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The Evolution of Consciousness
GA 227

30 August 1923, Penmaenmawr

12. The Evolution of the World in connection with the Evolution of Man

In the course of our observations about the world and about man, we have seen how he bears within him—if only in picture form—the past of the world, and how it is possible for him, by gradual training, to conjure up these pictures. In our ordinary daytime consciousness there is nothing of all this, but only memories of our experiences during earthly life. When, however, a man applies this ordinary consciousness to following the path I have indicated, then, as his spiritual consciousness grows clearer and clearer, more and more of the past evolution of worlds arises within him. And we have found how this experience of the past has to be renewed between death and rebirth.

We can therefore say: When things that are not perceptible for the senses become so for Imagination, a man looks back beyond the memories of his current life. He looks back on everything that has gone to shape him, on the forces of growth and nourishment which have formed him from within—all of which proceeds from the spirit.

And further, in Inspiration a man looks into pre-earthly existence, but not only into his own. We have seen already how he reaches out beyond the cosmic island of the Earth to the great cosmic ocean in which the stars have their dwelling, and he finds that the stars then become for him the dwelling-places of spiritual Beings.

Then, when Intuition arises, a man gazes back into past lives on Earth. At the same time the whole past life of the world comes into the range of his vision. He is, in actual fact, born out of the whole world; the whole world lives in his physical, etheric and astral bodies, and—during earthly existence—least of all as yet in his Ego. All this is included in a man, working and weaving within him. As human beings we bear within us the whole past evolution of the world, upon which countless generations of the spirit have worked. We bear this divine work in the building up of our organs, and in the forces weaving and living in them; we bear it within us when those organs flower into perception and thought. We carry within us the work that has gone into the whole past evolution of the world. When now, after we have—at least in thought—sharpened our vision into the past, we look out at the world surrounding us here on Earth, we see with ordinary consciousness only as much as the senses offer and whatever our intellect can make of our sense-observations. Behind the realm of sense-perception lies the all-embracing life of the spirit—a life active in all colours and sounds of nature, in everything we experience as warmth or cold, in every aspect of natural phenomena that can affect us as human beings.

Besides the physical nature revealed to the senses, there is a concealed spiritual nature—a hidden spiritual environment. This surrounding spiritual world, of which only the veriest surface is apparent to sense-perception, carries even now in its womb man's future evolution. Just as we bear within us in mighty pictures the entire past and are ourselves the outcome of those pictures, so in the concealed life of nature there works and weaves that which, in its further unfolding as world-evolution, will bring us our future. Thus we can set before us these weighty words: Man bears within him the past of the world; the outer world is the bearer of his future.

These are the two fundamental principles upon which world-evolution and human evolution are founded. And indeed they come to expression in individual human life. There is a great difference between all that tends more towards a man's head-organisation, and all that has more to do with the rest of his body. To put it rather crudely, one might say: Forces work up from the heart towards the head organisation and bring about the particular configuration of the head, with its covering of hard skull. This is filled with the most wonderful construction in all the world—the convolutions and interweavings of the human brain, in which the senses are embedded.

Everything living in these forces, all that flows to a man's head from his breast and heart, is an outcome of the past. This could become what it now is in man only because—as we have already said—innumerable divine generations of the spirit have worked upon it, through the metamorphoses of cosmic-planetary bodies. In my Occult Science I have pointed out how a Saturn-evolution, a Sun-evolution, a Moon-evolution, preceded in turn the Earth-evolution in which we are living and during which the Saturn-, Sun- and Moon-evolutions have been recapitulated. We are now rather past the middle of the actual Earth-evolution, the evolution of man on Earth.

The forces which through long ages have been gradually developing, under the influence of divine generations of the spirit, all live in the physical body of earthly man, and stream from his heart up to his head. All that you bear continually in your physical, etheric, astral and Ego, as a streaming up from the centre of your being to your head, has been prepared and worked upon by generations of Gods through immeasurable periods of time. And the last element which lives in these up-streaming forces—though people to-day are still unconscious of it—is that which expresses itself as a man's karma—the past of his own Ego during his lives on Earth.

