The Easter Festival in the Evolution of the Mysteries
GA 233a
22 April 1924, Dornach
Lecture IV
We have seen how the Mysteries provided human beings with a conscious connection to the world in such a way that this connection could be portrayed in the yearly cycle of festivals. In particular we have seen how Easter developed out of the principle of initiation. It should be obvious from all that has been said that the Mysteries played a highly significant role in humanity's development. Indeed, in ancient times essentially all of humanity's spiritual life and development originated within the Mysteries. To put it in modern terms, the Mysteries wielded great power in the overall guidance of spiritual life.
Human beings, however, were destined to achieve freedom, which meant that the Mysteries' powerful influence had to diminish and for a time leave human beings more or less to their own devices. Although today it can hardly be said that we have already achieved true inner freedom and are ready to proceed with the next evolutionary step, still a significant number of people have gone through incarnations in which the power of the Mysteries has been less palpable than it was in earlier times. The fruit of these incarnations, although not yet ripe, is alive in peoples' souls. And when an age finally dawns that is once again more spiritual, the current ignorance will be overcome. People will then freely greet with esteem and reverence the spiritual knowledge and experience that can be achieved through modern initiation. For without esteem and reverence, neither knowledge nor humanity's spiritual life would be possible.
One of the purposes of the festivals is to try to cultivate this reverence in ourselves by understanding how the spiritual has developed throughout human history. Through the festivals we can learn to look very intimately at how historical events pass spiritual contents on from one age to another. For even though human beings are the most fundamental link in the chain of historical development, in that they reincarnate and thereby carry experiences of earlier epochs into later ones, nevertheless each life is lived in a particular milieu, of which the Mysteries are of course a highly significant part. A most important factor for the progress of humanity is the carrying of the contents of Mystery experiences into later incarnations, where they are encountered again, either in new Mysteries, which in turn have their effect upon humanity as a whole, or in some other form of knowledge.
It is in some other form of knowledge that past Mystery wisdom must be experienced in our time, for the actual Mysteries have all but disappeared from outer life, and must rise again. I might say that if the impulse originating from the Christmas Conference that was held here at the Goetheanum truly takes hold within the Anthroposophical Society, then the Society, inasmuch as it leads to the Classes, which have already begun to be established, will become the basis for a renewal of the Mysteries. [The School for Spiritual Science, which was founded at the Christmas Conference in 1923, was divided into subject sections. In addition, the esoteric training was to progress through three classes, only the first of which had been established before Rudolf Steiner died in 1925. ] The Anthroposophical Society must consciously cultivate this renewal. The Society was, after all, witness to an event that, like the burning of the Temple at Ephesus, can be turned to good historical account. In both cases a grievous wrong was perpetrated. However, what is a terrible wrong on one level can turn out to be useful for human freedom on another level. Such harrowing events can indeed call forth a true step forward in human evolution.
To understand such matters we must examine them, as I mentioned before, on as intimate a level as possible. We must look at the particular way in which the world's spirituality lived within the Mysteries.
As I indicated yesterday, the fixing of Easter's date grew out of a spiritual appreciation of the constellation of the sun and the moon. I also indicated that moon-beings observe the planets, and that these observations guide human beings in their descent from pre-earthly into earthly life, guide them in the formation of their etheric bodies. Now in order to understand how the lunar forces or, one might say, the spiritual observatory on the moon makes etheric forces available to human beings, we can look to the cosmos; for, as we have had occasion to see, it is inscribed there, it exists there as a fact. However, it is also important to appreciate the interest human beings have taken in these matters throughout history. And that interest was nowhere more sincere than in the Mysteries at Ephesus.
Every aspect of the service to the goddess of Ephesus, known exoterically as Artemis, was designed to give an experience of the creative spiritual forces pervading the cosmic ether. When the participants in the Mysteries approached the statue of the goddess, they had the sensation of hearing her speak, in words such as this: “I delight in all that bears fruit within the vast cosmic ether.”
To hear the goddess thus express her heartfelt delight in everything that grows, buds, and sprouts within the cosmic ether was a truly profound experience. Indeed, the spiritual atmosphere of Ephesus was aglow with heartfelt sympathy for all budding and sprouting things. The Mysteries there were instituted in such a way that nowhere else could one find such sympathy with vegetative growth, with the budding and sprouting of the earth into the plant world.
One consequence of this was that the lessons, if I may call them that, that dealt with the mystery of the moon, of which I spoke yesterday, could be given at Ephesus with particular force and clarity. As a result of such instruction, each student was able to experience himself as a figure of light formed by the moon. One exercise in particular directly placed a person capable of performing it into a process of building himself up out of sunlight transformed by the moon. In the midst of this the sounds I, O, A * rang forth, as if emanating from the sun.
[*Translator's note: Pronounced as in English “eagle,” “boat,” “father.”]
These sounds, the Mystery student knew, enlivened his ego and astral body. I, O: ego, astral body, and with A, the approach of the luminous etheric body: I, O, A. As these sounds vibrated within him, he experienced himself as ego, as astral body, and as etheric body. Then, as if resounding from the earth, for the student was now outside the earth, came the sounds eh-v, which mingled with the I, O, A.
In this word, IehOvA, the Mystery student experienced himself as a complete human being. Through the consonants, he felt a premonition of his earthly physical body. These consonants are bound up with the vowels, I O A, which express the ego, astral body, and etheric body.
It was through such immersion in the word IehOvA that the Ephesian apprentice was able to experience the final stages of his descent out of the spiritual world. As he did so, however, he felt himself living within the light. Now truly human, he was a sounding ego and sounding astral body within a light-filled etheric body. Sound within light—such is the cosmic human being.
In this way it was possible to take in what is visible in the cosmos, just as what happens in the earth's physical surroundings can be taken in through the eyes.
While carrying I O A within himself, the Ephesian student felt himself transported to the sphere of the moon, where he shared in the observations that could be made from there. In this condition he was still a human being in general, undifferentiated; only upon descending to earth did he become man or woman.
It was a pre-earthly state into which the student was transported, a state preparatory to the descent to Earth. In the Ephesian Mysteries this self-elevation into the sphere of the moon was an especially vivid experience, which the initiates inwardly cherished, and whose content might be expressed in the following words:
Cosmic-born
being, thou clothed in light,
Strengthened by sun in the realm of moon's might,
Blessed art thou by Mars' creative ringing
And Mercury's swiftness, mobility bringing,
Illumined by wisdom from Jupiter raying
And by Venus's beauty, love portraying—
So that Saturn's venerable spirit-ways
Might consecrate thee to the world of space and time.
Every Ephesian bore this reality within himself, counting it among the most important things that permeated his being. Indeed, he felt himself to be truly human when these verses sounded in his ears, to use a somewhat trivial expression. For he associated them with a newly-awakened consciousness of his connection with all the planets through his etheric body's forces. The verses, pregnant with meaning, were addressed by the cosmos to the etheric body:
Cosmic-born
being, thou clothed in light,
Strengthened by sun in the realm of moon's might,
The human being is experiencing himself here within the power of the shining moon.
Blessed art thou by Mars' creative ringing.
Creative tones resonate forth from Mars. Then comes the force that animates our limbs, makes us into beings of movement:
And by Mercury's swiftness, mobility bringing.
Jupiter sends forth its rays:
Illumined by wisdom from Jupiter raying.
As does Venus:
And by Venus's beauty, love portraying.
So that Saturn may gather all together and complete our inner and outer development, preparing us to descend to Earth and to clothe ourselves in a physical body, so that we might live on Earth as physical beings who carry the god within us:
So
that Saturn's venerable spirit-ways
Might consecrate thee to the world of space and time.
From these descriptions you may gather that a brilliant inner light permeated the spiritual life of Ephesus. In fact, all that had ever been known about humanity's true stature within the cosmos was gathered and preserved there in the concept of Easter.
Yesterday I mentioned that certain people wandered from place to place in order to experience the totality of Mystery wisdom. Of these, many expressed wonder at the richness of the spiritual life at Ephesus. They assure us repeatedly that nowhere but there could they perceive so clearly and richly the harmony of the spheres as heard from the standpoint of the moon. The most brilliant astral light of the cosmos appeared to them there: they sensed it in the sunlight glimmering around the moon, pervading that light with spirit in the same way that the human soul pervades the physical body. Nowhere else than in Ephesus could they experience this, at least not with the same sense of joy or artistic vision.
Such was the Mystery center that went up in flames through the deed of a criminal or a madman. Ephesian initiates later reincarnated in Aristotle and Alexander, as I mentioned at the Christmas Conference. [Alexander the Great, 356–323 B.C., king of Macedonia 336–323, conqueror of Greek city-states and of the Persian empire. Pupil of Aristotle.
