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The Ego: The God Within and the God of External Revelation
GA 117

7 December 1909, Munich

II. The Education of Humanity

Out of the whole spirit of our anthroposophical work, you will have seen, in the course of years, that its aim is not to work on, as it were, something directly sensational, but to follow tranquilly those facts connected with spiritual happenings, the knowledge and cognition of which can be important for our life. One does not merely serve the day, spiritually, by always speaking on what concerns the day, but one also serves it by assimilating a knowledge of the great connections of life. Our own individual life is fundamentally connected with the great events of existence, and we can only rightly judge our own life, when we estimate it by the greatest phenomena of life. Hence it arises, that within our seven-yearly cycle in the German Section of the Theosophical Society, for four years we have occupied ourselves with the foundation of our views, of our knowledge, and in the last three years we have tried to deepen these basic views with reference to world-embracing questions. And you will have seen from what has come to you in the explanations given in various lecture-cycles, that considerations concerning the Gospels belonged to the latter. Not merely because the material and content of the Gospels should be brought close to us, but because through their study, many things touching human nature can be learnt. And so today, something can be said about the Gospels, with various applications to the personal life of man.

These Gospels are regarded less and less by external science as a historical document for the knowledge of the greatest Individuality, of the greatest Impulse, which has entered the evolution of humanity—of Christ Jesus. The attitude to the Gospels in the first Christian centuries, and for a long time through the middle ages, was quite different from what it has become in recent times. The Gospels are first felt today as four mutually contradictory documents, and nothing appears more natural today than to say: How can four documents be historical, when they contradict each other, as the four Gospels do, each of which professes to give us an account of what happened at the beginning of our era in Palestine.

Yet one thing could strike human thinking, unless it tries today to avoid seeing the most important matters. For example, it might be said: It does not really need very much today to realise that if the four Gospels are read consecutively they do indeed contradict themselves in that sense as one understands it today. Any child could see that, one might retort! But it might be added: Now the Gospels are in all hands, now everybody occupies himself with them. But there was a time before the invention of printing, before the modern spread of books, when these Gospels were by no means in all hands, when they were really read only by very few, and these few, they were just the people who stood at the peak of the spiritual life. Fundamentally, in the first centuries, only those had the Gospels in their hands who stood at the summit of the spiritual life. The content was imparted to the others, brought near so that they could grasp it. One might ask: Were then these few, who stood at the summit of the spiritual life, really such terrible fools, such mightily stupid people, that they could not see what any child can see today: that they do contradict each other, in the ordinary sense? Were then all those people, who endeavoured to grasp the gigantic Christ Event in the sense of the four Gospels, really such fools, such terribly stupid men, that they did not see what the critic sees, working in the modern sense with these contradictions? This is a question for oneself.

If we pursue such a question, we soon notice something else: i.e., that the whole world of man's feeling towards the Gospels stood differently to them than it does today. Today it is the critical intellect, which has learnt its whole training, its whole manner of thought, at the hand of external sense-reality, it is this which attacks the Gospels, and for this it is truly not difficult to find these intellectual contradictions; for they are childishly easy to find.

How, then, did those who stood at the summit of the spiritual life and centuries ago took the Gospels in hand get on with what one today calls contradictions? You see, these men of old had an infinite reverence, unthinkable today, for the great Christ Event through the four Gospels, and they felt extraordinarily that because they had four Gospels, they had all the more to revere and value this event. How is that possible? That was because these old judges of the Gospels kept in mind something quite different from what is kept in mind today. The modern critics do not proceed more cleverly than one who, perhaps, photographs a nosegay from one side—he thus gets a certain photograph of the nosegay. He now goes through the world with this photograph. People notice what the photograph looks like, and say: Now I have an exact idea of the nosegay. But then someone comes who photographs it from another side. The picture is quite different. He shows the picture of the same nosegay to people, but they say: That can't be a picture of the nosegay. The pictures contradict each other. And if the nosegay is photographed from four sides, then the four pictures do not appear similar, yet they are four views of the same thing. This was how the old judges of the four Gospels felt. They said: the four Gospels are representations of one event, from four different points of view, and because this is the case, they give us thereby a complete picture, because they are not alike—and first when we are in a position to form a complete representation from the four sides, do we then get a complete idea of the events of Palestine. And so these people said: We must look up with all the greater humility, when we see the events of Palestine presented from four sides. For this event is so great, that one cannot understand it, if it is only described from one side. We must be thankful that we have four Gospels, which describe this great event from four sides. We must only understand how these four different points of view have come together, and then, when we have convinced ourselves of this, can we form a perception of what the individual person can have from the four Gospels.

That which we call the Christ Event is a mighty happening in the spiritual evolution of mankind. How can we insert what took place then in Palestine in the whole of human evolution? We can regard it in such a way that we say: Everything, all that mankind previously experienced spiritually, which humanity had gone through spiritually, all that flowed together streamed together into the event of Palestine, in order from then to flow on farther in one common stream.

There we have—just to mention but one thing—let us say, the old Hebrew teaching, as is laid down in the Old Testament, if we understand it aright. That is one contribution. It flowed in, as the event of Palestine took place.

There was then another stream which proceeded from Zarathustra. This flowed into that which from then streamed on through the world as Christianity as a main stream.

There is that which we can call the Oriental spiritual stream, which found its most significant expression in Gautama Buddha. That also flowed into the one great main stream, and still others, in order then to flow on together. All of these single streams are today within Christianity.

You are not shown what Buddhism is today by one who warms up again the teachings which Buddha gave out 600 years before our era. These teachings have flowed into Christianity. You are not shown what Zarathustrianism really is by one who takes the old Persian documents, and from thence will show the nature of Zarathustrianism today; for he who taught in ancient Persia what exists in the ancient Persian documents has evolved further, and has let his contribution flow into the spiritual life of mankind, and we must seek Zarathustrianism also within Christianity, as well as Buddhism, and the old Hebrew stream.

And now we must ask ourselves, in order to have, in a slight degree, a picture of the real relationship: How have these three streams of Buddhism, Zarathustrianism, and ancient Hebrewism, flowed into Christianity.

If we will understand how Zarathustrianism flowed in, then we should call to mind something which has often been mentioned here: that that individuality whom we mention as Zarathustra, was the great teacher of the second post-Atlantean epoch, and first taught in the so-called ancient Persian people, and then incarnated again and again. After he ascended higher and higher through each incarnation, he appeared about 600 years before our era as a contemporary of the great Buddha. He appeared in the secret schools of the old Chaldean-Babylonian sphere of culture. This Zarathustra was incarnated there, he was the teacher there of Pythagoras, who went to Chaldea, in order to perfect himself in the right manner. Then this Zarathustra, who at that time 600 years before our era appeared under the name of Zarathas or Nazarathos, was born again at the beginning of our era, reborn so that he appeared in a body which sprang from the parental pair called Joseph and Mary, mentioned and described in the Matthew Gospel. We designate this child of Joseph and Mary, of the so-called Bethlehem parents, as one of the two Jesus children who were then born at the beginning of our era. Zarathustra incarnated in him. Therewith we have implanted in that old Palestine the individuality who was the bearer of Zarathustrianism, the one significant spiritual stream.

But not only this spiritual stream has to live again, in order to be able to stream into Christianity in a new form, but other spiritual streams also. Many different things had to come together and combine for this. For instance, it had to happen also that Zarathustra was born in a body, which as a body, through its physical organisation, made it possible for Zarathustra in that incarnation at the beginning of our era, to develop those faculties which he possessed, through having ascended so high from incarnation to incarnation. For we must permit ourselves to say: If such a high individuality descended and found an unsuitable body (which could happen through his being unable to find a suitable body), then he would not be able to express the faculties which he possessed in soul and spirit, because the instruments were not there, in order to express on earth the corresponding powers. One must have a definitely formed brain, if one will express such powers as Zarathustra possessed. That means, one must be born in a body, which, as a body inherited from forefathers, has those qualities which render it a suitable instrument for the faculties which come over from an earlier incarnation. And so, in the case of that Jesus child described in the Matthew Gospel, care had to be taken, that he did not merely have inwardly, in that which reincarnated such a high psychic-spiritual organisation, that he could exercise that mighty effect which had to be exercised, but that also, this soul could be born in a perfect physical organisation, which was inherited. Zarathustra had to find forthcoming this suitable physical brain.

What was thus worked out as a perfectly adapted physical organisation was now the contribution which the ancient Hebrew people had to make to Christianity. A suitable physical body had to be created out of it with the utmost conceivable perfect physical instruments. A suitable body had to be created through purely physical heredity for him who incarnated here. Preparation had to be made for this throughout all the generations lying far back, so that the right qualities could be passed on to that body which was born at the beginning of our era. To transmit the right body was again the mission of the ancient Hebrew life.

Now we will form for ourselves an idea of how this life flowed into the great main stream of our present spiritual life. That means, just as we have seen the mission of Zarathustra within Christianity, so we will now seek the mission of the ancient Hebrew people for the entire civilisation of our earth.

Here it must be said that the more spiritual science progresses, the more it sees in the Bible, compared with what we have today as external history. What is unearthed in the latter really appears childish compared with what stands in the Bible, only one must read it rightly to understand it. This is really the more correct, to the eyes of true spiritual investigation. And so, among other things, it is correct that in a certain connection, that which was the later Judaism, arose from a tribal father, from the father Abraham or Abram. Something absolutely correct lies behind that if we go back along the generations, we come to a tribal father, to whom quite special powers are imparted from out of the spiritual world itself. And in the sense of spiritual science, we can speak of a tribal father of the Jewish people, of Abraham or Abram. Quite special powers were imparted to him from out of the spiritual world. What were these? If we want to understand what special faculties were imparted to him, then we must call to mind a little the various things we have already said here.

We have said: If we go back to earlier times, we find that human beings had other powers of soul, which we can designate as a kind of dim clairvoyance compared with those of today. They could not look out into the world in such a self-conscious intellectual way as modern human beings, but they still had the faculty to see the spirit which exists in the outer world, spiritual phenomena, facts and beings; even if this seeing, because it occurred in a dimmed consciousness, was more like a living dream, yet it had a living connection with reality. This old clairvoyance had to become weaker and weaker, so that man could educate himself to our present modern perception and intellectual culture.

The whole evolution of mankind is a kind of education of humanity. The various faculties are gradually acquired. Our present way of seeing, without our perceiving, for instance the astral body winding round a flower, when we behold it in ordinary consciousness—whereas the ancient observer saw the flower and the astral body round it—this modern perception, which beholds objects with the sharp contours of the intellect, had to be trained in man, through the disappearance of the old clairvoyance. But one definite law prevails in spiritual evolution. Everything which man acquires must take its starting point from one individuality. Faculties which are to become common to a large number of people must, as it were, first begin in one. Those faculties which relate especially to a combination turned away from clairvoyance, to the judging of the world according to measure, number, and weight, these faculties which tend especially not to see into the spiritual world, but to combine sensible phenomena, were first implanted from out of the spiritual world in that individuality who is designated as Abraham or Abram. He was chosen first to develop especially those powers which are bound in the most eminent degree to the instrument of the physical brain. Abraham or Abram is not for nothing called the discoverer of arithmetic, that means, that faculty which judges and combines the world according to measure and number. He was, as it were, the first of those, in whose soul-powers the old dreamy clairvoyance was extinguished, and whose brain was so prepared as a perfect instrument, that just that faculty which makes use of the brain, comes most to the fore.

And so in Abraham or Abram, there was a man, in whom the physical brain was so developed, that it was applied most of all to external perception on the physical plane, whereas all human beings earlier made less use of the physical brain, while they saw clairvoyantly in the outer world the spiritual world, without always using the physical brain. That was a significant, mighty mission which was especially allocated to Abraham.

And now this faculty, which was laid as a seed from out the spiritual world in Abraham, like any other seed, had to develop more and more. You can easily conceive that whatever appears in the world must develop. Similarly this power of considering the world through the physical brain had gradually to develop from the seed. The evolution of this faculty now occurred through the succeeding generations, while that which was given to Abraham was carried over to the succeeding generations through the times which followed. But something else had to happen than formerly when the mission of older people was carried over to the younger. For the other missions were not yet bound to a physical body; the greatest missions especially were not bound to a physical brain. Let us take Zarathustra. What he gave to his disciples was a higher clairvoyant vision than other people had. That was not bound to a physical instrument; that was carried over from teacher to pupil, the pupil again became teacher, carried it over to his pupils, and so on. Now it was not a question of a teaching, of a method of clairvoyant perception, but of something bound to the instrument of the physical brain. Something of this nature can only be implanted into later times by being inherited physically. Therefore, what was given to Abraham as mission was bound up with its being inherited physically from one generation to the other. That means, this perfect organisation of the physical brain must be inherited from Abraham by his descendants from generation to generation. Because his mission consisted in the physical brain becoming more and more perfect, this had to happen from generation to generation.

Thus the mission of Abraham was something bound up with procreation, in order to become ever more perfect in the course of physical evolution. But now something else was united with this contribution which the old Hebraic people had to perform. This we will understand if we consider the following.

