Man as Symphony of the Creative Word
Part Three. The Plant-World and the Elemental Nature-Spirits
GA 230
4 November 1923, Dornach
The World-Word is not some combination of syllables gathered from here or there, but the World-Word is the harmony of what sounds forth from countless beings.
Lecture IX
We only learn to know the beings of the sense-world when we observe them in the way they live and act, and it is the same with those beings about which I have been speaking and shall continue to speak in these lectures, the elemental beings of nature. Invisibly and super-sensibly present behind what is physical and sense-perceptible, they participate in all the happenings of the world just as, or rather in a higher sense than do the physical, sense-perceptible beings.
Now you will readily be able to imagine that to these beings the world appears somewhat other than to the beings of the sense-world, for they do not possess a physical body such as is possessed by these latter. Everything which they grasp or perceive in the world must be different from what enters the human eye. This is indeed the case. The human being experiences the earth, for instance, as the cosmic body upon which he moves about. He even finds it slightly unpleasant when through some atmospheric condition or other, as occasionally occurs, this cosmic body becomes softened and he sinks into it even in a slight degree. He likes to feel the earth as something hard, as something into which he does not sink.
This whole way of experiencing things, this whole attitude towards the earth, is, however, completely alien to the gnomes; they sink down everywhere, because for them the whole earth-body is primarily a hollow space through which they can pass. They can penetrate everywhere; the rocks, the metals, present no hindrance to their—shall I say swimming around. There are no words in our language which really express this wandering about of the gnomes inside the body of the earth. It is just that they have an inner experience, an inner perception, of the different ingredients of the earth; when they wander along a vein of metal they have a different experience from when they take their way along a layer of chalk. All this, however, the gnomes feel inwardly, for through all such things they penetrate unhindered. They have not the least idea that the earth exists. Their idea is that there is a space within which they perceive certain experiences; the experience of gold, the experience of mercury, of tin, of silica, and so on. This is to express it in human language, not in the language of the gnomes. Their language is far more perceptive; and it is just because their whole life is spent in journeying along all the veins and seams—ever and again journeying along them—that they acquire the very pronounced intellectuality about which I have spoken to you. Through this they acquire their all-comprehensive knowledge, for in the metals and in the earth everything outside in the universe is revealed to them; as though in a mirror they experience everything which is outside in the universe. But for the earth itself the gnomes have no perception, only for its different constituents, and for the different kinds of inner experience which they offer.
Because of this the gnomes have a quite particular gift for receiving the impressions which come from the moon. It is towards the moon that they continually direct their attentive listening, and in this respect they are—I cannot say the born—it is so difficult to find the appropriate words—but the inherent neurasthenics. Of course, what for us is an illness is for these gnome-beings their actual life-element. For them this is no illness; it is simply a matter of course. It is what gives them that inner sensibility towards all those things of which I have spoken. But it also gives them their inner sensitivity towards the phenomena connected with the phases of the moon.
They follow the changes in the moon-phenomena with such close attention—I have already described their power of attention to you—that it actually alters their form. When, therefore, one follows the existence of a gnome, one receives quite a different impression at full moon from that one receives at new moon, and again at the intermediate phases.
At full moon the gnomes are ill at ease. Physical moonlight does not suit them, and at that time they thrust the whole feeling of their being outwards. They circumscribe themselves, as it were, with a spiritual skin. At full moon they press the feeling of their existence towards the boundary of their body. And in full moonlight, if one has imaginative perception for such things, they really appear like little shining, mail-clad knights. They are clad in a kind of spiritual armour and this it is which presses outwards in their skin to arm them against the moonlight which so displeases them. But when the time of new moon approaches the gnome becomes transparent, wonderful to see, inwardly irradiated with a glittering play of colours. One sees within him, as it were, the processes of a whole world. It is as though one were to look into the human brain, not as an anatomist investigating the fabric of the cells, but as one who perceives inside the brain the shimmering and sparkling of the thoughts. That is how these transparent little folk, the gnomes, appear to one, its though the play of thoughts is revealed within them. It is just at new moon that the gnomes are so particularly interesting, for each of them bears a whole world within himself; and one can say that within this world there actually lies the mystery of the moon.
If one unveils it, this moon-mystery, one comes upon truly remarkable discoveries, for one reaches the conclusion that at the present time the moon is continually approaching nearer—naturally you must not take this in a crude way, as though the moon would collide with the earth—but each year it does in fact come somewhat nearer. Each year the moon is actually nearer the earth. One recognises this from the ever more vigorous play of the moon-forces in the gnome-world during the time of the new moon. And to this coming nearer of the moon the attentiveness of these goblins is quite specially directed; for it is in producing results from the way in which the moon affects them that they see their chief mission in the universe. They await with intense expectation the epoch when the moon will again unite with the earth; and they assemble all their forces in order to be armed in readiness for the epoch when the moon will have united with the earth, for they will then use the moon substance gradually to disperse the earth, as far as its outer substance is concerned, into the universe. Its substance must pass away.
Because they hold this task in view these kobolds or gnomes feel themselves to be of quite special importance, for they gather together the most varied experiences from the whole of earth-existence, and they hold themselves in readiness, when all earthly substance will have been dispersed into the universe,—after the transition to the Jupiter-evolution—to preserve what is good in the structure of the earth in order to incorporate this in Jupiter as a kind of bony support.
You see, when one looks at this process from the aspect of the gnomes, one gains a first stimulus, a first capacity, to picture how our earth would appear if all the water were taken away from it. Just consider how, in the western hemisphere, everything is orientated from north to south, and how, in the eastern hemisphere, everything is orientated from east to west. Thus, if you were to do away with all the water, you would get in America, with its mountains and what lies under the sea, something which proceeds from north to south; and looking at Europe you would correspondingly find that, in the eastern hemisphere, the chain of the Alps, the Carpathians and so on, runs in the east-west direction. You would get something like the structure of the cross in the earth.

When one gains insight into this, one receives the impression that this is really the united gnome-world of the old Moon. The predecessors of our Earth-gnomes, the Moon-gnomes, gathered together their Moon-experiences and from them fashioned this structure, this firm structure of the solid fabric of the Earth, so that our solid Earth-structure actually arose from the experiences of the gnomes of the old Moon.
These are the things which reveal themselves in regard to the gnome-world. Through them the gnomes acquire an interesting, an extraordinarily interesting relationship to the whole evolution of the universe. They always carry over the firm element of a preceding stage into the stage which follows. They are the preservers in evolution of the continuity of the firm structure, and thus they preserve the firm structure from one world-body to another. It belongs to the most interesting of studies to approach the super-sensible world from the aspect of these spiritual beings and to observe their special task, for it is through this that one first gains an impression of how every kind of being existing in the world shares in the task of working upon the whole formation of the world.
Now let us pass over from the gnomes to the undines, the water-beings. Here a very remarkable picture presents itself. These beings have not the need for life that human beings have, neither have they the need for life that the animals have even though instinctively, but one could almost say that the undines, as also the sylphs, have rather a need for death. In a cosmic way they are really like the flying creature which casts itself into the flame. They only feel their life to be truly theirs when they die. This is extraordinarily interesting. Here on the physical earth everything desires to live, for all that has life-force in it is prized. It is the living, sprouting life that is valued. But once we have crossed the threshold, all these beings say to us that it is death which is really the true beginning of life. This can be felt by these beings. Let us take the undines. You know, perhaps, that sailors who travel a great deal on the sea find that in July, August and September—further to the west this is already the case in June—the Baltic Sea makes a peculiar impression, and they say that the sea is beginning to blossom. It becomes, as it were, productive; but it produces just those things which decay in the sea. The process of decay in the sea makes itself felt; it imparts to the sea a peculiar putrefactive smell.
All this, however, is different for the undines. It causes them no unpleasant sensations; but when the millions and millions of water-creatures which perish in the sea enter into the state of decomposition the sea becomes for the undines the most wonderful phosphorescent play of colours. It shines and glitters with every possible colour. Especially does the sea glitter for them, inwardly and outwardly, in every shade of blue, violet and green. The whole process of decomposition in the sea becomes a glimmering and gleaming of the darker colours up to the green. But these colours are realities for the undines, and one can see how, in this play of colours in the sea, they absorb the colours into themselves. They draw these colours into their own bodily nature. They become like them, they themselves become phosphorescent. And as they absorb the play of colours, as they themselves become phosphorescent, there arises in the undines something like a longing, an immense longing to rise upwards, to soar upwards. Upwards they soar, led by this longing, and with this longing they offer themselves to the beings of the higher hierarchies—to the angels, archangels and so on—as earthly sustenance; and in this sacrifice they find their bliss. Then within the higher hierarchies they live on further.
And thus we see the remarkable fact that each year with the return of early spring these beings evolve upwards from unfathomable depths. There they take part in the life of the earth by working on the plant-kingdom in the way I have described. Then, however, they pour themselves, as it were, into the water, and take up by means of their own bodily nature the phosphorescence of the water, the element of decomposition, and bear it upwards with an intensity of longing. Then in a vast, in a magnificent cosmic picture, one sees how, emanating from earthly water, the colours which are carried upwards by the undines and which have spiritual substantiality, provide the higher hierarchies with their sustenance, how the earth becomes the source of nourishment in that the very essence of the undines' longing is to let themselves be consumed by the higher beings. There they live on further; there they enter into their eternity. Thus every year there is a continual upstreaming of these undines, whose inner nature is formed out of the earthly sphere, and who radiate upwards, filled with the longing to offer themselves as nourishment to the higher beings.
And now let us proceed to the sylphs. In the course of the year we find the dying birds. I described to you how these dying birds possess spiritualized substance, and how they desire to give this spiritualized substance over to the higher worlds in order to release it from the earth. But here an intermediary is needed. And these intermediaries are the sylphs. It is a fact that through the dying bird-world the air is continually being filled with astrality. This astrality is of a lower order, but it is nevertheless astrality; it is astral substance. In this astrality flutter—or hover might be a better word—in this astrality hover the sylphs. They take up what comes from the dying bird-world, and carry it, again with a feeling of longing, up into the heights, only desiring to be inhaled by the beings of the higher hierarchies. They offer themselves as that which supplies breathing-existence to the higher hierarchies. Again a magnificent spectacle. With the dying bird-world, this astral, inwardly radiant substance is seen to pass over into the air. The sylphs flash like blue lightning through the air, and into their blue lightning, which assumes first greener, then redder tones, they absorb this astrality which comes from the bird-world, and dart upwards like upward-flashing lightning. And if one follows this beyond the boundaries of space, it becomes what is inhaled by the beings of the higher hierarchies.