Aristotle, 384–322 B.C. Greek philosopher, pupil of Plato. Tutor of Alexander the Great.] These individualities then came into contact with what remained of the Mysteries of Samothrace.
As an example of how a seemingly meaningless outer coincidence can actually be of great significance in the world's spiritual evolution, I may mention, as I have before, indeed for many years now, that the temple at Ephesus was burning at the very moment as Alexander the Great was born. As it burned, however, something else happened as well.
Consider for a moment how much the devotees of the temple had experienced throughout the centuries, how much spiritual light and wisdom had passed through its halls. All that was passed on to the cosmic ether by the flames. One might indeed say that the temple's continuous, concealed celebration of Easter was henceforth inscribed, although in somewhat less legible characters, into the vault of the heavens, to the extent that that vault is etheric. This is also true of much other human wisdom as well. Surrounded in ancient times by temple walls, it later escaped and was written into the cosmic ether, where those who have risen to true Imagination may perceive it directly. Because of this, Imagination may be said to be an interpreter of the secrets of the stars. It is the key to former temple secrets now inscribed into the cosmic ether.
The same thought may be expressed in another way. Imagine that you are looking at a crystal clear night sky, allowing your perceptions to sink deep into your soul. Provided you are properly prepared, the forms of the constellations, the movements of the planets will all begin to transform themselves into something like a cosmic script. And by reading this script you will grasp the outlines of the mystery of the moon, which I set forth yesterday. Such things can be read in the cosmic script, provided the stars are no longer seen merely as objects of mathematical and mechanical calculation, but as letters of a cosmic alphabet.
To continue with the Ephesian Mysteries: as I mentioned, Aristotle and Alexander came into contact with the Cabeirian Mysteries in Samothrace at a time when all the ancient Mysteries were in decline. At Samothrace, however, these Mysteries were remembered and preserved, even practiced. Under their influence, Alexander and Aristotle experienced something akin to a memory of Ephesus, in whose spiritual life both had of course participated in an earlier incarnation. Once more the I O A sounded forth for them, as well as the verses:
Cosmic-born being, thou clothed in light,
Strengthened by sun in the realm of moon's might,
Blessed art thou by Mars' creative ringing
And Mercury's swiftness, mobility bringing,
Illumined by wisdom from Jupiter raying
And by Venus's beauty, love portraying—
So that Saturn's venerable spirit-ways
Might consecrate thee to the world of space and time.
But this was more than just a memory of times past. Rather, it gave them the strength to create something new, something unusual and hence little regarded by humankind. Before I reveal it, you must understand just what kind of creation it was.
Take any significant work of literature, for example, the Bhagavad Gita, or Goethe's Faust, or Iphigenia, in short, any work that you admire, and think about its richness and powerful content. Now, how is that content transmitted to you? Let us assume that it was transmitted in the usual way, that is, that at some point in your life, you read it. Physically speaking, what precisely did you have before you? Nothing but combinations of letters of the alphabet on paper. The entire magnificent content comes to you through mere combinations of the twenty odd letters of the alphabet. But provided you can read, something comes to life through these twenty odd letters that enables you to experience the entire rich content of Goethe's Faust.
On the other hand, you may decide that the alphabet is a frightfully boring thing, that such a concatenation of letters is the most abstract thing imaginable. And yet these little abstract letters, properly combined, can give you all of Goethe's Faust!
When Aristotle and Alexander heard the celestial harmonies once again at Samothrace, they realized what the burning of the temple at Ephesus had meant. They perceived that the Ephesian Mysteries had been carried out by the flames into the vast cosmic ether. At that moment they became inspired to found the cosmic script, which is composed not of letters of the alphabet, but of thoughts.
Thus the letters of the cosmic script were discovered, which in their own way are as abstract as the alphabet:
Quantity
(amount)
Quality (trait)
Relation
Space
Time
Position
Action
Passion
What we have here is a collection of concepts, first introduced by Aristotle to his pupil Alexander. One can learn to use them in much the same way that one learns to use the letters of the alphabet and read the cosmic script with them.
In later times, particularly in the abstract phase of scholastic logic, a very unusual thing occurred. Imagine a school in which the students are taught not to read, but rather only to learn the various letters of the alphabet in every imaginable combination—ac, ab, ae, and so on. In essence, this is what happened to Aristotelian logic. Works on logic would enumerate the above concepts, called categories. Students would learn them by heart, but not know what else to do with them next. It was as if they learned the alphabet but never learned to spell.
In a way, the concepts of quantity, quality, relation, and so on, are as simple as the letters of the alphabet, but knowledge of them is required in order to read in the cosmic script, just as to read Faust one must know the alphabet. And in essence, all past and future achievements of anthroposophy are experienced in terms of these concepts. For all the secrets of the physical and spiritual worlds are contained in them. These simple concepts, in other words, constitute the alphabet of the cosmos.
Starting in the time of Alexander, the earlier, direct perceptions characteristic of practices at Ephesus were replaced by something deeply hidden, something esoteric, that really began to develop only during the Middle Ages and that is embodied in the above-mentioned eight concepts (they may actually be expanded to ten). We are learning to live more and more with these, but we must strive to keep them as alive in our souls as the letters of the alphabet are when we read any rich and spiritual work of literature.
And so you see how ten concepts, whose illuminating and effective power has yet to be rediscovered, came to embody an enormous wisdom known instinctively for thousands of years. And although this light-filled wisdom lies, as it were, in the grave, someday it will rise again. People will then be able to read once again in the cosmic script, and to experience the resurrection of what has been hidden in the time between the two spiritual epochs.
It is of course our mission, my dear friends, to bring to light what has been hidden. We are here, after all, to find the human meaning of Easter. On another occasion I said that anthroposophy is a Christmas experience, but in all its endeavors it is also an Easter experience, a resurrection experience, bound up with the experience of the grave. It is essential, particularly at an Easter gathering such as this, to experience something of the solemnity, if I may put it that way, of our anthroposophical striving. We should sense the presence of a spiritual being just beyond the threshold to whom we can go and say: “How blessed mankind once was by divine-spiritual revelation! How glorious that revelation was in the temple at Ephesus! Now all that is buried; where must I dig for it?” To which the being beyond the threshold will reply, just as another did on a similar occasion, “What you seek is no longer here; it is in your hearts, if only you know how to open them.”
Anthroposophy is indeed in people's hearts, and these hearts need only be opened in the right way. That should be our conviction, and if it is, we shall be led back, not instinctively as in ancient times but in full awareness, to the wisdom that lived and shone in the Mysteries.
I offer you these Easter words in the hope that they might reach your hearts, for by devotedly cultivating the solemn mood that anthroposophy can enkindle within our souls, we reach up into the spiritual world. At the same time, this solemn mood is connected with the Christmas impulse given at Dornach, which must not be allowed to remain abstract or intellectual, but must issue from the heart. Avoiding both joylessness and sentimentality, it must be a natural expression of the solemn facts.
Just as the fire of Ephesus flared anew within the hearts of Aristotle and Alexander, after scorching the cosmic ether and revealing to them the secrets that they compressed into the simplest of forms, just as they used the burning of Ephesus, so too must we—and this may be said in all modesty—be able to make use of what the flames of the Goetheanum carried out into the ether as the substance of our anthroposophical aims, both past and to come.
It was in keeping with this, my dear friends, that at Christmas time, at the beginning of the new year, the very time of year in which our misfortune occurred, we were permitted to let issue forth a new impulse from the Goetheanum. Why? Because we could feel that a previously earthly concern had been carried out by the flames into the vastness of the cosmos, and that because of this misfortune, what we represent is no longer a merely earthly concern, but rather of significance for the whole cosmic-etheric world. This world, filled with spiritual wisdom, has adopted the Goetheanum's cause, which was carried out by the flames. The Goetheanum impulses with which we imbue ourselves now stream in from the cosmos.
Take this any way you like; take it as a picture. But as a picture it points to a profound reality. To put it simply, since the impulse at Christmas all anthroposophical endeavor must be infused with esotericism. This is because impulses are now working their way in from the cosmos as a result of the astral light that streamed up from the burning Goetheanum. These impulses can strengthen the anthroposophical movement, provided we are in a position to receive them. If we are, then everything anthroposophical, including the Easter mood, will be sensed as an essential part of the whole that is anthroposophy.
The anthroposophical Easter mood convinces us that the spirit never dies, that though it may die to the world, it always rises again. Anthroposophy must base itself upon this spirit that rises ever anew from its eternal foundations.
Such is the feeling and concept of Easter that we may take into our hearts. And from this gathering, my dear friends, we shall carry away courage and strength for our work in other places.
