Karmic Relationships III
GA 237
13 July 1924, Dornach
VI. The School of Chartres
Among the spiritual conditions of evolution that have led to the Anthroposophical Movement and that are contained within its karma from the spiritual side, I have mentioned two external symptoms. The one is expressed in the rise of the Catechism with its questions and answers, leading towards a faith which is no longer in direct touch with the spiritual world. The other is represented by the Mass becoming exoteric. The Mass in its totality, including the Transubstantiation and Holy Communion, was made accessible to all, even to the unprepared. It thus lost its character of an ancient Mystery.
These two earthly events led those who observed them from the spiritual world to prepare in a very definite way, within the stream of spiritual evolution, for what was to become a spiritual revelation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries,—a revelation fitly adapted to the course of time. For this new spiritual revelation had to come after the Michael event, and in the time when the old, dark Age of Kali Yuga had run its course and a new Age was to arise for humanity. Today we have a third thing to add. We must first bring before our souls these three spiritual conditions, which were able to draw together a number of human beings even before they descended into the physical world in the last third of the 19th or at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For only when we are aware of these conditions, shall we be able to understand certain extra-karmic events which flowed into the streams of life that are welded together in the Anthroposophical Movement.
The peculiar attitude to Nature on the one hand and to things spiritual on the other, which has evolved so greatly by our time, comes down to us only from the period that began in the 14th (15th) century. Before that time, the relationship of mankind especially to the things of the Spirit was very different. Man approached the Spirit not in concepts and ideas but in living experiences that still penetrated to the Spiritual, however slightly.
We today, when we speak of Nature, have a dead abstraction—empty of all being. And when we speak of the Spirit, we have something vague whose existence we presume somehow or other in the world, and comprise it in abstract concepts or ideas. It was not so in the time when the souls who are now finding their way together in the longing for a new Spirituality, had their important former incarnation,—when in that incarnation they harkened to what Initiates and Leaders of Mankind had to tell them for their inner needs. To begin with we have the age that goes on into the 7th or 8th century, when we still find a delicate connection of the human soul with the spiritual world—a conscious experience of the spiritual world itself. Even the men of knowledge and learning in that time were still in a living relationship to the spiritual world. Then we have the age beginning in the 7th or 8th century and going on to the great turning point in the 14th and 15th,—the time when the human souls who had lived in the first Christian centuries, partaking in that former period upon the earth, were once more in the life between death and a new birth.
But though—from the 6th, 7th or 8th century onwards—there was no direct connection with the spiritual world, nevertheless a certain awareness of this connection still found a haven of refuge, if I may put it so, in isolated centres of learning. In isolated centres of learning men still spoke, in knowledge, in the way they had spoken in the first Christian centuries. Nay more, it was possible for single, chosen human beings to receive deep inner impulses from the way in which the spiritual world was spoken of,—impulses enabling them, at certain times at least, to break through into the spiritual world. There were indeed isolated centres where teachings were given in a manner of which the people of today can have no conception.
This only came to an end in the 12th, 13th century, when at length it all flowed into a great poem in which it found as it were its consummation for the experience of mankind. I mean the Divina Commedia of Dante.
In all that lies behind the origin of the Commedia we have a wonderful chapter of human evolution. For at this moment the influences from the earth and from the cosmos are found in perpetual interplay. The two were ever flowing into one another. Human beings on the earth had lost, to some extent, the connection with the spiritual world. And in those who lived above—who, while on earth, had still experienced such a connection,—the earthly conditions which they now beheld called forth a strangely painful feeling. They saw the slow death of what they themselves had still experienced on earth. Then from the super-sensible world they enthused-inspired-inspirited—certain individualities in the world of sense, so that here or there at any rate there might arise a home and centre for the real connection of man with the spiritual world.
Let us clearly bear in mind what I indicated here many years ago. Even until the 7th or 8th century—in a kind of echo of pre-Christian Initiation—Christianity was taught in centres that had remained as the high places of knowledge, relics of the ancient Mysteries. In those centres human beings were prepared, not so much by way of instruction, but by an education towards the Spirit—a training both bodily and spiritual. They were prepared for the moment when they might have at least a delicate vision of the spirituality that can manifest itself in the environment of man on earth. Then they looked outward to the realms of mineral and plant-nature and to all that lives in the animal and human kingdoms. And they saw, springing forth like an aura and fertilised in turn out of the cosmos, the spiritual-elemental beings that lived in all Nature.
Then above all there appeared to them as a living Being, whom they addressed as they would address a human being—only it was a being of a higher kind,—the Goddess Natura. She was the Goddess whom they saw before them in her full radiance, in full reality of soul. They did not speak of abstract laws of Nature, they spoke of the creative power of the Goddess Natura, working creatively in all external Nature.
She was the metamorphosis of Proserpine of antiquity. She was the ever-creating Goddess with whom he who would seek for knowledge must in a certain way unite himself. She appeared to him—appeared to him from every mineral, from every plant, from every creeping beast, from the clouds, the mountains, the river-springs. Of this Goddess who alternately in winter and in summer creates above the earth and beneath,—of this Goddess they felt: She is the hand-maid of that Divinity of whom the Gospels tell. She it is who fulfils the divine behests.
And when the seeker after knowledge had been sufficiently instructed by the Goddess about the mineral and plant and animal natures, when he was introduced into the living forces, then he learned to know from her the nature of the four Elements:—Earth, Water, Air and Fire. He learned to know the waving and weaving within the mineral and animal and plant kingdoms of the four Elements which pour themselves in all reality throughout the world:—Earth, Water, Fire, Air. He felt himself with his etheric body interwoven with the life of the Earth in its gravity, Water in its life-giving power, Air in its power to awaken sentient consciousness, Fire in its power to kindle the flame of the I. In all this he felt his human being interwoven, and he felt: This was the gift of instruction from the Goddess Natura—the successor, the metamorphosis of Proserpine. The teachers saw to it that their disciples should gain a feeling, an idea of this living intercourse with Nature—Nature filled with divine forces, filled with divine substance. They saw to it that their pupils should penetrate to the living and weaving of the Elements.
Then when they had reached this point, they were introduced to the planetary system. They learnt how with the knowledge of the planetary system there arises at the same time the knowledge of the human soul. “Learn to know how the wandering stars hold sway in the heavens, and thou shalt know how thine own soul works and weaves and lives within thee.” This was placed before the pupils. And at length they were led to approach what was called “The Great Ocean,”—but it was the Cosmic Ocean, which leads from the planets, from the wandering stars, to the fixed stars. Thus at length they penetrated into the secrets of the I, by learning the secrets of the universe of the fixed stars.
Mankind today has forgotten that such instructions were ever given; but they were. A living knowledge of this kind was cultivated until the 7th or 8th century in the last relics of the ancient Mysteries. And as a doctrine—as a theory—it was still cultivated even until that turn of the 14th and 15th centuries of which we have so often spoken. In certain centres we still see these old teachings cultivated, though with the greatest imaginable difficulties. They were well-nigh shadowed-down to concepts and ideas; yet the concepts and ideas were still living enough to kindle, in one man and another, the upward vision of all the realities of which I spoke just now.
In the 11th and especially the 12th century, reaching on to the 13th, a truly wonderful School existed. In this School there were teachers who still knew how the pupils in preceding centuries had been led to a conscious experience of the Spirit. It was the great School of Chartres. Here there flowed together all the conceptions that had issued from the living spiritual life which I have described.
Wonderful masterpieces of architecture are to be seen in Chartres to this day. Thither there had come above all a ray of the still living wisdom of Peter of Compostella, who had worked in Spain. He had cultivated a living exemplary Christianity, speaking still of Natura the handmaid of Christ, and describing still how when great Nature has introduced man to the elements, to the planetary world, to the world of stars, then and then only does he become ripe to make acquaintance in very reality of soul with the seven helpmates, who come before the human soul, not in abstract chapters of theory, but as the living Goddesses: Grammatica, Dialectica, Rhetorica, Arithmetica, Geometria, Astronomia, Musica. The pupils learned to know them as Divine-spiritual figures, living and real.
Those who were around Peter of Compostella spoke of them still as living figures. His teachings radiated into the School of Chartres. In the same School of Chartres there lived, for example, the great Bernard of Chartres, who inspired his pupils, for though he could no longer show them the Goddess Natura, nor the Goddesses of the seven Liberal Arts, still he spoke of these in so living a way that their imagined pictures at least were conjured before his pupils.
There taught Bernardus Silvestris, raising before his pupils in mighty and powerful descriptions what had been the ancient wisdom.
And above all there was John of Chartres who spoke of the human soul with an inspiration truly majestic. It was here that John of Chartres, also known as John of Salisbury, unfolded the conceptions wherein he dealt with Aristotle,—Aristotelianism. His chosen pupils were so influenced that they arrived at a new insight. They saw that such teaching as had existed in the first centuries of Christendom could no longer exist on earth, for earthly evolution could no longer bear it. It was made clear to them:—There was an ancient, almost clairvoyant knowledge, but it grew darkened. We can only know of Dialectic, Rhetoric, Astronomy, Astrology—we can no longer behold the Goddesses of the seven Liberal Arts.
Henceforth Aristotle must work,—Aristotle who already in antiquity was equal to the concepts and ideas of the fifth Post-Atlantean epoch.
With an inspiring force, what had thus been taught in the School of Chartres was then transplanted to the Order of Cluny, where it was turned to a more worldly form in the ecclesiastical enactments of the Abbot Hildebrand—Abbot of the Monks of Cluny—who afterwards became Pope under the name of Gregory the Seventh.
Meanwhile in the School of Chartres itself these teachings continued to be given with remarkable purity. The whole of the 12th century was radiant with them. And there was one who was in reality greater than all the others,—who taught in Chartres, with what I would call a true inspiration of ideas, the Mysteries of the seven Liberal Arts in their connection with Christianity. I mean Alain de Lille, Alanus ab Insulis. Alain de Lille at Chartres in the 12th century fired his pupils with a true enthusiasm. His great insight showed him that in the coming centuries it would no longer be possible to endow the earth with spiritual teachings such as these. For these teachings were not only Platonism; they contained the teachings from the old seership of the pre-Platonic Mysteries, with the difference that it had since received Christianity into itself.
