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Man and the World of Stars
GA 219

1 December 1922, Dornach

II. Moral Qualities and the Life After Death. Windows of the Earth

The essential purpose of the lectures I have been giving here for some weeks past was to show how through his spiritual life man partakes in what we may call the world of the Stars, just as through his physical life on Earth he partakes in earthly existence, earthly happenings. In the light of the outlook acquired through Anthroposophy we distinguish in man the forces that lie in his physical body and in his etheric or formative-forces body, and those that lie in his Ego and his astral body. You know, of course, that these two sides of his being are separated whenever he sleeps. And now we will think for a short time of a man while he is asleep. On the one side the physical body and the etheric body lie there in a state of unconsciousness; but the Ego and the astral body are also without consciousness.

We may now ask: Are these two unconscious sides of human nature also related during sleep?—We know indeed that in the waking state, where the ordinary consciousness of modern man functions, the two sides are related through thinking, through feeling and through willing. We must therefore picture to ourselves that when the Ego and astral body plunge down, as it were, into the etheric body and the physical body, thinking, feeling, and willing arise from this union.

Now when man is asleep, thinking, feeling, and willing cease. But when we consider his physical body we shall have to say: All the forces which, according to our human observation belong to Earth-existence are active in this physical body. This physical body can be weighed; put it on scales and it will prove to have a certain weight. We can investigate how material processes take their course within it—or at least we can imagine hypothetically that this is possible. We should find in it material processes that are a continuation of those processes to be found outside in Earth-existence; these continue within man's physical body in the process of nutrition. In his physical body we should also find what is achieved through the breathing process. It is only what proceeds from the head-organization of man, all that belongs to the system of senses and nerves, that is either dimmed or plunged in complete darkness during sleep.

If we then pass on to consider the etheric body which permeates the physical, it is by no means so easy to understand how this etheric body works during sleep. Anyone, however, who is already versed to a certain extent in what Spiritual Science has to say about man will realize without difficulty how through his etheric body the human being lives, even while asleep, amid all the conditions of the ether-world and all the etheric forces surrounding existence on Earth. So that we can say: Within the physical body of man while he is asleep, everything that belongs to Earth-existence is active. So too in the etheric body all that belongs to the ether-world enveloping and permeating the Earth is active.

But matters become more difficult when we turn our attention—naturally our soul's attention—to what is now (during sleep) outside the physical and etheric bodies, namely, to the Ego and astral body of man. We cannot possibly accept the idea that this has anything to do with the physical Earth, or with what surrounds and permeates the Earth as ether. As to what takes place during sleep, I indicated it to you in a more descriptive way in the lectures given here a short time ago, and I will outline it today from a different point of view. We can in reality only understand what goes on in the Ego and astral body of man when with the help of Spiritual Science we penetrate into what takes place on and around the Earth over and above the physical and etheric forces and activities.

To begin with, we turn our gaze upon the plant-world. Speaking in the general sense and leaving out of account evergreen trees and the like—we see the plant-world sprouting out of the Earth in spring. We see the plants becoming richer and richer in color, more luxuriant, and then in autumn fading away again. In a certain sense we see them disappear from the Earth when the Earth is covered with snow.

But that is only one aspect of the unfolding of the plant-world. Physical knowledge tells us that this unfolding of the plant-world in spring and its fading towards autumn is connected with the Sun, also that, for example, the green coloring of the plants can be produced only under the influence of sunlight. Physical knowledge, therefore, shows us what comes about in the realm of physical effects; but it does not show us that while all the budding, the blossoming and withering of the plants is going on, spiritual events are also taking place. In reality, just as in the physical human organism there is for example the circulation of the blood, just as etheric processes express themselves in the physical organism as vascular action and so forth, and just as this physical organism is permeated by the soul and spirit, so also the processes of sprouting, greening, blossoming and fading of the plants which we regard as physical processes, are everywhere permeated by workings of the cosmic world of soul and spirit.

Now when we look into the countenance of a man and his glance falls on us, when we see his expression, maybe the flushing of the face, then indeed the eyes of our soul are looking right through the physical to the soul and spirit. Indeed, it cannot be otherwise in our life among our fellow-men. In like manner we must accustom ourselves also to see spirit-and-soul in the physiognomy—if I may call it so—and changing coloring of the plant-world on our Earth.

If we are only willing to recognize the physical, we say that the Sun's warmth and light work upon the plants, forming in them the saps, the chlorophyll and so forth. But if we contemplate all this with spiritual insight, if we take the same attitude to this plant-physiognomy of the Earth as we are accustomed to take to the human physiognomy, then something unveils itself to us that I should like to express with a particular word, because this word actually conveys the reality.

The Sun, of which we say, outwardly speaking, that it sends its light to the Earth, is not merely a radiant globe of gas but infinitely more than that. It sends its rays down to the Earth but whenever we look at the Sun it is the outer side of the rays that we see. The rays have, however, an inner side. If someone were able to look through the Sun's light, to regard the light only as an outer husk and look through to the soul of it, he would behold the Soul-Power, the Soul-Being of the Sun. With ordinary human consciousness we see the Sun as we should see a man who was made of papier-maché. An effigy in which there is nothing but the form, the lifeless form, is of course something different from the human being we actually see before us. In the case of the living human being, we see through this outer form and perceive soul-and-spirit. For ordinary consciousness the Sun is changed as it were into a papier-maché cast. We do not see through its outer husk that is woven of Light.

But if we were able to see through this, we should see the soul-and-spirit essence of the Sun. We can be conscious of its activity just as we are conscious of the physical papier-maché husk of the Sun. From the standpoint of physical knowledge we say: ‘The Sun shines upon the Earth; it sparkles upon the stones, upon the soil. The light is thrown back and thereby we see everything that is mineral. The rays of the Sun penetrate into the plants, making them green, making them bud.’—All that is external. If we see the soul-and-spirit essence of the Sun, we cannot merely say: ‘The sunlight sparkles on the minerals, is reflected, enabling us to see the minerals,’ or, ‘The light and heat of the Sun penetrate into the plants, making them verdant’—but we shall have to say, meaning now the countless spiritual Beings who people the Sun and who constitute its soul and spirit: ‘The Sun dreams and its dreams envelop the Earth and fashion the plants.’

If you picture the surface of the Earth with the physical plants growing from it, coming to blossom, you have there the working of the physical rays of the Sun. But above it is the weaving life of the dream-world of the Sun—a world of pure Imaginations. And one can say: When the mantle of snow melts in the spring, the Sun regains its power, then the Sun-Imaginations weave anew around the Earth. These Imaginations of the Sun are Imaginative forces, playing in upon the world of plants. Now although it is true that this Imaginative world—this Imaginative atmosphere surrounding the Earth—is very specially active from spring until autumn in any given region of the Earth, nevertheless this dreamlike character of the Sun's activity is also present in a certain way during the time of winter. Only during winter the dreams are, as it were, dull and brooding, whereas in summer they are mobile, creative, formative. Now it is in this element in which the Sun-Imaginations unfold that the Ego and astral body of man live and weave when they are outside the physical and etheric bodies.

You will realize from what I have said that sleep in summer is actually quite a different matter from sleep in winter, although in the present state of evolution, man's life and consciousness are so dull and lacking in vitality that these things go unperceived. In earlier times men distinguished very definitely through their feelings between winter-sleep and summer-sleep, and they knew too what meaning winter-sleep and summer-sleep had for them. In those ancient times men knew that of summer-sleep they could say: During the summer the Earth is enveloped by picture-thoughts. And they expressed this by saying: The Upper Gods come down during the summer and hover around the Earth; during the winter the Lower Gods ascend out of the Earth and hover around it.—This Imaginative world, differently constituted in winter and in summer, was conceived as the weaving of the Upper and the Lower Gods. But in those olden times it was also known that man himself, with his Ego and his astral body, lives in this world of weaving Imaginations.

Now the very truths of which I have here spoken, show us, if we ponder them in the light of Spiritual Science, in what connection man stands, even during his earthly existence, with the extra-earthly Universe. You see, in summer—when it is summer in any region of the Earth—the human being during his sleep is always woven around by a sharply contoured world of Cosmic Imaginations. The result is that during the time of summer he is, so to speak, pressed near to the Earth with his soul and spirit. During the time of winter it is different. During winter the contours, the meshes, of the Cosmic Imaginations widen out, as it were. During the summer we live with our Ego and astral body while we are asleep within very clearly defined Imaginations, within manifold figures and forms. During winter the figures around the Earth are wide-meshed and the consequence of this is that whenever autumn begins, that which lives in our Ego and astral body is borne far out into the Universe by night. During summer and its heat, that which lives in our Ego and astral body remains more, so to speak, in the psycho-spiritual atmosphere of the human world. During winter this same content is borne out into the far distances of the Universe. Indeed without speaking figuratively, since one is saying something that is quite real, one can say: that which man cultivates in himself, in his soul, and which through his Ego and astral body he can draw out from his physical and etheric bodies between the times of going to sleep and waking—that stores itself up during the summer and streams out during winter into the wide expanse of the Cosmos.

