The Driving Force of Spiritual Powers in World History
GA 222
17 March 1923, Dornach
Lecture IV
By referring to the 4th century A.D. as a point in world history that we have for some time now recognized as very significant, I tried in the lecture yesterday to show that we can fully understand the evolution of humanity only when we keep in mind not only what takes place openly on the stage of history but also what is going on behind the scenes. I told you yesterday that the 4th century of our era is to be regarded approximately as the middle point of the period during which the Spirits of Form, the Exousiai, were handing over the cosmic thoughts to the Archai, the Primal Powers of Principalities. The process lasted for several hundreds of years. And with this transference is connected the fact—because man has become dependent in his thoughts upon quite different spiritual Beings—that his relation to his thoughts is not at all the same as it was in earlier times.
You must picture to yourselves how this super-sensible event affects the course taken in those centuries by outer historical happenings and also by happenings in the spiritual history of mankind Whereas previously the Spirits of Form—those Beings whom the Bible calls the Elohim—ruled over the cosmic thoughts so that men were obliged unconsciously to turn to them when wishing to formulate thoughts about things, the life of thought now came under the rulership of the Archai, the Primal Powers, who belong to a rank nearer to man. Yesterday I indicated this proximity pictorially by saying: here (in the diagram) is the boundary (red) representing the world of the senses. Everything we see and become aware of in the world of the senses—colours, sounds, sensations of warmth—is symbolized by means of this line. What lies behind the sense perceptions is the sphere of the Spirits of Form (the Elohim), of the higher Spirits, the so-called Dynamis, of the Kyriotetes, and so on. These, then, are the three kingdoms behind the world of the senses.
When modern physics becomes natural philosophy it indulges in the fanciful idea that behind the world of the senses are the whirling atoms. But that is just a fantastic, materialistic notion. The truth is that in that sphere weaving colours and tones are in play; this is because the Spirits of the higher Hierarchies hold sway there, in the colours, the tones and so forth.

Before the 4th Christian century the Spirits of Form held sway, not only in the impressions of the sense-world, but, above all, also in the thoughts. The thoughts now pass over to the Archai. These Beings are, however, nearer to man than the Spirits of Form, for their realm lies between man and the world of the senses; only, because they are by nature super-sensible, he is not aware of them. Then come the Archangeloi, then the Angeloi, then man himself, and then animals, plants and minerals.
So during the period I have indicated, this great, all-embracing, mighty deed lies behind the scenes of world-history: the thoughts which are in the things and which man draws out of the things, are no longer solely the possession of the Exousiai, the Elohim, but of the Archai.
Now it is a fact in the evolution of the universe that together with the advance of spiritual Beings, certain individual spiritual Beings of the Cosmos always remain behind.1See the lecture-course entitled The Mission of Folk Souls. (Rudolf Steiner Press). Thus in the general advance of spiritual Beings during this epoch, that is to say, the first centuries of Christendom, certain Spirits of Form remained stationary at their former level.
What does this mean? It means that certain Spirits of Form could not bring themselves to surrender the world of thoughts to the Archai; they retained it for themselves. And so, among the spiritual Beings who hold sway over human happenings, there are the normally evolved Archai in possession of the world of thoughts as well as backward Spirits of Form, backward Elohim Beings, who still retain some sway over the world of thoughts. Hence in the stream of spirituality holding sway above humanity, the Archai and the Spirits of Form, the Elohistic Beings, work together. The position is therefore as follows a man who through his karma is rightly qualified, receives the impulses at work in his thinking through the Archai. The result is that thinking, although it remains objective, becomes his personal asset. He elaborates the thoughts more and more as his own personal possession. Other individuals do not reach this point; they take over the thoughts either as the legacy bequeathed by their parents and ancestors, or accept them as conventional thoughts prevailing in their national or racial community, and so forth.
To this super-sensible fact which I have sketched for you is to be traced the whole interplay between individual personalities—who appear more and more frequently in that era of vanishing antiquity and the dawning Middle Ages—and those currents of thought which sway whole groups of men. This trend becomes apparent in actual geographical areas. Certain spiritually minded personalities in the Near East, belonging to Arabian culture, were the first to be influenced by the Archai, the Primal Powers. The gist of these thought-impulses spread especially across Africa, over to Spain, to the whole of Western Europe. This great stream of thought moves across Africa, through Spain, also influencing Southern Italy, and up into Western Europe. It is a highly stimulating current of thought, stemming from the impulses described. This current of thought lays hold of the Arabian-Spanish culture which then, at a much later period, still exercises a strong influence upon thinkers such as Spinoza, for example. It is an influence which still persists in nature-knowledge and can be observed in the thought-impulses of Galileo, Copernicus, and others. Whereas the impulses of the Archai are contained in these currents of thought, and in what becomes history as a result of them, we also see, forcing its way into world-happenings everywhere, trends which lie more under the influence of the backward Spirits of Form, who now, on their side, send impulses into men. And again we see a different stream of thought and happenings moving from Asia towards Europe. This current of thought found its extreme expression only later on, when the Turkish hordes surged over from Asia.
Thus European life from the 4th century A.D. onwards is the scene of a continuous spiritual struggle. The Archai contend with the backward Exousiai, the Spirits of Form who had remained behind, for the possession that had once been rightfully allotted to them in the course of world-history. Everything that happened in the Middle Ages in a West-to-East direction and also in an East-to-West direction, all the surging migrations of the peoples, all the mutual antagonisms and hostilities from the Hunnish wars to the Turkish wars, from the tribal migrations to the Crusades, where everything always takes either a West-to-East or an East-to-West direction—all this is the physical, the historical reflection of a spiritual struggle taking place behind the scenes of world-history. Historical happenings on Earth can be understood in their reality only when we see them as reflections of what is being enacted in the super-sensible, spiritual world between the Beings of the Higher Hierarchies.
Thinking of one aspect of this fact, we can speak, to begin with, of two currents or streams. One which I shall mark yellow in the diagram,2See diagram above brings about the manifold movements again from West to East; the other stream presses forward and again back, so that these two streams constantly interpenetrate. A reflection of what was taking place in the spiritual world is to be seen in the struggles arising from migrations of the peoples, in the struggles whereby ancient culture was partially destroyed but in which that culture was permeated now by human individuality.
We can devote ourselves to the following study, by asking: What would have resulted from civilization if the different peoples had not begun their migrations, surging over into Europe from Asia and frequently settling in Europe, and if in these wanderings the factor of individual personality had not asserted itself—many a time with violence?
We see how within these migrations, whole tribes were permeated by a common spirit. But if we follow history we find that everywhere within these separate, yet homogeneous tribes inspired by one common spirit—Ostrogoths, Western Goths, Lombards, Heruli, Franks, Marcomanni, and so on—single personalities were stirred by the impulses of individuality. Everywhere we see happenings which on the one side represent the continuing stream of the impulses of the old, no longer really lawful Spirits of Form, and on the other, the now lawfully established Spirits of Personality, the Archai.
If history were related accurately, with more attention given to the influence of spiritual forces in what is for the most part described merely as tribal warfare, then it would be clear how these two forms of thought-impulses in humanity actually dominated life in the days of the folk migrations.
As I said, we can reflect as follows: What would European civilization have become if those partly barbaric peoples had not surged over from East to West and with the youthful vigour of personality in individuals had not poured down into the outworn Graeco-Roman world of culture?
On the other side we may ask: What kind of European civilization would these partly barbaric tribes have been able to inaugurate if what was contained in Graeco-Roman civilization, having been taken over by the Archai, the Spirits of Personality, had not been inculcated into it?
That is in truth tremendously interesting. If we consider the Greeks, indeed even the Romans, we see quite clearly that their thoughts—their scientific, aesthetic, political and social thoughts—are unmistakably derived from the influences coming from the Exousiai, the Spirits of Form. We need only look—not with the crude vision of modern historical treatises but with somewhat finer perception—at persons such as Pericles, Alcibiades, or even Sulla, indeed even Hannibal, although the hallmarks of personality are strong in him, and then also at Caesar—we need only think of these individuals and we shall certainly find that thoughts hold sway in them still as cosmic forces, as something instinctive.
This is because their thoughts come from the Spirits of Form. Then a personality appears who stands with his soul in the conflict between the newly empowered Spirits of Personality and the Spirits of Form who were no longer in authority. The personality whose soul is entangled in the conflict, is Augustine, the Catholic Church Father. I have described the struggles of his soul to you from many different sides. When, however, we regard these struggles as the earthly reflection of a cosmic, super-sensible happening, we see in this individual, who in his youth inclined to Manichaeism, who then became in the strictest sense an orthodox Roman Catholic believer—we see in this spectacle of a soul torn hither and thither, the earthly image, the earthly reflection of a cosmic happening behind the evolution of humanity. Augustine turned to the Manichaeans while his soul was still influenced by the impulses of the Spirits of Form. These impulses brought to his soul treasures from earlier ages but these treasures were no longer suitable for souls belonging to his time. Through the good and splendid fruits of culture which had come to him from the backward Spirits of Form, however, he was prevented from receiving with the full potentiality of his own personality the new form of thoughts that could be imparted by the Archai, the Spirits of Personality, the Beings who had now assumed the rulership of the thoughts. And he could accept this new state of things only by surrendering unconditionally to the dogma of the Church.
A personality such as Augustine can always be characterized from two sides. From the viewpoint of earthly existence we can look simply at the personality and see how the soul-forces battle one with another. But we can also contemplate the case from the other side of earthly existence and take account of how such a personality is guided and led by the divine-spiritual Powers by the higher Hierarchies. Then, if we adopt the earthly viewpoint we learn to know a human personality as he lives on the Earth. If, however, we adopt the other viewpoint, the super-sensible viewpoint, we can recognize in what way such a personality is a messenger of the spiritual world. In point of fact, man is always that. Here on Earth man is an earthly being and can be regarded as such. It is no bar to the freedom of this, his earthly existence, that he is, at the same time, pervaded by the forces of the super-earthly world—not guided and led, but impelled by them and so at the same time is a messenger of the super-sensible Powers.
