True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation
GA 243
15 August 1924, Torquay
5. The Inner Vitalization of the Soul through the Qualities of the Metallic Nature
I have attempted to show how man can develop states of consciousness other than those of his everyday life and how the history of evolution provides abundant evidence that in the fields of human knowledge and action, man did not possess the consciousness we have today. Then I tried to call attention to the relationship between the consciousness of the scholars who lived in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries and the manner in which knowledge was fostered in those days, in the School of Chartres, for example. And in this connection I pointed out how there arose forms of perception totally unrelated to our present level of consciousness. Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, is a case in point.
Yesterday I tried to recall man's relationship to the universe at an even earlier epoch, in the Mysteries of Ephesus, for example. We learned how entirely different conditions of consciousness prevailed at that time, though related to some extent to the normal scientific consciousness of today.
After this brief digression into history I should now like to continue our investigations. I have already indicated how the metallity, the basic substantiality of the mineral element, is related to man and his conditions of consciousness. Having shown man's relationship to the metal copper, I described the state of consciousness that enables him to participate in the experiences of the so-called dead after death.
We must realize that it was a form of perception such as this which Brunetto Latini experienced in that semi-pathological condition following upon his heat-stroke.
Indeed all that he describes, all that came to him through the inspiration of the Goddess Natura can be attained in that condition of consciousness—so closely related to our everyday consciousness—which is able to share the experiences of the dead immediately after their death. I said that it was a condition of greater reality. We inhabit a world of more powerful impressions, more luminous, a world that brings everything to fuller consummation than the phenomenal world.
We owe it to these factors alone that we can participate in the experiences of the soul which has recently passed through the gates of death.
At the same time, this world reveals a peculiar characteristic. When we inhabit this world in the state of consciousness I have described, we are no longer able to observe the normal experiences of our daily life; we see only that part of our life immediately preceding incarnation—our experiences when still in the spiritual world before birth. We must therefore realize that in this condition of consciousness we are detached from the world which man normally inhabits.
Let me illustrate my point. A man is born at a certain point in time. If, at the age of forty, he develops the copper condition of consciousness—I have already explained this in my lecture of the day before yesterday—his perception is no longer related to the immediate present, nor to his perception at the age of thirty or thirty-five; he can only look back to his experiences immediately before birth. He can do this for himself and others, but he cannot apprehend the world of everyday existence. This is only feasible for human beings.
In relation to animals, we do not see them in their familiar physical form; we look into the world immediately above and perceive what I have called the group-soul. We see, as it were, the aura of the animal species. And when we look out into the world, we find it transformed and discover something which is of supreme importance for mankind, but which is totally ignored in our present materialistic age.
And if, endowed with the highest academic learning in all faculties, we contact that Being who is ever present as the Goddess Natura, that Being so vividly described by the teachers of the School of Chartres, Bernardus Silvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others, we feel abysmally ignorant despite all our modern knowledge. We feel that our present knowledge is relevant only to the world between birth and death and is no longer valid when we enter into the spiritual world with a consciousness that can follow the dead beyond the gates of death.
When we study chemistry, the sum-total of our knowledge holds good only for the life between birth and death. Chemistry, as such, is of no importance in the world we share with the dead. All the knowledge we acquire in the phenomenal world is valueless in this intermediate state between death and rebirth, it survives only as a memory. We have an immediate awareness of this intermediate sphere we now inhabit and we feel that the everyday world in which we learned so much has faded from our consciousness. This other world now lies open before us.
Let us imagine that a mountain looms up before us in our immediate environment. It gives an impression of solidity. When seen from a distance it reflects the light of the Sun and we note its contours and rock formations. Then we gradually draw nearer. When we set foot on it, we feel that it offers resistance, that we are standing on solid ground; there is no doubt of its reality.
Now in the intermediate world everything that I have described as solid and luminous ceases to have any significance; something seems to be issuing from the mountain, growing ever larger, and gives an impression of another kind of reality.
Under the conditions of normal life we see the mountain capped by a cloud. We are in no doubt that it is caused by condensation of water vapour. This phenomenon also loses all reality. Something different emerges from the cloud. What we see emerging merges with the cloud and mountain which are gradually lost to view. Out of this union is born a new reality that is not merely nebulous, but is at the same time endowed with form. And this applies to everything in this intermediate world.
Suppose we are standing in front of a large audience. The moment we enter the spiritual world all sharply defined contours are effaced. We perceive instead the soul and spirit of the audience projected in the form of clairvoyant images. And the mysterious spiritual aura of the environment gradually encompasses us. A new world arises, the world the dead inhabit after death.
We now become aware of something else. If this intermediate world which we have now entered did not exist, if it were not omnipresent, we should be without eyes and ears, without sense organs. The world described by the chemist and physicist cannot provide us with sense organs; we should be blind and deaf. Our sense organs could not be built up within us.
And this was the surprising discovery of Brunetto Latini when he returned from Spain to the neighbourhood of his native Florence and suffered that slight attack of heat-stroke which opened up to him this intermediate world. He realized that his sense organs were a gift from this other world, that his senses would be wholly undeveloped if this intermediate world did not permeate the world of sense experience. Our human status is determined by the fact that we owe our sense organs to our connection with this second world, this intermediate world.
At all times this second world has been called the world of the Elements. Here the terms oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, etc., are meaningless, they are applicable only to the world between birth and death. In the second world it is only meaningful to speak of the elements earth, water, air, fire and light, and so on. For the specific characteristics of hydrogen, oxygen, etc., are wholly unrelated to the senses. What the chemist discovers about the scent of violets or of asafoetida, namely, that the one is pleasant and the other highly unpleasant, everything named after its chemical composition—none of this is of any significance. In the second world all manifestations of scent or smell are spiritualized. From the standpoint of the second world it would be described as aeriform; but it is a rarefied air, an air wholly permeated by spirit. Our senses therefore are rooted in the world of elements where it is still meaningful to speak of earth, water, fire and air.
We can now correct our previous misapprehensions and develop the right understanding. What is the reaction of the modern philosopher who claims to be both logical and objective and to have abandoned the naive outlook of earlier epochs? He maintains that these earlier conceptions were primitive: in those days men only spoke of the crude elements, earth, water, fire and air, whereas today seventy to eighty elements are known, not a mere four or five.
Now if a Greek with the typical outlook of his time were to be born today and were told of this attitude, his answer would be: Of course, you still speak of the elements such as oxygen and hydrogen, but in your own way. You have forgotten what we understood by the four elements. You are unaware of their composition, you no longer know anything about them. Despite the existence of all your seventy-two or seventy-five elements, the sense organs would never come into being, for they are born out of the four elements. We had a better knowledge of man; we knew how man's external vehicle with its sense organs was built up.—
We can only form a true estimate of the impressions received by men of olden time who had undertaken the first steps in Initiation, such as Brunetto Latini, when we recognize the significance of these impressions for the life of the soul and spirit, when we bear in mind their unexpected and striking effects and how the soul was actively stimulated by them.
If someone who has believed hitherto in the reality of his sense-impressions discovers that this reality could not even have created his sense organs and that behind this reality there must exist all that I have described here, then the effect in the first instance must be shattering.
It is important to realize that we cannot develop such knowledge and understanding if we perpetuate the old sterile conceptions of nature that we normally hold. When we enter into this second world, everything begins to vibrate with life. We say to ourselves: the mountain we knew through sensory experience appeared to be inanimate matter; we were wholly unaware that it was permeated with living forces. Now they are revealed to us. And the cloud that formerly appeared static and inert now manifests that indwelling vital life that we had not perceived before. Everything is quickened and in this weaving, pulsating life there is revealed a fundamental reality.
In this second world the laws of nature are not intellectual constructs; we are in touch with a spiritual Being. The Goddess Natura, who speaks to us, beckons and communicates insights from the world of reality. And in this way we learn about the reality of our environment through beings of a super-sensible world. We are translated from our purely abstract world that is determined by natural law into the real world of being, where we no longer arrive at natural laws by means of experiment and analysis, but feel ourselves in the presence of beings of a different world, beings who mediate knowledge and understanding because they know what we, as human beings, have yet to learn.
We thus enter the spiritual world in the right way. We realize that if we had been endowed only with sense organs, with the eye and its optic nerves, the nose and its olfactory nerves and the ear with its acoustic nerves, and that if all these nerves were connected at their point of origin, we should be unaware of the existence of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and so on, and of all we perceive between birth and death. We would be looking into the world of Elements—everywhere around us we would perceive earth, water, air and fire. We would not have the slightest interest in differentiating further between the solid and the gross material, the fluid and the aqueous element. As beings of physical sensibility we are familiar with the world of Elements. But the moment we become aware of what I have already described, we realize also that in man the sensory nerves which run back to the cranial cavity are more differentiated, more specialized and form in that area the first indications of the brain. In consequence we do not enter more deeply into ourselves; we become more extroverted and add to the nature of the four elements, earth, fire, air and water, our experiences between birth and death.
The cerebrum evolves nom a progressive metamorphosis of the sensory nerve fibres that run back to the cranial cavity. This cerebrum that is rolled back upon itself in man is of importance only for the life between birth and death. For our understanding of the spiritual world the intellect is of minimal importance. If we wish to enter even the first of the spiritual spheres that border on our world the intellect must be silenced. It is an organ that interferes with higher perception. Even when the intellect has been silenced, we cannot escape from sensory experiences; we must now spiritualize the senses and so attain to Imagination. In the normal course of events our senses perceive sense-derived images in the external physical world and the intellect transforms them into dead, abstract thoughts. If we silence the intellect and experience the world again through our senses, we then perceive everything in the form of imaginations. We become aware of this and then we realize that our deeper insights into life are ultimately linked with the development of states of consciousness that are higher and more spiritual than those of ordinary life.
Our peripheral organs, such as the eye and the ear, are continuously in touch with the world of the Elements and still perceive the dead years after their death. The perception of this world is lost, because our intellect intervenes. The peripheral senses of man mediate the spiritual world, the world of the dead. But the perception of this world, the world of the Elements earth, water, fire and air, is obliterated by the intellectual consciousness. Man sees only the physical world with its sharply defined contours, the world we inhabit between birth and death. But there is no doubt that a second world of a very different order does in fact exist. This world, however, is obliterated by the intellect and man looks only upon the familiar world of everyday consciousness.
Therefore modern man must practise the meditation which I mentioned yesterday. In the past it was still the practice after such meditation to administer metallic substances. I spoke of these in my last lecture. The attainment of the next higher level of consciousness depends therefore, in the first instance, upon the obliteration of the intellect and the spiritualization of the perceptions mediated by the sense organs. Since their brain is not developed, the animals also share these perceptions. But they have no ego-consciousness; their perceptions cannot be imbued with spirit, but only with primitive psychic forces. They do not perceive in the world around what man perceives when his senses are illuminated by the spirit. Animal perception is of a similar kind, but inferior and non-individualized.
What I now propose to say about the metallity, the real substantiality of the mineral world, should be accepted with the due reserve to which I drew attention yesterday when I said that the inner vitalization of the soul through the qualities of the metallity—in other words, the development of an inner communion with the metallity in a moral sense—is a necessary part of man's spiritual development today. The administration of metallic potentization to the human organism is the function of the medical practitioner. And so I ask you to accept with due reserve what I shall say about the unknown factors of metals, other than those already discussed. The mystery of mercury in particular has a special significance for those who approach the world from a spiritual angle, that is to say, for those who are able to perceive the spiritual operating in physical substances. The metal mercury is only one part of what spiritual science calls in general terms the mercurial. The mercurial includes everything that has the characteristics of liquid metals; in nature as we know it today, there is only one metal that shares these characteristics and can be regarded as mercurial, namely, quicksilver. But this is only one member of the mercurial species. In spiritual science the mercurial includes everything of a mercurial nature; quicksilver is looked upon simply as a typical example of the mercurial.
This quicksilver or mercury holds a profound secret. Its effect upon man is such that he is isolated from all impressions of the physical world and also from the world of the Elements.
As human beings, we recognize that organs such as the brain have been built up out of the physical world. We have also built up many other organs out of this sense world, in particular, a whole series of glandular organs that are essential to physical life.
Furthermore, many organs—I have already spoken of the sense organs—have been built up out of the world which I described as the world of the second level of consciousness. Copper and iron raise man to this second level of consciousness. Mercury has a different effect. It must of necessity be present in the universe; and, in effect, it exists universally in a subtle state of diffusion. We are surrounded, if I may so express it, by an atmosphere of mercury. The moment man absorbs more than the normal quantity of mercury, his organism endeavours to neutralize all those organs which have been built up from the physical and elemental worlds. The astral body of man is stimulated, as it were, to call upon only those organs that have been built up out of the world of stars.
