Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Man and the World of Stars
GA 219

3 December 1922, Dornach

III. Man's Relation to the World of Stars

In the course of our present studies I should like it to become increasingly clear that man does not belong to the Earth alone, to Earth-existence alone, but also to the Cosmos, to the world of Stars. Much of what there is to say in this connection I have, as you know, already said. I want now to begin with a brief remark in order that misunderstandings may be avoided.

Anyone who speaks of man's connection with the world of the Stars is probably always liable to be accused of leanings towards the superficial form of Astrology that is so widely pursued nowadays. But if what is said on this subject is rightly understood, the immense difference will at once be apparent between what is meant here and the amateurish interpretations of ancient astrological traditions that are so common today.

When we say that man, between birth and death, is a being connected with the Earth and earthly happenings, what do we mean by this? We mean that man owes his existence between birth and death to the fact that, in the first place, he takes the substances of the Earth into his metabolic system as nourishment and digests them; further, that through his breathing, and through the inner processes connected with his breathing, he is related in still another way to the Earth—that is to say, to the atmosphere surrounding the the Earth. We also say that man perceives the outer things of the Earth by means of his senses, perceives indeed reflections of what is extra-terrestrial—reflections which are, however, of a much more earthly character than is generally supposed. So that in general one can say: Man partakes of earthly existence through his senses, through his rhythmic system, and through his metabolic system, and has within him the continuation of the processes set in operation through this Earth-existence itself.

But equally there takes place in man a continuation of cosmic, extra-terrestrial processes. Only it must not be supposed, when it is said that an influence from the Moon, or Venus, or Mars, is exercised upon man, that this is to be understood merely as if rays of light are sent down from Mars or Venus or the Moon, and permeate him. When, for instance, it is said that man is subject to the influence of the Moon, this must be taken as an analogy of what is meant by saying that man is subject to the influences of the substances of the Earth. When someone passes an apple-tree, let us say, picks an apple and eats it, it can be said that the apple-tree has an influence on him; but we should not construe this so literally as to say that the apple-tree had sent its rays towards him. Or, if you like, when a man passes a meadow where there is an ox, and a week afterwards eats its flesh, we shall not at once form the idea that the ox has exercised an influence upon him. Neither must we picture so literally what is said about the influence upon man of the world of the Stars. The relation of the world of the Stars to man and of man to the world of the Stars is for all that just as much a reality as the relation of the man to the ox he passes in the meadow and the flesh of which he afterwards eats.

Today I have to speak of certain connections which exist between man and the worlds both of Earth-existence and of extra-earthly existence. If we again turn our attention to how man lives in the alternating conditions of waking and sleeping, we must first be clear that it is in the waking state that his reciprocal relationship to earthly substances and earthly forces is actually established. During waking life he perceives through his senses; during sleep he does not. Moreover he eats and drinks only when awake—though possibly some people would like to do so in sleep as well! The breathing process and the process that is connected with the breathing, i.e. the circulation of the blood, as well as the other rhythmic processes—these alone continue in man both in the waking and sleeping states. But they differ in the two states. I will speak later of the difference there is between breathing during waking life and breathing during sleep. To begin with we will confine ourselves to the fact that man is related to the outer world during the waking state through his senses and through his metabolism. We will consider this at first in connection only with things that are common knowledge.

Let us then start from the fact that during his waking state man takes foodstuffs into himself from the outside world, inner activity being promoted by the process of digestion. But it must not be forgotten that while, in the waking state, after the food has been taken, inner physical and etheric activity proceeds under the influence of the intaken foodstuffs, this physical and etheric organism of man is permeated by his Ego-organization and astral body.

It is also the case that during the waking state, man's Ego and astral ‘being’ take command of what goes on in the physical and etheric bodies in connection with the process of nourishment. But what thus takes place under the influence of the Ego and astral being does not continue during sleep. During sleep the physical and etheric bodies of man are worked upon by forces that issue, not from the Earth but from the cosmic environment of the Earth—from the world of the Stars.

It might be said—and not in a figurative sense for it has real meaning—that by day man eats the substances of the Earth and by night takes into himself what the Stars and their activities give him. In a certain sense, therefore, man is bound up with the Earth while he is awake and removed from the Earth while he is asleep; heavenly processes take their course in his physical and etheric bodies during sleep.

Materialistic science thinks that when a man is asleep, the substances he has consumed simply activate their own forces in him, whereas in reality, whatever substances a man takes into himself are worked upon during his sleep by the cosmic forces in the environment of the Earth. Suppose, for instance, we consume white of egg—albumen. This albumen is only fettered to the Earth through the fact that during the waking state we are permeated by our soul and spirit—our astral body and Ego. During sleep this albumen is worked upon by the whole planetary system from Moon to Saturn, and by the world of the fixed Stars. And a chemist who wished to study the inner processes taking place in man during sleep would have not only to be versed in earthly chemistry but also in a spiritual chemistry, for the processes then are different from those that take their course during waking life.

The Ego and astral being of man are, as you know, separated from the physical and etheric bodies during sleep and are not directly related with the world of the Stars; but they are directly related with the Beings of whom the Sun, Moon and Stars are the physical mirror-images—namely, with the Beings of the Hierarchies. Man asleep is a duality; his Ego and astral body—I could equally well say, his spirit and soul—become subject to the spiritual Beings of the higher kingdoms of the Universe. His bodies, the physical and etheric bodies, are subject to the physical reflections, the cosmic-physical mirror-images of these higher Beings.

Aware of himself as an earthly being, man has become more and more a materialistic philistine under the influence of intellectualism. Almost as aptly as the modern age is called the epoch of intellectual and scientific progress, it could be called the epoch of materialistic philistinism. For man is not conscious that he is dependent on anything else than sense-impressions coming from the Earth, the rhythmic processes set going in him by earthly processes, the metabolic processes also occasioned in him by earthly conditions. Hence he does not know his real place in the Universe. The factors in operation here are of tremendous complexity. As soon as the veil that is spread before man in order that he may see only the sense-world and not the spiritual world behind it, is drawn aside, life becomes extraordinarily complex.

It is found to begin with that man is influenced not only by those Beings and their physical reflections, the Stars, which can be directly observed, but that within earthly existence itself, supersensible Beings akin to those of the world of Stars have so to speak set up their abode in the earthly realm.

You know that the people of the Old Testament worshipped Jehovah—who was an actual Being, connected with what manifests in the physical world as Moon. It is of course more or less a figure of speech to say that the Jehovah-Being has his dwelling in the Moon, but at the same time there is reality in the expression. Everything pertaining to this Jehovah-Being is connected with the Moon.

Now there are Beings who ‘scorned’—if I may so express it—to make the journey to the Moon with the Jehovah-beings when the Moon separated from the Earth, and who remained in the earthly realm. So that in a way we can divine the existence of the true Jehovah-beings when we look at the Moon. We can say: that is the outer physical image of everything that participates in a regular way in the World Order in connection with the Being known as Jehovah. But when we learn to know what takes place inside the surface of the Earth—whether in the solid or the watery states—we find beings there who have disdained to make their home on the Moon, and have in an irregular way made the Earth their dwelling-place.

Now the Moon-beings, as I will call them, have helpers. These helpers belong to Mercury and Venus, just as the Moon-beings belong to the Moon. The Venus-beings, the Mercury-beings and the Moon-beings form a kind of trinity. The so-called regular beings of this kind in the Universe belong to these Stars. But both in the solid and the watery constituents of the Earth, we find beings belonging, it is true, to the same category, but—one might say—to a different epoch of time. They are beings who did not share in the Earth's cosmic evolution.

These beings have an influence upon sleeping man just as the regular cosmic beings have; but their influence is pernicious. I must characterize it by saying: when a man goes to sleep, then in the condition between falling asleep and waking, these irregular Moon, Venus and Mercury-beings approach him and set about persuading him that evil is good and good evil. All this takes place in man's unconscious condition, between going to sleep and waking.

It is a shattering experience connected with initiation that beyond the threshold of ordinary consciousness things by no means without danger to humanity are encountered. People holding the materialistic view of life have no idea to what man is exposed between going to sleep and waking. He is actually exposed to these beings who persuade him in his sleeping state that good is evil, and evil good. The moral order on Earth is bound up with the human etheric body, and when man sleeps, he leaves his moral achievements behind him on the bed. He does not pass over into the state of sleep armed with his moral qualities.

Natural Science today is everywhere touching the fringe of things which need to be explained by Spiritual Science. You may recently have seen in the newspapers some interesting and thoroughly well-founded statistics. It was stated that criminals in the prisons have been found to have the soundest sleep of all. Really hardened criminals are never tormented during their sleep by bad dreams or the like. This only happens when they dip down again into their etheric bodies, for it is there that the moral qualities lie. It can much more easily happen to one who is striving to be moral, that through the constitution of his etheric body, he carries over something into his astral body and is then tormented by dreams as the result of comparatively trifling moral lapses. But generally speaking it is a fact that man does not carry over at all, or only to a very slight extent, the moral constitution he acquires during earthly existence but is exposed during sleep to the beings just referred to.

These beings are identical with those I have always designated as Ahrimanic. They set themselves the task of keeping man on the Earth by every possible means. You know from the book Occult Science that the Earth will one day pass over into the Jupiter condition. That is what these beings want to prevent. They want to prevent man from developing in a regular way together with the Earth and then passing over into the Jupiter condition in a normal way. They want to preserve the Earth as Earth and mankind for the Earth. Hence these beings work unceasingly and with great intensity to achieve the following.—You must remember that these are things that take place behind the scenes of existence—real processes that have been going on ever since there has been a human race on the Earth.—Man passes into the state of sleep in his Ego-being and astral-being. These Moon, Venus and Mercury-beings who are living unlawfully on the Earth, now endeavor to give man an etheric body composed of the Earth's ether whenever he is asleep. They hardly ever succeed. In rare cases of which I will speak at some later time, they have succeeded; but this hardly ever happens. Still they do not give up the attempt for over and over again it seems to them that their efforts might succeed, that they might surround, permeate a man while he is asleep and has left his etheric body behind, with another etheric body built up from the Earth's ether. That is what these beings desire.

