Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Planetary Spheres and Their Influence on Man's Life on Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds
GA 218

16 November 1922, London

V. Luciferic and Ahrimanic Powers Wrestling for Man

To-day I want to speak of the spiritual powers and beings that live in man's environment. They are super-sensible powers and beings we cannot perceive them with our senses; nevertheless they are there, and they play their part in our earthly existence. The things that take place among such spiritual beings, the dealings they have with one another, are of course altogether different from the actions and deeds of man during his earthly life; it is therefore difficult to tell in human language, which has been created expressly for human conditions and human relationships, about the nature and activities of these super-sensible Intelligences, these super-sensible beings. Since, however, it is important that these things should in our age, be brought to man's knowledge, we must speak of them in the only way that is possible,—namely, in pictures. This will mean that I shall frequently describe things as if I were referring to human conditions and relationships. The things that are told in this way will be quite true and correct; only, since the language has to be borrowed from human relationships, the truth will be presented in a picture.

We have around us, to begin with, the world of Nature in her various kingdoms, mineral, plant and animal,—and we may also add to these the human kingdom, in so far as man's physical being is concerned. Behind Nature lies a kind of second Nature,—a spiritual, super-sensible Nature. The first, the Nature to which we are accustomed, man perceives with his senses. The super-sensible Nature that is behind, he does not perceive. It has, for all that, a great influence upon him.

And then we have to recognise that we human beings have something of physical Nature also within us. When we look within, we perceive this physical nature in our instincts and our passions. These are of course astral, but they rise up from the physical Nature. And this physical Nature that we have within us and that we perceive in our instincts and urges and passions, has again—this time we have to say beneath it, a kingdom of beings, who are intimately connected with man, but are really sub-human.

Thus, looking around us with the help of our senses, we behold the surface of Nature, her external appearance; and behind it we have to divine the presence of a super-sensible nature. When on the other hand we look within and perceive ourselves in our instincts and passions, then we have to divine beneath these the presence of a subsensible Nature.

The super-sensible Nature that is around us can be understood and appreciated only by one who is equipped with spiritual insight, and who is not always focusing attention, as Natural Science does to-day, on the strict laws of Nature and on what takes place within their framework. For Natural Science, as we know, is concerned with the investigation of what takes place in accordance with firm laws of Nature. The super-sensible that is behind external Nature will never reveal itself to these researches. It will however become manifest when we have learned to look with keen and discerning spiritual vision upon things which are not to be explained by natural law, but are generally regarded as subject to chance.

Of this character are the phenomena of the weather, all the irregularities of the atmosphere throughout, the four seasons of the year. If you stop to consider, for example, in detail how a London fog [There was an unusual thick fog in London during Dr. Steiner's visit at this time.] takes its course, you will perhaps find that in its main events you can trace the working of certain laws. You will not however be able to do this for all its continual changes and movements. When it comes to the particular single phenomena of wind and weather, there we are inclined to say that we are at the mercy of chance. You can of course read in the newspapers a description of what kind of weather we are likely to have in the near future, but you will not build upon it with certainty with which you rely on the sun rising tomorrow morning. Phenomena which show the working of natural law are in quite another category from the phenomena of wind and weather, which are more or less generally ascribed to the working of chance. People can and do acquire a certain prophetic gift in regard to these phenomena, but this prophetic gift cannot be given to place within the framework of natural law, it has more the character of inspiration or intuition.

As a matter of fact, beings live in all the various manifestations of wind and weather,—beings who are only not seen because they lack a body that is visible to the senses. They are present and alive, notwithstanding. The beings who live in wind and weather have a body that consists of air and warmth, a body that has in it no water—no fluidity, that is, of any kind—and no solid earth; it consists of nothing but air and warmth. And this body is continually undergoing sudden changes. At one moment it will assume form and shape, then again it will dissolve and pass away. The changing cloud formations that we observe in the sky, the play of the currents of the wind,—these are not the body, which remains more hidden, they are but the outer expression, the deeds, of the beings of whom I speak. When therefore we look out into the atmosphere which surrounds our Earth, and within which we ourselves are living, we have there around us a world of beings, who are composed merely of air and warmth. They are of the same kind as the beings whom I have called in my books and frequently spoken of in lectures as the Luciferic beings.

Now these beings have a specific end in view in regard to man. Notwithstanding the fact that they inhabit an element which we often find far from agreeable and pleasant—living, as we have said, in the weather!—these beings attach great value to the moral element in the human social order. So highly do they prize it, that in their opinion it would be best for man not to have a physical body at all—not, at any rate, a body that partakes of the watery or earthly elements. If they could have formed man in their own way, they would have made of him a moral being, pure and simple. Man would not of course in that case have had freedom, he would have been moral without being inwardly free. As it is these beings wage a fearful battle in the course of the year, struggling to wrest man away from the Earth and draw him into their own sphere. They would like him to be cut off from the Earth,—a complete stranger to it. On this account they are particularly dangerous for people who are inclined to any kind of visionary idealism or vague mysticism. Such persons readily fall a prey to these beings who seek to entice man away from the Earth and endow him with a kind of angel nature, so that under no circumstances shall he find himself tempted to be otherwise than purely moral.

Strange therefore and paradoxical as it may sound, dear friends,—inhabiting the forces that pulsate through the encircling air in all the vagaries of wind and weather, are beings who, abhorring human freedom and desiring nothing better than its complete annihilation, want to make man a moral automaton, want to make of him indeed a kind of good angel. And they fight hard to attain their end; to use an earthly expression, they wage war to the teeth.

In addition to these beings who build, as it were, their strongholds in the air—do not cavil at the word, I told you. I am obliged to speak in pictures—there are also beings of a contrary nature, to whom I alluded in my last lecture in another connection. And this latter class of beings has to do with all that comes to expression in man's instinctive urges and impulses, in his desires and passions. You must not however think of them as belonging first and foremost to man. In man we can see the results of their activity. But they have their home, so to speak, right on the Earth. Only we cannot see them, for these beings too have not a body that is formed in such a way as to be visible to us. They have, in fact, a body that lives entirely in the elements of earth and water. And their deeds are to be seen in the ebb and flow of the tides, in volcanic eruptions and in earthquakes. Natural Science, as is well-known, can find no satisfactory explanation for these phenomena. One who has keen spiritual perception can however see behind them a world of sub-human beings, who are under the control of the powers to which I have always given the name of the Ahrimanic powers.

Now, these Ahrimanic powers also cherish a particular aim as regards man. With the help of their various sub-spirits, which inhabit the earth and water elements of our Earth and can, for example, be recognised even in the kobolds or brownies of fairy lore—aided by these, the Ahrimanic powers have set themselves to carry out another and a different project.

If one considers these Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings by themselves, just as they are, one cannot, you know, be angry with them. Why be angry with the Luciferic beings, for instance? They want to make man into a being who is moral entirely as a matter of course. What could be better? Man would, it is true, never under their influence be free, he would be an automaton; but what they seek and desire for him can nevertheless be truthfully described as good.

Now let us see what is the aim of these other beings, who build their strongholds immediately below the surface of the Earth, and whose activities rise up into man’s metabolism,—for the phenomena we observe in the tides and less frequently in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes are always present also in the ebb and flow in man's metabolism. Whilst the Luciferic spirits build, as we said, their strongholds in the air, in order to fight for the moral—as against the earthly—element in man, the Ahrimanic beings struggle to harden man; they want to make him like themselves. Were they to be successful, man would become extremely clever in the material realm—incredibly clever and intelligent. They cannot achieve their end directly, but they aim at doing so indirectly. And their efforts, which have actually been going on for thousands of years, have in fact succeeded in producing a whole race of sub-human beings. Their method is as follows.

Suppose a man has strong and rude instincts. These beings will clutch at his instinctive nature and seize hold of it. The man then falls victim to the Ahrimanic powers. He is completely given up to his passions and leads a wild and dissolute life. When a man has in this way become a prey, during his earthly life, to the Ahrimanic powers, then these powers will be able to hold on to his instinctive nature and tear it out of him after death. There exists already on the Earth a whole population of beings who have arisen in this way. They are there, in the elements of earth and water, a sub-human race. And then what is it the Ahrimanic powers intend with this sub-human race? As we have seen, they draw out of a human being his instinctive nature and make of it an earth-and-water being. These earth-water beings inhabit the strata immediately below the surface of the Earth; and those who go down into mines, if they are able to look with spiritual vision, are quite familiar with them. They are beings that have been snatched out of man in the moment of death. And with what ultimate aim? Ahriman is waiting. The Ahrimanic powers are waiting for the time when men will descend to incarnation and, on account of a karma that their instincts and passions have prepared for them, feel particularly drawn to certain of these beings and say to themselves: “I will not go back to the spiritual world; when I have left my physical body”—out of which, as you know, man generally goes forth to a super-sensible life—“I will incorporate myself in a subsensible being of this kind. And that will mean, I shall be able to stay on the Earth. I shall not die any more, but be permanently united with the Earth. Yes, I will choose to be a subsensible being.”

It may sound incredible—and indeed it is astonishing, considering how extraordinary clever they are,—but it is a fact that the Ahrimanic beings persist in believing they will ultimately be able in this way to entice such a vast number of human beings into their own race that the Earth will one day be peopled entirely with such Ahrimanic sub-human beings. By this means they hope to make the Earth itself immortal, so that the hour may never come for it to perish and be dispersed in cosmic space.

We have thus around us in our earthly environment two hosts of beings; one in the air, that wants to make man moral but to lift him away from the Earth, and then we have also, immediately below the surface of the Earth, the Ahrimanic beings who want to draw man down and fasten him permanently to the Earth.

When we come to consider the relation in which these two classes of beings stand to one another, we find that in the mineral kingdom, in the plant kingdom, in the animal kingdom, and even in the human kingdom as it is by nature before man’s passions and desires begin to get the better of him, the two classes of beings have perforce to agree, they must bear with one another. In a remote primeval past the Godhead who is called in the Christian religion the Father God, established peace in this respect. Peace was established by the Father God for minerals, plants and animals, and also for man in his animal nature, in so far as he does not allow himself to be perverted and contaminated by passion and desire.

Take up in your hand a crystal, or any other mineral, or again a plant; you will not find that in that crystal or plant any conflict is taking place between these two classes of beings. But the moment you direct your observation to a man whose body is permeated and suffused with soul, you will at once discern signs of their conflict. The Luciferic beings are saying to Ahriman: “We promised the Father God that we would not fight nor do battle for the minerals, the plants, the animals, nor for man so long as he remained an unconscious being as in olden times and had not acquired the power of reflection, but lived more like an animal; but as for men who have acquired self-consciousness—for them we will fight to the teeth.” And it is so: a fearful war is waged all the time between the air-fire beings and the earth-water beings; they fight to get possession of man. And it is important that man should be aware of this war that is perpetually being waged for him; he must not be blind to it. In our day we have advanced far in our knowledge of external Nature. Here, as we have seen, the conditions are quite different; here the Luciferic beings live at peace with the Ahrimanic. But man's knowledge does not reach to that which lies behind the world of the senses, does not reach to super-sensible Nature, nor has he any knowledge of sub-human Nature. And these two realms harbour beings who carry on, as I have said, a terrible warfare, fighting for the possession of man.


The Being who in the Old Testament is called Jahve, has his seat—I need not remind you of what I said at the beginning of the lecture about the use of such expressions—has his seat in the Moon. That is to say, Jahve is that spiritual Being in the Cosmos who finds expression in the physical phenomena of the Moon. And in the whole ordering of the world this Being has the following task to perform.

When man is descending from the divine spiritual world in order that he may clothe himself in a body, then it is Jahve who leads him down to Earth. Nor does the Jahve Being lose all part in man's life when man has already come to Earth; he takes in hand the ordering of everything that is connected with generation. The Jahve Being, who has his seat in the Moon and who leads man down to Earth, claims control in man over all that has to do with the instincts and impulses of generation.

The process of generation cannot however be regular or regulated by itself, for it is connected with the other instincts and impulses. Consequently, the Jahve Being needs helpers, he needs beings who will, for instance, regulate the instincts connected with eating and drinking, and bring these into harmony with the instincts of generation. He needs helpers who will in fact see to the ordering of the whole instinctive life of man. And Jahve—the Moon God, if we may call him so—finds such helpers in Mercury and Venus.