Therefore, directly the consciousness is concentrated on the metallity of mercury, on its metallic and fluid qualities, on the fundamentally impalpable element that is characteristic of mercury and which, none the less, is related to the human being, man becomes inwardly permeated by a “third man.” I said that through his relationship to copper man is permeated by a second man who creates inner tensions and is able to relinquish the physical body and accompany the dead in the years immediately following their death. Quicksilver attracts to itself everything that can contribute to a far more closely-knit psychic organism. Through the effects of quicksilver man seems to apprehend the entire metabolism of his organs. When he experiences the strong metallic influence of quicksilver, the manner in which the fluids circulate through the various vessels suddenly claims his attention. The effect cannot be described as pleasant, for he feels as if he were bereft of mind and senses, as if everything were active, alive and stirring within him, as if he were in a state of inner ferment, turmoil and flux, pulsating with life and movement. And he feels this inner activity united with an activity without.
This situation, as I have described it, follows upon the conscious training of the inner life. Through the active influence of quicksilver man ceases to feel the presence of his brain; it has become a hollow cavity. That is an advantage for the perception of the spiritual world since the brain is quite useless for this purpose. What he does in fact feel is movement and activity permeating his entire organism. But at first all this ferment is as painful as if one suffered from inner exhaustion.
Everywhere this inner activity is united with an outer activity. We feel we have left the Earth and the world of Elements below us; everything exhales steaming vapour. But spiritual beings dwell in these vaporous, steaming exhalations. The divine Natura whom Brunetto Latini so vividly describes has now “turned about.”
As I said yesterday, she is identical with the Greek Persephone. Formerly she turned her countenance more towards the Earth; she disclosed those things that were still connected with the Earth sphere, such as man's experience of the life immediately after death. Now she “turns about” and man has the Earth and the elemental world beneath him and the world of stars above. Just as on Earth he was surrounded by plants and animals, his environment is now the world of stars. He no longer feels his insignificance in face of the mighty world of stars, but, in his new stature, he feels in relation to the world of stars exactly as he felt in relation to his immediate environment on Earth. With his increase of stature he has grown into the world of stars. But the stars are not as the stars we saw when on Earth; they reveal themselves as colonies of spiritual beings. We are once again in the world I have already described to you, a world that is awakened in man through his relationship with the metallity of tin. There is an inner relationship between mercury and tin as I have already indicated. Mercury lays claim to a certain part of our being, isolates it and bears it into that spiritual world whose external physical manifestation is the world of stars.
But we are now in a different world because the condition of our consciousness has been changed; it is no longer determined by the senses or the brain, but by that which the metallity of mercury has now drawn out of our organism. We find ourselves in a totally different world—the world of stars. I could, however, express this differently. The term “world of stars” has spatial implications; but through the attainment of this new level of consciousness we actually leave behind the world in which we exist spatially between birth and death and now enter the intermediate world, the world we inhabit between death and rebirth.
The hidden secret of mercury lies in this: mercury detaches man from the phenomenal world and opens up the intermediate world because quicksilver or mercury has an inner relationship to that part of man's being which is not derived from this Earth, but has been implanted in him by the beings of the intermediate world. The circulation of the fluids that he now experiences is determined by the world through which he passes between death and a new birth.
We now become a ware of something else, again something that Brunetto Latini perceived under the influence of the Goddess Natura, namely, that we live in the circulation of the fluids which is associated with the circulation of the cosmic fluids. We have relinquished the physical vehicle with its sense-derived consciousness and find ourselves in the realm we inhabit between death and rebirth. We become familiar with the nature of the circulation of fluids and begin to understand how this inner activity, this realm we inhabit between death and rebirth, has determined the nature of our temperament, whether sanguinic, choleric, melancholic or phlegmatic. We have a deeper insight into our make-up than we have when dependent on our senses. If we are born a phlegmatic we now realize that our impassivity, our phlegm, is determined by our experiences between the last death and the present birth. But in relation to this temperament that manifests itself physically in the circulation of the fluids, we must reckon with an additional factor. Consider for a moment what is involved in this circulation of fluids. In the field of anatomy or physiology we are concerned primarily with the physical. The physical is only an expression of the spiritual. But the spiritual element that is related to this circulation of fluids is not of the physical world, it is of the world that penetrates into man between death and rebirth.
When we review the different temperaments—and it was an overwhelming experience for Brunetto Latini when the Goddess Natura opened his eyes to the existence and nature of the temperaments—we conclude that the life between death and rebirth has determined the nature of these various temperaments that we associated with the circulation of the fluids. If we now probe deeper, we find that karma, the arbiter of destiny, plays its part in this.
If we contemplate the physical aspect of this remarkable metallic fluid mercury, we only begin to understand it when we are fully aware of its hidden secret: that a minute drop of liquid mercury reveals to the Initiate a profound relationship. This drop is able to infuse the spiritual into those organs that derive their structure and origin from the world between death and rebirth.
Thus all things in the world are interwoven and interrelated after this fashion. The physical is an illusion. And from the standpoint of the physical, the spiritual too is only an illusion, an abstraction. In actual fact the physical is interwoven with the spiritual and the spiritual with the physical.
If a human organism has been damaged because those organs are involved which are derived, in effect, from the intermediate realm, we must activate those forces which will repair the damage.
Let us assume that a doctor is consulted by a patient with a defective circulatory system that has its origin in the life between death and rebirth. He is confronted with a patient whose circulatory system has severed its link with the spiritual world. That is the case history. A spiritual diagnosis is made. The relation between the spiritual element and the physical diagnosis must be understood in the sense which I suggested yesterday. I repeat this again so that there shall be no misunderstanding. The diagnosis is as follows: the circulatory system of this patient has made a radical break with the spiritual world. What is to be done?
The correct treatment is to introduce the metallity into the body that will restore the connection between the circulatory system and the spiritual world. This is how mercury works upon man. Mercury works upon the human organism in such a way that those organs which can only be built up out of the spiritual world can again be brought into contact with that same world when they have severed their connection with it. Thus we see the somewhat dangerous, yet at the same time necessary relationship that exists between the knowledge of the states of consciousness in man and the knowledge of diseases. The one passes over into the other.
These things played a vital part in the ancient Mysteries and they also shed light upon such matters as I mentioned yesterday. Consider the following: in an age that had lost the old spiritual vision that recognized the Goddess Natura through her teachings about the secrets of nature, Brunetto Latini, the teacher of Dante, returns in a state of agitation from his ambassadorial post in Spain. As he approaches his native city his agitation increases because he hears of the fate of his own party, the Guelph party. He experiences all this in such a state of mind that a slight heat-stroke overcame him. The metallity of mercury has simply worked upon him from the environment.
What do we understand by a slight heat-stroke? It means that we feel the effect of the mercury in our environment, the mercury that is finely distributed throughout the Cosmos. Brunetto Latini experienced this effect and in consequence he was able to approach the spiritual world in an epoch when it was normally impossible for man to share this experience. Thus we see that in man there exists something that is related not only to the findings of natural science, not only to the disclosures of the person who is in contact with the dead in the first years after their death, but that our fundamental being is in touch with something far more sublime, a purely spiritual realm that we live through between death and rebirth. If we follow the ordinary scientific procedure we can understand the form of the liver or the lung, for example. With the aid of the next higher level of knowledge (that is known to modern physics only in its cruder aspects) we can understand the structure of the sense organs. But we shall never comprehend the peculiar characteristics of the circulatory system of man with his erect posture nor the mysteries of the metallic nature if we do not approach them through Initiation-knowledge.
This implies that we shall never understand the nature of disease in the sense I have described without Initiation-knowledge, for the physical properties of metals cannot cure disease. With an understanding of the physical attributes of metals it may well be possible to heal cerebral damage, but not disturbances of the circulatory fluids. What I have been saying is, in fact, not strictly accurate, for it is only the coarsest substance of the brain that can be healed. Fluids also circulate in the brain; therefore, in reality, one cannot heal cerebral damage with metals alone, but only with the aid of spiritual knowledge.
That may well be true, you will reply, but how do you account for the positive achievements of medicine today in the art of healing? The answer is that medicine is able to heal because it still preserves a memory of the old traditional knowledge about the spiritual elements in metals. It uses a combination of traditional knowledge and purely physical discoveries, though these are of not much avail. And if materialism were to triumph at the expense of tradition, chemical remedies alone could not effect any healing. We are now at the point in human evolution when we must make a new approach to the spiritual, because the old traditions of primordial clairvoyance have gradually been lost.
The mystery behind the metallity of silver is of a very special kind. If the cosmic impulse behind copper awakens the first higher level of consciousness in the being of man, if a different cosmic force behind mercury awakens a second higher level of consciousness that is related to the world of stars and therefore to the spiritual world which we inhabit between death and rebirth, then the metallity of silver must awaken a consciousness of an entirely different order.
When man intensifies and enhances his relationship to silver by the same process he adopted towards the metallic natures of copper and mercury, he comes into touch with a still deeper organization within him. Mercury relates him to the vascular system which, in turn, relates him to a cosmic circulation, to the spirituality of the Cosmos. The intensification of his relationship to silver brings him into direct contact with all the forces and impulses that survive from earlier incarnations.
If a man concentrates on the peculiar properties of silver—and it is some time before the effects are registered—he concentrates within himself those forces which are responsible not only for the circulation of fluids through the vessels, but also for the circulation of warmth in the bloodstream. He then realizes that he owes his human status to the warmth circulating in his blood, in that he feels a certain inner warmth, a material, yet at the same time a spiritual element within his blood; and that in this warmth forces from former incarnations are actively working. In man's relationship to silver is expressed that which can influence the warmth-activity of the blood and also that which provides a spiritual link with earlier incarnations.
Silver therefore preserves that metallic virtue which reminds man of what survives in his present life from earlier incarnations. For the circulation of the blood with its remarkable warmth-differentiations is not derived from this physical world, nor from the world of Elements which I have described to you, nor even from the world of stars. The world of stars determines the course and direction of the blood circulation. But in the warmth of the blood that circulates within us there works the vitalizing force from previous lives on Earth. It is to this we appeal directly when we refer to forces of silver in their relationship to man. Thus the mystery of silver is related to his previous incarnations. Silver is one of the most astounding examples .of the all-pervasiveness of the spiritual, even in the physical world. He who has a right understanding of silver knows that it is the symbol of the cycles of man's lives on Earth. Hence the mystery of silver is bound up with reproduction and its secrets, because through the process of reproduction the being of man is perpetuated from generation to generation. The spiritual being who existed in former lives on Earth incarnates again through the process of reproduction. This is the same mystery as the mystery of blood. The mystery of the blood, of the warmth of the blood, is the mystery of silver.
We are now familiar with the normal condition of man. Let us proceed to a study of his pathological states. Now the blood should not take its warmth from man's present environment, but from the spheres through which he has passed in previous incarnations. Let us suppose that the warmth of his blood is affected by his present environment and is not activated by that which links us spiritually to previous incarnations. Pathological conditions then ensue. They occur because all that is connected with the warmth of the blood is severed from its natural associations, from earlier lives on Earth. What is fever? From the stand point of spiritual science fever occurs because the human organization has severed its relation with the cycle of incarnations. If, in some cases of illness, the doctor ascertains that the external world has worked upon the patient in such a way that his organization is in danger of being cut off from earlier incarnations, then the doctor administers silver as a remedy. A very interesting case of this nature occurred recently in Dr. Wegman's Clinic in Arlesheim. A condition such as I have described may suddenly occur in the spiritual life. Through external circumstances the human organization, owing to the peculiar characteristics of the blood, threatens to break away from previous incarnations. And this is precisely what happened recently in a particular case in Dr. Wegman's Clinic. A patient who was convalescent suddenly developed an unexpectedly high temperature, a fever of unknown origin as it is described by orthodox medicine. With her intuitive understanding Dr. Wegman immediately administered a silver cure. When she told me about it the case revealed a complete picture of cosmic relationships. We learn from this of the interplay between what is connected with the spiritual evolution of man on the one hand, and on the other hand, with what leads to pathological conditions; and we learn how to treat them.
How is it that the Initiate is able to survey former lives on Earth? So long as we are bound up with earlier incarnations, as is the case in ordinary life, and are still involved in their karma, we cannot look back upon our earthly incarnations with our ordinary consciousness. The effects of these incarnations are felt in our present life. We fulfil our karma under their influence and our life is determined by karma. We cannot look back without ordinary consciousness, but, if we wish to do so, we must throw off its limitations for a time. And when we can see the earlier lives objectively, we are in a position to look back.
We must, of course, be able to restore the status quo in a perfectly normal way, otherwise we become psychopaths, not initiates.
Here we have a phenomenon that arises in the course of spiritual development. We cast off our spiritual moorings that attach us to previous incarnations. In abnormal cases and under pathological conditions disease has this effect. Disease is an abnormal expression of that which we must develop normally in a higher sphere in order to attain spiritual vision and other levels of consciousness. If the blood, isolated from the rest of man's organism, surrenders to the dictates of its consciousness—for blood possesses a consciousness of its own, even as other organs have their own particular states of consciousness—if, then, the blood is freed from the bondage of the rest of the organism, it can look back in this abnormal state into earlier incarnations, but not consciously. In order to look back consciously we must first dispense with normal consciousness; when we look back in a pathological condition the link with normal consciousness will be preserved.
The study, for example, of the metallity of silver which is an excellent remedy for all diseases associated with karma, leads on from the mystery of silver to other profound mysteries. We have thus spoken of virtually all those metallic natures that are related to the various conditions of consciousness in man. We will now extend our investigations into these conditions of consciousness, into the relationship to other worlds which man can establish through these conditions. In other words we propose in the next lectures to study in further detail the right path to spiritual knowledge.

