we have done to another man will be particularly vivid at this moment when we are still living only in our ether-body, having not yet put on the physical. Here too in future time the light of Michael will be working, and the love of Christ. And we shall then be enabled to bring about a change in our decision,—namely to give to the other man the body we have been preparing, while we ourselves take on the body he prepared, whom we have injured.
Such is the mighty transition which will be taking place from now onward in the spiritual life of men. It will be possible for us of our own decision to enter into the body prepared perforce by another human soul to whom we once did grievous harm; he on the other hand will be enabled to enter into the body we prepared. What we are able to achieve on Earth will thus bring about Karmic compensation in quite another way than heretofore. We human beings shall be able even to exchange our physical bodies. Indeed, the Earth could never reach her goal if this did not take place; mankind would never grow into a single whole. In preparation for future planetary embodiments of the Earth, a time must come in earthly evolution when it will be impossible for one individual to enjoy things on the Earth at the expense of another. As in a plant the single leaf or petal feels itself a member of the whole and shares—pictorially speaking—in the weal and woe of the whole plant, so must a future come for the planet Earth when one human being will not want to enjoy happiness at the expense of the whole, but man will feel a member of mankind. And it will be the true spiritual counterpart of this when we shall learn to prepare the physical body even for one another.
We are in fact emerging from the epoch when each of us had so to speak, his own continuation to himself as to the physical body. In the new epoch that is now beginning—brought on by the present leadership of Michael—we shall work at the spirit-seeds of the physical bodies of men in such a way that one works for another. Moreover, as our incarnations of the Earth go on, this will lead even further. For in thus working for one another in the spirit, we shall prepare for a yet later time, to tell the character of which will sound completely strange and paradoxical, yet it is true. For in that more distant future, human souls even while on Earth will be able to go across into the bodies of those to whom they have done some special hurt and to receive the other soul into their own body. That will be when the Earth herself will have passed into quite new conditions. Yet it is also being prepared for by the actual and impending change of which I have been telling, and which is coming about in the spiritual world through the leadership of Michael.
From this example you can see most vividly the essence of “ideal magic”. If while on Earth you are receptive to the illumination that comes from Spiritual Science, then you are truly helping on the leadership of Michael. Then you are helping on those spiritual forces which will enable men so to live for one another, that even in deciding upon the physical body they are to take, they will consider what is best for all mankind. When we are choosing our physical body, this will determine our decision. If you prepare for this event even now on Earth—prepare for it by the Wisdom-of-Man and by the Love-of-Man—what you are doing will have reality in the spiritual world. And this is true “ideal magic”. It is the true “white magic” as it was called in olden times, and into it mankind is now about to enter.
I wanted to tell you of this most vital factor which has now come into the evolutionary pathway of mankind. We must not shrink for want of courage when it is needful to unveil facts of the spiritual world entering deep into the life of man. For the whole future of mankind depends on man's learning really to live with the spiritual world as naturally as on the Earth he lives with the physical. Mankind must learn to be at home again in the spiritual world as it was in the beginning, in primeval time. Only by doing so shall we be helping mankind's future. In the true sense we must understand the word of Christ: “My Kingdom is not of this world”. How then shall we understand it? Did He not after all come down to Earth? Should He not therefore have said: "My kingdom is of this world?" No, He did not say that, for He intended gradually to transform the Earth into a Kingdom that should not be utterly absorbed in earthly things, but should pass over, ever more and more, into a spiritual state. Christ's Kingdom is not as the Earth was until the Mystery of Golgotha, nor as it still continued, running on in the old lines as if by dint of inertia. The Spirit shall prevail upon the Earth,—such is His Kingdom! And this will come to pass when mankind truly comprehends the leadership of Michael. Nor is true comprehension proved in any other way than by the quest I have now indicated—the quest of spiritual illumination and of human, Christ-filled love.
Erlebnisse Der Menschenseele Im Schlafe Und Nach Dem Tode In Der Geistigen Welt III
Ich möchte heute die Betrachtungen, die wir hier an diesem Orte in der letzten Zeit angestellt haben, zu einem gewissen Abschlusse bringen. Ich möchte Sie zunächst darauf aufmerksam machen, daß Sie ja bereits wissen, wie die nächsten Schicksale des Menschen nach dem Tode sind. Zunächst hat der Mensch seinen physischen Leib abgelegt und er ist in einer Lage, in der er sonst während des Erdenlebens durch das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein nicht sein kann. Er hat sein Ich, seinen astralischen Leib und seinen Ätherleib um und an sich. Dieser Ätherleib bleibt sonst in der ganzen Zeit, von der Geburt bis zum Tode, mit dem physischen Leib vereinigt, und während des Schlafes ist ja der Mensch nur in seinem Ich und in seinem Astralleib außerhalb des Ätherleibes und außerhalb des physischen Leibes. Wenn nun der Mensch nach dem Tode kurze Zeit — die Zeit dauert ja nur nach Tagen - seinen Ätherleib, diesen Bildekräfteleib noch an sich hat, dann ist er dadurch imstande, zurückzublicken auf seinen ganzen Erdenlebenslauf. Der Erdenlebenslauf ist ja eigentlich enthalten in diesem ätherischen Leibe. Und ich habe auch in den öffentlichen Vorträgen gesagt, wie der Mensch, wenn er durch Initiation seinen Ätherleib freibekommt, den Lebenslauf des Erdenlebens überschauen kann.
Aber man kann nicht lange den Ätherleib an sich behalten nach dem Tode, denn dieser Ätherleib hängt ja eigentlich zusammen mit dem ganzen Kosmos; er will sich immer in den Kosmos ausbreiten. Wenn wir im Leben für einen Augenblick unseren physischen Leib verlieren würden, würde sogleich der Ätherleib wie durch eine elastische Kraft die Tendenz bekommen, sich in den ganzen Kosmos aufzulösen. Und nur durch den physischen Leib, in dem dieser Ätherleib immer drinnenbleibt, wird er während des Lebens zusammengehalten. Hat man nicht mehr die zusammenbindende Kraft des physischen Leibes, dann beginnt der Ätherleib sich auszubreiten und er wird nach einigen Tagen durch seine große Ausbreitung nicht mehr für uns da sein. Sie wissen ja, wenn Sie einen kleinen Wassertropfen nehmen, dann ist er da; wenn Sie ihn erwärmen, so breitet er sich nach allen Seiten aus und er ist nicht mehr da. Sie können ihn nicht mehr sehen. So breitet sich der Ätherleib nach dem Tode aus und er ist nach wenigen Tagen eben nicht mehr da.
Die Initiationsweisheit zeigt, daß dieses nur wenige Tage dauert, weil man durch die Initiationsweisheit dazu kommt, gewissermaßen künstlich im Erdenleben den Ätherleib zu benutzen. Er bleibt dann im physischen Leib drinnen, aber man benutzt ihn, indem man auf den physischen Leib keine Rücksicht nimmt und dann hat man auch den Rückblick auf sein Erdenleben. Man hat dann aber auch, indem man den Rückblick auf sein Erdenleben hat, in diesem Ätherleib zugleich eine Spiegelung des ganzen Weltenalls erglänzen. Es ist der ganze Sternenhimmel zugleich im Ätherleib drinnen. Sie können den Ätherleib abgesondert von diesem physischen Leib gar nicht schauen, ohne daß der Ätherleib Ihnen überall die Sternenwelt, die Planeten und die Fixsterne zeigt. Und diese Planeten und diese Fixsterne nehmen zuletzt den Ätherleib auf. Und da ist es so, daß die Initiationswissenschaft, die Initiationsweisheit eben höchstens drei bis vier Tage lang die Bilder festhalten kann, die sie auf diese Weise im Ätherleib hat; dann verschwinden sie, und man muß vorher, wenn man überhaupt einen Zusammenhang damit behalten will, in seinen physischen Leib zurückkehren, damit der Ätherleib zusammengehalten wird. So schwindet einem also auch dieser Ätherleib wenige Tage nach dem Tode dahin. Aber man gliedert sich selbst dadurch immer mehr und mehr in die Sternenwelt ein.
Man fühlt sich zunächst, nachdem man den Ätherleib abgelegt hat, fremd innerhalb der Sternenwelt. Was einem sozusagen bekannt vorkommt aus der Sternenwelt, das sind nur die Mondenkräfte. Der Mond tritt auf, so daß man ihn auf der einen Seite hat in einem Nachbilde seiner physischen Gestalt. Aber sogleich lernt man im genaueren kennen, was mit dem Monde für geistige Kräfte verbunden sind. Man lernt tatsächlich kennen, daß mit dem Monde verbunden ist die Jahvekraft des Weltenalls, wie ich es das letzte Mal charakterisiert habe. Der Mond verwandelt sich sozusagen für denjenigen, der durch die Pforte
Äther des Todes gegangen ist, in eine Kolonie geistiger Wesenheiten, deren Anführer Jahve ist. Und jetzt lernt man dasjenige nach dem Tode kennen, wovon die Initiationswissenschaft eben dadurch sprechen kann, daß sie schon in das Erdenleben Bilder von diesen Dingen hereinbekommt. Man lernt erkennen, was es bedeutet, daß der Mensch auf Erden stirbt. Man lernt die Bedeutung des Todes gerade durch die Monden-, durch die Jahvekräfte kennen.
