World History in the Light of Anthroposophy
and as a Foundation for Knowledge of the Human Spirit
GA 233
31 December 1923, Dornach
Lecture VIII
We stand to-day under the sign of a painful memory, and I want to place what we have to take for the theme of our lecture to-day into the sign of that painful memory. The lecture I was able to give exactly a year ago in our old Goetheanum,—those of you who were present will remember how it took its start from descriptions of Nature, of relationships that can be observed in Nature on Earth, and led from these up to the spiritual worlds and the revelations of the spiritual worlds in the writing of the stars. And you will remember how we were able then to bring the human heart, the human soul and spirit in their whole nature and being into close connection with what is found when one follows the path that leads away from the earthly into the distant stellar spaces, wherein the spiritual writes its Cosmic Script. And the words that I then wrote upon the blackboard, writing for the last time in the room that was so soon to be taken from us, bore within them this impulse and this purpose: to lift the human soul into spiritual heights.
So on that evening we were brought into direct and close touch with that to which our Goetheanum in its whole intention and character was devoted. And to-day you will allow me to speak to you again of these things, as it were in continuation of the lecture that was given here a year ago.
In the days preceding the burning of Ephesus, when men spoke of the Mysteries, provided they were men who had some understanding and feeling for them, they spoke of them somewhat in the following manner: Human knowledge, human wisdom has a home and a dwelling place in the Mysteries. And when in those olden times the Spiritual Guides of the Universe spoke of the Mysteries, when the Mysteries were spoken of in the super-sensible worlds—I may be permitted this expression, although of course it is only a figure of speech to describe how thought and influence streamed down from the super-sensible into the sensible worlds—when, therefore, the Mysteries were spoken of in the super-sensible worlds, then it was somewhat in the following way: ‘In the Mysteries men erect places where we Gods can find the men who do sacrifice and who understand us in the sacrifice.’
For in point of fact men of the old world, men of the old world who knew, were conscious that in the places of the Mysteries Gods meet with men; they knew how all that carries and sustains the world depends on what takes place between Gods and men in the sacred Mysteries.
But there is a word,—a word that has come down to us in history and that can speak powerfully to the human heart even in external historical tradition, but that speaks with peculiar force and earnestness when we see it shape itself out of strange and unparalleled events, when we see it written with eternal letters into the history of mankind, though the writing be only visible for a moment in the spirit. I declare to you that, wherever the eye of the spirit is turned to the deed of Herostratus, to the burning of Ephesus, then, in those flames of fire may be read the ancient word: The Jealousy of the Gods.
Among the many and diverse words that have come down to us from olden time, and that were in use in the life of olden times in the manner I have described,—among all the words in this physical world, this word is, I verily believe, one of the most awful: The Jealousy of the Gods. In those times the term God was applied to all beings of a super-sensible nature,—to every form of being that had no need to appear on Earth in a physical body. Many and varied kinds of Gods were differentiated. The Divine-Spiritual Beings who are most closely united with mankind, from Whom man in his innermost nature originated and by Whom he was launched into the stream of time, the same Beings Whom we recognise in the majesty of Nature and in her smallest manifestations, and Whom we discover too in that which lives in our own inmost selves,—these Divine-Spiritual Beings can never be jealous. Nevertheless in that ancient time the ‘Jealousy of the Gods’ was something very real to man. If we study the period of human development that led up to the time of Ephesus, we find that the more advanced members of the human race received into their being much of what the good Gods held out to them in the Mysteries. For it is true to say that an intimate relationship exists between good human hearts and the good Gods, and this intimate relationship was knit closer and closer in the Mysteries. And thus it came to pass that certain other divine Beings, Luciferic-Ahrimanic divine Beings were made aware, that man was being drawn nearer and nearer to the good Gods. And there arose a jealousy on the part of the Gods, a jealousy concerning man. Over and over again in human history we have to hear how a man who strives after the Spirit falls victim to a tragic destiny. In olden times such an event was spoken of as brought about by the Jealousy of the Gods.
The Greeks knew very well that this Jealousy of the Gods exists; they traced back to it much of what took place in the history of man. With the burning of Ephesus it was made manifest that further spiritual evolution was only possible if men became conscious that there are Gods—that is, super-sensible Beings—who are jealous of the further advance of man.
It is this that gives the peculiar colouring to all history that follows the burning of Ephesus,—or I may also say, the birth of Alexander. And it is essential for a right understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. We have to see a world filled with the jealousy of certain kinds of Gods. Ever since a time that follows soon after the Persian War, the soul-atmosphere of the world was filled with the effects of this Jealousy of the Gods. And that which had to be done in the Macedonian time had to be done in the full consciousness that the Jealousy of the Gods pervades the spiritual atmosphere over the surface of the Earth. But it was done with courage and daring, and in spite of the misunderstandings of Gods and men.
Into this atmosphere, filled with the Jealousy of the Gods, sank then the Deed of Him Who was capable of the greatest Love that can exist in the world. We only see the Mystery of Golgotha in a true light, when we add to all else we have learned concerning it this picture: the dark bank of cloud that hung in olden time over Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Northern Africa and Southern Europe, the dark cloud that is the expression of the Jealousy of the Gods. And then into this cloud-filled atmosphere we behold streaming down the warm and gentle rays of the Love that pours through the Mystery of Golgotha.
But when we come to our own time, then that which in earlier ages was—if I may put it so—an affair between Gods and men, must in this epoch of human freedom be played out below in the physical life of men. We can already describe how it is being so played out. In olden times, when men thought of the Mysteries, it was in this sense that they spoke of them:—In the Mysteries, they said, human knowledge, human wisdom has a home. And when the Mysteries were spoken of among the Gods, it was said: When we descend into the Mysteries, we find the sacrifice done by human beings, and in the sacrificing human being we are understood. The burning of Ephesus marks the beginning of the epoch that saw the gradual and complete disappearance of the Mysteries in their ancient form.
I have told you how the Mysteries were continued here and there—in a sublime manner, for example, in the Mysteries of Hibernia, where the Mystery of Golgotha was celebrated in the ritual at the very time when it was taking place physically over in Palestine. Men had knowledge of it not through physical but through spiritual means of communication. Notwithstanding these survivals, the real being of the Mysteries retreated more and more in the physical world. The external centres which were the meeting places for Gods and men lost more and more of their significance. By the time of the 13th and 14th centuries it had almost entirely gone. For whoever would find the way, for example, to the Holy Graal, must know how to tread spiritual paths. In the olden times, before the burning of Ephesus, man trod physical paths. In the Middle Ages it is spiritual paths that he must tread.
Spiritual paths above all were necessary from the 13th, 14th and especially the 15th century onwards, if one wanted to receive true Rosicrucian instruction. For the temples of the Rosicrucians were hidden from outer physical experience. Many a true Rosicrucian frequented these temples, it is true, but no outer physical eye of man could find them. None the less there were disciples who came to these old Rosicrucians; for in scattered places the true Rosicrucians could indeed be found. They were like hermits of wisdom and of consecrated human action. And any man who was able to perceive the language of the Gods in the gentle radiance of their eyes, would find them so. I am not speaking in mere pictures. I am relating a reality, and a reality which was of cardinal importance for that time. To find the Rosicrucian master the pupil must first attain the faculty to perceive the language of Heaven in the gentle light of the physical eye. Then it was possible to find here and there in Mid-Europe, in the 14th and 15th centuries, these remarkable men, living in the most simple and unpretentious manner—men who were God-inspired, connected in their inner life with the spiritual temples which did indeed exist, albeit the access to them was no less difficult than the access to the Holy Graal, as described in the well-known legend.
Observing in the spirit what took place between such a Rosicrucian master and his pupil, we can hear many a conversation, wherein is shown once again—though in a form that belongs to a more modern age—how the Wisdom of the Gods lives and moves upon Earth. For the instructions of these masters were essentially objective and concrete. There in his loneliness some Rosicrucian master was found by the pupil who had spared no pains to seek him out. Gazing into the gentle eyes of the master out of which spoke the language of the Gods, this pupil would receive in all humility an instruction somewhat as follows:—
Look, my son, at your own being! You carry about with you a body which your physical eyes can see. The centre of the Earth supplies this body with the forces which make it visible. This is your physical body.
But look around you at your environment on Earth. Behold the stones! They can exist on Earth by themselves, they are at home here. And if they have once assumed a certain form, they can preserve this form by virtue of the Earthly forces. Look at the crystal; it bears its form within it. The Earth enables it to keep the form which belongs to its own being. Your physical body cannot do that. When your soul leaves it, it is destroyed, dissolved in dust. The Earth has no power over your physical body. It has the power to form and also to maintain the transparent crystal mountains with their wonderful configuration; but the Earth has no power to maintain the form of your physical body, it must dissolve it in to dust. Your physical body is not of the Earth, it is of high spirituality. To Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones belongs the form and figure of your physical body. Not to the Earth, but to the highest spiritual powers which are accessible to men, does this physical body of yours belong. The Earth can destroy it, but never build it up.
And now, within this physical body dwells an etheric body. The day will come when your physical body will be received by the Earth for its destruction. Then will your etheric body dissolve in the wide expanse of the Cosmos. The far spaces of the Cosmos can indeed dissolve, but they again cannot build your etheric body. Only the divine spiritual Beings can build it up—the Beings of the hierarchy of Dynamis, Exusiai and Kyriotetes. To them you owe your etheric body.
