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Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation
GA 233a

4 January 1924, Dornach

I. Research into the Life of the Spirit During the Middle Ages

In close connection with what I had to bring before you in the lectures given at our Christmas Foundation Meeting, I should like, in the lectures that are now to be given, to speak further of the movement that is leading us in modern times to research into the life of the spirit. I refer to the movement spoken of under the name of Rosicrucianism or some other occult designation, and I should like to take this opportunity of giving you a picture of it in its inner aspect and nature. It will be necessary first of all to say something, by way of introduction, about the whole manner of forming ideas which had become customary round about the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries A.D., and which only very gradually disappeared; for it is even to be found here and there among stragglers, as it were as late as the nineteenth century. I do not want today to deal with the matter from a historical point of view, but rather to place before your mind's eye conceptions and ideas that you are to think of as inwardly experienced by certain people belonging to these centuries. In point of fact it is not generally realised that we have only to go back a comparatively short time in history, to find that the men who were accounted to be scholars were possessed of a world of ideas altogether different from our own.

In these days we speak of chemical substances, we enumerate seventy or eighty chemical elements; but we have no idea how very little we are saying when we name one substance as oxygen, another as nitrogen, and so on. Oxygen, for instance, is something that is present only under certain well-defined conditions—conditions of warmth, e.g., and other circumstances of earthly life, and it is impossible for a reasonable person to unite a conception of reality with something that, when the temperature is raised by so and so many degrees, is no longer present in the same measure or manner as it is under the conditions that obtain for man's physical life on Earth. It was the realisation of facts like this that underlay research during the early and middle part of the Middle Ages; the life of research of those times set out to get beyond the relative in existence, to arrive at true existence.

I have marked a transition as between the ninth and tenth centuries A.D., because before this time man's perceptions were still altogether spiritual. It would never, for example, have occurred to a scholar of the ninth century to imagine Angels, Archangels, or Seraphim as falling short in respect of reality—purely in respect of reality—of the physical men he saw with his eyes. You will find that before the tenth century, scholars always speak of the spiritual Beings, the so-called Intelligences of the Cosmos, as of beings one actually meets in life. The people of that time were of course well aware that the day was long past when such vision had been common human experience, but they knew that in certain circumstances the meeting could still take place. We must not, for instance, overlook the fact that on into the ninth and tenth centuries countless priests of the Catholic Church were quite conscious of how, in the course of their celebration of the Mass, it happened that in this or that enactment they met spiritual Beings, the Intelligences of the Cosmos. With the ninth and tenth centuries, however, the direct and immediate connection with the Intelligences of the Universe began to disappear from men's consciousness; and there began to light up, in its place, the consciousness of the Elements of the Cosmos, the earthy, the fluid or watery, the airy, the warm or fiery. And so it came about that just as hitherto men had spoken of Cosmic Intelligences that rule the movements of the planets, that lead the planets across the constellations of the fixed stars, and so forth, now they spoke instead of the immediate environment of the Earth. They spoke of the elements of earth, water, air, fire. Of chemical substances, in the modern sense of the word, they did not as yet take account. That came much later. It would, however, be a great mistake to imagine that the scholars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries—even in a sense, the scholars of the eighteenth century—had ideas of warmth, air, water, earth, that resembled the ideas men have today. Warmth is spoken of today merely as a condition in which bodies exist. No one speaks any longer of actual warmth-ether. Air, water—these have likewise become for the modern man completely abstract. It is time we studied these ideas and learned to enter into a true understanding of them. And so today I should like to give you a picture, showing you how a scholar of those times would speak to his pupils.

When I wrote my Outline of Occult Science I was obliged to make the account of the evolution of the Earth accord at any rate a little with the prevailing ideas of the present day. In the thirteenth and twelfth centuries one would have been able to give the account quite differently. The following might then have been found in a certain chapter, e.g., of Outline of Occult Science. An idea would have been called up, to begin with, of the Beings who may be designated as the Beings of the First Hierarchy: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. The Seraphim would have been characterised as Beings with whom there is no subject and object, with whom subject and object are one and the same, Beings who would not say: Outside me are things—but: The world is, and I am the World, and the World is I. Such Beings know only of themselves, and this knowledge of themselves is for them an inner experience of which man has a weak reflection when he has the experience of being filled, shall we say, with a glowing enthusiasm. It is, you know, quite difficult to make the man of today understand what is meant by “glowing enthusiasm.” Even in the beginning of the nineteenth century men knew better what it is than they do today. In those days it could still happen that some poem or other was being read aloud and the people were so filled with enthusiasm—forgive me, but it really was so—that present-day man would say they had all gone out of their minds. They were so moved, so warmed! Today people freeze up just when you expect them to be “enthused.” Now it was lifting this element of enthusiasm, this rapture of the soul that came naturally especially to the men of Middle and Eastern Europe—it was by lifting it into consciousness, by making it alone the complete content of consciousness, that men came to form an idea of the inner life of the Seraphim. Again as a bright, clear element in consciousness, full of light, so that thought turns directly into light, illuminating everything—such an idea did men form of the element of consciousness of the Cherubim. And the element of consciousness of the Thrones was conceived as sustaining, bearing the worlds in Grace.

There you have one such sketch. I could go on speaking of it for a long time. For the moment I only wanted to show you that in those days one would have tried to describe the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones in the true qualities of their being.

And then one would have gone on to say: the Choir of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones works together, in such wise that the Thrones found and establish a kernel; the Cherubim let their own light-filled being stream forth from this centre or kernel; and the Seraphim enwrap the whole in a mantle of warmth and enthusiasm that rays far out into cosmic space. [Footnote: Drawings were made on the blackboard, with coloured chalks.]

All the drawing I have made is Beings: in the midst the Thrones; in the circumference around them the Cherubim; and, outermost of all, the Seraphim. All is essential Being, Beings who move and weave into one another, do, think, will, feel in one another. All is of the very essence of Being. And now, if a being having the right sensitiveness were to take its path through the space where the Thrones have in this manner established a kernel and centre, where the Cherubim have made a kind of circling around it and the Seraphim have, as it were, enclosed the whole—if a being with the required sensitiveness were to come into this realm of the activity of the First Hierarchy, it would feel warmth in varying differentiations—here greater warmth, there less; but it would all be an experience of soul, and yet at the same time physical experience in the senses; that is to say, when the being felt itself warm in soul, the feeling would be actually the feeling you have when you are in a well-warmed room.

Such a united building-up by Beings of the First Hierarchy did verily once take place in the Universe; it formed what we call the Saturn existence. The warmth is merely the expression of the fact that the Beings are there. The warmth is nothing more than the expression of the fact that the Beings are there.

A picture will perhaps make clearer to you what I mean. Let us suppose you have an affection for a certain human being. You feel his presence gives you warmth. But now someone comes along who is frightfully abstract and says: “The person himself doesn't interest me, I will imagine him absent; the warmth he sheds around him, that alone is what interests me.” Or suppose he doesn't even say “The warmth he sheds around him is all that interests me.” Suppose he says: “The warmth is all that interests me.” He talks nonsense, of course, you will see that at once; for if the man is not there who sheds the warmth, then the warmth is not there either. The warmth is in any case only there when the man is there. In itself it is nothing. The man must be there, if the warmth is to be there. Even so must Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones be there; if the Beings are not there, neither is the warmth. The warmth is merely the revelation of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones.

Now in the time of which I speak, everything was exactly as I have described it. Men spoke of Elements. They spoke of the Element of Warmth, and by the Element of Warmth they understood Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones—and that is the Saturn existence.

The description went further. It was said: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones—these alone have the power to bring forth something of the nature of Saturn, to place it into the Cosmos. The highest Hierarchy alone is capable of placing such an existence into the Cosmos. But when this highest Hierarchy had once placed it there and a new world-becoming had taken its start, then the evolution could go on further. The Sun, as it were, that is formed of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones could carry evolution further. And it came to pass in the following manner. Beings of the Second Hierarchy, Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, Beings that had been generated by the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, press into the space that has been formed through the working of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, that has been fashioned to Saturn warmth. Thither entered younger, cosmically younger Beings. And how did these cosmically younger Beings work? Whereas the Cherubim, Seraphim and Thrones reveal themselves in the Element of Warmth, the Beings of the second Hierarchy form themselves in the Element of Light. Saturn is dark; it gives warmth. And now within the dark world of the Saturn existence arises that which can arise through the working of the Sons of the First Hierarchy, through Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes.

What is it that is able now to arise within the Saturn warmth? The penetration of the Second Hierarchy signifies an inner illumination. The Saturn Warmth is inwardly shone through with light and at the same time it becomes denser. Instead of only the Warmth Element there is now also Air. And in the revelation of Light we have the entry of the Second Hierarchy.

