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Philosophy, Cosmology & Religion
GA 215

15 September 1922, Dornach

10. The Experience of the Soul's Will Nature

The human soul's experiences in ordinary consciousness during its existence on earth come to expression in thinking, feeling and willing. Their actual background, however, must be sought in what I have described here as man's astral organism and ego being. I have shown how the part of the soul that does the thinking relates in a specific way to the head organization; how the part of the soul that produces the feelings has a somewhat different connection to the rhythmic system, to the breathing, the circulation and other rhythmic processes. In a much looser way, the will nature of the soul is connected with the physical and etheric organisms.

When we examine how the nature of the thinking-soul is connected with the head system, we find that it is devoted entirely to it, it is transformed, as it were, into the head organization. The head organization forms a physical and etheric replica of the part of the soul involved in thinking: therefore, when man really thinks in waking everyday life, he cannot actually observe the process of thinking in himself but must seek it in its replica in the physical and etheric processes of the brain and the rest of the nervous system. This is why the anatomy and physiology of the brain are the real domain for the physical part of a science of the soul, because the replicas of what goes on in thinking can really be observed in the structure of the brain, and thereby also in its processes.

The part of the soul expressed in feeling is not devoted in the same way to the physical and etheric organisms, neither has it become a part of them. We can say of it that at times it is devoted entirely to the breathing and the blood circulation, streaming into them so that it becomes as if invisible to imaginative and inspired vision; we focus on it and see that it slips into the breathing and circulatory processes. At times, the feeling-soul tears itself away from these processes, it becomes independent and exhibits within itself a formative activity of its own. Thus, the feeling-soul slips, so to speak, into the circulatory system and then withdraws, slips in again, and so on.

The part of the soul that is the basis for the human will behaves quite differently. It is neither devoted continually to the physical and etheric organisms, nor does it become involved in an alternation of permeating the two organisms and withdrawing from them; rather, by its own powers, it holds itself aloof from the physical and etheric parts of man's organism. It has an independent existence of its own by means of its own capacities. By virtue of these forces, it actually remains within the soul and spirit realm, and would stay there if nothing else intervened. We can therefore say that in this willing-soul, the soul's nature always remains soul-spiritual, even during life on earth. When, through intuition, you receive insight into the actual reality that exists behind the willing-soul, you are able to study the lasting soul-spiritual being of man in this will element. There is, nevertheless, a kind of surrendering of the willing-soul to the physical organism, an out-pouring into it, but it is neither continuous as is the case with the thinking-soul, nor is it a rhythmical alternation as with the feeling-soul. Instead, it is like this: When, for example, our thinking-soul takes hold of a thought by means of the head organization, which, because of its content, is in itself an impulse for willing something, then, the process that takes place in mere contemplation does not occur. Only the head organization is involved when a person ponders the affairs of the world without arriving at an act of the will. Through the thinking activity, the head organization is worn down, or is at least brought toward a tendency to a breakdown, to dissolution and death, as I described yesterday. But if we formulate the thought, “I will this or that,” then the activity that belongs to the thinking-soul spreads out from the head organization into the metabolic and limb organism. When a man has a thought that represents an intention of the will, intuition perceives how an astral activity pulses into some part of the metabolic or even the limb system. Then, through such a thought that arouses the will, a degenerative process takes place not only in the head system but also the metabolic organs and the limbs. Destructive processes arise through such thoughts. These destructive processes in turn cause the willing-soul that underlies the human will as reality to pour into the metabolic or limb system and to restore a balance by rebuilding what has been worn down by the thought.

If I want to illustrate this clearly, this is what happens: I have the thought: I will lift my arm. This thought then shoots out of the head organization into the arm, there it induces a degenerative process of destruction. It can be called a form of combustion. Something in the configuration of my arm is destroyed. The part of the astral organism that corresponds to the willing-soul follows in the wake of the degenerative process, enters the arm and repairs the damage. The lifting of my arm takes place during this regeneration,—what was burned up is restored and the actual act of the will occurs during this restoration.

Now the true ego being is contained in that part of the astral organism that underlies the soul's will impulses; so, whenever the will is stirred into action, the ego is aroused. When we observe how man unfolds his will, we gain insight into how the human astral organism and the ego being stream into the physical and etheric bodies in response to a certain stimulus. This also happens when an expression of the will occurs that does not require that I set my limbs in motion, but that is perhaps a supplementary impulse or maybe a fairly vivid wish. There, something similar also takes place, only much more inward parts of the human organism are permeated by the actual will nature of the soul.

You can see that the unfolding of the will can be studied in all its details, but in order to do so you require a knowledge of man's actual soul and spirit being. Without this insight, you cannot study the willing-soul, nor arrive at the ego being, for the latter expresses itself only in a weak replica in thinking, it appears on as an impulse in feeling, and has its true reality in earthly life only in the will. Aside from this unfolding of the will that follows a certain inducement, an element that corresponds to the human will as a reality is the continuous desire in the whole human organization for the physical body. Subconsciously, in the will nature of the soul, man longs, as it were, to be enclothed in the metabolic and limb systems of his body. If we go further into this part of the human soul, we see through this will nature into depths, into substrata of the human soul life, into processes of the soul that are completely hidden from ordinary consciousness.

I have already shown that ordinary consciousness remains completely unaware of the processes of degeneration and regeneration which take place in the human body. But aside from these activities that the human soul unfolds and that come into consideration in regard to the ordinary impulses of the will, there exist other processes, subconscious processes in man's being which are very real, but do not project their effects up into ordinary consciousness at all during earthly life. They are described below.

We saw yesterday how a continuous evaluation of the moral and moral-spiritual nature of man takes place in the feeling-soul. The process that only lights up as a weak reflection in consciousness as stirrings of conscience, as evaluations of one's own actions, is a very significant, incisive activity in the subconscious sphere. Everything that a person does, he also evaluates in his subconscious soul organization; on this level, it only comes to an assessment. But something additional and quite different occurs in the part of the soul that corresponds to the will. In the course of earthly life, we see how the astral body and ego, which are linked to this will nature, actually build up an inner entity of man—it is only dully alive—by means of the astral and ego forces in the cosmos. Indeed, it is like this: By inwardly evaluating our own capabilities, we bring to birth an astral being that exists within us and grows increasingly larger. This being contains these evaluations as facts, whereas the feeling-soul only causes the evaluations to arise, as it were, like a thought process, or—after it has happened—like a subconscious memory-thought. After the deed has been done, something additional arises in the willing-soul. The judgement, “I have perpetrated an evil deed,” turns into a being in us. With this being, we possess something within us that is the actualized evaluation of man's deeds.

Now, as you have just seen from this description, something lasting is contained in this will nature of the soul, something that was also present before man descended from the soul-spiritual world into a physical-etheric organism. In this spirit-part of the soul, this willing-soul, the after-effect of the soul-spiritual existence is at work to build up a human organism once again, for that was its activity in pre-earthly life. It is hindered now only by the presence of the physical organism; its activity cannot unfold since it bumps against all the protrusions and walls, so to speak, of the physical organization, but the tendency remains. Now, the reality that I have just described, the being that represents the actualized evaluation of the moral and moral-spiritual nature of man, unites with this tendency. Thus, we bear within us an entity in which flow together the impulses to form a new organism and the realized moral evaluation. We bear this being through the portal of death when our earthly life has come to an end.

From my descriptions you have seen that regenerative and degenerative forces are constantly present in the human organism, forces that cause dying and revitalizing, forces that dampen and arouse life. We find benumbing forces in the thinking-soul, revitalizing ones in the willing-soul. This battle between death and life accompanies us throughout our sojourn on earth. When we bring it to a close we carry the unconsciously developed result of our moral qualities into the spiritual world.

You have seen from the descriptions that I gave in the past few days that in the moment when man passes through the gate of death his consciousness, until now only an earthly one, expands into a cosmic consciousness. Just as man becomes accustomed on earth to live in a physical organization and feels himself enclosed within the skin of his body, he finds his way after death into the expanses of the cosmos. His former surroundings now become his inner content. His consciousness becomes a cosmic consciousness. The question then arises: What happens to the evaluation of the moral qualities of man, when, having passed through the portal of death, the human being receives this cosmic consciousness and has the desire to form a new physical and etheric organism? The answer to this will be given in the second part of today's considerations.

Before I can answer the question that I have just posed, I have to characterize several points concerning the course of man's earthly life in the light of the above described conditions. You have seen that continuous degeneration and regeneration go on in the human organism. This destruction and revitalization take place throughout life between birth and death. Inasmuch as we are thinking soul beings we must deteriorate, as beings of will we must restore what has been worn down. As feeling beings, we bring about an interplay between degeneration and regeneration. Therefore, the soul elements represented inwardly as thinking, feeling and willing are expressed as processes of destruction, recreation and an interplay between the two. These processes in the human organization, which are extremely complicated, are different for each period of life. They come to expression in a child in one way, in another way in an adult. It is especially important for anyone who raises and teaches children to see by means of a spiritual knowledge of man into this continuous interplay of degenerative and regenerative processes of man. It is important to be aware of this in-streaming of constructive processes into the destructive ones, of destructive ones into the constructive ones; to see how they constantly intermingle in certain parts of the human organization and to discern their effects on it. For you can only educate and teach correctly when you can discern how these forces work in a child and what effect can be brought to bear on them through upbringing and education.

I shall cite just one example of this. There is a big difference between making a child memorize only so much as is good for it, or making it memorize too much so that its memory is over-burdened. Because of the opinion prevailing today concerning the interplay of constructive and destructive processes, one could easily believe that they exert an influence only on the soul organism of the young person. That is not the case. When we make a child memorize too much, it forms thoughts that pertain to memory in an irregular fashion. They find their way into the head system. There, they cause irregularities by continuing on into thoughts of the will, even reaching into the metabolic and limb organism. We can discover that if we have raised and educated a child wrongly in regard to its memory, this error manifests itself, perhaps as late as the age of thirty, forty, or forty-five, in poor digestion and metabolic disturbances.

I only mention this as an example that is close at hand. These matters are most complicated. It is a fact that out of a spiritual insight into man a true teacher can estimate and survey the extent of what he undertakes with a child in respect to both body and soul. Genuine, true pedagogy can therefore only be established on the basis of a knowledge of man that views the physical corporeality and the soul and spirit, and also comprehends the interplay between these three members of man's total being. Such a pedagogy has been created within our anthroposophical movement. It becomes a reality in the Waldorf School, also in certain attempts at continuing education here at Dornach. But it must be stated once and for all that the mere sense-derived science that is generally accepted today can never establish a true pedagogy. This becomes possible only through an anthroposophical deepening of scientific life. Some of the details of what has now been touched upon will be further elaborated upon in the lectures tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.1Steiner gave eight lectures on the 16th and 17th of September 1922. They are currently unavailable in English, see table at the end of this lecture.

Furthermore, clairvoyant sight beholds a certain interplay of destructive and constructive activities, an intermingling in one way or another of the two in the whole human body and in the individual organs depending on the state of a man's health. We can only learn to understand illnesses and their various symptoms by tracing the manner in which degenerative processes gain the upper hand over the whole organism, over one organ or a group of organs, causing the organism to become unyielding and hard; or how regenerative processes gain control, leading to unrestrained life and growth. We also learn to recognize how the destructive processes penetrate the constructive ones in erratic ways and permeate them with undigested products of the metabolism. In short, just as it is important for the teacher to be able to judge the normal course of these processes in a child, so it is important for one dealing with the sick to have insight into the abnormal processes of degeneration and regeneration.

Now, if we gain insight into the various kingdoms of nature around us in the physical world—the mineral, plant, and in part the animal kingdom—we find everything permeated by hidden soul-spiritual elements. In a particular kind of plant, for example, we find regenerative forces, which, when prepared in a certain way and introduced into the human organism, are effective against such destructive, pathologically abnormal processes. In short, we find medications for the abnormal processes in outer nature. The connection between medicines and an illness can only be perceived by looking into man's organism in the way just characterized. In everything that can be undertaken in some way for an ailing organism—be it the application of external medications, or that the ailing organism is treated in a manner one does not treat the healthy organism, or that supplements are found for what the body itself cannot do—whether it is such correctly employed measures or what I have put forward as Curative Eurythmy, one always seeks by such means to bring into balance again in the organism the rampant processes of regeneration or the destructive processes that exceed the norm.

You see that medicine that is based merely on a sense-oriented science must be supplemented and expanded by what can result from spiritual insight, from a knowledge of the total human being. Since, in physiology and anatomy, physical science is able to judge only the outer aspects of man's organization, it is able to find the relationship of a medication to an illness only through external experimentation. Inspiration, imagination and intuition make it possible to view simultaneously the inner connection of a medication or a healing process with the nature of the sickness. In place of a merely experimental, empirical therapy, it is possible to attain to a rational therapy that has insight into the human being and the healing processes. I can only refer to this in passing today, but from this you can see that a starting point for an extension of pathology as well as therapy along the lines described above is contained in what is being established as anthroposophical knowledge. These matters have already assumed practical form within our movement. We do not practice in a spirit of medical dilettantism in our therapeutic institutes in Stuttgart and here in Arlesheim. Present-day medicine is fully acknowledged and applied, but our methods of treatment are permeated by what spiritual perception and a spiritual point of view can add to them.

Critics who rely merely on physical science today still claim that what this spiritual science, working out of anthroposophy, has to say about illness and processes of healing is childish. This is quite understandable, coming from people who choose to base their ideas and their work on physical science alone. But I must say that when such people call our methods “childish,” they have no idea of the true facts. Indeed, what physical science produces as anatomy, pathology and therapy is only a substructure for what results for medicine from spiritual observation. I would like to say—not in a derogatory sense, only in reference to certain critics—that if anything is childlike in some respects it is medicine that tries to rely only on physical phenomena. I do not deride what is childlike with this remark, I only want to point out how it is supplemented by what arises out of a spiritual perception regarding man's total being. If you consider all this, you will realize how one must go into details if insight is to be attained into the activities of man's etheric, astral and ego organisms during physical life.