Wenn wir den Tod auf Erden betrachten, dann stellt er sich so dar, daß der physische Leib eines Menschen leblos wird, daß alles das, was von dem Geistig-Seelischen und Ätherischen den physischen Leib durchdrungen hat, aus dem physischen Leibe verschwunden ist. Der physische Leib wird von den Kräften der Erde, von den Elementen der Erde übernommen, entweder von den Kräften des Irdischen, des Wässerigen, wenn er begraben wird, oder des Feurigen und Luftartigen, wenn er verbrannt wird. Also der menschliche physische Leib wird von den Erdenkräften übernommen. Er ist von dem Menschenwesen abgelegt worden. Was heißt das eigentlich: Der physische Leib ist von dem Menschenwesen abgelegt worden und ist übergetreten in einen Zustand der Zerstörung? — Das ist so: wenn der Mensch geboren wird und die kindlichen Wachstumskräfte in sich hat und auch wenn der Mensch noch vor der Geburt steht im embryonalen Zustande, wenn er aber eben leiblich bereits der Erde im Körper der Mutter angehört, dann sind es dieselben Kräfte, welche uns entgegentreten als zerstörende Kräfte beim Tode, dieselben Kräfte, welche den menschlichen physischen Leib verlassen im Tode, welche also im Tode erscheinen, weil der physische Leib zerfällt, dieselben Kräfte, die an diesem physischen Körper mit aufbauen. Der Mensch geht durch seine Äthererlebnisse und dann durch seine astralischen Erlebnisse in eine geistige Welt über, aber hier auf der Erde löst sich ebenfalls von dem physischen Leib etwas los, was als Geistiges erscheint, als etwas, was gewissermaßen aus dem menschlichen Leibe heraustritt. Man möchte sagen: Nach der einen Seite geht der wirkliche Mensch, nach dieser anderen Seite geht ein anderes Wesen aus dem Menschen heraus. — Es ist das schon so, daß der physische Leib des Menschen mit dem Tode daliegt, der Mensch selbst verläßt ihn, aber ein anderes Wesen verläßt ihn zugleich. Dieses andere Wesen, das sind eben die auch auf Erden lebenden Mondenkräfte. Denn die Mondenkräfte sind zwar, wenn ich so sagen darf, konzentriert in dem kosmischen Monde, aber sie erstrecken ihre Wirksamkeit weithin. Das zeigt sich auf der Erde in den Todeskräften. Diese Todeskräfte sind zugleich die Geburtskräfte. Sie führen den Menschen herein in das Leben und sie erscheinen, wenn der Mensch aus dem Leben hinaustritt. Man bekommt auf diese Art eine Anschauung über den Zusammenhang der Geburt und des Todes. Und wenn man alle Menschen nimmt, die in aufeinanderfolgenden Zeiten sterben, so ist es so, daß aus jedem Menschen gewissermaßen die Erscheinung des Todes heraustritt und sich wiederum vereinigt mit einer geistigen Atmosphäre, die die Erde umgibt wie die Luftatmosphäre und welche dasjenige enthält, was der Tod hergibt und was die Geburt gleich wiederum empfängt. Aus den Kräften, die gewissermaßen aus den Leichnamen der Menschen aufsteigen, werden die Menschen wiederum herausgeboren. Ja, unsere Wachstumskräfte hängen geistig eben innig zusammen mit dem, was von Todeskräften, von den durch den Tod erscheinenden Kräften die Erde umgibt.
Nun betrachten Sie das Folgende. Diese Todeskräfte, die auch die Geburtskräfte sind, sind die Mondenkräfte. In diese Mondenkräfte ist hineingemischt alles das, was der Mensch an moralischen Wertkräften von seiner Geburt bis zum Tode aufgehäuft hat. Ist man in irgendeiner Beziehung gut gewesen, so findet sich in dieser Sphäre der Todesmondenkräfte gewissermaßen ein eigenes Wesen, welches in sich enthält eine Kraft, die geblieben ist von unserem Gutsein. Dieses Wesen hat in sich auch alles das, was geblieben ist von unserem Bösesein. Und während wir auf Erden leben, bilden wir dieses Wesen aus. Das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein weiß nichts davon, aber wir tragen es in uns. Wir tragen es so in uns, daß wir es jede Nacht, wenn wir schlafen, verlassen; wenn wir aus unserem physischen Leibe herausgehen, so bleibt dieses Wesen in dem physischen Leibe drinnen. Ich habe Ihnen ja gesagt, daß die moralischen Empfindungen und die religiösen Empfindungen in dem physischen und in dem Ätherleib zurückgelassen werden. Und da wird auch zurückgelassen ein wirkliches Wesen, das wir als unseren Karmaträger während unseres Erdenlebens ausbilden. Dieses Wesen bleibt aber mit uns im Zusammenhange, solange wir in der Sphäre der Mondenkräfte sind. Und weil dieses Wesen uns in den Mondenkräften, also in der Nähe der Erde erhält, bleiben wir in der nächsten Zeit nach dem Tode sowohl mit diesen Mondenkräften wie auch mit unserem Karma so verbunden, daß wir wirklich zurück durchleben müssen alle Handlungen, die wir zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode gemacht haben auf der Erde, daß wir die durchleben müssen in einer geistigen Art, mit dreifacher Schnelligkeit — wie ich im öffentlichen Vortrag gesagt habe -, wie wir sie auf Erden durchgemacht haben. Aber wir müssen sie durchleben, rückwärts durchleben und bringen so eine Zeit nach dem 'Tode zu, indem wir zwar nicht mehr durch den physischen Leib, den wir abgelegt haben, mit den Todesmondenkräften verbunden bleiben, aber indem wir als geistig-seelische Wesen Handlungen verrichten müssen, welche mit unseren Erdenhandlungen im innigen Zusammenhange stehen. Also wir machen unser Leben noch einmal in rückwärtiger Reihenfolge durch, und dadurch kommt uns unser Karma erst recht zum Bewußtsein.
Und Sie müssen schon das, was geistiger Art ist, auch in geistiger Weise behandeln. Wenn Sie einen Menschen auf Erden lieb gehabt haben, so können Sie sich ja vielleicht die Empfindung bilden: Ach, der Mensch muß jetzt nach dem Tode alles das durchleben, was er vielleicht an Schlechtem, an Unvollkommenem gemacht hat! — Sie kommen dann von Ihrem Irdisch-Physischen zu einem gewissen Bedauern, daß dieser Mensch das durchzumachen hat. Wenn Sie aber denjenigen, der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, selbst fragen würden, ob er die Sache auch so beurteilt, so würde er Ihnen sagen: Nein. — Er würde Ihnen sagen: Ich möchte nicht dieses nachirdische Leben anders durchmachen, als daß ich mit dem Urteil, das ich jetzt als geistig-seelisches Wesen habe, alles wiederum erlebe, damit es sich recht in meine wahre Seelen wesenhaftigkeit einprägt. Denn wenn ich irgendeine Handlung begangen habe, die mich als unvollkommenen Menschen erscheinen läßt, und ich sie nicht so in mir wiederum erleben würde, so würde ich ja nicht den Drang in mir empfangen, sie auszugleichen. Ich würde mich nicht von dieser Unvollkommenheit befreien wollen. Ich bekomme gerade dadurch, daß ich die Handlung noch einmal in seelisch-geistiger Weise erlebe, den Trieb, sie zu überwinden durch eine vollkommene Handlung. — Der Tote möchte um keinen Preis dieses Wiederdurchmachen missen; denn das gibt ihm die Kraft, seine Menschheit in ganzer Weise zu erreichen. Sie müssen sich eben klar sein, daß geradeso wie die Erde vom Tale aus gesehen anders ausschaut als von einer Bergspitze, das Leben anders ausschaut von hier, von der physischen Welt aus, als von drüben. Und so kann man oftmals sagen: Man beurteilt überhaupt die Zusammenhänge des Erdenlebens mit dem überphysischen Leben, mit dem Leben nach dem Tode, nicht ganz richtig.
Nehmen wir einen anderen Fall. Sagen wir, Sie seien ein sehr guter Anthroposoph, Sie seien begeistert für die Anthroposophie und hätten einen Hausgenossen, jemanden, mit dem Sie eng verbunden sind, der die Anthroposophie haßt wie seinen schlimmsten Feind. Nun können Sie vielleicht sagen, Sie bedauern es ungeheuer, daß Sie dem Betreffenden einen großen Schmerz bereiten dadurch, daß Sie selber Anhänger der Anthroposophie sind und er diese Anthroposophie haßt. Das ist vom Standpunkte des irdischen Lebens gesehen vielleicht richtig beurteilt. Aber sehr häufig stellt es sich von der anderen Seite aus so dar, daß der Betreffende es in seinem Karma liegen hatte, einfach nicht an die Anthroposophie herankommen zu können wegen der Abhaltungen, die er aus einem früheren Leben mitgebracht hatte und die seinen Kopf einfach zu einem Hasser der Anthroposophie machen. Sein Kopf kann nicht heran an die Anthroposophie. Er wird gleich unruhig, er wird gleich aufgeregt, wenn er nur von Anthroposophie etwas hört. Es braucht aber noch nicht sein Herz der Anthroposophie abgeneigt zu sein. Wenn der Betreffende dann stirbt, so kann sich herausstellen, daß er in einer ganz intensiven Weise ein Verlangen nach der Anthroposophie nach dem Tode hat; so daß Sie oftmals das Richtige tun, wenn Sie sich gerade an jemanden, der die Anthroposophie hier im Leben gehaßt hat, nach seinem Tode mit Gedanken aus der Anthroposophie wenden, um sie ihm zuzuführen.
Man kann schon sagen, so sonderbar und paradox es klingt: Manche Glieder einer Familie, die furchtbar gewütet haben, weil ein anderes Mitglied der Familie anthroposophisch geworden ist, die sind nach ihrem Tode die intensivsten Anhänger geworden. Also Sie müssen das, was ich auch bei meinem vorigen Aufenthalte hier an diesem Orte zu Ihnen sagte, daß man von drüben das Leben ganz anders beurteilt als von hier, das müssen Sie auch in dieser Beziehung ganz ernst nehmen.