We can put it in this way. If we penetrate deeply into these forces of cosmic memory, we come first to karma; then to the various stages of Earth-evolution; after that to the metamorphoses, the planetary transformations which the Earth went through before becoming the actual Earth. Before the Earth could come into being, there had to be a cosmic body, Saturn, consisting only of tenuous warmth. Saturn had then to pass away before rising to a new existence as that Sun of which our Sun, now seen outside in cosmic space, is the residue. At that time the Sun was a cosmic body consisting of air alone; this again had to pass away and give place to a cosmic body consisting of water—the old Moon. Then the Moon in turn gave place to the firm mineral substance of the Earth, on which man, as an earthly being, could begin to evolve.

But just as we have these upward-striving forces, so do we bear within us forces with a downward trend. They have a kind of central point in the heart, and the circulating blood carries both forces to the movements of our limbs. These forces are active in every movement of our hands; when you take hold of anything, or perform any ordinary earthly action, they enter into every move you make. They do not now belong to the past; they belong to the hidden world around us. They will be taken up into the womb of the past—which will become the past only in the future—when a man goes through the gate of death, and exchanges his earthly existence for life among the stars. These are the forces in which a man's future is prepared.

The future comes about through the interplay of these forces with the forces concealed in external nature. Thus the world bears man's future within its own evolution. There is a sharp distinction in him between these upper forces and the lower ones. The knowledge that can be acquired after passing the Guardian of the Threshold bring out this distinction strongly.

For ordinary consciousness, everything below the heart remains unconscious. This does not mean that it is any less fully imbued with consciousness, but this is a consciousness beyond our normal reach to-day. Hence what a man experiences inwardly differs from the content of his consciousness. He is conscious only of what is on the surface, rising like an island out of his other experiences.

When we are able to penetrate further into the human being, we can see how he is still endowed to-day with these subconscious forces. We can then see how a man performs some deed which, for that moment of his earthly life, causes him pleasure and satisfaction—his head is satisfied. He may for some reason have done a thoroughly bad thing, but his head is satisfied, and the implications of his action evade his ordinary consciousness. But although his head may be perfectly satisfied, the hand that carries out the action is subconsciously affected by it—and the subconscious is really another form of consciousness—and his hand quivers. The quivering may be outwardly imperceptible, but in the etheric and astral bodies it becomes an actual trembling. So we can see inwardly how a man may be satisfied in his head with some deed that subconsciously causes a trembling in the astral and etheric organs connected with his arms or legs. In the satisfaction given to the head by a bad deed, consciousness is—we might say—benumbed; but another form of consciousness arises in the depths of a man's being, and there the deed causes a trembling.

In this trembling, future karma is being prepared. It is a trembling in face of the forces concealed in nature, forces of the hidden world. The trembling presages the judgment that will be passed upon the man by the Beings of the stars, when, from this little island of the Earth, he goes out into the wide starry ocean.

To sum this up: Within the human being, in diverse ways, both the past and the future of the world are living—even in the external form of his physical body. A man's head-organisation, that most wonderful, most perfect product of world-evolution, is to a great extent broken up, even spiritually, when he passes through the gate of death. On the other hand, his lower organisation, though merely physical in outward appearance, is in reality a physical picture of that which lives as soul and spirit in the arms and hands, in the whole metabolic-limb system. Through this system, through all you can see as flesh and blood shaped into arms and hands, spiritual forces flow. In a future life on Earth these forces will flow through the organs that bring about the movements of the upper and lower jaw. The bones of the head in their plastic formation will then be the transformed bones of arms and legs—naturally I mean the spiritual part of these, for the physical falls away. That which now constitutes your arms and legs will become in your next incarnation—to speak in terms of forces and dynamics—the configuration of your head. Hence the physical organisation itself affords a reflection of how a man has gone through earthly life. Anyone who studies in the right way the artistic shaping of a man's head can see in the very form of his head how he used his arms and hands in his dealings with other people and with the external world during his previous earthly life. For the deeds of arms and legs in one earthly incarnation live on in the formation of the head in the next incarnation. Ordinary phrenology is superficial in giving all kinds of intellectual interpretations of the shape of the head. But behind this is a deep, occult phrenology which considers the individuality of each man and does not conform to general rules—a phrenology that out of Intuitions is able to discern how the formations of a man's head have been prepared by the outcome of his movements, his behaviour and his actions during a previous life on Earth.