And again, in a different form, we see this interaction between the backward Spirits of Form who look for their ‘picked troops’ so to speak, chiefly over yonder in Asia and invariably dispatch them to Europe, and the newly empowered Spirits of Personality, the Archai, who have already advanced more towards the West and ever and again strive to repel the influences emanating from the backward Spirits of Form.
In later times this confused West-to-East and East-to-West fluctuation of the earthly reflection of higher spiritual impulses confronts us in the Crusades. Study how the Crusades develop, to begin with out of a certain impulse connected entirely with the Archai, the Spirits of Personality, and study what really powerful purposes led to the Crusades. Then study how the Crusaders succumb more and more to mass-opinions and how the suggestive power of these mass-opinions increases. The farther the Crusaders advance from West to East, the more firmly is the individual captured by mass-opinions. And then, when the Crusaders come into the sphere of Asiatic life, mass impulses spread a cover over what had been implanted by single individualities into other single individualities.
We see how men lose their personality We see how the soul-qualities of the Crusaders degenerate in the East. Under the sway of the mass-suggestions to which they have succumbed, they cannot develop the good, moral impulses they brought with them. They become morally decadent. And this moral decadence of good and earnest men who have travelled from West to East, allows the impulses which press from East to West and are rooted in Mussulman and Turk, to gain the ascendency.
Thus in the Crusades we see the second fluctuation in world history of a conflict from East to West and from West to East—a conflict that is the reflection of the other, the spiritual struggle between backward Spirits of Form and normally progressive Archai, Spirits of Personality.
The whole situation would eventually have been like this.—If we are looking at Europe, in the West the impulses of the Spirits of Personality (blue in diagram) would have spread increasingly, although one-sidedly, and in the East the impulses of the backward Spirits of Form (violet). You may take what I am sketching for you today together with other viewpoints which I have already spoken of here on the subject of these streams of civilization. In the super-sensible realm conditions are in constant interplay and we can only gradually understand them by studying impulses of the greatest variety.

But the situation did not remain like this. Certainly, if we go back to the very early Middle Ages, up to the time of the Crusades, we may say: In that epoch things were as I have sketched them here. But then another event came more and more into play—I mean in the super-sensible world—namely, that not only have Spirits of Form remained behind, not only have the Archai advanced, but, as always happens in the hierarchies of the super-sensible world, while certain spiritual Beings make normal progress, there are also certain Beings who overstep the goal.
Thus we see that in the West, and indeed from the South upwards (red arrow, left, in diagram) backward Archangeloi intervene in the whole movement. So that here (above) we have Archai at their rightful level, but here (below) Archangeloi who have remained behind at earlier stages, who are actually backward Beings of earlier stages, who have remained Archangeloi when they could already have been Archai. That is the nature of these spiritual Beings.
And so we see that in Western Europe, normal Archai and abnormal Archangeloi—if I may use this pedantic expression—work together to an increasing extent. Geographically speaking, the Archangeloi take a South-to-North direction, whereas the Archai and the backward Exousiai (Spirits of Form) take the West-to-East and East-to-West direction. In this way we find historical and geographical circumstances formed on Earth as reflections of the conflicts and collaborations between higher spiritual Beings.
All that happens in Western Europe—one may indeed say to this very day—can be understood as a reflection of the collaboration between normal Archai and abnormal Archangeloi and abnormal Archai-Beings who have a strong influence on men because they are near them; especially do they instil into men an emotional relationship to their language, that emotional relationship which as you may gather from the first lecture has very great significance for them. The whole nature of man is very strongly affected by the incursion of these Archangeloi Beings who play such an important rôle in man's relationship to language. What holds men together through language, makes them appear fanatically united through language, becomes intelligible as an earthly reflection when the super-sensible facts behind it are known.
Now conditions on the one side or the other become less pronounced or more pronounced in the different epochs. In the West we find a preponderance of the normal Archai, in the South a preponderance of the impulses of the abnormal Archangeloi. It is quite possible to characterize the historical life of men and peoples from the viewpoint of the super-sensible happenings.
Further, it must be said that what would have happened in the East was essentially modified through the fact that the backward Spirits of Form who are naturally very powerful, were strongly influenced by the normally developed Archangeloi working from North to South. Something deriving especially from the Turks, Mongols and other such peoples, dominated as they were by the backward Spirits of Form, by Elohistic Beings, thrust itself, as it were, into that wild turmoil and commotion; something coming down from the North mingled with it, something derived—if I may use the expression—from good Archangeloi who are very near to man, who instil into every individual human soul something that quashes the group spirit which actually stems from backward Spirits of Form.
Again it is the case that in different epochs of world-history, the turmoil of a terrible, impersonal, unindividualized group spirit holds sway; in other epochs individualities gain the upper hand. If someone would present the remarkable history of Russia in this way as a reflection of the collaboration of spiritual Beings of the higher Hierarchies, tremendous light would be shed on what occurs in particular epochs of this history.
We have, then, in the West (see diagram) a stream flowing from South to North which mingles with the stream from West to East; and here too, a stream from North to South also intermingles with the stream from West to East. But these streams spread out again and later on we have a South-to-North stream that is continually being forced into zig-zag oscillations by the West-to-East impulses (diagram). And, working together with and into these streams there is the North-to-South current which again is forced into zig-zag oscillations by the West-to-East impulses (orange). This drawing-together of the two streams that have already taken definite shape occurs at a later period of European evolution, at the time when the struggles connected with the Reformation begin.
There we see how a North-to-South stream—but always intermingled with one from West-to-East bearing within it the strong forces of the normal Archai—presses into what had remained behind from the earlier impulses flowing over from Asia from the backward Spirits of Form. And, because it is connected with the Spirits of Form, something arises in an elementary way but nevertheless belongs to the normal impulses of human evolution.
Study everything that on the one side streams from North-to-South from the typical thinking of evangelical Protestantism but then becomes involved in the most violent, belligerent controversies, and study too what comes up from the South as countercurrents which again lead to warlike controversies. Study, for example, the stream of evangelical Protestantism having its main direction from North-to-South, and the Catholic-Jesuit stream with its main direction from South-to-North, and then you will be able to observe the complicated interplay of what takes place on Earth as a picture of the higher spiritual conflicts in the super-sensible world.
And the outcome of this is something which as Anthroposophists you must be able to assess. From modern accounts of the Thirty Years' War—which Schiller amended only slightly, particularly those of the early events—it is known that the religious conflict in Prague led to the episode when the excited people forced their way into the Town Hall, threw the two politicians Martinitz and Slawata and then the confidential secretary Fabricius out of the window. (As you know, nothing happened to them because they fell on a refuse-heap consisting entirely of scraps of waste paper. It was not what in the ordinary way would be called a refuse-heap but was just a heap of scraps of paper, for at that time it was not customary to use a waste-paper basket ; scraps of paper were just thrown out of the window.) Eventually, then, an excited crowd threw those politicians after the scraps. ... If one begins at that point and follows up the happenings—well, it is like a fruitless wandering over the map of Europe: here, one side is victorious, there, the other; here, some princedom is invaded, there, a General marches in that direction, and so on and so forth. It is like rambling over the map of Europe, no matter whether the route is sketched or merely described. In school one is always in despair about such extremely important happenings as the Thirty Years' War because on the basis of the usual historical accounts one can only narrate in such a way that the pupils will soon forget it again, for it is all a sheer jumble. There is nothing to give direction to individual trains of thought. If, however, we look for the truth of the situation, we see behind the external reflection those North-to-South, South-to-North streams which are also constantly crossed by West-to-East currents.
We see in what comes from Wallenstein, in what then comes down from the North, from Gustavus Adolphus and so forth, in all this we see that what happens externally in history is, so to speak—again I do not say led and guided—impelled by the super-sensible forces behind the events. In spite of this, however, men are free beings, although natural impulses also play a part in their deeds. We cannot say that a man becomes unfree because when he looks out of the window and sees that it is raining, he takes his umbrella with him and opens it outside; he is adapting himself to the nature-forces. With the activities of his soul and Spirit man stands within the realm of spiritual impulses, within the nexus of the spiritual forces; yet he remains a free being.
But what takes place on the plane of world-history can be grasped only when it is grasped in the light of the super-sensible realities behind it. We can then perceive the concrete impulse given to world-historical events by spiritual Powers, whereas by speaking only of an abstract Divinity no true vision is possible.
Those who speak only of an abstract Divinity must actually—since they are bound to think of this Divinity as operative everywhere—seek it, let us say, in a Turkish battle of the Middle Ages, both on the side of the Turks and also on the side of those against whom the Turks were fighting! Thus the abstract Divinity is there at war with itself, engaged in a self conflict.
When spiritual Beings whose mutual relationships arise, as I have shown, from the fact that certain tasks pass over from one group to another but also that certain groups lag behind, others reach normal stages, others again storm forward—when we realize that in the spiritual world there is a multiplicity of Beings struggling against each other yet able to be mutually helpful, only then does it become possible, without being guilty of inconsistencies, to apply human concepts to happenings taking place behind the scenes of world-history in the super-sensible world.
Concrete insight then becomes possible. We perceive how, in the West, unauthorized Archangeloi intervene in authorized activity of the Archai and how, in consequence, deterioration of the good elements takes place continually in the struggles involved. We see how, in the East, Archangeloi working for the good as helping, protecting Spirits, neutralize what would otherwise have developed through the backward Spirits of Form in a way unworthy of full humanity. And when these two streams come together we see how in Middle Europe the incessant squabbling between Reformation and Counter-Reformation assumes the dimension reached by these forces in the Thirty Years' War and in the subsequent conflicts.