Now we cannot conceive that we men shut ourselves away, as it were, in earthly existence and that the wide Universe knows nothing of us. It is far from being so. True, at the time of Midsummer man can conceal himself from the Spirits of the Universe, and he may also succeed in harboring reprehensible feelings of evil. The dense net of Imaginations does not let these feelings through; they still remain. And at Christmastime the Gods look in upon the Earth and everything that lives in man's nature is revealed and goes forth with his Ego and astral being. Using a picture which truly represents the facts, we may say: In winter the windows of the Earth open and the Angels and Archangels behold what men actually are on the Earth.

We on Earth have gradually accustomed ourselves in modern civilization to express all that we allow to pass as knowledge in humdrum, dry, unpoetic phrases. The higher Beings are ever poets, therefore we never give a true impression of their nature if we describe it in barren physical words; we must resort to words such as I have just now used: at Christmastime the Earth's windows open and through these windows the Angels and Archangels behold what men's deeds have been the whole year through. The Beings of the higher Hierarchies are poets and artists even in their thinking. The logic we are generally at pains to apply is only an outcome of the Earth's gravity—by which I do not at all imply that it is not highly useful on Earth.

It is what lives in the minds and hearts of men as I have just pictured it, that is of essential interest to these higher Beings; the Angels who look in through the Christmas windows are not interested in the speculations of professors; they overlook them. Nor, to begin with, are they much concerned with a man's thoughts. It is what goes on in his feelings, in his heart, that in its cosmic aspect is connected with the Sun's yearly course. So it is not so much whether we are foolish or clever on Earth that comes before the gaze of the Divine-Spiritual Beings at the time of Christmas, but simply whether we are good or evil men, whether we feel for others or are egoists. That is what is communicated to the cosmic worlds through the course of the yearly seasons.

You may believe that our thoughts remain near the Earth, because I have said that the Angels and Archangels are not concerned with them when they look in through the Christmas windows. They are not concerned with our thoughts because, if I may use a rather prosaic figure of speech, they receive the richer coinage, the more valuable coinage that is minted by the soul-and-spirit of man. And this more valuable coinage is minted by the heart, the feelings, by what a man is worth because of what his heart and feeling contain. For the Cosmos, our thoughts are only the small change, the lesser coinage, and this lesser coinage is spied out by subordinate spiritual beings every night. Whether we are foolish or clever is spied out for the Cosmos every night—not indeed for the very far regions of the Cosmos but only for the regions around the Earth—spied out by beings who are closest to the Earth in its environment and therefore the most subordinate in rank. The daily revolution of the Sun takes place in order to impart to the Cosmos the worth of our thoughts. Thus far do our thoughts extend; they belong merely to the environment of the Earth. The yearly revolution of the Sun takes place in order to carry our heart-nature, our feeling-nature, farther out into the cosmic worlds.

Our will-nature cannot be carried in this way out into the Cosmos, for the cycle of the day is strictly regulated. It runs its course in twenty-four hours. The yearly course of the Sun is strictly regulated too. We perceive the regularity of the daily cycle in the strictly logical sequences of our thoughts. The regularity of the yearly cycle—we perceive the after-effect of this in our heart and soul, in that there are certain feelings which say to one thing that a man does: it is good, and to another: it is bad.

But there is a third faculty in man, namely, the will. True, the will is bound up with feeling, and feeling cannot but say that certain actions are morally good, and others morally not good. But the will can do what is morally good and also what is morally not good. Here, then, there is no strict regularity. The relation of our will to our nature as human beings is not strictly regulated in the sense that thinking and feeling are regulated. We cannot call a bad action good, or a good action bad, nor can we call a logical thought illogical, an illogical thought logical. This is due to the fact that our thoughts stand under the influence of the daily revolution of the Sun, our feelings under the influence of its yearly revolution. The will, however, is left in the hands of humanity itself on Earth. And now a man might say: ‘The most that happens to me is that if I think illogically, my illogical thoughts are carried out every night into the Cosmos and do mischief there—but what does that matter to me? I am not here to bring order into the Cosmos.’—Here on Earth, where his life is lived in illusion, a man might in certain circumstances speak like this, but between death and a new birth he would never do so. For between death and a new birth he himself is in the worlds in which he may have caused mischief through his foolish thoughts; and he must live through all the harm that he has done. So, too, between death and a new birth, he is in those worlds into which his feelings have flowed. But here again he might say on Earth: ‘What lives in my feelings evaporates into the Cosmos; but I leave it to the Gods to deal with any harm that may have been caused there through me. My will, however, is not bound on Earth by any regulation.’—

The materialist who considers that man's life is limited to the time between birth and death, can never conceive that his will has any cosmic significance; neither can he conceive that human thoughts or feelings have any meaning for the Cosmos. But even one who knows quite well that thoughts have a cosmic significance as the result of the daily revolution of the Sun, and feelings through the yearly revolution—even he, when he sees what is accomplished on the Earth by the good or evil will-impulses of man, must turn away from the Cosmos and to human nature itself in order to see how what works in man's will goes out into the Cosmos. For what works in man's will must be borne out into the Cosmos by man himself, and he bears it out when he passes through the gate of death. Therefore it is not through the daily or the yearly cycles but through the gate of death that man carries forth the good or the evil he has brought about here on Earth through his will.

It is a strange relationship that man has to the Cosmos in his life of soul. We say of our thoughts: ‘We have thoughts but they are not subject to our arbitrary will; we must conform to the laws of the Universe when we think, otherwise we shall come into conflict with everything that goes on in the world.’—If a little child is standing in front of me, and I think: That is an old man—I may flatter myself that I have determined the thought, but I am certainly out of touch with the world. Thus in respect of our thoughts we are by no means independent, so little independent that our thoughts are carried out into the Cosmos by the daily cycle of the Sun. Nor are we independent in our life of feelings, for they are carried out through the yearly cycle of the Sun. Thus even during earthly life, that which lives in our head through our thoughts and, through our feelings in our breast, does not live only within us but also partakes in a cosmic existence. That alone which lives in our will we keep with us until our death. Then, when we have laid aside the body, when we have no longer anything to do with earthly forces, we bear it forth with us through the gate of death.

Man passes through the gate of death laden with what has come out of his acts of will. Just as here on Earth he has around him all that lives in minerals, plants, animals and in physical humanity, all that lives in clouds, streams, mountains, stars, in so far as they are externally visible through the light—just as he has all this around him during his existence between birth and death, so he has a world around him when he has laid aside the physical and etheric bodies and has passed through the gate of death. In truth he has around him the very world into which his thoughts have entered every night, into which his feelings have entered with the fulfilment of every yearly cycle ... “That thou hast thought; that thou hast felt.” ... It now seems to him as though the Beings of the Hierarchies were bearing his thoughts and his feelings towards him. They have perceived it all, as I have indicated. His mental life and his feeling-life now stream towards him.

In earthly existence the Sun gives light from morning to evening; it goes down and night sets in. When we have passed through the gate of death, our wisdom rays out towards us as day; through our accumulated acts of folly, the spiritual lights grow dark and dim around us and it becomes night. Here on Earth we have day and night; when we have passed through the gate of death, we have as day and night the results of our wisdom and our foolishness. And what man experiences here on this Earth as spring, summer, autumn and winter in the yearly cycle, as changing temperatures and other sentient experiences, of all this he becomes aware—when he has passed through the gate of death—also as a kind of cycle, although of much longer duration. He experiences the warmth-giving, life-giving quality (life-giving, that is to say, for his spiritual Self) of his good feelings, of his sympathy with goodness; he experiences as icy cold his sympathy with evil, with the immoral. Just as here on Earth we live through the heat of summer and the cold of winter, so do we live after death warmed by our good feelings, chilled by our evil feelings; and we bear the effects of our will through these spiritual years and days. After death we are the product of our moral nature on Earth. And we have an environment that is permeated by our follies and our wisdom, by our sympathies and antipathies for the good.

So that we can say: Just as here on Earth we have the summer air around us giving warmth and life, and as we have the cold and frosty winter air around us, so, after death, we are surrounded by an atmosphere of soul-and-spirit that is warm and life-giving in so far as it is produced through our good feelings, and chilling in so far as it is produced through our evil feelings. Here on Earth, in certain regions at least, the summer and winter temperatures are the same for all of us. In the time after death, each human being has his own atmosphere, engendered by himself. And the most moving experiences after death are connected with the fact that one man lives in icy cold and the other, close beside him, in life-giving warmth.

Such are the experiences that may be undergone after death. And as I described in my book Theosophy, one of the main experiences passed through in the soul-world, is that those human beings who have harbored evil feelings here on Earth, must undergo their hard experiences in the sight of those who developed and harbored good feelings.

It can indeed be said: All that remains concealed to begin with in the inner being of man, discloses itself when he has passed through the gate of death. Sleep too acquires a cosmic significance, likewise our life during wintertime. We sleep every night in order that we may prepare for ourselves the light in which we must live after death. We go through our winter experiences in order to prepare the soul-spiritual warmth into which we enter after death. And into this atmosphere of the spiritual world which we have ourselves prepared we bear the effects of our deeds.