With your physical body you unite the physical substances of the Earth. But that which is within you transforms these substances into something utterly different from all that is physically present in the environment of the physical body. Your etheric body brings into movement all that is fluid within you, all that is water within you. The saps and fluids in their circulation stand under the influence of your physical body. Behold your blood! It is the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes who cause the blood to circulate as a fluid through your veins. It is only as a physical body that you are man; in the etheric body you are still animal, albeit an animal that is inspirited by the second Hierarchy.
What I have here gathered up into a very few words was the substance of a prolonged instruction given by that master in the gentle light of whose eyes the pupil discerned the language of Heaven. And then his attention was turned to the third member of the human being, which we call the astral body. And it was made clear to him that this astral body contains the impulse for the breathing—for all that is airy in the human organism, for all that pulsates as air within this body of ours. Now it is true that for a long time after man has passed through the gate of Death, the earthly nature strives as it were to make disturbances in the airy element, so much so that the clairvoyant vision can observe in the atmospheric phenomena of the Earth for many years, the noising of the astral bodies of the dead. Nevertheless the Earth with its encircling sphere can do no other in relation to the impulses of the astral body too than dissolve them. For these again can only be created by Beings of the third Hierarchy—the Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi.
And then the master said,—and his words struck deep into the heart of his pupil: In your physical body, inasmuch as you receive within you the mineral kingdom and transform it, you belong to the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. In so far as you are an etheric body, you are like an animal. Here however you belong to the Spirits whom we designated as those of the second Hierarchy—the Kyriotetes, Exusiai, Dynamis. Inasmuch as you live and move in the fluid element, you belong not to the Earth but to this Hierarchy. And as you live and move in the airy element, you belong not to the Earth but to the Hierarchy of Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi.
When the pupil had received this instruction in sufficient measure, he no longer felt that he belonged to the Earth. He felt forces proceeding from his physical, etheric and astral bodies which united him with the Hierarchies. For he felt how, through the mineral world, he is united with the first Hierarchy; through the water of the earth, with the second Hierarchy; and through the atmosphere, with the third Hierarchy. And it was plain to him that he is an inhabitant of Earth purely and solely on account of the element of warmth that he bears within him. In this way the Rosicrucian pupil came to the perception that the warmth, the physical warmth he has within him, is what makes him ‘man on earth.’ And he learned increasingly to feel how closely related warmth of soul and warmth of spirit are to physical warmth.
The man of later times gradually lost all knowledge of how his physical, etheric and astral content are connected—through the solid, the fluid and the aeriform—with the Divine. The Rosicrucian pupil however knew this well; he knew that what made him earthly was not these elements at all, but the element of warmth.
The moment the pupil of the Rosicrucian teacher perceived this secret of the connection of the element of warmth with his life on earth as earthly man, in that moment he knew how to link the human in him on to the spiritual.
Now the pupils who came to these often-time humble haunts where such Rosicrucian masters lived were prepared before-hand in a way that was frequently quite unsought by them and that appeared no less than marvellous in their eyes. An intimation would come to them, to one in one way, to another in another; often to all outward appearance it came by a mere chance. The intimation would be given to them: You must seek out a place where you may be able to bring your own spiritual nature into contact with the Spiritual of the Cosmos. And after the pupil had received the instruction of which I told you, then, yes then, he was able to say to the master: I go from you with the greatest comfort that could ever be to me on Earth. For in that you have shown to me how earthly man has his own proper element in warmth, you have opened to me the possibility to connect my physical nature with soul and spirit. The hard bones, the flowing blood, the airy breath,—into none of these do I bring my soul nature, but only into the element of warmth.
It was with an infinite peace and rest that the pupils departed from their masters in those days. In their countenance was expressed the great comfort they had received, and from this look of peace developed gradually that mild and gentle gaze whence the language of Heaven can speak. And so we find in those earlier times and on into the first third of the fifteenth century a profound instruction of the soul being given in these humble and secluded haunts. It is indeed unknown as compared with the events of which external history relates. It went on none the less, and was an instruction that took deep hold of the entire human being, an instruction that made it possible for the human soul to link its own nature on to the sphere of the Cosmic-Spiritual.
This whole spiritual atmosphere has disappeared in the course of the later centuries. It is no longer present in our civilisation. An external, God-estranged civilisation has spread abroad over the countries that once upon a time saw such a civilisation as I have just described to you. We stand here to-day bearing within us the memory of many a scene like that I have described, although the memory can only be created in the Spirit in the astral light. And when we look back into the older times, that are so often pictured to us as times of darkness, and then turn our gaze upon our own times, a deep longing arises in our hearts. From out of the spiritual revelations that have been accessible to man since the last third of the nineteenth century, is born a longing to speak to men once more in a spiritual way. But to do so it is not enough to speak with abstract words; to speak spiritually demands the use of manifold signs and symbols; our speech has to be wide and comprehensive. Such a language, my dear friends, such a form of speech as needed to be found for the Spiritual Beings Who have to speak to modern humanity, was given to us in the forms of the Goetheanum that was destroyed by fire a year ago. In very truth, the forms were built and moulded to that end, that what was spoken from the platform in ideas should speak on further in them.
And so in a certain sense we may say that in the Goetheanum we had something that could awaken in an altogether new form a memory of the old.
When the pupil for initiation entered the Temple of Ephesus, his attention was directed to the statue of which I have spoken to you in these lectures, and the statue called to him in the language of the heart with these words: Unite yourself with the Cosmic Ether, and you will behold the earthly from out of the Ether heights.
Many a pupil at Ephesus did so behold the earthly from out of the Ether heights. And a certain race of the Gods was jealous. Centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha took place, brave men were already finding a way to meet this Jealousy of the Gods. They found a way to foster what had come down to them from ancient holier years of mankind's history and had worked powerfully in human evolution up to the time of the burning of Ephesus. True, it was dim now and feeble, but even in this enfeebled form it could still continue to work.
Had our Goetheanum been brought to completion, then as you entered from the West, your glance would have fallen on a Statue that bade man know himself in his cosmic nature, know himself as a being set between the powers of Lucifer and Ahriman, God-maintained in the midst in inner balance of being. And when you looked upon the forms of the columns and of the architrave, these forms spoke a language that was a continuation of the language which was spoken in words from the platform, where it was sought to express the spiritual in ideas. The sound of the words flowed on into the plastically moulded forms. And above in the dome were displayed the scenes which could bring before the eye of the soul the past evolution of mankind. Whoever looked upon this Goetheanum with feeling and understanding could find in it a memory of the Temple of Ephesus.
The memory, however, grew to be terribly painful. For in a manner not at all unlike that which befell Ephesus in earlier time, exactly at the moment in its evolution when the Goetheanum was ready to become the bearer of the renewal of spiritual life, in that very moment was flung into it the burning brand.
My dear friends, our pain was deep and indescribable. But we made the resolve to go forward, unhindered by this tragedy that had befallen us, to continue our work for the spiritual world. For we were able to say to ourselves in the depths of our own hearts: When we look upon the flames that rose from Ephesus, we behold written into the flames these words: The Jealousy of the Gods. That was a time when men were still unfree and must needs follow the Will of the good and the evil Gods. In our day men are marked out for freedom. A year ago, on New Year's Eve, we beheld the destroying flames. The red glow rose to Heaven. Tongues of flame, dark blue and reddish yellow, curled their way up through the general sea of fire. They came from the metal instruments concealed in the Goetheanum; the gigantic sea of fire glowed with all manner of changing colours. And as one gazed into this sea of flame with its swift lines and tongues of colour, one had perforce to read these words, words that spoke pain for the soul: The Jealousy of Man.
Thus are the words that speak from epoch to epoch in human evolution bound together in deepest calamity and unhappiness. In the time when man still looked up to the Gods in unfreedom, but had it as his task to make himself free, there was a word that was significant of the deepest unhappiness and grief to him. He beheld inscribed into the flames: The Jealousy of the Gods. And by a thread of spiritual evolution our own calamity is linked with this word. We live in a time when man has to find in himself the power of freedom, and now we behold inscribed in the flames another word: The Jealousy of Man. In Ephesus the statue of the Gods; here in the Goetheanum the statue of Man, the statue of the Representative of mankind, Christ Jesus. In Him, identifying ourselves in all humility with Him, we thought to attain to knowledge, even as once in their way, a way that is no longer fully understood by mankind to-day, the pupils of Ephesus attained to knowledge in Diana of Ephesus.
The pain does not grow less when one beholds in the light of history what that New Year's Eve brought to us a year ago. When for the last time it was given to me to stand on the platform that was itself built in harmony with the whole Goetheanum, it was my intention and purpose to direct the gaze, the spiritual gaze of those present away from earthly realms to the ascent into the starry worlds where the Will and Wisdom, where the Light of the Spiritual Cosmos are brought to expression. I know well, sponsors were there present at that time,—spirits of those who in the Middle Ages taught their pupils in the manner I have described to you.
One hour after the last word had been spoken, I was summoned to the fire at the Goetheanum. At the fire of the Goetheanum we passed the whole of that New Year night.