A kind of compact has been made in the spiritual universe between the Moon,—that is, the Jahve Being and the beings that dwell with him in the Moon—and Mercury and Venus, And it is the will and concern of the beings who have joined together in this way, to control, from Moon, Mercury and Venus, the whole flesh-and-blood nature of man. Man is by no means merely an earthly being; influences play into him from the whole great Universe.

Turning now again to the beings whom I called Ahrimanic and who have their stronghold just below the surface of the Earth—the earth-water beings—how do these compare with Jahve and the Mercury and Venus beings? What place is assigned to them in the world order? They are not ripe to take up their abode in a heavenly body, in the way that Jahve has his abode in the Moon, and his helpers in Mercury and Venus. No, these Ahrimanic beings are doomed to look for a dwelling place just below the surface of the Earth, You will accordingly not be surprised to find that it is not with the air-fire beings alone that these earth-water beings feel themselves in opposition, but particularly also with Jahve and with the powers of Venus and Mercury. And this, notwithstanding the fact that they are themselves devoid of morality. (Man's instinctive nature, being regulated by Jahve from outside and beyond the Earth, is thereby subject to another rulership than that of the aforesaid ‘moral’ beings, but it would not under this rulership become immoral). The Ahrimanic beings wage war continually on Jahve and on the Venus and Mercury powers, and are determined to usurp from Jahve his rightful sovereignty. For it is owing to the rightful sovereignty of Jahve that the human race as we know it has come into existence on the Earth; it needed the powers of Moon and also of Mercury and Venus for this to be accomplished.

In a spirit of retaliation, the Ahrimanic beings are founding—over against the Jahve race, which is mankind—this other race of which I have been telling you. And a prime means for them to attain their end is the device I explained in our last lecture. You will remember I told you how they approach man in his sleep and say to him: “Good is evil; evil is good,” Man hearkens to this all too easily when he is asleep, and then he brings it back with him into his physical and his ether-body. The Ahrimanic beings are confident they will be able to achieve their end by means of these vicious whisperings.

Man should, you see, depend entirely—in his lower nature—on the Moon, Venus and Mercury powers. The lower nature of man is not in itself evil or degenerate; it is so only because powers that are antagonistic to Jahve insinuate themselves into it in the manner I have described. What Jahve would desire is that these earth-water beings should express themselves merely in the ebb and flow of the tides, in volcanic eruptions, in earthquakes. But they strain every nerve to establish themselves also in man, to make their presence felt in man too; and not content with attacking there the air-fire beings, they launch their attacks with particular force against Jahve and his helpers.

Man therefore finds himself placed right in the very midst of a conflict. On one side are ranged Jahve and his hosts, who are fighting for righteousness; on the other side the hosts of Ahriman, who, in respect of cleverness, far outstrip man, and whose concern it is utterly to repudiate man’s moral nature and make him into a sheer automaton of cleverness.

Such then are the influences that stream up from earth and water, and work in man. For man is obliged to eat of the products of earth and water; he cannot nourish himself on air, nor live on warmth alone!

In the other direction are the beings who incorporate themselves in air and warmth. These also, like the enemies of Jahve, are immature. And the corresponding mature beings are in their case beings who dwell on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. And so we find these air-fire beings making sallies from their strongholds not only upon the Ahrimanic powers, but upon the influences that should be continually reaching man from Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Now, the influences of these more distant planets,—or rather, of their spiritual beings—are to be found particularly in the eyes, in the ears,—in short, in the sense organs of man. So that, whilst Moon and Venus exercise their influence in the interior organs of man's body, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars work on man's exterior, work in his sense organs. The influences, for example, of Saturn are to be met with primarily in the human eye.

These beings,—Saturn beings, Jupiter beings and Mars beings—have it as their special concern to make man a real Earth man; that is to say, they want first to give him senses that are properly inserted into the human organism and that remain at its surface, and then to supply him with nerves that run from the senses and extend inwards into the organism. Saturn gives the senses, Jupiter gives their continuation in the nerves, and Mars exerts the kind of control that endows man, for example, with the faculty of speech. The whole aim and purpose of these beings is to furnish man with all that is on the surface of his body. For the senses, and the nerves too, have come about through a ‘turning outside in’ of the human skin.

Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars are however resisted in their activities by the air-fire beings of whom we were speaking. Here again, a furious fight goes on all the time. The air-fire beings sit fast, so to speak, in their airy strongholds and display their power and might in the fiery flashes of the lightning. They would like to make the whole of man what he should properly be on the surface only, so that the entire physical being of man should partake of the nature that is actually assigned only to eye and ear and nose. They would like to pour the surface of man's organism right through him, to make him all surface, so that he would do nothing but see and hear,—never eat nor drink, but only see and hear, be in fact a kind of angel being.

The Mars, Jupiter and Saturn beings, who work as we have seen in man's senses, acquit themselves most praise-worthily—if I may employ the expression in speaking of such sublime beings—in the world of external nature. For they permeate what to our eyes appears mere Nature, with morality. In this manner they bring morality to man; for it is actually so, morality enters into us through the senses. When therefore the air-fire beings seek to permeate man through and through with his sense nature, it is with the intention that man, seeing nothing but what is moral, may become a moral automaton.

If we look out on the world of Nature, we can know that whatever manifests as forces in that world comes from the Mars beings, whatever manifests as natural law from the Jupiter beings, and whatever manifests as colour and sound from the Saturn beings. And the air-fire beings would have man become nothing but force, law (that is to say, thought), colour and sound. They want man not to have a physical body at all, but to be insubstantial, rarefied; they would like him to be, as we said, an angel being.

And so you see, whilst in external nature. Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn live at peace with one another and are held in balance by the Sun, they wage a double fight for the possession of man. First of all, there is the conflict that goes on between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic beings; and then we have on the one hand, the fight that is put up by the Luciferic beings against the planetary forces beyond the Sun,—the Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn influences—whilst on the other hand the Ahrimanic forces are waging war on the influences that proceed from Moon, Venus and Mercury.

Behind Nature and within man the hard-fought battle goes on; and it is with this conflict raging all around him that man has to press forward in his development and win his freedom. In an older time man had the teaching of the Mysteries to aid him on his path; now he must turn to what spiritual investigation can tell him concerning what lies behind Nature and below man. For ignorance on these matters would inevitably lead to the deterioration and ruin of mankind.

You will have seen, my dear friends, from the descriptions I have given you, that the beings we are accustomed to call Luciferic and Ahrimanic, are particularly highly developed in respect of certain qualities—the Luciferic beings, namely, in morality, and the Ahrimanic in cleverness and intelligence. And yet both these classes of beings never relinquish the belief that they will one day achieve their ends, and they are therefore always ready to begin the fight over again. For, time after time, when they think they are on their way to success, they experience frustration and disappointment. So that when a modern initiate encounters such beings behind Nature or below man, he sees how on the one hand they will not be deterred, but press forward again and again to their goal with renewed confidence in ultimate victory, and then how, on the other hand, they are perpetually being frustrated. This kind of being may indeed be said to live in a mood that oscillates between jubilation and triumph on the one side and constantly recurring disappointment on the other.

I will show you how this can be observed in particular instances. Let us see, in the first place, how the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings suffer disillusionment through what happens with the physical part of man's being. One can form a very good impression of the disappointments that await Lucifer and Ahriman in this connection, when one pays a visit to one of our hospitals or asylums. Sickness, whether in mind or body, means disappointment for Lucifer or Ahriman. These beings are, you see, fighting a battle to get possession of the nature of man. But it does not help them at all, if within man's nature one of them gains a victory over the other. The situation is different if Ahriman gains a victory over the Moon Godhead; or again, if the air-fire beings gain a victory over Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. Such victories are, however, always incomplete. They can only become complete if reinforced by some success that the Luciferic or Ahrimanic beings achieve in their own mutual conflict. But, as a matter of fact, by far the greater number of these successes are only apparent; hence the disillusion that ensues. Let us suppose for a moment that the Ahrimanic powers were victorious in the physical body of some person, victorious, that is, over the Luciferic powers who try to permeate man throughout with what should by rights be only on the surface, only in the senses. The result would be that the person would succumb to illnesses producing tumours or carcinoma, or else to illnesses of the metabolism, such as diabetes. Whenever an illness of this description shows itself in a man's physical nature, it means that Ahriman has won a victory over Lucifer. Since however, as a result, that physical nature is temporarily ruined, it is of course of no use to Ahriman; he cannot possibly pull up out of it the man's instincts and impulses in order to create from these a race of his own.

We have in this way arrived at a perhaps paradoxical, but nevertheless correct picture of illness. Illness is in very many cases the sole means left to the good Powers, to rescue man from the fangs of Ahriman.

If on the other hand Lucifer gains a victory in a man's physical nature over the Ahrimanic powers, who would like to harden man and drag him down into their race of earth-water beings,—if Lucifer gains a victory over these powers, then the person concerned succumbs to illnesses of a catarrhal nature, or else to insanity. Once again, for Lucifer this time, the victory turns out to be quite indecisive.

The Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers, who work unceasingly with all their might for the attainment of their ends, are thus compelled to turn away sad and disappointed from beds of sickness, from hospitals and from mental asylums. These show them all too clearly that though they may continue to carry on their fight, they cannot ever be really victorious.

And now, if you are able to look with real insight into man's etheric nature,—not merely into his physical, but into his etheric nature—you will find there too, occasion for disappointment to the Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers. For when the Luciferic powers are victorious over the Ahrimanic in the ether-body, then the person becomes a liar, he becomes an habitual liar. In that case he is obviously not moral; and so he falls out of the world within which Lucifer would like to secure him. Instead of making him a moral automaton, Lucifer has turned him into a liar. And, strange as it may seem, the fact that the person becomes addicted to lying is a weapon in the hands of the good Powers, to aid them in rescuing him from Lucifer. For when someone turns liar,—well, that can be ameliorated in the further course of karma; whereas if Lucifer were really to gain the victory he seeks, the Earth would lose that human soul, it would soar right away above the Earth. If, on the other hand, Ahriman were to conquer, or come near to conquering, in the ether body, then the person would become possessed—possessed by his own cleverness. And since he is inwardly possessed by it, the cleverness must needs remain within him. It has hold of him; his ether-body is absolutely charged with it. And so there is no possibility for Ahriman to draw out the instincts and impulses; they are stuck fast in the ether-body, because the person is possessed by his cleverness. Here too, then, will be plenty of opportunity for Lucifer and Ahriman to experience bitter frustration and disappointment, when addiction to lying, or on the other hand, obsession follows as a consequence of their apparent victories.

Let us now see what can happen with the astral body. Suppose the Ahrimanic powers come near to being victorious in the astral body. The person in question will in this case tend to become an out-and-out egoist. But that will mean that he, as an egoist, keeps fast hold of his instincts, and there will be no chance for Ahriman to snatch them away. So once more, Ahriman's prize escapes him. Suppose on the other hand, Lucifer nearly gains a victory. Then the person is liable to turn into a dreamer in the astral body, to become an ego-less dreamer, who is, as one says, “not in his right mind.” Such things happen; it can well be that people succumb, if only for a time, to such a condition. The Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers are thus subject to disillusionment on earth in many directions.

But do you see in what a critical situation man stands to-day? In olden times it was different. Let us look back and see how things were for man in the past. The first great teachers in the Mysteries were messengers of the Father God. They had disciples, the Gurus; and then there were the Chelas who were disciples of a second grade, for they were disciples of the Gurus. The highest Gurus however received their instruction direct from the messengers of the Father God, And these messengers of the Father God were able to find remedies with which to heal man. Illnesses are, as we have seen, the occasion of deep disappointment and frustration to Ahriman and Lucifer, so much so that they leave these beings quite benumbed and bewildered. For, outstandingly clever and moral as the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings are, just because their consciousness is so particularly keen and wide-awake, they are all the more liable to suffer a clouding of it; and so the messengers of the Father God were on this account able to approach the sick person undisturbed by Lucifer and Ahriman, and could then find the remedy for the illness. I told you last time, you will remember, how an illness due to Saturn influence could be cured with a remedy taken from the Moon, and so on. This, then, is how things were in the time of the ancient Mysteries. The messengers of the Father God were able to intervene directly and extricate man from the confusion in which he finds himself owing to the fight which is going on, as, I have explained to you, all the time, behind Nature and below man.