Und so können wir sehen, wie der Mensch ein ganz anderer wird. Denken Sie sich, Sie haben hier im physischen Erdenleben Ihr Gehirn da drinnen in der Schädelhöhle, etwas weiter drunten die Lunge, dann die anderen Organe und außen die Sinne. Durch alles nehmen Sie die äußere Welt wahr, durch alles das, was da in Ihrer Haut eingeschlossen ist, nehmen Sie die äußere Welt wahr. Jetzt dringen Sie hinaus. Zuerst scheinen die Sterne nur herein in Ihren Ätherleib; wenn Sie den aber abgelegt haben, identifizieren Sie sich selbst mit den Sternen. Vorher haben Sie ein Gehirn da drinnen gehabt, jetzt haben Sie die geistige Wesenheit von Venus, Merkur, Sonne und so weiter in sich hineinbekommen. Jetzt können Sie sagen: So wie ich auf Erden Lunge, Herz, Niere und so weiter in mir habe, so ist nun in meinem Inneren Mond, Merkur, Sonne und so weiter. — Sie sind identisch mit dem Weltenall in Ihrem Inneren. Glauben Sie, daß Ihnen das Weltenall denselben Verstand erhält wie Ihr Gehirn? — Da sieht sich eben die Welt anders an; wenn man von der Sonne auf die Erde schaut, sieht die Erde anders aus, als wenn man von der Erde auf die Sonne schaut. So macht man tatsächlich, indem man in Zusammenhang bleibt mit Mond, Merkur, Venus, dieses rückwärtige Erleben durch. In dieser Zeit ist der Zusammenhang mit den äußeren Sternen, mit Jupiter, Mars, Saturn schwach entwickelt, und der Zusammenhang mit den Fixzsternen ist erst recht schwach entwickelt.
Nachdem man auf diese Weise die Handlungen durchgemacht hat, zurückgelaufen ist mit den Handlungen bis zu seiner Geburt, ist es so, daß man diese Handlungen eben vom Sternenstandpunkte aus beurteilt. Man bekommt jetzt über sich nicht das Urteil, daß man bloß zurückschaut, sondern man bekommt das Urteil nach vorwärts; man bekommt das Urteil: Dies mußt du tun, um auszugleichen diese Handlung; dies mußt du tun, um auszugleichen eine andere Handlung. Darinnen steht man für die nächsten zwanzig, dreißig Jahre seines Lebens nach dem Tode, je nachdem man alt geworden ist, etwa ein Drittel der irdischen Zeit. Kinder machen das sehr kurz durch. Es kommt kaum in Betracht bei ganz kleinen Kindern, wie Sie sich denken können nach meinen Ausführungen. Man durchlebt auf diese Weise tatsächlich, indem man noch einen geistig-seelischen Zusammenhang hat mit seinem Irdischen, sein Leben rückwärts noch einmal. Und wenn man angekommen ist bei der Geburt, dann stellt sich das heraus, daß einem von alldem die Erinnerung bleibt. Es ist jetzt gerade so, wie wenn man wieder einen Leib ablegen würde. Man sagt, man legt den astralischen Leib ab. Aber was in Wirklichkeit geschieht, ist, daß sich das lebendige Tun, in dem man vorher war, verwandelt in ein Gedankenbild, nur daß jetzt ein ganz anderes Bewußtsein, ein Sternenbewußtsein denkt, während hier ein irdisches Bewußtsein gedacht hat.
Und jetzt treten Sie Ihren weiteren Weg in der geistigen Welt an, indem Sie mit denjenigen Wesen leben müssen, deren physischer Abglanz Sonne und Mond und Sterne sind. Sie müssen mit den Geistern der Sterne jetzt weiterleben. Da tragen Sie dann hinein die Erinnerung an das Karmawesen, das Sie vorher mit Ihrem astralischen Leib abgelegt haben. «Abgelegt haben» heißt aber nichts anderes, als daß alles das, in dem man vorher tätig darinnen gesteckt hat, eben jetzt eine Erinnerung ist, die wir als kosmischer Mensch haben. Wir treten ein in eine rein geistige Welt, belastet mit der Erinnerung an das, was uns unser Erdenleben gelassen hat.
Solange der Mensch dieses Rückwärtsdurchleben seines verflossenen Erdenlebens durchmacht, so lange steht er eigentlich in der Planetensphäre. Man kann sagen: Indem der Mensch vorschreitet von den geistigen Mondenkräften zu den Venus-, Merkur-, Sonnen-, Mars-, Jupiterkräften bis zu den Saturnkräften, also solange er zwischen der Monden- und Saturnsphäre ist, mit anderen Worten, solange er in sich fühlt den Planetenkosmos, so lange befindet er sich in diesem Rückwärtsdurchleben seines verflossenen Erdenlebens.
Ich habe Ihnen schon in den letzten Tagen gesagt, wie die Mondenkräfte und die Saturnkräfte einander entgegenarbeiten. Der Mond enthält diejenigen Kräfte, die den Menschen herunterbringen zum Irdischen und immer wieder an der Erde festhalten wollen. Der Saturn möchte ihn kinausführen in das Sternen-Weltenall, so aber, daß, wenn der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in dieses Sternen-Weltenall eintritt, er nicht den physischen Abglanz der Sterne sieht, sondern mit den Wesen lebt, die zu den betreffenden Sternen gehören.
Passieren wir also nach dem Tode die Sphäre des Saturn, so werden wir reif für ein Erleben der rein geistigen Welt. Ich habe diesen Übergang charakterisiert in meinem Buche «Theosophie» als den Übergang aus der Seelenwelt in das Geisterland. Diesen Übergang kann der Mensch, weil ihm die Erinnerung an das verflossene Erdenleben anhaftet, wie ich es dargestellt habe, nicht durch eigene Kräfte durchführen. Er braucht einen Helfer in der geistigen Welt.
Nun, auch darauf habe ich ja hier aufmerksam gemacht, wie es mit diesem Helfer ist. In der Zeit, die vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha liegt, haben die Eingeweihten der Mysterien ihren Schülern sagen können: Ihr werdet, wenn ihr in der richtigen Weise eure Opferkräfte hinaufgeschickt habt in die geistige Welt, das hohe Sonnenwesen finden können, das euch begleitet von der Zeit an, wo ihr die Sonnensphäre verlaßt, das euch aber begleitet in seiner geistigen Wesenheit nach der anderen Seite, wo die Sonne gewissermaßen geistig in den Weltenraum hinausscheint, wie sie physisch auf die Erde herunterscheint. Dieses hohe Sonnenwesen wird euch begleiten, wird euch bringen bis zur Saturnsphäre, dann weiter hinaus bis in die Sternensphäre. Gewissermaßen wird euch die geistige Sonne scheinen, so daß ihr den Übertritt gewinnen könnt aus der Seelenwelt ins Geisterland.
Durch das Mysterium von Golgatha ist es so geworden, daß dieses Sonnenwesen heruntergestiegen ist auf die Erde, in dem Menschen Jesus von Nazareth Leib angenommen hat, und der Mensch dadurch, daß er auf Erden sein Gemüt, seine Gefühle hinwendet zu dem Christus und dem Mysterium von Golgatha, er schon hier auf Erden die Kraft empfängt, um über die Sonnen- und Saturnsphäre hinaus in das Geisterland, das heißt, in die Sternenwelt eintreten zu können. Da ergibt sich dann der Zustand, den er weiter durchmacht zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Um Ihnen diesen Zustand zu schildern, den der Mensch jetzt, in der Zeit nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha durchmachen kann durch die Kraft des Christus, die er aufgenommen hat, muß ich Ihnen das Folgende sagen. Zunächst muß ich Sie aufmerksam darauf machen, was es eigentlich heißt, wenn man da draußen in der Sternenwelt ist, das heißt im Geisterland, was es eigentlich heißt: Man hat die Erinnerung an das Erdenleben! — Das wird Ihnen in der folgenden Weise begreiflich werden.
Kommt man über die Saturnsphäre hinaus, so tritt man ein in dasjenige, was alte Weltanschauungen genannt haben den Tierkreis. Er ist nur der Repräsentant für den Fixsternhimmel, das heißt für das Geisterland überhaupt; aber gerade wenn man zusammenfaßt die einzelnen Sterne, die den Tierkreis ausmachen, bekommt man den Weg, den der Mensch dann durchzumachen hat. Diesen Weg macht der Mensch durch, um den Geistkeim seines nächsten physischen Leibes aus dem ganzen Kosmos heraus mit den geistigen Wesenheiten der Hierarchien zusammen aufbauen zu können.
Wenn Sie etwa sagen würden: Hier auf der Erde haben wir eine interessante Arbeit, da können wir die Kultur fördern, da können wir für die Menschen arbeiten und so weiter, aber es muß höchst einförmig sein, was wir da oben vollbringen, wenn wir da nur unseren Leib, unseren eigenen Körper erzeugen -, dann würden Sie ganz fehlgehen. Denn alles, was Sie zusammen auf der Erde vollbringen können, ist nicht von der Größe und Mannigfaltigkeit dessen, was Sie vollbringen, wenn Sie aus den Sternenwelten heraus den menschlichen Leib, den «Tempel der Götter» formen, Das ist eine viel mannigfaltigere, großartigere Arbeit. Und Sie formen ja nicht nur einfach Ihren Leib, Sie formen ihn, wie Sie gleich sehen werden, so, daß dieser Leib eigentlich der ganzen Menschheit angehört, indem Sie, je nachdem Ihr Karma Sie mit dem oder jenem Menschen zusammengebracht hat, wiederum den neuen Leib so formen, daß er die Tendenz bekommt, in richtiger Weise mit diesen Menschen wieder zusammenzukommen, um mit ihnen das Karma auszugleichen. Also Sie arbeiten ja da in einem viel höheren Maße für die ganze Menschheit, als Sie es auf der Erde jetzt tun könnten. Und wie arbeiten Sie? — Das will ich Ihnen im einzelnen beschreiben; ich bitte Sie nur, darauf aufmerksam zu sein, daß ich mich sinnbildlich ausdrücken muß, wie schon das letzte Mai gesagt, wenn ich von diesen erhabenen Welten spreche, denn die menschlichen Begriffe sind heute nicht so geformt, daß man sich ohne Bilder ausdrücken kann.