Here on Earth we live, through our physical body, as beings subject to earthly gravity. Through our breathing we live in the surrounding air, and far away we see the stars. When we have passed through the gate of death we are in the world of spirit-and-soul, far removed from the Earth; we are beyond the stars, we see the stars from the other side, look back to the world of stars. Our very being lives in the cosmic thoughts and cosmic forces. We look back upon the stars, no longer seeing them shine, but seeing instead the Hierarchies, the Spiritual Beings who have merely their reflection in the stars.

Thus man on Earth can gain more and more knowledge of what the nature of his life will be when he passes through the gate of death. There are people who say: ‘Why do I need to know all this? I shall surely see it all after death!’—That attitude is just as if a man were to doubt the value of eyesight. For as the Earth's evolution takes its course, man enters more and more into a life in which he must acquire the power to partake in these after-death experiences by grasping them, to begin with in thought, here on the Earth. To shut out knowledge of the spiritual worlds while we are on the Earth is to blind ourselves in soul and spirit after death. A man will enter the spiritual world as a cripple when he passes through the gate of death, if here, in this world, he disdains to learn about the world of spirit, for humanity is evolving towards freedom—towards free spiritual activity. This fact should become clearer and clearer to mankind and should make men realize the urgent necessity of gaining knowledge about the spiritual world.

Zweiter Vortrag

Die Vorträge, die ich nun seit einer Reihe von Wochen hier gehalten habe, hatten im wesentlichen die Aufgabe, zu zeigen, wie der Mensch ebenso durch sein geistiges Leben teilnimmt an dem, was wir die Sternenwelt nennen können, wie er dutch sein physisches Erdenleben teilnimmt an dem irdischen Dasein und Geschehen. Man muß im Sinne jener Anschauung, die wir durch die Anthroposophie aufgenommen haben, den Menschen zunächst in diejenigen Kräfte gliedern, die in seinem physischen und in seinem Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib liegen, und in diejenigen, die in seinem Ich-Wesen und in seinem astralischen Leib liegen. Sie wissen, daß er diese beiden Seiten seines Wesens in jedem Schlafzustande voneinander trennt.

Lenken wir einmal für einige Augenblicke den Blick auf diesen schlafenden Menschen. Da haben wir auf der einen Seite also den physischen Menschenleib, den ätherischen oder Bildekräfteleib, bewußtlos, aber auch bewußtlos die Ich-Wesenheit und den astralischen Leib. Wir können nun fragen: Gibt es auch eine Beziehung zwischen diesen beiden bewußtlosen Seiten der Menschennatur während des Schlafzustandes? - Wir wissen, daß es im Wachzustande, in dem das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein des heutigen Menschen zustande kommt, diejenige Beziehung gibt, die auflebt durch das Denken, durch das Fühlen, durch das Wollen. Wir müssen uns das so vorstellen, daß, wenn die Ich-Wesenheit und der astralische Leib gewissermaßen untertauchen in den ätherischen Leib und in den physischen Leib, dann aus diesem Zusammensein aufflackern Denken, Fühlen, Wollen.

Denken, Fühlen, Wollen sind nun im schlafenden Menschen nicht vorhanden. Aber wenn wir hinschauen auf den physischen Erdenleib, dann werden wir sagen müssen: In diesem physischen Erdenleib sind wirksam alle diejenigen Kräfte, welche zum Erdendasein nach unserer Menschenbeobachtung gehören. -— Wir können diesen physischen Menschenleib abwägen, und wir werden finden, daß er ein Gewicht hat. Man könnte an diesem physischen Menschenleib — oder man kann sich wenigstens hypothetisch vorstellen, daß man es könnte — Untersuchungen anstellen, wie stoffliche Vorgänge sich in ihm abspielen. Man würde solche stofflichen Vorgänge in ihm finden, die Fortsetzung jener Vorgänge sind, die wir draußen im Erdendasein finden, die durch die Ernährung sich fortsetzen in des Menschen Inneres. Wir finden im physischen Leib auch dasjenige, was durch den Atmungsprozeß sich vollzieht. Nur ist gewissermaßen herabgedämmert oder in völlige Finsternis getaucht alles das, was von der Kopforganisation des Menschen ausgeht, was dem Sinnes-Nervensystem angehört.

Wenn wir dann den ätherischen Leib in Betracht ziehen, der den physischen durchzieht, so ist es allerdings nicht so leicht, sich Aufklärung darüber zu verschaffen, wie nun dieser ätherische Leib während des Schlafzustandes wirkt. Aber wer schon etwas eingedrungen ist in das, was Geisteswissenschaft über den Menschen zu sagen hat, wird unschwer erkennen, wie der Mensch auch dutch seinen Ätherleib schlafend in alledem lebt, was eben die ätherischen Verhältnisse, die ätherischen Kräfte im Umkreise des Erdendaseins sind. So daß wir sagen können: Wir finden innerhalb des physischen Körpers alles das wirksam im Schlafzustande, was dem Erdendasein angehört; wir finden wirksam im ätherischen Leib alles, was eben der die Erde umhüllenden und sie durchdringenden Ätherwelt angehört.

Nun wird die Sache aber schwieriger, wenn wir unser Augenmerk — selbstverständlich das seelische Augenmerk - auf das lenken, was nun außerhalb des physischen und des Ätherleibes ist, wenn wir es auf die Ich-Wesenheit und auf die astralische Wesenheit des Menschen lenken. Wir können unmöglich uns der Vorstellung hingeben, daß diese IchWesenheit, diese astralische Wesenheit des Menschen etwas zu tun haben mit der physischen Erde, etwas zu tun haben mit dem, was als Äther die Erde umgibt und durchdringt.

Was da nun stattfindet während des Schlafes — ich habe es Ihnen ja, ich möchte sagen, beschreibend angegeben in den Vorträgen, die ich hier vor kurzem gehalten habe; ich willes heute von einem andern Gesichtspunkte aus skizzieren —, was in der Ich-Wesenheit und im astralischen Leibe des Menschen vorgeht, können wir eben nur dann erkennen, wenn wit durch Geisteswissenschaft eindringen in das, was außerhalb der physischen Kräfteentwickelungen und außerhalb der ätherischen Kräftewirkungen noch auf der Erde, um die Erde herum vorgeht.

Da richten wir zunächst unseren Blick auf die Pflanzenwelt. Wir sehen die Pflanzenwelt alljährlich — wenigstens der Hauptsache nach, insofern es sich nicht um die dauernden Bäume und dergleichen handelt - im Frühling aus der Erde heraussprießen. Wir sehen sie dann immer farbiger und üppiger werden, und wir sehen sie mit dem Herbste wiederum verwelken. Wir sehen sie in gewissem Sinne von der Erde verschwinden, wenn die Erde sich mit Schnee bedeckt.

Das ist aber nur die eine Seite in der Entfaltung der Pflanzenwelt. Das physische Erkennen sagt uns, daß diese Entfaltung der Pflanzenwelt im Frühling, ihr Verwelken gegen den Herbst zu, mit der Sonne zusammenhängen. Das physische Erkennen zeigt uns auch, wie zum Beispiel der grüne Farbstoff der Pflanzenwelt sich allein unter dem Einfluß des Sonnenlichtes bilden kann. Was also sich innerhalb der physischen Wirkung vollzieht, das zeigt uns das physische Erkennen; nicht aber zeigt es uns, daß, während sich das alles abspielt: Hervorsprießen, Grünen, Blühen, Verwelken der Pflanzen — auch Geistiges vorgeht. Aber geradeso wie in dem physischen Menschenorganismus sich zum Beispiel der Blutkreislauf vollzieht, wie sich die ätherischen Vorgänge im physischen Organismus als Gefäßwirkungen und so weiter äußern, und wie doch dieser physische Menschenorganismus durchzogen ist von dem Seelisch-Geistigen, so sind auch die Vorgänge, welche sich in dem Sprießen, Grünwerden, Blühen, Verwelken der Pflanzen abspielen und die wir als physische Vorgänge beobachten, überall durchsetzt und durchzogen von geistigen und seelischen Weltenwirkungen. Und wie wir, wenn wir das Antlitz eines Menschen sehen — wenn sein Blick auf uns fällt, sein Mienenspiel, vielleicht die Rötung seines Gesichtes sich uns zeigt -, dann nach unserem Zusammenleben mit der übrigen Menschenwelt gar nicht anders können, als gewissermaßen durch das Physische durch auf das Seelische, auf das Geistige unseren seelischen Blick zu richten, so sollen wir uns angewöhnen, auch in dem, was da in der — wenn ich so sagen darf Physiognomie und Färbungsänderung der Pflanzendecke unserer Erde vor sich geht, ein Geistig-Seelisches zu sehen.

Insofern wir bloß physisch erkennen wollen, sagen wir: DieSonnenwärme und das Sonnenlicht betätigen sich an der Pflanze, formen in ihr die Pflanzensäfte, formen in ihr Chlorophyll und so weiter. - Wenn wir aber mit geistigem Blicke das alles beschauen, wenn wir uns gegenüber dieser Pflanzenphysiognomie der Erde so verhalten, wie wir uns der Menschenphysiognomie gegenüber gewohnheitsmäßig verhalten, dann enthüllt sich uns etwas, was ich ausdrücken möchte mit einem ganz bestimmten Worte, weil dieses Wort tatsächlich die Wirklichkeit wiedergibt, die sich da abspielt. Die Sonne, die nur nach außen hin der Erde ihr Licht zusendet, ist eben nicht bloß ein leuchtender Gasball, sondern noch etwas wesentlich anderes. Sie sendet ihre Strahlen zur Erde nieder, aber so, wie sie ihre Strahlen nach außen sendet und man überall, wenn man hinschaut zur Sonne, sozusagen das Äußere des Strahles hat, so hat der Strahl auch sein Inneres.