Thus one can say: The gnomes carry one world over into another in regard to its structure. They progress, as it were in a direction—the expression is only used as a comparison—which is horizontal with evolution. The other beings—the undines, the sylphs—carry upwards what they experience as bliss in yielding themselves up to death, in being consumed, in being inhaled. There they continue to live within the higher hierarchies; within them they experience their eternity.
And when we pass over to the fire-beings, only think how the dust on the butterfly's wings seems to dissolve into nothing with the death of the butterfly. But it does not really dissolve into nothing. What is shed as dust from the butterfly's wings is the most highly spiritualized matter. And all this passes over like microscopic comets into the warmth-ether which surrounds the earth, each single particle of dust passes like a microscopic comet into the warmth-ether of the earth. When in the course of the year the butterfly-world approaches its end, all this becomes glittering and shimmering, an inner glittering and shimmering. And into this glittering and shimmering the fire-beings pour themselves; they absorb it. There it continues to glitter and shimmer, and they, too, get a feeling of longing. They bear what they have thus absorbed up into the heights. And now one sees—I have already described this to you from another aspect—how what the fire-beings carry outwards from the butterfly's wings shines forth into world-space. But it does not only shine forth; it streams forth. And it is this which provides the particular view of the earth, which is perceived by the higher hierarchies. The beings of the higher hierarchies gaze upon the earth, and what they principally see is this butterfly-and-insect-existence which has been carried outwards by the fire-beings; and the fire-beings find their highest ecstasy in the realization that it is they who present themselves before the spiritual eyes of the higher hierarchies. They find their highest bliss in being beheld by the gaze, by the spiritual eyes, of the higher hierarchies, in being absorbed into them. They strive upwards towards these beings and carry to them the knowledge of the earth.
Thus we see how these elemental beings are the intermediaries between the earth and the spirit-cosmos. We see this drama of the phosphorescent uprising of the undines, which pass away in the sea of light and flame of the higher hierarchies as their sustenance; we see the up-flashing of the greenish-reddish lightning, which is in-breathed there where the earth continually passes over into the eternal, the eternal survival of the fire-beings, whose activity never ceases. For whereas, here on earth, it is particularly at a certain time of the year that butterflies die, the fire-beings see to it that what it is their task to look to is poured out into the universe throughout the entire year. Thus the earth is as though cloaked in a mantle of fire. Seen from outside the earth appears fiery. But everything is brought about by beings who see the things of the earth quite differently from how man sees them. As already mentioned, man's experience of the earth is of a hard substance upon which he walks about and stands. For the gnomes it is a transparent globe, a hollow body. For the undines water is something in which they perceive the phosphorizing process, which they can take into themselves and feel as their life-element. Sylphs see in the astrality of the air, which emanates from dying birds, that which makes their lightning flashes more vivid than they would otherwise be, for in itself the lightning of these sylphs is dull and bluish. And then again the disintegration of butterfly existence is something which continually envelops the earth as though with a sheath of fire. When this is beheld it is as though the earth were surrounded by a wonderful fiery painting; and, on the other side, when one looks upwards from the earth, one beholds these lightning flashes, these phosphorescent and evanescent undines. All this makes us say: Here on earth the elemental nature-spirits live and weave; they strive upwards and pass away in the fire-mantle of the earth. In reality, however, they do not pass away, but there they find their eternal existence by passing over into the beings of the higher hierarchies.
All this, however, which at first appears like a wonderful world-picture is the expression of what happens on earth, for initially it is all played out upon the earth. We human beings are always present in what is there taking place; and the fact is—even if in his ordinary consciousness man is at first incapable of grasping what surrounds him—that every night we are involved in the weaving and working of these beings, that we ourselves take part as ego and as astral body in what these beings are carrying out.
But it is the gnomes especially which really find it quite an entertainment to observe a person who is asleep, not the physical body in bed, but the person who is outside his physical body in his astral body and ego, for what the gnome sees is someone who thinks in the spirit but does not know it. He does not know that his thoughts live in the spiritual. And again for the undines it is inexplicable that man knows himself so little; likewise with the sylphs, and likewise with the fire-beings.
On the physical plane, you see, it is certainly often unpleasant to have gnats and the like buzzing around one at night. But the spiritual man, the ego and astral body—at night these are surrounded and woven about by elemental beings; and this being surrounded and woven about is a constant admonition to man to give an impetus to his consciousness in order to know more about the world.
Now, therefore, I can try to give you an idea of what these beings—gnomes, undines, sylphs and fire-beings—mean with their buzzing about, of what happens when we begin to hear what amuses them in us, and of what they would have us do when they admonish us to give a forward impetus to our consciousness. Yes, you see, here come the gnomes and speak somewhat as follows:
You dream your self,
And shun awakening.
The gnomes know that man possesses his ego as though in a dream, that he must first awaken in order to arrive at his true ego. They see this quite clearly, and call to him in his sleep:
You dream your self
—they mean during the day—
And shun awakening.
Then there sounds forth from the undines:
You think the deeds of angels
Man does not know that his thoughts are really with the angels
You think the deeds of Angels
And know it not.
And from the sylphs there sounds to sleeping man:
Creative Might shines to you,
You divine it not.
You feel its strength
—the strength of Creative Might—
And live it not.
Such approximately are the words of the sylphs, the words of the undines, the words of the gnomes.
The words of the fire-beings:
Divine Will offers you strength,
You accept it not.
With its strength you will,
—with the strength of Divine Will—
Yet thrust it from you.
The aim of all these admonitions is to give man a forward impetus in regard to his consciousness. These beings, which do not enter into physical existence, wish man to make a move onward with his consciousness, so that he, too, may participate in their world.
And when one has thus entered into what these beings have to say to man, one also gradually understands how they give expression to their own nature, somewhat in this way:
The gnomes:
I maintain the life-force in the root,
It creates for me my body's form.
The undines:
I bestir the water's power of growth,
It forms for me substance of life.
The sylphs:
I quaff the airy force of life,
It fills me with the power of being.
And the fire-beings—there it is very difficult to find any kind of earthly words for what they do, because their sphere is far removed from earthly life and earthly activity.
Fire-beings:
I consume1Here Rudolf Steiner coins a word from verdauen, to digest: däuen—ich däue, to express, not ordinary digestion, but a fiery consuming process. the striving power of fire,
Into soul-spirit it releases me.
You see, I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to give you an idea of how these beings of the elemental kingdom characterize themselves; and of the admonitions which they impart to man. But they are not so unfriendly to man as only to suggest to him what is negative in its nature, but pithy and positive sayings also proceed from them. And man experiences these sayings as being of immense, of gigantic import. In such matters as these you must acquire a sense for whether a saying is uttered merely in human words, however beautiful they may be, or whether it sounds forth as though cosmically from the whole mighty chorus of the gnomes. It is the whole manner of its arising which brings about the difference. And when man hearkens to the gnomes after the admonitions which I have written down have been imparted to him, then there sounds towards him from the massed chorus of the gnomes:
Strive to awaken.
Here the significance is the mighty moral impression created by such words when they stream through the universe, arising from the massed chorus of infinitely many single voices.
And from the undine chorus resounds:
Think in the spirit.
With the chorus of sylphs things are not so simple. When the gnomes appear like shining armoured knights in full moonlight there resounds from them as though from earth-depths:
Strive to awaken.
When the undines soar upwards filled with the longing to be consumed, then in this upsoaring there sounds back to the earth:
Think in the Spirit.
But for the sylphs, in that, up above, they allow themselves to be inhaled, disappearing in bluish-reddish-greenish lightning into the world-light, then, as they flash into the light and therein disappear, from the heights there sounds down from them:
Live creatively breathing existence.
And as in fiery anger—but anger which is not felt to be annihilating, but rather as something which man must receive from the cosmos—as in fiery but at the same time enthusiastic anger, the fire-beings carry what is theirs into the fire-mantle of the earth, their words resound. Here the sound is not like that of single voices massed together, but from the whole circumference there resounds as with a mighty voice of thunder:
Receive in love the Will-Force of the Gods.
Naturally, one can turn one's attention away from all this; then one does not perceive it. Whether or no man does perceive such things depends upon his own free decision. But when man does perceive them he knows that they are an integral part of cosmic existence, that something actually occurs in that gnomes, undines, sylphs and fire-beings unfold their evolution in the way described. And the gnomes are not only present for man in the way I have already portrayed, but they are there to let their world-words sound forth from the earth, the undines to let their world-words soar upwards, the sylphs theirs from above, the fire-beings theirs like a chorus, like the massing of a mighty uplifting of voices.
Yes, this is how it could appear when transposed into words. But these words belong to the Word of worlds, and even though we do not hear them with ordinary consciousness, these words are yet not without significance for mankind. For the primeval idea which had its source in instinctive clairvoyance, that the world was born out of the Word, is indeed a profound truth, but the world-word is not some collection of syllables gathered from here or there; the world-word is what sounds forth from countless, countless beings. Countless, countless beings have something to say in the totality of the world, and the world-word sounds forth from the concordance of these countless beings. It is not the general abstract truth that the world is born out of the Word that can bring this to us in its fullness. One thing alone can do this, namely that we gradually arrive at a concrete understanding of how the world-word in all its different nuances is composed of the voices of individual beings, so that these different nuances contribute their sound, their utterance, to the great world-harmony, the mighty world-melody, in the Word's act of creation.
When the gnome-chorus allows its “Strive to awaken” to sound forth, this—only transformed into gnome-language—is the force which is active in bringing about the human bony system, the system of movement in general.
When the undines utter “Think in the spirit”, they utter—transposed into the undine-sphere—what pours itself as world-word into man in order to give form to the organs of digestion.
When the sylphs, as they are breathed in, allow their “Live creatively breathing existence” to stream downwards, there penetrates into man, weaving and pulsating through him, the force which endows him with the organs of the rhythmic system.
And if one attends to what sounds inwardly—in the manner of the fire-beings—from the fire-mantle of the world, then one finds that this sounding manifests as image or reflection. It streams in from the fire-mantle—this sounding force of the word. And every nerve system of every man, every head I would add, is a miniature image of what-translated into the language of the fire-beings—rings out as: “Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods”. This saying, “Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods”, this is what is active in the highest substance of the world. And when man is experiencing his development in the life between death and a new birth, this it is which transforms what he brought with him through the gate of death into what will later become the human organs of the nerves and senses. So we have:
System of movement
Chorus of gnomes: Strive to awaken
Metabolic organization
Undines: Think in the Spirit
Rhythmic system
Sylphs: Live creatively breathing existence.
