Karmic Relationships V
GA 239
23 May 1924, Paris
Lecture V
[ The last time I was allowed to speak to at least a certain number of you was when our Goetheanum in Dornach was still in existence. At that time it gave me great satisfaction to be able to speak to a number of French friends. This satisfaction is repeated by the fact that, at the invitation of our French friends, I am now also able to speak here about the subjects of our anthroposophy. I thank these friends for their kind invitation, especially Mile Sauerwein, and also express my satisfaction that Dr. Sauerwein, who then translated the lectures in Dornach in such a beautiful, accommodating way, has also agreed to take on this work in Paris. I am particularly grateful to him for this.
A number of things have changed in the anthroposophical movement as a result of the fact that we were able to hold the Christmas Conference in a relatively short time after the misfortune of the fire, with the great participation of anthroposophical friends, which I believe has given the anthroposophical movement a new impulse, especially a new impulse with regard to the content of anthroposophical work itself. What is new in the anthroposophical movement is also that I myself now had to take over the presidency, whereas previously it had been exercised by others, and I regarded myself only as a teacher. Well, my dear friends, it was a very important decision, also in relation to the spiritual world, which I had to take at that time. For it was a risk. A risk for the reason that with the assumption of the external leadership it could just as well have been that the revelations from the side of spiritual beings, on which we are absolutely dependent when it is a matter of spreading Anthroposophy, - that these revelations of spiritual beings could have become less by the fact that I allowed myself to be taken up by the external administration of the Society. Today I may already point out the extraordinarily significant fact that this is not the case, but that on the contrary, since the Christmas Conference the spiritual impulse which must come down from the spiritual worlds if the anthroposophical movement is to take its right course has certainly grown, so that our anthroposophical movement has been able to become more and more esoteric and esoteric since our Christmas Conference and will continue to do so. It is connected with this, however, that - I mean from the spiritual side - very strong opposing forces, demonic forces, are attacking the anthroposophical movement. But it is certainly to be hoped that the forces of the alliance which we were able to conclude with good spiritual powers through the Christmas Conference will in future be able to defeat all those opposing powers in the spiritual realm, which after all make use of people on earth to achieve their effects - all these opposing powers from the field. ]
In these three lectures I want to speak of how Anthroposophy can live as knowledge of the spiritual in the world and in man—knowledge that is able to kindle inner forces and impulses in the moral and religious life of soul. Because this will always be possible, Anthroposophy can bring to mankind something altogether different from anything produced by the civilisation of the last few centuries. This civilisation has actually suffered from the diffusion of brilliant forms of knowledge: natural science, economics, philosophy. But all this knowledge is a concern of the head alone, whereas moral religious impulses must spring from the heart. True, these impulses have existed as ideals; but whether these ideals and the feelings associated with them are also powerful enough to create worlds of the future when the present physical world has passed away, is a question unanswerable by modern science. What has sprung from modern science is the widespread doubt that is characteristic of the present age and the age just past.
To begin with I want to consider three aspects of man's life. We ourselves, our destiny, are inextricably connected with this life from birth to death. Birth, or rather conception, is the boundary in one direction; death is the boundary in the other. Birth and death are not life; they are merely the beginning and the end of physical life. And the question is this: Can birth and death in themselves be approached with the same mental attitude with which we contemplate our own life, or the life of others, between birth and death, or must our approach to the actual boundaries of birth and death be from a different vantage point? Therefore the aspect of death, which so significantly sets a boundary to human life, shall be the first object of our study to-day.
At the end of a man's earthly life he is divested by death of the physical body we see before us. The Earth takes possession of it, either through its own elements as in burial, or through fire as in cremation. What can the Earth do with the part of man we perceive with physical senses? The Earth can do no other than subject it to destruction. Think of the forces in nature around us. They build up nothing when the human corpse is given over to them; they simply destroy it. The nature forces around us are not there for the purpose of upbuilding, for the human body disintegrates when it passes into their grasp. Hence there must be something different which builds up the human body, something different from earthly forces, for they bring about its disintegration.
If, however, human death is studied with forces of cognition activated in the soul through the appropriate exercises, everything presents a different aspect. With ordinary faculties of cognition we see the corpse and nothing else. But when, by means of these exercises, we develop Imagination the first stage of higher knowledge described in my books then death is completely transformed. In death man tears himself from the grasp of the Earth; and if we cultivate Imagination, we see in direct vision, in living pictures, that in death man rises from his corpse; he does not die. At the stage of Imaginative Knowledge, physical death is transformed into spiritual birth. Before death, man stands there as earthly man. He can say: “I am here, at this place; the world is outside me.”—But the moment death occurs the man himself is not where his corpse lies. He is beginning his existence in the wide spaces of the Universe; he is becoming one with the world at which he has hitherto only gazed. The world outside his body now becomes his field of experience and therewith what hitherto was inner world becomes outer world, what hitherto was outer world becomes inner world. We pass out of our personal existence into world-existence. The Earth—so it appears to Imaginative cognition—makes it possible for us to undergo death. The Earth is revealed to Imaginative cognition as the bearer of death in the Universe. Nowhere except on Earth is death to be found in any sphere frequented by man, whether in physical or spiritual life. For the moment man passes through death and becomes one with the Universe, the second aspect presents itself—the aspect in which the widths of space appear to be everywhere filled with cosmic thoughts. For Imaginative vision and for the man himself who has passed through death, the whole Cosmos now teems with cosmic thoughts, living and weaving in the expanse of space. The space aspect becomes the great revealer. Having passed through death man enters a world of cosmic thoughts; everything works and weaves in cosmic thoughts. This is the second aspect.
When we confront a man in earthly life, he is there before us in the first place as a personality. He must speak if we are to know his thoughts. So we say: “The thoughts are within him; they are conveyed to us through his speech.” But nowhere within the perimeter of earthly life do we discover thoughts which stand alone. They are present only in men, and they come out of men. When we pass from the earthly sphere of death to the space sphere of thoughts, to begin with we encounter no beings in the widths of space—neither gods nor men—but everywhere we encounter cosmic thoughts. Having undergone death and passed into the expanse of universal space it is as though in the physical world we were to meet a man and perceive only his thoughts without seeing the man himself. We should see a cloud of thoughts. After death we do not at first encounter beings; we encounter thoughts, the universal World Intelligence.
In this sphere of cosmic Intelligence man lives for a few days after his death. And in the weaving cosmic thoughts there appears as it were a single cloud in which he sees the record of his last earthly life. This record is inscribed into the cosmic Intelligence. For a few days he beholds his whole life in one great, simultaneous tableau. During these few days what is inscribed into the cosmic Intelligence becomes steadily fainter and fainter. The record expands into cosmic space and vanishes. Whereas at the end of earthly life the aspect of death appears, a few days after the end of this experience there comes the vanishing into cosmic space. Thus, after the first aspect, which we may call the aspect of death, we have the second aspect, which may be called the aspect of the vanishing of earthly life. After death there is actually for every human being a moment of terrible fear that he may lose himself, together with all his earthly life, in cosmic space.
If we wish for more understanding of man's experiences after death, Imaginative Knowledge will be found to be inadequate; we must pass on to the second stage of higher knowledge, to Inspiration. Imaginative Knowledge has pictures before it—pictures that are in the main like dream pictures, except that we can never feel convinced of any reality behind the latter, whereas the pictures of Imagination, through their own inherent quality, always express reality. Through Imagination we live in a picture world that is nevertheless reality. This picture world must be transcended if we are to see what a man experiences after death when the few days during which he reviewed his life, have passed.