You must clearly understand that it is in very deed and truth Beings who thus press their way into the Saturn existence. One who had the requisite power of perception would see the event as a penetration of Light; it is Light that reveals the path of the Beings. And wherever Light occurs, there occurs too, under certain conditions, shadow, darkness, dark shadow. Through the Penetration by the Second Hierarchy in the form of Light, shadow also comes to pass. What is shadow? It is Air. And indeed until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries men knew what Air is. Today men know only that air consists of oxygen, nitrogen and so forth. When that is said, it is very much as if someone were to say about a watch that it consisted of glass and silver. He would be saying nothing at all about the watch. And nothing at all is said about Air as a cosmic phenomenon when we say that it consists of oxygen and nitrogen. We say very much, on the other hand, if we know: Air comes forth from the Cosmos as the shadow of Light. In actual fact we have, with the entry of the second Hierarchy into the Saturn warmth, the entry of Light and we have too the shadow of Light, Air. And when we have this we have Sun. Such is the way one would have had to speak in the thirteenth and twelfth centuries.

And what follows after this? The further evolution comes about through the working of the Sons of the Second Hierarchy—Archai, Archangels, Angels. The Second Hierarchy have accomplished the entry of the Element of Light, Light that has drawn after it its shadow, the darkness of Air—not the indifferent, neutral darkness that belongs to Saturn, the darkness that is simply absence of Light, but the darkness that is wrought out as the antithesis of Light. And now to this Element of Light the Third Hierarchy—Archai, Archangels, Angels—add through their own nature and being a new Element, an Element that is like our human desire, like our impulse to strive after something, to long for something. Thereby the following comes to pass.

Let us suppose an Archai or Archangel Being enters, and comes upon an Element of Light, encounters, as it were, a place of Light. In this place of Light the Being receives, through its receptivity for the Light, the urge, the desire for darkness. The Angel Being bears Light into darkness—or an Angel Being bears darkness into Light. These Beings are mediators, messengers between Light and Darkness. It follows from this that what previously has only shone in Light and drawn after it its shadow, the darkness of Air, begins now to shine in colour, to glow in a play of colour. Light begins to appear in darkness, darkness in light. The Third Hierarchy create colour out of light and darkness.

Here we may find a connection with something that is historical, with something that is to be found in written document. For in the time of Aristotle men still knew, when they contemplated in the Mysteries, whence colours come; they knew that the Beings of the Third Hierarchy have to do with colour. Therefore Aristotle, in his colour harmony, showed that colour signifies a working together of Light and Darkness. But this spiritual element in man's thought, whereby he knew that behind Warmth he has to see Beings of the First Hierarchy, behind Light and its shadow Darkness, Beings of the Second Hierarchy, and behind the iridescent play of Colour he has to see in a great cosmic harmony, Beings of the Third Hierarchy—this spiritual element in man's thought has been lost. And nothing is left for man today but the unhappy Newtonian Theory of Colour. The Initiates continued to smile at Newton's theory till the eighteenth century, but in that time it became an article of faith for professional physicists.

One must indeed have lost all knowledge of the spiritual world when one can speak in the sense of Newton's Theory of Colour. If one is still inwardly stimulated by the spiritual world, as was the case with Goethe, then one resists it. One places before men the truth of the matter, as Goethe did, and attacks with might and main. For Goethe never censured so hardly as when he had to censure Newton, he went for him and his theory hammer and tongs! Such a thing is incomprehensible nowadays, for the simple reason that in our time anyone who does not recognise the Newtonian Theory of Colour is a fool in the eyes of the physicists. But things were different in Goethe's time. He did not stand alone. True, he stood alone as one who spoke openly on the matter; but there were others who really knew, even as late as the end of the eighteenth century, whence colour comes, who knew with absolute certainty how colour wells up from within the Spiritual.

But now we must go further. We have seen that Air is the shadow of Light. And as, when Light arises, under certain conditions we find the dark shadow, so when colour is present and works as a reality—and it can do so, for when it penetrates into the Air-element, it flames up in this Air, works in it, in a word is something, is no mere reflection but a reality flashing and sparkling in the Air-element—when this is so, then under certain conditions we get pressure, counter-pressure, and out of the real Colour there comes into being the fluid, the Element of Water. As, for cosmic thinking, the shadow of Light is Air, so is Water the reflection, the creation of Colour in the Cosmos.

You will say: No, that I cannot understand! But try for once really to grasp Colour in its true meaning. Red—surely you do not think that red is, in its essence, the neutral surface it is generally regarded as being? Red is something that makes an attack upon you.—I have often spoken of this.—You want to run away from red; it thrusts you back. Blue-violet, on the other hand, you want to run after! It runs away from you all the time; it grows deeper and ever deeper. Everything is contained in the colours. The colours are a world, and the soul element in the world of colour simply cannot exist without movement; we ourselves, if we follow the colours with soul-experience, must follow with movement.

People gaze open-eyed at the rainbow. [Footnote: A sketch of a rainbow was made on the blackboard with chalks of the colours as seen in the sky: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.] But if you look at the rainbow with a little imagination, you may see there elemental Beings. These elemental Beings are full of activity and demonstrate it in a very remarkable manner. Here (at yellow) you see some of them streaming forth from the rainbow, continually coming away out of it. They move across and the moment they reach the lower end of the green they are drawn to it again. You see them disappear at this point (green). On the other side they come out again. To one who views it with imagination, the whole rainbow manifests a streaming out of spirit and a disappearing of it again within. It is like a spiritual dance, in very deed a spiritual waltz, wonderful to behold. And you may observe too how these spiritual Beings come forth from the rainbow with terrible fear, and how they go in with invincible courage. When you look at the red-yellow, you see fear streaming out, and when you look at the blue-violet you have the feeling: there all is courage and bravery of heart.

Now picture to yourselves: There before me is no mere rainbow! Beings are coming out of it and disappearing into it—here anxiety and fear, there courage ... And now, here the rainbow receives a certain thickness and you will be able to imagine how this gives rise to the element of Water. In this watery element spiritual Beings live, Beings that are actually a kind of copy of the Beings of the Third Hierarchy.

There is no doubt about it: if we want to get near the men of real knowledge in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we must understand these things. Indeed we cannot even understand the men of still later times, we cannot understand Albertus Magnus, if we read him with the knowledge we have today. We must read him with a manner of knowledge that takes account of the fact that spiritual things like these were still a reality for him: only then shall we understand how he expresses himself, how he uses his words.

Thus we have, as a reflection of the Hierarchies, first Air and then Water. The Hierarchies themselves dive in, as it were—the second Hierarchy in the form of Light, the third Hierarchy in the form of Colour. And with this latter event the Moon existence is attained.

And now we come to the Fourth Hierarchy. (I am telling it, you remember, as it was thought of in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.) We today do not speak of the Fourth Hierarchy; but men still spoke in that way in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. What is this Fourth Hierarchy? It is Man. Man himself is the fourth Hierarchy. But by the Fourth Hierarchy was not meant the two-legged being that goes about the world today, ageing year by year! To the true man of knowledge of those times, present-day man would have appeared as something very strange. No, in those times they spoke of original Man, of Man before the Fall, who still bore a form that gave him power over the Earth, even as the Angels and Archangels and Archai had power over the Moon existence, the second Hierarchy over the Sun existence and the first Hierarchy over the Saturn existence. They spoke of Man in his original Earthly existence and then they were right to speak of him as the Fourth Hierarchy. And with this Fourth Hierarchy came—as a gift it is true, of the higher Hierarchies, but the higher Hierarchies have held it only as a possession they did not themselves use but guarded and kept—with the Fourth Hierarchy came Life. Into the world of Colour, into the iridescent world of changing colour, of which I have only been able to give you the merest hints and suggestions, came Life.

You will say: Then did nothing live before this time? My dear friends, you can understand how it is from the human being himself. Your Ego and your astral body have not life, and yet they exist, they have being. That which is of the soul and the spirit does not need life. Life begins only with your etheric body. And the etheric body is something external, it is of the nature of a sheath. Thus only after the Moon existence and with the Earth existence does Life enter into the domain of that evolution to which our Earth belongs. The world of moving, glancing colour is quickened to life. And now not only do Angels and Archangels and Archai experience a longing desire to carry Darkness into Light, and Light into Darkness, thereby calling forth the play of colour in the planet; now a desire becomes manifest to experience this play of colour as something inward, to feel it all inwardly; when Darkness dominates Light, to feel weakness, laziness; when Light dominates Darkness, to feel activity. For what is happening really, when you run? When you run, Light predominates over Darkness in you; when you sit and are lazy and indolent, then Darkness predominates over Light. It is a play of Colour, an activity of Colour, not physical, but of the soul. Colour permeated with Life, in its iridescence streamed-through with Life—that is what appeared with the coming of the Fourth Hierarchy, Man. And in this moment of cosmic becoming, the forces that became active in the play of colour began to build contours, began to fashion forms. Life, as it rounded off and moulded the colours, called into being the hard, fast form of the crystal. And we have come into Earth existence.

Such things as I have been describing to you were fundamental truths for the mediaeval alchemists and occultists, Rosicrucians and others, who flourished—though history tells us little of them—from the ninth and tenth on into the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and of whom stragglers are to be found as late as the eighteenth and even the beginning of the nineteenth century—always however in these later times regarded as strange and eccentric people. Only with the entry of the nineteenth century did this knowledge become entirely hidden. Only then did men come to acquire a conception of the world that led them to a point of view which I will indicate in the following way. Imagine, my dear friends, that here we have a man. Suppose I cease to have any interest in this man, but I take his clothes and hang them on a coat-hanger that has a knob here above like a head. From now on I take no further interest in the man and I tell myself: There is the man! What does it matter to me what can be put into these clothes? That, the coat-hanger with the clothes, is the man! This is really what happened with the Elements. It does not interest us any longer that behind Warmth or Fire is the First Hierarchy, behind Light and Air the Second Hierarchy, behind what we call Chemical Ether or Colour Ether and Water the Third Hierarchy, and behind the Life Element and Earth the Fourth Hierarchy, Man.—The peg, the hanger and on it the clothes.—That is all!

