Supersensible Man
GA 231
18 November 1923, The Hague
Lecture V
My dear Friends,
[ 1 ] We have tried, so far as is possible in a few short hours, to picture the journey of man through the super-sensible world. For that is the world in which man verily lives his life between death and a new birth. But in the physical world too, where man is living in his physical and etheric bodily nature,—here too his forces extend into the super-sensible world. In the physical world he feels his super-sensible existence more or less as a riddle; and unless he be able to find at least a partial solution to the riddle, his soul will not attain inner harmony, inner balance, inner security. Nay, more, his life will lack energy and vigour; and human love that is really worthy of the name will be beyond him.
[ 2 ] A study of man as he is on Earth presents an aspect in relation to his super-sensible being which can give us insight into the reason why the Divine-Spiritual worlds have sent him down to this world of the physical senses. It is, after all, in the physical world that appeal has to be made to man to interest himself in knowledge concerning the super-sensible world. We would have to deal quite differently with the riddles of the super-sensible world if we were going to speak of them to the dead, to those who are passing through their existence between death and a new birth. It will accordingly be well, in bringing our study to a certain conclusion to-day, to take the indications that have been given in the last few days concerning the mysteries of the super-sensible world, and let them light up again in our hearts in connection with the sojourn of man on Earth.
Let us think, to begin with, of man as he is here in earthly life,—of ourselves, that is. We have in the first place our senses. Our senses give us information of all that is around us; they are the occasion of our earthly joy and happiness and also of our earthly suffering and pain. We are apt to forget how very much sense impressions and sense experiences signify in life. Studies such as we have been pursuing in this course of lectures take us beyond the life of the senses into spiritual regions, and it might well seem that the tendency of Spiritual Science would be to lead to an undervaluing of the life of the senses, making us feel that it is, after all, of secondary importance and that we should flee from it even while we are still in earthly life. Such a feeling can never be the final outcome of Spiritual Science. It can only serve to bring home to us that there is an inferior way of taking the life of the senses incompatible with the dignity and nobility of human existence, but that it is possible for man to lose the life of the senses in its less worthy aspects, and find it again in its deeper meaning from a higher, super-sensible angle of vision. We would naturally shrink from studying things in their spiritual aspect if we were obliged to tell ourselves that all the loveliness and wonder of the world of nature which makes such a deep impression on our souls, all the beauty of plants, of the blossoming flowers, of the ripening fruits, all the majesty of the starry heavens, mean so little in human life that they must be regarded as beneath our notice in comparison with spiritual-scientific knowledge. This is not so at all. [ 3 ] If you look back to the impulses given by Initiates and Masters in different epochs for the enhancement of the dignity of human life, you will find that the words uttered by Initiates never undervalue the beauty, the splendour, the majesty of the earthly life of the senses. Wonderful, full of poetry and artistic imagination are often the words used by Initiates to express the most lofty super-sensible truths! Think only of the image of the lotus flower—to take one example among many—and you will realise that the Initiates have never considered it unworthy to speak of the development of spiritual life in imagery drawn from the world of the senses. They have invariably held that in the contemplation of the sense-world something is immediately present, or can at any rate be discovered, that leads man on to the highest.
[ 4 ] The sense-world, however, as man perceives it in ordinary consciousness, cannot in itself afford him satisfaction. And for this reason. The impressions that come to man through his eyes, ears and other senses, are indeed connected with his Ego, with its whole life and development, but they can do nothing to promote the inner stability of the Ego. There they cannot help man. We turn our gaze outward to the beauty and splendour of the flowers; we have before us a world of infinite variety. We turn our gaze inward, to our Ego; and for ordinary consciousness it seems, to begin with, as if this Ego is vanishing away from us. It seems to be just a point within us, a spiritual point, capable of saying little more than the mere word “I.” Nor can we wonder at this. We need only consider how man's senses have to be wholly surrendered to the world if they are to mediate between him and the world. The eye, in order that it may see, must renounce itself. It must be completely transparent if the splendour and beauty of the outer world of sense is to shine through it in all the lustre and radiance of colour. It is the same with the other senses. We really know nothing of our senses. Is there, then, any way by means of which we can begin to know and understand what they are in their real nature? There is indeed, but here again we must tread the path which leads to the super-sensible world. Knowledge even of the senses has to be sought in the super-sensible world.
[ 5 ] You are familiar with the descriptions I have given of the paths which lead to the higher worlds. Try to picture livingly the consciousness that can develop into Imaginative cognition. In a certain respect we withdraw from physical perception of the outer world when we enter into Imaginative cognition. But the most interesting thing of all that happens on this path is the following. I will describe it for you in a picture.
[ 6 ] When, in meditation—in accordance with the exercises given in the book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment—you draw near to the world of Imagination, when, that is, as a result of your strivings, your etheric being begins to emerge from your physical being and this first super-sensible member begins itself to possess a kind of consciousness, you can as it were, “catch” yourself at a stage that lies between ordinary sense-perception and Imaginative vision. You have not yet advanced to a fully developed Imaginative vision, but you are on the way to it. We will now suppose that a man who is already on the way to Imaginative vision goes into some high mountainous region that is particularly rich in primeval silicious rock. Forces of soul will be readily quickened in him where there is an abundance of quartz-containing silicious rock. Certain inner faculties of soul can, as it were, suddenly spring to development as a result of a vivid impression caused by silicious rock on high mountains. Ordinarily, this kind of rock is slightly transparent, slightly translucent. But when our faculties of soul have pressed forward to the stage of which I have spoken—at that moment silicious rock becomes wholly transparent. We climb up on to a high mountain, and behold, the silicious rock appears to us with the transparency of glass. We feel moreover that something is streaming out from our own being and uniting with it. Here, at the outermost surface of the Earth, by a kind of natural surrender of our consciousness we become one with the whole Earth's surface. It is as though our eyes were sending out rays that enter right into the silicious rock; and in that moment we begin to feel ourselves one with the whole Earth. When we have this experience, beginning at the same time to feel ourselves one with the whole World, with the Cosmos, then, if we are to attain, not to a dream, nor to any abstract thought, but to a first actual realisation of oneness with the Cosmos, we must carry the experience further. An inner consciousness can light up within us which I may perhaps express in the following words. “Thou, O Earth, art not alone in the World-All! Thou, O Earth, together with me and all the other beings upon thee, art verily one with the great World-All!” Living in this experience of oneness with the silicious rock, we no longer see the Earth separated from the rest of the Universe. We see the Earth as an ether-sphere, emerging from the sphere of the cosmic ether.
[ 7 ] This is a first feeling that can come over us. Many an ancient song, many an ancient myth, brimful of wonderful revelations, rings to us across the ages from a literature born in the time when mankind was possessed of instinctive clairvoyance. People read these songs and myths to-day, and like to persuade themselves that they are uplifted in heart and soul by what they read. But the truth contained therein eludes them. It is quite impossible to experience, or to have any insight into the real mood and feeling of the Bhagavad Gita, for example, or of other Indian and Oriental literature, without having at least begun to learn, through spiritual knowledge, in how real a sense man can become one with the Earth and thereby one with the Cosmos. Many a time the mood of such a song will have been born from a realisation of oneness with the Cosmos, a kind of “going in consciousness” with the light—even with the light that penetrates the hard silicious rock, so that now the light enfills and permeates it with the human soul itself, making this hard rocky substance into a cosmic eye through which man gazes out into the wide expanses of the Cosmos.
[ 8 ] It is indeed so, that when out of real knowledge we begin to describe super-sensible man, we find ourselves quite naturally turning away from abstract, theoretical expressions. We cannot help speaking a language in which the whole feeling-content of the human soul is united with the ideas. In all our study of super-sensible man we must realise in the depths of our hearts that knowledge of the super-sensible cannot be clothed in words without making will and feeling one with the thoughts and ideas, without letting our whole being pour into the words. Life has, we all know well, to be endured and much that life brings is hard to bear. But for one who is conscious of the deeply human quality of super-sensible knowledge, the thing that is hardest of all is to listen to this super-sensible knowledge being expressed in theories and abstractions. The pain that is caused him by hearing people speak of the super-sensible world in a theoretical manner, is just like the physical pain caused to a finger by putting it into a flame.
[ 9 ] When further progress has been made in super-sensible knowledge, when, through Imagination, we understand the working of the super-sensible forces in the human being during earthly life, then we can go on to attain the knowledge that belongs to Inspiration. Through Inspiration we can gaze into what man was before birth, before he descended to earthly existence, and also into what he will be when he has passed through the gate of death. We can look upon all that I have been describing to you in these lectures,—the journey through the different planetary regions, where the forming of the “physiognomy” takes place, and then the process of metamorphosis from an earlier to a later earthly life. At the stage of Inspiration we can follow the human being in his whole journey through the several starry worlds.
[ 10 ] Now this knowledge, by means of which we can penetrate to the depths of our inner being, receives a new quality, a new colouring when we realise that what has been described in connection with the life stretching between death and a new birth lives within us even during our life on this physical Earth. It is all there within man when he is on Earth—tiny and insignificant as he appears from a spatial point of view, standing there in his physical body, enclosed by his skin. Within him live all the splendours of the Cosmos, and we must not omit to tell of these when we are describing the true and essential being of man. Man belongs to the worlds of the stars and to yet higher worlds—the worlds of the Hierarchies. And in such measure as our knowledge is able to penetrate to what is thus living within us—this earthly heritage of what we were in our true being, between death and a new birth—we can at the same time do something more. [ 11 ] We can penetrate to the depths of our Earth planet, to the veins of the metals—lead ore, silver ore, copper ore—we can learn to perceive what lives in the rocks through the presence there of the metals and their ores. Seen with the eyes of sense, the metallic substances are little more than indications of different kinds of earth. But if we are able to gaze into the Earth with that spiritually sharpened perception which we owe to the super-sensible part of our being, the metallic substances in the Earth can give rise to wonderful experiences. The copper, silver and gold within the Earth begin to speak a language full of richness and mystery. Then something happens which brings us, men living on the Earth, into close kinship with the living soul of the Earth herself. The metallic ores tell us something; they become for us cosmic memories.
Think for a moment how it is with you when in quietude of soul—inwardly active quietude of soul—you let old memories rise up within you, memories which bear on their wings many an event of long ago. You feel as if you were living through past experiences, as if you were together again with many a one who has been dear to you in the course of your life, maybe with many a one long since gone hence. You are wafted right away from the present moment, you are living in the sorrows and joys of days gone by.
[ 12 ] An exactly similar experience arises—but on a majestic scale—when, imbued with a spirit-knowledge that is also felt, you become one with the veins of metal in the Earth. It is not now as it was with the silicious rock which carried you out with seeing eyes, out into the cosmic spaces; in this new experience it is as though you became one with the very body of the Earth. And as you listen inwardly to the wonderful story told by the metals, you say to yourself: “Now I am one with the inmost beat of the soul and heart of the Earth herself. I have memories which are not my own personal memories; memories of the Earth herself are sounding into my being,—memories of earlier times, of ages when she was not yet the Earth we know, when there were no animals, no plants upon her surface, least of all any minerals in the bosom of the Earth. I remember, together with the Earth, those ancient days when the Earth was one with the other planets of our planetary system. I remember ages when there was no separate Earth, because the Earth was not yet dense, not yet firm in herself as she is to-day. I remember the time when the whole planetary system was a living organism of soul, and human beings indwelt this living organism, in quite a different form.” Thus do the veins of the metals in the Earth lead us to the Earth's own memories.
[ 13 ] Now this experience leads us on to see quite clearly why it is that we have been sent down to the Earth by the Divine Beings who rule over the World-Order.
Living thus in the Earth's memories, we feel for the first time the true measure of our thinking. Having once taken hold in this way of the Earth's memories, we feel how our thinking is bound up with the Earth. And the moment we make the Earth's memories our own, we have around us the Beings of the Second Hierarchy, the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. This, then, is the way whereby we can have around us even in earthly life those Beings who, as we have heard, are round us again during a certain period of our life between death and a new birth. We know now with full conviction that we come in contact with these Beings of the Second Hierarchy while we are incarnated on Earth between birth and death. The task of these Beings is not only that of working together with us between death and rebirth at the metamorphosis of our being; they have also their part in the whole forming and shaping of the Cosmos. We are able now to see how these Beings of the Second Hierarchy are entrusted by the spiritual World-Order with the task of bringing about in the Earth what is wrought there by virtue of the metallic ores.
[ 14 ] Let us look back once more at the experience we had with the silicious rock. We were not then able to grasp the fact of which I am now going to speak, for at that stage it was not sufficiently clear. Only now at last does full clarity come from the marvellous experience of perceiving the Earth's memories in the veins of the metals. Having once reached this further stage, we can go back again and understand something which perhaps, to begin with, we did not understand. When our consciousness is borne out into the universe on the wings of the light that fills and pervades the silicious rock, the Beings of the Third Hierarchy—Angels, Archangels and Archai—are all around us. We know now that what the ordinary eyes of sense tell us when we go up a high mountain is not really true. Neither do our eyes tell us true when we descend into the deep places of the Earth and gaze upon the veins of the metals. On a high mountain, among the silicious rock, around and over the rocky peaks weave the Angels, Archangels and Archai; and when we go down into the Earth we find the Beings of the Second Hierarchy moving in the paths of the veins of the metals. Once again therefore we can say to ourselves that even during earthly life we are in the company of spiritual Beings who are connected with our own innermost being in the life which extends from death to a new birth.
[ 15 ] In our life after death we pass consciously, after a time, into the world of the Angels, Archangels and Archai. In the discarnate state we unfold a consciousness in which we know that these Beings of the Third Hierarchy are around us, just as on Earth the three or four kingdoms of Nature are around us. When, in this higher state of consciousness, we behold the Angels, Archangels and Archai, all that the senses on Earth can perceive has of course vanished, for our senses have been given over, with our body, to the elements. Between death and a new birth we can see nothing that the senses perceive in earthly life. But the Angels, Archangels and Archai tell us—I can use this expression, for it exactly accords with the reality—the Angels, Archangels and Archai relate to us the story of what they are doing down below on the Earth. They tell us that they are not only active in the life which we ourselves are now sharing with them. They whisper softly into our souls: “We take our share too in the creative work of the Cosmos, we are creative Beings in the Cosmos and we look deep down in the Earth and behold in what earthly forms the silicious rock and kindred substances are fashioned.” And then man realises, when he is among the Angels, Archangels and Archai, that he must come down again to Earth. He learns to know these Beings of the Third Hierarchy between death and a new birth, and he hears them speak in wonderful manner of their deeds upon the Earth. He knows then that he can only behold these their deeds, by descending to Earth, clothing himself in a physical, human body and partaking in the world of sense-perception.