Inspiration, which must be acquired after or during the stage of Imagination, presents no pictures; instead of pictures there is spiritual hearing. Knowledge through Inspiration absorbs cosmic Intelligence, cosmic thoughts, in such a way that they seem to be spiritually heard. From all sides the cosmic word resounds, indicating distinctly that there is reality behind it. First comes the proclamation; then, when a man can give himself up to this Inspiration, he begins, in Intuition, to perceive behind the cosmic thoughts, the Beings of the Universe themselves. Pictures of the spiritual are perceived in Imagination; in Inspiration the spiritual speaks; Intuition perceives the Beings themselves. I said that the world is filled with cosmic thoughts. These in themselves do not at once point to beings; but we eventually become aware of words behind the thoughts and then of beholding through Intuition, the Beings of the Universe.
The first aspect of man's existence is the aspect of death it is the earthly aspect; the second aspect leads us out into cosmic space, into which, as earthly men, we otherwise gaze without any understanding; this is the aspect of the vanishing of man's life. The third aspect presents the boundary of visible space: this is the aspect of the stars. But the stars do not appear as they do to physical sight. For physical sight the stars are points of radiance at the boundaries of the space in the direction towards which we are looking. If we have acquired the faculty of Intuitive Knowledge, the stars are the revealers of cosmic Beings, spiritual Beings. And with Intuition we behold in the spiritual Universe, instead of the physical stars, colonies of spiritual Beings at the places where we conceive the physical stars to be situated. The third aspect is the aspect of the stars. After we have learnt to know death, after we have recognised cosmic Intelligence through the widths of space, this third aspect leads us into the spheres of cosmic spiritual Beings and thereby into the sphere of the stars. And just as the Earth has received man between birth and death, so, when he has crossed the abyss to cosmic Intelligence a few days after his death, he is received into the world of stars. On Earth he was a man of Earth among Earth beings; after death he becomes a being of Heaven among heavenly Beings.
The first sphere into which man enters is the Moon-sphere; later on he passes into the other cosmic spheres. At the moment of death he still belongs to the Earth-sphere. But at that moment, everything within the range of earthly knowledge loses its significance. On the Earth there are different substances, different metals, and so on. At the moment of death all this differentiation ceases. All external solid substances are earthy; at the moment of death man is living in earth, water, air and warmth. In the sphere of cosmic Intelligence he sees his own life; he is between the region of Earth and the region of Heaven. A few days after death he enters the region of Heaven: first, the Moon-sphere.
In this Moon-sphere we meet cosmic Beings for the first time. But these cosmic Beings are still rather like human beings for at one time they were together with us on the Earth. In my books you can read how the physical Moon was once united with the Earth and then separated from it to form an independent cosmic body. It was, however, not the physical Moon alone that separated from the Earth. At one time there were among men on Earth great, primeval Teachers; it was they who brought the primordial wisdom to mankind. These great Teachers were not present on Earth in physical human bodies, but only in etheric bodies. When a man received instruction from them, he absorbed it inwardly. After a time, when the Moon separated from the Earth, these ancient Teachers went with it and formed a colony of Moon Beings. These primeval Teachers of mankind, long since separated from the Earth, are the first cosmic Beings to be encountered a few days after death.
The life spent with the Moon Beings during this period after death is related in a remarkable way to earthly existence. It might be imagined that man's life after death is more fleeting, less concrete, than earthly life. In a certain respect, however, this is not the case. If we are able to follow a man's experiences after death with super-sensible vision we find that for a long time they have a much stronger effect upon him than anything in the earthly life which, in comparison, is like a dream. This period after death lasts for about a third of the time of life on Earth. What is now experienced differs with different individuals. When a man looks back over his earthly life he succumbs to illusion. He sees only the days and pays no heed to what he has experienced spiritually in sleep. Unless he is particularly addicted to sleep a man will, as a general rule, spend about a third part of his life in that state. After death he goes through it all in conscious connection with the Moon Beings. We live through these experiences because the great primeval Teachers of mankind pour the essence of their being into us, live in and with us; we live through the unconscious experiences of the nights on Earth as reality far greater than that of the earthly life.
Let me illustrate this by an example. Perhaps some of you know my Mystery Plays and will remember among the characters a certain Strader. Strader is a figure based upon a personality who is now dead but was alive when the first three Plays were written. It was not a matter of portraying his earthly life but the character was founded on the life of a man who was exceptionally interesting to me. Coming from comparatively simple circumstances, he first became a priest, then abandoned the Church and became a secular scholar with a certain rationalistic trend. The whole of this man's inner struggle interested me. I tried to understand it spiritually and wrote the Mystery Plays while watching his earthly life. After his death the interest I had taken in him enabled me to follow him during the period of existence he spent in the Moon-sphere. To-day (1924) he is still in that sphere. From the moment this individuality broke through to me with all the intense reality of the life after death, whatever interest I once had in his earthly life was completely extinguished. I was now living with this individuality after his death, and the effect upon me was that I could do no other than allow the character in the fourth Mystery Play to die, because he was no longer before me as an earthly man.—This is quoted merely in corroboration of the statement that experience of the life after death has far greater intensity, greater inner reality, than the earthly life; the latter is like a dream in comparison.
We must remember that after death man passes into the great Universe, into the Cosmos. He himself now becomes the Cosmos. He feels the Cosmos as his body, but he also feels that what was outside him during his earthly life is now within him. Take a simple example. Suppose you were once carried away by emotion during your earthly life and had struck someone a blow which caused him not only physical pain but also moral suffering. Under the influence of the Moon Beings after death you experience this incident differently. When you struck an angry blow, perhaps with a certain inner satisfaction, you did not feel the suffering of the man you struck. Now, in the Moon-sphere, you experience the physical pain and the suffering he had to endure. In the Moon-sphere you experience what you did or thought during your earthly life, not as you felt it, but as it affected the other person. After death, for a period corresponding to a third part of his lifetime, a man lives through, in backward order, everything that he thought and whatever wrong he did during his earthly life. It is revealed to him by the Moon Beings as intense reality. When I was inwardly accompanying Strader, for instance, in his life after death—he died in 1912 and is called Strader in the Mystery Plays although that was not his real name—he was experiencing first what he had experienced last in his earthly life, then the earlier happenings, and so on, in backward order. When he now comes before my soul he is living through in the Moon-sphere what he had experienced in the year 1875. Up to now he has been experiencing backwards the time between 1912 and 1875 and will continue in this way until the date of his birth.
This life after death in the sphere of the Moon Beings—who were once Earth Beings—is lived through for a third of the time of a man's life. The first seed of what is fulfilled as karma in the following earthly lives, arises here. In this life, which corresponds to a third part of his earthly lifetime, a man becomes inwardly aware, through his own feeling and perception, of how his deeds have affected others. And then a strong desire arises within him as spirit man that what he is now experiencing in the Moon-sphere as the result of his dealings with other men on Earth may again be laid upon him, in order that compensation may be made. The resolve to fulfil his destiny in accordance with his earthly deeds and earthly thoughts comes as a wish at the end of the Moon period. And if this wish—which arises from experience of the whole of the earthly life back to birth—is devoid of fear, the man is ready to be received into the next sphere, the Mercury-sphere, into which he then passes. In the Mercury-sphere he is instructed by the Beings whose realm he has entered—Beings who have never been on Earth, who were always super-sensible Beings; in their realm he learns how to shape his further destiny. Thus, to learn what a man goes through between death and a new birth, corresponding in his spiritual existence to what he experienced among earthly beings between birth and death, we must follow him through the Mercury-sphere, the Venus-sphere and the Sun-sphere. For the totality of man's life consists in the earthly existence between birth and death and the heavenly existence between death and a new birth. This constitutes his life in its totality, and of this we will speak in the next lectures.