To those in whom he presumed an understanding for such things, Alain de Lille taught already in his life-time that an Aristotelian form of knowledge would now have to work for awhile on earth,—Aristotelianism with its sharply defined conceptions and ideas. For in this way alone would it be possible to prepare for what must come again as a Spirituality in later time.
To many a human being of today who reads the literature of that time, it appears dull and dry. But it is by no means dry, when we gain some conception of what stood before the souls of those who taught and worked in Chartres.
And in the poetry too, which went out from Chartres, how vitally do we feel the sense of union with the living Goddesses of the seven Liberal Arts. In the poem ‘Bataille des Sept Arts,’ deeply penetrating as it is for anyone who understands it, we feel the living spiritual breath of the seven Liberal Arts. All these things were working in the 12th century.
You see, all this was living in the spiritual atmosphere of that time, and was still making itself felt. It was still to some extent akin to the Schools that continued to exist in Northern Italy, in Italy generally, and in Spain, though their existence was sporadic. Nevertheless these things became transplanted in a living way into all manner of spiritual currents on the earth. Towards the end of the 12th century much of this was still working at the University of Orleans, where remarkable teachings of this kind were cultivated, and something was still present of an inspiration from the School of Chartres.
And then, one day down in Italy, an Ambassador who had been in Spain, standing at that moment under a great historic impression, received a kind of sun-stroke, and there arose in him as a great and mighty revelation all that he had received as a preparatory training in his School. All this became a mighty revelation under the influence of the slight sun-stroke which came over him. Then he saw what man could see under the influence of the living principle of knowledge: He saw a mountain mightily arising with all that lived and sprang forth from it, minerals, plants, and animals, and there appeared to him the Goddess Natura, there appeared the Elements, there appeared the Planets, there appeared the Goddesses of the seven Liberal Arts, and at length Ovid as his guide and teacher. Here once again there stood before a human soul the mighty vision that had stood before the souls of men so often in the first centuries of Christianity. Such was the vision of Brunetto Latini which was afterwards handed down to Dante and from which Dante's Divina Commedia took its source.
But there was still another outcome for all those who had worked in Chartres, when they passed again through the gate of death, and, having passed through the gate of death, entered the spiritual world. Deeply significant was the spiritual life which they had led: Peter of Compostella, Bernard of Chartres, Bernardus Silvestris, John of Chartres (John of Salisbury), Henri d'Andeli, author of the poem “Bataille des Sept Arts,” and above all, Alain de Lille. Alain de Lille, in his own style of course, had written the book Contra Hereticos, where on behalf of Christianity he turned against the heretics, writing directly out of the old vision which was in fact the vision of the spiritual world. And now, all these souls, these individualities who had been the very last to work within the echoes of seership, the wisdom seen in fulness of spiritual light,—they all of them entered into the spiritual world. And in that spiritual world they came together with other souls, of great significance, who were preparing for a new earthly life just at that time. For they were preparing to descend in the very near future into an earthly life where they would work in the sense that was necessary, to bring about the subsequent turning-point: the turning-point of the 14th and 15th century. We have a great spiritual life before us, my dear friends. The last great ones of the School of Chartres had just arrived in the spiritual world. Those individualities who afterwards brought forth the full flower of Scholasticism were still there in the spiritual world, and at the beginning of the 13th century there took place one of the most important exchanges of ideas behind the scenes of human evolution,—an exchange of ideas between those who had carried up the old Platonism, inspired by spiritual vision, from the School of Chartres into the super-sensible world, and those on the other hand who were preparing to carry Aristotelianism down to earth, as the great transition to bring about a new Spirituality that was to flow into the evolution of mankind in the future.
They came to an agreement with one another. The individualities from the School of Chartres spoke, as it were, to those who were preparing to descend into the physical world of sense, who were preparing to cultivate Aristotelianism in the Scholastic system which was right for that age. They spoke to them as it were, and said: For us it is impossible to work on earth for the present; for the earth is not now in a condition to cultivate knowledge in this living way. What we, the last bearers of Platonism, were still able to cultivate must now give place to Aristotelianism. We will remain up here.
Thus the great spirits of Chartres remained in the super-sensible world, nor have they returned hitherto in any earthly incarnations of significance. But they were working mightily, helping in the formation of that mighty Imagination in the spiritual world that was formed in the first half of the 19th century and of which I have already told you. They worked in full harmony with those who descended with their Aristotelianism to the earth.
The Dominican Order, above all, contained individualities who lived in this kind of “super-sensible contract,” if I may so describe it, with the great spirits of Chartres, for they had agreed with them: “We will descend in order to continue the cultivation of knowledge in the Aristotelian form. You will remain up here. On earth too we shall remain in union with you. Platonism for the present cannot prosper on the earth. We shall find you again when we return, and then together we will prepare for that time when the period of Scholastic Aristotelianism will have been completed in earthly evolution, and it will be possible to unfold Spirituality once more in communion with you, with the spirits of Chartres.”
It was, for example, an event of deep significance when Alain de Lille, as he had been called in earthly life, sent down to earth a pupil well instructed by him in the spiritual world. For in this pupil he sent down on to the earth all the discrepancies, it is true, which could arise between Platonism and Aristotelianism, but he sent them down so that they might be harmonised through the Scholastic principle of that time. Such was the spiritual working, especially in the 13th century, to the end that there might flow together the workings of those who were on the earth,—who were on the earth for instance in the garment of Dominicans,—and those who had remained in yonder world. For the time being, these latter could find no earthly bodies in which to stamp their spirituality. For theirs was a spirituality which could not come down to the Aristotelian element.
So there arose in the 13th century a wonderful co-operation of that which was being done on earth with that which was flowing down from above. Often those who were on earth were not conscious of this working from the other side, but those who were working on the other side were all the more conscious. It was a truly living co-operation. One would say, the principle of the Mysteries had ascended to the heavens and sent down its Sun-rays thence upon all that was working on the earth.
This went into all the details and can be traced above all in the detailed things that happened. Alain de Lille, in his own earthly life as a teacher at Chartres, had only been able to go so far that at a certain age of life he put on the garment of the Cistercians. He became a priest of the Cistercian Order. In the Cistercian Order at that time, in the exercises of that Order, the last relics of a striving to awaken Platonism—the Platonic world-conception, in unison with Christianity—had found a refuge.
The way in which he sent a pupil down to the earth expressed itself in this: he sent his pupil down to continue through the Dominican Order the task that was now to pass over to Aristotelianism.
The transition expressed itself outwardly in a remarkable symptom. For the pupil of Alanus ab Insulis of whom I am speaking,—his pupil, that is to say, in the worlds above the earth,—having descended to the earth, first wore the garment of a Cistercian, which he only afterwards exchanged for that of a Dominican.
Such were the individualities who worked together: those who afterwards became the leading Schoolmen and their pupils,—human souls long connected with one another,—and these in turn united with the great spirits of the School of Chartres, united in the sensible and super-sensible worlds during the 13th and on into the early 14th century.
Such was the mighty world-historic plan. Those who could not descend to Aristotelianism upon the earth remained in the spiritual world above, waiting until the purposes in which they were all so intimately united should have been carried forward by the others upon the earth, under the influence of the sharply outlined concepts and ideas proceeding from Aristotelianism.
It was really like a conversation upward and downward from the spiritual to the earthly world, from the earthly to the spiritual world, in that 13th century.
Indeed it was only into this spiritual atmosphere that true Rosicrucianism was able to pour its influence.
When those who had descended to the earth to give the impulse of Aristotelianism had accomplished their task, they too were lifted into the spiritual world and went on working there: Platonists and Aristotelians together. And now there came and gathered round them the souls whom I have already spoken to you—the souls of the two groups I mentioned.
Thus we find entering into the karma of the Anthroposophical Movement a large number of disciples of Chartres. Entering into this discipleship of Chartres we find the souls who had come from one or other of the two streams of which I spoke here in the last few days. It is a large circle of human beings, for many are living in this circle who have not as yet found their way to the Anthroposophical Movement. Nevertheless it is so: what we find in the field of Anthroposophy today has been prepared for through these manifold experiences.
A remarkable influence came over the Cistercian Order for example, when Alain de Lille, Alanus ab Insulis, put on the garment of a Cistercian—when he with his Platonism became a Cistercian Priest. Indeed this element never left the Cistercian Order. In relation to these things which we must now unveil, I may perhaps be allowed a few personal observations that could not be included in my autobiography. There was a circumstance in my life which was destined to lead me to the knowledge of many an inner connection in this domain, (other connections were revealed to me from different quarters). I was led to many things through the circumstance that in my life, before the Weimar period, I could never escape from the presence, in one way or another, of the Cistercian Order; and yet again I was always somehow kept at a distance from it. I grew up, so to speak, in the shadow of the Cistercian Order, which has important settlements in the neighbourhood of Wiener-Neustadt. Those who had to educate most of the youth in the district where I grew up, were Priests of the Cistercian order. I had the robe of this Order perpetually before me, the white robe with the black band around the waist, or, as we call it, the stola. Had I had occasion to speak of such things in my autobiography I could have said: Everything in my life tended in the direction of a classical education at the Gymnasium and not of that modern education which I actually underwent in the Real-Schule in Wiener-Neustadt. Now the Gymnasium in that place was at that time still in the hands of the Cistercians. It was a strange play of forces that drew me to them and at the same time held me at a distance.
Again, the whole circle of monks in the Theological Faculty at the University of Vienna,—the circle around Marie Eugenie delle Grazie,—consisted of Cistercians. With these Cistercians I had the most intimate theological conversations—the most intimate conversations on Christology. I only indicate this fact, seeing that it enters into my perception of that period of the 12th century, when the power of the School of Chartres poured its life into the Cistercian Order. For indeed, in the peculiarly attractive scholarship of the Cistercians there lived on—albeit in a corrupted way—something of the magic of the School of Chartres. Important and manifold enquiries were pursued by Cistercians whom I knew well. And to me those things were most important which revealed to me: It is indeed impossible for any of those who were the disciples of Chartres to incarnate at present, and yet it seems as though some of the individualities connected with that School became incorporated, if I may call it so, for brief periods, in some of the human beings who wore the Cistercian garment.