There you have the first Act of the drama. The second Act begins with Kant! One has there the hanger and the clothes hanging on it, and one begins to philosophise in true Kantian fashion as to what the “thing-in-itself” of these clothes may be. And one comes to a realisation that the “thing-in-itself” of the clothes cannot be known. Very clever, very clever indeed! Of course, if you first take away the man and have only the coat-hanger with the clothes, you can philosophise over the clothes, you can make most beautiful speculations! You can either philosophise in Kantian fashion and say: “The ‘thing-in-itself’ cannot be known,” or in the fashion of Helmholtz and think to yourself: “But these clothes, they cannot of themselves have forms; there is nothing really there but tiny, whirling specks of dust, tiny atoms, which hit and strike each other and behold, the clothes are held in their form!”

Yes, my friends, that is the way thought has developed in recent times. It is all abstract, shadowy. And yet we live today in this way of thinking, in this way of speculating; it gives the stamp to our whole natural-scientific outlook. And when we do not admit that we think in this atomistic way, then we do it most of all! For we are very far from admitting that it is quite unnecessary to dream of a whirling dance of atoms, and that what we have rather to do is to put back the man into the clothes. This is however the very thing which the renewal of Spiritual Science must try to do.

I wanted to indicate to you today, in a number of pictures, the nature and manner of thinking in earlier centuries and what is really contained in the older writings, although it has become obscure. The very obscurity, however, has led to incidents that are not without interest. A Norwegian scientist of today has reprinted a passage from the writings of Basilius Valentinus and has interpreted it in terms of modern chemistry. He could not possibly say otherwise than that it is nonsense, because this is what it appears to be if, in the modern sense, one thinks of a chemist standing in a laboratory, making experiments with retorts and other up-to-date apparatus. What Basilius Valentinus really gives in this passage is a fragment of embryology, expressed in pictures. That is what he gives—a fragment of embryology. According to the modern mode of thought it seems to indicate a laboratory experiment, which then proves to be nonsense. For you will not expect to reproduce the real processes of embryology in a retort—unless you be like the mediaevally minded Wagner of Goethe's Faust.

It is time that these things were understood. And in connection with the great truths of which I was able to speak during the Christmas Foundation Meeting, I shall have more to say concerning the spiritual life and its history during the last few centuries.

Erster Vortrag

Im Anschluß an dasjenige, was ich Ihnen vorzubringen hatte in dem Kursverlauf während unserer Weihnachtstagung, möchte ich in diesen drei Vorträgen, die nun an den Abenden werden zu halten sein, einiges von dem sagen, was die auf die Erforschung des geistigen Lebens hingehende Entwickelung in der neueren Zeit betrifft. Es wird ja vielfach gerade unter dem Namen der Rosenkreuzerei und anderer okkulter Bezeichnungen von dieser neueren geisteswissenschaftlichen Entwickelung gesprochen, und ich möchte einmal das Innere dieser Erforschung des geistigen Lebens hier Ihnen schildern. Dazu wird notwendig sein, daß wir heute einleitend etwas über die ganze Art der Vorstellungen sagen, die sich etwa um das 9., 10., 11. nachchristliche Jahrhundert festsetzte und dann allmählich verschwand eigentlich erst am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, sich sogar noch erhalten hat bei einzelnen Nachzüglern im 19. Jahrhundert. Also ich möchte heute nicht historisch vorgehen, sondern ich möchte eine Summe von durch gewisse Persönlichkeiten innerlich erlebten Vorstellungen vor Ihre Seele hinstellen. Man denkt ja gewöhnlich gar nicht, wie anders die ganze Vorstellungswelt vor einer verhältnismäßig kurzen historischen Zeit war bei denjenigen, die sich zu den erkennenden Menschen gerechnet haben - wie ganz anders als heute. Heute spricht man von chemischen Stoffen, siebzig oder achtzig chemischen Stoffen, und wird sich gar nicht bewußt, daß eigentlich wirklich furchtbar wenig damit gesagt ist, wenn man einen Stoff als Sauerstoff, als Stickstoff und so weiter bezeichnet. Denn Sauerstoff ist ja nur etwas, was vorhanden ist unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen, unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen von Wärmezuständen, von anderen Zuständen gerade des irdischen Lebens. Es kann doch unmöglich eigentlich ein vernünftiger Mensch mit irgend etwas den Begriff der Realität verbinden, was bei Erhöhung einer Temperatur um soundso viele Grade nicht mehr in demselben Maße, in derselben Weise vorhanden ist, wie es gerade eben unter den Bedingungen vorhanden ist, in denen der Mensch als physischer Erdenmensch lebt. Und gerade solche Begriffe, solche Vorstellungen, die Tendenz, über das Relative des Daseins hinauszugehen zu einem wirklichen Dasein, dieses Ziel lag eben dem Forschungsleben der ersten Zeit des Mittelalters, der mittleren Zeit des Mittelalters durchaus zugrunde.

Ich setze deshalb einen Übergang vom 9. ins 10. nachchristliche Jahrhundert, weil vorher die ganzen Anschauungen der Menschen noch sehr geistig waren. Es würde zum Beispiel einem wirklich Wissenden des 9. Jahrhunderts gar noch nicht haben beikommen können, in der Annahme von Engeln oder Erzengeln oder Seraphim irgend etwas zu sehen, was an Realität nicht gleichgekommen wäre ich meine nur an Realität - den physischen Menschen, die man mit Augen sieht. Bei den Wissenden finden Sie, daß durchaus in dieser Zeit vor dem 10. Jahrhundert von den geistigen Wesenheiten, den sogenannten Intelligenzen des Kosmos, wie von Wesenheiten gesprochen wird, nun ja, denen man eben begegnet, wenn auch die Leute gewußt haben, sie sind schon längst aus dem Zeitalter hinaus, in dem das ein allgemeines Anschauungsgut der Menschen war. Sie haben aber gewußt, unter besonderen Verhältnissen ist die Wirkung da. Man darf zum Beispiel durchaus nicht übersehen, daß zahlreiche Priesternaturen, katholische Priesternaturen, bis ins 9., 10. Jahrhundert im Verlauf der Verrichtungen des Meßopfers sich ganz klar darüber waren, daß sie bei dieser oder jener Handlung des Meßopfers die Begegnung von geistigen Wesenheiten, von Intelligenzen des Kosmos gehabt haben.

Aber mit dem 9., 10. Jahrhundert verschwand allmählich aus dem Bewußtsein der Menschen der unmittelbare Zusammenhang mit den eigentlichen Intelligenzen des Weltenalls, und immer mehr und mehr tauchte auf nur das Bewußtsein von den Elementen des Kosmos, von dem Erdigen, dem Flüssigen oder Wäßrigen, dem Luftartigen, dem Wärmeartigen, dem Feurigen. So daß, ebenso wie man früher von kosmischen Intelligenzen gesprochen hat, welche die Planetenbewegungen regeln, die Planeten vorbeiführen an den Fixsternen und so weiter, so sprach man nunmehr, ich möchte sagen, von der unmittelbaren Umgebung des Irdischen. Man sprach von den Elementen der Erde, des Wassers, der Luft, des Feuers. Chemische Stoffe im heutigen Sinne beachtete man nicht. Das kam erst viel später, daß man diese beachtete. Aber sehen Sie, Sie würden sich etwas ganz Falsches vorstellen, wenn Sie sich denken würden, daß die Wissenden selbst noch im 13., 14. Jahrhundert, ja sogar in einer gewissen Weise herein bis ins 18. Jahrhundert, sich unter Wärme, Luft, Wasser, Erde dasselbe vorgestellt hätten, was sich heute die Menschen darunter vorstellen. Heute reden die Menschen von der Wärme überhaupt nur noch als von einem Zustande, in dem die Körper sind. Von einem eigentlich Wärmeätherischen wird ja nicht mehr geredet. Aber Luft, Wasser, das ist ja für die Menschen heute, man möchte sagen, das Allerabstrakteste geworden, und es ist schon notwendig, daß man sich vertiefe in die Art, wie diese Vorstellungen einmal waren. Und so möchte ich Ihnen heute ein Bild geben, wie etwa die Redeweise bei den Wissenden in der bezeichneten Zeit war.

Ich war genötigt, als ich meine «Geheimwissenschaft» schrieb, die Entwickelung der Erde doch wenigstens ein wenig mit den gebräuchlichen Vorstellungen der Gegenwart in Einklang zu bringen. Im 13., 12. Jahrhundert würde man sie haben anders machen können. Da würde zum Beispiel in einem gewissen Kapitel dieser «Geheimwissenschaft» das Folgende zu finden gewesen sein. Da hätte man zunächst eine Vorstellung hervorzurufen gehabt von den Wesenheiten, die man als die Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie bezeichnen kann: Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne. Man würde die Seraphim charakterisiert haben als Wesenheiten, bei denen es nicht Subjekt und Objekt gibt, sondern bei denen Subjekt und Objekt zusammenfällt, die nicht sagen würden: Außer mir sind Gegenstände -, sondern: Die Welt ist, und ich bin die Welt, und die Welt ist Ich -; die eben nur von sich wissen, und zwar so, daß diese Wesenheiten, diese Seraphim, von sich wissen durch ein Erlebnis, von dem der Mensch einen schwachen Nachglanz hat, wenn er, nun, sagen wir, die Erfahrung macht, die ihn in eine glühende Begeisterung versetzt.