Fünfter Vortrag
Das letzte Mal, als ich wenigstens zu einer gewissen Anzahl von Ihnen sprechen durfte, war es, als unser Goetheanum in Dornach noch bestand. Es bereitete mir damals eine große Befriedigung, vor einer Anzahl französischer Freunde sprechen zu dürfen. Diese Befriedigung wird wiederholt dadurch, daß ich auf Einladung unserer französischen Freunde nun auch hier über Gegenstände unserer Anthroposophie sprechen darf. Ich danke diesen Freunden für ihre so liebe Einladung, insbesondere Mile Sauerwein, und spreche auch meine Befriedigung darüber aus, daß Dr. Sauerwein, der dazumal in einer so schönen, entgegenkommenden Weise die Vorträge in Dornach übersetzt hat, auch in Paris sich bereit erklärt hat, diese Arbeit zu übernehmen. Ich bin ihm ganz besonders dafür dankbar.
In der anthroposophischen Bewegung hat sich ja einiges dadurch verändert, daß wir in einer verhältnismäßig kurzen Zeit, nachdem uns das Unglück des Brandes getroffen hat, unter großer Teilnahme der anthroposophischen Freunde die Weihnachtstagung abhalten durften, die der anthroposophischen Bewegung, wie ich glaube, doch einen neuen Impuls gegeben hat, insbesondere einen neuen Impuls in bezug auf den Inhalt des anthroposophischen Wirkens selbst. Das Neue in der anthroposophischen Bewegung besteht ja auch darinnen, daß ich selber die Präsidentschaft nun übernehmen mußte, während sie bisher von anderen ausgeübt wurde, und ich mich nur als Lehrer betrachtete. Nun, meine lieben Freunde, es war ein ganz bedeutender Entschluß, auch gegenüber der geistigen Welt, den ich damals fassen mußte. Denn es war ein Wagnis. Ein Wagnis aus dem Grunde, weil mit der Übernahme der äußeren Führung ebensogut es hätte sein können, daß die Offenbarungen von Seite geistiger Wesenheiten, auf die wir doch durchaus angewiesen sind, wenn es sich um Verbreitung der Anthroposophie handelt, — daß diese Offenbarungen geistiger Wesenheiten hätten weniger werden können dadurch, daß ich mich in Anspruch nehmen ließ von der äußeren Verwaltung der Gesellschaft. Ich darf heute schon auf die außerordentlich bedeutsame Tatsache hinblicken, daß dies nicht der Fall ist, sondern daß im Gegenteil seit der Weihnachtstagung der geistige Impuls, der aus den spirituellen Welten herunterkommen muß, wenn die anthroposophische Bewegung ihren richtigen Fortgang nehmen soll, durchaus gewachsen ist, so daß unsere anthroposophische Bewegung seit unserer Weihnachtstagung immer esoterischer und esoterischer werden konnte und es weiter werden wird. Es ist damit verbunden, daß allerdings auch - ich meine von der geistigen Seite her - sehr starke gegnerische Mächte, dämonische Mächte gegen die anthroposophische Bewegung anstürmen. Aber es steht durchaus zu hoffen, daß die Kräfte des Bündnisses, das wir durch die Weihnachtstagung mit guten geistigen Mächten schlieBen durften, in der Zukunft imstande sein werden, alle diejenigen gegnerischen Mächte auf geistigem Gebiete, die sich doch der Menschen auf Erden bedienen, um ihre Wirkungen zu erzielen, - alle diese gegnerischen Mächte aus dem Felde zu schlagen.
In diesen drei Vorträgen, meine lieben Freunde, möchte ich mir erlauben, zu sprechen davon, wie auf der einen Seite Anthroposophie als eine Erkenntnis des Geistigen in der Welt und im Menschen leben kann und zwar als eine solche Erkenntnis von Welt und Mensch, daß es auf der anderen Seite möglich ist, aus einer solchen Erkenntnis wirkliche innere Seelenimpulse zu erhalten für das moralische und das religiöse Leben. Dadurch, daß dies überhaupt möglich sein wird, Erkenntnisse zu erhalten, die zu gleicher Zeit religiöse, moralische Impulse geben, dadurch wird Anthroposophie etwas anderes der Menschheit geben können als die Zivilisation der letzten Jahrhunderte. Diese krankte ja ganz besonders daran, daß Erkenntnisse großartiger Art da waren, Naturwissenschaft, ökonomische, philosophische Erkenntnisse; aber alle diese Erkenntnisse beschäftigten den Kopf des Menschen. Die moralischen, die religiösen Impulse müssen aus dem Herzen kommen, müssen aus dem Gemüte hervorsprießen. Sie waren da als religiöse, als moralische Ideale. Aber ob in diesen moralischen Idealen auch eine so starke Kraft ist, daß moralisches und religiöses Fühlen Welten schaffen kann, die eine Zukunft bedeuten, wenn die physische Welt der Gegenwart untergegangen sein wird, darüber konnte die neuere Wissenschaft nichts aussagen. Daraus aber entsprangen die großen Zweifel des verflossenen und des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters.
Von drei Aspekten aus möchte ich zunächst heute das Wesen des Menschen betrachten. Dieses Wesen des Menschen, wir verfolgen es, wir stehen selber darinnen mit unserem Schicksal zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Was wir da verfolgen, ist begrenzt auf der einen Seite von der Geburt, besser gesagt von der Konzeption, von der anderen Seite vom Tode. Geburt und Tod sind nicht das Leben, sie beginnen das Leben, sie schließen das Leben. Die Frage ist diese: Können wir mit derselben Betrachtung, mit der wir im Leben, in unserem eigenen Leben, im Leben anderer Menschen zwischen Geburt und Tod darinnenstehen, —- können wir mit derselben Betrachtung Geburt und Tod selber anschauen, oder muß auch die Betrachtung eine andere werden, wenn wir an den Grenzen, bei Geburt und Tod, ankommen? Demnach sei der Aspekt des Todes, der in so deutlicher Weise das menschliche Leben begrenzt, das erste, was wir heute geistig ins Auge fassen wollen.
Der Tod nimmt das Physische, das vor uns steht, vom Menschen im Erdenleben hinweg. Wie nimmt er dieses Physische hinweg? Die Erde mit ihren Elementen, sei es in ihrem eigenen Elemente, beim Begräbnis, sei es durch das Element des Feuers, bei der Kremation, die Erde mit ihren Elementen nimmt den physischen Menschen hinweg. Was kann sie mit dem, was wir mit unseren physischen Sinnen vom Menschen betrachten, was kann sie damit machen? Sie kann damit nur Zerstörung üben. Schauen wir hin auf die Kräfte, die um uns herum sind. Sie bauen, wenn ihnen der menschliche Leichnam überliefert wird, im menschlichen Körper nichts auf, sie zerstören. Wir können sagen: Dasjenige, was an Naturkraft um uns ist, ist nicht da zum Aufbau; denn wenn der menschliche Leib den Naturkräften überlassen wird, zerfällt er. Es muß also etwas anderes sein, was ihn aufbaut, etwas anderes als Irdisches, denn durch Irdisches zerfällt er.