If we take the other people in other civilisations, with their old dim clairvoyance, then we must say: How did they receive that which was most important, which they venerated most of all in the world? They received it in such a way that it shone as Inspiration in their inner being, shone entirely inwardly. One did not have to investigate so far afield as today. Today man acquires his science by investigation outwardly, by experimenting, he derives his laws by combining external facts. The ancients did not experience what they sought to know in this way, for it shone in them as inspiration. They received it in the inward being. The soul had to give birth to it inwardly. They had to turn the gaze away from the outer world if they let the highest truths arise as inspirations. This had now become different in that people who derived their mission from Abraham or Abram. Abraham had to bring to men just that which can be won through observation outwardly, and through combination. If then a member of other civilisations, which were built on the old clairvoyance, looked up to the highest, then he said to himself: I am thankful to the God Who reveals Himself to me within. I turn my gaze away from outside, and the God becomes present to me in the spirit, if, without looking outwards, I let the inspirations of the Divinity shine within. That people which arose from Abraham, however, had to say: I will renounce the inspirations which merely come from within. I will prepare myself to turn my gaze into the world around. I will observe what reveals itself in the air, and water, in mountain and plain, in the starry world, there will I send my gaze, and then I will be able to ponder how one thing stands by another. I will combine the things outside with each other, and will see how I can win an all-embracing thought. And when I comprise what I see in the outer world with an all-embracing thought, bringing it into one single thought, then I will name that which the outer world says to me Jahve, or Jehova. I will receive the highest through a revelation from outside, through a revelation which speaks through the outer world. That was the mission of the Abrahamitic people: to give mankind that which came as revelation from outside, in contrast to that which the other peoples had to give. Therefore this instrument of the spiritual life had to be inherited so that it corresponded in its formations to the revelations from outside, just as earlier the inner soul-powers had to correspond to the revelations from within.

Now let us ask ourselves: What happened there, when the old clairvoyants gave themselves to the revelations from within? Then they turned their gaze from outside, for what revealed itself in the external world could say nothing to them about the spiritual world. They even turned their gaze from sun and stars, for they listened solely to what was within, and then the great inspirations about the secrets of the world revealed themselves. Then the perceptions appeared concerning the structure of the world. And that which they knew about the stars and their movements, about the laws of the starry world, about the spiritual worlds, was not acquired by them through external observation, these members of the ancient civilisations. They knew something of Mars, Saturn, etc., because the nature of these stars revealed itself in their inner being. Thus it was the laws of the entire cosmos, which as it were, were inscribed in the stars, were at the same time inscribed in the souls of these people. They revealed themselves there through inspiration. As the laws of the world which dominate the hosts of the stars revealed themselves in the soul, so now the external laws which rule the world should reveal themselves through external combination to the Abrahamitic people, which now should be won through external observation. For this, heredity had to be so guided that thereby the brain got those qualities through which it could see the right combinations there outside. That wonderful conformity to law was implanted in the seeds which were transmitted to Abraham, which could so develop through i.e. generations, that their development corresponded with the great world-laws. The brain had to be inherited so that its inner powers, its configuration, developed like the laws of number of the stars, out there in the cosmos. Therefore, it was said by Jahve to Abraham: Thou wilt see generations arise from thee, which in their ordering are arranged as the number of stars in the heavens. As the stars in the sky are arranged in harmonious relationships of number, so should the generations also be arranged in harmonious relationships of number. That means these generations should carry laws in themselves, like the starry laws in the heavens, There we have twelve constellations. An image of this had to appear in the twelve tribes, as they arose from Abraham, so that the corresponding faculties, which were implanted as seed in Abraham, could be led down through the generations. And so, in the whole organic structure of this people developing from age to age, an image was created of the number and measure in the heavens. A translation of the Bible has rendered this by saying: Thy descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in heaven.... Whereas in truth, the passage should run: Thy descendants shall be arranged regularly in the blood relationship, so that their arrangement is an image of the laws of the stars in the heavens. O, the Bible is deep! But what is today offered as Bible is coloured by the modern view of the world. There it runs, “Thy descendants shall be as numerous as the stars in the sky,” whereas in truth it is said: Everything shall be so regular in thy descendants that, for example, twelve tribes result, which correspond to the number twelve in the constellations of heaven.

And so the individual characteristics had to appear that all the time there came to expression the mission of the Abrahamitic people: I get as a gift from outside—not as something which shines in my innermost—that which forms my mission. There is given to me from outside that which I have to bring to the world. That is wonderfully expressed in the Bible, that the mission of Abraham is something given to him from outside, in contrast to the old revelations which were given from within. What had the mission of Abraham to be? The mission of Abraham had to be this: to provide the blood, and what flows through the blood, to Christ Jesus. That is the mission of Abraham. The entire spirituality of a certain stream had to be permuted in this. That had to work as if it came from outside, a gift from outside. Abraham had to give to the world the old Hebrew people. That is his mission. If that is to correspond to the whole nature of his mission, then this people itself, which is his mission, this people itself must be a gift from outside, must be given by him as a gift. Abraham had a son—Isaac—whom he had to sacrifice, as related in the Bible. And as he came to sacrifice him, this son was given anew to him by Jahve. What is thus given him? From Isaac originate the entire people. If Isaac had been sacrificed, there would have been no Hebrew people. The whole people were thus given him as a gift. In the sacrifice of Isaac is this character of gift wonderfully expressed. The people itself is the mission of Abraham; and with Isaac, he receives the entire Hebrew people from Jahve as a gift.

The presentations in the Bible are thus deep, and all correspond in detail to the inner character in the progressive evolution of humanity. This old Hebrew people had to give up bit by bit the old clairvoyance, which the other civilisations comprised within themselves. This old clairvoyance was bound to faculties which came out of the spiritual world. One designated these clairvoyant faculties, according to their nature, by expressions derived from the starry constellations. The last faculty which was given up, for the old Hebrew people to be bestowed on Abraham, was the one connected with the starry sign of the Ram. Therefore a ram is sacrificed in place of Isaac. That is the external expression for the sacrifice of the last clairvoyant power so that the old Hebrew people could be bestowed on Abraham. Thus this people was chosen to develop just those powers which depend on the observation of the outer world. But atavistic relics of the earlier appear in all, and so it came about that again and again the old Hebrew people was forced to exclude what did not lie purely in the blood. The carrying over of these faculties directed externally that which still remained of the old clairvoyance. That which came as an inheritance from other peoples had always to be excluded.

We here touch a chapter which is only described with difficulty today, because it contains a truth which lies as far as possible from modern thinking. But it is nevertheless a truth, and one may make the demand, that those who have worked a longer time in anthroposophical groups, can bear such truths, withdrawn somewhat from modern habits of thought.

We must be clear that for certain human classes in ancient times, they retained older faculties into later ages, especially with reference to knowledge; the old clairvoyant powers were once with them in the soul. Man was more united with spiritual beings; they revealed themselves in him. That expressed itself in certain people, who represented as it were decadent products of this older humanity, that they maintained a lower form of this connection with the spiritual outer world. Whereas the really clairvoyant people were more bound up with the entire universe through spiritual intuition and inspiration, the human beings who were in decadence, were lower human types, who in their decadence developed their ancient connection with the surrounding world. They were not independent; the I-ness or Ego-hood, Ego-nature, did not come out in them, but also, the old clairvoyant faculties were no longer at their corresponding height. Such human beings constantly appeared, and in them was shown the connection between certain physical human organs, and the so-called ancient clairvoyant organs. And now comes that truth which must sound so strange. What one calls the old clairvoyance, this shining of world secrets in the innermost, must come by some path or other into the soul. What shone in man must stream in; that means, we have to conceive that “streamings-in” (influxes) occur in people. The ancient human being did not perceive these streams, but when they took place and shone in him, he perceived them as his ancient inspirations. Certain streams thus flowed into man from out his environment. These were later transformed in him. These streams in ancient times were purely spiritual streams, were, for instance, perceptible to a clairvoyant as pure astral-etheric streams. But later, these pure spirit streams dried up, as it were, condensed to etheric-physical streams. And what arose thus? The hair arose in this way. The hair is a result of the ancient streams. The hair today on a human body was formerly spiritual stream in man, coming from outside into his inner being. Our hair is a dried-up astral-etheric stream. And such things are only preserved where—one might say—the old truths have remained, purely externally, in writing, through tradition. Therefore, in Hebrew, the word HAIR and the word LIGHT are designated by approximately the same signs, because one had a consciousness of the relationship between the astral in-streaming light, and the hair; as, in general, in old Hebraic writings, originally, purely in the words themselves, the greatest truths are contained.

Thus one can say: there is a progressive evolution of mankind. With those human beings, however, who retained the old faculties in decadent form, these streamings-in indeed transformed themselves, dried up, as it were, but no new faculties appeared instead. They were in an old way bound with the new, and yet again, not bound, because these streams were dried up. Such people were very hairy, while those who developed further were less hairy, because new powers appeared instead of those which later condensed to hair.

Science will only come again to these significant truths after a long time. In the Bible they stand. The Bible is far more learned than our modern science, still standing at the childish stage guarding its A.B.C. Just read the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob is he who has progressed a stage, who has developed the faculty of the later age, Esau has remained at an earlier stage. It is he who is the simpleton, as it were, compared with Jacob. As the sons are presented to Isaac, the mother has covered Jacob with false hair, so that Isaac confuses the younger son with Esau. We should thereby be shown that the old Hebrew people still had something in them as an inheritance from other civilisations which had to be stripped off. Esau is thrust out; through Jacob is implanted what should live on as external combination.

And just as that which had been retained in a form remaining behind was thrust out in Esau, so were the old clairvoyant powers, which came to expression as an atavistic remnant in what Joseph represents, thrust out by his brothers, towards Egypt. He had dreams, and could interpret the world through them; that is the faculty which should not develop in the mission of the Abrahamitic people. Therefore he is thrust out, and must go to Egypt.

So we thus see how a stream is worked out in the old Hebrew people, which is built on blood relationship through the generations, and out of which by stages that which remains over as relics is expelled. The old Hebrew has this as its own peculiar tendency, to make that which is inherited down through the generations into an ever more and more perfect instrument, so that when the whole generations have run their course, that body can be evolved from it which can furnish the instrument for him who is to be incarnated again. If the old Hebrew people could not receive revelations from within, they must receive them from outside. Even that which the other peoples received through direct inspiration, had to be received by the old Hebrew people through an external revelation. That means, the Jews had to go over to another people—led by Joseph—who had the old inspirations. And while Joseph was initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries, they attained through external means what they needed to know about the characteristics of the spiritual worlds. They even received the moral law from outside, not as something which shone to them from within. That was the mission of the old Hebrew people. Then, after they had assimilated what they had to absorb from outside, they withdrew with an externally acquired revelation—they returned back again to their Palestine.

And now, after this old Hebrew people had undergone all this, there should be shown how it gradually developed from generation to generation, so that finally the body which became the body of Jesus could be born from this people, whereby the old Hebrew stream flowed into Christianity.

Remember how we have discussed the development of tendencies in the case of single human beings. The life of the individual falls into periods of seven years. The first period extends from birth until the change of teeth, at the age of seven, and in this the physical body simply builds its forms. Then we have the second seven-yearly period to the age of puberty, in which the etheric body is active in the growth of form, in enlarging the forms. The forms are made definite till the age of seven, then the already definite forms merely enlarge, letting those tendencies prevail down in them. From 14 to 21, the astral body is especially predominant. And so we see in the twenty-first year the real “I” of man is first born, and becomes independent. Thus the life of the individual runs its course in certain periods, till the birth of the human “I” or Ego. Similarly, those germs or aptitudes must gradually develop in that people which as people had to provide a body for a most perfect Ego or “I.” In this case, what appears in man in the course of years, so develops here that it appears in the course of generations. A following generation must have developed other tendencies than a previous generation. Everything cannot develop all at once merely in one generation. To explain why this is so from occult bases would lead too far, but one can call to mind a quite ordinary phenomenon. Just remember that in heredity, certain qualities are not immediately inherited, but leap over one generation and it is the grandson who appears similar to the grandfather in inherited qualities. Thus it is in the inheritance of qualities in the successive generations of the Hebrew people. One generation had always to be leaped over. And so what corresponds in the single individual to one period of age, corresponds in the successive generations to two. We can therefore say: This people, like a great individual, must so develop from generation to generation, that what occurs in the case of the individual from birth to change of teeth, here requires 2 x 7 = 14 generations. Then a second period comes, again comprising 2 x 7 generations. This corresponds to the period between the change of teeth and puberty. Then a third period, again comprising 2 x 7 generations, corresponding to the age between 14 and 21, where the astral body is especially prominent. Then the “I” or Ego can be born. The “I” or Ego could be born in the Hebrew people after 3 (2 x 7) = 3 x 14 generations had elapsed. He who wanted to describe to us the body which was given as instrument to Zarathustra, had to show how, through 3 (2 x 7) generations, the seed which was given to Abraham developed, so that after 3 x 14 generations, the “I” could be born, just as in the individual, the “I” could be born in its threefold corporality after 3 x 7 years. The writer of the Matthew Gospel does this. He describes 3 X 14 generations, the generations from Abraham to David, those from David to the Babylonian Captivity, and those from the Babylonian Captivity to the birth of Jesus.

Thus from the depths of knowledge, out of the Matthew Gospel, we have pointed to the mission of the old Hebrew people, how gradually the forces were developed which made it possible for the most perfect Ego or “I” which Zarathustra had attained to be born in a body from this people.

And if we now see what the destinies were of this old Hebrew people, we find that the Captivity appeared to the entire people where, in the individual after the fourteenth year, preparation takes place for individual life, where that springs up which can be accomplished in life, and what man absorbs between the ages 14 and 21; the hopes of youth; that the Captivity was the time when, as it were, the astral body of the old Hebrew people came into consideration, where that was implanted through the last fourteen generations, which gives it its impulse. Therefore the old Hebrew people are led into the Babylonian Captivity—there, where, 600 years before our era, Zarathas or Nazarathos was then in his incarnation, at that time the teacher in the secret schools of the Babylonians. Those who were the most prominent leaders of the old Hebrew people then came into contact with the great teacher of ancient times, with Zarathas. He there became their teacher, united himself with them, they took up there the great impulse which so worked that in the last fourteen generations this people were prepared for the birth of Jesus.