Now, at death, man lays aside his physical organism; it is lost to him. A condition then commences in which man is no longer clothed in a physical body, but in which his ego being and astral organism are still ensheathed in the etheric organism. I have already outlined that what constitutes man's etheric organism is not strictly separated by clear-cut boundaries from the general organization of the etheric cosmos. Streams from this etheric cosmos flow continually in and out of the human etheric organism. This is why, in the moment when man passes through the gate of death, but still carries his etheric organism within him, his consciousness expands into the etheric expanses yet he still feels that the etheric body which has just been drawn out of the physical corporeality is his own. During this state, man is wholly devoted to the etheric experiences of the cosmos, which, for his consciousness, contract now and then into the mere etheric experience of his own organism. After having passed through death, man is, as it were, overpowered by what this cosmic consciousness represents for him. As yet, there arises no conscious contemplation for what I have described as an entity which develops in us and represents the actualized valuations of man's moral qualities. This moral-spiritual being, which has incorporated itself in the astral body, is carried by us through death, but we do not perceive much of it in the very first period after death. Instead, passing in and out of the cosmic element, we are absorbed in beholding the course of our life just completed on earth, for that is the content of the etheric body. For a while, we look back on this earthly life that we have just completed. The course of our life appears directly after death in its inner nature in the same way that it represents itself to imaginative consciousness, as I described it already during the past several days. This condition, however, lasts only a few days, about as long as a person's daytime experiences stimulate the shaping of dreams, which is something that varies with each individual.

As to the form that dreams take, they always correspond directly to the experiences of the day before or the second or third one before that. Just as we dream about something from the day just past, which is linked, however, in an association of thoughts with other, earlier experiences of ours, in the same manner these other experiences also arise in a dream. We dream, for example, about having spoken to someone yesterday about one thing or another; this experience of the past day still enters directly into the life of dreams. We perhaps talked to him in an animated way about someone we met maybe ten years ago and have not seen since. Because this experience has woven itself into the conversation, we dream up all kinds of things about that person. Dreams are not studied correctly. If they were one would recognize these experiences of dream-life for what they are. Now dreaming does vary with different people. One person dreams only about what happened yesterday, another dreams about what he experienced the day before, still another dreams about what happened three or four days earlier. Insofar as this possibility exists for each individual person, this determines the length of the condition after death that a man still remains in the etheric body. I could also characterize it differently and say: The length of this time coincides with the length of time that a man does not require sleep, the time lasting through as many days and nights as he can remain awake without falling asleep. One person falls asleep when he goes only one night without sleeping. Another can stand to be awake for two, three or four nights. Just as long does the experience last during which the human being still remains in his ether body after death.

Then, however, it comes about that we are increasingly caught up by our consciousness which has lived its way into the cosmic-etheric world. Since our etheric organism is now not strictly separated from the cosmic-etheric world, it flows out into it, so to speak. We feel ourselves to be in this cosmic-etheric world, and when we look back upon our etheric body, it already appears larger to us. This continues until at last we no longer possess the etheric body. Then, clad in our astral organism, we find our way into the cosmos and into our new consciousness. It is then that there emerges in man what I have characterized as a being which represents the actualized valuation of man's moral-spiritual qualities. Man feels himself burdened with this being. His nature is then composed of what flows out of him into the cosmos, and the being to which he must return again and again in his experiences after death, namely the being that actually represents the sum total of his moral qualities.

Now, because, in a manner of speaking, the compensatory forces work continually out of the cosmic consciousness in a very real way, an extraordinarily strong tendency arises to say: You must now confront the wrong, foolish things you have done with the right action! Therefore, in the further course of the life that I have characterized yesterday as the soul world, man finds his way into the rhythm that alternates between his moral-spiritual qualities and the cosmic qualities. In this rhythm, a sum of tendencies develops in him to experience again the possibility of creating compensations for what he finds to be morally inferior, and so on. If, for instance, he has done something that affected another person in one way or another, the tendency develops to make amends for it in an action in the next earth life. In short, the seed of destiny which passes through repeated earth lives is created in this manner. But at the same time, the purely cosmic consciousness grows quite dark and dim because we carry this element within us. During the whole passage through the soul world, the human soul must remain in a dull—at least a duller—state of consciousness, until it becomes necessary for it to enter spirit land and to cast off the being that I have described. Then we can live for a while in the amoral cosmos into which we cannot bring what we have experienced in the soul world as the sum total of our moral or immoral spirit being.

If I wish to describe this transition from the soul experience to the spiritual experience after death, I can present it from the standpoint of human earth life in this way by saying: As long as man passes through the soul world, where he experiences a cosmic rhythm and the moral-spiritual being contained within him from the past earthly life, namely the interacting pulse beat of these two manifest realities, so long does he remain in a kind of affinity, as if spellbound to his last earth life. The being that he has brought with him, which represents his moral-spiritual qualities, has, after all, flowed out of his last earth life. He clings to it with all the inclinations of his soul. He can pass on into the pure experience of the cosmos only after he has freed himself inwardly from these inclinations. Spiritual beings can live together there with the human being in such a way that he gains for himself from their powers the forces that can develop the universal cosmic-spiritual part of a physical human organism for his future incarnation.

This is spoken from the standpoint of human earth experience. But the same relationship can be characterized from the standpoint of the cosmic consciousness and experience. Then one must say: After man has laid aside his etheric body, and while the inclination toward earth life continues to live on in his ego being and astral organism as I have described it, he is inwardly penetrated by the spiritual moon forces that pervade the cosmos. I already had to mention the moon forces when I characterized the condition of sleep.

Now they confront us again in man's existence after death. These moon forces are the element that brings or wishes to bring man into a certain connection with earth existence. Here, after death, they express themselves by trying to prevent man from leaving earth existence. He has laid aside his physical body, but he is anxious to return again to earth. This happens because the moon forces of the cosmos permeate him. Ordinary earthly thinking has ceased after death, for it is bound to the head organism of the physical body. Pre-earthly man flowed into this head system. Upon laying aside the physical body, everything that was brought about merely in a material way ceases to function. Man is therefore no longer an earth-bound being in a direct sense, though he is indirectly because the moon forces continue to affect him. For a long while after death, they still produce, as it were, a tendency in him to turn back to earth because it was there that he prepared the being now enclosed within him.

After death, however, it is necessary for man to struggle free of the moon forces and to reach beyond them, to become free inwardly from their influences that flow into him and affect him. They always preserve in him a kind of cosmic memory of the rhythmic forces, that is, in inspirations and imaginations they continually confront him with what is happening in the movements of the planets and their relationships to the fixed stars. But they hold man back from experiencing those spiritual beings who have their physical replica in the constellations of the fixed stars. Yet, he now faces the necessity of entering the pure, spiritual world. As long as the moon forces influence him, they prevent him from entering. He is, however, not supposed to view the cosmos he experiences merely from the side turned to him in physical existence; it is his task to view it from the other side. Man actually arrives at this condition if he develops a purely spiritual cosmic consciousness. Then, he reaches a position where he is, so to speak, at the periphery of the cosmos. Just as we stand here at the center and look out everywhere into the cosmos, so, in this spiritual perception, we look from the periphery inward into the cosmos. But now we do not see the physical replicas of the spiritual beings in question, we behold the beings themselves. We do not look into the cosmos from the periphery in a spatial manner. Just as we look out into the cosmos from the focal point of our two eyes here on earth, there, we look in from a spherical surface. Yet, it is in a way after all a spatial experience. We behold it qualitatively. We look out into the realm of the fixed stars and observe this universe from the outside.

Between death and a new birth, we must become independent of the physical world where we spent our earthly existence. In the period of humanity's development prior to the Mystery of Golgotha, man entered the spirit world in a manner that was quite different from that of the time that followed this event. During the course of human evolution on earth, a tremendous metamorphosis has taken place in man's inner life. The Christ event represents a turning point in the development of earthly humanity. Therefore, in the fourth part of my considerations and as a culmination of this evening, I would still like to describe how this entrance of man's soul-spiritual being into spirit land appears since the beginning of Christian evolution.

Before man enters the actual spiritual world where he engages in a life in common with other human souls who are not incarnated and are in a condition similar to his own—as it happens, he lives together with these souls even earlier—that is to say, before he can enter into a common life with those spiritual beings of the highest rank, whose physical replica is expressed in the starry constellations, he must leave behind in the moon sphere the being that constitutes his moral evaluation. Without it, he must enter the region of the stars where the moon forces no longer prevail. There, through the companionship with spiritual beings of the highest kind, the forces are born in his soul that enable him now really to prepare and work at the spirit germ of the future human physical organization.

Prior to the Mystery of Golgotha, when the old initiates wished to characterize the manner in which this transition into spirit land took place for the humanity of that time, they had to say to those who were willing to listen: “When, after death, you are to pass out of the soul world into the spirit land, you must leave behind you in the moon sphere the destiny-forming part of your good and bad deeds. But the forces of your own human organization are not enough to give you the power to bring about the transition from the moon sphere to that of the stars. Therefore, the Sun Being intercedes for you; He, Whose physical reflection is the physical sun. Just as your outer life proceeds under the influence of the physical sun's light and warmth, so, after death, the lofty Sun Being claims you, sets you free from your burden of destiny and bears you into the sphere of the stars. There, with the help of your Sun Guide, you can work out the spirit germ of your future physical organization. Then, after having worked sufficiently under the guidance of your Sun Leader on the formation of your physical organism in the spiritual realm, you can return again to life on earth. On this return to earth, you are again received by the moon sphere. In it you find the destiny being which you carried out of your earlier life on earth through the gate of death. You unite with it again and now, after having prepared the spirit germ of your future physical organism together with the great Sun Being, you can control it quite differently. You can unite this destiny being with the forces in you that are drawn toward your physical organism. You stride again through the moon sphere. “ Then follows the entrance into earth life as I have described it already earlier.

The initiates who were contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, or who lived in the following centuries up until the third and fourth century, could say to their followers: The form which the human physical organism assumes in earth life increasingly shapes and develops the ego. But man loses the power to enter that region where the high Sun Being could be his guide above in the spiritual realms of the stars. Therefore, the Christ descended to earth and accomplished the Mystery of Golgotha. The power that the human soul gains by having in its feelings a bond with the Mystery of Golgotha works on after death. It tears the soul free of the germinal being of destiny and the moon sphere. Under the after-effect of the earthly Christ Event, the soul shapes its future physical organism with the other beings of the starry worlds and finds in turn the seed of its destiny, into which is placed the tendency for the destiny that will develop in the earth lives to come. The force that the human soul has received from the Christ Impulse enables it to pass through the spiritual realm in the right way and to take up the seed of destiny correctly.

A person who speaks out of initiation science today must add the following to this: “Indeed, it is the Christ Impulse Whose effects continue on beyond death. Under Its influence man wrenches himself away from the moon sphere and penetrates into the sphere of stars and the sun. There, out of the impulses given to man by the beings of the stars, he is able to work at molding the physical organism for his next earth life. But he frees himself from the moon sphere by means of the forces that he has accumulated in his ego by having turned on earth to the Christ Being and the Mystery of Golgotha. He struggles free of the moon sphere in such a way that he can in turn work in the starry sphere in a specific manner so that, when he returns again to the moon sphere and the core of his destiny confronts him, he can incorporate into himself as a free spiritual deed this seed of destiny. For he must tell himself: World evolution can only proceed in the right way if I incorporate into myself the seed of my own destiny and adjust what I have thus prepared as my destiny as compensation in future earth lives.”

This is the main element of the new experience in the life after death in the moon sphere. There comes a moment in cosmic existence when man in a self-reliant manner brings his destiny, his karma, into relation with his own advancing being. In the following earth life, the earthly reflection of this deed, which is accomplished in the supersensible realm, is human freedom, the feeling of freedom during earthly life. A true understanding of the idea of destiny, which traces this idea right into the spiritual worlds, does not establish a philosophy of determination but an actual philosophy of freedom, as I set forth in the nineties of the last century in my book, The Philosophy of Freedom.

Thus, when man finds his way into the spiritual regions after death in the right way, he brings back with him to earth—incorporated into his organism and linked with his universal destiny—the after-effects of having been permeated with the spiritual worlds, something he has experienced in the spirit land. Inasmuch as he experiences the Christ within him, modern man can experience freedom; and in connection with freedom he can also have the feeling of being pervaded by God, the permeation with the divine on earth which can be a recollection of what he has undergone in passing through the world of the stars to the moon sphere, and through the moon sphere itself.

Spiritual science strives towards a knowledge of all these relationships, inasmuch as intuition is brought about through soul exercises of the will. In ancient times, this intuition was produced according to instructions by those who were then initiates. These instructions directed man to mortify his outer physical organism through asceticism. By mortifying and subduing his physical body, man's independent will, which otherwise only expresses a craving for the physical organism, emerged with all the more intensity. Through asceticism, the physical organism becomes so mortified that it is difficult for the will to enter into the body and there to express itself. The will is driven back, as it were. The more difficult it becomes for the will to submerge and live in the physical organism, the more it finds its way into the spiritual world and develops intuitions. This is what was brought about by asceticism. It is wrong, however, to continue with this old asceticism in modern times. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, the human physical body has assumed a form that is no longer able to tolerate a successful practice of asceticism. By means of such asceticism, modern man would at the same time deaden his physical organism to the point where the ego consciousness that must develop could not properly do so. Man would then never attain a consciousness of freedom. He would also be unable to unite himself in a proper, free manner with the Christ Impulse.

Therefore, the will exercises must be undertaken in such a way that the physical body is not subdued as was the case in ancient times; instead, by means of these exercises, man's pure soul-spiritual capacities are strengthened so much that the body does not withdraw from the soul, but the soul can find its way into and live in the spiritual worlds. Not only has what the old initiates told their followers about experiences between death and rebirth changed, but also what has to be said about the exercises that men have to take up in order to acquire knowledge leading into the higher worlds. These exercises also have changed in accordance with humanity's progressive development. The ascetic of ancient times could not attain the royal consciousness of freedom which modern man must reach through his present organization. Nor could the old ascetic between death and rebirth encounter the Sun Being, Who at that time had to accomplish for him after death what now, ever since the Christ passed through the Mystery of Golgotha, the human being can find within himself the strength to accomplish.