My dear friends, the confusion that reigns within man to-day is no whit less than it was in olden times. That man is unaware of it makes no difference, the confusion is there, just the same. Man is perpetually being torn and tossed, this way and that, while the powers behind Nature and below himself fight to get possession of him. And when one crosses the Threshold and, looking consciously into the spiritual world, observes this terrific battle that is going on, this complicated game that is being played with man as the prize, then one may look now in vain for the messengers of God who in an earlier age would come forward with the staff of Mercury, for example, and with other symbols of that nature, ready to give them into the hands of the Mystery doctors, who could then use them to bring healing to man. At the present time, when you cross the Threshold, you find yourself only in the midst of the terrific conflict of which we have spoken, between beings of the upper planets who have remained behind in their evolution,—immature Mars, Jupiter and Saturn beings—and beings of the lower planets who have remained behind,—immature Moon, Mercury and Venus beings. Like two armed encampments they stand facing one another; on one side, the air-fire beings,—Saturn, Jupiter and Mars beings that have failed and fallen out of their true evolution; and on the other side, facing them, the earth-water beings,—Moon, Mercury and Venus beings who have also failed and fallen behind. And there, beyond the Threshold, the fight goes on with such fury that the Sun becomes first of all fiery and aflame, and then grows darker and darker, until at last it shows like a terrible black disk. It was not so for the initiates of long ago. They saw right through the black disk; and from the direction of the black disk itself came towards them the messengers of God, of the Father God, who were also in those times the bearers of the knowledge of healing. But for us, when we cross the Threshold and see before us the terrific battle and behold how the Sun becomes fiery red and then black,—for us, the Sun remains black, it remains a black disk. And we are rebuffed, we are turned back; for if we men of modern times are to find our way amid all this confusing and perplexing conflict, it is on the Earth that we must look for help.

And then, my dear friends, then we are guided to turn our eyes to the Christ. Christ stands before us, the Spirit Being who, through the Mystery of Golgotha, united Himself with the Earth. And He says to us: Be not dismayed that the Sun has become black; it is black because I, the God of the Sun, am no longer in it; for I have come down and united myself with the Earth.

And if, with inner devotion, and with quick and sensitive recognition of all that a knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha can bring, we draw near to Christ, and then the Sun does not, it is true, become bright again, it remains the black disk that it was, but the Sun begins to make audible for us what Christ is saying to us. And this experience reveals to us the relationship of Christ with the Sun. Yes, the Sun, although still a black disk, becomes a being who enables us to listen to the Christ, if we are duly prepared and approach Him in the right mood and attitude of soul.

And it is the Christ who provides now for man the means of reconciliation so that in man too the upper then the lower powers may be reconciled,—the powers that are above the black Sun disk and that make themselves known around our Earth as air-fire beings, and the powers that manifest as lower beings. And we can receive guidance, we men, for the healing of diseases, and for the true understanding of all the other evils that are constantly leaving Lucifer and Ahriman disappointed. Through the power of Christ and through the power of the Mystery of Golgotha we then become able to speak to these beings, and what we say to them is wonderful enough. “Ye creatures of Lucifer and Ahriman,” we say, “the disappointment and great frustration that you meet with, time and again, are due to evils of your own making, evils that are bound to arise on Earth in consequence of your own partial victories. And that must go on; for you will not cease from making people sick and ill and obsessed, nor from turning people into liars and self-seekers and ego-less dreamers. And so you have no choice but to continue this restless alternation between triumphant joy and the grief of acute disappointment.”

But as for man, if he can find the right relation to the Christ, then it will be given him not to despair, even in face of the despair of higher beings than himself,—beings however whose will it is to go another way than the way of the Gods to whom man belongs and to whom he should remain true throughout the further course of the Earth. At the centre of these sublime God Beings is the Christ Being, who spoke to the initiates of old through the Sun disk and who speaks also to us—but now from the Earth with the help of the Sun.

When therefore we speak of Christ to-day, we are speaking of One who can be at our side here on Earth as our Leader, guiding us out of the terrible conflict that the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers are waging,—with one another and with the worlds of the Upper and Lower Gods.

In my next lecture, on Sunday at 7 o'clock, I will say more of this.

Erlebnisse Der Menschenseele Im Schlafe Und Nach Dem Tode In Der Geistigen Welt II

Ich werde Ihnen einiges mitzuteilen haben über die geistigen Mächte und Wesenheiten, die übersinnlich in der Umgebung des Menschen leben und an seinem irdischen Dasein einen Anteil haben. Sie werden begreifen, daß alles, was zwischen geistigen Wesenheiten in der übersinnlichen Welt sich ereignet, und was solche geistigen Wesen miteinander zu tun haben, sich unterscheidet von dem, was Menschen zu tun pflegen während ihres Erdendaseins, und daß es daher eigentlich schwierig ist, in der menschlichen Sprache, die ja für menschliche Verhältnisse geschaffen ist, sich über das Wesen und die Tätigkeiten der übersinnlichen Intelligenzen, sagen wir, der übersinnlichen Wesenheiten auszusprechen. Da es aber in unserer Zeit doch geschehen muß, so muß es bildlich geschehen. Und da werden Sie eben verstehen, daß mancher Ausdruck so geprägt wird, als ob er aus menschlichen Verhältnissen heraus wäre. Er bezeichnet schon das Richtige, aber er ist natürlich, da er von menschlichen Verhältnissen hergenommen ist, bildlich.

Wir haben als Menschen die Natur um uns, die Natur mit ihren verschiedenen Reichen, mit dem mineralischen, dem pflanzlichen, dem tierischen Reiche, und wir können sagen, auch mit dem physischen Menschenreiche. Das, was wir da als Natur um uns herum haben, hat hinter sich gewissermaßen eine zweite Natur, aber eine geistige, eine übersinnliche Natur. Der Mensch nimmt mit seinen Sinnen die gewöhnliche Natur wahr. Die übersinnliche Natur, die dahinter ist, die nimmt er nicht wahr; aber sie hat deshalb doch einen großen Einfluß auf sein Erdendasein.

Das zweite, was zu berücksichtigen ist, ist das, daß der Mensch eine physische Natur in sich hat, daß er, wenn er in sein Inneres blickt, diese physische Natur wahrnimmt als seine Instinkte, als seine Leidenschaften. Das ist alles selbstverständlich astral, aber es strömt aus der physischen Natur auf. Was der Mensch auf diese Art wahrnimmt in sich durch seine Instinkte, Triebe, Leidenschaften, das hat wiederum etwas, wir können jetzt sagen, unter sich, gewissermaßen ein Reich von Wesenheiten, die eine innige Beziehung haben zum Menschen, aber die untermenschlicher Natur sind. So daß wir, wenn wir um unsherumsehen mit unseren Sinnen, gewissermaßen die Oberfläche der Natur sehen, das Außere der Natur, dahinter müssen wir ahnen die übersinnliche Natur. Und wenn wir in uns hineinschauen und uns selber wahrnehmen durch unsere Triebe, Instinkte, Leidenschaften, dann müssen wir unter diesem, was sich da in uns äußert, eine untersinnliche Natur ahnen. Die übersinnliche Natur, die Natur, die um uns herum ist, sie kann nur derjenige beurteilen, der, mit geistiger Einsicht ausgestattet, seine Blicke nicht so wie die Naturwissenschaft auf das richtet, was innerhalb der strengen Naturgesetze verläuft. Niemals wird sich in dem, was so die Naturwissenschaft erforschen kann, die hinter der Natur stehende übersinnliche Natur zeigen. Diese zeigt sich aber, wenn man seinen geistigen Blick schärft für das, was nicht gesetzmäßig ist, sondern wovon man gewöhnlich sagt: Es unterliegt dem Zufall.

Dem Zufall unterliegt in der Welt, die um uns herum ist, alles das, was sich darstellt im Wetter, in den Unregelmäßigkeiten der Atmosphäre während des Jahreslaufes. Wenn Sie die Einzelheiten, sagen wir, eines Londoner Nebels ins Auge fassen, so werden Sie sie zwar Im großen ganzen auf gewisse Regeln zurückführen können, aber nicht im einzelnen. Im einzelnen sagt man bei denjenigen Dingen, die Wind und Wetter bedeuten: Sie unterliegen dem Zufall. -— Und wenn Sie auch in den Zeitungen geschrieben finden, was für ein Wetter in der nächsten Zeit sein wird, so werden Sie darauf nicht mit derselben Sicherheit bauen wie darauf, daß die Sonne am nächsten Morgen aufgeht. Naturgesetze sind demnach etwas ganz anderes als das, was in Wind und Wetter sich offenbart, und was in gewisser Beziehung von den Menschen zunächst als Zufall bezeichnet wird in den Naturerscheinungen. Man kann sich eine gewisse prophetische Gabe für Wettererscheinungen aneignen. Die kann man aber nicht auf Naturgesetze bringen; sie ist etwas Inspiriertes oder Intuitives.

Nun, in alledem, was sich so in Wind und Wetter äußert, leben Wesenheiten, die nur deshalb nicht gesehen werden, weil sie keinen Körper haben, der für die Sinne, welche Erdenwesen eigen sind, sichtbar ist. Diese Wesenheiten, die in Wind und Wetter leben, sind aber deshalb doch vorhanden. Sie haben einen Körper, der nur aus Luft und Wärme besteht, der in sich kein Wasser, keine Flüssigkeit und keine feste Erde hat. Sie haben einen Körper, der nur aus Luft und Wärme besteht.

Dieser Körper bildet sich, löst sich auf, macht rasche Verwandlungen durch. Was man sieht in Wolkenbildungen, was man fühlt in Windbildungen, das ist nur ein äußerer Ausdruck davon, das sind mehr die Taten dieser Wesenheiten. Der Körper ist mehr dahinter; aber er ist ein Luft- und Wärmekörper. So daß wir, wenn wir hinausschauen in unsere Atmosphäre, in den Umkreis der Erde, in dem wir als Menschen sind, um uns herum eine Welt von Wesenheiten haben, die Luft- und Wärmewesen sind. Diese Luft- und Wärmewesen sind von derjenigen Art, die ich in meinen Schriften und Vorträgen öfters luziferische Wesen genannt habe.

Diese luziferischen Wesen haben ein ganz besonderes Streben in bezug auf den Menschen. Sie sind, trotzdem sie in dem uns oftmals unangenehmen Wetter leben, Wesenheiten, welche außerordentlich auf das moralische Element in der menschlichen sozialen Ordnung halten. Sie halten so stark auf das moralische Element, daß sie die Ansicht haben, der Mensch sollte gar nicht einen wirklichen physischen Körper haben; mindestens sollte der Mensch nicht einen Leib haben, in dem sich die irdische und die wässerige Natur findet. Sie möchten in ihrer Art den Menschen gestaltet haben, weil sie ihn dann, ohne daß er eine Freiheit darinnen hätte, ganz zu moralischen Wesen machen würden. Er würde gar keine physische Natur haben. Er würde ganz allein ein moralisches Wesen sein. Und diese Wesenheiten kämpfen im Laufe eines Jahres in furchtbarster Art immerfort darum, den Menschen von der Erde loszureißen, ihn in ihre Sphäre hineinzubekommen, ihn erdenfremd und erdenlos zu machen. Diese Wesenheiten sind besonders gefährlich allen schwärmerischen, zu einer nebelhaften Mystik veranlagten Menschen. Diese schwärmerischen, zu einer nebelhaften Mystik veranlagten Menschen verfallen sehr leicht diesen Wesenheiten, welche den Menschen hinwegführen möchten von der Erde, ihm eine Art Engelwesenheit geben möchten, damit er nur ja keinen Versuchungen unterliegt gegenüber dem Unmoralischen.

So sonderbar und paradox es klingt, in diesen Mächten, die sich in Wind und Wetter äußern und die in Wind und Wetter durch den Luftkreis pulsieren, in denen haben wir diejenigen Wesen, die zwar die menschliche Freiheit über alles hassen und die nichts wissen wollen von der menschlichen Freiheit, die die menschliche Freiheit vernichten möchten, die aber die Menschen zu moralischen Automaten machen möchten, zu lauter guten Engelsnaturen. Und sie kämpfen, wenn ich mich eines irdischen Ausdruckes bedienen darf, bis «aufs Messer», um das zu erreichen.