Our study will be twofold: we study the individual human being but not alter the manner of orthodox science, seeing only that this muscle is situated here, that muscle somewhere else, this bone here, that nerve there ... no, we study the whole man in his physical make-up as a reflection of the super-sensible reality; and we know that the plane of thought belonging to the physical man as he stands on Earth was worked upon, in conjunction with the Spirits of the higher Hierarchies between death and a new life, by the individual himself who incarnates on Earth. Thus we study the individual man as a mirror-image of a super-sensible archetypal human figure.
And secondly we study what happens in history as the reflection of an event enacted behind the scenes of history in the super-sensible world, where great hosts of super-sensible Beings enter into ‘social relationships’—if I may use earthly terms—with each other, just as men do on Earth. Only the actions of these super-earthly social Beings are such that their impulses play in upon the Earth and come to expression in the actions of men.
It is particularly important for men of the present day to perceive in detail how man is a reflection of the super-sensible, and how historical events are also reflections of the super-sensible. This is the only path by which man can find his way back again to the divine-spiritual world. Purely abstract ideal of a Divinity are still able to influence those who have not begun to perceive and think in the sense of modern spiritual life. But the number of the latter constantly diminishes and the number of those who are willing to perceive and think will increase all the time. These people must be led back once again to the religious life. This can succeed only if the concretely real operations of the spiritual world are placed before the eyes of their souls, if they are not presented with an abstract, generalized thought of a Divinity about which nothing is truly conveyed but is referred to merely by an all-embracing word, with the details not understood.
And so, my dear friends, one of the tasks which anthroposophical knowledge has, and ought to have at the present time, has once again been indicated from yet another point of view.

Vierter Vortrag
Gestern versuchte ich, an einem bedeutsamen Punkte der weltgeschichtlichen Entwickelung, den wir schon seit einiger Zeit als einen solchen kennengelernt haben, an dem Punkte des 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts, zu zeigen, wie man diese Menschheitsentwickelung eigentlich erst dann voll verstehen kann, wenn man nicht nur das ins Auge faßt, was sich sozusagen vor den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte abspielt, sondern auch dasjenige, was hinter diesen Kulissen liegt. Und ich sagte Ihnen gestern, daß wir als einen mittleren Zeitpunkt, annähernd im 4. Jahrhundert —- denn die Sache dauert viele hundert Jahre lang -, zu verzeichnen haben die Übergabe der kosmischen Gedankenwelt von den Geistern der Form an die sogenannten Archai, Urbeginne oder Urkräfte. Und damit ist in Verknüpfung — weil ja der Mensch in seinen Gedanken von ganz andern geistigen Wesenheiten abhängig wird -, daß er nun zu seinen Gedanken ganz anders steht als vorher.
Sie müssen sich vergegenwärtigen, wie die äußere Weltgeschichte, sowohl das äußere geschichtliche Geschehen wie auch die Geistesgeschichte der Menschheit in diesen Jahrhunderten spielt, und wie in dieses geschichtliche Geschehen einschlägt eben diese übersinnliche Tatsache. Während also früher die Geister der Form — diejenigen Wesenheiten also, welche die Bibel zum Beispiel die Elohim nennt — die Gedanken der Welt verwaltet haben, so daß der Mensch unbewußt sich an diese Geister der Form wenden mußte, wenn er Gedanken über die Dinge fassen wollte, ging das Gedankenleben nun über an die Urkräfte, die dem Menschen viel näherstehen. Ich habe Ihnen dieses Näherstehen gestern dadurch verbildlicht, daß ich folgendes gesagt habe: Wir stellen uns vor, hier sei die Grenze, welche die Sinneswelt darstellt. Also alles, was wir in der Sinneswelt sehen und wahrnehmen, Farben, Töne, Wärmeempfindungen, sei durch diese Linie versinnbildlicht (siehe Zeichnung Seite 59). Was nun hinter den Sinnesempfindungen liegt, das ist das Feld, in dem sich, wie ich gestern gesagt habe, die Geister der Form finden, welche die Bibel die Elohim nennt, dann die sogenannten Dynamis, höhere Geister, dann die Kyriotetes und so weiter. Das sind also die drei Reiche, welche hinter der Sinneswelt liegen.

Die neuere Physik, wenn sie zur Naturphilosophie wird, phantasiert davon, daß hinter der Sinneswelt die wirbelnden Atome sind. Das ist aber eine phantastische materialistische Vorstellung. In Wahrheit spielen sich dort farbige, tönende Vorgänge ab; sie spielen sich dadurch ab, daß diese Geister der höheren Hierarchien in den Farben, in den Tönen und so weiter da walten.
Vor dem 4. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert walteten nun die Geister der Form nicht nur in den Eindrücken der Sinneswelt, sondern vor allen Dingen auch in den Gedanken. Diese Gedanken sind nun übergegangen an die Archai, an die Urbeginne. Die sind aber dem Menschen näher als die Geister der Form, denn sie sind vor der Sinneswelt. Sie sind zwischen dem Menschen und dem, was der Mensch sinnlich wahrnimmt; nur, weil sie übersinnlicher Natur sind, bemerkt sie der Mensch nicht. Dann kommen die Archangeloi, dann sind die Angeloi da, und dann der Mensch selbst, dann die Tiere, Pflanzen, Mineralien.
So daß also in dieser Zeit, die ich angedeutet habe, hinter den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte diese große, umfassende, gewaltige Tat liegt: daß die Gedanken, die in den Dingen sind, und die der Mensch aus den Dingen heraus schöpft, nicht mehr sozusagen nur Besitz der Elohim, sondern der Besitz der Urbeginne, der Archai sind.
Nun ist es aber in der Entwickelung des Weltenalls so, daß immer mit dem Fortschreiten der geistigen Wesenheiten einzelne geistig-kosmische Wesenheiten zurückbleiben. Also indem die geistigen Wesenheiten im allgemeinen fortschreiten, bleiben gewisse geistige Wesenheiten zurück. Und so sind auch in diesem Zeitraume, also in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten, Geister der Form zurückgeblieben.
Was heißt das: damals sind Geister der Form zurückgeblieben? Das heißt, gewisse Geister der Form haben sich nicht dazu entschließen können, die Gedankenwelt an die Urbeginne, an die Archai abzugeben, sie haben sie für sich behalten. Und so haben wir unter den geistigen Wesenheiten, die über dem Menschengeschehen walten, die richtig entwickelten Urkräfte mit dem Besitz der Gedankenwelt, und wir haben zurückgebliebene Geister der Form, zurückgebliebene Elohimwesenheiten, welche nun auch noch die Gedankenwelt verwalten. Dadurch entsteht in der geistigen Strömung, die über der Menschheit waltet, ein Zusammenwirken von Urkräften, von Archai, und von Geistern der Form, von elohistischen Wesenheiten. Die Menschen sind dann dem Folgenden ausgesetzt: Der eine, der durch sein Karma richtig dazu geeignet ist, der empfängt die Impulse seines Denkens durch die Archai. Dadurch wird sein Denken, obwohl es objektiv bleibt, sein persönlicher Besitz. Er arbeitet immer mehr und mehr die Gedanken als seinen persönlichen Besitz aus. Andere kommen nicht dazu, die Gedanken als ihren persönlichen Besitz auszuarbeiten. Sie übernehmen die Gedanken entweder durch die Vererbungsverhältnisse von ihren Eltern und Voreltern, oder sie übernehmen sie als konventionelle Gedanken, die innerhalb ihrer Volksgemeinschaft, Stammesgemeinschaft und so weiter herrschen.
Auf diese übersinnliche Tatsache, die ich Ihnen geschildert habe, ist zurückzuführen das ganze Ineinanderspielen von einzelnen individuellen Persönlichkeiten, die immer mehr und mehr heraufkommen in diesem Zeitalter des ausgehenden Altertums, des beginnenden Mittelalters, und derjenigen Gedankenströmungen, die ganze Menschengruppen ergreifen. Das aber wiederum gliedert sich auf der Erde, ich möchte sagen, in geographischer Weise. Zunächst werden ergriffen von den Impulsen, die von den Archai, von den Urkräften als Gedankenimpulse ausgehen, gewisse geistige Persönlichkeiten, die im vorderen Asien sind, die der arabischen Kultur angehören. Und insbesondere breitet sich das, was in diesen Gedankenimpulsen liegt, über Afrika aus herüber nach Spanien, nach ganz Westeuropa. Wir finden gewissermaßen diesen großen Gedankenzug durch Afrika gehend, durch Spanien, auch Süditalien ergreifend, nach dem Westen Europas herauf (siehe Zeichnung Seite 67, Pfeil). Wir haben einen großen Anregungsstrom von Gedanken, der auf die charakterisierten Impulse zurückgeht. Von dieser Gedankenströmung ist dasjenige ergriffen, was sich als arabisch-spanische Kultur entwickelt, was dann in der viel späteren Zeit noch großen Einfluß gewinnt auf solche Geister, wie etwa Spinoza, was aber auch noch in der Naturwissenschaft weiterlebt, was wir noch beobachten können in den Gedankenimpulsen des Galilei, des Kopernikus und so weiter. Während in solchen Gedankenströmungen und in dem, was aus diesen Gedankenströmungen Weltgeschichte wird, die Impulse der Archai leben, sehen wir überall sich hineindrängen in das Weltgeschehen auch dasjenige, was mehr unter dem Einflusse der zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form steht, die nun auch ihrerseits die Menschen mit Impulsen durchsetzen. Und wir sehen wiederum einen andern Strom des Gedankenlebens und des Weltgeschehens etwas mehr nördlich von Asien gegen Europa herüber sich bewegen. Dieser Gedankenstrom hat seinen besonderen extremen Ausdruck später erst gefunden, als von Asien herüber sich die Türkenmassen wälzten.