With the entrance of Christianity into human evolution, religious consciousness has therefore changed, for this consciousness is the earthly after-image of what man must experience as permeation with God in the spiritual world between death and a new birth. In all respects we are led by modern initiation science to a deeper comprehension of Christology. Therefore, we can speak of a renewal of religious consciousness by means of anthroposophic insight, just as we have spoken in the past few days of a renewal of philosophy, which turns into a living philosophical science; likewise, we spoke of a deepening of cosmology through the inclusion of the insight into the higher worlds that can only be attained by means of intuition and inspiration. Through enhancement by anthroposophy, a renewal of religious consciousness, which only then will become a fully conscious Christian awareness, can be attained for the whole of mankind. Anthroposophy would like to contribute to the further rightful development of Christianity; this is meant in the sense that it does not want to become a new religion but wants to help in the development of the Christian religion that came into the world through the Mystery of Golgotha. This Christian religion has in itself the power to develop further, and anthroposophy wishes to understand this in the right way and be a true aid in this further development.

So, in these lectures I have sought to describe for you how philosophy, cosmology and religious knowledge are to be fructified by anthroposophy. Naturally, knowledge of religion is not religion. Religion can also be experienced if you devote yourself with your heart (Gemüt) in an open-minded way to what intuitive knowledge communicates, for the heart (Gemüt) can understand it. Therefore, the renewal of religious knowledge can bring about a new deepening of religious life.

I could describe all this only in a sketchy way during these days. Naturally, these matters can only be penetrated completely if one becomes acquainted with the details. Then, much that had to remain sketchy here could appear in its full coloring and with all the possible nuances. That alone would present a complete picture.

Most esteemed ladies and gentlemen! In concluding these lectures, I am deeply gratified when I think of the fact that you actually came from a foreign country to attend these lectures. This feeling leads me to express my heartiest thanks for your attention. I would like to express heartfelt thanks especially to Dr. Sauerwein for the trouble he took to present a faithful translation, and to ask him to fulfill one more wish of mine, namely to translate my thanks to him also, just as he translated everything else. I would be especially happy if you took home with you the feeling that the time spent here was not a waste of time for you.

Das Erleben des Willensteils der Seele

[ 1 ] Was die menschliche Seele im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein während des Erdendaseins erlebt, drückt sich aus in Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Den eigentlichen realen Hintergrund für dieses Denken, Fühlen und Wollen müssen wir aber in dem suchen, was ich in diesen Tagen hier charakterisiert habe als den astralischen menschlichen Organismus und als die Ich-Wesenheit. Nun habe ich gezeigt, wie der denkende Seelenteil in einer gewissen Beziehung steht zur Kopforganisation, und wie der fühlende Seelenteil in einer etwas andersgearteten Beziehung steht zu der rhythmischen Organisation des Menschen, zum Atmungsrhythmus, Zirkulationsrhythmus und zu anderen rhythmischen Vorgängen im Menschenwesen. In einer viel loseren Weise steht der Willensteil der menschlichen Seele in Verbindung mit dem physischen und dem ätherischen menschlichen Organismus.

[ 2 ] Wenn wir studieren, wie der denkende Seelenteil mit der Kopforganisation in Verbindung steht, so kommen wir darauf, daß er gewissermaßen ganz an die Kopforganisation hingegeben ist; er ist gewissermaßen in die Kopforganisation umgebildet. Die Kopforganisation bildet ein physisches und ätherisches Abbild des denkenden Seelenteiles, so daß man, wenn der Mensch im wachen Tagesleben wirklich denkt, den Vorgang des Denkens an sich nicht eigentlich schauen kann, sondern in seinem Abbilde in den physischen und ätherischen Vorgängen des Gehirns und des übrigen Nervensystems suchen muß. Deshalb ist ja auch für diesen physischen Teil der Seelenerkenntnis die Gehirnanatomie und -physiologie die eigentliche Domäne, weil man so recht schon im Aufbau des Gehirns und dadurch auch in den Vorgängen des Gehirns deutlich die Abbilder dessen sehen kann, was im Denken vor sich geht. Nicht in derselben Weise an den physischen und ätherischen Organismus hingegeben und auch nicht in diesen eingeflossen ist der fühlende Teil der menschlichen Seele. Von ihm können wir sagen: Er ist bald ganz hingegeben an die Atmung, an die Blutzirkulation, strömt in sie ein, so daß er für das imaginative Schauen und für die Inspiration wie unsichtbar wird. - Man schaut hin: der fühlende Teil der Seele schlüpft in die Atmungsvorgänge und in die Blutzirkulationsvorgänge hinein, dann wieder entreißt er sich ihnen, wird selbständig, hat eine eigene gestaltenbildende Tätigkeit in sich. So schlüpft gewissermaßen der fühlende Seelenteil in das Zirkulationssystem hinein, zieht sich wieder davon zurück, schlüpft wieder hinein, und so fort.

[ 3 ] Ganz anders verhält sich der Willensteil der Seele. Er ist weder fortdauernd hingegeben an den physischen und ätherischen Organismus, noch auch gerät er in ein abwechselndes Ausgegossensein und sich wieder Zurückziehen, sondern er hält sich eigentlich durch seine eigenen Kräfte von dem physischen Teil und dem ätherischen Teil des menschlichen Organismus zurück. Er hat ein eigenes selbständiges Dasein durch seine eigenen Kräfte. Er bleibt durch diese Kräfte eigentlich im Seelischen, Geistigen und würde es bleiben, wenn nicht etwas anderes eintreten würde. Wir können also sagen: In diesem Willensteil der Seele bleibt das Seelische immer seelisch-geistig auch während des Erdenlebens. Und wenn man durch Intuition einen Einblick erhält in das, was hinter diesem Willensteil der Seele als das eigentlich Wirkliche liegt, dann kann man das, was bleibende geistig-seelische Wesenheit des Menschen ist, an diesem Willensteil studieren. Nur gibt es doch auch eine Art Hingegebensein des Willens an den physischen Organismus, ein Ausfließen in denselben, aber nicht, daß dies fortwährend ist, wie beim denkenden Teil der Seele, und auch nicht in rhythmischer Abwechslung, wie beim fühlenden Teil, sondern es ist folgendermaßen. Wenn zum Beispiel unser denkender Seelenteil durch die Kopforganisation den Gedanken faßt, der in sich selber durch seinen Inhalt der An- trieb zu einem Wollen ist, dann geschieht nicht das, was beim bloßen Nachdenken geschieht. Beim Nachdenken über die Dinge der Welt, ohne daß es zu einem Wollen kommt, wird bloß die Kopforganisation engagiert, und es wird die Organisation des menschlichen Kopfes durch die Denktätigkeit in der Weise abgebaut oder wenigstens in die Neigung zum Abbau, zum Auflösen, zum Sterben gebracht, wie ich es gestern dargestellt habe. Fassen wir aber den Gedanken: Ich will dies oder jenes —, dann verbreitet sich die Tätigkeit, die dem denkenden Teil der Seele angehört, von der Kopforganisation aus in das Stoffwechselsystem und in das Gliedmaßensystem des Menschen hinein. Wenn ein Mensch einen Gedanken hat, der eine Willensabsicht darstellt, dann sieht man in der Intuition, wie eine astralische Tätigkeit hineinpulsiert in irgendeinen Teil der menschlichen Stoffwechselorganisation oder bis in die Gliedmaßenorganisation, und da wird dann durch einen solchen den Willen beabsichtigenden Gedanken nicht nur in der Kopforganisation abgebaut, sondern es wird abgebaut auch in den Stoffwechselorganen und in den Gliedmaßenorganen. Da entstehen durch solche Gedanken Zerstörungsprozesse. Diese Zerstörungsprozesse veranlassen, daß sich nun auch das, was als Reales dem Willensteil der Seele zugrundeliegt, hineinergießt in den Stoffwechselorganismus oder in den Gliedmaßenorganismus und wiederum das ausgleicht, was der Gedanke abgebaut hat, wiederum aufbaut, was durch den Gedanken abgebaut wird.

[ 4 ] Wenn ich mich anschaulich ausdrücken will, so ist folgendes der Fall. Ich habe den Gedanken, meinen Arm aufzuheben. Dieser Gedanke schießt aus der Kopforganisation in die Armorganisation hinein, bewirkt dort einen Abbau, einen Zerstörungsprozeß. Man kann ihn eine Verbrennung nennen. Da wird im Laufe meiner Armorganisation etwas zerstört. Derjenige Teil des astralischen Organismus, der dem Willensteil der Seele entspricht, flutet nach, stellt wiederum her, was abgebaut ist, baut es wieder auf. Und in diesem Aufbauen vollzieht sich das Heben meines Armes. Es wird also das, was verbrannt ist, wiederum hergestellt, und in dieser Wiederherstellung vollzieht sich der eigentliche Willensakt.

[ 5 ] Nun ist in dem Teil des astralischen Organismus, der den Willensimpulsen der menschlichen Seele zugrundeliegt, auch die eigentliche Ich-Wesenheit enthalten, so daß immer, wenn eine Willensentfaltung geschieht, auch eine Entfaltung der Ich-Wesenheit vor sich geht. Indem man sieht, wie der Mensch seinen Willen entfaltet, schaut man also hinein, wie auf eine gewisse Veranlassung hin der menschliche astralische Organismus und die Ich-Wesenheit hineinfluten, sich hineinergießen in den physischen und ätherischen Organismus. Das geschieht auch, wenn eine Willensentfaltung sich abspielt, die eigentlich nicht nötig macht, daß ich meine Gliedmaßen bewege, sondern die vielleicht deren Ergänzungsteil ist, oder die vielleicht selber nur ein etwas lebhafter Wunsch ist. Da geschieht so etwas auch, nur werden da viel innerlichere Teile des menschlichen Organismus von dem realen Willensteil der Seele durchflutet.

[ 6 ] Sie sehen, man kann ganz genau die Willensentfaltung studieren, aber man braucht dazu die Erkenntnis der eigentlichen seelischen und geistigen Wesenheit des Menschen. Ohne diese Erkenntnis kann man den Willensteil der Seele nicht studieren und eigentlich auch nicht auf die Ich-Wesenheit kommen, weil diese im Denken sich nur in einem schwachen Abbild zeigt, im Fühlen nur als ein Impuls auftritt und im Willen erst für das Erdendasein ihre wirkliche Realität hat. Abgesehen von dieser Willensentfaltung auf eine gewisse Veranlassung hin ist dasjenige, was dem menschlichen Willen als etwas Reales entspricht, im menschlichen Organismus ein fortwährendes Begehren der physischen Organisation. Man wünscht sozusagen im Willensteil der Seele, unterbewußt, eingekleidet zu sein in den Stoffwechsel- und Gliedmaßenorganismus des Menschen. Wenn man dann gerade auf dieses in der menschlichen Seele näher eingeht, was ich eben beschrieben habe, so schaut man durch diesen Willensteil in Tiefen, in Untergründe des menschlichen Seelenlebens, in Vorgänge der Seele hinunter, die dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein sehr verborgen sind.

[ 7 ] Ich habe ja schon ausgeführt, wie das, was da im Organismus als Abbau und Aufbau sich vollzieht, dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein ganz unbewußt bleibt. Aber außer diesen für die gewöhnlichen Willensimpulse in Betracht kommenden Tätigkeitsentfaltungen der Menschenseele gibt es noch Vorgänge, unterbewußte Vorgänge im menschlichen Wesen, die sehr reale sind, aber während des Erdendaseins ihre Wellen gar nicht in das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein herauf werfen. Das sind die folgenden.

[ 8 ] Wir haben gestern gesehen, wie im Gefühlsteil der Seele unbewußt ein fortwährendes Bewerten des moralischen und moralisch-geistigen Menschen stattfindet. Das, was nur in einem schwachen Abglanz in das Bewußtsein heraufschlägt als Gewissensregungen, als Beurteilungen der eigenen Tätigkeit, das ist im Unterbewußten eine sehr bedeutsame, einschneidende Tätigkeit. Alles, was der Mensch tut, bewertet er auch in seinem unterbewußten Seelenorganismus. In diesem kommt es nur zu einer Bewertung. Aber in dem, was dem Willensteil der Seele entspricht, kommt es noch zu etwas ganz anderem. Da sehen wir im Laufe des Erdenlebens, wie der astralische Leib und das Ich, die diesem Willensteil entsprechen, richtig aufbauen mit den astralischen und den Ich-Kräften des Kosmos eine ein dumpfes Leben führende innere Wesenheit des Menschen. Ja, es ist so: Indem wir innerlich unsere eigenen Fähigkeiten bewerten, gebären wir ein astralisches Wesen aus, das in uns sitzt und immer mehr und mehr wächst. Dieses Wesen enthält nun als Tatsachen jene Bewertungen, und der Gefühlsteil der Seele bewirkt nur, daß die Bewertung gewissermaßen da ist, gleichsam wie ein ideeller Vorgang oder — nach der Zeit, wo es geschehen ist — wie eine unterbewußt ideelle Erinnerung. Nach dem Geschehen entsteht in dem Willensteil etwas, was mehr ist. Das Urteil: Ich habe eine böse Tat vollbracht - wird zu einem Wesen in uns. Wir haben in diesem Wesen etwas in uns, das tatsächlich realisierte Bewertung des tätigen Menschen ist.

[ 9 ] Nun liegt, wie Sie soeben aus der Darstellung gesehen haben, in diesem Willensteil der Seele etwas, was bleibt, was auch schon vorhanden war, bevor der Mensch aus der geistig-seelischen Welt herabgestiegen ist in einen physisch-ätherischen Organismus. Da wirkt der Nachklang in diesem Geistteil der Seele, wiederum einen menschlichen Organismus aufzubauen, denn das war seine Tätigkeit im vorirdischen Dasein. Er wird jetzt nur gehindert, weil der physische Organismus da ist, weil die Tätigkeit sich nicht entfalten kann, denn sie stößt gewissermaßen überall an die Ecken und Wände des physischen Organismus, aber sie bleibt als Tendenz vorhanden. Und es gliedert sich nun ein in diese Tendenz jene Realität, die ich eben beschrieben habe: das Wesen, welches die realisierte Bewertung des moralischen und moralischgeistigen Menschen darstellt; so daß wir in uns tragen ein Wesen, in dem zusammenfließen die Anregung, einen neuen Organismus zu bilden, und die realisierte moralische Bewertung. Dieses Wesen tragen wir durch die Todespforte, wenn unser physisches Erdendasein zu Ende ist.