Könnte jemand durchschauen durch das Sonnenlicht, könnte er das Sonnenlicht nur wie eine äußere Haut betrachten und durchschauen auf das Seelische, so würde er die seelische Macht, die seelische Wesenheit der Sonne sehen. Wir sehen eigentlich mit dem gewöhnlichen Menschenbewußtsein die Sonne so, wie wir einen Menschen sehen würden, der aus Papiermaché gemacht ist. Wenn Sie sich einen Abdruck von sich machen lassen, in dem nichts ist als die Form, die tote Form, und ihn hinstellen, so: ist das natürlich etwas anderes als der Mensch, den Sie wirklich vor sich sehen. Beim wirklichen Menschen sehen Sie durch diese äußere Form auf das Seelisch-Geistige hin. Bei der Sonne ist es für das gewöhnliche Menschenbewußtsein so, daß sie sich eigentlich selber für dieses gewöhnliche Menschenbewußtsein zum Papiermaché-Abdruck macht. Man sieht durch ihre Haut, die aus Licht gewoben ist, nicht hindurch. Sieht man aber hindurch, dann sieht man das ganze geistig-seelische Wesen der Sonne.

Dieses geistig-seelische Wesen kann uns in seiner Betätigung ebenso zum Bewußtsein kommen wie das physische Papiermaché der Sonne. Vom physischen Erkenntnisstandpunkte aus sage ich: Die Sonne scheint auf die Erde, sie glänzt auf die Steine auf, auf den Boden auf. Da wird das Licht zurückgeworfen. Dadurch sieht man alles Mineralische. Die Sonnenstrahlen dringen in die Pflanzen hinein, machen sie grünen, machen sie sprießen. Das ist alles Äußerlichkeit. — Sieht man jetzt auf das geistig-seelische Wesen der Sonne, dann kann man nicht bloß sagen: Das Sonnenlicht glänzt auf die Mineralien drauf, das Sonnenlicht wird zurückgeworfen, dadurch sieht man die Mineralien, das Sonnenlicht oder die Sonnenwärme dringt in die Pflanzen, dadurch grünen sie - sondern man muß sagen: Die Sonne — und man meint jetzt diese unzähligen geistigen Wesen, welche die Sonne bevölkern und welche ihr Seelisch-Geistiges sind -, die Sonne träumt, und ihre Träume umhüllen die Erde und gestalten die Pflanzen.

Wenn Sie sich die Erdoberfläche denken, die physischen Pflanzen aus ihr herauskommend, die es bis zur Blüte bringen, so haben Sie darinnen die Wirkung der physischen Sonnenstrahlen. Aber darüber nun lebt und webt die Traumeswelt der Sonne. Das sind lauter Imaginationen. Und man kann sagen: Wenn die Schneedecke schmilzt im Frühling und die Sonne wiederum ihre Kraft gewinnt, dann umschweben und umweben nach und nach die Imaginationen der Sonne die Erde.

Und diese Imaginationen der Sonne sind imaginierte Kräfte, und diese weben an der Pflanzenwelt. Wenn wir nun auch sagen müssen, daß diese imaginative Welt, diese imaginative Atmosphäre, welche die Erde umgibt, ganz besonders lebendig vom Frühling bis zum Herbst ist in irgendeiner Gegend, wo eben gerade Frühling oder Herbst der Erde ist, so ist aber natürlich dennoch in einer gewissen Weise dieses traumhafte Element der Sonnenwirkung auch während der Winterszeit da. Nur ist es während der Winterszeit, ich möchte sagen so, daß es dumpfe 'Träume sind, während der Sommerszeit sind es in sich gestaltende, bewegliche Träume. Dieses Element ist es, in dem sich die Imaginationen der Sonne entwickeln, in dem vor allen Dingen auch lebt und webt die Ich-Wesenheit und der astralische Leib des Menschen, wenn sie außet dem physischen und dem Ätherleib sind.

Sie werden aus dem, was ich gesagt habe, entnehmen, daß eigentlich das Schlafen im Sommer etwas ganz anderes heißt als im Winter, wenn auch zunächst das menschliche Leben und sein Bewußtsein innerhalb des gegenwärtigen Bewußtseinszustandes ein so dumpfes und herabgelähmtes ist, daß diese Dinge nicht wahrgenommen werden. In älteren Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung unterschieden die Menschen durch ihre Empfindungen sehr genau zwischen dem Winterschlaf und dem Sommerschlaf. Und sie wußten auch, welche Bedeutung der Winterschlaf und der Sommerschlaf für sie hatten. Die Menschen wußten in diesen älteren Zeiten, daß der Sommerschlaf ein solcher war, daß sie sagen konnten: Während des Sommers ist die Erde mit Bildgedanken umwoben. — Das drückten die Menschen der älteren Zeiten so aus: Da steigen die oberen Götter herunter während des Sommers und umschweben die Erde; während des Winters steigen die unteren Götter aus der Erde herauf und umschweben die Erde. — Diese imaginative Welt, die anders gestaltet ist während des Winters und des Sommers, empfand man als das Weben von oberen und von unteren Göttern. Aber man wußte auch in diesen älteren Zeiten der Menschheitszivilisation, daß der Mensch mit seiner Ich-Wesenheit und mit seinem astralischen Leibe in dieser webenden imaginativen Welt ist.

Nun zeigt uns aber gerade diese Tatsache, die ich eben Ihnen entwickelt habe, wenn wir sie geisteswissenschaftlich beobachten, in welcher Beziehung der Mensch zum außerirdischen Weltenall schon während seines irdischen Daseins steht. Im Sommer, wenn es in irgendeiner Gegend der Erde Sommer ist, da ist der Mensch eigentlich während seines Schlafes immer umwoben von einer scharfkonturierten kosmischen Imagination. Dadurch ist er während dieser Sommerszeit an die Erde herangedrückt, möchte ich sagen, mit seinem geistig-seelischen Wesen. Während der Winterszeit ist es anders. Während der Winterszeit, da werden die Konturen dieser Imaginationen gewissermaßen weiter.

Während des Sommers, da sind ganz deutlich ausgeprägte Imaginationen - in mannigfaltigsten Figuren -, innerhalb welcher wir während unseres Schlafes mit unserer Ich-Wesenheit und unserer astralischen Wesenheit leben. Während des Winters sind weitmaschige Figuren um die Erde herum, und das hat zur Folge, daß jedesmal, wenn der Herbst beginnt, das, was in unserer Ich-Wesenheit und in unseretn astralischen Leibe lebt, zur Nachtzeit weit in die Welt hinausgetragen wird. Während der heißen Sommerszeit bleibt dasjenige, was in unserem Ich und in unserem astralischen Leibe lebt, sozusagen mehr in der geistig-seelischen Atmosphäre der Menschen. Während der Winterszeit wird dasjenige, was in unserer Ich-Wesenheit und in unserer astralischen Wesenheit lebt, hinausgetragen in die Weltenweiten. Man kann schon sagen, ohne daß man irgend etwas bloß Bildliches, sondern indem man etwas ganz Wirkliches sagt: Das, was der Mensch seelisch in sich ausbildet und was er hinaustragen kann zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen durch seine Ich-Wesenheit und durch seine astralische Wesenheit aus seinem physischen und aus seinem Ätherleibe, das speichert sich auf während der Sommerszeit und strömt während der Winterszeit in die Weiten des Kosmos hinaus.

Wir können nicht als Menschen nun so denken, daß wir uns gewissermaßen im Erdendasein abschließen und die Weite der Welt von uns nichts weiß. So ist es nicht. Man kann zwar sagen, zur Johannizeit, im Sommer, da kann sich der Mensch vor den Weltengeistern zunächst verstecken, und es könnte ihm gelingen, da auch verwerfliche Gefühle zu haben; das dichte Netz von Imaginationen läßt das nicht hinaus. Aber das bleibt ja. Und zur Weihnachtszeit, da schauen die Götter herein auf die Erde; da verrät sich alles, was in den Menschenwesen lebt und mit ihrem Ich und mit ihrer astralischen Wesenheit hinausgeht. Und man dürfte schon das Bild hinstellen, das eine Wirklichkeit darstellt: daß sich mit der Winterszeit die Erdenfenster öffnen und die Engel und Erzengel nachschauen, wie die Menschen auf der Erde sind.