If an Ahrimanic being of this category were actually to succeed in bringing a complete etheric body stage by stage into a man every time he slept, such a man would be able after death, when living in his etheric body, to maintain himself in that body. Otherwise, as you know, the etheric body dissolves in a few days. But a man to whom the above had happened would be able to continue existing in his etheric body and after a time there would arise a race of etheric humanity. That is what is desired from this side of the spiritual world, and then it would be possible by such means to preserve the Earth.

Within the solid and the fluid components of the Earth there are in very truth a host of such beings. Their desire is to make mankind into pure phantoms, etheric phantoms, until the end of the Earth's evolution, so that the normal goal of Earth-evolution could not be attained. And in the night-time these beings by no means lose courage; over and over again they believe that their efforts may succeed.

Now man today has quite a passably good intellect which has developed considerably at the present time when philistinism is on the increase. Man can certainly pride himself upon possessing intellect. But this intellect is not even remotely on a par with the intellect of those higher beings who desire to achieve what I am now describing to you. Let nobody say: ‘These beings must be fearfully stupid.’ They are certainly not stupid. Seeing that they work only upon human beings in sleep, there is nothing to deter them from believing that they might succeed before the end of Earth-evolution in preventing a large portion of the human race from reaching their future destinations—destinations bound up with the Jupiter embodiment of the Earth.

But one who is able to see behind the scenes of physical existence can perceive that these beings do sometimes lose courage, are disappointed. And the disappointments they experience are not experienced in the night, but by day. One sees, for instance, how these Ahrimanic beings suffer disappointments if one comes across them in hospitals.

Now of course the illnesses that befall men have one aspect that calls upon us in all circumstances to do everything we possibly can to heal them. But on the other side we must ask: how do the illnesses suffered by men arise out of the dark sources of natural existence?

Those illnesses which are not the result of external influences but arise out of the inner constitution of man, are connected with the fact that when the Ahrimanic beings have almost succeeded in making a man assume an etheric body that is not his normal one, then, instead of bringing the lawful working of the etheric forces into his physical body and into his own accustomed etheric body on waking, such a man bears into himself causes of illness. Through these causes of illness the true Venus, Mercury and Moon-beings protect themselves against the harmful influences of the irregular beings. Indeed if a man did not at some time or another get this or that illness, he would be liable to the danger of which I have just spoken. In any illness his body breaks down, collapses, in order that there can be ‘sweated out,’ if I may use the expression, whatever irregular etheric processes he has taken into himself through the Ahrimanic influences.

And a further reaction called forth in order to prevent man from falling a victim to this Ahrimanic influence, is the possibility of error. And a third thing is egoism. Man is not fundamentally intended to be ill, to fall a prey to error, or to be egoistic to an exaggerated degree. Egoism as such is again a means of holding man to the evolution proper to the Earth instead of being torn out of it by the Ahrimanic beings. This, then, is one order of beings which can be discovered behind the scenes of ordinary sense-existence.

One can form an idea of another order of beings by knowing that not only Moon, Mercury, and Venus have an influence upon man but that an influence is also exercised from beyond the Sun—from Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

You know from the lectures I gave in the so-called ‘French Course’1Printed under the title: Philosophy, Cosmology and Religion. An abbreviated version of ten lectures given by Dr. Steiner in Dornach, 6th-15th September, 1922. that the Moon is the physical reflection of those beings who bring man into the physical world. Saturn is the physical reflection of those beings who bear him again out of the physical world. The Moon draws man down to the Earth; Saturn draws him again into the Universe and then into the spiritual world.

Just as the Jehovah-Moon-God has Venus and Mercury-beings as helpers, so Saturn has Jupiter and Mars-beings as helpers in bearing man into the Cosmos and into the spiritual worlds. These influences and the influences connected with the Moon-beings work upon man in exactly the opposite way.

The influences of Moon, Venus, and Mercury upon us are predominant until our 17th or 18th years. Then later on, when we have passed our 20th or 21st year, an influence from Mars, Jupiter and Saturn becomes particularly active; only in later years does this come to the point of leading us out of earthly existence into the spiritual world. The inner constitution of man is, in fact, dependent upon this transition, as one might say, from the inner planets to the outer planets. Until our 17th or 18th years, we are dependent, for instance, upon the major blood-circulation which affects the whole body. Later in life we are dependent upon the minor blood-circulation—but these are matters which must be left for future lectures. At the moment we must pay attention to the fact that just as the irregular beings of Moon, Venus, and Mercury have their habitations in the solid and fluidic components of the Earth, so the irregular beings of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn have the conditions for their existence—or, to speak pictorially, their habitations—in the warmth and in the air surrounding the Earth.

These beings have a great influence upon man during his sleeping state. But their influence works in exactly the opposite direction. The aim of these beings is to make man into a moral automaton—if I may so express it—into a moral automaton of such a nature that in his waking state he would not listen to his own instincts, his desires, or the voice of his blood, but would spurn all this and hearken only to the inspiration of these irregular Mars-, Jupiter-, and Saturn-beings. He would then become a moral automaton, without any prospect of a future state of freedom. That, then, is what these beings desire; and their influence too is strong, exceedingly strong. It is they who every night want to induce man to take the influence of the world of Stars into himself and never again the influence of the Earth. They would fain carry man right away from earthly existence. They desire—and have desired this ever since the human race first arose on the Earth—that man shall spurn the Earth, that he shall not awaken to freedom on the Earth—where alone this is possible. They desire that he shall remain a moral automaton as he was in the preceding metamorphosis of the Earth, in the Old Moon.

And in the middle, between these two hosts, of which the one sets its camp in the element of warmth and that of air, and the other in the elements of earth and of water—between these two opposing cosmic hosts stands Man. Life in his physical body conceals from him the fact that a fierce battle is waged in the Cosmos for possession of his being.

Today man must consciously find his way to such knowledge for it concerns him deeply and essentially. His very existence as a human being is constituted by the fact that forces are everywhere active around him, forces from the spiritual world. It is important for man today to have knowledge of his real position in the Universe.

A time will come when people will be far more justified in holding a poor opinion of our dark, materialistic knowledge compared with what will be known in the future about the spiritual reality behind the physical, than we are justified in saying that the scientific knowledge possessed by the Greeks was puerile, that they were mere children, whereas we have made splendid progress! In philistinism we certainly have made splendid progress and we shall have much more right to criticise when we can speak with full knowledge of this battle that is waging on the Earth for possession of man's being.

There are signs that a knowledge of these things must begin to spread in our time. It is certainly true that what I have told you today about the battle of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic beings in the Cosmos for the being of man is still hidden from the majority of people in the dark recesses of their inner nature. But these battles are now beginning to send their waves into that realm of existence of which men are clearly conscious. And today, if we are not to lead a sleepy existence in our civilization, we must know how to recognize the first waves that beat in upon us from those regions of the spiritual world which I have just characterized.

These two hosts—the Luciferic in the warmth and airy element of the Earth, the Ahrimanic in the solid and watery—these two hosts send their waves into our cultural life today. The Luciferic hosts are making their influence felt above all in outworn theology. In our cultural life, as an outflow of this Luciferic power, we encounter statements endeavoring to make Christ into a myth. The Christ descended to the Earth through the Mystery of Golgotha as a real Being, and that is naturally a truth that cuts right across the intentions of the beings who would like to make man into a moral automaton, without freedom. Therefore: Do away with the reality of Christ. Christ is a myth! You can discover in the literature of the 19th century, how clever and ingenious were the hypotheses of theologians like David Frederic Strauss, Kalthoff and those who merely echoed them, or better said, apish babblers like Arthur Drews! Everywhere the view is advanced that Christ is a mythological figure, a mere picture which has impressed itself upon man's imagination.—There will be many more attacks from these hosts—but this is the first.

The first waves coming from the Ahrimanic host in the solid and watery elements of the Earth press home the opposite view. In this case, Christ is denied and validity allowed only to the ‘simple man of Nazareth,’ to Jesus as the physical personality. Here again is a tit-bit presented by theology!

Making Christ into a myth—a purely Luciferic activity. Making the One who went through the Mystery of Golgotha into a mere man—even if endowed with every possible quality—a purely Ahrimanic activity. This, however, does not succeed at all easily, for the many testimonies and traditions have to be eliminated before producing this ‘simple man of Nazareth.’ Nevertheless this other tit-bit of theology is evidence of the onrush of the Ahrimanic breakers into human culture.

If these things are to be rightly assessed we must be able also to detect them behind the scenes of our ordinary existence on Earth. Otherwise, if men are not willing to turn their attention to what can be said today out of the spiritual world, they will become less and less able to judge such phenomena correctly, and these phenomena will then take effect in the sub-consciousness. It will become increasingly dangerous for men to surrender to the subconscious. Clear, thoughtful observation of what actually exists—a feeling for reality—that is the growing need of humanity.

Perhaps we can trace most definitely where this clear thoughtfulness, this sense of reality, must be applied, when we perceive the increase of such extraordinary phenomena as the theology which on the one hand denies Christ, and on the other hand makes Christ a myth. Such phenomena will become more and more prevalent, and if they are not to lead to corruption, humanity must acquire a clear, unswerving perception of the spiritual influences that are exercised upon the physical world, and particularly upon man himself.