Nerve-senses system
Fire-beings: Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods.
Thus you see that what lies beyond the threshold is akin to our own nature, you see how it leads us into the creative divine forces, into what lives and works in all forms of existence. And when one calls to mind what an earlier epoch divined, and is expressed in the words:
The power of life, the seeds behold;
Turn thee away from words' cramped mould.2Goethe: Faust, Part I, Scene I.
—one is impelled to say that all this must become actuality in the further course of the development of mankind. We cramp all knowledge into words if we have no insight into the germinating forces which build up the human being in the most varied ways.
We can therefore say that the system of movement, the metabolic system, the rhythmic system, the system of nerves and senses merge into a unity in that they resound in harmony. For there sounds upwards from below: “Strive to awaken”; “Think in the Spirit”—and from above downwards, mingling with the upward-striving words, “Live creatively breathing existence”; “Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods”.
This “Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods” is the calm creative element in the head. Then what strives from below upwards in “Think in the Spirit”, from above downwards in “Live creatively breathing existence”, in their combined activity is what so works and weaves that it creates an image of the way in which human breathing passes over in a rhythmical way into the activity of the blood. And what implants into us the instruments of the senses, this is what streams from above downwards in “Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods”. But what works in our walking, in our standing, in our moving of the arms and hands, everything in fact which brings man into the manifestation of his element of will, this sounds forth in “Strive to awaken”.
Thus you see how man is a symphony of that world-word which can be interpreted on its lowest level in the way I have presented it to you. Then this world-word ascends to the higher hierarchies, whose task it is to unfold other aspects of this world-word in order that the cosmos may arise and develop. But that which has, as it were, been uttered as a call into the world by these elemental beings is the final reverberation of that creative, upbuilding, form-giving world-word which lies at the base of all activity and all existence.
Gnomes:
You dream your Self,
And shun awakening.I maintain the life-force in the root,
It creates for me my body's form.Undines:
You think the deeds of Angels
And know it not.I bestir the water's power of growth,
It forms for me substance of life.Sylphs:
Creative might shines to you,
You divine it not;
You feel its strength
And live it not.I quaff the airy force of life,
It fills me with the power of being.Fire-beings:
Divine Will offers you strength,
You accept it not.
With its strength you will,
Yet thrust it off from you.I consume the striving power of fire,
Into soul-spirit it releases me.
Chorus of gnomes: Strive to awaken!
Undines: Think in the Spirit!
Sylphs: Live creatively breathing existence!
Fire-beings: Receive in love the Will-Power of the Gods!
GNOMEN
Du träumst dich selbst,
Und meidest das Erwachen.Ich halte die Wurzelwesenkraft,
Sie schaffet mir den Formenleib.UNDINEN
Du denkst die Engelwerke
Und weisst es nicht.Ich bewege die Wasserwachtumskraft,
Sie bildet mir den Lebensstoff.SYLPHEN
Dir leuchtet die Schöpfermacht,
Du ahnst es nicht;
Du fühlest ihre Kraft
Und lebst sie nicht.Ich schlürfe die luft'ge Lebekraft,
Sie füllet mich mit Seinsgewalt.FEUERWESEN
Dir krafter Götterwille,
Du empfangst ihn nicht.
Du willst mit seiner Kraft,
Und stosset ihn von dir.Ich däue die Feuer strebekraft,
Sie erlöst mich in Seelengeistigkeit.GNOMENCHOR: Erstrebe zu wachen
UNDINEN: Denke in Geiste
SYLPHEN: Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein
FEUERWESEN: Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft.


Neunter Vortrag
Wie man ja die Wesen der Sinnenwelt nur kennenlernt, wenn man sie beobachtet in ihrem Leben und Treiben, so ist das auch bei denjenigen Wesen der Fall, von denen ich in diesen Vorträgen jetzt zu Ihnen gesprochen habe und spreche, bei den Naturelementarwesenheiten, die unsichtbar, übersinnlich hinter dem Sinnlich-Physischen sich befinden und an dem ganzen Geschehen in der Welt ebenso beteiligt sind, oder eigentlich in einem höheren Sinne beteiligt sind als die sinnlich-physischen Wesen.
Nun können Sie sich ja denken, daß die Welt für diese Wesenheiten etwas anders aussehen wird als für die Wesenheiten der sinnlichen Welt, denn Sie haben ja gesehen: einen physischen Leib, so wie die Wesen der Sinneswelt, haben diese Wesenheiten nicht. Alles, was sie in der Welt auffassen, in der Welt wahrnehmen, muß anders sein als dasjenige, was etwa in Menschenaugen dringt. Und so ist es auch. Der Mensch empfindet zum Beispiel die Erde als den Weltenkörper, auf dem er herumgeht. Er empfindet es schon als eine kleine Unannehmlichkeit, wenn dieser Weltenkörper, wie es zuweilen der Fall ist, durch allerlei Vorgänge der Atmosphäre aufgeweicht wird und der Mensch nur ein ganz klein wenig hineinsinkt. Er möchte diesen Erdboden als hart empfinden, als etwas, in das er nicht hineinsinkt.
Diese ganze Empfindungsart, diese ganze Stellung zur Erde, die ist zum Beispiel bei den Gnomen ganz und gar nicht vorhanden; die sinken überall, denn für sie ist der ganze Erdenkörper zunächst wie ein durchgänglicher Hohlraum. Sie können überall hinein; für sie sind nicht Gesteine, für sie sind nicht Metalle irgend etwas, das sie hindert, mit ihrer Wesenheit, ja, soll ich sagen, herumzugehen, soll ich sagen, herumzuschwimmen? Es gibt in unserer Sprache nicht Worte, die das Wandeln dieser Gnomen innerhalb des Erdenkörpers ausdrücken. Nur daß sie eine innerliche Empfindung, ein innerliches Erlebnis haben von den verschiedenen Ingredienzien der Erde; sie fühlen anders, wenn sie einer Metallader entlang wandern, als wenn sie einer Kalkschichte entlang ihren Weg nehmen. Das alles aber fühlen die Gnomen auf innerliche Art; sie dringen durch alles das durch. Sie haben eigentlich gar nicht einmal die Vorstellung davon, daß es die Erde gibt; sie haben die Vorstellung, daß es einen Raum gibt, in dem sie verschiedene Empfindungen erleben: Goldempfindungen, Merkurempfindungen, Zinnempfindungen, Kieselempfindungen und so weiter. Das ist in der Menschensprache gesprochen, nicht in der Sprache der Gnomen. Die ist viel anschaulicher; und sie bekommen gerade dadurch, daß sie eigentlich ihr Leben lang alle Adern, alle Schichten ablaufen, immer wieder und wiederum ablaufen, diese ausgeprägte Intellektualität, von der ich Ihnen gesprochen habe. Sie bekommen dadurch ihr umfassendes Wissen, denn ihnen enthüllt sich im Metall und in der Erde alles das, was draußen im Weltenall ist; wie in einem Spiegel empfinden sie alles das, was draußen im Weltenall ist. Aber für die Erde selbst haben die Gnomen gar keine Anschauung, eben nur für ihre verschiedenen Ingredienzien, verschiedenen Arten des inneren Erlebens.
Dafür sind aber diese Gnomen ganz besonders begabt für die Eindrücke, die vom Monde herkommen. Der Mond ist ihnen dasjenige, worauf sie fortwährend aufmerksam lauschen. In dieser Beziehung sind sie - die geborenen, kann ich nicht sagen, es ist eben so schwer, die Worte dafür zu finden - sozusagen die gewordenen Neurastheniker. Nicht wahr, was bei uns eine Krankheit ist, das ist für diese Gnomenwesen eigentlich ihr Lebenselement. Das ist bei ihnen keine Krankheit, das ist bei ihnen eine Selbstverständlichkeit. Das gibt ihnen jene innere Empfänglichkeit für alles das, wovon ich Ihnen gesprochen habe. Es gibt ihnen aber auch die innerliche Empfänglichkeit für die Umwandlungen der Mondenerscheinungen. Diese Umwandlung der Mondenerscheinungen verfolgen sie mit einer solchen Aufmerksamkeit, daß dieses innerliche Aufmerken - ich habe Ihnen ja ihre Aufmerksamkeitskraft geschildert - selbst ihre Gestalt verändert. So daß man in der Tat, wenn man das Gnomendasein verfolgt, einen ganz anderen Eindruck hat bei Vollmond und einen ganz anderen Eindruck hat bei Neumond und wiederum bei den dazwischenliegenden Mondesphasen.
Bei Vollmond, da wird es den Gnomen unbehaglich. Das physische Mondenlicht paßt ihnen nicht, und da drängen sie nach außen ihr ganzes Seinsgefühl. Sie umspannen sich gewissermaßen mit einer geistigen Haut, sie drängen ihr Seinsgefühl an den Umfang ihres Leibes, wenn Vollmond ist. Und sie erscheinen einem dann, wenn man für solche Dinge imaginatives Anschauen hat, ich möchte sagen wie strahlende, gepanzerte kleine Ritter bei Vollmondschein. Da tragen sie etwas wie einen geistigen Panzer um sich, und das ist dasjenige, was in ihrer Haut nach außen drängt, um abzuwehren das Mondenlicht, das ihnen unangenehm ist. Nähert sich aber der Mond dem Neumond, dann wird der Gnom geradezu durchsichtig, wunderbar; man sieht in ihm strahlende, glitzernde Farbenspiele. Man sieht, wie eine ganze Welt in ihm vorgeht. Es ist so, wie wenn man, ich möchte sagen, in das menschliche Gehirn hineinschauen würde, aber nicht nur wie ein Anatom, der da Zellengewebe sucht, sondern wie einer, der da die Gedanken drinnen schillern und glitzern sieht: so erscheinen einem wie durchsichtige Männlein diese Gnomen, in denen drinnen das Gedankenspiel erscheint. Gerade bei Neumond sind diese Gnomen außerordentlich interessant, weil sie jeder eine ganze Welt in sich tragen, und man kann sagen: In dieser Welt drinnen ruht eigentlich das Mondengeheimnis.
