Karmic Relationships IV
GA 238
12 September 1924, Dornach
Lecture IV
If we wish our human thought and action to be permeated once more by spiritual life, it will be necessary to receive again in full earnestness such conceptions of the spiritual world as have passed through our souls in these last lectures. For many centuries these conceptions have in reality been lacking to mankind and notably to civilised mankind.
Looking back into various epochs of human history we shall find how in earlier ages human action upon earth was everywhere connected with what was taking place in the super-sensible. It is not that a consciousness of the super-sensible—a certain abstract consciousness of it—has been lacking to the greater part of mankind in recent times. No—but the courage has been lacking to attach the concrete deeds and happenings in the earthly sphere to the equally real forms of life and movement in spiritual worlds.
With our recent studies we are coming to do this once more. And we do so especially when we bring the earthly life of men, as we have been doing here, into connection with the life between death and a new birth, when we connect what is taking place in one earthly life with that which is accomplished in the successive lives of man.
We have begun to consider that spiritual, super-sensible stream of which I was allowed to say that it is connected with our present stream of Michael in the service of which Anthroposophy has placed itself. We have thus entered upon the path which in a certain sense is to approach the karma of the Anthroposophical Movement itself, and at the same time, the karma of the individuals who unite the life of their soul and spirit sincerely, out of a straightforward inner impulse, with the Anthroposophical Movement.
I told you of a super-sensible event which took place under the aegis as it were of the Michael Power at the very time when the Council of 869 was taking place on earth. We know how deeply the whole life and civilisation of the Middle Ages was influenced by that Council. We need only watch the deep reserve with which enlightened spirits in the Middle Ages avoid speaking of the threefold human being, of body, soul and spirit. For the 8th Œcumenical Council at Constantinople had declared the doctrine of the threefold man heretical. Considering the power of such edicts in the Middle Ages it is quite clear that the whole of the spiritual life here on earth then had to take its course as it were under the shadow of this declaration which condemned Trichotomy as heretical.
But all the more intense was that spiritual life which has been working for a long time preparing the Michael stream for the 20th century, the Michael stream in which we stand since the last third of the 19th century and in which mankind will be for three or four centuries to come.
To-day we will speak of the course of this stream of Michael to which we have already begun to turn attention. Then, next Sunday, we shall approach more nearly matters connected on the one hand with the karma of the Anthroposophical Movement, and on the other hand karmically with the spiritual and intellectual life of the present time.
I told you of a kind of super-sensible Council which took place in spiritual regions over the earth at the same time as the 8th Œcumenical Council in Constantinople. In that spiritual council there met together the individualities of Haroun al Raschid and of his wise counsellor, and also the individualities of Alexander and Aristotle. Moreover there were also gathered there the individualities from the time of the spiritual service of King Arthur; and as I explained, all this took place under the aegis of Michael.
Then I told you how Haroun al Raschid appeared again, bringing with him into Europe an oriental spiritual life with an Aristotelian doctrine that had become unchristian. I told you how he appeared again as Bacon, Lord Bacon of Verulam, who had a great influence on the spiritual life of Europe, but an influence of an essentially materialistic tendency. Moreover I told you how the counsellor of Haroun al Raschid whom I had described, appeared again as Amos Comenius. Much is said, and justly, in praise of Amos Comenius. Nevertheless, in one aspect, in his striving to introduce clear pictorial representations into the methods of teaching, he worked powerfully for materialism. For in effect, he laid the greatest stress upon the immediate perception of things with the physical senses.
Thus we see bursting in upon this earthly life at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century, a stream which lies not in the straightforward line of Christian development, but which brings a foreign element, foreign to Christianity, into the spiritual and intellectual evolution of Europe. On the other hand the individualities of Aristotle and Alexander who remained united with the true stream of Michael worked on and on with all those who belonged to them. They went on working in the spiritual worlds.
Moreover other personalities were working within the same stream, partly in the spiritual worlds and partly on the earth itself. There were individualities connected with these spiritual streams and living between death and a new birth. There were others who appeared as personalities on earth in the course of the centuries. These were the individualities connected with Platonism rather than with Aristotelianism, connected also with all that the Platonic conception had since become.
Especially in the centuries following the 9th, we see Platonic spirits descending on to the earth, spirits of a Platonic trend and orientation. It was they who continued through the Middle Ages a Christian teaching regarded as heretical by official Christianity, official Catholicism, but which was nevertheless the truer Christian teaching. Meanwhile the individualities who continued the stream of Christian Aristotelianism remained, to begin with, in the spiritual worlds. For with the given conditions of evolution there was no real point of attachment for their stream down on the earth in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th centuries. On the other hand, those who were more Platonic in character could unfold their spiritual life with remarkable intensity in isolated places, in isolated provinces as it were of the spirit. Interspersed with the Roman Catholic kind of Christianity which asserted itself more and more officially, we find individuals gathered in schools here and there, carrying on traditions of the ancient Mysteries and illuminating Christianity from these ancient sources. And there was one place where all these streams of old tradition seemed to flow together. I mean, of course, the School of Chartres, to which I have so often referred in recent lectures, a school which was spiritual through and through and in which there worked such great spirits as Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others. Now what kind of a spiritual life was it which having thus evolved, flowed at length into the wonderful School of Chartres, only the external aspects of which have really become known to mankind? It was a spiritual life which has been completely silted up in modern times, a spiritual life in which the ancient traditions of the Mysteries were handed down.
Above all within that spiritual life we find a deep and spiritually penetrated conception of Nature, altogether different from that abstract conception of Nature which was afterwards made so much of, which knows only natural laws expressed in abstract thought. The spiritual stream to which I now refer received something spiritual from Nature into the human soul. So that in all Nature, not only abstract, dead, conceptual natural laws were recognised, but living creative activity. Men did not look so much to our present day chemical elements which have since commanded so much admiration, but they looked all the more deeply at what were called the Elements in the ancient sense: Earth, Water, Air and Fire. It was not a question of knowing them in words by mere tradition. The tradition was impregnated still with the most ancient of the Mysteries. And when this is so, we see in the Elements what is indeed not present in our seventy to eighty chemical elements, the world of elemental spirituality the world of certain elemental beings into which we penetrate when we enter livingly into the four Elements.
Then we see how man himself in his outer bodily nature partakes in the life and movement of the Earth, Water, Air, Fire which become in him the organic form and figure. They who thus looked into the life and movement of the Elements, of Earth, Water, Air and Fire did not see mere natural laws, but behind all this life and movement they saw a great and living Being, the Goddess Natura. And from their vision they had an immediate feeling that this Goddess Natura shows only one side of her being to man to begin with, while the other side remains hidden in the world in which man spends the time of sleep between falling asleep and reawakening. For then the ego and astral body are in a spiritual environment which lies at the foundation of Nature. The ego and astral body are with the elemental beings who underlie the Elements. Everywhere in the scattered schools and spiritual centres to which I have referred we find the teachers speaking to larger or smaller groups of pupils, and telling them how in the outer phenomena of Nature as they appear to men in waking life, the Goddess Natura shows only one part of her living and creative being. While on the other hand, in all the working in the Elements in wind and weather, in all that surrounds the human being and constitutes him, there also works what the human being cannot see, what is hidden from him in the darkness of sleep.
These scholars of the Middle Ages felt the great Goddess Natura as the Goddess who ascends for half of the time, revealing herself in the outer movement and activity of physical sense Nature and who on the other hand descends nightly and yearly to live and work in fields of creation hidden from man by the dark consciousness of sleep.
Now this was the direct continuation of the old conception of Proserpina as it existed in the ancient Mysteries. We must consider what this signifies. We to-day have a conception of Nature woven out of abstract thought, consisting of natural laws, speaking and thinking in abstract terms, containing nothing that is alive. But in that old conception of nature they still contemplated Nature as men had once contemplated the very active Goddess Proserpina, the daughter of Demeter. And in the ideas in which the pupils of those schools were instructed, proceeding as they did from a still living tradition, there were many sayings and expressions which were in reality an exact continuation of what had been said of Proserpina in the ancient Mysteries.
Then the teachers would lead the human being from a conception of his bodily life to an understanding of his life of soul. They made it clear to him: With respect to your bodily nature you consist of the Elements in which the elemental beings are working with you. But you also bear the soul within you. This is not subject to the influence of the Elements alone. On the contrary it rules over the organisation of the Elements within you and this your soul stands under the influence of the planetary world, of Mercury, Jupiter and Venus, of Sun and Moon, Saturn and Mars. Thus if psychology were to be studied, man's vision was directed upward to the secrets of the planetary world. The reality of the human being was extended from the bodily into the soul nature in such a way as to perceive always the living connection with the universe. From the working and weaving of the Elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire, it was expanded to all that the planets do in the soul-life of man—the planets in their circling, in their glory, in the actions of their light, in their mysterious occult influences. Thus from the Goddess Natura, the successor of Proserpina, they looked up to the Intelligences, to the Genii of the planets when they wished to understand the human life of soul.
Then when it was a question of understanding the spiritual life (for the teachers of these isolated schools had not let the dogma of the 8th Council of Constantinople deter them from studying the spirit in itself)—when it was a matter of considering the spiritual life, they turned their gaze upwards to the fixed stars, and their configurations. They looked up above all to what is represented in the Zodiac. And they regarded what man bears within him as the spirit in connection with the constellations, the glory of the fixed stars, the spiritual Powers whom they knew to be there in the stars.
Thus from the whole universe, from the cosmos, they understood the human being. Thus the macrocosm was there in reality, and the microcosm, man. Such was the doctrine of Nature in that time, taught with enthusiasm in isolated schools and also offered to mankind by isolated individuals who were scattered here and there. And at length as in a kind of culmination, all these things were wonderfully reproduced by such individualities as Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others in the School of Chartres.
Wonderful indeed was this School of Chartres. If we look at its writings to-day they seem, as I already said, like catalogues of names. But in that time it was not customary to write in any other way of things which one wished to have before one in full living spirituality. One simply catalogued them as it were. He however who can read such things, he above all who can read the order in which they are placed, can very well perceive how permeated by ancient spirituality are the writings that come to us from the teachers of Chartres. But the deep spirituality of the school worked not only in the teaching that was given, nor in the fact that there were many pupils who carried out again into the world what they had learnt there. No, it also worked in a direct spiritual way. The living spirituality that was present in that School radiated out even in an occult way into the spiritual atmosphere of mankind. We see the spiritual rays of the School of Chartres passing through France even into Italy. And in many schools whose outer name has been handed down to history, a teaching about Nature was given such as I have here indicated. Brunetto Latini, the teacher of Dante, returning from his post as an Ambassador in Spain suffered at the same time a slight sunstroke and a great shock as he came near to Florence, the city of his fathers. At that moment he was really touched by the occult radiations of the School of Chartres and underwent an experience which he himself describes as follows.—He said that as he came near the city of Florence he entered a deep forest. There he first met three animals and then he met the Goddess Natura who built up the kingdoms of Nature in the very way in which this had been taught for centuries as I have indicated. He, however, beheld it directly. In the semi-pathological condition which soon passed, what had been taught in the School became immediate vision to him. Then, having seen the Goddess Natura, the successor of Proserpina, in her creative work, he beheld how man is built up out of the Elements and how the soul lives and moves in the forces of the planets. Then with his thought he was uplifted even into the heaven of the fixed stars. Thus in his own person he experienced the whole of this majestic, medieval science. And he was the teacher of Dante. Had he not been so, had he not given to his pupil Dante what he had received in this majestic vision, we should not have the Divina Commedia, for the Divina Commedia is the reflection of Brunetto Latini's teaching in the soul of Dante.