One has but to speak these words, and thoughts unutterable surge up in all our hearts and souls. But whenever it has happened in the evolution of mankind that something sacred to that evolution has been torn away, then there have always been a few who have pledged themselves, after the dissolution of the physical, to continue the work in the Spirit, to which the physical was dedicated. And gathered here as we are in the moment that marks the anniversary of the tragic loss of our Goetheanum, we do well to remember that we shall bring our souls into the right attitude for this gathering when we pledge ourselves one and all to bear onward in the Spirit on the advancing wave of human progress that which was expressed in physical form and in physical image in the Goetheanum, and which has been torn away from physical sight by a deed like the deed of Herostratus. Our pain and grief cling to the old Goetheanum. But we shall only show ourselves worthy of having been permitted to build this Goetheanum, if we fulfil the task that yet remains to us, if we take to-day a solemn pledge, each one of us before the highest, the Divine, that he bears within his soul, a pledge to hold faithfully in remembrance the spiritual impulses that have had their outward expression in the Goetheanum that is gone. The Goetheanum could be taken from us: the spirit of the Goetheanum, if so be that in all sincerity we will to keep it, can never be taken from us. It will least of all be taken from us, if in this solemn hour, that is divided by but a short space of time from the actual moment a year ago, when the flames burst forth from our beloved Goetheanum,—if in this solemn hour we not only feel a renewal of our pain, but out of the very pain pledge ourselves to remain loyal to the Spirit to which we erected our Goetheanum, building it up through ten years of work. If this resolve wells up to-day in all sincerity from the depths of our hearts, if we are able to change the pain and grief into the impulse to action, then we shall also change the sorrowful event into blessing. The pain cannot thereby be made less, but it rests with us to find in the pain the urge to action, to action in the Spirit.
Even so let us look back upon the terrible flames of fire that filled us with such unutterable sadness, but let us at the same time feel how to-day, as we dedicate ourselves with solemn vow to the highest divine forces that are within us, a spiritual flame lights up in our hearts. Yea, and the flame in our hearts shall shed new light and warmth on all that was purposed and willed in the Goetheanum, on all that we are now resolved to carry forward on the advancing wave of human evolution.
Let us then, my dear friends, recall at this time and write deeper in our hearts the words that I was able to speak to you over there in the Goetheanum almost in the very same moment of time a year ago. On that night I spoke somewhat in the following words: We are at the eve of a New Year, we must go forward to meet an oncoming Cosmic New Year. If the Goetheanum were still standing, this demand and this call could in this moment be renewed. It is no longer standing. The same call can, however, be uttered again on this New Year's Eve, can be uttered, as I believe, with redoubled power just because the Goetheanum is no longer there. Let us carry over the soul of the Goetheanum into the Cosmic New Year, let us try to erect in the new Goetheanum a worthy memorial to the old!
May our hearts be thus knit to the old Goetheanum, which we had perforce to give over to the elements. And may our hearts be closely knit to the spirit and the soul of this Goetheanum. And with this solemn pledge to the highest and the best that is in us, we will carry our life over not only into the New Year, but into the Cosmic New Year, we will go forward into it, strong for action, upheld and guided in soul and spirit.
My dear friends, you received me by rising in memory of the old Goetheanum. Let us now rise in token that we pledge ourselves to continue working in the spirit of the Goetheanum with the best and highest forces that we have within us. So be it. Amen.
And we will hold to this our solemn pledge, we will be true to it as long as we are able, we will hold to it with our will,—for our will it is that unites these human souls of ours with the souls of the Gods. We will remain faithful to the spirit in which at a certain moment of our life we first sought the Spiritual Science of the Goetheanum.
And let us understand and know how to keep the promise we have made.
Achter Vortrag
Wir stehen heute in dem Zeichen einer schmerzlichen Erinnerung, und wir wollen dasjenige, was wir gerade heute zum Inhalte dieses Vortrags zu nehmen haben, durchaus in das Zeichen dieser schmerzlichen Erinnerung stellen. Der Vortrag, den ich in unserem alten Bau gerade vor einem Jahre halten durfte: diejenigen von Ihnen, die anwesend waren, werden sich daran erinnern, wie er den Weg genommen hat, von der Schilderung irdischer natürlicher Verhältnisse ausgehend, hinauf in die geistigen Welten und die Offenbarungen dieser geistigen Welten aus der Schrift der Sterne; wie dann die Möglichkeit vorhanden war, das menschliche Herz, die Menschenseele, den menschlichen Geist in Zusammenhang zu bringen ihrem ganzen Wesen nach mit dem, was gefunden werden kann, wenn man den Weg hinaus nimmt aus dem Irdischen nicht nur in die Sternenweiten, sondern in dasjenige, was durch die Sternenweiten wie eine Weltenschrift das Geistige abbildet. Und das letzte, was ich hinschreiben durfte auf die Tafel in jenem Raum, der uns dann bald darauf genommen ward, ging durchaus darauf hinaus, die menschliche Seele hinaufzuheben in geistige Höhen. Damit war eigentlich gerade an jenem Abend unmittelbar angeknüpft an dasjenige, dem ja unser Goetheanumbau durch seine ganze Wesenheit gewidmet sein sollte. Und von dem, woran damals angeknüpft worden ist, lassen Sie mich zunächst heute wie in einer Fortsetzung gerade des Vortrages, der vor einem Jahre hier gehalten worden ist, sprechen.
Wenn in der Zeit, die dem Brande von Ephesus vorangegangen ist, die Rede war von den Mysterien, dann sprachen alle diejenigen, welche in ihrem Gemüte etwas verstanden von dem Mysterienwesen, so, daß ihre Rede ungefähr klang: Menschliches Wissen, menschliche Weisheit hat eine Stätte, eine Heimstätte in den Mysterien. - Und wenn in jenen alten Zeiten unter den geistigen Lenkern der Welt die Rede von den Mysterien war, wenn also in übersinnlichen Welten von den Mysterien gesprochen wurde - ich darf mich dieser Ausdrücke bedienen, obwohl sie natürlich nur in figürlicher Weise die Art bezeichnen, wie von den übersinnlichen Welten herunter gedacht und wie gewirkt wird in die sinnlichen -, wenn also in den übersinnlichen Welten gesprochen wurde von den Mysterien, da klang ungefähr die Rede so: In den Mysterien errichten die Menschen Stätten, wo wir Götter die opfernden Menschen finden können, die uns verstehen im Opfer. Denn in der Tat, das war allgemeines Bewußtsein der alten Welt derer, die da wußten in der alten Welt, daß sich in den Mysterienstätten Götter und Menschen begegneten und daß alles dasjenige, was die Welt trägt und hält, abhängt von dem, was sich abspielt in den Mysterien zwischen den Göttern und zwischen den Menschen.
Aber es gibt ein Wort, das ja auch äußerlich historisch überliefert ist, das aus dieser historischen Überlieferung ja ergreifend sprechen kann zum Menschenherzen, das aber besonders ergreifend spricht, wenn man es sieht aus ganz besonderen Ereignissen heraus sich formen, wie mit ehernen, aber nur für den Augenblick im Geiste sichtbaren Lettern hineingeschrieben in die Geschichte der Menschheit. Und ich meine, ein solches Wort ist immer zu sehen, wenn der geistige Blick hinzielt auf die Herostratos-Tat, den Brand von Ephesus. Man kann in diesen Feuerflammen das alte Wort finden: der Neid der Götter.
Ich glaube allerdings, daß unter den mancherlei Worten, die aus alten Zeiten überliefert sind, die im Leben alter Zeiten auf die Weise zu sehen sind, wie ich sie eben geschildert habe, in dieser physischen Welt dieses eines der furchtbarsten ist: der Neid der Götter. In jenen alten Zeiten wurde alles mit dem Worte Gott bezeichnet, was in übersinnlicher Wesenheit so lebte, daß es niemals nötig hatte, in einem physischen Leib auf Erden zu erscheinen, und man unterschied in jenen alten Zeiten die mannigfaltigsten Göttergeschlechter. Und ganz gewiß, diejenigen göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, welche so verbunden sind mit der Menschheit, daß der Mensch seinem innersten Wesen nach dutch sie entstanden und durch den Lauf der Zeiten geschickt ist, diese göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, die wir verspüren dutch die Majestät und durch die kleinsten Erscheinungen der äußeren Natur, die wir verspüren durch dasjenige, was in unserem Inneren lebt, diese göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten können nicht neidisch werden. Aber in der alten Zeit meinte man mit dem Neid der Götter dennoch etwas sehr Reales. Wenn wir die Zeit verfolgen, in der sich das Menschengeschlecht bis gegen Ephesus hin entwickelt hat, da finden wir, daß allerdings die fortgeschritteneren menschlichen Individuen vieles von dem, was ihnen die guten Götter gern in den Mysterien gegeben haben, an sich genommen haben. Denn wir treffen durchaus das Richtige, wenn wir sagen: Es besteht zwischen den guten Menschenherzen und den guten Göttern ein inniges Verhältnis, das immer fester und fester gebunden wurde in den Mysterien, so daß es gewissen anderen, luziferisch-ahrimanischen Götterwesenheiten vor die Seele getreten ist, daß der Mensch immer näher und näher herangezogen wurde an die guten Gottheiten. Und es entstand der Neid der Götter auf den Menschen. — Und wir müssen es immer wieder und wiederum in der Geschichte hören, wie der nach dem Geist strebende Mensch, wenn er einem tragischen Geschick verfällt, in den alten Zeiten so bezeichnet wird, daß man sein tragisches Geschick zusammenbringt mit dem Neid der Götter.
