Karmic Relationships III
GA 237
4 August 1924, Dornach
X. The Michaelites: Their Karmic Impulse Towards the Spiritual Life — The Working of Ahriman into the Once Cosmic and Now Personal Intelligence
The fundamental feeling which I have wanted to call forth is this:—The individual who finds himself within the Anthroposophical Movement should begin to feel something of the peculiar karmic position which the impulse to Anthroposophy gives to a man. We cannot but confess that in the ordinary course of life man feels very little of his karma. He confronts his life as though the things that become his life's experience happened by fortuitous concatenations of circumstance. He pays little heed to the fact that the things that meet him in earthly life from birth till death contain the inner, karmic relationships of destiny. Or, if he does not consider this, he is all too prone to believe that a kind of fatalism is herein expressed,—and that human freedom is thereby called into question, and the like.
I have often said that the more intensely we penetrate the karmic connections, the more do we see the true essence of freedom. We need not therefore fear that by entering into the karmic relationships more accurately we shall lose our open and unimpaired vision of the essence of human freedom. I have described the matters connected with the former earthly lives of those who come into the Michael community, and with their lives between death and a new birth. You will have seen that with all such human beings, that is to say, in the last resort, with all of you—it is of the greatest importance, that the Spiritual plays a deep and significant part in the whole inner configuration of the soul.
In our materialistic age with all its conditions of life, of education and upbringing, a man can only come sincerely to a thing like Anthroposophy (otherwise his coming to it is insincere)—he can only come to it sincerely through the fact that he bears within him a karmic impulse impelling him towards the Spiritual. In this karmic impulse are summed up all those experiences which he underwent in the way I have described before he came down into the present earthly life.
Now, my dear friends, when a man is thus strongly united with spiritual impulses which work immediately upon his soul, he will as he descends from the spiritual into the physical worlds, enter less deeply, unite himself less strongly with the external, bodily nature. All those who have grown into the Michael stream as above described, were thus predestined to enter into this physical body with a certain reservation, if I may put it so. This too lies deep in the karma of the souls of anthroposophists.
In those, on the other hand, who out of an inner impulse quite consciously and anxiously hold themselves at a distance from things anthroposophical, we shall always find that they are fully and firmly established in the physical bodily nature. In the men of today who turn to that spiritual life which Anthroposophy would give, we find a looser relationship at any rate of the astral body and Ego-organisation with the physical and etheric organisation.
Now this means that such a man will less easily come to terms with his life. He will find life less easy to deal with, for the simple reason that he has more possibilities to choose from than other men. And he easily grows out of the very things that other men easily grow into. Think only, my dear friends, to what an intense degree many a human being of today is what the connections of outer life have made of him. No one can doubt that he fits into these connections, however questionable the thing may sometimes be in other respects. We see him as a clerk, a City man, a Builder, a Contractor, a Captain of industry and so forth. He is what he is as an absolute matter of course. There is no question about it. True, such a man will sometimes say he feels he was born for a better, or at any rate a different kind of life; but such a saying is not taken so very seriously. And now compare the infinite difficulties we find in those who are drawn by an inner impulse into the spiritual life of Anthroposophy. Perhaps we see it nowhere with such remarkable intensity as in the youth, and notably the youngest of the youth.
Take for instance the older pupils of the Waldorf School, those in the top classes of the school. We find, both in our boy and girl pupils, that they progress comparatively quickly in their development of soul and mind and spirit. But this does not make life any easier to take hold of for the young people. On the contrary, it generally becomes more difficult—being, as it is, more complicated. The possibilities become wider and more far-reaching. In the ordinary course of modern life, (certain exceptions being omitted) it is not overwhelmingly difficult for those who stand as teachers or educators beside the growing adolescent, to find the ways and means of giving sound advice. But when we bring our children on as we do in the Waldorf School, it becomes far more difficult to give advice, for the simple reason that the universal humanity is more developed in them. The wide horizon which the boy or girl acquires in the Waldorf School, places before their inner vision a greater number of possibilities.
Hence it is so necessary for Waldorf teachers—who again have been guided to this calling by their karma—to acquire a wide horizon and a broad outlook, a knowledge of the world and a sound feeling of what is going on in the world. At this point all the detailed educational principles and methods are far less important than wideness of outlook. Here again, in the karma of such a teacher, we see how large the number of possibilities becomes; far, far greater than in ordinary life. The child or adolescent confronts the Waldorf teacher, once again, not with definite and defined, but with manifold riddles,—differentiated in all conceivable directions.
The real karmic conditions and pre-disposing causes of all that impels a man to Anthroposophy will best be understood if we speak not in pedantic outline and definition, but rather hint at the things in one way or another, characterising more the atmosphere in which, if I may put it so, anthroposophists unfold their lives.
All this makes it necessary for the anthroposophist to pay heed to one condition of his karma—a condition that is sure to be present in him to a high degree. Much can be said,—and we shall still have to say many things—about the reasons why one or another character or temperament is drawn to Anthroposophy after the events of the spiritual world which I have described. But all these impulses, which bring the single anthroposophists to Anthroposophy, have as it were one counterpart, which the Spirit of the World has made more strong in them than in other men. All the many possibilities that are there with respect to the most manifold things in life, demand from the anthroposophist initiative—inner initiative of soul. We must become aware of this. For the anthroposophist this proverb must hold good. He must say to himself: “Now that I have become an anthroposophist through my karma, the impulses which have been able to draw me to Anthroposophy require me to be attentive and alert. For somehow or somewhere, more or less deeply in my soul, there will emerge the necessity for me to find inner initiative in life,—initiative of soul which will enable me to undertake something or to make some judgment or decision out of my own inmost being.” Verily, this is written in the karma of every single anthroposophist: “Be a man of initiative, and beware lest through hindrances of your own body, or hindrances that otherwise come in your way, you do not find the centre of your being, where is the source of your initiative. Observe that in your life all joy and sorrow, all happiness and pain will depend on the finding or not finding of your own individual initiative.” This should stand written as though in golden letters, constantly before the soul of the anthroposophist. Initiative lies in his karma, and much of what meets him in this life will depend on the extent to which he can become willingly, actively conscious of it.
You must realise that very, very much has been said in these few words. For in our time there is extraordinarily much that can lead one astray with respect to all that guides and directs one's judgment; and without clear judgment on the conditions of life, initiative will not find its way forth from the deep foundations of the soul. Now what is it that can bring us to clear judgment on the things of life, especially in this our age? My dear friends, let us here consider one of the most important and characteristic features of our time. Let us then answer the question: How can we come to a certain clarity of judgment in face of it?
You will see presently that in what I am now going to tell you we have a kind of “egg of Columbus.” With the egg of Columbus the point was to have the happy idea—how to set it up so that it would stand. In what I shall now tell you the point will also be to have the happy idea.
We live in the age of materialism. All that is taking place, by forces of destiny around us and within us, stands in the sign of materialism on the one hand, and of the intellectualism that is already so widespread, on the other. I characterised this intellectualism yesterday when I spoke of journalism and of the impulse everywhere to expatiate on the affairs of the world in public meetings, mass meetings and the like. We must become aware, to what an extent the man of today is subject to the influences of these two currents of the time. For it is almost as impossible to escape from these two, from intellectualism and materialism, as it is to avoid getting wet if you go out in the rain without an umbrella. These things are around us everywhere. After all, there are certain things we simply cannot know (and yet we have to know),—which we cannot know unless we read them in the papers. There are certain things we cannot learn (and we have to learn them) unless we learn them in the sense of materialism. How is one to become a doctor today, unless he is willing to consume a goodly portion of materialism? He can do no other than take the materialism too. He must do so as a matter of course, and if he is unwilling to do so he cannot become a proper doctor in the sense of the present age. Thus we are perpetually exposed to these things. This surely enters very strongly indeed into our karma.
Now all these things are as though created purposely to undermine initiative in the souls of men. Every public meeting, every mass meeting to which we go, only fulfils its purpose as such, if the initiative of the individual human being, with the exception of the speakers and leaders, is undermined. Nor does any newspaper fulfil its purpose if it does not create an atmosphere of opinion, thus undermining the individual's initiative.
These things must be seen. Moreover, we must remember that this ordinary consciousness of man is a very tiny chamber in the soul, while all that is going on around him, in the forms which I have just described, has a gigantic influence on his sub-conscious life. And after all, we have no alternative. Beside the fact that we are human beings pure and simple, we must be “contemporaries” of our age. Some people think it is possible in a given age to be a human being pure and simple, but this too would lead to our downfall. We must also be men and women of our age. Of course it is bad if we are no more than this; but we must be contemporaries of our age, that is to say, we must have a feeling of what is going on in our own time.
Now it is true that many anthroposophists let their minds be carried away from a living feeling of what is present in their time. For they prefer to paddle in the Timeless. In this respect one has the strangest experiences in conversation with anthroposophists. They are very well aware, for instance, who Lycurgus was, but their ignorance of their contemporaries, every now and then, is simply touching.
This too is due to the fact that such a man is pre-disposed to the unfolding of inner initiative. His karma having placed him in the world with this quality, he is always in the position (forgive the comparison) of a bee that has a sting but is afraid to use it at the right moment. The sting is the initiative, but the man is afraid to use it. He is afraid, above all, of stinging into the Ahrimanic realm. Not that he fears that he will thereby hurt the Ahrimanic. No, he is afraid that the sting will recoil into his own body. This, to some extent, is what his fear is like. Thus through an undetermined fear of life the initiative remains inactive.