Es ist sogar schwer manchmal, dem gegenwärtigen Menschen klar zu machen, was eine glühende Begeisterung ist, denn noch im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts wußte man besser, was glühende Begeisterung ist, als heute. Da kam es schon noch vor, daß das oder jenes Gedicht von diesem oder jenem Dichter vorgelesen worden ist, und die Leute benahmen sich vor Begeisterung so - verzeihen Sie, aber es war schon so -, daß der gegenwärtige Mensch sagen würde: Die sind ja alle wahnsinnig geworden! - So sind sie in Bewegung gekommen, so ist Wärme in sie eingezogen. Gegenwärtig erfriert man ja, gerade wenn man glaubt, die Leute sollten begeistert sein.

Und durch dieses Element der Begeisterung, das insbesondere in Mittel- und Osteuropa recht heimisch war, durch diese seelische Begeisterung, indem dieses Element zum Bewußtsein erhoben ist, einheitliches Bewußtseinselement ist, hat man sich das innere Leben der Seraphim vorzustellen. Und als ein völlig abgeklärtes Element im Bewußtsein, lichtvoll, so daß der Gedanke unmittelbar Licht wird, alles beleuchtet, hat man das Bewußtseinselement der Cherubim vorzustellen. Und als in Gnade tragend, weltentragend, das Element der Throne.

Nun, das ist solch eine Skizze. Ich könnte darüber lange noch fortsprechen. Ich wollte Ihnen nur zunächst sagen, daß man versucht hätte in jener Zeit zunächst Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne in ihren wesenhaften Eigenschaften zu charakterisieren. Dann würde man gesagt haben: Der Chor der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne wirkt zusammen, und zwar so wirkt er zusammen, daß die Throne einen Kern begründen (siehe Zeichnung; Mitte rotlila); die Cherubim lassen von diesem Kern ausströmen ihr eigenes lichtvolles Wesen (gelber Ring). Die Seraphim hüllen das Ganze in einen Begeisterungsmantel, der weithin in den Weltenraum strahlt (rote Umhüllung).

Aber das sind alles Wesenheiten in dem, was ich zeichne, in der Mitte die Throne, im Umkreis die Cherubim, in dem, was im Äußersten hier ist, die Seraphim. Das sind Wesenheiten, die ineinanderschweben, -tun, -denken, -wollen, die ineinanderfühlen. Das sind Wesenhaftigkeiten. Und wenn ein Wesen, das die entsprechende Empfindungsfähigkeit gehabt hätte, nunmehr den Weg durch den Raum genommen hätte, wo in dieser Weise die Throne einen Kern begründet haben, die Cherubim eine Art von Umkreis, die Seraphim eine Art von Abschluß nach außen, wenn ein solches Wesen in den Bereich dieses Wirkens der ersten Hierarchie gekommen wäre, so hätte es Wärme in verschiedener Differenzierung, an verschiedenen Stellen Wärme gefühlt, da höhere Wärme, dort tiefere Wärme. Alles aber seelisch-geistig, aber so seelisch-geistig, daß das seelische Erlebnis auch zu gleicher Zeit in unseren Sinnen ein physisches Erlebnis ist, daß also, indem das Wesen sich seelisch warm fühlt, wirklich das da ist, was Sie fühlen, wenn Sie in einem geheizten Raume sind. Solch eine Zusammenbauung von Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie ist einmal im Weltenall entstanden, und das bildete das saturnische Dasein. Die Wärme ist bloß der Ausdruck dafür, daß diese Wesenheiten da sind. Die Wärme ist nichts, sie ist bloß der Ausdruck dafür, daß diese Wesenheiten da sind.

Ich möchte dafür ein Bild gebrauchen, das hier vielleicht etwas aufklärend sein kann. Denken Sie sich, Sie haben einen Menschen gern. Sie empfinden seine Gegenwart als Sie wärmend. Denken Sie sich, es kommt einer, der ein furchtbarer Abstraktling ist und sagt: Ja, der Mensch interessiert mich eigentlich nicht, den denke ich mir weg, mich interessiert nur die Wärme, die er verbreitet. - Aber er sagt gar nicht: Mich interessiert nur die Wärme, die er verbreitet -, sondern: Mich interessiert überhaupt nur die Wärme. - Er redet natürlich Unsinn, das verstehen Sie, denn wenn der Mensch weg ist, der die Wärme verbreitet, dann ist die Wärme auch nicht mehr da. Die Wärme ist überhaupt nur etwas, was da ist, wenn der Mensch da ist. Sie ist an sich nichts. Der Mensch muß da sein, wenn die Wärme da ist. So müssen Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne da sein, sonst ist auch die Wärme nicht da. Die Wärme ist nur die Offenbarung der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne.

Sehen Sie, in jener Zeit, von der ich spreche, gab es ja in der Tat bis zu den kolorierten Zeichnungen herunter das, was ich Ihnen eben jetzt beschrieben habe. Man redete so, daß man, wenn man von Elementen redete, vom Elemente der Wärme, darunter eigentlich Cherubim, Seraphim, Throne verstand. Und das ist das saturnische Dasein.

Nun ging man weiter, und man sagte sich dann: Nur die Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne haben die Macht, so etwas hervorzubringen, so etwas hinzustellen in den Kosmos. Nur diese höchste Hierarchie hat die Fähigkeit, so etwas hinzustellen in den Kosmos. Aber indem diese höchste Hierarchie im Ausgangspunkte eines Weltenwerdens so etwas hingestellt hat, konnte die Entwickelung weitergehen. Es konnten gewissermaßen die Söhne der Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne die Entwickelung weiterleiten. - Und das geschah dann auf die Weise, daß wirklich die von den Seraphim, Cherubim und Thronen hervorgebrachten Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, die Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, daß diese nun eindrangen in diesen Raum, sagen wir, der hier durch Seraphim, Cherubim und Throne saturnisch gestaltet worden war, saturnisch warm gebildet worden war. Da drangen dann die jüngeren, natürlich kosmisch jüngeren Wesenheiten ein. Diese kosmisch jüngeren Wesenheiten, wie wirkten sie? Während die Cherubim, Seraphim und Throne für sich im Elemente der Wärme sich offenbarten, so offenbarten sich die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie im Elemente des Lichtes. Hier (auf der Zeichnung, roter Hintergrund) das Saturnische ist dunkel, liefert Wärme. Und innerhalb der dunklen finsteren Welt des saturnischen Daseins ersteht dasjenige, was durch die Söhne der ersten Hierarchie, durch die Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, entstehen kann.

Was da entsteht innerhalb dieses saturnisch Warmen, das entsteht dadurch, daß das Eindringen der zweiten Hierarchie bedeutet ein innerliches Durchleuchtetwerden. Dieses innerliche Durchleuchtetwerden ist verknüpft mit einer Verdichtung der Wärme. Es wird aus dem bloßen Wärmeelement Luft. Und wir haben auf der einen Seite eindringend in der Offenbarung des Lichtes die zweite Hierarchie. Aber Sie müssen sich jetzt klar vorstellen, in Wirklichkeit dringen Wesenheiten ein. Für ein Wesen mit entsprechender Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit dringt Licht ein. Licht ist dasjenige, was die Wege dieser Wesenheiten bezeichnet. Wenn irgendwo Licht hinkommt, so entsteht unter gewissen Bedingungen Schatten, Finsternis, finsterer Schatten. Durch das Eindringen der zweiten Hierarchie in Form des Lichtes entstand auch Schatten. Was war dieser Schatten? Die Luft. Und tatsächlich, bis ins 15., 16. Jahrhundert hat man gewußt, was die Luft ist. Heute weiß man nur, die Luft besteht aus Sauerstoff, Stickstoff und so weiter, womit nicht viel anderes gesagt ist, als wenn einer meinetwillen von einer Uhr weiß, sie besteht aus Glas und Silber, womit über die Uhr gar nichts gesagt ist. Es ist über die Luft gar nichts gesagt als kosmische Erscheinung, wenn man sagt, sie besteht aus Sauerstoff und Stickstoff, aber es ist viel über die Luft gesagt, wenn man weiß: Aus dem Kosmos heraus ist die Luft der Schatten des Lichtes. - So daß man also jetzt tatsächlich mit dem Eindringen der zweiten Hierarchie in das saturnisch Warme das Eindringen des Lichtes hat (weiße Strahlen) und den Schatten des Lichtes, die Luft (grüne Schlangenlinien). Und wo das entsteht, ist Sonne. So hätte man eigentlich müssen im 13., 12. Jahrhundert sprechen.