Enthüllt man es, dieses Mondengeheimnis, dann kommt man auf sehr merkwürdige Ergebnisse; dann kommt man darauf, sich zu sagen, daß der Mond gegenwärtig in einer fortwährenden Annäherung ist natürlich müssen Sie sich das nicht grobklotzig vorstellen, als ob er da der Erde zulaufen würde -, aber er kommt eigentlich jedes Jahr etwas näher. Und eigentlich ist der Mond jedes Jahr der Erde etwas näher. Das erkennt man an dem immer lebendiger werdenden Spiel der Mondenkräfte während des Neumondes in der Gnomenwelt. Und auf dieses Näherkommen sind auch diese Wichtelmänner ganz besonders aufmerksam; denn aus dem, was an ihnen der Mond tut, Ergebnisse zu ziehen, darin sehen sie eigentlich ihre Hauptmission im Weltenall. Sie warten mit einer großen Spannung den Zeitpunkt ab, wo sich der Mond wiederum mit der Erde vereinigen wird, und sie sammeln alle ihre Kräfte, um für diesen Zeitpunkt, wenn sich der Mond mit der Erde vereinigt hat, gerüstet zu sein, denn dann werden sie die Mondensubstanz dazu benützen, um die Erde allmählich im Weltenall ihrer ganzen Substanz nach zu zerstreuen. Die Substanz muß fort.
Aber indem sie sich diese Aufgabe stellen, fühlen sich diese Kobolde, Gnomen ganz besonders wichtig, denn sie sammeln ja die verschiedensten Erfahrungen im ganzen Erdendasein, und sie bereiten sich vor, wenn nun die ganze Erdensubstanz im Weltenall zerstreut wird, nach dem Jupiter sich hinüberentwickelt, dann in der Struktur der Erde zu bewahren, was in dieser Struktur das Gute ist, und das dann wie eine Art Knochengerüste dem Jupiter einzuverleiben.
Sehen Sie, wenn man diesen Vorgang den Gnomen abschaut, dann bekommt man erst eine Anregung dazu, nun einmal sich vorzustellen — und man kann das dann -, wie unsere Erde ausschauen würde, wenn man von ihr alles Wasser wegnehmen würde. Denken Sie nur einmal, wie auf der westlichen Halbkugel alles von Norden nach Süden, auf der östlichen Halbkugel alles von Osten nach Westen orientiert ist. Wie also, wenn Sie das Wasser wegtun würden, Sie Amerika mit seinen Gebirgen und mit dem, was unter dem Meere ist, bekommen würden als etwas, was von Norden nach Süden verläuft; und schauen Sie nach Europa hin, so würden Sie entsprechend dem Zug der Alpen, Karpathen und so weiter dasjenige bekommen, was in der östlichen Halbkugel in dieser Richtung ist. Sie würden etwas bekommen wie die Struktur des Kreuzes in der Erde.

Und durchdringt man dieses, dann bekommt man davon den Eindruck, daß das eigentlich die vereinigte Gnomenwelt des alten Mondes ist. So daß diejenigen, die die Vorfahren unserer Erdengnomen sind, die Mondengnomen, die Mondenerfahrungen gesammelt haben und diese Struktur, diese feste Struktur des festen Erdgewebes, des festen Erdgebildes aus ihrer Erfahrung heraus gebildet haben, so daß wir eigentlich unsere feste Erdengestalt haben aus den Erfahrungen der alten Mondengnomen.
Das sind die Dinge, die sich da ergeben in bezug auf die Gnomenwelt. Dadurch bekommen die Gnomen eine interessante, außerordentlich interessante Beziehung zu der ganzen Evolution des Weltenalls. Sie tragen gewissermaßen immer das Feste aus dem Früheren in das Feste des Späteren hinüber. Sie sind die Bewahrer der Kontinuität der festen Struktur in der Entwickelung. So von einem Weltenkörper zu dem anderen bewahren sie die feste Struktur. Es gehört zu dem Interessantesten, an diese geistigen Wesenheiten einer übersinnlichen Welt heranzutreten und ihre besondere Aufgabe zu studieren; denn dadurch bekommt man erst den Eindruck, wie alles, was an Wesen in der Welt vorhanden ist, mitarbeitet an der ganzen Gestaltung der Welt.
Nun gehen wir wiederum von den Gnomen zu den Undinen, zu den Wasserwesen. Da bietet sich einem eigentlich eine sehr merkwürdige Vorstellung. Diese Wesenheiten haben nicht dieses Lebensbedürfnis, das die Menschen haben, auch nicht das Lebensbedürfnis, das die Tiere haben, wenn auch instinktiv, sondern man könnte fast sagen: die Undinen, auch die Sylphen, sie haben eher ein Todesbedürfnis. Sie sind wirklich auf eine kosmische Art so wie die Mücke, die sich in die Flamme stürzt. Sie haben das Gefühl, daß sie eigentlich erst recht ihr Leben haben, wenn sie sterben. Außerordentlich interessant ist es: Hier in der physischen Erde will alles leben, und man schätzt eigentlich alles, was Lebenskraft in sich hat; man schätzt gerade alles, was lebendiges Sprießen und Sprossen hat. Kommt man da hinüber, dann sagen einem alle diese Wesenheiten: das Sterben, das ist eigentlich erst der richtige Anfang des Lebens. Und das können diese Wesenheiten auch empfinden. Denn nehmen wir diese Undinen. Sie wissen ja vielleicht, daß, sagen wir Schiffer, die viel auf dem Meere fahren, finden, daß das Meer so einen eigentümlichen Eindruck macht, auf der Ostsee im Juli, August, September, weiter nach Westen hinüber schon im Juni, und daß diese Leute sagen: das Meer beginnt zu blühen. Es schlägt aus gewissermaßen; aber es schlägt aus von alledem, was im Meer verwest. Die Verwesung des Meeres macht sich da geltend; sie gibt dem Meere einen eigentümlichen fauligen Geruch.
Aber das ist alles anders für die Undinen. Die Undinen empfinden dabei nichts Unangenehmes, sondern wenn diese Millionen und Millionen von Wassertieren, die da verwesen im Meere, in die Zerstörung hineinkommen, dann wird das Meer für die Undinen ein in den wunderbarsten phosphoreszierenden Farbenspielen erglänzendes. Es glänzt und glitzert alles in allen möglichen Farben. Insbesondere in bläulichen, violettlichen, grünlichen Farben glitzert für sie das Meer innerlich und äußerlich. Das ganze Verwesen im Meere wird ein solches Glimmern und Glitzern in den dunkleren Farben bis zum Grün hin. Aber diese Farben sind Realitäten für die Undinen, und man sieht dann die Undinen, wie sie in diesem Farbenspiele des Meeres selber diese Farben in sich aufnehmen. Sie ziehen diese Farben in ihre eigene Leiblichkeit herein. Sie werden so, wie diese Farbenspiele sind; sie werden selber phosphoreszierend. Und indem sie diese Farbenspiele aufnehmen, indem sie selber Phosphoreszierend werden, entsteht in ihnen etwas wie eine Sehnsucht, wie eine ungeheure Sehnsucht, nach oben zu gehen, nach oben zu schweben. Diese Sehnsucht führt sie dazu, nach oben zu schweben, und sie bieten sich mit dieser Sehnsucht den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, den Angeloi, Archangeloi und so weiter als die Erdennahrung an; sie finden darin ihre Seligkeit. Sie leben dann in den höheren Hierarchien drinnen weiter.
So ist es merkwürdig, wie aus unergründlichen Tiefen herauf sich diese Wesenheiten, man möchte sagen, mit jedem Frühfrühling entwickeln. Sie machen da mit das Leben der Erde, indem sie in der Weise am Pflanzentum arbeiten, wie ich es beschrieben habe. Dann aber ergießen sie sich gewissermaßen in das Wasser, nehmen durch ihre eigene Leiblichkeit das Phosphoreszieren des Wassers, das Verwesende auf, tragen es in ungeheurer Sehnsucht hinauf, und man sieht in einem kolossalen, in einem grandiosen Weltenbilde, wie die aus dem Erdenwasser entstehenden, durch die Undinen getragenen Farben, die geistig-substantiell sind, den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien ihre Nahrung bieten, wie die Erde Nahrungsquelle wird für die höheren Hierarchien, indem die Sehnsucht der Undinen gerade darin besteht, sich von den höheren Wesen verzehren zu lassen. Da leben sie dann weiter, da gehen sie gewissermaßen in ihre Ewigkeit ein. So ist eigentlich in jedem Jahre ein fortwährendes Aufströmen von diesen Wesenheiten, deren Inneres aus der Erde heraus gebildet ist, und die aufstrahlen sehnsüchtig, um sich als Nahrung anzubieten den höheren Wesenheiten.
Und gehen wir zu den Sylphen. Wir finden ja im Laufe des Jahres die ersterbenden Vögel. Ich habe Ihnen dargestellt, wie diese ersterbenden Vögel ihre vergeistigte Substanz haben, wie sie diese vergeistigte Substanz übergeben wollen den höheren Welten, damit sie von der Erde hinaufkommt. Aber da bedarf es der Vermittler. Diese Vermittler sind die Sylphen. Es ist so, daß in der Tat durch die sterbende Vogelwelt sich die Luft fortwährend anfüllt mit Astralität, mit einer niedrigeren Astralität, aber mit Astralität eben, mit astralischer Substanz. In dieser astralischen Substanz, ich kann nicht sagen flattern, ich möchte sagen, wenn das Wort nicht häßlich klingen würde, verschweben, es verschweben die Sylphen. Sie nehmen auf, was aus der sterbenden Vogelwelt kommt, tragen es wiederum sehnsüchtig in die Höhe und wollen veratmet sein von den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Sie bieten sich als dasjenige an, was Atmungswesen der höheren Hierarchien ist. Wiederum ein grandioses Schauspiel! Indem man die Vogelwelt ersterben sieht, geht diese astralische, innerlich erglänzende Substanz in die Luft über. Die Sylphen zucken wie blaue Blitze durch die Luft, und in ihre blauen Blitze herein, zuerst ergrünend und dann errötend, nehmen sie auf diese Astralität, die von der Vogelwelt kommt, und huschen wie nach aufwärts zuckende Blitze hinauf. Verfolgt man das bis außerhalb des Raumes, so werden sie dasjenige, was veratmet wird von den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien.