Events then went on further, as you know. And then we see something noteworthy. We see a law observed in the spiritual sphere by the writer of the Matthew Gospel, which will be recognised more and more as a law significant for all life. This is the law, that whatever has happened earlier is repeated at a higher stage. Modern science has it already in a somewhat distorted form when it declares that what has been undergone at a lower stage throughout long epochs is repeated shortly in each single being. The writer of the Matthew Gospel shows us this in a magnificent way. He shows it by saying: The Ego of Zarathustra had to incarnate in a body which was gradually developed within the Abrahamitic people. Abraham proceeded from Ur in Chaldea, from the place where Babylonian civilisation started, and took his path through Asia Minor towards Palestine. His descendants were led farther south through the dreams of Joseph, towards Egypt, and after they had here received the Egyptian Impulse, returned to Canaan. That is the fate of the entire people. First, the whole people are led through Canaan, towards Egypt, and then back again to Canaan. What thus transpired as the fate of a people, had now shortly to be repeated. There, where the Ego is born for whom the vehicle had been thus prepared, after all had been developed that was laid down in Abraham, there this Ego again takes its starting point from Chaldea. In Chaldea, Zarathustra was the secret teacher in his last incarnation, his spirit was united with Chaldea. What path does the soul of Zarathustra take, when it will incarnate in Bethlehem? Zarathustra had remained united with those who had been initiated in the Chaldean secret schools, with the Magi. They called well to mind how they had heard from their teacher that he would reappear, that this soul who from the beginning was designated as Zarathustra—the golden star—would take his path at a definite point of time towards Bethlehem. And as the time came, they followed the path which this soul took, repeating the path of the old Hebrew people. As Abraham followed the path to Canaan, so that star took this path to Canaan: that means, the soul of Zarathustra; and the three Magi followed the star Zarathustra, and he led them to that place where he was born in that body destined for him from out the Abrahamitic people. Thus Zarathustra, the Ego of Zarathustra, was led along that path—repeating in spirit—which Abraham had traversed to Palestine. Then the old Hebrew people had had to seek the path to Egypt. It had been led over through the dreams of the elder Joseph. And now, that Ego which was born in the Bethlehemitic Jesus, was led through the dreams—again of a Joseph—led to Egypt, the same path which the Abrahamitic people had pursued through the dreams of the elder Joseph. This Ego of Zarathustra, repeating in Spirit, undergoes the whole destiny of the old Hebrew people in the body of Jesus. He goes to Egypt, and then again back to Palestine. Here we have the repetition in spirit which is undergone by the soul of the Ego of Zarathustra. And that is an image of the fate of the old Hebrew people.

In the Matthew Gospel, out of the knowledge of the law, we have that faithfully described, that what appears at a higher stage, is a repetition in short of what was there earlier. Oh, how deeply these gospels describe the event that stands at the beginning of our era, that is so mighty, that four writers have said: Each one of us can only describe from his standpoint this great event. Each of these four has described the one event according to his own limited power. As when we picture a being from four sides, we retain but one picture, and through the combination of mutually contradictory pictures know the total being, so has the writer of the Matthew Gospel described what he knew about the law of 3 (2 x 7), about the preparation of the body for the great Ego of Jesus through the mission of the old Hebrew people, according to these secrets, of which he was conscious just through his initiation. The writer of the Luke Gospel has described according to the initiation of which he was conscious, whereby he presented how in another way the Buddha stream flowed into Christianity, in order to flow on farther into it. And the other gospel writers have described from out of the presuppositions of other initiations. The event they describe is so great, that we must be thankful when we find it described from four sides, from the aspects of four initiations.

Today we have only been able to indicate the inflow of the Zarathustra stream, and the contribution of the old Hebrew people. Next time we will discuss something else, which has been transmitted as a contribution in order to stream further into Christianity at a newly-arisen stage. Only some details were mentioned today from the spirit of the origin of Christianity, to show how our knowledge of the world grows, our knowledge of man grows, if we follow the greatest event in humanity. An idea should be awakened of how deeply this event is to be taken, and how deep the gospels are, when we really understand how to read them.

Das Ich, Der Gott Im Innern Und Der Gott Der Äusseren Offenbarung

Wir wollen uns heute mit einem allgemeinen Thema beschäftigen, und zwar mit der Frage nach der Bedeutung und den Aufgaben der anthroposophisch orientierten Geisteswissenschaft in der Gegenwart, und dann am Dienstag mit einem individuelleren Thema, das das einzelne Menschenschicksal und Wesen betrifft.

Wir haben es oftmals betont, daß Anthroposophie gerade in der Gegenwart eine besondere Aufgabe und Bedeutung für die Menschheit hat. Schließlich muß sich ja derjenige, der sich als denkender Mensch mit Anthroposophie befaßt, doch immer wieder die Frage vorlegen: Welche Ziele verfolgt eigentlich diese geistige Bewegung und wie stellt sich dieselbe zu andern Aufgaben in unserer Zeit? - Nun kann man, wie wir es öfters schon gemacht haben, diese Aufgaben von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus beleuchten. Heute wollen wir einmal versuchen, den Entwickelungsgang der Menschheit an demjenigen Punkte, an dem wir selbst stehen, aufzufangen, ein wenig in die Zukunft hineinzuschauen und uns dann fragen: Was hat Anthroposophie für eine Aufgabe gerade mit Rücksicht auf den Entwickelungspunkt der Menschheit, in dem wir in der Gegenwart stehen?

Wir wissen ja, daß seit der großen atlantischen Katastrophe, seitdem sich durch sie der Erdkreis als Wohnplatz der Menschen ganz umgestaltet hat, bis in unsere Gegenwart herein fünf Kulturzeiträume zu verzeichnen sind. Wir haben diese fünf Kulturzeiträume öfters aufgezählt als den altindischen, altpersischen, chaldäisch-ägyptischen, griechisch-lateinischen Zeitraum, und dann als den Zeitraum, in dem wir selbst stehen, den fünften Kulturzeitraum, der seit, sagen wir, dem 8., 9., 10. Jahrhundert sich vorbereitet hat und in dem wir eigentlich mittendrin stehen. Nun müssen wir uns darüber klar sein, daß solche Einteilungen natürlich nicht so gemeint sind, als ob schroff abschlösse irgendeine Entwickelungsepoche und dann eine neue begänne, sondern das alles geht langsam und allmählich ineinander über, und man kann sagen, lange bevor eine solche Epoche abgelaufen ist, bereitet sich innerhalb derselben schon die neue vor. So daß wir von unserem Kulturzeitraum, von dem fünften der nachatlantischen Zeit, uns sagen können, es bereitet sich durchaus jetzt schon, und zwar recht bedeutsam dasjenige vor, was das eigentlich Kennzeichnende des sechsten Kulturzeitraumes sein wird. Und die Menschheit der Gegenwart wird sich im allgemeinen teilen in zwei Teile: in solche Menschen, die heute sich von alldem keinen Begriff machen, die nichts davon wissen, daß sich so etwas vorbereitet wie die sechste Kulturepoche, die sozusagen blind in den Tag hineinleben, und in solche Menschen, welche sich Vorstellungen darüber machen, daß sich etwas Neues vorbereitet und welche auch wissen, daß ja im Grunde genommen dasjenige, was sich vorbereitet, durch die Menschen gemacht werden muß, durch die Menschen vorbereitet werden muß. Man kann in gewisser Beziehung als Mensch sich hineinstellen in die Zeit und sich sagen, daß man macht, was allgemein üblich ist, macht, was die andern gemacht haben, was die Väter uns anerzogen haben, oder man kann sich so hineinstellen, daß man bewußt weiß: Wenn du überhaupt bewußt ein Glied sein willst in der Menschenkette, so mußt du etwas tun, entweder an dir selber oder an deiner Umgebung, was dazu beiträgt, dasjenige, was ja doch kommen muß, nämlich die sechste Kulturepoche, vorzubereiten, so viel an dir liegt. Verstehen kann man nur, wie so etwas möglich ist, Vorbereitungen zu treffen für diese sechste Kulturepoche, wenn man auf den Charakter unseres eigenen Zeitraumes ein wenig eingeht. Da bietet sich uns am besten das Mittel der Vergleichung dar.

Wir wissen, daß diese Kulturzeiträume sich wesentlich voneinander unterscheiden, und wir haben verschiedene Eigenschaften im Laufe der Jahre unserer anthroposophischen Bewegung angeführt, wodurch sie sich voneinander unterscheiden. Wir haben hingewiesen auf die altindische Kulturperiode und haben gezeigt, wie die Seeleneigenschaften des Menschen dazumal anders waren als später, wie der Mensch noch in hohem Grade mit hellsichtigem Bewußtsein begabt war; und wir haben gezeigt, wie die Entwickelung durch die folgenden Kulturzeiträume darinnen besteht, daß die Menschen immer mehr und mehr die Hellsichtigkeit verloren haben und immer mehr ihr Wahrnehmungsvermögen, ihr Verstandesvermögen auf den physischen Plan zu beschränken hatten. Wir haben gesehen, wie sich langsam vorbereitete der vierte Kulturzeitraum, in dem die Menschen sozusagen ganz herausgetreten sind auf den physischen Plan, so daß da jene Wesenheit, die wir den Christus Jesus nennen, auf dem physischen Plan als ein Wesen, als ein Menschenwesen des physischen Planes sich verkörpern konnte. Wir haben dann gesehen, wie seit jener Zeit durch eine gewisse Strömung hindurch dieses heraustrat: wie alle menschlichen Fähigkeiten auf dem physischen Plan sich noch verstärkt haben, wie der materialistische Hang unserer Zeit, all das Drängen der Menschen, nur dasjenige gelten zu lassen, was sich in der physischen Umwelt darbietet, zusammenhängt mit einem weiteren Heruntersteigen des Menschen auf den physischen Plan. Aber dabei soll es nun in der Entwickelung keineswegs bleiben. Die Menschheit muß wiederum hinaufsteigen in die geistige Welt, hinaufsteigen mit all den Errungenschaften, die sie sich angeeignet hat, mit all den Früchten des physischen Planes. Und gerade das soll Anthroposophie sein, was den Menschen bringen kann die Möglichkeit, wiederum hinaufzusteigen in die geistige Welt.

Nun können wir sagen: Gleich nach der großen atlantischen Katastrophe gab es zahlreiche Menschen, welche wußten durch ihr unmittelbares Wahrnehmungsvermögen, um uns herum ist eine geistige Welt, wir leben in einer geistigen Welt. Immer weniger und weniger wurden die Menschen, die das wußten, immer mehr und mehr beschränkten sich die Fähigkeiten des Menschen auf die sinnliche Wahrnehmung. Aber wenn auf der einen Seite heute noch die Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit für die geistige Welt die denkbar geringste ist, so bereitet sich doch auf der andern Seite etwas vor in unserer Zeit, was so bedeutsam ist, daß schon für eine größere Anzahl von Menschen in derjenigen Verkörperung, in der Inkarnation, die auf diese jetzige folgt, ganz andersartige Fähigkeiten da sein werden als heute. Wie sich die Fähigkeiten der Menschen geändert haben durch die fünf Kulturzeiträume hindurch, so werden sie sich in den sechsten hinein auch ändern, und eine große Anzahl von heutigen Menschen wird schon in der nächsten Inkarnation deutlich zeigen durch ihre ganze Seelenart, daß sich ihre Fähigkeiten wesentlich geändert haben. Und darüber wollen wir uns heute Klarheit verschaffen, wie andersgeartet diese Seelen der Menschen in der Zukunft, also bei einer großen Anzahl schon in der nächsten Inkarnation, bei andern in der zweitnächsten, sein werden.

Wir könnten auch noch in einer andern Weise zurückblicken in verflossene Zeiträume der Menschheitsentwickelung. Da würden wir sehen, daß wir immer mehr, je weiter wir zum alten Hellsehen zurückkommen, zugleich mit der menschlichen Seele verknüpft haben das, was man nennen kann den Charakter der Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit. Sie sind schon öfter darauf aufmerksam gemacht worden, daß beim althebräischen Volk im eminentesten Sinne das Bewußtsein von dieser Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit vorhanden war. Wer sich fühlte, sich recht bewußt fühlte als ein Glied des althebräischen Volkes, der sagte sich — darauf ist ja insbesondere aufmerksam gemacht worden: Als einzelner Mensch bin ich eine vorübergehende Erscheinung, aber in mir lebt etwas, was einen unmittelbaren Zusammenhang hat mit all dem Seelenwesen, das herunterströmte seit dem Stammvater Abraham. - Das fühlte der Angehörige des althebräischen Volkes. Wir können sogar esoterisch dieses, was da vom althebräischen Volke gefühlt wurde, als eine spirituelle Erscheinung angeben. Wir verstehen besser, was da geschah, wenn wir folgendes ins Auge fassen.

Nehmen wir einen althebräischen Eingeweihten. Obwohl gerade im althebräischen Volke die Einweihung nicht so häufig war wie bei andern Völkern, so können wir doch einen solchen wirklichen Eingeweihten, nicht bloß einen in die Theorien und in das Gesetz eingeführten, sondern einen wirklich in die geistigen Welten hineinsehenden Eingeweihten nicht anders charakterisieren, als indem wir auf die ganze Volkseigentümlichkeit Rücksicht nehmen. Es ist heute Sitte in der äußeren Wissenschaft, die ahnungslos nach ihren Dokumenten wirtschaftet, überall das, was im Alten Testament steht, an allerlei äußeren Urkunden zu prüfen und es dann nicht bestätigt zu finden. Wir werden Gelegenheit haben, darauf hinzuweisen, daß das Alte Testament treuer die Tatsachen gibt als die äußere Urkundengeschichte. Jedenfalls zeigt die Geisteswissenschaft, daß tatsächlich eine Blutsverwandtschaft des hebräischen Volkes bis zum Stammvater Abraham hinauf nachzuweisen ist, und daß die Annahme Abrahams als Stammvater eine vollberechtigte ist. Insbesondere aber war das etwas, was man in den althebräischen Geheimschulen wußte: solch eine Individualität, solch eine Seelenwesenheit wie die des Abraham, die war ja nicht bloß als Abraham inkarniert, sondern sie ist eine ewige Wesenheit, die in der geistigen Welt vorhanden blieb. Und in Wahrheit war derjenige ein wirklicher Eingeweihter, der inspiriert wurde von demselben Geiste, von dem Abraham inspiriert worden ist, der ihn für sich beschwören konnte, der durchdrungen war von derselben Seelenhaftigkeit wie Abraham. So daß zwischen jedem Eingeweihten und zwischen dem Stammvater Abraham ein realer Zusammenhang war. Das müssen wir festhalten; das drückte sich in dem Gefühl des Mitgliedes des althebräischen Volkes aus. Das war eine Art Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit. Man fühlte dasjenige, was in Abraham sich ausdrückte, als die Gruppenseele des Volkes. Und so fühlte man in der übrigen Menschheit Gruppenseelen.