That, then, is how the human being stands before us to-day, and before himself, showing in what he has become how divine generations of the spirit have worked upon him through immeasurable periods of time. Naturally one can only indicate in outline how a man's life to-day illustrates in pictures all that these generations of the Gods have done for him, and for all mankind, through the metamorphoses of Earth-evolution—Saturn, Sun and Moon.

Let us take first three particularly significant impulses in the earthly life of human beings. If one looks quite simply, with ordinary consciousness, at the wonders revealed in the progressive development of the human being from the first days of his life, we can at least gain some idea, some feeling, of the tremendous depths out of which the soul and spirit struggle during those first days and weeks in order to give an increasingly definite form to much that in the infant is still formless; and then gradually to bring under control the chaotic movements of arms and legs. We come to feel that we are being shown how a spiritual activity, present in the endless depths of the hidden life of nature, is expressing itself in the human body. And we can say: There is nothing on Earth so wonderful to watch as the unfolding of the inner human being within the outer, during the development of a child in the very first years of its life. If we know how to watch this with true artistic-religious insight, then all that can be seen there, and the humility we can feel in face of this revelation of the spiritual, surpass all other artistic, scientific or religious impressions that can be received from the outer world.

But let us single out three things in the development of a child. In ordinary life we say: The child is learning to walk. In fact, this is something wonderful. In this learning to walk an extraordinary amount of movement is involved. All the limbs are called into play when, in order to stand erect, the child raises itself out of the position where its spine is parallel with the surface of the Earth. We take this for granted as something obvious, but it marks the moment in the child's life when it is learning to give all its forces a different, orientation on Earth, and, with the help of the symmetry of those forces and its own inner balance, is learning to establish itself within the Cosmos as a whole. At the same time, we are really watching how a human being is growing out of the animal world. For this is a moment that an animal can never experience. It remains essentially with its spine parallel to the Earth; for if it pulls itself upright, as the ape does, this is contrary to its natural organisation.

If we are to form a true conception of man, we must be able to see in the right light this learning to walk on the part of the child. Scientists have compared the bones of the human being with those of the animal, and have found them to be animal bones transformed, and men's muscles to be animal muscles transformed—and so on. Let this be so with every organ; the difference between man and animal will still not be found in this way. The difference can be seen only when we grasp how, in the moment of standing erect, a human being is freeing himself from his connection with the animal at the beginning of his life, and establishing his balance in the whole world. Never during his life would he have been able to acquire the skill for doing this had it not been prepared in the most remote days; the seed for it was already within the being of man during the Saturn-existence. Divine Spirits then laid down the seed of the skill that comes to light when the child learns, as we say, to walk. There were no animals then, for they came later, during the Sun-evolution. Hence the human being, as originally planned, is older than the animals.

All that lies in these invisible forces that enable man to walk leads us back to his origin during the Saturn-existence.

The second faculty arising in the child comes from his new orientation in space; this causes the forces to turn inwards and to appear in a different way. For instance, I take up a piece of chalk; a force comes in an inward direction, discharging itself in the internal organs. This inward-turning force, coming through the limbs from the direction of movement, makes its appearance in the child's development when it learns to speak. First, when the child finds its bearings in space, the forces take an outward direction; the same forces then turn inwards and the child learns to speak.