So daß man sagen kann: die Gnomen tragen eine Welt in die andere hinüber ihrer Struktur nach. Sie gehen gewissermaßen — das ist aber nur vergleichsweise gesagt — horizontal mit der Evolution weiter. Die anderen Wesenheiten, die Undinen, die Sylphen tragen hinauf dasjenige, was sie als Seligkeit empfinden im eigenen Ersterben, im Genossenwerden, im Eratmetwerden. Da leben sie dann in den höheren Hierarchien weiter; darinnen empfinden sie ihre Ewigkeit.
Und wenn man übergeht zu den Feuerwesen, ja, meine lieben Freunde, denken Sie nur einmal, wie der Schmetterlingsstaub von den Schmetterlingsflügeln mit den absterbenden Schmetterlingen scheinbar in nichts zerfließt. Aber es ist nicht richtig, daß er in nichts zerfließt. Das, was da abstaubt von den Schmetterlingsflügeln, ist höchst vergeistigte Materie. Das alles fließt in den Wärmeäther, der die Erde umgibt, hinein wie winzige Kometen, jedes einzelne Stäubchen wie ein winziger Komet im Erdenwärmeäther. Alles wird, wenn die Schmetterlingswelt ihrem Ende zugeht im Jahreslauf, glitzernd und glimmend, innerliches Glitzern und Glimmen. Und in dieses Glitzern und Glimmen ergießen sich die Feuerwesen, sie nehmen es auf. Es glitzert und glimmert in ihnen weiter, und auch sie bekommen ihre Sehnsucht. Sie tragen das, was sie so aufgenommen haben, in die Höhe. Und man sieht - ich habe es Ihnen schon von einer anderen Seite geschildert -, wie nun das, was von den Schmetterlingsflügeln von den Feuerwesen nach außen getragen ist, in den Weltenraum hinausschimmert. Aber es schimmert nicht nur hinaus, es strömt hinaus, und es ist dasjenige, was den eigentlichen Anblick der Geister der höheren Hierarchien von der Erde ergibt. Die Geister der höheren Hierarchien schauen auf die Erde und sehen vorzugsweise von der Erde dieses von den Feuerwesen hinausgetragene Schmetterlings- und Insektenwesen, und die Feuerwesen finden ihre höchste Wollust darinnen, zu verspüren, wie sie es sind, die sich hinstellen vor die Geistesaugen der höheren Hierarchien. Sie finden es als ihre höchste Wollust, angeschaut zu werden, von den Blicken sozusagen, von den Geistblicken der höheren Hierarchien aufgenommen zu werden. Sie streben diesen höheren Hierarchien zu und führen ihnen das Wissen von der Erde zu.
So sehen Sie, wie diese Elementarwesen die Vermittler sind zwischen der Erde und dem Geistkosmos: dieses Schauspiel der hinaufphosphoreszierenden Undinen, die in dem Licht- und Flammenmeer der höheren Hierarchien als Nahrung verschwinden, die hinaufzuckenden grünlich-rötlichen Blitze der Sylphen, die eratmet werden, wo das Irdische fortwährend in das Ewige übergeht, das ewige Verbleiben der Feuerwesen, deren Tun von Dauer ist. Denn während sich hier auf Erden nur in einer gewissen Jahreszeit das Sterben der Vögel abspielt, sorgen diese Feuerwesen dafür, daß sich dasjenige, was von ihnen zu schauen ist, das ganze Jahr sozusagen hinaus ins Weltenall ergießt. So trägt die Erde eine Art von Feuermantel um sich. Von außen gesehen, erscheint sie als feurig. Aber das Ganze wird ja von Wesen bewirkt, welche ganz anders die Dinge der Erde sehen, als der Mensch sie sieht. Für den Menschen ist, wie gesagt, die Erde als harte Substanz zu verspüren, auf der er gehen und stehen kann. Für die Gnomen ist sie eine durchlässige Kugel, eine Hohlkugel. Für die Undinen ist das Wasser etwas, in dem sie das Phosphoreszieren wahrnehmen und in sich aufnehmen und erleben können. Für die Sylphen ist das Astralische der Luft, das aus der sterbenden Vogelwelt kommt, dasjenige, wovon sie mehr zuckende Blitze werden, als sie schon gewesen sind; sie sind sonst matte, bläuliche Blitze, die Sylphen. Und wiederum das Zugrundegehen des Schmetterlingswesens ist etwas, was sozusagen dauernd die Erde wie mit einer Feuerschale umgibt. Für die Anschauung ist das so, daß gewissermaßen die Erde von einem wunderbaren feurigen Gemälde umgeben ist, und an der einen Seite, wenn man von der Erde hinaufschaut, sind diese zuckenden Blitze, diese phosphoreszierenden und verschwindenden Undinen. All das ist so, als ob man sagen müßte: Hier auf Erden weben und leben diese Elementargeister; sie streben nach aufwärts und verschwinden im Feuermantel der Erde. Aber sie verschwinden eigentlich nicht in Wirklichkeit, sondern sie finden da ihr ewiges Dasein, indem sie in die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien übergehen.
Das alles, was man da zuletzt sieht wie ein wunderbares Weltengemälde, das aber der Ausdruck ist dessen, was auf Erden geschieht, das alles spielt sich zunächst in seinem Anfangsstadium auf der Erde ab. Wir Menschen sind immer darinnen in dem, was sich da abspielt, und es ist eigentlich so, wenn der Mensch auch zunächst mit seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein nicht fähig ist, diese Umgebung aufzufassen, daß man jede Nacht in dem Weben und Treiben dieser Wesenheiten drinnensteckt, selber Anteil nimmt als Ich und als astralischer Leib an dem, was diese Wesenheiten treiben.
Aber insbesondere den Gnomen ist es wirklich eine Art Amüsement, den Menschen schlafend zu beobachten; nicht den physischen Leib im Bette, sondern den Menschen, der außer dem physischen Leib ist als Ich und als astralischer Leib, und nun zu sehen: dieser Mensch, der denkt eigentlich im Geiste und weiß es nicht. Er weiß nicht, daß seine Gedanken im Geistigen leben. Und wiederum den Undinen ist unerklärlich, daß der Mensch so wenig sich selber kennt; den Sylphen ebenso; den Feuerwesen ebenso.
Sehen Sie, es ist auf dem physischen Plane oftmals unangenehm, umflattert zu werden in der Nacht von Schnaken und dergleichen. Aber der geistige Mensch, das Ich und der astralische Leib, die werden von diesen elementarischen Wesen in der Nacht umwoben und umlebt, und dieses Umwoben- und Umlebtwerden ist eigentlich eine fortwährende Mahnung, mit seinem Bewußtsein vorzurücken, so daß man mehr weiß von der Welt.
So daß ich nun versuchen kann, Ihnen einen Begriff zu geben von dem, wie diese Wesenheiten: Gnomen, Undinen, Sylphen, Feuerwesen etwa da schwirren, und wie es wird, wenn man anfängt zu hören, was sie eigentlich an einem amüsiert, und was sie von einem haben wollen, indem sie einen ermahnen, weiterzurücken mit seinem Bewußtsein. Ja, sehen Sie, da kommen die Gnomen, und die sagen etwa:
Du träumst dich selbst
Und meidest das Erwachen.
Die Gnomen wissen, daß der Mensch sein Ich eigentlich wie im Traume hat, daß er erst richtig aufwachen muß, um zu diesem wahren Ich zu kommen. Das sehen sie ganz klar ein. Sie rufen ihm zu im Schlafe:
Du träumst dich selbst
- sie meinen bei Tage —
Und meidest das Erwachen.
Dann tönt es durch von den Undinen:
Du denkst die Engelwerke...
Der Mensch weiß nicht, daß seine Gedanken bei den Engeln eigentlich sind,
Du denkst die Engelwerke
Und weißt es nicht.Und von den Sylphen, da tönt es an den schlafenden Menschen heran:
Dir leuchtet die Schöpfermacht,
Du ahnst es nicht;
Du fühlest ihre Kraft
— Schöpfermacht - Kraft
Und lebst sie nicht.
Das sind die Sylphenworte ungefähr, die Undinenworte, die Gnomenworte.
Die Worte der Feuerwesen:
Dir krafter Götterwille,
Du empfängst ihn nicht;
Du willst mit seiner Kraft
- mit der Kraft des Götterwillens —
Und stoßest ihn von dir.
All das ist die Ermahnung, daß man weiterrücken soll mit seinem Bewußtsein. Diese Wesenheiten, die nicht ins physische Dasein kommen, sie wollen, daß der Mensch mit seinem Bewußtsein weiterrückt, damit er auch Anteil haben könne an ihrer Welt.
Und hat man sich so hineingelebt in das, was sozusagen diese Wesenheiten den Menschen zu sagen haben, dann versteht man auch allmählich, wie sie ihr eigenes Wesen zum Ausdrucke bringen. Die Gnomen zum Beispiel etwa so:
Ich halte die Wurzelwesenskraft,
Sie schaffet mir den Formenleib.
Die Undinen:
Ich bewege die Wasserwachstumskraft,
Sie bildet mir den Lebensstoff.
Die Sylphen:
Ich schlürfe die luft’ge Lebekraft,
Sie füllet mich mit Seinsgewalt.
Und die Feuerwesen — da ist es sehr schwer, irgendein Erdenwort zu finden für das, was sie tun, denn sie stehen dem Erdenleben und Erdentreiben ferne. Daher bilde ich aus dem Worte «verdauen» her, aber damit es nicht anklingt an das Verdauen, es ist ein feurig Verzehren: ich däue. «Däuen» muß ein Verbum werden, denn nur so kann das, was hier geschieht, ausgedrückt werden:
Ich däue die Feuerstrebekraft,
Sie erlöst mich in Seelengeistigkeit.
Ich habe mich, so gut es eben geht, hier bemüht, Ihnen einen Begriff zu geben, wie sich diese Wesenheiten der Elementarreiche selber charakterisieren, und was sie zunächst als Mahnung an den Menschen herantragen. Aber sie sind nicht so unfreundlich, dem Menschen nur Negatives zuzuraunen, sondern es gehen von ihnen gewissermaßen Lapidarsätze aus. Diese Lapidarsätze empfindet man als etwas ungeheuer Gigantisches. Bei solchen Dingen müssen Sie sich schon eine Empfindung dafür aneignen, wie anders es ist, ob man bloß in menschlichen Worten, wenn auch noch so schön, einen Satz ausspricht, oder ob aus dem ganzen mächtigen Gnomenheer ein solcher Satz wie kosmisch ertönt. Die Art und Weise des Entstehens macht eben den Unterschied aus. Und wenn der Mensch auf die Gnomen lauscht, dann tönt ihm der Gnomenchor entgegen, nachdem er ihm die Mahnung, die ich aufgeschrieben habe, gegeben hat; dann tönt ihm der Gnomenchor entgegen:
Erstrebe zu wachen!