The deepest mysteries of sense-perception—not only of perceptions connected with the silicious rock on high mountains, but the deepest mysteries of all sense-perception—are revealed to us in wonderful words by the Beings among whom we live between death and a new birth. The beauties of material Nature on Earth are so full of greatness and mystery that the memories we take with us through the gate of death are only seen in their full and true light when we hear the Angels, Archangels and Archai describing to us all that our eyes have been able to see, our ears to hear and our other senses to perceive down here in earthly life.
[ 16 ] Such is the connection between the physical and the super-physical; such too the connection of man's physical life with his superphysical life. The universe is full of splendour, and it is right that what we see in material existence should delight and uplift us. Its real mysteries we learn to know when we have passed through the gate of death. The more we have learned to rejoice in the physical world, the more deeply we have entered into all the joys which the sense-world has to bestow, the greater the measure of understanding we shall bring to the world of the Angels, who are waiting to tell us of these mysteries which here on Earth we do not yet understand and shall only learn to understand when we have passed over into the superphysical world. [ 17 ] The same is true of our relation to the Second Hierarchy, the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, among whom we also live for a certain period between death and a new birth. We can, on Earth, come into a special relation to these Beings when, following the path of the light into the veins of the metals in the Earth, we awaken within us the Earth's memories. But here again, only when we have come over yonder into the region of the Beings of the Second Hierarchy are we able to understand all the experiences we have had on Earth in connection with the metals.
[ 18 ] One of the most wonderful experiences man can have is to be able to investigate and prove the manifold connections that exist between the metals and the health of man, and I have good hope that the Anthroposophical Movement will do a great deal to open up the truly beautiful aspect of this field of knowledge. Every metal and every metal-compound has its relation to the health of man. As man goes through life, whether in health or disease, he is in connection all the time with that which gives to the Earth her memories—namely, the metals and their various compounds. We must get beyond mere theorising as to the healing influences of lead and lead compounds, of copper and copper compounds, and so forth. These substances are all extremely significant and important remedies, if we know how to prepare them in the right way, and we must not be satisfied with speaking in an abstract manner of the wonderful connections between the metals and the being of man. A feeling of holy awe does indeed even now arise within us when we contemplate the veins of metal in the depths of the Earth, but we must go a step further and develop also a deepened insight into the marvellous connection of the metals with the being of man—a connection which is revealed to us only when we have first studied the human being in health and in disease. [ 19 ] As I indicated, it is to be hoped that the Anthroposophical Movement will be able to spread this knowledge in the hearts and minds of men, for it is of the greatest importance. In times gone by it was not so important, because men knew instinctively the connections, for example, between the lead-process or the silver-process with some process in the human head. In days of yore these connections were spoken of a great deal. Nowadays people read what was written long ago without understanding a single word. Approaching it from the point of view of modern science, they talk of it as if it were nothing but empty abstractions. When through Anthroposophical knowledge man attains to the deepened feeling and insight which can come to him in contemplation of the wonderful connection between the metals of the Earth and the sickness and health of the human being, then indeed he will carry up into the spiritual world through the gate of death something that will help him to understand the speech of the Second Hierarchy. The greatest mysteries of the world will be able to reveal themselves to him, precisely because he has prepared himself in this way on Earth and brings with him the necessary understanding. For it is really so, my dear friends. We learn what Anthroposophy has to teach us not merely for the sake of satisfying human curiosity, but in order that the knowledge may bear fruit after we have passed through the gate of death. For only what we learn and receive through spiritual science can bring us into a right relation, between death and a new birth, to those Spiritual Beings whom we must needs contact with our whole being, since it is they who are then our cosmic environment.
[ 20 ] It is thus possible to give a detailed picture of how we come into relation with the Beings of the Hierarchies between death and a new birth. But there is still a further experience that can befall us as we pass through those regions, and it must now be described.
When we can grasp the connection between the metals in the Earth and the being of man in health and disease, secrets of Nature are revealing themselves to us. Within these secrets something more lies hid. We hear the Beings of the Second Hierarchy speaking of the nature of gold, silver, lead, copper and the other metals. But in our relation to the great spiritual world, it is with us now as it is here on Earth when we are beginning to learn to read and it dawns upon us that learning to read will enable us to fathom many a world-mystery which might otherwise remain for ever beyond our ken. I say this only by way of comparison, for the speech through which we learn to understand the Beings of the Second Hierarchy in a certain sphere of existence between death and a new birth—the speech which tells of the metals and their relation to man in health and disease—will only be true when, in the spiritual world, we can hear it, not as prose, but as cosmic poetry,—let me rather say, when we ourselves rise to the level of cosmic poetry. At first we listen in much the same way as someone with no appreciation of poetry may listen to the recitation of a poem. But just as we can, on Earth, learn—unless we are quite devoid of poetic feeling—to appreciate what is contained in the swing of the verse, in the rhythm, in the whole artistic form of the poem, so is it possible for us, after death, to rise from the prose to the poetry of that world beyond the Threshold, from the speech of the Second Hierarchy which tells us of the relation of the metals to man in health and disease, to a higher stage, where we understand the mysteries of moral existence in the Universe,—that moral life in which not only human souls but the divine souls of all the Beings of the Hierarchies are involved. We have come to a region where the mysteries of the life of soul begin to lie open before us.
[ 21 ] Then we can go a step further. I have described the experiences that can be ours when we go up a mountain, and again when we go down a deep mine. It was all still and quiet; we contemplated the crystals at rest on the ridges of rock, and the veins of the metals at rest in the bosom of the Earth. Now we can go further and contemplate something else that is usually only regarded from the prosaic aspect of utilitarian considerations. Such considerations are not to be despised; we must always have our feet planted firmly on the Earth if we want to penetrate into the spiritual world healthy in soul and body. But suppose we are looking at a metal that is passing, under the influence of intense heat, from the solid into the liquid condition. Then, if we can get beyond the utilitarian point of view, wonderful revelations will be vouchsafed to us. If we walk through foundries and watch how the iron becomes glowing and fluid in the furnaces, above all if we can watch metallic ores such as antimony ore being led over from the solid into the liquid and by and by into other conditions, then if we can receive deep into our soul the impression of this destiny of metallic substance in fire, an entirely new element will be born in the spiritual knowledge that has awakened within us; we shall receive a strong and profound impression of the mysteries of our own existence.
[ 22 ] Think of the human being in relation to the animal. (I have frequently spoken of this.) Anatomical comparisons, such as are made to-day, comparing the bones, muscles, and even the blood of man and animal reveal the existence of certain affinities. But the secret of what it is that places man higher than the animal cannot be discovered until we give attention to some facts that have more significance than is generally realised. The spine of the animal lies in the horizontal direction, parallel with the surface of the Earth, whereas man stands upright. The faculty of speech is denied to the animal, whereas man not only speaks, but from speech evolves thought. When we observe how the faculties of speaking and thinking begin to unfold in a little child and how its body rises into the upright position that it may have the right orientation for human life on Earth, we are then beholding the marvellous forces by means of which the child finds its bearings in the dynamics of the universe. And then we see how the forces of orientation living in the limbs of a little child express themselves also in the melody, in the articulation of speech. We see the human being building and forming himself in the sense world. We see the formative forces working calmly and quietly within him. [ 23 ] Wonderful it is beyond all telling to watch month by month how the little child gradually leaves off crawling and begins to stand upright, how his limbs and body orientate themselves to the dynamics of the universe! Then the faculties of speaking and thinking begin to emerge, as it were, from the bodily nature. There is no more beautiful sight than to watch a little child learning to walk, to speak and to think. But now if on the one hand we can contemplate this process in all its wonder and calm majesty, beholding it with mind at rest, sensitive to its surpassing beauty, and if on the other hand we are able to look with a higher power of vision at the metals melting in the fire, then we can perceive there, in its spirit form, the force by means of which the child can learn to walk and to speak. The archetype of this power is revealed to us when the flames lay hold of the metal, melt it and make it fluid. The more fluid, the more volatile the metal becomes, the more clearly are we able to perceive the inner resemblance between this process—which really constitutes the destiny of the metal—and the process which, smelted and volatilised in the fires of the Cosmos, enables the little child to walk, to speak and to think.
[ 24 ] We know now that the activity of the Beings of the First Hierarchy—the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones—is a two-fold activity. They speak to us out of that spiritual world into which we pass during the middle period of our life between death and a new birth, they reveal to us there the mysteries of planetary life; and they work down also into the visible world. Here, in the visible world, the influences of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are active in the little child as he learns to walk, to speak and to think, and we behold also their working wherever fire has part in the process of the Earth, wherever metals melt and are fused in fire. Our Earth has been built up by the smelting and fusing of metals in the cosmic fire. In the smelting of the metals by the cosmic fires, we see the deeds of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones within the earthly world. We gaze back into remote ages of the past when the metals, all aglow and incandescent through the power of fire, played an essential part in the coming-into-being of the Earth's body. The Thrones, above all, were active in this process, though with them worked always the Seraphim and Cherubim. The Cherubim it is who play the chief part in the unfolding of the child's faculties of walking, speaking and thinking. But everywhere the Beings of the First Hierarchy work and weave together in unison.
[ 25 ] With this kind of knowledge, death in earthly life is linked on to resurrection in the life beyond the Threshold. For when such knowledge reveals the kinship of the cosmic fires by which the metals are melted, with the powers that make man truly man, then the whole world becomes one and we realise that there is no difference between the earthly life that stretches from birth to death and life in the spiritual world beyond the Threshold. The life between death and a new birth is a metamorphosis of earthly life. By knowing how the one passes over into the other, we realise that the one is but a different form of the other. [ 26 ] When the soul is deepened by this knowledge, then an understanding of still other mysteries can be added. This further understanding can also be reached on quite another path.
[ 27 ] If you think about what I have told you of the connection of the melting and dissolving of metals in fire with the unfolding of the faculties of walking, speaking and thinking in the little child, if you place these pictures before your imagination, meditating upon them and deepening thereby your understanding, then a power will quicken and strengthen your soul and enable you to find the solution of a great riddle—the riddle of the working of karma, or human destiny. In between what happens when a child learns to walk, to speak and to think and what happens when metals become fluid and volatile under the influence of great heat,—amid all the sulphurous and phosphoric glow and gleam of colour in the burning metal, amid the working of the right and true transition from animal to man that takes place in the little child as he learns to walk, to speak and to think, karma stands revealed. There lies the way to a true understanding of karma. Karma is a super-sensible reality that works straight into the very deeds and actions of man's life.
Rising up therefore in this way in meditation, we learn to know the mysteries of destiny that weave through our life. On the one side we have the picture of the destiny of the metal in the fire, on the other side the picture of the essential and primordial destiny of man when he descends to Earth, expressed in the learning to walk, to speak and to think. Within these pictures man can find revealed as much of the riddle of destiny as he needs for his life.
[ 28 ] So it is, that for the riddle also of human destiny super-sensible man speaks into the world in which “sensible” man is living. Of this too I wanted to speak to you, for it belongs essentially in our study of super-sensible man. [ 29 ] Such a study can never be merely a matter of assimilating theories. In order to understand the being of man we must reach out on every hand to the mysteries of the universe—mysteries of Nature and mysteries of Spirit. For man is intimately and closely bound up with all the mysteries of the Natural as well as of the Spiritual Universe. Man is in truth a universe in miniature. Only it must not be imagined that what takes place out in the great expanses of the Cosmos takes place in exactly the same way in the microcosm. The majestic flames of cosmic fire that rise up from the molten metals stream out to the boundaries of cosmic space—for boundaries there are! Try, my dear friends, to picture to yourselves these cosmic fires in which the metals are being smelted and made volatile. What is thus made volatile streams out into cosmic space, to return once again in powers of light, radiations of warmth and light. And what thus returns from cosmic space enables the tiny child who cannot yet speak or walk but only crawl, to become a child who stands and walks. Upward and outward radiate the streaming forces from the molten metals, and when they have gone far enough out into the cosmos they turn and come back again and are then the forces which enable the child to stand upright. Here you have a picture of ascending and descending cosmic forces, as they work in the universe, and of their many metamorphoses and variations.
[ 30 ] You will now also be able to understand the true meaning of something which in days of yore was connected with the science of those times, namely, the priestly sacrifice. The sacrificial flame, together with what was burning in it, was sent forth into cosmic spaces to the Gods that it might come down again thence to work in the world of men. As he stood before the fire on the altar the priest would say: “To thee, O Flame, I commit what is mine on Earth, that the Gods may receive it when the smoke rises upward. May that which is borne upwards by the Flame be changed into divine Blessing and pour down again to Earth as creative and fructifying power!”
Thus, as we listen to the words of the priest of olden time, who is speaking of super-sensible worlds, we may hear how he too gives utterance to the cosmic mysteries in the midst of which man stands.
[ 31 ] This, my dear friends, is what I wanted to say to you about the super-sensible nature of man, anthroposophically perceived and understood. [ 1The remaining text was missing from the translation and has been appended here. All that remains for me to say, following on from what I have been able to say to you in this presence from the perspective of the spiritual worlds, following on from what has taken place for the founding of the Dutch Anthroposophical Society, is that it is my heartfelt wish and hope that something may now emanate from this conference which may ignite in your hearts and minds.
[ 32 ] If we are able to absorb anthroposophical knowledge not merely by reading or listening to it, but if through living anthroposophical contemplation we come more and more to experience the content of anthroposophy with our heart, our mind, then it will really be as if not only the sense of ideas penetrates our souls when we are together in the anthroposophical branches and practise anthroposophy with other people, or when we remain in a solitary closet; but then it is as if living world beings enter our souls. Then anthroposophy itself appears to us more and more as something living and essential. And we then become aware of something knocking at the door of our heart with anthroposophy and saying: Let me in, for I am you yourself; I am your true human essence!
[ 33 ] Anthroposophy not only wants to tell us about this true human essence, but anthroposophy wants to fill the human soul and the human mind with this true human essence. And you will best accomplish what you have set out to do today if you remember more often - be it on the way to the meeting, be it by picking up a book or starting something else that you believe should become fruitful in the anthroposophical movement - if you remember more often, how a true anthroposophical view of the world can give rise to the feeling and the sensation that anthroposophy actually knocks at our hearts in order to bring us our true human being, our real human being, to bring us - ourselves, and thus to bring into us that which in turn finds its way out in genuine human love for other human beings. Then, when we allow anthroposophy into our hearts after it has throbbed, then anthroposophy brings us true human love through what it is itself.