Now you must see that in that time there was no other possibility than to work with such things within the institutions of the Church, and these indeed were much freer than they afterwards became. In effect, all these teachers of Chartres belonged to Monastic Orders. We see them wearing the garment of Cistercians. We see them connected with the good tendencies within the life of the Christian Monastic Orders.
Then came a strange phase of development. During the whole of this period, when the Platonists had been active in the way just described, the Aristotelians could not work on earth. The conditions were not there. But instead, they were preparing for the Michael stream in the super-sensible world, maintaining a continuous connection with those who were working on earth in the same direction and who then found their way to Chartres. The School of Chartres was in full flower from the end of the 11th and throughout the 12th century, and then a kind of super-sensible exchange of ideas took place between the Platonic souls from the School of Chartres who were now coming up into the spiritual world through the gate of death and the Aristotelian souls who had remained above. It was an exchange of ideas which took place in the Middle Ages at the turn of the 12th and 13th century, as to the manner of working in the future. (Earthly terms have to be used for these things, although naturally they are not really in keeping and can easily make one appear ridiculous.)
The outcome of this exchange of ideas—since different conditions now prevailed in the spiritual life of European humanity—was that the Platonists who had been so active in Chartres and were now coming up into the super-sensible world, passed on their mission to the Aristotelians. And these Aristotelian souls now descended into the physical world in order to carry forward in the way that conditions allowed, what I will call the cosmic service of Michael.
Within the Dominican Order, where they were active in the most manifold ways, we find again those souls who worked more in the Aristotelian sense. For the work on earth, the Platonic souls were replaced, so to speak, by the Aristotelian souls. And now there developed that system of thought which in truth can be rightly appraised to-day only within the Anthroposophical Movement—I once gave lectures here on the true form and background of Scholasticism [ The Redemption of Thinking. A Study in the Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Three lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in 1920. Translated and edited with an Introduction, Epilogue and Appendices, by A. P. Shepherd and Mildred Robertson Nicholl (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1956).]—there developed medieval Scholasticism, the teaching which in an age already hastening towards materialism strove to preserve as much spirituality in human concepts as it is possible to preserve.
Before Bacon of Verulam and Comenius appeared on earth, Scholasticism had been carrying forward the service of Michael. We see how Scholasticism, the so-called realistic school of philosophy, strove to rescue the source of spirituality which man bears in his thoughts. The Scholastics ascribe reality to that which man grasps through his thoughts. It is a thin, attenuated spirituality that could there be rescued, but it is spirituality.
Thus is the spiritual life carried forward in the evolution of the worlds. Seeing it in its reality, possessing the science of Initiation, we can do no other: we must always perceive the physical, or that which takes place in physical history upon earth, together with the spiritual that permeates it, coming from spiritual worlds. Thus we reach a united and harmonious conception. First, until the time of Chartres, the Platonic souls are working, and then the Aristotelian. We first behold the Aristotelian souls influencing with inspiration from the super-sensible worlds the teachers who, as Platonic souls, are dwelling upon earth, teaching and unfolding science upon earth in earthly forms of understanding. We gaze into this living interplay; we see the teacher of Chartres sitting there on this earthly ground, unfolding his studies that are permeated by spiritual vision, while there penetrates into this earthly scene the inspiring ray from the Aristotelian soul above, bringing the Platonically coloured teachings into the right channels. It is a very different conception of life from what is usual to-day. For in external life men are so fond of contrasting and dividing Platonists from Aristotelians. But in reality it is not so. The times and epochs of the earth require teachings to be given, now in Platonic, now in Aristotelian terms. But if our wisdom includes the super-sensible life in the background, we perceive the one fructifying the other, the one enclosed within the other.
Then again, when the Aristotelians were teaching in the Dominican Order, the Platonic souls, who were now once more in the spiritual world, were the inspiring genii. They had already come to an understanding in the spiritual worlds with these Aristotelian souls who afterwards descended to the earth. Life was altogether different in those times. One may believe it or not, but it was so. Looking back spiritually into those Middle Ages we find such a spirit as Alanus ab Insulis sitting in his lonely cell, given up to his studies, and receiving from the super-sensible world, like a spirit-visitor who comes to him as a companion, an Aristotelian soul. Nay, even afterwards, when the Aristotelians appear in the Dominican Order, there is still a powerful consciousness of belonging to the spiritual world. We can see it in such an instance as the following. One of the Dominican teachers descends into the physical earth-life earlier than another soul with whom he is united. The other soul remains behind in the spiritual world to begin with, in order to accomplish something there which he will afterwards carry down to his companion who went before him. And at length the two are working together again on the earth. All this takes place with consciousness. In their work and activity they know themselves to be in living connection with the spiritual world.
Subsequent history has left no trace of these things. But, my dear friends, to know the truth about historical life we must not seek to derive it alone from the documents of modern time. Moreover, we must see life with open-minded vision. It may be that it unfolds in circles with which perhaps we can have little sympathy. Yet we must see it as something which is placed by karma into these very circles, and the inner significance of which is altogether different.
The task and possibility of thus reading in the real events has come to me in many remarkable ways during my life. Only now do I perceive and penetrate many an experience that I have met with in the course of my life, clear and distinct like an occult writing. Indeed for the most significant of our experiences karma works and weaves in deep and mysterious ways. And if I may say so, there is a very strong karma underlying the fact that to-day and in recent times, at many places, I have been speaking of such things as the School of Chartres, and what preceded and what came after it. For the greatest of those who taught in the School of Chartres belonged to the Cistercian Order. Now the Cistercian Order, like the other Orders in the Catholic stream of development, has become decadent, but in this growing decadence there is also much illusion of appearance. For individualities occasionally find themselves in outer life-connections to which they do not properly belong, while in reality they are carrying forward old threads of spiritual life which are indeed of the greatest value for Anthroposophy itself. But life and karma brings them into these outer connections. Thus I have always been struck by the fact that from my earliest youth, until a certain period of life, something of the Cistercian Order again and again approached me. Having gone through the elementary school, I narrowly escaped—for reasons which I explained in my autobiography The Story of My Life—becoming a pupil in gymnasium or grammar school conducted by the Cistercian Order. Everything seemed to be leading in this direction; but my parents, as I have explained, eventually decided to send me to the modern school instead. Thus I did not become a pupil in the grammar school connected with the Cistercians, and, needless to say, this was also for very good karmic reasons.
But the modern school which I attended was only five steps away from the Cistercian grammar school. Thus we made the acquaintance of all those excellent Cistercian teachers whose work was indeed of a high quality at that time. I need not speak of the Order itself; it is the individuals to whom I refer. To this day I think with profound appreciation of one of those Cistercian priests who taught German literature at that grammar school with deep enthusiasm. And I see the Cistercian priest before me in many other individualities, in the Alleegasse in Wiener Neustadt, where the teachers used to walk up and down before the school hours began—Cistercian priests in civilian costume, eminently gifted men. At that time I was far more concerned to read the essays of the teachers in the school year-book at the end of the year, than the ordinary text-books during the year. I read with keen devotion what these Cistercians wrote of their own wisdom in the year-book of the grammar school in Wiener Neustadt.
In short, the Cistercian Order was near to me. And without a doubt (though these of course are hypotheses such as one uses only for purposes of illustration), if I had gone to the Cistercian school I should, as a matter of course, have become a Cistercian.
Then I came to Vienna. (All these things are described in The Story of My Life). After a time I came into the circle around Marie Eugenie delle Grazie, where many professors of the theological faculty in Vienna used to gather. I learned to know some of them intimately. All those professors were members of the Cistercian Order. Thus once again I came together with Cistercians, and through the currents which flow through the Cistercian Order to-day, I have been able to follow many things back into the past.
To show how karma works I will refer to one event. I had to give a lecture. Now through the afternoon teas at delle Grazie's I had grown well acquainted with the Cistercian professors of theology who frequented her house. I gave a lecture. A priest of the Cistercian Order was there—a remarkable and excellent man. When I had finished my lecture he made a very peculiar remark, the nature of which I will only indicate by saying: he uttered words in which was contained his memory of having been together with me in a
Such things do indeed educate us for life. It was in the year 1889. In Das Goetheanum, former life on earth.
1The weekly periodical published at the Goetheanum, Dornach, Switzerland. Rudolf Steiner died before the autobiographical essays had been completed, but those that were available have been collected in the book The Course of My Life. of course, I could only take the external aspect of these things; but my autobiographical essays will be published as a book with added notes in which the inner aspect will also be duly dealt with. Here, you see, I have told you something of the karmic foundations which have made it possible for me to speak at all in this form about these particular spiritual streams. For one cannot study these things by mere study. One's study of them must consist in life itself.Thus I have shown how the Platonic stream and the Aristotelian worked together. Then the Aristotelians too went once more through the gate of death. And as we know, with the age of the Spiritual Soul, materialism became more and more predominant on earth. But at the very time when materialism took its start on earth there was founded in the super-sensible worlds a kind of Michael School. As I said, we can refer to these things only with our everyday terminology. It was a far-spread School of Michael in which spirits like Bernardus Sylvestris and Alanus ab Insulis were united after death. And with them once more Alexander and Aristotle. These and other human souls who were not in earthly incarnation at that time, were united here with spiritual beings who, though they spend their lives without ever being incarnated on the earth, are yet connected with earthly souls. Michael himself was a Teacher, gazing back over all that had been the great teachings of the ancient Mysteries, comprehending in a marvellous sweep of vision the secrets of the ancient Mysteries, and opening out at the same time a mighty panorama of what was to come.
In one form or another we find certain souls who took part in that super-sensible school in the 14th/15th century. They had been connected together in many lives on earth. We find them among the hosts which strive towards the stream of Michael, receiving into the impulses of their will what we may call: The will to be united with the stream of Michael.
We gaze upon these souls. Very few of them were on earth. Most of them were in the life between death and a new birth, partaking in that super-sensible gathering, in that spiritual school. We find them there, these souls, we find them there, harkening to the teachings of Michael, and we find them again to-day in the souls who, connected on the earth, unfold a sincere and upright striving of their inner life towards the Anthroposophical Movement.
In the karma of those who tend with inner sincerity towards the Anthroposophical Movement, there lie the deep impulses, the karmic significance of which must again be studied in the spiritual worlds themselves. Of course the fact that those souls were driven by their karma to such a heavenly community at that time, is due again to the fact that in former earthly lives they had shaped their karma accordingly, so that it led them there. Nevertheless one cannot recognise the karma of human souls without looking, not only at what happens at any given time on earth, but also at what happens between death and a new birth.
Our outlook on the world is infinitely enriched by this. Contemplating the souls who labour in the world—and in the last resort this applies to all men—we no longer have to begin at the point where they enter earthly existence, or cease at the point where they die; for in effect they neither then begin to work, nor do they cease. And in all that takes place spiritually, not only the souls that are incarnated on the earth to-day are working, but other souls, who are now between death and a new birth, and who send their rays of influence in upon the earth. In our own actions their impulses are contained. For all these things work together, even as the deeds on earth penetrate into the heavenly regions, and continue working there, as I indicated pictorially, for instance, in the characters of Capesius and Strader in the first Mystery Play.
Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, he is there. He died. He went through the gate of death, but death itself is a transformation of life. He is still there. He works on, and we find him if we seek him spiritually.
The picture of the spiritual evolution of mankind is made complete if we are able to include the so-called dead. Nay, in reality, they are far more living than the so-called living. In very many things that happen on the earth we find Brunetto Latini living and working to-day, although he is not incarnate on the earth. Thus you will see how intimately united the earthly life is with the super-sensible. We cannot speak at all of a super-sensible world separated from the earthly world of sense. For everything that is of the senses is permeated at the same time supersensibly, and everything that is super-sensible is revealed somewhere and sometime in the world of sense. Moreover we can only truly receive and understand the earthly life if we recognise that these things are behind it.