Es ist der mächtige moralische Eindruck, den solche, durch das Weltenall strömende, aus ungeheuer vielen Einzelstimmen sich zusammensetzende Worte zu bedeuten haben.
Der Undinenchor ertönt:
Denke im Geiste!
Der Sylphenchor - nun aber ist das nicht so einfach, denn gerade dann, wenn im Vollmondschein die Gnomen wie glänzende gepanzerte Ritter erscheinen, dann ertönt von ihnen her wie aus Erdentiefen heraus: «Erstrebe zu wachen!» Und wenn die Undinen verschweben nach oben, in Sehnsucht, verzehrt zu werden, dann tönt auf die Erde zurück im Aufwärtsschweben: «Denke im Geiste!» Von den Sylphen, indem sie oben sich eratmen lassen, wie im Weltenlichte als bläulich-rötlich-grünliche Blitze verschwindend, tönt dann, indem sie hineinzucken in das Licht und da drinnen verschwinden, von ihnen herunter aus den Höhen:
Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein!
Und wie, ich möchte sagen im feurigen Zorne, aber in einem Zorn, den man nicht als etwas Vernichtendes empfindet, sondern als etwas, was der Mensch haben muß vom Kosmos, wie aus feurigem, aber zugleich enthusiastischem Zorn tönt es, wenn die Feuerwesen das ihrige in den Feuermantel der Erde hineintragen. Da tönt es jetzt nicht wie aus Einzelstimmen zusammen, sondern wie eine mächtige Donnerstimme von dem ganzen Umkreis her:
Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft!
Natürlich kann man die Aufmerksamkeit ablenken von alledem, dann vernimmt man es nicht. Es hängt von des Menschen Willkür ab, ob er solche Dinge vernimmt oder nicht. Aber indem er sie vernimmt, weiß er, daß sie Ingredienzien sind des Weltendaseins, daß in der Tat etwas geschieht, indem sich in der geschilderten Weise Gnomen, Undinen, Sylphen, Feuerwesen entfalten. Und die Gnomen sind für den Menschen nicht nur in der Beziehung da, wie ich es schon geschildert habe, sondern sie sind da, um ihre Weltenworte von der Erde aus ertönen zu lassen, die Undinen ihre Weltenworte im Hinaufströmen, die Sylphen von oben, die Feuerwesen wie ein Chor, wie ein Zusammenfluß einer mächtigen Stimmentfaltung.
Ja, das ist so in Worte umgesetzt, wie es einem erscheinen könnte. Aber diese Worte gehören zum Weltenworte, und wenn wir es auch nicht hören mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein, so sind diese Worte doch nicht ohne Bedeutung für die Menschen. Denn die uralte Anschauung, die instinktivem Hellsehen entsprungen ist, daß die Welt aus dem Worte heraus gebildet ist, die ist eben eine tiefe Wahrheit. Aber das Weltenwort ist nicht irgendeine Silbenzusammensetzung aus wenigem, sondern das Weltenwort ist dasjenige, was aus unzähligen und unzähligen Wesen zusammentönt. Unzählige und unzählige Wesenheiten haben etwas zu sagen in der Weltentotalität, und das Weltenwort tönt aus diesen unzähligen Wesenheiten zusammen. Nicht die allgemein abstrakte Wahrheit, daß die Welt aus dem Worte geboren ist, kann uns das vollständig geben, sondern allein das kann es uns vollständig geben, wenn wir nach und nach konkret darauf kommen, wie aus den Stimmen der einzelnen Wesenheiten sich das Weltenwort in seinen verschiedenen Nuancen zusammensetzt, so daß diese verschiedenen Nuancen in die große Weltenharmonie und in die gewaltige Weltenmelodie hineintönen und reden, indem es schafft.
Indem der Gnomenchor sein «Erstrebe zu wachen» ertönen läßt, ist das nur in die Gnomensprache umgesetzt, was als Kraft wirkt, um das menschliche Knochensystem, überhaupt das Bewegungssystem, zustande zu bringen.
Und indem die Undinen «Denke im Geiste» rufen, rufen sie, ins Undinenhafte übersetzt, dasjenige, was als Weltenwort sich in den Menschen ergießt, um die Stoffwechselorgane zu gestalten.
Indem die Sylphen, indem sie eratmet werden, herunterströmen lassen ihr «Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein», durchdringt, durchbebt und durchwebt den Menschen die Kraft, die ihn mit den Organen des rhythmischen Systems begabt.
Und was auf Feuerwesenart vom Weltenfeuermantel hereintönt wie mit Donnerstimme, wenn man darauf aufmerksam ist, das ist dasjenige, was im Abglanze, im Abbilde erscheint - denken Sie sich, es strahlt ja herein vom Weltenfeuermantel! Da strahlt die Kraft dieses Wortes herein! Und jedes Nerven-Sinnessystem des Menschen, sozusagen jeder Menschenkopf ist das kleine, das miniaturhafte Abbild dessen, was da in die Feuerwesensprache übersetzt heißt: «Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft». Dieses Wort «Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft», das ist dasjenige, was in höchsten Weltsubstanzen wirkt, und was, wenn der Mensch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt seine Entwickelung durchmacht, umformt dasjenige, was er durch die Pforte des Todes hinausträgt, zu dem, was dann später die Nerven-Sinnesorgane des Menschen werden.
Bewegungssystem
Gnomenchor: Erstrebe zu wachen!
Stoffwechselorganisation
Undinen: Denke im Geiste!
Rhythmisches System
Sylphen: Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein!
Nerven-Sinnessystem
Feuerwesen: Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft!
So sehen Sie, wie das, was jenseits der Schwelle liegt, zu unserer Natur hinzugehört, wie das uns hineinführt in die schaffenden Götterkräfte, in das, was in allem anderen wirkt und lebt. Man möchte schon sagen, wenn man sich erinnert an all das, was ein anderes Zeitalter ersehnt hat, und was in den Worten liegt, daß ich
Schau alle Wirkenskraft und Samen
Und tu nicht mehr in Worten kramen, —
das muß sich im Fortgang der Menschheitsentwickelung, der Menschheitsentfaltung verwirklichen. Wir kramen sonst in allem Wissen in Worten, wenn wir nicht hineinschauen in die Samenkräfte, die den Menschen in der verschiedensten Weise aufbauen.
So daß wir sagen können: Bewegungssystem, Stoffwechselsystem, rhythmisches System, Nerven-Sinnessystem ist eine Einheit, die zusammenströmt, indem von unten herauf ertönt: «Erstrebe zu wachen»; «Denke im Geiste» - von oben herunter sich mit den aufstrebenden Worten vermischt das andere: «Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein»; «Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft».
Dieses «Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft», dasistdasim Haupte ruhig Schaffende. Namentlich das von unten hinaufstrebende «Denke im Geiste», von oben herunterströmende «Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein», ist dasjenige, was im Zusammenwirken so webt und lebt, daß es sich ein Abbild schafft in der Art und Weise, wie das menschliche Atmen in das menschliche Wirken im Blute übergeht, rhythmisch übergeht. Und was uns einpflanzt die Sinneswerkzeuge, das ist dasjenige, was von oben herunterströmt: «Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft.» Das aber, was wirkt in unserem Gehen, in unserem Stehen, in unserem Bewegen der Arme und Hände, dasjenige, was den Menschen überhaupt in die Auslebung seines Willensmäßigen bringt, das ertönt in dem «Erstrebe zu wachen».
So sehen Sie, wie der Mensch ein Zusammenklang jenes Weltenwortes ist, das auf seiner niedersten Stufe also, wie ich es Ihnen dargestellt habe, interpretiert werden kann. Dieses Weltenwort geht dann hinauf bis zu den höheren Hierarchien, die eben anderes noch als Weltenwort entfalten müssen, damit der Kosmos erstehe und entstehe. Aber dasjenige, was diese Elementarwesen sozusagen in die Welt hineingerufen haben, das ist der letzte Ausklang dessen, was das schaffende, bildende, gestaltende Weltenwort ist, das zugrunde liegt allem Wirken und allem Dasein.
Gnomen
Du träumst dich selbst
Und meidest das Erwachen.
Ich halte die Wurzelwesenskraft —
Sie schaffet mir den Formenleib
Undinen
Du denkst die Engelwerke
Und weißt es nicht.
Ich bewege die Wasserwachstumskraft
Sie bildet mir den Lebensstoff
Sylphen
Dir leuchtet die Schöpfermacht,
Du ahnst es nicht;
Du fühlest ihre Kraft
Und lebst sie nicht.
Ich schlürfe die luft’ge Lebekraft
Sie füllet mich mit Seinsgewalt
Feuerwesen
Dir kraftet Götterwille,
Du empfängst ihn nicht;
Du willst mit seiner Kraft
Und stoßest ihn von dir.
Ich däue die Feuerstrebekraft,
Sie erlöst mich in Seelengeistigkeit.
Gnomenchor:
Erstrebe zu wachen!
Undinen:
Denke im Geiste!
Sylphen:
Lebe schaffend atmendes Dasein!
Feuerwesen:
Empfange liebend Götterwillenskraft!


Ninth Lecture
Just as one only gets to know the beings of the sensory world when one observes them in their life and activity, so it is also the case with those beings of whom I have spoken to you in these lectures, with the natural elemental beings who are invisibly, supersensibly behind the sensory-physical and are just as involved in the whole happening in the world, or are actually involved in a higher sense than the sensory-physical beings.
Now you can imagine that the world will look somewhat different for these beings than for the beings of the sensory world, because you have seen: these beings do not have a physical body like the beings of the sensory world. Everything they perceive in the world must be different from that which enters human eyes. And so it is. Man, for example, perceives the earth as the body of the world on which he walks. He finds it a slight inconvenience when this worldly body is softened, as is sometimes the case, by all kinds of processes in the atmosphere and man sinks into it just a little. He would like to feel this earth as hard, as something into which he does not sink.