These are the things which we must see through. On all hands, theoretically and practically, we meet with the materialism of our time. It is powerful, and we let our initiative be put off by it. If an anthroposophist has a sense for these things, he will perceive how he is being confused, put off, thrown back on every hand by materialism theoretical and practical, even in the deepest impulses of his will. Now this gives a peculiar form to his karma. If you will observe yourselves truly, you will discover it in your lives day by day, from morning until evening. And out of all this there naturally arises as a prevalent feeling of life: How shall I prove, theoretically and practically, the falsehood of materialism? This impulse lives in the hearts and minds of many anthroposophists. Somehow or other they want to convict materialism of falsehood. It is the riddle of life, the riddle that life has set so many of us in theory and practice: How shall we contrive to prove the falsehood of materialism?
Here is one who has been through the schools and has become a learned man. You will find many an example in the Anthroposophical Society. Now he is awakened to be an anthroposophist. He feels a tremendous impulse to refute materialism, to fight it, to say all manner of things against it. So he begins to attack and refute materialism, and maybe he thinks that in this very act he stands most thoroughly within the stream of Michael. But as a rule he meets with little success, and we cannot but admit: these things that are said against materialism, though they often proceed from a thoroughly good will, do not succeed. They make no impression upon the materialist in theory or practice. Why not?
This is the very thing that hinders our clarity of judgment. Here stands the anthroposophist. In order not to be hampered in his initiative, he wants to be clear what it is that confronts him in materialism. He wants to probe the wrongness of materialism to its foundations. But as a rule he finds little success. He thinks he is refuting materialism, but it is ever on its legs again. Why is this so?
Now comes what I have called the egg of Columbus. Why is it so, my dear friends? It is due to the simple fact that materialism is true. I have said this many times. Materialism is not wrong, it is quite right. Here lies the reason. And the anthroposophist should learn in a very special way the lesson that materialism is right. He should learn it in this way:—Materialism is right, but it holds good of the outer physical body only. The others, who are materialists, know the physical only,—or at least they think they know it. Here lies the error, not in the materialism itself. When we learn anatomy or physiology or practical outer life in the materialistic way we learn the truth, but it holds good in the physical alone. This confession must be made out of the inmost depths of our human being. I mean, the confession that materialism is right in its own domain—nay more, that it is the splendid achievement of our age to have discovered what is right and true in the domain of materialism. But the thing also has its practical, its karmically practical aspect.
This is what will happen in the karma of many an anthroposophist. He will come to have the feeling: Here am I living with human beings with whom indeed karma has united me. (I spoke of this yesterday). Here am I living with human beings who know materialism only. They only know what is true of the physical life, and they cannot approach Anthroposophy because they are put off by the very correctness of the knowledge that they have.
Now, my dear friends, we live in the age of Michael, and in our souls is the Intellectuality that fell from Michael. When Michael himself administered the Cosmic Intelligence, these things were different. From the materialism of that time, the Cosmic Intelligence was ever and again tearing his soul away. There were of course materialists even in former ages, but not as in our age. In former ages a man might be a materialist. Then with his Ego and astral body he was implanted in his physical and etheric body. He felt his physical body. But the Cosmic Intelligence, that Michael administered, tore his soul away from it ever and again. Today we are side by side—indeed we are often karmically united—with men in whom it is as follows. They too have the physical body; but the Cosmic Intelligence has fallen away from Michael and is living individually,—personally, as it were,—in the human being. Hence the Ego—all that is soul and spirit—remains in the physical body. Thus there are standing, side by side with us, men whose soul and spirit has dived deep down into their physical body.
When we stand side by side with non-spiritual human beings, we must see these things according to the truth. Our standing beside them must not merely call forth in us sympathy or antipathy in the ordinary sense. It must be an experience that moves our soul deeply, and it can indeed be a shattering experience, my dear friends.
To realise how tragic, how deeply moving an experience it must be, to stand thus side by side with materialists (who, as I said before, are right in their own way) we need only look at those among them who are often highly gifted and who out of certain instincts may have very good impulses indeed; yet they cannot come to spirituality. We see the tragedy of it when we come to consider the great gifts and noble qualities of many of those who are materialists. For after all, there can be no question but that they who in this time of great decisions do not find their way to the Spirit, will suffer harm in their soul-life for the next incarnation. Great as their qualities may be, they will suffer harm. And when we see how through their karma a number of human beings today have the inner impulse to spirituality while others cannot come near to it,—when we behold this contrast—our karmic living-together with such as I have here described should find a deep response within our souls. It should touch us and move us with a sense of tragedy. Until it does so, we shall never come to terms with our own karma. For if we sum up all that I have said of Michaelism, (if I may now so call it) then we shall find: the Michaelites are indeed taken hold of in their souls by a power that is seeking to work from the Spiritual into the full human being, even down into the Physical. I described it yesterday as follows. I said: these human beings will put aside the element of race,—the element which, from natural foundations of existence, gives the human being such or such a stamp. If a man is taken hold of by the Spirit in this earthly incarnation inasmuch as he now becomes an anthroposophist he is thereby prepared in future to become a man no longer distinguished by such external features but distinguished rather by what he was in the present incarnation. Let us be conscious of this in all humility: The time will come when in these human beings the Spirit will reveal its own power to form the physiognomy,—to shape the whole form of man.
Such a thing has never yet been revealed in the history of the world. Hitherto the physiognomies of men have been formed on the basis of their nationality, out of the Physical. Today we can still tell by the physiognomy of men, where they hail from,—especially when they are young, when the cares of life or the joys and divine enthusiasms of life have not yet left their mark. But in the time to come there will be human beings by whose physiognomy and features alone one will be able to tell what they were in their past incarnation. One will know that in their past incarnation they penetrated to the things of the Spirit. Then will the others stand beside them, and what will their karma then signify? It will have cast aside the ordinary karmic affinities.
My dear friends, in this respect he above all who knows how to take life in real earnest will tell you: One has been karmically united, or is still karmically united, with many who cannot find their way into this spirituality. And however many a kinship may still be left in life, one feels a more or less deep estrangement, a justified estrangement. The karmic connection, as it would work itself out in ordinary life, falls away; it goes. But it remains for something different. I would put it in this way:—From the one who stands outside in the field of materialism to the one who stands in the field of spirituality, nothing else will remain of karma; but this one thing will remain, that he must see him. He will become attentive to him. We can look to a time in the future, when those who in the course of the 20th century are coming ever more into the things of the Spirit, will stand side by side with others who were karmically united with them in the former life on earth. In that future time the karmic affinities, the karmic relationships, will make themselves felt far less. But of all the karmic relationships this will have remained: Those who are standing in the field of materialism will have to see and witness those who stand in the field of spirituality. Those who were materialists today will in the future have to look continually upon those who came to the things of the Spirit. This will have been left of karma.
Once again a shattering, a deeply moving act, my dear friends. And to what end? Truly it lies in a far-reaching Divine cosmic plan. For how will the materialists of today let anything be proved to them? By having it before their eyes—by being able to touch it with their hands. Those who stand in the field of materialism will be able to see with their eyes and touch with their hands those with whom they once were karmically united, perceiving in their physiognomy, in their whole expression, what the Spirit really is, for it will have become creative in outer form and feature. In such human beings it will thus be proved, visibly for the eyes of man, what the Spirit is as a creative power in the world. And it will be part of the karma of anthroposophists to demonstrate, for those who stand in the field of materialism today, that the Spirit truly is, and proves itself in man himself, through the wise councils of the Gods.
But to come to this, it is necessary for us to confront intellectualism, not in a vague and nebulous and ill-advised way, but truly. We must not go out, my dear friends, without an umbrella. I mean, we are exposed to all that I described above as the two streams—all the writing in the papers, all the talking in public meetings. As we cannot escape becoming wet if we go out without umbrellas, so these things too come over us, we cannot escape them. In the tenderest age of childhood,—when we are twenty to twenty-four years old—we have to pursue our studies (whatever they may be) through materialistic books. Yes, in this tender age of childhood—the age of twenty to twenty-four—they take good care to saturate and well prepare our inner life. For, as we study what is there put before us, we are trained in materialism by the very structure and configuration of the sentences. We are utterly defenseless. There is no help for it.
Such a thing cannot be countered by merely formal arguments. We cannot keep a man of today from being exposed to intellectual materialism. To write non-materialistic text-books on botany or anatomy today, simply would not do. The connections of life will not permit of it. The point is, my dear friends, that we should take hold of these things in no merely formal sense but in their reality. We must understand that since Michael no longer draws out the soul-and-spirit from the physical bodily nature as in times past, Ahriman can play his game with the soul-and-spirit as it lives within the body. Above all when the soul-spiritual is highly gifted and is yet firmly fastened in the body, then especially it can be exposed to Ahriman. Precisely in the most gifted of men does Ahriman find his prey,—so as to tear the Intelligence from Michael, remove it far from Michael. At this point something happens which plays a far greater part in our time than is generally thought. The Ahrimanic spirits, though they cannot incarnate, can incorporate themselves; temporarily they can penetrate human souls, permeate human bodies. In such moments the brilliant and overpowering spirit of an Ahrimanic Intelligence is stronger than anything that the individual being possesses,—far, far stronger. Then, however intelligent he may be, however much he may have learned, and especially if his physical body is thoroughly taken hold of by all his learning, an Ahrimanic spirit can for a time incorporate itself in him. Then it is Ahriman who looks out of his eyes, Ahriman who moves his fingers, Ahriman who blows his nose, Ahriman who walks.