Nun haben wir aber diesen Wesenheiten gegenüber, die sozusagen in der Luft ihre Festungen bauen — mißverstehen Sie den Ausdruck nicht, ich sagte, ich muß mich bildlich ausdrücken -, diesen Wesen gegenüber haben wir andere, die ich schon das letzte Mal in einem gewissen Zusammenhange erwähnt habe. Es sind diejenigen Wesen, welche etwas zu tun haben mit dem, was sich im Menschen äußert an Instinkten, an Trieben, an Begierden, an Leidenschaften. Aber diese Wesenheiten sind nicht etwa im Menschen drinnen. Im Menschen drinnen sind nur ihre Wirkungen. Diese Wesenheiten leben unmittelbar auf der Erde, aber so, daß der Mensch sie nicht sehen kann, weil sie niemals einen so geformten Leib bekommen, daß der Mensch sie sehen kann. Sie haben nämlich nur einen Leib, der in dem irdischen und in dem wässerigen Elemente lebt. Und ihre Taten im Erdengeschehen sind Ebbe und Flut, die Vulkanerscheinungen, die erdbebenartigen Erscheinungen. Diese Erscheinungen, denen ja die Naturwissenschaft, wie Sie wissen, auch außerordentlich ratlos gegenübersteht, zeigen dem geistig geschärften Blick als das hinter ihnen Stehende eine Welt von untermenschlichen Wesenheiten. Und diese untermenschlichen Wesenheiten stehen in der Gewalt derjenigen Mächte, die ich in anderem Zusammenhange immer die ahrimanischen Mächte nenne. Und diese ahrimanischen Mächte mit ihren verschiedenen Untergeistern — bis zu den koboldartigen Erscheinungen sind diese Untergeister im irdischen und im wässerigen Elemente der Erde enthalten -, diese ahrimanischen Wesenheiten, die haben sich nun sozusagen eine andere Aufgabe gestellt. Wenn man auf alle diese Wesenheiten hinschaut, so kann man ihnen gar nicht böse sein. Wie sollte man den luziferischen Wesenheiten böse sein? Sie wollen das Allerbeste, nämlich den Menschen zu einem moralischen, selbstverständlichen Wesen machen. Nur würde er niemals unter ihrem Einflusse ein freies Wesen sein können, sondern ein moralischer Automat. Sie wollen aber das Beste für den Menschen. Die anderen Wesenheiten, die haben sozusagen ihre Festungen unmittelbar unter der Erdoberfläche, aber ihre Wirkungen, die gehen in den menschlichen Stoffwechsel hinauf. Und was Sie sehen als Ebbe und Flut aufsteigen, oder was Sie in vulkanischen oder erdbebenartigen Wirkungen nur seltener sehen, das ist immerfort vorhanden in einem Ebben und in einem Fluten im Stoffwechsel des Menschen. Das sind die ahrimanischen Wirkungen.

Während also die luziferischen Geister ihre Festungen in der Luft bauen, um gegen das Irdische für das Moralische zu kämpfen, kämpfen diese Wesenheiten darum, den Menschen zu verhärten, ihn sich ähnlich zu machen. Er würde dadurch im Materiellen unendlich klug werden; unendlich gescheit, unglaublich intelligent würde er werden. Diese Wesenheiten können das nicht direkt erreichen, sie möchten es indirekt erreichen. Deshalb ist es in der Tat ihren wirklich jahrtausendealten Anstrengungen im Erdenleben schon gelungen, ein ganzes Geschlecht solcher untermenschlicher Wesenheiten auszubilden. Sie machen das so, daß sie sich der Instinktnatur der Menschen bemächtigen, wenn diese Instinktnatur besonders wüst und stark ist; sie reißen gewissermaßen diese Instinktnatur an sich. Der Mensch ist dann während seines Lebens verfallen diesen ahrimanischen Mächten.

Wenn der Mensch während seines Lebens verfallen ist den ahrimanischen Mächten, so daß er seinen Leidenschaften, Instinkten, Trieben ganz hingegeben ist, daß er ein wüster Mensch ist, dann können sie das herausreißen nach dem Tode. Und auf diese Weise gibt es nämlich schon eine ganze Bevölkerung, eine untermenschliche Bevölkerung der Erde. Die ist wirklich vorhanden, die ist im Wasser und im Irdischen vorhanden.

Und wenn wir fragen, was die ahrimanischen Wesenheiten mit dieser untermenschlichen Bevölkerung vorhaben, so ist es das, daß sie denken: Jetzt werde ich aus einem Menschen herausziehen diese Instinktnatur; daraus mache ich ein irdisch-wässeriges Wesen. — Diese irdischwässerigen Wesen bevölkern tatsächlich die Schichte, die unmittelbar unter der Erdoberfläche liegt. Da sind sie drinnen. Diejenigen Menschen, die in Bergwerken schauen können, die kennen diese Wesenheiten sehr gut. Es sind Wesenheiten, die dadurch vorhanden sind, daß sie dem Menschen im Momente des Todes entrissen worden sind. Und da wartet Ahriman, da warten die ahrimanischen Mächte darauf, daß die Menschen einmal in einer solchen Inkarnation herunterkommen durch ein Karma, das durch die Instinkte, Triebe, Leidenschaften bewirkt wird, daß sie herunterkommen, daß ihnen nun ein solches Wesen besonders gut gefällt, daß Menschen in einem bestimmten Erdenleben sagen: Ich will nicht wieder zurück in die geistige Welt, ich will, nachdem ich meinen physischen Körper verlassen habe, aus dem man ja doch wiederum herausgeht zu einem übersinnlichen Leben, mich verkörpern in einem solchen untersinnlichen Wesen. Dafür bleibe ich dann mit der Erde vereint. Ich sterbe nicht mehr, ich bleibe mit der Erde vereint. Ich wähle, ein untersinnliches Wesen zu sein.

Und in der Tat, so paradox es klingt - man muß darüber erstaunt sein, weil ja die ahrimanischen Wesen eben außerordentlich klug sind -, aber sie sind immer der Meinung, das kann man ganz richtig konstatieren, daß sie imstande sein werden, so viel Menschen auf diese Weise hereinzulocken in ihr Geschlecht, daß die Erde sich einmal mit lauter solchen ahrimanischen untermenschlichen Wesen bevölkern werde. Und dadurch wollen sie die Erde selbst unsterblich machen, so daß sie nicht zerstäubt im Weltenraum.

So haben wir tatsächlich in unserer irdischen Menschheitsumgebung zwei Heerscharen, die Heerschar in der Luft, die den Menschen moralisch machen möchte, aber ihn wegheben würde von der Erde, und die ahrimanischen Wesenheiten unmittelbar unter der Erdoberfläche, die den Menschen herunterziehen möchten, die ihn immer an der Erde

Diese beiden Arten von Wesenheiten sind im mineralischen Reich, im pflanzlichen Reich, im tierischen Reich und auch im gewöhnlichen physischen Reich des Menschen. Insofern er nicht übermäßig in Trieben, in Leidenschaften, in Begierden lebt, sind sie dort so, daß sie sich miteinander vertragen müssen.

Mit Bezug auf das Mineralreich hat, ich möchte sagen, diejenige Gottheit, welche zum Beispiel in der christlichen Religion die Vatergottheit genannt wird, in uralten Zeiten mit Bezug auf die Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tiere und auch den äußerlich tierisch-physischen Menschen Frieden gestiftet. Also in Mineralien, in Pflanzen, in Tieren und auch in derjenigen tierischen Natur des Menschen, die nicht heraufgenommen wird ins Seelische, wo der Mensch sich nicht anstecken läßt durch seine Triebe, Begierden und Leidenschaften, da ist Friede gestiftet durch den Vatergott in uralten Zeiten.

Also wenn Sie einen Kristall, ein Mineral in die Hand nehmen oder eine Pflanze, da werden Sie nicht bemerken, daß da Streit ist zwischen diesen beiden Arten von Wesenheiten. Aber in dem Augenblicke, in dem Sie die Durchdringung des Menschenleibes mit der Seele ins Auge fassen, da werden Sie sehen, es liegt so etwas vor, daß diese Wesen sich zueinander so verhalten, daß die luziferischen Wesenheiten zu den ahrimanischen sagen: Wir haben dem Vatergott versprochen, daß wir um die Mineralien, die Pflanzen, Tiere und auch um den Menschen, solange er noch ein unbewußtes altes Wesen war, das noch nicht nachdachte, das selber wie ein Tier lebte, daß wir über sie nicht streiten, nicht kämpfen, aber um den Menschen, der sein Selbstbewußtsein errungen hat, da wollen wir bis aufs Messer kämpfen. — Und um den Menschen herrscht eben zwischen den Luft-Feuerwesen und zwischen den Erd-Wasserwesen ein furchtbarer Krieg. Und das ist dasjenige, in was man hineinsehen muß. Heute ist die Menschheit groß geworden in bezug auf die Erkenntnis der äußeren Natur. Ja, in der vertragen sich die luziferischen mit den ahrimanischen Wesen. Aber der Mensch weiß nichts von dem, was jenseits der Sinnenwelt lebt, von der übersinnlichen Natur und von der untermenschlichen Natur. Diese beiden Reiche bergen Wesenheiten, die diesen furchtbaren Kampf um den Menschen kämpfen, den ich Ihnen charakterisiert habe.

Die Wesenheit, welche im Alten Testament Jahve genannt wird, diese Wesenheit -— wenn man sich des Ausdruckes bedienen darf, ich habe ja im Anfang gesagt, wie ich diese Ausdrücke gebrauche - hat im Mond ihren Sitz, das heißt, sie gehört im Kosmos als geistiges Wesen zu dem, was in den physischen Mondenerscheinungen seinen Ausdruck hat. Diese Mondwesenheit, also Jahve, hat nun in der Weltenordnung das Folgende als Aufgabe. Sie ist vor allen Dingen damit, wenn ich so sagen darf, beauftragt, den Menschen, der aus der geistig-seelischen Welt heruntersteigt zur Erde, um sich mit einem Körper zu umkleiden, zur Erde herunterzuführen. Aber diese Jahvewesenheit behält sich vor, auch noch mit den Menschen auf Erden zu tun zu haben, nämlich alles das zu regulieren, was sich auf die Fortpflanzungskräfte bezieht. Also diese Jahvewesenheit, die sozusagen im Monde ihren Sitz hat, führt den Menschen zur Erde herunter und möchte alles das, was im Menschen mit den Trieben und Instinkten des Fortpflanzungswesens zusammenhängt, durch sich beherrschen. Aber das Fortpflanzungswesen kann nicht allein für sich geregelt werden. Es hängt mit den anderen Instinkten und Trieben des Menschen zusammen. Und deshalb braucht die Jahvewesenheit Gehilfen. Und die Wesenheiten, welche die Jahvewesenheit zu Gehilfen braucht, daß zum Beispiel im Menschen die Instinkte, die mit dem Essen und "Trinken zusammenhängen, im Einklange sind mit den Fortpflanzungsinstinkten, daß überhaupt die Triebe und Instinkte geregelt sind, diese Hilfswesen findet Jahve — wenn ich ihn so nennen darf —, der Mondengott, in Merkur und Venus.

Also wir haben gewissermaßen im geistigen Weltenall ein Bündnis zwischen dem Monde, der Jahvewesenheit in dem Monde und alledem, was den Mond mit Jahve zusammen mitbewohnt, und den Wesenheiten in Merkur und Venus. Die Wesenheiten, die in diesem Bündnis stehen, wollen eigentlich alles, was fleischlich und vom Blute im Inneren des Menschen ist, vom Monde, vom Merkur und von der Venus aus beherrschen. Der Mensch ist eben nicht bloß ein irdisches Wesen, sondern es spielen die Wirkungen aus dem Weltenall in ihn herein.

Wenn wir nun diejenigen Wesen, die ich früher die ahrimanischen genannt habe und die ihre Festung unmittelbar unter der Oberfläche der Erde haben und die irdische und Wasserwesen sind, betrachten, so stehen sie zu Jahve, zu den Merkur- und zu den Venuswesen in dem Verhältnis, daß sie nicht reif genug dazu geworden sind, um in der Art, wie Jahve den Mond bewohnt, oder seine Gehilfen den Merkur oder die Venus bewohnen, zu diesen Weltenkörpern hin zu kommen. Sie sind verurteilt in der Weltenordnung, nicht ihre Sitze in Mond, Venus, Merkur zu haben, sondern unter der Oberfläche der Erde. Sie können sich daher denken, daß diese Wesenheiten, obzwar sie aller Moralität entbehren, nicht nur den Kampf gegen die Luft-Feuerwesen, sondern vor allen Dingen gegen Jahve, die Venusmächte und die Merkurmächte führen und dasjenige, was Jahves rechtmäßige Herrschaft ist, ihm entreißen wollen. Jahve ist eben der Regler der instinktiven Menschennatur. Aber indem er sie von außerhalb der Erde regelt, bleibt sie einer anderen Gewalt zwar untertan als den moralischen Gewalten, aber sie würde nicht unmoralisch werden. Durch Jahves rechtmäßige Herrschaft ist eben das Menschengeschlecht auf der Erde geworden, wie wir es kennen. Dazu waren diese Monden-, Merkur- und Venusmächte notwendig.