Separated, if I may put it so, by a thin wall only, there ever continued to work on the earth what was being prepared as I have described it, in super-sensible worlds, leading to that great preparation in the first half of the 19th century.
And for me it was a highly remarkable experience to have that conversation to which I referred in my autobiography,—that conversation on the Christ Being with a Priest of the Cistercian Order, which took place not in delle Grazie's house but as we were going away from her house together. For the conversation was carried on, not from the present-day dogmatic standpoint of Theology, but from the standpoint of Neo-Scholasticism. It went with full depth into the things that had once existed upon the earth, with Aristotelian clarity and definition of concept, and yet at the same time with Platonic spiritual light.
That which was to arise in Anthroposophy shone through already, though in secret and mysterious ways, through the events of the time. Though indeed it could not shine through into human souls where they were harnessed to one religious or social group or another, nevertheless it shone through, through the connections which certain human souls still had with the great spiritual currents that do, after all, work upon the earth.
Between the beginning of the Michael Age and the end of the Kali Yuga, it was indeed possible to recognise, in much that was working in individual human beings in the most varied domains of life, the language of the Spirit of the Time. For the speaking of the Spirit of the Time was a great call for the anthroposophical revelations to come. We saw the living rise of Anthroposophy, as of a being that was to be born but that was still resting in a mother's womb. For it was resting in the womb of preparation, that had worked from the first Christian centuries towards the School of Chartres, then to be continued in super-sensible spheres, in cooperation with what was here on the earth, in the Aristotelian defence of Christianity. It was out of these impulses, as we find them expressed in Alain de Lille's work Contra Hereticos, that there afterwards arose such a work as the Summa Fidei Catholicae contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas. And there arose that characteristic feature of the time which speaks to us from all the pictures, where we see the Dominican Doctors of the Church treading Averroes, Avicenna and the others under foot. For this indicates the living and spirited defence of spiritual Christianity, and yet withal the transition to intellectualism.
My dear friends, I cannot describe this world of facts in any theoretic way; for by theorising, these things are weakened and made pale. Facts I wanted to place before your souls,—facts from which you will feel whereto your gaze must be directed if you would see those souls, who passed before their present earthly life through a spiritual experience between death and a new birth, in such a way that when on the earth, they longed for Anthroposophy.
The most divergent, the most opposite conceptions work together in the world, weaving a living whole.
And today, those who were working in the great School of Chartres in the 12th century, and those who were united with them at the beginning of the 13th century in one of the greatest spiritual communities,—albeit in the super-sensible world—today again they are working together. The great spirits of Chartres are working with those, who in unison with them subsequently cultivated Aristotelianism on the earth. It matters not, that some of them are working here on the earth, while others cannot yet descend to the earth. They are working together now, intending a new spiritual epoch in earthly evolution. And their great purpose now, is to collect the souls who for a long time have been united with them,—to gather together the souls with whose help a new spiritual age can then be founded. Their purpose is, in one way or another and within a comparatively short time, in the midst of an otherwise decadent civilization, to make possible a renewed cooperation in earthly life between the spirits of Chartres from the 12th century and the spirits of the 13th century who are united with them. Their purpose is to prepare, so that they will be able to work together in an earthly life, cultivating spirituality once more within the civilization which, apart from this, is sailing on into destruction and disintegration.
Intentions that are being cherished today, not upon earth but as between earth and heaven, such intentions I have wanted to explain to you. Enter deeply into all that lies in these intentions, and you will feel, as a living influence upon your souls, the spiritual background, of which the necessary foreground is the streaming together of human souls in this Anthroposophical Movement.
Sechster Vortrag
Ich habe unter den geistigen Entwickelungsbedingungen, welche zur anthroposophischen Bewegung geführt haben und gewissermaßen in dem Karma der anthroposophischen Bewegung enthalten sind von geistiger Seite her, die beiden äußeren Symptome angeführt: dasjenige, das sich ausdrückt in der Entstehung der Katechetik, in der Entstehung des Katechismus mit seinen Fragen und Antworten, was zu einem nicht an die geistige Welt unmittelbar anknüpfenden Glauben führte, und das Exoterischmachen der Messe, die in ihrer Gänze, auch mit Bezug auf die Transsubstantiation und Kommunion, allen Menschen, auch den unvorbereiteten, zugänglich wurde, also den Charakter des alten Mysteriums verlor. In diesen beiden irdischen Ereignissen vollzog sich dasjenige, was dann in der Beobachtung von der geistigen Welt aus, dazu führte, innerhalb der geistigen Entwickelung in einer ganz bestimmten Weise das vorzubereiten, was geistige Offenbarung werden sollte um die Wende des 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert: die geistige Offenbarung, wie sie dem Zeitenlauf angemessen ist, wie sie kommen mußte nach dem Michael-Ereignis, und wie sie kommen mußte in der Zeit, als die alte, finstere Epoche des Kali Yuga ablief, und eben ein neues, lichtes Zeitalter für die Menschheit heraufziehen sollte.
Ein Drittes haben wir heute hinzuzufügen. Und erst wenn wir diese drei geistigen Vorbedingungen für jede spirituelle Entwickelung in der Gegenwart und in der Zukunft werden vor unsere Seele geführt haben, diese drei geistigen Bedingungen, die geeignet waren, eine Anzahl von Menschen zusammenzuführen, schon bevor sie heruntergestiegen sind in die physische Welt im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts oder um die Wende des 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert, erst wenn wir diese Vorbedingungen kennengelernt haben, wird es möglich sein, einzelne außerkarmische Ereignisse zu begreifen, welche eingeflossen sind in diejenigen Lebensläufe, die zusammengebunden sind in der anthroposophischen Bewegung.
Die besondere Art, sich zu der Natur zu stellen, und die Art, sich zum Geistigen zu stellen, wie sie heute in einem hohen Grade schon ausgebildet ist, rührt eben eigentlich erst von der Zeit her, die begonnen hat im 14., 15. Jahrhundert. Vorher war insbesondere die Beziehung der Menschheit zum Geistigen eine wesentlich andere. Nicht in Begriffen und Ideen näherte man sich dem Geiste, sondern in Erlebnissen, die noch durchdrangen, wenn auch schwach und leise, aber doch noch durchdrangen zum Geistigen.
Wenn wir heute von der Natur sprechen, haben wir ein wesenloses, totes Abstraktum. Wenn wir vom Geiste sprechen, haben wir ein Unbestimmtes, das wir irgendwie in der Welt voraussetzen, das wir einfassen in abstrakte Ideen und Begriffe. So war es nicht in der Zeit, in der die Seelen, die heute sich mit der Sehnsucht nach einer Spiritualität zusammenfinden, ihre maßgebende vorige Inkarnation hatten und in dieser maßgebenden vorigen Inkarnation hinhorchten auf das, was ihnen die erkennenden Führer der Menschheit für die Bedürfnisse ihrer Seele zu sagen hatten.
Da kommt zunächst dasjenige Zeitalter in Betracht, das so heraufgeht bis ins 7., 8. christliche Jahrhundert, wo wir eben noch einen leisen Zusammenhang der Menschenseele mit der geistigen Welt, ein Erleben der geistigen Welt selber haben, wo auch die erkennenden Menschen in lebendiger Beziehung zur geistigen Welt standen. Und dann haben wir das Zeitalter, das mit dem 7., 8. Jahrhundert beginnt und dauert bis zur großen Wende im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert, wo diejenigen Menschenseelen, die in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten auf der Erde noch jenes Zeitalter, das ich geschildert habe, mitgemacht haben, in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt waren.
Aber wenn auch vom 6., 7., 8. Jahrhundert ab kein unmittelbarer Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt vorhanden war, so, möchte ich sagen, flüchtete doch ein gewisses Bewußtsein dieses Zusammenhanges noch in einzelne Lehrstätten hinein. Man redete in einzelnen Lehrstätten noch so, wie man in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten auf dem Erkenntnisgebiete gesprochen hat. Und dann war es wohl möglich, daß einzelne auserlesene Menschen an der Art und. Weise, wie man redete über die geistige Welt, innere Impulse bekamen, um doch wenigstens zu gewissen Zeiten durchzubrechen in die geistige Welt. Und es gab immerhin einzelne Stätten, in denen man so lehrte, daß man sich von dieser Art heute keine Vorstellung mehr machen kann.
Im 12., 13. Jahrhundert nahm das eigentlich erst sein Ende, und da ist es, ich möchte sagen, eingeströmt zuletzt in eine bedeutende Dichtung, in der es für das Erleben der Menschen ein Ende gefunden hat, in Dantes Commedia, in die «Divina Commedia». Es liegt in demjenigen, was vor der Entstehung der Commedia liegt, ein wunderbares Kapitel menschlicher Entwickelung aus dem Grunde, weil da fortwährend die Wirksamkeiten von hier, von der Erde aus, und die Wirksamkeiten von dem Überirdischen aus zusammenspielen. Beides fließt fortwährend zusammen: weil die Menschen auf der Erde den Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt etwas verloren hatten, weil denjenigen Menschen, die oben lebten und diesen Zusammenhang hier auf der Erde noch erlebt hatten, der Anblick des Irdischen eine besonders wehmutsvolle Stimmung hervorrief. Sie sahen hinsinken, was sie selbst noch auf der Erde erlebt hatten, und sie begeisterten, spiritualisierten von der übersinnlichen Welt aus Individualitäten in der sinnlichen Welt, um doch da und dort noch eine Pflegestätte zu bilden von demjenigen, was Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der Geistigkeit ist.
Machen wir uns doch klar - ich habe es vor Jahren hier angedeutet -, wie bis ins 7., 8. Jahrhundert, als Nachwirkung der vorchristlichen Einweihung, das Christentum aufgenommen wurde in Stätten, die immerhin als hohe Erkentnisstätten, als die Nachzügler der Mysterien vorhanden waren. Da war es so, daß Menschen, zunächst nicht unterrichtlich, aber durch eine auf das Geistige hin gerichtete Erziehung im Körperlichen und im Geistigen, vorbereitet wurden auf den Moment, wo sie das leise Hinschauen auf die Geistigkeit haben konnten, die in der Menschenumgebung auf Erden sich offenbaren kann. Dann richtete sich ihr Blick hinaus auf die Reiche des Mineralischen, des Pflanzlichen, und alles das, was im tierischen, im menschlichen Reiche lebt. Und dann sahen sie aurisch aufsprießen und wiederum befruchtet werden aus dem Kosmos die geistig-elementaren Wesenheiten, die in allem Natürlichen lebten.