I told you once before of the two men who found a piece of iron bent into a certain shape. The one said: “A good horse-shoe! I will shoe my horse with it.” The other said: “Not at all. It is a magnet and can be used for quite different purposes than shoeing a horse!” “I see nothing like a magnet about it,” said the other man. “You are crazy to say that there are invisible magnetic forces in it. It's a horse-shoe—that's its use!”

This is rather like the people today who are not willing to receive the knowledge that comes from the spiritual world. They want to “shoe horses” with everything in the world—if I may so express myself—because they will not acknowledge the reality of the supersensible forces. They want to shoe horses—not to make anything in which the magnetic forces are put to use. There was once a time—nor does it lie very far behind us—when a piece of iron so shaped would have been used for the shoeing of horses. But today this is no longer possible.

A time will come when in ordinary social life too, men will need what can be communicated from the spiritual world. Of this we must be mindful, and then Anthroposophy will penetrate not only into the intellect—that is of less importance—but above all into the will—and that is of great importance. Upon this we will ponder more and more deeply.

Dritter Vortrag

Ich möchte im Laufe dieser jetzt gepflogenen Betrachtungen immer mehr begreiflich machen, wie der Mensch nicht nur mit seiner Wesenheit der Erdenwelt, dem Erdendasein angehört, sondern auch dem kosmischen Dasein, dem Dasein der Sternenwelt. Manches, was in dieser Beziehung zu sagen ist, habe ich bereits auseinandergesetzt. Ich möchte nur, damit nicht Mißverständnisse entstehen, den folgenden Betrachtungen eine Bemerkung voranschicken. Man wird immer vielleicht dem Vorwurfe ausgesetzt sein, daß man hinneige zu der auch heute vielfach gepflogenen dilettantischen Astrologie, wenn man von dem Zusammenhange des Menschen mit der Sternenwelt spricht. Es muß nur das, was man in dieser Beziehung vorbringt, in der richtigen Weise erfaßt werden, dann wird schon der gewaltige Unterschied hervortreten zwischen dem, was hier gemeint ist, und allen Dilettantismen, die heute so vielfach in Anknüpfung an alte astrologische Traditionen zutage treten.

Wir sagen, daß der Mensch hier zwischen Geburt und Tod ein Wesen ist, das im Zusammenhange steht mit der Erde und ihrem Geschehen. Was meinen wir damit? Wir meinen damit, daß der Mensch zwischen Geburt und Tod sein Dasein dadurch hat, daß er zunächst einmal in sein Stoffwechselsystem herein die Stoffe der Erde als Nahrungsmittel nimmt und sie in seinem Organismus verarbeitet; daß er durch seine Atmung und durch die Vorgänge, die sich im Innern an die Atmung anschließen, des weiteren mit der Erde, das heißt, mit dem Luftumkreis der Erde in einem Verhältnisse steht. Wir sprechen ferner davon, daß der Mensch durch seine Sinne die äußeren Dinge der Erde wahrnimmt, ja, auch noch einen Abglanz des Außerirdischen wahrnimmt, welcher Abglanz übrigens viel irdischer ist, als man gewöhnlich glaubt. So daß man im ganzen sagen kann, der Mensch nimmt durch seine Sinne, durch seine rhythmische Organisation und dutch seine Stoffwechselorganisation das Erdendasein in sich auf, und er hat in sich selber die Fortsetzung derjenigen Vorgänge, die durch das Erdendasein und seine Prozesse angeregt werden. Ebenso aber ist im Menschen die Fortsetzung der kosmischen, der außerirdischen Vorgänge vorhanden. Nur muß man nicht glauben, daß, wenn davon gesprochen wird, auf den Menschen werde, sagen wir, von dem Planeten Mond oder Venus oder Mars ein Einfluß ausgeübt, das so zu verstehen ist, als ob nur irgendwelche Strahlungen oder dergleichen von Mars oder Venus oder Mond heruntergeschickt würden und der Mensch von diesen durchdrungen würde. Man muß, wenn zum Beispiel gesagt wird, der Mensch unterliege dem Mondeneinfluß, dieses durchaus in Analogie auffassen zu dem, was gemeint ist, wenn man sagt, der Mensch unterliege dem Einfluß der Substanzen der Erde.

Wenn der Mensch an einem Apfelbaum vorbeigeht und einen Apfel pflückt und ihn ißt, so kann man sagen, der Apfelbaum habe einen Einfluß auf den Menschen; aber man wird sich das nicht so geradlinig vorstellen, daß der Apfelbaum eben seine Strahlungen nach dem Menschen hingeschickt hat. Oder wenn der Mensch meinetwillen an einer Weide vorbeigeht und da ein Ochse ist, und der Mensch nach acht Tagen das Fleisch von diesem Ochsen ißt, wird man auch nicht so unmittelbar sich vorstellen, daß der Ochse einen Einfluß auf den Menschen ausgeübt hat. So muß man sich natürlich auch nicht zu geradlinig dasjenige vorstellen, was von dem Einfluß der Sternenwelt auf den Menschen zu sagen ist. Das Verhältnis der Sternenwelt zum Menschen und des Menschen zur Sternenwelt ist doch real da, ebenso wie das Verhältnis des Menschen zu dem Ochsen, an dem er vorbeigeht und dessen Fleisch er dann ißt.

Nun habe ich heute von gewissen Beziehungen zu sprechen, welche bestehen zwischen dem Menschen und der Welt sowohl des Erdendaseins wie auch des außerirdischen Daseins. Wenn wir noch einmal unseren Blick darauf wenden, wie der Mensch in den Wechselzuständen des Wachens und des Schlafens lebt, so müssen wir zunächst uns klar darüber sein, daß eigentlich im Wachzustande vorzugsweise das Wechselverhältnis des Menschen zu den irdischen Substanzen und irdischen Kräften hergestellt wird. Der Mensch nimmt durch seine Sinne während des Wachens wahr. Er nimmt nicht wahr durch seine Sinne während des Schlafes. Der Mensch ißt und trinkt auch nur in det Regel während des 'Tagwachens, obwohl vielleicht manche das auch noch im Schlafe möchten. Nur der Atmungsprozeß und der Prozeß, der im Zusammenhange mit dem Atem steht, der Blutkreislaufprozeß, das sind solche Prozesse — wie überhaupt die rhythmischen Prozesse -, die sich im Menschen im Wach- und im Schlafzustande abspielen. Nur sind sie doch voneinander verschieden im Wach- und im Schlafzustande. Davon will ich später noch sprechen, was für ein Unterschied zum Beispiel zwischen dem Wachatmen und dem Schlafatmen ist. Aber halten wir uns zunächst daran, daß der Mensch durch seine Sinne und auch durch seinen Stoffwechsel mit der Außenwelt in einer Beziehung steht während des Wachens, zunächst nur in bezug auf diejenigen Dinge, die jeder kennt; es soll also nichts anderes als etwas Bekanntes damit konstatiert sein.

Nun, gehen wir einmal davon aus, daß der Mensch die Nahrungsmittel von der Außenwelt hereinnimmt während seines Wachzustandes. Während seines Wachzustandes tritt auch eine innere Tätigkeit im Menschen auf unter dem Einflusse der Verarbeitung der Nahrungsmittel. Aber es darf nicht außer acht gelassen werden, daß, während im Wachen, nachdem die Nahrungsmittel aufgenommen sind und unter dem Einflusse der Nahrungsmittel die innere physische und auch ätherische Tätigkeit im Menschen vor sich geht, daß da der menschliche Organismus, sowohl der physische wie der ätherische, durchdrungen ist von der Ich-Wesenheit und von der astralischen Wesenheit des Menschen.

Es ist auch so, daß während des Wachens die Ich-Wesenheit und die astralische Wesenheit des Menschen sich durchaus desjenigen bemächtigen, was da im Anschluß an die Ernährung im physischen und im ätherischen Menschen vor sich geht. Aber was da unter dem Einflusse der Ich-Wesenheit und des astralischen Menschen vor sich geht, geht nicht während des Schlafzustandes vor sich. Während des Schlafzustandes wird auf den physischen Leib und auf den Ätherleib des Menschen eine Tätigkeit, eine Wirkung ausgeübt, die nun nicht von der Erde, sondern von dem kosmischen Umkreis der Erde, von der Sternenwelt ausgeht.

Man möchte sagen, und es ist das wiederum nicht etwa figürlich gesprochen, sondern es hat einen realen Sinn: bei Tag ißt der Mensch das Substantielle der Erdenstoffe, und bei Nacht nimmt der Mensch in sich auf dasjenige, was ihm geben die Sterne und ihre Vorgänge. So daß also gewissermaßen der Mensch dadurch, daß er wacht, an die Erde gebunden ist; und er wird gewissermaßen von der Erde weggenommen und es spielen sich in ihm, wenn ich so sagen darf, Himmelsprozesse ab, während er schläft, und zwar Himmelsprozesse im physischen und ätherischen Leibe.

Die materialistische Erkenntnis meint, daß, wenn der Mensch einschläft, nur die Stoffe, die er aufgenommen hat, ihre eigenen Kräfte in ihm regsam machen, während in der Tat, ob der Mensch nun diese oder jene Stoffe aufnimmt, in ihm während seines Schlafzustandes diese Stoffe verarbeitet werden durch die Kräfte der Umgebung der Erde, durch die kosmischen Kräfte. Sagen wir zum Beispiel, wir nehmen Eiweiß zu uns. Dieses Eiweiß wird nur dadurch an die Erde gefesselt, daß wir während des Wachzustandes durchsetzt sind als Mensch von unserem Seelischen und Geistigen, nämlich von unserem astralischen Wesen und von der Ich-Wesenheit. Während des Schlafzustandes wirkt auf dieses Eiweiß die ganze Planetenwelt vom Mond bis zum Saturn, wirkt die Fixsternwelt. Und ein Chemiker, der den Menschen untersuchen möchte in bezug auf seine inneren Vorgänge während des Schlafes, müßte nicht nur eine irdische Chemie kennen, sondern er müßte auch eine geistige Chemie kennen, denn die Vorgänge sind dann andere als während des Tagwachens.