Science knows only a small part of all this. It knows that a right-handed person has his speech-centre in the left half of the brain, and a left-handed person has it in the right half. Everything in the brain that has to do with the development of speech, however, is first worked into it by the limbs when the child learns to walk, to grasp things, to move around and turn its attention to objects. This springs from the inwardly directed forces, which then go out from the brain into the organs of speech. Here, again, divine-spiritual Beings have been preparing the human organism through countless ages, so that the child should be able to speak. Those divine Beings, who during the Saturn period prepared the human being for walking, then worked during the Sun period to bring about his capacity for speech.

The third gift developed by the child, and by all mankind, through speech—for it could not come before speaking in earthly evolution—was the power to have thoughts. This was prepared by the divine-spiritual Beings during the Moon age. That is how human evolution took its course in the past ages of the world; generations of spiritual Beings have prepared for man his walking, speaking, thinking—through Saturn-evolution, Sun-evolution, Moon-evolution.

In the evolution of the world during the Sun age, animals made their appearance—naturally in a form different from that of to-day. They now have to feed on plants, which at that time they had no need to do, for then they were creatures of the air and consisted of airy substance. It was during the Moon-existence that the plants were added.

Then evolution passed over to Earth-existence, when the human being first developed a visible bodily form in which the forces of walking, speaking and thinking could dwell. At the same time the mineral kingdom arose and became an essential part of his organism. In this way man's past can be described.

If we wish to look at man's future, in the light of present-day conditions on Earth, we must start from his old age, which means describing something that is not at all apparent to-day. When a child begins to walk, speak, think, external signs of this are clear enough, but how the spiritual part of man is intensified in old age is far from evident to anyone without spiritual vision. I spoke of the most wonderful experience of watching the gradual revelation of soul and spirit in the growing body of a young child, and of how, if one sees it in the right way, one can be overwhelmed by the deepest religious feeling in face of all the meaning that this artistic process conveys. But it is also wonderful to see how all that a man has experienced through walking, speaking and thinking during his earthly life disappears into the spiritual. And then to see how his thoughts and words, everything he has worked and struggled for with his hands, is carried back into the life of the spirit when he passes through the gate of death. Just as that which comes to expression in the child's walking, speaking, thinking, points us back to previous stages in the Earth's evolution, to the evolution of Moon, of Sun, of Saturn, so does all that a man has experienced in his thoughts point us first of all to his next earthly life, and then to the great periods in the future evolution of the Earth.

So it is that the thoughts of men point towards the Jupiter stage in the evolution of the world and of man—a stage that can be reached only when the Earth has passed through death and risen to a new planetary existence. For thoughts will not then live in us in their present fluctuating way; they will take definite shape and appear in the very form of man.

To-day we are able to keep our thoughts to ourselves, and on certain occasions our countenance can appear perfectly innocent, although we are inwardly guilty. We shall not be able to do this during the Jupiter-existence. A man's thoughts will then engender the expression of his face. The human form will have lost its mineralised firmness; it will be inwardly flexible and will consist of a quite soft substance. A wrong thought rising up in us will instantly show itself to other people through a change in our expression. Everything in the nature of a thought will at once take shape; a man will then go about in the guise of his own enduring thoughts and temperament. Hence if, during the Jupiter-existence, a man is a regular scoundrel, or has only animal impulses, that is what he will look like. That is the first stage in man's future.

The second stage will exemplify the creative power of speech. To-day speech arises inwardly and is sent out only into the air. In the future, the spoken word will not fade away into the air but will continue to exist, and with it a man will create actual forms. So that in the Jupiter age he will have power to shape himself by his thoughts; in the Venus-existence he will give form to the world around him. If during the Venus-existence—when all substance will be as fine as air—he utters an evil word, something like a repulsive plant-form will come into being. Hence a man will be surrounded by the creations of his own speech. During the Venus existence creative feelings will arise, creative speech, and the feelings that create through the word.

During the last metamorphosis of the Earth, the Vulcan-existence, the activities expressed in our walking and the movements of our arms will develop further. To-day we go to our work and use our arms to carry out actions, but nothing of that is lasting. I go to some place; I have something or other to do. It may of course be something quite complicated—possibly even the waging of war. Then we go away again, and in the outer world none of our actions remain. During the Vulcan-existence, everything will remain. A man will not simply go about and perform actions; everything he does will leave its imprint on the Vulcan-existence. His deeds will be actualised, will become realities.