Und dann vor allen Dingen erschien ihnen — wie ein Wesen, das sie ansprachen wie einen anderen Menschen, nur eben wie ein Wesen höherer Art — die «Göttin Natura». Es war das diejenige Göttin, die sie, ich kann nicht sagen leibhaftig, aber seelenhaftig in vollem Glanze vor sich sahen. Man sprach nicht von abstrakten Naturgesetzen, man sprach von der in der Natur überall schöpferischen Kraft der Göttin Natura.
Sie war die Metamorphose der alten Proserpina. Sie war jene schaffende Göttin, mit der sich in einer gewissen Weise derjenige verband, der nach Erkenntnis suchen sollte, die ihm erschien aus jedem Mineral, aus jeder Pflanze, aus jedem Getier, erschien aus den Wolken, erschien aus den Bergen, erschien aus den Quellen. Von dieser Göttin, die abwechselnd in Winter und Sommer oberirdisch und unterirdisch schafft, von dieser Göttin empfanden sie: sie ist die Helferin derjenigen Gottheit, von der die Evangelien sprechen, sie ist die ausführende göttliche Macht.
Und wenn dann ein solcher Mensch, der nach Erkenntnis strebte, in genügender Weise über das Mineralische, Pflanzliche, Tierische unterrichtet war von dieser Göttin, wenn er eingeführt war in die lebendigen Kräfte, dann lernte er durch sie kennen die Natur der vier Elemente: Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer. Und er lernte kennen, wie wogen und weben innerhalb des Mineralischen, Tierischen und Pflanzlichen diese konkret über die Welt sich ergießenden vier Elemente: Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer. Und er fühlte sich selbst hineinverwoben mit seinem ätherischen Leib in das Weben der Erde mit ihrer Schwere, des Wassers mit seiner belebenden Kraft, der Luft mit ihrer empfindungsweckenden Kraft, des Feuers mit seiner Ich-entzündenden Kraft. Da fühlte sich der Mensch hineinverwoben. Das empfand er als das Geschenk des Unterrichtes der Göttin Natura, der Nachfolgerin, der Metamorphose der Proserpina. Und daß die Schüler eine Ahnung bekamen von diesem lebendigen Verkehr mit der gotterfüllten, gottsubstantiterten Natur, hindurchdrangen bis zum Weben und Leben der Elemente, darauf sahen die Lehrer.
Dann, nachdem die Schüler so weit waren, wurden sie eingeführt in das Planetensystem. Und sie lernten, wie in der Kenntnis des Planetensystems sich zugleich die Kenntnis der menschlichen Seele ergibt: Lerne erkennen, wie die Wandelsterne am Himmel wallen, so lernst du erkennen, wie deine eigene Seele in deinem Inneren wirkt und webt und lebt. Das wurde vor die Schüler hingestellt.
Und dann wurden sie herangeführt an dasjenige, was man den «Großen Ozean» nannte. Aber dieser Ozean war das kosmische Meer, das von den Planeten, von den Wandelsternen zu den Ruhesternen, zu den Fixsternen hinausführte.
Dann drangen sie ein in die Geheimnisse des Ich dadurch, daß sie die Geheimnisse der Fixsternwelt kennenlernen konnten.
Es ist heute vergessen, daß es solche Unterweisungen gegeben hat. Aber solche Unterweisungen waren da. Und solches lebendige Erkennen war ja bis zum 7., 8. Jahrhundert in den Nachzüglern der Mysterien gepflegt. Und als Lehre, als Theorie wurde es nun weitergepflegt bis in die Wende des 14. zum 15. Jahrhundert, von der ich so oft gesprochen habe. Und wir können verfolgen in einzelnen Stätten, wo solche Lehren gepflegt wurden, wie diese alten Lehren fortlebten, wenn auch unter den größtmöglichen Schwierigkeiten, wenn auch fast abgetötet bis zu Begriffen und Ideen, aber doch zu so lebendigen Begriffen und Ideen, daß sie eine Aufschau zu alldem, wovon ich gesprochen habe, noch entzünden konnten in einzelnen Menschen.
Da gab es im 11., namentlich aber im 12. Jahrhundert, herüberreichend ins 13. Jahrhundert, eine eigentlich wunderbare Schule, in der Lehrer waren, welche durchaus wußten, wie in den vorangehenden Jahrhunderten die Schüler hingeführt wurden zum Erleben des Geistigen. Es war die große Schule von Chartres, in der zusammengeflossen waren alle diejenigen Anschauungen, die hervorgegangen waren aus jener geistigen Lebendigkeit, die ich geschildert habe.
In Chartres, wo heute noch jene wunderbaren architektonischen Meisterwerke sich finden, da war vor allen Dingen hingekommen ein Strahl der noch lebendigen Weisheit des Peter von Compostella, der in Spanien gewirkt hat, der ein lebendig mysterienhaftes Christentum in Spanien pflegte, das noch sprach von der Helferin Christi, der Natur, das noch sprach davon, daß erst dann, wenn diese Natur den Menschen eingeführt hat in die Elemente, in die Planetenwelt, in die Sternenwelt, daß erst dann der Mensch reif wird, die sieben Helferinnen, ich kann wiederum nicht sagen leibhaftig, aber seelenhaftig kennenzulernen, Helferinnen, die nicht in abstrakten Theoriekapiteln vor die menschliche Seele hintraten, sondern als lebendige Göttinnen: Grammatik, Dialektik, Rhetorik, Arithmetik, Geometrie, Astronomie, Musik. Als göttlich-geistige Gestalten, lebendig lernten die Schüler sie kennen.
Nun, von solchen lebendigen Gestalten sprachen diejenigen, die um Peter von Compostella waren. Die Lehren des Peter von Compeostella, sie strahlten hinein in die Schule von Chartres. In dieser Schule von Chartres lehrte zum Beispiel der große Bernardus von Chartres, der seine Schüler begeisterte, indem er ihnen zwar nicht mehr die Göttin Natura, nicht mehr die Göttinnen der sieben freien Künste zeigen konnte, der aber in einer solchen Lebendigkeit von ihnen sprach, daß wenigstens die Phantasiebilder vor die Schüler hingezaubert wurden, daß in jeder Lehrstunde Wissenschaft zur leuchtenden Kunst wurde.
Da lehrte Bernardus Silvestris, der wie in mächtigen Schilderungen vor den Schülern erstehen ließ dasjenige, was eben alte Weisheit war. Da lehrte vor allen Dingen Johannes von Chartres, der in einer geradezu grandios-inspirierten Weise von der menschlichen Seele sprach; dieser Johannes von Chartres, den man auch Johannes Salisbury nannte, entwickelte da Anschauungen, in denen er sich auseinandersetzte mit Aristoteles, mit dem Aristotelismus. Da wurde auf die besonders bevorzugten Schüler so gewirkt, daß sie eine Einsicht davon bekamen, daß auf der Erde nicht mehr sein kann eine solche Lehre, wie sie war in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten, daß die Erdenentwickelung das nicht mehr ertragen kann. Da wurde den Schülern klargemacht: Es gibt eine alte, fast hellseherische Erkenntnis, aber die dämmert ab. Wissen nur kann man noch von Dialektik, Rhetorik, Astronomie, Astrologie, schauen kann man nicht mehr die Göttinnen der sieben freien Künste, denn weiterwirken muß der schon im Altertum den Begriffen und Ideen des fünften nachatlantischen Zeitalters gewachsene Aristoteles.
Und mit einer inspirierenden Kraft verpflanzte sich dasjenige, was [eine solche Lehre war, was] in der Schule von Chartres auf diese Weise gelehrt wurde, auch nach dem Cluniacenserorden hin und wurde verweltlicht in demjenigen, was der Abt der Cluniacenser, Hildebrand, der dann als Gregor VII. Papst wurde, über die Kirche verfügt hat; aber mit einer außerordentlichen Reinheit pflanzte sich diese Lehre in der Schule von Chartres weiter fort, und es glänzte das 12. Jahrhundert in diesen Lehren. Und insbesondere war einer da, der eigentlich alle anderen überragte, und der, ich möchte sagen, in einer ideellen Inspiration die Geheimnisse der sieben freien Künste in ihrem Zusammenhange mit dem Christentum in Chartres lehrte: Alanus von Lille.
Alanus von Lille, er befeuerte geradezu Schüler im 12. Jahrhundert in Chartres. Er hatte eine große Einsicht in die Tatsache, daß in den nächsten Jahrhunderten dasjenige nicht weiter der Erde zugute kommen kann, was in einer solchen Weise gelehrt wird, denn das war nicht nur Platonismus, das war Lehre vom Mysterienschauen der vorplatonischen Zeit, nur daß dieses Schauen das Christentum in sich aufgenommen hatte. Und denjenigen, von denen er Verständnis voraussetzte, lehrte Alanus von Lille schon zu seinen Lebzeiten: Jetzt muß eine aristotelisch gefärbte Erkenntnis eine Weile auf Erden wirken, in scharfen Begriffen und Ideen. Denn nur so kann vorbereitet werden, was in einer späteren Zeit als eine Spiritualität wiederkommen muß.
Es sieht für manche heutige Menschen, wenn sie die Literatur von damals lesen, trocken aus, aber es ist nicht trocken, wenn man eine Anschauung davon gewinnen kann, was vor den Seelen derjenigen stand, die in Chartres lehrten und wirkten. Lebendig wirkt durch, auch in der Dichtung, die von Chartres ausging, dieses Sich-Verbunden-Fühlen mit den lebendigen Göttern der sieben freien Künste. Und in der, für denjenigen, der sie verstehen kann, eindringlichen Dichtung: «La bataille des VII arts» fühlen wir den geistigen Atem der sieben freien Künste. Das alles wirkte im 12, Jahrhundert.