Sie müssen tatsächlich den Geistkeim Ihres ganzen physischen Leibes aufbauen. Er wird aus den Einzelheiten des Weltenalls aufgebaut. Indem Sie zum Beispiel durchleben jene geistigen Wesenheiten, deren physischer Abglanz das Sternbild des Widders ist, arbeiten Sie mit den Hierarchien des Widders zusammen an Ihrem Haupte, an Ihrem kommenden Haupte, das tatsächlich ein Kosmos ist, das sich nur dann zusammenzieht im physischen Leibe; aber in Ihrem Haupte tragen Sie den ganzen Kosmos, vom Widder aus gesehen, in sich. Nun aber, indem Sie da auf dem Schauplatz des Widders mit der Hierarchie des Widders arbeiten, scheinen die Planeten, geradeso wie sie auf die Erde herunterscheinen, geistig nach der anderen Seite. Nehmen wir nun zum Beispiel an, Sie arbeiten weiter, Sie arbeiten vom Sternbilde des Widders aus weiter bis zum Sternbilde des Stieres. Während Sie im Sternbilde des Stieres mit den Hierarchien zusammenarbeiten, arbeiten Sie den Zusammenhang Ihrer Kehlkopfpartie mit Ihrer Lungenpartie. Indem nun der Mars aus der Planetensphäre hinaufscheint nach der Sphäre des Stieres, drückt sich in der Bewegung des Mars alles dasjenige aus, was Sie auf der Erde verfehlt oder richtig gemacht haben durch Ihre Sprechwerkzeuge. Jede Unwahrheit, die der Mensch gesagt hat, die scheint ihm geistig der Mars in die Stiersphäre hinein, wenn der Mensch sich durch die Stiersphäre hindurcharbeitet. Sie können sich also denken, was diese . Erinnerung ist, die wir da haben in unseren eigenen Taten. Wir finden nach dem Tode, daß diese Erinnerung in das Weltenall hineingeschrieben ist und sogar aus dem Weltenall als Logos nach der anderen Seite hin spricht. So daß wir an unserem künftigen Leibe in bezug auf diese Partie der Sprachwerkzeuge so arbeiten müssen, daß wir gestört oder gefördert werden, je nachdem wir die Wahrheit gesagt oder gelogen haben.
Und so ist es, wenn wir zum Beispiel durch das Sternbild des Löwen gehen. Da werden uns alle unsere Unvollkommenheiten von der Sonne her beschienen, all die Unvollkommenheiten, die wir durch unser oberflächliches oder tieferes Herz begangen haben, unsere Sympathien und Antipathien, die mit unserem 'Temperamente, mit unserer Blutzirkulation auf der Erde zusammenhängen; so daß wir an unserem künftigen Leibe so aufbauen, daß uns unser ganzes früheres Leben als Planetensprache in den Weltenraum hinaus ertönt.
Ja, es ist so - so sonderbar es vom Erdenstandpunkte aus erscheint —, daß, wenn wir von da draußen die Planetenbewegungen anschauen, wenn wir anschauen, wie der Mars, sagen wir, seine Bewegungen nach dem Stier hin ausführt, diese Bewegungen eine Schrift bilden, die zu gleicher Zeit tönt, und das ist die Sternenschrift, die von unseren eigenen Taten in den Weltenraum eingeschrieben ist. Kein Wunder, daß, wenn wir wieder zurückkehren, wir dasjenige vorbereiten, was dann unserem Karma entsprechend zu uns gehören wird. Denn wir können unseren künftigen physischen Leib nur vorbereiten unter dieser fortwährenden Sternensprache.
Und so arbeiten wir uns durch das geistige Gebiet hindurch, durch jenes geistige Gebiet, welches wir um so länger durchwandern, je größer das Verhältnis ist zwischen dem Bewußtsein in unserem Erdenleben, dem ganzen Erdenleben — ich habe es auch im öffentlichen Vortrage gesagt —, und dem anderen Bewußtsein, das wir als Kind gehabt haben, wo wir noch dumpf lebten; denn wir sind jetzt in einem Bewußtsein, das über unser Erdenbewußtsein hinausgeht. Im Erdenbewußtsein sind wir als erwachsene Menschen in einem Bewußtsein, das über das Traumesbewußtsein des Kindes hinausgeht. Es sind drei Stufen des Bewußtseins. Wenn der Mensch dreißig Jahre alt geworden ist und bis zu seinem fünften Jahre durchgemacht hat das Traumbewußtsein, dann hat er sechsmal länger in dem höheren Bewußtsein gelebt. Nun lebt er wiederum sechsmal länger als seine ganze Erdenlaufbahn in jenem höheren Bewußtsein, das er draußen in der Sternenwelt hat; so daß man einfach begreift: Wenn ein Kind stirbt, so lebt es außerordentlich kurz zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt; je älter der Mensch wird, desto mehr Zeit hat er dort zuzubringen; denn desto mehr verdunkelt ist hier auf der Erde sein überirdisches Bewußtsein, das er nach dem vorigen Tode durchgemacht hat, desto länger muß er daran arbeiten, es wieder hell zu machen, denn wir müssen ganz in die Helle hineinkommen.
Wenn wir ganz in die Helle hineinkommen, dann tritt eben jene Zeit ein zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, die ich in dem einen Mysterium genannt habe die Mitternachtszeit des menschlichen geistigen Daseins, die Mitternachtsstunde zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. In dieser Zeit, die ungefähr in der Mitte zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt drinnen liegt, haben wir das Bewußtsein, das uns in der geistigen Welt unter den Wesen der geistigen Hierarchien leben läßt, am hellsten. Aber zu gleicher Zeit erleben wir auch am stärksten in uns: Da unten in der Planetensphäre steht ja alles dasjenige, was du als Mensch verrichtet hast; das darfst du nicht verlassen — sagt man sich —, das kannst du hier nicht ändern, das kannst du nur ändern, wenn du wieder auf die Erde hinuntersteigst.
Da beginnt der Drang, der Trieb, wiederum nach der Erde hinunterzusteigen, gewissermaßen die Entscheidung zu treffen zwischen Saturn und Mond. Man folgt wiederum den aufdämmernden Mondenkräften, um den Weg nach der Erde zurück anzutreten, bei einem Menschen, der im vorigen Leben erwachsen war, eben nach Jahrhunderten.
Und je mehr wir uns wiederum der Planetensphäre nähern, und namentlich in die Sphäre von Merkur, Venus und Mond kommen, desto mehr schwindet uns das Bewußtsein, das wir gemeinsam mit den geistigen Wesen der höheren Hierarchien haben, dahin. Das heißt, wir bekommen ein Bewußtsein, das jetzt nur die Offenbarungen dieser geistigen Wesenheiten enthält. Früher fühlten wir uns unter diesen geistigen Wesen darinnen. Wenn wir vorbereitet haben das menschliche Haupt für das spätere Leben, so fühlen wir: wir arbeiten zusammen mit den geistigen Wesenheiten. Jetzt erscheinen uns die geistigen Wesenheiten wie in Bildern. Dafür aber tritt auch die Wirkung der Mondenkräfte in uns auf. Wir fühlen uns sozusagen wiederum als ein Wesen, das eigentlich in sich leben sollte. Wir sind ja noch nicht in einem physischen Leibe, aber wir haben ein Vorgefühl von einem In-sich-Leben, von einem Wiederum-dem-Kosmos-Entfremdetsein. Wir haben nicht mehr den Anblick der geistigen Wesenheiten, wie sie sind, sondern wir haben ihre Abbilder.
Und während wir diese Abbilder durchgehen, entschwindet uns immer mehr und mehr dasjenige, was wir als den Geistkeim unseres physischen Organismus auferbaut haben, und wir müssen wahrnehmen: dieser Geistkeim des physischen Organismus ist uns entfallen und ist nun hinuntergegangen zu einem physischen Elternpaar und lebt sich ein als die Kräfte der Fortpflanzungsströmung auf der physischen Erde. Es ist wirklich so, daß dasjenige, was wir als den physischen Leib vorbereiten, zusammenschrumpft und in die Fortpflanzungsströmungen eines physischen Elternpaares fällt. Und wir sind zurückgelassen als geistig-seelisches Wesen, das seine Zugehörigkeit zu dem, was ihm da hinunter entfallen ist, empfindet, aber sich nicht unmittelbar damit vereinigen kann. Es kann sich erst vereinigen, wenn es jetzt in diesem Zustand die Ärherkräfte, die im ganzen Kosmos sind, zu seinem Ätherleibe heranzieht. Und nachdem uns der Geistkeim unseres physischen Leibes entfallen ist, der nun unten unseren physischen Leib im Körper der Mutter vorbereitet, sammeln wir die Kräfte, um unseren Ätherleib zu bilden. Und mit diesem Ätherleib vereinigen wir uns dann, nachdem der menschliche Keim schon eine Zeitlang im Leibe der Mutter war.
Das ist der Vorgang des Wieder-Zurückkehrens zum Erdendasein. Und indem wir vorher nur die Bilder der geistigen Wesenheiten gehabt haben, gliedern wir uns alles dasjenige ein, was wir nur durch die Mondenkräfte uns eingliedern können, was Erinnerung war an unser Karmawesen. Das gliedern wir uns jetzt wiederum ein als wirkliche Kräfte. Die nehmen wir mit auf in den Ätherleib, gliedern sie auch ein. Deshalb erscheinen wir auf dieser Erde so, daß wir das Ausleben unseres Schicksals, unseres Karma bewirken; während des Durchgehens durch die Mondenkräfte entwickeln wir die Sehnsucht, unser Karma auf der Erde auszuleben.
So ist der Kreislauf, den der Mensch durchläuft vom Tod zur Geburt, indem er einen Aufstieg bis zum selbständigen Bewußtsein in der Geistsphäre erlebt, und ihm dieses Bewußtsein wieder abgedämmert wird, indem er die Geistsphäre nur im Bilde hat. Während er sie nur im Bilde hat, nimmt er den Willen in sein Karma, in sich auf, kehrt zu der Erde zurück, um im physischen Leibe weiterzuarbeiten, bis er dann durch eine Reihe von Erdenleben eben dahin kommt, eine andere Daseinsmetamorphose antreten zu können.