Gegen das Jahvegeschlecht, was also die Menschen sind, begründen diese ahrimanischen Wesenheiten dieses andere Geschlecht, von dem ich Ihnen gesprochen habe. Und ein wesentliches Mittel für sie ist das, was ich Ihnen schon das letzte Mal hier charakterisiert habe. Sie gehen, während der Mensch schläft, an ihn heran und sagen ihm, das Gute sei böse und das Böse sei gut. Das nimmt der Mensch mit einer furchtbaren Leichtigkeit auf, während er schläft, und bringt es dann in seinen physischen und in seinen Ätherleib hinein. Und diese ahrimanischen Wesenheiten glauben eben ihr Ziel durch diese Einflüsterungen des ruchlos Bösen zu erringen, so daß wir sagen können: Der Mensch sollte eigentlich ganz abhängig sein in bezug auf seine niedere Natur von höheren Mächten, von den Mond-, den Venus-, den Merkurmächten. Die niedere Natur ist an sich nicht böse und niedrig; sie ist es dadurch, daß in ihr die Jahve-feindlichen Mächte in den Menschen eindringen auf die geschilderte Art. Jahve möchte, daß diese Wesenheiten nur in Ebbe und Flut, in den vulkanischen Erscheinungen, in Erdbeben sich äußern. Aber diese Wesenheiten machen alle Anstrengungen, sich auch im Menschen geltend machen zu können, und sind also in ihrer Festung nicht nur so, daß sie Ausfälle machen gegen die Luft- und Feuerwesen, sondern sie machen vorzugsweise ihre Ausfälle gegen Jahve und seine Gehilfen auf der Venus und auf dem Merkur.

So steht der Mensch in einem Kampf darinnen, der auf der einen Seite geführt wird von Jahve und seinen Scharen, die da kämpfen für die Gerechtigkeit im Weltenall. Und auf der anderen Seite stehen die Scharen des Ahriman, der in bezug auf seine Klugheit den Menschen weit überragt, der ganz und gar die moralische Natur verleugnen möchte, dafür aber den Menschen zu einem Automaten der Klugheit machen möchte.

Da haben Sie dasjenige, was im Menschen spielt, von unten herauf, möchte ich sagen, von der Erde und dem Wasser aus und was sich dadurch in den Menschen hereinerstreckt, daß ja der Mensch die Produkte essen muß, die aus der Erde und dem Wasser stammen. Von der Luft nährt er sich ja nicht, von der bloßen Wärme auch nicht.

Auf der anderen Seite stehen die Wesenheiten, welche in Luft und Wärme ihre Körperlichkeit haben. Sie sind ebenso unreife Wesen wie die Jahve-feindlichen Wesen. Aber diejenigen Wesen, die ihnen gegenüber den Reifezustand darstellen, die wohnen auf Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. So daß nun diese Luft-Feuerwesen nicht bloß von ihren Festungen in der Luft Ausfälle gegen die ahrimanischen Mächte machen, sondern daß sie gegen alles das kämpfen, was an Wirkungen ausgeübt werden soll von Mars, Jupiter, Saturn auf den Menschen.

Mars, Jupiter und Saturn, die fernen Planeten, die haben die Wirkungen auf den Menschen — das heißt, ihre geistigen Wesenheiten haben die Wirkungen auf den Menschen -, die vorzugsweise in den Augen, in den Ohren, kurz, in den Sinnesorganen an der Oberfläche des Menschen leben. Während Mond, Venus, Merkur im Inneren des Menschen, in den inneren Organen ihre Wirkungen haben, haben Saturn, Jupiter, Mars außen in den Sinnesorganen ihre Wirkungen. Die Wirkungen zum Beispiel vom Saturn sitzen ganz wesentlich im menschlichen Auge. Diese Wesenheiten, also die Saturnwesenheiten, die Jupiterwesenheiten, die Marswesenheiten wollen den Menschen zum wirklichen Erdenmenschen machen, das heißt, sie wollen ihm Sinne geben, welche ordentlich eingesetzt sind einem physischen Menschenorganismus und an der Oberfläche bleiben. Sie wollen ihm Nerven geben, die von den Sinnen ausgehen und sich ins Innere hineinerstrecken. Saturn gibt die Sinne. Jupiter gibt dann die Nervenfortsetzungen der Sinne und Mars ist eine solche Gewalt, welche zum Beispiel die Sprache gibt. Also alles, was an der Oberfläche des Menschen ist, wollen diese Wesenheiten an den Menschen heranbringen. Es sind Einstülpungen der menschlichen Haut nach innen, diese Sinne und die Nerven.

Die Luft- und Feuerwesen, von denen ich Ihnen gesprochen habe, die aber kämpfen nun gegen Jupiter, Saturn und Mars wiederum einen Kampf bis aufs Messer. Sie sitzen in ihren Festungen in der Luft und sie entfalten insbesondere in den Blitzen, in all dem, was feurig ist, in der Luft ihre Gewalten. Und sie sind es, die den ganzen Menschen als physischen Menschen so machen möchten, wie eigentlich nur das Auge außen und das Ohr und die Nase sein dürfen, wie er an der Oberfläche sein soll. Sie möchten die Oberfläche durch den ganzen Menschen durchgießen, so daß der Mensch nichts anderes tun würde, als nur sehen und hören, daß er nichts essen und nichts trinken, sondern nur sehen und hören und ein engelartiges Wesen werden würde.

Nun, diese Wesen, die Marswesen, die Jupiterwesen, die Saturnwesen benehmen sich in der Tat in der äußeren Natur — wenn ich den Ausdruck gebrauchen darf von so erhabenen Wesen — ganz ordentlich. Sie durchdringen das, was uns in der äußeren Natur erscheint als bloße Natur, mit Moralität. Sie bringen die Moralität an den Menschen heran, sie zieht tatsächlich durch die Sinne ein.

Aber die Luft- und Feuerwesen, die wollen den Menschen ganz mit seiner Sinnennatur durchdringen, so daß er einfach, indem er mit seinen Sinnen sieht, nichts anderes sieht als das, was moralisch ist. Also sie wollen ihn zu einem moralischen Automaten machen.

Und so sehen Sie, wenn Sie in der Natur um sich schauen: Alles, was sich durch Kräfte äußert, das kommt von den Marswesen. Was sich äußert durch Naturgesetze, kommt von den Jupiterwesen, und was Farbe und Ton ist, von den Saturnwesen. Aber diese Wesenheiten, die Luft- und Feuerwesen, wollen den ganzen Menschen nicht zum physischen Leibe werden lassen, sondern nur zur Kraft, zum Gesetz, das heißt, zum Gedanken und zur Farbe und zum Ton. Sie wollen ihn ganz verdünnen, ihn, wie gesagt, zu einem engelartigen Wesen machen.

So sehen Sie, während sich in der äußeren Natur gut vertragen Mond, Merkur, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, und durch die Sonne im Gleichgewichte gehalten werden, führen sie für die menschliche Natur einen zweifachen Kampf auf. Erstens kämpfen die ahrimanischen und luziferischen Wesen gegeneinander; zweitens aber bekämpfen die luziferischen Wesen alles außerhalb der Sonne liegende Marshafte, Jupiterhafte, Saturnhafte; und dann wiederum bekämpfen die ahrimanischen Wesenheiten alles Mondhafte, Venushafte, Merkurhafte.

Hinter der Natur und im Menschen lebt also tatsächlich ein harter Kampf, und innerhalb dieses harten Kampfes muß sich der Mensch seinen Fortschritt und seine Freiheit erringen. Das hat er in älteren Zeiten getan durch die Lehre der alten Mysterien, das muß er in der jetzigen Zeit tun durch dasjenige, was durch geistige Forschung hervorgebracht werden kann über das, was hinter der Natur und unterhalb des Menschen ist. Denn unwissend sein mit Bezug auf diese Dinge, würde der Menschheit in der Zukunft zum größten Verderben gereichen müssen.

Sie sehen aus meiner Darstellung, daß diejenigen Wesen, die ich auch heute hier wiederum luziferische und ahrimanische Wesen genannt habe, in bezug auf gewisse Eigenschaften außerordentlich stark entwickelt sind, die luziferischen Wesenheiten in bezug auf Moralität, die ahrimanischen Wesenheiten in bezug auf Klugheit, Intelligenz. Und dennoch ist es so, daß diese Wesenheiten auf beiden Seiten immer wiieder und wieder glauben, daß sie ihre Ziele erreichen werden. Und immer von neuem beginnen sie, für diese ihre Ziele in der Weise zu kämpfen, wie ich Ihnen das heute dargestellt habe. In bezug auf das Erringen dieser Ziele erleben sie aber zugleich auf der Erde im weitesten Umkreise Enttäuschungen. So daß, wenn man durch das moderne Initiationswesen solchen luziferischen oder ahrimanischen Wesenheiten hinter der Natur oder unter dem Menschen begegnet, man sie in einem fortwährenden Siegestaumel auf der einen Seite trifft. Sie dringen vor zu ihren Zielen, wollen von ihnen nicht ablassen, glauben immer wieder und wiederum an ihren Sieg. Auf der anderen Seite aber werden sie von der Erde aus immer wieder enttäuscht. Und diese Stimmung eines gewissen Siegestaumels und fortwährender Enttäuschungen macht eigentlich das Leben dieser Art von Wesenheiten aus.

Und da stellt sich im einzelnen das Folgende heraus. Man kann zunächst aufmerksam darauf machen, wie die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten von der Erde aus durch die physische Wesenheit des Menschen enttäuscht werden. Man bekommt den stärksten Eindruck von den Enttäuschungen Ahrimans und Luzifers, wenn man in Krankenhäusern oder an Krankenbetten und in Irrenhäusern verweilt; denn durch beides erlebt Ahriman, erlebt Luzifer eben seine starken Enttäuschungen. Denn diese Wesenheiten führen einen harten Kampf, wie ich Ihnen gezeigt habe, um die Natur des Menschen. Aber es wird ihnen nicht wohl in bezug auf ihre Ziele, wenn sie innerhalb der menschlichen Natur gegeneinander einen Sieg erringen.

Etwas anderes ist es mit dem Siege, den Ahriman gegen die Mondgottheiten, Venusgottheit und Merkurgottheit erringt, und etwas anderes ist es um den Sieg, den die Luft- und Feuergeister gegen Jupiter, Mars, Saturn erringen. Das sind aber niemals vollständige Siege. Sie werden es nur dadurch, daß sie verstärkt werden durch das, was an Erfolg diese Wesenheiten gegeneinander haben. Aber eigentlich sind diese Erfolge, die diese Wesenheiten gegeneinander haben, in den weitaus meisten Fällen eben Scheinerfolge, und daher die Enttäuschung. Denn nehmen Sie einmal an, es gelingt den ahrimanischen Mächten, im menschlichen physischen Körper einen Sieg zu erringen über die luziferischen Mächte, über diejenigen Mächte, die den Menschen ganz durchsetzen wollen mit dem, was nur an der Oberfläche in den Sinnen sein soll, dann verfällt der Mensch durch diesen Sieg der ahrimanischen Mächte in solche Erkrankungen, wie Geschwulstbildungen, Karzinombildungen oder Stoffwechselkrankheiten, wie Diabetes, Zuckerkrankheit.

Wenn irgendwo in einer physischen Menschennatur diese Krankheiten auftreten, dann hat Ahriman gegen Luzifer einen Sieg errungen, der aber damit verknüpft ist, daß die physische Natur des Menschen zeitweilig ruiniert ist. Dann taugt diese physische Natur dem Ahriman nicht dazu, die Instinkte, Triebe herauszureißen und sein eigenes Geschlecht daraus zu bilden. Daraus bekommen Sie eine vielleicht paradoxe, aber richtige Ansicht von der Krankheit. Sie ist in vielen Fällen das einzige Mittel der guten Mächte, den Menschen vor den Fängen von Ahriman zu retten.