Das alles, sehen Sie, lebte noch dazumal in der geistigen Atmosphäre, das alles machte sich noch in einer gewissen Weise geltend. Das alles hatte ja noch manches Verwandte mit Schulen, die in Norditalien, in Italien überhaupt, in Spanien schon noch bestanden, aber ein sehr sporadisches Leben führten. Aber es pflanzte sich fort in lebendiger Art nach verschiedenen Strömungen der Erde hin. Und gegen das Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts war vieles von dem an der Universität von Orleans, wo merkwürdige Lehren nach dieser Art hin gepflegt wurden, wo manches vorhanden war von Inspiration durch die Schule von Chartres.
Und dann geschah es eben eines Tages, daß da unten in Italien ein vorher in Spanien weilender Gesandter, unter einem mächtigen historischen Eindruck stehend, so etwas bekam wie eine Art Sonnenstich, und in ihm alles das, was er in seiner Schule als Vorbereitung empfangen hatte, unter dem Einflusse dieses leisen Sonnenstiches zu einer mächtigen Offenbarung wurde: wo er sah, was der Mensch sehen konnte unter dem Einfluß des lebendigen Erkenntnisprinzipes, wo er sah den mächtig aufsteigenden Berg mit alldem, was herauslebt aus Mineralien, Pflanzen und Tieren, wo erschien die Göttin Natura, wo erschienen die Elemente, wo erschienen die Planeten, wo erschienen die Göttinnen der sieben freien Künste, wo dann auftrat Ovid als der führende Lehrer —, wo noch einmal vor eines Menschen Seele stand jenes Gewaltige, was so oftmals vor Menschenseelen gestanden hat in den ersten Jahrhunderten des Christentums. Es war die Vision des Branetto Latini, die dann übergegangen ist auf Dante und aus der Dantes Commedia geflossen ist.
Aber ein anderes ergab sich für alle diejenigen, die in Chartres gewirkt hatten, als sie durch die Pforte des Todes gingen und, hindurchgegangen durch die Pforte des Todes, die geistige Welt betraten. Es war ein bedeutsames geistiges Leben, das Peter von Compostella, Bernardus von Chartres, Bernardus Silvestris, Johannes von ChartresSalisbury, Henri d’Andeli, der das Gedicht: «La bataille des VII arts» verfaßt hat, geführt hatten, aber insbesondere das des Alanus von Lille. Er hat ja auf seine Art die Schrift «Contra Haereticos» verfaßt und damit aus der alten Anschauung heraus gegen die Ketzer sich gewendet im christlichen Sinne, aber eben aus der Anschauung der geistigen Welt heraus.
Und jetzt betraten alle diese Seelenindividualitäten, welche als die letzten noch gewirkt haben in den Nachklängen der alten geschauten Weisheit, der lichtvoll geschauten Weisheit, jetzt betraten sie die geistige Welt: jene geistige Welt, wo gerade, sich vorbereitend zum Erdendasein, wichtigste Seelen waren, die demnächst heruntersteigen sollten ins Erdendasein, um zu wirken in dem Sinne, wie dann gewirkt werden mußte, um die Wende herbeizuführen, die im 14., 15. Jahrhundert eintrat.
Da haben wir ein geistiges Dasein, meine lieben Freunde: Die letzten Großen der Schule von Chartres waren eben in der geistigen Welt angekommen. Diejenigen Individualitäten, die die Hochblüte der Scholastik einleiteten, waren noch in der geistigen Welt. Und einer der wichtigsten Ideenaustausche hinter den Kulissen der menschlichen Entwickelung spielte sich ab im Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts zwischen denen, die noch den alten schauenden Platonismus hinaufgetragen haben aus der Schule von Chartres in die übersinnliche Welt, und denjenigen, die sich dazu bereiteten, den Aristotelismus herunterzutragen als den großen Übergang für die Herbeiführung einer neuen Spiritualität, die in der Zukunft hereinfluten sollte in die Entwickelung der Menschheit.
Da kam man überein, indem gerade diese Individualitäten, die aus der Schule von Chartres herstammten, denen sagten, die sich eben anschickten, herunterzusteigen in die sinnlich-physische Welt und den Aristotelismus in der Scholastik als das richtige Element des Zeitalters zu pflegen: Für uns ist zunächst ein Erdenwirken nicht möglich, denn die Erde ist jetzt nicht so, um in dieser Lebendigkeit die Erkenntnis zu pflegen. Was wir noch pflegen konnten als die letzten Träger des Platonismus, das muß nun vom Aristotelismus abgelöst werden. Wir bleiben hier oben. Und so blieben denn, ohne daß sie in maßgebliche Erdeninkarnationen bisher eintraten, die Geister von Chartres in der übersinnlichen Welt. Aber sie wirkten mächtig mit bei der Gestaltung jener grandiosen Imagination, die eben gestaltet wurde in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, von der ich Ihnen gesprochen habe.
Sie wirkten in vollem Einklange mit denen zusammen, die mit dem Aristotelismus zunächst auf die Erde herunterstiegen. Und insbesondere war es der Dominikanerorden, welcher Individualitäten enthielt, die, ich möchte sagen, in dieser Art von übersinnlichem Vertrag mit den Geistern von Chartres standen, die mit ihnen gewissermaßen verabredet hatten: Wir steigen herunter, um im Aristotelismus die Erkenntnis weiter zu pflegen. Ihr bleibt oben. Wir werden auch auf Erden mit euch in Verbindung bleiben können. Auf Erden kann zunächst der Platonismus nicht gedeihen. Wir werden euch wiederfinden, wenn wir zurückkommen, und wenn vorbereitet werden soll diejenige Zeit, in welcher, nachdem die Erde die scholastische Entwickelung des Aristotelismus durchgemacht hat, die Spiritualität wiederum gemeinsam mit den Geistern von Chartres entwickelt werden kann.
Es war von tief eingreifender Bedeutung zum Beispiel, als Alanus von Lille - so hat er geheißen während seines Erdendaseins — aus der geistigen Welt heruntersendete einen von ihm in der geistigen Welt wohlunterrichteten Schüler, um zwar gerade alle die Diskrepanzen, welche bestehen konnten zwischen dem Platonismus und dem Aristotelismus, auf die Erde herunterfluten zu lassen, aber so, daß aus dem scholastischen Prinzip der damaligen Zeit eine Harmonie entstehen konnte. Und so wurde insbesondere im 13. Jahrhundert dahin gewirkt, daß zusammenfließen konnte die Arbeit derjenigen, die etwa im Dominikanerkleide auf der Erde waren, und das Wirken derer, die drüben geblieben waren in der anderen Welt, da sie zunächst nicht Erdenleiber finden konnten, um ihre besondere Art von Geistigkeit auszuprägen, die nicht zum Aristotelismus hinkommen konnte.
Und es entstand im 13. Jahrhundert eben ein wunderbares Zusammenwirken zwischen demjenigen, was auf der Erde geschah, und dem, was von oben her einfloß. Oftmals waren sich die Menschen, die auf Erden wirkten, dieses Zusammenwirkens gar nicht bewußt, um so mehr aber diejenigen, die drüben wirkten. Es war ein lebendiges Zusammenwirken. Man möchte sagen: das Mysterienprinzip war hinaufgestiegen in die Himmel und ließ seine Sonnenstrahlen herabfallen auf das, was auf Erden gewirkt hat.
Es ging bis in Einzelheiten, und kann insbesondere an Einzelheiten verfolgt werden. Alanus von Lille, er hatte in seiner eigenen irdischen Entwickelung als Lehrer von Chartres nur so weit gehen können, daß er in einem bestimmten Lebensalter das Kleid der Zisterzienser angelegt hatte, Zisterzienserordenspriester wurde. Und in den Zisterzienserorden hatte sich noch das letzte an Ordensübungen in der damaligen Zeit hineingeflüchtet, um Platonismus, platonische Weltanschauung mit dem Christentum zusammen zu erwecken.
Die Art und Weise, wie er einen Schüler heruntergesendet hat, drückt sich darin aus, daß er diesen Schüler schickte, um durch den Dominikanerorden die Aufgabe, die auf den Aristotelismus übergehen sollte, weiter sich auswirken zu lassen. Der Übergang, der da war, drückte sich insbesondere äußerlich durch ein merkwürdiges Symptom aus: Jener, ich möchte sagen, überirdische Schüler des Alanus ab Insulis, er trug auf Erden zuerst das Zisterzienserkleid, vertauschte es aber später mit dem Dominikanerkleid.
Da haben wir die Individualitäten, die auf eine übersinnlich-sinnliche Weise während des 13. Jahrhunderts und noch etwas ins 14. Jahrhundert hinein zusammenwirken: Maßgebende spätere Scholastiker und ihre Schüler, miteinander langverbundene Menschenseelen, diese aber auch verbunden wiederum mit den großen Geistern der Schule von Chartres.
Da haben wir, ich möchte sagen, jenen großartigen, gewaltigen, weltgeschichtlichen Plan, der dahin ging, daß diejenigen, die nicht zum Aristotelismus auf die Erde haben heruntersteigen können, sich bewahrten in der geistigen Welt droben, um zu warten, bis die anderen dasjenige, in dem sie so innig mit den Zurückgebliebenen verbunden waren, auf der Erde weiterpflegen konnten unter dem Einfluß scharfer, vom Aristotelismus herrührender Begriffe und Ideen. Es war wirklich wie ein Herauf- und Heruntersprechen von der geistigen Welt zur irdischen, von der irdischen zur geistigen Welt hinauf in diesem 13. Jahrhundert.
In diese geistige Atmosphäre hinein konnte ja auch nur das echte Rosenkreuzertum wirken.
Und dann wurden, als diejenigen, die heruntergestiegen waren, um den Impuls des Aristotelismus zu geben, sozusagen ihre Aufgabe auf der Erde verrichtet hatten, auch sie hinaufgehoben in die geistige Welt, dann wurde in der geistigen Welt zusammengewirkt, ich möchte sagen, zwischen den Platonikern und Aristotelikern. Und um sie herum fanden sich nun jene Seelen, von denen ich gesprochen habe: die Seelen der beiden Gruppen, die ich angeführt habe.