Für die jetzige Gegenwart der Erdenzeit ist es ja so, daß der Mensch, indem er heruntersteigt aus der Sternensphäre, die Erinnerung an sein früheres Erdendasein hat und an diese Erinnerung anknüpft. Er bereitet sich selber in der Sternensphäre seinen physischen Leib vor und vereinigt sich dann, indem er heruntersteigt, mit diesem seinem physischen Leibe. Aber wir stehen in einer sehr wichtigen Periode des Erdendaseins. Und die Wichtigkeit dieser Periode des Erdendaseins verstehen wir nur, wenn wir wissen, daß wir unseren physischen Leib vorbereitend erarbeiten in der Sternensphäre und ihn dann um uns kleiden, wenn wir auf die Erde herunterkommen. Aber in diesem Punkte bereitet sich etwas Wesentliches gerade in unserem Zeitalter vor.
Ich habe oftmals darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts von der geistigen Welt aus Änderungen eingetreten sind im ganzen Verlaufe des menschlichen Erdenlebens. Ich habe darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie in der Tat in einer gewissen Weise offen geworden ist das Tor der Erkenntnis gegenüber der geistigen Welt, wie man, wenn man das Nötige von sich aus tut, in der Tat erkennend eindringen kann in die geistige Welt, was durch viele Jahrhunderte hindurch, während sich die materielle Erkenntnis bildete, nicht möglich war. Die Änderung ist in der geistigen Welt dadurch eingetreten, daß an die Stelle früherer führender Wesenheiten diejenige Wesenheit getreten ist, welche wegen der Ähnlichkeit ihrer Eigenschaften mit dem, was in der Tradition als das Michael-Wesen bezeichnet wird, eben auch mit dem Namen Michael bezeichnet werden kann. Und man kann sagen: Die Michael-Wesenheit hat die geistige Führung der Menschheit übernommen. — Auf der Erde hier ist das Äquivalent dafür, daß Michael eingreift in das Seelen- und Geistesleben der Menschheit, daß eben immer mehr und mehr Menschen auch wirklich davon durchdrungen werden, daß der Mensch nicht nur durch seinen physischen Leib hier mit dem Reiche der Erde zusammenhängt, sondern daß er durch sein Seelisch-Geistiges in einem fortdauernden Zusammenhange steht mit der geistigen Welt.
A!so das Hineinwachsen in die Geist-Erkenntnis, das ist die eine Seite, die mit der Michael-Herrschaft zusammenhängt. Die andere Seite ist aber dasjenige, was aus einer wirklichen ehrlichen Durchdringung mit dieser Geisteswissenschaft für das Menschengemüt, für die Menschenseele hervorgeht, und das ist, daß tatsächlich, indem das Licht dieser geistigen Wissenschaft sich ausbreiten wird, dieses Licht nicht nur eine Theorie bleiben wird, sondern einströmen wird in das menschliche Fühlen und als sich verbreitende Menschenliebe da sein wird.
Was man in den letzten Jahrhunderten aufgespeichert hat, das steht ja eigentlich zu dem Menschen nur in dem Verhältnis, daß es ein Kopfwissen wird, aber ein Kopfwissen, das nicht ausströmt in den ganzen Menschen. Ja, das ist wie eine seelische Geschwulst, das ist etwas, was nach und nach verhärtet, weil es nicht die richtigen Kräfte aus dem übrigen Organismus bekommt. Wenn wir immer nur im Kopf gescheiter werden und nicht aus unserem übrigen Organismus das nötige Fühlen diese Gescheitheit durchströmt, dann werden wir Wesen, die eigentlich etwas wie ein seelisch-geistiges Krebsgeschwür, wie eine seelisch-geistige Krebsgeschwulst haben. Es kann auch der Kopf nicht gedeihen, geistig gedeihen, wenn nicht der übrige Mensch liebend und das Geliebte auch wollend in der Welt steht.
Was in dem Menschen die Michael-Herrschaft will, wird der Mensch erst begreifen, wenn er dieser Michael-Herrschaft entgegenkommt durch seine eigenen Eigenschaften. Er kann ihr nur entgegenkommen, wenn er spirituell aufgeklärt und von allgemeiner, gerade aus der spirituellen Aufklärung kommender Menschenliebe erfüllt sein wird. Dann wird man immer mehr und mehr verstehen, was diese MichaelHerrschaft bedeutet.
Das Volk des Alten Testaments hat auch von einer Michael-Herrschaft gesprochen und es meinte, daß Michael damals der Diener Jahves war. Das heißt, Michael hat dazumal in den Kräften gewirkt, welche die Jahvekräfte sind. Er war der Diener des Jahve. Er hat all dasjenige mitbekämpft, was zu bekämpfen ist als ahrimanische Mächte, von denen ich in den letzten Tagen gesprochen habe. In unserem Zeitalter ist Michael bestimmt, immer mehr und mehr die dienende Wesenheit des Christus zu werden; so daß die Aussage, die Michael-Herrschaft tritt regelnd ein in die Menschengsschicke, zugleich heißt, daß wahr werden soll das Wort: Die Christus-Herrschaft soll sich auf der Erde ausbreiten. — Michael trägt gewissermaßen vorne das Licht der spirituellen Erkenntnis, hinten trägt Christus die Forderungen der allgemeinen Menschenliebe. Dadurch aber ändert sich nicht nur etwas für die Erde, sondern dadurch ändert sich auch manches für das Leben, das der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht.
Es ist von alten Zeiten der Erdenentwickelung her so, daß der Mensch eben in der Weise, wie ich es charakterisiert habe, sich seinen physischen Leib als Geistkeim vorbereitet und ihn dann, wenn er das Erdendasein betritt, übernimmt. Aber seit der Christus-Michael-Herrschaft wird der Mensch immer mehr und mehr in die Lage versetzt gegenwärtig sind es wenige Menschen, immer mehr und mehr sollen es werden -, bevor er auf die Erde heruntersteigt, noch eine Entscheidung zu treffen. Denn das Licht der spirituellen Erkenntnis leuchtet so, daß es zu gleicher Zeit beleuchtet diese Erde und das überphysische Reich, so daß der Mensch durch die Michael-Herrschaft eine Entscheidung zu treffen lernt, wenn er zwar schon sein Karma übernommen hat in seinem Ätherleib, aber nun den Weg zu seinem physischen Leib antritt. Wird nun auf der Erde immer mehr und mehr spirituelle Erkenntnis verbreitet, und wird der Mensch immer mehr und mehr in sich erleben diese allgemeine Menschenliebe, so wird folgende Möglichkeit vor dem Herabsteigen in das Erdenleben für die zukünftige Menschheit eintreten. Der Mensch wird sich sagen können: Diesen Leib habe ich vorbereitet; aber indem ich diesen Leib hinuntergeschickt habe auf die Erde und mein Karma in meinen Ätherleib, den ich zusammengezogen habe, hineingenommen habe, da sehe ich, daß dieses Karma so liegt, daß ich durch das, was ich in früheren Erdenleben vollbracht habe, diesen oder jenen anderen Menschen schwer geschädigt habe.
Wir sind ja immer der Gefahr ausgesetzt, durch das, was wir vollbringen, andere Menschen zu schädigen. Das Urteil über dasjenige, was wir einem anderen Menschen angetan haben, wird ganz besonders hell leuchten in diesem Momente, wo wir noch im Ätherleib sind, wo wir noch nicht den physischen Leib bezogen haben. Da aber wirkt in Zukunft auch das Licht des Michael und die Liebe des Christus. Und wir werden in die Lage versetzt, eine Änderung in unserer Entscheidung herbeizuführen, den Leib, den wir zubereitet haben, einem anderen zu übergeben und selber denjenigen Leib zu übernehmen, der bereitet worden ist von dem, den wir besonders geschädigt haben. Das ist der gewaltige Übergang, der von unserer Zeit in die Zukunft hinein in bezug auf das geistige Leben der Menschen stattfindet.
Wir werden in der Lage sein, in einen Leib einzuziehen, der von einem Menschen hat zubereitet werden müssen, den wir besonders geschädigt haben; und der andere wird in der Lage sein, in unseren zubereiteten Leib einzutreten. Und dadurch wird das, was wir auf Erden werden vollbringen können, in einer ganz anderen Weise sich karmisch ausgleichen können als sonst. Wir werden gewissermaßen als Menschen in die Lage kommen, unsere physischen Leiber auszutauschen.
Die Erde könnte niemals ihr Ziel erreichen, wenn nicht das eintreten würde; niemals würde sonst auf der Erde die Menschheit ein Ganzes werden können. Und das muß sein! Es muß für die Erdenentwickelung eine Zeit kommen zur Vorbereitung von zukünftigen planetarischen Zuständen der Erde, in der es unmöglich ist, daß der einzelne irgend etwas auf der Erde genießt auf Kosten des anderen. Geradeso wie sich das einzelne Blatt oder das einzelne Blütenblatt der Pflanze als ein Glied der ganzen Pflanze fühlt und Leid und Freude der ganzen Pflanze miterlebt — bildlich gesprochen -, so muß eine Zukunft über die Erde kommen, in der der einzelne kein Glück haben will auf Kosten des Ganzen, in der er sich als ein Glied der ganzen Menschheit fühlt. Das aber hat sein geistiges Äquivalent darin, daß wir für die anderen den physischen Leib zubereiten lernen.
Wir treten also als Menschen aus einer Zeit heraus, in der gewissermaßen jeder eine Kontinuation hatte in bezug auf den physischen Leib; wir treten in eine Zeit ein, die durch die Michael-Herrschaft herbeigeführt wird, wo wir auch an den physischen Geistkeimen der Menschenleiber so arbeiten, daß wir einer für den anderen arbeiten können. Und im Verlaufe der Erdeninkarnationen wird sich das so einstellen, daß wir durch dieses gegenseitige Arbeiten im Geistigen vorbereiten eine noch spätere, kommende Zeit — wenn man deren Wesen ausspricht, so wird es ein vollständiges Paradoxon sein, aber es ist doch so —, wo die Menschen auch auf der Erde mit ihren Seelen in diejenigen Leiber eintreten können, die sie besonders geschädigt haben, und herübernehmen können die Seele in ihren Leib. Das wird eintreten, wenn die Erde selbst in andere Zustände übergegangen sein wird. Aber das, was ich Ihnen heute gesagt habe als eine Tatsächlichkeit, die durch die Michael-Herrschaft in der geistigen Welt eintritt, wird die Vorbereitung dazu sein.