Und wenn Luzifer einen Sieg erringt in der menschlichen Natur, wenn also über die ahrimanischen Mächte, die den Menschen verhärten möchten, die ihn herunterziehen möchten in ihr Geschlecht von bloßen irdischen und Wasserwesen, luziferische Mächte einen Sieg erringen, so verfällt der Mensch in die empfindlichen katarrhalischen Krankheiten oder in irrsinnige Zustände. Wiederum wird dadurch dem Luzifer sein Sieg streitig gemacht.

Daher ist es, daß diese ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte fortwährend mit aller Kraft an dem Herbeiführen ihrer Siege arbeiten, daß sie aber eben traurig und enttäuscht werden an Krankenbetten, in Krankenhäusern und in Irrenhäusern. Denn da zeigt sich ihnen, daß sie zwar kämpfen können, daß sie aber unmöglich eigentlich siegen können.

Wenn Sie einen Einblick haben in die ätherische Natur des Menschen, nicht in die physische Natur bloß, sondern in die ätherische Natur, dann haben Sie da eben solche Bedingungen für Enttäuschungen der ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte, denn wenn im Ätherleibe die luziferischen Mächte über die ahrimanischen Mächte siegen, wird der Mensch zum Gewohnheitslügner. Aber indem der Mensch zum Gewohnheitslügner wird, wird er ja nicht moralisch, sondern er fällt gerade aus der Welt, in die ihn Luzifer hineinhaben möchte, heraus. Luzifer entreißt den Menschen scheinbar der Erdenwelt; aber er macht ihn statt zu einem moralischen Automaten zu einem Lügner. Und indem der Mensch zu einem Gewohnheitslügner wird, zu einem habituellen Lügner, ist in diesem Verlogenmachen des Menschen, so paradox es wiederum klingt, zunächst eine Waffe da der guten Mächte, um den Menschen Luzifer zu entreißen. Denn, daß der Mensch zum Lügner wird, kann dann im weiteren Verlaufe des Karma wenigstens ausgebessert werden, während, wenn Luzifer siegen würde, das Menschengeschlecht eben verlorengehen würde, hinaufgehoben würde von der Erde.

Und wenn im Ätherleibe Ahriman siegt, wenn er siegt oder nahe daran ist an seinem Siege, dann wird der Mensch ein Besessener, und er wird von der Klugheit innerlich besessen. Dadurch aber, daß er von der Klugheit innerlich besessen wird, bleibt die Klugheit in ihm. Sie hat ihn dann. Sie durchsetzt ihn dem Ätherleibe nach. Und wiederum kann Ahriman nicht die Instinkte und Triebe hinunterziehen, weil sie durch die Besessenheit im Ätherleibe sitzengeblieben sind.

So ist in weitem Umkreise durch den Erfolg der Lügenhaftigkeit und den Erfolg der Besessenheit beim Menschen ein fortwährender Grund da für die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte, ihren großen Enttäuschungen zu verfallen.

Und wiederum, wenn Sie auf den astralischen Leib hinschauen nehmen Sie an, in dem astralischen Leib siegen die ahrimanischen Mächte oder sie seien nahe daran, zu siegen —, dann kann der Mensch dadurch ein wüster Egoist werden, ganz egoistisch. Dadurch hält er aber, indem er wüst, egoistisch wird, seine Instinkte in sich zusammen. Ahriman kriegt sie nicht zum Herausziehen. Und auf diese Weise entgeht auch gerade durch die wüsten Egoisten dem Ahriman seine Beute.

Und wiederum, siegt Luzifer, oder ist er nahe daran, zu siegen, so kann der Mensch übergehen in seinem astralischen Leibe zu dem, was man einen Ich-losen Träumer nennt, der eigentlich gar nicht recht bei sich ist. Solche Dinge gibt es; mindestens kann der Mensch zeitweilig solchen Zuständen unterworfen sein. Dann ist das wiederum die große Enttäuschung für die luziferischen Mächte. So sehen Sie, wie viele Quellen der Enttäuschung es für die ahrimanischen und die luziferischen Mächte auf der Erde gibt.

Aber Sie sehen daraus zugleich, worinnen der Mensch eigentlich steht. Er stand schon in alten Zeiten, als die alten Initiationsmysterien bestanden, in diesem Kampfe hinter der physischen Welt drinnen. Da waren es die Boten des Vatergottes, welche die Lehrer der Mysterien waren, die ersten großen Lehrer der Mysterien. Von ihnen waren die Schüler die Gurus, und von diesen waren wieder die Schüler die Chelas, die untergeordneten Schüler. Aber die höchsten Gurus hatten ja ihre Unterweisungen unmittelbar von den Gottesboten, von den Boten des Vatergottes. Und weil Krankheiten, wie ich es Ihnen geschildert habe, die Quellen der großen Enttäuschungen sind für Ahriman und Luzifer, weil Luzifer und Ahriman gewissermaßen durch die Krankheiten betäubt werden in ihren Enttäuschungen — so ungeheuer gescheite und moralische Wesen die ahrimanischen und luziferischen Wesen sind, unterliegen sie dann, weil ihr Bewußtsein ein besonders klares, helles ist, um so mehr der Umnebelung —, so konnten gegenüber den Krankheiten die Götterboten, ungestört von Ahriman und Luzifer, die Heilmittel finden, so wie ich es Ihnen das letzte Mal gesagt habe, wie man mit den Mondmitteln die Saturnschäden kuriert und dergleichen.

Das war in den alten Mysterien, wo unmittelbar die Boten des Vatergottes den Menschen aus der Verwirrung reißen konnten, in die er gestellt ist durch den Kampf hinter der Natur und unter dem Menschen, von dem ich Ihnen erzählt habe.

In der neueren Zeit ist die Verwirrung, der der Mensch da gegenübersteht, keine geringere als in alten Zeiten. Und daß der Mensch mit seinem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein nichts davon weiß, das macht nichts aus, die Verwirrung ist dennoch da. Der Mensch wird hin- und hergerissen in dem Kampfe, der da um ihn aufgeführt wird hinter der Natur und unter ihm.

Und wenn man dann die Schwelle überschreitet, hineinschaut mit Bewußtsein in die geistige Welt und in diesen furchtbaren Kampf, wenn man dieses verwirrende Spiel um den Menschen hinter der Natur und unter ihm beobachtet, dann schaut man in der Gegenwart vergeblich nach diesen Gottesboten aus, die zum Beispiel den alten Mysterienärzten den Merkurstab in die Hand gegeben haben und ähnliche Symbole für das Heilen. Man kommt überhaupt nicht mehr zurecht gegenüber jenem ungeheuren Kampfe, der geführt wird zwischen den zurückgebliebenen oberen Wesen, den zurückgebliebenen Mars-, Jupiter-, Saturnwesen und den zurückgebliebenen unteren Wesen, den Mondwesen, Venuswesen, Merkurwesen. Und tatsächlich ist es so, daß, wenn Sie die Schwelle überschreiten, Sie hineingestellt sind in diesen furchtbaren Kampf der oberen Mächte mit den unteren Mächten. Wie zwei Heereslager stehen sich gegenüber die Luft- und Feuerwesen als unrecht geratene Saturn-, Jupiter-, Marswesen, die Erd-Wasserwesen als unrecht geratene Mond-, Venus-, Merkurwesen. Und der Kampf spielt sich ab jenseits der Schwelle in einer furchtbaren Art, so daß die Sonne zuerst ganz feurig wird, dann verdunkelt wird und zum Schlusse einem erscheint wie eine furchtbare schwarze Scheibe.

So war es bei den alten Eingeweihten nicht. Die sahen dann durch die schwarz gewordene Scheibe hindurch. Und gerade aus dieser schwarz gewordenen Scheibe kamen ihnen die Gottesboten des Vaters entgegen, die zum Beispiel die Träger der Heilkunde in alten Zeiten waren.

Wir Neueren überschreiten die Schwelle, und es steht da allerdings auch dieser furchtbare Kampf. Die Sonne wird rot, die Sonne wird schwarz, aber sie bleibt eine schwarze Scheibe. Und wir sind zurückgewiesen und müssen, um uns zurechtzufinden in diesem verwirrenden Kampfe, auf der Erde selber suchen.

Da, da werden wir an den Christus gewiesen, der dann als geistiges Wesen, das sich mit der Erde verbunden hat durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, dasteht und einem sagt: Verzweifle nicht darüber, daß die Sonne schwarz geworden ist; sie ist schwarz geworden, weil ich, der Sonnengott, nicht mehr in ihr bin, sondern heruntergestiegen bin und mich mit der Erde verbunden habe. — Und wenn man dann mit aller inneren Hingebung, mit geschärfter Erkenntnis dessen, was eben durch das Wissen von dem Mysterium von Golgatha kommt, an den Christus herantritt, dann wird einem zwar die Sonne nicht wieder hell - sie bleibt eine schwarze Scheibe —, aber sie beginnt einem alles, was der Christus einem sagt, hörbar zu machen, und man erfährt die Verwandtschaft des Christus mit der Sonne. Die Sonne wird gewissermaßen, obwohl sie eine schwarze Scheibe bleibt, zu demjenigen Wesen, das einen befähigt, auf den Christus hinzuhören, wenn man sich zunächst durch ein richtiges seelisches Verhältnis zu ihm herangebildet hat.

Und der Christus ist es dann, der in dem Menschen die Mittel angibt, wie man die oberen Mächte mit den unteren Mächten versöhnt; wie man das, was oberhalb der schwarzen Sonnenscheibe ist an denjenigen Mächten, welche als Luft- und Feuerwesen um unsere Erde herum sich kundgeben, versöhnt mit dem, was sich als untere Wesen kundgibt. Und man erlangt dann gerade als Mensch Leitsätze sowohl für das Heilen von Krankheiten wie für das Verständnis all der anderen Übel, welche Luzifer und Ahriman immer enttäuschen. Und man gelangt dazu, durch die Kraft des Christus und durch die Kraft des Mysteriums von Golgatha das, ich möchte sagen, Wunderbare sagen zu können: Ihr Geschöpfe Ahrimans und Luzifers, ihr werdet enttäuscht durch Übel, die durch euch auf Erden entstehen müssen, indem ihr gerade zu euren Siegen, zu euren partiellen Siegen kommt. Diese eure Enttäuschungen, die müssen immer wieder kommen, denn immer wiederum werdet ihr Kranke und Besessene und Lügner und Selbstsüchtige und Ich-lose erzeugen. Und so werdet ihr von Freudentaumel zur traurigsten Enttäuschung eilen.

Aber dem Erdenmenschen ist, wenn er das rechte Verhältnis zum Christus findet, selbst dieses an die Hand gegeben, in dem Momente nicht zu verzweifeln, wo er die Verzweiflung höherer Wesen, als er selber ist, findet, höherer Wesen, die aber eben einen anderen Weg gehen wollen als diejenigen Gotteswesen, denen der Mensch zugehört und denen er treu bleiben soll im weiteren Erdenverlaufe. Der Mittelpunkt dieser Gotteswesen ist eben das Christuswesen, das einstmals durch die Sonnenscheibe zu den alten Eingeweihten gesprochen hat, das von der Erde aus mit Hilfe der Sonne nun weiter zu uns spricht; so daß wir, wenn wir von dem Christus heute sprechen, von demjenigen sprechen, der uns auf der Erde zur Seite treten kann als der Führer, der uns herausführt aus dem furchtbaren Widerstreit der ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte untereinander und gegen die oberen und unteren Götterwelten.

Experiences of the human soul in sleep and after death in the spiritual world II

I will have to tell you something about the spiritual powers and beings which live supersensibly in the surroundings of man and have a share in his earthly existence. You will understand that everything that happens between spiritual beings in the supersensible world and what such spiritual beings have to do with each other differs from what people tend to do during their earthly existence, and that it is therefore actually difficult to speak in human language, which is created for human conditions, about the nature and the activities of the supersensible intelligences, let us say, the supersensible beings. But since it must be done in our time, it must be done figuratively. And you will understand that some expressions are coined as if they were based on human circumstances. It does describe the right thing, but of course, since it is taken from human circumstances, it is figurative.