So daß wir in einer gewissen Weise in das Karma der anthroposophischen Bewegung einfließen haben eine weit ausgebreitete Schülerschaft von Chartres und ein Hineinleben in diese Schülerschaft von all denjenigen Seelen, die eben mitgenommen haben die eine oder die andere der beiden Strömungen, von denen ich in den letzten Tagen hier gesprochen habe - ein großer Kreis, denn viele leben in diesem Kreise, die heute noch nicht den Weg zur anthroposophischen Bewegung gefunden haben. Aber es ist schon so, daß in den mancherlei Erlebnissen sich dasjenige vorbereitet hat, was im anthroposophischen Felde heute ist.
Es war zum Beispiel etwas Merkwürdiges über den Zisterzienserorden gekommen, als Alanus ab Insulis, Alanus von Lille, das Zisterzienserkleid angezogen hatte, Zisterzienserpriester geworden war mit seinem Platonismus. Das blieb im Grunde genommen, ich möchte sagen, am Zisterzienserorden haften. Und ich darf schon sagen — denn warum sollten in solchen Zusammenhängen, wie sie hier nun eröffnet werden müssen, nicht auch kleine persönliche Bemerkungen gemacht werden dürfen, die nun nicht gerade in den «Lebensgang» einfließen konnten -, ich muß schon sagen: Dasjenige, was mich manchen Zusammenhang nach dieser Richtung erkennen lehren sollte - andere Zusammenhänge haben sich eben aus ganz anderen Richtungen her ergeben —, war, daß ich eigentlich in meinem Leben bis zu meiner Weimarischen Zeit nicht loskommen konnte vom Anblicke des Zisterzienserordens, und doch wiederum in einer gewissen Weise fortwährend ferngehalten worden bin vom Zisterzienserorden. Ich wuchs sozusagen im Schatten des Zisterzienserordens auf, der wichtige Niederlassungen um Wiener Neustadt herum hat. Zisterzienserordenspriester waren diejenigen, die die meisten jungen Leute erzogen in der Gegend, in der ich aufgewachsen war. Das Zisterzienserordensgewand hatte ich fortwährend vor mir, die weiße Kutte, den weißen Habit mit der schwarzen Binde, wir nennen es Stola, um die Mitte. Und wäre ich veranlaßt gewesen, über solche Dinge in meinem «Lebensgang» zu sprechen, so würde ich gesagt haben: Alles, alles war eigentlich in meiner Kindheit darauf veranlagt, nicht jenen Bildungsgang durchzumachen, den ich durchgemacht habe, durch die Wiener Neustädter Realschule hindurch, sondern durch das Gymnasium. Das war aber dazumal noch ein Zisterzienser-Gymnasium. Und es waren die Kräfte merkwürdig, die mich zugleich anzogen und fernhielten.
Und wiederum, der ganze Kreis von Mönchen, der an der Wiener Universität Theologie lehrte, der um Marie Eugenie delle Grazie herum war, bestand aus Zisterziensern. Die intimsten theologischen Gespräche, die intimsten Gespräche über Christologie hatte ich mit den Zisterziensern. Ich will das nur andeuten, weil es gewissermaßen koloriert den Hinblick gerade auf die Zeit des 12. Jahrhunderts, als die Blüte von Chartres hineinleuchtete in den Zisterzienserorden. Denn in der merkwürdigen Gelehrsamkeit der Zisterzienser, die so anziehend ist, lebte ja — allerdings auf korrumpierte Art — doch noch etwas fort von dem Zauber von Chartres. Wichtigstes über die mannigfaltigsten Dinge wurde von Zisterziensern, die ich gut kannte, erforscht. Und diejenigen Dinge waren mir die wichtigsten, wo ich sagen konnte: Es ist zwar unmöglich, daß etwa solche, die Schüler von Chartres waren, sich hier inkarniert hätten; aber es ergab sich schon dem Anblick, daß sich manche der Individualitäten, die zusammenhingen mit der Schule von Chartres — wenn ich es so nennen darf -, für kurze Zeiten inkorporierten in solchen Menschen, die das Zisterzienserordenskleid trugen.
Ich möchte sagen, durch eine dünne Wand getrennt, wirkte das immer fort auf Erden, was im Übersinnlichen in der Art, wie ich es beschrieben habe, vorbereitet worden ist, und was dann zu der großen Vorbereitung in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts führte. Und es war mir schon etwas höchst Merkwürdiges jenes Gespräch, das ich in meinem «Lebensgang» angeführt habe über die Wesenheit Christi, das ich mit einem Zisterzienserordenspriester, nicht im Hause, aber beim Weggehen von dem Hause von delle Grazie geführt habe, das tatsächlich geführt worden ist nicht vom heutigen dogmatisch-theologischen Standpunkte oder vom Standpunkte des Neo-Scholastizismus, sondern das geführt wurde mit aller Vertiefung in dasjenige, was einmal da war, mit aristotelischer Begriffskonturiertheit, aber auch mit platonischer Durchleuchtung.
Was da entstehen sollte in Anthroposophie, es leuchtete schon, wenn auch auf eine geheimnisvolle Art, durch die Zeitereignisse hindurch, es leuchtete, wenn auch nicht durch die in die eine oder in die andere konfessionelle oder soziale Strömung eingespannte Menschenseele, wohl aber durch dasjenige hindurch, womit diese Menschenseele als mit den großen geistigen Strömungen, die auf der Erde wirken, zusammenhängt. Und man konnte schon sehen, wie in mancherlei von dem, was da wirkte auf den verschiedensten Gebieten in einzelnen Menschen, von dem Eintritt des Michael-Zeitalters ab bis zum Ablauf des Kali Yugas, der Geist der Zeit so sprach, daß dieses Sprechen ein Herbeirufen der anthroposophischen Offenbarungen war. Man konnte heraufkommen sehen in lebendiger Art diese Anthroposophie wie ein Wesen, das geboren werden mußte, das aber wie in einem Mutterschoße ruhte in demjenigen, was aus den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten herein auf Erden die Schule von Chartres vorbereitet hatte und was dann seine Fortpflanzung gefunden hat im Übersinnlichen und im Zusammenwirken mit dem, was auf Erden fortwirkte in der aristotelisch gefärbten Verteidigung des Christentums.
Dann entstand ja aus jenen Impulsen heraus, die wir in dem Werke des Alanus von Lille «Contra Haereticos» finden, so etwas wie die «Summa fidei catholicae contra gentiles» des Thomas von Aguino. Und so entstand dann jener Zug der Zeit, den wir aus all den Bildern ersehen, wo die dominikanischen Kirchenlehrer mit Füßen treten auf Averroes, Avizenna und andere, womit die lebendige Verteidigung des spirituellen Christentums, aber zu gleicher Zeit der Übergang in das Intellektualistische gekennzeichnet ist.
Ich vermag nicht, meine lieben Freunde, in einer theoretisierenden Art etwas darzustellen, was eine Tatsachenwelt ist, denn durch jede theoretisierende Art würden die Dinge verblaßt, unintensiv gemacht. Tatsachen wollte ich vor Ihre Seele hinstellen, aus denen Sie empfinden sollen, worauf die Blicke fallen, wenn man hinschauen will auf diejenigen Seelen, die vor ihrem jetzigen irdischen Dasein ein geistiges Dasein zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt so durchgemacht hatten, daß sie auf der Erde die Sehnsucht bekamen nach Anthroposophie.
Es wirken die entgegengesetztesten Anschauungen zusammen in der Welt, um ein Ganzes zu geben. Und jetzt wirken diejenigen Seelen, welche im 12. Jahrhundert gearbeitet haben in der großen Schule von Chartres, und jene, die mit ihnen verbunden waren durch eine der größten Geistgemeinschaften, aber in der übersinnlichen Welt im Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts — die Geister von Chartres wirken jetzt mit denen zusammen, die mit ihnen verbunden dann den Aristotelismus gepflegt haben, gleichgültig ob die einen hier auf Erden wirken, die anderen noch nicht auf die Erde herunter können, ein neues spirituelles Zeitalter für die Erdenentwickelung intendierend. Jetzt gilt es ihnen, die Seelen zu sammeln, die seit lange mit ihnen verbunden sind, die Seelen zu sammeln, mit denen ein spirituelles Zeitalter begründet werden kann, um in verhältnismäßig kurzer Zeit auf irgendeine Weise innerhalb der sonst zugrunde gehenden Zivilisation die Möglichkeit herbeizuführen, daß zusammenwirken in Erdeninkarnationen die Geister von Chartres aus dem 12. Jahrhundert und die mit ihnen verbundenen Geister aus dem 13. Jahrhundert, damit sie im Erdendasein zusammenarbeiten können, zusammenwirken können, um die Spiritualität innerhalb der sonst in den Verfall, in den Untergang hineinsegelnden Zivilisation neu zu pflegen.
Absichten, die sozusagen gepflegt werden heute - nicht auf der Erde also, sondern zwischen Himmel und Erde, möchte ich sagen -, Absichten habe ich Ihnen damit charakterisieren wollen. Vertiefen Sie sich in das, was in diesen Absichten liegt, und Sie werden auf Ihre Seele wirksam haben den Hintergrund dessen, was im Vordergrunde haben muß das Zusammenströmen von Menschenseelen in der anthroposophischen Bewegung.
Sixth Lecture
I have mentioned the two external symptoms among the spiritual conditions of development which led to the anthroposophical movement and which are, so to speak, contained in the karma of the anthroposophical movement from the spiritual side: that which expresses itself in the emergence of catechetics, in the emergence of the catechism with its questions and answers, which led to a faith not directly linked to the spiritual world, and the exotericization of the Mass, which in its entirety, also with reference to transubstantiation and communion, became accessible to all people, including the unprepared, thus losing the character of the old mystery. In these two earthly events took place that which then, in the observation from the spiritual world, led to the preparation within the spiritual development in a quite definite way of that which was to become spiritual revelation at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century: the spiritual revelation, the revelation of the spiritual world. The spiritual revelation, as it is appropriate to the course of time, as it had to come after the Michael event, and as it had to come at the time when the old, dark epoch of the Kali Yuga expired and a new, light age was to dawn for humanity.
Today we have to add a third. And only when we have brought these three spiritual preconditions for every spiritual development in the present and in the future before our souls, these three spiritual conditions, which were suitable to bring together a number of people even before they descended into the physical world in the last third of the 19th century or around the turn of the 19th century, will we be able to realize that we are in the midst of a new spiritual development. Only when we have become acquainted with these preconditions will it be possible to comprehend individual extra-karmic events that have flowed into those lives that are bound together in the anthroposophical movement.