Anthroposophists must not recoil from knowledge such as this. For such a thing alone can bring the realities of intellectualism before our souls. Ahriman is a great and outstanding Intelligence, and Ahriman's purpose with earthly evolution is overwhelming and thorough. He makes use of every opportunity. If the Spiritual has implanted itself so strongly in the bodily nature of a human being,—if the bodily nature is taken hold of by the Spirit to such an extent that the consciousness is thereby in a measure stunned or lowered or impaired,—Ahriman uses his opportunity. And then it happens (for in our age this has become possible) then it happens that a brilliant spirit takes possession of the human being, overpowering the human personality; and such a spirit, dwelling within a human personality and overpowering him, is able to work upon earth—able to work just like a human being.
This is the immediate striving of Ahriman, and it is strong. I have told you, my dear friends, of what will be fulfilled at the end of this century, with those who now come to the things of the Spirit and take them in full earnestness and sincerity. This is the time above all, which the Ahrimanic spirits wish to use most strongly. This is the time they want to use, because human beings are so completely wrapped up in the Intelligence that has come over them. They have become so unbelievably clever. Why, we are quite nervous today about the cleverness of the people we shall meet! We can scarcely ever escape from this anxiety, for nearly all of them are clever. Really we cannot escape from this anxiety about the cleverness of men. But of a truth the cleverness which is thus cultivated is used by Ahriman. And when moreover the bodies are especially adapted to a possible lowering or diminution of consciousness, it may happen that Ahriman himself emerges, incorporated in human form. Twice already it can be demonstrated that Ahriman has thus appeared as an author. And for those who desire as anthroposophists to have a clear and true vision of life, it will be a question of making no mistakes, even in such a case.
For what is the use of it, my dear friends, if someone finds a book somewhere and writes his name on it and he is not the author? The true author is confused with another. And if Ahriman is the author of a book, how can it be of any benefit if we do not perceive who is the true author, but hold a human being to be the author? For Ahriman by his brilliant gifts can find his way into everything—he can slip into the very style of a man. He has a way of approach to all things. What good can come of it if Ahriman is the real author, and we mistake it for a human work? To acquire the power of discrimination in this sphere too, is absolutely necessary, my dear friends.
I wanted to lead up to this point, describing thus in general a phenomenon which is also playing its part in our present age. In next Friday's lecture I shall have to speak of such phenomena in greater detail.

Zehnter Vortrag
Was als Empfindung hervorgerufen werden sollte, das ist, daß der einzelne innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung Befindliche etwas verspürt von der eigentümlichen karmischen Stellung, welche gerade der Drang zur anthroposophischen Sache dem Menschen gibt. Wir müssen uns ja gestehen, daß im gewöhnlichen Lebenszusammenhange der Mensch wenig von seinem Karma verspürt, und daß er sich dem Leben so gegenüberstellt, als wenn eben aus zufälligen Verkettungen heraus die Dinge geschehen würden, die zu Erlebnissen für ihn werden. Daß in dem, was uns im Erdenleben begegnet von der Geburt bis zum Tode, eben der schicksalsgemäß-karmische Zusammenhang ist, das wird wenig beachtet. Und wenn es beachtet wird, dann glaubt man alsogleich, es drücke sich darinnen irgend etwas Fatalistisches aus, es drücke sich etwas aus, was die menschliche Freiheit in Frage stelle und dergleichen.
Ich habe öfter davon gesprochen, daß gerade das intensive Durchschauen der karmischen Zusammenhänge das Wesen der Freiheit erst ins rechte Licht stellt. Und so brauchen wir auch nicht, wenn wir genauer die karmischen Zusammenhänge ins Auge fassen, zu fürchten, daß uns dadurch ein unbefangener Einblick in das Freiheitswesen des Menschen verlorengehen könne. Ich habe Ihnen die Dinge geschildert, welche sowohl mit früheren Erdenleben derjenigen, die in die MichaelGemeinschaft hereinkommen, zusammenhängen wie auch mit dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Sie sehen daraus, daß es bei solchen Menschen, also im Grunde genommen bei Ihnen allen, karmisch darauf ankommt, daß das Geistige eine große, eine bedeutungsvolle Rolle spielt in dem ganzen inneren Gefüge der Seele.
In unserer heutigen materialistischen Zeit kann ja eigentlich aus allen Erziehungs- und Lebensverhältnissen heraus ein Mensch zu so etwas wie zur Anthroposophie ehrlich nur dadurch kommen - sonst ist eben sein Kommen unehrlich —, daß er einen karmischen Impuls in sich hat, der ihn zum Geistigen treibt. Dieser karmische Impuls ist die Zusammenfassung alles dessen, was in der Weise durchgemacht worden ist vor dem Herabstieg in dieses Erdenleben, wie ich es geschildert habe.
Das aber, daß der Mensch so stark verbunden ist mit geistigen Impulsen, die direkt auf seine Seele wirken, das bringt ihn dazu, in einer weniger intensiven Art, als dies bei anderen Menschen der Fall ist, beim Herabsteigen aus den geistigen in die physischen Welten sich hineinzufügen in die äußere Körperlichkeit. Man möchte sagen: Allen denen, die in der geschilderten Weise in die Michael-Strömung sich hineinlebten, war es vorgesetzt, mit einer gewissen Reserve in den physischen Leib hineinzugehen. Und das liegt durchaus auf dem Grunde des Karma der Anthroposophenseelen.
Bei denjenigen, die heute aus einem inneren Drange sich ganz bewußt und ängstlich fernhalten von dem Anthroposophischen, bei denen findet man überall ein volles Festsitzen in der physischen Körperlichkeit. Bei denen, die sich heute zu jenem geistigen Leben hinwenden, das die Anthroposophie geben will, findet man ein loseres Verhältnis wenigstens des Astralleibes und der Ich-Organisation gegenüber der physischen und der Ätherorganisation.
Das aber bedingt, daß der Mensch dann weniger leicht mit dem Leben fertig wird, einfach deshalb, weil er zwischen mehr Möglichkeiten zu wählen hat als andere, weil er leicht herauswächst aus dem, in das andere hineinwachsen. Bedenken Sie nur, wie stark mancher Mensch heute dasjenige ist, was er durch die äußeren Lebenszusammenhänge geworden ist, und es ist so, daß eigentlich, man möchte sagen, trotzdem es manchmal in einer merkwürdigen Weise der Fall ist, gar kein Zweifel aufkommen kann, daß er hineinpaßt in die Zusammenhänge. Man sieht einen Beamten, einen Kommerzienrat, einen Bauführer, einen Fabrikanten und so weiter: sie sind das, was sie sind, mit absoluter Selbstverständlichkeit. Gewiß, auch unter ihnen kommt es vor, daß sie sagen: Es scheint, als ob ich zu was Besserem geboren wäre oder wenigstens zu etwas anderem -; aber es ist dann nicht so ernst gemeint. Vergleichen Sie damit die unendlichen Schwierigkeiten, die da vorliegen bei denjenigen, die durch ihren inneren Drang in die Spiritualität der Anthroposophie hereingetrieben werden. Vielleicht bei nichts anderem zeigt sich das so eklatant, so merkwürdig intensiv wie gerade bei der Jugend, und zwar bei der jüngsten Jugend.
Sehen Sie, wenn man namentlich die älteren Waldorfschüler nimmt, diejenigen, die in den höheren Klassen der Waldorfschule sind, so findet man sowohl bei männlichen wie bei weiblichen Schülern, daß sie in ihrem geistig-seelischen Entwickelungswege verhältnismäßig rasch fortschreiten, daß es aber dadurch selbst schon diesen jungen Leuten nicht leichter, sondern vielfach schwerer, weil komplizierter, wird, das Leben innerlich zu ergreifen. Die Möglichkeiten werden weitere, die Möglichkeiten werden größere. Und während es sonst im gewöhnlichen Gange des heutigen Lebens keine allzu große Aufgabe ist — gewisse Ausnahmen abgerechnet — für diejenigen, die als Erzieher, als Lehrer der aufwachsenden Jugend zur Seite stehen, Mittel und Wege zu finden, um in richtiger Weise zu raten, wird das Raten gerade dann schwerer, wenn man so wie in der Waldorfschule die Kinder vorwärtsbringt, weil das Allgemein-Menschliche mehr hervortritt, weil die Weite des Gesichtskreises, die angeeignet wird, eben eine größere Summe von Möglichkeiten vor das Seelenauge stellt.