This, my dear friends, is to be the future of the Anthroposophical Movement since the Christmas Foundation Meeting. We must treat of the super-sensible facts openly and without reserve, confessing them in fullness of knowledge. This should be the esoteric trait permeating the Anthroposophical Movement. Thus alone will it be possible to give it its real spiritual content.
For you see, all that I described to you as the stream of Michael has gone on into our time. But individualities appearing again on earth have to make use, in the first place, of the physical bodies that are possible in a given age. They must find their way into the impulses of education which a given age provides. In the materialistic age all these things become their external garment. And our materialistic age offers the greatest imaginable hindrances to souls who had a rich spirituality in former lives on earth. To pour this spirituality into the bodies of this age, especially when they have to be prepared by modern educational methods, is extraordinarily difficult. Thus you need not wonder when I say: The souls which strive earnestly towards Anthroposophy are to be found in this way in former epochs of evolution. We cannot lay the foundations of true knowledge unless we can perceive the real interplay of all that lives and works in the world. For spiritual research itself depends on the spiritual life and requires us to seek the spiritual along its own true path. The paths of the spirit are different in every age. In our age they are possible only if we have beneath our feet the firm ground of a spiritual knowledge of external Nature.
The former age which I described within the stream of Michael was followed by one which here on the earth shows an altogether materialistic aspect, an age in which all things are developed materialistically. In the super-sensible evolution of this age there is the most intensive work of preparation for the impulses of Michael, which have now been carried down, so to speak, from heaven to the earth. But this new age to-day cannot take its start from what has gone before in the last few centuries. We must indeed be familiar with the things that have unfolded upon earth in the last few centuries, but we cannot take our start from them. With the consciousness of this modern age we must take our start from what has taken place in the super-sensible during the last few centuries. In saying this we touch upon ground which must become the basis of anthroposophical life and work in this present time. Conceptions such as I have explained in the last few lectures must not merely be received with cold intellect and indifferent hearts. They must be received by the full human being, by the whole compass of the human heart and mind. Anthroposophy can mean something for mankind only if it is received with the whole compass of the human heart and soul.
Such is the foundation of the will of the Anthroposophical Movement, which is united since the Foundation Meeting with the Anthroposophical Society. We long that this should enter deeply into the souls of human beings who are united with this Movement, that they should grow conscious of what is truly connected with their karma in the depths of their own souls.
Thus we have laid a kind of foundation, and from this point we will proceed next Sunday when we will study the further course of the stream of Michael, so as to perceive its resulting tasks for Anthroposophy and for the whole spiritual life of the present time.
Vierter Vortrag
[ 1 ] Wenn wir ein vom Geistesleben durchflossenes menschliches Denken und Handeln wiederum haben wollen, dann wird es notwendig sein, solche Anschauungen von der geistigen Welt, wie sie in den letzten Vorträgen durch unsere Seele gezogen sind, in vollem Ernste wiederum aufzunehmen, nachdem sie jahrhundertelang eigentlich gerade der zivilisiertren Menschheit gefehlt haben.
[ 2 ] Wenn wir in verschiedene Epochen menschlicher Geschichtsentwickelung zurückblicken, so werden wir in älteren Zeiten sehen, wie menschliches Handeln auf Erden überall angeknüpft worden ist an dasjenige, was im Übersinnlichen sich vollzieht. Nicht als ob etwa bei dem weitaus größten Teil der Menschheit in der letzten Zeit ein gewisses abstraktes Bewußtsein vom Übersinnlichen gefehlt hätte; das soll nicht gesagt werden. Wohl aber hat der Mut gefehlt, dasjenige, was im Irdischen konkret geschieht, auch an konkrete Gestaltungen des geistigen Lebens und Webens anzuknüpfen.
[ 3 ] Mit solchen Betrachtungen, wie wir sie nun angestellt haben, kommen wir wieder dazu. Namentlich kommen wir dazu, wenn wir das irdische Leben der Menschen, so wie es ja hier geschehen ist, in Zusammenhang zu bringen vermögen mit dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt und wenn wir vermögen anzuknüpfen das, was in einem Erdenleben geschieht, an dasjenige, was in den aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben sich vollzieht.
[ 4 ] Wir haben nun damit begonnen, jene geistig-übersinnliche Strömung zu betrachten, von der ich sagen durfte, daß sie mit unserer gegenwärtigen Michaelströmung, in deren Dienst sich die Anthroposophie gestellt hat, zusammenhängt. Damit haben wir uns auf den Weg begeben, der in gewissem Sinne an das Karma der anthroposophischen Bewegung selbst herankommen soll und damit auch an das Karma der einzelnen Persönlichkeiten, die in ehrlicher Weise, das heißt aus einem selbstverständlichen Trieb ihres Inneren heraus, das Leben ihrer Seele, ihres Geistes vereinigen können mit der anthroposophischen Bewegung.
[ 5 ] Und ich habe darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie gewissermaßen unter der Ägide der Michaelmacht ein übersinnliches Ereignis in derselben Zeit stattgefunden hat, in welcher auf Erden 869 jenes Konzil stattgefunden hat, durch welches das ganze Mittelalter in seinem Zivilisationsleben tief beeinflußt worden ist. Man muß nur die tiefe Scheu beobachten, mit der erleuchtete Geister des Mittelalters es vermieden, von dem dreigliedrigen Menschen nach Leib, Seele und Geist zu sprechen. Denn es hat eben dieses achte allgemeine Konzil in Konstantinopel die Lehre vom dreigliedrigen Menschen als ketzerisch, als häretisch erklärt, und bei der Macht, welche solche geistigen Verfügungen im Mittelalter hatten, ist es einleuchtend, daß nun eigentlich das ganze geistige Leben in gewisser Beziehung hier auf Erden unter dem Schatten dieser Verketzerung der sogenannten Trichotomie verläuft.
[ 6 ] Aber um so intensiver ist eigentlich dasjenige Geistesleben, das seit langer Zeit daran arbeitet, die Michaelströmung für das zwanzigste Jahrhundert vorzubereiten, die Michaelströmung, in der wir seit dem letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts stehen und in der wir als Menschheit drei bis vier Jahrhunderte stehen werden. Wir wollen heute auf den Fortgang dieser Strömung, die wir ja zu betrachten begonnen haben, hinweisen, um dann übermorgen, am nächsten Sonntag, mehr an dasjenige heranzukommen, was auf der einen Seite mit dem Karma der anthroposophischen Bewegung, auf der anderen Seite mit dem Geistesleben der Gegenwart karmisch zusammenhängt.
[ 7 ] Ich habe gesagt, daß bei einer Art übersinnlichen, überirdischen Konzils in derselben Zeit, als das achte allgemeine Konzil in Konstantinopel stattgefunden hat, sich die Individualitäten Harun al Raschids und seines weisen Ratgebers, aber auch die Individualitäten Alexanders und Aristoteles’ getroffen haben; daß sich da auch eingefunden haben einige Individualitäten aus der Zeit, in welcher der Dienst des Artus stattgefunden hat, und ich habe auseinandergesetzt, wie das alles unter der Ägide Michaels stattgefunden hat.
[ 8 ] Dann habe ich darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie Harun al Raschid wiedererscheint — herübertragend nach Europa orientalisches Geistesleben mit einer unchristlich gewordenen aristotelischen Lehre —, wie Harun al Raschid erscheint als Lord Bacon, als Baco von Verulam, der einen großen Einfluß auf das Geistesleben Europas hatte, aber einen Einfluß, der sich durchaus im materialistischen Sinne bewegt. Und ich habe darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie der Ratgeber Harun al Raschids, den ich charakterisiert habe, wiederum erscheint als Amos Comenius, von dem ja mit Recht in einem guten Sinne viel geredet wird, der aber doch auch die Seite hat, daß er in dem Bestreben, anschauliche Bildlichkeit in den Unterricht hineinzubringen, den Materialismus dadurch gefördert hat, daß er im Grunde genommen die unmittelbar sinnliche Anschaulichkeit scharf betont hat.
[ 9 ] Da sehen wir gewissermaßen ins Erdenleben Ende des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, Anfang des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts diejenige Strömung hereinbrechen, welche nicht in der geradlinigen Fortsetzung des Christentums liegt, welche ein dem Christentum fremdes Element in die europäische Geistesentwickelung hineinbringt. Aber auf der anderen Seite wirken ja weiter, und zwar jetzt in übersinnlichen Welten, die mit der Michaelströmung verbunden bleibenden Individualitäten Aristoteles’, Alexanders, alle diejenigen, welche dazugehören.
[ 10 ] Aber außerdem wirkt innerhalb dieser Strömung, zum Teil in übersinnlichen Welten, zum Teil auch auf Erden selber, etwas durch gewisse Persönlichkeiten, welche im Zusammenhange mit diesen übersinnlichen Strömungen standen, da sie zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt waren, Individualitäten, die dann als Persönlichkeiten auf der Erde im Laufe der nächsten Jahrhunderte erschienen; Individualitäten, die weniger an den Alexandrinismus, an den Aristotelismus anknüpfen, die an Plato und an alles dasjenige anknüpfen, was aus Platos Anschauung geworden ist.
[ 11 ] Namentlich sehen wir in den auf das neunte Jahrhundert folgenden Jahrhunderten platonisch gerichtete, platonisch orientierte Geister auf die Erde heruntersteigen. Und das sind ja diejenigen, welche eine von dem ofliziellen Christentum, von dem ofhiziellen Katholizismus als häretisch angesehene christliche Lehre, die aber die wahrere christliche Lehre war, im Mittelalter fortgesetzt haben. Die Individualitäten, die den christlichen Ariistotelismus fortsetzten, sie blieben zunächst in geistigen Welten zurück, denn auf der Erde war im neunten, zehnten, elften, zwölften Jahrhundert, nach den Zivilisationsbedingungen, die gegeben waren, keine rechte Anknüpfung für diese Geistesströmung. Dagegen konnten sich, man möchte sagen, in gewissen isolierten Geistesbezirken mit ganz besonderer Intensität diejenigen entwickeln, die mehr platonisch gesinnt waren. Man findet eingestreut in dem ofliziell sich immer mehr und mehr verbreitenden katholisch gefärbten Christentum da und dort Persönlichkeiten in Schulen, welche alte Mysterientradition fortsetzen und das Christentum beleuchten mit diesen alten Mysterientraditionen. Und eine Stätte, in die dann alles dasjenige eingeflossen ist, was als solche Traditionen fortgesetzt worden ist, ist ja die von mir in der letzten Zeit öfter genannte, durch und durch spirituelle Schule von Chartres, innerhalb welcher solche Geister wie Bernhardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis und andere gewirkt haben.
[ 12 ] Was ist da eigentlich für ein Geistesleben zur Entwickelung gekommen, das zuletzt eingelaufen ist in diese merkwürdige, der Menschheit eigentlich nur äußerlich bekannte Schule von Chartres? Das ist ein Geistesleben, welches im Grunde genommen völlig verschüttet ist in der neueren Zeit, ein Geistesleben, in dem noch alte Mysterientraditionen fortgepflanzt werden. Insbesondere finden wir innerhalb dieses Geisteslebens überall, daß eine Anschauung von der Natur herrscht, die tief geistig durchdrungen ist, eine Anschauung von der Natur, welche noch total verschieden ist von dieser abstrakten Naturanschauung, die dann später alle Kreise bewegte, jener abstrakten Naturanschauung, die nur in Gedanken ausdrückbare Naturgesetze kennt.