[ 10 ] Aus meiner Darstellung haben Sie gesehen, daß im menschlichen Organismus fortwährend abbauende und aufbauende, Sterben bewirkende und belebende, abdämpfende und erweckende Kräfte vorhanden sind. In dem denkenden Teil der Seele haben wir ablähmende, in dem wollenden Teil erweckende Kräfte zu sehen. Dieser Kampf zwischen Tod und Leben begleitet uns durch unser ganzes Erdendasein. Wenn wir dieses Erdendasein beschließen, so tragen wir das unbewußt ausgebildete Ergebnis unserer moralischen Qualitäten in eine geistige Welt hinein.

[ 11 ] Sie haben aus den Darstellungen, die ich in diesen Tagen gegeben habe, gesehen, daß in dem Augenblick, wo der Mensch durch die Todespforte tritt, sein Bewußtsein, das sonst nur ein irdisches Bewußtsein war, sich zu einem kosmischen erweitert. So wie der Mensch hier auf der Erde sich einlebt in einen physischen Organismus, wie er innerhalb der Haut dieses physischen Organismus sich begrenzt fühlt, so lebt er sich in die Weiten des Kosmos ein, wenn er durch die Todespforte geht. Das, was er sonst um sich hat, wird nun sein eigener Inhalt. Sein Bewußtsein wird ein kosmisches. Und die Frage entsteht: Wie ist die Bewertung von dem, was der moralische Mensch ist, wenn der Mensch, nachdem er durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten ist, dieses kosmische Bewußtsein aufgenommen hat und das Bestreben hat, einen neuen physischen und ätherischen Organismus zu bilden? — Die Antwort darauf soll im zweiten Teile der heutigen Betrachtung gegeben werden.


[ 12 ] Bevor ich zur Beantwortung der eben aufgestellten Frage übergehen kann, habe ich noch einiges über den irdischen Lebenslauf des Menschen aus den geschilderten Verhältnissen heraus zu charakterisieren.

[ 13 ] Sie haben gesehen, daß ein fortwährendes Abbauen und Aufbauen im menschlichen Organismus vor sich geht. Dieses Abbauen und Aufbauen, Zerstören und Wiederbeleben findet während des ganzen Lebenslaufes zwischen Geburt und Tod statt. Indem wir denkende Seelenwesen sind, müssen wir abbauen, indem wir wollende Wesen sind, müssen wir aufbauen, und indem wir fühlende Wesen sind, vollbringen wir ein Wechselwirken zwischen Abbauen und Aufbauen, so daß, was sich nach innen, seelisch, im Menschen als Denken, Fühlen und Wollen darstellt, ein Zerstören und Wiederentstehen und ein Wechselspiel zwischen Zerstören und Wiederentstehen ist. Diese Prozesse im menschlichen Organismus, die außerordentlich kompliziert sind, sind für jedes Lebensalter anders. Anders sind sie beim Kinde, anders beim erwachsenen Menschen. Insbesondere ist es für den Erziehenden und Unterrichtenden wichtig, daß er aus einer geistigen Menschenerkenntnis heraus dieses Wechselspiel zwischen Abbauen und Aufbauen, dieses Hineinfluten von aufbauenden Prozessen in abbauende, von abbauenden in aufbauende, wie diese in gewissen Organisationen des Menschen fortwährend durcheinanderspielen, in ihren Wirkungen auf den Organismus durchschauen kann. Denn nur dadurch kann man richtig erziehen und unterrichten, wenn man durchschauen kann, wie im kindlichen Organismus die aufbauenden und abbauenden Kräfte wirken, und was für eine Wirkung auf sie durch Erziehung und Unterricht ausgeübt werden kann.

[ 14 ] Dafür nur ein Beispiel. Es ist etwas ganz anderes, ob man ein Kind gerade so viel, als ihm gut tut, oder ob man es zuviel gedächtnismäßig auswendig lernen läßt, so daß das Gedächtnis überlastet ist. Man könnte bei der Art, wie man heute das Wechselspiel zwischen aufbauenden und abbauenden Vorgängen nimmt, leicht glauben, das übe nur einen Einfluß auf die seelische Organisation des jungen Menschen aus. Das ist nicht der Fall. Wenn wir ein Kind zuviel auswendig lernen lassen, so bildet es in einer ungeregelten Weise Erinnerungsgedanken aus, die sich in die Kopforganisation einleben, die aber dann Unregelmäßigkeiten bewirken, indem sie sich in Willensgedanken fortsetzen, auch in den Stoffwechsel- und Gliedmaßenorganismus. Und wir können es erleben, daß wir vielleicht das Kind in einer falschen Weise in bezug auf sein Gedächtnis unterrichtet und erzogen haben, und daß sich dieser Fehler vielleicht erst im dreißigsten, vierzigsten oder fünfundvierzigsten Jahre zeigt in einer schlechten inneren Verdauung und Stoffwechselstörungen.

[ 15 ] Ich führe dies nur als ein naheliegendes Beispiel an. Die Dinge sind sehr kompliziert, und es ist so, daß tatsächlich aus einer geistigen Erkenntnis des Menschen heraus der wirkliche Pädagoge die Tragweite dessen, was er physisch und seelisch mit dem Kinde vornimmt, ermessen und überschauen kann. Daher kann eine wirkliche, wahre Pädagogik nur auf einer Menschenerkenntnis aufgebaut werden, die auf den physischen Körperorganismus, auf Seele und Geist sieht, und die auch die Wechselwirkung dieser drei Glieder der menschlichen Totalorganisation durchschaut. Eine solche Pädagogik ist innerhalb unserer anthroposophischen Bewegung ausgebildet worden. Sie wird Realität in der Waldorfschule; auch hier in gewissen, allerdings nur fortbildungsschulmäßigen Versuchen. Aber es ist einmal zu sagen, daß die bloße Sinneswissenschaft, die heute allgemein anerkannt wird, niemals eine wahre Pädagogik begründen kann, und daß daher auch eine wahre Pädagogik nur möglich wird durch eine anthroposophische Vertiefung des wissenschaftlichen Lebens. In einigen Einzelheiten werde ich das hier angeschlagene Thema in den Vorträgen von morgen und übermorgen dann weiter auszuführen haben.

[ 16 ] Ferner stellt sich vor den schauenden Blick hin ein gewisses Wechselspiel von Abbau und Aufbau, von Zerstören und Wiederherstellen, von Ineinanderschieben zerstörender und wiederherstellender Tätigkeit im ganzen menschlichen Organismus, in den einzelnen Organen, in der einen oder anderen Weise, je nachdem, ob der Mensch mehr oder weniger gesund oder krank ist. Das Kranksein in seinen einzelnen Erscheinungen lernt man nur erkennen durch ein Verfolgen der Art und Weise, wie im ganzen menschlichen Organismus oder in irgendeinem Organ oder in einer Organgruppe Abbauprozesse die Oberhand gewinnen und dadurch der Organismus spröde, verhärtet wird, oder wie Aufbauprozesse die Oberhand gewinnen und dadurch ein wucherndes Leben entsteht. Oder man lernt auch erkennen, wie Abbauprozesse sich in unrechtmäßiger Weise hineinschieben in Aufbauprozesse und sie durchsetzen mit nicht verarbeiteten Stoffwechselprodukten und dergleichen. Kurz, ebenso wie es für den Erzieher wichtig ist, den normalen Verlauf dieser Aufbau- und Abbauprozesse beim Kinde beurteilen zu können, so ist es wichtig für den, der mit dem kranken Menschen zu tun hat, hineinzuschauen in die abnormen Aufbau- und Abbauprozesse.

[ 17 ] Nun ist es so: Wenn wir die umliegende physische Welt in ihren verschiedenen Naturreichen, im Mineralreich, Pflanzenreich, zum Teil auch im tierischen Naturreich durchschauen, so finden wir alles durchsetzt von verborgenem Geistig-Seelischem. Wir finden zum Beispiel in irgendeiner Pflanze Aufbaukräfte, die, wenn sie in einer gewissen Weise bereitet und in den menschlichen Organismus eingeführt werden, solchen zerstörenden Prozessen, die krankhaft abnorme sind, entgegenarbeiten. Kurz, man findet für abnorme Abbau- oder abnorme Aufbauprozesse in der Natur draußen Heilmittel, und den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Heilmittel und der Krankheit kann man eben nur dadurch durchschauen, daß man in der eben charakterisierten Weise in den menschlichen Organismus hineinsieht. Durch alles das, was mit einem in einer gewissen Weise erkrankten Organismus vorgenommen werden kann, sei es, daß man ihm äußere Heilmittel zuführt, sei es, daß man ihn so behandelt, wie man ihn sonst als gesunden Organismus nicht behandelt oder wie er sich selbst nicht behandelt, sei es also, daß man in dieser Weise richtig angewandte Maßnahmen trifft oder dasjenige macht, was wir als Heileurythmie ausgeführt haben — immer wirkt man durch solche Anwendung so, daß man versucht, wuchernde Aufbauprozesse oder über das Normalmaß hinausgehende Zerstörungsprozesse wieder im Organismus ins Gleichgewicht zu bringen.

[ 18 ] Sie sehen, daß die auf der bloßen Sinneswissenschaft bauende Medizin ergänzt und erweitert werden muß durch das, was aus der geistigen Anschauung, aus der Erkenntnis der totalen Menschenorganisation folgen kann. So, wie die Sinneswissenschaft in ihrem physiologischen, in ihrem anatomischen Teil nur die Außenseiten der menschlichen Organisation zu beurteilen vermag, so vermag sie auch nur durch ein äußerliches Probieren die Beziehung eines Heilmittels zu einer Erkrankung zu finden. Inspiration, Imagination und Intuition bringen es dahin, den inneren Zusammenhang eines Heilmittels oder Heilprozesses mit dem Wesen des Krankheitsprozesses zusammenzuschauen und an die Stelle der bloß probierenden empirischen Therapie eine den Menschen und die Heilprozesse durchschauende rationelle Therapie zu setzen. Auch dieses kann ich hier nur ganz skizzenhaft andeuten, aber Sie sehen daraus, wie in dem, was als anthroposophische Erkenntnis begründet werden soll, auch der Ausgangspunkt liegt für ein weiteres Ausgestalten sowohl der Pathologie wie der Therapie nach den charakterisierten Gesichtspunkten, und diese Dinge haben ja bei uns innerhalb unserer Bewegung schon praktische Form angenommen. In unseren Therapeutischen Instituten in Stuttgart und hier in Arlesheim wird nicht etwa medizinischer Dilettantismus getrieben. Was heutige Medizin ist, wird voll anerkannt und auch angewendet; aber durchdrungen werden diese Dinge von dem, was eine Geist-Erkenntnis, eine Geistanschauung in sie hineinlegen kann. Kritiker, die bloß auf die Sinneswissenschaft bauen wollen, sagen heute noch, das, was diese Geisteswissenschaft, die aus Anthroposophie heraus arbeitet, über Krankheit und Heilprozesse zu sagen hat, sei kindlich. - Nun, es ist dies ganz begreiflich bei Menschen, die nur aus der Sinneswissenschaft heraus denken und arbeiten wollen. Aber gesagt muß doch werden, daß eben solche Menschen keine Ahnung haben von den wahren Verhältnissen, wenn sie die Dinge «kindlich» nennen, und daß dasjenige, was die Sinneswissenschaft anatomisch, pathologisch und therapeutisch hervorbringt, nur ein Unterbau ist für das, was sich aus der geistigen Anschauung heraus gerade für die Medizin ergibt. Und ich möchte es nicht in einem abfälligen Sinne, sondern nur in bezug auf manche Kritiker sagen: Wenn schon etwas kindlich ist in mancher Beziehung, dann ist es die Medizin, die nur auf das Sinnesding sich aufbauen will, wobei ich nicht das Kindliche absprechen will, sondern nur darauf verweisen, wie es ergänzt wird durch das, was aus einer Geist-Erkenntnis in bezug auf den totalen Menschen herauskommt. — Wenn Sie dies bedenken, werden Sie einsehen, wie man in die Details gehen muß, wenn man die Betätigungen des ätherischen, des astralischen Organismus und der Ich-Wesenheit des Menschen im physischen Leben durchschauen will.

[ 19 ] Im Tode legt nun der Mensch den physischen Organismus ab, der entfällt ihm. Es tritt dann ein Zustand ein, in welchem der Mensch den physischen Organismus nicht mehr an sich trägt, sondern in welchem die Ich-Wesenheit und der astralische Organismus noch den ätherischen Organismus an sich tragen. Ich habe schon ausgeführt, wie das, was den ätherischen Organismus des Menschen ausmacht, nicht streng getrennt ist durch feste Grenzen von der allgemeinen Organisation des Ätherisch-Kosmischen. Da fließt fortwährend Strömendes aus dem Kosmisch-Ätherischen in den menschlichen ätherischen Organismus hinein und wieder hinaus. Daher ist es auch so, daß in dem Augenblick, wo der Mensch durch die Todespforte tritt, er aber noch seinen ätherischen Organismus an sich hat, sein Bewußtsein sich erweitert in die ätherischen Weiten hinaus, daß er aber als sein Eigenes noch dasjenige empfindet, was sich aus dem physischen Organismus eben herausgezogen hat als sein ätherischer Organismus. Während dieses Zustandes ist der Mensch ganz hingegeben den Äthererlebnissen des Kosmos, die sich für sein Bewußtsein zuweilen zusammenziehen in das bloße Äthererleben des eigenen Organismus. Der Mensch ist, nachdem er durch die Todespforte geschritten ist, gewissermaßen überwältigt von dem, was ihm das kosmische Bewußtsein ist. Da tritt noch nichts auf von einem bewußten Hinschauen auf das, was ich als eine Wesenheit bezeichnet habe, die sich in uns ausbildet und welche die realisierten Bewertungen des moralischen Menschen darstellt. Wir tragen diese moralisch-geistige Wesenheit, die sich in den astralischen Organismus eingegliedert hat, durch die Todespforte durch, nehmen aber in der allerersten Zeit nach dem Tode nicht viel davon wahr, sondern sind jetzt hingegeben — aus dem Kosmischen heraus und in dasselbe hinein - dem Lebenslauf, den wir gerade auf der Erde durchgemacht haben, denn der ist ja der Inhalt des ätherischen Leibes. Wir schauen eine Weile zurück auf den irdischen Lebenslauf, den wir eben vollbracht haben. In seinem Inneren — wie ich es in diesen Tagen schon geschildert habe, wie er sich darstellt dem imaginativen Bewußtsein — erscheint jetzt dieser Lebenslauf unmittelbar nach dem Tode. Doch dauert dieser Zustand nur einige Tage. Er dauert ungefähr so lange, als für den einzelnen Menschen - es ist individuell verschieden — die Tageserlebnisse anregend sind zur Traumbildung.