Die Menschheit geht überhaupt auf Gruppenseelen zurück. Je weiter wir zurückgehen in der Menschheitsentwickelung, desto weniger ausgeprägt finden wir die einzelne Individualität. Was wir heute noch im Tierreich finden: daß eine ganze Gruppe zusammengehört, das war so bei den Menschen vorhanden und tritt immer deutlicher und deutlicher auf, je weiter wir in Urzeiten zurückgehen. Gruppen von Menschen gehören da zusammen, und die Gruppenseele ist wesentlich stärker als dasjenige, was die Individualseele ist im einzelnen Menschen.

Wir können nun sagen: Heute in unserer Zeit ist noch immer nicht die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit der Menschen überwunden, und wer da glauben würde, daß sie vollständig überwunden ist, der würde eben gewisse feinere Erscheinungen des Lebens nicht ins Auge fassen. Wer diese aber ins Auge faßt, wird sehr bald sehen, daß in der Tat gewisse Menschen nicht nur in ihrer Physiognomie einander ähnlich sehen, sondern daß auch die Seeleneigenschaften in Gruppen von Menschen einander ähnlich sind, daß man die Menschen sozusagen in Kategorien einteilen kann. Jeder Mensch kann sich heute noch zu einer gewissen Kategorie rechnen. In bezug auf diese oder jene Eigenschaften wird er vielleicht zu verschiedenen Kategorien gehören, aber eine gewisse Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit ist nicht nur geltend dadurch, daß Völker da sind, sondern auch in anderer Beziehung. Die Grenzen, die zwischen den einzelnen Nationen gezogen sind, fallen immer mehr und mehr dahin; aber andere Gruppierungen sind noch wahrnehmbar. Gewisse Grundeigenschaften stehen bei einzelnen Menschen durchaus so zusammen, daß derjenige, der nur sehen will, letzte Reste von Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit bei den Menschen heute noch wahrnehmen kann.

Nun leben wir nämlich gerade in der Gegenwart im eminentesten Sinn in einem Übergange. Alle Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit soll nach und nach abgestreift werden. So wie die Abgründe zwischen den einzelnen Nationen immer mehr und mehr verschwinden, so wie sich die einzelnen Teile der verschiedenen Nationen immer mehr und mehr verstehen, so werden sich auch andere Gruppenseelenhaftigkeiten abstreifen, und immer mehr wird das Individuelle des einzelnen Menschen in den Vordergrund treten.

Damit haben wir aber etwas ganz Wesentliches in der Entwickelung charakterisiert. Wenn wir es von einer andern Seite fassen wollen, so können wir sagen, innerhalb der Entwickelung der Menschheit verliert immer mehr und mehr der Begriff, worin sich die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit am meisten ausdrückt, an Bedeutung, nämlich der Rassenbegriff. Wenn wir hinter die große atlantische Katastrophe zurückgehen, so sehen wir ja, wie sich die menschlichen Rassen vorbereiten. In der alten atlantischen Zeit haben wir durchaus die Menschen gruppiert nach äußeren Merkmalen in ihrem Körperbau, noch viel stärker als heute. Was wir heute Rassen nennen, das sind nur noch Überbleibsel jener bedeutsamen Unterschiede der Menschen, wie sie in der alten Atlantis üblich waren. So recht anwendbar ist der Rassenbegriff nur auf die alte Atlantis. Daher haben wir, da wir rechnen mit einer wirklichen Entwickelung der Menschheit, für die nachatlantische Zeit gar nicht den Begriff der Rasse im eminentesten Sinne gebraucht. Wir sprechen nicht von einer indischen Rasse, persischen Rasse und so weiter, weil das nicht mehr richtig ist. Wir sprechen von einem altindischen Kulturzeitraum, von einem altpersischen Kulturzeitraum und so weiter.

Und vollends würde es jeden Sinn verlieren, wenn wir davon sprechen wollten, daß sich in unserer Zeit vorbereite eine sechste Rasse. Wenn noch in unserer Zeit Reste der alten atlantischen Unterschiede, der alten atlantischen Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit vorhanden sind, so daß man noch sprechen kann davon, daß die Rasseneinteilung noch nachwirkt — was sich vorbereitet für den sechsten Zeitraum, das besteht gerade darinnen, daß der Rassencharakter abgestreift wird. Das ist das Wesentliche. Deshalb ist es notwendig, daß diejenige Bewegung, welche die anthroposophische genannt wird, welche vorbereiten soll den sechsten Zeitraum, gerade in ihrem Grundcharakter dieses Abstreifen des Rassencharakters aufnimmt, daß sie nämlich zu vereinigen sucht Menschen aus allen Rassen, aus allen Nationen und auf diese Weise überbrückt diese Differenzierung, diese Unterschiede, diese Abgründe, die zwischen den einzelnen Menschengruppen vorhanden sind. Denn es hat in gewisser Beziehung physischen Charakter, was alter Rassenstandpunkt ist, und es wird einen viel geistigeren Charakter haben, was sich in die Zukunft hinein vollzieht.

Daher ist es so dringend notwendig, zu verstehen, daß unsere anthroposophische Bewegung eine geistige ist, die auf das Spirituelle sieht, und gerade das, was aus physischen Unterschieden herrührt, durch die Kraft der geistigen Bewegung überwindet. Es ist ja durchaus begreiflich, daß eine jede Bewegung sozusagen ihre Kinderkrankheiten hat und daß man im Anfang der theosophischen Bewegung die Sache so dargestellt hat, als wenn sozusagen die Erde in sieben Zeiträume zerfiele - man nannte das Hauptrassen - und jede der Hauptrassen in sieben Unterrassen; und daß das alles sich so stetig wiederholen würde, so daß man immer von sieben Rassen sprechen könnte und sieben Unterrassen. Aber man muß über die Kinderkrankheiten hinauskommen und sich klar sein darüber, daß der Rassenbegriff aufhört eine jegliche Bedeutung zu haben gerade in unserer Zeit.

Etwas anderes bereitet sich ferner vor - etwas, das mit der Individualität des Menschen in ganz eminentem Sinne zusammenhängt — im Individueller-Werden und immer Individueller-Werden der Menschen. Es handelt sich nur darum, daß diese Individualität es im rechten Sinne wird, und dazu soll nun die anthroposophische Bewegung dienen, daß die Menschen im rechten Sinne Individualitäten werden, oder Persönlichkeiten, könnten wir auch sagen. Wie kann sie das aber?

Da müssen wir auf die hervorragendste neue Seeleneigenschaft des Menschen hinblicken, die sich vorbereitet. Es wird oft die Frage gestellt: Ja, wenn es eine Wiederverkörperung gibt, warum erinnert sich der Mensch nicht an seine früheren Verkörperungen? — Das ist eine Frage, die schon öfter von mir beantwortet worden ist, und eine solche Frage nimmt sich so aus, wie wenn man ein vierjähriges Kind bringt und deshalb, weil es nicht rechnen kann und ein Mensch ist, sagen wollte: Der Mensch kann nicht rechnen. — Lassen Sie es zehn Jahre alt werden, dann kann es schon rechnen. So ist es mit der menschlichen Seele. Wenn sie sich auch heute noch nicht erinnern kann, es wird die Zeit kommen, in der sie sich erinnern kann, die Zeit, in der sie dieselben Fähigkeiten hat, wie derjenige sie hat, der heute eingeweiht ist. Aber gerade heute geschieht jener Umschwung. Es gibt heute eine Anzahl von Seelen, welche in unserer Zeit so weit sind, daß sie knapp vor dem Momente stehen, wo sie an ihre früheren Inkarnationen, wenigstens an die letzte, sich erinnern werden. Eine ganze Anzahl von Menschen ist heute sozusagen gerade vor dem Sich-Öfnen des Tores zu dem umfassenden Gedächtnis, das nicht nur das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod, sondern das die vorhergehenden Inkarnationen, wenigstens die letzte zunächst umfaßt. Und wenn nachder gegenwärtigen Inkarnation eine Anzahl von Menschen wiedergeboren werden, dann werden sie sich erinnern an die gegenwärtige Inkarnation. Es handelt sich nur darum, wie sie sich erinnern. Sich in der richtigen Weise zu erinnern, dazu soll die anthroposophische Entwickelung Veranlassung, Anleitung geben.

Wenn man diese anthroposophische Bewegung charakterisieren will von diesem Gesichtspunkte aus, so muß man so sagen: Ihr Charakter ist dieser, daß sie den Menschen hinführt, in rechtem Sinn dasjenige zu erfassen, was man das menschliche Ich, das innerste Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit nennt. Ich habe schon öfter darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß Fichte mit Recht gesagt hat, die meisten Menschen würden sich lieber für ein Stück Lava im Monde halten als für ein Ich. Und wenn Sie nachdenken, wieviel Menschen es gibt in unserer Zeit, die sich überhaupt eine Vorstellung davon machen, was ein Ich ist, das heißt, was sie selber sind, dann würden Sie im allgemeinen zu einem recht traurigen Resultat kommen.

Wenn diese Frage auftaucht, muß ich mich immer erinnern an einen Kameraden, den ich vor etwas mehr als dreißig Jahren hatte, und der dazumal als ein ganz junger Bursch vollständig infiziert war von der materialistischen Gesinnung. Heute ist es moderner, monistische Gesinnung zu sagen. Er war schon infiziert trotz seiner jungen Jahre von ihr. Er lachte immer, wenn es hieß, daß im Menschen etwas enthalten sei, was man als geistige Wesenheit bezeichnen kann; denn er war der Anschauung, daß das, was als Gedanke in uns lebt, hervorgebracht werde durch die mechanischen oder chemischen Vorgänge im Gehirn. Ich sagte oft zu ihm: Sieh, wenn du das ernsthaft glaubst als Lebensinhalt, warum lügst du fortwährend ? - Er log in der Tat fortwährend, denn er sagte niemals: Mein Gehirn fühlt, mein Gehirn denkt, sondern: Ich denke, ich fühle, ich weiß dies oder jenes. - Also er stellte sich eine Theorie auf, der er mit jedem Wort widersprach, wie es ja jeder Mensch tut; denn es ist unmöglich, festzuhalten dasjenige, was man sich einbildet als eine materialistische Theorie. Man kann nicht wahrhaftig bleiben, wenn man materialistisch denkt. Wenn man sonst sagt: Mein Gehirn liebt dich -, dann dürfte man nicht sagen «dich», sondern: Mein Gehirn liebt dein Gehirn. - Diese Konsequenz machen sich die Leute nicht klar. Aber es ist tatsächlich etwas, das nicht bloß humoristisch ist, sondern etwas, das zeigt, welcher tiefe Untergrund von unbewußter Unwahrhaftigkeit auf dem Grunde unserer gegenwärtigen Geistesbildung ist.

Die meisten Menschen würden sich wirklich lieber für ein Stück Lava im Monde halten, das heißt für eine zusammengebraute Materie, als für dasjenige, was ein Ich genannt werden kann. Und am wenigsten kommt man natürlich heute durch äußere Wissenschaft, die ja als solche nach ihren Methoden materialistisch denken muß, zu einem Erfassen des Ich. Dieses Erfassen des Ich, wodurch kann es der Mensch erreichen? Wodurch kann er nach und nach auch einen Begriff, eine Idee von demjenigen erhalten, was er instinktiv fühlt, wenn er ausspricht: Ich denke? — Einzig und allein dadurch, daß er an der Hand anthroposophischer Weltanschauung erkennt, wie sich diese menschliche Wesenheit zusammengliedert, wie der physische Leib Saturncharakter, der Ätherleib Sonnencharakter, der astralische Leib Mondcharakter und das Ich Erdencharakter hat. Wenn wir alles das ins Auge fassen, was wir da an Ideen zusammenholen aus dem ganzen Weltenall, dann begreifen wir, wie das Ich als der eigentliche Werkmeister an allen andern Gliedern arbeitet. Und so kommen wir nach und nach auch zu einem Begriff von dem, was wir vertreten mit dem Worte «Ich»,

Zu dem höchsten Begriffe von diesem Ich ringen wir uns allmählich hinauf, wenn wir verstehen lernen ein solches Wort. Nicht bloß fühlen wir uns als ein geistiges Wesen, wenn wir uns in einem Ich drin fühlen, sondern wenn wir uns sagen können: In unserer Individualität lebt etwas, was da war vor dem Vater Abraham. - Wenn wir uns nicht bloß sagen können: Ich und der Vater Abraham sind eins -, sondern: Ich und der Vater, das ist das die Welt durchwebende und durchlebende Geistige. - Was im Ich lebt, ist dieselbe geistige Substanz, die die Welt durchwebt und durchlebt als Geistiges. So ringen wir uns allmählich hinauf, dieses Ich, das heißt den Träger der menschlichen Individualität, also dasjenige, was sich von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation zieht, zu verstehen.