[ 34 ] Oh, in our present time it is very necessary that we consider the content of anthroposophy in this style. For look around you a little in the world: the time has come when humanity is being severely tested. Why is humanity being tested so severely? Yes, my dear friends, few look at what is taking place in the depths of historical world events, where the human consciousness of today no longer penetrates, but only the unconscious. Quite thoughtlessly and sleepily the greater part of mankind today actually lives along with the ordinary consciousness. But while we have this ordinary consciousness in our heads, our deeper consciousness, which takes hold of the heart, is just now historically for modern civilization passing through the threshold to the spiritual world. Up here (it is drawn on the blackboard) people live in their heads with all that they talk to each other today, especially with all that they lie to themselves about public circumstances, and down here the whole of humanity - without realizing it, as if someone were walking on a volcano - passes through the threshold. And beyond, man must either perish, or he must advance with good will to a knowledge of the supersensible world. Anthroposophy today is already connected with the actual progress of human civilization. But the misery that can be seen today within this civilization should be an invitation to approach a supersensible view of man and the world. But we can only do this if we have an open eye for everything that is going on in the world.

[ 35 ] And so consider today as the beginning of not just sitting together in your anthroposophical branches in order to isolate yourselves from the world, so to speak, but to look out into what is going on in life. Take the word I have used many times today [at the founding meeting of the Dutch National Anthroposophical Society] - which I have, so to speak, “trodden to death” - the word ‘worldly’, “worldly womanly” in all seriousness: try to grow together with the world! That will be the best, the most important “program”. You can't put that into statutes, but we should be able to put it into our hearts as a flame. It is not with program points that I can serve you best, but by directing you to the right feelings, the right sentiments that should accompany anthroposophical life. And if you are warmed a little by the stimulus to these right feelings, these right emotions, then some of what I actually wanted to achieve with the observations I made before you about the supersensible human being, as one can grasp him anthroposophically, will be fulfilled. And if you keep thinking that some of what you want programmatically in the Anthroposophical Society is not possible, it will always help if you think back to what was only hinted at in these few lectures about the supersensible human being. For it will always remind you of the importance of anthroposophy. And we can do nothing better for the spread of anthroposophy, for bringing it properly before the world, than to become more and more aware of the important impulse that anthroposophy should be for the further progress of our civilization.
[ 36 ] With this, my dear friends, I would like to conclude today and these lectures, and to bring to your hearts what I have actually wanted to let flow through the words I have just spoken to you in these days about the supersensible human being. If we keep such thoughts lively and warm in our hearts, then we will always be able to be together, even if we are physically separated. Then we will be able to let the occasions when we are together again be the starting points for a further spiritual reunion. Then such a physical togetherness will be the occasion for a real spiritual togetherness. May such a spiritual togetherness between us all become even stronger and stronger as a result of what we have been able to experience together during these days. ]
Fünfter Vortrag
[ 1 ] So gut es in wenigen Stunden hat sein können, wurde versucht, den Gang des Menschen ins Auge zu fassen, der durch die übersinnliche Welt führt. Die übersinnliche Welt ist ja diejenige, in welcher der Mensch verweilt unmittelbar, wenn er in dem Leben steht zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Die übersinnliche Welt ist es aber auch, in welche die Kräfte des Menschen - wenn auch für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein unbewußt - hineinreichen, wenn der Mensch hier auf Erden durch seine physische und ätherische Körperlichkeit innerhalb der physischen Welt verweilt. Wenn der Mensch innerhalb dieser physischen Welt verweilt, empfindet er sein übersinnliches Dasein mehr oder weniger wie ein ihm aufgegebenes Rätsel - ein Rätsel, ohne dessen wenigstens teilweise Lösung sein Gemüt nicht zur inneren Harmonie, nicht zum inneren Halt, zur inneren Sicherheit, aber auch nicht zur Lebenstüchtigkeit und zur wirklichen Menschenliebe kommen kann.
[ 2 ] Gerade wenn man nun den Menschen hier auf der Erde betrachtet, ergibt sich ein Aspekt gegenüber dem übersinnlichen Menschen, der diesen letzteren so beleuchtet, daß man aus dieser Beleuchtung wohl einsehen kann, warum gewissermaßen die göttlich-geistigen Welten den Menschen in diese physische Sinneswelt hinuntergeschickt haben. Es ist ja so, daß der Mensch zunächst angesprochen werden muß mit den Erkenntnissen von der übersinnlichen Welt hier in der sinnlich-physischen Welt. Es müßte ja ein ganz anderes Verhalten eintreten gegenüber den Rätseln der übersinnlichen Welt, wenn man sozusagen zu den Toten, zu den Menschen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt spräche. Gerade deshalb wird es wohl angemessen sein, wenn wir diese Betrachtung heute dadurch zur Abrundung bringen, daß wir in bezug auf den irdischen Aufenthalt des Menschen alles dasjenige noch einmal in unser Gemüt hereinleuchten lassen, was andeutungsweise an uns herangedrungen ist über die Geheimnisse der übersinnlichen Welt. sehen wir uns einmal den Menschen an, uns selbst, wie wir hier im Erdenleben stehen. Zunächst haben wir unsere Sinne - diese Sinne, die uns unterrichten von alledem, was im Erdenleben um uns herum ist, diese Sinne, die doch zunächst die Veranlasser sind von alledem, was unsere Erdenfreuden, unser Erdenglück, aber auch unser Erdenleid, unsere Erdenschmerzen verursacht. Wir Menschen bedenken ja nicht immer, was alles die Eindrücke, die Erlebnisse unserer Sinne für uns bedeuten. Und gerade solche Betrachtungen, wie wir sie in den letzten Tagen hier gepflogen haben, führen uns ja über das sinnliche Leben hinweg, führen uns in geistige Regionen. Und es könnte sehr leicht scheinen, als ob eine solche anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft den Menschen dazu führen würde, das Sinnesleben zu
[ 3 ] unterschätzen, ja geradezu zu sagen: Ach, dieses Sinnesleben ist doch so untergeordnet, es ist dasjenige, was der Mensch schon fliehen soll, wenn er innerhalb des irdischen Lebens ist. - Diese Empfindung kann aber nicht die letzte sein, die aus der geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung folgt. Diese Empfindung kann uns nur sagen, daß eine gewisse untergeordnete Art, das Sinnesleben zu nehmen, nicht mit Menschenwert und Menschenwürde in der richtigen Weise zusammenhängen kann, daß es aber einen Weg geben muß, um in gewissem Sinne das Sinnesleben zu verlieren, so wie es gewissermaßen als niederes Sinnesleben an den Menschen herantritt, aber es von einer höheren Warte aus, von der übersinnlichen Warte aus gerade in einem tieferen Sinne erst wiederum zu gewinnen. Wir müßten uns ja vor einer geistigen Betrachtung fürchten, wenn wir uns sagen müßten, daß all die Schönheit, welche uns in die Seele dringt durch die Betrachtung der wunderbaren Pflanzenwelt, der blühenden, sprossenden Blumen- und Früchtewelt, daß alles das, was in uns dringt durch die Schönheit der übrigen Natur, durch die Majestät des Sternenhimmels und so weiter, eigentlich so wenig Bedeutung für das menschliche Leben hätte, daß man es einer geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis gegenüber als «niedrig» verlassen müßte.
[ 4 ] Aber das ist ja auch ganz und gar nicht der Fall. Wenn Sie zurückgehen in der Menschheitsentwickelung zu dem, was gerade durch die Eingeweihten, die initiierten Meister der verschiedensten Epochen zutage getreten ist an Erhöhung des menschlichen Lebenswertes, so werden Sie finden: Die Worte, die jemals von Eingeweihten gesprochen worden sind, sie unterschätzen nicht die Schönheit, die Herrlichkeit, die Majestät des irdisch-sinnlichen Lebens. Wie wunderbar sind oftmals die poetischen, poetisierenden und sonstigen künstlerischen Ausdrücke, welche für das höchste Übersinnliche gerade die Eingeweihten gebraucht haben! Sie brauchen nur an Bilder zu denken wie etwa dasjenige von der Lotosblume und ähnliche, und Sie werden sehen, daß niemals die Eingeweihten unterschätzt haben, die Entfaltung des geistigen Lebens durch sinnliche Bilder auszudrükken, daß sie also durchaus der Meinung waren, in der Anschauung der sinnlichen Welt sei etwas vorhanden, oder könne wenigstens etwas gefunden werden, was den Menschen zum Höchsten führt.
[ 5 ] Nun, so wie der Mensch zunächst mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein diese Sinneswelt wahrnimmt, so kann er an ihr nicht befriedigt sein - schon aus dem Grunde nicht, weil dasjenige, was durch seine Augen, durch seine Ohren und durch seine übrigen Sinne dringt, zwar zusammenhängt mit seinem Ich, mit der ganzen IchEntfaltung, mit dem vollen Ich-Leben, ihm aber doch eigentlich nichts für die innere Sicherheit dieses Ich gibt. Wir wenden unsere Augen nach außen zur Schönheit der Blütenpracht — da ist eine unendliche Mannigfaltigkeit. Wir wenden dann unseren Blick nach innen zu unserem Ich, und zunächst ist es für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein fast so, als ob uns dieses Ich entschwinden müßte. Wie ein Geistpunkt in unserem Inneren stellt es sich uns dar, der nicht viel anderes sagt als das leere Wort «Ich» allein. Das ist auch kein Wunder: Bedenken Sie nur, damit das Auge sehen kann, muß es sich selbst verleugnen. Gerade die Sinne müssen sich hingeben an die Welt, um die rechten Vermittler des Menschen für die Welt zu sein. Das Auge muß vollständig durchsichtig werden, wenn durch es die Pracht, die Größe und die Schönheit der äußeren Sinneswelt in farbigem Glanze und in farbigem Leuchten erscheinen soll. Und so die anderen Sinne. Wir wissen nichts von unseren Sinnen. Gibt es vielleicht einen Weg, um von diesen Sinnen etwas zu wissen? Dazu muß wiederum in die Welt des Übersinnlichen geschritten werden. Schon um von den Sinnen etwas zu wissen, müssen wir in die Welt des Übersinnlichen schreiten.
[ 6 ] Sie kennen die Schilderungen, die ich gegeben habe von den Wegen in die höheren Welten hinein. Stellen Sie sich einmal lebhaft vor dasıSeelenaugerdasjenige, was imaginative Erkenntnis werden kann. Wir treten gewissermaßen von der sinnlichen Anschauung der äußeren Welt etwas zurück, wenn wir in die imaginative Erkenntnis hineinkommen. Aber das Allerinteressanteste auf diesem Wege ist das Folgende; Ich will es ganz anschaulich schildern.
[ 7 ] Wenn Sie sich meditierend - so wie es den Übungen entspricht, die in dem bekannten Buche gegeben sind — der imaginativen Welt nähern, wenn Sie also beginnen, darum zu ringen, Ihren ätherischen Menschen aus Ihrem physischen Menschen herauszugestalten, so daß dieser ätherische Mensch, der erste übersinnliche Mensch in Ihnen zu einer Art von Bewußtsein gelingt; so können Sie ja den Schritt gewissermaßen abfangen, wo Sie zwischen dem gewöhnlichen. sinnlichen Anschauen und dem imaginativen Anschauen sind, wo Sie noch nicht das imaginative Anschauen in seiner Gestaltetheit errungen haben, aber auf dem Wege dazu sind. Nun will ich annehmen, daß ein solcher Mensch, der auf dem Wege von der gewöhnlichen Sinnesanschauung zum imaginativen Anschauen ist, einen Weg macht in ein Hochgebirge, in dem besonders reich das Urgebirgsgestein ausgebildet ist, in dem viel von jenem Gestein ausgebildet ist, das wir quarziges Kieselgestein nennen. Es ist der Mensch ganz bei sonders geeignet, seelische Kräfte zu entfalten in einem Hochgebirge, wo viel quarziges Kieselgestein ist, wenn er auf diesem Wege zur Imagination ist. Daß er gewisse innere seelische Fähigkeiten eben, ich möchte sagen, im ersten Anlauf zur Entwickelung gebracht hat, das kommt daher, daß ihm von allem, was in seiner physischen Erdenumgebung ist, dieses quarzige Kieselgestein im Hochgebirge einen ganz besonderen Eindruck macht. Es ist ja so, daß dieses quarzige Kieselgestein im Hochgebirge zunächst nur sehr mäßig durchsichtig, durchscheinend ist. Aber in dem Augenblicke, wo wir etwas vordringen, wo wir uns eben durchgerungen haben zu dem Gesichtspunkte, den ich charakterisiert habe, da wird das quarzige Kieselgestein ganz durchsichtig. Wir steigen ins Hochgebirge hinauf, und es erscheint uns das quarzige Kieselgestein wie durchsichtiges Glas - aber so, daß wir selbst das Gefühl haben, etwas von uns strömt aus und vereinigt sich mit diesem quarzigen Kieselgestein. Wir werden gerade an der äußersten Oberfläche der Erde durch eine Art selbstverständlicher Hingabe unseres Bewußtseins mit der Oberfläche der Erde eins. Wir verspüren in diesem Augenblicke etwas, wie wenn unser Auge selber Strömungen nach außen senden würde, die hinunterdringen in das quarzige Kieselgestein, und in demselben Augenblicke beginnt in uns eine Art Gefühl aufzuleben, durch das wir uns eins fühlen mit dem ganzen Erdendasein. Aber indem wir in dieser Art aufgehen in das quarzige Kieselgestein, zu gleicher Zeit uns eins fühlend mit dem ganzen Weltenall, mit dem ganzen Kosmos, können wir ein erstes wirkliches Einssein mit dem Kosmos erlangen, das nicht bloß erträumt, nicht bloß in abstrakten Gedanken ergriffen ist. Auf diese Art kann man zu einem innigen Bewußtsein kommen von dem, was ich in solchen Worten aussprechen möchte: Du, Erde, bist nicht allein im Weltenall, du Erde, bist mit mir und allen anderen Wesen, die auf der Erde sind, eins mit dem ganzen Weltenall! - Und durch das, was man durch dieses Einswerden gerade mit dem quarzigen Kieselgestein erlebt, schaut man dann nicht mehr die Erde abgesondert von dem übrigen Weltenall, sondern man schaut die Erde wie eine Äthersphäre, die aus der Weltenäthersphäre heraus gestaltet ist.
[ 8 ] Das ist ein erstes Gefühl. Und sehen Sie, manche alten Gesänge, manche alten Mythen mit wunderbaren Einschlüssen über dieses oder jenes tönen aus der alten Literatur der instinktiven Hellseherzeit der Menschheit herüber - die Menschen lesen sie heute, sie reden sich auch wohl ein, daß sie erhabene Gefühle dabei haben, aber das Wahre, was in ihnen steckt, das haben sie doch nicht. Man kann nicht einmal die wahre Empfindung zum Beispiel der Bhagavad Gita oder anderer Partien der indischen oder auch der anderen orientalischen Literatur richtig auf seine Seele wirken lassen, wenn man nicht durch eine Geisteserkenntnis etwas davon erfährt, wie real der Mensch mit der Erde auf eine so geartete Weise, wie ich sie geschildert habe, eins werden kann und dadurch eins werden kann mit dem Kosmos. Denn vieles in den Stimmungen dieser alten Gesänge ist aus einem solchen Einswerden mit dem Kosmos heraus geschrieben, aus einem solchen Einswerden, das wie ein Bewußtseinsgang mit dem Lichte ist, mit jenem Lichte, das den harten Quarz durchdringt — aber dadurch, daß es mit der menschlichen Seele selbst den harten Quarz durchdringt, diesen Quarz zum Weltenauge macht, durch das der Mensch hinausschaut in die Weiten des Weltenalls.