Ebenso ist es mit der Ich-Wesenheit und dem astralischen Wesen des Menschen, die im Schlafe von dem physischen Leibe und dem ätherischen Leibe abgetrennt sind. Diese stehen zwar nicht unmittelbar in Beziehung zu der Sternenwelt, wohl aber zu jenen Wesenheiten, deren physisches Abbild Sonne, Mond und die Sterne sind, also zu den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. So daß man sagen könnte: Der Mensch ist schlafend eine Zweiheit. Sein Ich und sein astralischer Leib - ich könnte auch sagen sein Geist und seine Seele — sind hingegeben an die Geistwesen der höheren Weltenreiche. Seine Leiber, der physische Leib und der Ätherleib, sind an den physischen Abglanz, an das physische Abbild, an das kosmisch-physische Abbild dieser höheren Wesenheiten hingegeben. — Der Mensch, indem er sich als Erdenwesenheit weiß, ist unter dem Einflusse des Intellektualismus eigentlich immer mehr und mehr ein materialistischer Philister geworden. Fast ebensogut, wie man die neuere Zeit die Zeit des intellektuellen wissenschaftlichen Fortschrittes nennt, könnte man sie nennen die Zeit des Fortschrittes der Philistrosität, der materialistischen Philistrosität. Denn der Mensch ist sich nicht bewußt, daß er von etwas anderem abhängig ist als von den Sinneseindrücken der Erde, von den rhythmischen Vorgängen, die in ihm durch Erdenvorgänge ausgelöst werden, von den Stoffwechselvorgängen, die auch durch Irdisches in ihm veranlaßt werden. Daher ist sich der Mensch nicht bewußt, wie er eigentlich im Weltenall darinnensteht. Und dieses Darinnenstehen im Weltenall ist etwas ungeheuer Kompliziertes. Sobald man, ich möchte sagen, den Schleier hinweghebt, der doch immer vor dem Menschen sich ausbreitet, so daß der Mensch nur die sinnliche Welt sieht und nicht das dahinterliegende Geistige, sobald man diesen Schleier hinweghebt, wird das Leben doch eine außerordentlich komplizierte Sache. Da zeigt sich zunächst, daß nicht nur diejenigen Wesenheiten und ihr physischer Abglanz, die Sterne, auf den Menschen einen Einfluß haben, die jetzt unmittelbar beobachtet werden können, sondern daß innerhalb des irdischen Daseins selber übersinnliche Wesenheiten vorhanden sind, die verwandt sind mit den Sternenwesen, die aber gewissermaßen ihre Wohnsitze im Bereich des Irdischen aufgeschlagen haben.

Sie wissen, daß das alttestamentliche Volk den Jahve verehrt hat. Die Verehrung galt einer wirklichen Wesenheit. Diese Wesenheit hat einen Zusammenhang mit dem, was sich in der physischen Welt als Mond offenbart. Natürlich ist es immer mehr oder weniger bildlich, aber in der Bildlichkeit zugleich real gesprochen, wenn man sagt, jene Jahve-Wesenheit habe ihren Wohnsitz im Monde. Und alles, was zu dieser Jahve-Wesenheit gehört, hängt mit dem Mondendasein zusammen.

Aber nun gibt es Wesenheiten, welche, als sich der Mond von der Erde abgespalten hat, es verschmäht haben, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, die Reise nach dem Monde zu machen mit den JahveWesenheiten, und die im Bereich des Irdischen geblieben sind. So daß wir gewissermaßen die ordnungsgemäßen Jahve-Wesenheiten ahnen können, wenn wir den Mond anschauen. Wir können sagen: Das ist der äußere physische Abglanz alles dessen, was in rechtmäßiger Weise teilnimmt an der Weltenordnung als Jahve-Wesenheit. — Aber wenn wir kennenlernen, was innerhalb der Oberfläche der Erde, sowohl in der festen Erde wie im Wäßrigen, sich abspielt, so haben wir Wesenheiten, die es verschmäht haben, ihren Wohnsitz auf dem Monde aufzuschlagen, die auf der Erde ihren Wohnsitz unrechtmäßigerweise aufgeschlagen haben.

Nun gibt es Helfer derjenigen Wesenheiten, die ich also Mondenwesenheiten nennen möchte. Diese Helfer gehören ebenso zu Merkur und Venus, wie die Mondenwesen zum Monde gehören, so daß gewissermaßen die Mondenwesen, die Venuswesen und die Merkurwesen eine Art von Dreiheit bilden. Die rechtmäßigen Wesen im Weltenall von dieser Art gehören eben diesen Sternen an. Aber sowohl im Irdischen der Erde wie im Wäßrigen der Erde finden sich Wesenheiten, die durchaus derselben Kategorie, aber, man möchte sagen, einem andern Zeitalter angehören, die nicht mitgegangen sind, als das Irdische durch den Mond und durch die Venus und so weiter kosmisch geworden ist. Diese Wesenheiten haben nun auf den schlafenden Menschen ebenso einen Einfluß wie die kosmischen Wesen selber, aber sie haben einen unheilvollen Einfluß. Sie haben den unheilvollen Einfluß, den ich etwa für einen Fall so charakterisieren kann: Wenn der Mensch einschläft, dann im Schlafzustande ist, zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen, da treten diese unrechtmäßigen Monden-, Venus- und Merkurwesen an ihn heran und sie setzen sich zur Aufgabe, ihm zu sagen, ihm einzureden - es spielt sich das alles zwischen Einschlafen und Aufwachen im unbewußten Zustande ab -, das Böse sei gut und das Gute sei bös.

Das ist in der Tat das Erschütternde, das furchtbar Schmerzliche, das die Initiation gibt, daß man dadurch Dinge kennenlernt jenseits der Schwelle des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins, die für den Menschen keineswegs etwas Ungefährliches darstellen. Man macht sich eben im äußeren materialistisch orientierten Dasein keine Vorstellung, welchen Dingen der Mensch zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen ausgesetzt ist. Er ist wirklich diesen Wesen ausgesetzt, die ihm in seinem Schlafzustande durchaus einreden, daß das Gute böse und das Böse gut ist. Denn die irdisch-moralische Ordnung ist an den menschlichen ätherischen Leib gebunden, und seine moralischen Errungenschaften läßt der Mensch eigentlich, wenn er schläft, im Bette zurück. Er geht zunächst nicht ausgerüstet mit seinen moralischen Qualitäten in den Schlafzustand hinüber.

Überall streift an diejenigen Dinge, die man notwendigerweise in der Geisteswissenschaft auseinandersetzen muß, heute schon die Naturwissenschaft heran. Sie werden vielleicht neulich in den Zeitungen eine interessante Mitteilung gelesen haben, die statistisch aufgenommen worden ist und durchaus auf Wahrheit beruht. Da wurde gesagt, daß die Verbrecher in den Gefängnissen eigentlich den gesundesten Schlaf haben; sie werden durchaus nicht während ihres Schlafes, wenn sie richtige, hartgesottene Verbrecher sind, von bösen Träumen und dergleichen gequält. Das taucht nämlich erst wiederum auf, wenn sie in ihren Ätherleib untertauchen, da ist wiederum die moralische Qualifizierung darin. Gerade derjenige, der sich bemüht, moralisch zu sein, dem kann es viel eher passieren, daß er durch die moralische Konstitution seines Ätherleibes auch etwas in seinen astralischen Leib hinübernimmt und dann von Träumen gequält wird bei verhältnismäßig geringfügigem Unmoralischen. Aber jedenfalls ist es so, daß der Mensch das, was er sich als seine moralische Konstitution während des Erdendaseins erwirbt, in den Schlafzustand gar nicht oder nur mit geringer Intensität hinübernimmt, daß er aber während des Schlafzustandes zum Beispiel jenen Wesenheiten ausgesetzt ist, von denen ich eben gesprochen habe.

Diese Wesenheiten sind identisch mit denjenigen Wesenheiten, die ich sonst immer der Kategorie der ahrimanischen Wesenheiten zuzähle. Sie haben die Aufgabe, den Menschen möglichst auf der Erde zu erhalten. Sie wissen aus der Darstellung in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß», daß die Erde sich einmal auflösen wird und in den Jupiterzustand hinübergehen wird. Das wollen diese Wesenheiten verhindern. Sie wollen namentlich verhindern, daß der Mensch regelmäßig mit der Erde sich bis zu Ende entwickelt und dann in einer normalen Weise in den Jupiterzustand hinüberwächst, sie wollen die Erde konservieren in ihrem Dasein, sie wollen die Erde erhalten und wollen den Menschen für die Erde erhalten. Daher bemühen sich diese Wesenheiten in der intensivsten Weise fortwährend, das Folgende zu machen. Das sind Vorgänge, ich möchte sagen hinter den Kulissen des Daseins, die, seit die Erde ein Menschengeschlecht hat, sich als reale Vorgänge vollziehen. Der Mensch geht in den Schlafzustand hinüber in seiner Ich-Wesenheit und in seiner astralischen Wesenheit. Diese widerrechtlich auf der Erde wohnenden Mond-, Venus-, Merkurwesenheiten versuchen nun, aus dem Erdenäther den Menschen eigentlich in jedem Schlafzustande einen Ätherleib zu geben. Es gelingt ihnen eigentlich fast nie. In seltenen Fällen, von denen ich später einmal sprechen werde, ist es ihnen gelungen, aber es gelingt ihnen fast nie. Aber sie geben den Versuch nicht auf, denn es scheint immer wieder und wiederum diesen Wesenheiten möglich, daß es ihnen gelingen könnte, wenn der Mensch schläft, wo er seinen Ätherleib im Bette zurückgelassen hat, ihn aus dem Erdenäther mit einem Ätherleib zu umgeben, zu durchdringen. Das möchten diese Wesen.