[ 13 ] Dasjenige, was die Geistesströmung, auf die ich hindeute, aus der Natur in die Seele aufgenommen hat, war etwas durchaus Geistgemäßes, war so, daß überall in der Natur nicht bloß abstrakte, tote, begriffliche Naturgesetze gesehen wurden, sondern lebendiges Wirken und Weben. Man hat noch wenig auf dasjenige gesehen, was später für die Menschen so bewundernswert geworden ist: auf unsere heutigen chemischen Elemente. Man hat aber um so mehr auf dasjenige gesehen, was man im alten Sinne die Elemente genannt hat: Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer. In dem Augenblicke, wo man aber diese Elemente kennt nicht durch bloße Tradition in Worten, sondern durch eine Tradition, die noch imprägniert ist von den ältesten der Mysterien, in demselben Momente sieht man dasjenige, was zwar nicht vorhanden ist in unseren siebzig bis achtzig chemischen Elementen, was aber in jenen vier Elementen vorhanden ist: die Welt der elementarischen Geistigkeit, die Welt gewisser Elementarwesen, in die man sich sogleich vertieft, wenn man in diese Elemente sich einlebt.
[ 14 ] Und dann sieht man, wie der Mensch selber in bezug auf seine äußere Leiblichkeit teilnimmt an diesem Leben und Weben von Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer, wie das in ihm organische Gestalt wird. Und dann sahen diejenigen, die so hineinschauten in das Leben und Weben der Elemente, nicht Naturgesetze in dem Weben und Leben von Erde, Wasser, Feuer, Luft, sondern sie sahen hinter diesem Weben eine große, lebendige Wesenheit, die Göttin Natura. Und sie bekamen aus der Anschauung das unmittelbare Gefühl, daß diese Göttin Natura nur einen Teil ihres Wesens dem Menschen zunächst zuwendet, daß sich der andere Teil ihres Wesens verbirgt in derjenigen Welt, die der Mensch im Schlafe zwischen Einschlafen und Aufwachen zubringt, wo Ich und astralischer Leib in einer der Natur zugrunde liegenden Geistumgebung sind, wo Ich und astralischer Leib zusammen sind mit den Elementarwesen, die den Elementen zugrunde liegen. Und wir finden in diesen isolierten Geistesstätten und Schulen, auf die ich hingedeutet habe, überall Lehrer größerer oder kleinerer Menschengruppen, welche davon sprechen, wie die Göttin Natura in den äußeren Erscheinungen, die sich den Menschen im Wachzustande zeigen, einen Teil ihres lebenden und webenden Wesens zeigt, wie aber in allem elementarischen Wirken, in Wind und Wetter, in alledem, was den Menschen umgibt und den Menschen konstituiert, mitwirkt dasjenige, was der Mensch nicht schauen kann, sondern was sich ihm in der Finsternis des Schlafes verbirgt.
[ 15 ] So empfanden diese Gelehrten der damaligen Zeit die große Göttin Natura als diejenige, die in der Hälfte der Zeit heraufsteigt und sich im äußeren Weben der Sinnesnatur zeigt; aber auch als diejenige, die hinuntersteigt allnächtlich, alljährlich hinuntersteigt, in den Gefilden wirkt und webt, die sich dem Menschen durch das Schlafbewußtsein verbergen. Und das war die gerade Fortsetzung jener Anschauung, die in den alten Mysterien vorhanden war als die Anschauung der Proserpina.
[ 16 ] Sie müssen nur bedenken, was das bedeutet. Wir haben heute eine Naturanschauung, die aus Gedanken gewoben ist, die in Naturgesetzen besteht, die abstrakt spricht und denkt, in der nichts Lebendes ist. Dazumal war noch eine Naturanschauung, wo man die Natur in einer ähnlichen Weise anschaute, wie man die wirkende Göttin Proserpina, die Tochter der Demeter, anschaute. Und in den Vorstellungen, die in jenen Schulen als die richtigen übermittelt wurden, als die aus der noch lebendigen Tradition herauskommenden, waren viele Aussprüche und Ausdrücke, die sich genau als die Fortsetzungen desjenigen zeigten, was man in den alten Mysterien über Proserpina sagte.
[ 17 ] Wenn man den Menschen zum Begreifen seines Seelenlebens von dem Begreifen seines körperlichen Lebens aus führen wollte, machte man ihm folgendes klar: Du bestehst in bezug auf dein Leibliches aus den Elementen, in denen die Elementarwesen mitweben, aber du trägst in dir die Seele; die steht nicht unter dem Einfluß dieser Elemente allein, sondern beherrscht im Gegenteil die Organisation der Elemente in dir; sie steht, diese Seele, unter dem Einflusse der planetarischen Welt des Merkur, des Jupiter, der Venus, unter dem Einfluß von Sonne und Mond, Saturn, Mars. — Der menschliche Blick wurde hinaufgelenkt, wenn Psychologie studiert werden sollte, zu den Geheimnissen der planetarischen Welt. Da erweiterte sich dasjenige, was Menschenwesen war, vom Leiblichen ins Seelische hinein, aber in der Anschauung der Zusammengehörigkeit mit der Welt, von dem Wirken und Weben der Elemente Erde, Wasser, Luft, Feuer zu demjenigen, was in ihrem Kreisen, in ihrem Scheinen, in ihrem Lichtwirken, in ihren geheimnisvollen okkulten Wirkungen die Planeten im menschlichen Seelenleben taten. Und von der Göttin Natura, der früheren Proserpina, wendete man sich hinauf zu den Intelligenzen, zu den Genien der Planeten, zu denen man aufschaute, wenn man das menschliche Seelenleben begreifen wollte.
[ 18 ] Und dann, wenn es sich darum handelte, das geistige Leben zu begreifen — denn die Lehrer dieser isolierten Schulen hatten sich nicht von der Betrachtung des Geistes abbringen lassen durch das Dogma des achten Konstantinopeler Konzils —, wenn es sich darum handelte, das geistige Leben zu begreifen, dann wendete man den Blick hinauf zu den Fixsternen, zu ihren Konfigurationen, insbesondere zu dem, was sich darstellt in dem Tierkreise. Und man begriff dasjenige, was der Mensch als Geist in sich trug, aus der Konstellation, dem Scheinen und den in den Fixsternen gewußten geistigen Mächten heraus.
[ 19 ] So begriff man aus der Welt, aus dem Kosmos den Menschen. So war da in Wirklichkeit der Makrokosmos und der Mikrokosmos, der Mensch. Das war die Lehre von der Natur in der damaligen Zeit. Sie wurde begeistert in isolierten Schulen, aber auch von einzelnen, die da oder dorthin zerstreut waren, der Menschheit dargeboten. Und sie wurde dann wie in einer Art von Kulmination in wunderbarer Weise von solchen Persönlichkeiten wie Bernhardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis und anderen in der Schule von Chartres vorgebracht.
[ 20 ] Diese Schule von Charttres, sie ist eigentlich etwas ganz Wunderbares. Wenn man heute die Schriften in die Hand bekommt -, ich sagte schon, sie nehmen sich aus wie Kataloge von Namen. Aber es war in der damaligen Zeit eben nicht üblich, in anderer Weise als in, ich möchte sagen, solch katalogisierender Art zu schreiben über dasjenige, was man in lebendiger Geistigkeit haben wollte. Derjenige aber, der solche Dinge lesen kann, der namentlich in der Anordnung der Dinge lesen kann, der nimmt schon wahr, wie dasjenige, was herrührt von den Lehrern der Schule von Chartres, von alter Spiritualität durchdrungen ist. Die tiefe Spiritualität der Schule wirkte aber nicht nur dadurch, daß gelehrt wurde und daß zahlreiche Schüler da waren, die wiederum hinaustrugen, was sie gelernt hatten, sondern sie wirkte direkt auf spirimelle Art. Sie wirkte so, daß auch in der geistigen Atmosphäre der Menschheit auf okkulte Weise dasjenige ausgestrahlt wurde, was an lebendiger Geistigkeit in Chartres lebte. Deshalb sehen wir durch Frankreich hindurch bis nach Italien hinein die Geiststrahlen dieser Schule von Chartres. In verschiedenen Schulen, die dem äußeren Namen nach in der Geschichte bekanntgeworden sind, wurde aber solch eine Naturlehre gelehrt, wie ich sie angedeutet habe.
[ 21 ] Das ist eben ein konkreter Fall: Als Brunetto Latini, der Lehrer Dantes, von seinem spanischen Gesandtschaftsposten zurückkehrte und einen leisen Sonnenstich und einen großen Schreck in der Nähe seiner Vaterstadt Florenz erlebte, da wurde er zugänglich für die okkulten Ausstrahlungen der Schule von Chartres. Er erlebte dasjenige, was er dann selber so darstellt, daß er, indem er sich seiner Vaterstadt Florenz näherte, in einen tiefen Wald kam, wo er zunächst drei Tieren begegnete, wo er dann begegnete der Göttin Natura, welche aufbaue die Reiche der Natur in der Weise, wie es durch Jahrhunderte gelehrt wurde, wie ich es angedeutet habe. Er aber schaute das; in diesem halbpathologischen Zustand, der aber bald vorüberging, wurde ihm das Anschauen dessen, was in den Schulen gelehrt wurde. Und er schaute dann, nachdem er die Göttin Natura, die Nachfolgerin der Proserpina, in ihrer Arbeit gesehen hatte, wie der Mensch sich aufbaut aus den Elementen, wie die Seele webt in den Kräften der Planeten; er wird bis in den Sternenhimmel hinauf mit seinen Gedanken geführt. Er erlebt in eigener Person diese ganze gewaltige mittelalterliche Wissenschaft.
[ 22 ] Brunetto Latini ist der Lehrer von Dante. Wäre er es nicht gewesen, hätte er nicht dasjenige, was er in einer so majestätischen Schauung empfangen hat, seinem Schüler Dante überliefert, wir hätten die «Commedia» nicht, denn die ist der Abglanz der Lehre von Brunetto Latini aus Dantes Seele. Sehen Sie, es war jetzt keine andere Möglichkeit, als daß gewirkt wurde mit solchen Dingen innerhalb der damals gegenüber der späteren noch viel freieren kirchlichen Einrichtung, und wir sehen ja, wie alle diese Lehrer von Chartres Ordensgeistliche sind. Wir sehen sie das Zisterzienserkleid tragen. Wir sehen sie mit den besseren Strömungen innerhalb des christlichen Ordenslebens zusammenhängen.
[ 23 ] Nun kam eine eigentümliche Phase der Entwickelung. Während dieser ganzen Zeit, in der sozusagen die Platoniker auf die eben geschilderte Art gewirkt hatten, konnten die Aristoteliker auf der Erde nicht wirken. Es waren eben nicht die Bedingungen da. Aber sie bereiteten dafür im übersinnlichen Leben die Michaelströmung vor. Sie standen von der übersinnlichen Welt aus auch in einem fortwährenden Zusammenhang mit den Lehrern, die in der gleichen Richtung wirkten, die dann nach Chartres hin sich zogen. Dann aber fand, während die Blüte der Schule von Chartres Ende des elften Jahrhunderts, im zwölften Jahrhundert war — man muß diese Dinge mit irdischen Bezeichnungen belegen, obwohl natürlich diese irdischen Bezeichnungen nicht stimmen und man sich über sie leicht lächerlich machen kann -, es fand eine Art übersinnlicher Besprechung statt zwischen denjenigen Seelen, die hinaufstiegen in die übersinnliche Welt durch die Pforte des Todes aus der Strömung von Chartres heraus, zwischen den Platonikern und denen, die oben geblieben waren, den Aristotelikern, den Alexandrinern, eine Besprechung, welche um die Wende des zwölften und des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts im Mittelalter liegt, ein Ausgleich, wie fernerhin zu wirken sei.