[ 9 ] Und so können wir schon sagen: Beginnen wir in der Realität zu schildern die Erkenntnis des übersinnlichen Menschen, dann fühlen wir uns von selber abgedrängt davon, in abstrakten, theoretischen Auseinandersetzungen zu sprechen, dann werden wir ganz von selbst hineingedrängt in ein Sprechen, das mit den Ideen den ganzen Gefühlsgehalt der menschlichen Seele verbindet. Das ist es ja, was uns bei jeder Betrachtung des übersinnlichen Menschen so sehr zu Herzen gehen soll: daß man die Erkenntnis des Übersinnlichen nicht aussprechen kann, ohne den ganzen Menschen mit ihr zu verbinden, ohne Wollen und Fühlen eins zu machen mit den Gedanken und Ideen. Gewiß, das Leben muß ertragen werden; aber wenn manches schwer zu ertragen ist - am schwerstens zu ertragen für den, der die ganze menschliche Seite der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis kennt, ist es, wenn dann gewisse Menschen kommen und diese übersinnliche Erkenntnis in rein theoretische Formeln prägen. Im Grunde genommen wirkt es, wenn man in theoretischer Weise über die übersinnliche Welt spricht, genau so wie der sinnliche Schmerz, wenn man etwa den Finger in eine Flamme hineinsteckt, in bezug auf diesen Finger wirkt. Man muß auch solche Dinge schildern, wenn man den übersinnlichen Menschen schildern will.
[ 10 ] Wenn dann der Mensch etwas weiter kommt in der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis, wenn er das Imaginative sich angeeignet hat und dadurch kennengelernt hat, was übersinnlich im Menschen lebt zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, dann kann er sich auch dasjenige an übersinnlicher Erkenntnis aneignen, was der Inspiration entspricht und wodurch er hineinschaut in das, was der Mensch war vor der Geburt, vor dem Heruntersteigen ins irdische Dasein, und was er sein wird, nachdem er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Er kann hineinschauen in alles dasjenige, was ich Ihnen in diesen Tagen beschrieben habe als den Durchgang durch die verschiedenen Regionen der menschlichen Physiognomie-Gestaltung, der menschlichen Umgestaltung von einem früheren in ein späteres Erdenleben. In all das, was ich Ihnen geschildert habe als den Durchgang durch die verschiedenen Sternenwelten, kann hineingeschaut werden.
[ 11 ] Eine besondere Nuance empfängt aber diese Erkenntnis, durch die wir in unser eigenes Innere so dringen, daß wir uns sagen: Was da geschildert werden kann für den Durchgang durch das Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt, das lebt ja auch in uns, wenn wir auf dieser physischen Erde sind. - Ja, es lebt auch im Menschen, wenn wir hier, ich möchte sagen, dem Raume nach als unbedeutendes Menschenkind innerhalb des physischen Leibes, eingeschlossen von unserer Haut, auf der Erde stehen - es lebt in ihm all das Grandiose, das Kosmisch-Majestätische, das man schildern muß, wenn man die eigentliche Wesenheit des Menschen schildert, insofern er den Sternenwelten angehört und noch höheren Welten, den Welten der höheren Hierarchien. Aber wenn wir erkenntnismäßig hineindringen in dasjenige, was da in uns lebt, man kann sagen als irdischer Rest dessen, was unsere eigene Wesenheit war zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, in demselben Maße, in dem wir da eindringen, können wir noch etwas anderes mit unserem Erdenplaneten selber machen. Wir können mit ihm das machen, daß wir nun in seine Tiefen eindringen, da, wo die Metalladern sind, wo wir herandringen an die Blei-Erze, die Silber-Erze, die Kupfer-Erze, an alles dasjenige, was in dem Gestein durch das Metallische lebt.
[ 12 ] Wenn wir dieses Metallische in der Erde mit den gewöhnlichen Sinnen betrachten, so sagt es ja zunächst nichts anderes, als daß es von dieser oder jener Art der Erde spricht. Wenn wir aber in die Erde eindringen mit dem geistig geschärften Blick, der uns das Menschlich-Übersinnliche kündet, dann wird etwas ganz Besonderes aus alledem, was als Metallisches im Innern der Erde ist. Dann beginnt alles Kupferige, alles Silberige, alles Goldige innerhalb der Erde eine mannigfaltige, geheimnisreiche Sprache zu sprechen. Dann tritt uns für die übersinnliche Betrachtung etwas entgegen, was uns als Menschen, der auf der Erde wandelt, so recht verwandt macht mit dem ganzen lebendig-seelischen Wesen der Erde selber. Die Metallerze sagen uns etwas, sie werden für uns zu kosmischen Erinnerungen. Wahrhaftig, es ist so. Denken Sie einmal an sich selber: Wenn Sie der Ruhe der Seele, der innerlich tätigen Ruhe der Seele pflegen, wenn Sie alte Erinnerungen aufsteigen lassen, die Ihnen Mannigfaltiges in die Seele hereintragen, dann fühlen Sie sich wieder beisammen mit manchem Erlebnis, das Sie durchgemacht haben, fühlen sich wieder beisammen mit manchem Menschen, der Ihnen im Laufe Ihres Lebens lieb geworden ist, vielleicht mit manchem Menschen, der längst dahingegangen ist. Sie fühlen sich entrückt dem gegenwärtigen Augenblick, Sie fühlen sich innig verbunden mit Leiden und Freuden früherer Augenblicke, die Sie im Erdenleben durchgemacht haben.
[ 13 ] Etwas ganz Ähnliches, nur ins Große umgesetzt, findet statt, wenn Sie, innerlich durchdrungen von Geist-Erkenntnis, von gefühlter Geist-Erkenntnis, sich eins machen mit den Metalladern der Erde. Da geht Ihnen jetzt nicht etwas auf wie beim quarzigen Kieselgestein, das Sie wie schauend hineinversetzt in die Weltenweiten, sondern da werden Sie gewissermaßen eins mit dem Erdenkörper. Sie sagen sich, indem Sie die Metalladern in ihrer wunderbaren Sprache innerlich vernehmen: Jetzt bin ich eins mit dem innersten Seelenund Herzensschlage der Erde selber, jetzt vernehme ich Erinnerungen, die nicht die meinen sind; in mich herein tönen die Erinnerungen, die die Erde selber hat aus früheren Erdenzeiten, da sie selber noch nicht unsere Erde war, da sie noch nicht die heutige Tier- und Pflanzenwelt, namentlich nicht die heutige Mineralwelt auf sich und in ihrem Schoße hatte. Ich erinnere mich mit der Erde an jene alten Erdenzeiten, in denen die Erde eins war mit den übrigen Planeten unseres Planetensystems, ich erinnere mich an jene Zeiten, in denen man nicht sprechen konnte von der abgesonderten Erde, weil sie nicht in sich so verdichtet war wie heute. Ich erinnere mich an die Zeiten, wo das ganze Planetensystem ein beseelter, lebendiger Organismus war, und die Menschen noch in ganz anderer Form in diesem lebendigen Organismus drinnen lebten. - So führt uns das Metallische der Erde zu den Erinnerungen der Erde selber.
[ 14 ] Dann aber, wenn wir dieses innere Erlebnis haben, dann werden wir uns recht klar darüber, warum wir eigentlich von den göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten der Weltenordnung auf die Erde heruntergeschickt worden sind. Wir fühlen, indem wir also in den Erinnerungen der Erde selber leben, jetzt erst in rechtem Maße unser eigenes Denken. Wir fühlen unser Denken, weil wir ja die Erinnerungen der Erde ergriffen haben, mit der Erde selber verbunden. Und in diesem Augenblick, wo wir die Erinnerungen der Erde zu unseren eigenen machen, haben wir um uns herum die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, die Kyriotetes, Exusiai, Dynameis. Das ist der Weg, um im Erdenleben selber um sich zu haben diejenigen Wesenheiten, die man wiederum um sich hat, wenn man zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt wieder in derjenigen Zeit lebt, die ich Ihnen ja beschrieben habe. Und man gelangt zu der Überzeugung, mit diesen Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie kommt man in Berührung, wenn man eingekörperter Mensch ist zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Aber diese Wesenheiten haben nicht nur die Aufgabe, mit uns zu arbeiten an der Umgestaltung des Menschen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, sondern sie haben auch eine Aufgabe bei der gesamten Gestaltung des Kosmos. Wir schauen da, wie diesen Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie aufgetragen ist von der höheren geistigen Weltenordnung, alles das in der Erde zu bewirken, was durch die Impulse der Metalladern kommt.
[ 15 ] Und jetzt können wir wiederum zurückblicken. Wir werden die Tatsache, die ich jetzt erwähnen will, bei unserem Aufsteigen in das quarzige Kieselgestein nicht sogleich begriffen haben, denn das spricht noch nicht so deutlich. Deutlich spricht eben erst jenes wunderbare Vernehmen der Erdenerinnerungen aus den Metalladern. Aber jetzt können wir wiederum zurückgehen und können etwas verstehen, was wir anfangs vielleicht nicht verstanden haben. Jetzt werden wir gewahr, daß bei diesem Aufgehen in das ganze Weltenall durch die Lichtdurchdringung des quarzigen Kieselgesteins um uns herum sind die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, die Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai. Und wir lernen etwas ganz Besonderes, wir lernen, daß es ja eigentlich nicht wahr ist, was der gewöhnliche Sinnesanblick sagt, wenn wir ins Hochgebirge gehen, daß es nicht wahr ist, was der gewöhnliche Sinnesanblick sagt, wenn wir in die Tiefen der Erde zu den Metalladern hinuntersteigen. Wir lernen das Wunderbare kennen, wenn wir hinaufsteigen ins Hochgebirge, in die Regionen des quarzigen Kieselgesteines, daß da die Felsenspitzen umschlungen und umwoben sind von den Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, den Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai. Und wenn wir hinuntersteigen zu den Metalladern der Erde, dann finden wir, daß diese Metalladern der Erde durchzogen werden auf ihren Wegen, auf ihren Bahnen von den Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie. Und wir sagen uns: Wir sind ja eigentlich auch während unseres Erdendaseins in der Gesellschaft derjenigen Wesenheiten, die mit unserer eigenen inneren Natur zusammenhängen, wenn wir zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt sind.
[ 16 ] Treten wir durch die Pforte des Todes, so gelangen wir nach einer gewissen Zeit bewußt in die Region der Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai. Da haben wir uns auch im entkörperten Zustande einen Bewußtseinszustand angeeignet, durch den diese Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie so um uns herum sind, wie auf der Erde um uns herum sind die Wesenheiten der drei oder vier Naturreiche. Aber wenn wir da im höheren Bewußtsein ansichtig werden der Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, dann ist dasjenige, was die Sinne sehen können, vor uns verschwunden, denn unsere Sinne sind mit unserem Körper den Elementen der Erde übergeben. Wir können von dem, was die Sinne sehen können, nichts sehen, nichts schauen in dem Zustande zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Aber dann «erzählen» uns - ich darf mich dieses Ausdrucks bedienen, denn er trifft ganz die Wirklichkeit — ‚ dann erzählen uns die Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai davon, was sie unten auf der Erde tun. Dann erzählen sie uns, wie sie nicht nur beschäftigt sind in demjenigen Leben, in dem sie jetzt mit uns zusammen sind, sondern dann raunen sie unserer Seele zu: Wir sind auch beteiligt am Schaffen des Kosmos, wir sind die schaffenden Wesen des Kosmos und schauen unten im Erdendasein dasjenige an, was an Erdengestalten das quarzige Kieselgestein und seine Verwandten machen, da siehst du unsere Taten. - Und da begreift der Mensch, gerade wenn er zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt unter den Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai ist, daß er wieder hinunter muß auf die Erde. Denn er lernt diese Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie kennen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, er erfährt aber auch, wie diese Wesenheiten in einer wunderbaren Weise von ihren Taten auf der Erde sprechen. Und er lernt wissen, daß er diese Taten nur schauen kann, wenn er auf die Erde hinuntersteigt, sich mit einem physischen Menschenleibe umhüllt und dadurch der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung teilhaftig wird. Ja, die tiefsten Geheimnisse der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung, nicht nur der Wahrnehmungen des Hochgebirges, sondern aller sinnlichen Wahrnehmungen, enthüllen uns in wunderbaren Gesprächen die Wesenheiten, mit denen wir zusammen sind zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Und so schön, so großartig sind die Schönheiten der sinnlichen Natur - das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein nimmt es nur nicht wahr —, daß dasjenige, was in der menschlichen Seele aufsteigen kann an Erdenerinnerungen, wenn sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, erst die richtige Beleuchtung erlangt, wenn der Mensch nun dasjenige, was seine Augen schauen, was seine Ohren hören, und was seine übrigen Sinne auf der Erde wahrnehmen durften, beschrieben findet von den Engeln, den Erzengeln und den Urkräften.
[ 17 ] So ist der Zusammenhang des Physischen mit dem Überphysischen. Und so ist der Zusammenhang des menschlichen physischen Lebens mit seinem überphysischen Leben. Die Welt ist eben voller Großartigkeit, und was wir hier in dem Leben, im physisch-sinnlichen Leben als physischer Mensch schauen, das darf uns freuen, das darf uns erheben. Seine eigentlichen Geheimnisse lernen wir kennen, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Und je mehr wir uns freuen gelernt haben an der physisch-sinnlichen Welt, je gründlicher wir auf alles eingegangen sind, was uns an Freuden die physisch-sinnliche Welt geben kann, desto größeres Verständnis bringen wir der Engelwelt entgegen, die uns erzählen will von dem, was wir auf der Erde noch nicht verstehen, was wir erst verstehen lernen, wenn wir hinüberkommen in diese überphysische Welt.
[ 18 ] Und ein Ähnliches ist es mit der zweiten Hierarchie, mit den Exusiai-, Kyriotetes- und Dynameis-Wesenheiten, innerhalb derer wir ja auch in einer gewissen Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt sind, zu denen wir ein besonderes Verhältnis gewinnen, wenn wir durch Hinleuchten auf die Metalladern der Erde zu den Erderinnerungen selber kommen. Aber hier ist es wieder so, daß, wenn wir hier auf der Erde überhaupt das Metallische erleben, wir dasjenige, was wir am Metallischen erleben, im Grunde genommen erst recht verstehen lernen, wenn wir hinüberkommen in die Region der zweiten Hierarchie.