Aber anders sieht diese ganze Sache aus, wenn man mit Erkenntniskräften, die durch Seelenübungen aus der Seele herausgeholt werden, den Tod des Menschen betrachtet. Die gewöhnlichen Erkenntniskräfte sehen den Leichnam, sonst nichts. Gelangt man aber durch Seelenübungen zu einer ersten Erkenntnisstufe, die ich in meinen Büchern geschildert habe, zur Imagination, dann verwandelt sich der Tod vollständig. Der Mensch entreißt sich im Tode der Erde. Und wir sehen, wenn wir die Erkenntnisstufe der Imagination ausbilden, in unmittelbarer Anschauung in lebendigen Bildern den Menschen im Tode nicht sterben, sondern auferstehen aus seinem Leichnam. Es verwandelt sich der physische Tod in Geistgeburt für die Erkenntnisstufe der Imagination. Vor dem Tode steht der Mensch da als Erdenmensch. Er kann sagen: Ich bin da an diesem Orte, draußen ist die Welt. - In dem Augenblick, wo der Tod eintritt, ist der Mensch nur da nicht, wo sein Leichnam ist. Er beginnt sein Dasein in den Weiten des Weltenraumes, er wird eins mit der Welt, die er früher nur angeschaut hat. Die Welt außer seinem Leibe wird nun sein Erlebnis, und damit wird das, was bisher Innenwelt war, Außenwelt; dasjenige, was bisher Außenwelt war, wird Innenwelt. Wir bekommen aus dem persönlichen Dasein heraus ein Weltendasein. Die Erde - so zeigt es sich für die imaginative Erkenntnis - gibt uns mit die Möglichkeit, durch den Tod zu gehen. Die Erde offenbart sich vor dieser imaginativen Erkenntnis als der Träger des Todes im Weltenall. Nirgends finden wir auf den Schauplätzen, die der Mensch betritt, im physischen oder geistigen Leben anderswo den Tod als auf der Erde. Denn im Augenblick, in dem der Mensch durch den Tod durchgeht und mit der Welt eins wird, bietet sich uns der zweite Aspekt dar, — nicht mehr der Aspekt des Todes, sondern jener Aspekt, in dem uns die Weiten des Raumes erscheinen als überall erfüllt von Weltgedanken. Die ganze Welt, der ganze Kosmos wird nun für die Anschauung und für den Menschen selbst, der durch den Tod gegangen ist, voll von Weltgedanken, die leben und weben in den Weiten des Raumes. Der Raumaspekt wird Offenbarer, so daß wir, wenn wir durch den Tod gehen, eintreten in eine Welt der Weltgedanken. Alles wirkt und webt in Weltgedanken. Das ist der zweite Aspekt des Todes.
Wenn wit im Erdenleben Menschen gegenüberstehen, haben wir vor uns zunächst die Persönlichkeit des Menschen; er muß sprechen, wenn wir seine Gedanken haben wollen. Wir sagen dann: Die Gedanken sind in ihm, sie kommen durch seine Sprache zu uns, — Aber nirgends entdecken wir im Umkreis des Erdenlebens Gedanken für sich. Sie sind nur vorhanden in den Menschen und kommen aus ihnen heraus. Treten wir aus der Erdensphäre des Todes in die Raumessphäre der Gedanken, dann leben zunächst nicht Wesen da; wir treffen zunächst in den Weiten des Raumes nicht Wesen — weder Götter noch Menschen -, aber wir treffen überall Weltgedanken. Es ist so, wenn wir durch den Tod gegangen sind und die Weltenweiten betreten, wie wenn wir hier in der physischen Welt nicht zuerst den Menschen sehen würden, sondern, wenn wir dem Menschen entgegentreten, zuerst seine Gedanken wahrnehmen würden, ohne daß wir den Menschen selbst sehen. Wir würden eine Wolke von Gedanken sehen. Und wir sehen eine zweite Wolke: Wir begegnen nicht Wesen, wir begegnen den Weltgedanken, der allgemeinen Weltintelligenz.
In dieser Sphäre der kosmischen Intelligenz lebt der Mensch einige Tage nach seinem Tode. Und in den Weltgedanken, die da weben, erscheint wie eine Einzelheit, ich möchte sagen, wie eine besondere Wolke, auf die man hinsieht, das eigene letzte Erdenleben, das man erlebt hat. Das ist eingeschrieben in die Weltenintelligenz. Man schaut das eigene Leben auf einmal, auf einmal in einem großen Tableau auf wenige Tage. Mit jedem Tage — es sind nur wenige — wird dasjenige, was in die Weltenintelligenz sich eingeschrieben hat, schwächer und schwächer. Es dehnt sich in den Weltenraum hinaus, es entschwindet einem. Während am Ende des Erdenlebens der Aspekt des Todes dasteht, steht am Ende des Erlebens nach wenigen Tagen das Entschwinden in die Weltenweiten. Wir haben so nach dem ersten Aspekt, den wir nennen können den Aspekt des Todes, den zweiten Aspekt, den wir nennen können den Aspekt des Entschwindens des Erdenlebens. Es ist tatsächlich nach dem Tode für jeden Menschen da ein Moment, wo eine ungeheure Sorge auftritt, Furcht, Angst, daß er sich verliere mit seinem ganzen Erdenleben in die Weltenweiten.
Will man sich nun weiter in den Erlebnissen des Menschen nach dem Tode zurechtfinden, so reicht die Erkenntnis der Imagination nicht aus. Es muß eintreten die zweite Erkenntnisstufe, die Inspiration. Die Erkenntnisstufe der Imagination hat Bilder vor sich; sie sind im Grunde wie die Traumbilder. Nur können wir bei den Traumbildern nie überzeugt sein, ob wir eine Wirklichkeit dahinter haben; bei den Bildern der Imagination ist es immer so, daß sie ausdrücken durch ihre eigene Qualität eine Realität. Man lebt mit der Imagination in einer Bildwelt, die aber Realität ist. Diese Bildwelt, sie muß überwunden werden, wenn man dazu kommen will, dasjenige zu schauen, was der Mensch nach den wenigen Tagen, in denen er sein Leben geschaut hat, nach dem Tode erfährt.
Diese Inspiration, die nun errungen werden muß nach der Imagination oder während der Imagination, die hat nicht Bilder vor sich; das ist eine Erkenntnis der Bildlosigkeit, aber des geistigen Hörens. Die inspirierte Erkenntnis nimmt die Weltintelligenz, die Weltgedanken so auf, daß man sie wie geistig hört. Von allen Seiten spricht es, erklingt das Weltenwort mit aller Deutlichkeit; man weiß, daß etwas dahinter ist. Man hat zunächst die Verkündigung. Und dann, wenn man sich hingeben kann dieser Inspiration, dann ist es so, daß man nun — hinter den Gedanken der Welt - die Wesenheiten der Welt beginnt wahrzunehmen in der Intuition. Imagination nimmt Bilder des Geistigen wahr, die Inspiration hört das Geistige geistig sprechen. Intuition nimmt die Wesen selber wahr. Ich sagte: Die Welt ist erfüllt mit Weltgedanken. - Die deuten noch auf keine Wesen, aber wir kommen dazu, hinter den Gedanken Worte zu vernehmen, die Wesenheiten der Welt zu schauen mit der Intuition.