[ 24 ] Das führte dazu, daß, da nun andere Bedingungen eingetreten waren im Geistesleben der europäischen Menschheit, die Platoniker, die zuletzt in Chartres ihre grosse Wirksamkeit entfaltet hatten und in der übersinnlichen Welt waren, ihre Mission übertrugen auf die Aristoteliker. Und diese stiegen nun herunter in die physische Welt, um so fortzusetzen, wie sich eben fortsetzen ließ dasjenige, was ich nennen möchte den kosmischen Michaeldienst.
[ 25 ] Wieder finden wir diejenigen, welche in diesem mehr aristotelisch gefärbten Sinne wirkten, innerhalb des Dominikaner-Ordens in der mannigfaltigsten Weise wirksam. Es lösten sozusagen für das Erdenwirken die Seelen der Aristoteliker die Seelen der Platoniker ab, und es entwickelte sich dasjenige, was ja heute eigentlich nur innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung wirklich gewürdigt wird — ich habe hier einmal einen Vortragszyklus über die Scholastik in ihrer wahren Gestalt und Herkunft gehalten —, es entwickelte sich die Scholastik des Mittelalters, jene Lehre, welche in einer schon dem Materialismus zueilenden Zeit festhalten wollte, was an Geistigkeit in den menschlichen Anschauungen festgehalten werden kann.
[ 26 ] Noch bevor Baco von Verulam und Comenius auf der Erde erschienen, wird in der Scholastik an der Fortsetzung des Michaeldienstes gearbeitet. Wir sehen, wie in der Scholastik gerettet werden soll, in der sogenannten realistischen Schule gerettet werden soll der Ursprung dessen, was der Mensch in seinen Gedanken trägt für die Geistigkeit. Geistige Realität wird von den realistischen Scholastikern demjenigen zugeschrieben, was der Mensch durch seine Gedanken erfaßt, geistige Realität. Es ist eine dünne Geistigkeit, die da gerettet werden konnte, aber es ist Geistigkeit.
[ 27 ] Es ist schon so, meine lieben Freunde, daß das spirituelle Leben in der Welten-Entwickelung sich so fortsetzt, daß man, wenn man es in seiner Realität überblickt und die Initiationsw issenschaft besitzt, gar nicht anders kann, als Physisches oder solches überhaupt, das sich in der physischen Historie auf der Erde abspielt, zusammenzuschauen mit dem, was aus dem Geistigen geistig dieses Physische durchdringt. Man kommt zu einer einheitlichen Anschauung, wie zuerst die platonischen Seelen wirken bis nach Chartres hin, wie dann die aristotelischen Seelen wirken. Man schaut zuerst die aristotelischen Seelen, wie sie inspirierend wirken von der übersinnlichen Welt nach den Lehrern hin, die als platonische Seelen auf der Erde leben, dort wirken, lehren, auf der Erde im Erdenverstande Wissenschaft ausbilden. Man schaut hinein in dieses Getriebe, sieht, wie der Lehrer von Chartres auf dem Erdenboden wandelt, seine von Schauungen durchdrungenen Studien absolviert und der inspirierende Strahl von der aristorelischen Seele vom Überirdischen hereinfällt und dasjenige in die richtigen Bahnen bringt, was platonisch gefärbt ist. Man bekommt dann eine ganz andere Anschauung von dem Leben, als sie sehr häufig vorhanden ist. Denn in dem äußeren Leben unterscheidet man so gern Platoniker und Aristoteliker wie Gegensätze. Das ist ja in der Wirklichkeit gar nicht so. Die Zeitepochen der Erde erfordern, daß bald im platonischen, bald im aristotelischen Sinne gesprochen werde. Aber wenn man das übersinnliche Leben im Hintergrunde des sinnlichen Lebens überschaut, so befruchtet das eine das andere, steckt das eine in dem anderen darinnen.
[ 28 ] Und wiederum, als innerhalb der Dominikaner die Aristoteliker lehrten, da waren die nunmehr in der geistigen Welt weilenden platonischen Seelen, nachdem sie sich verständigt hatten mit den später heruntergekommenen aristotelischen Seelen, die inspirierenden Genien. Das Leben war überhaupt anders in jener Zeit. Ob man das heute glaubt oder nicht, es war so, daß wenn man geistig auf diese Zeiten hinschaut, man solch einen Geist wie Alanus ab Insulis in seiner einsamen Zelle sitzend findet, seinen Studien ergeben, einen Geistbesuch empfangend aus der übersinnlichen Welt, der sich zu ihm gesellt und der eine aristotelische Seele ist. Ja, es ist ein starkes Bewußtsein vorhanden — auch dann, als im Dominikaner-Orden die Aristoteliker erscheinen -, ein starkes Bewußtsein von der Zugehörigkeit zu der geistigen Welt. Das kann einem aus solchen Tatsachen hervorgehen: Einer der Dominikaner-Lehrer steigt in das physische Erdenleben früher herunter als eine andere Seele, mit der er verbunden ist; diese bleibt in der geistigen Welt zunächst zurück, um etwas, was dort zunächst absolviert werden mußte, etwas später zu dem, der früher heruntergekommen ist, hinunterzutragen, um dann mit dem früher Geborenen wiederum zusammenzuwirken. Und das geht in Bewußtheit vor sich. Man weiß sich mit seinem Wirken, mit seiner Arbeit zusammenhängend mit der geistigen Welt.
[ 29 ] Das alles hat die spätere Geschichte ausgelöscht. Aber Wahrheit über das geschichtliche Leben muß man ja nicht aus den Dokumenten der neueren Zeit ablesen wollen, sondern aus dem Leben. Und man muß einen unbefangenen Blick für das Leben haben. Man muß das Leben auch da sich entfalten sehen, wo es innerhalb vielleicht recht wenig sympathischer Kreise sich entwickelt als etwas, was durch das Karma eben hineingestellt ist in diese Kreise, was aber innerlich etwas ganz anderes bedeutet.
[ 30 ] Solches Lesen in den Ereignissen, meine lieben Freunde, trat mir wirklich im Verlaufe meines Lebens in ganz merkwürdiger Weise entgegen. Und jetzt schaue ich auf manches erst, mit den Blicken es durchdringend, was in deutlicher Weise wie eine okkulte Schrift mir im Verlaufe des Lebens entgegengetreten ist. Karma webt und wirkt ja in recht geheimnisvoller Weise gerade für die bedeutsamsten Dinge, die man erlebt. Und ich möchte sagen: Es liegt ja auch ein eigentümliches Karma dem zugrunde, daß ich heute, und zu anderen Zeiten an anderen Orten, gerade jetzt in dieser Zeit über solche Dinge spreche wie über die Schule von Chartres und über alles dasjenige, was ihr vorangegangen ist, alles dasjenige, was ihr folgt. Denn gerade die hervorragendsten Menschen, die in der Schule von Chartres gelehrt haben, gehörten dem ZisterzienserOrden an.
[ 31 ] Nun ist der Zisterzienser-Orden, so wie die anderen Orden innerhalb der katholischen Entwickelung, dekadent geworden, aber in diesem Dekadentwerden liegt ja viel Äußerlichkeit. Die Individualitäten, sie stecken zuweilen, indem sie alte, auch für die Anthroposophie außerordentlich wertvolle Richtungen fortsetzen, in Zusammenhängen drinnen, zu denen sie eigentlich nicht gehören; jedoch das Leben, das Karma bringt sie hinein. So mußte ich es immer merkwürdig finden, daß — von meiner ersten Jugend an bis in eine gewisse Zeit — an mich immer etwas herangetreten ist vom Zisterzienser-Orden. Ich kam ja, als ich die Volksschule hinter mir hatte, nur dadurch, daß ich aus den Gründen, die ich in meinem Lebensgang auseinandergesetzt habe, von meinen Angehörigen in die Realschule verwiesen wurde, nicht in das Gymnasium kam, — nur knapp daran vorbei, Schüler zu werden eines ZisterzienserOrdensgymnasiums. Es war eigentlich ganz selbstverständlich, daß ich das hätte werden sollen. Ich wurde es nicht, narürlich auch aus guten karmischen Gründen.
[ 32 ] Aber die Realschule, an der ich war, war ja nur fünf Schritte vom Zisterzienser-Ordensgymnasium entfernt. Man lernte alle diese dazumal eigentlich noch ganz ausgezeichnet wirkenden Zisterzienser-Lehrer kennen. Man braucht nicht vom Orden zu sprechen, sondern von den einzelnen Individualitäten. Ich denke heute noch mit einer tiefen Befriedigung an einen solchen Zisterzienser-Ordenspriester, der an jenem Gymnasium deutsche Literatur mit einschneidender Begeisterung lehrte, und ich sehe sie vor mir in allen ihren Individualitäten, in jener Straße, die man in Wiener-Neustadt die Alleegasse nennt, wo die Professoren immer spazieren gingen, bevor die Schule anfing: diese Zisterzienser-Ordenspriester im Zivilkostüm, ungeheuer begabte Leute. Und da ich mich in jener Zeit viel mehr damit beschäftigte, am Ende des Schuljahres die Programm-Aufsätze der Professoren zu lesen als die Schulbücher während des Schuljahres, so las ich wirklich mit eifriger Hingebung dasjenige, was in dem Schulprogramm dieses Wiener-Neustädter Gymnasiums diese Zisterzienser als ihre eigene Weisheit niederschrieben. Kurz, der Zisterzienser-Orden war mir nahe. Und ganz gewiß: wäre ich ins Zisterzienser-Gymnasium gekommen — das sind natürlich Hypothesen, wie man sie nur zur Beleuchtung aufstellen kann —, ich wäre selbstverständlich Zisterzienser geworden.
[ 33 ] Nun ging’s in Wien weiter — ich habe das alles in meinem Lebensgang erzählt. Nach einiger Zeit kam ich in den Kreis, der um delle Grazie sich versammelte, in dem viele von den TheologieProfessoren der theologischen Fakultät in Wien verkehrten. Ich wurde mit manchen sehr intim bekannt. Es waren alle da Wirkenden Mitglieder des Zisterzienser-Ordens. Ich kam wieder mit den Zisterziensern zusammen. Und ich habe durch dasjenige, was gegenwärtig durch den Zisterzienser-Orden strömt, gewissermaßen mancherlei zurückverfolgen können.
[ 34 ] Ich möchte, um Ihnen zu zeigen, wie Karma wirkt, auf ein Ereignis hinweisen. Ich hielt einen Vortrag, und ich war ja durch die — «five-o’clock teas» sind’s in England, in Wien «jour-Tage» — ich war ja durch die «jour-Tage» bei delle Grazie sehr gut bekannt geworden mit den dort verkehrenden Professoren der theologischen Fakultät, den Zisterziensern. Ich hielt einen Vortrag. Es war ein Zisterzienser-Ordenspriester da, einer, der ein ganz besonders ausgezeichneter Mensch war, und als ich meinen Vortrag beendet hatte, sagte er etwas ganz Eigentümliches, etwas, das ich nur in der Form andeuten möchte: Er brachte mir ein Wort entgegen, in dem gelegen war seine Erinnerung an ein Zusammensein von ihm mit mir in einem früheren Erdenleben.
[ 35 ] Solche Dinge sind schon erziehend für das Leben. Es war im Jahre 1889. Gewiß, ich konnte nur die Äußerlichkeiten dieser Dinge im «Goetheanum» erzählen, und die Aufsätze werden ja als Buch erscheinen, mit Anmerkungen, in denen dann auch das Innerliche berücksichtigt werden wird.