Daher ist es ja für Waldorflehrer, nachdem sie durch ihr Karma zu diesem Berufe geführt wurden, so notwendig, ihrerseits Weite des Gesichtskreises, Welterkenntnis, Weltempfinden, Weite des Blickes sich anzueignen. Alle pädagogischen Maßregeln in den Details sind ja viel weniger wichtig an dieser Stelle als eben die Weite des Blickes. Und man kann schon sagen: An so etwas wie dem Karma eines solchen Lehrers zeigt es sich auch wiederum, wie die Summe der Möglichkeiten eine große wird, eine viel größere wird als sonst. Solch ein junger Mensch oder ein Kind gibt nicht bestimmte, sondern mannigfaltige, nach allen Seiten hin differenzierte Rätsel dem Lehrer auf. Für alles das, was da eigentlich vorliegt an karmischen Vorbedingungen, die zur Anthroposophie hindrängen, kann man am besten ein Verständnis hervorrufen, wenn man nicht pedantisch konturiert spricht, sondern wenn man solche Dinge mehr andeutet und mehr die Atmosphäre charakterisiert, in der Anthroposophen sich ausleben und sich entwickeln.
Das alles aber macht notwendig, daß der Anthroposoph eine Vorbedingung beachtet, eine besonders bei ihm stark entwickelte Vorbedingung seines Karma. Man kann das Verschiedenste angeben, und wir werden noch Mannigfaltiges angeben über die Gründe, warum der eine oder der andere Charakter, das eine oder das andere Temperament aus denjenigen Ereignissen der geistigen Welt heraus, die ich angeführt habe, zur Anthroposophie getrieben wird; aber alle diese Triebe, die da die einzelnen Anthroposophen zur Anthroposophie treiben, haben etwas wie ein Gegenbild, das stärker gemalt ist vom Weltengeiste, als es bei anderen Menschen der Fall ist.
Es erfordert alles das, was da als viele Möglichkeiten in bezug auf die mannigfaltigsten Lebensdinge da ist, von den Anthroposophen Initiative, innere Initiative des seelischen Lebens. Und bekanntmachen muß man sich damit, daß für den Anthroposophen etwa der folgende Satz gilt, daß der Anthroposoph sich sagen muß: Bin ich nun einmal durch mein Karma Anthroposoph geworden, so verlangt dasjenige, was mich hat treiben können zur Anthroposophie, daß ich achtgebe, wie in meiner Seele - irgendwie mehr oder weniger tief — die Notwendigkeit erscheint, im Leben Seeleninitiative zu finden, aus dem Innersten des eigenen Wesens heraus etwas beginnen zu können, etwas beurteilen zu können, etwas entscheiden zu können. |
Das ist im Karma eines jeden Anthroposophen eigentlich geschrieben: Werde ein Mensch mit Initiative, und siehe nach, wenn du aus Hindernissen deines Körpers oder aus Hindernissen, die sich dir sonst entgegenstellen, den Mittelpunkt deines Wesens mit der Initiative nicht findest, wie im Grunde genommen Leiden und Freuden bei dir von diesem Finden oder Nichtfinden der persönlichen Initiative abhängen! — Das ist etwas, was wie mit goldenen Buchstaben immer vor der Seele des Anthroposophen stehen sollte, daß er Initiative in seinem Karma liegend hat, und daß vieles von dem, was ihm im Leben begegnet, davon abhängt, inwieferne er sich dieser Initiative willentlich bewußt werden kann.
Bedenken Sie, daß damit eigentlich außerordentlich viel gesagt ist; denn zugleich ist ja in der Gegenwart außerordentlich viel Beirrendes in bezug auf alles das, was das Urteilen lenken und leiten kann. Und ohne ein klares Urteilen über die Verhältnisse des Lebens windet sich die Initiative nicht aus den Untergründen der Seele heraus. Aber was bringt uns denn zu einem klaren Urteilen über das Leben, gerade in der Gegenwart?
Nun, meine lieben Freunde, wollen wir einmal einen der wichtigsten Charakterzüge unserer Zeit ins Auge fassen, und wollen wir uns einmal die Frage beantworten, wie wir gegenüber einem der wichtigsten Charakterzüge unseres gegenwärtigen Lebens zu einer gewissen Klarheit kommen können. Sie werden sehen: bei dem, was ich jetzt sagen werde, handelt es sich um so etwas wie das Ei des Kolumbus. Aber beim Ei des Kolumbus handelt es sich darum, daß einem einfällt, wie man es aufstellt, damit es stehen bleibt, und auch bei dem, was ich jetzt besprechen werde, wird es sich darum handeln, daß einem die Sache einfällt.
Wir leben in der Zeit des Materialismus. Dasjenige, was schicksalsmäßig sich um uns, in uns abspielt, steht ja alles im Zeichen dieses Materialismus auf der einen Seite und des zunächst überallhin verstreuten Intellektualismus auf der anderen Seite. Ich habe diesen Intellektualismus gestern charakterisiert an dem Journalismus und an dem Drang, überall in Volksversammlungen die Angelegenheiten der Welt zu entwickeln. Man muß sich bewußt werden, wie stark heute unter dem Einflusse dieser beiden Zeitenströmungen der Mensch steht. Denn es ist fast so unmöglich, sich diesen Zeitströmungen des Intellektualismus und des Materialismus zu entziehen, wie es unmöglich ist, ohne Regenschirm, wenn es regnet, nicht naß zu werden. Es ist eben überall um uns herum da.
Denken Sie doch nur einmal: Wir können doch einfach gewisse Dinge nicht wissen, die wir wissen sollen, wenn wir sie nicht in der Zeitung lesen; wir können gewisse Dinge nicht lernen, die wir lernen sollen, wenn wir sie nicht im Sinne des Materialismus lernen. Wie soll heute einer Arzt werden, wenn er nicht den Materialismus dabei «verzehren» will! Er kann ja nicht anders, als den Materialismus mitnehmen; er muß es selbstverständlich tun. Und wenn er eben nicht den Materialismus mitnehmen will, so kann er im Sinne der heutigen Zeit nicht ein wirklicher Arzt werden. Also wir sind ja dem fortwährend ausgesetzt. Das aber spielt doch in das Karma ungewöhnlich stark herein.
Aber das alles ist ja wie dazu geschaffen, Initiative in den Seelen zu untergraben! Jede Volksversammlung, in die man geht, sie hat ja als Volksversammlung nur einen Zweck, die Initiative der einzelnen Menschen, mit Ausnahme derjenigen, die da reden und Führer sind, zu untergraben. Jede Zeitung kann ihre Aufgabe nur erfüllen, wenn sie «Stimmung» macht, wenn sie also die Initiative des einzelnen untergräbt.
Auf diese Dinge muß hingesehen werden, und man muß sich bewußt werden, daß ja im Grunde das, was der Mensch als sein gewöhnliches Bewußtsein hat, ein sehr kleines Kämmerchen ist. Alles, was in der Weise, wie ich es eben geschildert habe, um den Menschen herum vorgeht, hat auf das Unterbewußte einen riesigen Einfluß. Und schließlich, es bleibt uns nichts anderes übrig als, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, außer dem, daß wir Menschen sind, auch Zeitgenossen zu sein. Manche glauben, man könnte «nur Mensch» sein in irgendeinem Zeitalter, aber das führt auch ins Verderben, man muß schon auch Zeitgenosse sein. Es ist ja natürlich übel, wenn man nichts anderes ist als Zeitgenosse, aber man muß schon auch Zeitgenosse sein, das heißt, man muß eine Empfindung haben für dasjenige, was in der Zeit geschieht.
Nun werden allerdings gerade manche Anthroposophengemüter herausgerissen aus einer lebendigen Empfindung für das, was in der Zeit ist, indem sie gerne im Zeitlosen plätschern wollen. In dieser Beziehung kann man ja die sonderbarsten Erlebnisse haben in Gesprächen mit Anthroposophen. Sie wissen zum Beispiel ganz gut, wer Lykurg war, aber sie können zuweilen von einer Unbekanntschaft mit den Zeitgenossen erscheinen, die einfach rührend ist.
Das kommt eben davon, daß — weil die Anlage zur Initiative da ist - der Mensch, der eben so veranlagt ist und so durch sein Karma in die Welt hineingestellt ist, eigentlich immer — verzeihen Sie den Vergleich — wie eine Biene ist, die einen Stachel hat, aber die sich fürchtet zu stechen in dem entsprechenden Moment. Die Initiative ist der Stachel; aber man fürchtet sich zu stechen. Man fürchtet sich namentlich, in das Ahrimanische hineinzustechen. Man fürchtet nicht, daß das Ahrimanische dadurch irgendwie beschädigt wird, aber man fürchtet, daß der Stachel stößt und zurückgeht und einem dann selber in den Leib dringt. So ungefähr ist die Furcht geartet. Und so bleibt die Initiative aus einer allgemeinen Lebensfurcht zurück. Diese Dinge muß man nur durchschauen.
Indem wir so überall theoretisch und praktisch auf den Materialismus aufstoßen und der Materialismus mächtig ist, werden wir beirrt in unserer Initiative. Und hat ein Anthroposoph Sinn dafür, so wird er überall bis in die intensivsten Impulse seines Willens hinein durch den theoretischen und praktischen Materialismus beirrt, zurückgestoßen. Das aber gestaltet in einer eigentümlichen Weise das Karma. Und wenn Sie recht sich selbst beobachten, so erfahren Sie etwas darüber in Ihrem Leben vom Morgen bis zum Abend. Und daraus muß dann das allgemeine Gefühl entstehen: Wie beweise ich theoretisch und praktisch dem Materialismus seine Falschheit? — Und das ist ja der Drang, der nun in sehr vielen Anthroposophengemütern ist, irgendwie dem Materialismus die Falschheit zu beweisen. Das ist das Lebensrätsel, das vielen von uns theoretisch und praktisch aufgegeben ist: Wiekommt man damit zurecht, dem Materialismus die Falschheit zu beweisen?