Wir auf der Erde haben uns allmählich in der neueren Zivilisation daran gewöhnt, das, was wir uns vor der Erkenntnis gestatten dürfen, philiströs-nüchtern auszudrücken, unpoetisch. Die höheren Wesen bleiben immer Dichter, und deshalb drückt man ihr Wesen niemals richtig aus, wenn man es mit physisch-nüchternen Worten schildert, sondern da muß man schon zu solchen Worten greifen, wie ich sie eben gebraucht habe: zur Weihnachtszeit öffnen sich der Erde Fenster, und die Engel und Erzengel schauen durch die Fenster, was die Menschen das ganze Jahr hindurch treiben. Die Wesen der höheren Hierarchien sind, auch wenn sie denken, Poeten und Künstler. Die Logik, wie wir sie gewöhnlich entwickeln wollen, ist nur ein Ergebnis der Erdenschwere, womit nicht gesagt sein soll, daß sie nicht auf der Erde höchst nützlich ist.

Von dem nun, was in dem Menschen lebt, ist aber so in seinem Verhalten, wie ich es jetzt geschildert habe, eigentlich das, was im Gemüte des Menschen lebt, das Wesentliche für diese höheren Wesen. Was die Professoren ausdenken, das interessiert die Engel nicht, die zum Weihnachtsfenster hereinschauen, da schauen sie darüber hinweg. Um die Gedanken kümmern sie sich nicht so sehr zunächst. Was in des Menschen Gefühlen, im menschlichen Gemüte vorgeht, das hängt zusammen mit diesem Jahreskreislauf der Sonne in bezug auf seine kosmische Geltung. Also nicht so sehr kommt zur Winterszeit vor das Antlitz der göttlich-geistigen Welten, ob wir dumm oder gescheit sind auf Erden, sondern lediglich, ob wir gute oder schlechte Menschen sind, ob wir gemütvolle Menschen oder Egoisten sind. Das ist dasjenige, was durch die Regelung des Jahreskreislaufs den kosmischen Welten mitgeteilt wird.

Was wir denken, so könnten Sie glauben, bleibt bei der Erde, weil ich vorhin gesagt habe, darum kümmern sich die Engel und Erzengel nicht, wenn sie zu den Weihnachtsfenstern hereinschauen. Aber sie kümmern sich aus dem Grunde nicht darum, weil sie - wenn ich mich jetzt etwas nüchtern ausdrücken soll - da eben die größeren Münzsorten, die wertvolleren Münzsorten, die aus dem geistig-seelischen Wesen des Menschen geprägt werden, entgegennehmen. Und diese wertvolleren Münzsorten werden durch das Gemüt, das Gefühl und durch das, was durch den Inhalt seines Gefühles, seines Gemütes der Mensch wert ist, geprägt. Die Gedanken sind für den Kosmos nur die Scheidemünzen, die kleinen Münzsorten, und diese kleinen Münzsorten, die werden nämlich von niederen Geistern jede Nacht belauscht. Also, ob wir dumm oder gescheit sind, das wird für den Kosmos, allerdings nicht für sehr weite Strecken des Kosmos, sondern nur für den Umkreis der Erde von den, ich möchte sagen, allernächsten, daher auch untergeordnetsten, mehr elementarischen Wesen, die im Umkreise der Erde sind, jede Nacht belauscht. Der Tageskreislauf der Sonne, der ist da, um den Wert unserer Gedanken dem Kosmos mitzuteilen, so weit die Gedanken gehen; sie gehören nur dem Umkreis des Irdischen an. Der Jahreskreislauf der Sonne, der ist dazu da, um unser Gemüt, um unsere Gefühlswesenheit weiter in die kosmischen Welten hinauszutragen.

Und unsere Willensnatur kann in dieser Weise nicht in den Kosmos hinausgetragen werden. Denn der Tageskreislauf ist streng geregelt, er verläuft in vierundzwanzig Stunden. Der Jahreskreislauf der Sonne ist streng geregelt. Die strenge Regelung des Tageskreislaufes merken wir in der strengen logischen Regelung unserer Gedanken. Die Regelung des Jahreskreislaufes merken wir in der Nachwirkung in unserem Gemüte, indem es gewisse Empfindungen gibt, welche zu irgend etwas, was der Mensch tut, sagen: Es ist gut -, zu etwas anderem: Es ist böse.

Aber ein Drittes lebt im Menschen, das ist der Wille. Der Wille steht zwar in Verbindung mit dem Fühlen, und das Fühlen kann nicht anders, als zu gewissen Handlungen sagen: Sie sind moralisch gut -, zu andern: Sie sind moralisch nicht gut. - Aber der Wille kann das moralisch Gute tun und kann auch das moralisch Nicht-Gute tun. Da sehen wir, daß eine strenge Regelung nicht vorhanden ist. Wie unser Wille zu unserem Menschenwesen steht, das ist nicht in demselben Sinne streng geregelt, wie das Denken und das Gefühl geregelt sind. Wir können nicht eine schlechte Handlung gut oder eine gute Handlung schlecht nennen, können auch nicht einen logischen Gedanken unlogisch, einen unlogischen logisch nennen. Das rührt davon her, daß das Denken unter dem Einfluß der Tageswirkung der Sonne steht, das Fühlen unter dem Einfluß des Jahreskreislaufes der Sonne steht. Der Wille aber ist auf der Erde der Menschheit überlassen. Und nun könnte der Mensch sagen: Ja, höchstens passiert es mir, wenn ich unlogisch denke, daß meine unlogischen Gedanken jede Nacht in den Kosmos hinausgetragen werden und da Unheil anrichten, aber was macht mir das? Ich bin ja nicht dazu da, den Kosmos in Ordnung zu bringen. Hier auf Erden, wo er ein Leben in der Illusion hat, könnte er unter Umständen so sagen, aber zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt würde er niemals so sagen, denn zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ist er selbst in den Welten, wo er durch seine dummen Gedanken Unheil angerichtet haben kann, und er muß all das Unheil durchmachen. Ebenso ist er zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in denjenigen Welten, in die seine Gefühls- und Gemütszustände eingeflossen sind. Aber auch hier könnte er wieder auf Erden sagen: Nun ja, in den Kosmos, da dampft allerdings dasjenige hinaus, was in meinen Gefühlen lebt, aber ich überlasse den Göttern, was da durch mich an Unheil angerichtet werden könnte.

Aber mein Wille, der ist nur auf der Erde ungeregelt. Der materialistische Mensch, der das Menschenleben nur nach der Zeit zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode zählt, kann niemals irgendwie zu dem Gedanken kommen, daß sein Wille eine kosmische Bedeutung habe. Er kommt allerdings auch nicht zu dem Gedanken, daß seine Gedanken oder daß seine Gefühle eine kosmische Bedeutung haben. Aber selbst derjenige, der gut weiß, daß Gedanken durch den Tageskreislauf, Gefühle durch den Jahreskreislauf der Sonne eine kosmische Bedeutung haben, sieht nun sich abspielen, was dutch den guten oder bösen Willen der Menschen auf der Erde verrichtet wird, und er muß von dem Kosmischen abgehen und an die Menschennatur selber herangehen, um zu sehen, wie nun das, was im menschlichen Willen wirkt, in den Kosmos hinauskommt. Das nämlich, was im menschlichen Willen wirkt, das muß der Mensch selbst in den Kosmos hinaustragen, und das trägt er hinaus, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Dafür sind nicht Tages-, nicht Jahresläufe, sondern dafür ist die Todespforte, durch die der Mensch dann dasjenige trägt, was er durch seinen Willen hier auf der Erde an Gutem oder Bösem angerichtet hat.

Das ist ein eigentümliches Verhältnis des Menschen zum Kosmos in bezug auf sein Seelisches. Wir sagen von unseren Gedanken: Wir haben die Gedanken. — Aber sie stehen nicht in unserer Willkür. Wir müssen uns nach den Gesetzen der Welt richten, wenn wir denken, sonst werden wir mit allem, was in der Welt vorgeht, in Konflikt kommen. Wenn ein kleines Kind vor mir steht und ich denke: Das ist ein Greis —, so habe ich vielleicht meiner Willkür gefrönt in bezug auf das Denken, aber ich stehe dann nicht in der Welt drinnen mit den Gedanken. Also in bezug auf die Gedanken sind wir durchaus nicht unabhängig, und wir sind so wenig unabhängig, daß unsere Gedanken gleich mit dem Tageskreislauf der Sonne in den Kosmos hinausgetragen werden.

Auch mit unseren Gefühlen sind wir nicht unabhängig; die werden durch den Jahreskreislauf hinausgetragen. Also schon während des irdischen Daseins lebt dasjenige, was in unserem Kopfe durch die Gedanken und in unserer Brust durch unsere Gefühle ist, nicht nur in uns, sondern es lebt ein kosmisches Dasein mit. Lediglich was in unserem Willen lebt, das bewahren wir bei uns bis zu unserem Tode. Dann, wenn wir den Körper abgelegt haben, wenn wir nichts mehr zu tun haben mit den irdischen Kräften, tragen wir sie durch die Todespforte hinaus.