Das innere Beleben der Seele durch die Eigenschaften des Metallischen
Der Kupferzustand des Menschen
Ich habe versucht, auf der einen Seite zu zeigen, wie der Mensch zu anderen Bewußtseinszuständen kommt, als diejenigen sind, die er im gewöhnlichen Leben des heutigen Alltags hat. Und ich hatte dann versucht zu zeigen, wie der historische Gang der Menschheitsentwikkelung aufweist, daß die Menschheit nicht immer in demselben Bewußtseinszustande erkennend und handelnd gelebt hat, in dem sie heute lebt. Ich habe dann Ihren Blick versucht hinzulenken auf die Bewußtseinszustände der Erkennenden im 10., 11., 12. Jahrhundert im Zusammenhange mit der Art und Weise, wie damals die Erkenntnis gepflegt worden ist, zum Beispiel von der Schule von Chartres, und ich habe darauf hingewiesen, wie im Zusammenhange damit Erkenntnisse entstanden sind, die nicht den heutigen Bewußtseinszuständen angehören, etwa bei einer Persönlichkeit wie dem großen Lehrer Dantes, bei Brunetto Latini. Ich habe dann gestern versucht, weiter zurück den Blick zu lenken auf die besondere Art und Weise, wie sich der Mensch zur Welt verhalten hat etwa in den Mysterien von Ephesus. Wir sehen da, wie die Menschen durchaus in anderen Bewußtseinszuständen gelebt haben, wenn auch diese ziemlich verwandt sind dem gegenwärtigen alltäglichen und wissenschaftlichen Bewußtsein.
Nun möchte ich heute in jener Betrachtung fortfahren, in welche das Historische zunächst eine Art von Episode hineingebracht hat. Ich habe bemerkt, wie die Metallität, die eigentliche Substantialität des Mineralischen im Verhältnisse zum Menschen und zu seinen Bewußtseinszuständen steht. Aus der Verwandtschaft des Menschen mit dem, was man als das Metall Kupfer bezeichnet, habe ich jenen Bewußtseinszustand des Menschen ersichtlich gemacht, der erreicht werden kann so, wie ich es beschrieben habe, der dann zu der Möglichkeit führt, die Erlebnisse des Toten, des sogenannten Toten, über den Zeitpunkt hinaus zu verfolgen, da er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist.
Nun müssen wir uns darüber klar sein, daß durch jenes halbpathologische Erlebnis, das ich Ihnen angedeutet habe, durch eine Art Sonnenstich, Brunetto Latini etwa in eine solche Art der Erkenntnis, wie ich sie Ihnen ja vorgestern beschrieben habe, hineingekommen ist. Und in der Tat, was er beschreibt, was ihm durch die Inspiration der Göttin Natura geworden ist, das kann ja erreicht werden in diesem unserem gewöhnlichen Zustande nächstverwandten Bewußtseinszustand — denn es ist ein unserem gewöhnlichen Bewußtseinszustand sehr verwandter -, der da verfolgt die Erlebnisse, die die Toten unmittelbar in den Jahren durchmachen, nachdem sie durch des Todes Pforte gegangen sind. Und ich sagte, es ist ein viel realerer Zustand. Man steht da drinnen in einer Welt, die stärker drückt, stärker leuchtet, die alles stärker vollbringt als unsere gewöhnliche physische Welt. Nur dadurch, daß das so ist, kann man dasjenige mitmachen, was der durchmacht, der vor kurzem durch des Todes Pforte gegangen ist.
Aber diese Welt, sie zeigt ja zugleich etwas ganz Besonderes. Wenn man sich in dieser Welt, die ich so beschrieben habe, befindet, dann kann man in dem Augenblicke, in dem man in diesem Bewußtseinszustande ist, nicht hinschauen auf seine gewöhnlichen Tageserlebnisse, auf dasjenige, was man im gewöhnlichen Leben durchmacht, sondern man sieht von seinem eigenen Leben nur das, was unmittelbar dem Betreten des Erdenlebens vorangegangen ist, was man durchgemacht hat noch in der geistigen Welt, bevor man das Erdenleben betreten hat. So daß man also sagen muß: Mit diesem Bewußtseinszustande ist man für den Menschen gar nicht in derselben Welt, in der man gewöhnlich ist.
Stellen Sie sich das graphisch vor. Wenn man in diesem Zeitpunkt geboren ist (es wird gezeichnet) und nun weiterlebt: In dem Augenblicke, wo man, wenn ich es so nennen darf, in den Kupferzustand kommt - Sie verstehen das nach dem vorgestrigen Vortrage -, ist man nicht, wenn man zum Beispiel vierzig Jahre alt geworden ist, mit seinem Erkennen in der Gegenwart. Man ist aber auch nicht mit seinem Erkennen etwa im fünfunddreißigsten oder dreißigsten Jahre, sondern man kann nur zurückgehen zu dem, was man in der geistigen Welt vor seiner Geburt unmittelbar erlebt hat. Man kann das für sich, man kann das für andere Menschen, man kann aber nicht dasjenige erfassen, in dem man im Alltag drinnensteht. Das gilt aber nur wiederum für den Menschen.
Für die Tiere gilt das, daß man zwar nicht dasjenige, was sie physisch sind in der physischen Welt, so sieht wie sonst, sondern man sieht hinauf in die nächste Welt und sieht das, was ich Gattungs- oder Artenseele genannt habe. Man sieht gewissermaßen die Aura der Tiergattungen. Aber man sieht überhaupt, wenn man dann hinausschaut in die Welt, diese Welt verändert, und man lernt etwas erkennen, was eigentlich recht wichtig ist für die Menschheit, aber im gegenwärtigen, materialistisch gesonnenen Zeitalter gar nicht berücksichtigt wird.
Wenn man mit alledem, was man heute lernen kann bis hinauf in die höchste Universitätswissenschaft aller Fakultäten, vor dasjenige Wesen hintritt, das ja noch da ist als Göttin Natura, von dem im lebendigen Sinne die Lehrer der Schule von Chartres gesprochen haben, gesprochen hat Bernardus Silvestris, Alanus ab Insulis und andere, wenn man vor dieses Wesen hintritt, dann fühlt man sich gerade mit seinem heutigen Erkennen in einer recht unwissenden Stimmung. Denn man sagt sich: Du weißt ja eigentlich nach dem heutigen Wissen und Erkennen nur etwas, was auf diejenige Welt, die du zwischen Geburt und Tod durchlebst, Bezug hat, und was schon nicht mehr wahr ist, wenn du nur in die nächste spirituelle Welt mit deinem Bewußtsein so untertauchst, daß du den Toten noch über den Tod hinaus verfolgen kannst.
Wir lernen Chemie. Aber das, was wir in der Chemie lernen, das gilt nur für die Welt, in der wir leben zwischen Geburt und Tod. Die ganze Chemie hat keine Bedeutung in der Welt, in der man den Toten nach dem Tode verfolgt. Alles, was man hier lernt in der physischen Welt, hat für jene Welt gar keine Bedeutung, es ist nur eine Erinnerung, wenn man darinnen ist in jener Welt. Und diese Welt, in der man dann darinnen ist, die geht einem eben sogleich auf, und man fühlt, die Welt, in der man so viel gelernt hat, diese alltägliche Welt, die schwindet. Die andere Welt geht sogleich auf.
Nehmen wir an, wir haben in dieser Welt, in der wir zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode stehen, einen Berg. Der Berg ist uns für diese Welt recht dicht. Wir schauen ihn zunächst von der Ferne. Er wirft uns das Licht zurück, das ihm die Sonne gibt. Wir sehen ihn in seinen Formen, in seinen Konturen. Wir gehen hin. Wir kommen ihm näher und immer näher. Wir fühlen, daß er uns Widerstand bietet, wenn wir ihn betreten. Er macht auf uns den Eindruck des Realen. Jetzt sind wir in einer anderen Welt. Alles das, wovon wir gesagt haben, es ist fest, das hört auf, scheint es, eine Bedeutung zu haben, und es ist etwas, was wie aus dem Berg herauskommt, immer größer und größer wird, was uns den Eindruck macht einer anderen Realität.
Und weiter, wir sehen, wenn wir hier in der alltäglichen Welt stehen, über dem Berg die Wolke. Wir sind überzeugt, die ist da oben als zusammengedichteter Dunst. Sie hört ebenso auf, ihre Realität zu haben. Wiederum etwas ganz anderes kommt heraus aus dieser Wolke. Was da herauskommt, verbindet sich mit dieser nach und nach verschwindenden Wolke und dem Berg, und etwas Neues kommt heraus, eine neue Realität ist da, was nicht etwa bloß ein Nebel ist, sondern was Gestalt hat. Und so mit allen Dingen. Wir sehen eine Menge Dinge hier, zum Beispiel viele Menschen. In dem Augenblick, wo sie in die geistige Welt eintreten, verschwinden die scharfen Konturen. Sie müssen sich schon zu dem Gedanken bequemen, meine Damen, daß man all Ihre schönen Kleider dann nicht mehr sieht. Dagegen ersteht aus alledem, was da sitzt, das Seelisch-Geistige. Aber aus der Umgebung kommt dasjenige heran, was geheimnisvoll in Luft und in der ganzen Umgebung waltet. Das kommt heran. Fine neue Welt entsteht. Und in dieser Welt ist der Tote nach dem Tode.
Aber nun werden wir ein anderes gewahr. Wir bemerken ein anderes. Wenn diese Welt nicht wäre, in die wir jetzt eingetreten sind, wenn diese Welt nicht überall auch vorhanden wäre, wo die Welt vorhanden ist, die wir zwischen Geburt und Tod durchblicken, dann hätten wir keine Augen und keine Ohren, überhaupt keine Sinne als Menschen. Denn die Welt, die der Chemiker beschreibt, der Physiker beschreibt, die kann uns keine Sinne geben. Wir wären ganz ohne Sinne, wir wären blind und taub. Die Sinne würden sich nicht in uns bilden.
Sehen Sie, das ist das Überraschende gewesen, als dieser Brunetto Latini von Spanien herübergekommen ist, in die Nähe seiner Vaterstadt Florenz gekommen ist und diesen leisen Sonnenstich hatte und dadurch versetzt wurde in diese andere Welt. Da merkte er: Deine Sinne hast du aus dieser anderen Welt. Du wärest als Mensch sinnenlos, wenn diese andere Welt nicht durchdränge die gewöhnliche Welt, die du sonst siehst. Du stehst also als Mensch dadurch, daß dir deine Sinne eingesetzt sind in deinen Körper, im Zusammenhang mit dieser zweiten Welt.
Und zu allen Zeiten hat man diese zweite Welt - wir können den Ausdruck beibehalten - die Welt der Elemente genannt. Da drinnen hat es keinen Sinn, zu sprechen von Sauerstoff, Wasserstoff, Stickstoff und so weiter. Davon können wir reden zwischen Geburt und Tod. Da drinnen hat es nur einen Sinn, zu sprechen von den Elementen Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer und Licht und so weiter. Denn das Spezifische von Wasserstoff, Sauerstoff und so weiter hat gar keinen Bezug zu unseren Sinnen. Was der Chemiker findet an dem Geruch von Veilchen oder von Asa foetida, daß das eine einen sehr sympathischen, das andere einen höchst unsympathischen Geruch hat, was da chemisch gefunden wird, mit Namen von Stoffen bezeichnet wird, hat keine Bedeutung. Dagegen ist das alles, was da wirkt als Geruch, durchgeistigt. Luftförmig müßte man es bezeichnen im Sinne der Welt, in die der Tote unmittelbar nach dem Tode eintritt, aber differenzierte Luft, überall durchgeistigte Luft. So daß unsere Sinne wurzeln in der Elementenwelt, in der Welt, wo es noch einen Sinn hat, von Erde, Wasser, Feuer, Luft zu sprechen.
Sehen Sie, da kommt uns gegenüber einem falschen Gedanken der richtige Gedanke. Wie verhält sich der moderne Philosoph, der ja, wie er selber sagt, verständig, vernünftig geworden ist, der die Naivität der Anschauungen früherer Zeiten überwunden hat? Er sagt: Nun, die Anschauungen früherer Zeiten waren grob. Die haben nur von den groben Elementen Erde, Wasser, Feuer, Luft gesprochen. Wir wissen, daß es siebzig bis achtzig Elemente gibt, nicht vier oder fünf. - Würde ein Grieche auferstehen - so wie er damals war, nicht in Wiederverkörperung - und würde sich das sagen lassen müssen, dann würde er sagen: Ja, ganz gewiß, ihr habt ja Sauerstoff, Wasserstoff und so weiter, das sind eure Elemente. Aber ihr habt vergessen, was wir in unseren vier Elementen hatten. Das seht ihr nicht mehr. Von dem wißt ihr nichts mehr. Aber mit all euren zweiundsiebzig oder fünfundsiebzig Elementen würden niemals Sinne entstehen, denn die entstehen aus den vier Elementen. Wir kannten den Menschen daher besser. Wir wußten, wie sich dieses Äußere, Peripherische, das von Sinnen durchsetzt ist, im Menschen bildet.