Der erste Aspekt ist der Aspekt des Todes, der Erdenaspekt; der zweite Aspekt, der uns in die Weiten des Raumes hinausführt, in die wir sonst verständnislos als Erdenmenschen hinausblicken, ist der Aspekt des Verschwindens des Menschen. Dann liefert uns der dritte Aspekt das, was die Raumesweiten auch für den sichtbaren Blick begrenzt, — der dritte Aspekt ist der Aspekt der Sterne. Aber die Sterne erscheinen nicht so wie für den physischen Anblick. Für den physischen Anblick sind die Sterne leuchtende Punkte an den Grenzen des Raumes, zu denen wir hinblicken. Sind wir bei der intuitiven Erkenntnis angekommen, so sind die Sterne Offenbarer der Weltwesen, der geistigen Weltwesen. Und wir schauen statt der physischen Sterne mit der Intuition Kolonien, geistige Kolonien im geistigen Weltall, die an den einzelnen Orten sind, an denen wir physische Sterne vermuten. Der dritte Aspekt ist der Aspekt der Sterne. Er führt uns ein, nachdem wir den Tod kennengelernt haben, nachdem wir die Weltintelligenz erkannt haben durch die Raumesweiten, er führt uns, der dritte Aspekt, ein in die Sphären der Weltwesen, der geistigen Weltwesen, er tritt als Menschenaspekt ein in die Sphären der Weltwesen, damit aber in die Sphäre der Sterne. Und so, wie zwischen Geburt und Tod den Menschen aufgenommen hat die Erde, so nimmt, nachdem der Mensch über den Abgrund der Weltenintelligenz hinweggegangen ist wenige Tage nach seinem Tode, die Sternenwelt den Menschen auf. Der Mensch war auf der Erde ein Erdenmensch unter Erdenwesen; er wird nach dem Tode ein Himmelswesen unter Himmelswesen. Die erste Sphäre, in die der Mensch eintritt, ist die Mondensphäre. Er betritt dann später die anderen Weltensphären. Ich darf vielleicht dasjenige, was ich ausführen will, um Ihnen eine kleine Unterstützung zu geben, schematisch an die Tafel zeichnen. Im Moment des Todes gehört der Mensch noch der Erdensphäre an. In diesem Moment hat für den Menschen keine Bedeutung mehr alles dasjenige, was irdisches Wissen umfassen kann. Auf der Erde haben wir verschiedene Stoffe, Metalle, andere Stoffe. Im Moment des Todes hört alle diese Differenzierung auf. Alle äußeren festen Stoffe sind irdisch, und der Mensch lebt im Moment des Todes in Erde, Wasser, Luft und Wärme. Die wenigen Tage nach dem Tode seien durch diese ‚blaue Sphäre, der Sphäre der Weltenintelligenz, bezeichnet. Der Mensch schaut sein eigenes Leben, der Mensch ist zwischen dem Erdengebiete und dem Himmelsgebiete. Er betritt wenige Tage nach dem Tode das Himmelsgebiet, zuerst die Sphäre des Mondes. In dieser Sphäre des Mondes begegnen wir als Mensch nun zuerst wirklichen Weltwesen, aber noch sehr menschenähnlichen; denn mit den Wesen, die wir hier wenige Tage nach unserem Tode in der Mondensphäre begegnen, waren wir früher auf der Erde schon einmal zusammen. Sie werden, meine lieben Freunde, in meinen Büchern nachlesen können, wie der Mond als physischer Weltenkörper sich einmal von der Erde getrennt hat. Er war mit ihr verbunden und wurde ein selbständiger Weltenkörper. Aber nicht nur der physische Mond hat sich von der Erde getrennt. Es waren einmal auf der Erde unter den Menschen große Lehrer der Menschheit, die großen Urlehrer der Menschheit, die die erste Weisheit den Menschen auf die Erde gebracht haben. Diese Urlehrer waren nicht in einem physischen Menschenleibe, sie waren nur in einem ätherischen Leibe auf der Erde vorhanden. Wenn der Mensch unterrichtet wurde von ihnen, so vernahm er das innerlich. Nachdem eine Weile diese großen Urlehrer auf der Erde verweilt hatten, trennten sie sich mit dem Monde von der Erde und bildeten jetzt eine Kolonie auf dem Monde, eine Kolonie der Mondenwesen. Diesen Urlehrern der Menschen auf der Erde, die seit langer Zeit von der Erde abgeschieden sind, denen begegnen wir als ersten Weltwesen wenige Tage nach dem Tode.
Diese Zeit, die nun der Mensch nach dem Tode mit den Mondenwesen zusammenlebt, diese Zeit gibt dem Menschen ein Leben, das sich in einem merkwürdigen Verhältnis zu dem Erdenleben befindet. Wenn man mit der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis in das Leben eines solchen Menschen nach dem Tode eintritt, könnte man glauben, daß dieses Leben ein flüchtigeres, weniger dichtes sei als das Erdenleben, daß der Mensch gewissermaßen gegenüber dem Erdenleben mehr ein luftförmiges Dasein führt. Das ist aber nicht der Fall. Nimmt man mit der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis teil an dem Leben, das der Mensch nach dem Tode durchlebt, so stellt sich heraus, daß durch eine lange Zeit der Mensch ein Leben durchlebt, das viel realer auf ihn wirkt als das Erdenleben, demgegenüber das Erdenleben vielfach ein Traum ist. Es dauert ungefähr ein Drittel der Lebenszeit. Es ist bei verschiedenen Menschen verschieden, was jetzt durchlebt wird im Anschluß an die wenigen Tage nach dem Tode, die ich geschildert habe. Denn was erleben wir dann? Der Mensch gibt sich, wenn er zurückschaut auf die Erdenleben, einer Illusion hin. Er sieht nur die Tage, er beachtet nicht, was er geistig im Schlafe erlebt hat. Es ist im Leben nun einmal so, daß, wenn man nicht ein besonderer Schlafmensch ist, man ein Drittel des Lebens verschläft. Auf das schaut man nun zurück, man durchlebt es bewußt mit den vereinigten Mondenmächten. Das durchlebt man, weil diese großen Urlehrer der Menschheit ihr Dasein uns dann eingießen, mit uns leben; man durchlebt diese auf der Erde gar nicht bewußt vollbrachten Nächte in einer viel stärkeren Realität als das Erdenleben.