Würde es solch einem ahrimanischen Wesen wirklich gelingen, dem Menschen so stufenweise, wenn er immer wieder und wieder schläft, einen ganzen Ätherleib hineinzubringen, so würde der Mensch nach dem T'oode, wenn er in seinem Ätherleib ist, sich im Ätherleibe erhalten können. Der Ätherleib löst sich sonst ja in wenigen Tagen auf. Aber der Mensch würde sich in seinem Ätherleib erhalten können, und es würde nach und nach ein ätherisches Menschengeschlecht entstehen. Das ist es, was von dieser Seite der geistigen Welt gewollt wird. Dann würde die Erde dadurch konserviert werden können. Tatsächlich haben wir innerhalb des festen und des wäßrigen Erdengefüges ein solches Heer von Wesenheiten, welche die Menschheit nach und nach bis zum Erdenende zu lauter Gespenstern, zu ätherischen Gespenstern machen möchten, so daß das Ziel, das normale Ziel der Erdenentwickelung nicht erreicht werden könnte. Nächtlicherweile verlieren diese Wesenheiten durchaus nicht ihren Mut. Sie glauben immer wieder, daß ihnen ihr Versuch gelingen könnte.

Man muß nur darüber sich klar sein: wir Menschen haben ja einen leidlichen Verstand; besonders in der jetzigen Zeit der fortschreitenden Philistrosität hat dieser Verstand eine bedenkliche Ausbildung erfahren. Also der Mensch kann sich schon eines gewissen Verstandes rühmen, aber dieser Verstand reicht nicht im entferntesten heran an den Verstand dieser ja viel höheren Wesenheiten, die das ausführen möchten, was ich Ihnen jetzt sagte. Der Mensch sollte daher nicht etwa sagen: Ja, aber diese Wesen müssen furchtbar dumm sein. — Nein, sie sind gar nicht töricht. Sie sind auch, indem sie ihre Tat nur auf den schlafenden Menschen ausüben, durchaus durch nichts abgehalten von dem Glauben, daß es ihnen doch vor dem Erdenende gelingen könnte, einen großen Teil des Menschengeschlechtes davon abzuhalten, seine künftigen Bestimmungen, die mit der Jupiterverkörperung der Erde zusammenhängen, zu erreichen.

Aber wer gewissermaßen hinter die Kulissen des sinnenfälligen Daseins sieht, kann sehen, daß doch diese Wesenheiten manchmal mutlos, enttäuscht werden. Und die Enttäuschungen, die diese Wesenheiten erleben, erleben sie nicht nächtlicherweile, sondern täglicherweile. Man sieht, wie sie diese Enttäuschungen erleben, wenn man mit diesen ahrimanischen Wesenheiten zusammentrifft, zum Beispiel in Krankenhäusern. Denn gewiß, die Krankheiten, welche die Menschen befallen, haben ihre eine Seite, die uns auffordert, unter allen Umständen zu ihrer Heilung alles, was wir tun können, beizutragen. Aber wir müssen auf der andern Seite fragen: Wie heben sich aus dem dunklen Schoße des Naturdaseins die Krankheitszustände des Menschen herauf? - Jene Krankheiten, die nicht durch äußere Einflüsse kommen, sondern die aus dem Innern des Menschen auftauchen, hängen eben damit zusammen, daß, wenn die ahrimanischen Wesen bei irgendeinem Menschen schon fast erreicht haben, daß er einen ätherischen Leib außerhalb seines gewöhnlichen ätherischen Leibes annimmt, diese Menschen, die also schon ätherische Leibesgesetzlichkeit beim Aufwachen in ihren physischen Leib und in ihren gewöhnlichen Ätherleib hineintragen, Krankheitsursachen in sich hineintragen. Durch diese Krankheitsursachen schützen die rechtmäßigen Venus-, Merkur- und Mondenwesen sich gegenüber dem schädlichen Einfluß der unrechtmäßigen. Ja, wenn ein Mensch manchmal nicht diese oder jene Krankheit bekäme, so unterläge er eben der Gefahr, von der ich jetzt gesprochen habe. Sein Leib bricht zusammen in irgendeiner Krankheit, damit er das, was er an unrechtmäßigen Ätherprozessen durch den ahrimanischen Einfluß aufgenommen hat — wenn ich mich des Ausdrucks bedienen darf -, ausschwitzen kann.

Und ein Weiteres, was als Reaktion hervorgerufen wird, damit der Mensch nicht diesem ahrimanischen Einflusse verfällt, ist die Irrtumsmöglichkeit. Und ein Drittes ist der Egoismus. Der Mensch sollte nicht krank sein, sollte nicht dem Irrtum verfallen sein, sollte nicht egoistisch sein im übertriebenen Sinne. Der Egoismus als solcher ist wiederum ein Festhalten des Menschen an der ordentlichen Erdenentwickelung gegenüber dem Herausreißen der menschlichen Wesenheit durch die ahrimanischen Wesen.

Das ist die eine Art von Wesen, die man entdeckt hinter den Kulissen des gewöhnlichen sinnlichen Daseins. Die andere Art von Wesen kann man sich dadurch zur Vorstellung bringen, daß man weiß, daß auf den Menschen aus dem Kosmos herein nicht nur Mond, Venus und Merkur Einfluß haben, sondern hinter der Sonne auch Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.

Sie wissen aus den Vorträgen, die ich hier im sogenannten Französischen Kurs gehalten habe, daß der Mond vorzugsweise der physische Abglanz derjenigen Wesen ist, die den Menschen hereinbringen in die physische Welt. Saturn ist der physische Abglanz derjenigen Wesenheiten, die den Menschen wieder hinaustragen aus der physischen Erdenwelt. Der Mond trägt den Menschen auf die Erde herunter. Saturn trägt ihn wiederum zunächst in die Weltenweiten und von da aus dann in die geistige Welt hinein. Ebenso nun, wie die Jahve-Mondgottheit zu Helfern die Venus-Merkurwesen hat, so hat der Saturn den Jupiter und den Mars zu seinen Helfern bei dem Hinausfördern der menschlichen Wesenheit in die Weltenweiten und in die geistige Welt. Das sind wiederum Einflüsse, welche auf den Menschen in entgegengesetzter Weise wirken als die mit der Mondwesenheit verwandten Influenzen.

Die Sache ist schon so, daß auf uns Menschen vorzugsweise Wirkungen ausgeübt werden bis zu unserem siebzehnten, achtzehnten Jahre von Mond, Venus, Merkur. Dann später findet vorzugsweise ein Einfluß statt, wenn wir unser zwanzigstes Jahr, einundzwanzigstes Jahr überschritten haben, von Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, der allerdings erst später dahin wächst, uns hinauszuführen aus dem irdischen Dasein in die geistige Welt. Es ist in der Tat die innere Menschenkonstitution von diesem, ich möchte sagen, Übergang von den inneren Planeten zu den äußeren Planeten abhängig. Wir sind zum Beispiel bis zu unserem siebzehnten, achtzehnten Jahre als Menschen vorzugsweise abhängig vom großen Blutkreislauf, der nach dem Gesamtkörper geht. Wir werden später mehr abhängig von dem kleinen Blutkreislauf. Doch das sind Dinge, die wir späteren Vorträgen überlassen müssen. Jetzt soll uns das andere interessieren, daß ebenso, wie unrechtmäßige Monden-, Venus- und Merkurwesen in den festen und in den flüssigen Bestandteilen der Erde ihre Wohnsitze haben, ebenso auch unrechtmäßige Mats-, Jupiter- und Saturnwesen in der Wärme und in der Luft, welche die Erde umgibt, ihre Daseinsbedingungen, bildlich ausgedrückt ihre Wohnsitze haben. Und diese Wesenheiten haben wiederum einen großen Einfluß auf den Menschen während seines Schlafzustandes. Aber ihr Einfluß geht nach der ganz entgegengesetzten Seite hin.

Diese Wesenheiten möchten den Menschen zu einem moralischen Automaten machen, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, in der Art, daß der Mensch gar nicht im Wachzustande auf seine Instinkte, auf seine Triebe, auf die Sprache seines Blutes hören soll, daß er das alles verschmähen soll, daß er nur den Eingebungen eben dieser unrechtmäßigen Mars-, Jupiter- und Saturnwesen gehorchen soll und eben ein moralischer Automat ohne eine Perspektive nach einer jemals eintretenden Freiheit werden soll. Das wollen diese Wesen, und ihr Einfluß ist auch ein starker, ein außerordentlich starker. Sie sind es, welche den Menschen gewissermaßen jede Nacht dazu veranlassen möchten, den Einfluß der Sternenwelt aufzunehmen und nicht mehr zurückzukehren, um den Einfluß der Erdenwelt aufzunehmen. Sie möchten den Menschen ganz von dem irdischen Dasein hinwegheben. Sie wollen - sie haben das übrigens vom Anfange der Entstehung des Menschengeschlechts auf der Erde gewollt -, daß der Mensch die Erde verschmäht, daß er auf der Erde, auf der er allein zur Freiheit erwachen kann, nicht zur Freiheit erwache, sondern daß er ein moralischer Automat bleibe, wie er es in der vorhergehenden Metamorphose der Erdenbildung während des Mondendaseins auf der Erde war.