Nun gehen wir weiter. Die weitere Entwickelung wird nun wiederum durch die Söhne der zweiten Hierarchie, durch Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, geleitet. Diese Wesenheiten bringen ein Neues in das leuchtende Element, das zunächst durch die zweite Hierarchie, eingezogen ist, das seinen Schatten, die luftige Finsternis nach sich gezogen hat - nicht die gleichgültige neutrale Finsternis, die saturnische, die einfach Abwesenheit des Lichtes war, sondern die, welche den Gegensatz des Lichtes herausgearbeitet hat. Zu dieser Entwickelung hinzu bringt die dritte Hierarchie, Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, durch ihre eigene Wesenheit ein Element hinein, das ähnlich ist unserem Begehren, unseren Trieben, etwas zu erlangen, nach etwas sich zu sehnen.

Dadurch kam folgendes, dadurch kam zustande, daß, sagen wir, ein Archai- oder Angeloiwesen hier hereinkam (siehe Zeichnung 5.17, Punkt auf dem Lichtstrahl rechts) und auftraf auf ein Element des Lichtes, ich möchte sagen, auf einen Ort des Lichtes. In diesem Ort des Lichtes empfing es durch die Empfänglichkeit für dieses Licht den Drang, das Begehren für die Finsternis. Es trug das Angeloiwesen das Licht in die Finsternis herein, oder ein Angeloiwesen trug die Finsternis in das Licht herein. Diese Wesenheiten werden die Vermittler, die Boten zwischen Licht und Finsternis. Und die Folge davon war, daß dann dasjenige, was früher nur im Lichte erglänzte und seinen Schatten, die dunkle luftige Finsternis, nach sich gezogen hat, daß das anfing in allen Farben zu schillern, daß Licht in Finsternis, Finsternis in Licht erschien. Die dritte Hierarchie ist es, die die Farbe hervorgezaubert hat aus Licht und Finsternis.

Sehen Sie, hier haben Sie auch sozusagen etwas historisch Dokumentarisches vor Ihre Seele hinzustellen. In der Aristoteles-Zeit hat man noch gewußt, wenn man, ich möchte sagen, innerhalb des Mysteriums sich gefragt hat, woher die Farben kommen, daß damit die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie zu tun haben. Daher sprach es Aristoteles in seiner Farbenharmonie aus, daß die Farbe ein Zusammenwirken des Lichtes und der Finsternis bedeutet. Aber dieses geistige Element, daß man hinter der Wärme die Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie, hinter dem Lichte und seinem Schatten, der Finsternis, die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, hinter dem farbigen Aufglitzern in einem Weltenzusammenhange die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie zu sehen hat, das ging verloren. Und es blieb nichts anderes übrig als die unglückselige Newtonsche Farbenlehre, über die bis ins 18. Jahrhundert herein die Eingeweihten gelächelt haben, und die dann das Glaubensbekenntnis derjenigen wurde, die eben physikalische Fachleute sind.

Man muß eben wirklich von der geistigen Welt gar nichts mehr wissen, wenn man im Sinne dieser Newtonschen Farbenlehre sprechen kann. Und wenn man noch innerlich aufgestachelt ist von der geistigen Welt, wie es bei Goethe der Fall war, da sträubt man sich dagegen. Man stellt, wie er es getan hat, das Richtige hin und schimpft furchtbar. Denn Goethe hat nie so geschimpft als bei der Gelegenheit, wo er über Newton zu schimpfen hatte; er schimpfte furchtbar über das unsinnige Zeug. Solche Dinge kann man ja heute nicht begreifen, aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil heute jemand vor den Physikern ein Narr ist, der nicht die Newtonsche Farbenlehre anerkennt. Aber die Dinge liegen doch nicht so, daß etwa in der Goethe-Zeit Goethe ganz allein dagestanden hätte. Unter denen, die nach außen diese Dinge aussprachen, stand er allein da, aber die Wissenden, auch noch am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, sie wußten eben durchaus auch, wie innerhalb des Geistigen die Farbe erquillt.

Aber sehen Sie, die Luft ist der Schatten des Lichtes. Und geradeso, wie, wenn das Licht ersteht, unter gewissen Bedingungen der finstere Schatten da ist, so ersteht, wenn Farbe da ist und diese Farbe als Realität wirkt - und das konnte sie, solange sie eindrang in das luftige Element -, so entsteht, wenn die Farbe hinsprüht im luftigen Elemente, wirkt im luftigen Elemente, also etwas ist, nicht bloß ein Abglanz ist, nicht bloß die Reflexfarbe ist, sondern eine Realität, die hinsprüht im luftigen Elemente: dann entsteht, wie durch Druck Gegendruck entsteht unter gewissen Bedingungen, aus dem realen Farbigen das flüssige, das wäßrige Element. Wie der Schatten des Lichtes Luft ist, kosmisch gedacht, so ist das Wasser der Abglanz, die Schöpfung des Farbigen im Kosmos.

Sie werden sagen: Das verstehe ich nicht. - Aber versuchen Sie nur einmal, tatsächlich das Farbige zu fassen in seinem realen Sinne. Rot - nun ja, glauben Sie, daß das Rot wirklich in seiner Wesenheit nur die neutrale Fläche ist, als die man es gewöhnlich anschaut? Das Rot ist doch etwas, was eine Attacke auf einen macht. Ich habe es oftmals erwähnt. Man möchte davonlaufen vor dem Rot, es stößt einen zurück. Das Blauviolett, man möchte ihm nachlaufen, es läuft immer vor einem davon, es wird immer tiefer und tiefer. In den Farben lebt ja alles. Die Farben sind eine Welt, und das seelische Element fühlt sich in der Farbenwelt tatsächlich so, daß es gar nicht auskommen kann ohne Bewegung, wenn es den Farben mit dem seelischen Erleben folgt.

Sehen Sie, der Mensch glotzt heute den Regenbogen an. Wenn man nur mit einiger Imagination nach dem Regenbogen hinschaut, da sieht man Elementarwesen, die am Regenbogen sehr tätig sind. Diese Elementarwesen zeigen sehr merkwürdige Erscheinungen. Hier (bei Rot und Gelb) sieht man fortwährend aus dem Regenbogen herauskommen gewisse Elementarwesen. Die bewegen sich dann so herüber. In dem Augenblicke, wo sie ankommen an dem unteren Ende des Grüns, werden sie angezogen. Man sieht sie hier verschwinden (bei Grün und Blau). Auf der anderen Seite kommen sie wieder heraus. Der ganze Regenbogen zeigt für den, der ihn mit Imagination anschaut, ein Herausströmen des Geistigen, ein Verschwinden des Geistigen. Er zeigt tatsächlich etwas wie eine geistige Walze, wunderbar. Und zu gleicher Zeit bemerkt man an diesen geistigen Wesenheiten, daß, indem sie da herauskommen, sie mit einer großen Furcht herauskommen, indem sie da hineingehen, gehen sie mit einem ganz unbesieglichen Mut hinein. Wenn man nach dem Rotgelb hinschaut, da strömt Furcht aus, wenn man nach dem Blauviolett hinschaut, bekommt man das Gefühl: Da lebt ja alles wie Mut, wie Courage.

Nun stellen Sie sich vor, daß nicht bloß der Regenbogen da ist, sondern wenn ich jetzt hier einen Schnitt zeichne (siehe Zeichnung, oben) und der Regenbogen so steht (um 90° gedreht), so kommen die Wesenheiten da heraus, da verschwinden sie; hier Angst, hier Mut (siehe Zeichnung S. 22). Der Mut verschwindet wiederum. So wäre jetzt das Auge gerichtet, hier ist der Regenbogen, hier ist jetzt das Rot, Gelb und so weiter. Da bekommt der Regenbogen eine Dicke. Und da werden Sie sich schon vorstellen können, daß wäßriges Element daraus entsteht. Und in diesem wäßrigen Element leben nun geistige Wesenheiten, die wirklich auch eine Art von Abbild sind der Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie.

Man kann schon sagen: Kommt man an die Wissenden des 11., 12., 13. Jahrhunderts heran, so muß man solche Dinge verstehen. Sie können nicht einmal die Späteren mehr verstehen, Sie können nicht den Albertus Magnus verstehen, wenn Sie ihn lesen mit dem, was heute der Mensch weiß. Sie müssen ihn lesen mit einer Art von Wissen, daß solches Geistiges für ihn noch eine Realität war; dann verstehen Sie erst, wie er die Worte gebraucht, wie er sich ausdrückt.

Und auf diese Weise treten auf wie ein Abglanz der Hierarchien Luft, Wasser. Indem die Hierarchien selber eindringen, dringt die zweite Hierarchie ein in Form des Lichtes, die dritte Hierarchie ein in Form des Farbigen. Damit aber, daß dieses sich bildet, ist das Mondendasein erreicht.