[ 36 ] Nun, sehen Sie, hier haben Sie etwas von den karmischen Gründen, die dazu führten, daß ich überhaupt in dieser Form sprechen kann über diese Geistesströmungen. Dafür kann ja die Vorbereitung nur im Leben liegen, nicht im Studium.
[ 37 ] Nun zeigte ich also, wie zusammenwirkte die platonische, die aristotelische Strömung. Dann gingen auch die Aristoteliker wiederum durch die Pforte des Todes. Und es kam ja im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele zunächst auf Erden immer mehr und mehr der Materialismus herauf. Aber gerade in der Zeit, als der Materialismus auf Erden seinen Anfang nahm, da wurde begründet — wie gesagt, man muß diese Dinge mit Trivial-Terminologie belegen —, da wurde begriindet in übersinnlichen Welten eine Art MichaelSchule, eine ausgebreitete Michael-Schule, in der vereinigt waren Geister wie Bernardus Silvestris nach dem Tode, Alanus ab Insulis, aber auch wiederum Aristoteles und Alexander; in der vereinigt waren menschliche Seelen, die dazumal nicht auf Erden verkörpert waren, mit geistigen Wesenheiten, die ihr Leben absolvieren, ohne auf Erden verkörpert zu sein, die aber verbunden sind mit Erdenseelen, Michael selber als der Lehrer, zurückschauend auf alles dasjenige, was die großen Lehren der alten Mysterien waren, eine wunderbare Überschau haltend über die Geheimnisse der alten Mysterien, aber zu gleicher Zeit einen gewaltigen Ausblick gebend über dasjenige, was geschehen soll.
[ 38 ] Und sehen Sie, in irgendeiner Form findet man gewisse Seelen, die in vielen Erdenleben sich mehr oder weniger zusammengefunden haben innerhalb dieser Scharen, an dieser übersinnlichen Schule im vierzehnten, fünfzehnten Jahrhundert teilnehmend, Scharen von Seelen, die heranstreben zur Michael-Strömung, Seelen, welche in ihre Willensimpulse dasjenige aufnehmen, was man nennen kann: sich verbinden wollen mit der Michael-Strömung.
[ 39 ] Man kann nach diesen Seelen hinschauen. Man findet sie sozusagen — weil dazumal die wenigsten von ihnen auf Erden, die meisten eben in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt waren und teilnahmen an der übersinnlichen Versammlung dieser übersinnlichen Schule —, man findet sie dort, diese Seelen. Man findet sie dort, hinhörend auf die Michael-Lehren. Man findet sie heute wieder in denjenigen Seelen, die, auf Erden verkörpert, ein ehrliches, innerliches, aufrichtiges Streben nach der anthroposophischen Bewegung entwickeln.
[ 40 ] In dem Karma derjenigen, die in ehrlicher, innerlich ehrlicher Weise nach der anthroposophischen Bewegung hintendieren, liegen die Impulse, die in der übersinnlichen Welt auch für das Karma studiert werden müssen. Natürlich: Daß diese Seelen durch ihr Karma getrieben wurden gerade dazumal zu einer solchen himmlischen Gemeinschaft, das hat seine Gründe darinnen, daß sie im früheren Erdenleben sich ihr Karma in der Weise gestaltet hatten, daß es sie eben dorthin geführt hat. Aber man kann ja auch das Karma von Seelen nicht erkennen, ohne daß man hinschaut nicht nur auf dasjenige, was sich auf Erden abspielt, sondern hinschaut auf dasjenige auch, was sich zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt abspielen wird.
[ 41 ] Es ist ja das Anschauen der Welt unendlich bereichernd, wenn man, wenn ich es so ausdrücken darf, bei der Betrachtung der in der Welt wirkenden Seelen — und das sind ja zum Schluß alle Menschen — nicht immer anzufangen hat da, wo die Menschen auf die Erde hereintreten, und aufzuhören hat da, wo sie sterben; denn sie fangen da ja gar nicht an zu wirken, sie hören da ja gar nicht auf zu wirken. In dem, was sich geistig abspielt, wirken ja nicht bloß etwa diejenigen Seelen, die auf Erden heute verkörpert sind, sondern andere Seelen, die heute zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt stehen und die Strahlen ihres Wirkens hereinsenden auf die Erde. In unseren eigenen Taten liegen die Impulse solcher Seelen. Das wirkt ja alles zusammen, geradeso wie die Erdentaten sich wiederum hineinerstrecken in das Himmelsgebiet und dort weiterwirken, wie ich es an den Persönlichkeiten Capesius und Strader zum Beispiel schon im ersten Mysteriendrama bildhaft angedeutet habe.
[ 42 ] Brunetto Latini, der Lehrer Dantes, er ist ja da. Er ist gestorben dazumal, durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen, aber das ist ja eine Lebensverwandlung. Er ist ja da. Er wirkt ja weiter, und man findet ihn, wenn man ihn geistig sucht.
[ 43 ] Nun, dadurch vervollständigt sich das Bild der geistigen Entwickelung der Menschheit, wenn man immer die sogenannten Toten dazunehmen kann, denn sie sind ja eigentlich viel lebendiger als diejenigen, die die sogenannten Lebendigen sind. In vieler Beziehung ist ja jemand wie Brunetto Latini heute, trotzdem er nicht auf der Erde verkörpert ist, in ungeheuer vielem darinnen, was auf Erden geschieht. Sie sehen aber daraus, wie innig verbunden das Erdenleben ist mit dem übersinnlichen Leben, wie man gar nicht eigentlich reden kann von einer von der Erdenwelt, von der sinnlichen Welt getrennten übersinnlichen Welt, denn alles, was sinnlich ist, ist zu gleicher Zeit übersinnlich durchdrungen; alles, was übersinnlich ist, offenbart sich irgendwo oder irgendwann im Sinnlichen. Und aufnehmen kann man eigentlich das Erdenleben nur, wenn man diese Dinge hinter dem Erdenleben sieht.
[ 44 ] Das, meine lieben Freunde, soll der Zug sein, der in die anthroposophische Bewegung seit der Weihnachtstagung hineingekommen ist: daß in ganz unverhohlener, unbefangener Weise mit voller Erkenntnisbesinnung von den übersinnlichen Tatsachen gehandelt wird. Das soll der esoterische Zug sein, der durch die anthroposophische Bewegung geht. Erst dadurch wird es möglich sein, der anthroposophischen Bewegung ihren wirklichen spirituellen Inhalt zu geben.
[ 45 ] Denn sehen Sie, dasjenige, was ich Ihnen von der Michaelströmung geschildert habe, es hat sich dann fortgesetzt. Aber wenn Individualitäten wiedererscheinen auf Erden: sie sind ja darauf angewiesen, zunächst die physischen Leiber zu benutzen, die in irgendeinem Zeitalter möglich sind, sie müssen sich hineinfinden in die Erziehungsimpulse, die in irgendeinem Zeitalter da sind; das alles bildet eine äußere Bekleidung in einer materialistischen Zeit. Und unsere materialistische Zeit, sie bietet die denkbar größten Hindernisse für die Seelen, die in früheren Erdenleben viel Spiritualität gehabt haben, um diese Spiritualität hineinzutreiben in die Leiber, die noch dazu präpariert werden durch die heutigen Erziehungsmaßnahmen. So daß Sie sich nicht zu verwundern brauchen, wenn ich sage: Die ehrlich nach der Anthroposophie hinstrebenden Seelen, sie sind in der angedeuteten Weise in früheren Erdentwickelungsperioden zu finden. Und man kann nicht wirkliches Erkennen begründen, wenn man nicht dieses Zusammengreifen von allem, was in der Welt wirkt und lebt, erschauen kann. Denn geistige Forschung hängt ja durchaus wiederum am geistigen Leben; geistige Forschung macht notwendig, daß der Geist eben auf seinem Wege auch gesucht werde. Und die Wege des Geistes, sie sind in jedem Zeitalter andere. In unserem Zeitalter sind sie nur zu gehen, wenn auch der feste Boden einer geistgemäßen Erkenntnis der äußeren Natur vorhanden ist.
[ 46 ] Es folgt ja auf das Zeitalter, das ich beschrieben habe, innerhalb der Michael-Strömung beschrieben habe, ein solches Zeitalter, das hier auf Erden einen ganz materialistischen Aspekt zeigt, alles auf materialistische Weise ausbildet. Und es entwickelt sich im Übersinnlichen die intensivste Vorbereitung der Michael-Impulse, die in diesem unserem Zeitalter gewissermaßen vom Himmel auf die Erde getragen worden sind. Und anknüpfen kann unser Zeitalter nicht an dasjenige, was in den letzten Jahrhunderten vorangegangen ist; kennen muß man das, aber anknüpfen kann es nicht daran. Anknüpfen muß man mit dem heutigen Zeitbewußtsein an dasjenige, was im Übersinnlichen sich in den letzten Jahrhunderten abgespielt hat. Da berührt man dann, indem man auf dieses hinweist, den Boden, der der Boden anthroposophischer Wirksamkeit, anthroposophischen Lebens in der Gegenwart sein muß. Und solche Anschauungen, wie diejenigen sind, die ich in diesen Stunden auseinandersetzte, sie sollen nicht bloß mit dem kalten Verstande aufgenommen werden und dem nüchternen Herzen, sie müssen aufgenommen werden mit dem ganzen, vollen Menschen, mit dem ganzen Umfange des menschlichen Gemütes. Anthroposophie kann der Menschheit nur etwas sein, wenn sie mit dem ganzen Umfange des menschlichen Gemütes aufgenommen wird. Das liegt zugrunde dem Wollen der mit der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft vereinigten anthroposophischen Bewegung seit der Weihnachtstagung. Von dem möchte man wünschen, daß es ganz tief in die Seelen der Menschen hineingeht, die damit verbunden sind, damit sie ein Bewußtsein von demjenigen bekommen, was eigentlich mit ihrem Karma in den Tiefen der Seelen zusammenhängt.
[ 47 ] Und damit, meine lieben Freunde, haben wir eine Art Grundlage geschaffen für das, was uns weiterführen wird das nächste Mal am nächsten Sonntag, in der Sonntags-Mitgliederversammlung, wo wir den weiteren Fortgang der Michael-Strömung und dasjenige betrachten wollen, was sich daraus für die Aufgaben der Anthroposophie, als Aufgabe des geistigen Lebens in der Gegenwart überhaupt ergibt.
Fourth Lecture
[ 1 ] If we want to have human thought and action again that is permeated by spiritual life, then it will be necessary to take up again in all seriousness such views of the spiritual world as have passed through our souls in the last lectures, after they have actually been lacking for centuries precisely in civilized humanity.
[ 2 ] If we look back into different epochs of human historical development, we will see in older times how human activity on earth has everywhere been linked to that which takes place in the supersensible. Not as if a certain abstract consciousness of the supersensible has been lacking in the vast majority of mankind in recent times; that is not to be said. What has been lacking, however, is the courage to link what happens concretely in the earthly world to concrete forms of spiritual life and weaving.
[ 3 ] With such considerations as we have now made, we come to this again. In particular, we come to it when we are able to connect the earthly life of human beings, as has happened here, with the life between death and a new birth and when we are able to connect what happens in an earthly life with what takes place in successive earthly lives.
[ 4 ] We have now begun to look at that spiritual-supersensible current which I was allowed to say is connected with our present Michael current, in whose service anthroposophy has placed itself. In this way we have set out on the path which in a certain sense should approach the karma of the anthroposophical movement itself and thus also the karma of the individual personalities who in an honest way, that is, out of a natural impulse from their inner being, can unite the life of their soul, their spirit, with the anthroposophical movement.