[ 19 ] sehen Sie, es gehört zu dem Schönsten, was man erleben kann — und ich darf wohl hoffen, daß gerade die anthroposophische Bewegung die Schönheiten auch dieses Feldes der Erkenntnis noch besonders herausbringen wird -, es gehört zu dem Schönsten, was man erleben kann, wenn man die verschiedenen Verhältnisse der Metalle zur menschlichen Gesundheit zu prüfen vermag. Jedes Metall hat eine gewisse Beziehung zur menschlichen Gesundheit, und ebenso jede Metallverbindung. Wenn der Mensch durchgeht durch das gesunde und kranke Leben, dann geht er fortwährend Verhältnisse ein zu demjenigen, was eigentlich der Erde ihre Erinnerungen gibt, zu den Metallen und ihren Verbindungen. Und man müßte es schon dahin bringen, daß man nicht nur in abstrakt-theoretischer Weise von den Heilwirkungen des Bleies und der Bleiverbindungen, des Kupfers und der Kupferverbindungen und anderer Metalle spricht, denn das sind ja die wichtigsten Heilmittel, wenn man sie nur in der richtigen Weise zu bearbeiten versteht -, man müßte nicht nur in theoretisch-abstrakter Weise von diesen wunderbaren Beziehungen der Metallwelt zum Menschen sprechen, über die noch ein besonders scheuer Hauch ausgegossen wird, wenn wir die Metalladern im Schoße der Erde verfolgen, sondern man müßte auch ein vertieftes Gefühl, eine vertiefte Empfindung gewinnen für dieses wunderbare Verhältnis des Metallischen zum Menschen, das sich erst enthüllt, wenn man es vom Gesichtspunkte des gesunden und kranken Menschen aus betrachtet.
[ 20 ] Ich sagte, es steht zu hoffen, daß gerade durch die anthroposophische Bewegung in bezug auf diese Erkenntnisse manches unter Menschenherzen verbreitet werden könnte, denn es ist wichtig. In verflossenen Zeiten war es nicht so wichtig, weil die Menschen ein instinktives Gefühl von alledem hatten, weil sie wußten, mit dem oder jenem im menschlichen Kopfe hängt der Blei-Prozeß, mit dem oder jenem hängt der Silber-Prozeß zusammen. Davon redeten viel die Menschen alter Zeiten. Die Menschen neuerer Zeiten lesen das, aber sie verstehen davon kein Sterbenswörtchen; denn wir reden von alledem heute im Sinne unserer landläufigen Wissenschaft wie von lauter wesenlosen, ausgeblasenen Abstraktionen. Wenn es aber durch anthroposophische Erkenntnis dazu gebracht wird, daß der Mensch wiederum all jene Gemütsvertiefung erringt, die man erhalten kann, wenn man von dieser wunderbaren Beziehung des Metallischen in der Erdenwelt zur menschlichen Krankheit und Gesundheit spricht, dann wird der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes etwas hinauftragen in die geistige Welt, was ihm dienen wird, die Sprache der zweiten Hierarchie in ganz besonderer Weise zu verstehen. Dann werden dem Menschen die größten Geheimnisse der Welt sich gerade dadurch enthüllen können, daß er für sie durch eine solche Vorbereitung auf der Erde das nötige Verständnis mitbringt. Denn das ist schon so: Man lernt das, was man lernen soll durch anthroposophische Geist-Erkenntnis nicht bloß, um die menschliche Neugier zu befriedigen, sondern damit es Früchte trägt, wenn man durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, da man ja gerade durch das, was durch Geisteswissenschaft an einen herangetragen wird, erst in das richtige Verhältnis zu denjenigen Wesenheiten zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt gelangt, mit denen man dann vermöge seiner ganzen Menschenwesenheit in Verbindung sein muß, weil sie unsere notwendige Weltumgebung dann sind.
[ 21 ] So können wir konkret schildern, wie wir ein Verhältnis gewinnen zu diesen Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Aber damit ist noch etwas anderes verbunden, wenn wir durch diese Regionen durchgehen, für deren Verständnis das Angedeutete gut vorbereitet, dann erfahren wir noch etwas anderes. Wenn wir dieses Verhältnis des Metallischen zum gesunden und kranken Menschen erfassen können, dann enthüllen sich uns Naturgeheimnisse - aber in diesen Naturgeheimnissen lebt noch etwas anderes. Wir hören zunächst durch die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie sprechen über die Natur dieses oder jenes Metallischen, über die Natur des Goldes, des Silbers, des Bleies, des Kupfers und so weiter. Aber es ist uns jetzt gegenüber der großen geistigen Welt so, wie uns hier ist, wenn wir eben anfangen lesen zu lernen, und uns dabei aufgeht, wie wir durch das Lesenlernen uns die Fähigkeit erwerben, in manche Geheimnisse der Welt einzudringen, die eben nur dadurch an uns herankommen können, daß wir lesen lernen. Nun, das sind auf der Erde nicht besondere Vorgänge - ich gebrauche das auch nur als einen Vergleich -, denn die Sprache, die wir da kennenlernen, durch die wir die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie in einer bestimmten Region des Durchganges zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt verstehen lernen, diese Sprache über die Metalle und ihr Verhältnis zum gesunden und kranken Menschen wird dann erst das Rechte, wenn wir sie gewissermaßen im Geist-Kosmos von der Prosa zur kosmischen Poesie erheben können, oder wenn wir uns, besser gesagt, zur kosmischen Poesie erheben können. Zunächst hören wir so zu, wie einer, der in bezug auf Poesie ein Botokude ist, dem Rezitieren eines Gedichtes zuhört. Wie wir aber, wenn wir nicht Botokuden sind, in bezug auf das Poetische verstehen lernen, was im Schwunge der Verse, was in der rhythmischen Gestaltung, in der ganzen künstlerischen Formung liegt, wie wir da aufrücken zum Verständnis des eigentlichen Künstlerisch-Poetischen, so rücken wir, wenn wir eben aus dem Prosaisch-Nüchternen zum Poetischen der jenseitigen Welt aufsteigen, von der Sprache der zweiten Hierarchie, die über die Beziehungen der Metalle zum gesunden und kranken Menschen handelt, auf zum Verständnis der Geheimnisse des moralischen Daseins im Weltenall, jenes moralischen Daseins, das umfaßt Menschenseelen, aber auch Götterseelen aller Hierarchien. Und die Geheimnisse des Seelischen gehen uns gerade in dieser Region ganz besonders auf.
[ 22 ] Und dann können wir noch einen Schritt weiter gehen. Das, was ich Ihnen erzählt habe, das können wir erfahren, wenn wir ins Gebirge gehen und dann hinuntersteigen in den Schoß der Erde, wo alles ruhig bleibt zunächst, wenn wir die ruhigen Metalladern betrachten, das ruhende Gestein am Felsengrat. Wenn wir aber nun weitergehen, wenn wir versuchen, nun nicht mit dem nüchternen Blicke des Nützlichkeitsmenschen allein die Dinge zu betrachten - es soll dieser nüchterne Blick des Nützlichkeitsmenschen nicht unterschätzt werden, denn wir müssen auf dem Boden der Erde mit beiden Füßen gerade dann ruhen, wenn wir in die geistige Welt als seelisch-geistig und physisch gesunder Mensch eindringen wollen - wenn wir aber nicht bei dem stehen bleiben, was sich uns so enthüllt, und wenn wir in der hochgradig heißen Flamme das Metall schmelzen sehen, wie es aus dem festen in den flüssigen Zustand übergeht - bei diesen Dingen enthüllt sich gar manches -, wenn wir durch Fabriken gehen, wo beim Hochofenprozeß das Eisen im flüssigen Zustande leuchtend dahinfließt, wenn wir besonders an jenen Prozessen teilnehmen, wo Metallerze, Antimonerze vom Festen in flüssige und allmählich in andere Zustände übergeführt werden, wenn wir dieses Schicksal des Metallischen im Feuer auf uns wirken lassen, dann drängt sich in unsere in uns selbst aufgelebte geistige Erkenntnis noch etwas ganz anderes herein - dann gewinnen wir einen ungeheuer tiefen Eindruck von den Geheimnissen unseres eigenen Daseins.
[ 23 ] Ich habe es schon öfter erwähnt, indem ich gesagt habe, man schaue sich das Verhältnis des Menschen zu den Tieren an. Indem man anatomisch vergleicht Knochen, Muskeln, auch meinetwillen das Blut von Mensch und Tier, wie man es in der neueren Zeit macht, so wird man eine Verwandtschaft finden. Die Erhöhung des Menschen über die Tiere findet man aber erst, wenn man auf so etwas eingeht wie die Tatsache, daß in der Hauptsache die Rückgratsäule beim Tier parallel der Erdoberfläche, horizontal ist, beim Menschen aber nach aufwärts gerichtet - und wenn man dann übergeht zu dem Wunderbaren der Sprache beim Menschen, zu der es das Tier nicht bringt, und übergeht dazu, wie aus der Sprache sich herausringt das Denken. Beobachten wir, wie am Kinde das Sprechen, das Denken, die ganze Orientierung für das Leben mit der Aufrichtung des Körpers einsetzt, dann sehen wir jene wunderbaren Kräfte, durch die sich das Kind in die Welt dynamisch hineinfindet. Da sehen wir, wie die Orientierung der kindlichen Gliedmaßen sich auslebt in der Melodik, in der Artikulierung des Sprachlichen. sehen wir hin, wie der Mensch sich eigentlich bildet, formt in der sinnlichen Welt - da sehen wir ruhig sich gestaltende Kräfte. Ja, es ist wunderbar, so im Laufe der Monate das werdende Kind zu betrachten, das vom Kriechen übergeht zum aufrechten Gang, das zu der ganzen Orientierung seines Körpers und seiner Gliedmaßen in die Weltdynamik übergeht, das dann herausgliedert aus dem Körperlichen die Sprache, das Denken.
[ 24 ] Wenn man das anschaut in seiner ganzen Wunderbarkeit, wenn man auf der einen Seite das anschaut in seiner majestätischen Ruhe, mit der es sich dem darbietet, der vermag, diese Ruhe zu haben beim Anschauen - es ist ja das Schönste, was man eigentlich im menschlichen Leben anschauen kann, dieses Werden des Kindes durch Gehenlernen, Sprechenlernen, Denkenlernen -, wenn man einen Gemütseindruck bekommt von dem, was da so schön ist im Menschenleben; und wenn man dann andererseits zu schauen vermag, wie das Metall im Feuer schmilzt: dann erscheint einem die Geistgestalt desjenigen, was im Kinde zum Gehenlernen, zum Sprechenlernen führt. Die Geistgestalt dieser Kraft erscheint einem, indem die Flamme das Metall ergreift, das Metall schmilzt, indem das Metall flüssig wird. Je flüssiger, je flüchtiger das Metall wird, desto mehr steigt auf das Gehenlernen, das Sprechenlernen, das Denkenlernen des Menschen aus dem Glühend-, Flüssig-, Flüchtigwerden des Metalles im Feuer und man schaut die innige Verwandtschaft dieses sein Schicksal erlebenden Metalles mit dem, was abgedämpft von Feuersgewalten der Welten im Sprechen-, Gehen- und Denkenlernen des Kindes erscheint; und man sagt sich, die Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie, Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne, sie haben zwei Seiten ihres Wirkens. Die eine ist diese, wo sie aus der geistigen Welt, in die wir ja eintreten in der Mitte des Lebens zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, zu uns sprechen können, wo wir dann durch sie die Geheimnisse des planetarischen und des sonstigen kosmischen Wirkens erfahren, wie ich es in diesen Tagen geschildert habe. Die andere Seite ist diese, wo sie hereinwirken in die sichtbare Welt - auf der einen Seite in das Sprechen-, Denken- und Gehenlernen des Kindes, auf der anderen Seite in alles dasjenige, was unserem Erdenprozeß zugrunde liegt, indem das Feuer an diesem Erdenprozeß einen Anteil hat, indem im Feuer die Metalle schmelzen, verglühen.
[ 25 ] Im Schmelzen und Verglühen der Metalle in Feuersgewalten hat sich ja dieser Erdball aufgebaut. Wir sehen hinein in ältere Zeiten, wo sich der Erdball aufgebaut hat: Im schmelzenden Metall durch Feuersgewalten sehen wir den einen Lauf der Taten der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne innerhalb der irdischen Welt. Wir sehen sie da, diese Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie, wie sie durchmachen diesen Lauf, gestützt vorzugsweise auf die Throne. Wir blicken zurück in alte Erdenzeiten, wo dieses Glühendwerden, Flüssigwerden der Metalle in Feuersgewalten eine besondere Rolle beim Entstehen des Erdenkörpers gespielt hat, da waren die Throne besonders wirksam, die Seraphim und Cherubim haben ruhig mitgewirkt. Im Denkenlernen, Gehenlernen und Sprechenlernen des Kindes dagegen spielen die Cherubim die größte, die Hauptrolle. Aber wir sehen immer im Einklange die Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie im einen und anderen wirken und weben.
[ 2 ] Solch eine Erkenntnis verbindet dann tatsächlich Tod im Erdenleben, Auferstehen im jenseitigen Leben. Denn durch eine solche Erkenntnis, da, wo man erschaut die Verwandtschaft der Feuersgewalten, die die Metalle ergreifen, mit denjenigen Gewalten, die den Menschen zum Menschen machen - wo man diese im Zusammenhange erschaut, da wird die ganze Welt eins. Da ist kein Unterschied mehr zwischen Erdenleben und jenseitigem Leben, zwischen dem Leben von der Geburt bis zum Tode und dem Leben in der geistigen Welt. Da ist das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt nur eine Verwandlung des Erdenlebens, da weiß der Mensch durch so etwas, wie das eine in das andere übergeht, wie das eine nur eine andere Form des anderen ist.
[ 27 ] Und wenn dann unsere Seele sich so recht erhebt an solchen Einsichten, dann kommen ja mit diesen Einsichten auch noch andere. Ja, diese anderen Einsichten, sie können auch noch auf einem anderen Wege kommen.