As human beings we have nature around us, nature with its various kingdoms, with the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, and we can also say with the physical human kingdom. What we have around us as nature has a second nature behind it, so to speak, but a spiritual, a supersensible nature. Man perceives ordinary nature with his senses. He does not perceive the supersensible nature behind it, but it still has a great influence on his earthly existence.

The second thing to consider is that man has a physical nature within him, that when he looks into his inner being he perceives this physical nature as his instincts, as his passions. All this is of course astral, but it flows up from the physical nature. What man perceives in himself in this way through his instincts, drives, passions, this in turn has something, we can now say, beneath it, a realm of beings, so to speak, which have an intimate relationship to man, but which are of a sub-human nature. So that when we look around us with our senses we see, as it were, the surface of nature, the outside of nature, behind which we must sense the supersensible nature. And when we look into ourselves and perceive ourselves through our drives, instincts, passions, then we must sense a sub-sensible nature beneath that which expresses itself within us. The supersensible nature, the nature that is around us, can only be judged by those who, equipped with spiritual insight, do not direct their gaze, as natural science does, to that which runs within the strict laws of nature. The supersensible nature behind nature will never be revealed in what natural science can investigate in this way. However, this is revealed when one sharpens one's spiritual eye for that which is not lawful, but which is usually said to be subject to chance.

In the world around us, everything that manifests itself in the weather, in the irregularities of the atmosphere during the course of the year, is subject to chance. If you consider the details of, say, a London fog, you will be able to trace them back to certain rules on the whole, but not in detail. In the particulars of those things which signify wind and weather, it is said that they are subject to chance. -- And even if you find written in the newspapers what the weather will be like in the near future, you will not rely on it with the same certainty as on the fact that the sun will rise the next morning. Natural laws are therefore something quite different from what manifests itself in wind and weather, and what in a certain sense is initially described by people as coincidence in natural phenomena. One can acquire a certain prophetic gift for weather phenomena. But this cannot be brought to the laws of nature; it is something inspired or intuitive.

Now, in everything that expresses itself in wind and weather there live beings that are only not seen because they have no body that is visible to the senses, which are peculiar to earth beings. However, these beings that live in wind and weather do exist. They have a body that consists only of air and heat, that has no water, no liquid and no solid earth in it. They have a body that consists only of air and heat.

This body forms, dissolves, undergoes rapid transformations. What you see in cloud formations, what you feel in wind formations, is only an external expression of this, these are more the actions of these beings. The body is more behind it; but it is a body of air and heat. So that, when we look out into our atmosphere, into the circumference of the earth in which we are as human beings, we have around us a world of beings that are air and warmth beings. These air and heat beings are of the kind that I have often called Luciferic beings in my writings and lectures.

These luciferic beings have a very special striving in relation to human beings. Although they live in weather that is often unpleasant for us, they are beings who are extraordinarily attached to the moral element in the human social order. They are so strongly attached to the moral element that they believe that man should not have a real physical body at all; at least man should not have a body in which earthly and watery nature are found. They would like to have man shaped in their way, because then they would make him completely into moral beings without him having any freedom in it. He would have no physical nature at all. He would be a moral being all by himself. And in the course of a year these entities constantly fight in the most terrible way to tear man away from earth, to get him into their sphere, to make him alien to earth and earthless. These entities are particularly dangerous to all enthusiastic people who are inclined towards a misty mysticism. These rapturous people who are predisposed to misty mysticism very easily fall prey to these beings who want to lead people away from the earth, who want to give them a kind of angelic being so that they do not succumb to any temptations towards immorality.

As strange and paradoxical as it sounds, in these powers, which express themselves in wind and weather and which pulsate through the air in wind and weather, we have those beings who hate human freedom above all else and who want to know nothing of human freedom, who want to destroy human freedom, but who want to turn people into moral automatons, into nothing but good angelic beings. And they fight, if I may use an earthly expression, “to the death” to achieve this.

Now, however, opposite these beings who build their fortresses in the air, so to speak - don't misunderstand the expression, I said I had to express myself figuratively - opposite these beings we have others whom I already mentioned last time in a certain context. They are those beings who have something to do with the instincts, drives, desires and passions that express themselves in man. But these entities are not inside the human being. Only their effects are inside the human being. These entities live directly on earth, but in such a way that man cannot see them, because they never get a body formed in such a way that man can see them. For they only have one body, which lives in the earthly and in the watery element. And their actions on earth are the ebb and flow, the volcanic phenomena, the earthquake-like phenomena. These phenomena, which natural science, as you know, is also extraordinarily perplexed by, reveal to the spiritually sharpened eye a world of sub-human entities as what lies behind them. And these sub-human entities are under the control of those powers that I always call the ahrimanic powers in other contexts. And these ahrimanic powers with their various sub-spirits - up to the goblin-like appearances these sub-spirits are contained in the earthly and watery elements of the earth - these ahrimanic entities have now, so to speak, set themselves another task. If you look at all these entities, you cannot be angry with them. How could one be angry with the Luciferian entities? They want the very best, namely to make man a moral, self-evident being. But under their influence he would never be able to be a free being, but a moral automaton. But they want the best for man. The other entities have their fortresses, so to speak, directly below the earth's surface, but their effects go up into the human metabolism. And what you see rising as ebb and flow, or what you see less frequently in volcanic or earthquake-like effects, is always present in an ebb and flow in the metabolism of man. These are the ahrimanic effects.

So while the Luciferic spirits build their fortresses in the air to fight against the earthly for the moral, these entities fight to harden man, to make him like themselves. This would make him infinitely clever in the material world; he would become infinitely clever, incredibly intelligent. These entities cannot achieve this directly, they want to achieve it indirectly. That is why their truly millennia-old efforts in earthly life have already succeeded in training a whole race of such sub-human beings. They do this by seizing the instinctive nature of human beings when this instinctive nature is particularly wild and strong; to a certain extent they seize this instinctive nature. The human being is then enslaved to these ahrimanic powers during his lifetime.

If the human being is enslaved to the ahrimanic powers during his life, so that he is completely given over to his passions, instincts, drives, that he is a wild human being, then they can tear this out after death. And in this way there is already a whole population, a sub-human population of the earth. It is really there, it is there in the water and in the earthly.

And when we ask what the ahrimanic beings intend to do with this sub-human population, it is that they think: Now I will draw this instinctive nature out of a human being; I will make an earthly-watery being out of it. - These earthly-watery beings actually populate the layer that lies immediately below the earth's surface. They are in there. Those people who can look into mines know these beings very well. They are entities that are there because they have been snatched away from man at the moment of death. And there Ahriman, there the Ahrimanic powers are waiting for people to come down once in such an incarnation through a karma that is brought about by instincts, drives, passions, that they come down, that they now like such a being particularly well, that people say in a certain life on earth: I do not want to go back into the spiritual world, I want, after I have left my physical body, from which one nevertheless goes out again to a supersensible life, to embody myself in such a sub-sensible being. In return, I remain united with the earth. I no longer die, I remain united with the earth. I choose to be a sub-sensible being.

And indeed, as paradoxical as it sounds - one has to be astonished about it, because the ahrimanic beings are extraordinarily clever - but they are always of the opinion, one can state this quite correctly, that they will be able to lure so many people into their race in this way that the earth will one day populate itself with all such ahrimanic subhuman beings. And in this way they want to make the earth itself immortal so that it does not scatter in the universe.

So we actually have two hosts in our earthly human environment, the host in the air, which would like to make man moral but would lift him away from the earth, and the ahrimanic entities immediately below the earth's surface, which would like to pull man down, which would always keep him attached to the earth

These two kinds of entities are in the mineral kingdom, in the vegetable kingdom, in the animal kingdom and also in the ordinary physical kingdom of man. In so far as he does not live excessively in impulses, in passions, in desires, they are there in such a way that they must get along with each other.

With regard to the mineral kingdom, I would like to say that the deity who is called the father deity in the Christian religion, for example, has established peace in ancient times with regard to the minerals, plants, animals and also the outwardly animal-physical human being. So in minerals, in plants, in animals and also in the animal nature of man, which is not taken up into the soul, where man does not allow himself to be infected by his instincts, desires and passions, peace has been established by the Father God in ancient times.

So if you take a crystal, a mineral or a plant in your hand, you will not notice that there is conflict between these two kinds of beings. But the moment you consider the interpenetration of the human body with the soul, you will see that these beings relate to each other in such a way that the Luciferic beings say to the Ahrimanic beings: We have promised the Father God that we will not fight over minerals, plants, animals and also over man, as long as he was still an unconscious old being who did not yet think, who himself lived like an animal, that we will not fight over them, but over man, who has attained his self-consciousness, we will fight to the death. - And there is a terrible war between the air-fire beings and the earth-water beings over the human being. And that is what we must look into. Today mankind has become great with regard to the knowledge of outer nature. Yes, in it the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings get along. But man knows nothing of that which lives beyond the world of the senses, of the supersensible nature and of the subhuman nature. These two realms contain entities that fight this terrible battle for man, which I have characterized for you.

The entity which is called Yahweh in the Old Testament, this entity - if one may use the expression, I have said in the beginning how I use these expressions - has its seat in the moon, that is, it belongs in the cosmos as a spiritual being to that which has its expression in the physical lunar phenomena. This lunar being, i.e. Yahweh, now has the following task in the world order. Above all, if I may say so, it is charged with bringing man, who descends from the spiritual-soul world to earth in order to clothe himself with a body, down to earth. But this Yahweh entity reserves the right to also have something to do with people on earth, namely to regulate everything that relates to the powers of reproduction. So this Yahweh entity, which has its seat in the moon, so to speak, leads man down to earth and wants to control through itself everything in man that is connected with the instincts and drives of the reproductive being. But the reproductive being cannot be controlled on its own. It is connected to the other instincts and drives of the human being. And that is why the Yahweh entity needs helpers. And the entities that the Yahweh entity needs as helpers, so that, for example, the instincts in man that are connected with eating and drinking are in harmony with the reproductive instincts, so that the drives and instincts in general are regulated, Yahweh - if I may call him that - the moon god, finds these auxiliary beings in Mercury and Venus.

So we have, so to speak, an alliance in the spiritual universe between the moon, the Yahweh entity in the moon and all that co-inhabits the moon with Yahweh, and the entities in Mercury and Venus. The entities that are in this alliance actually want to control everything that is carnal and of the blood within the human being from the Moon, Mercury and Venus. Man is not merely an earthly being, but the effects from the universe play into him.

If we now consider those beings whom I earlier called the ahrimanic beings and who have their stronghold immediately below the surface of the earth and who are earthly and water beings, they stand in relation to Yahweh, to the Mercury and Venus beings in that they have not become mature enough to come to these world bodies in the way that Yahweh inhabits the moon, or his helpers inhabit Mercury or Venus. They are condemned in the world order not to have their seats in the Moon, Venus, Mercury, but under the surface of the Earth. You can therefore imagine that these beings, although they lack all morality, not only wage war against the air-fire beings, but above all against Yahweh, the Venus powers and the Mercury powers, and want to wrest from him that which is Yahweh's rightful dominion. Yahweh is precisely the controller of the instinctive human nature. But by regulating it from outside the earth, it remains subject to a power other than the moral powers, but it would not become immoral. Through Yahweh's rightful rule, the human race on earth has become as we know it. These powers of the moon, Mercury and Venus were necessary for this.

Against Yahweh's race, which is therefore the human race, these ahrimanic beings establish this other race of which I have spoken to you. And an essential means for them is what I have already characterized for you here last time. They approach man while he is asleep and tell him that good is evil and evil is good. Man absorbs this with terrible ease while he sleeps and then brings it into his physical and etheric body. And these ahrimanic entities believe they can achieve their goal through these whispers of nefarious evil, so that we can say: Man should actually be completely dependent on higher powers, on the powers of the moon, Venus and Mercury, with regard to his lower nature. The lower nature is not in itself evil and low; it is so because in it the powers hostile to Yahweh penetrate man in the way described. Yahweh wants these entities to express themselves only in ebb and flow, in volcanic phenomena, in earthquakes. But these entities make every effort to assert themselves also in man, and are therefore in their fortress not only in such a way that they make attacks against the air and fire beings, but they preferably make their attacks against Yahweh and his helpers on Venus and on Mercury.

So man stands in a fight in it, which is led on the one side by Yahweh and his hosts, who fight there for justice in the universe. And on the other side are the hosts of Ahriman, who is far superior to man in terms of his cleverness, who wants to completely deny the moral nature, but instead wants to turn man into an automaton of cleverness.