Auf welche Art aber begreifen wir das Ich, begreifen wir überhaupt die Welt durch anthroposophische Weltanschauung? Diese anthroposophische Weltanschauung kommt auf die individuellste Weise zustande und ist zu gleicher Zeit das Unindividuellste, das sich überhaupt nur denken läßt. Sie kann nur dadurch auf die individuellste Art zustande kommen, daß sich die Geheimnisse des Weltalls in einer menschlichen Seele offenbaren, daß in sie einströmen die großen geistigen Wesenheiten der Welt. In der menschlichen Individualität muß der Inhalt der Welt erlebt werden auf die individuellste Art, aber zu gleicher Zeit muß er erlebt werden mit einem Charakter vollständiger Unpersönlichkeit. Wer erleben will den wahren Charakter der Weltgeheimnisse, der muß ganz auf demjenigen Gesichtspunkt stehen, von dem aus er sich sagt: Wer die eigene Meinung noch achtet, der kann nicht zur Wahrheit kommen. — Das ist nämlich das Eigenartige anthroposophischer Wahrheit, daß der Beobachter keine eigene Meinung, keine Vorliebe für diese oder jene Theorie haben darf, daß er durchaus nicht durch seine besondere individuelle Eigentümlichkeit diese oder jene Anschauung mehr lieben darf als eine andere. Solange er auf diesem Standpunkte steht, ist es unmöglich, daß sich ihm die wahren Weltgeheimnisse offenbaren. Er muß ganz individuell erkennen; aber seine Individualität muß so weit gediehen sein, daß sie nichts mehr von dem Persönlichen, also auch von dem ihm individuell Sympathischen und Antipathischen hat. Das muß streng und ernsthaft genommen werden. Wer noch irgendwelche Vorliebe hat für diese oder jene Begriffe und Anschauungen, wer durch seine Erziehung, durch sein Temperament zu dem oder jenem hinneigen kann, der wird niemals die objektive Wahrheit erkennen.

In diesem Sommer haben wir versucht, hier die orientalischen Weistümer vom Standpunkt der westlichen Lehre zu begreifen. Wir versuchten gerecht zu werden den orientalischen Weistümern und haben sie wahrhaftig in einer Weise hingestellt, daß sie zu ihrem vollen Rechte gekommen sind. Man muß streng betonen, daß es in unserer Zeit bei selbständiger geistiger Erkenntnis unmöglich ist, immer sich durch eine besondere Vorliebe für die orientalische oder für die okzidentalische Weltanschauung zu entscheiden. Wer da sagt je nach seinem verschiedenen Temperamente, er liebe mehr die Eigenartigkeit, die Gesetzmäßigkeit der Welt, so wie sie im orientalischen oder wie sie entsprechend im okzidentalischen vorhanden sind, der hat noch nicht das volle Verständnis für das, um was es sich eigentlich handelt. Nicht dadurch soll man sich entscheiden zum Beispiel für die größere Bedeutung, sagen wir des Christus gegenüber all demjenigen, was die orientalische Lehre erkennt, weil man nach seiner okzidentalischen Erziehung oder seinem Temperamente mehr hinneigt zum Christus. Erst dann ist man berufen, die Frage zu entscheiden: Wie verhält sich der Christus zum Orient? -, wenn einem vom persönlichen Standpunkt aus das Christliche so gleichgültig ist wie das Orientalische. Solange man Vorliebe hat für dieses oder jenes, so lange ist man noch nicht berufen, die Entscheidung zu treffen. Objektiv fängt man erst an zu werden, wenn man die Tatsachen allein sprechen läßt, wenn man keinen Grund der eigenen Meinung mehr achtet, sondern nur die Tatsachen sprechen läßt auf diesem Gebiete.

Daher tritt uns in der anthroposophischen Weltanschauung, wenn sie uns heute in ihrer wahren Gestalt entgegentritt, etwas entgegen, was innig verwoben ist mit der menschlichen Individualität, weil es aus der Ich-Kraft der Individualität heraussprossen muß und auf der andern Seite unabhängig sein muß, so daß diese Individualität wieder ganz gleichgültig ist. Derjenige Mensch, in dem die anthroposophischen Weistümer erscheinen, muß ihnen gegenüber am gleichgültigsten sein; auf den muß es gar nicht ankommen. Darauf kommt es an, daß er sich so weit gebracht hat, daß er gar nichts von seiner Färbung diesen Dingen aufdrängt. Dann werden sie zwar individuell sein müssen, weil nicht im Lichte der Sterne oder des Mondes etwa das Geistige erscheinen kann, sondern nur in der menschlichen Seele, in der Individualität. Dann wird auf der andern Seite diese so weit sein müssen, daß sie selber sich ausschalten kann beim Zustandekommen dessen, was die Weistümer der Welt sind.

So aber auch wird das, was durch die anthroposophische Bewegung an die Menschheit herantritt, auf der einen Seite etwas, was jeden Menschen angeht, gleichgültig aus welcher Rasse, Nation und so weiter er herausgeboren ist, denn es wendet sich nur an die neue Menschlichkeit, an den Menschen als solchen, aber nicht an ein allgemeines Abstraktum «Mensch», sondern an jeden einzelnen Menschen. Darauf kommt es an. Spricht es daher, ebenso wie es hervorgeht aus der Individualität, aus dem Wesenskern des Menschen, zum tiefsten Wesenskern des Menschen, so erfaßt es diesen Kern des Menschen. Wie wir auch sonst reden von Mensch zu Mensch, im Grunde genommen redet immer nur Oberfläche zu Oberfläche, irgend etwas, was wir nicht mit dem innersten Wesenskern verbunden haben. Verstehen von Mensch zu Mensch, vollständiges Verstehen ist ja gerade heute kaum möglich auf einem andern Gebiete als auf demjenigen, wo das, was erzeugt wird, aus dem Zentrum des menschlichen Wesens hervorkommt und, wenn es richtig verstanden wird vom andern, wiederum zu seinem Zentrum spricht. Daher ist es in gewisser Beziehung eine neue Sprache, welche gesprochen wird durch die Anthroposophie. Wenn wir auch heute noch gezwungen sind, in den einzelnen Landessprachen zu verkündigen, was verkündigt wird - der Inhalt ist eine neue Sprache, die gesprochen wird von der Anthroposophie.

Was heute draußen in der Welt gesprochen wird, das ist eine Sprache, die eigentlich nur für ein sehr beschränktes Gebiet gilt. In alten Zeiten, als die Menschen durch ihr altes, dämmerhaftes Hellsehen noch in die geistige Welt schauten, da bedeutete ihr Wort etwas, was in der geistigen Welt war. Das Wort bedeutete etwas, was in der geistigen Welt war. Selbst in Griechenland war das noch anders als heute. Das Wort «Idee», von Plato gebraucht, bedeutet etwas anderes als das Wort «Idee» von unseren heutigen Philosophen gebraucht. Diese heutigen Philosophen können nicht mehr Plato begreifen, weil sie keine Anschauung von demjenigen haben, was er Idee nannte, und es so verwechseln mit dem abstrakten Begriffe. Plato hatte noch vor sich das Geistige, wenn auch schon destilliert; es war sozusagen noch etwas völlig Reales. Da also hatte man in den Worten noch, wenn man sich so ausdrücken darf, den Saft des Geistigen vorhanden. Das können Sie in den Worten spüren. Wenn jemand heute das Wort «Wind», «Luft» gebraucht, nun, dann meint er etwas Äußeres, Physisches. Das Wort Wind entspricht da einem Äußeren, Physischen. Wenn man zum Beispiel im alten Hebräischen das Wort Wind «Ruach» gebrauchte, so meinte man nicht bloß etwas Äußeres, Physisches, sondern ein Geistiges, das da hinfegte durch den Raum. Wenn der Mensch einatmet — nun, heute sagt ihm die materialistische Wissenschaft, daß er einfach materielle Luft einatmet. In alten Zeiten, da hat man nicht geglaubt, daß man die materielle Luft einatmet; da war man sich klar, daß man Geistiges, wenigstens Seelisches einatmet.

So waren die Worte durchaus Bezeichnungen für Geistiges und Seelisches. Heute hat das aufgehört, heute ist die Sprache auf die äußere Welt beschränkt oder wenigstens bemühen sich diejenigen, die heute auf der Höhe der Zeit stehen wollen, recht sehr, selbst hinter dem, bei welchem es noch handgreiflich ist, daß es Geistig-Seelischem entnommen ist, nur noch einen materialistischen Sinn zu sehen. Die Physik spricht ja davon, daß es einen «Stoß» von Körpern gibt. Sie hat vergessen, daß das Wort «Stoß» entnommen ist von dem, was ein lebendiges Wesen, wenn es ein anderes Wesen stößt, aus dem innersten Lebewesen selber vollbringt. So wird vergessen die ursprüngliche Wortbedeutung bei diesen einfachen Dingen.

Also heute ist unsere Sprache - und am meisten ist das bei der wissenschaftlichen Sprache der Fall - eine Sprache geworden, die nur noch Materielles auszudrücken vermag. Dadurch ist das, was, während wir sprechen, in unserer Seele ist, nur verständlich denjenigen Fähigkeiten unserer Seele, die an das physische Gehirn als ihr Instrument gebunden sind; und dann versteht die Seele nichts mehr von all dem, was mit diesen Worten bezeichnet ist, wenn sie entkörpert ist. Wenn die Seele durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, sich nicht mehr bedient des Gehirns, dann sind alle wissenschaftlichen Erörterungen von heute Gebilde, die der entkörperten Seele etwas ganz Unverständliches sind. Sie hört nicht einmal, nimmt nicht wahr das, was man in der Sprache der heutigen Zeit ausdrückt. Es hat keinen Sinn mehr für eine entkörperte Seele, weil es nur Sinn hat für dasjenige, was auf dem physischen Plan ist.

Das ist wiederum etwas, was wichtiger noch ist zu beachten in dem, was man nennen könnte Vorstellungsart, Denkungsweise. Dadrinnen ist es viel wichtiger zu beachten noch als in der Theorie, denn auf das Leben kommt es an, nicht auf die Theorie, und es ist das Charakteristische, daß man wiederum in der theosophischen Bewegung selber es sehen kann, wie der Materialismus sich hineingeschlichen hat. Weil er nun einmal Zeitmode ist, so hat er sich in die theosophische Auffassung vielfach hineingeschlichen, so daß auch da, im Theosophischen selber, wirklicher Materialismus waltet, zum Beispiel wenn man den Äther- oder Lebensleib beschreibt. Während man sich bemühen sollte, zur Erfassung des Geistigen zu kommen, beschreibt man ihn meistens so, als wenn er ein feineres Materielles wäre, und den astralischen Leib ebenso. Man geht gewöhnlich aus vom physischen Leib, geht weiter dann zum Äther- oder Lebensleib und sagt: Der ist nach dem Muster des physischen Leibes aufgebaut, nur feiner -, und schreitet so hinauf bis Nirwana. Da findet man Beschreibungen, die die Bilder hernehmen von nichts anderem als aus dem Physischen. Ich habe schon erlebt, daß man, wenn man ausdrücken wollte, daß in einem Zimmer eine gute Stimmung ist unter den Anwesenden, man dies nicht einfach in geradem Sinn ausgedrückt hat, sondern daß man gesagt hat: Ach, in diesem Raum sind feine Vibrationen vorhanden. — Man achtet dabei gar nicht darauf, daß man das, was da geistig bei einer Stimmung vorhanden ist, vermaterialisiert, wenn man sich den Raum ausgefüllt denkt mit einer Art dünnem Nebel, der von Vibrationen durchzogen ist.

Ja, sehen Sie, das ist das, was ich als denkbar materialistischste Vorstellungsart bezeichnen möchte. Es sitzt sozusagen der Materialismus selbst denen, die spirituell denken wollen, im Nacken. Das soll nur eine Charakteristik unserer heutigen Zeit sein; es ist aber wichtig, daß wir uns dessen bewußt werden. Und daher müssen wir auch gerade darauf achten, was gesagt worden ist: daß unsere Sprache, die immerhin eine Art Tyrannin ist für das menschliche Denken, daß unsere Sprache in die Seele einen Hang zum Materialismus verpflanzt. Und manche, die heute ganz gerne Idealisten sein möchten, drücken sich so aus, durch die Sprachtyrannis verführt, ganz im materialistischen Sinne. Das ist eine Sprache, die nicht mehr verstanden werden kann von der Seele, sobald sie sich nicht mehr gebunden fühlt an das menschliche Gehirn.

Es gibt sogar noch etwas anderes, Sie mögen es glauben oder nicht. Für denjenigen, der okkultes Anschauen, wirklich geistiges Wahrnehmen kennt, für den bedeutet die Art der Darstellung, wie sie heute vielfach gepflogen wird in theosophisch-wissenschaftlichen Schriften, einen wirklichen Schmerz, weil es ihm unsinnig vorkommt, wenn er anfängt, nicht mehr mit dem physischen Gehirn zu denken, sondern mit der Seele, die nicht mehr gebunden ist an das physische Gehirn, das heißt wirklich in der geistigen Welt lebt. Solange man mit dem physischen Gehirn denkt, so lange mag es hingehen, so die Welt zu charakterisieren. Sobald man aber anfängt, eine spirituelle Anschauung zu entfalten, so hört es auf, einen Sinn zu haben, in dieser Weise über die Dinge zu sprechen. Dann tut es sogar weh, wenn man den Ausspruch hören muß: In diesem Raum sind gute Vibrationen -, statt: Da herrscht eine gute Stimmung. - Das verursacht sogleich bei demjenigen, der imstande ist, wirklich geistig sich die Dinge vorzustellen, einen Schmerz, weil Gedanken Wirklichkeiten sind. Da füllt sich der Raum aus mit einem dunklen Nebel, wenn jemand die Gedankenform hinstellt: Es sind gute Vibrationen im Raum -, statt: Es herrscht eine gute Stimmung.