Und nun kommt die vierte Hierarchie. Ich erzähle jetzt so, wie man im 12., 13. Jahrhundert gedacht hat. Nun kommt die vierte Hierarchie. Wir sprechen gar nicht von ihr, aber im 12., 13. Jahrhundert hat man noch von dieser vierten Hierarchie sehr wohl gesprochen. Was ist diese vierte Hierarchie? Das ist der Mensch. Der Mensch selber ist die vierte Hierarchie. Aber beileibe nicht das hat man verstanden unter dieser vierten Hierarchie, was jetzt als zweibeiniges, alterndes, so höchst sonderbares Wesen herumgeht in der Welt, denn dem eigentlich Wissenden ist dazumal gerade der gegenwärtige Mensch als ein sonderbares Wesen vorgekommen. Sie haben gesprochen von dem ursprünglichen Menschen vor dem Sündenfall, der noch durchaus in einer solchen Form vorhanden war, daß er ebenso Macht über die Erde hatte, wie Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai Macht über das Mondendasein, wie die zweite Hierarchie Macht über das Sonnendasein, die erste Hierarchie Macht über das Saturndasein hatte. Man sprach von dem Menschen in seinem ursprünglichen irdischen Dasein und konnte da von dem Menschen als der vierten Hierarchie sprechen. Und mit dieser vierten Hierarchie kam, allerdings als eine Gabe der oberen Hierarchien, aber wie etwas, was die oberen Hierarchien erst wie ein Besitztum gehabt haben, das sie gehütet haben, das sie nicht selber brauchten: es kam das Leben. Und in die farbenschillernde Welt, die ich Ihnen also in Andeutungen geschildert habe, kam das Leben hinein.

Sie werden sagen: Haben denn die Dinge nicht früher gelebt? Meine lieben Freunde, wie das ist, können Sie am Menschen selber lernen. Ihr Ich und Ihr astralischer Leib haben nicht das Leben und wesen eben doch. Das Geistige, das Seelische braucht nicht das Leben. Erst bei Ihrem Ätherleib fängt das Leben an, und es ist das etwas äußerlich Hüllenhaftes. Und so kommt auch das Leben erst nach dem Mondendasein mit dem Erdendasein in den Bereich derjenigen Evolution hinein, der eben unsere Erde angehört. Die farbenschillernde Welt wurde durchlebt. Nicht nur, daß jetzt Angeloi, Archangeloi und so weiter Sehnsucht empfingen, Finsternis in Licht, Licht in Finsternis hineinzutragen und dadurch im Planeten das Farbenspiel hervorzurufen, sondern es trat dieses auf, innerlich zu erleben dieses Farbenspiel, es innerlich zu machen. Zu erleben, wenn Finsternis innerlich das Licht dominiert, Schwachheit zu fühlen, Lässigkeit zu fühlen; dagegen wenn Licht die Finsternis dominiert, Aktivität zu fühlen. Denn was ist es, wenn Sie laufen? Wenn Sie laufen, ist es eben so, daß Licht in Ihnen die Finsternis dominiert; wenn Sie sitzen und faul sind, dominiert die Finsternis das Licht. Es ist seelisches Farbenwirken, seelisches Farbenschillern. Von Leben durchsetztes, durchströmtes Farbenschillern trat auf, indem die vierte Hierarchie, der Mensch, kam. Und in diesem Augenblicke des kosmischen Werdens fingen die Kräfte, die da regsam wurden im Farbenschillern, an, Konturen zu bilden. Das Leben, das die Farben innerlich abrundete, abeckte, abkantete, rief das feste Kristallinische hervor. Und wir sind im Erdendasein drinnen.

Solche Dinge, wie ich sie Ihnen jetzt dargestellt habe, die waren eigentlich die Ausgangswahrheiten jener mittelalterlichen Alchimisten, Okkultisten, Rosenkreuzer und so weiter, die, ohne daß heute die Geschichte viel von ihnen berichtet, namentlich geblüht haben vom 9., 10. bis ins 14., 15. Jahrhundert herein und die noch die letzten Nachzügler gehabt haben, die man aber immer dann als Sonderlinge angesehen hat, bis ins 18. Jahrhundert, ja bis in den Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts herein. Nur sind dann diese Dinge völlig zugedeckt worden. Nur hat es die moderne Weltanschauung dann dazu gebracht, folgendes zu vollführen. Denken Sie sich, hier habe ich einen Menschen. Ich höre auf, mich für diesen Menschen zu interessieren und nehme ihm nur die Kleider ab und hänge die Kleider an einen Kleiderstock, der oben einen kopfförmigen Knopf hat, und für den Menschen interessiere ich mich nicht weiter. Ich stelle mir weiter vor: Das ist der Mensch (siehe Zeichnung S. 25); was geht mich das an, daß in diesen Kleidern so etwas drinnenstecken kann? Das ist der Mensch (der Kleiderständer)! - Ja, sehen Sie, so kam es mit den Naturelementen. Es interessiert einen nicht weiter, daß hinter der Wärme oder dem Feuer die erste Hierarchie, hinter dem Licht und der Luft die zweite Hierarchie, hinter dem sogenannten chemischen Äther, Farbäther und so weiter und dem Wasser die dritte Hierarchie, hinter dem Lebenselemente und der Erde die vierte Hierarchie oder der Mensch ist. Bloß den Kleiderrechen her und darauf die Gewänder gehängt! Nun, das ist der erste Akt. Der zweite Akt, der beginnt aber dann auf Kantisch! Da beginnt der Kantianismus, da fängt man an, indem man nun den Kleiderstock hat — die Kleider hängen darauf -, nun zu philosophieren, was das Ding an sich dieser Kleider sein könnte. Und man kommt darauf, daß man eigentlich dieses Ding an sich der Kleider nicht erkennen kann. Sehr scharfsinnig! Natürlich, wenn man den Menschen zuerst weggenommen hat und dann den Kleiderstock mit den Kleidern hat, so kann man über die Kleider philosophieren, und dann kommt man darauf, daß man hübsche Spekulationen macht. Es ist ja eben der Kleiderstock da, nicht wahr, und da hängen die Gewänder daran, und da philosophiert man, entweder auf Kantisch: Das Ding an sich erkennt man nicht - oder auf Helmholtzisch, und da denkt man sich: Diese Kleider, die können doch nicht Formen haben; nun ja, da sind eben lauter kleine wirbelnde Staubkörnchen, Atome drinnen, die schlagen da an, und da werden die Kleider in ihrer Form erhalten.

Ja, so hat sich das Denken dann später entwickelt. Das aber ist abstrakt, schattenhaft. Aber in diesem Denken, in diesem Spekulieren leben wir ja heute; aus dem prägen wir uns heute unsere gesamte naturwissenschaftliche Anschauung. Und wenn wir nicht zugeben, daß wir atomistisch denken, so tun wir es erst recht. Denn das wird man noch lange nicht zugeben, daß es nicht notwendig ist, den Wirbeltanz der Atome da hineinzuträumen, sondern wieder den Menschen in die Kleider hineinzutun. Das aber muß eben versuchen die Wiederaufrichtung der Geisteswissenschaft.

Ich wollte Ihnen heute in einer Anzahl von Bildern geben, wie dazumal noch gedacht worden ist und was schon eigentlich zu lesen ist in älteren Schriften, was aber verglommen ist. Aber weil es verglommen ist, kommen solche interessanten Tatsachen zutage: Da hat ein nordischer Chemiker von heute eine Stelle des Basilius Valentinus wieder abgedruckt und die Sache im heutigen Sinne chemisch genommen. Und da konnte er natürlich nichts anderes sagen — weil das so aussieht, wenn man es heute chemisch denkt, als wenn man im Laboratorium stünde, Retorten und andere Instrumente hätte und heutige Experimente ausführte —, da konnte er nichts anderes sagen, als daß das ein Unsinn sei, was da bei Basilius Valentinus steht. Was aber bei Basilius Valentinus steht, ist ein Stück Embryologie, eben in Bildform ausgedrückt. Ein Stück Embryologie ist das. Wenn man einfach die heutige Denkweise anwendet, so bekommt man scheinbar einen bloßen Laboratoriumsversuch, der aber dann ein Unsinn ist. Denn im Laboratorium wenn man nicht gerade der Wagner ist, der aber immerhin noch mehr auf dem Standpunkt der früheren Jahrhunderte steht - kann man eben nicht ein Stück Embryologie ausführen.

Diese Dinge müssen heute wieder eingesehen werden. Und im Zusammenhange mit den großen Wahrheiten, die ich aussprechen durfte in den Tagen der Weihnachtstagung, möchte ich eben auch einiges noch sagen über die Schicksale des inneren Geisteslebens in den letzten Jahrhunderten der Weltentwickelung.

First Lecture

Following on from what I had to say to you in the course of our Christmas Conference, I would like in these three lectures, which will now be given in the evenings, to say something of what concerns the development of the exploration of the spiritual life in more recent times. This new spiritual-scientific development is often spoken of under the name of Rosicrucianism and other occult terms, and I would like to describe to you the inner workings of this research into the spiritual life. To do so, it will be necessary for us to say something today by way of introduction about the whole type of ideas that became established around the 9th, 10th, 11th century AD and then gradually disappeared, actually only at the end of the 18th century, and even survived with individual latecomers in the 19th century. So I do not want to proceed historically today, but I would like to place before your soul a sum of ideas experienced inwardly by certain personalities. One does not usually think how different the whole world of ideas was a relatively short time ago among those who counted themselves among the cognizing people - how completely different from today. Today we speak of chemical substances, seventy or eighty chemical substances, and do not even realize that really terribly little is said when we call a substance oxygen, nitrogen and so on. For oxygen is only something that is present under certain conditions, under certain conditions of heat, of other conditions of earthly life. It is impossible for a reasonable person to associate the concept of reality with something that is no longer present to the same extent, in the same way, when a temperature is increased by so many degrees, as it is present under the very conditions in which man lives as a physical human being on earth. And precisely such concepts, such ideas, the tendency to go beyond the relative nature of existence to a real existence, this goal was the very basis of the research life of the first period of the Middle Ages, the middle period of the Middle Ages.