Ich möchte sagen: mitten in diesen zwei Heereslagern, wovon das eine im Wärme- und im Luftelemente, das andere im Erden- und im flüssigen Elemente lagert, mitten zwischen diesen zwei sich bekämpfenden kosmischen Heereslagern steht der Mensch eigentlich drinnen. Das, was er ist im physischen Leibe, verhüllt ihm die Tatsache, daß ein furchtbarer Kampf um seine Wesenheit im Kosmos gekämpft wird. Und der Mensch muß heute in solches Wissen bewußt eintreten, das ihn als Mensch angeht, denn er ist eigentlich gerade dadurch Mensch, daß um ihn sich Kräfte aus der geistigen Welt bemühen. Es ist wichtig, daß der Mensch sich heute ein Wissen von dem erwirbt, worin er eigentlich als Mensch steht.

Man wird einmal auf der Erde viel mehr recht haben, unsere finstere materialistische Erkenntnis von heute geringzuachten gegenüber dem, was die Menschheit in der Zukunft wissen wird von dem hinter dem Physischen liegenden Geistigen, als wir heute ein Recht haben, zu sagen: Ach, was für kindische naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse haben noch die Griechen gehabt! Das waren ja die reinen Kinder, wir haben es herrlich weit gebracht! - Vor allen Dingen in der Philistrosität haben wir es herrlich weit gebracht, und man wird viel mehr ein Recht zu einer solchen Kritik haben, wenn man aus vollem Wissen heraus über diese Kämpfe reden wird können, die um die Wesenheit des Menschen auf der Erde stattfinden.

Aber daß in unserer Zeit beginnen muß, daß sich ein Wissen von diesen Dingen verbreite, dafür sind auch Zeichen vorhanden. Allerdings verbirgt sich für die meisten Menschen heute noch im finsteren Dämmerdunkel ihres Daseins das, was ich Ihnen heute erzählt habe von den Kämpfen zwischen luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten, die um die Wesenheit des Menschen im Weltenall stattfinden. Aber diese Kämpfe schlagen herein in das, was die Menschheit sehr wohl wahrnimmt, in dem sie bewußt drinnensteht. Und man muß heute die ersten Wellen, die aus der geistigen Welt von denjenigen Seiten hereinschlagen, die ich Ihnen beschrieben habe, zu beurteilen verstehen, wenn man nicht überhaupt ein Schlafesdasein innerhalb unseres Zivilisationslebens entwickeln will.

Diese zwei Heerlager, das luziferische in den Wärmeverhältnissen, in den Luftverhältnissen der Erde, das ahrimanische in den irdischen Verhältnissen und in den Wasserverhältnissen, schlagen ihre Wellen herein in unser Kulturleben. Die luziferische Heerschar infiziert heute vor allen Dingen die altgewordene Theologie, und wir sehen als einen Ausfluß dieser luziferischen Macht mitten im Kulturleben diejenigen Behauptungen, die den Christus zu einem Mythus machen wollen. Denn der Christus ist auf die Erde heruntergestiegen durch das Mysterium von Golgatha als eine reale Wesenheit. Das ist natürlich etwas, was den Wesenheiten, die den Menschen zu einem moralischen Automaten, nicht zu einem freien Wesen machen wollen, vor allen Dingen gegen alle ihre Intentionen geht. Daher: ausstreichen die reale Wesenheit des Christus, der Christus ist ein Mythus! Und Sie können in der Literatur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts verfolgen, wie geistreich die Hypothesen von Theologen, wie zum Beispiel David Friedrich Strauß, Kalthoff und so weiter, oder von deren Nachbetern - man könnte besser sagen: den Nachplappernden -, wie zum Beispiel Arthur Drews vertreten werden, wie da überall diese Anschauung vertreten wird: Christus ist eine mythologische Figur, ein bloßes Bild, das sich der Phantasiekräfte der Menschen bemächtigt hat. - Oh, es wird noch viel mehr hereinschlagen von diesem Heerlager! Aber das ist die erste Welle, die hereingeschlagen hat.

Die andere erste Welle, die von dem ahrimanischen Heerlager kommt, von demjenigen Heerlager, das sich in den festen und irdischen Verhältnissen und in den wäßrigen Verhältnissen der Erde aufhält, schlägt die entgegengesetzte Ansicht herein: da wird der Christus verpönt, und bloß der «schlichte Mann aus Nazareth», Jesus als die physische Persönlichkeit, wird gelten gelassen — wiederum eine theologische Spezialität!

Die Verwandlung des Christus zum Mythus: rein luziferisch; die Verwandlung Desjenigen, der durch das Mysterium von Golgatha gegangen ist, in einen bloßen Menschen, den man allerdings mit allen möglichen Eigenschaften ausstattet: rein ahrimanisch. Aber es gelingt eben schlecht, man muß dann immer ausschalten die Nachrichten und Traditionen, damit man diesen «schlichten Mann aus Nazareth» zusammenbringt! Aber in dieser Spezialität der Theologie zeigt sich durchaus das Hereinschlagen der ahrimanischen Welle in die Menschheitskultur.

Will man diese Dinge richtig beurteilen, dann muß man sie eben bis hinter die Kulissen des gewöhnlichen Erdendaseins verfolgen können. Sonst, wenn die Menschheit sich nicht dazu bequemen wollte, den Blick hinzurichten nach dem, was heute aus der geistigen Welt heraus gesagt werden kann, würde sie immer weniger solche Erscheinungen beurteilen können, und dadurch würden diese Erscheinungen die Menschheit in dem Unbewußten ergreifen. Aber es wird für die Menschheit immer gefährlicher, sich an das Unbewußte hinzugeben. Klare, helle Besonnenheit, Hinschauen auf das, was ist, Wirklichkeitssinn, das ist dasjenige, was die Menschheit immer mehr brauchen wird.

Und man kann vielleicht am allerstärksten spüren, wohin diese klare Besonnenheit, wohin dieser Wirklichkeitssinn sich wenden muß, wenn man sieht, wie so merkwürdige Erscheinungen - nämlich daß die Theologie auf der einen Seite den Christus verleugnet, auf der andern Seite den Christus zum Mythus macht - heute sich geltend machen. Solche Erscheinungen, die sich immer mehr und mehr ausdehnen werden, zeigen eben, daß die Menschheit einen klaren Blick, einen sicheren Blick über die geistigen Einflüsse auf die physische Welt gewinnen muß, namentlich auf den Menschen selbst, wenn sie nicht die Menschen zu ihrem Verderben ergreifen sollen.

Nun, ich habe es schon einmal wohl auch hier gesagt: Es waren einmal zwei Menschen, die fanden ein geformtes Stück Eisen. Da sagte der eine: Ein gutes Hufeisen! Ich will mein Pferd damit beschlagen. — Der andere sagte: Das geht nicht; das ist doch ein Magnet, das kann man doch zu etwas ganz anderem verwenden als zum Pferdebeschlagen! - Ich sehe nichts vom Magneten, sagte der erste; du bist ein verrückter Kerl, wenn du sagst, da seien unsichtbare, magnetische Kräfte drinnen. Pferdebeschlagen! Dazu taugt es.

So etwa sind die Menschen heute, welche nicht aufnehmen wollen die Dinge, die man aus der geistigen Welt spricht. Sie wollen, wenn ich mich bildhaft so ausdrücken darf, mit der ganzen Welt die Pferde beschlagen, weil sie die übersinnlichen Kräfte darinnen nicht gelten lassen wollen; Pferde beschlagen, nicht irgend etwas machen, wo die magnetischen Kräfte, die dadrinnen sind, verwendet werden. Aber es gab natürlich einmal eine Zeit — sie liegt gar nicht so lange hinter uns -, da hat man allerdings jenes so geformte Eisen zum Pferdebeschlagen verwendet. Nur, heute kann man das nicht mehr.

So wird eine Zeit kommen, wo der Mensch auch im gewöhnlichen sozialen Zusammenleben eben die Mitteilungen aus der geistigen Welt heraus brauchen wird. Dessen müssen wir eingedenk sein. Dann wird schon Anthroposophie nicht bloß in den Verstand hineingehen das hat ja eine geringe Bedeutung -, sondern vor allen Dingen in den Willen hineingehen. Das hat eine große Bedeutung. Und daran wollen wir immer mehr und mehr denken.

Third Lecture

In the course of these reflections I would like to make it increasingly clear how man not only belongs with his being to the earth world, the earth existence, but also to the cosmic existence, the existence of the star world. I have already explained much of what needs to be said in this regard. I would just like to preface the following observations with a remark so that no misunderstandings arise. One will perhaps always be exposed to the reproach that one is leaning towards the dilettantish astrology that is often practiced today when one speaks of the connection between man and the starry world. It is only necessary to grasp in the right way what is put forward in this connection, then the enormous difference will emerge between what is meant here and all the dilettantisms that so often come to light today in connection with old astrological traditions.