Die Griechen wußten, daß dieser Neid der Götter besteht, und sie leiteten manches von dem, was äußerlich vorging in der Menschheitsentwickelung, von diesem Neid der Götter her. Mit dem Brande von Ephesus ist eigentlich offenbar geworden, daß eine gewisse geistige Weiterentwickelung der Menschheit nur möglich ist, wenn die Menschen sich bewußt wurden: Es gibt Götter, das heißt übersinnliche Wesenheiten, die auf den weiteren Fortschritt der Menschen neidisch sind. - Das gibt schließlich aller Geschichte, die da folgte auf den Brand von Ephesus - ich kann auch sagen, auf die Geburt des Alexander -, das besondere Kolorit. Und zu der rechten Auffassung des Mysteriums von Golgatha gehört auch dieses: Man schaue hin auf eine Welt, die erfüllt ist von dem Neide gewisser Göttergeschlechter. - Ja, die seelische Atmosphäre, sie war eigentlich in Griechenland schon seit einer Zeit, die bald nach dem Perserkriege liegt, erfüllt von den Auswirkungen dieses Neides der Götter. Und dasjenige, was in der makedonischen Zeit dann getan worden ist, mußte im vollen Bewußtsein davon getan werden, daß der Neid der Götter über die Erdoberfläche hin in geistiger Atmosphäre waltet. Aber es wurde getan mutvoll, kühn, den Mißverständnissen der Götter und Menschen trotzend.
Und es senkte sich hinein in diese Atmosphäre, die erfüllt war von dem Neide der Götter, die Tat desjenigen Gottes, der fähig war der größten Liebe, die in der Welt existieren kann. Man sieht das Mysterium von Golgatha nur im rechten Lichte, wenn man zu allem übrigen auch noch hinzufügen kann das Bild der Wolken in der alten Welt, in Hellas, Makedonien, Vorderasien, Nordafrika, Südeuropa; das Bild der Wolken, die da der Ausdruck sind des Neides der Götter. Und wunderbar wärmend, mild strahlend fällt hinein in diese wolkenerfüllte Atmosphäre die Liebe, die da strömt durch das Mysterium von Golgatha.
Das, was dazumal, wenn ich so sagen darf, eine Angelegenheit war, die sich zwischen Göttern und Menschen abspielte, sie muß sich ja in unserer Zeit, in der Zeitepoche der menschlichen Freiheit, mehr unten im physischen Menschenleben abspielen. Und man kann schon schildern, wie sie sich abspielt. In alten Zeiten, wenn man an die Mysterien dachte, sprach man davon auf Erden: Menschliche Erkenntnis, menschliche Weisheit hat in den Mysterien eine Heimstätte. - Wenn man unter den Göttern war, so sagte man: Wenn wir in die Mysterien hinunteisteigen, dann finden wir die Opfer der Menschen, und im opfernden Menschen werden wir verstanden.
Im Grunde genommen war der Brand von Ephesus der Beginn derjenigen Epoche, in der das Mysterienwesen allmählich in seiner alten Form verschwand. Ich habe erzählt, wie es fortbestanden hat da und dort, grandios zum Beispiel in den Mysterien von Hybernia, wo im Kultus das Mysterium von Golgatha gleichzeitig gefeiert worden ist, während es physisch drüben in Palästina vor sich ging. Man hatte Kenntnis davon nur aus der geistigen Vermittelung zwischen Palästina und Hybernia, nicht dutch physische Vermittelung. Aber dennoch, das Mysterienwesen in der physischen Welt ging immer mehr und mehr zurück. Die äußeren Heimstätten, die Begegnungsstätten waren zwischen Göttern und Menschen, verloren immer mehr und mehr ihre Bedeutung. Sie hatten sie fast vollständig verloren im 13., 14. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert. Denn wer den Weg finden wollte zum Beispiel zum Heiligen Gral, der mußte geistige Wege zu gehen verstehen. Physische Wege war man gegangen in der alten Zeit, vor dem Brande von Ephesus. Geistige Wege mußte man gehen im Mittelalter.
Insbesondere aber mußte man geistige Wege gehen, wenn es sich darum handelte, vom 13., 14. Jahrhundert, namentlich aber vom 15. Jahrhundert ab eine wirkliche Rosenkreuzer-Unterweisung zu erlangen. Denn die Tempel der Rosenkreuzer waren tief verborgen für das äußere physische Erleben. Viele wirkliche Rosenkreuzer waren Besucher der Tempel, aber kein äußeres physisches Menschenauge konnte die Tempel finden. Schüler aber konnte es geben, die kamen zu diesen alten Rosenkreuzern, die da und dort wie Eremiten des Wissens und der heiligen Menschentat zu finden waren, zu finden waren für denjenigen, der aus mildem Augenglanz Göttersprache vernehmen kann. Ich sage damit nichts Uneigentliches. Ich will kein Bild aussprechen, ich will durchaus eine Wirklichkeit aussprechen, die in der Zeit, auf die ich deute, wirklich eine recht bedeutsame Wirklichkeit war. Den Rosenkreuzer-Meister fand man, wenn man sich erst die Fähigkeit erworben hatte, im physischen milden Augenglanz die Himmelssprache vernehmen zu können. Dann fand man in anspruchslosester Umgebung, in anspruchslosesten menschlichen Verhältnissen, gerade im 14., 15. Jahrhundert in Mitteleuropa diese merkwürdigen Persönlichkeiten, die in ihrem Inneren gotterfüllt waren, die in ihrem Inneren zusammenhingen mit den geistigen Tempeln, die vorhanden waren, zu welchen aber der Zugang wirklich so schwierig war wie derjenige, der als Zugang zum Heiligen Gral in der bekannten Legende geschildert wird.
Dann, wenn man hinschaut auf dasjenige, was sich abspielte zwischen einem solchen Rosenkreuzer-Meister und seinem Schüler, dann kann man manches Gespräch belauschen, welches auch in der Form der neueren Zeit Götterweisheit auf Erden wandelnd darstellt. Die Unterweisungen waren durchaus tief konkret. Da wurde in seiner Einsamkeit ein Rosenkreuzer-Meister gefunden von einem Schüler, der es sich hat heiß werden lassen, ihn zu suchen und zu finden. Da schaute einer der Schüler in die mild blickenden Augen, aus denen Göttersprache spricht, und da bekam er anspruchslos etwa die folgende Unterweisung.
Schaue hin, mein Sohn, auf deine eigene Wesenheit. Du trägst an dir jenen Körper, den deine äußeren physischen Augen sehen. Der Mittelpunkt der Erde schickt diesem Körper die Kräfte, die ihn sichtbar machen. Das ist dein physischer Leib. Aber schaue dich um in der Umgebung deiner selbst auf der Erde. Du siehst die Steine, sie dürfen für sich auf der Erde sein, sie sind heimatlich auf der Erde. Sie können, wenn sie eine Gestalt angenommen haben, diese Gestalt behalten durch die Erdenkräfte. Sieh den Kristall: er trägt seine Form in sich, er behält diese Form seiner eigenen Wesenheit durch die Erde. Das kann dein physischer Leib nicht. Verläßt ihn deine Seele, dann zerstört ihn die Erde, dann löst sie ihn in Staub auf. Die Erde hat keine Macht über deinen physischen Leib. Sie hat die Macht, die durchsichtigen, wunderbar gestalteten Kristallgebilde zu bilden und zu erhalten; sie hat keine Macht, die Gestalt deines physischen Leibes zu erhalten, sie muß ihn in Staub auflösen. Nicht von der Erde ist dein physischer Leib. Dein physischer Leib ist von hoher Geistigkeit. Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne, ihnen gehört dasjenige, was Form und Gestalt deines physischen Leibes ist. Nicht der Erde gehört dieser physische Leib, den höchsten dir zunächst zugänglichen geistigen Mächten gehört dieser physische Leib. Die Erde kann ihn zerstören, niemals kann sie ihn aufbauen.
Und innerhalb dieses deines physischen Leibes wohnt dein ätherischer Leib. Es wird der Tag kommen, da dein physischer Leib von der Erde zur Zerstörung angenommen wird. Dann wird dein ätherischer Leib in den Weiten des Kosmos sich auflösen. Die Weiten des Kosmos können diesen ätherischen Leib zwar auflösen, aber nicht aufbauen. Aufbauen können ihn nur jene göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, die der Hierarchie der Dynamis, Exusiai, Kyriotetes angehören. Ihnen verdankst du deinen ätherischen Leib. Du vereinigst mit deinem physischen Leib die physischen Stoffe der Erde. Was aber in dir ist, wandelt die physischen Stoffe der Erde so um, daß es in ihnen ungleich wird allem, was physisch in der Umgebung des physischen Leibes ist. Dein ätherischer Leib bewegt alles dasjenige in dir, was in dir Flüssigkeit, was in dir Wasser ist. Die Säfte, die da kreisen, die da zirkulieren, sie stehen unter dem Einflusse deines ätherischen Leibes. Aber sieh dein Blut: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, sie sind es, die dieses Blut als Flüssigkeit durch deine Adern kreisen lassen. Du bist nur als physischer Körper Mensch. In deinem Ätherleib bist du noch Tier, aber ein Tier, das durchgeistigt wird von der zweiten Hierarchie.