Die Eindrücke, die von solchen alten, an die Initiation nahe herangekommenen Menschen, wie Brunetto Latini einer war, empfangen wurden, die können wir ja nur würdigen, wenn wir sie auf ihre Gemütstatsache hin würdigen, wenn wir das Überraschende, Frappierende, das die Seele Aufregende und Hinnehmende ins Auge fassen. Natürlich, wenn jemand bis dahin geglaubt hat, was seine Augen hier sehen, seine Ohren hier hören, das sei das Reale, und er kommt dann darauf, daß dieses Reale nicht einmal Auge und Ohr hervorbringen könnte, sondern daß da dasjenige dahinter sein muß hinter diesem Realen, was ich hier beschrieben habe, dann wirkt das natürlich zunächst erschütternd.
Und das wiederum ist das Wesentliche, daß wir zu keiner solchen Erkenntnis kommen können, wenn wir in der gewöhnlichen toten Weise der Natur gegenüberstehen und bleiben, wie wir es sonst tun. Es beginnt sogleich alles zu leben, wenn wir in diese Welt eintreten. Wir sagen uns: Ja, der Berg, den wir kennen, er ist tot. Wir haben gar nicht gewußt, daß in dem etwas lebt. Aber es lebt etwas in ihm. Jetzt ist es da. Die Wolke erschien uns früher tot; jetzt erscheint das Lebende, das in ihr ist, das wir früher nicht gesehen haben. Alles wird lebendig. Aber in diesem lebendigen Weben offenbart sich eben auch wiederum Wesenhaftes.
Da drücken wir nicht aus unserem Gehirn Naturgesetze heraus, sondern da stehen wir einer geistigen, einer spirituellen Wesenheit, eben der Wesenheit Natura gegenüber, die uns sagt dieses, die uns zeigt dieses, die uns reale Mitteilungen macht. Und es wird eine Tatsache, daß man sich über die Tatsachen, die da sind in unserer Umgebung, mit Wesen einer übersinnlichen Welt verständigt. So tritt man eben ein aus dem bloß Abstrakten der Gesetzhaftigkeit der Welt in das Wesenhafte, wo man sich, statt daß man Naturgesetze durch Experiment und Nachdenken zusammenbringt, Wesen einer anderen Welt gegenüberfühlt, die für die Erkenntnis Mitteilungen machen, weil sie das wissen, was wir als Menschen erst lernen sollen.
Und so kommt man hinein auf einem rechten Wege in die geistigen Welten. Man kommt dann dahinter: Würdest du nur Sinne haben, würde nur das Auge mit seinen Sehnerven, die Nase mit ihren Riechnerven, das Ohr mit den Gehörnerven da sein, und würden sich diese Nerven alle bloß verbinden nach rückwärts, so würdest du gar nicht darauf kommen, daß es Sauerstoff, Wasserstoff, Stickstoff und so weiter gibt, daß es alle diese Dinge gibt, die man zwischen Geburt und Tod als Mensch wahrnimmt. Man würde hineinschauen in die Welt der Elemente. Überall würde man Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer schauen. Und dasjenige, was als weitere Differenzierung des Festen, Erdigen, des Flüssigen, Wässerigen da wäre, würde einen so wenig interessieren wie den Millionär das kleine Geld. Man würde sich einfach nicht dafür interessieren. Aus unseren Nerven, die von den Sinnen ausgehen, als Sinnesmenschen wissen wir von der elementarischen Welt. Und in dem Augenblicke, wo wir dies, was ich erzählt habe, gewahr werden, werden wir auch gewahr, daß ja bei uns als Menschen die Sinnesnerven zurückgehen, sich mehr differenzieren, mehr vervollkommnen, da etwas darinnen noch ausbilden wie Gehirn. Dadurch kommen wir nicht mehr in uns hinein, sondern mehr aus uns heraus, und wir fügen zu dem Wesen der vier Elemente: Erde, Feuer, Wasser, Luft, das andere hinzu, was wir eben sonst lernen zwischen Geburt und Tod.
Aber dieses ganze Gehirn, das sich aufstülpt aus den nach rückwärts gehenden Sehnerven, Gehörnerven und so weiter, dieses ganze Gehirn, das uns so wertvoll ist als Menschen, das hat ja nur eine Tafel 6
Bedeutung zwischen Geburt und Tod. Was da in der Schädeldecke drinnen noch besonders aufgestülpt ist beim Menschen, hat nur eine Bedeutung für das irdische Leben. Das Gehirn ist das Allerunbedeutendste für die geistige Welt. Daher muß man schon das Gehirn wieder ausschalten, wenn man nur in die erste Welt, die an die unsere angrenzt, hineinkommen will. Das Gehirn muß man ausschalten. Das ist ein furchtbar störendes Organ für die höhere Anschauung. Und man muß mit dem ausgeschalteten Gehirn gleich wiederum in den Sinnen leben, aber jetzt in die Sinne hineingedrückt haben das erweckte Spirituelle; dann bekommt man die Imagination. Die Sinne nehmen sonst Sinnesbilder wahr in der äußeren physischen Welt und die setzt das Gehirn um in die abstrakten Gedanken, in diese toten, abstrakten Gedanken. Schaltet man das Gehirn aus, lebt man wiederum in den Sinnen, dann empfindet man alles wiederum in Imaginationen. Das wird man gewahr. Dann eben weiß man auch, daß das Untertauchen in tiefere Lebenszustände verbunden ist mit dem Entwickeln höherer geistiger Bewußtseinszustände als wir sie im gewöhnlichen Leben haben.

Unsere Sinne, die ja an unserer Oberfläche sind, Auge, Ohr, die nehmen fortwährend diese Welt wahr (siehe Zeichnung, rot). Da stehen wir, meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden. Unsere Sinne, die an unserer Oberfläche sind, die schauen diese elementarische Welt. Die schauen auch noch die Toten darinnen, Jahre nachdem sie gestorben sind. Daß das alles ausgelöscht ist, das rührt davon her, daß hinter den Sinnen das Gehirn ist (orange). Jetzt stehe ich da mit meinem Gehirn, meinen Sinnen. Dieser Mensch, der an meiner äußeren Oberfläche liegt, der schaut darinnen die geistige Welt, der schaut darinnen die Toten in den Jahren nach dem Tode. Aber mein Gehirn, das löscht das alles aus, löscht aus Erde, Wasser, Feuer, Luft; und ich schaue hin auf das, was in scharfen Konturen da ist als physische Welt, was nur da ist für die Welt, die ich zwischen Geburt und Tod durchlebe. Es ist eine Welt da ganz anderer Art. Ich lösche sie durch mein Gehirn aus und schaue auf die Welt, die eben dem Menschen als die Welt des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins bekannt ist.
Und so besteht ja für den neueren Menschen jene Meditation, von der ich gestern gesprochen habe. Für den älteren Menschen bestand nach jener Meditation auch noch der Genuß von solchen Metallitäten, wie ich es gestern auseinandergesetzt habe. So besteht ja das Versetzen zunächst in den nächsten Bewußtseinszustand darin, daß man das Gehirnbewußtsein ausschaltet und mit dem Geiste untertaucht in das Bewußtsein, das unsere Augen, Ohren haben. Die Tiere haben das auch, denn die haben physisch das Gehirn hinter den Sinnen nicht entwickelt. Nur haben sie nicht in sich die Ich-begabte Seele, so daß sie in ihre Sinne nicht untertauchen können mit dem Geiste. Sie tauchen nur mit dem Grob-Seelischen unter, sehen daher nicht dasjenige, was der Mensch, wenn er mit dem Geiste in seine Sinne untertaucht, in der Umgebung sehen kann. Aber in derselben Art sehen die Tiere; niedrig, nicht individuell hoch, sehen die Tiere.
Das Mysterium des Merkur
Was ich nun weiter über die Metallität, also über das eigentlich Substantielle des Mineralischen sagen werde, bitte ich Sie, meine verehrten Damen und Herren, mit all der Reserve ausgestattet zu betrachten, auf die ich gestern aufmerksam gemacht habe, und die ich zusammengefaßt habe in den Satz: Das innere Beleben der Seele durch die Eigenschaften des Metallischen, also das Ausbilden gewissermaßen eines inneren Zusammenlebens mit der Metallität in einem moralischen Sinne, das gehört für den heutigen Menschen der wirklichen spirituellen Entwickelung an. Das Beibringen von Metallität an den menschlichen Organismus, das gehört in den Bereich des Arztes. Also mit dieser Reserve bitte ich Sie, alles das aufzunehmen, was ich nun noch zu sagen haben werde über das Mysterium von anderen Metallen als die, welche ich schon besprochen habe.
Vor allen Dingen steht derjenige, der die Welt geistig betrachtet, das heißt, der die Physis, die physischen Substanzen auch so betrachten kann, daß er in ihnen das dahinter wirkende Spirituelle sieht, in einer für ihn sehr bedeutsamen Weise vor dem Mysterium des Merkur. Das Metall Merkur ist ja nur ein Teil dessen, was man in der Geisteswissenschaft im allgemeinen das Merkuriale nennt; Metallisch-Flüssiges, alles, was metallisch-flüssig ist, ist das Merkuriale, nur daß in unserem Naturzustande eben nur das eine Metall Quecksilber metallisch-flüssig ist und daher merkurial ist. Aber das ist ja nur ein Individuum aus der Gattung des Merkurialen. Wenn man in der Geisteswissenschaft von dem Merkurialen spricht, so spricht man von allem Merkurialen, betrachtet das Quecksilber nur als den Repräsentanten des Merkurialen. Dieses Quecksilber, beziehungsweise das Merkur, gibt in der Tat ein bedeutsames Mysterium. Seine Wirksamkeit auf den Menschen ist so, daß es überhaupt alles das vom Menschen ausschaltet, was der Mensch an Wirkungen aus der physischen Welt erfährt, und auch noch aus der Welt, die ich eben jetzt beschrieben habe, aus der elementarischen Welt.
Wir Menschen stehen ja so in der Welt da, daß wir einmal solche Organe wie unser Gehirn aus der physischen Welt heraus gebildet haben. Viele andere Organe im Menschen sind noch aus der physischen Welt heraus gebildet, namentlich eine ganze Anzahl von wichtigen, für das physische Leben wichtigen Drüsenorganen. Ferner sind eine ganze Anzahl von Organen - ich habe ja eben die Sinne angeführt — herausgebildet aus der Welt, die ich als die des zweiten Bewußtseins beschrieben habe. Kupfer, Eisen, sie versetzen den Menschen in diese zweite Welt.
Anders das Merkur. Das Merkur muß da sein in der Welt. Und es ist in feiner Dosierung überall da. Wir leben, wenn ich mich des Ausdrucks bedienen darf, in einer Atmosphäre von Merkur. Aber in dem Augenblicke, wo der Mensch etwas mehr als dieses normale Merkur in sich aufnimmt, strebt sein Organismus dahin, alle Organe auszuschalten, die aus der physischen Welt und aus der elementarischen Welt sind. Der Astralleib des Menschen wird sozusagen angeregt, nur diejenigen Organe im Menschen in Anspruch zu nehmen, die herausgebildet sind aus der Welt der Sterne. Daher wird der Mensch sogleich, wenn sein Bewußtsein sich auf die Metallität Merkur konzentriert, auf die Eigenschaften des Merkur, auf das Metallisch-Flüssige, das eigentümlich Unberührbare und doch wiederum Menschenverwandte, das im Merkurialen liegt, innerlich noch mit einem dritten Menschen ausgefüllt.
Ich sagte, durch die Beziehung zum Kupfer wird der Mensch ausgefüllt mit einem zweiten Menschen, der innerlich preßt und drängt, der auch herausgehen kann aus dem gewöhnlichen physischen Leib, und dann folgen kann, wie ich charakterisiert habe, den Toten in den nächsten Jahren nach dem Tode. Das Quecksilber zieht sogleich alles dasjenige an sich, was im Menschen einen viel, viel dichteren inneren seelischen Organismus hervorruft. Der Mensch fühlt, wie wenn er ergreifen würde mit alledem, was ihm jetzt durch das Quecksilber wird, den ganzen Stoffwechsel seiner Organe. Wie durch die verschiedenen Gefäße die Säfte im Menschen fließen, das nimmt den Menschen plötzlich in Anspruch, wenn er den starken Einfluß der Metallität des Quecksilbers erfährt.
Es ist zunächst nicht etwas, was man als wunderbar und angenehm beschreiben kann, denn der Mensch fühlt, wie wenn er kein Gehirn hätte, keine Sinne hätte, aber wie wenn alles in ihm in Regsamkeit und Bewegung wäre, wie wenn alles in ihm in Kribbelndem und Krabbelndem, in innerem Rühren und Tun und Weben und Leben wäre. Da ist plötzlich alles in uns in innerer Regsamkeit. Und wir fühlen dieses, was in uns in innerer Regsamkeit ist, verbunden mit einer Regsamkeit im Äußeren.