The special way of relating to nature and the way of relating to the spiritual, as it is already highly developed today, actually only comes from the time that began in the 14th and 15th centuries. Before that, mankind's relationship to the spiritual was essentially different. The spirit was not approached in concepts and ideas, but in experiences that still penetrated, albeit weakly and quietly, but still penetrated the spiritual.
When we speak of nature today, we have an insubstantial, dead abstraction. When we speak of the spirit, we have something indeterminate that we somehow presuppose in the world, that we encapsulate in abstract ideas and concepts. It was not so in the time when the souls who today come together with the longing for a spirituality had their authoritative previous incarnation and in this authoritative previous incarnation listened to what the discerning leaders of humanity had to tell them for the needs of their soul.
First of all that age comes into consideration which goes up to the 7th, 8th Christian century, where we still have a slight connection of the human soul with the spiritual world, an experience of the spiritual world itself, where also the cognizing people were in a living relationship with the spiritual world. And then we have the age that begins with the 7th, 8th century and lasts until the great turning point in the 14th and 15th centuries, where those human souls who, in the first Christian centuries on earth, still experienced the age I have described, were in the life between death and a new birth.
But even if there was no direct connection with the spiritual world from the 6th, 7th, 8th century onwards, I would like to say that a certain awareness of this connection still escaped into individual teaching places. People still spoke in individual schools in the same way as they had spoken in the field of knowledge in the first Christian centuries. And then it was probably possible for individual, select people to be interested in the way in which the The way in which people spoke about the spiritual world gave them inner impulses to break through into the spiritual world, at least at certain times. And there were, after all, individual places where people taught in such a way that it is no longer possible to imagine what this was like today.
In the 12th, 13th century this actually came to an end, and there it flowed, I would say, finally into an important poem in which it found an end for the human experience, in Dante's Commedia, in the “Divina Commedia”. There is a wonderful chapter of human development in that which lies before the creation of the Commedia, for the reason that the activities from here, from the earth, and the activities from the supernatural constantly interact. Both constantly flow together: because men on earth had somewhat lost the connection with the spiritual world, because the sight of the earthly evoked a particularly sorrowful mood in those men who lived above and had still experienced this connection here on earth. They saw what they themselves had still experienced on earth sinking down, and they inspired, spiritualized individualities in the sensual world from the supersensible world in order to still form a place of care here and there of that which is man's connection with spirituality.
Let us realize - as I indicated here years ago - how up to the 7th, 8th century, as an after-effect of the pre-Christian initiation, Christianity was received in places that were still present as high places of knowledge, as the stragglers of the Mysteries. There it was so that people were prepared, at first not through instruction, but through an education directed towards the spiritual in the physical and in the spiritual, for the moment when they could have a quiet look at the spirituality that can reveal itself in the human environment on earth. Then their gaze was directed outwards to the realms of the mineral, the vegetable, and everything that lives in the animal and human realms. And then they saw the spiritual-elemental beings that lived in all natural things sprouting up aurally and being fertilized again from the cosmos.
And then, above all, the “Goddess Natura” appeared to them - like a being that they addressed like another human being, only like a being of a higher kind. This was the goddess whom they saw before them, I cannot say in the flesh, but in the full splendor of her soul. They did not speak of abstract laws of nature, they spoke of the creative power of the goddess Natura everywhere in nature.
She was the metamorphosis of the ancient Proserpina. She was that creative goddess with whom, in a certain way, those who were to seek knowledge associated themselves, who appeared to them from every mineral, from every plant, from every animal, appeared from the clouds, appeared from the mountains, appeared from the springs. Of this goddess, who creates alternately in winter and summer above ground and underground, of this goddess they felt: she is the helper of the deity of whom the Gospels speak, she is the executive divine power.
And when such a man, striving for knowledge, was sufficiently instructed by this goddess about the mineral, vegetable and animal, when he was introduced to the living forces, then he learned through her the nature of the four elements: earth, water, air, fire. And he learned how these four elements - earth, water, air and fire - waved and wove within the mineral, animal and plant world. And he felt himself interwoven with his etheric body into the weaving of the earth with its heaviness, of water with its vitalizing power, of air with its power to awaken feelings, of fire with its power to ignite the ego. Man felt interwoven into this. He perceived this as the gift of the teaching of the goddess Natura, the successor, the metamorphosis of Proserpina. And the teachers saw to it that the pupils got an inkling of this living intercourse with God-filled, God-substantiated nature, penetrating through to the weaving and life of the elements.
Then, after the pupils had reached this stage, they were introduced to the planetary system. And they learned how the knowledge of the planetary system also resulted in the knowledge of the human soul: Learn to recognize how the changing stars waft in the sky, so you will learn to recognize how your own soul works and weaves and lives within you. This was placed before the students.
And then they were introduced to what was called the “Great Ocean”. But this ocean was the cosmic sea that led out from the planets, from the changing stars to the resting stars, to the fixed stars.
Then they penetrated into the secrets of the self by learning the secrets of the fixed star world.
It is forgotten today that there were such teachings. But such teachings were there. And such living knowledge was cultivated until the 7th, 8th century in the latecomers to the Mysteries. And as a teaching, as a theory, it continued to be cultivated until the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, of which I have spoken so often. And we can follow in individual places where such teachings were cultivated how these old teachings lived on, even if under the greatest possible difficulties, even if almost deadened to concepts and ideas, but nevertheless to such living concepts and ideas that they could still ignite a look up to all that I have spoken of in individual people.
There was in the 11th century, but especially in the 12th century, reaching over into the 13th century, an actually wonderful school in which there were teachers who knew perfectly well how in the preceding centuries the pupils were led to experience the spiritual. It was the great school of Chartres, in which all the views that had emerged from the spiritual vitality that I have described had flowed together.
In Chartres, where those wonderful architectural masterpieces can still be found today, there was above all a ray of the still living wisdom of Peter of Compostella, who worked in Spain, who cultivated a lively, mysterious Christianity in Spain, which still spoke of the helper of Christ, nature, which still spoke of the fact that only then, when this nature has introduced man to the elements, to the world of planets, to the world of stars, that only then will man become mature enough to get to know the seven helpers, again I cannot say in the flesh, but in the soul, helpers who did not come before the human soul in abstract theoretical chapters, but as living goddesses: Grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music. The students got to know them as divine-spiritual figures, alive.
Now, those who were around Peter of Compostella spoke of such living figures. The teachings of Peter of Compostella radiated into the school of Chartres. In this school of Chartres, for example, the great Bernardus of Chartres taught, who inspired his students by no longer being able to show them the goddess Natura or the goddesses of the seven liberal arts, but who spoke of them with such vividness that at least the imaginary images were conjured up before the students, that in every lesson science became a luminous art.
There taught Bernardus Silvestris, who brought to life before his students in powerful descriptions what was ancient wisdom. Above all, John of Chartres taught, who spoke of the human soul in an almost grandiose and inspired way; this John of Chartres, who was also called John Salisbury, developed views in which he dealt with Aristotle, with Aristotelianism. His particularly favored disciples were influenced in such a way that they gained an insight into the fact that there can no longer be such a teaching on earth as there was in the first Christian centuries, that earthly development can no longer bear it. It was made clear to the students that there is an old, almost clairvoyant knowledge, but it is fading away. We can only still know about dialectics, rhetoric, astronomy and astrology, we can no longer see the goddesses of the seven liberal arts, because Aristotle, who had already grown in antiquity to the concepts and ideas of the fifth post-Atlantean age, must continue to work.
And with an inspiring force, that which [was such a doctrine, that which] was taught in this way in the school of Chartres was also transplanted to the Cluniac order and was secularized in that which the abbot of the Cluniac order, Hildebrand, who then became pope as Gregory VII, decreed about the church; but with an extraordinary purity this doctrine continued to propagate itself in the school of Chartres, and the 12th century shone in these teachings. And there was one in particular who actually surpassed all others and who, I would say, taught the secrets of the seven liberal arts in their connection with Christianity in Chartres with an ideal inspiration: Alanus of Lille.
Alanus of Lille, he virtually inspired students in Chartres in the 12th century. He had a great insight into the fact that in the centuries to come the earth could no longer benefit from what was taught in such a way, because it was not just Platonism, it was the teaching of the Mystery View of the pre-Platonic period, except that this view had absorbed Christianity. And Alanus of Lille already taught those from whom he assumed understanding during his lifetime: Now an Aristotelian-colored knowledge must work for a while on earth, in sharp concepts and ideas. For this is the only way to prepare what must return in a later time as a spirituality.
It looks dry to some people today when they read the literature of that time, but it is not dry if you can gain an idea of what was before the souls of those who taught and worked in Chartres. This feeling of being connected with the living gods of the seven liberal arts also has a lively effect in the poetry that emanated from Chartres. And in the poem “La bataille des VII arts”, which is haunting for those who can understand it, we feel the spiritual breath of the seven liberal arts. All this was at work in the 12th century.
All this, you see, was still alive in the spiritual atmosphere at that time, all this was still asserting itself in a certain way. All of this still had many relatives with schools that still existed in northern Italy, in Italy in general, in Spain, but led a very sporadic life. But it continued to grow in a lively way in various parts of the world. And towards the end of the 12th century there was much of this at the University of Orleans, where strange teachings of this kind were cultivated, where there was much inspiration from the School of Chartres.
And then it happened one day that down there in Italy an envoy who had previously been in Spain, under a powerful historical impression, received something like a kind of sunstroke, and everything that he had received as preparation in his school became a powerful revelation in him under the influence of this quiet sunstroke: where he saw what man could see under the influence of the living principle of knowledge, where he saw the mighty rising mountain with all that lives out of minerals, plants and animals, where the goddess Natura appeared, where the elements appeared, where the planets appeared, where the goddesses of the seven liberal arts appeared, where Ovid then appeared as the leading teacher - where once again before a human soul stood that mighty thing which so often stood before human souls in the first centuries of Christianity. It was the vision of Branetto Latini, which then passed over to Dante and flowed from Dante's Commedia.