Der eine, der eine Schule durchgemacht hat, ein Gelehrter geworden ist -— exempla sind in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft durchaus da -, fühlt, wenn er dann anthroposophisch aufgewacht ist, ungeheuer den Drang, den Materialismus zu widerlegen, den Materialismus zu bekämpfen, alles mögliche gegen den Materialismus zu sagen. Nun fängt er an, den Materialismus zu bekämpfen, zu widerlegen, glaubt vielleicht gerade dadurch, so recht in der Michaelischen Strömung drinnen zu sein. Ja, meistens gelingt das schlecht, und man kann schon sagen: Diejenigen Dinge, die gesagt werden gegen den Materialismus, sie werden ja sehr häufig aus sehr gutem Willen heraus gesagt, aber sie . gelingen eigentlich nicht; sie machen keinen Eindruck auf diejenigen, die eben Materialisten in theoretischer oder praktischer Beziehung sind. Warum das? Das ist gerade dasjenige, was Klarheit des Urteils verhindert.
Da steht nun der Anthroposoph und will, um nicht stecken zu bleiben mit seiner Initiative, Klarheit haben über das, was ihm an den Materialisten entgegentritt. Er will die Unrichtigkeit des Materialismus in allen Hintergründen finden, und er findet in der Regel nicht viel. Er glaubt, den Materialismus zu widerlegen — aber der steht immer wieder auf. Woher kommt das?
Jetzt kommt eben das, was, ich möchte sagen, das Ei des Kolumbus ist. Woher kommt das, meine lieben Freunde?
Sehen Sie, es kommt daher, daß der Materialismus eben wahr ist — was ich schon öfter gesagt habe -, daß der Materialismus nicht unrecht hat, sondern recht hat! Davon kommt es. Und der Anthroposoph sollte auf eine besondere Art lernen, daß der Materialismus recht hat. Er sollte es nämlich auf die Weise lernen: daß der Materialismus recht hat, aber nur für die physische Leiblichkeit gilt. Die anderen Menschen, die Materialisten sind, die kennen nur die physische Leiblichkeit, oder glauben sie wenigstens zu kennen. Das ist der Irrtum, nicht im Materialismus liegt der Irrtum. Wenn man auf materialistische Art Anatomie, Physiologie oder das praktische Leben kennenlernt, so lernt man die Wahrheit kennen, aber sie gilt nur für das Physische. Und dieses Geständnis muß ganz aus dem Innersten des Menschenwesens heraus gemacht werden: daß der Materialismus recht hat auf seinem Gebiete, und daß es gerade das Glänzende der neueren Zeit ist, das Richtige auf dem Gebiete des Materialismus gefunden zu haben. Aber die Sache hat eben ihre praktische Seite, ihre praktisch-karmische Seite,
Nun kann für den Anthroposophen in seinem Karma das eintreffen, daß er zu der Empfindung kommt: Da lebe ich mit solchen Menschen, mit denen mich sogar das Karma zusammengebracht hat - ich habe gestern davon gesprochen -, da lebe ich mit Menschen zusammen, die nur den Materialismus kennen, die nur das Richtige über das physische Leben wissen; sie kommen nicht an die Anthroposophie heran, weil sie gerade durch die Richtigkeit dessen, was sie wissen, beirrt werden.
Nun leben wir heute, in der Michaelzeit, mit der Seele in der dem Michael entfallenen Intellektualität. Als Michael selber die kosmische Intelligenz verwaltete, da waren die Sachen anders. Da riß die kosmische Intelligenz aus dem, was als Materialismus da war, die Seele immer wieder los. Es hat natürlich auch in anderen Zeitaltern Materialisten gegeben, aber nicht so wie in unserem Zeitalter. In anderen Zeitaltern war einer Materialist: er war eingepflanzt mit seinem Ich, mit seinem astralischen Leib in seinen physischen und Ätherleib, er fühlte seinen physischen Leib (siehe Zeichnung rechts, hell). Aber dasjenige, was Michael verwaltete als kosmische Intelligenz, riß die Seele wiederum los (gelb). Heute leben wir neben Menschen, sind oftmals karmisch mit ihnen verbunden, in denen die Sache so ist: Sie haben den physischen Leib; aber weil die kosmische Intelligenz dem Michael entfallen ist und sozusagen in den Menschen individuell, persönlich lebt, bleibt das Ich, das ganze Geistig-Seelische, im physischen Leibe darinnen (siehe Zeichnung links). Sie stehen neben uns, indem tief untergetaucht ist in ihren physischen Leib ihr Geistig-Seelisches. So müssen wir es aber der Wahrheit gemäß anschauen, wenn wir neben nichtspirituellen Menschen stehen. Und es darf nicht bloß dieses Stehen neben nichtspirituellen Menschen Sympathie und Antipathie im gewöhnlichen Sinne hervorrufen, sondern es muß etwas Erschütterndes haben. Und es kann etwas Erschütterndes haben, meine lieben Freunde! Und wenn man das Erschütternde des in diesem Sinne neben richtigen Materialisten Stehens haben will, dann muß man auf diejenigen Materialisten hinsehen, die oftmals hochbegabt sind, die auch aus gewissen Instinkten heraus ganz gute Triebe haben mögen, die aber nicht zur Spiritualität kommen können.

Das Erschütternde nimmt man dann wahr, wenn man gerade die großen Begabungen, die edlen menschlichen Eigenschaften unter den Materialisten ins Auge faßt. Denn davon kann doch keine Rede sein, daß derjenige, der heute in der Zeit der großen Entscheidungen sich nicht an den Spiritualismus heranfindet, dadurch nicht Schaden an seinem Seelenleben nimmt in die nächsten Inkarnationen hinein. Das nimmt er doch. Und wir sollten eigentlich — neben dieser Erscheinung, daß heute durch ihr Karma eine Anzahl von Menschen einen inneren Drang zur Spiritualität haben, andere nicht herankönnen an diese Spiritualität —, wir sollten an der Anschauung dieses Gegensatzes, an dem karmischen Zusammenleben mit solchen Menschen, wie ich sie charakterisiert habe, etwas tief Erschütterndes, etwas tief unsere Seele Berührendes finden. Dann erst kommen wir mit unserem eigenen Karma zurecht und sonst nicht. Denn wenn wir alles das zusammennehmen, was ich gerade über den, wenn ich es jetzt so nennen darf, Michaelismus gesagt habe, dann werden wir finden: die «Michaeliten» sind ja durchaus ergriffen in ihrer Seele von einer Kraft, die bis in den ganzen Menschen, auch ins Physische hinein, vom Geistigen aus wirken will.
Ich habe es gestern so charakterisiert, daß ich sagte: Diese Menschen, sie streifen ab das Rassische, dasjenige, das aus dem natürlichen Dasein heraus dem Menschen ein Gepräge gibt, so daß er der oder jener Mensch ist. Und indem der Mensch in dieser Erdeninkarnation, in der er jetzt hier Anthroposoph wird, vom Spirituellen ergriffen wird, wird er vorbereitet dazu, eben nicht mehr nach solchen äußeren Merkmalen, sondern so, wie er in seiner jetzigen Inkarnation war, zu sein. Es wird einmal der Geist an diesen Menschen zeigen seien wir uns dessen in aller Bescheidenheit bewußt -, wie er physiognomiebildend sein kann, menschengestaltend sein kann.
Das ist bisher noch niemals in der Weltgeschichte gezeigt worden. Bisher haben die Menschen aus ihren Volksuntergründen, aus dem Physischen heraus ihre Physiognomien gebildet. Wir können heute noch an den Physiognomien der Menschen, besonders wenn sie jung sind, wenn sie noch nicht durchfurcht sind von den Sorgen des Lebens oder von den Freuden und Erhebungen, den göttlichen Seiten des Lebens, angeben, woher sie stammen. Man wird einmal Menschen haben, an deren Physiognomie man nur wird angeben können, wie sie in der vorigen Inkarnation gewesen sind, indem sie da zur Spiritualität vorgedrungen sind. Dann werden die anderen neben ihnen stehen — und was wird dann das Karma noch bedeuten? Dann wird das Karma die gewöhnlichen karmischen Affinitäten abgestreift haben.