Das alles nach Trainierung der Seele bewußt durchgemacht, wie ich es beschrieben habe, stellt sich grob schematisch so dar (siehe Zeichnung $. 102). Durch den Einfluß des Quecksilbers, durch den Impuls des Quecksilbers fühlt der Mensch nicht sein Gehirn; das ist ein Loch. Das ist auch gut für die Wahrnehmung der spirituellen Welt; das Gehirn taugt nicht dazu. Andere Organe werden auch noch nicht gefühlt. Aber gefühlt wird das Durchgehen von Bewegung durch den ganzen Organismus (rot). Und alle diese Bewegungen tun zunächst so weh, schmerzen so, wie wenn man innerlich müde wäre.

Diese Bewegungen, sie stehen mit äußeren Bewegungen überall in Verbindung (orange). Es verbindet sich die innere Regsamkeit mit der äußeren Regsamkeit. Man hat den Eindruck, man hat da unter sich gelassen die Welt der Erde, die Welt der Elemente, das ist alles unten. Das qualmt und dampft. Aber in diesem qualmenden, dampfigen, luftigen Bewegen, da sind eben geistige Wesenheiten. Die göttliche Natur, von der Brunetto Latini noch so lebensvoll spricht, hat sich umgedreht.
Sie ist ja dasselbe wie die griechische Persephone, wie ich gestern ausgeführt habe. Vorher wandte sie ihr Antlitz mehr der Erde zu, erklärte einem dasjenige, was noch mit dem Irdischen zusammenhängt, wie das Leben, das der Mensch zuerst nach dem Tode zubringt. Jetzt dreht sie sich um, und man hat das Irdische und Elementarische unter sich, über sich die Welt der Sterne. Die Sternenwelten werden so die Umgebung, wie man vorher von Pflanzen und Tieren auf Erden umgeben war. Und man hat nicht etwa das Gefühl: Was bist du für ein kleiner Knirps gegenüber der großen Sternenwelt! — sondern man fühlt sich in seiner Größe gegenüber der großen Sternenwelt so, wie man sich der nächsten Umgebung auf Erden gegenüber fühlt. Man ist eben auch groß geworden. Man ist hineingewachsen mit seiner Größe in die Sternenwelten. Aber die Sterne sind nicht so Sterne, wie wir sie gesehen haben, als wir auf der Erde standen und sie mit Augen sahen, die Sterne enthüllen sich als Kolonien geistiger Wesenheiten. Wir sind wiederum in der Welt, die ich Ihnen schon beschrieben habe, die ich Ihnen beschrieben habe als hervorgerufen im Menschen durch seine Verwandtschaft mit der Metallität des Zinnes. Denn zwischen dem Merkur und dem Zinn ist eine innere Verwandtschaft nach der angedeuteten Richtung. Einen gewissen Teil unserer Menschenwesenheit nimmt das Merkur in Anspruch, hebt ihn heraus aus der übrigen Menschenwesenheit, trägt diesen Teil der Menschenwesenheit in jene geistige Welt hinein, deren äußere physische Offenbarung die Sternenwelt ist.
Aber wir sind jetzt wiederum woanders, dadurch, daß unser Bewußtseinszustand sich geändert hat, daß wir nicht mehr durch die Sinne, durch das Gehirn unseren Bewußtseinszustand haben, sondern durch dasjenige, was jetzt aus unserem Organismus herausgehoben hat die Metallität des Merkur. Dadurch sind wir in einer ganz anderen Welt. Wir sind jetzt in der Welt der Sterne. Aber ich könnte auch anders sagen. Welt der Sterne, das bedeutet die Sache räumlich; in Wirklichkeit aber wandern wir aus der Welt, in der wir räumlich sind zwischen Geburt und Tod, mit der Entwickelung des genannten Bewußtseinszustandes heraus und sind nun in der Welt, die wir durchleben als Mensch zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.
Es ist in der Tat das Mysterium des Merkur, daß das Merkur den Menschen herausträgt aus der Welt, in der er als der physisch-sinnlichen Welt ist, daß es ihn hineinträgt in die Welt, in der er zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ist, weil das Quecksilber, das Merkur, eine innere Verwandtschaft zu dem im Menschenwesen hat, was gar nicht von dieser Erde ist, sondern was hereingetragen ist aus der Welt, die wir durchleben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Unser Säftekreislauf, dasjenige, was wir jetzt spüren, das ist nicht von dieser Welt, das ist hereinbestimmt aus der Welt, die wir durchlaufen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.
Und jetzt werden wir ein anderes gewahr, wiederum etwas, was Brunetto Latini unter dem Einflusse der Göttin Natura bemerkte. Wir werden gewahr: Wir leben in unserem Säftekreislauf, der sich aber verbindet mit dem Säftekreislauf des ganzen Kosmos; wir sind aus uns heraus und wir sind in jenem Land, das wir durchleben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Aber wir lernen die Natur dieses Säftekreislaufes jetzt kennen und lernen erkennen, wie in dieser inneren Regsamkeit, in diesem Säftekreislauf aus dem Lande heraus, das wir durchlaufen zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, unser Temperament gebildet ist; so gebildet ist, daß wir entweder ein sanguinischer oder ein cholerischer oder ein melancholischer oder ein phlegmatischer Mensch geworden sind. Wir begreifen uns jetzt noch tiefer denn als Sinnesmensch. Wenn wir als Phlegmatiker durch die Welt gehen, müssen wir uns sagen: Unser Phlegma ist bedingt von dem, was wir durchgemacht haben zwischen dem letzten Tode und dieser Geburt. Ebenso das Cholerische, das Melancholische und Sanguinische.
Aber in dieses Temperament, in das, was da im Säftekreislauf seinen physischen Ausdruck hat, in das ist noch etwas anderes hineingemischt. Bedenken Sie nur, was Sie in diesem Säftekreislauf haben. Gehen Sie als Anatom, als Physiologe vor, so haben Sie zunächst etwas Physisches. Das Physische ist nur der Ausdruck eines Geistigen. Aber das Geistige ist in bezug auf diesen Säftekreislauf gar nicht von dieser Welt, sondern es ist von der Welt, die zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in den Menschen hineinwirkt.
So daß, wenn wir auf unser Temperament zurückschauen - und das war auch das Allerfrappierendste für Brunetto Latini, als ihm die Göttin Natura die Temperamente erklärte -, man sagt sich: Da, in diesen Temperamenten, die im Säftekreislauf liegen, da hinein hat das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt das Siegel gedrückt. - Aber geht man jetzt tiefer, so ist dem beigemischt dasjenige, was man Karma nennt, was man die Schicksalsprüfung nennt. Schaut man dieses merkwürdige metallisch fließende Merkur in seinem physikalischen Dasein an, so lernt man es eben nur dann recht erkennen, wenn man weiß, daß dieses Geheimnis darinnen liegt: In einem Tröpfchen hinfließenden Quecksilbers offenbart sich dem Initiierten ein tiefgehender Zusammenhang. Und dieses Tröpfchen des dahinfließenden Quecksilbers, es ist imstande, des Menschen Geistiges zusammenzuziehen mit denjenigen Organen, die da stammen in ihren Formungen, in ihrem Ursprung aus dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.
So ist alles in der Welt miteinander verbunden, ineinander verwoben. Das Physische ist nur die Illusion, eine physische Illusion. Das Geistige ist nur für das Physische eine Illusion, eine abstrakte Illusion. In Wahrheit ist Physisches in Geistiges, Geistiges in Physisches verwoben. Und hat man beim schadhaft gewordenen menschlichen Organismus die Bemerkung gemacht, dieser menschliche Organismus ist dadurch schadhaft geworden, daß jene Organe angegriffen sind, welche eigentlich gebildet sind aus dem Lande herein, das wir durchleben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, dann muß man Kräfte im menschlichen Organismus wachrufen, die diese Schäden ausbessern.
Nehmen Sie an, ein Mensch zeigt dem Arzte, er hat diejenige Organisation — den Säftekreislauf — schadhaft, der eigentlich aus dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt heraus impulsiert wird. Ich stehe also vor einem Kranken, dessen Säftekreislauf sich von der geistigen Welt losgerissen hat. Das ist das Phänomen. Man diagnostiziert spirituell in der Sache. Immer ist das Spirituelle im Verhältnis zur physischen Diagnose so aufzufassen, wie ich das gestern auch angedeutet habe. Ich betone das immer wieder, damit keine Mißverständnisse entstehen. Man diagnostiziert, der Mensch hat einen Säftekreislauf, der sich zu stark losgerissen hat von der spirituellen Welt, die wir durchleben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Was muß man tun?
Man muß therapeutisch diejenige Metallität dem Körper in der geeignetesten Weise zuführen, welche den Säftekreislauf wiederum in Kontakt bringt mit der spirituellen Welt. So wirkt das Merkur auf den Menschen. Das Merkur wirkt auf den Menschenorganismus so, daß es diejenigen Organe, die nur herausgebildet werden können aus der spirituellen Welt, wenn sie sich losgerissen haben, wiederum in Kontakt bringt mit dieser spirituellen Welt. Da sehen Sie, welche, ich möchte sagen, gefährliche, zu gleicher Zeit aber selbstverständlich notwendige Beziehung herrscht zwischen der Erkenntnis der Bewußtseinszustände im Menschen und der Erkenntnis der Krankheiten. Das eine geht in das andere über.
Diese Dinge, die spielten ja eine so große Rolle in den alten Mysterien. Und diese Dinge klären uns auch auf über so etwas, wie ich es gestern erzählt habe. Denken Sie sich, in einer Zeit, in der die Menschheit längst nicht mehr ein solches spirituelles Schauen hatte, daß die Göttin Natura erkannt wurde in ihrer belehrenden Art über die Naturgeheimnisse, kehrt in einer gewissen Aufregung Dantes Lehrer, Brunetto Latini, von seinem Gesandtenposten in Spanien zurück, kommt in die Nähe seiner Vaterstadt, wird weiter aufgeregt, weil er hört, wie es seiner eigenen Partei, der Welfenpartei, ergangen ist. Das alles vollbringt er in der Verfassung, daß etwas wie ein leiser Sonnenstich in ihm zustande kommt. Die Metallität des Merkur hat einfach auf ihn aus der Umgebung gewirkt.
Denn, was heißt es: Wir bekommen einen leisen Sonnenstich? Das heißt, wir bekommen eine Wirkung aus dem überall in der feinsten Weise in unserer Umgebung im Kosmos dosierten Merkur. Diese Wirkung hat Brunetto Latini bekommen. Dadurch hat er in einer Zeit, in der sonst es dem Menschen unmöglich war, so an die geistige Welt heranzutreten, wie er herangetreten ist, dadurch hat er die Möglichkeit bekommen, an diese geistige Welt heranzutreten.
Das weist Sie aber darauf hin, meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, daß im Menschen, so wie er vor uns steht, etwas ist, was eine Verwandtschaft hat nicht nur zu dem, was der Naturforscher vor uns ausbreitet, was eine Verwandtschaft hat nicht nur zu dem, was der vor uns ausbreitet, der schon den Toten verfolgen kann auf seinem nächsten Schritte nach dem Tode, sondern daß die menschliche Wesenheit, wie sie in uns ist, eine Beziehung, eine Relation hatzunoch weit Höherem, zu ganz Geistigem, wie wir es durchleben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Sie mögen die Form der Leber begreifen, die Form der Lunge begreifen, wenn Sie mit der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft vorgehen. Sie mögen den Bau der Sinnesorgane begreifen, wenn Sie das nächste Wissen zu Hilfe nehmen; aber das nimmt unsere heutige Physik nur in grober Weise in Anspruch. Sie lernen aber nie die Zirkulation des aufgerichteten Menschen kennen in ihrer Eigenart, wenn Sie nicht mit der Initiationswissenschaft herangehen. Und Sie lernen auch nie die Geheimnisse der Metallität kennen, wenn Sie nicht wiederum mit der Initiationswissenschaft herangehen.
Damit aber ist auch gesagt, daß Sie nie das Wesen der Krankheiten im Sinne des Ausgeführten kennenlernen, wenn Sie nicht mit der Initiationswissenschaft an sie herangehen, denn Sie können ja mit der physischen Eigenschaft der Metalle nicht helfen. Mit den physischen Eigenschaften der Metalle können Sie Gehirne heilen, wenn man sie erst kennt. Sie können nicht einen Kreislauf der Säfte heilen. Aber das, was ich Ihnen da sage, ist auch uneigentlich gesprochen, denn Sie können nur die gröbste Masse des Gehirnes heilen. Aber im Gehirn ist auch Säftekreislauf. Daher können Sie in Wirklichkeit auch nicht Gehirne heilen mit den Metallen, sondern nur mit der spirituellen Erkenntnis. Sie können sagen: Ja, warum heilt denn die heutige Medizin doch? Sie heilt mit dem, was an Tradition ihr noch geblieben ist aus alten Zeiten. Man weiß noch, was die Alten gewußt haben über die Spiritualität der Metalle. Das wendet man an. Das wendet man zwischen dem an, was man rein physisch entdeckt hat und was nicht viel hilft. Und wenn einmal der Materialismus gesiegt haben würde und alles vergessen sein würde, dann würde kein Heilmittel mehr etwas helfen, das nur auf physischem Wege gefunden ist.