Das, was ich hier gesagt habe, möchte ich mir erlauben, durch ein Beispiel zu belegen. Vielleicht kennen einige der lieben Freunde das erste oder ein anderes meiner «Mysteriendramen» und wissen, daß ich dort gezeichnet habe unter anderen Gestalten die Gestalt eines gewissen Strader. Dieser Strader ist künstlerisch gezeichnet nach einer lebenden Persönlichkeit, jetzt verstorbenen, aber damals lebenden Persönlichkeit. Nicht als ob das Erdenleben abgemalt worden wäre, aber es lag der Gestaltung des Strader in meinen «Mysterien» das Erdenleben eines Menschen zugrunde, der außerordentlich interessant war für mich, weil er aus verhältnismäßig einfachen Verhältnissen hineingewachsen ist zuerst in ein Priesterdasein, dann den Priesterrock abgeworfen hat und äußerlich Weltgelehrter geworden ist in einem gewissen rationalistischen Sinne. Die ganzen inneren Kämpfe dieses Mannes interessierten mich. Ich versuchte, sie geistig zu erfassen. Ich habe die vier «Mysterien» geschrieben, indem ich hingeschaut habe auf sein Erdenleben. Nachdem er tot war, konnte ich durch das Interesse, das ich an ihm genommen habe, ihm folgen nach dem Tode die Zeit hindurch, die er in der Mondensphäre durchlebt. Da ist er heute noch darinnen. Von diesem Momente ab, wo zu mir durchgebrochen ist diese Persönlichkeit, diese Individualität in dem Leben nach dem Tode in all der intensiven Realität, in dem dieses Leben nun wirkt, da löschte vollständig aus dasjenige, was einen für das Erdenleben in einem solchen Falle hat interessieren können. Man lebt nun ganz mit dieser Individualität nach dem Tode, und das drückte sich bei mir so aus, daß ich diese Individualität im vierten Mysteriendrama ebenfalls sterben lassen mußte, weil dieser Mensch mir auch nicht mehr als Erdenmensch gegenüberstand. Dies sei nur zur Bekräftigung der Behauptung hingestellt, daß dieses Leben nach dem Tode intensiver, substantieller, realer innerlich erlebt wird von den Menschen als das Erdenleben, das wie ein Traum ist.
Wir müssen aufmerksam darauf sein, daß der Mensch nach dem Tode sich herauslebt in die große Welt, in den Kosmos. Der Kosmos wird jetzt er selber. Er fühlt den Kosmos jetzt als seinen Leib, aber er fühlt auch moralisch dasjenige, was während seines Erdenlebens außer ihm war, jetzt in sich. Dasjenige, was in ihm war, fühlt er außer sich. Nehmen Sie ein ganz triviales Beispiel. Nehmen Sie an, Sie hätten sich während des Erdenlebens durch eine Emotion hinreißen lassen, jemandem einen Schlag zu geben, wodurch Sie ihm erstens physische Schmerzen verursachten und zweitens moralisches Leid zufügten. Nach dem Tode, in der Mondensphäre, durch den Einfluß jener Mondenindividualitäten, erleben Sie nun nicht, was Sie erlebt haben während des Erdenlebens, wo Sie aus innerem Ärger jemandem einen Schlag versetzt haben, vielleicht mit einem innerlichen Wohlgefallen, wo Sie nicht fühlten das Leid des anderen, - jetzt erleben Sie, was der andere erlebt hat. Den physischen Schmerz, das Leid, das der andere erfahren mußte, das erleben Sie in der Mondensphäre. Sie erleben das, was Sie selber getan haben oder auch gedacht haben während des Erdenlebens, nicht wie Sie es fühlten, sondern wie es der andere erlebt hat. So erlebt der Mensch in einem Drittel seiner Lebenszeit nach dem Tode alles dasjenige, was er gedacht, verübt hat während des Erdenlebens in der Art wiederum, wie es ihm die Mondenwesen, von denen ich gesprochen habe, in einer intensiven Realität zeigen, und zwar erlebt er dieses Leben rückwärtsgehend. Als ich zum Beispiel Strader - ich nenne ihn so in den Mysteriendramen, obwohl er anders geheißen hat - , als ich Straders Leben zurückerlebte mit ihm - er ist 1912 gestorben -, da war es so, daß er zuerst dasjenige erlebte, was er zuletzt auf der Erde erlebt hat, dann das Frühere und so weiter zurück. Wenn er mir jetzt vor die Seele tritt, erlebt er ungefähr in der anderen Sphäre, in der Mondensphäre, was er erlebte im Jahre 1875. Die Zeit zwischen 1912 und 1875 hat er seither zurückerlebt und wird weiter zurückerleben bis zu seinem Geburtsdatum.
So durchlebt der Mensch in einem Drittel nach dem Tode sein Leben rückwärts in den Sphären der Mondenwesen, die einmal Erdenwesen waren. Es ist dieses Leben der erste Keim zu demjenigen, was sich verwirklicht als das Karma in den folgenden Erdenleben. Man wird in diesem Leben, das da in einem Drittel der Erdenlebenszeit durchlebt wird, wirklich bekannt innerlich durch eigenes Fühlen und Wahrnehmen, bekannt damit, wie die eigenen Taten auf die anderen Menschen gewirkt haben. Und da geht, meine lieben Freunde, ein gewaltiger, im Inneren des Geistmenschen daseiender Wunsch auf, daß dasjenige, was man jetzt in geistiger Sphäre, in der Mondensphäre durchlebt, weil man es auf der Erde bewirkt hat in anderen Menschen, — daß das auf einen wieder abgeladen werde, damit Ausgleich sei. Der Entschluß, sein Schicksal gemäß den Erdentaten und den Erdgedanken zu verwirklichen, dieser Wunsch steht am Ende dieser Mondenzeit. Und wenn dieser Wunsch aus diesem Erleben, das zurückgeht bis zur Geburt, furchtlos ist, dann wird der Mensch reif, von der nächsten Sphäre, von der Merkursphäre aufgenommen zu werden. Der Mensch tritt dann ein in die Merkursphäre. In der Merkursphäre — das werden wir in dem nächsten Vortrage zu betrachten haben - erfährt der Mensch durch Wesenheiten, in deren Bereich er jetzt tritt, die niemals Erdenwesen waren, die immer überirdische Wesen waren, - in deren Bereich erfährt er, wie er weiter sein Schicksal gestalten kann. So werden wir ihn zu verfolgen haben durch Merkursphäre, Venussphäre und Sonnensphäre, um kennenzulernen dasjenige, was der Mensch durchmacht zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt, entsprechend als sein geistiges Dasein demjenigen, was er unter irdischen Wesen zwischen Geburt und Tod durchgemacht hat. Denn der Mensch lebt sein totales Leben im Erdendasein zwischen Geburt und Tod, im Himmelsdasein zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Daraus setzt sich sein gesamtes Leben zusammen: Wie? - davon wollen wir dann in den nächsten Vorträgen sprechen.
Fifth Lecture
The last time I was allowed to speak to at least a certain number of you was when our Goetheanum in Dornach was still in existence. At that time it gave me great satisfaction to be able to speak to a number of French friends. This satisfaction is repeated by the fact that, at the invitation of our French friends, I am now also able to speak here about the subjects of our anthroposophy. I thank these friends for their kind invitation, especially Mile Sauerwein, and also express my satisfaction that Dr. Sauerwein, who then translated the lectures in Dornach in such a beautiful, accommodating way, has also agreed to take on this work in Paris. I am particularly grateful to him for this.