Gerade an diesem Beispiel sehen Sie so recht das Wesen der ideellen Magie. Wenn Sie hier auf der Erde die Erleuchtung auf sich wirken lassen, die von der spirituellen Wissenschaft kommt, so fördern Sie die Michael-Herrschaft. Sie fördern diejenigen Kräfte, die herbeiführen, daß die Menschen füreinander in dem Grade leben können, daß sie erst die Entscheidung treffen über das, was sie als physischen Leib übernehmen wollen, nach dem, was dann das Beste ist für die ganze Menschheit. Darnach entscheidet man sich, indem man sich den physischen Leib wählt. Inden Sie das auf der Erde vorbereiten durch Menschenweisheit und Menschenliebe, vollführen Sie etwas, was in der geistigen Welt Wirklichkeit hat. Das ist wirkliche ideelle Magie. Das ist, was in älteren Zeiten wahre weiße Magie genannt worden ist. Es ist dasjenige, in das die Menschheit eintreten muß.
Und so wollte ich Sie noch aufmerksam machen auf dieses wichtige Moment, das im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke der Menschheit in die Entwickelungsbahn der Menschheit hereingetreten ist. Wir dürfen nicht mutlos zurückschrecken, wenn es sich darum handelt, Tatsachen der geistigen Welt zu enthüllen, welche in das Menschenleben hereinspielen. Denn die Zukunft der Menschheit hängt davon ab, daß der Mensch lerne, mit der geistigen Welt ebenso zu leben, wie er hier auf der Erde mit der physischen Welt lebt. Und nur dadurch, daß wir gewissermaßen als Menschheit wiederum in der geistigen Welt heimisch werden, wie es die Urmenschheit war, indem wir richtig begreifen das Christus-Wort: «Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt», werden wir die Zukunft der Menschheit fördern. Dann begreifen Sie im richtigen Sinne das Christus-Wort: «Mein Reich ist nicht von dieser Welt.» Aber er ist ja gerade heruntergestiegen auf die Erde; er hat sich ja gerade mit der Menschheit vereinigt. Hätte er nicht eigentlich sagen wollen: Mein Reich ist von dieser Welt? — Er hat es nicht gesagt, aus dem Grunde, weil er hier allmählich die Erde zu einem Reiche machen wollte, das nicht im Irdischen aufgeht, das nach und nach einläuft in einen geistigen Zustand. Sein Reich ist nicht so, wie es war bis zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha und wie es sich dann, gewissermaßen durch das Beharrungsvermögen weiterlaufend, auch nachher fortgesetzt hat. Sein Reich ist so, daß der Geist hier auf der Erde herrschen wird. Und dies wird werden, wenn von der Menschheit in richtiger Weise die Michael-Herrschaft verstanden wird. Die aber wird nur in richtiger Weise verstanden, wenn geistige Erleuchtung und christliche Menschenliebe gesucht werden, wie ich es angedeutet habe.
Experiences of the Human Soul in Sleep and After Death in the Spiritual World III
Today I would like to bring to a certain conclusion the observations we have made here in this place recently. I would first like to draw your attention to the fact that you already know what man's fate is after death. First of all, the human being has discarded his physical body and is in a position in which he cannot otherwise be during his life on earth through ordinary consciousness. He has his ego, his astral body and his etheric body around and on him. This etheric body otherwise remains united with the physical body throughout the whole time, from birth to death, and during sleep man is only in his ego and in his astral body outside the etheric body and outside the physical body. If, after death, the human being still has his etheric body, this body of formative forces, for a short time - time only lasts for days - then he is able to look back on his entire earthly life. The course of life on earth is actually contained in this etheric body. And I have also said in the public lectures how the human being, when he frees his etheric body through initiation, can survey the course of his earthly life.
But one cannot keep the etheric body in oneself for long after death, because this etheric body is actually connected with the whole cosmos; it always wants to spread out into the cosmos. If we were to lose our physical body for a moment in life, the etheric body would immediately have the tendency to dissolve into the whole cosmos as if by an elastic force. And it is only through the physical body, in which this etheric body always remains inside, that it is held together during life. If we no longer have the binding power of the physical body, then the etheric body begins to spread out and after a few days it will no longer be there for us due to its great expansion. You know, if you take a small drop of water, it is there; if you heat it, it spreads out in all directions and it is no longer there. You can no longer see it. This is how the etheric body spreads out after death and after a few days it is no longer there.
The wisdom of initiation shows that this only lasts a few days, because through the wisdom of initiation one comes to use the etheric body artificially, so to speak, in life on earth. It then remains inside the physical body, but one uses it by not taking the physical body into consideration and then one also has the retrospective view of one's life on earth. But by looking back at your life on earth, you also have a reflection of the whole universe shining in this etheric body. The whole starry sky is inside the etheric body at the same time. You cannot see the etheric body separated from this physical body without the etheric body showing you the starry world, the planets and the fixed stars everywhere. And these planets and these fixed stars ultimately absorb the etheric body. And so it is that the science of initiation, the wisdom of initiation, can hold on to the images that it has in this way in the etheric body for three to four days at most; then they disappear, and you have to return to your physical body first if you want to keep any connection with it at all, so that the etheric body is held together. So this etheric body also disappears a few days after death. But you integrate yourself more and more into the starry world.
At first, after having discarded the etheric body, one feels alien within the starry world. What seems familiar, so to speak, from the starry world is only the lunar forces. The moon appears so that you have it on one side in a replica of its physical form. But immediately you get to know in more detail what spiritual forces are connected with the moon. You actually get to know that connected with the moon is the Yahweh power of the universe, as I characterized it last time. The moon transforms itself, so to speak, for the one who has passed through the gate
ether of death, into a colony of spiritual beings whose leader is Yahweh. And now one gets to know that after death of which the science of initiation can speak precisely by the fact that it already brings pictures of these things into earthly life. One learns to recognize what it means that man dies on earth. One gets to know the meaning of death precisely through the lunar, through the Yahweh forces.
When we look at death on earth then it presents itself in such a way that the physical body of a man becomes lifeless, that everything that has permeated the physical body from the spiritual-soul and etheric has disappeared from the physical body. The physical body is taken over by the forces of the earth, by the elements of the earth, either by the forces of the earthly, the watery, when it is buried, or by the fiery and airy, when it is burnt. So the human physical body is taken over by the forces of the earth. It has been discarded by the human being. What does that actually mean: the physical body has been discarded by the human being and has passed over into a state of destruction? - It is like this: when the human being is born and has the childlike powers of growth within him, and also when the human being is still in the embryonic state before birth, but when he already belongs bodily to the earth in the mother's body, then it is the same forces that confront us as destructive forces at death, the same forces that leave the human physical body at death, which therefore appear at death because the physical body disintegrates, the same forces that help to build up this physical body. Man passes through his etheric experiences and then through his astral experiences into a spiritual world, but here on earth something also detaches itself from the physical body which appears as something spiritual, as something which to a certain extent emerges from the human body. One might say: On the one side the real human being leaves, on the other side another being leaves the human being. - It is already the case that the physical body of man lies there with death, man himself leaves it, but another being leaves it at the same time. This other being is the lunar forces that also live on earth. For the lunar forces are, if I may say so, concentrated in the cosmic moon, but they extend their activity far and wide. This can be seen on earth in the forces of death. These forces of death are at the same time the forces of birth. They lead the human being into life and they appear when the human being leaves life. In this way you get an idea of the connection between birth and death. And if you take all people who die in successive times, then it is the case that the manifestation of death emerges from each person, so to speak, and in turn unites with a spiritual atmosphere which surrounds the earth like the atmosphere of air and which contains that which death gives and which birth receives in turn. From the forces that rise, as it were, from the corpses of men, men are born again. Yes, our forces of growth are spiritually intimately connected with the forces of death, the forces that appear through death, that surround the earth.
Now consider the following. These forces of death, which are also the forces of birth, are the lunar forces. Mixed into these lunar forces is everything that a person has accumulated in terms of moral values from birth to death. If one has been good in any respect, then in this sphere of the lunar forces of death there is, as it were, a separate being which contains within itself a force that has remained from our goodness. This being also has within it everything that has remained from our being evil. And while we live on earth, we form this being. Ordinary consciousness knows nothing of it, but we carry it within us. We carry it within us in such a way that we leave it every night when we sleep; when we leave our physical body, this being remains within the physical body. I have already told you that the moral feelings and the religious feelings are left behind in the physical and etheric body. And a real being is also left behind there, which we form as our karma bearer during our life on earth. However, this being remains in connection with us as long as we are in the sphere of the lunar forces. And because this being keeps us in the lunar forces, i.e. close to the earth, we remain so connected with these lunar forces as well as with our karma in the next time after death that we really have to relive all the actions we have done on earth between birth and death, that we have to relive them in a spiritual way, with threefold speed - as I said in the public lecture - as we have gone through them on earth. But we have to live through it, live through it backwards and thus spend a time after 'death in which we no longer remain connected with the powers of the moon of death through the physical body which we have laid aside, but in which we as spiritual-soul beings have to carry out actions which are closely connected with our earthly actions. So we go through our life once again in reverse order, and this makes us even more aware of our karma.
And you must also treat what is of a spiritual nature in a spiritual way. If you have loved a person on earth, you can perhaps form the feeling: Oh, after death the person must now live through all the bad and imperfect things he may have done! - You then come from your earthly-physical to a certain regret that this person has to go through this. But if you were to ask the person who has passed through the gate of death himself whether he also judges the matter in this way, he would tell you: No. - He would tell you: I would not like to go through this after-earthly life in any other way than that I experience everything again with the judgment that I now have as a spiritual-soul being, so that it is properly imprinted in my true soul essence. For if I had committed some act which made me appear as an imperfect human being and I did not experience it again in myself in this way, I would not receive the urge within me to make up for it. I would not want to free myself from this imperfection. It is precisely by experiencing the action once again in a soul-spiritual way that I receive the urge to overcome it through a perfect action. - The dead person would not want to miss this reliving at any price, for it gives him the strength to achieve his humanity in its entirety. You must realize that just as the earth looks different from a valley than from a mountain top, so life looks different from here, from the physical world, than from over there. And so one can often say that the connections between life on earth and the supra-physical life, with life after death, are not judged quite correctly.