Wir stehen schon an dem Punkte der Menschheitsentwickelung, wo, weil allmählich die alten Traditionen aus dem ursprünglichen Hellsehen geschwunden sind, auf neue Weise das Spirituelle gefunden werden muß.
Das Mysterium des Silbers
Von einer ganz besonderen Art ist wiederum jenes Mysterium, das hinter der Metallität des Silbers steckt. Kann man sagen, hinter dem Kupfer steht diejenige kosmische Impulsivität, welche zunächst den ersten höheren Menschen in das Menschenwesen hereinzaubert; hinter dem Merkur steht eine zweite kosmische Kraft, welche einen zweiten Menschen hereinzaubert, der mit der Sternenwelt und damit mit der spirituellen Welt, die wir durchleben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, zusammenhängt, so muß man von der Metallität des Silbers noch etwas ganz anderes sagen.
Wenn der Mensch eben in einer solchen Weise seine Verwandtschaft zum Silber steigert, größer macht, wie wir das für die Metallität des Kupfers, für die Metallität des Merkur gesehen haben, dann wendet er sich wiederum an eine noch tiefere Organisation in sich. Mit dem Merkur hat er sich an die Gefäßorganisation gewandt, die ihn in Zusammenhänge bringt mit einer Zirkulation im ganzen Kosmos, in Zusammenhang bringt mit der Spiritualität des Kosmos. Dadurch, daß er die Silberrelation steigert, bringt sich der Mensch in unmittelbaren Kontakt mit demjenigen, was herüberkraftet, herüberimpulsiert aus früheren Erdenleben.
So daß wir sagen können: Konzentriert sich der Mensch auf die besonderen Eigenschaften des Silbers, was lange dauert, bis es wirksam wird, zieht der Mensch diejenigen Kräfte in sich zusammen, die damit zusammenhängen, daß jetzt nicht nur seine Gefäße Flüssigkeiten zirkulieren lassen, Säfte zirkulieren lassen, sondern daß Wärme durch die Zirkulation des Blutes kreist. Dann stellt sich für den Menschen die Wahrheit ein, daß in dem, was als Wärme in seinem Blute kreist, was ihn erst zum menschlichen Wesen dadurch macht, daß er eine gewisse Wärme und dadurch Blutstofflichkeit, aber auch Blutgeistigkeit, Blutspiritualität in sich empfindet, wirksam ist dasjenige, was aus früheren Inkarnationen herüberwirkt. - Und in der Verwandtschaft mit dem Silber drückt sich unmittelbar dasjenige aus, was auf die Wärmeimpulsivität des Blutes wirken kann. Damit aber drückt sich auch aus, was uns spirituell hinüberleitet zu früheren Erdenleben.
Denken Sie, man erhält in dem Silber diejenige Metallität, die gewissermaßen den Menschen aufmerksam macht auf das, was in ihm jetzt in diesem Erdenleben noch aus früheren Erdenleben ist. Denn unser Blutkreislauf mit seinen wunderbaren Wärmedifferenzierungen, er ist nicht aus dieser physischen Welt heraus. Er ist auch nicht aus der elementarischen Welt heraus, die ich Ihnen geschildert habe. Er ist auch nicht einmal allein aus der Welt der Sterne heraus. Aus der Welt der Sterne heraus sind die Richtungen des Blutkreislaufes. Aber in dem, was im Blute eigentlich als Wärme unser Leben in der richtigen Weise durchpulsiert, wirkt dasjenige, was aus früheren Erdenleben heraus kraftet.
Unmittelbar an das appelliert man, wenn man an die Silberkräfte in ihrer Beziehung zum Menschen appelliert. So steht das Mysterium des Silbers im Zusammenhange mit den wiederholten Erdenleben. Das Silber ist eines der erschütterndsten Beispiele dafür, daß überall Spiritualität lebt, auch in dem Physischen. Wer das Silber mit rechten Augen anzusehen vermag, der weiß, daß das Silber das äußere Götterzeichen ist für die Kreisläufe des menschlichen Erdenlebens. Daher hängt auch das Mysterium des Silbers mit der Fortpflanzung zusammen, mit all jenen Geheimnissen, die sich auf die Fortpflanzung beziehen, aus dem Grunde, weil der Mensch ja durch die Fortpflanzung sein Wesen hinüberleitet zu den früheren Erdenleben. Das Wesen, das in früheren Erdenleben vorhanden war, dringt durch die Fortpflanzung in das physische Leben herein. Aber das ist dasselbe Geheimnis wie das Geheimnis des Blutes. Und das Geheimnis des Blutes, das Mysterium des Blutes, ist das Mysterium des Silbers. Man kann hier sagen: Das Geheimnis der Blutwärme ist das Geheimnis, das Mysterium des Silbers.
Wiederum zieht sich der Strom des Erkennens hinüber von diesem normalen Verlauf im Menschen zu dem pathologischen. Denken Sie, es wird im Menschen durch Umstände, die gerade in der gegenwärtigen Welt liegen, aus der das Blut nicht erwärmt werden darf-denn es muß erwärmt werden durch die Welten, die wir durchgemacht haben in früheren Erdenleben -, denken Sie, es wird das Blut in seiner Wärme beeinträchtigt von der gegenwärtigen Welt, nicht impulsiert von dem, woran wir durch ein spirituelles Band an den früheren Erdenleben hängen. Dann entstehen diejenigen Krankheitszustände, von denen wir sagen können, sie sind dadurch da, daß alles, was mit unserer Blutwärme zusammenhängt, losgerissen ist von dem, womit es eigentlich zusammenhängen sollte, von den früheren Erdenleben.
Was ist Fieber? Fieber, in spirituellem Sinne aufgefaßt, ist das Ergebnis des Losreißens der menschlichen Organisation von der normalen Einordnung in die fortwirkenden früheren Erdenleben. Kann der Arzt diagnostizieren, daß bei irgendeinem Krankheitsfall dieses vorliegt: Hier ist der Mensch; die Außenwelt hat auf ihn so gewirkt durch irgend etwas, daß er droht, seine Organisation loszureißen von früheren Erdenleben -, dann schreitet der Arzt zur Therapie durch Silber. Und ein sehr schönes Beispiel kann gerade in bezug darauf erzählt werden, das sich vor nicht zu langer Zeit in dem Klinisch-Therapeutischen Institut der Frau Dr. Wegman in Arlesheim zugetragen hat. Solch ein Zustand, der spirituell, so wie ich es angedeutet habe, eintreten kann, daß sich durch äußere Umstände plötzlich der menschliche Organismus in seiner Bluteigentümlichkeit von vorigen Erdenleben loszureißen droht, der kann ganz plötzlich eintreten. Und das ist in einem besonderen Krankheitsfall eben vor kurzer Zeit im Klinisch-Therapeutischen Institut von Frau Dr. Wegman eingetreten, dasjenige, was man in der materialistischen Medizin nennt «okkulte Fieber»: plötzliche hohe Temperatur bei einem schon Genesenden, die man gar nicht erwartet hat. Frau Dr. Wegman stand plötzlich vor diesem Falle. Aus ihrer inspirierten medizinischen Erkenntnis heraus wandte sie eine Silberkur momentan an. Als sie mir das erzählte, stand der ganze Fall in seinem wunderschönen kosmischen Zusammenhang da. Man sieht daraus, wie die Dinge herüber und hinüber spielen aus demjenigen, was mit der Entwickelung des Menschen in die Spiritualität hinein zusammenhängt, und was auf der anderen Seite mit dem zusammenhängt, was ins Pathologische und dann ins Therapeutische hineinführt.
Worauf beruht es denn, daß der Inituerte frühere Erdenleben überblicken kann? Solange man so wie im gewöhnlichen Leben mit ihnen zusammenhängt, daß man eben durch sein Karma marschiert und einfach die früheren Erdenleben wirken, kann man nicht hinschauen auf die früheren Erdenleben. Hier ist man im gegenwärtigen Erdenleben. Man hängt mit den früheren Erdenleben zusammen; die wirken herüber. Ja, sie wirken so herüber, daß Sie unter ihrem Einfluß Ihr Karma ausüben, daß Sie im Sinne Ihres Karma durch die Welt marschieren. Aber Sie können nicht zurückschauen. Sie können ja nicht mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein zurückschauen. Wollen Sie zurückschauen, so müssen Sie den Faden erst für Augenblicke zerreißen, müssen sich losreißen. Wenn Sie sich losgerissen haben, wenn objektiv geworden sind die früheren Erdenleben, dann können Sie zurückschauen.
Sie müssen natürlich sich die Fähigkeit erwerben - ich werde davon noch sprechen -, nachher den Faden wiederum in aller Normalität anzuknüpfen. Wenn Sie den Faden nicht wieder anknüpfen, werden Sie ein Geistesgestörter, nicht ein Initierter.
Sehen Sie, hier haben Sie eine Erscheinung, die eintritt in der spirituellen Entwickelung: das Losreißen von den spirituellen Fäden, die einen an frühere Erdenleben knüpfen. Die Krankheit macht das im abnormen Fall. Die Krankheit macht das auf pathologische Weise. Die Krankheit erweist sich als abnormes Auftreten desjenigen, was man in einer höheren Sphäre normal herbeiführen muß zum spirituellen Schauen, zu anderen Bewußtseinszuständen. Wenn sich das Blut, abgesondert vom übrigen Organismus des Menschen, hingibt seinem Bewußtsein — denn das Blut hat ein besonderes Bewußtsein, wie ich Ihnen von solchen besonderen Bewußtseinen gewisser Körperorgane schon gesprochen habe -, wenn sich das Blut emanzipiert von dem übrigen Organismus, dann schaut es in anormalem Zustande zurück in die früheren Erdenleben. Aber es bleibt unterbewußt. Zum bewußten Zurückschauen muß der Faden erst abreißen. Zum krankhaften Zurückschauen muß der Faden nicht abreißen.
So führt uns die Betrachtung von so etwas wie die Metallität des Silbers, das sich eigentlich wie ein wunderbares Heilmittel erweist gerade bei allen Erkrankungen, die irgendwie auf Karmisches zurückgehen, so führt uns das Mysterium des Silbers tief hinein in andere Mysterien der Welt, und wir haben damit zunächst ungefähr diejenigen Metallitäten erschöpft, welche in bezug auf die anderen Bewußtseinszustände des Menschen zu erwähnen wären.
Wir werden nun weiterschreiten in der Betrachtung dieser Bewußtseinszustände und in der Beziehung, die der Mensch herstellen kann durch diese Bewußtseinszustände zu anderen Welten; wir werden mit anderen Worten in den nächsten Vorträgen auf den rechten Wegen zur Spiritualität in der Betrachtung weiterschreiten.

The inner revitalization of the soul through the properties of the metallic
The copper state of man
On the one hand, I have tried to show how man arrives at other states of consciousness than those he has in the ordinary life of everyday life today. And then I tried to show how the historical course of mankind's development shows that mankind has not always lived in the same state of consciousness, recognizing and acting, in which it lives today. I then tried to direct your attention to the states of consciousness of cognizers in the 10th, 11th, 12th centuries in connection with the way in which cognition was cultivated at that time, for example by the School of Chartres, and I pointed out how, in connection with this, cognitions arose that do not belong to today's states of consciousness, for example in a personality such as the great teacher Dante, in Brunetto Latini. Yesterday I tried to look further back to the special way in which man related to the world, for example in the mysteries of Ephesus. There we see how people lived in other states of consciousness, even if these are quite related to our current everyday and scientific consciousness.
Now I would like to continue today with that consideration into which the historical has first introduced a kind of episode. I have noticed how the metallicity, the actual substantiality of the mineral is related to man and his states of consciousness. From the relationship of man to what is called the metal copper, I have made evident that state of consciousness of man which can be reached in the way I have described, which then leads to the possibility of following the experiences of the dead man, the so-called dead man, beyond the time when he has passed through the gate of death.
.Now we must be clear about the fact that through that semi-pathological experience which I have indicated to you, through a kind of sunstroke, Brunetto Latini came into a kind of realization such as I described to you the day before yesterday. And indeed, what he describes, what came to him through the inspiration of the goddess Natura, can indeed be achieved in this state of consciousness, which is the closest to our ordinary state - for it is a state of consciousness very closely related to our ordinary state - which follows the experiences that the dead go through immediately in the years after they have passed through the gate of death. And I said it's a much more real state. You are in a world that presses harder, that shines brighter, that accomplishes everything more powerfully than our ordinary physical world. Only because it is like this can you experience what someone who has recently passed through the gates of death experiences.
But this world, it shows something very special at the same time. When one is in this world, which I have described in this way, then at the moment in which one is in this state of consciousness, one cannot look at one's ordinary daily experiences, at what one goes through in ordinary life, but one sees of one's own life only that which immediately preceded the entering of earth-life, what one has gone through still in the spiritual world before one entered earth-life. So that one must say: With this state of consciousness one is not at all in the same world for man in which one usually is.