[ 1 ] Wenn Sie wirklich dasjenige, was ich Ihnen heute dargestellt habe von der wunderbaren Verwandtschaft der in Feuersgewalten schmelzenden und sich verflüchtigenden Metalle mit dem Gehenlernen, Sprechenlernen und Denkenlernen des Kindes, wenn Sie diese Bilder vor Ihre Imagination rücken und in denselben meditieren und dadurch Ihre Seele vertiefen, daß Sie solche Bilder sich vor die Seele rufen, dann wird diese Seele erfaßt von einer Gewalt, die Sie so durchschauen läßt, daß ein großes Lebensrätsel zur Förderung und Fruchtbarkeit des Lebens sich Ihnen löst: das Wirken des Karma, das Wirken des Schicksals im Menschen. Denn zwischen diesem Gehenlernen, Sprechenlernen und Denkenlernen des Kindes und dem sich Verflüssigenden und Verflüchtigenden der Metalle in Feuersgewalten, zwischen dem schwefelig-phosphorigen Leuchten und Weben und Verflüchtigen der Metalle im Feuer, zwischen dieser Prüfung der Metalle im Feuer und dem richtigen Übergehen des Animalischen im Kinde zum Menschen durch Gehen-, Sprechen- und Denkenlernen, liegt die Erfassung des Menschenschicksals, liegt das verständnisvolle Eindringen in das Karma. Und das Karma ist ja dasjenige, was als Übersinnliches ins unmittelbar tätige Menschenleben hereingreift. Wir werden, wenn wir in dieser Weise meditierend aufrücken, mit den Geheimnissen des Schicksals, das unser Leben durchwebt, dadurch bekannt, daß wir auf der einen Seite das Bild des Metallschicksals im Feuer, auf der anderen Seite das Bild des Urmenschenschicksals, wenn der Mensch herabsteigt auf die Erde im Gehenlernen, Sprechenlernen und Denkenlernen, haben. Dazwischen enthüllt sich das, was wir vom Schicksalsrätsel brauchen für das menschliche Leben überhaupt.
[ 28 ] So sehen wir, wie auch für die Schicksalsfrage hereintönen kann der übersinnliche Mensch in die Welt, in der der sinnliche Mensch lebt. Und das war es, was ich Ihnen noch sagen wollte als ein Element, das zu der Betrachtung des übersinnlichen Menschen dazugehört.
[ 29 ] Diese Betrachtung des übersinnlichen Menschen kann eben nicht in abstrakten Theorien verlaufen, sondern sie muß überall hinausgreifen in die Geheimnisse des Natur- und Geisteswesens der Welt, um den Menschen zu begreifen, denn der Mensch ist mit allen Natur- und Geistesgeheimnissen der Welt innig verbunden. Er ist wirklich eine kleine Welt. Man darf sich nur nicht vorstellen, daß das, was draußen in der großen Welt ausgebreitet ist, in derselben Weise auch im Mikrokosmos geschieht. Was majestätisch flammt in Feuersgewalten, wenn die Metalle schmelzen, das strahlt hinaus bis zu den Grenzen des Kosmos, zu den Raumesgrenzen des Kosmos, denn solche gibt es. Stellen Sie sich vor, Sie haben die Feuersgewalten, in denen die Metalle verschmelzen und sich verlüchtigen. Was im Metall sich verflüchtigt, das strahlt hinaus in die Weltenweiten, aber es kommt zurück in Lichtgewalten und in Lichteswärmestrahlungen. Und indem es zurückkommt aus den Weltenweiten, macht es aus dem Kinde, das noch nicht sprechen und gehen kann, das noch kriechen muß, das aufrecht gehende Kind. So haben Sie die Strömungen nach aufwärts, die Sie schauen können in den verschmelzenden Metallen; wenn sie weit genug in den Kosmos hinausgehen, kehren sie um, kehren sie zurück und sind dann dieselben Gewalten, die das Kind aufrichten. Was Sie auf der einen Seite sehen, finden Sie auf der anderen wieder. Und so bekommen Sie eine Vorstellung von den auf und absteigenden Weltenkräften, die im Weltenwesen wirken, von den Metamorphosen, den Verwandlungen dieser Weltenkräfte.
[ 30 ] Dann lernen Sie aber auch dasjenige, was man in alten Zeiten verbunden hat mit der damaligen Wissenschaft, in seinem wahren Sinne kennen: die alten Opfer. In den alten Opfern war die Opferflamme mit dem, was darin verflammte, dasjenige, was man hinausschickte in die Weltenweiten zu den Göttern, damit es wiederum herunterkomme, um in Menschenwelten zu wirken. Und dem Opferfeuer stand der alte Priesterweise so gegenüber, daß er sagte: Dir, o Flamme, übergebe ich dasjenige, was ich hier auf Erden habe, damit es, wenn der Rauch nach oben strömt, die Götter empfangen. Es sei dasjenige, was in der Flamme sich entwickelt, umgewandelt in göttlichen Segen, der schöpferisch wirkend und fruchtend wieder herunterdringt auf die Erde! - So sehen wir auch das Sprechen der alten Opferpriester von übersinnlichen Welten mit den Weltengeheimnissen verbunden, in denen der Mensch drinnensteht.
[ 31 ] Das ist es, was ich Ihnen sagen wollte von der übersinnlichen Natur des Menschen, insofern sie anthroposophisch erfaßt werden kann. Es bleibt mir nur noch übrig, im Anschlusse an das, was ich Ihnen bei dieser Anwesenheit aus der Anschauung der geistigen Welten heraus aussprechen durfte, anknüpfend an das, was sich für die Gründung der Holländischen Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft abgespielt hat, zu sagen, wie es mein inniger Wunsch und meine Hoffnung ist, daß nun von dieser Tagung etwas ausgehen möge, was sich entzünden möge in Ihren Herzen und in Ihren Gemütern.
[ 32 ] Wenn wir in der Lage sind, anthroposophische Erkenntnis nicht bloß lesend oder anhörend aufzunehmen, sondern wenn wir durch lebendige anthroposophische Betrachtung immer mehr und mehr dahin kommen, den Inhalt der Anthroposophie mit unserem Herzen, unserem Gemüt zu erleben, dann wird es uns wirklich so, als ob nicht bloß der Sinn von Ideen eindringe in unsere Seelen, wenn wir in den anthroposophischen Zweigen beisammen sind und mit anderen Menschen Anthroposophie treiben, oder wenn wir im einsamen Kämmerchen bleiben; sondern dann wird es uns so, als ob lebendige Weltenwesen in unsere Seelen einzögen. Dann erscheint uns immer mehr und mehr die Anthroposophie selber als etwas lebendig Wesenhaftes. Und wir werden dann schon gewahr, wie etwas an die Pforte unseres Herzens klopft mit der Anthroposophie und sagt: Laß mich ein, denn ich bin du selbst; ich bin deine wahre Menschenwesenheit!
[ 33 ] Von dieser wahren Menschenwesenheit möchte Anthroposophie nicht nur erzählen, sondern mit dieser wahren Menschenwesenheit möchte Anthroposophie die menschliche Seele und das menschliche Gemüt erfüllen. Und Sie werden dasjenige, was Sie sich heute vorgenommen haben, am besten zur Ausführung bringen, wenn Sie öfter einmal — sei es auf dem Wege zur Versammlung, sei es, ein Buch in die Hand nehmend oder sonst etwas beginnend, wovon Sie glauben, daß es in der anthroposophischen Bewegung fruchtbar werden soll -, wenn Sie öfter einmal sich dessen erinnern, wie aus einem wahren anthroposophischen Betrachten der Welt in uns aufstrahlen kann das Gefühl und die Empfindung, daß Anthroposophie eigentlich an unsere Herzen pocht, um uns unseren wahren Menschen, unseren eigentlichen Menschen, um uns - uns selbst zu bringen und damit dasjenige in uns zu bringen, was wiederum den Weg hinausfindet in echter Menschenliebe zu den anderen Menschen. Dann, wenn wir Anthroposophie einlassen in unsere Herzen, nachdem sie gepocht hat, dann bringt uns Anthroposophie durch das, was sie selber ist, wahre Menschenliebe.
[ 34 ] Oh, in unserer jetzigen Zeit ist es gar sehr notwendig, daß wir in diesem Stile den Inhalt der Anthroposophie betrachten. Denn sehen Sie sich ein wenig um in der Welt: die Zeit ist da, in welcher die Menschheit schwer geprüft wird. Warum wird die Menschheit so schwer geprüft? Ja, wenige schauen hin auf das, meine lieben Freunde, was in den Tiefen des historischen Weltgeschehens sich abspielt, wo nicht mehr das menschliche heutige Bewußtsein, sondern wo das Unbewußte nur hineindringt. Ziemlich gedankenlos und schläfrig lebt eigentlich der größte Teil der Menschheit heute mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein dahin. Aber während wir im Kopfe dieses gewöhnliche Bewußtsein haben, schreitet unser tieferes Bewußtsein, welches das Herz ergreift, gerade eben historisch für die moderne Zivilisation durch die Schwelle zur geistigen Welt durch. Hier oben (es wird an die Tafel gezeichnet) im Kopfe leben die Menschen mit alle dem, was sie heute miteinander reden, namentlich mit alle dem, was sie sich über die öffentlichen Verhältnisse vorlügen, und unten geht die ganze Menschheit - ohne daß sie es ahnt, wie wenn einer auf dem Vulkan ginge - durch die Schwelle durch. Und jenseits muß der Mensch entweder verderben, oder er muß vorrücken mit gutem Willen zu einer Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt. Anthroposophie hängt heute schon zusammen mit dem eigentlichen Fortgang der menschlichen Zivilisation. Aber das Elend, das heute innerhalb dieser Zivilisation gesehen werden kann, sollte eine Aufforderung sein, heranzutreten an eine übersinnliche Menschen- und Weltbetrachtung. Das können wir aber nur, wenn wir ein offenes Auge für alles das haben, was in der Welt vorgeht.

[ 35 ] Und so betrachten Sie den heutigen Tag als den Anfang zu dem, daß sie wirklich nicht bloß sich zusammensetzen in Ihren anthroposophischen Zweigen, um sich gewissermaßen einsam abzuschließen von der Welt, sondern daß Sie hinausschauen in das, was im Leben vorgeht. Nehmen Sie das Wort, das ich heute [bei der Gründungsversammlung der Holländischen Anthroposophischen Landesgesellschaft] vielfach gebraucht habe - das ich sozusagen «totgetreten» habe -, das Wort «weltmännisch», «weltfraulich» in vollem Ernste: Versuchen Sie, mit der Welt zusammenzuwachsen! Das wird das beste, das wichtigste «Programm» sein. Das kann man nicht in Statuten hineinbringen; das sollen wir aber als eine Flamme in unsere Herzen hineinbringen können. Nicht mit Programmpunkten kann ich Ihnen am meisten dienen, sondern indem ich Sie hinlenke zu den rechten Empfindungen, den rechten Gefühlen, welche das anthroposophische Leben begleiten sollen. Und wenn Sie etwas warm werden von der Anregung zu diesen rechten Empfindungen, diesen rechten Gefühlen, dann ist einiges von dem erfüllt, was ich eigentlich erreichen wollte mit den Betrachtungen, die ich vor Ihnen anstellte über den übersinnlichen Menschen, wie man ihn anthroposophisch erfassen kann. Und wenn Sie immer wieder glauben werden, manches von dem ginge nicht, was Sie programmatisch in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft wollen: es wird immer helfen, wenn Sie gerade an das zurückdenken, was in diesen, wenn auch wenigen Vorträgen nur andeutend leben konnte über den übersinnlichen Menschen. Denn es wird Sie jederzeit erinnern können an das Gewichtige der Anthroposophie. Und wir können für die Verbreitung, für das richtige Hintragen der Anthroposophie vor die Welt eigentlich nichts besseres tun, als wenn wir uns immer mehr und mehr bewußt werden des gewichtigen Impulses, der die Anthroposophie sein soll für den weiteren Fortgang unserer Zivilisation.
[ 36 ] Damit, meine lieben Freunde, möchte ich den heutigen Tag und diese Vorträge abschließen und Ihnen so recht ans Herz legen, was ich eigentlich als den Empfindungsstrom habe durchziehen lassen wollen durch die Worte, die ich gerade in diesen Tagen über den übersinnlichen Menschen zu Ihnen gesprochen habe. Wenn wir solche Gedanken rege und warm in unseren Herzen behalten, dann werden wir ja auch immer beisammen sein können, wenn wir auch räumlich getrennt sind. Dann werden wir die Gelegenheiten, in denen wir wieder zusammen sein werden, sein lassen können Ausgangspunkte eines weiteren geistigen Zusammenseins. Dann wird uns ein solches physisches Zusammensein der Anlaß sein zu einem wirklichen geistigen Zusammensein. Möge ein solches geistiges Zusammensein zwischen uns allen sich wiederum fester und fester noch knüpfen als ein Ergebnis dessen, was wir zusammen in diesen Tagen erleben durften.
Fifth Lecture
[ 1 ] As well as it could have been done in a few hours, an attempt was made to visualize the course of the human being that leads through the supersensible world. The supersensible world is that in which man dwells directly when he stands in life between death and a new birth. But it is also the supersensible world into which the powers of man reach - even if unconsciously for the ordinary consciousness - when man dwells here on earth through his physical and etheric corporeality within the physical world. When man dwells within this physical world, he feels his supersensible existence more or less like a riddle given to him - a riddle without whose at least partial solution his mind cannot attain inner harmony, inner stability, inner security, but also not the ability to live and to truly love humanity.
[ 2 ] When we look at man here on earth, there is an aspect of the supersensible man that illuminates the latter in such a way that we can see from this illumination why the divine-spiritual worlds have, so to speak, sent man down into this physical world of the senses. It is indeed the case that man must first be addressed with the knowledge of the supersensible world here in the sensual-physical world. There would have to be a completely different attitude towards the mysteries of the supersensible world if one were to speak, so to speak, to the dead, to people between death and a new birth. For this very reason it will be appropriate if we round off this consideration today by letting all that shine into our minds once more with regard to man's earthly sojourn which has been hinted at to us about the mysteries of the supersensible world. let us look at man, at ourselves, as we stand here in earthly life. First of all, we have our senses - these senses that inform us of everything that is around us in earthly life, these senses that are first of all the cause of everything that causes our earthly joys, our earthly happiness, but also our earthly sorrows, our earthly pains. We humans do not always consider what all the impressions and experiences of our senses mean to us. And it is precisely such contemplations as we have had here in the last few days that lead us beyond the sensual life, lead us into spiritual regions. And it could very easily seem as if such an anthroposophical spiritual science would lead man to underestimate the sensory life, even to say: Oh, this sensory life is so subordinate, it is that which man should already flee when he is within earthly life. - But this feeling cannot be the last that follows from spiritual-scientific observation. This feeling can only tell us that a certain subordinate way of taking the sense-life cannot be connected in the right way with human worth and human dignity, but that there must be a way to lose the sense-life in a certain sense, just as it approaches man as a lower sense-life, so to speak, but to gain it again from a higher point of view, from the supersensible point of view, precisely in a deeper sense. We would have to fear spiritual contemplation if we had to say to ourselves that all the beauty that penetrates our souls through the contemplation of the wonderful world of plants, the blossoming, sprouting world of flowers and fruit, that everything that penetrates us through the beauty of the rest of nature, through the majesty of the starry sky and so on, would actually have so little significance for human life that it would have to be abandoned as “low” in the face of spiritual-scientific knowledge.