Let's take another case. Let us say you are a very good anthroposophist, you are enthusiastic about anthroposophy and you have a housemate, someone with whom you are closely connected, who hates anthroposophy like his worst enemy. Now you can perhaps say that you regret immensely that you are causing the person concerned great pain because you yourself are a follower of anthroposophy and he hates anthroposophy. From the point of view of earthly life this is perhaps correct. But very often, from the other side, it turns out that the person concerned had it in his karma simply not to be able to approach anthroposophy because of the attitudes he had brought with him from a previous life and which simply make his head a hater of anthroposophy. His head cannot approach anthroposophy. He immediately becomes restless, he immediately becomes agitated if he hears anything about anthroposophy. But his heart need not yet be averse to anthroposophy. When the person concerned then dies, it may turn out that he has a very intense desire for anthroposophy after death; so that you often do the right thing when you turn to someone who hated anthroposophy here in life with thoughts from anthroposophy after his death in order to bring them to him.
As strange and paradoxical as it sounds, you can say that some members of a family who have raged terribly because another member of the family has become anthroposophical have become the most intense followers after their death. So you must also take very seriously what I said to you during my previous stay here in this place, that life is judged quite differently from over there than from here.
And so we can see how a person becomes a completely different person. Imagine that here in your physical life on earth you have your brain inside the cranial cavity, a little further down the lungs, then the other organs and outside the senses. You perceive the outer world through everything that is enclosed in your skin. Now you penetrate outside. At first the stars only shine into your etheric body, but when you have shed it, you identify yourself with the stars. Before you had a brain in there, now you have the spiritual essence of Venus, Mercury, the sun and so on inside you. Now you can say: just as I have lungs, heart, kidneys and so on inside me on earth, so now I have the moon, Mercury, sun and so on inside me. - You are identical with the universe within you. Do you believe that the universe gives you the same mind as your brain? The world looks different; when you look from the sun to the earth, the earth looks different than when you look from the earth to the sun. Thus, by remaining in connection with the moon, Mercury and Venus, you actually go through this backward experience. During this time, the connection with the outer stars, with Jupiter, Mars, Saturn is weakly developed, and the connection with the fixed stars is even more weakly developed.
After one has gone through the actions in this way, has gone back with the actions to one's birth, it is so that one judges these actions from the point of view of the stars. Now one does not receive the judgment about oneself that one is merely looking back, but one receives the judgment forward; one receives the judgment: This is what you must do in order to balance this action; this is what you must do in order to balance another action. In this you stand for the next twenty or thirty years of your life after death, depending on how old you have become, about a third of your time on earth. Children go through this very briefly. It is hardly an option for very young children, as you can imagine from what I have said. In this way, you actually relive your life backwards by still having a spiritual-emotional connection with your earthly life. And when you have arrived at birth, it turns out that the memory of all this remains with you. It is just as if one were to lay down a body again. They say you shed the astral body. But what happens in reality is that the living activity in which you were before is transformed into a thought image, only that now a completely different consciousness, a star consciousness thinks, while here an earthly consciousness thought.
And now you start your further path in the spiritual world by having to live with those beings whose physical reflection is the sun and moon and stars. You must now continue to live with the spirits of the stars. There you will carry the memory of the karmic being that you have previously discarded with your astral body. But “having discarded” means nothing other than that everything in which you were previously active is now a memory that we have as a cosmic human being. We enter a purely spiritual world, burdened with the memory of what our earthly life has left us with.
As long as the human being goes through this living backwards through his past life on earth, he is actually in the planetary sphere. One can say: As man progresses from the spiritual moon forces to the Venus, Mercury, Sun, Mars, Jupiter forces up to the Saturn forces, that is, as long as he is between the moon and Saturn spheres, in other words, as long as he feels the planetary cosmos within himself, so long he is in this backward experience of his past earthly life.
I have already told you in the last few days how the lunar forces and the Saturnian forces work against each other. The moon contains those forces that bring man down to the earthly and always want to hold on to the earth. Saturn wants to lead him out into the starry universe, but in such a way that when man enters this starry universe between death and a new birth, he does not see the physical reflection of the stars, but lives with the beings that belong to the stars in question.
So when we pass through the sphere of Saturn after death, we become ripe for an experience of the purely spiritual world. I have characterized this transition in my book “Theosophy” as the transition from the soul world into the spirit world. Man cannot make this transition by his own efforts, because the memory of his past life on earth clings to him, as I have described. He needs a helper in the spiritual world.
Now, I have also pointed out here how it is with this helper. In the time before the Mystery of Golgotha, the initiates of the Mysteries were able to tell their disciples: If you have sent your sacrificial powers up into the spiritual world in the right way, you will be able to find the high solar being who accompanies you from the time you leave the solar sphere, but who accompanies you in his spiritual being to the other side, where the sun shines out, as it were, spiritually into world space, as it shines down physically upon the earth. This high solar being will accompany you, will take you as far as the sphere of Saturn, then further out into the sphere of the stars. In a way, the spiritual sun will shine upon you so that you can gain the passage from the world of souls into the land of spirits.
Through the Mystery of Golgotha it has become so that this sun being has descended to earth, has taken on a body in the man Jesus of Nazareth, and man, by turning his mind, his feelings on earth towards the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha, already here on earth receives the power to be able to enter beyond the sphere of the sun and Saturn into the spirit world, that is, into the world of the stars. This results in the state he continues to experience between death and rebirth. In order to describe to you this state which man can go through now, in the time after the Mystery of Golgotha, through the power of the Christ which he has received, I must tell you the following. First I must draw your attention to what it actually means when you are out there in the world of the stars, that is, in spirit-land, what it actually means: you have the memory of life on earth! - This will become clear to you in the following way.
Once you get beyond the sphere of Saturn, you enter what old world views called the zodiac. It is only the representative of the fixed starry heavens, that is, of the spirit-land in general; but it is precisely when you summarize the individual stars that make up the zodiac that you get the path that man then has to go through. Man goes through this path in order to be able to build up the spiritual germ of his next physical body out of the whole cosmos together with the spiritual beings of the hierarchies.
If you were to say: Here on earth we have interesting work, there we can promote culture, there we can work for the people and so on, but it must be most monotonous what we accomplish up there, if we only produce our body, our own body - then you would be quite wrong. For all that you can accomplish together on earth is not of the magnitude and variety of what you accomplish when you form the human body, the “temple of the gods”, out of the starry worlds. And you do not simply form your body, you form it, as you will see in a moment, in such a way that this body actually belongs to the whole of humanity, in that, depending on how your karma has brought you together with this or that person, you in turn form the new body in such a way that it has the tendency to come together with these people again in the right way in order to balance out the karma with them. So you are working for the whole of humanity to a much greater extent than you could do on earth now. And how do you work? - I will describe this to you in detail; I only ask you to be aware that I must express myself symbolically, as I said last May, when I speak of these sublime worlds, for human concepts today are not formed in such a way that one can express oneself without images.
You must indeed build up the spiritual germ of your whole physical body. It is built up from the details of the universe. For example, by living through those spiritual beings whose physical reflection is the constellation of Aries, you work together with the hierarchies of Aries on your head, on your coming head, which is actually a cosmos that only then contracts in the physical body; but in your head you carry the whole cosmos, seen from Aries, within you. Now, however, as you work with the hierarchy of Aries on the scene of Aries, the planets, just as they shine down upon the earth, shine spiritually to the other side. Let us now assume, for example, that you continue to work from the constellation of Aries to the constellation of Taurus. While you are working with the hierarchies in the constellation of Taurus, you are working on the connection between your larynx and your lungs. As Mars now shines up from the planetary sphere to the sphere of Taurus, everything that you have missed or done right on earth is expressed in the movement of Mars through your instruments of speech. Every untruth that a person has spoken is spiritually reflected by Mars into the sphere of Taurus when the person works his way through the sphere of Taurus. So you can imagine what this . memory we have in our own deeds. After death we find that this memory is written into the universe and even speaks out of the universe as Logos to the other side. So that we must work on our future body with regard to this part of the tools of speech in such a way that we are disturbed or encouraged, depending on whether we have told the truth or lied.
And so it is, for example, when we pass through the constellation of Leo. There all our imperfections are shone upon us from the sun, all the imperfections we have committed through our superficial or deeper heart, our sympathies and antipathies connected with our 'temperament, with our blood circulation on earth; so that we build on our future body in such a way that our whole past life resounds out to us as planetary language into the world space.
Yes, it is so - as strange as it seems from the earth's point of view - that when we look at the planetary movements from out there, when we look at how Mars, let us say, carries out its movements towards Taurus, these movements form a script that sounds at the same time, and that is the star script that is inscribed by our own deeds in the world space. No wonder that when we return, we prepare that which will then belong to us according to our karma. For we can only prepare our future physical body under this perpetual star language.
And so we work our way through the spiritual realm, through that spiritual realm which we wander through the longer the greater the relationship is between the consciousness in our earth life, the whole earth life - I have also said this in the public lecture - and the other consciousness which we had as a child, where we still lived dully; for we are now in a consciousness which goes beyond our earth consciousness. In earth-consciousness we are as adults in a consciousness that goes beyond the dream-consciousness of the child. There are three stages of consciousness. When a person has reached the age of thirty and has gone through the dream consciousness up to his fifth year, then he has lived six times longer in the higher consciousness. Now he lives again six times longer than his whole earthly career in that higher consciousness which he has outside in the starry world; so that one simply understands: When a child dies, it lives an extraordinarily short time between death and a new birth; the older the person becomes, the more time he has to spend there; for the more darkened is his supernatural consciousness here on earth, which he has gone through after the previous death, the longer he must work to make it light again, for we must enter fully into the Light.