Vierter Vortrag
Wir haben gesehen, wie aus den Mysterien herausgewachsen ist dasjenige, was im Bewußtsein die Menschen mit der Welt so verbindet, daß diese Verbindung zur Darstellung kommen kann in dem festlichen Jahreslaufe, und wir haben ja insbesondere gesehen, wie das Osterfest herausgewachsen ist aus dem Initiationsprinzip. Aus der ganzen Darstellung wird Ihnen hervorgegangen sein, welche bedeutsame Rolle das Mysterienwesen in der ganzen Entwickelung der Menschheit gespielt hat.
Es ist ja mit diesem Mysterienwesen so, daß im Grunde genommen alles, was geistig durch die Welt ging, durch die Menschheit sich entwickelte, daß das in alten Zeiten alles hervorgegangen ist aus den Mysterien. Wenn man ein heutiges Wort anwenden möchte, so müßte man sagen: Die Mysterien waren sehr mächtig in bezug auf die ganze Lenkung des geistigen Lebens.
Nun war die Menschheit von vornherein dazu bestimmt, die Freiheit zu entwickeln. Zur Entwickelung der Freiheit war es notwendig, daß das alte Mysterienwesen zurückgegangen ist und eine Zeitlang die Menschen weniger im Zusammenhang standen mit einer solchen mächtigen Lenkung, wie sie von den Mysterien ausging, und gewissermaßen mehr sich selbst überlassen waren. Man kann ganz gewiß nicht sagen, daß heute der Zeitpunkt bereits herangerückt sei, in dem die Menschen sich ihre wahre innere Freiheit schon erobert haben und nun reif wären, zum Nächsten überzugehen, was auf das Zeitalter der Freiheit folgen soll. Gewiß, das kann man nicht sagen. Aber immerhin, es sind genügend viele Menschen durchgegangen durch Inkarnationen, in denen weniger die Macht der Mysterien gespürt worden ist als in früheren Zeiten. Und wenn auch die Saat des Durchgehens durch diese Inkarnationen heute noch nicht aufgegangen ist, sie ist in den Menschen. Sie steckt in den Menschenseelen drinnen.
Wenn nun ein Zeitalter heranrückt, welches wieder geistiger ist, so werden schon die Menschen das entwickeln, was sie heute in der Dumpfheit noch nicht entwickelt haben. Aber es wird vor allen Dingen notwendig sein, daß dem Erkennen, dem Schauen, dem Erleben des Geistigen, die aus der heutigen Initiation geholt werden können, entgegengebracht werde auch aus der Freiheit heraus Schätzung, Ehrfurcht. Denn ohne Schätzung, ohne Ehrfurcht ist eine wirkliche Erkenntnis, ist ein geistiges Leben der Menschheit eigentlich nicht möglich. Es ist doch so, daß wir die Festeszeiten richtig anwenden, wenn wir gerade sie dazu gebrauchen, diese Schätzung, diese Ehrfurcht vor dem Geistigen, wie es sich entwickelt hat im Laufe der Menschheitsgeschichte, ein wenig versuchen, in unsere Seele einzupflanzen, wenn wir möglichst intim hinzuschauen lernen auf die Art und Weise, wie die äußeren geschichtlichen Ereignisse Geistiges bedeuten, Geistiges von einem Zeitalter in das andere tragen. Zunächst ist es ja so, daß die Menschen in wiederholten Erdenleben immer wiederum ins Erdendasein kommen. Dadurch tragen sie dasjenige, was sie in früheren Epochen erlebt haben, in spätere Epochen herüber. Die Menschen sind das wichtigste Glied in bezug auf das Weiterentwickeln dessen, was innerhalb der Menschheitsgeschichte geschieht. Aber die Menschen leben doch zu allen Zeiten in einer bestimmten Umgebung. Und eine wichtigste Umgebung ist schon die Mysterienumgebung. Ein Wichtigstes im Menschheitsfortschritt ist das Herübertragen dessen, was Menschen in Mysterien erlebt haben und wiedererleben, sei es wiederum in Mysterien, wo es hinauswirkt in die Menschheit, sei es sonst irgendwie im Erkennen. Heute muß es ja sonst irgendwie im Erkennen sein, denn das eigentliche Mysterienwesen ist mehr oder weniger für die heutige Außenwelt zurückgegangen, muß erst wiederum auftreten.
Wir müssen ja sagen: Es ist schon so, daß, wenn jener Impuls, der durch die Weihnachtstagung von hier, vom Goetheanum, ausgegangen ist, wirklich sich einlebt in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, dann wird die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft, indem sie weiter hinführt zu den Klassen, die einzurichten sind - zum Teil hat diese Einrichtung ja schon begonnen -, die Grundlage sein für das weitere Mysterienwesen. Es muß das weitere Mysterienwesen bewußt gepflanzt werden durch diese Anthroposophische Gesellschaft. Diese Anthroposophische Gesellschaft hat ja vor sich ein Ereignis, das ebenso in der Entwickelung verwertet werden kann, wie einstmals verwertet worden ist ein ähnliches Ereignis: der Brand des Tempels von Ephesus. Da und dort lag ein bedeutsames Unrecht zugrunde. Allein die Dinge nehmen sich ja auf den verschiedenen Niveaus eben verschieden aus, und es kann dasjenige, was auf einem Niveau ein furchtbares Unrecht ist, in der Freiheit der Menschen dann verwendet werden in dem Sinne, daß gerade durch solche schauderhaften Ereignisse ein wirklicher Menschheitsfortschritt hervorgerufen werde.
Nun muß man aber, wenn man auf solche Dinge verständnisvoll eingehen will, möglichst intim, wie ich schon sagte, die Dinge fassen. Man muß hineinschauen in die besondere Art, wie in den Mysterien das Geistige der Welt gelebt hat. Ich habe gestern darauf hingedeutet, wie aus Sonnen- und Mondenkonstellation, wenn man sie geistig nimmt, herauswächst die Festsetzung des jährlichen Osterfestes, und ich habe darauf hingedeutet, daß vom Mondengesichtspunkte aus die anderen Planeten geschaut werden. Und nach dem, was man erfährt im Schauen der anderen Planeten, wird der Mensch angeleitet beim Heruntersteigen aus dem vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische Dasein, wie er sich seinen Lichtätherleib bildet.
Nun, wenn man die Anschauung gewinnen will, wie dieser Lichtätherleib durch die Mondenkräfte, durch die Mondenbeobachtungen, ich möchte sagen durch das geistige Mondenobservatorium, wie diese Ätherkräfte dem Menschen überliefert werden, wenn man das recht verstehen will, so kann man es so beobachten, wie wir es nun versucht haben, aus dem Kosmos heraus, wo es eingeschrieben ist, wo esals ein Faktum existiert. Aber es ist auch wichtig, den menschlichen Anteil, der in den verschiedenen Zeiten an einer solchen Wahrheit da ist, auf das Gemüt wirken zu lassen.
Und in der Tat, niemals war der Anteil, den menschliche Gemüter genommen haben an diesem Heruntersteigen vom vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische in bezug auf die letzte Etappe, die Umkleidung des Menschen mit dem Ätherleib, niemals war ein so intimer, inniger Anteil an dieser Tatsache genommen worden als gerade in den Mysterien von Ephesus. In den Mysterien von Ephesus war es so, daß der ganze Dienst, welcher der exoterisch Artemis genannten Göttin von Ephesus dargebracht wurde, eigentlich darauf gerichtet war, das geistige Weben und Leben innerhalb des Äthers der Welt, innerhalb des Äthers des Kosmos, mitzuerleben. Man kann schon sagen, wenn die Angehörigen des Mysteriums von Ephesus sich dem Götterbilde nahten, dann war es eine Empfindung, die sich aber steigerte bis zum Anhören und die etwa so auszudrücken ist, wie wenn es die Sprache der Göttin wäre: Ich freue mich über alles Fruchttragende im weiten Weltenäther.
Es war ein tiefer Eindruck, der ausgeübt wurde durch dieses Aussprechen inniger Freude der Tempelgött in über alles Wachsende, Sprießende, Sprossende im weiten Weltenäther. Und innig verwandtes Fühlen mit dem Sprießen und Sprossen war ja insbesondere etwas, was wie ein Zauberhauch die Atmosphäre, die geistige Atmosphäre von dem ephesischen Heiligtum durchströmte. Es war dieses Mysterium schon so angeordnet, so eingerichtet, daß man sagen kann, nirgends ist eigentlich so mitgelebt worden mit dem Wachsen des Pflanzenwesens, mit dem Sprießen und Sprossen der Erde in das Pflanzenwesen hinein, als in Ephesus.
Das führte denn auch dazu, daß gerade in diesem ephesischen Mysterium mit besonderer Deutlichkeit der Unterricht gegeben werden konnte, wenn ich es so nennen darf, der darauf hinausging, besonders dieses Mondengeheimnis, von dem ich gestern sprach, an das Gemüt der zu Ephesus Gehörigen heranzubringen.