I therefore place a transition from the 9th to the 10th century after Christ, because before that the entire views of people were still very spiritual. For example, a truly knowledgeable person of the 9th century would not yet have been able to see anything in the assumption of angels or archangels or seraphim that would not have equaled reality - I mean only reality - the physical people that one sees with eyes. Among those who know, you will find that in this time before the 10th century, spiritual beings, the so-called intelligences of the cosmos, are spoken of as beings, well, that one encounters, even if people knew that they had long since left the age in which this was a general conception of people. But they knew that under special circumstances the effect is there. For example, one must not overlook the fact that numerous priests, Catholic priests, up to the 9th and 10th centuries were quite aware in the course of performing the sacrifice of the Mass that they had encountered spiritual beings, intelligences of the cosmos, during this or that act of the sacrifice of the Mass.

But with the 9th, 10th century the direct connection with the actual intelligences of the universe gradually disappeared from the consciousness of men, and more and more only the consciousness of the elements of the cosmos, of the earthy, the liquid or watery, the airy, the warm, the fiery, emerged. So that, just as formerly one spoke of cosmic intelligences which regulate the planetary movements, guide the planets past the fixed stars and so on, so now one spoke, I might say, of the immediate surroundings of the earthly. One spoke of the elements of earth, water, air and fire. Chemical substances in the modern sense were not considered. It was only much later that these were taken into account. But you see, you would be imagining something quite wrong if you were to think that even in the 13th and 14th centuries, and even to a certain extent up to the 18th century, those in the know would have imagined heat, air, water and earth to be the same as people imagine them to be today. Today people only speak of warmth as a state in which bodies are. There is no longer any talk of an actual heat ether. But air and water have become, one might say, the most abstract things for people today, and it is necessary to delve into the way these ideas used to be. And so today I would like to give you a picture of the way people in the know spoke at that time.

When I wrote my “Secret Science”, I was compelled to harmonize the development of the earth at least a little with the common ideas of the present. In the 13th, 12th century it would have been possible to do it differently. For example, the following would have been found in a certain chapter of this “secret science”. First of all, one would have had to evoke an idea of the entities that can be described as the entities of the first hierarchy: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. The seraphim would have been characterized as entities in which there is no subject and object, but in which subject and object coincide, which would not say: "Besides me there are objects: Apart from me are objects -, but: The world is, and I am the world, and the world is I -; who only know of themselves, and in such a way that these entities, these seraphim, know of themselves through an experience of which man has a faint afterglow when he, well, let us say, has the experience that puts him into a glowing enthusiasm.

It is sometimes even difficult to make it clear to contemporary man what ardent enthusiasm is, because at the beginning of the 19th century people knew better what ardent enthusiasm was than they do today. It still happened that this or that poem by this or that poet was read aloud, and people behaved so enthusiastically - forgive me, but it was like that - that contemporary people would say: They've all gone mad! - That's how they got moving, that's how warmth entered them. At present, one freezes to death precisely when one believes that people should be enthusiastic.

And through this element of enthusiasm, which was particularly native to Central and Eastern Europe, through this spiritual enthusiasm, in that this element is elevated to consciousness, is a uniform element of consciousness, one has to imagine the inner life of the seraphim. And as a completely clarified element in consciousness, full of light, so that the thought immediately becomes light, illuminating everything, one has to imagine the element of consciousness of the Cherubim. And as carrying in grace, carrying the world, the element of the thrones.

Well, that is such a sketch. I could go on about it for a long time. I just wanted to tell you first of all that in those days people would have tried to characterize seraphim, cherubim and thrones in terms of their essential qualities. Then one would have said: The choir of seraphim, cherubim and thrones work together in such a way that the thrones form a nucleus (see drawing; center red-purple); the cherubim let their own light-filled essence flow out from this nucleus (yellow ring). The seraphim wrap the whole in a mantle of enthusiasm that radiates far into the world space (red envelope).

But these are all entities in what I am drawing, in the center the thrones, in the circumference the cherubim, in what is in the outermost here, the seraphim. These are entities that float, do, think, want, feel into each other. These are entities. And if a being who had had the corresponding capacity for feeling had now taken the path through space, where in this way the thrones have established a nucleus, the cherubim a kind of circumference, the seraphim a kind of outward termination, if such a being had come into the sphere of this working of the first Hierarchy, it would have felt warmth in various differentiations, warmth in various places, higher warmth there, lower warmth there. But everything is soul-spiritual, but so soul-spiritual that the soul experience is also at the same time a physical experience in our senses, so that when the being feels warm in soul, what you feel when you are in a heated room is really there. Such an assemblage of beings of the first Hierarchy once came into being in the universe, and this formed the Saturnian existence. The warmth is merely the expression of the fact that these entities are there. The warmth is nothing, it is merely the expression that these entities are there.

I would like to use an image that may be somewhat enlightening here. Imagine that you like a person. You find their presence warming. Imagine that someone comes along who is a terrible abstract person and says: Yes, I'm not really interested in this person, I'm thinking him away, I'm only interested in the warmth he spreads. - But he doesn't say: I'm only interested in the warmth he spreads - but rather: I'm only interested in the warmth. - Of course he's talking nonsense, you understand that, because if the person who spreads the warmth is gone, then the warmth is no longer there. The warmth is only something that is there when the person is there. It is nothing in itself. The human being must be there when the warmth is there. So seraphim, cherubim, thrones must be there, otherwise the warmth is not there either. The warmth is only the revelation of the seraphim, cherubim, thrones.

You see, in the time I am talking about, what I have just described to you actually existed right down to the colored drawings. People spoke in such a way that when they spoke of elements, of the element of warmth, they actually meant cherubim, seraphim, thrones. And that is the saturnine existence.

Now one went further, and one then said to oneself: Only the seraphim, cherubim, thrones have the power to produce something like this, to place something like this in the cosmos. Only this highest hierarchy has the ability to place something like this in the cosmos. But by placing something like this at the starting point of a world becoming, the development could continue. The sons of the seraphim, cherubim and thrones could, so to speak, carry on the development. - And this then happened in such a way that the entities of the second hierarchy, the Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai, brought forth by the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, really did penetrate into this space, let us say, which had been saturnically formed here by Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, saturnically warmly formed. Then the younger, naturally cosmically younger beings entered. How did these cosmically younger entities work? While the Cherubim, Seraphim and Thrones manifested themselves in the element of warmth, the beings of the second hierarchy manifested themselves in the element of light. Here (on the drawing, red background) the Saturnian is dark, providing warmth. And within the dark, dark world of Saturnine existence arises that which can arise through the sons of the first Hierarchy, through the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.

What arises within this Saturnine warmth arises because the penetration of the second Hierarchy signifies an inward being transilluminated. This inner illumination is connected with a condensation of warmth. The mere heat element becomes air. And on the one hand we have the second hierarchy penetrating into the revelation of light. But you must now clearly imagine that in reality entities are penetrating. For a being with the corresponding ability to perceive, light penetrates. Light is that which marks the paths of these beings. If light penetrates somewhere, then under certain conditions shadow, darkness, dark shadow arises. Through the penetration of the second hierarchy in the form of light, shadow also arose. What was this shadow? The air. And indeed, until the 15th and 16th centuries, people knew what air was. Today we only know that air consists of oxygen, nitrogen and so on, which is not much different from saying that a watch consists of glass and silver, which says nothing at all about the watch. Nothing at all is said about the air as a cosmic phenomenon when one says that it consists of oxygen and nitrogen, but much is said about the air when one knows that from the cosmos the air is the shadow of light. - So that now, with the penetration of the second hierarchy into the Saturnian warmth, we actually have the penetration of light (white rays) and the shadow of light, the air (green serpentine lines). And where this arises, there is sun. This is how we should actually have spoken in the 13th, 12th century.

Now we move on. The further development is now again guided by the sons of the second hierarchy, by Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. These Beings bring a new element into the luminous element which first entered through the second Hierarchy, which drew its shadow, the airy darkness after it - not the indifferent neutral darkness, the saturnine, which was simply the absence of light, but that which worked out the antithesis of light. In addition to this development, the third Hierarchy, Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, bring in through their own being an element which is similar to our desire, our drives to attain something, to long for something.

Through this the following came about, through this it came about that, let us say, an Archai or Angeloi being came in here (see drawing 5.17, point on the ray of light on the right) and encountered an element of light, I would like to say, a place of light. In this place of light it received the urge, the desire for darkness through its receptivity to this light. The Angeloi being carried the light into the darkness, or an Angeloi being carried the darkness into the light. These beings become the mediators, the messengers between light and darkness. And the consequence of this was that that which formerly shone only in the light and drew its shadow, the dark airy darkness, after it, began to shimmer in all colors, that light appeared in darkness, darkness in light. It is the third hierarchy that conjured color out of light and darkness.