[ 3 ] But that is not the case at all. If you go back in the development of mankind to what has come to light through the initiates, the initiated masters of the most diverse epochs, in terms of increasing the value of human life, you will find this: The words that have ever been spoken by initiates, they do not underestimate the beauty, the glory, the majesty of earthly-sensuous life. How wonderful are often the poetic, poeticizing and other artistic expressions used by the initiates for the highest supersensible! You need only think of images such as that of the lotus flower and the like, and you will see that the initiates have never underestimated expressing the unfolding of spiritual life through sensual images, that they were therefore of the opinion that there is something in the contemplation of the sensual world, or at least that something can be found that leads man to the highest.
[ 4 ] Now, just as man initially perceives this sensory world with his ordinary consciousness, he cannot be satisfied by it - if only for the reason that what penetrates through his eyes, through his ears and through his other senses is connected with his ego, with the whole development of the ego, with the full life of the ego, but does not actually give him anything for the inner security of this ego. We turn our eyes outwards to the beauty of the blossoms - there is an infinite variety. We then turn our gaze inwards to our ego, and at first it is almost as if this ego must vanish from our ordinary consciousness. It presents itself to us like a spiritual point within us that does not say much other than the empty word “I” alone. And that is no wonder: just think, in order for the eye to see, it has to deny itself. It is precisely the senses that must surrender themselves to the world in order to be man's true mediators for the world. The eye must become completely transparent if the splendor, grandeur and beauty of the outer sensory world is to appear through it in colored splendor and colored radiance. And so the other senses. We know nothing of our senses. Is there perhaps a way to know something about these senses? For this we must again enter the world of the supersensible. Even to know something of the senses, we must step into the world of the supersensible.
[ 5 ] You know the descriptions I have given of the paths into the higher worlds. Imagine vividly that which can become imaginative knowledge. To a certain extent, we step back from the sensory perception of the outer world when we enter into imaginative cognition. But the most interesting thing about this path is the following; I will describe it quite vividly.
[ 6 ] If you approach the imaginative world through meditation - as it corresponds to the exercises given in the well-known book - if you thus begin to struggle to form your etheric man out of your physical man, so that this etheric man, the first supersensible man in you, succeeds in becoming a kind of consciousness; then you can, so to speak, intercept the step where you are between the ordinary sensuous vision and the imaginative vision, where you have not yet attained the imaginative vision in its form, but are on the way to it. sensual vision and imaginative vision, where you have not yet attained imaginative vision in its form, but are on the way to it. Now I will assume that such a person, who is on the path from ordinary sensory perception to imaginative perception, makes his way into a high mountain range in which the primeval mountain rock is particularly richly formed, in which much of that rock is formed which we call quartz siliceous rock. The human being is especially suited to develop spiritual powers in a high mountain range where there is a lot of quartz pebble rock, if he is on this path to imagination. The fact that he has brought certain inner psychic abilities to development at the first attempt, I would like to say, is due to the fact that, of everything in his physical earthly environment, this quartz pebble rock in the high mountains makes a very special impression on him. It is indeed the case that this quartz-like pebble rock in the high mountains is at first only very moderately transparent, translucent. But at the moment when we advance a little, when we have just come to the point of view that I have characterized, the quartz pebbles become completely transparent. We climb up into the high mountains, and the quartz pebbles appear to us like transparent glass - but in such a way that we ourselves have the feeling that something of ourselves streams out and unites with these quartz pebbles. We become one with the surface of the earth just at the outermost surface of the earth through a kind of natural surrender of our consciousness. At this moment we feel something as if our eye itself were sending currents outwards that penetrate down into the quartz pebbles, and at the same moment a kind of feeling begins to arise in us through which we feel one with the whole of earth existence. But by entering in this way into the quartz-like pebbles, at the same time feeling at one with the whole universe, with the whole cosmos, we can attain a first real oneness with the cosmos that is not merely dreamed of, not merely grasped in abstract thoughts. In this way one can come to an intimate awareness of what I would like to express in such words: You, earth, are not alone in the universe, you earth, together with me and all other beings who are on earth, are one with the whole universe! - And through what you experience through this becoming one with the quartz pebbles, you no longer see the earth as separate from the rest of the universe, but you see the earth as an ether sphere that is formed out of the world ether sphere.
[ 7 ] This is a first feeling. And you see, some old songs, some old myths with wonderful inclusions about this or that sound from the old literature of the instinctive clairvoyant time of mankind - people read them today, they also tell themselves that they have sublime feelings with them, but they do not have the truth that is in them. One cannot even let the true feeling of, for example, the Bhagavad Gita or other parts of Indian or other Oriental literature have a proper effect on one's soul if one does not experience something of how real man can become one with the earth in such a way as I have described and thereby become one with the cosmos. For much in the moods of these old songs is written out of such a becoming one with the cosmos, out of such a becoming one that is like a passage of consciousness with the light, with that light that penetrates the hard quartz - but by penetrating the hard quartz with the human soul itself, makes this quartz into the eye of the world, through which man looks out into the vastness of the universe.
[ 8 ] And so we can already say: If we begin to describe the knowledge of the supersensible human being in reality, then we feel ourselves pushed away from speaking in abstract, theoretical discussions, then we are pushed all by ourselves into a way of speaking that connects the entire emotional content of the human soul with the ideas. That is what should be so close to our hearts in every contemplation of the supersensible human being: that one cannot express the knowledge of the supersensible without connecting the whole human being with it, without making willing and feeling one with thoughts and ideas. Certainly, life must be endured; but if some things are hard to bear - hardest to bear for one who knows the whole human side of supersensible knowledge - it is when certain people come along and coin this supersensible knowledge into purely theoretical formulas. Basically, talking about the supersensible world in a theoretical way has the same effect as the sensual pain of putting one's finger into a flame, for example, has on that finger. One must also describe such things if one wants to describe the supersensible human being.
[ 9 ] When the human being then comes a little further in supersensible knowledge, when he has appropriated the imaginative and thereby learned to know what lives supersensibly in the human being between birth and death, then he can also acquire that supersensible knowledge which corresponds to inspiration and through which he sees into what the human being was before birth, before descending into earthly existence, and what he will be after he has passed through the gate of death. He can look into all that which I have described to you in these days as the passage through the various regions of the human physiognomy, the human transformation from an earlier to a later life on earth. It is possible to look into all that I have described to you as the passage through the various starry worlds.
[ 10 ] However, this realization receives a special nuance through which we penetrate into our own inner being in such a way that we say to ourselves: What can be described there for the passage through life between death and a new birth also lives in us when we are on this physical earth. - Yes, it also lives in man when we stand here, I would say, in space as an insignificant human child within the physical body, enclosed by our skin, on earth - it lives in him all the grandiose, the cosmic majestic, which one must describe when one describes the actual essence of man, in so far as he belongs to the star worlds and still higher worlds, the worlds of the higher hierarchies. But if we penetrate cognitively into that which lives in us, one can say as an earthly remnant of that which was our own entity between death and a new birth, to the same extent that we penetrate there, we can do something else with our earth planet itself. We can do this with it, that we now penetrate into its depths, where the metal veins are, where we approach the lead ores, the silver ores, the copper ores, everything that lives in the rock through the metallic.
[ 11 ] When we look at this metallic in the earth with the ordinary senses, it says nothing other than that it speaks of this or that kind of earth. But when we penetrate the earth with the spiritually sharpened gaze that reveals the human supersensible to us, then something very special emerges from everything that is metallic within the earth. Then all that is copper, all that is silver, all that is gold within the earth begins to speak a manifold, mysterious language. Then we encounter something for supersensible observation which makes us, as human beings walking on the earth, so closely related to the whole living-soul nature of the earth itself. The metal ores tell us something, they become cosmic memories for us. Truly, it is so. Think of yourself: if you cultivate the peace of the soul, the inwardly active peace of the soul, if you allow old memories to rise up that bring manifold things into your soul, then you will feel reunited with many an experience that you have gone through, you will feel reunited with many a person who has become dear to you in the course of your life, perhaps with many a person who has long since passed away. You feel enraptured by the present moment, you feel intimately connected with the sufferings and joys of earlier moments that you have gone through in your life on earth.
[ 12 ] Something very similar, only translated into the great, takes place when you, inwardly imbued with spirit-knowledge, with felt spirit-knowledge, make yourself one with the metal veins of the earth. Something does not open up to you as it does with the quartz pebbles, which you see as if you were looking into the vastness of the world, but you become one with the body of the earth, so to speak. You say to yourself by hearing the metal veins inwardly in their wonderful language: Now I am one with the innermost soul and heartbeat of the earth itself, now I hear memories that are not mine; the memories that the earth itself has from earlier times on earth, when it was not yet our earth, when it did not yet have the present animal and plant world, especially not the present mineral world on it and in its bosom, resound into me. I remember with the earth those old earth times when the earth was one with the other planets of our planetary system, I remember those times when one could not speak of the separate earth because it was not as condensed in itself as it is today. I remember the times when the whole planetary system was an animated, living organism, and people still lived inside this living organism in a completely different form. - Thus the metallic nature of the earth leads us to the memories of the earth itself.
[ 13 ] But then, when we have this inner experience, we become quite clear about why we have actually been sent down to earth by the divine-spiritual beings of the world order. By living in the memories of the earth itself, we now feel our own thinking to the right degree. We feel our thinking, because we have seized the memories of the earth, connected with the earth itself. And at this moment, when we make the memories of the earth our own, we have around us the beings of the second hierarchy, the Kyriotetes, Exusiai, Dynameis. This is the way to have those beings around us in our life on earth which we will have around us again when we live between death and a new birth in the time I have described to you. And one comes to the conviction that one comes into contact with these beings of the second hierarchy when one is an embodied human being between birth and death. But these beings not only have the task of working with us on the transformation of the human being between death and a new birth, but they also have a task in the overall shaping of the cosmos. We see how these beings of the second hierarchy are charged by the higher spiritual world order to bring about everything in the earth that comes through the impulses of the metal veins.
[ 14 ] And now we can look back again. We will not have immediately grasped the fact that I am about to mention when we ascended into the quartz-like siliceous rock, for it does not yet speak so clearly. Only that wonderful hearing of the earth's memories from the metal veins speaks clearly. But now we can go back again and understand something that we perhaps did not understand at first. Now we realize that in this emergence into the whole universe through the light penetration of the quartz pebbles, the beings of the third hierarchy, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, are around us. And we learn something very special, we learn that it is not really true what the ordinary sense-sight says when we go into the high mountains, that it is not true what the ordinary sense-sight says when we descend into the depths of the earth to the metal veins. We get to know the marvelous when we climb up into the high mountains, into the regions of the quartzous pebbles, that there the rocky peaks are entwined and interwoven by the Beings of the Third Hierarchy, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. And when we descend to the metal veins of the earth, then we find that these metal veins of the earth are traversed on their paths, on their orbits by the beings of the second Hierarchy. And we say to ourselves: During our earthly existence we are actually also in the company of those beings who are connected with our own inner nature when we are between death and a new birth.
[ 15 ] When we pass through the gate of death, after a certain time we consciously enter the region of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. There, even in the disembodied state, we have acquired a state of consciousness through which these beings of the third hierarchy are around us in the same way as the beings of the three or four kingdoms of nature are around us on earth. But when in the higher consciousness we become aware of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, then that which the senses can see has disappeared before us, for our senses, together with our bodies, are given over to the elements of the earth. We can see nothing of what the senses can see, see nothing in the state between death and new birth. But then the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai ‘tell’ us - I may use this expression, for it is quite true to reality - what they are doing down on earth. Then they tell us how they are not only busy in the life in which they are now together with us, but then they whisper to our soul: We are also involved in the creation of the cosmos, we are the creating beings of the cosmos and look down in our earthly existence at the earthly creatures that make the quartz pebbles and their relatives, there you see our deeds. - And then man realizes, just when he is between death and new birth among the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, that he must descend to earth again. For he gets to know these beings of the third hierarchy between death and a new birth, but he also learns how these beings speak of their deeds on earth in a wonderful way. And he learns that he can only see these deeds when he descends to earth, envelops himself in a physical human body and thereby becomes partaker of sensory perception. Yes, the deepest secrets of sensory perception, not only of the perceptions of the high mountains, but of all sensory perceptions, reveal to us in wonderful conversations the beings with whom we are together between death and new birth. And so beautiful, so magnificent are the beauties of sensual nature - the ordinary consciousness just does not perceive it - that what can arise in the human soul of earthly memories, when it has passed through the gate of death, only attains the right illumination when man now finds described by the angels, the archangels and the elemental forces what his eyes see, what his ears hear, and what his other senses were allowed to perceive on earth.
[ 16 ] Such is the connection between the physical and the superphysical. And so is the connection between human physical life and its supra-physical life. The world is full of magnificence, and what we see here in life, in the physical-sensual life as a physical human being, can make us happy, can uplift us. We get to know its real secrets when we have passed through the gate of death. And the more we have learned to rejoice in the physical-sensual world, the more thoroughly we have entered into all the joys that the physical-sensual world can give us, the greater understanding we bring to the angelic world, which wants to tell us about what we do not yet understand on earth, what we only learn to understand when we cross over into this superphysical world.
[ 17 ] A similar thing happens with the second hierarchy, with the Exusiai, Kyriotetes and Dynameis beings, within which we are also in a certain time between death and a new birth, to which we gain a special relationship when we come to the earth memories themselves by shining on the metal veins of the earth. But here it is again the case that if we experience the metallic here on earth at all, we basically only really learn to understand what we experience in the metallic when we cross over into the region of the second hierarchy.
[ 18 ] You see, it is one of the most beautiful things one can experience - and I may well hope that the anthroposophical movement will bring out the beauties of this field of knowledge in particular - it is one of the most beautiful things one can experience when one is able to examine the various relationships of the metals to human health. Every metal has a certain relationship to human health, as does every metal compound. When man passes through healthy and sick life, he continually enters into relationships with that which actually gives the earth its memories, with the metals and their compounds. And one should not only speak in an abstract-theoretical way of the healing effects of lead and the lead compounds, of copper and the copper compounds and other metals, for these are the most important remedies, if one only knows how to work them in the right way - one should not only speak in a theoretical-abstract way of these wonderful relationships of the metal world to man, over which a particularly shy breath is still poured out when we follow the metal veins in the bosom of the earth, but one would also have to gain a deeper feeling, a deepened sensation for this wonderful relationship of the metallic to man, which only reveals itself when one looks at it from the point of view of the healthy and sick human being.