A number of things have changed in the anthroposophical movement as a result of the fact that we were able to hold the Christmas Conference in a relatively short time after the misfortune of the fire, with the great participation of anthroposophical friends, which I believe has given the anthroposophical movement a new impulse, especially a new impulse with regard to the content of anthroposophical work itself. What is new in the anthroposophical movement is also that I myself now had to take over the presidency, whereas previously it had been exercised by others, and I regarded myself only as a teacher. Well, my dear friends, it was a very important decision, also in relation to the spiritual world, which I had to take at that time. For it was a risk. A risk for the reason that with the assumption of the external leadership it could just as well have been that the revelations from the side of spiritual beings, on which we are absolutely dependent when it is a matter of spreading Anthroposophy, - that these revelations of spiritual beings could have become less by the fact that I allowed myself to be taken up by the external administration of the Society. Today I may already point out the extraordinarily significant fact that this is not the case, but that on the contrary, since the Christmas Conference the spiritual impulse which must come down from the spiritual worlds if the anthroposophical movement is to take its right course has certainly grown, so that our anthroposophical movement has been able to become more and more esoteric and esoteric since our Christmas Conference and will continue to do so. It is connected with this, however, that - I mean from the spiritual side - very strong opposing forces, demonic forces, are attacking the anthroposophical movement. But it is certainly to be hoped that the forces of the alliance which we were able to conclude with good spiritual powers through the Christmas Conference will in future be able to defeat all those opposing powers in the spiritual realm, which after all make use of people on earth to achieve their effects - all these opposing powers from the field.
In these three lectures, my dear friends, I would like to take the liberty of speaking about how, on the one hand, anthroposophy can live as a realization of the spiritual in the world and in man, and indeed as such a realization of the world and man that, on the other hand, it is possible to receive real inner soul impulses for the moral and religious life from such a realization. The fact that it will be possible at all to obtain knowledge which at the same time gives religious and moral impulses means that anthroposophy will be able to give humanity something different from the civilization of the last centuries. This civilization suffered particularly from the fact that there were insights of a great kind, natural science, economic, philosophical insights; but all these insights occupied the mind of man. Moral and religious impulses must come from the heart, must spring from the mind. They were there as religious, as moral ideals. But whether in these moral ideals there is also such a strong power that moral and religious feeling can create worlds that signify a future when the physical world of the present will have perished, the newer science could say nothing about that. But from this arose the great doubts of the past and present age.
Today I would first like to look at the nature of man from three aspects. This essence of man, we pursue it, we ourselves stand within it with our destiny between birth and death. What we are pursuing is limited on the one hand by birth, or rather by conception, and on the other hand by death. Birth and death are not life, they begin life, they close life. The question is this: Can we, with the same contemplation with which we stand between birth and death in life, in our own life, in the lives of other people, -- can we look at birth and death themselves with the same contemplation, or must the contemplation also become a different one when we arrive at the boundaries, at birth and death? Accordingly, the aspect of death, which so clearly limits human life, is the first thing we want to consider spiritually today.
Death takes away the physical that stands before us from man in earthly life. How does it take away this physical? The earth with its elements, be it in its own element, at the burial, be it through the element of fire, at the cremation, the earth with its elements takes away the physical human being. What can it do with what we see of the human being with our physical senses? It can only practice destruction. Let us look at the forces that are around us. When the human corpse is handed over to them, they build nothing in the human body, they destroy. We can say that the natural forces around us are not there to build us up, for if the human body is left to the forces of nature, it disintegrates. So there must be something else that builds it up, something other than earthly things, because earthly things cause it to decay.
But this whole thing looks different when one looks at the death of man with powers of cognition, which are brought out of the soul through soul exercises. The ordinary powers of cognition see the corpse, nothing else. But if through soul exercises one reaches the first stage of knowledge, which I have described in my books, the imagination, then death is completely transformed. In death, man snatches himself from the earth. And when we develop the cognitive level of the imagination, we see in direct contemplation in vivid images the human being not dying in death, but rising from his corpse. Physical death is transformed into spiritual birth for the cognitive level of the imagination. Before death, man stands there as an earthly human being. He can say: I am here in this place, outside is the world. - At the moment of death, man is not where his corpse is. He begins his existence in the vastness of the universe, he becomes one with the world that he previously only looked at. The world outside his body now becomes his experience, and thus what was previously the inner world becomes the outer world; what was previously the outer world becomes the inner world. Out of our personal existence we receive a world existence. The earth - as it appears to imaginative cognition - gives us the opportunity to go through death. The earth reveals itself to this imaginative cognition as the bearer of death in the universe. Nowhere else do we find death in the physical or spiritual life in the places that man enters than on earth. For at the moment when man passes through death and becomes one with the world, the second aspect presents itself to us - no longer the aspect of death, but that aspect in which the vastness of space appears to us as everywhere filled with world thoughts. The whole world, the whole cosmos, now becomes full of world-thought, living and weaving in the vastness of space, for the contemplation and for man himself, who has passed through death. The spatial aspect becomes more revelatory, so that when we pass through death we enter a world of world thoughts. Everything works and weaves in world thoughts. This is the second aspect of death.
When we face people in earthly life, we first have the personality of the person before us; he must speak if we want to have his thoughts. We then say: The thoughts are in him, they come to us through his speech, - but nowhere do we discover thoughts for themselves in the environment of life on earth. They are only present in people and come out of them. If we step out of the earth sphere of death into the space sphere of thoughts, then beings do not live there at first; we do not meet beings in the vastness of space at first - neither gods nor men - but we meet world thoughts everywhere. It is the same when we have passed through death and enter the expanses of the world, as if we did not first see man here in the physical world, but, when we meet man, would first perceive his thoughts without seeing man himself. We would see a cloud of thoughts. And we see a second cloud: we do not encounter beings, we encounter the world thoughts, the general world intelligence.
In this sphere of cosmic intelligence, man lives a few days after his death. And in the world thoughts that weave there, one's own last life on earth, which one has experienced, appears like a detail, I would like to say, like a special cloud that one looks at. This is inscribed in the intelligence of the world. You look at your own life all at once, all at once in a large tableau of a few days. With each passing day - there are only a few - that which has been inscribed in the world intelligence becomes weaker and weaker. It expands into the world space, it disappears. While at the end of life on earth there is the aspect of death, at the end of the experience, after a few days, there is the disappearance into the expanse of the world. So after the first aspect, which we can call the aspect of death, we have the second aspect, which we can call the aspect of the disappearance of earthly life. After death there is indeed a moment for every human being when a tremendous worry, fear, anxiety arises that he will lose himself with his whole earthly life into the world realms.
If one now wants to find his way further in the experiences of man after death, the realization of the imagination is not enough. The second level of knowledge, inspiration, must come in. The cognitive stage of imagination has images before it; they are basically like dream images. Only with dream images we can never be convinced whether we have a reality behind them; with the images of the imagination it is always the case that they express a reality through their own quality. With the imagination we live in a pictorial world which is, however, reality. This world of images must be overcome if one wants to come to see that which man experiences after death after the few days in which he has seen his life.
This inspiration, which must now be attained after the imagination or during the imagination, does not have images before it; it is a realization of imagelessness, but of spiritual hearing. Inspired cognition takes in the intelligence of the world, the thoughts of the world, in such a way that one hears them as if spiritually. From all sides it speaks, the word of the world resounds with all clarity; one knows that there is something behind it. First you have the proclamation. And then, if one can surrender to this inspiration, then it is so that now - behind the thoughts of the world - one begins to perceive the entities of the world in intuition. Imagination perceives images of the spiritual, inspiration hears the spiritual speak spiritually. Intuition perceives the beings themselves. I said: The world is filled with world thoughts. - They do not yet point to any beings, but we come to hear words behind the thoughts, to see the beings of the world with intuition.