In dieser Beziehung wird Ihnen gerade derjenige, der das Leben ernst zu nehmen versteht, sagen können: Karmisch verbunden war man mit vielen, oder ist es noch, die nicht in die Spiritualität hereinkommen können. Und neben vielleicht mancher Lebensverwandtschaft fühlt man doch eine tiefe Befremdetheit, in ganz berechtigter Weise eine tiefe Befremdetheit: es fällt der karmische Zusammenhang, der sich sonst im Leben abspielt, ab, er geht weg. Und es bleibt, möchte ich sagen, zwischen jemandem, der da draußen im Felde des Materialismus steht, und einem Menschen, der im Felde der Spiritualität steht, nichts anderes mehr karmisch übrig — aber das bleibt übrig -,, als daß er ihn anschauen muß, daß er besonders aufmerksam wird auf ihn. Und auf eine Zeit in der Zukunft können wir hinschauen, wo diejenigen, die immer mehr und mehr im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts in die Spiritualität hineinkommen, neben anderen stehen, die mit ihnen im früheren Erdenleben karmisch verbunden gelebt haben. Karmische Affinitäten, karmische Verwandtschaften machen sich in dieser Zukunft wenig mehr geltend; aber dasjenige, was aus den karmischen Verwandtschaften geblieben ist, das ist, daß sie, die im Felde des Materialismus Stehenden, hinsehen müssen auf die im Felde der Spiritualität Stehenden. Die heutigen Materialisten werden auf die heutigen Spiritualisten in der Zukunft hinschauen müssen. Das wird vom Karma geblieben sein.
Wiederum eine erschütternde Tatsache, meine lieben Freunde! Und wozu das? Oh, das ruht in einem weisen göttlichen Weltenplane. Wodurch lassen sich Materialisten heute etwas beweisen? Dadurch, daß sie es vor Augen haben, dadurch, daß sie es mit Händen greifen können. Die im Felde des Materialismus Stehenden werden mit Augen sehen, werden mit Händen greifen können an denjenigen, mit denen sie früher karmisch verbunden waren, an der Physiognomie, an dem ganzen Ausdrucke, was der Geist ist; denn er wurde jetzt physiognomisch schaffend. So wird für Augen bewiesen, am Menschen bewiesen werden, wie der Geist schaffend in der Welt ist. Und es wird zum Karma der Anthroposophen gehören, daß sie denen, die heute im Felde des Materialismus stehen, demonstrieren werden, daß es Geist gibt, und daß der Geist am Menschen selber durch die Ratschlüsse der Götter sich demonstriert.
Gerade aber, um dahin zu kommen, ist es notwendig, daß wir nicht in unklarem, nebulosem Treiben dem Intellektualismus gegenüberstehen, daß wir nicht ohne Regenschirm ausgehen. Ich meine jetzt: Wir sind dem, was ich als die zwei Strömungen, die Redereien und die Schreibereien, bezeichnet habe, ja ausgesetzt. Ich sagte: wie man naß wird, wenn man ohne Regenschirm ausgeht beim Regen, so kommt eben auch das über den Menschen — wir können ja nicht anders. Im «zartesten Kindesalter», wenn wir zwanzig bis vierundzwanzig Jahre alt sind, da müssen wir in materialistischen Werken dasjenige studieren — was wir schon einmal studieren müssen. Ja, in diesem zarten Kindesalter von zwanzig bis vierundzwanzig Jahren, da ist es ja nun wirklich so, daß wir, wenn wir die Dinge studieren, noch durchaus innerlich für den Materialismus präpariert werden, aus der Satzfügung, aus der plastischen Gestaltung der Sätze heraus. Wir können uns dagegen wehren, es macht nichts aus, wir werden dennoch präpariert dadurch.
Da ist es eben notwendig, nicht bloß mit Formalien zu kommen. Man kann heute einen Menschen nicht davor retten, dem intellektualistischen Materialismus ausgesetzt zu sein. Denn würde man heute über Botanik oder über Anatomie nicht materialistische Bücher schreiben: es würde nicht gehen, der Lebenszusammenhang gestattet es nicht. Aber es handelt sich darum, daß man diese Dinge nicht im Formalen bloß ergreift, sondern daß man sie in der Realität ergreift. Da muß man verstehen, daß, weil Michael nicht wie früher das Seelisch-Geistige aus dem Physisch-Leiblichen herauszieht, Ahriman sein Spiel hat mit dem in der Leiblichkeit befindlichen Seelisch-Geistigen. Und gerade dann, wenn dieses Seelisch-Geistige begabt ist, aber doch in der Leiblichkeit drunten steckt, dann wird es Ahriman ganz besonders nahen, dann kann es Ahriman ganz besonders ausgesetzt sein. Und gerade an den begabtesten Menschen findet Ahriman seine Beute, um die Intelligenz dem Michael zu entreißen, sie wegzubringen von Michael. Da tritt eben nun das ein, was in unserer Zeit eine viel größere Rolle spielt, als man gewöhnlich glaubt. Inkarnieren können sich die ahrimanischen Geister nicht, aber inkorporieren, zeitweilig menschliche Seelen durchdringen, menschliche Körper durchsetzen. Dann ist der brillante, der glänzende, der überragende Geist einer ahrimanischen Intelligenz stärker als das, was im einzelnen Menschen ist, viel, viel stärker. Dann mag der einzelne Mensch noch so intelligent sein, dann mag der einzelne Mensch noch soviel gelernt haben: Wenn ganz und gar ergriffen ist der physische Körper von diesem Gelernthaben, kann ein ahrimanischer Geist sich für Zeiten in ihm inkorporieren. Dann ist es Ahriman, der ihm aus den Augen schaut, es ist Ahriman, der ihm die Finger bewegt, dann ist es Ahriman, der sich schneuzt, dann ist es Ahriman, der geht.
Anthroposophen dürfen nicht zurückschrecken vor solchen Erkenntnissen. Denn das allein kann den Intellektualismus in seiner Realität vor die Seele bringen. Ahriman ist eine große, eine überragende Intelligenz, und Ahriman möchte mit der Erdenentwickelung ein Durchdringendes erreichen. Er benützt jede Gelegenheit, wo irgendwie sich die Geistigkeit so in das Leibliche eines Menschen hineinversetzt, daß das Leibliche stark erfaßt wird, daß das Bewußtsein in einer gewissen Weise hinuntergedämmert wird durch dieses starke Erfassen des Leibes vom Geiste. Und da tritt es ein - es ist in unserer Zeit eben möglich geworden -, daß ein glänzender Geist in einem Menschen sitzt, aber die menschliche Persönlichkeit überragt. Dann kann ein solcher Geist, der in einer menschlichen Persönlichkeit ist und diese menschliche Persönlichkeit überragt, auf Erden wirken, wirken, wie Menschen wirken.
Darnach strebt Ahriman zunächst, stark strebt er darnach. Ich habe Ihnen gesagt von dem Wiedererscheinen derer auf Erden, die jetzt an die Spiritualität herankommen, die es ganz ehrlich und intensiv meinen; das wird am Ende des Jahrhunderts sein. Aber gerade diese Zeit möchten die Ahrimangeister am stärksten benützen, weil die Menschen von dem Intelligenten, das sie befallen hat, so befangen sind, weil die Menschen so unglaublich gescheit sind. Man hat ja schon Angst heute, einen gescheiten Menschen zu finden! Aber man muß diese Angst fortwährend haben, denn fast alle sind gescheit, so daß man aus der Angst über die Gescheitheit der Menschen gar nicht herauskommt. Und es ist so, daß diese Gescheitheit, die herangezüchtet wird, benützt wird von Ahriman. Wenn nun die Körper auch noch besonders dazu geeignet sind, daß das Bewußtsein heruntergetrübt werden kann, dann geschieht es eben, daß Ahriman selber in Menschengestalt inkorporiert auftritt. Nachweislich ist Ahriman bereits zweimal als Schriftsteller aufgetreten in dieser Weise. Für denjenigen, der das Leben als Anthroposoph klar und scharf ins Auge fassen will, wird es sich eben durchaus darum handeln, auch in diesem Falle keine Verwechslungen zu begehen.
Denn, was nützt es schon, meine lieben Freunde, wenn einer irgendwo ein Buch erscheinen läßt und seinen Namen darauf schreibt und er gar nicht der Verfasser ist? Man verwechselt dann den wahren Verfasser mit einem anderen. Wenn Ahriman der Verfasser irgendeines Buches ist, wie sollte es denn zum Heile ausschlagen, wenn man nicht darauf kommt, wer der wirkliche Verfasser ist, wenn man einen Menschen für den Verfasser hält, während es Ahriman ist, der sich durch seine glänzende Gabe so hineinfindet in alles, daß er sich verwandeln kann in den Stil eines Menschen! Wie kann es zum Heile ausschlagen, wenn Ahriman der Schriftsteller ist und man das mit menschlichem Werke verwechselt? Auf diesem Gebiete sich Unterscheidungsvermögen aneignen, das ist dasjenige, was so restlos notwendig ist, meine lieben Freunde.
Dazu wollte ich zunächst führen, um im allgemeinen auf eine Erscheinung, die in unserem Zeitalter spielt, hinzuweisen. Im Vortrage am nächsten Freitag werde ich dann noch genauer auf solche Erscheinungen eingehen.

Tenth Lecture
What should be evoked as a sensation is that the individual within the anthroposophical movement feels something of the peculiar karmic position which the very urge to the anthroposophical cause gives to man. We must admit to ourselves that in the ordinary context of life man feels little of his karma, and that he faces life as if the things that become experiences for him were happening out of accidental concatenations. Little attention is paid to the fact that what we encounter in our life on earth, from birth to death, is linked to fate and karma. And if it is taken into account, then one immediately believes that it expresses something fatalistic, something that questions human freedom and the like.