Es war etwas, was jeder wie sein eigenes Erlebnis hatte, sich zu fühlen als Lichtgestalt, weil das so lebendig gemacht wurde vor den ephesischen Schülern und Initiierten: dieses Durch-den-Mond-seineLichtgestalt-Bekommen. Und es war eine Einrichtung in Ephesus, die etwa so war: Derjenige, der diese Einrichtung in der Weihestätte auf sich wirken lassen konnte, der wurde wirklich ganz hineinversetzt in dieses Sichherausbilden aus dem den Mond umwandelnden Sonnenlichte. Dann tönte es an ihn heran, wie wenn es von der Sonne herübertönte: \(J O A\).
Dieses \(J O A\), von dem wußte er, daß es regsam macht sein Ich, seinen astralischen Leib. \(J O\) - Ich, astralischer Leib, und das Herankommen des Lichtätherleibes in dem \(A\) - \(J O A\). Jetzt fühlte er sich, indem vibrierte in ihm das \(J O A\), jetzt fühlte er sich als Ich, als astralischen Leib, als ätherischen Leib.
Und dann war es, wie wenn von der Erde heraufklänge, denn der Mensch war versetzt in das Kosmische, wie wenn von der Erde heraufklänge dasjenige, was das \(J O A\) durchsetzte, \(eh-v\). Das waren die Kräfte der Erde, die heraufkamen in dem \(eh-v\).
Und nun fühlte er, in dem khOvA fühlte er den ganzen Menschen. Das Vorgefühl des physischen Leibes, den er erst auf der Erde hatte, fühlte er angedeutet in den Konsonanten, die hinzugehörten zu dem Vokalischen, was in dem \(J O A\) andeutet Ich, astralischen Leib, ätherischen Leib. Dieses Sicheinleben in dem \(Jeh Ov A\), das war es, was den ephesischen Schüler erfühlen ließ die letzten Schritte für das Heruntersteigen aus der geistigen Welt.
Aber es war zu gleicher Zeit dieses Erfühlen des \(J O A\) so, daß man sich fühlte im Lichte drinnen als dieser Klang \(J O A\). Dann war man Mensch: klingendes Ich, klingender astralischer Leib, in lichtglänzendem Ätherleib. Dann war man Klang im Licht. So ist man als kosmischer Mensch.
Und so ist man fähig, aufzunehmen dasjenige, was man im Kosmos draußen sieht, wie man durch sein Auge hier auf der Erde fähig ist, aufzunehmen, was im physischen Umkreise der Erde geschieht.
Dann fühlte sich der ephesische Schüler wirklich, wenn er in sich trug dieses \(J O A\), wie versetzt in die Mondensphäre. Er nahm teil an demjenigen, was beobachtet werden konnte vom Gesichtspunkte des Mondes aus.
Da war der Mensch noch Mensch im allgemeinen. Er wurde erst Mann und Weib beim Heruntersteigen auf die Erde. Da aber fühlte der Mensch sich hinaufversetzt in diese Region des vorirdischen Daseins, aber eben des Herankommens an das Irdische. Den ephesischen Schülern wurde dieses Sichhinaufversetzen in die Mondensphäre eben ganz besonders intim möglich. Dann trugen sie in ihrem Herzen, in ihrer Seele dasjenige, was sie miterlebt haben und was etwa in der folgenden Weise dem ephesischen Schüler erklang:
Weltentsprossenes Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt,
Von der Sonne erkraftet in der Mondgewalt,Dich beschenket des Mars erschaffendes Klingen
Und Merkurs gliedbewegende Schwingen,Dich erleuchtet Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit
Und der Venus liebetragende Schönheit —Daß Saturns weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe!
Das war dasjenige, von dem jeder Epheser durchdrungen war. Das rechnete er zum Wichtigsten, was seinen Menschen durchpulste (der Text wurde an die Tafel geschrieben):
Weltentsprossenes Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt
Von der Sonne erkraftet in der Monagewalt,Dich beschenket des Mars erschaffendes Klingen
Und Merkurs gliedbewegende Schwingen,Dich erleuchtet Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit
Und der Venus hiebetragende SchönheitDaß Saturns weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe!
Man kann schon sagen: Es war für den zu den ephesischen Mysterien Gehörigen etwas wie sich so recht als Mensch fühlen, wenn ihm - ich will mich etwas trivial ausdrücken -, wenn ihm in den Ohren klang das, was in diesen Sprüchen liegt. Denn er fühlte ja: damit ist ihm das Bewußtsein von dem aufgegangen, wie er mit dem Planetensystem zusammenhängt in den Kräften seines Ätherleibes. Und prägnant kam das zum Ausdruck. Das ist zum Ätherleib vom Weltenall gesprochen:
Weltentsprossenes Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt,
Von der Sonne erkraftet in der Mondgewalt.
Nun ist der Mensch sich fühlend in der Gewalt des Mondenlichtes:
Dich beschenket des Mars erschaffendes Klingen.
Das Klingen, das etwas Erschaffendes, etwas Schöpferisches hatte, klang herüber vom Mars. Und dasjenige, was dem Menschen die Glieder erkraftet, daß er ein bewegliches Wesen wurde:
Und Merkurs gliedbewegende Schwingen.
Vom Jupiter leuchtet es herüber:
Dich erleuchtet Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit.
Von der Venus leuchtet es herüber:
Und der Venus liebetragende Schönheit.
Damit dann Saturn alles zusammenfassen kann, was den Menschen abrundet innerlich und äußerlich und ihn bereitet, daß er heruntersteigen kann auf die Erde, sich mit einem physischen Leibe umkleidet und als dieses physisch umkleidete Wesen, das den Gott in sich trägt, auf der Erde weiterleben kann:
Daß Saturns weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe!
Nun, aus dem, was ich da beschreibe, können Sie ja entnehmen, daß das Leben, das geistige Leben in Ephesus ein innerlich helles war, ein farbiges war. In diesem innerlich hellen, farbigen Leben war ja tatsächlich dasjenige enthalten, was im Ostergedanken zusammenfaßte alles, was man je gewußt hat über des Menschen wahre Würde im ganzen Kosmos, im ganzen Weltenall. Und mannigfache von denjenigen Wanderern - ich habe sie gestern erwähnt -, die von Mysterium zu Mysterium gingen, um das Ganze des Mysterienwesens auf sich wirken zu lassen, mannigfache von diesen Wanderern haben doch immer wieder versichert: So hell, so innig, wie ihnen in Ephesus erklungen ist die Sphärenharmonie aus diesem Wahrnehmen vom Mondesgesichtspunkte aus, wo ihnen erschienen ist das leuchtendste Astrallicht der Welt, indem sie es verspürt haben in dem den Mond umglimmenden Sonnenlichte, das durchgeistigt ist, so wie der Mensch beseelt ist, durchgeistigt ist vom Astrallichte, so haben sie an anderen Orten das nicht, wenigstens nicht mit jener Freudigkeit, mit jener inneren Künstlerauffassung wahrnehmen können.
Das alles war ja gebunden an diejenige Tempelstätte, die dann durch Verbrecherhand oder Wahnsinnigenhand in Flammen aufging. Aber Eingeweihte der ephesischen Mysterien waren ja, wie ich während der Weihnachtstagung erwähnte, wiederverkörpert in Aristoteles und Alexander. Und diese Individualitäten sind dann nahegekommen dem, was in jener Zeit noch zu verspüren war an den Mysterien von Samothrake.
Nun ist ja ein scheinbar äußerlich zufälliges Ereignis von einer großen geistigen Bedeutung in der Weltentwickelung. Es ist schon erwähnt worden unter uns, sogar seit vielen Jahren erwähnt worden: Als der Tempel von Ephesus brannte, war das die Geburtsstunde Alexanders des Großen. Aber indem dieser Tempel brannte, spielte sich ja etwas ab.
Oh, wie ungeheuer viel war für diejenigen, die zu diesem Tempel gehörten, im Laufe von Jahrhunderten geschehen! Wie viel Geistiges an Licht und Weisheit ist durch diese Tempelräume gegangen. Und alles, was da durch diese Tempelräume ging, ist ja mitgeteilt worden, während die Flammen herausschlugen aus dem Tempel zu Ephesus, ist ja mitgeteilt worden dem Weltenäther. So daß man sagen kann: Das kontinuierliche Osterfest zu Ephesus, das in den Tempelräumen eingeschlossen war, ist seither eingeschrieben, wenn auch mit weniger deutlich wahrnehmbaren Lettern, in den ganzen Weltendom, insofern der Weltendom ätherisch ist.