Es ist nun die Aufgabe der anthroposophischen Vorstellungsart — und die Vorstellungsart ist wichtiger als die Theorien -, daß wir lernen eine Sprache zu sprechen, die nun tatsächlich nicht bloß verstanden wird von der menschlichen Seele, solange sie im physischen Leibe ist, sondern auch dann, wenn diese Seele nicht mehr an das Instrument des physischen Gehirns gebunden ist; also entweder von einer zwar noch im Leibe sich befindenden, aber spirituell anschauenden, oder von der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangenen Seele noch erfaßt werden kann. Und das ist das Wesentliche! Wenn wir die Begriffe hinstellen, welche die Welt erklären, die das menschliche Wesen erklären, dann ist das eine Sprache, die nicht bloß hier auf dem physischen Plan verstanden werden kann, sondern auch von denjenigen, die jetzt nicht im physischen Leibe verkörpert sind, sondern zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt leben. Ja, was auf unserem anthroposophischen Boden gesprochen wird, das hören und verstehen die sogenannten Toten. Da sind sie völlig mit uns auf einem Boden, wo eine gleiche Sprache gesprochen wird. Da reden wir zu allen Menschen. Denn in gewisser Beziehung ist es zufällig, ob eine menschliche Seele gerade in einem fleischlichen Leibe ist oder in dem andern Zustande zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt. Und wir lernen durch die Anthroposophie eine Sprache, die für alle Menschenwesen, gleichgültig ob im einen oder im andern Zustand, verständlich ist. So also reden wir innerhalb des anthroposophischen Feldes eine Sprache, die gesprochen ist auch für die sogenannten Toten. Wir berühren nämlich wirklich durch dasjenige, was wir, wenn es auch scheinbar abstrakt ist, im realen Sinne in den anthroposophischen Erörterungen pflegen, den innersten Menschenkern, die innerste Wesenheit des Menschen. Wir dringen hinein bis in des Menschen Seele. Und damit befreien wir den Menschen, weil wir in seine Seele hineindringen, von aller Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit, das heißt, der Mensch wird auf diese Weise immer fähiger und fähiger, sich in seiner Ichheit wirklich zu erfassen.

Und das ist das Eigentümliche, daß diejenigen, die heute zur Anthroposophie herankommen, die wirklich Anthroposophie aufnehmen, sich gegenüber den andern Menschen, die ihr ferne bleiben, so ausnehmen, als würde sich durch die anthroposophischen Gedanken ihr Ich kristallisieren als eine spirituelle Wesenheit, die dann mitgetragen wird hinaus durch die Pforte des Todes. An der Stelle, wo die Ich-Wesenheit ist, die da bleibt, die da jetzt ist im Leibe und die da bleibt nach dem Tode, an Stelle jener Ich-Wesenheit ist bei den andern Menschen ein Hohlraum, ein Nichts. Alles übrige, was man an Begriffen heute aufnehmen kann, das wird immer mehr und mehr gegenstandslos für den eigentlichen seelischen Wesenskern des Menschen. Das Mittelpunktswesen des Menschen wird erfaßt durch dasjenige, was wir an anthroposophischen Gedanken aufnehmen. Das kristallisiert eine spirituelle Substanz im Menschen, das nimmt er mit nach dem Tode und durch das nimmt er wahr in der geistigen Welt. Damit sieht und hört er in der geistigen Welt, damit durchdringt er jene Finsternis, die sonst für den Menschen in der geistigen Welt ist. Und dadurch wird es bewirkt, daß, wenn der Mensch heute durch diese anthroposophischen Begriffe und anthroposophische Vorstellungsart dieses Ich in sich ausbildet, das nun im Zusammenhange steht mit all den Weltweistümern, die wir erhalten können - wenn er es ausbildet -, er es auch hinüberträgt in die nächste Inkarnation. Dann wird er wiedergeboren mit diesem nun ausgebildeten Ich, und er erinnert sich an dieses ausgebildete Ich. Und das ist die tiefere Aufgabe der anthroposophischen Weltbewegung heute: eine Anzahl von Menschen hinüberzuschicken zur nächsten Inkarnation mit einem Ich, an das sie sich erinnern als ihr individuelles Ich. Und das werden diejenigen Menschen sein, die den Kern der nächsten Kulturperiode bilden.

Jene Menschen, welche gut vorbereitet worden sind durch die anthroposophische geistige Bewegung, an ihr individuelles Ich sich zu erinnern, die werden über die ganze Erde verbreitet sein. Denn das Wesentliche in der nächsten Kulturperiode wird sein, daß sie nicht abgegrenzt sein wird durch einzelne Lokalitäten, sondern über die ganze Erde verbreitet sein wird. Die einzelnen Menschen werden zerstreut sein über die ganze Erde, und innerhalb des ganzen Erdgebietes wird der Kern von Menschheit da sein, der wesentlich sein wird für die sechste Kulturperiode. Und so wird es unter diesen Menschen sein, daß sie sich wiedererkennen werden als solche, die in ihrer vorhergehenden Inkarnation zusammen erstrebt haben das individuelle Ich.

Das ist die richtige Pflege jener Seelenfähigkeit, von der wir gesprochen haben. Die Seelenfähigkeit, die bildet sich auch so aus, daß nicht nur diejenigen, die jetzt geschildert worden sind, sich erinnern werden; sondern immer mehr und mehr Menschen werden, trotzdem sie ihr Ich nicht ausgebildet haben, die Erinnerung haben an die vorhergehende Inkarnation. Aber sie werden sich nicht an ein individuelles Ich erinnern, weil sie es nicht ausgebildet haben, sondern an das Gruppen-Ich, in dem sie geblieben sind. So wird es Menschen geben, die in dieser Inkarnation gesorgt haben für die Ausbildung ihres individuellen Ich. Diese werden sich erinnern als selbständige Individualität; sie werden zurückblicken und sagen: Du warst dieser oder jener. —- Diejenigen, welche die Individualität nicht ausgebildet haben, werden sich an diese Individualität auch nicht erinnern können.

Glauben Sie nicht, daß man durch das bloße visionäre Hellsehen etwa die Fähigkeit erlangt, sich an das vorhergehende Ich zu erinnern. Die Menschen waren einmal hellsehend. Würde das bloße Hellsehen genügen, so müßten sich alle erinnern, denn alle waren hellsehend. Nicht das macht es bloß aus, ob man hellsehend ist, hellsehend werden die Menschen schon in der Zukunft. Das macht es aus, ob man das Ich in dieser Inkarnation gepflegt hat oder nicht. Hat man es nicht gepflegt, so ist es als eine innere menschliche Wesenheit nicht da. Man schaut zurück und erinnert sich, als ein Gruppen-Ich, an dasjenige, was man gemeinschaftlich hatte. So daß diese Menschen sagen werden: Ja, da war ich, aber ich habe mich nicht losgemacht. - Das werden diese Menschen dann empfinden als ihren Fall, als einen neuen Fall der Menschheit, als ein Zurückfallen in die bewußte Zusammengehörigkeit mit der Gruppenseele. Und das wird etwas Furchtbares sein für den sechsten Zeitraum: nicht sich als Individualität im Rückblick fühlen zu können, sondern gehemmt zu sein dadurch, daß man nicht hinaus kann über die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit. Wenn man es kraß ausdrücken will, so kann man sagen: Denjenigen Menschen, die jetzt ihre Individualität kultivieren, denen wird die ganze Erde gehören mit alldem, was sie hervorbringen kann - es gilt wenigstens bildlich -; diejenigen Menschen, die nicht ausprägen ihr individuelles Ich, die werden angewiesen sein, sich anzuschließen an eine gewisse Gruppe und von der sich eingeben zu lassen, wie sie denken, fühlen, wollen, handeln sollen. Das wird als ein Zurückfallen, als ein Fall empfunden werden in der künftigen Menschheit.

So dürfen wir dasjenige, was anthroposophische Bewegung, geistiges Leben ist, nicht als bloße Theorie betrachten, sondern als etwas, was uns gegeben wird innerhalb der Gegenwart, weil es vorbereitet etwas, was notwendig ist für die Zukunft der Menschheit. Wenn wir uns richtig erfassen in dem Punkt, gerade da, wo wir jetzt sind, aus der Vergangenheit hergekommen sind, und ein wenig hinblicken auf die Zukunft, so müssen wir sagen: Jetzt ist die Zeit da, wo man beginnt, die menschliche Fähigkeit der Rückerinnerung auszubilden. Es kommt nur darauf an, daß wir sie richtig ausbilden, das heißt, daß wir uns anerziehen ein individuelles Ich. Denn nur an dasjenige, was wir geschaffen haben in unserer Seele, an das können wir uns erinnern. Haben wir es nicht geschaffen, dann bleibt uns nur die fesselnde Erinnerung an ein Gruppen-Ich, und dann empfinden wir das als ein Herunterfallen in eine Gruppe sozusagen höherer Tierheit. Wenn auch die menschlichen Gruppenseelen feiner und höher sind als die tierischen, so bleiben sie eben doch Gruppenseelen. Die Menschen der Vorzeit empfanden das nicht als Fall, weil sie daran waren, sich herauszuentwickeln von der Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit zur einzelnen Seele. Wenn sie jetzt beibehalten wird, dann fallen sie bewußt hinein, und das wird die drückende Empfindung in der Zukunft derjenigen sein, die nicht in der richtigen Art den Anschluß finden entweder jetzt oder in einer späteren Inkarnation: daß sie empfinden werden den Fall in der Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit.

Das ist die reale Aufgabe der Anthroposophie: den Anschluß zu geben. So müssen wir sie erfassen innerhalb des Menschenlebens. Wenn wir dies ins Auge fassen, daß der sechste Kulturzeitraum gerade die erste Überwindung, völlige Überwindung des Rassenbegriffes ist, so müssen wir uns klar sein, daß es phantastisch wäre zu glauben, daß auch die sechste Rasse von irgendeinem Ort der Erde ausginge und sich so bildete wie die früheren Rassen. Das ist der Fortschritt, daß immer neue Arten der Lebensentwickelung auftreten innerhalb des Fortganges, daß nicht dasjenige, was an Begriffen für frühere Zeiten gegolten hat, auch für künftige gelten soll. Sonst - wenn wir das nicht einsehen, wird uns nicht die Idee des Fortschrittes ganz klarwerden. Wir werden sozusagen sonst immer wiederum in den Fehler zurückfallen, daß wir sagen: So und so viele Runden, Globen, Rassen und so weiter. Und immer kugelt das herum und wieder herum und immer in derselben Weise. - Man kann nicht einsehen, warum dieses Rad von Runden, Globen, Rassen sich immer wieder drehen soll. Darum handelt es sich, daß das Wort Rasse eine Bezeichnung ist, die nur für gewisse Zeiten gilt. Um den sechsten Zeitraum herum hat der Begriff kaum mehr einen Sinn. Rasse hatten nur noch in sich die Elemente, die von der atlantischen Zeit geblieben sind.

In der Zukunft wird dasjenige, was zum Tiefsten der menschlichen Seele spricht, sich auch immer mehr und mehr in dem Äußeren des Menschen ausdrücken, und es wird dasjenige, was der Mensch als ein auf der einen Seite ganz Individuelles erworben hat und doch wiederum unindividuell erlebt, dadurch ausdrücken, daß es hinauswirkt bis zum menschlichen Antlitz; so daß die Individualität des Menschen ihm auf seinem Antlitz geschrieben sein wird, nicht die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit. Das wird die menschliche Mannigfaltigkeit ausmachen. Alles wird individuell erworben, trotzdem es durch die Überwindung der Individualität da ist. Und wir werden nicht Gruppen treffen unter denen, die erfaßt sind vom Ich, sondern im Äußeren wird sich das Individuelle ausdrücken. Das wird auch den Unterschied bilden zwischen den Menschen. Da werden solche sein, die sich ihre Ichheit erworben haben; sie werden über die ganze Erde hin zwar mit den mannigfaltigsten Antlitzen da sein, aber an ihrer Mannigfaltigkeit wird man erkennen, daß bis in die Geste hinein zum Ausdruck sich bringt das individuelle Ich. Während bei denen, die die Individualität nicht ausgebildet haben, die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit dadurch zum Ausdruck kommen wird, daß sie auch in ihrem Antlitz die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit tragen werden; das heißt, sie werden in Kategorien zerfallen, die einander gleichen werden. Das wird die äußere Physiognomie unserer Erde sein: daß vorbereitet sein wird eine Möglichkeit, die Individualität als äußeres Zeichen an sich zu tragen und die Gruppenseelenhaftigkeit als äußeres Zeichen an sich zu tragen.

Das ist der Sinn der irdischen Entwickelung, daß der Mensch immer mehr und mehr die Fähigkeit erlangt, in seinem Äußeren das Innere darzustellen. Deshalb gibt es eine alte Schrift, in welcher das größte Ideal für die Entwickelung des Ich, der Christus Jesus, so charakterisiert wird, daß gesagt wird: Wenn die zwei eins werden, wenn das Äußere wie das Innere wird, dann hat der Mensch die Christushaftigkeit in sich erreicht. Das ist der Sinn einer gewissen Stelle des sogenannten Ägypter-Evangeliums. Solche Stellen begreift man aus der anthroposophischen Weisheit heraus.

Nachdem wir heute versucht haben, aus den Tiefen unserer Erkenntnis heraus die Aufgabe der Anthroposophie zu erfassen, wollen wir nun Dienstag etwas als ein spirituelles Problem in Angriff nehmen, das uns wiederum, als eine besondere individuelle Angelegenheit des Menschen, auf sein Schicksal, auf sein Wesen führen kann.

The I, the God Within, and the God of Outer Revelation

Today we want to deal with a general topic, namely the question of the meaning and tasks of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science in the present, and then on Tuesday with a more individual topic concerning the individual human destiny and nature.

We have often emphasized that anthroposophy has a special task and significance for humanity, especially in the present. After all, anyone who engages with anthroposophy as a thinking person must repeatedly ask themselves: What are the goals of this spiritual movement, and how does it relate to other tasks in our time? Now, as we have often done, we can examine these tasks from a wide variety of perspectives. Today, we want to try to grasp the course of human development at the point where we ourselves stand, look a little into the future, and then ask ourselves: What is the task of anthroposophy, especially in view of the point of development of humanity at which we stand today?