[ 20 ] Mit der Traumbildung ist es ja so, daß eigentlich die Träume immer unmittelbar anklingen an die Erlebnisse des soeben vergangenen Tages oder an die des zweitvergangenen oder des drittvergangenen Tages. Und ebenso wie wir etwas träumen aus dem vergangenen Tage, dies aber in einer Gedankenassoziation mit anderen, früheren unserer Erlebnisse steht, so kommen auch diese anderen Erlebnisse des Menschen im Traume herauf. Wir träumen zum Beispiel, daß wir gestern mit einem Menschen dies oder jenes gesprochen haben. Das gestrige Erlebnis tritt noch unmittelbar ins Traumleben ein. Aber wir haben mit diesem Menschen in lebendiger Weise von jemandem geredet, den wir vielleicht vor zehn Jahren und seitdem nicht wieder gesehen haben. Indem dieses Erlebnis sich in das Gespräch hineingesponnen hat, träumen wir von jenem Menschen allerlei herauf. Es werden eben die Träume nicht ordentlich studiert, sonst würde man diese Erlebnisse des Traumlebens kennen. Es ist nun bei den einzelnen Menschen verschieden. Der eine träumt nur, was am letzten Tage war; ein anderer träumt, was er am vorher vergangenen Tage erlebt hat; wieder ein anderer träumt, was drei, vier Tage vorher war. Und so weit diese Möglichkeit für den einzelnen individuellen Menschen besteht, so lange dauert der Zustand nach dem Tode, wo man noch in dem ätherischen Leibe ist. Ich könnte es auch anders charakterisieren und sagen: Es fällt die Länge dieser Zeit zusammen mit der Zeit, in welcher der Mensch nicht genötigt ist, zu schlafen, wo er es also aushalten kann, wach zu bleiben, durch Tage und Nächte hindurch, ohne zu schlafen. -— Der eine fällt schon in Schlaf, wenn er nur eine Nacht nicht geschlafen hat. Der andere kann es vertragen, zwei, drei oder vier Nächte hindurch zu wachen. Ebenso lange dauert dann das Erlebnis, wo der Mensch nach dem Tode noch in seinem Ätherleib ist.

[ 21] Dann aber kommt es so, daß wir immer mehr und mehr hingenommen werden von unserem Bewußtsein, das sich eingelebt hat in die kosmisch-ätherische Welt. Und weil unser ätherischer Organismus jetzt nicht streng getrennt ist von der kosmisch-ätherischen Welt, so flutet er gewissermaßen in dieselbe hinaus. Und es ist so, wenn wir uns im Kosmisch-Ätherischen fühlen und wieder auf unseren ätherischen Leib zurückblicken, dann kommt er uns schon größer vor. Und so geht es weiter. Schließlich haben wir den ätherischen Organismus nicht mehr, und wir leben uns nun mit dem astralischen Organismus in den Kosmos und in unser kosmisches Bewußtsein hinein. Da tritt dann im Menschen das herauf, was ich als ein Wesen charakterisiert habe, das die realisierte Bewertung der moralisch-geistigen Qualität des Menschen darstellt. Mit diesem Wesen fühlt man sich behaftet. Man ist also ein Zusammenfluß dessen, was sich von einem in den Kosmos hineinlebt, und dessen, zu dem man immer wieder und wieder in den Erlebnissen nach dem Tode zurückkehren muß, des Wesens, das eigentlich unser moralisches Fazit darstellt.

[ 22 ] Und jetzt entsteht, weil gewissermaßen aus dem kosmischen Bewußtsein heraus fortwährend real die ausgleichenden Kräfte wirken, eine außerordentlich starke Tendenz: Dem, was du unrichtig, töricht gemacht hast, dem mußt du die richtige Handlung gegenüberstellen! Deshalb bildet sich im weiteren Verlaufe desjenigen Lebens, das ich gestern als die Seelenwelt charakterisiert habe, das Hineinleben in den Rhythmus zwischen den moralisch-geistigen Qualitäten des Menschen und den kosmischen Qualitäten. In diesem Rhythmus bildet sich aus eine Summe von Tendenzen, wieder die Möglichkeit zu erleben, Ausgleiche zu schaffen für das, was man moralisch minderwertig oder dergleichen findet. Es bildet sich die Tendenz aus, wenn man zum Beispiel einem Menschen etwas zugefügt hat, was ihn in der einen oder anderen Weise berührt hat, dann dafür eine im anderen Erdenleben ausgleichende Handlung zu schaffen. Kurz, es bildet sich der Keim des Schicksals, das durch die verschiedenen Erdenleben hindurchgeht, auf diese Weise aus. Aber zugleich wird das rein kosmische Bewußtsein sehr verfinstert, verdämmert dadurch, daß wir diesen Bestandteil in uns tragen, und es muß während des ganzen Durchganges durch die Seelenwelt die Menschenseele in einem dumpfen — wenigstens dumpferen Bewußtseinszustand bleiben, bis an sie die Notwendigkeit herantritt, in das Geisterland einzutreten, dasjenige abzustreifen, was sich als die geschilderte Wesenheit ergeben hat, und eine Weile rein zu leben in dem Kosmos, der amoralisch ist, in den wir nicht das mitbringen können, was wir als das Fazit unseres moralischen oder unmoralischen Geisteswesens in der Seelenwelt erlebt haben.


[ 23 ] Wenn man diesen Übergang aus dem seelischen Erleben zu dem geistigen Erleben nach dem Tode schildern will, so kann man ihn vom Standpunkte des menschlichen Erdenlebens so darstellen, daß man sagt: Solange der Mensch durch die Seelenwelt durchgeht, das heißt, diesen Zustand erlebt vom Rhythmus des Kosmischen und des Moralisch-Geistigen, das in ihm selber im verflossenen Erdendasein war, des Ineinanderschlagens dieser beiden Wesenhaftigkeiten, so lange ist der Mensch mit einer Art von Hinneigung wie gebannt an sein letztes Erdenleben. Das, was er sich da mitgebracht hat als eine Wesenheit, die seine moralisch-geistigen Qualitäten darstellt, diese Wesenheit ist ja herausgeflossen aus seinem letzten Erdenleben. Er hängt mit seinen Seelentendenzen an derselben und erst, wenn er sich von diesem Hängen, von diesen Tendenzen innerlich freigemacht hat, kann er in das reine Erleben des Kosmos übergehen, in dem jene geistigen Wesenheiten mit ihm so zusammenleben können, daß er aus ihren Kräften für sich die Kräfte gewinnt, welche den universellen, den kosmischen Geistteil für einen kommenden menschlichen physischen Organismus ausarbeiten können.

[ 24 ] Das ist vom Standpunkte des menschlichen Erdenerlebens aus gesprochen. Man kann aber dieselben Verhältnisse vom Standpunkte des kosmischen Bewußtseins und des kosmischen Erlebens aus charakterisieren und muß dann sagen: Nachdem der Mensch seinen ätherischen Leib abgelegt hat und während in seiner Ich-Wesenheit und in seinem astralischen Organismus in jener Art, wie ich es charakterisiert habe, noch weiterleben die Hinneigungen zum Erdenleben, da ist er innerlich durchdrungen von den geistigen Mondenkräften, die den Kosmos durchfluten. - Von diesen Mondenkräften mußte ich schon bei der Gelegenheit sprechen, als ich den Schlafzustand charakterisierte. Jetzt treten sie uns im nachirdischen Dasein des Menschen wieder entgegen. Diese Mondenkräfte sind immer das, was den Menschen in eine gewisse Verbindung bringt oder bringen will mit dem Erdendasein. Hier, nach dem Tode, äußern sie sich so, daß sie den Menschen gewissermaßen nicht herauslassen wollen aus dem Erdendasein. Er hat seinen physischen Leib abgelegt, aber er will wieder zurück ins irdische Dasein. Das kommt davon, weil ihn die Mondenkräfte des Kosmos durchsetzen. Das gewöhnliche irdische Denken hat ja nach dem Tode aufgehört; das ist an die Kopforganisation des physischen Körpers gebunden. Der vorirdische Mensch ist in diese Kopforganisation ausgeflossen. Indem wir den menschlichen physischen Organismus abgelegt haben, hört das auf zu funktionieren, was eigentlich nur auf materielle Weise bewirkt wurde. Der Mensch ist dadurch unmittelbar, direkt, nicht mehr ein erdgebundenes Wesen, aber indirekt, mittelbar, ist er es dadurch, daß in ihm noch die Mondenkräfte fortwirken. Sie bringen gewissermaßen auf lange Zeit nach dem Tode noch in ihm eine Tendenz hervor, zurückzukehren zum Erdendasein, in dem er sich ein solches Wesen bereitet hat, wie er es jetzt eingeschlossen in sich enthält.

[ 25 ] Der Mensch hat es aber nach dem Tode notwendig, sich den Mondenkräften zu entringen, über sie hinauszukommen, sich innerlich freizumachen von den hereinflutenden und hereinwirkenden Mondenkräften. Diese Mondenkräfte erhalten in ihm immer eine Art kosmischer Erinnerung an die rhythmischen Kräfte, das heißt, sie führen ihm immer wieder und wieder in Inspirationen und Imaginationen dasjenige vor, was in den Planetenbewegungen und in dem Verhältnis der Planeten zu den Fixsternen vor sich geht. Aber zurückgehalten wird der Mensch durch die Mondenkräfte von dem Erleben derjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die ihr physisches Abbild in den Fixsternkonstellationen haben. Und der Mensch steht nun vor der Notwendigkeit, einzutreten in eine rein geistige Welt. In diese lassen ihn die Mondenkräfte, solange sie auf ihn wirken, nicht hinein. Er soll aber gewissermaßen den Kosmos, den er erlebt, nicht nur von der Seite sich anschauen, die ihm im physischen Dasein zugeneigt ist, sondern er soll sich ihn von der anderen Seite ansehen. In diesen Zustand kommt der Mensch tatsächlich, wenn er ein rein geistiges, kosmisches Bewußtsein entwickelt. Da kommt er in eine Lage, wo er gewissermaßen an der Peripherie des Kosmos ist. Und wie wir hier im Zentrum sind und überall hinausschauen in den Kosmos, so schauen wir in diesem geistigen Schauen von der Peripherie in den Kosmos hinein. Wir sehen aber jetzt nicht die physischen Abbilder der Geistwesen, um die es sich handelt, sondern wir schauen diese Geistwesen selber. Wir schauen nicht auf räumliche Weise von der Peripherie in den Kosmos hinein. Wie wir hier von einem Augenpunkte herausschauen in den Kosmos, so schauen wir dort von einer ganzen Kugelfläche aus hinein. Aber die Sache ist doch wieder räumlich. Wir schauen sie qualitativ. Wir schauen hinaus in den Bereich des Fixsternhimmels und schauen uns diesen Fixsternhimmel von außen an.

[ 26 ] In diese Unabhängigkeit von der physischen Welt, wo wir unser irdisches Dasein vollbringen, in diese Unabhängigkeit müssen wir zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt hineinkommen. In einer ganz anderen Weise kam der Mensch in diese Welt hinein in der Zeit der Menschheitsentwickelung, die vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha liegt, und in einer anderen Weise in derjenigen Zeit, die nach diesem Ereignis liegt. Es ist eben durchaus im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung auf Erden mit dem Innenleben des Menschen eine gewaltige Metamorphose vorgegangen. Das Christus-Ereignis bildet einen Wendepunkt in der Entwickelung der irdischen Menschheit. Deshalb will ich heute im letzten Viertel meiner Auseinandersetzungen noch dieses Eintreten des menschlichen Seelisch-Geistigen in das Geisterland durch die christliche Entwickelung schildern, als Beschluß des Abends.


[ 27 ] Ehe der Mensch die eigentliche geistige Welt betritt, das heißt, in das Zusammenleben mit anderen Menschenseelen kommt, die nicht verkörpert sind, die auch in einem ähnlichen Zustande sind — er lebt übrigens schon früher mit solchen Seelen zusammen -, aber namentlich ehe er eintreten kann in das Zusammenleben mit denjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten höchster Art, die in den Sternenkonstellationen ihr physisches Abbild haben, muß er im Bereiche der Mondensphäre die Wesenheit zurücklassen, die seine moralische Bewertung ausmacht. Er muß ohne sie in die Region eintreten, die nicht die Mondenregion, sondern die Sternenregion ist, in welcher aus dem Zusammensein mit anderen geistigen Wesenheiten höchster Art sich die Kräfte ihm in der Seele ergeben, durch die er nun wirklich den Geistteil des künftigen menschlichen physischen Organismus vorbereiten, erarbeiten kann.