Und so ist es überhaupt mit vielem. Vieles von dem, was menschliche Weisheit ist, war in alten Zeiten umschlossen von Tempelwänden. Es ist den Tempelwänden entflohen, ist in den Weltenäther eingeschrieben und wird da sofort sichtbar, wenn der Mensch zur wirklichen Imagination aufsteigt. Diese Imagination ist gewissermaßen die Interpretin der Sternengeheimnisse. Man kann so sagen: In den Weltenäther ist eingeschrieben dasjenige, was einstmals Tempelgeheimnis war, und man kann es mit der Imagination daraus lesen.
Man kann aber auch anders sagen, und es ist dasselbe, wenn man anders sagt. Man kann auch sagen: Ich stelle mich in sternheller Nacht auf, beschaue mir den Sternenhimmel, lasse seinen Eindruck auf mich wirken. Und es verwandelt sich, wenn der Mensch dazu die Fähigkeit hat, das, was in den Formen der Sternbilder ist, was in den Bewegungen der Wandelsterne ist, es verwandelt sich wie in eine große Weltenschrift. Und liest man diese Weltenschrift, so kommt etwas heraus von der Art, wie ich es gestern auseinandergesetzt habe für das Mondengeheimnis. Diese Dinge sind durchaus zu lesen in der Weltenschrift, wenn einem die Sterne nicht mehr bloß sind das mathematisch und mechanisch Errechenbare, sondern wenn sie einem sind die Lettern der kosmischen Schrift.
Nun aber möchte ich noch das Folgende für die Weiterentwickelung der Sache sagen. Gerade beim Herantreten an die kabirischen Geheimnisse in Samothrake in der Zeit, als nun schon die alten Mysterien zurückgingen — Samothrake war ja noch als Erinnerungsstätte und auch noch als Pflegestätte, als Arbeitsstätte da, aber im allgemeinen ging das Mysterienwesen schon zurück in der Alexanderzeit -, da war eben ein Moment, wo für Alexander und Aristoteles durch den Einfluß der Kabirenmysterien etwas entstand wie eine Erinnerung an die alte ephesische Zeit, die ja von beiden mitgemacht war in einem bestimmten Jahrhundert. Wieder erklang da das \(J O A\)-Wort, und wieder erklang das:
Weltentsprossenes Wesen, du in Lichtgestalt,
Von der Sonne erkraftet in der Mondgewalt,Dich beschenket des Mars erschaffendes Klingen
Und Merkurs gliedbewegende Schwingen,Dich erleuchtet Jupiters erstrahlende Weisheit
Und der Venus liebetragende SchönheitDaß Saturns weltenalte Geist-Innigkeit
Dich dem Raumessein und Zeitenwerden weihe!
Aber in dieser Erinnerung, in dieser historischen Erinnerung an Altes lag eine gewisse Kraft, Kraft, ein Neues zu schaffen. Und von jenem Moment ging die Kraft aus, ein Neues zu schaffen, aber ein merkwürdiges Neues, das die Menschheit wenig beachtet hat. Denn Sie müssen eigentlich erst verstehen, wie dieses Neue-Schaffen, das aus dem Zusammenwirken von Alexander und Aristoteles ausging, nun seiner Art nach beschaffen war.
Nehmen Sie irgendein bedeutendes Dichtwerk oder anderes Werk - und Sie können die schönsten Werke nehmen -, nehmen Sie meinetwillen eine deutsch übersetzte Bhagavad Gita, nehmen Sie Goethes «Faust», nehmen Sie die Iphigenie oder irgend etwas, was Sie hochschätzen, und denken Sie an den reichen, gewaltigen Inhalt, sagen wir, an den reichen, gewaltigen Inhalt von Goethes «Faust». Und jetzt, wodurch wird denn Ihnen, meine lieben Freunde, dieser reiche Inhalt vermittelt? Nehmen wir an, er würde Ihnen so vermittelt, wie er für die meisten Menschen ja vermittelt wird. Sie lesen den «Faust» irgendeinmal in Ihrem Leben. Was tritt Ihnen denn da auf dem physischen Plane entgegen? Was ist denn auf dem Papiere? Nichts anderes ist auf dem Papiere als Kombinationen von \(a b c d e\) fund so weiter. Alles, wodurch einem der große, gewaltige Inhalt des «Faust» aufgeht, sind ja nur Kombinationen von \(a b c d e f\) und so weiter. Wenn Sie das Alphabet kennen, so gibt es nichts auf dem Papier, was dasteht, was nicht zusammenfällt mit einem der etlichen zwanzig Buchstaben. Aus diesen etlichen zwanzig Buchstaben ist etwas hervorgezaubert auf dem Papier, was Ihnen hervorruft, wenn Sie eben lesen können, den ganzen reichen Inhalt des «Faust». Und es steht Ihnen sogar etwas frei. Es steht Ihnen frei, das Hersagen von \(a b c d e\) fund so weiter furchtbar langweilig zu finden, zu sagen, das ist ja eigentlich das Aller-Allerabstrakteste. Und dennoch, dieses Aller-Allerabstrakteste, in richtiger Weise kombiniert, gibt den ganzen «Faust»!
Und nun entstand, als jenes Monden-Weltenerklingen wieder da war, in dem erkannt wurde von Aristoteles und Alexander, was das Feuer von Ephesus bedeutete, wie dieses Feuer hinausgetragen hat in Welten-Ätherfernen dasjenige, was das Geheimnis von Ephesus war, da war es, daß in diesen beiden entstand die Inspiration, die Weltenschrift zu begründen. Nur, die Weltenschrift wird nicht begründet mit \(a b c d e f\), sondern die Weltenschrift wird begründet, wie die Buchschrift mit Buchstaben, so diese mit Gedanken. Und es entstanden die Lettern der Weltenschrift.
Wenn ich es Ihnen aufschreibe, sind sie ebenso abstrakt wie \(a b c e d\):
Quantität, also Menge
Qualität, Eigenschaft
Relation
Raum
Zeit
Lage
Tun
Leiden
Da haben Sie eine Anzahl von Begriffen. Lernen Sie mit diesen Begriffen, die zuerst Aristoteles dem Alexander vorgeführt hat, lernen Sie mit diesen Begriffen dasselbe vollführen, was Sie gelernt haben mit \(a b c d\), dann lernen Sie aus Qualität, Quantität, Relation, Raum, Zeit, Lage, Tun, Leiden -, aus dem lernen Sie lesen im Kosmos.
In der Schullogik ist in der Zeit der Abstraktivität etwas Besonderes geschehen. Denken Sie nur einmal, wenn in irgendeiner Schule die Gepflogenheit wäre, die Leute nicht lesen zu lehren, sondern meinetwillen nur Bücher zu fabrizieren, in denen sie immer \(a b c d\) lernen müßten in allen möglichen Kombinationen: \(a c, a b, b e\) und so weiter - aber nicht dazu kämen, diese Buchstaben zu verwenden, um reiche Inhalte sich vor die Seele zu stellen, dann wäre das dasselbe, was die Welt mit Aristoteles’ Logik gemacht hat. In den Logiken ist es so, daß ja diese, man nennt es Kategorien, aufgeführt werden. Man lernt sie auswendig, aber man weiß mit ihnen nichts anzufangen. Das würde entsprechen dem, daßmanabcde auswendig lernte und nichts mit ihnen anzufangen wüßte. Zurück auf etwas so Einfaches, wie der Inhalt des «Faust» in \(a b c d\) — was man nur lernen muß - geht dasjenige, was Lesen in der Weltenschrift ist. Und im Grunde genommen ist das, was Anthroposophie hervorgebracht hat und jemals hervorbringen kann, aus diesen Begriffen so erlebt, wie das Gelesene des «Faust» erlebt wird aus den Buchstaben. Denn alle Geheimnisse der physischen und geistigen Welt sind in diesen einfachen Begriffen als dem Weltenalphabet enthalten.
Es ist in der Weltentwickelung das geschehen, daß gegenüber dem früheren unmittelbaren Wahrnehmen, für das die Tatsachen von Ephesus noch etwas Allercharakteristischstes sind, etwas getreten ist, was von der Alexanderzeit aus den Anfang nimmt, was sich dann später erst besonders entwickelt durch das Mittelalter hindurch, was tief verborgen ist, was tief esoterisch ist. Tief esoterisch ist der Sinn, der lebt in diesen acht, oder man kann sie auch auf zehn erweitern, in diesen acht oder zehn einfachen Begriffen. Und wir lernen eigentlich immer mehr in diesen einfachen Begriffen leben, aber wir müssen streben, sie so lebendig in der Seele zu erleben, wie man in der Seele lebendig erlebt das Abc, wenn man eben einen reichgegliederten, geisterfüllten Inhalt hat.