I have often spoken of the fact that it is precisely the intensive understanding of the karmic connections that puts the essence of freedom in the right light. And so, if we take a closer look at the karmic connections, we need not fear that we might lose an unbiased insight into the nature of human freedom. I have described to you the things which are connected both with earlier earth lives of those who enter the Michael Community and with the life between death and a new birth. You can see from this that it is karmically important for such people, i.e. basically for all of you, that the spiritual plays a major, meaningful role in the whole inner structure of the soul.
In our present materialistic time, a person can actually only honestly come to something like anthroposophy out of all educational and life circumstances - otherwise his coming is dishonest - if he has a karmic impulse within himself that drives him to the spiritual. This karmic impulse is the summary of all that has been gone through in the way I have described before the descent into this earthly life.
But the fact that the human being is so strongly connected with spiritual impulses, which have a direct effect on his soul, causes him, in a less intensive way than is the case with other people, to join the outer physicality when descending from the spiritual into the physical worlds. One might say that all those who lived into the Michael current in the way described were expected to enter the physical body with a certain reserve. And this lies at the bottom of the karma of the anthroposophical souls.
Those who today, out of an inner urge, quite consciously and fearfully keep away from the anthroposophical, are everywhere found to be completely stuck in the physical body. In those who today turn towards that spiritual life which anthroposophy wants to give, one finds a looser relationship at least of the astral body and the ego organization towards the physical and the ether organization.
But this means that the human being then copes less easily with life, simply because he has to choose between more possibilities than others, because he easily outgrows what others grow into. Just consider how strong some people are today, what they have become through the external contexts of life, and it is so that actually, one would like to say, although it is sometimes the case in a strange way, there can be no doubt at all that they fit into the contexts. You see a civil servant, a councillor of commerce, a builder, a factory owner and so on: they are what they are with absolute naturalness. Of course, even among them it happens that they say: “It seems as if I were born for something better, or at least for something else”; but then it is not meant so seriously. Compare this with the infinite difficulties encountered by those who are driven by their inner urge into the spirituality of anthroposophy. Perhaps with nothing else is this so blatant, so strangely intense as with the youth, and indeed with the youngest youth.
You see, if you take the older Waldorf pupils in particular, those who are in the higher classes of the Waldorf school, you will find in both male and female pupils that they progress relatively quickly in their spiritual-spiritual development, but that even these young people find it no easier, but often more difficult, because more complicated, to grasp life inwardly. The possibilities become wider, the possibilities become greater. And while it is otherwise not too great a task in the ordinary course of life today - apart from certain exceptions - for those who stand by the side of the growing youth as educators, as teachers, to find ways and means to guess correctly, guessing becomes more difficult precisely when the children are brought forward as they are in the Waldorf School, because the general human aspect becomes more prominent, because the breadth of vision that is acquired places a greater sum of possibilities before the soul's eye.
This is why it is so necessary for Waldorf teachers, after they have been led to this profession through their karma, to acquire for their part breadth of vision, knowledge of the world, perception of the world, breadth of vision. All pedagogical measures in the details are much less important at this point than the breadth of vision. And it can be said that something like the karma of such a teacher shows how the sum of possibilities becomes great, much greater than usual. Such a young person or a child does not present the teacher with certain riddles, but with manifold ones, differentiated in all directions. The best way to evoke an understanding of all the karmic preconditions that push towards anthroposophy is not to speak in pedantic contours, but to hint at such things and characterize the atmosphere in which anthroposophists live out and develop.
But all this makes it necessary for the anthroposophist to observe a precondition, a particularly strongly developed precondition of his karma. We can give a variety of reasons, and we will give a variety of reasons why one character or another, one temperament or another, is driven to anthroposophy by the events of the spiritual world that I have mentioned; but all these impulses that drive individual anthroposophists to anthroposophy have something like a counter-image that is more strongly painted by the world spirit than is the case with other people.
Everything that is there as many possibilities in relation to the most varied things of life requires initiative from the anthroposophist, inner initiative of the soul life. And one must familiarize oneself with the fact that for the anthroposophist the following sentence applies, that the anthroposophist must say to himself: Once I have become an anthroposophist through my karma, that which has driven me to anthroposophy demands that I pay attention to how in my soul - somehow more or less deeply - the necessity appears to find soul initiative in life, to be able to begin something from the innermost part of my own being, to be able to judge something, to be able to decide something.
This is actually written in the karma of every anthroposophist: Become a person with initiative, and see if you do not find the center of your being with initiative due to obstacles of your body or obstacles that otherwise oppose you, how basically suffering and joys depend with you on this finding or not finding of personal initiative! - This is something that should always be written in golden letters before the soul of the anthroposophist, that he has initiative lying in his karma, and that much of what he encounters in life depends on the extent to which he can consciously become aware of this initiative.
Now bear in mind that this actually says an extraordinary amount; for at the same time there is an extraordinary amount of confusion in the present with regard to everything that can direct and guide judgment. And without a clear judgment of the circumstances of life, the initiative cannot wriggle out of the depths of the soul. But what brings us to a clear judgment of life, especially in the present?
Now, my dear friends, let us consider one of the most important traits of our time, and let us answer the question of how we can achieve a certain clarity with regard to one of the most important traits of our present life. You will see that what I am about to say is something like the egg of Columbus. But the egg of Columbus is a matter of remembering how to set it up so that it stays put, and what I am going to talk about now will also be a matter of remembering the thing.
We live in the age of materialism. Everything that is happening around us, in us, is characterized by materialism on the one hand and intellectualism on the other. I characterized this intellectualism yesterday in journalism and in the urge to develop the affairs of the world in popular assemblies everywhere. One must realize how strongly man is influenced today by these two currents of the times. For it is almost as impossible to escape these currents of intellectualism and materialism as it is to avoid getting wet without an umbrella when it rains. It's just all around us.
Just think about it: we simply cannot know certain things that we should know if we do not read them in the newspaper; we cannot learn certain things that we should learn if we do not learn them in the spirit of materialism. How can anyone become a doctor today if he does not want to “consume” materialism in the process! He can't help but take materialism with him; he has to do it as a matter of course. And if he does not want to take materialism with him, he cannot become a real doctor in the modern sense. So we are constantly exposed to it. But that plays an unusually strong role in karma.
But all of this is designed to undermine initiative in souls! Every people's assembly that you go to, as a people's assembly, has only one purpose: to undermine the initiative of individual people, with the exception of those who speak and are leaders. Every newspaper can only fulfill its task if it creates a “mood”, i.e. if it undermines the initiative of the individual.
These things must be looked at, and it must be realized that basically what man has as his ordinary consciousness is a very small chamber. Everything that goes on around man in the way I have just described has an enormous influence on the subconscious. And finally, we have no choice but, if I may put it this way, apart from being human beings, to be contemporaries. Some people believe that you can be “only human” in any age, but that also leads to ruin, you also have to be a contemporary. Of course it is bad if you are nothing other than a contemporary, but you also have to be a contemporary, that is, you have to have a feeling for what is happening in time.
Now, however, some anthroposophical minds are torn away from a lively feeling for what is in time by wanting to splash about in the timeless. In this respect, one can have the strangest experiences in conversations with anthroposophists. For example, they know quite well who Lykurgus was, but they can sometimes appear to be unfamiliar with their contemporaries, which is simply touching.
This is because - since the disposition for initiative is there - the human being, who is so predisposed and so placed in the world by his karma, is actually always - forgive the comparison - like a bee that has a sting but is afraid to sting at the appropriate moment. The initiative is the sting, but one is afraid to sting. In particular, one is afraid of stinging the Ahrimanic. One is not afraid that the ahrimanic will somehow be damaged by this, but one is afraid that the sting will poke and go back and then penetrate one's own body. This is roughly the nature of the fear. And so the initiative remains from a general fear of life. You just have to see through these things.
Inasmuch as we encounter materialism everywhere, both theoretically and practically, and materialism is powerful, we are misled in our initiative. And if an anthroposophist has a sense for this, he will be misled and repelled everywhere by theoretical and practical materialism, right down to the most intense impulses of his will. But this shapes karma in a peculiar way. And if you observe yourself properly, you will experience something of it in your life from morning to night. And from this must then arise the general feeling: How do I theoretically and practically prove the falsity of materialism? - And that is the urge that is now in many anthroposophists' minds to somehow prove materialism wrong. This is the riddle of life that many of us are faced with theoretically and practically: how do we manage to prove materialism wrong?
One who has gone through a school, who has become a scholar - there are certainly examples in the Anthroposophical Society - feels, when he has woken up anthroposophically, a tremendous urge to refute materialism, to fight materialism, to say everything possible against materialism. Now he begins to fight materialism, to refute it, perhaps believing that this is the very reason why he is really in the Michaelic current. Yes, most of the time this is not very successful, and one can say that those things that are said against materialism are very often said out of very good will, but they do not actually succeed; they make no impression on those who are materialists in a theoretical or practical sense. Why is that? That is precisely what prevents clarity of judgment.
There the anthroposophist stands and, in order not to get stuck with his initiative, wants to have clarity about what he encounters in the materialists. He wants to find the wrongness of materialism in all its backgrounds, and as a rule he does not find much. He believes he can refute materialism - but it keeps getting up again and again. Where does that come from?