Dasjenige, was ich Ihnen hier, allerdings jetzt in wenigen Worten zusammenfasse, es war der Gegenstand eines langen Unterrichtes jenes Meisters, in dessen mildem Augen-Blick der Schüler die Sprache des Himmels vernahm. Dann wurde der Schüler hingewiesen auf das dritte Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit, das wir den astralischen Leib nennen. Dem Schüler wurde klargemacht, daß dieser astralische Leib die Impulse enthält zum Atmen, zu alledem, was Luft im menschlichen Organismus ist, zu alledem, was als Luft pulsiert im menschlichen Organismus. Aber obwohl das Irdische sich bemüht, durch eine lange Zeit, nachdem der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, gewissermaßen zu rumoren im Luftartigen und für einen hellsichtigen Blick in den atmosphärischen Erscheinungen der Erde jahrelang wahrzunehmen ist das Poltern der astralischen Leiber der Verstorbenen, so kann auch die Erde mit ihrem Umkreis doch nichts anderes tun gegenüber den Impulsen des astralischen Leibes als sie auflösen. Denn bilden können sie nur die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie: Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi.
Und so sagte, damit den Schüler tief ins Herz treffend, der Meister: Du gehörst deinem physischen Leibe nach, insofern du das Mineralreich in dich aufnimmst und es veränderst, insofern du das Menschenreich in dich aufnimmst und es verarbeitest, du gehörst den Seraphim, Cherubim, Thronen an. Insofern du ein ätherischer Leib bist, bist du im Ätherischen tierähnlich, aber du gehörst da den Geistern an, die da bezeichnet werden als die der zweiten Hierarchie: Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, und insofern du im flüssigen Elemente waltest, gehörst du nicht der Erde an, sondern dieser Hierarchie. Und indem du im luftförmigen Elemente waltest, gehörst du nicht der Erde an, sondern der Hierarchie der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai.
Und nachdem in genügender Weise der Schüler diese Unterweisung erhalten hatte, fühlte er sich nicht mehr als ein Angehöriger der Erde. Er fühlte gewissermaßen von seinem physischen, ätherischen, astralischen Leib ausgehend die Kräfte, die ihn durch die Mineralwelt verbinden mit der ersten Hierarchie, dutch die wässerige Erde verbinden mit der zweiten Hierarchie, durch den Luftkreis verbinden mit der dritten Hierarchie. Und klar war ihm: er lebt auf der Erde lediglich durch dasjenige, was er als Wärmeelement in sich trägt. Damit aber empfand der Rosenkreuzer-Schüler die Wärme, die er in sich trägt, die physische Wärme, die er in sich trägt, als das eigentliche Irdisch-Menschliche. Und immer mehr lernte er verwandt fühlen mit dieser physischen Wärme die Seelenwärme und die Geisteswärme. Und während der spätere Mensch immer mehr und mehr verkannt hat, wie mit dem Göttlichen zusammenhängen sein physischer Inhalt, sein ätherischer Inhalt, sein astralischer Inhalt durch Festes, Flüssiges, Luftförmiges, hat der Rosenkreuzer-Schüler dies recht gut gewußt und hat gewußt: das wahrhaft Irdisch-Menschliche ist das Wärmeelement. In dem Augenblicke, wo dem Schüler des Rosenkreuzer-Meisters dieses Geheimnis vom Zusammenhange des Wärmeelementes mit dem Menschlich-Irdischen aufgegangen war, in diesem Momente wußte er sein Menschliches an das Geistige anzuknüpfen.
Und in jenen oftmals recht anspruchslosen Heimen, in denen solche Rosenkreuzer-Meister wohnten, da war es, daß vor dem Eintritt auf eine oftmals ungesuchte, ja wunderbar erscheinende Weise die Schüler vorbereitet wurden, indem sie aufmerksam gemacht wurden - der eine auf diese, der andere auf jene Art, es schien oftmals äußerlich ein Zufall zu sein -, indem sie aufmerksam darauf gemacht wurden: Du mußt suchen, wo sich dein Geistiges an das Kosmisch-Geistige anschließen kann. - Und wenn der Schüler jene Unterweisung, von der ich Ihnen eben gesprochen habe, erhalten hatte, dann, ja dann konnte er seinem Meister sagen: Ich gehe jetzt von dir mit dem größten Troste, der mir auf Erden hat werden können. Denn dadurch, daß du mir gezeigt hast, daß der irdische Mensch sein Element wahrhaftig in der Wärme hat, dadurch hast du mir die Möglichkeit gegeben, mit meinem Physischen anzuknüpfen an das Seelische und Geistige. In die festen Knochen, in das flüssige Blut, in die luftförmige Atmung bringe ich nicht hinein das Seelische. In das Wärmeelement bringe ich es hinein.
Und eine ungeheure Ruhe war es, mit der die also Unterwiesenen in jenen Zeiten von ihren Meistern hinweggingen. Und aus der Ruhe des Antlitzes, die ausdrückte das Ergebnis des großen Trostes, aus der Ruhe des Antlitzes entwickelte sich allmählich jener milde Blick, aus dem die Sprache des Himmels sprechen kann. Und so war eine tief seelische Unterweisung im Grunde vorhanden bis in das erste Drittel des 15. Jahrhunderts herein, verborgen gegenüber jenen Vorgängen, von denen die äußere Geschichte berichtet. Aber eine Unterweisung fand da statt, welche den ganzen Menschen ergriffen hat, eine Unterweisung, welche die menschliche Seele an die Sphäre des Kosmisch-Geistigen hat anknüpfen lassen ihr eigenes Wesen.
Diese ganze geistige Stimmung, sie ist im Laufe der letzten Jahrhunderte dahingegangen. Sie ist nicht mehr in unserer Zivilisation enthalten. Und eine äußerliche, gottfremde Zivilisation hat sich über die Stätten ausgebreitet, die einstmals solches gesehen haben, wie ich es Ihnen jetzt eben geschildert habe. Man steht heute da mit der Erinnerung, die ja nur im Geiste, im Astrallichte herauferschaffen werden kann, an so manche Szene, die ähnlich derjenigen ist, die ich Ihnen eben geschildert habe. Das gibt die Grundstimmung, die man heute hat, wenn man zurückblickt in jene Zeiten, die oftmals als so finster geschildert werden, und dann blickt in unsere Zeit. Aber bei diesem Blick geht im Herzen auf aus den geistigen Offenbarungen, die seit dem letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts dem Menschen werden können, die tiefe Sehnsucht, in geistiger Art wiederum zu den Menschen zu sprechen. Und die geistige Art läßt sich nicht bloß sprechen durch abstrakte Worte, die geistige Art fordert mancherlei Zeichen, um in der umfassenden Weise zu sprechen. Und eine solche Sprache, die gefunden werden sollte für jene geistigen Wesenheiten, die zu der modernen Menschheit sprechen sollen, eine solche Sprachform waren die Formen unseres vor einem Jahre verbrannten Goetheanums. Wahrhaftig, in diesen Formen sollte weiter sprechen dasjenige, was vom Podium aus in Ideen zu den Zuhörern gesprochen worden ist. Und damit war in einer gewissen Weise mit dem Goetheanum etwas vorhanden, was wirklich an Altes in ganz neuer Form wieder erinnern konnte.
Wenn der Einzuweihende den Tempel von Ephesus betrat, dann wurde sein Blick gelenkt auf jene Statue, von der ich in diesen Tagen gesprochen habe, auf jene Statue, die ihm eigentlich die Worte in Herzenssprache zurief: Vereinige dich mit dem Weltenäther, und du schaust das Irdische aus Ätherhöhen. - So hat mancher Schüler von Ephesus das Irdische aus Ätherhöhen geschaut. Und ein gewisses Göttergeschlecht wurde neidisch. Aber gegen den Neid der Götter haben Jahrhunderte vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha dennoch mutvolle Menschen die Möglichkeit gefunden, fortzupflanzen wenn auch in Abschwächung, so doch nur in der Abschwächung, in der es fortwirken konnte - dasjenige, was aus uralt heiligen Menschheits-Entwickelungsjahren bis zum Brande von Ephesus gewirkt hat. Und wäre unser Goetheanum ganz fertig geworden, dann wäre auch vom Eintritte im Westen der Blick gefallen auf jene Statue, in der der Mensch die Aufforderung gefunden hätte, sich selber als kosmisches Wesen zu wissen, hineingestellt zwischen die Mächte des Luziferischen und die Mächte des Ahrimanischen, in innerer, gottgetragener Wesensausgleichung. Und blickte man auf die Formen der Säulen, der Architrave, so sprach das eine Sprache, eine Sprache, welche die Fortsetzung der vom Podium aus in Ideen Geistiges wie interpretierenden Sprache war. Die Worte klangen weiter entlang den Formen, die plastisch ausgestaltet waren. Und oben in der Kuppel waren zu sehen jene Szenen, welche die Menschheitsentwickelung dem geistigen Blicke nahebringen konnten. Es war schon in diesem Goetheanum für den, der empfinden konnte, eine Erinnerung an den Tempel von Ephesus zu sehen.
Aber die Erinnerung wurde furchtbar schmerzlich, als auf eine gar nicht unähnliche, der alten nicht unähnlichen Weise gerade in dem Punkte der Entwickelung, in dem das Goetheanum hätte übergehen sollen durch es selbst, der Träger der Erneuerung des spirituellen Lebens zu werden, in dem Zeitpunkte nun auch die Brandfackel in dieses Goetheanum geworfen wurde.