You see, here you also have something historically documentary to place before your soul, so to speak. In Aristotle's time it was still known, I would say, within the Mystery, when people asked themselves where the colors came from, that the entities of the third hierarchy had something to do with them. That is why Aristotle said in his Harmony of Colors that color means the interaction of light and darkness. But this spiritual element, that behind the warmth one has to see the entities of the first Hierarchy, behind the light and its shadow, the darkness, the entities of the second Hierarchy, behind the colored glittering in a world context the entities of the third Hierarchy, was lost. And all that remained was the unfortunate Newtonian theory of colors, about which the initiated smiled until the 18th century, and which then became the creed of those who are physical experts.

You really don't have to know anything more about the spiritual world if you can speak in terms of this Newtonian theory of colors. And if one is still inwardly incited by the spiritual world, as was the case with Goethe, one resists it. As he did, one puts down what is right and scolds terribly. For Goethe never scolded so much as on the occasion when he had to scold Newton; he scolded him terribly about the nonsensical stuff. One cannot understand such things today, for the simple reason that anyone who does not recognize Newton's theory of color is a fool in the eyes of physicists. But things are not such that in Goethe's time, for example, Goethe would have stood quite alone. He was alone among those who expressed these things to the outside world, but those in the know, even at the end of the 18th century, were also well aware of how color springs up within the spiritual.

But you see, air is the shadow of light. And just as, when the light arises, under certain conditions the dark shadow is there, so when color arises and this color acts as reality - and it could do so as long as it penetrated the airy element - so when the color sprays forth in the airy element, acts in the airy element, it is something, is not merely a reflection, is not merely the reflected color, but a reality that sprays forth in the airy element: then the liquid, the watery element arises, as counter-pressure arises through pressure under certain conditions, from the real colored element. Just as the shadow of light is air, cosmically conceived, so water is the reflection, the creation of the colored element in the cosmos.

You will say: I don't understand that. - But just try for once to actually grasp color in its real sense. Red - well, do you believe that red in its essence is really just the neutral surface that we usually see it as? Red is something that attacks you. I have often mentioned it. You want to run away from the red, it pushes you back. The blue-violet, you want to run after it, it always runs away from you, it gets deeper and deeper. Everything lives in the colors. The colors are a world, and the spiritual element actually feels itself in the world of colors in such a way that it cannot do without movement if it follows the colors with its spiritual experience.

You see, people today stare at the rainbow. If you look at the rainbow with just a little imagination, you will see elemental beings who are very active on the rainbow. These elemental beings show very strange phenomena. Here (with red and yellow) you can see certain elemental beings constantly coming out of the rainbow. They then move over like this. The moment they arrive at the lower end of the green, they are attracted. You can see them disappear here (in green and blue). On the other side they come out again. For those who look at it with imagination, the whole rainbow shows a streaming out of the spiritual, a disappearance of the spiritual. It actually shows something like a spiritual roller, wonderful. And at the same time one notices in these spiritual beings that as they come out of it, they come out with a great fear, as they go in, they go in with a completely invincible courage. If you look at the red-yellow, fear emanates from there, if you look at the blue-violet, you get the feeling: Everything there lives like courage, like courage.

Now imagine that not only the rainbow is there, but if I now draw a cut here (see drawing, above) and the rainbow stands like this (rotated by 90°), the entities come out of there, there they disappear; here fear, here courage (see drawing p. 22). Courage disappears again. So now the eye would be directed, here is the rainbow, here is the red, yellow and so on. This gives the rainbow a thickness. And you can already imagine that a watery element arises from it. And in this aqueous element now live spiritual beings who are really also a kind of image of the beings of the third hierarchy.

You can already say: If you approach the knowers of the 11th, 12th, 13th century, you have to understand such things. You can't even understand the later ones, you can't understand Albertus Magnus if you read him with what people know today. You must read him with a kind of knowledge that such spiritual things were still a reality for him; only then will you understand how he uses words, how he expresses himself.

And in this way the hierarchies of air and water emerge like a reflection. As the hierarchies themselves penetrate, the second hierarchy penetrates in the form of light, the third hierarchy in the form of color. But with the formation of this, the moon existence is achieved.

And now comes the fourth hierarchy. I am now telling you how people thought in the 12th and 13th centuries. Now comes the fourth hierarchy. We don't talk about it at all, but in the 12th and 13th centuries people did talk about this fourth hierarchy. What is this fourth hierarchy? It is the human being. Man himself is the fourth hierarchy. But this fourth hierarchy was by no means understood to mean what now goes around in the world as a two-legged, aging, highly peculiar being, for at that time it was precisely the present human being who appeared to those who were actually knowledgeable as a peculiar being. You have spoken of the original man before the Fall, who was still present in such a form that he had power over the earth just as the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai had power over the moon, as the second Hierarchy had power over the sun, as the first Hierarchy had power over Saturn. One spoke of man in his original earthly existence and could then speak of man as the fourth Hierarchy. And with this fourth Hierarchy came, admittedly as a gift from the upper Hierarchies, but as something which the upper Hierarchies first had like a possession, which they guarded, which they did not need themselves: life came. And life came into the colorful, dazzling world that I have described to you in hints.

You will say: Didn't things live before? My dear friends, you can learn how that is from man himself. Your ego and your astral body do not have life and yet they do. The spiritual, the soul does not need life. Life only begins with your etheric body, and it is something outwardly shell-like. And so life only enters the realm of that evolution to which our earth belongs after the moon existence with the earth existence. The colorful world has been lived through. Not only that now Angeloi, Archangeloi and so on received the longing to carry darkness into light, light into darkness, and thereby to evoke the play of colors in the planet, but also to experience this play of colors inwardly, to make it inwardly. To experience when darkness inwardly dominates light, to feel weakness, to feel laxity; on the other hand, when light dominates darkness, to feel activity. Because what is it when you run? When you run, it is precisely that light dominates the darkness within you; when you sit and are lazy, the darkness dominates the light. It is spiritual color action, spiritual color iridescence. The iridescence of color, permeated with life, appeared when the fourth hierarchy, the human being, came. And at this moment of cosmic becoming, the forces that became active in the iridescence of color began to form contours. Life, which inwardly rounded off the colors, covered them, rounded them off, called forth the solid crystalline. And we are inside the earthly existence.

These things, as I have now presented them to you, were actually the original truths of those medieval alchemists, occultists, Rosicrucians and so on, who flourished from the 9th and 10th centuries to the 14th century, without history reporting much about them today. The last stragglers, however, were always regarded as eccentrics until the 18th century, indeed until the beginning of the 19th century. But then these things were completely covered up. But then the modern world view led to the following. Think to yourself, here I have a human being. I stop taking an interest in this person and just take off his clothes and hang them on a clothes hanger with a head-shaped button at the top, and I take no further interest in the person. I continue to imagine: This is the person (see drawing p. 25); what is it to me that something like this can be inside these clothes? That's the person (the clothes rack)! - Yes, you see, that's how it came about with the natural elements. It is of no interest that behind heat or fire is the first hierarchy, behind light and air the second hierarchy, behind the so-called chemical ether, color ether and so on and water the third hierarchy, behind the life element and the earth the fourth hierarchy or the human being. Just bring the clothes rake and hang the robes on it! Well, that is the first act. The second act, however, begins in Kantian terms! That's where Kantianism begins, that's where you start, now that you have the clothes rack - the clothes are hanging on it - to philosophize about what the thing in itself of these clothes could be. And you come to the conclusion that you can't actually recognize this thing in itself of the clothes. Very astute! Of course, if you have first taken away the human being and then have the clothes hanger with the clothes, you can philosophize about the clothes, and then you come to the conclusion that you are making pretty speculations. The clothes hanger is there, isn't it, and the clothes hang on it, and then you philosophize, either in Kan table terms: You don't recognize the thing itself - or in Helmholtzian terms, and then you think to yourself: These clothes, they can't have shapes; well, there are just lots of little whirling dust particles, atoms inside, they hit there, and that's where the clothes get their shape.

Yes, this is how thinking developed later. But it is abstract, shadowy. But we live in this thinking, in this speculation today; we form our entire scientific view from it. And if we do not admit that we think atomistically, we do so all the more. For we will not admit for a long time that it is not necessary to dream the whirling dance of the atoms into it, but to put people back into their clothes. This, however, is what the re-establishment of spiritual science must attempt.

Today I wanted to give you a number of pictures of how things were thought at that time and what can actually already be read in older writings, but which has faded away. But because it has faded away, such interesting facts come to light: a modern-day Nordic chemist has reprinted a passage from Basilius Valentinus and taken the matter chemically in today's sense. And of course he couldn't say anything else - because that's what it looks like if you think of it chemically today, as if you were in a laboratory, had retorts and other instruments and carried out today's experiments - he couldn't say anything else but that what Basil Valentinus says is nonsense. But what Basil Valentinus says is a piece of embryology, expressed in pictorial form. It is a piece of embryology. If you simply apply today's way of thinking, you seem to get a mere laboratory experiment, which is nonsense. Because in the laboratory, unless you are Wagner, who is still more in line with the viewpoint of earlier centuries, you cannot carry out a piece of embryology.

These things must be recognized again today. And in connection with the great truths that I was able to express in the days of the Christmas conference, I would also like to say a few things about the fate of the inner spiritual life in the last centuries of world development.