Imagine this graphically. If one is born at this time (it is drawn) and now lives on: At the moment when one enters, if I may call it so, the copper state - you understand this after yesterday's lecture - one is not, for example, when one has become forty years old, with one's cognition in the present. Nor are you in your thirty-fifth or thirtieth year with your cognition, but you can only go back to what you experienced directly in the spiritual world before your birth. You can do this for yourself, you can do this for other people, but you cannot grasp that in which you find yourself in everyday life. But again, this only applies to humans.
What applies to animals is that you do not see what they are physically in the physical world as you would otherwise, but you look up into the next world and see what I have called the generic or species soul. One sees, so to speak, the aura of the animal species. But in general, when you look out into the world, you see this world changed, and you learn to recognize something that is actually quite important for humanity, but which is not taken into account at all in the present, materialistically minded age.
When one, with all that one can learn today up to the highest university science of all faculties, steps before the being that is still there as the goddess Natura, of whom the teachers of the School of Chartres spoke in a living sense, Bernardus Silvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others, when one steps before this being, then one feels in a quite ignorant mood with one's present knowledge. For one says to oneself: According to today's knowledge and cognition, you actually only know something that relates to the world you live through between birth and death, and which is no longer true if you only immerse yourself in the next spiritual world with your consciousness in such a way that you can still follow the dead beyond death.
We learn chemistry. But what we learn in chemistry only applies to the world in which we live between birth and death. All the chemistry has no meaning in the world in which the dead are pursued after death. Everything you learn here in the physical world has no meaning at all for that world, it is only a memory when you are in that world. And this world, in which you are then in it, immediately opens up to you, and you feel that the world in which you have learned so much, this everyday world, is fading away. The other world immediately opens up.
Suppose we have a mountain in this world in which we stand between birth and death. The mountain is quite close to us for this world. At first we see it from a distance. It throws back the light that the sun gives it. We see it in its forms, in its contours. We walk towards it. We come closer and closer to it. We feel that it offers us resistance when we enter it. It gives us the impression of the real. Now we are in another world. Everything that we said was solid ceases, it seems, to have any meaning, and it is something that comes out of the mountain, getting bigger and bigger, giving us the impression of another reality.
And furthermore, when we stand here in the everyday world, we see the cloud above the mountain. We are convinced that it is up there as a condensed haze. It also ceases to have a reality. Again, something completely different comes out of this cloud. What emerges combines with this gradually disappearing cloud and the mountain, and something new emerges, a new reality is there, which is not just a mist, but something that has form. And so with all things. We see a lot of things here, for example many people. The moment they enter the spiritual world, the sharp contours disappear. You must get used to the idea, ladies, that all your beautiful clothes will no longer be visible. On the other hand, the soul-spiritual emerges from everything that sits there. But from the surroundings comes that which mysteriously rules in the air and in the whole environment. That comes forth. A fine new world emerges. And in this world is the dead person after death.
But now we become aware of something else. We notice something else. If it were not for this world into which we have now entered, if this world were not also present everywhere where the world is present that we see through between birth and death, then we would have no eyes and no ears, no senses at all as human beings. Because the world that the chemist describes, that the physicist describes, cannot give us any senses. We would be completely without senses, we would be blind and deaf. The senses would not form in us.
You see, that was the surprising thing when this Brunetto Latini came over from Spain, came close to his hometown of Florence and had this slight sunstroke, which transported him to this other world. Then he realized: "You got your senses from this other world. As a human being, you would be senseless if this other world did not penetrate the ordinary world that you otherwise see. As a human being, therefore, you are connected to this second world by the fact that your senses are inserted into your body.
And at all times this second world - we can retain the expression - has been called the world of the elements. In there it makes no sense to speak of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and so on. We can talk about that between birth and death. In there it only makes sense to speak of the elements earth, water, air, fire and light and so on. Because the specifics of hydrogen, oxygen and so on have no relation to our senses. What the chemist finds in the smell of violets or of Asa foetida, that the one has a very pleasant, the other a most unpleasant odor, what is found there chemically, is designated by the names of substances, has no meaning. In contrast, everything that acts as an odor is spiritualized. One would have to call it airy in the sense of the world into which the dead person enters immediately after death, but differentiated air, everywhere spiritualized air. So that our senses are rooted in the elemental world, in the world where it still makes sense to speak of earth, water, fire and air.
You see, the right thought comes to us in the face of a wrong thought. What is the attitude of the modern philosopher who, as he himself says, has become intelligent, reasonable, who has overcome the naivety of the views of earlier times? He says: "Well, the views of earlier times were crude. They only spoke of the crude elements of earth, water, fire and air. We know that there are seventy to eighty elements, not four or five. - If a Greek were to be resurrected - as he was then, not in re-embodiment - and had to be told this, he would say: Yes, of course, you have oxygen, hydrogen and so on, these are your elements. But you have forgotten what we had in our four elements. You no longer see that. You no longer know anything about it. But with all your seventy-two or seventy-five elements, senses would never arise, because they arise from the four elements. We therefore knew man better. We knew how this outer, peripheral thing, which is permeated by senses, is formed in man.
We can only appreciate the impressions received by such old people who had come close to initiation, as Brunetto Latini was, if we appreciate them in terms of the facts of the mind, if we take into account the surprising, the astonishing, the soul-stirring, and the accepting. Of course, if someone has believed until then that what his eyes see here, his ears hear here, is the real thing, and he then comes to the conclusion that this real thing could not even bring forth the eye and ear, but that there must be something behind this real thing that I have described here, then of course this initially has a shocking effect.
And that again is the essential thing, that we cannot come to such a realization if we face nature in the usual dead way and remain as we usually do. Everything immediately begins to come to life when we enter this world. We say to ourselves: Yes, the mountain we know is dead. We didn't even know that something was alive in it. But something lives in it. Now it is there. The cloud seemed dead to us before; now the living thing that is in it, which we did not see before, appears. Everything comes to life. But in this living weaving, something essential is revealed in turn.
There we are not expressing natural laws out of our brain, but we are facing a spiritual being, the being Natura, which tells us this, which shows us this, which gives us real messages. And it becomes a fact that we communicate with beings of a supersensible world about the facts that are there in our surroundings. In this way we enter from the mere abstraction of the lawfulness of the world into the essential, where, instead of bringing together the laws of nature through experiment and reflection, we feel ourselves face to face with beings from another world who communicate for our knowledge, because they know what we as human beings must first learn.
And so one enters the spiritual worlds in the right way. You then find out: If you only had senses, if there were only the eye with its optic nerves, the nose with its olfactory nerves, the ear with its auditory nerves, and if these nerves were all merely connected backwards, you would not even realize that there is oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and so on, that there are all these things that you perceive as a human being between birth and death. You would look into the world of the elements. Everywhere you would see earth, water, air, fire. And that which would be there as a further differentiation of the solid, the earthy, the liquid, the watery, would interest you as little as the millionaire is interested in small money. You simply wouldn't be interested in it. From our nerves, which emanate from the senses, as sensory people we know about the elementary world. And the moment we become aware of what I have told you, we also become aware that in us as human beings the sensory nerves recede, become more differentiated, more perfected, still forming something within them like the brain. Thus we no longer come into ourselves, but more out of ourselves, and we add to the nature of the four elements: earth, fire, water, air, the other things that we otherwise learn between birth and death.
But this whole brain, which is built up from the optic nerves, auditory nerves and so on going backwards, this whole brain, which is so valuable to us as human beings, has only one table 6
Meaning between birth and death. What is still particularly tucked up inside the skull in humans only has a meaning for earthly life. The brain is the most insignificant thing for the spiritual world. Therefore the brain must be switched off again if one only wants to enter the first world, which borders on ours. The brain must be switched off. It is a terribly disturbing organ for the higher view. And with the brain switched off one must immediately live again in the senses, but now have pressed into the senses the awakened spiritual; then one gets the imagination. Otherwise the senses perceive sensory images in the outer physical world and the brain converts them into abstract thoughts, into these dead, abstract thoughts. If you switch off the brain, you live in the senses again, then you perceive everything again in imaginations. You become aware of that. Then you also know that immersion in deeper states of life is connected with the development of higher spiritual states of consciousness than we have in ordinary life.
Our senses, which are on our surface, eye, ear, are constantly perceiving this world (see drawing, red). Here we are, ladies and gentlemen. Our senses, which are on our surface, see this elementary world. They also see the dead in it, years after they have died. The fact that all this is extinguished is due to the fact that behind the senses is the brain (orange). Now I am standing there with my brain, my senses. This person, who lies on my outer surface, sees the spiritual world within it, sees the dead within it in the years after death. But my brain erases all that, erases earth, water, fire, air; and I look at what is there in sharp contours as the physical world, what is only there for the world I live through between birth and death. There is a world of a completely different kind. I erase it through my brain and look at the world that is known to man as the world of ordinary consciousness.
And that is how the meditation I spoke of yesterday exists for the newer person. For the older man, after that meditation, there was also the enjoyment of such metallicities as I discussed yesterday. Thus the transfer to the next state of consciousness consists first of all in switching off the consciousness of the brain and immersing the spirit in the consciousness that our eyes and ears have. Animals also have this, for they have not physically developed the brain behind the senses. But they do not have the I-gifted soul within them, so that they cannot immerse themselves in their senses with the spirit. They immerse themselves only with the gross soul and therefore do not see what man can see in his surroundings when he immerses his spirit in his senses. But animals see in the same way; animals see low, not individually high.
The mystery of Mercury
What I will now say further about metallicity, that is, about the actual substantiality of the mineral, I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, to consider with all the reserve to which I drew attention yesterday and which I summarized in the sentence: The inner enlivening of the soul through the qualities of the metallic, that is, the formation of an inner coexistence with metallicity in a moral sense, so to speak, belongs to the real spiritual development for today's man. The introduction of metallicity into the human organism belongs to the realm of the physician. So with this reserve I ask you to take in all that I will now have to say about the mystery of metals other than those I have already discussed.
Above all, he who looks at the world spiritually, that is, who can also look at the physical, the physical substances in such a way that he sees in them the spiritual working behind them, stands before the mystery of Mercury in a way that is very significant for him. The metal Mercury is only a part of what is generally called the Mercurial in spiritual science; the metallic-liquid, everything that is metallic-liquid, is the Mercurial, except that in our state of nature only the one metal mercury is metallic-liquid and therefore Mercurial. But this is only one individual of the mercurial species. When one speaks of the mercurial in spiritual science, one speaks of all the mercurials and regards mercury only as the representative of the mercurial. This mercury, or rather Mercury, is indeed a significant mystery. Its effect on man is such that it eliminates everything that man experiences from the physical world, and also from the world that I have just described, from the elemental world.
We humans exist in the world in such a way that we once formed such organs as our brain out of the physical world. Many other organs in the human being are still formed out of the physical world, namely a whole number of important glandular organs that are important for physical life. Furthermore, a whole number of organs - I have just mentioned the senses - are formed out of the world which I have described as that of the second consciousness. Copper, iron, they place the human being in this second world.
Otherwise, the Mercury. Mercury must be present in the world. And it is there everywhere in fine doses. We live, if I may use the expression, in an atmosphere of Mercury. But the moment a person absorbs something more than this normal Mercury, his organism strives to eliminate all organs that are from the physical world and the elemental world. The human being's astral body is stimulated, so to speak, to utilize only those organs in the human being that are formed from the world of the stars. Therefore, when man's consciousness concentrates on the metallicity of Mercury, on the qualities of Mercury, on the metallic-fluid, the peculiarly untouchable and yet again related to man, which lies in the Mercurial, he is immediately inwardly filled with a third man.
I said that through the relationship with copper the human being is filled with a second human being who inwardly presses and urges, who can also leave the ordinary physical body and then follow, as I have characterized, the dead in the next years after death. The mercury immediately draws to itself all that which produces a much, much denser inner spiritual organism in the human being. The human being feels, as if he were seized with all that is now becoming him through the mercury, the entire metabolism of his organs. How the juices flow through the various vessels in the human being suddenly takes hold of the human being when he experiences the strong influence of the metallicity of mercury.
At first it is not something that can be described as wonderful and pleasant, for man feels as if he had no brain, no senses, but as if everything in him were in activity and movement, as if everything in him were in tingling and crawling, in inner stirring and action and weaving and life. Suddenly everything in us is in inner agitation. And we feel this, what is within us in inner activity, combined with activity on the outside.
After training the soul consciously through all this, as I have described it, it appears roughly schematically as follows (see drawing $. 102). Through the influence of mercury, through the impulse of mercury, man does not feel his brain; that is a hole. This is also good for the perception of the spiritual world; the brain is not suitable for this. Other organs are not yet felt either. But what is felt is the passage of movement through the whole organism (red). And all these movements hurt at first, aching as if you were tired inside.
These movements are connected with external movements everywhere (orange). The inner agitation connects with the outer agitation. You have the impression that you have left the world of the earth, the world of the elements, it's all below you. It smokes and steams. But in this smoky, vaporous, airy movement, there are spiritual beings. The divine nature, of which Brunetto Latini still speaks so vividly, has turned around.