[ 5 ] And I have pointed out how, to a certain extent, a supersensible event took place under the aegis of the Michael power at the same time that the Council took place on earth in 869, through which the entire Middle Ages were deeply influenced in their civilization. One need only observe the deep shyness with which the enlightened spirits of the Middle Ages avoided speaking of the tripartite human being according to body, soul and spirit. For it was precisely this eighth general council in Constantinople that declared the doctrine of the tripartite man to be heretical, heretical, and given the power that such spiritual decrees had in the Middle Ages, it is obvious that the whole spiritual life here on earth now actually runs in certain respects under the shadow of this heresy of the so-called trichotomy.
[ 6 ] But all the more intense is actually the spiritual life that has been working for a long time to prepare the Michael current for the twentieth century, the Michael current in which we have stood since the last third of the nineteenth century and in which we as humanity will stand for three to four centuries. Today we want to point out the progress of this current, which we have begun to consider, in order to then, the day after tomorrow, next Sunday, come more closely to that which is karmically connected with the karma of the anthroposophical movement on the one hand, and with the spiritual life of the present on the other.
[ 7 ] I have said that at a kind of supersensible, supernatural council at the same time as the eighth general council took place in Constantinople, the individualities of Harun al Rashid and his wise counselor, but also the individualities of Alexander and Aristotle, met; that some individuals from the time in which the service of Arthur took place also met there, and I have explained how all this took place under the aegis of Michael.
[ 8 ] Then I drew attention to how Harun al Raschid reappears - carrying over to Europe oriental intellectual life with an Aristotelian doctrine that has become unchristian - how Harun al Raschid appears as Lord Bacon, as Baco of Verulam, who had a great influence on the intellectual life of Europe, but an influence that is definitely in the materialistic sense. And I have pointed out how Harun al Raschid's advisor, whom I have characterized, appears in turn as Amos Comenius, of whom much is rightly said in a good sense, but who also has the side that he promoted materialism in his efforts to bring vivid imagery into teaching by basically emphasizing the immediate sensual vividness.
[ 9 ] There we see, so to speak, at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century, a current breaking into earthly life which does not lie in the straightforward continuation of Christianity, which brings an element foreign to Christianity into the development of the European mind. But on the other hand, the individualities of Aristotle, Alexander and all those who belong to the Michael current continue to work, now in supersensible worlds.
[ 10 ] But in addition, within this current, partly in supersensible worlds, partly also on earth itself, something works through certain personalities who stood in connection with these supersensible currents, since they were between death and new birth, individualities who then appeared as personalities on earth in the course of the next centuries; Individualities who had less to do with Alexandrianism and Aristotelianism than with Plato and everything that had developed from Plato's view.
[ 11 ] In particular, in the centuries following the ninth century, we see platonically directed, platonically oriented spirits descending to earth. And these are those who continued in the Middle Ages a Christian doctrine which was regarded as heretical by official Christianity and official Catholicism, but which was the truer Christian doctrine. The individuals who continued Christian Ariistotelianism initially remained behind in spiritual worlds, for in the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries, according to the conditions of civilization, there was no real connection for this current of thought on earth. On the other hand, one might say that in certain isolated spiritual areas, those who were more platonically minded were able to develop with particular intensity. Scattered here and there in the increasingly widespread Catholic Christianity are personalities in schools who continue the old mystery tradition and illuminate Christianity with these old mystery traditions. And one place into which everything that has been continued as such traditions has flowed is the thoroughly spiritual school of Chartres, which I have mentioned several times recently and within which such spirits as Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others have worked.
[ 12 ] What kind of spiritual life actually developed there that finally entered this strange school of Chartres, which is actually only externally known to mankind? It is a spiritual life which is basically completely buried in modern times, a spiritual life in which old mystery traditions are still being propagated. In particular, we find everywhere within this spiritual life that a view of nature prevails that is deeply spiritually imbued, a view of nature that is still totally different from that abstract view of nature that later moved all circles, that abstract view of nature that only knows laws of nature that can be expressed in thought.
[ 13 ] That which the spiritual current, to which I am pointing, absorbed from nature into the soul was something quite in keeping with the spirit, was such that everywhere in nature not merely abstract, dead, conceptual laws of nature were seen, but living working and weaving. Little attention was paid to what later became so admirable for mankind: our present-day chemical elements. But all the more attention was paid to what in the old sense were called the elements: Earth, water, air, fire. But at the moment when one knows these elements not through mere tradition in words, but through a tradition that is still impregnated by the oldest of the mysteries, at that same moment one sees that which is not present in our seventy to eighty chemical elements, but which is present in those four elements: the world of elemental spirituality, the world of certain elemental beings, into which one immediately immerses oneself when one immerses oneself in these elements.
[ 14 ] And then one sees how man himself, in relation to his outer corporeality, participates in this life and weaving of earth, water, air, fire, how this becomes organic form in him. And then those who thus looked into the life and weaving of the elements did not see natural laws in the weaving and life of earth, water, fire, air, but they saw behind this weaving a great, living entity, the goddess Natura. And they got the immediate feeling from observation that this goddess Natura only turns a part of her being towards man at first, that the other part of her being is hidden in that world which man spends in sleep between falling asleep and waking up, where ego and astral body are in a spiritual environment underlying nature, where ego and astral body are together with the elemental beings underlying the elements. And in these isolated spiritual places and schools to which I have alluded, we find everywhere teachers of larger or smaller groups of people who speak of how the goddess Natura shows a part of her living and weaving being in the outer manifestations that appear to people in the waking state, but how in all elemental workings, in wind and weather, in everything that surrounds man and constitutes man, that which man cannot see but which is hidden from him in the darkness of sleep is at work.
[ 15 ] So these scholars of that time perceived the great goddess Natura as the one who ascends in half the time and shows herself in the outer weaving of the sensory nature; but also as the one who descends every night, descends every year, works and weaves in the realms that are hidden from man by the consciousness of sleep. And this was the very continuation of that vision which was present in the ancient Mysteries as the vision of Proserpina.
[ 16 ] You only have to consider what that means. Today we have a view of nature that is woven out of thoughts, that consists of natural laws, that speaks and thinks abstractly, in which there is nothing living. In those days there was still a view of nature in which people looked at nature in a similar way to the way they looked at the working goddess Proserpina, the daughter of Demeter. And in the mental images that were transmitted in those schools as the correct ones, as coming out of the still living tradition, there were many sayings and expressions that showed themselves to be exactly the continuations of what was said about Proserpina in the ancient Mysteries.
[ 17 ] If one wanted to lead man to the comprehension of his soul life from the comprehension of his physical life, one made the following clear to him: In relation to your bodily life you consist of the elements in which the elemental beings are interwoven, but you carry within you the soul; it is not under the influence of these elements alone, but on the contrary dominates the organization of the elements in you; it stands, this soul, under the influence of the planetary world of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, under the influence of the Sun and Moon, Saturn, Mars. - When psychology was to be studied, the human gaze was directed upwards to the mysteries of the planetary world. There that which was human nature expanded from the physical into the spiritual, but in the view of belonging together with the world, from the working and weaving of the elements earth, water, air, fire to that which the planets did in their circling, in their shining, in their working of light, in their mysterious occult effects in human soul life. And from the goddess Natura, the former Proserpina, one turned upwards to the intelligences, to the genii of the planets, to whom one looked up when one wanted to understand the human soul life.
[ 18 ] And then, when it was a question of comprehending the spiritual life - for the teachers of these isolated schools had not allowed themselves to be dissuaded from contemplating the spirit by the dogma of the Eighth Council of Constantinople - when it was a question of comprehending the spiritual life, then one turned one's gaze upwards to the fixed stars, to their configurations, especially to that which is represented in the zodiac. And that which man carried within himself as spirit was understood from the constellation, the appearance and the spiritual powers known in the fixed stars.
[ 19 ] Thus man was understood from the world, from the cosmos. Thus there was in reality the macrocosm and the microcosm, the human being. This was the doctrine of nature at that time. It was enthusiastically presented to humanity in isolated schools, but also by individuals who were scattered here and there. And then, as if in a kind of culmination, it was put forward in a wonderful way by such personalities as Bernhardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others in the School of Chartres.
[ 20 ] This school of Charttres, it is actually something quite marvelous. When you get hold of the writings today - as I said, they look like catalogs of names. But in those days it was not customary to write in any other way than, I would like to say, in such a cataloging way about what one wanted to have in living spirituality. But anyone who can read such things, who can read the arrangement of things in particular, can already perceive how that which comes from the teachers of the School of Chartres is imbued with ancient spirituality. The deep spirituality of the school not only had an effect through the teaching and the numerous students who in turn carried out what they had learned, but it also had a direct spiritual effect. It worked in such a way that the spiritual atmosphere of humanity was also radiated in an occult way by the living spirituality that lived in Chartres. That is why we can see the spiritual rays of this school of Chartres throughout France and as far as Italy. In various schools, however, which have become known in history by their external names, a doctrine of nature such as I have indicated was taught.
[ 21 ] This is a concrete case: when Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, returned from his Spanish legation post and experienced a slight sunstroke and a great fright near his native city of Florence, he became receptive to the occult emanations of the School of Chartres. He experienced that which he himself then describes in such a way that, as he approached his native Florence, he came into a deep forest where he first encountered three animals, where he then met the goddess Natura, who builds up the kingdoms of nature in the way that has been taught for centuries, as I have indicated. But he saw this; in this semi-pathological state, which soon passed, he became able to see what was taught in the schools. And then, after he had seen the goddess Natura, the successor of Proserpina, in her work, he saw how man builds himself up out of the elements, how the soul weaves in the forces of the planets; he is led up into the starry heavens with his thoughts. He experiences in his own person all this mighty medieval science.
[ 22 ] Brunetto Latini is Dante's teacher. If he had not been, if he had not handed down to his pupil Dante what he had received in such a majestic vision, we would not have the Commedia, for it is the reflection of Brunetto Latini's teaching from Dante's soul. You see, there was now no other possibility than that such things were practiced within the ecclesiastical institution, which at that time was much freer than the later one, and we see how all these teachers of Chartres were religious. We see them wearing the Cistercian habit. We see them associated with the better currents within Christian religious life.
[ 23 ] Now came a peculiar phase of development. During this whole period, in which the Platonists had worked, so to speak, in the manner just described, the Aristotelians could not work on earth. The conditions were not there. But they prepared the Michael current for it in the supersensible life. From the supersensible world they were also in constant contact with the teachers who worked in the same direction, who then moved towards Chartres. But then, during the heyday of the School of Chartres at the end of the eleventh century, in the twelfth century - one must give these things earthly names, although of course these earthly names are not correct and one can easily ridicule them - a kind of supersensible meeting took place between those souls who ascended into the supersensible world, between those souls who ascended into the supersensible world through the gate of death out of the current of Chartres, between the Platonists and those who had remained above, the Aristotelians, the Alexandrians, a discussion which took place around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the Middle Ages, a balancing of how to work in the future.
[ 24 ] This led to the fact that, since other conditions had now arisen in the intellectual life of European mankind, the Platonists, who had last developed their great effectiveness in Chartres and were in the supersensible world, transferred their mission to the Aristotelians. And these now descended into the physical world in order to continue in the same way what I would like to call the cosmic Michael service.
[ 25 ] Again, we find those who worked in this more Aristotelian sense active within the Dominican Order in the most diverse ways. The souls of the Aristotelians replaced the souls of the Platonists, so to speak, for the work on earth, and that which is actually only really appreciated today within the anthroposophical movement developed - I once gave a lecture cycle here on scholasticism in its true form and origin - the scholasticism of the Middle Ages developed, that teaching which, in a time already rushing towards materialism, wanted to hold on to what spirituality could be held on to in human views.