Meine lieben Freunde, unser Schmerz war tief. Unser Schmerz war unbeschreiblich. Aber wir faßten den Entschluß, ungehindert um das Traurigste, Tragischste, das uns hat passieren können, unsere Arbeit für die geistige Welt fortzusetzen. Denn man konnte sich in seinem Herzen sagen: Schaut man hin auf die Flammen, die aus Ephesus aufsteigen, so erscheint in die Flammen hineingeschrieben der Neid der Götter in einer Zeit, in der die Menschen noch unfrei mehr dem Willen guter und böser Götter folgen mußten.
In unserer Zeit sind die Menschen organisiert zur Freiheit hin. Und vor einem Jahre, in der Silvesternacht, schauten wir hin auf die verzehrenden Flammen. Die rote Lohe ging gegen den Himmel. Dunkelbläuliche, rötlich-gelbe Flammenlinien züngelten durch das allgemeine Feuermeer, von den metallischen Instrumenten herrührend, die das Goetheanum barg, ein Riesenfeuermeer mit den mannigfaltigsten farbigen Inhalten. Und man mußte, wenn man in dieses Flammenmeer sah mit den farbigen Linien darinnen, sprechend zum Schmerze der Seele, lesen: der Neid der Menschen.
So gliedert sich dasjenige, was von Epoche zu Epoche in der Menschheitsentwickelung spricht, zusammen, selbst im größten Unglücke. Es geht ein Faden von dem Worte, das da ausdrückt ein größtes Unglück aus der Zeit, wo die Menschen noch in Unfreiheit zu den Göttern aufsahen, aber sich freimachen sollten von der Unfreiheit, es geht ein Faden der geistigen Entwickelung von jenem Unglücke, da man eingeschrieben sah in die Flammen: der Neid der Götter - herüber zu unserem Unglücke, wo der Mensch in sich selber die Kraft der Freiheit finden soll und wo in die Flammen eingeschrieben war: der Neid der Menschen. In Ephesus die Götterstatue; hier im Goetheanum die Menschenstatue, die Statue des Menschheits-Repräsentanten, des Christus Jesus, in dem wir gedachten, uns mit ihm identifizierend, in aller Demut so in der Erkenntnis aufzugehen, wie einstmals in ihrer Art auf eine heute der Menschheit nicht mehr völlig verständliche Art die Schüler von Ephesus in der Diana von Ephesus aufgingen.
Der Schmerz wird nicht geringer, wenn man im historischen Lichte schaut dasjenige, was uns der Silvesterabend im vorigen Jahre brachte. Es hat ja sollen, als ich zum letzten Mal auf dem Podium stehen durfte, das im Einklange mit dem ganzen Bau dort aufgerichtet war, es hat ja sollen der Blick der damaligen Zuhörer, der Seelenblick, hingelenkt werden auf den Aufstieg aus irdischen Gebieten in Sternengebiete, die ausdrücken den Willen und die Weisheit, das Licht des geistigen Kosmos. Ich weiß, Pate standen dazumal manche von den Geistern, die im Mittelalter also ihre Schüler lehrten, wie ich es Ihnen beschrieben habe. Und eine Stunde, nachdem das letzte Wort gesprochen war, wurde ich geholt zum Brande des Goetheanums. Und am Brande des Goetheanums verbrachten wir die Silvesternacht des vorigen Jahres.
Man braucht ja diese Worte nur auszusprechen, und unsägliches geht vor in allen unseren Herzen, in allen unseren Seelen. Aber wenn so etwas über ein Heiliges in der Menschheitsentwickelung hinweggezogen ist, dann gab es immer einige, die gelobten, nach der Auflösung des Physischen weiterzuwirken in dem Geiste, dem das Physische gewidmet war. Und ich denke, da wir versammelt sind in dem Augenblicke, da sich jährt unser Goetheanum-Unglück, so dürfen wir gedenken, daß unsere Seelen die rechte Stimmung für dieses unser Zusammensein haben, wenn wir uns alle geloben, das im Geiste weiter durch die Fortschrittswelle der Menschheit zu tragen, was dutch physische Form, physisches Bild, physische Gestaltung mit dem Goetheanum hingestellt war auch vor das physische Auge und dem physischen Auge durch eine Herostratos-Tat entzogen worden ist. Am alten Goetheanum haftet unser Schmerz. Würdig werden wir nur durch dasjenige, das uns immerhin auferlegt ist dadurch, daß wir dieses Goetheanum bauen durften, wenn wir uns heute in der Erinnerung das Gelöbnis ablegen, jeder vor dem göttlich Besten, das er in der Seele trägt, treu zu bleiben den geistigen Impulsen, die ihre äußere Form in jenem Goetheanum gehabt haben. Dieses Goetheanum konnte uns genommen werden. Der Geist dieses Goetheanums kann uns, wenn wir wirklich ehrlich und aufrichtig wollen, nicht genommen werden. Und er wird uns am wenigsten genommen, wenn wit in dieser ernst-feierlichen Stunde, die uns nur noch kurze Zeit trennt von dem Zeitpunkte, da vor einem Jahre herausloderten die Flammen aus unserem geliebten Goetheanum, wenn wir in diesem Augenblicke nicht nur den Schmerz erneut empfinden, sondern aus diesem Schmerze heraus uns geloben, jenem Geiste treu zu bleiben, dem wir diese Stätte durch zehn Jahre hindurch aufbauen durften. Dann, meine lieben Freunde, wenn dieses innere Gelöbnis uns ehrlich, aufrichtig heute aus dem Herzen quillt, wenn wir den Schmerz, das Leiden verwandeln können in den Impuls der Tat, dann werden wir auch das traurige Ereignis verwandeln in Segen. Der Schmerz kann dadurch nicht geringer werden, aber es obliegt uns, gerade aus dem Schmerze heraus den Antrieb zur Tat, zur Tat im Geiste zu finden.
Und so, meine lieben Freunde, schauen wir zurück auf die furchtbaren Feuerflammen, die uns mit so unsäglicher Trauer erfüllten. Fühlen wir aber heute, den besten göttlichen Kräften in uns selbst uns angelobend, die heilige Flamme in unseren Herzen, die geistig leuchten und erwärmen soll dasjenige, was mit dem Goetheanum gewollt war, indem wir diesen Willen forttragen durch die Fortschrittswellen der Menschheit. So wiederholen wir in diesem Augenblicke vertieft die Worte, die ich vor einem Jahre drüben ungefähr in diesem selben Zeitpunkte sprechen durfte. Damals sprach ich ungefähr: Wir leben in einem Silvester, wir müssen entgegenleben einem neuen Weltenjahr. -— Oh, stünde das Goetheanum noch unter uns, diese Aufforderung könnte in diesem Momente erneut werden! Es steht nicht mehr unter uns. Sie darf gerade, weil es nicht mehr unter uns steht, wie ich glaube, mit vielfach vermehrter Kraft am heutigen Silvesterabend ausgesprochen werden. Tragen wir die Seele des Goetheanums in das neue Weltenjahr hinüber, und versuchen wit, zu errichten in dem neuen Goetheanum dem Leibe des alten ein würdiges Monument, ein würdiges Denkmal. Das, meine lieben Freunde, knüpfe unsere Herzen an das alte Goetheanum, das wir den Elementen übergeben mußten. Das knüpfe aber unsere Herzen an den Geist, an die Seele dieses Goetheanums. Und mit diesem Angelöbnis an unser bestes Wesen in uns selber wollen wir hinüberleben nicht bloß in das neue Jahr, wollen hinüberleben, tatkräftig, geisttragend, seelenführend in das neue Weltenjahr.
Meine lieben Freunde, Sie haben mich empfangen, indem Sie sich in der Erinnerung an das alte Goetheanum erhoben haben. Sie leben in der Erinnerung an dieses alte Goetheanum. Erheben wir uns jetzt zum Zeichen, daß wir uns angeloben, in dem Geiste des Goetheanum weiterzuwirken mit den besten Kräften, die wir im Bilde unseres Menschenwesens finden können. Ja, so sei es. Amen.
Und so wollen wir es halten, meine lieben Freunde, so lange wir es können, nach dem Willen, der unsere Menschenseelen verbindet mit den Götterseelen, denen wir treu bleiben wollen in dem Geiste, aus dem heraus wir diese Treue zu ihnen suchten in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkte unseres Lebens, da wir die Geisteswissenschaft des Goetheanums suchten. Und verstehen wir, diese Treue zu halten.
Eighth Lecture
We stand today under the sign of a painful memory, and we want to place what we have to take as the content of this lecture today under the sign of this painful memory. The lecture that I was allowed to give in our old building just a year ago: Those of you who were present will remember how he took the path, starting from the description of earthly natural conditions, up into the spiritual worlds and the revelations of these spiritual worlds from the writing of the stars; how there was then the possibility of bringing the human heart, the human soul, the human spirit into connection with their whole essence with that which can be found when one takes the path out of the earthly not only into the starry expanses, but into that which depicts the spiritual through the starry expanses like a world writing. And the last thing I was allowed to write on the blackboard in that room, which was taken from us soon afterwards, was definitely aimed at lifting the human soul up into spiritual heights. In this way, that very evening was actually directly linked to that to which our Goetheanum building was to be dedicated through its entire essence. And I would like to begin today by talking about what was linked back then, as a continuation of the lecture given here a year ago.