You see how the Earth-existence makes a radical incision between past and future in the evolution of the world and of man. Everything up to the time of the Earth was brought about by divine generations of the spirit; that which is to follow will be brought about by man himself. That is how freedom enters his life within the cosmos. He is placed into the world by the Gods, and given his free existence. From the Gods he has acquired his capacity for walking, speaking, thinking—even his form; but for the future evolution of the world he will have to bring into this walking, speaking and thinking what he himself is. He is now about to live himself out of the past into the future. Part of the past, it is true, lies in his own karma; part of the future lies in what he is willing to do for his own karma in the future. At present he is serving a kind of apprenticeship between past and future.

All this means that things cannot work out in exact conformity with the originally-intended plan I referred to yesterday. I spoke then of 2,160 years having to pass between two incarnations. But during his earthly life a man is far from absorbing all that he could absorb; hence for many people to-day the interval between death and a new birth proves to have changed—no longer 2,160 years for anyone, but essentially shorter.

Men who have given themselves up entirely to an earthly life, those with certain criminal tendencies, are very poorly equipped for sailing out into the ocean of starry existence; and after a short time between death and rebirth they very soon return to earthly life. Others need a long time in which to purify and perfect what they have made of their soul and spirit during life on Earth. So one can say that those with animal tendencies, who easily succumb to their instincts and desires, soon come back to Earth, while those with a normal spiritual development take longer to return. But there may also be human beings who, through a deeper insight during earthly life into the way things are going at the present time, are able to arouse in themselves a self-sacrificing wish to return as soon as possible in order to contribute to the future course of earthly affairs. For if a man has filled his spirit with love during his life on Earth, he can make the three to six transits, through Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, more quickly. When persons with lower instincts pass through death, they draw back trembling before these circles and do not complete them; they are particularly repelled by the region of the planetoids. To-morrow I shall be speaking of how human beings to-day are enabled to enter various circles by submitting themselves to certain influences in the world, in their personal life, in their national life, and so on.

Those who enter the region of the planetoids rightly will to-day spend seven or eight hundred years between one earthly life and the next. That is normal for people who are not of an actually degraded nature. But through deeper insight into things, and through love of the spiritual world, life between death and a new birth can be consciously shortened. Those who have gained much from their life on Earth can make a comparatively quick return, so that as soon as possible they can work on the transforming of earthly civilisation and culture.

I have had to take you in thought away from the earthly world into that of the stars and their inhabitants, so that, in a way suited to the present time, your attention may be directed away from the world in which human beings are generally engrossed, to a world they have to enter through deeper knowledge, if they wish to experience their future aright. To-day, people in general are little inclined to detach themselves from the claims of the material world and to seek the spiritual directly in the physical world around them. We have no time now to dwell on the obstacles met with when, in psycho-analysis, for example—to which I shall be referring tomorrow—attempts are made to investigate at least the spiritual part of man. It is, however, precisely from observing directly the sense-perceptible that a right path will open out for those who wish now to work entirely within the field of present-day science, if they really seek to discover the spiritual there. It can be done. Definite proof of this is to be found in the booklet just issued by our Institute of Physiology and Biology at Stuttgart. Here Frau Dr. Kolisko has published the results of a beautiful piece of research under the title Physiological and Physical Proof of the Efficacy of the smallest Entities.1This treatise, translated into English, is included in a volume entitled Agriculture of To-morrow, published by Frau Dr. Kolisko in 1939. It is now (1966) out of print, but is obtainable from the Library at Rudolf Steiner House, 35, Park Road, London, N.W.1. You know how homeopathy likes to work with highly diluted substances. By this means, by bringing physical substance in a highly diluted form, a way is opened into the spiritual. Frau Dr. Kolisko has now succeeded in showing, by an exact method, that the smallest entities, the highest dilutions, are effective. She has been working most conscientiously for a long time on the lines I have indicated, and she has now succeeded in producing dilutions in the proportion 1:1 trillion.