We say that the human being here between birth and death is a being that stands in connection with the earth and its events. What do we mean by this? We mean that between birth and death man has his existence in that he first of all takes into his metabolic system the substances of the earth as food and processes them in his organism; that through his respiration and through the processes which follow respiration inwardly, he furthermore stands in a relationship with the earth, that is, with the earth's orbit of air. We also speak of the fact that man perceives the external things of the earth through his senses, indeed, that he also perceives a reflection of the extraterrestrial, which reflection, by the way, is much more earthly than is usually believed. So that on the whole one can say that man absorbs the earthly existence through his senses, through his rhythmic organization and through his metabolic organization, and he has in himself the continuation of those processes which are stimulated by the earthly existence and its processes. In the same way, however, the continuation of cosmic, extraterrestrial processes is present in man. Only one must not believe that when it is said that an influence is exerted on man, let us say, from the planet Moon or Venus or Mars, this is to be understood as if only some radiations or the like were sent down from Mars or Venus or Moon and man would be penetrated by them. For example, when it is said that man is subject to the influence of the moon, this must be understood in analogy to what is meant when it is said that man is subject to the influence of the substances of the earth.

If man walks past an apple tree and picks an apple and eats it, then one can say that the apple tree has an influence on man; but one will not imagine this so straightforwardly that the apple tree has just sent its radiations towards man. Or if, for my sake, a person walks past a pasture and there is an ox there, and after eight days the person eats the meat of this ox, one will not imagine so directly that the ox has exerted an influence on the person. In the same way, of course, one must not imagine too straightforwardly what is to be said of the influence of the starry world on man. The relationship of the starry world to man and of man to the starry world is real, just as the relationship of man to the ox, which he passes by and whose flesh he then eats.

Now I have to speak today of certain relationships that exist between man and the world of both earthly existence and extraterrestrial existence. If we turn our attention once more to how man lives in the alternating states of waking and sleeping, we must first of all be clear about the fact that it is actually in the waking state that man's interrelationship with earthly substances and earthly forces is preferably established. Man perceives through his senses while awake. He does not perceive through his senses during sleep. Man also only eats and drinks as a rule during 'day waking, although perhaps some would also like to do so during sleep. Only the breathing process and the process that is connected with breathing, the blood circulation process, are such processes - like the rhythmic processes in general - that take place in the human being in the waking and sleeping state. But they are different in the waking and sleeping states. I shall speak of this later, of the difference, for example, between waking and sleeping breathing. But let us first keep in mind that man, through his senses and also through his metabolism, is in a relationship with the outside world during waking, at first only in relation to those things that everyone knows; thus nothing else than something known should be stated with it.

Now, let us assume that man takes in food from the outside world during his waking state. During his waking state, an inner activity also occurs in man under the influence of the processing of food. But it must not be disregarded that while awake, after the food has been taken in and under the influence of the food, the inner physical and also etheric activity takes place in man, that the human organism, both the physical and the etheric, is permeated by the I-entity and by the astral being of man.

It is also the case that during waking the ego entity and the astral entity of the human being take possession of that which takes place in the physical and etheric human being following nourishment. But what takes place under the influence of the ego-entity and the astral man does not take place during the state of sleep. During the state of sleep, an activity, an effect is exerted on the physical body and on the etheric body of the human being that does not emanate from the earth, but from the cosmic environment of the earth, from the starry world.

One would like to say, and again this is not spoken figuratively, but it has a real meaning: by day man eats the substantial of the earth materials, and by night man takes into himself that which the stars and their processes give him. So that in a sense man is bound to the earth by the fact that he is awake; and in a sense he is taken away from the earth and heavenly processes, if I may say so, take place in him while he sleeps, namely heavenly processes in the physical and etheric body.

Materialistic knowledge holds that when man falls asleep, only the substances he has taken in stimulate their own forces in him, whereas in fact, whether man takes in these or those substances, these substances are processed in him during his state of sleep by the forces of the earth's environment, by the cosmic forces. Let us say, for example, that we ingest protein. This protein is only bound to the earth by the fact that during the waking state we are permeated as human beings by our soul and spirit, namely by our astral being and by the ego being. During the sleeping state the whole planetary world from the moon to Saturn, the fixed star world, acts on this protein. And a chemist who would like to examine man with regard to his inner processes during sleep would not only have to know an earthly chemistry, but he would also have to know a spiritual chemistry, for the processes are then different from those during daytime waking.

So it is with the I-entity and the astral being of man, which are separated from the physical body and the etheric body during sleep. Although these are not directly related to the starry world, they are related to those beings whose physical image is the sun, moon and stars, i.e. to the beings of the higher hierarchies. So that one could say: The sleeping human being is a duality. His ego and his astral body - I could also say his spirit and his soul - are devoted to the spirit beings of the higher realms. His bodies, the physical body and the etheric body, are devoted to the physical reflection, to the physical image, to the cosmic-physical image of these higher beings. - Under the influence of intellectualism, man, knowing himself to be an earthly being, has actually become more and more a materialistic philistine. Almost as well as the modern age is called the age of intellectual scientific progress, it could be called the age of the progress of philistrosity, of materialistic philistrosity. For man is not aware that he is dependent on anything other than the sensory impressions of the earth, on the rhythmic processes that are triggered in him by earthly processes, on the metabolic processes that are also triggered in him by earthly things. Therefore man is not aware of how he actually stands within the universe. And this standing within the universe is something tremendously complicated. As soon as one lifts away, I would say, the veil that always spreads out before man, so that man sees only the sensual world and not the spiritual behind it, as soon as one lifts away this veil, life becomes an extraordinarily complicated matter. First of all it becomes apparent that not only those beings and their physical reflection, the stars, have an influence on man, which can now be directly observed, but that within the earthly existence itself supersensible beings are present, which are related to the star beings, but which to a certain extent have taken up residence in the realm of the earthly.

You know that the Old Testament people worshipped Yahweh. The worship was of a real being. This entity has a connection with that which manifests itself in the physical world as the moon. Of course, it is always more or less figurative, but at the same time real in its imagery, when one says that this Yahweh entity has its abode in the moon. And everything that belongs to this Yahweh entity is connected with being on the moon.

But now there are beings who, when the moon split off from the earth, have spurned, if I may express myself so, to make the journey to the moon with the Yahweh beings and who have remained in the realm of the earthly. So that when we look at the moon we can, so to speak, sense the proper Yahweh entities. We can say: This is the outer physical reflection of all that rightfully participates in the world order as Yahweh entities. - But when we come to know what takes place within the surface of the earth, both in the solid earth and in the aqueous, we have beings who have disdained to take up their abode on the moon, who have taken up their abode on the earth unlawfully.

Now there are helpers of those beings whom I would like to call lunar beings. These helpers belong to Mercury and Venus just as the lunar beings belong to the moon, so that in a sense the lunar beings, the Venus beings and the Mercury beings form a kind of trinity. The rightful beings in the universe of this kind belong to these very stars. But both in the terrestrial of the earth and in the aqueous of the earth there are beings who belong to the same category, but, one might say, to a different age, who did not go along when the terrestrial became cosmic through the moon and through Venus and so on. These entities now have an influence on the sleeping human being just as much as the cosmic beings themselves, but they have an ominous influence. They have a disastrous influence, which I can characterize as follows: When man falls asleep, then is in a state of sleep, between falling asleep and waking up, these unlawful Moon, Venus and Mercury beings approach him and they set themselves the task of telling him, of persuading him - it all takes place between falling asleep and waking up in an unconscious state - that evil is good and good is evil. This is indeed the shattering influence.

That is indeed the shocking, the terribly painful thing about initiation, that through it one gets to know things beyond the threshold of ordinary consciousness that are by no means harmless to man. In the outer materialistically oriented existence one has no idea of the things to which man is exposed between falling asleep and waking up. He is really exposed to these beings who, in his state of sleep, persuade him that good is evil and evil is good. For the earthly moral order is bound to the human etheric body, and man actually leaves his moral achievements behind in bed when he sleeps. He does not initially pass over into the sleep state equipped with his moral qualities.

Everywhere those things that must necessarily be dealt with in spiritual science are already being approached today by natural science. You will perhaps have read an interesting report in the newspapers recently, which has been taken up statistically and is absolutely based on truth. It was said that criminals in prisons actually have the healthiest sleep; they are not tormented by bad dreams and the like during their sleep, if they are real, hardened criminals. This only arises again when they submerge into their etheric body, where the moral qualification is again present. It is precisely the person who endeavors to be moral who is much more likely to take something over into his astral body through the moral constitution of his etheric body and then be tormented by dreams of relatively minor immorality. But in any case it is the case that man does not take over into the sleep state at all or only with little intensity that which he acquires as his moral constitution during his earthly existence, but that during the sleep state he is exposed, for example, to those entities of which I have just spoken.

These entities are identical with those entities which I otherwise always include in the category of ahrimanic entities. Their task is to keep people on earth as far as possible. You know from the description in my “Secret Science in Outline” that the earth will one day dissolve and pass over into the Jupiter state. These beings want to prevent this. In particular, they want to prevent man from developing regularly with the earth to the end and then growing over into the Jupiter state in a normal way, they want to preserve the earth in its existence, they want to preserve the earth and want to preserve man for the earth. That is why these entities are constantly endeavoring in the most intensive way to do the following. These are processes, I would like to say behind the scenes of existence, which have been taking place as real processes ever since the earth has had a human race. Man passes over into the sleeping state in his ego entity and in his astral entity. These unlawful Moon, Venus and Mercury beings living on earth now try to give people an etheric body from the earth ether in every state of sleep. They almost never succeed. In rare cases, of which I will speak later, they have succeeded, but almost never. But they do not give up the attempt, because again and again it seems possible to these beings that they could succeed, when man sleeps, where he has left his etheric body in bed, to surround him from the earth ether with an etheric body, to penetrate him. That is what these beings want.