So daß wir das europäische Geschichtsleben von dieser Zeit, vom 4. Jahrhundert an durchsetzt sehen, ich möchte sagen, von einem fortwährenden geistigen Kampfe. Es kämpfen um ihr in dem Weltgeschehen ihnen zugefallenes rechtmäßiges Gut die Archai mit den zurückgebliebenen Exusiai, mit den Geistern der Form. Alles, was da im Mittelalter geschieht in westöstlicher Richtung und in ostwestlicher Richtung, was da an Völkerzügen durcheinander wallt und webt, was sich da gegenseitig bekämpft, von den Hunnenkämpfen bis zu den Türkenkämpfen, von der Völkerwanderung bis zu den Kreuzzügen, wo alles immer eine west-östliche oder ost-westliche Richtung hat, alles das ist das sinnlichphysische, das geschichtliche Abbild eines Geisteskampfes, wie ich ihn eben charakterisiert habe, der sich hinter den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte abspielt. Man begreift eben das geschichtliche Geschehen auf der Erde erst dann in seiner Wirklichkeit, wenn man in ihm ein Abbild sieht von dem, was in der übersinnlich-geistigen Welt zwischen den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien sich abspielt.
Wir können zunächst, wenn wir die eine Seite dieser Tatsache ins Auge fassen, sagen: Wir haben zwei Strömungen. Die eine, welche ich Ihnen zunächst hier (siehe Zeichnung Seite 67, gelb) skizziert habe, sie bewirkt die mannigfaltigsten Bewegungen wiederum von Westen nach Osten; die andere Strömung dringt vor, dringt auch wiederum zurück, so daß diese beiden Strömungen immer ineinandergehen. Wir sehen in einem Abbilde das, was da in der geistigen Welt sich vollzieht in jenen Kämpfen, die wir aus der Völkerwanderung kennen, in jenen Kämpfen, in denen alte Kultur zum Teil zerstört wird, in denen aber auch alte Kultur mit menschlicher Individualität durchsetzt wird.
Man kann sich der folgenden Betrachtung hingeben. Man kann sagen: Was wäre aus dem europäischen Zivilisationsleben geworden, wenn nicht, von Asien nach Europa hinüberstürmend und in Europa sich vielfach niederlassend, die verschiedenen Völkerschaften ihre Wanderungen begonnen hätten, und manchmal in wilder Art innerhalb dieser Wanderungen die menschliche Persönlichkeit ihr Individuelles geltend gemacht hätte?
Wir sehen ja innerhalb dieser Völkerwanderung, wie ganze Stämme ergriffen werden von einem Gemeingeist. Aber wenn wir die Geschichte durchgehen: überall zeigt sich uns auch, wie innerhalb dieser einzelnen zusammengehörigen Stämme, die von einem Gemeingeist durchsetzt sind — Ostgoten, Westgoten, Langobarden, Heruler, Franken, Markomannen, und so weiter —, wie innerhalb dieser Stämme einzelne Persönlichkeiten von den individuellen Impulsen ergriffen werden. Man möchte sagen: Überall spielt sich das ab, was auf der einen Seite den fortlaufenden Strom der Impulse der alten, eigentlich nicht mehr berechtigten Geister der Form darstellt, auf der andern Seite das berechtigte Auftreten der Geister der Persönlichkeit, der Urkräfte oder Urbeginne.
Wenn die Geschichte genauer schildern würde, mehr Rücksicht nehmen würde auf das, was sich als geistige Kräfte geltend macht in dem, was zumeist nur als Völkerkampf geschildert wird, dann würde man sehen, wie diese zweifache Artung der Gedankenimpulse innerhalb der Menschheit eigentlich gerade in den Völkerwanderungszeiten das europäische Leben beherrscht.
Man kann, sagte ich, die Betrachtung anstellen: Was wäre die europäische Zivilisation geworden, wenn nicht diese zum Teil barbarischen Völkerschaften von Osten nach Westen sich herübergewälzt und mit der jugendfrischen Persönlichkeit ihrer einzelnen Menschheitsglieder sich hinunterergossen hätten nach der altgewordenen, griechischrömischen Zivilisation?
Aber man kann auch auf der andern Seite fragen: Was hätten diese halbbarbarischen Völkerschaften für eine europäische Zivilisation begründen können, wenn in sie nicht eingeflossen wäre, was in der griechisch-römischen Zivilisation war, was durch die Geister der Persönlichkeit, durch die Archai übernommen worden war?
Das ist ja ungeheuer interessant. Wenn man nämlich nach den Griechen, ja noch nach den Römern hinblickt, dann sieht man ganz genau: die bekommen ihre Gedanken, ihre wissenschaftlichen, ihre künstlerischen, ihre politischen, ihre sozialen Gedanken durchaus durch jene Einströmungen, die von den Geistern der Form, von den Exusiai kommen. Man braucht nur einmal nicht mit dem groben Blick, den die heutige Geschichtsschreibung hat, sondern mit einem etwas feineren Sinn auf solche Geister wie Perikles, wie Alkibiades oder wiederum wie Sulla, ja selbst wie Hannibal — obwohl der stark den Typus der Persönlichkeit trägt —, aber auch dann auf Cäsar, auf alle diese Geister hinweisen, so wird man schon finden: in ihnen walten die Gedanken noch wie Weltenmächte, wie etwas Instinktives.
Das kommt eben davon her, daß sie ihre Gedanken von den Geistern der Form haben. Dann tritt eine solche Persönlichkeit auf, welche mittendrinnen steht mit ihrer Seele in dem Kampfe zwischen den neuberechtigten Geistern der Persönlichkeit und den unberechtigt gewordenen Geistern der Form: Diese Persönlichkeit, die mit der Seele hineinverstrickt ist in jenen Kampf, das ist Augustinus, der katholische Kirchenvater. Ich habe Ihnen seinen Seelenkampf von den verschiedensten Seiten her geschildert. Wenn man aber diesen Seelenkampf als das irdische Abbild eines kosmisch-übersinnlichen Geschehens ansieht, dann merkt man in diesem Geist, der sich in der Jugend zu dem Manichäertum hinneigt, der dann im strengsten Sinne römisch-katholisch gläubig wird, man sieht in diesem Hin- und Hergerissensein einer Seele das irdische Abbild, den irdischen Abglanz von etwas, was sich kosmisch hinter der Menschheitsentwickelung abspielt. Augustinus neigt zu den Manichäern in der Zeit, als er noch verstrickt ist mit seiner Seele in die Impulse der Geister der Form. Sie bringen ihm alles Gute aus früheren Zeiten in die Seele hinein, doch es paßt nicht mehr für Seelen seiner Zeit. Aber durch das, was er durch die zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form erhalten hat an guten, an vorzüglichen alten Kulturgütern, ist er behindert, mit voller Entfaltung seiner Einzelpersönlichkeit die neue Form der Gedanken zu übernehmen, wie sie übermittelt werden kann durch die nun für die Gedanken berechtigt gewordenen Geister der Persönlichkeit, die Archai. Und er kann das nur übernehmen, indem er sich ganz und gar dem Dogma der Kirche übergibt.
Man kann eine solche Persönlichkeit, wie Augustinus es ist, immer von zwei Seiten her charakterisieren. Man kann sich auf den Gesichtspunkt des Erdendaseins stellen und dann bloß auf die einzelne Persönlichkeit hinschauen und sehen, wie da die Seelenmächte miteinander ringen. Aber man kann auch den Fall von jenseits des Erdendaseins betrachten und darauf Rücksicht nehmen, wie eine solche Persönlichkeit gelenkt und geleitet wird von den göttlich-geistigen Mächten der höheren Hierarchien. Dann lernt man das eine Mal, wenn man den irdischen Standpunkt einnimmt, eben eine menschliche Persönlichkeit kennen, nun, wie sie sich eben darlebt auf der Erde selber. Wenn man den andern Standpunkt, den übersinnlichen Standpunkt einnimmt, lernt man erkennen, in welcher Art solch eine Persönlichkeit ein Sendbote der geistigen Welt ist. Das ist eigentlich der Mensch immer. Der Mensch ist hier auf der Erde ein Erdenwesen und kann in geschlossener Weise als Erdenwesen betrachtet werden. Es behindert die Freiheit dieses seines irdischen Seins gar nicht, daß er zu gleicher Zeit von den Kräften der überirdischen Welt impulsiert wird, nicht gelenkt und geleitet, aber impulsiert wird, und daß er so zu gleicher Zeit ein Sendbote der übersinnlichen Mächte ist.
Und wieder in anderer Form tritt uns entgegen dieses Ineinanderwirken der zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form, die sich vorzugsweise in Asien drüben, ich möchte sagen, ihre Kerntruppen suchen und sie immer gegen Europa schieben, und der berechtigt gewordenen Geister der Persönlichkeit, der Archai, die schon mehr gegen Westen vorgerückt sind und immer wiederum zurückschieben wollen, was von den zurückgebliebenen Geistern der Form kommt.
In späterer Zeit tritt uns dieses west-östliche und ost-westliche Durcheinanderwogen der irdischen Abbilder höherer geistiger Impulse in den Kreuzzügen entgegen. Studieren Sie die Kreuzzüge. Studieren Sie, wie zunächst aus einem gewissen Impuls heraus, der durchaus mit dem Wesen der Geister der Persönlichkeit, der Archai, zusammenhängt, die Kreuzzüge sich entwickeln, wie gewaltige Absichten den Kreuzzügen zugrunde liegen. Studieren Sie dann, wie die Kreuzfahrer immer mehr und mehr Massenurteilen unterliegen, wie die Massenurteile immer suggestiver wirken. Ich möchte sagen: Je weiter die Kreuzfahrer sich von Westen nach Osten bewegen, desto mehr wird der Einzelne eingefangen in die Massenurteile. — Und als dann die Kreuzfahrer hinüberkommen in die Sphäre des asiatischen Lebens, da breiten sich über das, was von einzelnen Individualitäten in einzelne Individualitäten hineingesenkt worden ist, Massenimpulse aus.