So sehen Sie, wie in zehn Begriffe, deren innere Leuchte- und Wirkekraft erst wiederum enthüllt werden muß, hineinlief dasjenige, was eine gewaltige, instinktive Weisheitsoffenbarung durch Jahrtausende war. Und es wird schon einstmals dahin kommen, daß man dasjenige, was eigentlich wie im Grabe ruht, die Weltenweisheit, das Weltenlicht, wiederum finden wird, wenn man wieder lesen lernen wird im Weltenall, wenn man erleben wird die Auferstehung dessen, was in der Zwischenzeit der Menschheitsentwickelung zwischen den zwei geistigen Epochen verborgen worden ist.
Wir sind ja da, meine lieben Freunde, um das, was verborgen worden ist, wieder offenbar zu machen. Wir sind ja da, um Ostern als Menschheitserlebnis zu gestalten. Und so, wie bei anderen Gelegenheiten gesagt werden konnte: Anthroposophie ist ein Weihnachtserlebnis, so ist Anthroposophie selber in ihrem ganzen Wirken ein Ostererlebnis, ein Auferstehungserlebnis, verbunden mit dem Grabeserlebnis. Es ist wichtig, daß wir gerade bei diesem Osterzusammensein empfinden - wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf - die Feierlichkeit des anthroposophischen Strebens, indem wir etwas empfinden davon, daß wir gehen können heute zu einem geistigen Wesen, das uns vielleicht nahestehen kann, unmittelbar hinter der Schwelle nahestehen kann, und dem gegenüber wir sprechen: Ach, da war einmal die Menschheit gesegnet mit göttlich-geistiger Offenbarung, die besonders noch geleuchtet hat in Ephesus. Aber nun ist das alles begraben. Wie grabe ich aus das, was so begraben ist! Denn man möchte doch glauben, daß dasjenige, was war, irgendwie geschichtlich gefunden werden kann, gefunden werden kann in seinem Grabe.
Da wird uns das Wesen erwidern, wie einstmals im ähnlichen Fall das entsprechende Wesen erwidert hatte: Das, was ihr suchet, ist nicht mehr hie, das ist in euren Herzen, wenn ihr eure Herzen nur in der richtigen Weise erschließet.
Es ruht schon Anthroposophie in den Menschenherzen. Diese Menschenherzen müssen nur sich selber richtig erschließen können. Und das sollen wir empfinden, dann werden wir in voller Besonnenheit, nicht wie es in alten Zeiten instinktiv war, zurückgeführt zu jener Weisheit, welche in den Mysterien leuchtete und lebte.
Das ist dasjenige, was ich gerne gerade um diese Osterzeit an Ihre Herzen heranbringen möchte. Denn sich durchdringen mit dem, was wie eine feierliche Stimmung aus Anthroposophie heraus in jedem Menschenherzen, das zur Anthroposophie gehört, sich entflammen kann, darin liegt durchaus etwas, was auch hinaufträgt in die geistige Welt und was verbunden sein muß mit dem Weihnachtsimpuls, der zu Dornach gegeben worden ist. Denn dieser Impuls darf kein bloß erdachter, kein intellektualistischer bleiben, dieser Impuls muß ein Herzensimpuls sein; dieser Impuls darf kein trocken-nüchterner sein, dieser Impuls muß, nicht in Sentimentalität, sondern aus der Sache selber heraus, ein feierlicher sein können. Ebenso wie durch Aristoteles und Alexander das Feuer von Ephesus benutzt worden ist, als es in ihren Herzen neu aufflammte, aber zunächst aufflammte im Äther draußen, von dem es ihnen erneut entgegentrug die Geheimnisse, die dann gefaßt werden konnten in Allereinfachstes, wie da benutzt werden konnte das Feuer von Ephesus, so obliegt es uns, und werden wir auch schon imstande sein können, zu benutzen dasjenige, was - man darf es in aller Bescheidenheit sagen - auch in den Äther als die Flammen des Goetheanum das hinausgetragen hat, was durch Anthroposophie gewollt worden ist, weiter gewollt werden soll.
Aber was geht denn daraus hervor, meine lieben Freunde? Es geht daraus hervor, daß wir durften als Jahrestrauerfeier um die Weihnachts-Neujahrszeit, welche dieselbe ist, in der uns das Unglück hier getroffen hat, daß wir da durften einen neuen Impuls ausgehen lassen vom Goetheanum. Warum? Weil wir fühlen dürfen: Was mehr oder weniger Erdensache vorher war, erarbeitet, begründet wurde als Erdensache, das ist mit den Flammen hinausgetragen in die Weltenweiten. Wir dürfen, gerade weil uns dieses Unglück getroffen hat, in dem Erkennen der Folgen dieses Unglückes sagen: Nunmehr verstehen wir es, daß wir nicht bloß eine Erdensache vertreten dürfen, sondern eine Sache der weiten ätherischen Welt, in der der Geist lebt. Denn es ist die Sache vom Goetheanum eine Sache des weiten Äthers, in dem geisterfüllte Weisheit der Welt lebt. Es ist hinausgetragen worden, und wir dürfen uns von den Goetheanum-Impulsen als aus dem Kosmos hereinkommend durchdringen.
Nehmen wir das, wie wir wollen, nehmen wir es als Bild. Das Bild bedeutet aber eine tiefe Wahrheit. Und diese tiefe Wahrheit wird eben in einfachen Worten dadurch ausgedrückt, daß man sagt: Das anthroposophische Wirken soll seit dem Weihnachtsimpuls mit einem esoterischen Zug durchdrungen sein. Dieser esoterische Zug ist deshalb da, weil das, was irdisch war, durch das, was mitgewirkt hat im physischen Feuer, aber als Astrallicht, welches hinausstrahlt in den Weltenraum - weil das wiederum zurückwirkt hinein in die Impulse der anthroposophischen Bewegung, wenn wir nur in der Lage sind, diese Impulse aufzunehmen.
Dann, wenn wir das vermögen, dann empfinden wir in alledem, was in Anthroposophie lebt, ein wichtiges Glied darinnen. Und dieses eine wichtige Glied darinnen, das ist die anthroposophische Osterstimmung, jene anthroposophische Osterstimmung, die da niemals der Überzeugung sein kann, daß der Geist stirbt, sondern daß, wenn er stirbt durch die Welt, er immer wieder aufersteht. Und an den aus ewigen Gründen immer wieder auferstehenden Geist muß sich Anthroposophie halten.
Das nehmen wir auf, nehmen wir auf als Ostergedanke und Osterempfindung in unsere Herzen. Und wir werden, meine lieben Freunde, von diesem Zusammensein Gefühle wegtragen, die uns Arbeitsmut, Arbeitskraft geben, wenn wir wiederum an anderer Stätte stehen.
Fourth Lecture
We have seen how out of the Mysteries has grown that which in consciousness connects men with the world in such a way that this connection can come to expression in the festive course of the year, and we have seen in particular how the Easter festival has grown out of the initiation principle. From the whole account you will have seen what a significant role the Mystery Being has played in the whole development of mankind.
It is so with this mystery being that basically everything that went spiritually through the world developed through humanity, that in ancient times everything emerged from the mysteries. If you want to use a modern word, you would have to say that the Mysteries were very powerful in terms of the whole direction of spiritual life.
Now humanity was destined from the outset to develop freedom. For the development of freedom it was necessary that the old Mystery system should recede and that for a time men should have less connection with such powerful guidance as emanated from the Mysteries, and be left more to themselves, so to speak. It certainly cannot be said that today the time has already approached when men have already conquered their true inner freedom and are now ripe to pass on to the next thing that is to follow the age of freedom. Certainly, that cannot be said. But after all, enough people have passed through incarnations in which the power of the Mysteries has been felt less than in earlier times. And even if the seed of passing through these incarnations has not yet sprouted today, it is in people. It is in the human souls.
When an age approaches that is more spiritual again, people will already develop what they have not yet developed in their dullness today. But above all it will be necessary that the recognition, the seeing, the experiencing of the spiritual, which can be drawn from today's initiation, should also be met with appreciation and reverence out of freedom. For without appreciation, without reverence, real knowledge, a spiritual life of mankind is actually not possible. It is, after all, the case that we use the festive seasons correctly if we use them to try to implant this appreciation, this reverence for the spiritual, as it has developed in the course of human history, into our souls, if we learn to look as intimately as possible at the way in which external historical events signify the spiritual, carry the spiritual from one age into another. First of all, it is the case that people always come back to earthly existence in repeated earthly lives. In this way they carry over into later epochs what they have experienced in earlier epochs. People are the most important link in the further development of what happens within human history. But people live in a certain environment at all times. And one of the most important environments is the Mystery environment. One of the most important aspects of human progress is the transmission of what people have experienced and re-experienced in the Mysteries, be it again in the Mysteries, where it works out into humanity, be it in some other way in cognition. Today it must somehow be in cognition, because the actual mystery being has more or less receded for today's outside world and must first appear again.