[ 26 ] Even before Baco of Verulam and Comenius appeared on earth, scholasticism was working on the continuation of the service of Michael. We see how in scholasticism the origin of what man carries in his thoughts for spirituality is to be saved, in the so-called realistic school. Spiritual reality is ascribed by the realist scholastics to that which man grasps through his thoughts, spiritual reality. It is a thin spirituality that could be saved, but it is spirituality.
[ 27 ] It is so, my dear friends, that the spiritual life in the development of the world continues in such a way that, if one has an overview of it in its reality and possesses the science of initiation, one cannot help but see the physical or that which takes place in physical history on earth together with that which spiritually permeates this physical from the spiritual. One arrives at a unified view of how the Platonic souls first work as far as Chartres, and how the Aristotelian souls then work. First we look at the Aristotelian souls, how they work inspiringly from the supersensible world towards the teachers who live on earth as Platonic souls, who work there, teach, educate science on earth in the earthly understanding. One looks into this process, sees how the teacher of Chartres walks on earth, completes his studies imbued with perceptions, and how the inspiring ray of the aristorelic soul falls in from the supernatural and brings that which is platonically colored into the right orbits. You then get a completely different view of life than is very often the case. For in external life, people like to distinguish between Platonists and Aristotelians as if they were opposites. In reality, this is not the case at all. The epochs of the earth require that we speak sometimes in the Platonic, sometimes in the Aristotelian sense. But if we look at the supersensible life in the background of the sensible life, the one fertilizes the other, the one is contained in the other.
[ 28 ] And again, when the Aristotelians were teaching within the Dominicans, the Platonic souls now dwelling in the spiritual world, after they had communicated with the later degenerated Aristotelian souls, were the inspiring geniuses. Life was very different in those days. Whether one believes it today or not, it was so that if one looks back spiritually to those times, one finds such a spirit as Alanus ab Insulis sitting in his lonely cell, devoted to his studies, receiving a spiritual visit from the supersensible world, who joins him and who is an Aristotelian soul. Yes, there is a strong awareness - even when the Aristotelians appear in the Dominican order - a strong awareness of belonging to the spiritual world. This can be seen from such facts: One of the Dominican teachers descends into physical earthly life earlier than another soul with whom he is connected; this soul remains behind in the spiritual world at first in order to carry something that had to be completed there a little later down to the one who came down earlier, in order to then work together again with the one who was born earlier. And this happens in awareness. One knows oneself to be connected with the spiritual world through one's activity, through one's work.
[ 29 ] This has all been obliterated by later history. But the truth about historical life is not to be read from the documents of recent times, but from life itself. And one must have an unbiased view of life. One must also see life unfold where it develops within perhaps rather unsympathetic circles as something that is placed in these circles by karma, but which inwardly means something quite different.
[ 30 ] Such a reading of events, my dear friends, has really come to me in the course of my life in a very strange way. And only now do I look at some things, penetrating them with my eyes, which have come to me in a clear way like an occult writing in the course of my life. Karma weaves and works in a very mysterious way for the most significant things that we experience. And I would like to say that there is also a peculiar karma underlying the fact that today, and at other times in other places, I am speaking at this very time about such things as the School of Chartres and about everything that preceded it, everything that follows it. For the most outstanding people who taught in the School of Chartres belonged to the Cistercian Order.
[ 31 ] Now the Cistercian order, like the other orders within the Catholic development, has become decadent, but in this decadence lies a great deal of outwardness. The individualities, by continuing old directions that are also extraordinarily valuable for anthroposophy, are sometimes stuck in contexts to which they do not actually belong; but life, karma, brings them in. So I always found it strange that - from my earliest youth up to a certain time - I was always approached by something from the Cistercian order. After all, when I had finished elementary school, I only narrowly avoided becoming a pupil at a Cistercian monastic grammar school because I was sent to secondary school by my relatives for the reasons I have explained in my life story. It was actually quite natural that I should have become one. I didn't, for good karmic reasons, of course.
[ 32 ] But the secondary school I went to was only five steps away from the Cistercian grammar school. You got to know all these Cistercian teachers, who were actually still quite excellent at the time. There's no need to talk about the order, but about the individuals. I still think with deep satisfaction today of one such Cistercian priest who taught German literature at that grammar school with incisive enthusiasm, and I can see them before me in all their individualities, in that street called Alleegasse in Vienna-Neustadt, where the professors always went for a walk before school started: these Cistercian priests in civilian costume, tremendously talented people. And since at that time I was much more concerned with reading the professors' program essays at the end of the school year than the textbooks during the school year, I really read with avid devotion what these Cistercian priests wrote down as their own wisdom in the school program of this Vienna-Neustadt grammar school. In short, the Cistercian order was close to me. And I am quite certain that if I had gone to the Cistercian grammar school - these are of course hypotheses that can only be put forward for the sake of illumination - I would naturally have become a Cistercian.
[ 33 ] Now things went on in Vienna - I've told you all about it in my life story. After some time, I came into the circle that gathered around delle Grazie, in which many of the theology professors of the theological faculty in Vienna socialized. I became very intimately acquainted with some of them. They were all members of the Cistercian order. I came into contact with the Cistercians again. And I have been able to trace back many things through what is currently flowing through the Cistercian order.
[ 34 ] In order to show you how karma works, I would like to refer to an event. I gave a lecture, and I had become very well acquainted with the professors of the theological faculty there, the Cistercians, through the “five-o'clock teas” in England and the “jour-days” in Vienna. I gave a lecture. There was a Cistercian priest there, one who was a particularly excellent person, and when I had finished my lecture, he said something quite peculiar, something that I would only like to hint at in form: he said a word to me that contained his memory of a time when he had been with me in a previous life on earth.
[ 35 ] These things are already educational for life. It was in 1889. Of course, I could only relate the external aspects of these things in the Goetheanum, and the essays will appear as a book, with notes, in which the inner aspects will also be taken into account.
[ 36 ] Now, you see, here you have something of the karmic reasons that led to my being able to speak at all in this form about these spiritual currents. The preparation for this can only lie in life, not in study.
[ 37 ] So now I showed how the Platonic and Aristotelian currents worked together. Then the Aristotelians also passed through the gate of death. And in the age of the consciousness soul, materialism came up more and more on earth. But just at the time when materialism began on earth, there was founded - as I said, one has to prove these things with trivial terminology - there was founded in supersensible worlds a kind of Michael school, an extended Michael school, in which were united spirits like Bernardus Silvestris after death, Alanus from Insulis, but also again Aristotle and Alexander; in which human souls, who were not embodied on earth at that time, were united with spiritual beings who complete their lives without being embodied on earth, but who are connected with earth souls, Michael himself as the teacher, looking back on all that which were the great teachings of the ancient Mysteries, holding a wonderful overview of the secrets of the ancient Mysteries, but at the same time giving a tremendous outlook on that which is to happen.
[ 38 ] And you see, in some form you find certain souls who have more or less come together in many lives on earth within these multitudes, participating in this supersensible school in the fourteenth, fifteenth century, multitudes of souls who strive towards the Michael current, souls who take into their will impulses that which can be called: wanting to connect with the Michael current.
[ 39 ] You can look for these souls. One finds them, so to speak - because at that time very few of them were on earth, most of them were just in the life between death and new birth and took part in the supersensible assembly of this supersensible school - one finds them there, these souls. You find them there, listening to the Michael teachings. They can be found again today in those souls who, embodied on earth, develop an honest, inward, sincere striving for the anthroposophical movement.
[ 40 ] In the karma of those who strive in an honest, inwardly sincere way for the anthroposophical movement lie the impulses that must also be studied for karma in the supersensible world. Of course, the fact that these souls were driven by their karma to such a heavenly community at that very time has its reasons in the fact that in their earlier life on earth they had shaped their karma in such a way that it led them there. But one cannot recognize the karma of souls without looking not only at that which takes place on earth, but also at that which will take place between death and a new birth.
[ 41 ] It is indeed infinitely enriching to look at the world if, if I may put it this way, when considering the souls working in the world - and in the end that is all human beings - one does not always have to start where people enter the earth and stop where they die; for they do not begin to work there at all, they do not stop working there at all. In what takes place spiritually, it is not only those souls who are embodied on earth today who are at work, but other souls who today stand between death and a new birth and send the rays of their work onto earth. The impulses of such souls lie in our own deeds. It all works together, just as the earthly deeds in turn extend into the heavenly realm and continue to work there, as I have already indicated pictorially in the first mystery drama with the personalities of Capesius and Strader, for example.
[ 42 ] Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, he is there. He died then, passed through the gate of death, but that is a transformation of life. He is there. He continues to work, and you can find him if you search for him spiritually.
[ 43 ] Now, this completes the picture of the spiritual development of humanity, if you can always add the so-called dead, because they are actually much more alive than those who are the so-called living. In many respects, someone like Brunetto Latini, even though he is not embodied on earth, is today involved in a tremendous amount of what happens on earth. But you can see from this how closely earthly life is connected with the supersensible life, how one cannot really speak of a supersensible world separate from the earthly world, from the sensible world, for everything that is sensible is at the same time permeated by the supersensible; everything that is supersensible reveals itself somewhere or at some time in the sensible. And you can only really take in earthly life if you see these things behind earthly life.
[ 44 ] This, my dear friends, should be the trait that has entered the anthroposophical movement since the Christmas Conference: that the supersensible facts are dealt with in a completely unconcealed, unbiased way with full awareness. This should be the esoteric trait that runs through the anthroposophical movement. Only in this way will it be possible to give the anthroposophical movement its true spiritual content.
[ 45 ] For you see, what I have described to you of the Michael current has then continued. But when individualities reappear on earth: they are dependent on first using the physical bodies that are possible in any age, they must find their way into the educational impulses that are there in any age; all this forms an outer clothing in a materialistic time. And our materialistic time offers the greatest conceivable obstacles for souls who have had much spirituality in earlier earthly lives to drive this spirituality into the bodies, which are additionally prepared by today's educational measures. So that you need not be surprised when I say: The souls who honestly strive for anthroposophy are to be found in the indicated way in earlier periods of earthly development. And one cannot justify real cognition if one cannot see this interlocking of everything that works and lives in the world. For spiritual research in turn depends on spiritual life; spiritual research makes it necessary that the spirit is also sought along its path. And the paths of the spirit are different in every age. In our age they can only be followed if the solid ground of a spiritual knowledge of external nature is present.
[ 46 ] After all, the age I have described within the Michael current is followed by such an age that shows a completely materialistic aspect here on earth, that develops everything in a materialistic way. And the most intensive preparation of the Michael impulses is developing in the supersensible, which in this age of ours have been carried from heaven to earth, so to speak. And our age cannot tie in with that which has preceded it in the last centuries; we must know it, but it cannot tie in with it. With the consciousness of today's age, we must link up with what has taken place in the supersensible in the last centuries. Then, by pointing to this, one touches the ground which must be the ground of anthroposophical activity, of anthroposophical life in the present. And such views as those I have expounded in these hours should not be received merely with the cold mind and the sober heart, they must be received with the whole, full human being, with the whole range of the human mind. Anthroposophy can only be something for humanity if it is received with the whole range of the human mind. This has been the underlying intention of the anthroposophical movement united with the Anthroposophical Society since the Christmas Conference. It is hoped that it will penetrate deeply into the souls of the people who are connected with it, so that they may become aware of what is actually connected with their karma in the depths of their souls.
[ 47 ] And with this, my dear friends, we have created a kind of foundation for what will lead us further next Sunday, in the Sunday members' meeting, where we want to consider the further progress of the Michael current and that which results from it for the tasks of anthroposophy, as the task of spiritual life in the present in general.