Wir sehen, wie die Menschen ihre Persönlichkeit verlieren. Wir sehen, wie die europäischen Kreuzfahrer im Orient in bezug auf ihre Seeleneigenschaften verfallen. Die guten moralischen Impulse, die sie mitgenommen haben, können sie nicht entfalten unter den Massensuggestionen, in die sie hineinfallen. Sie werden moralisch dekadent. Und unter dieser moralischen Dekadenz gutmeinender Menschen, die von Westen nach Osten gezogen sind, gewinnen wiederum an Herrschaft die von Osten nach Westen strebenden Impulse, welche in dem muselmanischen, in dem türkischen Menschen leben.
Und so sehen wir in den Kreuzzügen das zweite weltgeschichtliche Hin- und Herwogen eines Kampfes von Osten nach Westen und von Westen nach Osten, eines Kampfes, der das Abbild ist des andern, des geistigen Kampfes zwischen zurückgebliebenen Geistern der Form und richtig fortgeschrittenen Geistern der Persönlichkeit.
Das Ganze würde sich mit der Zeit so gestaltet haben, daß — wenn wir auf Europa schauen - im Westen sich, wenn auch einseitig, immer mehr und mehr ausgebreitet hätten die Impulse der Geister der Persönlichkeit (siehe Zeichnung Seite 67, blau schraffiert), im Osten immer mehr und mehr die Impulse der zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form (violett schraffiert). Sie können das, was ich Ihnen heute schildere, zusammennehmen mit andern Gesichtspunkten, die ich über diese Kulturströmungen vor Zeiten hier schon entwickelt habe, denn im Übersinnlichen spielen eben die Dinge durchaus ineinander, und man kann die Dinge nur allmählich verstehen, indem man sich in die verschiedensten Impulse einläßt.
Aber so ist es nicht geblieben. Wenn wir allerdings zurückgehen in sehr frühe Zeiten des Mittelalters, bis zur Kreuzzugszeit, so können wir sagen: Für diese Zeiten gilt das in der Weise, wie ich es hier gezeichnet habe. Aber immer mehr und mehr spielt ein anderes Moment hinein -— ich meine jetzt im Übersinnlichen -, und das ist, daß ja nicht nur zurückgeblieben sind die Geister der Form, nicht nur vorwärtsgekommen sind die Archai, die Urbeginne, sondern immer geschieht es in den Hierarchien der übersinnlichen Welt so, daß gewisse geistige Wesenheiten zurückbleiben, gewisse geistige Wesenheiten ihren normalen Fortschritt machen, daß gewisse Wesenheiten aber auch über das Ziel hinausschießen.
Und so sehen wir, daß im Westen, und zwar vom Süden herauf, in die ganze Bewegung eingreifen zurückgebliebene Erzengelwesen (roter Pfeil links), zurückgebliebene Archangeloi. So daß wir also gewissermaßen hier (oben) Archaiwesen haben in berechtigter Weise, aber hier (unten) Archangeloiwesen, welche auf früheren Stufen zurückgeblieben sind, die eigentlich zurückgebliebene Wesenheiten früherer Stufen darstellen, die Archangeloi geblieben sind, die schon Archai sein könnten, aber Archangeloi geblieben sind. Das ist das Wesen dieser Geister.

Und so sehen wir, daß im Westen Europas immer mehr und mehr wenn ich mich dieses pedantisch-philiströsen Ausdrucks bedienen darfnormale Archai mit anormalen Archangeloi zusammenwirken.
Wenn wir die Sache geographisch nehmen, haben die Archangeloi eine Süd-Nordrichtung, während die Archai und zurückgebliebenen Exusiai die west-östliche und ost-westliche Richtung haben. Auf diese Weise bekommt man die historisch geographischen Verhältnisse, die sich auf der Erde abspielen, als Abbilder der Kämpfe und des Zusammenwirkens höherer geistiger Wesenheiten heraus.
Alles, was im Westen Europas geschieht, man darf wohl sagen, was bis zum heutigen Tage geschieht, alles das kann verstanden werden als Abbild des Zusammenwirkens solcher normaler Archai mit abnormen Archangeloi, abnormen Archaiwesen, welche vor allen Dingen, weil sie den Menschen sehr nahestehen, sie in starker Weise impulsieren, ihnen vor allen Dingen ein emotionelles Verhältnis zu ihren Sprachen beibringen, jenes emotionelle Verhältnis, das ja - wie Sie sich denken können nach einem Vortrage, den ich vor kurzem hier gehalten habe für diese Menschen eine große Bedeutung hat. Es bestimmt das ganze Wesen der Menschen außerordentlich stark dieses Einwirken der namentlich für das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Sprache so wichtigen Archangeloiwesen. Das, was gerade durch die Sprache die Menschen zusammenhält, sie in fanatischer Weise im Zusammenhalt durch die Sprache erscheinen läßt, das wird als irdisch abbildliches Geschehen erklärlich, wenn man die dahinterstehenden übersinnlichen Tatsachen kennt.
Nun ist in den verschiedenen Zeitepochen die Sache schwächer oder stärker, von der einen oder der andern Seite. Da haben wir im Westen ein Überwiegen der normalen Archai, haben im Süden ein Überwiegen der Impulse der abnormen Archangeloiwesen. Es ist durchaus möglich, das geschichtliche Leben der Menschen und Völker von dem Gesichtspunkte des Übersinnlichen aus zu charakterisieren.
Weiter muß man sagen: Dasjenige, was im Osten geschehen würde, wird wesentlich modifiziert dadurch, daß die zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form, die ja eine große Macht haben, stark beeinflußt werden durch die - ich darf jetzt schon sagen, da Sie ihre Bedeutung wissen —, durch die von Norden nach Süden wirkenden normal entwickelten Archangeloiwesen. Es schiebt sich gewissermaßen (Pfeil, gelb) in jenes wilde Gewoge und Getriebe, welches namentlich durch die von den zurückgebliebenen Formgeistern, von elohistischen Wesenheiten beherrschten Türken, Mongolen und ähnliche Gewalten entsteht, es mischt sich von Norden herunter da hinein etwas, das - wenn ich mich des Ausdrucks bedienen darf — von guten Archangeloiwesen kommt, die dem Menschen sehr nahestehen, die in jedes einzelne Menschengemüt etwas hineingießen, was da jenen Gemeingeist übertönt, der eigentlich doch von zurückgebliebenen Geistern der Form herrührt.
Wiederum ist es so, daß auch hier für verschiedene Epochen der Weltgeschichte bald das Gewoge eines furchtbaren, unpersönlichen, unindividuellen Gemeingeistes waltet, in andern Epochen die Individualitäten vorherrschend werden. Wenn jemand einmal die merkwürdige russische Geschichte in dieser Weise als ein Abbild des Zusammenwirkens höherer geistiger Wesenheiten der oberen Hierarchien darstellen würde, so würden ungeheure Lichter fallen auf das, was in den einzelnen Epochen dieser Geschichte vorfällt.
Nun haben wir also (siehe Zeichnung Seite 67) im Westen eine Strömung von Süden nach Norden, die sich mit der west-östlichen Richtung vermischt, hier eine Strömung von Norden nach Süden, die sich auch mit der west-östlichen Strömung vermischt. Aber diese Strömungen breiten sich wieder aus, und wir haben in der späteren Zeit eine süd-nördliche Strömung, die fortwährend, ich möchte sagen, in Schwingungen, in Zickzackschwingungen (siehe Zeichnung Seite 67) versetzt wird durch die westöstlichen Impulse. Und wir haben damit zusammenwirkend, in sie hineinwirkend die nord-südliche Strömung, die wiederum in Zickzackschwingungen durch die west-östlichen Impulse versetzt wird (orange). Dieses Zusammenziehen der zwei an sich schon zusammengesetzten Strömungen, das tritt in einer späteren Zeit der europäischen Entwickelung auf, das tritt auf in der Zeit, als die Reformationskämpfe beginnen.
Da sehen wir, wie eine nord-südliche Strömung, die aber immer mit west-östlicher vermischt ist, stark in sich tragend die normalen Archaikräfte, wie diese Strömung hineinstrebt in dasjenige, was zurückgeblieben war von den früheren, von Asien herüberflutenden Impulsen der zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form. Und es tritt, weil es etwas mit den Geistern der Form zu tun hat, in elementarer Weise etwas auf, was aber zugleich auf normale Impulse der Menschheitsentwickelung geht.
Studieren Sie alles dasjenige, was auf der einen Seite aus dem reinen Gedanken des Evangelisch-Protestantischen von Norden nach Süden sich wälzt, was aber dann in die wildesten kriegerischen Verwicklungen hineinwirkt, und studieren Sie dasjenige, was als Gegenströmungen von Süden heraufkommt, was wiederum zu den kriegerischen Verwicklungen führt. Studieren Sie zum Beispiel die evangelisch-protestantische Richtung mit einer nord-südlichen Hauptrichtung und die katholischjesuitische Strömung mit ihrer süd-nördlichen Hauptrichtung: da werden Sie das Ineinanderspielen, das komplizierte Ineinanderspielen desjenigen studieren können, was auf der Erde sich abspielt als ein Bild der höheren Geisteskämpfe des Übersinnlichen.