We must say: It is already the case that if the impulse that has gone out from here, from the Goetheanum, through the Christmas Conference, really settles into the Anthroposophical Society, then the Anthroposophical Society, by leading further towards the classes that are to be established - in part this establishment has already begun - will be the basis for the further Mystery Being. The further Mystery Being must be consciously planted through this Anthroposophical Society. This Anthroposophical Society has before it an event that can be utilized in its development just as a similar event was once utilized: the burning of the temple of Ephesus. There was a significant injustice here and there. But things are different on the different levels, and what is a terrible injustice on one level can then be used in the freedom of people in the sense that it is precisely through such terrible events that a real progress of humanity is brought about.
But now, if you want to approach such things with understanding, you have to grasp them as intimately as possible, as I have already said. One must look into the special way in which the spiritual of the world has lived in the Mysteries. Yesterday, I pointed out how the determination of the annual Easter festival grows out of the constellation of the sun and moon, if one takes them spiritually, and I pointed out that the other planets are seen from the point of view of the moon. And according to what one experiences in seeing the other planets, man is guided in his descent from the pre-earthly existence into the earthly existence, as he forms his light etheric body.
Now, if one wants to gain an insight into how this light etheric body is transmitted to man through the lunar forces, through the lunar observations, I would like to say through the spiritual lunar observatory, how these etheric forces are transmitted to man, if one wants to understand this correctly, then one can observe it as we have now tried, out of the cosmos, where it is inscribed, where it exists as a fact. But it is also important to let the human part that is there in the different times of such a truth have an effect on the mind.
And indeed, never has the share that human minds have taken in this descent from the pre-earthly existence into the earthly with regard to the last stage, the cloaking of man with the etheric body, never has such an intimate, heartfelt share been taken in this fact as precisely in the mysteries of Ephesus. In the mysteries of Ephesus it was so that the whole service offered to the goddess of Ephesus, exoterically called Artemis, was actually directed towards experiencing the spiritual weaving and life within the ether of the world, within the ether of the cosmos. It can be said that when the members of the Mystery of Ephesus approached the image of the goddess, it was a feeling that increased to the point of being heard and that can be expressed in the same way as if it were the language of the goddess: I rejoice in all that bears fruit in the vast ether of the world.
It was a deep impression that was made by this expression of the temple goddess's heartfelt joy over everything that grows, sprouts and sprouts in the vast ether of the world. And an intimately related feeling with the sprouting and sprouting was something that flowed through the atmosphere, the spiritual atmosphere of the Ephesian sanctuary like a magic breath. This mystery was already so arranged, so set up, that one can say that nowhere else has the growth of the plant being, the sprouting and sprouting of the earth into the plant being, been so lived with as in Ephesus.
This also led to the fact that it was precisely in this Ephesian mystery that the teaching could be given with particular clarity, if I may call it that, which aimed in particular to bring this mystery of the moon, of which I spoke yesterday, to the minds of those who belonged to Ephesus.
It was something that everyone had as their own experience, to feel like a figure of light, because it was made so vivid before the Ephesian disciples and initiates: this coming through the moon to be a figure of light. And there was an arrangement in Ephesus that was something like this: the one who was able to let this arrangement in the place of consecration have an effect on him was really completely immersed in this forming of himself out of the sunlight that transforms the moon. Then it sounded to him as if it were coming from the sun: \(J O A\).
This \(J O A\), he knew that it made his ego, his astral body, active. \(J O\) - I, astral body, and the approach of the light etheric body in the \(A\) - \(J O A\). Now he felt himself, in that the \(J O A\) vibrated in him, now he felt himself as I, as astral body, as etheric body.
And then it was as if that which permeated the \(J O A\) sounded up from the earth, for the human being was transferred into the cosmic, as if that which permeated the \(eh-v\) sounded up from the earth. These were the forces of the earth that came up in the \(eh-v\).
And now he felt, in the khOvA he felt the whole human being. The premonition of the physical body, which he first had on earth, he felt indicated in the consonants, which belonged to the vocalic, which in the \(J O A\) indicates I, astral body, etheric body. This dwelling in the \(Jeh Ov A\), that was what made the Ephesian disciple feel the last steps for the descent from the spiritual world.
But at the same time this feeling of the \(J O A\) was such that one felt oneself in the light within as this sound \(J O A\). Then one was human: sounding ego, sounding astral body, in light-shining etheric body. Then you were sound in the light. This is how you are as a cosmic human being.
And so one is able to absorb what one sees in the cosmos outside, just as one is able to absorb through one's eye here on earth what happens in the physical orbit of the earth.
Then the Ephesian disciple really felt, when he carried this \(J O A\) within him, as if he had been transported into the lunar sphere. He participated in that which could be observed from the point of view of the moon.
Then man was still man in general. He only became man and woman when he descended to earth. But then man felt himself transferred upwards into this region of pre-earthly existence, but precisely of approaching the earthly. The Ephesian disciples were able to experience this transfer into the lunar sphere in a particularly intimate way. Then they carried in their heart, in their soul that which they had experienced and which sounded to the Ephesian disciple in the following way:
World-sprouted being, you in the form of light,
Strengthened by the sun in the power of the moon,The creative sound of Mars bestowed upon you
And Mercury's limb-moving wings,You are illuminated by Jupiter's radiant wisdom
And Venus' love-bearing beauty -That Saturn's world-old spirit-intimacy
Consecrate you to the being of space and becoming of time!
This was what every Ephesian was imbued with. He counted this as the most important thing that pulsated through his man (the text was written on the blackboard):
World-sprouted being, you in the form of light
Empowered by the sun in the power of the moon,The gift of Mars' creating sound
And Mercury's limb-moving wings,You are illuminated by Jupiter's radiant wisdom
And Venus' heft-bearing beautyThat Saturn's world-old spirit-intimacy
Consecrate you to the being of space and the becoming of time!
It can be said that for those who belonged to the Ephesian Mysteries it was something like feeling truly human when - I will express myself somewhat trivially - what lies in these sayings rang in his ears. For he felt that the consciousness of how he is connected with the planetary system in the forces of his etheric body had dawned on him. And this was expressed succinctly. This is spoken to the etheric body of the universe:
World-sprouted being, you in light form,
Strengthened by the sun in the power of the moon.
Now man feels himself in the power of the moonlight:
You are gifted with the creative sound of Mars.
The sound, which had something creating, something creative, sounded over from Mars. And that which strengthened man's limbs so that he became a moving being:
And Mercury's limb-moving wings.
From Jupiter it shines over:
You are illuminated by Jupiter's radiant wisdom.
From Venus it shines forth:
And Venus' love-bearing beauty.
So that Saturn can then summarize everything that rounds off man inwardly and outwardly and prepares him so that he can descend to earth, clothe himself with a physical body and continue to live on earth as this physically clothed being who carries the God within him:
That Saturn's world-old spirit interiority
consecrate you to being space and becoming time!
Well, from what I am describing you can see that the life, the spiritual life in Ephesus was an inwardly bright, colorful one. This inwardly bright, colorful life actually contained that which in the Easter thought summarized everything that has ever been known about man's true dignity in the whole cosmos, in the whole universe. And many of those wanderers - I mentioned them yesterday - who went from Mystery to Mystery in order to let the whole of the Mystery work on them, many of these wanderers have repeatedly affirmed: As brightly, as intimately as the harmony of the spheres resounded to them in Ephesus from this perception from the lunar point of view, where the most luminous astral light of the world appeared to them, in that they felt it in the sunlight glowing around the moon, which is spiritualized, just as man is ensouled, spiritualized by the astral light, they have not been able to perceive it in other places, at least not with that joyfulness, with that inner artist's conception.
All this was bound to the temple site, which then went up in flames at the hands of criminals or madmen. But initiates of the Ephesian Mysteries were, as I mentioned during the Christmas conference, re-embodied in Aristotle and Alexander. And these individualities then came close to what could still be felt in the mysteries of Samothrace at that time.
Now an apparently outwardly coincidental event is of great spiritual significance in the development of the world. It has already been mentioned among us, even for many years: When the temple of Ephesus burned, it was the hour of Alexander the Great's birth. But while this temple was burning, something was happening.
Oh, how much had happened over the centuries for those who belonged to this temple! How much spiritual light and wisdom has passed through these temple rooms. And everything that passed through these temple rooms was communicated to the ether of the world as the flames burst forth from the temple at Ephesus. So that one can say: The continuous Easter festival at Ephesus, which was enclosed in the temple rooms, has since been inscribed, albeit with less clearly perceptible letters, in the whole world dome, insofar as the world dome is ethereal.
And so it is with many things. Much of what is human wisdom was enclosed by temple walls in ancient times. It has escaped from the temple walls, is inscribed in the ether of the world and becomes immediately visible there when the human being ascends to real imagination. This imagination is, so to speak, the interpreter of the mysteries of the stars. One can say that what was once a temple secret is inscribed in the world ether and can be read from it with the imagination.