Und nun tritt der Mensch durch die 'Todespforte, beladen mit dem, was aus seinen Willenshandlungen geworden ist. Wie er hier um sich herum hat, was in Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tieren, im physischen Menschen lebt, was in Wolken, Flüssen, Bergen, Sternen, insofern sie äußerlich dutch das Licht sichtbar sind, lebt, wie er das hier während seines Daseins zwischen Geburt und Tod um sich herum hat, so hat er eine Welt um sich herum, wenn er den physischen und Ätherleib abgelegt hat und durch die 'Todespforte geschritten ist. Gerade diejenige Welt hat er um sich, in die in jeder Nacht seine Gedanken hineingegangen sind, in die in jedem Jahreskteislauf seine Gefühle hineingegangen sind: Das hast du gedacht; das hast du gefühlt. - Und ihm ist es jetzt so, als ob die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien ihm seine Gedanken und Gefühle entgegentrügen. Sie haben sie in der Weise, wie ich es charakterisiert habe, angeschaut. Jetzt strahlt ihm sein Verstand, jetzt strahlt ihm sein Gemüt entgegen. So, wie hier dem Erdendasein die Sonne vom Morgen bis zum Abend leuchtet, wie sie untergeht und es Nacht wird, so strahlen uns entgegen unsere Weistümer als Tag, wenn wir durch die Todespforte geschritten sind, so dunkeln und dämmern ab die Geisteslichter um uns herum, und es wird Nacht durch die angesammelten Torheiten. Was hier auf dieser Erde Tag und Nacht ist, das ist, nachdem wir durch die Todespforte geschritten sind, um uns herum als das Ergebnis unserer Weistümer und unserer Torheiten. Und was hier auf diesem Erdenrund der Mensch erlebt als Frühling und Sommer, Herbst und Winter im Jahreskreislauf, als Änderung des Wärmezustandes, Änderung des sonstigen Sich-Fühlens, das erlebt er, indem er durch die 'Todespforte hindurchgeschritten ist, auch als eine Art von Kreislauf, der allerdings wesentlich länger dauert. Er erlebt das Wärmende, das Lebenfördernde, das heißt, das sein Geistselbst Fördernde seiner guten Gefühle, seiner Sympathie für das Gute; er erlebt fröstelnd, nachdem er durch die Todespforte geschritten ist, seine Sympathie mit dem Bösen, mit dem Unmoralischen. So, wie wir hier durch Sommerwärme und Winterkälte hindurch auf der Erde leben, so leben wir nach dem Tode, erwärmt durch unser gutes Fühlen, fröstelnd durch unser schlechtes Fühlen; und die Wirkungen unseres Willens tragen wir durch diese geistigen Jahreszeiten und dutch diese geistigen Tageszeiten hindurch.

Wir sind, indem wir durch die Todespforte geschritten sind, zunächst die Wirkung unseres Moralischseins auf Erden. Und wir haben eine Umgebung, welche durchsetzt ist von unseren Torheiten und Weistümern, von unseren Sympathien und Antipathien für das Gute.

So daß wir sagen können: Wie wir auf Erden die Sommerluft um uns herum haben, die warme, lebenfördernde, wie wir die fröstelnde Winterluft um uns herum haben, so haben wir nach dem Tode eine Atmosphäre um uns, die geistig-seelische Atmosphäre, die warm, lebenfördernd ist, insofern sie zubereitet ist durch unsere guten Gefühle, und wir haben eine fröstelnde Atmosphäre um uns, insofern sie zubereitet ist durch unsere schlechten Gefühle. — Hier auf dieser Erde ist uns die Sommer- und Winterwärme wenigstens für gewisse Gegenden gemeinsam. In der Zeit nach dem Tode hat jeder seine eigene Atmosphäre, die er sich selbst erzeugt. Und das sind gerade die bedeutsamsten Erlebnisse nach dem Tode, daß der eine neben dem andern geht fröstelnd, während der andere im lebenfördernden Warmen ist.

Das sind die Erfahrungen, die gemacht werden können nach dem Tode. Und zu den Erfahrungen, die durchgemacht werden in der Seelenwelt, wie ich sie in meiner «’Theosophie» beschrieben habe, gehört es hauptsächlich, daß diejenigen Menschen, welche böse Gefühle entwickelt haben hier auf Erden, ihre schlimmen Erfahrungen im Anblicke derjenigen entwickeln müssen, die gute Gefühle entwickelt haben.

Man kann schon sagen, alles, was zunächst im Innern des Menschen verborgen bleibt, das enthüllt sich, wenn der Mensch durch die Todespforte geschritten ist. Und der Schlaf gewinnt jetzt auch eine kosmische Bedeutung, und das Dasein während des Winters gewinnt auch eine kosmische Bedeutung. Wir schlafen jede Nacht, damit wir uns das Licht bereiten, in dem wir leben müssen nach dem Tode, wir machen die Wintererfahrungen durch, damit wir uns die Wärmeverhältnisse geistig-seelischer Art bereiten, in die wir eintreten nach dem Tode. Und in das, was wir uns selber sozusagen als die Atmosphäre der geistigen Welt bereiten, in das hinein tragen wir die Wirkungen unserer Taten.

Hier auf der Erde leben wir durch unseren physischen Leib als erdenschweres Wesen. Wir leben durch unser Atmen im Luftkreislauf, und wir sehen außerhalb die Sterne. Sind wir durch die Pforte des Todes geschritten, draußen in der geistig-seelischen Welt, da sind wir der Erde entrückt; wir sind gewissermaßen außerhalb der Sterne, schauen die Sterne von hinten an, schauen zurück zur Sternenwelt. Wir stehen nicht auf dem Boden der Erde, wir wesen in den Weltgedanken und in den Weltenkräften. Wir leben in der Atmosphäre, die wir uns selber bereitet haben geistig-seelisch, wie ich es beschrieben habe. Wir schauen zurück zu den Sternen, sehen nicht die Sterne glänzen, sondern sehen die Hierarchien, die Geistwesen, welche in den physischen Sternen nur ihr Abbild haben.

So kann immer mehr und mehr der Mensch hier auf dieser Erde lernen, wie sein Leben sein wird, wenn er durch die Todespforte tritt. Es gibt Menschen, die sagen: Was brauche ich das alles zu wissen? Ich werde es ja schen nach dem Tode! - Ja, das ist ungefähr so, wie wenn der Mensch den Wert seines Augenlichtes anzweifelte. Denn der Mensch tritt einmal im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung immer mehr und mehr in ein Leben ein, in dem er sich das Miterleben dessen, was ich beschrieben habe, dadurch erwerben muß für die Zeit nach dem Tode, daß er es hier auf der Erde zunächst im Gedanken faßt. Ausschließen das Wissen von den geistigen Welten auf der Erde heißt, sich geistig-seelisch blenden für sein Leben nach dem Tode. Und man tritt einfach als ein Krüppel in die geistige Welt ein, wenn man durch die Todespforte tritt, wenn man es hier auf dieser Welt verschmäht, von der geistigen Welt etwas zu wissen, denn die Menschheit entwickelt sich zur Freiheit.

Das ist etwas, was der Menschheit immer klarer und klarer werden sollte und woraus sie einsehen sollte die Notwendigkeit des Wissens von der geistigen Welt.


«Als zweites habe ich zu erwähnen, daß wiederum Serien gemacht werden von den Eurythmiefiguren, hier im Atelier von Miss Maryon. Es werden die Figuren, die jetzt halbfertig sind, in etwa 10 Tagen fertig sein. Eine Serie davon wird jetzt etwas billiger zu stehen kommen. 20 Stück werden zu 250 Franken zu haben sein; einzelne Figuren werden zu 13 Franken zu haben sein. — Ich möchte bemerken, daß ja jetzt die Weihnachtszeit kommt, und man auf diese Weise zu sehr schönen Weihnachtsgeschenken kommen könnte.»

Am nächsten Abend bemerkte Rudolf Steiner dann noch das Folgende:

«Ich habe nur die Kleinigkeit noch zu dem gestern Gesagten hinzuzufügen, die ich vergessen habe in bezug auf diese Figuren. Ich sagte: sie können ein hübsches Weihnachtsgeschenk abgeben, und ich habe damit eine kleine Anspielung gemeint. Ich habe vergessen zu sagen, daß das Gesamtergebnis, das dadurch für solche Weihnachtsgeschenke einkommen würde, eben dem Goetheanum zugute kommen wird, das es jetzt braucht!»

Second Lecture

The lectures which I have now given here for a number of weeks have essentially had the task of showing how man participates through his spiritual life in what we can call the starry world, just as he participates through his physical life on earth in earthly existence and events. In the sense of the view which we have received through anthroposophy, man must first be divided into those forces which lie in his physical and etheric body or body of formative forces, and those which lie in his ego-being and in his astral body. You know that he separates these two sides of his being in every state of sleep.

Let us look at this sleeping human being for a few moments. On the one side we have the physical human body, the etheric or formative forces body, unconscious, but also the unconscious I-entity and the astral body. We can now ask: Is there also a relationship between these two unconscious sides of the human nature during the sleeping state? - We know that in the waking state, in which the ordinary consciousness of today's man comes into being, there is that relationship which comes to life through thinking, through feeling, through willing. We must imagine it in such a way that when the I-entity and the astral body are, as it were, submerged in the etheric body and in the physical body, then thinking, feeling, willing flare up from this togetherness.