When in the time that preceded the burning of Ephesus there was talk of the Mysteries, then all those who understood something of the Mystery system in their minds spoke in such a way that their speech sounded something like this: Human knowledge, human wisdom has a place, a home in the Mysteries. - And when in those ancient times among the spiritual rulers of the world there was talk of the Mysteries, when therefore in the supersensible worlds there was talk of the Mysteries - I may make use of these expressions, although of course they only describe in a figurative way the way in which one thinks down from the supersensible worlds and how one works in the sensible -, when therefore in the supersensible worlds there was talk of the Mysteries, the speech sounded something like this: In the Mysteries men erect places where we gods can find the sacrificing men who understand us in sacrifice. For indeed, that was the general awareness of the ancient world of those who knew in the ancient world that gods and men met in the Mystery places and that everything that sustains and holds the world depends on what takes place in the Mysteries between the gods and between men.
But there is a word which is also outwardly handed down historically, which can speak movingly to the human heart from this historical tradition, but which speaks particularly movingly when one sees it forming out of very special events, as if written into the history of mankind with brazen letters, but only visible for the moment in the spirit. And I believe that such a word can always be seen when the spiritual gaze is directed towards the deed of Herostratos, the burning of Ephesus. You can find the old word in these flames of fire: the envy of the gods.
I believe, however, that among the many words handed down from ancient times, which can be seen in the life of ancient times in the way I have just described, this is one of the most terrible in this physical world: the envy of the gods. In those ancient times everything that lived in a supersensible being in such a way that it never needed to appear in a physical body on earth was designated by the word God, and in those ancient times a distinction was made between the most diverse families of gods. And quite certainly, those divine-spiritual entities which are so connected with humanity that man in his innermost being was created through them and sent through the course of time, these divine-spiritual entities, which we feel through the majesty and through the smallest manifestations of outer nature, which we feel through that which lives within us, these divine-spiritual entities cannot become envious. But in ancient times, the envy of the gods meant something very real. If we follow the period in which the human race developed up to Ephesus, we find that the more advanced human individuals took for themselves much of what the good gods were pleased to give them in the Mysteries. For we are quite right when we say that there is an intimate relationship between the good human hearts and the good gods, which became more and more firmly bound in the Mysteries, so that it came before the souls of certain other, Luciferian-Ahrimanic deities, so that man was drawn closer and closer to the good deities. And the envy of the gods towards man arose. - And we must hear again and again in history how man striving for the spirit, when he falls into a tragic fate, is described in ancient times in such a way that his tragic fate is brought together with the envy of the gods.
The Greeks knew that this envy of the gods existed, and they derived much of what happened externally in the development of mankind from this envy of the gods. With the fire of Ephesus it actually became obvious that a certain spiritual further development of mankind is only possible if people became aware of it: There are gods, that is, supersensible beings, who are jealous of man's further progress. - This, after all, gives the special coloring to all the history that followed the burning of Ephesus - I could also say the birth of Alexander. And the right understanding of the mystery of Golgotha also includes this: Look at a world filled with the envy of certain generations of gods. - Yes, the spiritual atmosphere in Greece has actually been filled with the effects of this envy of the gods since a time soon after the Persian War. And what was then done in the Macedonian period had to be done in full awareness of the fact that the envy of the gods reigned over the surface of the earth in the spiritual atmosphere. But it was done courageously, boldly, defying the misunderstandings of gods and men.
And it sank into this atmosphere, which was filled with the envy of the gods, the deed of that God who was capable of the greatest love that can exist in the world. The mystery of Golgotha can only be seen in the right light if we can add to everything else the image of the clouds in the ancient world, in Hellas, Macedonia, the Near East, North Africa, Southern Europe; the image of the clouds that are the expression of the envy of the gods. And wonderfully warming, mildly radiant, the love that flows through the Mystery of Golgotha falls into this cloud-filled atmosphere.
What in those days, if I may say so, was a matter that took place between gods and men, must in our time, in the age of human freedom, take place more below in physical human life. And one can already describe how it takes place. In ancient times, when people thought of the Mysteries, they spoke of them on earth: Human knowledge, human wisdom has a home in the Mysteries. - When one was among the gods, it was said: When we descend into the mysteries, we find the sacrifices of men, and in the sacrificing man we are understood.
In essence, the burning of Ephesus was the beginning of the epoch in which the mystery system gradually disappeared in its old form. I have told you how it continued to exist here and there, magnificently, for example, in the Mysteries of Hybernia, where the Mystery of Golgotha was celebrated in the cult at the same time as it was physically taking place over in Palestine. This was only known through the spiritual mediation between Palestine and Hybernia, not through physical mediation. But nevertheless, the mystery being in the physical world declined more and more. The outer homes, which were meeting places between gods and humans, lost more and more of their significance. They had lost them almost completely in the 13th and 14th centuries after Christ. Because anyone who wanted to find the way to the Holy Grail, for example, had to know how to walk spiritual paths. Physical paths had been taken in ancient times, before the burning of Ephesus. Spiritual paths had to be taken in the Middle Ages.
In particular, however, one had to go spiritual ways when it was a matter of obtaining a real Rosicrucian instruction from the 13th, 14th century, but especially from the 15th century onwards. For the Rosicrucian temples were deeply hidden from external physical experience. Many real Rosicrucians were visitors to the temples, but no external physical human eye could find the temples. But there could be disciples who came to these old Rosicrucians, who were to be found here and there like hermits of knowledge and holy human deeds, to be found by those who can hear the language of the gods from the gentle glow of their eyes. I am not saying anything inauthentic. I do not want to express an image, I want to express a reality that was really quite a significant reality in the time to which I am pointing. One found the Rosicrucian master when one had first acquired the ability to hear the heavenly language in the physical, mild glow of the eyes. Then, in the most undemanding environment, in the most undemanding human circumstances, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries in Central Europe, one found these strange personalities who were filled with God in their inner being, who were connected in their inner being with the spiritual temples that existed, but to which access was really as difficult as the access to the Holy Grail described in the well-known legend.
Then, if one looks at what took place between such a Rosicrucian master and his disciple, one can overhear many a conversation which, even in the form of modern times, represents the wisdom of the gods walking on earth. The teachings were very concrete. A Rosicrucian master was found in his solitude by a disciple who had made it his business to seek and find him. One of the disciples looked into the mildly gazing eyes, from which the language of the gods speaks, and there he received the following instruction without any pretensions.
Look, my son, at your own being. You carry within you that body which your outer physical eyes see. The center of the earth sends this body the forces that make it visible. This is your physical body. But look around you in the surroundings of yourself on earth. You see the stones, they are allowed to be on the earth for themselves, they are at home on the earth. Once they have taken on a form, they can retain this form through the forces of the earth. Look at the crystal: it carries its form within itself, it retains this form of its own essence through the earth. Your physical body cannot do that. If your soul leaves it, then the earth destroys it, then it dissolves it into dust. The earth has no power over your physical body. It has the power to form and maintain the transparent, wonderfully shaped crystal formations; it has no power to maintain the shape of your physical body, it must dissolve it into dust. Your physical body is not of the earth. Your physical body is of high spirituality. Seraphim, cherubim, thrones, that which is the form and shape of your physical body belongs to them. This physical body does not belong to the earth, this physical body belongs to the highest spiritual powers initially accessible to you. The earth can destroy it, it can never build it up.
And within this physical body of yours dwells your etheric body. The day will come when your physical body will be accepted by the earth for destruction. Then your etheric body will dissolve in the vastness of the cosmos. The vastness of the cosmos can dissolve this etheric body, but it cannot build it up. Only those divine-spiritual beings who belong to the Hierarchy of Dynamis, Exusiai, Kyriotetes can build it up. You owe your etheric body to them. You unite the physical substances of the earth with your physical body. But what is in you transforms the physical substances of the earth in such a way that it becomes unequal in them to everything that is physical in the surroundings of the physical body. Your etheric body moves everything in you that is liquid in you, that is water in you. The juices that circulate there, that circulate there, they are under the influence of your etheric body. But look at your blood: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, they are what make this blood circulate through your veins as fluid. You are only human as a physical body. In your etheric body you are still an animal, but an animal that is spiritualized by the second Hierarchy.
What I am summarizing here, but now in a few words, was the subject of a long teaching by that master, in whose gentle gaze the disciple heard the language of heaven. Then the pupil was pointed to the third member of the human being, which we call the astral body. It was made clear to the pupil that this astral body contains the impulses for breathing, for all that is air in the human organism, for all that pulsates as air in the human organism. But although the earthly endeavors, for a long time after the human being has passed through the gate of death, to rumble, as it were, in the air-like and for a clairvoyant view in the atmospheric phenomena of the earth for years the rumbling of the astral bodies of the deceased can be perceived, the earth with its surroundings can do nothing else towards the impulses of the astral body than dissolve them. For they can only be formed by the entities of the third hierarchy: Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi.
And so, striking the disciple to the heart, the Master said: "You belong to your physical body in so far as you take the mineral kingdom into yourself and change it, in so far as you take the human kingdom into yourself and process it, you belong to the Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. In so far as you are an etheric body, you are animal-like in the etheric, but you belong to the spirits who are called those of the second hierarchy: Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, and in so far as you are active in the fluid element, you do not belong to the earth, but to this hierarchy. And inasmuch as you work in the aeriform element, you do not belong to the earth, but to the hierarchy of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai.