But one can also say otherwise, and it is the same if one says otherwise. You can also say: I stand up in a starry night, look at the starry sky, let its impression work on me. And it transforms, if man has the ability to do so, what is in the forms of the constellations, what is in the movements of the wandering stars, it transforms as if into a great world script. And if one reads this world script, something of the kind that I explained yesterday emerges for the lunar mystery. These things can certainly be read in the world script, when the stars are no longer merely the mathematically and mechanically calculable, but when they are the letters of the cosmic script.
Now, however, I would like to say the following for the further development of the matter. Just when approaching the Kabirian mysteries in Samothrace at the time when the old mysteries were already receding - Samothrace was still there as a place of remembrance and also as a place of care, as a place of work, but in general the mystery system was already receding in Alexander's time - there was a moment when for Alexander and Aristotle, through the influence of the Kabirian mysteries, something like a memory of the old Ephesian time arose, which had been experienced by both of them in a certain century. Again the \(J O A\)-word resounded, and again the:
World-sprouted being, you in the form of light,
Strengthened by the sun in the power of the moon,You are gifted with the creative sound of Mars
And Mercury's limb-moving wings,You are illuminated by Jupiter's radiant wisdom
And Venus' love-bearing beautyThat Saturn's world-old spirit-intimacy
Consecrate you to the being of space and the becoming of time!
But in this memory, in this historical memory of the old lay a certain power, the power to create something new. And from that moment emanated the power to create a new, but a strange new that humanity has paid little attention to. For you must first understand what the nature of this new creation, which emanated from the collaboration between Alexander and Aristotle, was.
Take any important work of poetry or other work - and you can take the most beautiful works - take, if you like, a German translation of the Bhagavad Gita, take Goethe's Faust, take Iphigenia or anything else that you hold in high esteem, and think of the rich, powerful content, let us say, of the rich, powerful content of Goethe's Faust. And now, my dear friends, how is this rich content conveyed to you? Let us assume that it is conveyed to you in the same way that it is conveyed to most people. You read “Faust” at some point in your life. What do you encounter on the physical plane? What is on the paper? Nothing else is on the paper but combinations of \(a b c d e\) and so on. Everything by which the great, enormous content of Faust is revealed to us are only combinations of \(a b c d e f\) and so on. If you know the alphabet, there is nothing on paper that does not coincide with one of the twenty or so letters. Something has been conjured up on the paper from these twenty or so letters which, if you can read, evokes the entire rich content of Faust. And you are even free to do so. You are free to find the recitation of \(a b c d e\) fund and so on terribly boring, to say that it is actually the most abstract thing of all. And yet, this all-very-abstract, combined in the right way, gives the whole of “Faust”!
And now, when that moon world resounding was there again, in which it was recognized by Aristotle and Alexander what the fire of Ephesus meant, how this fire carried out into world ether distances that which was the secret of Ephesus, it was then that the inspiration arose in these two to found the world writing. Only, the world script is not founded with \(a b c d e f\), but the world script is founded, as the book script with letters, so this one with thoughts. And the letters of the world script were created.
If I write it down for you, they are just as abstract as \(a b c e d\):
Quantity, therefore quantity
Quality, property
relation
Space
time
Position
Doing
Suffering
There you have a number of concepts. Learn with these concepts, which Aristotle first demonstrated to Alexander, learn with these concepts to do the same as you have learned with \(a b c d\), then learn from quality, quantity, relation, space, time, position, doing, suffering - from this you learn to read in the cosmos.
Something special happened in school logic during the period of abstractness. Just think if it were the custom in some school not to teach people to read, but, for my sake, only to produce books in which they always had to learn \(a b c d\) in all possible combinations: \(a c, a b, b e\) and so on - but would not get to use these letters to place rich content before their souls, then that would be the same thing the world has done with Aristotle's logic. In the logics it is the case that these, they are called categories, are listed. You learn them by heart, but you don't know what to do with them. That would be like memorizing them and not knowing what to do with them. Reading in the world script goes back to something as simple as the content of “Faust” in \(a b c d\) - which one only has to learn. And basically, what anthroposophy has produced and can ever produce is experienced from these concepts in the same way that what is read in Faust is experienced from the letters. For all the secrets of the physical and spiritual world are contained in these simple concepts as the world alphabet.
What has happened in the development of the world is that, in contrast to the earlier direct perception, for which the facts of Ephesus are still something most characteristic, something has arisen which starts from the time of Alexander, which then later develops particularly through the Middle Ages, which is deeply hidden, which is deeply esoteric. Deeply esoteric is the meaning that lives in these eight, or you can also expand them to ten, in these eight or ten simple concepts. And we actually learn to live more and more in these simple concepts, but we must strive to experience them as vividly in the soul as one experiences the Abc vividly in the soul when one has a richly structured, spirit-filled content.
So you see how that which was a powerful, instinctive revelation of wisdom through millennia ran into ten concepts whose inner luminosity and working power must first be revealed again. And one day it will come to pass that what actually rests as if in the grave, the world wisdom, the world light, will be found again when one will learn to read again in the universe, when one will experience the resurrection of what has been hidden in the intervening time of human development between the two spiritual epochs.
We are here, my dear friends, to reveal again that which has been hidden. We are here to shape Easter as a human experience. And so, as has been said on other occasions: Anthroposophy is a Christmas experience, so anthroposophy itself in all its work is an Easter experience, a resurrection experience, connected with the experience of the grave. It is important that it is precisely at this Easter gathering that we feel - if I may express myself thus - the solemnity of anthroposophical striving, in that we feel something of the fact that we can go today to a spiritual being who may be close to us, close to us just beyond the threshold, and to whom we speak: Oh, once upon a time mankind was blessed with divine-spiritual revelation, which especially still shone in Ephesus. But now all that is buried. How I dig up what is so buried! For one would like to believe that that which was can somehow be found historically, can be found in its grave.
Then the being will reply to us, as the corresponding being once replied in a similar case: That which you seek is no longer here, it is in your hearts, if only you open your hearts in the right way.
Anthroposophy already rests in human hearts. These human hearts only need to be able to open themselves up properly. And we should feel this, then we will be led back to the wisdom that shone and lived in the Mysteries in full reflection, not instinctively as it was in ancient times.
This is what I would like to bring to your hearts, especially at this Easter time. For to be imbued with that which, like a solemn mood from anthroposophy, can be kindled in every human heart that belongs to anthroposophy, therein lies something that also carries up into the spiritual world and which must be connected with the Christmas impulse that was given at Dornach. For this impulse must not remain a merely conceived, intellectual impulse, it must be an impulse of the heart; this impulse must not be a dry, sober impulse, this impulse must be able to be a solemn one, not in sentimentality, but out of the matter itself. Just as the fire of Ephesus was used by Aristotle and Alexander when it flared up anew in their hearts, but first flared up in the ether outside, from which it again carried the mysteries to them, which could then be grasped in the simplest terms, just as the fire of Ephesus could be used there, so it is incumbent upon us, and we will also be able to use that which - it may be said in all modesty - has also carried out into the ether as the flames of the Goetheanum that which has been willed and is to be willed further through Anthroposophy.
But what emerges from this, my dear friends? It is clear from the fact that we were allowed to let a new impulse emanate from the Goetheanum as an annual mourning ceremony around the Christmas-New Year time, which is the same time in which the misfortune struck us here. Why? Because we are allowed to feel: What was more or less an earthly matter before, worked out, founded as an earthly matter, has been carried out into the world with the flames. Precisely because this misfortune has befallen us, we may say, recognizing the consequences of this misfortune: Now we understand that we may not merely represent an earthly matter, but a matter of the wide etheric world in which the spirit lives. For the matter of the Goetheanum is a matter of the vast ether in which the spirit-filled wisdom of the world lives. It has been carried out, and we may allow ourselves to be penetrated by the Goetheanum impulses as coming in from the cosmos.
Let us take this as we will, let us take it as an image. But the image signifies a profound truth. And this profound truth is expressed in simple terms by saying that anthroposophical work has been imbued with an esoteric trait since the Christmas impulse. This esoteric trait is there because that which was earthly, through that which worked in the physical fire, but as astral light which radiates out into the world space - because this in turn works back into the impulses of the anthroposophical movement, if only we are able to absorb these impulses.
Then, if we are able to do so, we will perceive an important link in everything that lives in anthroposophy. And this one important link in it is the anthroposophical Easter mood, that anthroposophical Easter mood which can never be convinced that the spirit dies, but that when it dies through the world, it always rises again. And anthroposophy must adhere to the spirit that rises again and again for eternal reasons.
We take this up, we take it into our hearts as Easter thoughts and Easter feelings. And we will, my dear friends, carry feelings away from this togetherness that will give us the courage to work, the strength to work, when we stand again in another place.