Thinking, feeling and willing are not present in the sleeping human being. But if we look at the physical earthly body, then we will have to say: In this physical earthly body all those forces are active which belong to earthly existence according to our human observation. -- We can weigh this physical human body, and we will find that it has a weight. We could investigate this physical human body - or at least hypothetically imagine that we could - to see how material processes take place in it. One would find such material processes in it which are a continuation of those processes which we find outside in earthly existence, which continue through nourishment into the interior of the human being. We also find in the physical body that which takes place through the respiratory process. Only that which emanates from the head organization of the human being, that which belongs to the sensory nervous system, is to a certain extent dimmed or plunged into complete darkness.

If we then consider the etheric body, which permeates the physical body, it is not so easy to obtain information about how this etheric body works during the state of sleep. But anyone who has already penetrated a little into what spiritual science has to say about the human being will easily recognize how the human being also lives asleep through his etheric body in everything that the etheric conditions, the etheric forces, are in the environment of earthly existence. So that we can say: Within the physical body we find everything effective in the state of sleep that belongs to the earthly existence; we find effective in the etheric body everything that belongs to the etheric world that envelops and permeates the earth.

But now the matter becomes more difficult when we direct our attention - naturally the soul's attention - to that which is now outside the physical and the etheric body, when we direct it to the ego entity and to the astral entity of the human being. We cannot possibly give ourselves over to the idea that this ego entity, this astral entity of man has something to do with the physical earth, something to do with that which surrounds and permeates the earth as ether.

What takes place during sleep - I have, I might say, described it to you in the lectures I gave here recently; today I will outline it from a different point of view - what takes place in the ego entity and in the astral body of man, we can only recognize when we penetrate through spiritual science into what still takes place on earth, around the earth, outside the physical development of forces and outside the etheric effects of forces.

First we turn our attention to the plant world. Every year we see the plant world - at least in the main, insofar as it is not a question of permanent trees and the like - sprouting out of the earth in spring. We then see them become more and more colorful and lush, and we see them wither again with autumn. In a certain sense, we see them disappear from the earth when the earth is covered with snow.

But this is only one side of the unfolding of the plant world. Physical knowledge tells us that this unfolding of the plant world in spring, its withering away towards autumn, is connected with the sun. Physical knowledge also shows us how, for example, the green pigment of the plant world can form solely under the influence of sunlight. So physical cognition shows us what takes place within the physical effect; but it does not show us that while all this is taking place: sprouting, greening, blossoming, withering of the plants - spiritual things are also taking place. But just as, for example, the blood circulation takes place in the physical human organism, just as the etheric processes express themselves in the physical organism as vascular effects and so on, and just as this physical human organism is permeated by the soul-spiritual, so also the processes which take place in the sprouting, turning green, blossoming, withering of the plants and which we observe as physical processes, are everywhere interspersed and permeated by spiritual and soul-world effects. And how, when we see the face of a human being - when his gaze falls on us, his facial expression, perhaps the redness of his face shows itself to us - then, after our coexistence with the rest of the human world, we cannot do otherwise, than to direct our spiritual gaze through the physical to the spiritual, so to speak, we should get into the habit of seeing a spiritual aspect in what is going on in the - if I may say so - physiognomy and color changes of the plant cover of our earth.

In so far as we want to recognize merely physically, we say: The heat of the sun and the sunlight act on the plant, form the plant juices in it, form chlorophyll in it and so on. - But if we look at all this with our spiritual gaze, if we behave towards this plant physiognomy of the earth as we habitually behave towards the human physiognomy, then something reveals itself to us which I would like to express with a very specific word, because this word actually reflects the reality that is taking place there. The sun, which only sends its light outwards to the earth, is not just a luminous ball of gas, but something essentially different. It sends its rays down to the earth, but just as it sends its rays outwards and everywhere, when you look towards the sun, you have the outside of the ray, so to speak, so the ray also has its inside.

If someone could see through the sunlight, if he could only look at the sunlight like an outer skin and look through to the soul, he would see the soul power, the soul essence of the sun. We actually see the sun with ordinary human consciousness in the same way as we would see a person made of papier-mâché. If you have an impression made of yourself in which there is nothing but the form, the dead form, and place it there, it is of course something different from the person you really see before you. With the real human being you see through this outer form to the soul-spiritual. In the case of the sun, for the ordinary human consciousness, it actually turns itself into a papier-mâché impression for this ordinary human consciousness. You cannot see through its skin, which is woven from light. But if you look through it, then you see the whole spiritual-soul essence of the sun.

This spiritual-soul essence can become conscious to us in its activity just like the physical papier-mâché of the sun. From the point of view of physical knowledge I say: The sun shines on the earth, it shines on the stones, on the ground. The light is reflected back. This makes everything mineral visible. The sun's rays penetrate the plants, make them green, make them sprout. This is all external. - If you now look at the spiritual-mental essence of the sun, then you cannot just say: The sunlight shines on the minerals, the sunlight is reflected back, thus you see the minerals, the sunlight or the solar heat penetrates the plants, thus they turn green - but you have to say: The sun - and now you mean these innumerable spiritual beings who populate the sun and who are its spiritual-mental essence - the sun dreams, and its dreams envelop the earth and shape the plants.

If you think of the surface of the earth, the physical plants coming out of it, which bring it to blossom, then you have the effect of the physical rays of the sun in it. But above it lives and weaves the dream world of the sun. These are all imaginations. And you can say: when the snow cover melts in spring and the sun regains its power, then the imaginations of the sun gradually surround and weave around the earth.

And these imaginations of the sun are imagined forces, and they weave around the plant world. Even if we have to say that this imaginative world, this imaginative atmosphere that surrounds the earth, is particularly alive from spring to fall in some region where it is spring or fall on earth, this dreamlike element of the sun's effect is of course also present in a certain way during the winter time. It is only during the winter time, I would like to say, that they are dull 'dreams, during the summer time they are in themselves forming, moving dreams. It is this element in which the imaginations of the sun develop, in which above all the I-entity and the astral body of man live and weave when they are outside the physical and the etheric body.

You will gather from what I have said that sleeping in summer actually means something quite different from sleeping in winter, even if at first human life and its consciousness within the present state of consciousness is so dull and paralyzed that these things are not perceived. In older times of human development, people distinguished very precisely between winter sleep and summer sleep through their sensations. And they also knew what winter sleep and summer sleep meant to them. People in those older times knew that summer sleep was such that they could say: During the summer, the earth is enwoven with pictorial thoughts. - This is how the people of the older times expressed it: There the upper gods descend during the summer and hover around the earth; during the winter the lower gods ascend from the earth and hover around the earth. - This imaginative world, which is shaped differently during winter and summer, was perceived as the weaving of upper and lower gods. But it was also known in these older times of human civilization that man with his ego-entity and with his astral body is in this weaving imaginative world.

Now, however, this very fact, which I have just developed for you, shows us, if we observe it spiritually and scientifically, in what relationship man already stands to the extraterrestrial universe during his earthly existence. In summer, when it is summer in any part of the earth, man is actually always surrounded by a sharply contoured cosmic imagination during his sleep. As a result, I would say, he is pressed against the earth with his spiritual and mental being during this summer time. During the winter it is different. During the winter time, the contours of these imaginations become wider, so to speak.

During the summer, there are very distinct imaginations - in the most varied figures - within which we live during our sleep with our ego entity and our astral entity. During the winter there are wide-meshed figures around the earth, and the consequence of this is that every time autumn begins, that which lives in our ego-entity and in our astral body is carried far out into the world at night-time. During the hot summer time, that which lives in our ego and in our astral body remains, so to speak, more in the spiritual-spiritual atmosphere of human beings. During the winter time, that which lives in our ego being and in our astral being is carried out into the world. One can already say, without saying anything merely figurative, but by saying something quite real: That which the human being forms in his soul and which he can carry out between falling asleep and waking up through his ego entity and through his astral entity from his physical and from his etheric body, that stores itself up during the summer time and flows out into the vastness of the cosmos during the winter time.

We cannot now think as human beings in such a way that we close ourselves off, so to speak, in our earthly existence and the vastness of the world knows nothing of us. It is not like that. One can indeed say that at St. John's time, in summer, man can at first hide from the spirits of the world, and he may succeed in having reprehensible feelings; the dense network of imaginations does not allow this to happen. But that remains. And at Christmas time, when the gods look in on the earth, everything that lives in the human beings and goes out with their ego and their astral being reveals itself. And one might already put up the picture that represents a reality: that with the winter time the earth windows open and the angels and archangels look to see how people are on earth.

We on earth have gradually become accustomed in the newer civilization to expressing what we may allow ourselves before knowledge in a philistine, sober, unpoetic way. The higher beings always remain poets, and therefore one never expresses their essence correctly if one describes it with physically sober words, but one must resort to such words as I have just used: at Christmas time the windows of the earth open, and the angels and archangels look through the windows at what people do throughout the year. The beings of the higher hierarchies, even when they think, are poets and artists. Logic, as we usually want to develop it, is only a result of earthly gravity, which is not to say that it is not highly useful on earth.

But of that which lives in man, in his behavior, as I have now described it, that which lives in the mind of man is actually the essential thing for these higher beings. What the professors think up is of no interest to the angels who look in at the Christmas window, they look past it. They are not so concerned with thoughts at first. What goes on in human feelings, in the human mind, is connected with this annual cycle of the sun in relation to its cosmic validity. So it is not so much whether we are stupid or clever on earth that comes before the face of the divine-spiritual worlds in the winter time, but merely whether we are good or bad people, whether we are comfortable people or egoists. This is what is communicated to the cosmic worlds through the regulation of the annual cycle.