[ 28 ] Wenn in der Zeit vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha die alten Initiierten die Art und Weise charakterisieren wollten, wie sich für die damalige Menschheit dieser Übergang in das Geisterland vollzog, so mußten sie zu denen, die es hören wollten, sagen: Wenn ihr nach dem Tode übergehen sollt aus der Seelenwelt in das Geisterland, so müßt ihr das zurücklassen in der Mondensphäre, was aus euren guten und bösen Taten heraus schicksalbildend ist. Aber ihr habt durch eure eigenen Kräfte der Menschenorganisation allein nicht die Macht, den Übertritt zu bewirken aus der Mondensphäre in die Sternensphäre. Deshalb tritt für euch das Sonnenwesen ein, das seinen physischen Abglanz in der physischen Sonne hat. Und so wie euer äußeres Leben unter dem Einfluß des physischen Sonnenlichtes und der physischen Sonnenwärme vor sich geht, so nimmt dann nach dem Tode eure Wesenheit das hohe Sonnenwesen in Anspruch, befreit euch von eurem Schicksalskern und nimmt euch auf in die Sternensphäre, so daß ihr darin mit der Hilfe eueres Sonnenführers ausarbeiten könnt den Geistteil eueres künftigen physischen Organismus. Dann könnt ihr wiederum, nachdem ihr genügend unter Anleitung eueres Sonnenführers an der Gestaltung eueres physischen Organismus im Geistigen gewirkt habt, zum Erdenleben zurückkehren. Auf dieser Rückkehr zum Erdenleben nimmt euch auch wieder die Mondensphäre auf. In ihr findet ihr die Schicksalswesenheit, die ihr aus euerem früheren Erdenleben durch die Todespforte getragen habt. Ihr vereinigt euch mit ihr und könnt sie jetzt ganz anders beherrschen, nachdem ihr mit dem hohen Sonnenwesen zusammen den Geistteil eures künftigen physischen Organismus bereitet habt. Ihr könnt diesen Schicksalskern zusammenfügen mit dem, was als Kräfte in euch ist nach dem physischen Erdenorganismus hin. Ihr durchschreitet wiederum die Mondensphäre. — Und dann erfolgt der Eintritt in das Erdenleben so, wie ich das in den vorangehenden Darstellungen geschildert habe.

[ 29 ] Die Initiierten, welche Zeitgenossen des Mysteriums von Golgatha waren, oder die in den darauf folgenden Jahrhunderten bis zum 3. und 4. Jahrhundert lebten, konnten zu ihren Bekennern sagen: Die Form, die der menschliche physische Organismus im Erdenleben annimmt, die bildet immer mehr und mehr das Ich aus. Aber der Mensch verliert die Kraft, in jene Region einzutreten, in der das hohe Sonnenwesen oben sein Führer sein könnte in den geistigen Sternenregionen. Daher ist Christus heruntergestiegen auf die Erde, hat das Mysterium von Golgatha vollbracht. Und die Kraft, welche der Menschenseele dadurch wird, daß sie eine Gefühlsverbindung mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha hat, diese Kraft wirkt nach dem Tode nach und entreißt die Seele dem Schicksals-Wesenskern und der Mondensphäre, und unter der Nachwirkung des Christus bildet die Seele ihren künftigen physischen Organismus mit den anderen Wesen der Sternenwelt aus und findet dann wiederum den Schicksalskern, in den die Tendenz hineingelegt wird zur Schicksalsbildung der kommenden Erdenleben. Was die Menschenseele als Kraft aus dem Christus-Impuls aufgenommen hat, das befähigt sie wiederum, in der richtigen Weise durch das Geisterland durchzugehen und den Schicksalskern in der richtigen Weise aufzunehmen.

[ 30 ] Derjenige, der heute aus der Initiationswissenschaft heraus redet, muß dazu noch das folgende sagen: Ja, es ist der Christus-Impuls, der über den Tod hinaus nachwirkt, unter dessen Einfluß der Mensch sich der Mondensphäre entringt, in die Sternen-Sonnensphäre eindringt und dort aus den Impulsen, die ihm die Wesen der Sternenwelt geben, arbeiten kann an der Herausgestaltung des physischen Organismus seines nächsten Erdenlebens. Aber er entringt sich der Mondensphäre durch die Kräfte, die er in seinem Ich aufgespeichert hat durch die Hinneigung zu dem Christus-Wesen und zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Er entringt sich der Mondensphäre in einer solchen Art, daß er nun auch in der Sternensphäre so arbeiten kann, daß er, wenn er wieder zur Mondensphäre zurückkehrt und ihm sein Schicksalskern begegnet, in einer freien Weise als eine freie Geistestat sich diesen Schicksalskern eingliedert, weil er sich sagen muß: Die Weltentwickelung kann nur in der richtigen Weise verfließen, wenn der Mensch sich diesen seinen Schicksalskern eingliedert und dasjenige, was er als sein Schicksal zubereitet hat, auch in ausgleichenden künftigen Erdenieben wiederum zurechtbringt.

[ 31 ] Das ist das Wesentliche im Neu-Erleben des nachtodlichen Mondensphären-Erlebens, daß es da im kosmischen Dasein einen Augenblick gibt, wo der Mensch in selbständiger Weise sein Schicksal, sein Karma, mit seiner fortschreitenden Wesenheit in Zusammenhang bringt. Und das irdische Abbild dieser im Überirdischen vollbrachten Tat im nachherigen irdischen Leben ist die menschliche Freiheit, das Freiheitsgefühl während des Erdendaseins. Das richtige Verstehen der Schicksalsidee und ihr Verfolgen bis in die geistigen Welten hinauf begründet nicht eine Determinationsphilosophie, sondern eine wirkliche Philosophie der Freiheit, wie ich sie in den neunziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts in meinem Buche «Philosophie der Freiheit» zu geben hatte.

[ 32 ] So bringt sich der Mensch, wenn er sich einlebt in die geistigen Regionen nach dem Tode - eingegliedert in seinen Organismus und verbunden mit seinem Weltenschicksal —, mit die Nachwirkungen der Durchdrungenheiten der geistigen Welten, die er im Geisterlande erlebt hat. Und der neuzeitliche Mensch kann erleben, indem er den Christus in sich erlebt, die Freiheit, und im Zusammenhange mit der Freiheit auch das Gefühl der Gottdurchdrungenheit, jener Gottdurchdrungenheit, die auf der Erde ein Abglanz desjenigen sein kann, was beim Durchgang durch die Sternenwelt zur Mondensphäre und in der Mondensphäre durchgemacht wird.

[ 33 ] Die Geisteswissenschaft ringt sich hinauf zu einer Erkenntnis aller dieser Verhältnisse, indem durch Willensübungen der Seele die Intuition hergestellt wird. Diese Intuition war in älteren Zeiten nach der Anweisung der damaligen Initiierten so hergestellt worden, daß der Mensch vorzugsweise durch Askese seinen äußeren physischen Organismus abtötete. Indem er seinen äußeren physischen Organismus abtötet und ablähmt, lebt der ja unabhängige Wille, der eigentlich sonst nur ein Begehren nach dem physischen Organismus auslebt, sich mit nur um so größerer Energie aus. Durch die Askese wird der physische Organismus so abgetötet, daß es dem Willen nun schwer wird, sich bei der Willensentfaltung hineinzubegeben in diesen physischen Organismus. Der Wille wird gleichsam zurückgetrieben, und je schwerer es ihm wird, sich in den physischen Organismus untertauchend hineinzuleben, um so mehr lebt er sich in die geistige Welt hinein und bildet Intuitionen aus. Das ist es, was durch die Askese hervorgerufen wurde. Aber diese alte Askese wird zu Unrecht in die neuere Zeit hinein fortgesetzt. Der menschliche physische Leib hat nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha eine Form angenommen, durch die er eine Askese nicht mehr vertragen würde, die erfolgreich wäre. Der neuere Mensch würde durch eine solche Askese zugleich seinen physischen Organismus so weit ablähmen, daß das Ich-Bewußtsein, das sich ja entwickeln muß, sich nicht in der richtigen Weise entwickeln könnte. Der Mensch würde dann nie zum Freiheitsbewußtsein kommen. Er würde auch nicht in einer richtigen Weise, in einer freien Weise sich mit dem Christus-Impuls verbinden können.

[ 34 ] Daher müssen diese Willensübungen so vorgenommen werden, daß nicht der physische Leib herabgestimmt wird, wie es in alten Zeiten geschah, sondern daß durch die Willensübungen die rein geistig-seelischen Fähigkeiten des Menschen verstärkt werden, so daß nicht der Leib sich der Seele entzieht, sondern die Seele sich hineinlebt in die geistigen Welten. Nicht nur das, was die alten Initiierten ihren Bekennern zu sagen hatten als Kunde über das Erleben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, sondern auch das, was sie über die Übungen zu sagen hatten, die der Mensch vorzunehmen hat, um zu einer solchen Erkenntnis zu kommen, die in diese übersinnlichen Welten hineinführt, auch diese Übungen sind im Sinne der fortschreitenden Menschheitsentwickelung anders geworden. Der alte Asket konnte nicht zu dem königlichen Freiheitsbewußtsein kommen, zu dem der moderne Mensch durch seine Organisation kommen muß. Der alte Asket konnte aber auch nicht zwischen Tod und Geburt dem Sonnenwesen begegnen, das Handlungen mit ihm vornahm, die er jetzt, nachdem der Christus das Mysterium von Golgatha vollbracht hat, selbst vornehmen kann, wodurch er Kraft bekommt, nach dem Tode das Entsprechende auszuführen.

[ 35 ] So ist mit dem Eintritt des Christentums in die Menschheitsentwickelung das religiöse Bewußtsein ein anderes geworden, weil dieses religiöse Bewußtsein der irdische Nachklang dessen ist, was der Mensch in Gottdurchdrungenheit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt in der geistigen Welt zu erleben hat. Überall werden wir gerade durch die moderne Initiationswissenschaft hingeführt zu einer tieferen Erfassung der Christologie. Von einer Erneuerung des religiösen Bewußtseins durch anthroposophische Vertiefung kann man daher ebenso reden, wie in den verflossenen Tagen hier geredet worden ist von einer Erneuerung der Philosophie zu einem lebendigen philosophischen Wissen, und wie gesprochen worden ist von einer Vertiefung der Kosmologie durch Aufnahme desjenigen, was nur in der Intuition und Inspiration aus den höheren Welten erfaßt werden kann. Für die ganze Menschheit kann durch diese anthroposophische Vertiefung ein Gewinn auch in der Erneuerung des religiösen Bewußtseins erstehen, das dadurch erst ein vollbewußtes christliches Bewußtsein wird. Die richtige weitere Entwickelung des Christentums möchte die Anthroposophie mitbewirken in dem Sinne, daß sie nicht eine neue Religion werden will, sondern helfend dastehen will zur Ausgestaltung der durch das Mysterium von Golgatha in die Welt gekommenen christlichen Religion. Diese hat in sich die Kraft, sich weiter zu entwickeln, und Anthroposophie möchte das in der richtigen Weise verstehen und für diese Weiterentwickelung eine richtige Helferin sein.

[ 36 ] So habe ich versucht, Ihnen in diesen Vorträgen zu schildern, wie aus der Anthroposophie heraus befruchtet werden sollen Philosophie, Kosmologie und Religionserkenntnis. Selbstverständlich ist Religionserkenntnis nicht Religion. Religion kann auch erlebt werden, wenn man bloß mit dem Gemüt in unbefangener Art an das sich hingibt, was die intuitive Erkenntnis liefert, aber verstehen kann man es im Gemüt. Und so kann von der Erneuerung einer Religionserkenntnis eine neue Vertiefung des religiösen Lebens ausgehen.

[ 37 ] Das alles konnte ich in diesen Tagen nur skizzenhaft schildern. Selbstverständlich dringt man in diese Dinge erst vollständig ein, wenn man auch die Details kennenlernt. Dann würde sich auch manches, was in diesen Tagen skizzenhaft hat bleiben müssen, erst in seinen vollen Farben, mit allen möglichen Farbennuancen darstellen. Dadurch würde sich erst ein vollständiges Bild ergeben.

[ 38 ] Sehr verehrte Anwesende! Ich bin, indem ich jetzt diese Vorträge beschließe, von tiefer Befriedigung erfüllt, wenn ich daran denke, daß Sie, von auswärts wirklich kommend, diesen Vorträgen folgten. Dieses Gefühl der Befriedigung veranlaßt mich, Ihnen herzlichsten Dank zu sagen für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit, insbesondere auch Herrn Dr. Sauerwein herzlichsten Dank zu sagen für seine Mühewaltung, für eine getreuliche Übersetzung und ihn zu bitten, mir jetzt auch diesen Wunsch noch zu erfüllen: diese Danksagung an ihn ebenfalls zu übersetzen, wie er das andere übersetzt hat. Ich werde mich glücklich schätzen, wenn Sie das Gefühl mit nach Hause nehmen, daß die Zeit, die Sie hier zugebracht haben, keine verlorene für Sie ist. In diesem Sinne möchte ich Ihnen den Abschiedsgruß gesagt haben.

The experience of the will aspect of the soul

[ 1 ] What the human soul experiences in ordinary consciousness during its earthly existence is expressed in thinking, feeling, and willing. However, we must seek the actual real background for this thinking, feeling, and willing in what I have characterized here in recent days as the astral human organism and the I-being. I have now shown how the thinking part of the soul is related to the head organization, and how the feeling part of the soul is related in a somewhat different way to the rhythmic organization of the human being, to the breathing rhythm, the circulation rhythm, and to other rhythmic processes in the human being. In a much looser way, the will part of the human soul is connected with the physical and etheric human organism.

[ 2 ] When we study how the thinking part of the soul is connected with the head organization, we come to the conclusion that it is, in a sense, completely devoted to the head organization; it is, so to speak, transformed into the head organization. The head organization forms a physical and etheric image of the thinking part of the soul, so that when the human being really thinks in waking life, he cannot actually see the process of thinking itself, but must seek it in its image in the physical and etheric processes of the brain and the rest of the nervous system. This is why brain anatomy and physiology are the actual domain of this physical part of soul knowledge, because one can clearly see in the structure of the brain, and thus also in the processes of the brain, the images of what is going on in thinking. The feeling part of the human soul is not devoted to the physical and etheric organism in the same way, nor has it flowed into them. We can say of it that it is almost entirely devoted to breathing and blood circulation, flowing into them so that it becomes invisible to imaginative vision and inspiration. - One looks: the feeling part of the soul slips into the processes of breathing and blood circulation, then tears itself away from them, becomes independent, has its own formative activity within itself. Thus, the feeling part of the soul slips into the circulatory system, withdraws from it again, slips back into it, and so on.