We know that since the great Atlantean catastrophe, which completely transformed the Earth as a place for human habitation, there have been five cultural epochs up to the present day. We have often listed these five cultural epochs as the ancient Indian, ancient Persian, Chaldean-Egyptian, Greek-Latin epochs, and then as the epoch in which we ourselves stand, the fifth cultural epoch, which has been preparing since, let us say, the 8th, 9th, 10th centuries and in which we are actually in the middle. Now we must be clear that such divisions are not meant to imply that one era of development ends abruptly and a new one begins, but rather that everything transitions slowly and gradually, and that long before one era has ended, the new one is already preparing itself within it. So we can say of our cultural epoch, the fifth of the post-Atlantean period, that what will actually characterize the sixth cultural epoch is already preparing itself, and quite significantly. And the humanity of the present will generally divide into two parts: those who today have no concept of any of this, who know nothing about the preparations for the sixth cultural epoch, who live, so to speak, blindly from day to day; and those who have some idea that something new is being prepared and who also know that, fundamentally, what is being prepared must be done by human beings, must be prepared by human beings. In a certain sense, as a human being, you can place yourself in the present and say that you will do what is generally customary, what others have done, what your fathers taught you, or you can place yourself in the present with the conscious knowledge that if you want to be a conscious link in the human chain, you must do something, either for yourself or for your environment, that contributes to preparing for what must come, namely the sixth cultural epoch, as much as you can. One can only understand how it is possible to prepare for this sixth cultural epoch if one considers the character of our own time a little. The best way to do this is by comparison.

We know that these cultural epochs differ significantly from one another, and we have pointed out various characteristics that distinguish them from one another in the course of our anthroposophical movement. We have pointed to the ancient Indian cultural period and shown how the soul characteristics of human beings were different then than later, how human beings were still endowed with a high degree of clairvoyant consciousness; and we have shown how the development through the following cultural epochs consists in the fact that human beings have lost more and more of their clairvoyance and have increasingly limited their powers of perception their intellectual faculties to the physical plane. We have seen how the fourth cultural period slowly prepared itself, in which human beings stepped out, so to speak, entirely onto the physical plane, so that the being we call Christ Jesus could incarnate on the physical plane as a being, as a human being of the physical plane. We then saw how, since that time, through a certain current, this emerged: how all human abilities on the physical plane have become even stronger, how the materialistic tendency of our time, all the urge of human beings to accept only what is presented in the physical environment, is connected with a further descent of human beings onto the physical plane. But this is by no means the end of the development. Humanity must ascend again into the spiritual world, ascend with all the achievements it has acquired, with all the fruits of the physical plane. And this is precisely what anthroposophy aims to do: to give human beings the opportunity to ascend again into the spiritual world.

Now we can say that immediately after the great Atlantean catastrophe there were numerous people who knew through their immediate perception that there is a spiritual world around us, that we live in a spiritual world. Fewer and fewer people knew this, and more and more people's abilities were limited to sensory perception. But while on the one hand the ability to perceive the spiritual world is still at its lowest level today, on the other hand something is preparing in our time that is so significant that a large number of people in the incarnation that follows the present one will have abilities that are completely different from those of today. Just as human abilities have changed throughout the five cultural epochs, so they will change in the sixth, and a large number of people today will clearly show in their next incarnation, through their whole soul nature, that their abilities have changed significantly. And today we want to gain clarity about how different these souls of human beings will be in the future, that is, in the next incarnation for a large number of them, and in the second next incarnation for others.

We could also look back in another way at past periods of human development. We would see that the further back we go in time, the more we find that what we might call the character of group soulhood has become linked with the human soul. You have often been made aware that the ancient Hebrew people had a consciousness of this group soulhood in the most eminent sense. Those who felt themselves to be truly conscious members of the ancient Hebrew people said to themselves — and this has been pointed out in particular — that as individual human beings they were temporary phenomena, but that something lived within them that was directly connected with all the soul beings that had streamed down since the patriarch Abraham. This is what the members of the ancient Hebrew people felt. We can even describe what the ancient Hebrew people felt as a spiritual phenomenon in esoteric terms. We can understand better what happened if we consider the following.

Let us take an ancient Hebrew initiate. Although initiation was not as common among the ancient Hebrew people as it was among other peoples, we can still characterize such a true initiate, not merely one who has been introduced to the theories and the law, but one who truly sees into the spiritual worlds, by taking into account the entire character of the people. It is customary today in external science, which blindly follows its documents, to examine everything in the Old Testament against all kinds of external documents and then find it unconfirmed. We will have occasion to point out that the Old Testament gives a more faithful account of the facts than external documentary history. In any case, spiritual science shows that a blood relationship of the Hebrew people can indeed be traced back to the progenitor Abraham, and that the assumption of Abraham as the progenitor is fully justified. In particular, however, this was something that was known in the ancient Hebrew secret schools: such an individuality, such a soul being as that of Abraham, was not merely incarnated as Abraham, but is an eternal being that remained in the spiritual world. And in truth, anyone who was inspired by the same spirit that inspired Abraham, who could invoke him for himself, who was imbued with the same soulfulness as Abraham, was a true initiate. So there was a real connection between every initiate and the patriarch Abraham. We must hold fast to this; it was expressed in the feeling of the members of the ancient Hebrew people. It was a kind of group soul. People felt what was expressed in Abraham as the group soul of the people. And so they felt group souls in the rest of humanity.

Humanity can be traced back to group souls. The further back we go in human evolution, the less pronounced we find individuality. What we still find today in the animal kingdom, that a whole group belongs together, was also present in humans and becomes clearer and clearer the further back we go in primeval times. Groups of people belong together, and the group soul is much stronger than the individual soul in each individual human being.

We can now say that even today, the group soul nature of human beings has not yet been overcome, and anyone who believes that it has been completely overcome would fail to notice certain finer aspects of life. But those who do take them into account will very soon see that certain people not only resemble each other in their physiognomy, but that the soul characteristics of groups of people are also similar, so that people can be divided into categories, so to speak. Every person today can still be classified into a certain category. In relation to this or that characteristic, he may belong to different categories, but a certain group soul character is not only evident in the existence of peoples, but also in other respects. The boundaries drawn between individual nations are increasingly disappearing, but other groupings are still perceptible. Certain basic characteristics are so closely connected in individual people that anyone who is willing to see can still perceive the last remnants of group soul characteristics in people today.

For we are now living in the most eminent sense in a transition. All group soul characteristics are to be gradually shed. Just as the chasms between individual nations are disappearing more and more, just as the individual parts of different nations are understanding each other more and more, so too will other group soul characteristics be shed, and the individuality of each human being will come more and more to the fore.

With this, however, we have characterized something very essential in evolution. If we want to look at it from another angle, we can say that within the development of humanity, the concept in which group soulhood is most strongly expressed is becoming increasingly meaningless, namely the concept of race. If we go back to before the great Atlantean catastrophe, we can see how the human races were preparing themselves. In the ancient Atlantean era, humans were grouped according to external characteristics in their physical constitution, even more so than today. What we call races today are only remnants of those significant differences between humans that were common in ancient Atlantis. The concept of race is really only applicable to ancient Atlantis. Therefore, since we reckon with a real development of humanity, we do not use the concept of race in the most eminent sense for the post-Atlantean time. We do not speak of an Indian race, a Persian race, and so on, because that is no longer correct. We speak of an ancient Indian cultural period, an ancient Persian cultural period, and so on.

And it would be completely meaningless to speak of a sixth race preparing itself in our time. If remnants of the old Atlantean differences, of the old Atlantean group soul character, still exist in our time, so that one can still speak of the racial division continuing to have an effect, then what is being prepared for the sixth epoch consists precisely in the shedding of the racial character. That is the essential point. That is why it is necessary that the movement called anthroposophical, which is to prepare the sixth epoch, should take up this stripping away of the racial character in its fundamental nature, that it should seek to unite people from all races, from all nations, and in this way bridge the differentiation, the differences, the chasms that exist between the individual groups of human beings. For the old racial standpoint has, in a certain sense, a physical character, and what will take place in the future will have a much more spiritual character.

It is therefore so urgently necessary to understand that our anthroposophical movement is a spiritual one that looks to the spiritual and overcomes precisely what arises from physical differences through the power of spiritual movement. It is perfectly understandable that every movement has its teething troubles, so to speak, and that at the beginning of the theosophical movement, things were presented as if the earth were to fall apart into seven periods, which were called the main races, and each of the main races into seven sub-races, and that all this would repeat itself so steadily that the earth would fall apart into seven periods, and each of the main races into seven sub-races, and that all this would repeat itself so steadily that the earth would fall apart into seven periods, and each of the main races into seven sub-races, and that all this would repeat itself so steadily that the earth would fall apart into seven periods, and each of the main races into seven as if the earth were divided into seven periods — called the main races — and each of the main races into seven sub-races; and that all this would repeat itself so steadily that one could always speak of seven races and seven sub-races. But we must move beyond these teething problems and realize that the concept of race ceases to have any meaning, especially in our time.

Something else is also in preparation — something that is connected in a very significant way with the individuality of human beings — with the becoming more and more individual of human beings. It is only a matter of this individuality becoming true in the right sense, and the anthroposophical movement is now intended to serve this purpose, so that human beings become true individualities, or personalities, we might also say. But how can it do this?

Here we must look to the most outstanding new soul quality of human beings that is preparing itself. The question is often asked: If reincarnation exists, why do people not remember their previous incarnations? I have answered this question many times before, and it is like bringing a four-year-old child and saying that because he cannot count, he is not capable of doing so. Let him grow to the age of ten, and he will be able to count. It is the same with the human soul. Even if it cannot remember today, the time will come when it will be able to remember, the time when it will have the same abilities as those who are initiated today. But this change is happening right now. There are a number of souls today who are so far along that they are just about to remember their previous incarnations, at least their last one. A whole number of people today are, so to speak, just before the opening of the gate to comprehensive memory, which encompasses not only the life between birth and death, but also the previous incarnations, at least the last one. And when a number of people are reborn after the present incarnation, they will remember the present incarnation. It is only a question of how they remember. Anthroposophical development should provide the impetus and guidance for remembering in the right way.

If one wants to characterize this anthroposophical movement from this point of view, one must say that its character is that it leads people to grasp in the right sense what is called the human ego, the innermost member of the human being. I have often pointed out that Fichte was right in saying that most people would rather consider themselves a piece of lava on the moon than an I. And if you think about how many people there are in our time who have any idea at all of what an I is, that is, what they themselves are, you would generally come to a rather sad conclusion.

When this question arises, I am always reminded of a comrade I had a little over thirty years ago, who at that time, as a very young man, was completely infected with materialistic thinking. Today it is more fashionable to say monistic thinking. He was already infected with it despite his young age. He always laughed when it was said that there was something in human beings that could be called a spiritual entity, because he believed that what lives in us as thoughts is produced by mechanical or chemical processes in the brain. I often said to him, “Look, if you seriously believe that as the meaning of life, why do you lie all the time?” He did indeed lie constantly, for he never said, “My brain feels, my brain thinks,” but rather, “I think, I feel, I know this or that.” So he constructed a theory which he contradicted with every word he uttered, as every human being does, for it is impossible to hold fast to what one imagines to be a materialistic theory. One cannot remain truthful if one thinks materialistically. If one says, “My brain loves you,” then one should not say “you,” but rather, “My brain loves your brain.” People do not realize this consequence. But it is actually something that is not merely humorous, but something that shows the deep undercurrent of unconscious untruthfulness at the bottom of our present mental formation.

Most people would really rather consider themselves a piece of lava on the moon, that is, a concocted matter, than what can be called an I. And, of course, the least we can do today to grasp the I is through external science, which, by its very nature, must think materialistically according to its methods. How can human beings achieve this grasp of the I? How can they gradually gain a concept, an idea of what they instinctively feel when they say, “I think”? — Solely and exclusively by recognizing, with the help of the anthroposophical worldview, how this human being is structured, how the physical body has a Saturn character, the etheric body a Sun character, the astral body a Moon character, and the I an Earth character. When we consider all the ideas we gather from the whole universe, we understand how the I works as the actual master craftsman on all the other members. And so, little by little, we also arrive at a concept of what we represent with the word “I.”

We gradually struggle our way up to the highest concept of this “I” when we learn to understand such a word. We do not merely feel ourselves to be spiritual beings when we feel ourselves to be in an “I,” but when we can say to ourselves: Something lives in our individuality that was there before Father Abraham. When we cannot merely say: I and Father Abraham are one, but rather: I and my father are the spiritual being that permeates and animates the world. What lives in the I is the same spiritual substance that permeates and animates the world as spirit. In this way, we gradually struggle to understand this I, that is, the bearer of human individuality, that which carries us from incarnation to incarnation.

But how do we understand the I, how do we understand the world at all through an anthroposophical worldview? This anthroposophical worldview comes about in the most individual way and is at the same time the most unindividual thing that can be conceived. It can only come about in the most individual way through the secrets of the universe revealing themselves in a human soul, through the great spiritual beings of the world flowing into it. The content of the world must be experienced in the most individual way in human individuality, but at the same time it must be experienced with a character of complete impersonality. Anyone who wants to experience the true character of the world's mysteries must stand entirely on the point of view from which he says to himself: Anyone who still respects his own opinion cannot arrive at the truth. For this is the peculiarity of anthroposophical truth: the observer must not have his own opinion, no preference for this or that theory; he must not, through his particular individual peculiarities, love this or that view more than another. As long as he stands on this point of view, it is impossible for the true world secrets to reveal themselves to him. He must recognize things entirely individually, but his individuality must have developed to such an extent that it no longer has anything personal about it, including his individual likes and dislikes. This must be taken strictly and seriously. Anyone who still has any preference for this or that concept or view, anyone who, through their upbringing or temperament, is inclined toward this or that, will never recognize objective truth.