What we think, you might believe, remains with the earth, because I said earlier that the angels and archangels don't care about that when they look in at the Christmas windows. But they don't care about that because - if I am to express myself somewhat soberly now - they receive the larger types of coins, the more valuable types of coins that are minted from the spiritual-soul nature of man. And these more valuable types of coins are shaped by the mind, the feelings and by what the person is worth through the content of his feelings, his mind. For the cosmos, thoughts are only the coins, the small coins, and these small coins are overheard by lower spirits every night. So, whether we are stupid or clever, that is overheard every night for the cosmos, but not for very wide stretches of the cosmos, but only for the circumference of the earth by the, I would like to say, very closest, therefore also the most subordinate, more elementary beings that are in the circumference of the earth. The daily cycle of the sun is there to communicate the value of our thoughts to the cosmos, as far as thoughts go; they only belong to the orbit of the earthly. The annual cycle of the sun is there to carry our mind, our emotional being, further out into the cosmic worlds.

And our will nature cannot be carried out into the cosmos in this way. For the daily cycle is strictly regulated, it runs in twenty-four hours. The annual cycle of the sun is strictly regulated. We notice the strict regulation of the daily cycle in the strict logical regulation of our thoughts. We notice the regulation of the annual cycle in the after-effects in our minds, in that there are certain feelings which say to something that man does: It is good - to something else: It is evil.

But a third thing lives in man, that is the will. The will is indeed connected with the feeling, and the feeling cannot but say to certain actions: They are morally good - and to others: They are morally not good. - But the will can do what is morally good and can also do what is morally not good. Here we see that there is no strict regulation. How our will relates to our human nature is not strictly regulated in the same sense as thinking and feeling are regulated. We cannot call a bad action good or a good action bad, nor can we call a logical thought illogical or an illogical thought logical. This is due to the fact that thinking is under the influence of the daily effect of the sun, feeling is under the influence of the annual cycle of the sun. The will, however, is left to mankind on earth. And now man could say: Yes, at most it happens to me, if I think illogically, that my illogical thoughts are carried out into the cosmos every night and cause mischief there, but what does that matter to me? I am not there to put the cosmos in order. Here on earth, where he has a life of illusion, he could say so under certain circumstances, but between death and a new birth he would never say so, for between death and a new birth he is himself in the worlds where he may have wrought mischief by his foolish thoughts, and he has to go through all the mischief. In the same way, between death and a new birth he is in those worlds into which his emotional and mental states have flowed. But here, too, he could say again on earth: Well, into the cosmos, that which lives in my feelings steams out, but I leave it to the gods what harm could be caused by me there.

But my will is only unregulated on earth. The materialistic man, who counts human life only according to the time between birth and death, can never somehow come to the idea that his will has a cosmic meaning. Nor can he think that his thoughts or feelings have a cosmic meaning. But even he who knows well that thoughts have a cosmic meaning through the daily cycle, feelings through the annual cycle of the sun, now sees what takes place on earth through the good or evil will of men, and he must depart from the cosmic and approach human nature itself in order to see how that which works in the human will now comes out into the cosmos. For that which works in the human will must be carried out into the cosmos by man himself, and he carries it out when he has passed through the gate of death. This is not the course of the day, not the course of the year, but the gate of death, through which man then carries that which he has done good or evil here on earth through his will.

This is a peculiar relationship of man to the cosmos with regard to his soul. We say of our thoughts: We have the thoughts. - But they are not at our will. We must follow the laws of the world when we think, otherwise we will come into conflict with everything that goes on in the world. If a small child stands before me and I think: This is an old man - I may have indulged in my arbitrariness with regard to thinking, but then I am not inside the world with my thoughts. So in terms of thoughts we are not at all independent, and we are so little independent that our thoughts are carried out into the cosmos with the daily cycle of the sun.

Even with our feelings we are not independent; they are carried out through the cycle of the year. So even during our earthly existence, that which is in our head through our thoughts and in our chest through our feelings not only lives in us, but also lives a cosmic existence with us. It is only what lives in our will that we keep with us until our death. Then, when we have discarded the body, when we have nothing more to do with the earthly forces, we carry them out through the gate of death.

And now man steps through the 'death gate, laden with what has become of his acts of will. Just as he has around him here what lives in minerals, plants, animals, in the physical human being, what lives in clouds, rivers, mountains, stars, in so far as they are visible externally through the light, just as he has this around him here during his existence between birth and death, so he has a world around him when he has laid aside the physical and etheric body and has passed through the 'death gate. He has that very world around him into which his thoughts have entered every night, into which his feelings have entered every year: This is what you thought; this is what you felt. - And now it is as if the beings of the higher hierarchies have brought his thoughts and feelings to him. They have looked at them in the way I have characterized. Now his intellect radiates towards him, now his mind radiates towards him. Just as the sun shines here on earth from morning to evening, as it sets and it becomes night, so our wisdom shines towards us as day when we have passed through the gates of death, so the spiritual lights around us darken and dim, and it becomes night through the accumulated follies. What is day and night here on this earth is, after we have passed through the gate of death, around us as the result of our wisdoms and our follies. And what man experiences here on this earth as spring and summer, autumn and winter in the annual cycle, as a change in the state of warmth, a change in other sensations, he also experiences as a kind of cycle when he has passed through the ‘gate of death’, although it lasts much longer. He experiences the warming, the life-promoting, that is to say, that which promotes his spiritual self, his good feelings, his sympathy for the good; he experiences shivering, after he has passed through the gate of death, his sympathy with evil, with the immoral. Just as we live here on earth through summer warmth and winter cold, so we live after death, warmed by our good feelings, shivering through our bad feelings; and we carry the effects of our will through these spiritual seasons and through these spiritual times of day.

We are, having passed through the gate of death, first of all the effect of our moral being on earth. And we have an environment which is permeated by our follies and wisdoms, by our sympathies and antipathies for the good.

So that we can say: Just as on earth we have the summer air around us, the warm, life-promoting air, just as we have the chilly winter air around us, so after death we have an atmosphere around us, the spiritual-spiritual atmosphere, which is warm, life-promoting, in so far as it is prepared by our good feelings, and we have a chilly atmosphere around us, in so far as it is prepared by our bad feelings. - Here on this earth we have summer and winter warmth in common, at least for certain regions. In the time after death, everyone has their own atmosphere, which they create for themselves. And these are precisely the most significant experiences after death, that one walks beside the other shivering, while the other is in the life-promoting warmth.

These are the experiences that can be made after death. And the experiences that are undergone in the soul world, as I have described them in my “Theosophy”, mainly include the fact that those people who have developed evil feelings here on earth must develop their bad experiences in the sight of those who have developed good feelings.

It can be said that everything that initially remains hidden within the human being is revealed when the human being has passed through the gate of death. And sleep now also takes on a cosmic meaning, and existence during the winter also takes on a cosmic meaning. We sleep every night in order to prepare ourselves for the light in which we must live after death, we go through the winter experiences in order to prepare ourselves for the spiritual and mental warmth into which we will enter after death. And into what we prepare for ourselves, so to speak, as the atmosphere of the spiritual world, we carry the effects of our deeds.

Here on earth we live through our physical body as an earth-heavy being. We live through our breathing in the air cycle, and we see the stars outside. Once we have passed through the gate of death, outside in the spiritual-soul world, we are raptured away from the earth; we are, so to speak, outside the stars, looking at the stars from behind, looking back at the starry world. We do not stand on the ground of the earth, we live in the world thoughts and in the world forces. We live in the atmosphere that we have prepared for ourselves spiritually and mentally, as I have described. We look back to the stars, do not see the stars shining, but see the hierarchies, the spiritual beings, which only have their image in the physical stars.

In this way, more and more people here on this earth can learn what their life will be like when they pass through the gates of death. There are people who say: "Why do I need to know all this? I will know it all after death! - Yes, that's a bit like a person doubting the value of his eyesight. For in the course of his development on earth, man enters more and more into a life in which he must acquire the co-experience of what I have described for the time after death by first grasping it in his thoughts here on earth. To exclude the knowledge of the spiritual worlds on earth means to blind oneself spiritually and mentally for one's life after death. And one simply enters the spiritual world as a cripple when one steps through the gate of death, when one spurns to know something of the spiritual world here on this world, because mankind develops towards freedom.

This is something that should become clearer and clearer to humanity and from which it should realize the necessity of knowledge of the spiritual world.


"The second thing I have to mention is that series of eurythmy figures are again being made here in Miss Maryon's studio. The figures, which are now half-finished, will be ready in about 10 days. One series will now be a little cheaper. 20 pieces will be available for 250 francs; individual figures will be available for 13 francs. - I would like to point out that the Christmas season is now approaching, and this could make for very nice Christmas presents."

The next evening, Rudolf Steiner remarked the following:

"I have only the little thing to add to what I said yesterday, which I forgot to mention with regard to these figures. I said: they can make a nice Christmas present, and I meant a little allusion. I forgot to say that the total proceeds that would come in for such Christmas gifts will go to the Goetheanum, which needs them now!"