Und dadurch kommt etwas heraus, was Sie eigentlich als Anthroposophen schätzen müßten. Nach den heutigen Darstellungen — die Schiller nur ein bißchen zurechtgerichtet hat, namentlich für den Anfang der Vorgänge -, nach den heutigen Darstellungen des Dreißigjährigen Krieges weiß man, wie aus dem Religionskampf in Prag jenes Ereignis sich entwickelt hat, wo die aufgeregten Leute in das Prager Rathaus gedrungen sind, die zwei Staatsmänner Martinitz und Slawata und dann auch den Geheimschreiber Fabricius zum Fenster hinausgeworfen haben, denen dann, wie Sie ja wissen, nichts geschehen ist, weil sie auf einen Misthaufen, das heißt auf einen Haufen gefallen sind, der aus lauter hinuntergeworfenen Papierschnitzeln bestand. Es war nicht, was man im gewöhnlichen Leben einen Misthaufen nennt, sondern es war ein Haufen aus Papierschnitzeln, denn in der damaligen Zeit war es so Sitte, daß man nicht einen Papierkorb verwendete, sondern die Papierschnitzel zum Fenster hinauswarf, und nachher warf die aufgeregte Menge ihnen jene Politiker nach. Wenn man da anfängt und nachher die Sache weiter verfolgt: Es ist ein so wüstes Herumfahren auf der Karte von Europa; bald siegt der, bald der andere, bald fällt jenem Kurfürsten etwas ein, dann wieder nimmt dieser Feldherr jene Richtung und so weiter. Es ist wie ein Herumfahren auf der Karte von Europa, ganz gleichgültig, ob man dieses Herumfahren zeichnet, oder ob man es bloß schildert. In der Schule kommt man gerade bei solchen Darstellungen von so eminent wichtigen Erscheinungen wie dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg immer in Verlegenheit, weil man nach den gewöhnlichen geschichtlichen Darstellungen ja überhaupt nur so erzählen muß, daß die Schüler es doch bald wieder vergessen, denn das wirbelt alles durcheinander! Da ist ja nichts drinnen, was den einzelnen Gedankenströmungen Richtung gibt. Aber sieht man auf das Wahrhaftige in der Sache, dann sieht man eben hinter dem äußeren Abbild diese nord-südlichen, südlich-nördlichen Strömungen, die fortwährend auch von west-östlichen durchkreuzt werden.
Man sieht in dem, was von Wallenstein kommt, was dann von Norden herunterkommt, von Gustav Adolf und so weiter, man sieht in allem, wie dasjenige, was äußerlich in der Geschichte vorgeht, gewissermaßen — ich sage wieder nicht geleitet und gelenkt, aber impulsiert wird von den übersinnlichen Kräften, die dahinterstehen. Die Menschen sind trotzdem darinnen freie Wesen, der Mensch ist ja ein freies Wesen, obwohl auch natürliche Impulse seine Taten lenken. Nicht wahr, man kann nicht sagen, man werde dadurch unfrei, daß man, weil man zum Fenster hinausschaut und sieht, daß es regnet, seinen Regenschirm mitnimmt und ihn draußen aufspannt; man fügt sich eben in die natürlichen Kräfte hinein. So steht der Mensch durchaus mit seinen seelisch-geistigen Wirkungen in den geistigen Impulsen, in dem geistigen Kräftezusammenhange darinnen; er bleibt deshalb doch ein freies Wesen.
Aber das, was sich auf dem Plane der großen Weltgeschichte abspielt, begreift man eben erst dann, wenn man es aus dem Übersinnlichen heraus begreift, das dahintersteht. Und damit kommt man dann an die konkrete Impulsierung des weltgeschichtlichen Geschehens durch geistige Mächte, während man, wenn man nur von einem abstrakt Göttlichen spricht, nicht irgendwie zu einer Anschauung kommen kann.
Derjenige, der bloß von einem abstrakt Göttlichen spricht, der müßte doch eigentlich, da er das Göttliche überall wirksam denken muß, dieses abstrakt Göttliche, sagen wir bei einer Türkenschlacht des Mittelalters, bei den Türken suchen, und auch bei denen, welche die Türken bekämpfen! Das heißt, das abstrakt Göttliche ist da mit sich selber im Kampf, in einem Selbstkonflikt drinnen, wenn man es nur als abstrakt Göttliches anschaut.
In dem Augenblick, wo man an die konkreten geistigen Wesenheiten kommt, die ihre gegenseitigen Verhältnisse dadurch haben, daß in einer solchen Weise, wie ich es geschildert habe, gewisse Aufgaben von der einen Gruppe auf die andere übergehen, daß aber gewisse Gruppen zurückbleiben, andere auf normale Stufen kommen, andere im Sturm vorwärtsschreiten, in dem Augenblick, wo man erkennt, daß da tatsächlich in der geistigen Welt eine Vielheit ist von Wesen, die sich bekämpfen, die sich aber auch gegenseitig helfen können, bekommt man erst die Möglichkeit, wirklich das, was hinter den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte im Übersinnlichen des Kosmos geschieht, mit menschlichen Begriffen zu durchdringen, ohne daß man sich unerlaubter Widersprüche schuldig macht.
Denn sehen Sie, da treten dann konkrete Begriffe ein. Man sieht, wie im Westen unberechtigte Archangeloi in ein berechtigtes Tun von Archai eingreifen, wie also da ein Beeinträchtigen, ein Verschlimmern des Guten in den sich abspielenden Kämpfen fortwährend stattfindet. Wir sehen, wie im Osten gut wirkende Archangeloi als helfende, als schützende Geister ausgleichen, was sonst durch die zurückgebliebenen Geister der Form in einer nicht dem vollen Menschlichen entsprechenden Weise ausgestaltet würde. Und wir sehen dann, wie, indem sich diese beiden Strömungen zusammenschieben, innerhalb Mitteleuropas jene fortwährenden Verwirrungen eintreten von Reformation und Gegenreformation, in jenem Ausmaße, das diese Kräfte im Dreißigjährigen Krieg angenommen haben, und noch in den folgenden Kämpfen, die sich da abgespielt haben.
Zweierlei muß uns vor der Seele stehen: Wir betrachten den einzelnen Menschen; aber wir betrachten ihn nicht so, wie ihn die heutige offizielle Wissenschaft betrachtet, die nur sieht: da hat er diesen Muskel, da jenen Muskel, da diesen Knochen, da diesen Nerv -, sondern wir betrachten den ganzen Menschen seiner physischen Bildung nach als ein Abbild des Übersinnlichen, und wissen, daß ja der physische Mensch, wie er auf der Erde steht, zunächst in seinem Gedankenplane, zwischen dem 'Tode und einem neuen Leben, von dem Menschen selbst, der sich auf Erden verkörpert, im Zusammenhange mit den Geistern der höheren Hierarchien bewirkt wird, erarbeitet wird. Und so betrachten wir den einzelnen Menschen als ein Abbild einer übersinnlichen Menschenurform.
Aber so betrachten wir auch zweitens dasjenige, was in der Geschichte geschieht, als Abbild eines Geschehens hinter den Kulissen der Geschichte, eines Geschehens, das sich eben abspielt in der übersinnlichen Welt, in jener Welt, wo ganze Heerscharen von übersinnlichen Wesenheiten ebenso — wenn ich sie mit irdischen Namen bezeichnen soll — soziale Verhältnisse miteinander eingehen wie die Menschen auf Erden. Nur daß die Handlungen dieser überirdischen sozialen Wesenheiten so sind, daß ihre Impulse hereinspielen auf die Erde und sich in den Handlungen der Menschen ausdrücken.
Es ist insbesondere für den Menschen der Gegenwart wichtig, im einzelnen einzusehen, wie auf der einen Seite der Mensch ein Abbild des Übersinnlichen ist, auf der andern Seite die geschichtlichen Ereignisse Abbilder des Übersinnlichen sind. Und auf keinem andern als auf diesem Wege kann der Mensch wiederum zurückfinden zu der göttlichgeistigen Welt. Mit den bloßen Abstraktionen von einem Göttlichen kann heute noch auf diejenigen gewirkt werden, die nicht angefangen haben, im Sinne des modernen Geisteslebens erkennen und denken zu wollen. Aber deren Zahl wird immer geringer werden, und diejenigen, die erkennen und denken wollen, werden in immer größerer Zahl vorhanden sein. Die müssen wiederum zum religiösen Leben zurückgeführt werden. Sie können es nur, wenn man ihnen die konkreten realen Vorgänge der geistigen Welt vor das Seelenauge stellt und nicht sie abfertigt mit einem bloßen abstrakten allgemeinen Gedanken von einem Göttlichen, über das man eigentlich nichts aussagen will, sondern das man nur wie ein alles übergreifendes Wort anführt, ohne daß man die Einzelheiten versteht.
Damit, meine lieben Freunde, ist wiederum von einem andern Gesichtspunkte aus hingewiesen auf eine der Aufgaben, welche anthroposophische Erkenntnis in der Gegenwart hat und haben soll.

Fourth Lecture
Yesterday I tried to show at a significant point in the development of world history, which we have already known as such for some time, at the point of the 4th century after Christ, how one can actually only fully understand this development of mankind when one not only takes into consideration that which takes place, so to speak, before the scenes of world history, but also that which lies behind these scenes. And I told you yesterday that we have to record the handing over of the cosmic world of thought from the spirits of form to the so-called Archai, primal beginnings or primal forces, as a middle point in time, approximately in the 4th century - for the matter lasts for many hundreds of years. And in connection with this - because man in his thoughts becomes dependent on completely different spiritual beings - is that he now stands quite differently to his thoughts than before.
You have to visualize how the outer world history, both the outer historical events as well as the spiritual history of mankind plays out in these centuries, and how this supersensible fact intervenes in these historical events. So while in former times the spirits of form - those beings therefore, which the Bible calls for example the Elohim - administered the thoughts of the world, so that man unconsciously had to turn to these spirits of form when he wanted to form thoughts about things, the life of thoughts now passed over to the elemental powers, which are much closer to man. I illustrated this closeness to you yesterday by saying the following: We imagine that here is the boundary which the sense world represents. So everything we see and perceive in the sensory world, colors, sounds, sensations of warmth, is symbolized by this line (see drawing on page 59). Now what lies behind the sensory perceptions is the field in which, as I said yesterday, the spirits of form are found, which the Bible calls the Elohim, then the so-called Dynamis, higher spirits, then the Kyriotetes and so on. So these are the three realms that lie behind the sense world.