[ 19 ] I said that it is to be hoped that the anthroposophical movement in particular could spread some of this knowledge among human hearts, because it is important. In times gone by it was not so important because people had an instinctive feeling about all this, because they knew that the lead process is connected with this or that in the human head, the silver process is connected with this or that. People of old talked a lot about this. People of more recent times read this, but they do not understand a word of it; for we speak of all this today in the sense of our common science as if it were nothing but insubstantial, blown-out abstractions. If, however, anthroposophical knowledge is brought about so that man again attains all that deepening of the soul which can be obtained when one speaks of this wonderful relationship of the metallic in the earth-world to human illness and health, then man will carry something up through the gate of death into the spiritual world which will serve him to understand the language of the second Hierarchy in a very special way. Then the greatest mysteries of the world will be able to reveal themselves to man precisely because he brings with him the necessary understanding for them through such preparation on earth. For this is already the case: One learns what one is to learn through anthroposophical spiritual knowledge not merely to satisfy human curiosity, but so that it bears fruit when one has passed through the gate of death, since it is precisely through what is brought to one through spiritual science that one first comes into the right relationship with those entities between death and new birth, with whom one must then be in contact by virtue of one's whole human beingness, because they are then our necessary world environment.
[ 20 ] So we can describe concretely how we gain a relationship with these beings of the higher hierarchies between death and a new birth. But there is something else connected with this, when we go through these regions, for whose understanding what has been indicated prepares us well, then we experience something else. If we can grasp this relationship of the metallic to the healthy and sick human being, then secrets of nature reveal themselves to us - but something else lives in these secrets of nature. We first hear the beings of the second hierarchy speak about the nature of this or that metal, about the nature of gold, silver, lead, copper and so on. But it is the same for us now in relation to the great spiritual world as it is for us here, when we are just beginning to learn to read, and it dawns on us how, by learning to read, we acquire the ability to penetrate into some secrets of the world which can only come to us by learning to read. Now, these are not special processes on earth - I use this also only as a comparison - for the language which we get to know there, through which we learn to understand the entities of the second Hierarchy in a certain region of the passage between death and new birth, this language about the metals and their relationship to the healthy and sick human being only becomes the right one when we can, as it were, raise it in the spirit-cosmos from prose to cosmic poetry, or when we can, better said, raise ourselves to cosmic poetry. At first we listen as one who is a Botokude (uncivilized) in relation to poetry listens to the recitation of a poem. But just as we, if we are not Botokudes, learn to understand what lies in the swing of the verses, in the rhythmic design, in the whole artistic formation, just as we move up to the understanding of the actual artistic-poetic, so we move up, As we ascend from the prosaic-sober to the poetic of the world beyond, from the language of the second Hierarchy, which deals with the relations of the metals to healthy and sick human beings, to the understanding of the secrets of moral existence in the universe, that moral existence which embraces human souls, but also the souls of the gods of all Hierarchies. And the mysteries of the soul are especially revealed to us in this region.
[ 21 ] And then we can go one step further. We can experience what I have told you when we go into the mountains and then descend into the womb of the earth, where everything remains calm at first, when we look at the calm metal veins, the resting rock on the rocky ridge. But if we now go further, if we try not to look at things with the sober gaze of the utilitarian man alone - this sober gaze of the utilitarian man should not be underestimated, for we must rest on the ground of the earth with both feet just then, if we want to penetrate the spiritual world as a soul-spiritually and physically healthy human being - but if we do not stop at what is revealed to us and if we see the metal melting in the extremely hot flame, When we go through factories where the iron flows brightly in the liquid state during the blast furnace process, when we participate especially in those processes where metal ores are transformed from the solid into the liquid state, antimony ores are transformed from solid into liquid and gradually into other states, when we allow this fate of the metallic in the fire to have an effect on us, then something quite different forces its way into the spiritual knowledge that has come to life in us - then we gain a tremendously deep impression of the secrets of our own existence.
[ 22 ] I have often mentioned this when I have said that we should look at the relationship between humans and animals. By anatomically comparing the bones, muscles and, in my opinion, the blood of humans and animals, as has been done in more recent times, you will find a relationship. But the elevation of man above the animals can only be found when one considers such things as the fact that in animals the spinal column is mainly parallel to the surface of the earth, horizontal, whereas in man it is directed upwards - and when one then passes on to the marvel of language in man, to which the animal does not attain, and passes on to how thinking emerges from language. If we observe how speech, thinking, the whole orientation for life begins in the child with the erection of the body, then we see those wonderful forces through which the child dynamically finds its way into the world. There we see how the orientation of the child's limbs is lived out in melody, in the articulation of speech. If we look at how man actually forms himself, shapes himself in the sensual world - there we see calmly shaping forces. Yes, it is wonderful to observe the developing child over the course of the months, as it moves from crawling to walking upright, as it moves to the entire orientation of its body and limbs in the dynamics of the world, and as it then forms language and thought out of the physical.
[ 23 ] When one looks at this in all its wonderfulness, when one looks at it on the one hand in the majestic calm with which it presents itself to those who are able to have this calm when looking at it - it is actually the most beautiful thing one can look at in human life, this becoming of the child through learning to walk, learning to speak, learning to think - when one gets an impression of what is so beautiful in human life; and when, on the other hand, one is able to see how the metal melts in the fire: then the spiritual form of that which leads the child to learn to walk, to learn to speak, appears to you. The spiritual form of this power appears to you when the flame takes hold of the metal, when the metal melts, when the metal becomes liquid. The more liquid, the more volatile the metal becomes, the more the learning to walk, the learning to speak, the learning to think of man rises from the glowing, liquid, volatile becoming of the metal in the fire and one sees the intimate kinship of this metal experiencing its destiny with that which appears dampened by the fiery forces of the worlds in the child's learning to speak, walk and think; and one says to oneself that the Beings of the first Hierarchy, Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, have two sides to their working. The one is this, where they can speak to us from the spiritual world, into which we enter in the middle of life between death and new birth, where we then learn through them the secrets of planetary and other cosmic activity, as I have described in these days. The other side is this, where they work into the visible world - on the one hand into the child's learning to speak, think and walk, on the other hand into everything that underlies our earth process, in that fire has a part in this earth process, in that in fire the metals melt, burn up.
[ 24 ] In the melting and burning up of the metals in forces of fire, this globe was built up. We see into older times, when the globe was built up: In the melting metal through forces of fire we see the one course of the deeds of the seraphim, cherubim, thrones within the earthly world. We see them there, these beings of the first hierarchy, as they go through this course, supported preferably by the thrones. We look back to ancient times on earth, when this glowing, liquefaction of the metals in forces of fire played a special role in the creation of the earthly body, when the thrones were particularly effective, the seraphim and cherubim quietly cooperated. In the child's learning to think, to walk and to speak, on the other hand, the cherubim play the greatest, the main role. But we always see the entities of the first hierarchy working and weaving in unison in one and the other.
[ 25 ] Such a realization then actually connects death in earthly life and resurrection in the life beyond. For through such a realization, where one sees the relationship between the forces of fire that seize the metals and those forces that make man into man - where one sees these in connection, the whole world becomes one. There is no longer any difference between life on earth and life in the beyond, between life from birth to death and life in the spiritual world. The life between death and a new birth is only a transformation of life on earth, the human being knows through something like this how the one merges into the other, how the one is only another form of the other.
[ 26 ] And when our soul then really rises from such insights, then others also come with these insights. Yes, these other insights can also come in a different way.
[ 27 ] If you really understand what I have shown you today about the wonderful relationship between the metals melting and evaporating in the forces of fire and the child's learning to walk, to speak and to think, if you place these images before your imagination and meditate in them and thereby deepen your soul by calling such images before your soul, then this soul will be seized by a power that lets you see through in such a way that a great life riddle for the promotion and fruitfulness of life is solved for you: the working of karma, the working of destiny in man. For between the child's learning to walk, to speak and to think and the liquefaction and volatilization of the metals in the forces of fire, between the sulphurous-phosphorous glowing and weaving and volatilization of the metals in the fire, between this testing of the metals in the fire and the correct transition of the animalistic in the child to the human being through learning to walk, speak and think, lies the comprehension of human destiny, lies the understanding penetration into karma. And karma is that which reaches into the directly active human life as the supersensible. When we meditate in this way, we become acquainted with the mysteries of destiny that weave through our lives, in that on the one side we have the image of the metal destiny in the fire, on the other side the image of the primal human destiny, when man descends to earth in learning to walk, learning to speak and learning to think. In between, what we need from the riddle of destiny for human life in general is revealed.
[ 28 ] In this way we see how the supersensible human being can also enter into the world in which the sensible human being lives. And that was what I wanted to tell you as an element that belongs to the contemplation of the supersensible human being.
[ 29 ] This contemplation of the supersensible human being cannot proceed in abstract theories, but must reach out everywhere into the secrets of the natural and spiritual being of the world in order to understand the human being, for the human being is intimately connected with all the natural and spiritual secrets of the world. He really is a small world. One must not imagine that what is spread out in the big world also happens in the same way in the microcosm. What flames majestically in the forces of fire when the metals melt radiates out to the boundaries of the cosmos, to the spatial boundaries of the cosmos, for there are such boundaries. Imagine you have the forces of fire in which the metals melt and volatilize. What volatilizes in the metal radiates out into the vastness of the worlds, but it returns in forces of light and in radiations of light-heat. And as it returns from the expanses of the world, it turns the child that cannot yet speak or walk, that still has to crawl, into the child that walks upright. Thus you have the upward currents that you can see in the merging metals; when they go far enough out into the cosmos, they turn back, they return and are then the same forces that raise the child. What you see on one side, you will find on the other. And so you get an idea of the ascending and descending world forces that work in the world being, of the metamorphoses, the transformations of these world forces.
[ 30 ] But then you will also get to know in its true sense that which in ancient times was associated with the science of that time: the old sacrifices. In the old sacrifices, the sacrificial flame with that which flamed in it was that which was sent out into the world to the gods, so that it could come down again to work in human worlds. And the old priestly sage faced the sacrificial fire in such a way that he said: "To you, O flame, I give what I have here on earth, so that when the smoke flows upwards, the gods may receive it. Let that which develops in the flame be transformed into divine blessing, which, creatively active and fruitful, penetrates back down to earth! - Thus we also see the ancient sacrificial priests' talk of supersensible worlds connected with the mysteries of the world in which man is immersed.
[ 31 ] This is what I wanted to tell you about the supersensible nature of man, in so far as it can be grasped anthroposophically. All that remains for me to say, following on from what I have been able to say to you in this presence from the perspective of the spiritual worlds, following on from what has taken place for the founding of the Dutch Anthroposophical Society, is that it is my heartfelt wish and hope that something may now emanate from this conference which may ignite in your hearts and minds.
[ 32 ] If we are able to absorb anthroposophical knowledge not merely by reading or listening to it, but if through living anthroposophical contemplation we come more and more to experience the content of anthroposophy with our heart, our mind, then it will really be as if not only the sense of ideas penetrates our souls when we are together in the anthroposophical branches and practise anthroposophy with other people, or when we remain in a solitary closet; but then it is as if living world beings enter our souls. Then anthroposophy itself appears to us more and more as something living and essential. And we then become aware of something knocking at the door of our heart with anthroposophy and saying: Let me in, for I am you yourself; I am your true human essence!
[ 33 ] Anthroposophy not only wants to tell us about this true human essence, but anthroposophy wants to fill the human soul and the human mind with this true human essence. And you will best accomplish what you have set out to do today if you remember more often - be it on the way to the meeting, be it by picking up a book or starting something else that you believe should become fruitful in the anthroposophical movement - if you remember more often, how a true anthroposophical view of the world can give rise to the feeling and the sensation that anthroposophy actually knocks at our hearts in order to bring us our true human being, our real human being, to bring us - ourselves, and thus to bring into us that which in turn finds its way out in genuine human love for other human beings. Then, when we allow anthroposophy into our hearts after it has throbbed, then anthroposophy brings us true human love through what it is itself.
[ 34 ] Oh, in our present time it is very necessary that we consider the content of anthroposophy in this style. For look around you a little in the world: the time has come when humanity is being severely tested. Why is humanity being tested so severely? Yes, my dear friends, few look at what is taking place in the depths of historical world events, where the human consciousness of today no longer penetrates, but only the unconscious. Quite thoughtlessly and sleepily the greater part of mankind today actually lives along with the ordinary consciousness. But while we have this ordinary consciousness in our heads, our deeper consciousness, which takes hold of the heart, is just now historically for modern civilization passing through the threshold to the spiritual world. Up here (it is drawn on the blackboard) people live in their heads with all that they talk to each other today, especially with all that they lie to themselves about public circumstances, and down here the whole of humanity - without realizing it, as if someone were walking on a volcano - passes through the threshold. And beyond, man must either perish, or he must advance with good will to a knowledge of the supersensible world. Anthroposophy today is already connected with the actual progress of human civilization. But the misery that can be seen today within this civilization should be an invitation to approach a supersensible view of man and the world. But we can only do this if we have an open eye for everything that is going on in the world.

[ 35 ] And so consider today as the beginning of not just sitting together in your anthroposophical branches in order to isolate yourselves from the world, so to speak, but to look out into what is going on in life. Take the word I have used many times today [at the founding meeting of the Dutch National Anthroposophical Society] - which I have, so to speak, “trodden to death” - the word ‘worldly’, “worldly womanly” in all seriousness: try to grow together with the world! That will be the best, the most important “program”. You can't put that into statutes, but we should be able to put it into our hearts as a flame. It is not with program points that I can serve you best, but by directing you to the right feelings, the right sentiments that should accompany anthroposophical life. And if you are warmed a little by the stimulus to these right feelings, these right emotions, then some of what I actually wanted to achieve with the observations I made before you about the supersensible human being, as one can grasp him anthroposophically, will be fulfilled. And if you keep thinking that some of what you want programmatically in the Anthroposophical Society is not possible, it will always help if you think back to what was only hinted at in these few lectures about the supersensible human being. For it will always remind you of the importance of anthroposophy. And we can do nothing better for the spread of anthroposophy, for bringing it properly before the world, than to become more and more aware of the important impulse that anthroposophy should be for the further progress of our civilization.
[ 36 ] With this, my dear friends, I would like to conclude today and these lectures, and to bring to your hearts what I have actually wanted to let flow through the words I have just spoken to you in these days about the supersensible human being. If we keep such thoughts lively and warm in our hearts, then we will always be able to be together, even if we are physically separated. Then we will be able to let the occasions when we are together again be the starting points for a further spiritual reunion. Then such a physical togetherness will be the occasion for a real spiritual togetherness. May such a spiritual togetherness between us all become even stronger and stronger as a result of what we have been able to experience together during these days.