There you have that which plays in man from below, I would like to say, from the earth and the water and which extends into man through the fact that man must eat the products which come from the earth and the water. He does not nourish himself from the air, nor from mere warmth.

On the other side are the beings who have their physicality in air and warmth. They are just as immature beings as the beings hostile to Yahweh. But those beings who represent the state of maturity towards them dwell on Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. So that now these air-fire beings not only make attacks from their fortresses in the air against the ahrimanic powers, but that they fight against everything that is to be exerted in effects by Mars, Jupiter, Saturn on man.

Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the distant planets, have the effects on man - that is, their spiritual entities have the effects on man - which preferably live in the eyes, in the ears, in short, in the sense organs on the surface of man. While the Moon, Venus and Mercury have their effects inside the human being, in the inner organs, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars have their effects outside in the sense organs. The effects of Saturn, for example, are essentially located in the human eye. These entities, i.e. the Saturn entities, the Jupiter entities, the Mars entities, want to make the human being a real earthly human being, that is, they want to give him senses that are properly used in a physical human organism and remain on the surface. They want to give him nerves that emanate from the senses and extend into the interior. Saturn gives the senses. Jupiter then gives the nerve processes of the senses and Mars is such a force that gives speech, for example. So everything that is on the surface of the human being, these entities want to bring to the human being. They are inward invaginations of the human skin, these senses and the nerves.

But the air and fire beings I have spoken to you about are now fighting Jupiter, Saturn and Mars to the death. They sit in their fortresses in the air and they unfold their powers especially in the lightning, in all that is fiery, in the air. And it is they who want to make the whole person as a physical human being into what only the eye on the outside and the ear and nose are actually allowed to be, into what he should be on the surface. They would like to pour the surface through the whole human being so that the human being would do nothing but only see and hear, that he would eat nothing and drink nothing but only see and hear and become an angel-like being.

Well, these beings, the Martian beings, the Jupiter beings, the Saturnian beings do indeed behave quite properly in the outer nature - if I may use the expression of such sublime beings. They permeate what appears to us in outer nature as mere nature with morality. They bring morality to man, it actually enters through the senses.

But the air and fire beings, they want to permeate man completely with his sense nature, so that he simply, by seeing with his senses, sees nothing other than what is moral. So they want to turn him into a moral automaton.

And so you see when you look around you in nature: Everything that expresses itself through forces comes from the Martian beings. What expresses itself through natural laws comes from the Jupiter beings, and what is color and sound comes from the Saturn beings. But these beings, the air and fire beings, do not want the whole human being to become a physical body, but only a force, a law, that is, a thought and a color and a sound. They want to dilute him completely, to make him, as I said, into an angelic being.

So you see, while in external nature the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn get on well together and are kept in balance by the Sun, for human nature they wage a twofold battle. Firstly, the ahrimanic and luciferic beings fight against each other; secondly, the luciferic beings fight against everything Mars-like, Jupiter-like and Saturn-like that lies outside the sun; and then again the ahrimanic beings fight against everything Moon-like, Venus-like and Mercury-like.

There is indeed a hard struggle behind nature and within man, and within this hard struggle man must gain his progress and his freedom. This he did in older times through the teachings of the ancient Mysteries, this he must do in the present time through that which can be brought forth through spiritual research about that which is behind nature and below man. For to be ignorant of these things would be the greatest ruin to mankind in the future.

You can see from my description that those beings, which I have again called Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings here today, are extraordinarily strongly developed with regard to certain qualities, the Luciferic beings with regard to morality, the Ahrimanic beings with regard to wisdom and intelligence. And yet it is the case that these entities on both sides believe again and again that they will achieve their goals. And again and again they begin to fight for their goals in the way I have described to you today. At the same time, however, they experience disappointments on earth in the widest possible circle with regard to the attainment of these goals. So that when one encounters such Luciferic or Ahrimanic entities behind nature or among human beings through the modern initiatory being, one meets them in a perpetual state of triumph on the one side. They advance towards their goals, do not want to let go of them, believe again and again in their victory. On the other hand, however, they are repeatedly disappointed from earth. And this mood of a certain elation of victory and constant disappointments actually constitutes the life of this kind of beings.

And here the following emerges in detail. We can first draw attention to how the Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities from earth are disappointed by the physical entity of man. One gets the strongest impression of the disappointments of Ahriman and Lucifer when one stays in hospitals or at sickbeds and in asylums; for through both Ahriman and Lucifer experience their strong disappointments. For these entities, as I have shown you, are fighting a hard battle for the nature of man. But they will not be well with regard to their goals if they achieve a victory against each other within human nature.

The victory that Ahriman achieves against the moon deities, Venus deity and Mercury deity is something else, and the victory that the air and fire spirits achieve against Jupiter, Mars and Saturn is something else. But these are never complete victories. They only become so because they are strengthened by the success these entities have against each other. But actually these successes that these entities have against each other are, in the vast majority of cases, just sham successes, and hence the disappointment. For suppose that the ahrimanic powers succeed in gaining a victory in the human physical body over the Luciferic powers, over those powers that want to completely impose themselves on the human being with that which is only supposed to be on the surface in the senses, then the human being falls into such diseases as tumor formations, carcinoma formations or metabolic diseases such as diabetes, diabetes.

If these diseases occur somewhere in a physical human nature, then Ahriman has won a victory against Lucifer, but this is linked to the fact that the physical nature of the human being is temporarily ruined. Then this physical nature is not suitable for Ahriman to tear out the instincts and drives and to form his own sex from them. This gives you a perhaps paradoxical but correct view of the disease. It is in many cases the only means of the good powers to save man from the clutches of Ahriman.

And when Lucifer wins a victory in human nature, when Luciferian powers win a victory over the Ahrimanic powers that want to harden man, that want to drag him down into their race of mere earthly and water beings, then man falls into the sensitive catarrhal diseases or into insane states. Again, this denies Lucifer his victory.

Therefore it is that these ahrimanic and luciferic powers continually work with all their strength to bring about their victories, but that they become sad and disappointed at sickbeds, in hospitals and in insane asylums. For there they realize that although they can fight, it is impossible for them to actually win.

If you have an insight into the etheric nature of man, not just into the physical nature, but into the etheric nature, then you have just such conditions for disappointments of the ahrimanic and luciferic powers, because when the luciferic powers triumph over the ahrimanic powers in the etheric body, man becomes a habitual liar. But by becoming a habitual liar, man does not become moral, but falls out of the very world into which Lucifer wants him to enter. Lucifer seemingly snatches man from the earthly world; but instead of making him a moral automaton, he turns him into a liar. And by making man a habitual liar, a habitual liar, this lying of man, paradoxical as it may sound, is first of all a weapon of the good powers to wrest man from Lucifer. For the fact that man becomes a liar can then at least be corrected in the further course of karma, whereas if Lucifer were to triumph, the human race would be lost, lifted up from the earth.

And when Ahriman is victorious in the etheric body, when he is victorious or close to his victory, then man becomes possessed, and he becomes inwardly possessed by wisdom. But because he is inwardly possessed by wisdom, wisdom remains in him. It then possesses him. It permeates him according to the etheric body. And again, Ahriman cannot pull down the instincts and impulses because they have remained in the etheric body through the possession.

Thus, the success of lying and the success of possession in humans is a constant reason for the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers to fall prey to their great disappointments.

And again, if you look at the astral body - assuming that in the astral body the Ahrimanic powers are victorious or are close to being victorious - then man can become a fierce egoist, completely selfish. But by becoming wild and selfish, he keeps his instincts within himself. Ahriman cannot get them out. And in this way, it is precisely through the wild egoists that Ahriman escapes his prey.

And again, if Lucifer wins, or is close to winning, then the human being in his astral body can become what is called an egoless dreamer, who is actually not really with himself. Such things do exist; at least the human being can be temporarily subject to such states. This, in turn, is a great disappointment for the Luciferian powers. So you can see how many sources of disappointment there are for the Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers on earth.

But you can also see from this where man actually stands. Already in ancient times, when the old initiation mysteries existed, he stood in this struggle behind the physical world. There it was the messengers of the Father God who were the teachers of the Mysteries, the first great teachers of the Mysteries. From them the disciples were the gurus, and from them again the disciples were the chelas, the subordinate disciples. But the highest gurus received their teachings directly from the messengers of God, from the messengers of God the Father. And because illnesses, as I have described to you, are the sources of great disappointments for Ahriman and Lucifer, because Lucifer and Ahriman are, as it were, stunned in their disappointments by the illnesses - as tremendously clever and moral beings as the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings are, they are then, because their consciousness is a particularly clear, bright one, all the more subject to the fog - so the messengers of the gods, undisturbed by Ahriman and Lucifer, could find the remedies for the diseases, just as I told you last time how Saturn's damage is cured with the lunar remedies and the like.

That was in the ancient Mysteries, where the messengers of the Father God could immediately tear man out of the confusion in which he is placed by the struggle behind nature and among man, of which I have told you.

In modern times, the confusion that man faces is no less than in ancient times. And it does not matter that man with his ordinary consciousness knows nothing of it, the confusion is still there. Man is torn to and fro in the battle that is waged around him behind nature and beneath him.

And when one then crosses the threshold, looks with consciousness into the spiritual world and into this terrible battle, when one observes this confusing play about man behind nature and below him, then one looks in vain in the present for these messengers of God who, for example, gave the ancient mystery doctors the staff of Mercury and similar symbols for healing. One can no longer cope at all with the tremendous battle that is being waged between the backward upper beings, the backward Mars, Jupiter and Saturn beings and the backward lower beings, the Moon beings, Venus beings and Mercury beings. And it is indeed the case that when you cross the threshold, you are placed in this terrible battle between the upper powers and the lower powers. Like two army camps, the air and fire beings stand opposite each other as unjust Saturn, Jupiter and Mars beings, the earth-water beings as unjust Moon, Venus and Mercury beings. And the battle takes place beyond the threshold in a terrible way, so that the sun first becomes completely fiery, then darkens and finally appears like a terrible black disk.

This was not the case with the ancient initiates. They saw through the black disk. And it was precisely from this black disk that the messengers of God the Father came to meet them, who were, for example, the bearers of healing in ancient times.

We moderns cross the threshold, and there is also this terrible battle. The sun turns red, the sun turns black, but it remains a black disk. And we are rejected and, in order to find our way in this confusing battle, we have to search for ourselves on earth.

There, we are directed to the Christ, who then stands there as a spiritual being who has united himself with the earth through the Mystery of Golgotha and tells us: Do not despair that the sun has become black; it has become black because I, the sun god, am no longer in it, but have descended and united myself with the earth. - And when one then approaches the Christ with all inner devotion, with a sharpened realization of what comes through the knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha, then the sun does not become bright again - it remains a black disc - but it begins to make audible to one everything that the Christ says to one, and one experiences the relationship of the Christ to the sun. The sun, although it remains a black disc, becomes, so to speak, the being that enables you to listen to the Christ if you have first formed the right spiritual relationship with him.

And it is then the Christ who gives the means in man how to reconcile the upper powers with the lower powers; how to reconcile that which is above the black sun disk of those powers which manifest themselves as air and fire beings around our earth with that which manifests itself as lower beings. And then, as a human being, one acquires guiding principles for the healing of illnesses as well as for the understanding of all the other evils that always disappoint Lucifer and Ahriman. And through the power of the Christ and through the power of the Mystery of Golgotha, one is able to say, I would say, the miraculous: You creatures of Ahriman and Lucifer, you are disappointed by evils that must arise through you on earth, by coming precisely to your victories, to your partial victories. These disappointments of yours must come again and again, for again and again you will produce the sick and the possessed and the liars and the selfish and the egoless. And so you will rush from elation to the saddest disappointment.

But earthly man, when he finds the right relationship to Christ, is himself given this to hand, not to despair in the moment where he finds the despair of higher beings than he himself is, higher beings, but who just want to go a different way than those God beings to whom man belongs and to whom he is to remain loyal in the further course of earth. The center of these divine beings is precisely the Christ being, who once spoke to the ancient initiates through the solar disc, who now continues to speak to us from earth with the help of the sun; so that when we speak of the Christ today, we speak of the one who can stand by our side on earth as the guide who leads us out of the terrible conflict of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers with each other and against the upper and lower worlds of the gods.