The newer physics, when it becomes natural philosophy, fantasizes that behind the sense world are the whirling atoms. But this is a fantastic materialistic idea. In truth, colorful, sounding processes take place there; they take place because these spirits of the higher hierarchies rule in the colors, in the sounds and so on.
Before the 4th century AD, the spirits of form not only reigned in the impressions of the sensory world, but above all also in the thoughts. These thoughts have now passed to the Archai, to the primordial beginnings. But they are closer to man than the spirits of form, for they are before the sense world. They are between man and that which man perceives through the senses; it is only because they are of a supersensible nature that man does not notice them. Then come the Archangeloi, then there are the Angeloi, and then man himself, then the animals, plants, minerals.
So that in this time, which I have indicated, behind the scenes of world history lies this great, comprehensive, mighty deed: that the thoughts which are in things, and which man draws out of things, are no longer, so to speak, only the possession of the Elohim, but the possession of the primal beginnings, the Archai.
.Now it is so in the development of the universe that always with the progress of the spiritual beings individual spiritual-cosmic beings remain behind. Thus, as the spiritual entities progress in general, certain spiritual entities remain behind. And so also in this period, that is, in the first Christian centuries, spirits of form remained behind.
What does that mean: spirits of form remained behind at that time? That is to say, certain spirits of form were unable to decide to hand over the world of thought to the primal beginnings, to the Archai, they kept it for themselves. And so we have, among the spiritual entities that rule over human affairs, the properly developed primal forces with possession of the world of thought, and we have backward spirits of form, backward Elohim entities, who now also administer the world of thought. As a result, in the spiritual current that rules over humanity, a cooperation of elemental forces, of Archai, and of spirits of form, of elohistic entities, arises. People are then exposed to the following: The one who is properly suited to it by his karma receives the impulses of his thinking through the Archai. Thus his thinking, although it remains objective, becomes his personal possession. He works out his thoughts more and more as his personal possession. Others do not get to work out the thoughts as their personal possession. They adopt the thoughts either through hereditary relations from their parents and foreparents, or they adopt them as conventional thoughts prevailing within their folk community, tribal community and so on.
This supersensible fact, which I have described to you, is the cause of the whole interplay between individual personalities, which are emerging more and more in this age of the end of antiquity, the beginning of the Middle Ages, and those currents of thought which take hold of whole groups of people. But this in turn is structured on earth, I would like to say, in a geographical way. First of all, certain spiritual personalities who are in the front Asia, who belong to the Arabian culture, are seized by the impulses that emanate from the Archai, from the primal forces as thought impulses. And in particular, what lies in these thought impulses spreads across Africa to Spain, to the whole of Western Europe. We find, as it were, this great train of thought passing through Africa, through Spain, also seizing southern Italy, up to the west of Europe (see drawing page 67, arrow). We have a great stimulating current of thought which goes back to the characterized impulses. From this current of thought is seized that which develops as Arabic-Spanish culture, which then in much later times still gains great influence on such spirits as Spinoza, but which also lives on in natural science, which we can still observe in the thought impulses of Galileo, Copernicus and so on. While the impulses of the Archai live in such currents of thought and in what becomes world history from these currents of thought, we also see everywhere that which is more under the influence of the spirits of form that have remained behind, which in turn now also permeate people with impulses. And again we see another stream of thought life and world events moving somewhat more northwards from Asia towards Europe. This current of thought only found its particular extreme expression later, when the Turkish masses rolled over from Asia.
So that we see European historical life from this time, from the 4th century onwards, interspersed, I would say, with a continuous spiritual struggle. The Archai fight with the retarded Exusiai, with the spirits of form, for their rightful property in world events. Everything that happens in the Middle Ages in a west-easterly direction and in an east-westerly direction, everything that happens in the Middle Ages in a west-easterly direction and in an east-westerly direction, everything that happens there in the interweaving and intermingling of peoples, everything that fights each other, from the Hun battles to the Turkish battles, from the migration of peoples to the Crusades, where everything always has a west-easterly or east-westerly direction, all this is the sensory-physical, the historical image of a spiritual battle, as I have just characterized it, which takes place behind the scenes of world history. One only understands the reality of historical events on earth when one sees in them an image of what is taking place in the supersensible-spiritual world between the beings of the higher hierarchies.
First of all, if we consider one side of this fact, we can say that we have two currents. The one which I have first sketched for you here (see drawing page 67, yellow) causes the most varied movements, again from West to East; the other current penetrates forward, also penetrates back again, so that these two currents always go into each other. We see in one image what is taking place in the spiritual world in those struggles that we know from the migration of peoples, in those struggles in which old culture is partly destroyed, but in which old culture is also interspersed with human individuality.
You can indulge in the following contemplation. One can say: What would have become of European civilization if the various peoples, storming over from Asia to Europe and settling in Europe in many places, had not begun their migrations, and if the human personality had not sometimes asserted its individuality in a wild way within these migrations?
We see within this migration of peoples how whole tribes are seized by a common spirit. But if we go through history: everywhere we also see how within these individual tribes that belong together and are permeated by a common spirit - Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Lombards, Heruli, Franks, Marcomanni, and so on - how within these tribes individual personalities are seized by individual impulses. One might say that what takes place everywhere is, on the one hand, the continuous flow of the impulses of the old, no longer legitimate spirits of form, and on the other hand, the legitimate appearance of the spirits of personality, the primal forces or primal beginnings.
If history were to give a more accurate account, if it were to take more account of what asserts itself as spiritual forces in what is usually only described as a struggle between peoples, then one would see how this twofold nature of the impulses of thought within humanity actually dominates European life precisely in the times of the migration of peoples.
You can, I said, make the observation: What would European civilization have become if these partly barbaric peoples had not rolled over from East to West and, with the youthful personality of their individual human members, poured themselves down into the ancient Greco-Roman civilization?
But on the other hand, one can also ask: What kind of European civilization could these semi-barbarian peoples have founded if they had not incorporated what was in Greco-Roman civilization, what had been taken over by the spirits of personality, by the Archai?
That is incredibly interesting. If you look at the Greeks, indeed even at the Romans, you can see quite clearly that their thoughts, their scientific, their artistic, their political, their social thoughts were certainly influenced by the spirits of form, by the Exusiai. One need only look not with the coarse eye that today's historiography has, but with a somewhat finer sense at such spirits as Pericles, Alcibiades or again Sulla, even Hannibal - although he strongly bears the type of personality - but also then point to Caesar, to all these spirits, and one will already find: in them the thoughts still rule like world powers, like something instinctive.
This comes from the fact that they have their thoughts from the spirits of form. Then such a personality appears, which stands with its soul in the midst of the struggle between the newly authorized spirits of the personality and the spirits of the form that have become unauthorized: This personality, who is entangled with his soul in this struggle, is Augustine, the Catholic Church Father. I have described his battle of the soul to you from various angles. But if you see this struggle of the soul as the earthly image of a cosmic, supersensible event, then you will notice in this spirit, which in its youth leans towards Manichaeism, which then becomes a Roman Catholic believer in the strictest sense, you will see in this being torn to and fro of a soul the earthly image, the earthly reflection of something that takes place cosmically behind the development of mankind. Augustine tends towards the Manichaeans at the time when he is still entangled with his soul in the impulses of the spirits of form. They bring everything good from earlier times into his soul, but it is no longer suitable for souls of his time. But through that which he has received from the spirits of form who have remained behind, in the way of good, excellent old cultural goods, he is hindered from adopting the new form of thought with the full development of his individual personality, as it can be transmitted through the spirits of personality, the Archai, who have now become authorized for thought. And he can only do this by surrendering himself completely to the dogma of the Church.
A personality such as Augustine can always be characterized from two sides. One can take the viewpoint of earthly existence and then simply look at the individual personality and see how the powers of the soul struggle with each other. But you can also look at the case from the other side of earthly existence and consider how such a personality is directed and guided by the divine-spiritual powers of the higher hierarchies. Then, if you take the earthly point of view, you will get to know a human personality as it lives on earth itself. If you take the other point of view, the supersensible point of view, you learn to recognize in what way such a personality is a messenger of the spiritual world. This is actually always the human being. Here on earth man is an earthly being and can be regarded in a closed way as an earthly being. It does not hinder the freedom of his earthly being at all that he is at the same time impulsed by the forces of the supernatural world, not directed and guided but impulsed, and that he is thus at the same time a messenger of the supersensible powers.
And again in another form we are confronted with this interaction of the spirits of form who have remained behind, who preferably seek their core troops over in Asia, I would like to say, and always push them towards Europe, and the spirits of personality who have become justified, the Archai, who have already advanced more towards the West and always want to push back again what comes from the spirits of form who have remained behind.
In later times this west-eastern and east-western confusion of the earthly images of higher spiritual impulses confronts us in the crusades. Study the crusades. Study how the crusades first develop out of a certain impulse, which is definitely connected with the nature of the spirits of the personality, the Archai, and how powerful intentions underlie the crusades. Then study how the crusaders are subject to more and more mass judgments, how the mass judgments have an increasingly suggestive effect. I would like to say: the further the crusaders move from west to east, the more the individual is caught up in the mass judgments. - And then, as the crusaders cross over into the sphere of Asian life, mass impulses spread across what has been sunk into individual individuals by individual individuals.
We see how people lose their personality. We see how the European crusaders in the Orient deteriorate in terms of their soul qualities. The good moral impulses they took with them cannot develop under the mass suggestion into which they fall. They become morally decadent. And under this moral decadence of well-meaning people who have moved from West to East, the impulses striving from East to West, which live in the Muslim and Turkish people, in turn gain dominance.
And so we see in the Crusades the second world-historical tossing and turning of a struggle from East to West and from West to East, a struggle which is the image of the other, the spiritual struggle between backward spirits of form and properly advanced spirits of personality.