This summer, we have attempted to understand the Eastern teachings from the standpoint of Western doctrine. We have tried to do justice to the Eastern teachings and have presented them truthfully in such a way that they have been given their full due. It must be strictly emphasized that in our time, with independent spiritual knowledge, it is impossible to always decide in favor of a particular preference for the Eastern or Western worldview. Anyone who says, according to their different temperament, that they love more the uniqueness, the lawfulness of the world as it exists in the Eastern or, correspondingly, in the Western world, has not yet fully understood what is actually at stake. This does not mean that one should decide, for example, in favor of the greater significance of, say, Christ over everything that Eastern teachings recognize, because one's Western education or temperament inclines one more toward Christ. Only then is one called upon to decide the question: How does Christ relate to the East? — if, from a personal point of view, Christianity is as indifferent to you as the Eastern world. As long as you have a preference for one or the other, you are not yet called upon to make a decision. You only begin to become objective when you let the facts speak for themselves, when you no longer respect the reasons for your own opinion, but let only the facts speak in this area.

Therefore, when we encounter the anthroposophical worldview today in its true form, we are confronted with something that is intimately interwoven with human individuality, because it must spring from the ego force of individuality and, on the other hand, must be independent, so that this individuality is once again completely indifferent. The person in whom the anthroposophical truths appear must be as indifferent as possible to them; it does not matter at all. What matters is that he has brought himself to the point where he does not impose any of his own coloring on these things. Then they will indeed have to be individual, because the spiritual cannot appear in the light of the stars or the moon, but only in the human soul, in individuality. Then, on the other hand, individuality will have to be so far advanced that it can eliminate itself in the coming into being of what the signs of the times are for the world.

In this way, what approaches humanity through the anthroposophical movement becomes, on the one hand, something that concerns every human being, regardless of their race, nation, and so on, because it addresses only the new humanity, the human being as such, but not a general abstraction called “human being,” but rather each individual human being. That is what matters. Therefore, when it speaks, just as it emerges from the individuality, from the core of the human being, to the deepest core of the human being, it grasps this core of the human being. When we speak from person to person in other ways, it is basically only the surface that speaks to the surface, something that we have not connected with the innermost core of our being. Understanding from person to person, complete understanding, is hardly possible today in any other area than that in which what is produced comes forth from the center of the human being and, when correctly understood by the other, speaks back to his center. Therefore, in a certain sense, it is a new language that is spoken through anthroposophy. Even though we are still compelled to proclaim what is proclaimed in the individual national languages, the content is a new language spoken by anthroposophy.

What is spoken today in the world is a language that is actually only valid for a very limited area. In ancient times, when people still looked into the spiritual world through their old, dim clairvoyance, their words meant something that was in the spiritual world. The word meant something that was in the spiritual world. Even in Greece, it was different than it is today. The word “idea,” as used by Plato, means something different than the word “idea” as used by our philosophers today. Today's philosophers can no longer understand Plato because they have no conception of what he called an idea, and so they confuse it with abstract concepts. Plato still had the spiritual before him, albeit in a distilled form; it was, so to speak, still something completely real. So in those days, if one may express it thus, the juice of the spiritual was still present in words. You can sense this in the words. When someone today uses the word “wind” or “air,” they mean something external, physical. The word wind corresponds to something external, physical. When, for example, the word wind was used in ancient Hebrew, “Ruach,” it did not mean merely something external, physical, but something spiritual that swept through space. When a person breathes in, today materialistic science tells us that they are simply breathing in material air. In ancient times, people did not believe that they were breathing in material air; they were aware that they were breathing in something spiritual, or at least something of the soul.

Thus, words were definitely designations for spiritual and soul things. Today, this has ceased; today, language is limited to the external world, or at least those who want to be considered up-to-date make a great effort to see only a materialistic meaning even behind things that are still clearly derived from the spiritual and soul realms. Physics speaks of a “collision” of bodies. It has forgotten that the word “collision” is taken from what a living being accomplishes from its innermost being when it collides with another being. Thus, the original meaning of the word is forgotten in these simple things.

So today our language — and this is most true of scientific language — has become a language that can only express material things. As a result, what is in our soul while we speak is only understandable to those faculties of our soul that are bound to the physical brain as their instrument; and then the soul understands nothing more of all that is designated by these words when it is disembodied. When the soul has passed through the gate of death and no longer makes use of the brain, all of today's scientific discussions are constructs that are completely incomprehensible to the disembodied soul. It does not even hear or perceive what is expressed in the language of today. It no longer has any meaning for a disembodied soul, because it only has meaning for that which is on the physical plane.

This is something else that is even more important to note in what might be called the mode of imagination, the way of thinking. It is much more important to note this in practice than in theory, because it is life that matters, not theory, and it is characteristic that one can see how materialism has crept into the theosophical movement itself. Because it is now a fashion of the times, it has crept into the theosophical view in many ways, so that even there, in theosophy itself, real materialism prevails, for example when describing the etheric or life body. While one should strive to grasp the spiritual, it is usually described as if it were a finer material substance, and the astral body is described in the same way. One usually starts from the physical body, then moves on to the etheric or life body and says: This is built according to the pattern of the physical body, only finer — and so one proceeds upward to Nirvana. One finds descriptions that take their images from nothing other than the physical world. I have already experienced that when one wanted to express that there was a good atmosphere in a room among those present, one did not simply express this in a straightforward sense, but said: Oh, there are fine vibrations in this room. One does not even notice that one is materializing what is spiritually present in a mood when one imagines the room filled with a kind of thin mist permeated by vibrations.

Yes, you see, that is what I would call the most materialistic way of thinking imaginable. Materialism itself, so to speak, is breathing down the necks of those who want to think spiritually. This is only a characteristic of our time, but it is important that we become aware of it. And that is why we must pay particular attention to what has been said: that our language, which is after all a kind of tyrant for human thinking, implants a tendency toward materialism in the soul. And some who would very much like to be idealists today express themselves in a completely materialistic way, seduced by the tyranny of language. This is a language that can no longer be understood by the soul as soon as it no longer feels bound to the human brain.

There is even something else, believe it or not. For those who are familiar with occult observation, with true spiritual perception, the manner of presentation commonly found today in theosophical-scientific writings causes real pain, because it seems nonsensical to them when they begin to think no longer with the physical brain, but with the soul, which is no longer bound to the physical brain, that is, which truly lives in the spiritual world. As long as one thinks with the physical brain, it may be acceptable to characterize the world in this way. But as soon as one begins to develop a spiritual view, it ceases to make sense to speak about things in this way. Then it even hurts to hear the statement: “There are good vibrations in this room” instead of “There is a good atmosphere.” This immediately causes pain to those who are able to truly imagine things spiritually, because thoughts are realities. The room fills with a dark fog when someone puts forward the thought form: “There are good vibrations in the room” instead of “There is a good atmosphere.”

It is now the task of the anthroposophical way of thinking — and the way of thinking is more important than theories — that we learn to speak a language which is not only understood by the human soul while it is in the physical body, but also when this soul is no longer bound to the instrument of the physical brain; that is, it can be grasped either by a soul that is still in the body but seeing spiritually, or by a soul that has passed through the gate of death. And that is the essential point! When we put forward concepts that explain the world, that explain human beings, then that is a language that can be understood not only here on the physical plane, but also by those who are not now embodied in the physical body, but live between death and a new birth. Yes, what is spoken on our anthroposophical ground is heard and understood by the so-called dead. There they are completely on the same ground as us, where the same language is spoken. There we speak to all human beings. For in a certain sense it is a matter of chance whether a human soul is currently in a physical body or in the other state between death and a new birth. And through anthroposophy we learn a language that is understandable to all human beings, regardless of whether they are in one state or the other. Thus, within the anthroposophical field, we speak a language that is also spoken by the so-called dead. For through what we cultivate in anthroposophical discussions, even if it seems abstract, we truly touch the innermost core of the human being, the innermost essence of the human being. We penetrate into the soul of the human being. And in doing so, we free the human being from all group soul characteristics, because we penetrate into their soul. In this way, the human being becomes increasingly capable of truly grasping their own I-ness.

And what is peculiar is that those who approach anthroposophy today, who truly take it in, stand out from other people who remain distant from it, as if the anthroposophical thoughts crystallize their ego into a spiritual being that is then carried through the gate of death. In place of the I-being that remains, that is now in the body and remains after death, there is a void, a nothingness in other people. Everything else that can be grasped in concepts today becomes more and more meaningless for the actual soul core of the human being. The central being of the human being is grasped through what we take in through anthroposophical thinking. This crystallizes a spiritual substance in the human being, which he takes with him after death and through which he perceives in the spiritual world. With this he sees and hears in the spiritual world, with this he penetrates the darkness that otherwise surrounds human beings in the spiritual world. And this brings about the effect that when human beings today develop this ego within themselves through these anthroposophical concepts and anthroposophical ways of thinking, which are now connected with all the world truths we can receive—when they develop it—they also carry it over into their next incarnation. Then they are reborn with this now developed ego, and they remember this developed ego. And that is the deeper task of the anthroposophical world movement today: to send a number of people over to the next incarnation with an ego that they remember as their individual ego. And those will be the people who form the core of the next cultural period.

Those people who have been well prepared by the anthroposophical spiritual movement to remember their individual ego will be spread all over the earth. For the essential thing in the next cultural period will be that it will not be limited to individual localities, but will be spread all over the earth. Individual human beings will be scattered across the entire earth, and within the entire earth's territory will be the core of humanity that will be essential for the sixth cultural period. And so it will be among these human beings that they will recognize each other as those who, in their previous incarnation, strove together for the individual self.

This is the proper cultivation of the soul capacity of which we have spoken. The soul capacity also develops in such a way that not only those who have now been described will remember, but more and more people, even though they have not developed their ego, will have memories of their previous incarnation. But they will not remember an individual ego, because they have not developed it, but rather the group ego in which they have remained. Thus there will be people who in this incarnation have taken care to develop their individual ego. They will remember themselves as independent individuals; they will look back and say: You were this or that. Those who have not developed individuality will not be able to remember this individuality.

Do not believe that mere visionary clairvoyance gives one the ability to remember one's previous self. Human beings were once clairvoyant. If mere clairvoyance were enough, then everyone would remember, for everyone was clairvoyant. It is not merely a question of whether one is clairvoyant; human beings will become clairvoyant in the future. What matters is whether or not one has cultivated the I in this incarnation. If one has not cultivated it, it is not there as an inner human entity. One looks back and remembers, as a group I, what one had in common. So these people will say: Yes, I was there, but I did not break away. These people will then perceive this as their fate, as a new fate for humanity, as a relapse into conscious togetherness with the group soul. And that will be something terrible for the sixth epoch: not being able to feel oneself as an individual in retrospect, but being inhibited by the fact that one cannot transcend the group soul. To put it bluntly, one could say that those people who are now cultivating their individuality will own the whole earth with everything it can produce – at least figuratively speaking – while those who do not develop their individual selves will be forced to join a certain group and allow it to dictate how they should think, feel, want, and act. This will be perceived as a step backward, as a fall, in the future of humanity.

We must not regard the anthroposophical movement and spiritual life as mere theory, but as something that is given to us in the present because it prepares something that is necessary for the future of humanity. If we understand ourselves correctly at this point, precisely where we are now, having come from the past, and look a little toward the future, we must say: Now is the time to begin developing the human capacity for recollection. It is only important that we develop it correctly, that is, that we educate ourselves to have an individual self. For we can only remember what we have created in our souls. If we have not created it, then all we are left with is the captivating memory of a group self, and then we feel as if we are falling into a group of higher animals, so to speak. Even though human group souls are finer and higher than animal souls, they remain group souls nonetheless. The people of ancient times did not perceive this as a fall, because they were in the process of evolving from group soulhood to individual souls. If it is maintained now, then they fall into it consciously, and this will be the oppressive feeling in the future of those who do not find the right connection either now or in a later incarnation: that they will feel the fall into group soulhood.

This is the real task of anthroposophy: to provide the connection. This is how we must understand it within human life. If we consider that the sixth cultural epoch is precisely the first overcoming, the complete overcoming of the concept of race, then we must realize that it would be fantastic to believe that the sixth race also originated from some place on earth and formed itself in the same way as the earlier races. This is the progress that always new types of life development appear in the course of progress, that what was valid in concepts for earlier times should not also be valid for future times. Otherwise, if we do not understand this, the idea of progress will not become completely clear to us. Otherwise, we will always fall back into the error of saying: So many rounds, globes, races, and so on. And everything keeps rolling around and around in the same way. It is impossible to understand why this wheel of rounds, globes, and races should keep turning over and over again. The point is that the word “race” is a term that only applies to certain periods of time. Around the sixth epoch, the concept hardly has any meaning anymore. Only the elements that remained from the Atlantean epoch still had race within them.

In the future, that which speaks to the deepest part of the human soul will also express itself more and more in the outer appearance of human beings, and that which human beings have acquired as something entirely individual on the one hand, yet experience as something non-individual on the other, will express itself by working outwards to the human face; so that the individuality of the human being will be written on his face, not the group soul nature. This will constitute human diversity. Everything will be acquired individually, even though it is there through the overcoming of individuality. And we will not encounter groups among those who are grasped by the I, but the individual will express itself outwardly. This will also constitute the difference between human beings. There will be those who have acquired their I-ness; they will be present all over the earth with the most diverse faces, but their diversity will reveal that the individual I is expressed even in their gestures. Whereas in those who have not developed their individuality, the group soul will be expressed in that they will also carry the group soul in their faces; that is, they will fall into categories that will resemble one another. This will be the outer physiognomy of our earth: that a possibility will be prepared for carrying individuality as an outer sign in itself and carrying group soulhood as an outer sign in itself.

This is the meaning of earthly development, that human beings increasingly attain the ability to represent their inner being in their outer appearance. That is why there is an ancient writing in which the greatest ideal for the development of the I, Christ Jesus, is characterized as follows: When the two become one, when the outer becomes like the inner, then man has attained Christhood within himself. That is the meaning of a certain passage in the so-called Egyptian Gospel. Such passages can be understood from anthroposophical wisdom.

Now that we have tried today to grasp the task of anthroposophy from the depths of our knowledge, let us tackle something on Tuesday as a spiritual problem which can again lead us, as a special individual matter for human beings, to their destiny, to their nature.