This whole way of feeling, this whole attitude towards the earth, is not at all present with the gnomes, for example; they sink everywhere, because for them the whole body of the earth is initially like a continuous hollow space. They can enter everywhere; for them rocks are not rocks, for them metals are not something that prevents them from walking around, shall I say, swimming around with their being? There are no words in our language to express the walking of these gnomes within the body of the earth. Only that they have an inner sensation, an inner experience of the various ingredients of the earth; they feel differently when they walk along a vein of metal than when they take their way along a layer of lime. But the gnomes feel all this in an inner way; they penetrate all this. They do not even have the idea that the earth exists; they have the idea that there is a space in which they experience various sensations: Gold sensations, Mercury sensations, Tin sensations, Pebble sensations and so on. This is spoken in human language, not in the language of the gnomes. It is much more descriptive; and it is precisely because they spend their whole lives running through all the veins, all the layers, again and again and again, that they acquire the pronounced intellectuality of which I have spoken to you. This gives them their comprehensive knowledge, for everything that is outside in the universe is revealed to them in the metal and in the earth; as in a mirror they perceive everything that is outside in the universe. But the gnomes have no perception of the earth itself, only of its various ingredients, various kinds of inner experience.
However, these gnomes are especially gifted for the impressions that come from the moon. The moon is what they constantly listen to attentively. In this respect they are - the born ones, I cannot say, it is just so difficult to find the words for it - the neurasthenics who have become so to speak. Not true, what is an illness for us is actually their life element for these gnome beings. It is not an illness for them, it is a matter of course for them. It gives them that inner receptivity for everything I have spoken to you about. But it also gives them the inner receptivity for the transformations of the lunar phenomena. They follow this transformation of the lunar phenomena with such attention that this inner attentiveness - I have described to you their power of attention - itself changes their form. So that, in fact, if one follows the gnome's existence, one has a completely different impression at full moon and a completely different impression at new moon and again at the intervening phases of the moon.
When the moon is full, the gnomes feel uncomfortable. The physical moonlight does not suit them, and they push their whole sense of being outwards. They cover themselves with a kind of spiritual skin, they push their sense of being to the circumference of their body when the moon is full. And then, if you have an imaginative vision for such things, they appear to you like radiant, armored little knights when the moon is full. They have something like a spiritual armor around them, and that is what pushes outwards in their skin to ward off the moonlight that is unpleasant to them. But when the moon approaches the new moon, the gnome becomes almost transparent, wonderful; you can see a radiant, glittering play of colors in it. You can see a whole world going on inside him. It is like looking into the human brain, I would say, but not just like an anatomist looking for cell tissue, but like someone who sees the thoughts shimmering and glittering inside: these gnomes appear to you like transparent little men, in whom the play of thoughts appears inside. These gnomes are particularly interesting at new moon because they each carry a whole world within them, and you can say that the secret of the moon actually lies within this world.
If you unveil it, this lunar secret, then you come to very strange results; then you come to the conclusion that the moon is currently in a continuous approach - of course you don't have to imagine it as if it were running towards the earth - but it actually gets a little closer every year. And the moon is actually a little closer to the earth every year. This can be seen in the increasingly lively interplay of lunar forces during the new moon in the gnome world. And these gnomes are also particularly attentive to this approach, because they see their main mission in the universe as being to draw results from what the moon does to them. They are eagerly awaiting the time when the moon will reunite with the earth, and they are gathering all their strength in order to be prepared for this time when the moon has united with the earth, for then they will use the lunar substance to gradually disperse the earth in the universe according to its entire substance. The substance must go.
But by setting themselves this task, these goblins, gnomes, feel particularly important, for they gather the most varied experiences in the whole of earth existence, and they prepare themselves, when the whole earth substance is now dispersed in the universe, to develop towards Jupiter, then to preserve in the structure of the earth what is good in this structure, and then to incorporate this into Jupiter like a kind of skeleton.
You see, if you copy this process from the gnomes, then you first get a stimulus to imagine - and you can then - what our earth would look like if you took all the water away from it. Just think about how everything is oriented from north to south in the western hemisphere and from east to west in the eastern hemisphere. So if you were to take away the water, you would get America with its mountains and what is under the sea as something that runs from north to south; and if you look towards Europe, you would get what is in the eastern hemisphere in this direction, corresponding to the course of the Alps, Carpathians and so on. You would get something like the structure of the cross in the earth.

And if you penetrate this, then you get the impression that this is actually the united gnome world of the old moon. So that those who are the ancestors of our earth gnomes, the moon gnomes, have gathered moon experiences and have formed this structure, this solid structure of the solid earth fabric, the solid earth structure out of their experience, so that we actually have our solid earth form from the experiences of the old moon gnomes.
These are the things that arise in relation to the gnome world. This gives the gnomes an interesting, extraordinarily interesting relationship to the whole evolution of the universe. They always carry over, so to speak, the solid from the earlier into the solid of the later. They are the preservers of the continuity of the solid structure in the development. Thus from one world body to another they preserve the solid structure. It is one of the most interesting things to approach these spiritual beings of a supersensible world and to study their special task; for only in this way does one get the impression of how all the beings present in the world contribute to the whole shaping of the world.
Now we move on again from the gnomes to the undines, to the water beings. Here we are actually presented with a very strange idea. These beings do not have the need for life that humans have, nor the need for life that animals have, albeit instinctively, but one could almost say that the undines, including the sylphs, have more of a need for death. They are really in a cosmic way like the mosquito that throws itself into the flame. They have the feeling that they really only have their lives when they die. It is extraordinarily interesting: Here in the physical earth everything wants to live, and one actually values everything that has life force in it; one values precisely everything that has living sprouts and shoots. When you come over there, all these beings tell you that dying is actually only the real beginning of life. And these beings can also feel that. Because let's take these undines. Perhaps you know that, say, sailors who sail a lot on the sea find that the sea makes such a peculiar impression, on the Baltic Sea in July, August, September, further west already in June, and that these people say: the sea begins to bloom. In a sense, it is blooming; but it is blooming from everything that is decaying in the sea. The decay of the sea makes itself felt there; it gives the sea a peculiar putrid odor.
But all this is different for the undines. The undines feel nothing unpleasant about it, but when these millions and millions of aquatic animals that are decaying in the sea enter the destruction, then the sea becomes a shining sea for the undines in the most wonderful phosphorescent play of colors. Everything shines and glitters in all kinds of colors. In particular, the sea glistens for them in bluish, violet and greenish colors, both internally and externally. All the decay in the sea becomes such a glimmering and glittering in the darker colors up to green. But these colors are realities for the undines, and one then sees the undines absorbing these colors themselves in this play of colors of the sea. They draw these colors into their own physicality. They become what these plays of color are; they themselves become phosphorescent. And by absorbing these plays of color, by becoming phosphorescent themselves, something like a longing arises in them, like a tremendous longing to go upwards, to float upwards. This longing leads them to float upwards, and with this longing they offer themselves to the beings of the higher hierarchies, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and so on, as the food of the earth; in this they find their bliss. They then continue to live within the higher hierarchies.
So it is strange how these beings, one might say, develop from unfathomable depths with every early spring. They contribute to the life of the earth by working on plant life in the way I have described. But then they pour themselves, as it were, into the water, absorb through their own corporeality the phosphorescence of the water, the decay, carry it upwards with tremendous longing, and one sees in a colossal, in a grandiose picture of the world, how the colors arising from the earth's water are carried by the undines, The colors carried by the undines, which are spiritual-substantial, offer nourishment to the beings of the higher hierarchies, how the earth becomes a source of nourishment for the higher hierarchies, in that the longing of the undines consists precisely in allowing themselves to be consumed by the higher beings. There they live on, there they enter their eternity, so to speak. Thus, in every year there is actually a continual influx of these beings, whose inner being is formed out of the earth, and which radiate longingly to offer themselves as nourishment to the higher beings.
And let us go to the sylphs. In the course of the year we find the first dying birds. I have shown you how these dying birds have their spiritualized substance, how they want to hand over this spiritualized substance to the higher worlds so that it can come up from the earth. But this requires mediators. These mediators are the sylphs. It is true that through the dying world of birds the air is continually filled with astrality, with a lower astrality, but with astrality, with astral substance. In this astral substance, I cannot say flutter, I would like to say, if the word did not sound ugly, hover, the sylphs hover. They take up what comes from the dying world of birds, carry it longingly upwards again and want to be breathed in by the beings of the higher hierarchies. They offer themselves as the breathing beings of the higher hierarchies. Again a magnificent spectacle! As one sees the world of birds die, this astral, inwardly shining substance passes into the air. The sylphs twitch like blue flashes through the air, and in their blue flashes, first greening and then blushing, they take up this astrality that comes from the bird world and dart upwards like upward twitching lightning. If one pursues this to outside of space, they become that which is breathed in by the beings of the higher hierarchies.
So that one can say: the gnomes carry one world over into the other according to their structure. They go on, so to speak - but this is only comparatively speaking - horizontally with evolution. The other beings, the undines, the sylphs, carry up that which they experience as bliss in their own dying, in becoming comrades, in being breathed upon. There they then live on in the higher hierarchies; therein they feel their eternity.
And when you move on to the fire beings, yes, my dear friends, just think how the butterfly dust from the butterfly wings seems to melt into nothing with the dying butterflies. But it is not true that it melts into nothing. That which dusts off the butterfly's wings is highly spiritualized matter. It all flows into the heat ether that surrounds the earth like tiny comets, each individual dust particle like a tiny comet in the earth's heat ether. As the butterfly world draws to a close in the course of the year, everything becomes glittering and glowing, an inner glitter and glow. And the fire beings pour themselves into this glitter and glow, they absorb it. It continues to glitter and glow within them, and they also get their longing. They carry what they have absorbed upwards. And you can see - I have already described it to you from another angle - how what is carried outwards from the butterfly wings by the fire beings now shimmers out into the universe. But it not only shimmers out, it streams out, and it is that which gives the actual sight of the spirits of the higher hierarchies from the earth. The spirits of the higher hierarchies look at the earth and preferably see from the earth these butterflies and insects carried out by the fire beings, and the fire beings find their highest pleasure in feeling how it is they who stand before the spiritual eyes of the higher hierarchies. They find it their highest desire to be looked at, to be taken in by the gazes, so to speak, by the spirit gazes of the higher hierarchies. They strive towards these higher hierarchies and bring them the knowledge of the earth.