When we enter completely into the light, then that time occurs between death and a new birth, which I have called in the one mystery the midnight time of human spiritual existence, the midnight hour between death and a new birth. In this time, which lies approximately halfway between death and a new birth, we have the brightest consciousness that allows us to live in the spiritual world among the beings of the spiritual hierarchies. But at the same time we also experience most strongly within ourselves: down there in the planetary sphere is everything that you have done as a human being; you must not leave it - you say to yourself - you cannot change it here, you can only change it when you descend to earth again.
Then the urge begins, the impulse to descend to earth again, to make the decision, so to speak, between Saturn and the moon. You again follow the dawning lunar forces to make your way back to Earth, in the case of a person who was an adult in the previous life, after centuries.
And the more we approach the planetary sphere again, and especially the sphere of Mercury, Venus and the moon, the more the consciousness we have together with the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies fades away. In other words, we acquire a consciousness that now contains only the revelations of these spiritual beings. Formerly we felt ourselves among these spiritual beings. When we have prepared the human head for the later life, we feel that we are working together with the spiritual beings. Now the spiritual beings appear to us as if in pictures. In return, however, the effect of the lunar forces also appears in us. We feel ourselves again, so to speak, as a being that should actually live in itself. We are not yet in a physical body, but we have a premonition of a life within ourselves, of being alienated from the cosmos again. We no longer have the sight of the spiritual beings as they are, but we have their images.
And as we go through these images, that which we have built up as the spirit-germ of our physical organism disappears more and more, and we must realize: this spirit-germ of the physical organism has slipped away from us and has now gone down to a physical parent couple and lives itself in as the forces of the reproductive current on the physical earth. It is really the case that what we prepare as the physical body shrinks and falls into the reproductive currents of a physical parent couple. And we are left behind as a spiritual-soul being that feels its affiliation to that which has fallen away from it, but cannot unite with it directly. It can only unite when it now, in this state, draws the etheric forces that are in the whole cosmos to its etheric body. And after the spirit germ of our physical body has fallen away, which is now preparing our physical body below in the mother's body, we gather the forces to form our etheric body. And we then unite with this etheric body after the human germ has already been in the mother's body for a while.
This is the process of returning to earthly existence. And because we previously only had the images of the spiritual beings, we incorporate all that which we can only incorporate through the lunar forces, that which was a memory of our karmic being. We now incorporate this again as real forces. We take them into the etheric body and incorporate them too. That is why we appear on this earth in such a way that we bring about the living out of our destiny, our karma; as we pass through the lunar forces we develop the longing to live out our karma on earth.
Such is the cycle that man goes through from death to birth, in that he experiences an ascent to independent consciousness in the spirit sphere, and this consciousness is taken away from him again, in that he has the spirit sphere only in image. While he has it only in the image, he takes the will into his karma, into himself, returns to earth to continue working in the physical body until he then, through a series of earth lives, comes to be able to enter another metamorphosis of existence.
For the present presence of earth time it is so that man, by descending from the star sphere, has the memory of his former earth existence and ties in with this memory. He prepares his own physical body in the starry sphere and then, by descending, unites himself with this physical body. But we are in a very important period of earthly existence. And we can only understand the importance of this period of earthly existence if we know that we prepare our physical body in the starry sphere and then clothe it around us when we come down to earth. But in this point something essential is being prepared in our age.
I have often pointed out how in the last third of the 19th century changes occurred from the spiritual world in the whole course of human life on earth. I have drawn attention to the fact that the door of knowledge has indeed become open to the spiritual world in a certain way, that if one does what is necessary of one's own accord, one can indeed penetrate the spiritual world with knowledge, which was not possible for many centuries while material knowledge was being formed. The change has occurred in the spiritual world in that the former leading beings have been replaced by that being which, because of the similarity of its characteristics to what is called the Michael being in the tradition, can also be called Michael. And one can say that the Michael entity has taken over the spiritual leadership of humanity. - On earth here is the equivalent of Michael intervening in the soul and spiritual life of mankind, that more and more people are really penetrated by the fact that man is not only connected with the kingdom of earth through his physical body, but that he is in a continuous connection with the spiritual world through his soul-spiritual being.
A!so the growing into the spirit knowledge, that is the one side, which is connected with the Michael dominion. The other side, however, is that which emerges from a real honest penetration with this spiritual science for the human mind, for the human soul, and that is that actually, as the light of this spiritual science will spread, this light will not just remain a theory, but will flow into human feeling and will be there as spreading human love.
What has been stored up in the last centuries is actually only related to man in that it becomes head knowledge, but a head knowledge that does not flow out into the whole man. Yes, it is like a mental tumor, it is something that gradually hardens because it does not receive the right forces from the rest of the organism. If we only ever become clever in our heads and the necessary feeling does not flow through this cleverness from the rest of our organism, then we become beings who actually have something like a mental-spiritual cancer, like a mental-spiritual tumor. Even the head cannot thrive, thrive spiritually, if the rest of the person does not stand in the world loving and wanting what is loved.
What the Michael dominion wants in man will only be understood by man when he meets this Michael dominion through his own qualities. He can only meet it when he is spiritually enlightened and filled with a general love of humanity that comes precisely from spiritual enlightenment. Then one will understand more and more what this Michael dominion means.
The people of the Old Testament also spoke of a Michael reign and they meant that Michael was the servant of Yahweh at that time. This means that Michael then worked in the powers that are the powers of Yahweh. He was the servant of Yahweh. He fought against all that which is to be fought against as ahrimanic powers, of which I have spoken in the last few days. In our age Michael is destined to become more and more the servant entity of the Christ; so that the statement that the Michael dominion enters the human destiny in a regulating way means at the same time that the word shall come true: The Christ dominion shall spread on earth. - Michael carries the light of spiritual knowledge at the front, so to speak, while Christ carries the demands of universal human love at the back. However, this not only changes something for the earth, but also changes many things for the life that a person goes through between death and a new birth.
From ancient times of earthly development it has been the case that man prepares his physical body as a spirit germ in the way I have characterized it and then takes it over when he enters earthly existence. But since the reign of Christ-Michael, man is more and more put into the position - at present there are few people, more and more are to come - to make a decision before he descends to earth. For the light of spiritual knowledge shines in such a way that it illuminates this earth and the superphysical kingdom at the same time, so that man learns to make a decision through the Michael rule, when he has already taken over his karma in his etheric body, but now starts the way to his physical body. If more and more spiritual knowledge is now spread on earth, and if the human being experiences more and more of this general love of mankind within himself, the following possibility will arise for future humanity before the descent into earthly life. Man will be able to say to himself: I have prepared this body; but by sending this body down to earth and taking my karma into my etheric body, which I have contracted, I see that this karma lies in such a way that I have seriously harmed this or that other person through what I have accomplished in previous earth lives.
We are always exposed to the danger of harming other people through what we accomplish. The judgment of what we have done to another person will shine particularly brightly at this moment when we are still in the etheric body, when we have not yet occupied the physical body. But that is also where the light of Michael and the love of Christ will work in the future. And we are put in a position to bring about a change in our decision to hand over the body we have prepared to another and to take over ourselves the body that has been prepared by the one we have particularly damaged. This is the tremendous transition that is taking place from our time into the future with regard to the spiritual life of human beings.
We will be able to enter a body that has had to be prepared by a person whom we have particularly harmed; and the other will be able to enter our prepared body. And as a result, what we will be able to accomplish on earth will be able to balance itself out karmically in a completely different way than usual. As human beings, we will be able to exchange our physical bodies, so to speak.
The earth could never reach its goal if this did not happen; otherwise humanity would never be able to become a whole on earth. And this must happen! There must come a time for the earth's development in preparation for future planetary conditions on earth when it is impossible for the individual to enjoy anything on earth at the expense of the other. Just as the individual leaf or the individual petal of the plant feels itself to be a member of the whole plant and experiences the suffering and joy of the whole plant - figuratively speaking - so a future must come over the earth in which the individual does not want to have happiness at the expense of the whole, in which he feels himself to be a member of the whole of humanity. But this has its spiritual equivalent in that we learn to prepare the physical body for others.
So we emerge as human beings from a time in which, so to speak, everyone had a continuation in relation to the physical body; we enter a time, which is brought about by the Michael reign, where we also work on the physical spirit germs of the human bodies in such a way that we can work one for the other. And in the course of the earth incarnations this will come about in such a way that through this mutual work in the spiritual we will prepare a still later, coming time - if one expresses its essence it will be a complete paradox, but it is nevertheless so - when men can also on earth enter with their souls into those bodies which they have particularly damaged, and can take over the soul into their body. This will happen when the earth itself has passed into other states. But what I have told you today as an actuality that will occur through the Michael rule in the spiritual world will be the preparation for this.
You can really see the nature of ideal magic from this example. If you allow the enlightenment that comes from spiritual science to work on you here on earth, you are promoting the Michael rule. You promote those forces which bring about that people can live for each other to the degree that they first make the decision about what they want to take over as a physical body, according to what is then best for the whole of humanity. Then you decide by choosing the physical body. By preparing this on earth through human wisdom and human love, you accomplish something that has reality in the spiritual world. This is real ideal magic. This is what in older times was called true white magic. It is that which humanity must enter into.
And so I wanted to draw your attention to this important moment that has entered the developmental path of humanity at the present time. We must not shrink back despondently when it comes to revealing facts of the spiritual world which play into human life. For the future of mankind depends on man learning to live with the spiritual world just as he lives here on earth with the physical world. And only by becoming at home again in the spiritual world as humanity, as primitive mankind was, by correctly understanding the words of Christ: “My kingdom is not of this world”, will we promote the future of humanity. Then you will understand Christ's words in the right sense: “My kingdom is not of this world.” But he has just descended to earth; he has just united himself with humanity. Didn't he actually want to say: My kingdom is of this world? - He did not say it for the reason that he wanted to gradually make the earth into a kingdom that would not be absorbed in the earthly, that would gradually enter into a spiritual state. His kingdom is not as it was up to the Mystery of Golgotha and as it then continued, so to speak through perseverance, also afterwards. His kingdom is such that the spirit will reign here on earth. And this will be the case if humanity understands Michael's rule in the right way. But this will only be understood in the right way when spiritual enlightenment and Christian love of mankind are sought, as I have indicated.