The first aspect is the aspect of death, the earth aspect; the second aspect, which leads us out into the vastness of space, into which we otherwise look out uncomprehendingly as earthlings, is the aspect of the disappearance of man. Then the third aspect provides us with that which also limits the expanses of space for the visible gaze - the third aspect is the aspect of the stars. But the stars do not appear as they do to the physical sight. For the physical sight, the stars are shining points at the boundaries of space, towards which we look. If we have arrived at intuitive cognition, the stars are revelators of the world beings, the spiritual world beings. And instead of the physical stars, with intuition we see colonies, spiritual colonies in the spiritual universe, which are in the individual places where we assume physical stars to be. The third aspect is the aspect of the stars. It introduces us after we have become acquainted with death, after we have recognized the world intelligence through the expanses of space, it introduces us, the third aspect, into the spheres of the world beings, the spiritual world beings, it enters as the human aspect into the spheres of the world beings, but thus into the sphere of the stars. And just as the earth received the human being between birth and death, so, after the human being has passed over the abyss of world intelligence a few days after his death, the starry world receives the human being. On earth man was an earthling among earthlings; after death he becomes a heavenly being among heavenly beings. The first sphere into which man enters is the sphere of the moon. He then later enters the other spheres of the world. I may perhaps draw a diagram on the blackboard of what I want to explain in order to give you a little support. At the moment of death, the human being still belongs to the earth sphere. At this moment, everything that earthly knowledge can encompass no longer has any meaning for man. On earth we have different substances, metals, other substances. At the moment of death all this differentiation ceases. All external solid substances are earthly, and at the moment of death man lives in earth, water, air and warmth. The few days after death are characterized by this 'blue sphere, the sphere of world intelligence. Man sees his own life, man is between the earth realm and the heaven realm. A few days after death he enters the heavenly realm, first the sphere of the moon. In this sphere of the moon we as human beings now first encounter real world beings, but still very human-like ones; for with the beings we meet here a few days after our death in the sphere of the moon, we have already been together once before on earth. My dear friends, you will be able to read in my books how the moon, as a physical world body, once separated from the earth. It was connected to it and became an independent world body. But it was not only the physical moon that separated from the earth. Once upon a time there were great teachers of mankind on earth, the great original teachers of mankind, who brought the first wisdom to mankind on earth. These primal teachers were not in a physical human body, they were only present on earth in an etheric body. When man was taught by them, he heard it inwardly. After these great primal teachers had lingered on earth for a while, they separated from the earth with the moon and now formed a colony on the moon, a colony of moon beings. We meet these original teachers of men on earth, who have been separated from earth for a long time, as the first world beings a few days after death.
This time that man now lives together with the moon beings after death, this time gives man a life that is in a strange relationship to life on earth. If one enters into the life of such a person after death with supersensible knowledge, one might believe that this life is a more fleeting, less dense one than life on earth, that man leads more of an airy existence, as it were, in comparison with life on earth. But this is not the case. If one participates with supersensible knowledge in the life that man lives through after death, it turns out that for a long time man lives through a life that has a much more real effect on him than earthly life, in contrast to which earthly life is often a dream. It lasts about a third of a lifetime. Different people experience different things after the few days after death that I have described. For what do we experience then? When a person looks back on his life on earth, he indulges in an illusion. He only sees the days, he pays no attention to what he has experienced spiritually in his sleep. It is the case in life that, if you are not a special sleep person, you sleep through a third of your life. Now you look back on this, you live through it consciously with the united lunar powers. You live through it because these great primal teachers of humanity then pour their existence into us, live with us; you live through these nights, which were not even consciously accomplished on earth, in a much stronger reality than earthly life.
I would like to take the liberty of substantiating what I have said here with an example. Perhaps some of my dear friends know the first or another of my “Mystery Dramas” and know that I have drawn the figure of a certain Strader among other figures. This Strader is artistically drawn after a living personality, now deceased but then living. Not as if the earthly life had been painted, but the design of Strader in my “Mysteries” was based on the earthly life of a man who was extraordinarily interesting for me, because he grew from relatively simple circumstances, first into a priestly existence, then threw off his priestly robes and became an outwardly worldly scholar in a certain rationalistic sense. I was interested in all of this man's inner struggles. I tried to grasp them spiritually. I wrote the four “Mysteries” by looking at his life on earth. After he was dead, the interest I took in him enabled me to follow him after death through the time he lived in the sphere of the moon. He is still there today. From this moment onwards, when this personality, this individuality has broken through to me in the life after death in all the intense reality in which this life now works, that which could have interested one in earthly life in such a case is completely extinguished. One now lives completely with this individuality after death, and this expressed itself with me in such a way that I also had to let this individuality die in the fourth mystery drama, because this person no longer stood opposite me as an earthly human being. This is only to confirm the assertion that this life after death is experienced more intensely, more substantially, more real inwardly by people than life on earth, which is like a dream.
We must be attentive to the fact that after death man lives himself out into the great world, into the cosmos. The cosmos now becomes himself. He now feels the cosmos as his body, but he also feels morally that which was outside him during his life on earth, now within him. That which was within him, he feels outside himself. Take a very trivial example. Suppose that during your life on earth you had allowed yourself to be carried away by an emotion to hit someone, causing him physical pain and moral suffering. After death, in the lunar sphere, through the influence of those lunar individualities, you do not now experience what you experienced during your life on earth, where you struck someone out of inner anger, perhaps with an inner pleasure, where you did not feel the suffering of the other, - now you experience what the other has experienced. You experience the physical pain, the suffering that the other person had to experience, in the sphere of the moon. You experience what you yourself have done or thought during your life on earth, not as you felt it, but as the other person experienced it. Thus, in a third of his lifetime after death, the human being experiences everything he has thought and done during his life on earth in the same way as the lunar beings, of whom I have spoken, show him in an intense reality, and he experiences this life in reverse. For example, when I relived Strader's life with him - I call him that in the Mystery Dramas, although he had a different name - when he died in 1912, he first experienced what he had last experienced on earth, then the earlier life and so on backwards. When he steps before my soul now, he experiences approximately in the other sphere, in the lunar sphere, what he experienced in 1875. He has since relived the time between 1912 and 1875 and will continue to relive it back to the date of his birth.
So in one third after death man lives his life backwards in the spheres of the moon beings, which were once earth beings. This life is the first seed of that which is realized as karma in the following earth lives. In this life, which is lived through in a third of one's life on earth, one really becomes known inwardly through one's own feelings and perceptions, known with how one's own deeds have affected other people. And there, my dear friends, a powerful desire arises within the spirit man that what he is now living through in the spiritual sphere, in the sphere of the moon, because he has brought it about on earth in other people, - that this should be unloaded on him again, so that there is a balance. The decision to realize one's destiny according to earthly deeds and earthly thoughts, this wish stands at the end of this lunar time. And if this wish is fearless from this experience, which goes back to birth, then the human being is ready to be taken up by the next sphere, the sphere of Mercury. The human being then enters the sphere of Mercury. In the sphere of Mercury - we will have to consider this in the next lecture - man experiences through beings, into whose sphere he now enters, who were never earth beings, who were always supernatural beings, - in whose sphere he experiences how he can continue to shape his destiny. So we will have to follow him through the sphere of Mercury, the sphere of Venus and the sphere of the sun in order to get to know that which man goes through between death and a new birth, corresponding as his spiritual existence to that which he has gone through among earthly beings between birth and death. For man lives his total life in earthly existence between birth and death, in heavenly existence between death and a new birth. His entire life is made up of this: How? - This is what we want to talk about in the next lectures.