If any substance is completely dissolved in a glass of water, half of which is then thrown out and the remaining half poured into a full glass of water, we get a dilution of 1:2. When half the water is again thrown out and the remainder poured into a full glass, we get 1:4, and so on. Now in our Biological Institute at Stuttgart, by means of exact scientific methods, a way has been found to produce precise solutions of 1:1 trillion—thus arriving at the so-called higher potencies. The results can be seen in the case, let us say, of antimony, about which I spoke in the medical lecture given during our days here. We find that plant growth, for example, the growth of a grain of wheat, is reduced to its slowest rate at about the twenty-first potency, and brought to its fastest rate at about the twenty-ninth or thirtieth potency. So, you see, a substance has been diluted in fluid to a high potency, and we find that the lower potencies have a different effect upon plant growth while the highest potencies accelerate growth, which means that they give the greatest stimulus to the life-force. In this way it has been found possible to break down the purely material, so that the spiritual can manifest there. For if you split up material substance, not into atoms as atomists would have it, but in such a way as to bring but the activity of its functions and forces, then you are showing willingness, I would say, to go over to the spiritual by permeating matter itself with spirit.

You can imagine now what this means for observing accurately how remedies work on the human organism, for the effect can indeed be seen. The dilution is prepared; you have it in a laboratory flask, and you drop into this potency a grain of wheat; then into the potency in the next flask you drop another grain, and so on—grains and grains of wheat. For in the course of this exact research whole rooms were filled with these germinating grains, showing the effect of each potency on the soil out of which the grains sprout. That is what must be done in science to-day, in order to drive material knowledge on into the realm of the spirit. You know what contention there has been between homoeopaths and allopaths concerning the effectiveness of the smallest entities in the higher potencies. The whole affair up to now has been a question of opinion—the allopaths holding to one view, the homoeopaths to another. Here, however, it is not a case of siding with homoeopaths, but of establishing scientifically the actual facts. In the future it will naturally be known when remedies should be applied in the direct allopathic way, and when in a dilution of the correct potency, so that they may have the desired effect on the patient—particularly on his etheric body, which represents the life-forces. We shall know exactly where to draw the line—here you must give an allopathic treatment, there a homoeopathic one. For just as other scientific experiments are carried out with the utmost exactitude, so in this case Frau Dr. Kolisko has shown in her booklet, with the same exactitude, how the smallest entities really work. What was formerly mere surmise has been raised to the level of an important scientific subject.

But all this points to something further. Just look in this booklet at the accurately worked-out curves which show how the forces of growth go up and down; notice how the curves have to be drawn according to whether the potency is strong or weak, how with certain dilutions there is a minimum of growth, and in more dilute solutions—higher potencies—a maximum; then a return to the minimum, back again to the maximum—and so on. Thus, in the remarkably conscientious tracing of the curves, one gains direct insight into a rhythm working in everything material—a rhythm that is indeed the expression of the spiritual. With human beings, we can turn from the metabolic system to the rhythmical system; it is possible in nature, also, to find in a quite exact, scientific way its rhythmical system. That is precisely what is to be seen in this work, which I believe may prove to be an important landmark, not only in the controversy between homoeopathy and allopathy but in all questions concerning our insight into nature. If the results of this research are estimated rightly, the laws of nature in future will no longer be sought only in the present atomistic way, by measuring and weighing; it will be recognised how in all material things there is a rhythm, and how in the rhythm of events in nature the rhythm of the cosmos is expressed.

I wanted to draw your attention to this as a way leading out from exact science that must be opened up. To-morrow I will go on to show how in psycho-analysis, for example, there is a kind of theoretical aversion towards any real setting out on the path leading from physical nature to the spiritual. But if men are to go forward and not backward in civilisation, they will be obliged to take this path to the spirit.