She is the same as the Greek Persephone, as I explained yesterday. Before, she turned her face more towards the earth, explaining that which is still connected with the earthly, such as the life that man first spends after death. Now she turns around, and you have the earthly and elemental below you, above you the world of the stars. The starry worlds become your surroundings, just as you were previously surrounded by plants and animals on earth. And you don't have the feeling: What a little nipper you are compared to the great starry world! - Instead, you feel your size in relation to the great starry world in the same way that you feel in relation to your nearest surroundings on earth. You have also grown up. You have grown into the starry worlds with your size. But the stars are not stars as we saw them when we stood on earth and saw them with our eyes, the stars reveal themselves as colonies of spiritual beings. We are again in the world which I have already described to you, which I have described to you as caused in man by his relationship with the metallicity of tin. For there is an inner relationship between Mercury and tin in the direction indicated. Mercury takes up a certain part of our human nature, lifts it out of the rest of the human nature, carries this part of the human nature into that spiritual world whose outer physical manifestation is the starry world.
But we are now somewhere else again, in that our state of consciousness has changed, that we no longer have our state of consciousness through the senses, through the brain, but through that which has now lifted out of our organism the metallicity of Mercury. Thus we are in a completely different world. We are now in the world of the stars. But I could also put it another way. World of the stars, that means the matter spatially; in reality, however, we wander out of the world in which we are spatially between birth and death with the development of the state of consciousness mentioned and are now in the world that we live through as human beings between death and new birth.
It is indeed the mystery of Mercury that Mercury carries the human being out of the world in which he is as the physical-sensual world, that it carries him into the world in which he is between death and a new birth, because Mercury, Mercury, has an inner relationship to that in the human being which is not from this earth at all, but which is carried in from the world which we live through between death and a new birth. Our circulation of juices, that which we feel now, is not of this world, it is determined from the world we pass through between death and new birth.
And now we become aware of something else, again something that Brunetto Latini noticed under the influence of the goddess Natura. We become aware that we live in our own circulation of juices, which, however, connects with the circulation of juices of the whole cosmos; we are out of ourselves and we are in that land that we live through between death and a new birth. But we now learn to know the nature of this circulation of the humours and learn to recognize how our temperament is formed in this inner agitation, in this circulation of the humours out of the land we pass through between death and a new birth; it is formed in such a way that we have become either a sanguine or a choleric or a melancholic or a phlegmatic person. We now understand ourselves even more deeply than as a man of the senses. If we go through the world as phlegmatic people, we must say to ourselves: our phlegm is caused by what we have gone through between our last death and this birth. Likewise the choleric, the melancholic and the sanguine.
But there is something else mixed into this temperament, into that which has its physical expression in the circulation of the humors. Just consider what you have in this circulation of the humors. If you proceed as an anatomist, as a physiologist, you first have something physical. The physical is only the expression of the spiritual. But the spiritual in relation to this circulation of humors is not of this world at all, but it is of the world that works into the human being between death and a new birth.
So that when we look back at our temperament - and this was also the most astonishing thing for Brunetto Latini when the goddess Natura explained the temperaments to him - we say to ourselves: There, in these temperaments that lie in the circulation of the humors, there life has pressed the seal between death and a new birth. - But if we now go deeper, there is mixed in with this that which is called karma, that which is called the test of destiny. If you look at this strange metallic flowing Mercury in its physical existence, you will only learn to recognize it properly if you know that this secret lies within it: In a droplet of flowing mercury a profound connection is revealed to the initiate. And this droplet of flowing mercury is able to draw together the human spiritual with those organs that originate in their formations, in their origin from the life between death and new birth.
So everything in the world is connected, interwoven. The physical is only an illusion, a physical illusion. The spiritual is only an illusion for the physical, an abstract illusion. In truth, the physical is interwoven with the spiritual, the spiritual with the physical. And if one has made the observation that the human organism has become damaged because those organs that are actually formed from the land that we live through between death and rebirth have been attacked, then one must awaken forces in the human organism that repair this damage.
Suppose a person shows the doctor that he has damaged that organization - the circulation of the humours - which is actually impulsed out of the life between death and new birth. So I am faced with a sick person whose circulation of juices has broken away from the spiritual world. That is the phenomenon. One diagnoses spiritually in the matter. The spiritual is always to be understood in relation to the physical diagnosis, as I indicated yesterday. I emphasize this again and again so that no misunderstandings arise. It is diagnosed that the human being has a circulation of juices that has become too detached from the spiritual world that we experience between death and rebirth. What needs to be done?
Therapeutically, we must supply the body with the most suitable metal that brings the circulation of juices back into contact with the spiritual world. This is how Mercury affects the human being. Mercury acts on the human organism in such a way that it brings those organs which can only be formed from the spiritual world, when they have broken away, back into contact with this spiritual world. There you see what a dangerous, I might say, but at the same time naturally necessary relationship exists between the realization of the states of consciousness in man and the realization of the diseases. The one merges into the other.
These things played such an important role in the ancient mysteries. And these things also enlighten us about something like what I told you yesterday. Think of it, at a time when mankind had long since ceased to have such spiritual vision that the goddess Natura was recognized in her instructive way about the mysteries of nature, Dante's teacher, Brunetto Latini, returns from his post as envoy to Spain in a certain state of excitement, comes to the vicinity of his native city, becomes further agitated because he hears how his own party, the Guelph party, has fared. He accomplishes all this in such a state that something like a faint sunstroke comes over him. The metallicity of Mercury has simply affected him from his surroundings.
Because, what does it mean? We get a quiet sunstroke? It means that we get an effect from Mercury dosed everywhere in the finest way in our environment in the cosmos. Brunetto Latini received this effect. As a result, at a time when it was otherwise impossible for man to approach the spiritual world in the way he did, he was given the opportunity to approach this spiritual world.
But this points out to you, ladies and gentlemen, that there is something in man, as he stands before us, which has a kinship not only to that which the natural scientist unfolds before us, which has a kinship not only to that which he unfolds before us, who can already follow the dead on his next step after death, but that the human entity, as it is in us, has a relationship, a relation to something far higher, to something entirely spiritual, as we experience it between death and a new birth. You may understand the form of the liver, the form of the lungs, if you proceed with ordinary science. You may understand the structure of the sense organs if you take the next knowledge to your aid; but that only makes rough use of our present physics. But you will never get to know the circulation of the erect human being in its peculiarity if you do not approach it with the science of initiation. And you will also never get to know the secrets of metallicity if you do not approach it with the science of initiation.
But this also means that you will never get to know the nature of the diseases in the sense of what has been said if you do not approach them with the science of initiation, because you cannot help with the physical properties of the metals. You can heal brains with the physical properties of metals once you know them. You cannot heal a circulation of juices. But what I am telling you is also not really speaking, because you can only heal the coarsest mass of the brain. But there is also a circulation of juices in the brain. Therefore, in reality, you cannot heal brains with metals, but only with spiritual knowledge. You can say: Yes, why does modern medicine heal? It heals with the traditions that have remained from ancient times. We still know what the ancients knew about the spirituality of metals. This is applied. It is applied between what has been discovered purely physically and what does not help much. And once materialism had triumphed and everything had been forgotten, then no remedy would help anything that had only been found physically.
We are already at the point in human development where, because the old traditions from the original clairvoyance have gradually disappeared, the spiritual must be found in a new way.
The Mystery of the Silver
The mystery behind the metallicity of silver is of a very special kind. If one can say that behind copper there is that cosmic impulsiveness which first conjures the first higher man into the human being; behind Mercury there is a second cosmic force which conjures a second man who is connected with the starry world and thus with the spiritual world which we live through between death and new birth, then something quite different must be said of the metallicity of silver.
When the human being increases his relationship to silver in such a way, makes it greater, as we have seen for the metallicity of copper, for the metallicity of Mercury, then he again turns to an even deeper organization within himself. With Mercury he has turned to the vascular organization, which brings him into connection with a circulation in the whole cosmos, into connection with the spirituality of the cosmos. By increasing the silver relationship, the human being brings himself into direct contact with that which carries over, impulses from earlier earthly lives.
So that we can say: If the human being concentrates on the special qualities of silver, which takes a long time to become effective, the human being draws together those forces within himself which are connected with the fact that now not only his vessels circulate fluids, circulate juices, but that warmth circulates through the circulation of the blood. Then the truth arises for man that in that which circulates as warmth in his blood, which makes him a human being in the first place by the fact that he feels a certain warmth and thus blood-materiality, but also blood-spirituality, blood-spirituality in himself, that which works over from earlier incarnations is effective. - And the relationship with silver directly expresses that which can have an effect on the warmth impulsiveness of the blood. But this also expresses what leads us spiritually to earlier earthly lives.
Think about it, in the silver you receive that metallicity which in a way draws the person's attention to what is still in him now in this earthly life from earlier earthly lives. For our blood circulation with its wonderful heat differentiations is not from this physical world. Nor is it from the elemental world that I have described to you. Nor is it even solely from the world of the stars. The directions of the blood circulation are out of the world of the stars. But in that which actually pulsates through our life as warmth in the blood in the right way, that which forces out of earlier earthly lives is at work.
It is to this that one appeals directly when one appeals to the silver forces in their relationship to the human being. Thus the mystery of silver is connected with the repeated earth lives. Silver is one of the most shocking examples of the fact that spirituality lives everywhere, even in the physical. Whoever is able to look at silver with the right eyes knows that silver is the outer sign of the gods for the cycles of human life on earth. Therefore the mystery of silver is also connected with procreation, with all those mysteries which relate to procreation, for the reason that through procreation man leads his being over to the earlier earth lives. The being that was present in earlier earthly lives penetrates into physical life through procreation. But this is the same mystery as the mystery of blood. And the mystery of blood, the mystery of blood, is the mystery of silver. You can say here: the secret of the warmth of the blood is the secret, the mystery of silver.
Once again, the stream of cognition runs from this normal course in the human being to the pathological one. Think that it is in the human being through circumstances which lie precisely in the present world, from which the blood must not be warmed - for it must be warmed by the worlds we have passed through in earlier earth-lives - think that the blood is affected in its warmth by the present world, not impulsed by that to which we are attached by a spiritual bond to the earlier earth-lives. Then those states of illness arise of which we can say that they are there because everything that is connected with our blood heat is torn away from what it should actually be connected with, from the previous earth lives.
What is fever? Fever, understood in a spiritual sense, is the result of the human organization being torn away from its normal classification in the continuing previous earth lives. Can the doctor diagnose that this is present in any case of illness? Here is the human being; the outer world has had such an effect on him through something that he threatens to tear his organization away from earlier earth lives - then the doctor proceeds to therapy through silver. And a very beautiful example can be told in relation to this, which took place not too long ago in the Clinical Therapeutic Institute of Dr. Wegman in Arlesheim. Such a state, which can occur spiritually, as I have indicated, that the human organism suddenly threatens to tear itself away from previous earthly lives through external circumstances, can occur quite suddenly. And this happened in a particular case of illness a short time ago in Dr. Wegman's Clinical Therapeutic Institute, what in materialistic medicine is called “occult fever”: a sudden high temperature in someone who had already recovered, which one had not expected at all. Dr. Wegman was suddenly faced with this case. Out of her inspired medical insight, she applied a silver cure at the moment. When she told me this, the whole case stood there in its beautiful cosmic context. You can see from this how things play over and over from what is connected with the development of the human being into spirituality, and what on the other hand is connected with what leads into the pathological and then into the therapeutic.
What is the basis for the fact that the initiate can overlook previous earth lives? As long as one is connected with them in the same way as in ordinary life, that one simply marches through one's karma and the earlier earth lives simply have an effect, one cannot look at the earlier earth lives. Here one is in the present earth life. One is connected with the earlier earth lives; they have an effect here. Yes, they have such an effect that you exercise your karma under their influence, that you march through the world in the sense of your karma. But you cannot look back. You cannot look back with ordinary consciousness. If you want to look back, you must first break the thread for a moment, you must tear yourself loose. When you have torn yourself free, when the earlier lives on earth have become objective, then you can look back.
You must, of course, acquire the ability - I will talk about this later - to retie the thread in all normality. If you do not reconnect the thread, you will become a deranged person, not an initiate.
You see, here you have a phenomenon that occurs in spiritual development: the tearing away of the spiritual threads that bind you to earlier earthly lives. Illness does this in abnormal cases. Illness does this in a pathological way. Illness proves to be an abnormal occurrence of that which must be brought about normally in a higher sphere for spiritual vision, for other states of consciousness. When the blood, separated from the rest of the human organism, surrenders to its consciousness - for the blood has a special consciousness, as I have already spoken to you of such special consciousnesses of certain bodily organs - when the blood emancipates itself from the rest of the organism, then it looks back in an abnormal state into the earlier earth lives. But it remains subconscious. To look back consciously, the thread must first break. To look back pathologically, the thread does not have to break.
So the contemplation of something like the metallicity of silver, which actually proves to be a wonderful remedy precisely for all illnesses that can somehow be traced back to karmic causes, the mystery of silver leads us deep into other mysteries of the world, and we have thus initially exhausted approximately those metallicities that should be mentioned in relation to the other states of consciousness of the human being.
We shall now proceed further in the contemplation of these states of consciousness and in the relationship which man can establish through these states of consciousness to other worlds; in other words, we shall proceed in the next lectures on the right paths to spirituality in contemplation.