The whole thing would have developed over time in such a way that - if we look at Europe - in the West the impulses of the spirits of personality would have spread more and more, albeit one-sidedly (see drawing page 67, shaded blue), in the East more and more the impulses of the backward spirits of form (shaded purple). You can take what I am describing to you today together with other points of view which I have already developed here about these cultural currents some time ago, for in the supersensible things definitely play into each other, and one can only understand things gradually by allowing oneself to become involved in the most diverse impulses.
But it didn't stay that way. However, if we go back to the very early days of the Middle Ages, to the time of the Crusades, we can say that what I have described here applies to those times. But more and more another moment plays a part - I mean now in the supersensible - and that is that not only have the spirits of form lagged behind, not only have the Archai, the primal beginnings advanced, but it always happens in the hierarchies of the supersensible world that certain spiritual entities lag behind, certain spiritual entities make their normal progress, but that certain entities also overshoot the mark.
And so we see that in the west, namely from the south upwards, archangelic beings (red arrow on the left), archangeloi who have stayed behind, intervene in the whole movement. So that we have, as it were, here (above) archai beings in a justified way, but here (below) archangeloi beings who have remained behind on earlier levels, who actually represent beings left behind from earlier levels, who have remained archangeloi, who could already be archai, but have remained archangeloi. That is the nature of these spirits.

And so we see that in Western Europe more and more, if I may use this pedantic-philistine expression, normal Archai are interacting with abnormal Archangeloi.
If we take the matter geographically, the Archangeloi have a south-north direction, while the Archai and retarded Exusiai have a west-east and east-west direction. In this way, the historical geographical conditions that take place on earth are revealed as images of the struggles and the interaction of higher spiritual entities.
Everything that is happening in Western Europe, one may well say what is happening up to the present day, can be understood as a reflection of the interaction of such normal Archai with abnormal Archangeloi, abnormal Archai beings, who, above all, because they are very close to human beings, stimulate them in a strong way, teach them above all an emotional relationship to their languages, that emotional relationship which - as you can imagine from a lecture I gave here recently - is of great importance for these people. This influence of the Archangeloi beings, which are so important for the relationship between man and language, has an extraordinarily strong influence on the whole nature of mankind. That which holds people together precisely through language, which makes them appear fanatically united through language, can be explained as an earthly illustrative event if one knows the supersensible facts behind it.
Now in the different epochs the matter is weaker or stronger, from one side or the other. In the West we have a preponderance of the normal Archai, in the South a preponderance of the impulses of the abnormal Archangeloi beings. It is quite possible to characterize the historical life of men and peoples from the point of view of the supersensible.
Furthermore, it must be said that what would happen in the East is essentially modified by the fact that the spirits of form that have remained behind, which have great power, are strongly influenced by - I may say now, since you know their significance - the normally developed Archangeloi beings working from north to south. It pushes itself, as it were (arrow, yellow), into that wild tumult and turmoil which arises especially through the Turks, Mongols and similar forces dominated by the backward spirits of form, by Elohistic entities, something mixes into it from the north downwards, which - if I may use the expression - comes from good Archangeloi beings who are very close to man, who pour something into each individual human mind that drowns out the common spirit, which actually comes from the spirits of form that have remained behind.
On the other hand, for various epochs of world history the sway of a terrible, impersonal, unindividual common spirit soon prevails, while in other epochs individualities become predominant. If someone were to depict the strange Russian history in this way as an image of the interaction of higher spiritual entities of the upper hierarchies, enormous lights would fall on what happens in the individual epochs of this history.
So now we have (see drawing page 67) in the west a current from south to north, which mixes with the west-eastern direction, here a current from north to south, which also mixes with the west-eastern current. But these currents spread out again, and in the later period we have a south-north current that is continually, I would like to say, set into oscillation, into zigzag oscillation (see drawing on page 67) by the west-eastern impulses. And we have the north-south current interacting with it, working into it, which in turn is set into zigzag vibrations by the west-east impulses (orange). This drawing together of the two currents, which in themselves are already combined, occurs at a later time in European development, at the time when the Reformation struggles begin.
There we see how a north-south current, but always mixed with a west-east current, strongly carrying the normal archaic forces within it, how this current strives into that which had remained behind from the earlier impulses of the backward spirits of form flooding over from Asia. And because it has something to do with the spirits of form, something emerges in an elementary way, which at the same time goes to normal impulses of human development.
Study all that which on the one hand rolls from the pure thought of the Evangelical-Protestant from north to south, but which then works into the wildest warlike entanglements, and study that which comes up as counter-currents from the south, which in turn leads to the warlike entanglements. Study, for example, the evangelical-Protestant direction with a north-south main direction and the Catholic-Jesuit current with its south-north main direction: there you will be able to study the interplay, the complicated interplay of that which takes place on earth as a picture of the higher spiritual battles of the supersensible.
And thus something emerges that you as anthroposophists should actually appreciate. According to today's accounts - which Schiller only adjusted a little, especially for the beginning of the events - according to today's accounts of the Thirty Years' War, we know how the religious struggle in Prague developed into the event where the agitated people forced their way into the Prague town hall, The two statesmen Martinitz and Slavata and then the secret clerk Fabricius were thrown out of the window and, as you know, nothing happened to them because they fell on a dung heap, that is, on a heap consisting of nothing but scraps of paper thrown down. It was not what we call a dunghill in ordinary life, but it was a heap of scraps of paper, for in those days it was the custom not to use a waste-paper basket, but to throw the scraps of paper out of the window, and afterwards the excited crowd threw those politicians after them. If you start there and then pursue the matter further: It is such a wild ride on the map of Europe; soon one wins, soon the other, soon that elector thinks of something, then this commander takes that direction, and so on. It's like driving around on the map of Europe, regardless of whether you draw this driving around or just describe it. In school, you always get embarrassed when depicting such eminently important phenomena as the Thirty Years' War because, according to the usual historical accounts, you only have to tell the story in such a way that the pupils soon forget it again, because it gets everything mixed up! There is nothing in it to give direction to the individual currents of thought. But if you look at the truth of the matter, then behind the outer image you can see these north-south, south-north currents, which are constantly being crossed by west-east currents.
You see in what comes from Wallenstein, what then comes down from the north, from Gustav Adolf and so on, you see in everything how what is going on externally in history is to a certain extent - again I am not saying guided and directed, but impulsed by the supersensible forces behind it. Nevertheless, people are free beings in this, man is a free being, although natural impulses also guide his actions. Not true, one cannot say that one becomes unfree because one looks out of the window and sees that it is raining, so one takes one's umbrella with one and stretches it outside; one simply submits to the natural forces. In this way the human being, with his soul-spiritual effects, is definitely part of the spiritual impulses, of the spiritual forces; he therefore remains a free being.
But what takes place on the plan of the great world history can only be understood when one understands it out of the supersensible that stands behind it. And this then brings us to the concrete impetus of world-historical events through spiritual powers, whereas if we only speak of an abstract divine, we cannot somehow come to an understanding of it.
A person who only speaks of an abstract divine would actually have to look for this abstract divine in the Turks, and also in those who fight the Turks, since he has to think of the divine as being effective everywhere! In other words, the abstract divine is at war with itself, in a self-conflict, if it is only seen as abstractly divine.
The moment one comes to the concrete spiritual entities, which have their mutual relationships in such a way that, as I have described, certain tasks pass from one group to the other, but that certain groups remain behind, others come to normal levels, others advance in a storm, the moment one realizes that there are actually spiritual entities in the abstract, When one recognizes that there is actually a multiplicity of beings in the spiritual world who fight each other, but who can also help each other, one only gets the possibility of really penetrating what happens behind the scenes of world history in the supersensible of the cosmos with human concepts, without being guilty of illicit contradictions.
Because, you see, that's where concrete concepts come in. We see how in the West unjustified Archangeloi intervene in the justified actions of Archai, how there is a continual impairment, a worsening of the good in the battles taking place. We see how the Archangeloi working well in the East, as helping, protective spirits, balance out what would otherwise be shaped by the remaining spirits of form in a way that does not correspond to the fully human. And we then see how, as these two currents push together, the continual confusion of Reformation and Counter-Reformation arises within Central Europe, to the extent that these forces assumed in the Thirty Years' War, and even in the subsequent battles that took place there.
Two things must stand before our souls: We look at the individual human being; but we do not look at him as today's official science looks at him, which only sees: There is this muscle, that muscle, this bone, that nerve - but we look at the whole human being according to his physical formation as an image of the supersensible, and we know that the physical human being, as he stands on earth, is first of all worked out in his thought plan, between 'death and a new life, by the human being himself, who embodies himself on earth, in connection with the spirits of the higher hierarchies. And so we regard the individual human being as an image of a supersensible human archetype.
But secondly, we also regard that which happens in history as a reflection of an event behind the scenes of history, an event which takes place in the supersensible world, in that world where whole hosts of supersensible beings enter into social relationships with each other just as much - if I am to call them by earthly names - as people on earth. Only that the actions of these supernatural social entities are such that their impulses play into the earth and express themselves in the actions of human beings.
It is especially important for the man of today to see in detail how on the one hand man is an image of the supersensible, on the other hand the historical events are images of the supersensible. And in no other way than in this way can man find his way back to the divine-spiritual world. Mere abstractions of the divine can still have an effect today on those who have not begun to want to recognize and think in the sense of modern spiritual life. But their number will become smaller and smaller, and those who want to recognize and think will be present in ever greater numbers. They, in turn, must be led back to religious life. They can only do so if the concrete real processes of the spiritual world are placed before the eye of the soul and not dismissed with a mere abstract general thought of a divine about which one does not actually want to say anything, but which one only mentions like an all-embracing word without understanding the details.
This again, my dear friends, points from another point of view to one of the tasks which anthroposophical knowledge has and should have in the present day.