If such an ahrimanic being would really succeed in bringing a whole etheric body into the human being step by step, when he sleeps again and again, then the human being would be able to maintain himself in the etheric body after the T'oode, when he is in his etheric body. The etheric body would otherwise dissolve in a few days. But man would be able to preserve himself in his etheric body, and an etheric human race would gradually come into being. That is what is wanted from this side of the spiritual world. Then the earth could be preserved. In fact, within the solid and aqueous earth structure we have such an army of beings who would like to gradually turn humanity into nothing but ghosts, etheric ghosts, until the end of the earth, so that the goal, the normal goal of earth development could not be achieved. Meanwhile, these beings do not lose their courage at all. They believe again and again that they could succeed in their attempt.

You only have to be clear about this: we humans have a reasonable intellect; especially in the present time of progressive philistrosity this intellect has undergone an alarming development. So man can already boast of a certain intellect, but this intellect does not even remotely approach the intellect of these much higher beings who would like to carry out what I have just told you. Man should therefore not say: Yes, but these beings must be terribly stupid. - No, they are not foolish at all. They are also, by carrying out their deed only on the sleeping human being, absolutely nothing prevents them from believing that they could succeed before the end of the earth in preventing a large part of the human race from achieving its future destiny, which is connected with the Jupiter embodiment of the earth.

But anyone who looks behind the scenes of sensual existence can see that these beings sometimes become discouraged, disappointed. And the disappointments these beings experience are not nightly, but daily. You can see how they experience these disappointments when you meet these ahrimanic entities, for example in hospitals. Certainly, the illnesses that afflict people have their own side, which calls on us to do everything we can to cure them under all circumstances. But on the other hand, we must ask: How do human illnesses emerge from the dark womb of nature? - Those illnesses which do not come from external influences, but which emerge from within the human being, are connected with the fact that when the ahrimanic beings have almost reached the point where a person assumes an etheric body outside his ordinary etheric body, these people, who thus already carry etheric body laws into their physical body and into their ordinary etheric body when they awaken, carry causes of illness into themselves. Through these causes of illness the legitimate Venus, Mercury and Moon beings protect themselves against the harmful influence of the illegitimate ones. Indeed, if a man did not sometimes get this or that disease, he would be subject to the very danger of which I have now spoken. His body breaks down in some illness or other so that he can sweat out what he has absorbed - if I may use the expression - of unlawful etheric processes through the ahrimanic influence.

A further reaction is the possibility of error, so that the human being does not fall prey to this ahrimanic influence. And a third is egoism. Man should not be ill, should not fall into error, should not be egoistic in an exaggerated sense. Egoism as such is, in turn, man's adherence to proper earthly development in the face of the tearing out of the human being by the ahrimanic beings.

This is one kind of being that one discovers behind the scenes of ordinary sensual existence. The other kind of being can be visualized by knowing that not only the Moon, Venus and Mercury have an influence on man from the cosmos, but also Mars, Jupiter and Saturn behind the Sun.

You know from the lectures I have given here in the so-called French Course that the moon is preferably the physical reflection of those beings who bring man into the physical world. Saturn is the physical reflection of those beings who carry the human being out of the physical earth world. The moon carries the human being down to earth. Saturn, in turn, first carries him into the world and from there into the spiritual world. Just as the Yahweh moon deity has the Venus-Mercury beings as helpers, so Saturn has Jupiter and Mars as his helpers in carrying the human being out into the realms of the world and into the spiritual world. These are again influences which act on man in the opposite way to the influences related to the lunar entity.

The thing is already so that effects are preferably exerted on us humans up to our seventeenth, eighteenth year by Moon, Venus, Mercury. Then later, when we have passed our twentieth year, our twenty-first year, there is a preferential influence from Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, which, however, only later grows to lead us out of our earthly existence into the spiritual world. The inner human constitution is indeed dependent on this, I would say, transition from the inner planets to the outer planets. For example, up to our seventeenth or eighteenth year as human beings we are preferably dependent on the great blood circulation, which goes to the whole body. Later we become more dependent on the small blood circulation. But these are things we must leave to later lectures. Now we shall be interested in the other thing, that just as unlawful Moon, Venus and Mercury beings have their abodes in the solid and liquid components of the earth, so also unlawful Mats, Jupiter and Saturn beings have their conditions of existence, figuratively speaking, their abodes in the warmth and in the air which surrounds the earth. And these beings in turn have a great influence on the human being during his sleep state. But their influence goes in the opposite direction.

These beings want to make man a moral automaton, if I may express myself so, in such a way that man is not at all to listen to his instincts, to his drives, to the language of his blood in the waking state, that he is to spurn all that, that he is to obey only the inspirations of exactly these unlawful Mars, Jupiter and Saturn beings and is to become a moral automaton without a perspective after a freedom ever occurring. That is what these beings want, and their influence is also strong, extraordinarily strong. They are the ones who want to induce the human being every night, so to speak, to absorb the influence of the starry world and not to return to absorb the influence of the earthly world. They want to lift man completely away from earthly existence. They want - by the way, they have wanted this from the beginning of the emergence of the human race on earth - that man spurns the earth, that he does not awaken to freedom on earth, on which alone he can awaken to freedom, but that he remains a moral automaton, as he was in the previous metamorphosis of earth formation during the moon existence on earth.

I would like to say: in the middle of these two army camps, one of which is in the heat and air element, the other in the earth and liquid element, in the middle of these two cosmic army camps fighting each other, man actually stands inside. That which he is in the physical body conceals from him the fact that a terrible battle is being fought for his being in the cosmos. And today man must consciously enter into such knowledge, which concerns him as man, for he is actually man precisely because forces from the spiritual world are striving for him. It is important that man today acquires a knowledge of that in which he actually stands as man.

One day on earth we will have much more right to disregard our dark materialistic knowledge of today compared to what mankind will know in the future of the spiritual lying behind the physical than we have a right today to say: Oh, what childish scientific knowledge the Greeks still had! They were pure children, we have come a long way! - Above all, we have come a long way in philistinism, and we will have much more right to such criticism when we can speak from full knowledge about these battles that are taking place on earth about the essence of man.

But there are also signs that a knowledge of these things must begin to spread in our time. However, for most people today, what I have told you today about the battles between Luciferic and Ahrimanic entities that are taking place in the universe over the essence of man is still hidden in the dark twilight of their existence. However, these battles are entering into that which humanity is very well aware of, in which it is consciously involved. And today we must understand how to judge the first waves that are coming in from the spiritual world from the sides I have described to you if we do not want to develop a dormant existence within our civilized life.

These two army camps, the Luciferic in the heat conditions, in the air conditions of the earth, the Ahrimanic in the earthly conditions and in the water conditions, make their waves into our cultural life. Today the Luciferic host infects above all the theology of old, and we see as an outflow of this Luciferic power in the midst of cultural life those assertions that want to make the Christ into a myth. For the Christ descended to earth through the Mystery of Golgotha as a real being. This is, of course, something that goes against all the intentions of the entities who want to turn man into a moral automaton, not a free being. Therefore: strike out the real entity of the Christ, the Christ is a myth! And you can follow in the literature of the nineteenth century how wittily the hypotheses of theologians, such as David Friedrich Strauß, Kalthoff and so on, or of their imitators - one could better say: the parroters - such as Arthur Drews, are represented, how this view is represented everywhere: Christ is a mythological figure, a mere image that has taken possession of people's imaginative powers. - Oh, there will be much more to come from this army camp! But this is the first wave that has crashed in.

The other first wave, which comes from the Ahrimanic camp, from that camp which dwells in the solid and earthly conditions and in the watery conditions of the earth, brings in the opposite view: there the Christ is frowned upon, and only the “simple man from Nazareth”, Jesus as the physical personality, is accepted - again a theological specialty!

The transformation of Christ into a myth: purely Luciferian; the transformation of the one who passed through the Mystery of Golgotha into a mere man, who is, however, endowed with all kinds of qualities: purely Ahrimanic. But it doesn't work very well, you always have to switch off the news and traditions in order to bring this “simple man from Nazareth” together! But in this specialty of theology, the Ahrimanic wave is certainly making its way into human culture.

If you want to judge these things correctly, you have to be able to follow them behind the scenes of ordinary earthly existence. Otherwise, if mankind did not want to be comfortable enough to direct its gaze towards what can be said today from the spiritual world, it would be less and less able to judge such phenomena, and thus these phenomena would take hold of mankind in the unconscious. But it is becoming more and more dangerous for mankind to surrender to the unconscious. Clear, bright reflection, looking at what is, a sense of reality, that is what humanity will need more and more.

And one can perhaps feel most strongly where this clear prudence, where this sense of reality must turn, when one sees how such strange phenomena - namely that theology on the one hand denies Christ, on the other hand turns Christ into a myth - assert themselves today. Such phenomena, which will become more and more widespread, show precisely that mankind must gain a clear view, a sure view of the spiritual influences on the physical world, namely on man himself, if they are not to seize men to their ruin.

Now, I have probably already said it here once: There were once two people who found a shaped piece of iron. One of them said: "A good horseshoe! I want to shoe my horse with it. - The other said: "That won't work; it's a magnet, you can use it for something completely different than shoeing horses! - I can't see anything of the magnet, said the first one; you're a crazy guy if you say there are invisible magnetic forces inside. Shoeing horses! That's what it's good for.

That's what people are like today, who don't want to take in the things that are spoken from the spiritual world. They want, if I may express myself figuratively, to shoe the horses with the whole world, because they do not want to accept the supersensible forces within; shoeing horses, not doing anything where the magnetic forces that are within are used. But of course there was a time - not so long ago - when the iron shaped like this was used for shoeing horses. But today you can no longer do that.

So a time will come when people will also need messages from the spiritual world in ordinary social life. We must be aware of this. Then anthroposophy will not only go into the intellect - that is of little importance - but above all into the will. That is of great importance. And we want to think about this more and more.