So you see how these elemental beings are the mediators between the earth and the spirit cosmos: this spectacle of the upward phosphorescent undines, which disappear in the sea of light and flame of the higher hierarchies as nourishment, the upward twitching greenish-reddish flashes of the sylphs, which are breathed, where the earthly continually passes over into the eternal, the eternal remaining of the fire beings, whose activity is permanent. For while here on earth the death of the birds only takes place in a certain season, these fire beings ensure that what can be seen of them pours out into the universe throughout the year, so to speak. Thus the earth carries a kind of mantle of fire around it. Seen from the outside, it appears to be fiery. But the whole thing is brought about by beings who see the things of the earth quite differently from the way humans see them. For man, as I said, the earth is a hard substance on which he can walk and stand. For the gnomes, it is a permeable sphere, a hollow sphere. For the undines, water is something in which they can perceive, absorb and experience phosphorescence. For the sylphs, the astral aspect of the air, which comes from the dying world of birds, is that from which they become more twitching flashes than they have already been; otherwise they are dull, bluish flashes, the sylphs. And again, the death of the butterfly being is something that constantly surrounds the earth as if with a bowl of fire. For the viewer it is as if the earth is surrounded by a wonderful fiery painting, and on one side, when one looks up from the earth, there are these twitching flashes, these phosphorescent and disappearing undines. All this is as if one had to say: Here on earth these elemental spirits weave and live; they strive upwards and disappear into the earth's mantle of fire. But they do not actually disappear in reality, rather they find their eternal existence there by passing over into the entities of the higher hierarchies.
All that which one finally sees there like a wonderful world painting, but which is the expression of what happens on earth, all this first takes place in its initial stage on earth. We humans are always within what takes place there, and it is actually the case, even if the human being is initially not able to comprehend this environment with his ordinary consciousness, that every night we are immersed in the weaving and activity of these beings, taking part ourselves as ego and as astral body in what these beings are doing.
But especially for the gnomes it is really a kind of amusement to observe the human being asleep; not the physical body in bed, but the human being who is outside the physical body as ego and as astral body, and now to see: this human being actually thinks in the spirit and does not know it. He does not know that his thoughts live in the spiritual. And again it is inexplicable to the undines that man knows himself so little; to the sylphs likewise; to the fire beings likewise.
You see, it is often unpleasant on the physical plane to be fluttered around at night by gnats and the like. But the spiritual man, the ego and the astral body, are enveloped and surrounded by these elemental beings in the night, and this being enveloped and surrounded is actually a constant reminder to advance with one's consciousness so that one knows more about the world.
So that I can now try to give you an idea of how these beings: Gnomes, undines, sylphs, fire-beings buzz about there, and how it becomes when one begins to hear what actually amuses them about one, and what they want from one by admonishing one to advance further with one's consciousness. Yes, you see, here come the gnomes, and they say something like:
You are dreaming yourself
And avoid awakening.
The gnomes know that man actually has his self as if in a dream, that he must first really wake up in order to come to this true self. They realize this quite clearly. They call out to him in his sleep:
You are dreaming yourself
- they mean during the day -
And avoid waking up.
Then it sounds through from the undines:
You think the angelic works...
Man does not know that his thoughts are actually with the angels,
You think the angelic works
And do not know it.And from the sylphs it sounds to the sleeping man:
The creative power shines upon you,
You do not suspect it;
You feel its power
- creative power - power
And do not live it.
These are the sylph words approximately, the undine words, the gnome words.
The words of the fire beings:
You have the will of the gods,
You do not receive it;
You want with its power
- with the power of the will of the gods -
And push it away from you.
All this is the admonition that you should move on with your consciousness. These beings, who do not come into physical existence, want man to move on with his consciousness so that he can also have a share in their world.
And once you have lived into what these beings have to say to people, then you gradually understand how they express their own nature. The gnomes, for example, like this:
I hold the root being power,
It creates the body of forms for me.
The undines:
I move the water growth force,
It forms the substance of life for me.
The sylphs:
I sip the airy life force,
It fills me with the power of being.
And the fire beings - it is very difficult to find any earthly word for what they do, for they are far removed from earthly life and earthly activity. That is why I make it from the word “digest”, but so that it does not sound like digestion, it is a fiery consumption: I däue. “Däuen” must become a verb, because this is the only way to express what is happening here:
I däue the power of fire,
It redeems me in spirituality of soul.
I have tried as best I can here to give you an idea of how these beings of the elemental kingdoms characterize themselves and what they initially bring to man as a warning. But they are not so unkind as to whisper only negative things to the human being; instead, to a certain extent, lapidary sentences emanate from them. These lapidary sentences are perceived as something tremendously gigantic. With such things you must acquire a sense of how different it is whether a sentence is merely uttered in human words, no matter how beautiful, or whether such a sentence resounds cosmically from the whole mighty army of gnomes. It is the way in which it arises that makes the difference. And when man listens to the gnomes, then the gnome choir resounds towards him after he has given him the admonition that I have written down; then the gnome choir resounds towards him:
Strive to watch!
It is the powerful moral impression that such words, flowing through the universe and composed of an enormous number of individual voices, have to mean.
The Undine choir resounds:
Think in the spirit!
The sylph choir - but it is not so simple, because just when the gnomes appear like gleaming armored knights in the full moonlight, then the following can be heard from them as if from the depths of the earth: “Strive to watch!” And when the undines float upwards, longing to be consumed, then the following resounds back to earth as they float upwards: “Think in the spirit!” From the sylphs, as they let themselves breathe above, as if disappearing in the world light as bluish-reddish-greenish flashes, then sounds, as they twitch into the light and disappear inside, from them down from the heights:
Life creating breathing existence!
And how, I would like to say in fiery anger, but in an anger that is not felt as something destructive, but as something that man must have from the cosmos, as from fiery, but at the same time enthusiastic anger it sounds when the fire beings carry their own into the fire mantle of the earth. Now it does not resound as if from individual voices together, but like a mighty voice of thunder from the whole circumference:
Receive lovingly the will of the gods!
Of course, you can divert your attention from all this and then you won't hear it. It depends on man's will whether he hears such things or not. But by hearing them, he knows that they are ingredients of world existence, that something is indeed happening, in that gnomes, undines, sylphs, fire beings are unfolding in the way described. And the gnomes are not only there for man in the relationship, as I have already described, but they are there to let their world words resound from the earth, the undines their world words in the upward flow, the sylphs from above, the fire beings like a choir, like a confluence of a mighty voice unfolding.
Yes, this is as translated into words as it might seem. But these words belong to the world word, and even if we do not hear it with the ordinary consciousness, these words are not without meaning for men. For the ancient view, which arose from instinctive clairvoyance, that the world is formed out of the Word, is precisely a profound truth. But the word of the world is not just a combination of syllables from a few, but the word of the world is that which resounds from innumerable and innumerable beings. Innumerable and innumerable beings have something to say in the world totality, and the world word sounds together from these innumerable beings. It is not the general abstract truth that the world is born of the word that can give us this completely, but only that can give it to us completely when we gradually come to realize concretely how the world word is composed of the voices of the individual entities in its various nuances, so that these various nuances sound and speak into the great world harmony and into the mighty world melody by creating it.
When the gnome choir sounds its “strive to awake”, this is only translated into gnome language, which acts as a force to bring about the human bone system, the movement system in general.
And by calling out “Think in the spirit”, the undines call out, translated into undine-like language, that which pours into the human being as the word of the world in order to shape the metabolic organs.
Inasmuch as the sylphs, by being breathed, let their “life-creating breathing existence” flow down, the power that endows him with the organs of the rhythmic system permeates, animates and weaves through the human being.
And that which resounds in the manner of a being of fire from the mantle of world fire as with a voice of thunder, if one is attentive to it, is that which appears in the reflection, in the image - think of it, it radiates in from the mantle of world fire! The power of this word radiates in there! And every human nervous-sensory system, every human head, so to speak, is the small, the miniature image of that which is translated into the language of the fire beings: “Receive loving power of the will of the gods”. This word “Receive loving divine will power” is that which works in the highest world substances and which, when man undergoes his development between death and a new birth, transforms that which he carries out through the gate of death into that which later becomes the nerve-sense organs of man.
Movement system
Gnome choir: Strive to be awake!
Metabolic organization
Undines: Think in the spirit!
Rhythmic system
Sylphs: Live a creative, breathing existence!
Nerve-sense system
Fire beings: Receive loving divine will power!
So you see how that which lies beyond the threshold belongs to our nature, how it leads us into the creative powers of the gods, into that which works and lives in everything else. One would like to say, if one remembers all that another age has longed for, and what lies in the words that I
See all working power and seeds
And do no longer rummage in words, -
This must be realized in the progress of human development, the unfolding of humanity. Otherwise we rummage in all knowledge in words, if we do not look into the seed forces that build up man in the most diverse ways.
So that we can say: Movement system, metabolic system, rhythmic system, nerve-sense system is a unity that flows together by sounding from below: “Strive to awake”; “Think in the spirit” - from above downwards the other is mixed with the aspiring words: “Live creating breathing existence”; “Receive loving divine will power”.
This “Receive lovingly the power of the will of the gods” is that which is calmly creative in the head. In particular, the “thinking in the spirit” that strives upwards from below, the “living, creating, breathing existence” that flows down from above, is that which weaves and lives together in such a way that it creates an image for itself in the way in which human breathing merges, rhythmically merges, into human activity in the blood. And that which implants the instruments of the senses in us is that which flows down from above: “Receive loving divine will-power.” But that which works in our walking, in our standing, in our movement of arms and hands, that which brings man into the expression of his will in general, that sounds in the “strive to awake”.
So you see how the human being is a harmony of that world word which can be interpreted at its lowest level, as I have described it to you. This world-word then goes up to the higher hierarchies, which must unfold something else as a world-word in order for the cosmos to arise and come into being. But that which these elemental beings have called into the world, so to speak, is the final echo of that which is the creating, forming, shaping world word that underlies all activity and all existence.
Gnomes
You dream yourself
And avoid awakening.
I hold the root being power -
It creates the body of form for me
Undines
You think the angelic works
And do not know it.
I move the water growth power
She forms the substance of life for me
Sylphs
The creative power shines for you,
You have no idea;
You feel its power
And do not live it.
I sip the airy power of life
It fills me with the power of being
Fire beings
You have the will of the gods,
You do not receive it;
You want with its power
And push it away from you.
I love the power of fire,
It redeems me in soul spirituality.
Gnome choir:
Strive to watch!
Undines:
Think in the spirit!
Sylphs:
Live creating breathing existence!
Fire beings:
Receive loving power of the will of the gods!