And after the disciple had received this instruction in a sufficient manner, he no longer felt himself to be a member of the earth. Starting from his physical, etheric, astral body he felt, as it were, the forces that connect him through the mineral world with the first Hierarchy, through the watery earth with the second Hierarchy, through the air circle with the third Hierarchy. And it was clear to him: he lives on earth only through that which he carries within him as a warmth element. Thus the Rosicrucian disciple perceived the warmth he carries within himself, the physical warmth he carries within himself, as the actual earthly-human. And more and more he learned to feel the warmth of the soul and the warmth of the spirit as related to this physical warmth. And while the later man misjudged more and more how his physical content, his etheric content, his astral content are connected with the divine through solid, liquid, airy things, the Rosicrucian disciple knew this quite well and knew that the truly earthly-human is the warmth element. At the moment when the disciple of the Rosicrucian Master realized this secret of the connection between the warmth element and the human-earthly, at that moment he knew how to connect his human to the spiritual.
And in those often quite unpretentious homes where such Rosicrucian masters lived, it was the case that before entering, the pupils were prepared in an often unsought, indeed seemingly miraculous way, by being made aware - one in this way, the other in that way, it often seemed outwardly to be a coincidence - by being made aware of it: You must seek where your spiritual can connect to the cosmic-spiritual. - And when the disciple had received the instruction of which I have just spoken to you, then, yes, then he could say to his master: "I now depart from you with the greatest consolation that could have come to me on earth. For by showing me that the earthly man truly has his element in warmth, you have given me the opportunity to connect my physical being with the soul and the spirit. I do not bring the soul into the solid bones, into the liquid blood, into the airy breathing. I bring it into the warmth element.
And it was a tremendous calm with which the thus instructed departed from their masters in those times. And from the calmness of the countenance, which expressed the result of the great consolation, from the calmness of the countenance gradually developed that mild look from which the language of heaven can speak. And so a deep spiritual instruction was basically present until the first third of the 15th century, hidden from the events reported in external history. But an instruction took place there which took hold of the whole human being, an instruction which allowed the human soul to connect its own being to the sphere of the cosmic-spiritual.
This whole spiritual mood has passed away in the course of the last centuries. It is no longer contained in our civilization. And an external civilization, alien to God, has spread over the places that once saw what I have just described to you. Today one stands there with the memory, which can only be conjured up in the spirit, in the astral light, of many a scene similar to the one I have just described to you. This is the basic mood we have today when we look back to those times, which are often described as so dark, and then look forward to our time. But when we look back, the spiritual revelations that have been available to people since the last third of the 19th century give rise in our hearts to a deep longing to speak to people in a spiritual way. And the spiritual way cannot merely be spoken through abstract words, the spiritual way demands many signs in order to speak in a comprehensive way. And such a language, which was to be found for those spiritual beings who are to speak to modern humanity, such a form of language were the forms of our Goetheanum, which was burnt down a year ago. Truly, it was in these forms that what was spoken to the audience in ideas from the podium was to continue to speak. And thus, in a certain way, something was present with the Goetheanum that could really remind us of the old in a completely new form.
When the initiate entered the temple of Ephesus, his gaze was directed to the statue of which I have spoken in these days, to the statue which actually called out to him the words in the language of the heart: Unite yourself with the world ether, and you will see the earthly from etheric heights. - This is how many a disciple of Ephesus saw the earthly from etheric heights. And a certain race of gods became envious. But against the envy of the gods, centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha, courageous men nevertheless found the possibility of propagating, if only in a weakened form, then only in the weakened form in which it could continue to work - that which had worked from the ancient sacred years of human development up to the burning of Ephesus. And if our Goetheanum had been completely finished, then from the entrance in the West the gaze would also have fallen on that statue in which man would have found the invitation to know himself as a cosmic being, placed between the powers of the Luciferic and the powers of the Ahrimanic, in inner, God-born balance of being. And if you looked at the shapes of the columns, the architraves, they spoke a language, a language that was the continuation of the language interpreting the spiritual from the podium into ideas. The words continued to resound along the forms that were sculpted. And at the top of the dome were to be seen those scenes which could bring the development of humanity closer to the spiritual gaze. Even in this Goetheanum there was a memory of the temple of Ephesus for those who could feel.
But the memory became terribly painful when, in a manner not at all dissimilar to the old one, precisely at that point in the development when the Goetheanum should have passed through itself to become the bearer of the renewal of spiritual life, the incendiary torch was now also thrown into this Goetheanum.
My dear friends, our pain was deep. Our pain was indescribable. But we made the decision to continue our work for the spiritual world unhindered by the saddest, most tragic thing that could have happened to us. For we could say to ourselves in our hearts: If you look at the flames rising from Ephesus, the envy of the gods appears inscribed in the flames at a time when people were still unfree and had to follow the will of good and evil gods.
In our time, people are organized towards freedom. And a year ago, on New Year's Eve, we looked up at the devouring flames. The red blaze went towards the sky. Dark bluish, reddish-yellow lines of flame flickered through the general sea of fire, coming from the metallic instruments that the Goetheanum held, a giant sea of fire with the most varied colorful contents. And when one looked into this sea of flames with the colored lines in it, one had to read, speaking to the pain of the soul: the envy of men.
This is how that which speaks from epoch to epoch in the development of mankind is structured, even in the greatest misfortune. A thread runs from the word that expresses a greatest misfortune from the time when men still looked up to the gods in bondage, but were to free themselves from bondage, a thread of spiritual development runs from that misfortune, when one saw inscribed in the flames: the envy of the gods - over to our misfortune, where man is to find in himself the power of freedom and where inscribed in the flames was: the envy of men. In Ephesus the statue of the gods; here in the Goetheanum the statue of man, the statue of the representative of humanity, the Christ Jesus, in whom we thought, identifying ourselves with him, to merge in all humility into knowledge in the same way that the disciples of Ephesus once merged in their way with Diana of Ephesus in a way that is no longer fully comprehensible to humanity today.
The pain is no less when we look at what New Year's Eve last year brought us in a historical light. When I was allowed to stand on the podium for the last time, which was erected in harmony with the whole building, the gaze of the listeners at that time, the gaze of the soul, was to be directed towards the ascent from earthly regions to starry regions, which express the will and the wisdom, the light of the spiritual cosmos. I know that some of the spirits who taught their pupils in the Middle Ages, as I have described to you, were godfathers at that time. And one hour after the last word had been spoken, I was called to the fire of the Goetheanum. And it was at the fire of the Goetheanum that we spent New Year's Eve last year.
You only have to say these words and unspeakable things happen in all our hearts, in all our souls. But when such a thing has passed over a sacred thing in the development of humanity, there have always been some who have vowed to continue working after the dissolution of the physical in the spirit to which the physical was dedicated. And I think that since we are gathered together at the moment of the anniversary of our Goetheanum misfortune, we may remember that our souls have the right mood for this our being together, if we all vow to carry on in spirit through the wave of progress of humanity what was placed before the physical eye through physical form, physical image, physical design with the Goetheanum and was withdrawn from the physical eye through an act of Herostratos. Our pain clings to the old Goetheanum. We only become worthy of it through that which is imposed on us by the fact that we were allowed to build this Goetheanum, if we make a vow to ourselves today in memory to remain faithful to the spiritual impulses that had their outer form in that Goetheanum, each before the divine best that he carries in his soul. This Goetheanum could be taken from us. The spirit of this Goetheanum cannot, if we really honestly and sincerely wish, be taken from us. And it will be taken from us least of all if, in this serious and solemn hour that separates us only a short time from the time when the flames blazed out of our beloved Goetheanum a year ago, we not only feel the pain again at this moment, but out of this pain vow to remain faithful to the spirit to which we were allowed to build this place for ten years. Then, my dear friends, if this inner vow springs honestly and sincerely from our hearts today, if we can transform the pain and suffering into the impulse to act, then we will also transform the sad event into a blessing. The pain cannot be lessened by this, but it is incumbent upon us to find the impulse for action, for action in the spirit, precisely out of the pain.
And so, my dear friends, let us look back on the terrible flames of fire that filled us with such unspeakable grief. But today, pledging ourselves to the best divine forces within us, let us feel the sacred flame in our hearts, which is to spiritually illuminate and warm that which was intended with the Goetheanum by carrying this will forward through the waves of progress of humanity. At this moment we are repeating in depth the words that I was allowed to speak a year ago at about the same time. At that time I said something like: "We are living in a New Year's Eve, we must live towards a new world year. -- Oh, if the Goetheanum were still among us, this call could be repeated at this moment! It is no longer among us. Precisely because it is no longer with us, I believe it may be uttered with much greater force this New Year's Eve. Let us carry the soul of the Goetheanum over into the new world year and try to erect in the new Goetheanum a worthy monument, a worthy memorial to the body of the old one. That, my dear friends, ties our hearts to the old Goetheanum, which we had to hand over to the elements. But let this tie our hearts to the spirit, to the soul of this Goetheanum. And with this pledge to our best being within ourselves, we do not merely want to live over into the new year, we want to live over into the new world year, energetic, spirit-bearing, soul-guiding.
My dear friends, you have received me by rising in the memory of the old Goetheanum. You live in the memory of this old Goetheanum. Let us now rise as a sign that we pledge to continue to work in the spirit of the Goetheanum with the best forces we can find in the image of our human being. Yes, so be it. Amen.
And so let us keep it, my dear friends, as long as we can, according to the will that connects our human souls with the souls of the Gods, to whom we want to remain faithful in the spirit out of which we sought this loyalty to them at a certain point in our lives, when we sought the spiritual science of the Goetheanum. And let us know how to maintain this loyalty.