But another one arose for all those who had worked in Chartres when they passed through the gate of death and, having passed through the gate of death, entered the spiritual world. It was a significant spiritual life that Peter of Compostella, Bernardus of Chartres, Bernardus Silvestris, John of Chartres-Salisbury, Henri d'Andeli, who wrote the poem “La bataille des VII arts”, had led, but especially that of Alanus of Lille. In his own way, he wrote “Contra Haereticos” and thus turned against the heretics from the old view in the Christian sense, but precisely from the view of the spiritual world.
And now all these soul-individualities, which as the last still worked in the after-sounds of the old seen wisdom, the wisdom seen full of light, now they entered the spiritual world: that spiritual world, where just, preparing themselves for earth existence, were most important souls, which were soon to descend into earth existence to work in the sense, as then had to be worked to bring about the turning point, which occurred in the 14th, 15th century., 15th century.
There we have a spiritual existence, my dear friends: the last great ones of the School of Chartres had just arrived in the spiritual world. Those individuals who ushered in the heyday of scholasticism were still in the spiritual world. And one of the most important exchanges of ideas behind the scenes of human development took place at the beginning of the thirteenth century between those who were still carrying up the old, observant Platonism from the School of Chartres into the supersensible world, and those who were preparing to carry down Aristotelianism as the great transition for bringing about a new spirituality that was to flood into the development of humanity in the future.
There was agreement, in that these very individuals, who came from the school of Chartres, told those who were just preparing to descend into the sensual-physical world and to cultivate Aristotelianism in scholasticism as the right element of the age: For us, earthly activity is not possible at first, for the earth is not now such as to cultivate knowledge in this vitality. What we were still able to cultivate as the last bearers of Platonism must now be replaced by Aristotelianism. We remain up here. And so the spirits of Chartres remained in the supersensible world without having entered into significant incarnations on earth. But they played a powerful part in shaping that grandiose imagination that was created in the first half of the 19th century, of which I have spoken to you.
They worked in full harmony with those who first descended to earth with Aristotelianism. And in particular it was the Dominican Order, which contained individuals who, I would like to say, were in this kind of supernatural contract with the spirits of Chartres, who had made a kind of agreement with them: We descend to continue to cultivate knowledge in Aristotelianism. You stay above. We will also be able to stay in contact with you on earth. Platonism cannot thrive on earth at first. We will find you again when we return, and when the time is to be prepared in which, after the earth has gone through the scholastic development of Aristotelianism, spirituality can be developed again together with the spirits of Chartres.
It was of profound significance, for example, when Alanus of Lille - as he was called during his earthly existence - sent down from the spiritual world a pupil who was well instructed by him in the spiritual world, in order to let all the discrepancies that could exist between Platonism and Aristotelianism flow down to earth, but in such a way that a harmony could arise from the scholastic principle of that time. And so, especially in the 13th century, the work of those who were on earth in the Dominican habit, for example, and the work of those who had remained over there in the other world could flow together, since they could not initially find earthly bodies to develop their particular kind of spirituality, which could not come to Aristotelianism.
And in the 13th century there was a wonderful interaction between what happened on earth and what flowed in from above. Often the people who worked on earth were not even aware of this interaction, but those who worked above were all the more aware of it. It was a living interaction. One might say that the Mystery Principle had ascended into the heavens and let its rays of sunshine fall upon what was working on earth.
It went into detail, and can be traced in particular details. Alanus of Lille, in his own earthly development as a teacher at Chartres, could only go so far as to put on the garb of the Cistercians at a certain age and become a Cistercian priest. And it was in the Cistercian order that the last of the religious exercises of the time had taken refuge in order to awaken Platonism, the Platonic world view, together with Christianity.
The way in which he sent down a disciple is expressed in the fact that he sent this disciple to allow the task that was to pass over to Aristotelianism to continue through the Dominican Order. The transition that took place was expressed particularly externally by a strange symptom: That, I would say, supernatural disciple of Alanus ab Insulis, he first wore the Cistercian habit on earth, but later exchanged it for the Dominican habit.
There we have the individualities interacting in a supernatural-sensual way during the 13th century and somewhat into the 14th century: Authoritative later scholastics and their disciples, human souls long connected with each other, but these also connected in turn with the great spirits of the School of Chartres.
There we have, I would like to say, that great, mighty, world-historical plan, which was that those who could not descend to Aristotelianism on earth would preserve themselves in the spiritual world above in order to wait until the others could continue to cultivate on earth that in which they were so intimately connected with those who had remained behind, under the influence of sharp concepts and ideas derived from Aristotelianism. It was really like talking up and down from the spiritual world to the earthly, from the earthly to the spiritual world in this 13th century.
Only genuine Rosicrucianism could work into this spiritual atmosphere.
And then, when those who had descended to give the impulse of Aristotelianism had, so to speak, carried out their task on earth, they too were lifted up into the spiritual world, then they worked together in the spiritual world, I would say, between the Platonists and Aristotelians. And around them were now to be found those souls of whom I have spoken: the souls of the two groups I have mentioned.So that in a certain way we have flowing into the karma of the anthroposophical movement a wide-spread discipleship of Chartres and a living into this discipleship of all those souls who have just taken with them one or the other of the two currents of which I have spoken here in the last few days - a large circle, for many live in this circle who have not yet found their way to the anthroposophical movement today. But it is true that many experiences have prepared the ground for what is happening in the anthroposophical field today.
For example, something strange happened to the Cistercian order when Alanus ab Insulis, Alanus of Lille, donned the Cistercian habit and became a Cistercian priest with his Platonism. That basically, I would say, stuck to the Cistercian order. And I may say - for why should it not be possible to make small personal remarks in contexts such as those that must now be opened up here, which could not exactly flow into the “course of life” - I must say: The thing that taught me to recognize many a connection in this direction - other connections arose from quite different directions - was that I was actually unable to get away from the sight of the Cistercian Order in my life until my time in Weimar, and yet in a certain way I was continually kept away from the Cistercian Order. I grew up, so to speak, in the shadow of the Cistercian Order, which has important branches around Wiener Neustadt. Cistercian priests were the ones who educated most of the young people in the area where I grew up. I had the Cistercian habit in front of me all the time, the white cowl, the white habit with the black bandage, we call it a stole, around the middle. And if I had been prompted to talk about such things in my “course of life”, I would have said: Everything, everything in my childhood was actually predisposed not to go through the course of education that I went through, through the Wiener Neustädter Realschule, but through the Gymnasium. At that time, however, it was still a Cistercian grammar school. And the forces that attracted me and kept me away at the same time were strange.
And again, the whole circle of monks who taught theology at Vienna University, who were around Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, consisted of Cistercians. I had the most intimate theological conversations, the most intimate conversations about Christology with the Cistercians. I only want to mention this because, in a way, it colors the view of the 12th century, when the flowering of Chartres shone into the Cistercian order. For in the strange erudition of the Cistercians, which is so attractive, something of the magic of Chartres still lived on - albeit in a corrupted way. The most important things about the most diverse things were researched by Cistercians whom I knew well. And those things were the most important to me where I could say: It is indeed impossible that those who were pupils of Chartres, for instance, should have incarnated here; but it was evident from the very sight that some of the individualities connected with the school of Chartres - if I may so call it - incorporated themselves for short periods in such people as wore the Cistercian habit.
I would like to say, separated by a thin wall, that which was prepared in the supernatural in the way I have described, and which then led to the great preparation in the first half of the 19th century, continued to have an effect on earth. And the conversation I had with a Cistercian priest, not in the house but on leaving the house of delle Grazie, about the being of Christ, which I mentioned in my “Lebensgang”, was something very strange to me, which was actually not conducted from today's dogmatic-theological standpoint or from the standpoint of neo-scholasticism, but which was conducted with all the depth of what was once there, with Aristotelian conceptual contouring, but also with Platonic illumination.
What was to emerge in anthroposophy already shone, albeit in a mysterious way, through the events of the time; it shone, albeit not through the human soul bound up in one or another denominational or social current, but through that with which this human soul is connected to the great spiritual currents at work on earth. And one could already see how the spirit of the time spoke in some of the things that were at work in the most diverse areas in individual human beings, from the beginning of the Michael Age until the end of the Kali Yuga, in such a way that this speaking was a calling forth of the anthroposophical revelations. One could see this anthroposophy coming forth in a living way like a being that had to be born, but which rested as in a mother's womb in that which from the first Christian centuries had prepared the School of Chartres on earth and which then found its reproduction in the supersensible and in cooperation with that which continued to work on earth in the Aristotelian-colored defense of Christianity.
Then something like Thomas of Aguino's “Summa fidei catholicae contra gentiles” emerged from those impulses that we find in the work of Alanus of Lille “Contra Haereticos”. And thus arose that trait of the times which we see in all the pictures where the Dominican Doctors of the Church trample on Averroes, Avizenna and others, marking the lively defense of spiritual Christianity, but at the same time the transition to intellectualism.
I cannot, my dear friends, present in a theorizing manner what is a factual world, for by any theorizing manner things would be made pale, unintense. I wanted to place facts before your soul, from which you should feel what the eyes fall upon when one wants to look at those souls who, before their present earthly existence, had gone through a spiritual existence between death and a new birth in such a way that on earth they developed a longing for anthroposophy.
The most opposite views work together in the world to give a whole. And now those souls who worked in the great school of Chartres in the 12th century, and those who were connected with them through one of the greatest spiritual communities, but in the supersensible world at the beginning of the 13th century - the spirits of Chartres now work together with those who, connected with them, then cultivated Aristotelianism, no matter whether the one works here on earth, the other cannot yet come down to earth, intending a new spiritual age for earth development. Now it is up to them to gather the souls who have been connected with them for a long time, to gather the souls with whom a spiritual age can be established in order to bring about in a relatively short time, in some way within the otherwise perishing civilization, the possibility that the spirits of Chartres from the 12th century and the spirits connected with them from the 12th century will work together in earthly incarnations. Century and the spirits associated with them from the 13th century, so that they can work together in earthly existence, can work together to cultivate spirituality anew within the civilization that is otherwise sailing into decay, into decline.
Intentions that are being cultivated today, so to speak - not on earth, but between heaven and earth, I would like to say - intentions I wanted to characterize for you. Immerse yourself in what lies in these intentions and you will have the background of what must be the foreground of the confluence of human souls in the anthroposophical movement.