[ 3 ] The will part of the soul behaves quite differently. It is neither continuously devoted to the physical and etheric organism, nor does it alternate between pouring out and withdrawing again, but rather it actually holds itself back from the physical and etheric parts of the human organism through its own forces. It has its own independent existence through its own forces. Through these forces, it actually remains in the soul, in the spiritual, and would remain there if nothing else were to happen. We can therefore say that in this will part of the soul, the soul always remains soul-spiritual, even during earthly life. And if, through intuition, we gain insight into what lies behind this will part of the soul as the actual reality, then we can study what is the enduring spiritual-soul essence of the human being in this will part. However, there is also a kind of surrender of the will to the physical organism, a flowing into it, but not in a continuous manner, as in the thinking part of the soul, nor in rhythmic alternation, as in the feeling part, but in the following way. When, for example, the thinking part of our soul, through the head organization, grasps a thought which, through its content, is in itself an impulse toward a will, then what happens is not what happens in mere thinking. When we think about the things of the world without it leading to a will, only the head organization is engaged, and the organization of the human head is broken down by the activity of thinking, or at least brought into a state of tendency toward breakdown, dissolution, and death, as I described yesterday. But if we grasp the thought: I want this or that — then the activity that belongs to the thinking part of the soul spreads from the head organization into the metabolic system and into the limb system of the human being. When a person has a thought that represents an intention of the will, one sees intuitively how an astral activity pulsates into some part of the human metabolic organization or into the limb organization, and there, through such a thought that intends the will, not only is the head organization broken down, but the metabolic organs and the limb organs are also broken down. Such thoughts give rise to destructive processes. These destructive processes cause that which is real and underlying the will part of the soul to pour into the metabolic organism or into the limb organism and, in turn, to compensate for what the thought has broken down, rebuilding what has been broken down by the thought.

[ 4 ] If I want to express this clearly, the following is the case. I have the thought of raising my arm. This thought shoots from the head organization into the arm organization, where it causes a breakdown, a destructive process. You could call it combustion. Something is destroyed in the course of my arm organization. The part of the astral organism that corresponds to the will part of the soul floods in, restores what has been broken down, and rebuilds it. And in this rebuilding, the raising of my arm takes place. So what has been burned is restored, and in this restoration, the actual act of will takes place.

[ 5 ] Now, the part of the astral organism that underlies the will impulses of the human soul also contains the actual I-being, so that whenever a will unfolds, the I-being also unfolds. By observing how a person unfolds their will, one sees how, in response to a certain stimulus, the human astral organism and the I-being flood into the physical and etheric organisms. This also happens when an expression of will takes place that does not actually require me to move my limbs, but is perhaps a complement to them, or is perhaps itself only a somewhat lively desire. Something similar happens here, only that much more inner parts of the human organism are flooded by the real will part of the soul.

[ 6 ] You see, it is possible to study the unfolding of the will very precisely, but to do so one needs knowledge of the actual soul and spirit essence of the human being. Without this knowledge, one cannot study the will part of the soul and actually cannot arrive at the I-being, because this only shows itself in thinking as a weak image, in feeling only as an impulse, and in the will only has its real reality for earthly existence. Apart from this unfolding of the will in response to a certain stimulus, what corresponds to the human will as something real is a constant desire of the physical organization within the human organism. In the will part of the soul, one desires, subconsciously, to be clothed in the metabolic and limb organism of the human being. If we then examine more closely what I have just described in the human soul, we see through this part of the will into the depths, into the foundations of human soul life, into processes of the soul that are very hidden from ordinary consciousness.

[ 7 ] I have already explained how what takes place in the organism as destruction and construction remains completely unconscious to ordinary consciousness. But apart from these activities of the human soul that come into play in ordinary impulses of the will, there are still processes, subconscious processes in the human being that are very real but do not make their waves reach ordinary consciousness during earthly existence. These are the following.

[ 8 ] Yesterday we saw how a continuous evaluation of the moral and moral-spiritual human being takes place unconsciously in the emotional part of the soul. What only comes up in consciousness as a faint reflection in the form of stirrings of conscience, as judgments of one's own activity, is a very significant, incisive activity in the subconscious. Everything that a person does is also evaluated in their subconscious soul organism. In this, only an evaluation takes place. But in what corresponds to the will part of the soul, something completely different happens. In the course of earthly life, we see how the astral body and the I, which correspond to this will part, build up, together with the astral and I forces of the cosmos, an inner being of the human being that leads a dull life. Yes, it is like this: by evaluating our own abilities inwardly, we give birth to an astral being that sits within us and grows more and more. This being now contains these evaluations as facts, and the feeling part of the soul only causes the evaluation to be there, as it were, like an ideal process or — after the time when it happened — like a subconscious ideal memory. After the event, something more arises in the will part. The judgment: I have done a bad deed — becomes a being within us. In this being, we have something within us that is actually the realized evaluation of the active human being.

[ 9 ] Now, as you have just seen from the description, there is something in this part of the soul's will that remains, that was already present before the human being descended from the spiritual-soul world into a physical-etheric organism. The echo in this spiritual part of the soul works to build up a human organism again, because that was its activity in pre-earthly existence. It is now only hindered because the physical organism is there, because the activity cannot unfold, because it comes up against the corners and walls of the physical organism, so to speak, but it remains present as a tendency. And now the reality I have just described is incorporated into this tendency: the being that represents the realized evaluation of the moral and moral-spiritual human being; so that we carry within us a being in which the impulse to form a new organism and the realized moral evaluation flow together. We carry this being through the gates of death when our physical earthly existence comes to an end.

[ 10 ] From my description, you have seen that there are forces in the human organism that are constantly breaking down and building up, causing death and giving life, dampening and awakening. In the thinking part of the soul we see forces that weaken, and in the willing part we see forces that awaken. This struggle between death and life accompanies us throughout our entire earthly existence. When we conclude this earthly existence, we carry the unconsciously developed result of our moral qualities into a spiritual world.

[ 11 ] You have seen from the descriptions I have given in recent days that at the moment when a human being passes through the gate of death, his consciousness, which was previously only an earthly consciousness, expands into a cosmic consciousness. Just as human beings here on earth settle into a physical organism, just as they feel limited within the skin of this physical organism, so they settle into the vastness of the cosmos when they pass through the gate of death. What they otherwise have around them now becomes their own content. Their consciousness becomes cosmic. And the question arises: How are we to evaluate the moral human being once he has passed through the gate of death, taken on this cosmic consciousness, and strives to form a new physical and etheric organism? The answer to this question will be given in the second part of today's reflection.


[ 12 ] Before I can proceed to answer the question just posed, I must first characterize the earthly life of the human being from the circumstances I have described.

[ 13 ] You have seen that a continuous process of destruction and construction takes place in the human organism. This destruction and construction, this destruction and revival, takes place throughout the entire course of life between birth and death. Because we are thinking soul beings, we must break down; because we are willing beings, we must build up; and because we are feeling beings, we bring about an interaction between breaking down and building up, so that what appears inwardly, soul-wise, in the human being as thinking, feeling, and willing, is a destruction and re-emergence and an interplay between destruction and re-emergence. These processes in the human organism, which are extraordinarily complicated, are different at every age of life. They are different in children and different in adults. It is particularly important for educators and teachers to be able to see through this interplay between destruction and construction, this flooding of constructive processes into destructive ones and destructive ones into constructive ones, how they constantly interact in certain human organizations, and their effects on the organism, based on a spiritual understanding of human beings. For only by understanding how the constructive and destructive forces work in the child's organism and what effect education and teaching can have on them can one educate and teach correctly.

[ 14 ] Here is just one example. It is quite different whether you teach a child just as much as is good for them, or whether you make them learn too much by heart, so that their memory is overloaded. Given the way in which the interplay between constructive and destructive processes is understood today, it would be easy to believe that this only has an influence on the mental organization of young people. This is not the case. If we make a child learn too much by heart, it develops memory thoughts in an unregulated way, which become established in the organization of the head, but then cause irregularities by continuing in the will thoughts, and also in the metabolism and the limb organism. And we can experience that we may have taught and educated the child in the wrong way with regard to its memory, and that this mistake may only become apparent in the thirtieth, fortieth, or forty-fifth year in the form of poor internal digestion and metabolic disorders.

[ 15 ] I am only giving this as an obvious example. Things are very complicated, and it is true that it is only through spiritual knowledge of the human being that the real educator can measure and comprehend the significance of what he does with the child physically and soulfully. Therefore, a real, true pedagogy can only be built on an understanding of the human being that looks at the physical body, the soul, and the spirit, and that also sees through the interaction of these three members of the total human organization. Such a pedagogy has been developed within our anthroposophical movement. It is becoming a reality in the Waldorf school; here too, in certain attempts, albeit only in the form of further education. But it must be said that the mere science of the senses, which is generally accepted today, can never establish a true pedagogy, and that therefore a true pedagogy is only possible through an anthroposophical deepening of scientific life. I will elaborate on the topic I have touched upon here in more detail in tomorrow's and the day after tomorrow's lectures.

[ 16 ] Furthermore, the observing eye perceives a certain interplay of destruction and construction, of destruction and restoration, of destructive and restorative activities intertwining in the entire human organism, in the individual organs, in one way or another, depending on whether the human being is more or less healthy or sick. One can only learn to recognize illness in its individual manifestations by observing the manner in which destructive processes gain the upper hand in the entire human organism or in any organ or group of organs, thereby causing the organism to become brittle and hardened, or how constructive processes gain the upper hand, thereby giving rise to proliferative life. Or one also learns to recognize how destructive processes intrude unlawfully into constructive processes and prevail over them with unprocessed metabolic products and the like. In short, just as it is important for the educator to be able to assess the normal course of these building and breaking down processes in children, it is important for those who deal with sick people to look into the abnormal building and breaking down processes.

[ 17 ] Now, when we look at the physical world around us in its various natural realms—the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and to some extent the animal kingdom—we find everything permeated by hidden spiritual and soul forces. For example, we find constructive forces in a plant which, when prepared in a certain way and introduced into the human organism, counteract destructive processes that are pathologically abnormal. In short, remedies for abnormal processes of destruction or abnormal processes of building up can be found in nature, and the connection between the remedy and the disease can only be understood by looking into the human organism in the manner just described. Through everything that can be done to an organism that is diseased in a certain way, whether by administering external remedies, treating it in a way that a healthy organism would not be treated or in a way that it does not treat itself, whether by taking measures that are correctly applied in this way or by doing what we have described as therapeutic eurythmy — always has the effect of trying to restore balance in the organism by counteracting excessive growth processes or destructive processes that go beyond the normal range.

[ 18 ] You can see that medicine based solely on sensory science must be supplemented and expanded by what can be derived from spiritual observation and from knowledge of the total human organism. Just as sensory science, in its physiological and anatomical aspects, is only able to assess the external aspects of the human organism, so too can it only find the relationship between a remedy and a disease through external experimentation. Inspiration, imagination, and intuition enable us to see the inner connection between a remedy or healing process and the nature of the disease process, and to replace empirical therapy, which is based on mere trial and error, with a rational therapy that understands the human being and the healing processes. I can only sketch this out here, but you can see how what is to be established as anthroposophical knowledge also provides the starting point for further development of both pathology and therapy according to the characteristics described, and these things have already taken practical form within our movement. In our therapeutic institutes in Stuttgart and here in Arlesheim, we do not engage in medical dilettantism. We fully recognize and apply modern medicine, but these things are permeated by what spiritual knowledge and a spiritual view can bring to them. Critics who want to rely solely on sensory science still say today that what this spiritual science, which works out of anthroposophy, has to say about illness and healing processes is childish. Well, this is quite understandable in people who want to think and work solely from sensory science. But it must be said that such people have no idea of the true state of affairs when they call things “childish,” and that what sensory science produces in terms of anatomy, pathology, and therapy is only a foundation for what arises from spiritual perception, especially for medicine. And I do not mean this in a derogatory sense, but only in relation to some critics: if anything is childish in some respects, it is medicine that wants to build itself up solely on the basis of the sensory world. I do not wish to deny that there is something childish about this, but only to point out how it is complemented by what emerges from spiritual knowledge in relation to the whole human being. — If you consider this, you will understand how necessary it is to go into detail if one wants to understand the activities of the etheric and astral organisms and the ego-being of the human being in physical life.

[ 19 ] At death, the human being lays down the physical organism, which falls away from him. A state then sets in in which the human being no longer carries the physical organism within himself, but in which the ego-being and the astral organism still carry the etheric organism within themselves. I have already explained how what constitutes the etheric organism of the human being is not strictly separated by fixed boundaries from the general organization of the etheric-cosmic. There is a constant flow from the cosmic-etheric into the human etheric organism and back again. This is why, at the moment when a human being passes through the gates of death but still has their etheric organism, their consciousness expands into the etheric expanses, yet they still perceive as their own that which has just withdrawn from the physical organism as their etheric organism. During this state, the human being is completely devoted to the etheric experiences of the cosmos, which sometimes contract for his consciousness into the mere etheric experience of his own organism. After passing through the gate of death, the human being is, in a sense, overwhelmed by what the cosmic consciousness is to him. At this point, there is still no conscious observation of what I have called a being that develops within us and represents the realized evaluations of the moral human being. We carry this moral-spiritual being, which has become integrated into the astral organism, through the gate of death, but in the very first moments after death we do not perceive much of it. Instead, we are now devoted — out of the cosmic realm and into it — to the course of life we have just gone through on earth, for that is the content of the etheric body. We look back for a while on the earthly life we have just completed. In its innermost being — as I have already described in these days, as it appears to the imaginative consciousness — this life now appears immediately after death. But this state lasts only a few days. It lasts about as long as the experiences of the day stimulate dream formation in the individual person — this varies from person to person.

[ 20 ] With dream formation, it is actually the case that dreams always immediately echo the experiences of the day just passed, or those of the day before that, or the day before that. And just as we dream something from the past day, but this is associated in our thoughts with other, earlier experiences, so too do these other experiences of the human being arise in dreams. For example, we dream that yesterday we spoke this or that with someone. Yesterday's experience enters directly into our dream life. But we spoke vividly with this person about someone else whom we perhaps saw ten years ago and have not seen since. As this experience has become woven into the conversation, we dream all sorts of things about that person. Dreams are not studied properly, otherwise we would know about these experiences of dream life. It varies from person to person. One person dreams only about what happened the last day; another dreams about what he experienced the day before; yet another dreams about what happened three or four days ago. And as long as this possibility exists for the individual human being, so long does the state after death last, where one is still in the etheric body. I could also characterize it differently and say: The length of this time coincides with the time during which the human being is not compelled to sleep, when he can therefore endure staying awake through days and nights without sleeping. One person falls asleep after only one night without sleep. Another can stay awake for two, three, or four nights. The experience of being in one's etheric body after death lasts just as long.