Now comes what I would say is the egg of Columbus. Where does that come from, my dear friends?
You see, it comes from the fact that materialism is true - as I have often said - that materialism is not wrong, but right! That is where it comes from. And the anthroposophist should learn in a special way that materialism is right. He should learn it in this way: that materialism is right, but that it only applies to the physical body. The other people, who are materialists, only know the physical body, or at least believe they know it. That is the error, the error does not lie in materialism. If one learns about anatomy, physiology or practical life in a materialistic way, one learns the truth, but it only applies to the physical. And this confession must be made entirely from the innermost being of man: that materialism is right in its field, and that it is precisely the brilliant thing about the modern age to have found what is right in the field of materialism. But the matter has its practical side, its practical-karmic side.
Now it can happen for the anthroposophist in his karma that he comes to the feeling: I live with people with whom even karma has brought me together - I spoke of this yesterday - I live with people who only know materialism, who only know the right thing about physical life; they cannot approach anthroposophy because they are misled precisely by the rightness of what they know.
Now today, in Michael's time, we live with the soul in the intellectuality that has fallen away from Michael. When Michael himself administered the cosmic intelligence, things were different. There the cosmic intelligence tore the soul free again and again from what was there as materialism. Of course, there were also materialists in other ages, but not like in our age. In other ages someone was a materialist: he was implanted with his ego, with his astral body in his physical and etheric body, he felt his physical body (see drawing on the right, light). But that which Michael administered as cosmic intelligence tore the soul loose again (yellow). Today we live next to people, are often karmically connected with them, in whom the situation is like this: they have the physical body; but because the cosmic intelligence has slipped away from Michael and lives, so to speak, in people individually, personally, the I, the whole spiritual-soul, remains inside the physical body (see drawing on the left). They stand next to us, their spiritual-soul being deeply submerged in their physical body. But this is how we must look at it according to the truth when we stand next to non-spiritual people. And this standing next to non-spiritual people must not merely evoke sympathy and antipathy in the usual sense, but it must have something shocking about it. And it can have something shocking, my dear friends! And if you want to have the shocking aspect of standing next to real materialists in this sense, then you have to look at those materialists who are often highly gifted, who may also have quite good instincts out of certain instincts, but who cannot come to spirituality.

The shocking thing is then perceived when one looks at the great talents, the noble human qualities among the materialists. For there can be no question that those who do not find their way to spiritualism today in the time of great decisions will not suffer damage to their soul life in the next incarnations. That is what he takes. And we should actually - apart from this phenomenon that today, through their karma, a number of people have an inner urge towards spirituality, while others cannot approach this spirituality - we should find something deeply shattering, something deeply touching our soul, in the contemplation of this contrast, in the karmic coexistence with such people as I have characterized them. Only then can we come to terms with our own karma and not otherwise. For if we take together everything I have just said about what I may now call Michaelism, then we will find that the “Michaelites” are indeed gripped in their souls by a force that wants to work from the spiritual into the whole person, even into the physical.
Yesterday I characterized it in such a way that I said: These people, they strip off the racial, that which out of the natural existence gives man a character, so that he is this or that man. And by being seized by the spiritual in this earthly incarnation, in which he now becomes an anthroposophist here, he is prepared to no longer be according to such external characteristics, but as he was in his present incarnation. One day the spirit will show this person - let us be aware of this in all modesty - how it can be physiognomy-forming, how it can shape the human being.
This has never before been demonstrated in world history. Until now, people have formed their physiognomies out of their folk backgrounds, out of the physical. Today we can still tell from people's physiognomies, especially when they are young, when they have not yet been imbued with the sorrows of life or the joys and exaltations, the divine aspects of life, where they come from. One day there will be people whose physiognomy will only indicate what they were like in the previous incarnation, when they reached spirituality. Then the others will stand beside them - and what will karma mean then? Then karma will have stripped away the usual karmic affinities.
In this respect, those who know how to take life seriously will be able to tell you: You were, or still are, karmically connected to many who cannot enter spirituality. And alongside perhaps many a life relationship, you feel a deep sense of alienation, quite rightly a deep sense of alienation: the karmic connection that otherwise takes place in life falls away, it disappears. And there remains, I would say, between someone who is out there in the field of materialism and a person who is in the field of spirituality, nothing else remains karmically - but that remains - except that he must look at him, that he becomes particularly attentive to him. And we can look to a time in the future when those who are coming more and more into spirituality in the course of the 20th century will stand alongside others who have lived karmically connected with them in earlier earthly lives. Karmic affinities, karmic affinities, are no longer very much in evidence in this future; but what has remained of the karmic affinities is that they, those who stand in the field of materialism, must look to those who stand in the field of spirituality. Today's materialists will have to look to today's spiritualists in the future. That will have remained of karma.
Another shocking fact, my dear friends! And why is that? Oh, it rests in a wise divine world plan. How can materialists prove anything today? By the fact that they have it before their eyes, by the fact that they can grasp it with their hands. Those who stand in the field of materialism will see with their eyes, will be able to grasp with their hands those with whom they were formerly karmically connected, the physiognomy, the whole expression of what the spirit is; for it has now become physiognomically creative. Thus it will be proved for the eyes, proved in man, how the spirit is creative in the world. And it will be part of the karma of the anthroposophists that they will demonstrate to those who today stand in the field of materialism that there is spirit, and that the spirit demonstrates itself in man himself through the counsel of the gods.
In order to get there, however, it is necessary that we do not face intellectualism in an unclear, nebulous drift, that we do not go out without an umbrella. I mean now: We are exposed to what I have called the two currents, the talk and the writing. I said: just as you get wet if you go out in the rain without an umbrella, so it comes over people - we can't help it. In the “tenderest childhood”, when we are twenty to twenty-four years old, we have to study in materialistic works what we already have to study. Yes, at this tender childhood age of twenty to twenty-four years, it really is the case that when we study things, we are still inwardly prepared for materialism, from the structure of the sentences, from the plastic design of the sentences. We can resist this, it doesn't matter, we are still prepared by it.
There it is necessary not just to come up with formalities. You can't save a person today from being exposed to intellectualistic materialism. For if one were to write non-materialistic books on botany or anatomy today: it would not work, the context of life does not permit it. But the point is that one does not merely grasp these things formally, but that one grasps them in reality. You have to understand that because Michael does not draw the soul-spiritual out of the physical-bodily as he used to, Ahriman has his game with the soul-spiritual in the physical. And just then, when this soul-spiritual is gifted, but still stuck in the physical body, then it will be particularly close to Ahriman, then it can be particularly exposed to Ahriman. And it is precisely in the most gifted people that Ahriman finds his prey to snatch the intelligence from Michael, to take it away from Michael. This is where something occurs that plays a much greater role in our time than is usually believed. The Ahrimanic spirits cannot incarnate, but they can incorporate, temporarily penetrate human souls, penetrate human bodies. Then the brilliant, the brilliant, the superior spirit of an ahrimanic intelligence is stronger than what is in the individual human being, much, much stronger. No matter how intelligent the individual is, no matter how much the individual has learned: If the physical body is completely seized by this learning, an Ahrimanic spirit can incorporate itself into it for a time. Then it is Ahriman that looks out of its eyes, it is Ahriman that moves its fingers, then it is Ahriman that blows its nose, then it is Ahriman that walks.
Anthroposophists must not shy away from such insights. For this alone can bring intellectualism in its reality before the soul. Ahriman is a great, a supreme intelligence, and Ahriman wants to achieve something pervasive with earthly development. He makes use of every opportunity where somehow the spirituality is placed into the physical of a human being in such a way that the physical is strongly grasped, that the consciousness is in a certain way dampened down through this strong grasping of the body by the spirit. And then it occurs - it has just become possible in our time - that a brilliant spirit sits in a human being, but towers above the human personality. Then such a spirit, which is in a human personality and towers above this human personality, can work on earth, work as humans work.
This is what Ahriman strives for at first, he strives for it strongly. I have told you about the reappearance on earth of those who are now approaching spirituality, who mean it quite honestly and intensely; that will be at the end of the century. But it is precisely this time that the Ahriman spirits would like to use the most, because people are so taken in by the intelligence that has afflicted them, because people are so incredibly clever. One is already afraid of finding a clever person today! But you have to have this fear all the time, because almost everyone is clever, so you can't escape the fear of people's cleverness. And it is so that this cleverness, which is bred, is used by Ahriman. If the bodies are also particularly suitable for clouding the consciousness, then it happens that Ahriman himself appears incorporated in human form. There is evidence that Ahriman has already appeared twice as a writer in this way. For those who want to clearly and sharply visualize life as an anthroposophist, it will be important to avoid confusion in this case as well.
For what use is it, my dear friends, if someone has a book published somewhere and writes his name on it and he is not the author? One then confuses the true author with another. If Ahriman is the author of some book, what good can it do if one does not realize who the real author is, if one takes a man for the author, while it is Ahriman who, through his brilliant gift, finds his way into everything in such a way that he can transform himself into the style of a man! How can it be beneficial if Ahriman is the author and this is mistaken for human work? To acquire discernment in this field is what is so utterly necessary, my dear friends.
I wanted to start by pointing out a general phenomenon that is taking place in our age. In next Friday's lecture I will then go into more detail about such phenomena.