[ 21] But then it happens that we are increasingly taken over by our consciousness, which has become accustomed to the cosmic-etheric world. And because our etheric organism is now not strictly separated from the cosmic-etheric world, it floods into it, so to speak. And when we feel ourselves in the cosmic-etheric and look back at our etheric body, it already seems larger to us. And so it continues. Finally, we no longer have the etheric organism, and we now live with the astral organism in the cosmos and in our cosmic consciousness. Then what I have characterized as a being that represents the realized evaluation of the moral-spiritual quality of the human being emerges in the human being. One feels endowed with this being. One is thus a confluence of what lives into the cosmos from oneself and what one must return to again and again in the experiences after death, the being that actually represents our moral conclusion.

[ 22 ] And now, because the balancing forces are constantly at work, as it were, out of cosmic consciousness, an extraordinarily strong tendency arises: you must counteract what you have done wrongly or foolishly with the right action! That is why, in the further course of the life that I characterized yesterday as the soul world, living into the rhythm between the moral-spiritual qualities of the human being and the cosmic qualities develops. In this rhythm, a sum of tendencies develops, again the possibility of experiencing compensation for what one finds morally inferior or similar. The tendency develops, for example, if one has done something to a person that has affected them in one way or another, to create a compensatory action in another earthly life. In short, the seed of destiny, which passes through the various earthly lives, is formed in this way. But at the same time, the purely cosmic consciousness is greatly darkened and dimmed by the fact that we carry this component within us, and during the entire passage through the soul world, the human soul must remain in a dull — at least a dull state of consciousness until the necessity arises for it to enter the spirit world, to strip off what has emerged as the entity described, and live for a while in purity in the cosmos, which is amoral, into which we cannot bring what we have experienced as the sum total of our moral or immoral spiritual being in the soul world.


[ 23 ] If one wants to describe this transition from soul experience to spiritual experience after death, one can represent it from the standpoint of human earthly life by saying: As long as a person passes through the soul world, that is, experiences this state of the rhythm of the cosmic and the moral-spiritual that was within them in their past earthly existence, of the intertwining of these two essences, as long as this is the case, the person is bound to their last earthly life with a kind of inclination. What he has brought with him as an entity that represents his moral-spiritual qualities has flowed out of his last earthly life. He is attached to it with his soul tendencies, and only when he has freed himself inwardly from this attachment, from these tendencies, can he pass into the pure experience of the cosmos, where those spiritual beings can live together with him in such a way that he gains from their forces the powers which can develop the universal, cosmic spirit part for a future human physical organism.

[ 24 ] This is spoken from the standpoint of human earthly experience. But one can characterize the same conditions from the standpoint of cosmic consciousness and cosmic experience, and must then say: After man has laid down his etheric body and while the inclinations toward earthly life continue to live in his ego-being and in his astral organism in the manner I have characterized, he is inwardly permeated by the spiritual forces of the moon that flood the cosmos. I already had to speak of these lunar forces when I characterized the state of sleep. Now they confront us again in the post-earthly existence of the human being. These lunar forces are always what brings or wants to bring the human being into a certain connection with earthly existence. Here, after death, they express themselves in such a way that they do not want to let the human being leave earthly existence. He has laid down his physical body, but he wants to return to earthly existence. This is because he is permeated by the lunar forces of the cosmos. Ordinary earthly thinking has ceased after death; it is bound to the head organization of the physical body. The pre-earthly human being has flowed out into this head organization. When we shed the human physical organism, what was actually only brought about in a material way ceases to function. As a result, human beings are no longer directly earthbound beings, but indirectly they are, because the lunar forces continue to work in them. For a long time after death, these forces bring forth in them a tendency to return to earthly existence, in which they have prepared for themselves the kind of being that they now contain within themselves.

[ 25 ] After death, however, human beings must free themselves from the lunar forces, rise above them, and liberate themselves inwardly from the lunar forces flooding in and exerting their influence. These lunar forces always preserve in him a kind of cosmic memory of the rhythmic forces, that is, they repeatedly present to him in inspirations and imaginations what is happening in the movements of the planets and in the relationship of the planets to the fixed stars. But the moon forces hold the human being back from experiencing those spiritual beings that have their physical image in the fixed star constellations. And the human being now faces the necessity of entering a purely spiritual world. As long as the moon forces are acting upon him, they do not allow him to enter this world. But they should not just look at the cosmos they experience from the side that is inclined toward them in physical existence, but they should look at it from the other side. Human beings actually reach this state when they develop a purely spiritual, cosmic consciousness. Then they come into a position where they are, as it were, at the periphery of the cosmos. And just as we are here in the center and look out into the cosmos, so in this spiritual vision we look into the cosmos from the periphery. But now we do not see the physical images of the spirit beings in question, but we see these spirit beings themselves. We do not look into the cosmos from the periphery in a spatial way. Just as we look out into the cosmos from a single point of view here, we look in from an entire spherical surface there. But the thing is still spatial. We see it qualitatively. We look out into the realm of the fixed stars and view this fixed starry sky from the outside.

[ 26 ] We must enter into this independence from the physical world, where we live our earthly existence, into this independence between death and a new birth. Human beings entered this world in a completely different way during the period of human evolution that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, and in a different way in the period that followed this event. A tremendous metamorphosis has taken place in the inner life of human beings in the course of human evolution on earth. The Christ event marks a turning point in the development of earthly humanity. Therefore, in the last quarter of my lectures, I would like to describe this entry of the human soul and spirit into the spirit world through Christian evolution as the conclusion of this evening.


[ 27 ] Before human beings enter the actual spiritual world, that is, before they come into contact with other human souls that are not embodied and are in a similar state — they do, incidentally, live with such souls at an earlier stage — but especially before he can enter into coexistence with those spiritual beings of the highest kind who have their physical image in the constellations of the stars, he must leave behind in the realm of the moon sphere the entity that constitutes his moral evaluation. He must enter without it into the region that is not the lunar region but the star region, where, through his association with other spiritual beings of the highest kind, the forces arise in his soul through which he can now truly prepare and develop the spirit part of the future human physical organism.

[ 28 ] If, in the time before the Mystery of Golgotha, the ancient initiates wanted to characterize the manner in which this transition into the spirit realm took place for the humanity of that time, they had to say to those who wanted to hear it: If you are to pass over from the soul world into the spirit realm after death, you must leave behind in the lunar sphere that which is destined to shape your fate as a result of your good and evil deeds. But you do not have the power to effect the transition from the lunar sphere to the stellar sphere through your own human organizational powers alone. Therefore, the sun being, which has its physical reflection in the physical sun, steps in for you. And just as your outer life proceeds under the influence of physical sunlight and physical solar heat, so after death your essence is taken up by the high sun being, which frees you from your core destiny and takes you into the sphere of the stars, where, with the help of your sun guide, you can work out the spiritual part of your future physical organism. Then, after you have worked sufficiently under the guidance of your sun guide on the formation of your physical organism in the spiritual realm, you can return to earthly life. Upon this return to earthly life, the lunar sphere will also take you back in. There you will find the destiny being that you carried through the gate of death from your previous earthly life. You will unite with it and will now be able to control it in a completely different way, after you have prepared the spiritual part of your future physical organism together with the high solar being. You can combine this core of destiny with what is within you as forces directed toward the physical earthly organism. You pass through the lunar sphere again. — And then you enter earthly life as I have described in the preceding descriptions.

[ 29 ] The initiates who were contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, or who lived in the centuries that followed until the 3rd and 4th centuries, could say to their followers: The form that the human physical organism takes on in earthly life increasingly shapes the I. But human beings lose the power to enter that region where the high Sun Being could be their guide in the spiritual regions of the stars. That is why Christ descended to earth and accomplished the mystery of Golgotha. And the power that comes to the human soul through its emotional connection with the mystery of Golgotha continues to work after death, snatching the soul from the core of fate and the lunar sphere, and under the after-effect of Christ, the soul forms its future physical organism together with the other beings of the star world and then finds again the core of destiny, into which is placed the tendency toward the formation of destiny in the coming earthly lives. What the human soul has absorbed as a force from the Christ impulse enables it to pass through the spirit realm in the right way and to absorb the core of destiny in the right way.

[ 30 ] Anyone who speaks today from the knowledge of initiation must add the following: Yes, it is the Christ impulse that continues to work after death, under whose influence the human being breaks free from the lunar sphere, enters the star-sun sphere, and there, from the impulses given to him by the beings of the star world, can work on shaping the physical organism of his next earthly life. But they break free from the lunar sphere through the forces they have stored up in their ego through their inclination toward the Christ being and the mystery of Golgotha. He breaks free from the lunar sphere in such a way that he can now also work in the star sphere so that when he returns to the lunar sphere and encounters his core destiny, he can integrate himself into this core destiny in a free manner as a free spirit, because he must say to himself: The world's development can only proceed in the right way if human beings integrate this core of their destiny and also bring what they have prepared as their destiny back into balance in future earthly lives.

[ 31 ] This is the essence of the new experience of the post-death experience in the lunar sphere, that there is a moment in cosmic existence when human beings independently connect their destiny, their karma, with their evolving being. And the earthly reflection of this deed accomplished in the super-earthly realm in the subsequent earthly life is human freedom, the feeling of freedom during earthly existence. The correct understanding of the idea of destiny and its pursuit up into the spiritual worlds does not establish a philosophy of determination, but a real philosophy of freedom, as I had to give it in the 1890s in my book Philosophy of Freedom.

[ 32 ] Thus, when a person settles into the spiritual regions after death—integrated into his organism and connected with his world destiny—he brings with him the aftereffects of the permeations of the spiritual worlds that he experienced in the spirit realm. And modern man can experience, by experiencing Christ within himself, freedom, and in connection with freedom also the feeling of being permeated by God, that permeation by God which on earth can be a reflection of what is experienced during the passage through the starry world to the lunar sphere and in the lunar sphere.

[ 33 ] Spiritual science struggles to attain knowledge of all these relationships by means of exercises of the will of the soul, which bring about intuition. In earlier times, this intuition was brought about according to the instructions of the initiates of that time, who taught that human beings should preferably kill their outer physical organism through asceticism. By killing and weakening his outer physical organism, the independent will, which otherwise only lives out a desire for the physical organism, lives on with all the greater energy. Through asceticism, the physical organism is killed to such an extent that it becomes difficult for the will to enter into this physical organism when it unfolds. The will is, as it were, driven back, and the more difficult it becomes for it to immerse itself in the physical organism, the more it lives into the spiritual world and forms intuitions. This is what was brought about by asceticism. But this old asceticism is wrongly continued into modern times. After the Mystery of Golgotha, the human physical body took on a form that would no longer tolerate asceticism that would be successful. Through such asceticism, the modern human being would at the same time weaken his physical organism to such an extent that the ego consciousness, which must develop, would not be able to develop in the right way. The human being would then never attain freedom consciousness. Nor would he be able to connect with the Christ impulse in a right way, in a free way.

[ 34 ] Therefore, these exercises of the will must be carried out in such a way that the physical body is not brought down, as happened in ancient times, but that through the exercises of the will the purely spiritual-soul capacities of the human being are strengthened, so that it is not the body that withdraws from the soul, but the soul that lives itself into the spiritual worlds. Not only what the ancient initiates had to say to their followers about the experience between death and rebirth, but also what they had to say about the exercises that human beings must undertake in order to attain such knowledge, which leads into these supersensible worlds, these exercises too have changed in the course of human evolution. The ancient ascetic could not attain the royal consciousness of freedom that modern human beings must attain through their organization. Nor could the ancient ascetic encounter the sun being between death and birth, who performed actions with him that he can now perform himself, after Christ has accomplished the mystery of Golgotha, thereby gaining the strength to carry out the corresponding actions after death.

[ 35 ] Thus, with the advent of Christianity in human evolution, religious consciousness has changed, because this religious consciousness is the earthly echo of what human beings have to experience in the spiritual world between death and new birth when they are permeated by God. Everywhere, modern initiatory science is leading us to a deeper understanding of Christology. One can therefore speak of a renewal of religious consciousness through anthroposophical deepening, just as in days gone by one spoke of a renewal of philosophy to a living philosophical knowledge, and as one spoke of a deepening of cosmology through the inclusion of that which can only be grasped in intuition and inspiration from the higher worlds. For the whole of humanity, this anthroposophical deepening can also bring about a gain in the renewal of religious consciousness, which thereby becomes a fully conscious Christian consciousness. Anthroposophy wants to contribute to the right further development of Christianity in the sense that it does not want to become a new religion, but wants to stand by and help shape the Christian religion that came into the world through the Mystery of Golgotha. This religion has the power within itself to develop further, and anthroposophy wants to understand this in the right way and be a true helper for this further development.

[ 36 ] In these lectures, I have attempted to describe how philosophy, cosmology, and religious knowledge can be enriched by anthroposophy. Of course, religious knowledge is not religion. Religion can also be experienced if one simply surrenders oneself with an open mind to what intuitive knowledge provides, but it can be understood in the mind. And so a renewal of religious knowledge can lead to a new deepening of religious life.

[ 37 ] I have only been able to sketch these ideas in outline during the last few days. Of course, one can only fully penetrate these things when one gets to know the details. Then many things that have had to remain sketchy during these days would appear in their full colors, with all their possible nuances. Only then would a complete picture emerge.

[ 38 ] Dear attendees! As I conclude these lectures, I am filled with deep satisfaction when I think of how you have come from far and wide to attend them. This feeling of satisfaction prompts me to express my heartfelt thanks to you for your attention, and in particular to Dr. Sauerwein for his efforts in providing a faithful translation. I would also like to ask him to fulfill one more request: to translate this expression of gratitude to him, just as he has translated the rest. I will consider myself fortunate if you take home with you the feeling that the time you have spent here has not been wasted. With this in mind, I would like to bid you farewell.