Die Evolution der Welt im Zusammenhang mit der Evolution des Menschen

Halten wir zunächst bewußt zusammen die Betrachtungen, die angestellt worden sind über Welt und Mensch, und wir werden darauf kommen, wie der Mensch in sich trägt, wenn auch im Bilde, die Vergangenheit der Welt, und wie der Mensch heraufheben kann stufenhaft diese Bilder der Weltvergangenheit. In dem gewöhnlichen Tagesbewußtsein liegt ja von alledem nichts als die Erinnerung, die den Menschen zurückweist auf die Erlebnisse, die er im Erdenleben gehabt hat. Wenn aber der Mensch dann dieses gewöhnliche Bewußtsein über die Wege führt, die ich gekennzeichnet habe, dann taucht mit dem Heller- und Hellerwerden des geistigen Bewußtseins immer mehr und mehr von der Vergangenheit der Weltenentwickelung in ihm auf. Und wir haben ja gesehen, wie der Mensch wieder erleben muß diese Weltenvergangenheit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.

Wir können sagen: Wenn in der Imagination allmählich für das Erdendasein auch dasjenige sichtbar wird, was für die Sinne unwahrnehmbar bleibt, dann schaut der Mensch schon zurück in all das, was sich in seinem gegenwärtigen Erdenverlaufe nicht nur als Bilder der Erinnerung zugetragen hat, sondern was ihn selbst gestaltet hat, was ihn von innen heraus als Wachstumskräfte, als Ernahrungskräfte, die aber alle vom Geiste ausgehen, geformt hat.

Weiter, in der Inspiration, schaut der Mensch in das vorirdische Dasein hinein, aber nicht nur in das vorirdische Dasein seines eigenen Wesens. Wir haben ja gesehen, wie er hinausgelangt, man möchte sagen, von der kosmischen Erdeninsel in das freie kosmische Weltenmeer, in dem die Sterne eingebettet sind, die aber für ihn jetzt zu den Wohnplätzen geistiger Wesenheiten werden.

Und dann, wenn die Intuition auftaucht, dann schaut der Mensch in vergangene Erdenleben zurück. Mit diesen vergangenen Erdenleben aber taucht zugleich auf vor dem Blicke das Gesamtleben der Welt in ihrer Vergangenheit. Der Mensch ist in der Tat aus dem ganzen Weltenall herausgeboren, und dieses ganze Weltenall lebt in seinem physischen, in seinem ätherischen, in seinem astralischen Leibe, und während des Erdendaseins am wenigsten noch im Ich. Aber all das ist in dem Menschen enthalten. All das wirkt und webt in seinem Innern. Wir tragen als Menschen die ganze Vergangenheit der Weltenentwickelung in uns, an der unzählige göttliche Geistgenerationen gearbeitet haben. Diese ganze Arbeit göttlicher Geistgenerationen, die tragen wir in dem Aufbau unserer Organe; die tragen wir in den Kräften, welche unsere Organe durchweben und durchleben; die tragen wir in uns, wenn die Kräfte unserer Organe aufblühen zu unseren Empfindungen und Gedanken. Wir tragen das Wirken in der ganzen Weltevolution, insofern es der Vergangenheit angehört, in uns.

Wenn wir nun, nachdem wir so gewissermaßen wenigstens in Gedanken den Blick geschärft haben für das Vergangene, hinausschauen in die Welt, die hier auf Erden unsere Umgebung bildet, dann sehen wir ja im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein von dieser Welt nur das, was die Sinne darbieten und der Verstand auf Grund der Sinnesbeobachtungen verarbeiten kann. Das ist aber im Grunde genommen das allerwenigste. Hinter dem Sinnendasein liegt eben das weitausgebreitete geistige Dasein, jenes geistige Dasein, das auch tätig ist in allen Farben, die in der Natur erscheinen, in allen Tönen, die von der Natur aus gehört werden können, in allen Wärme- und Kältewahrnehmungen, in allem, was überhaupt auf den Menschen wirken kann aus den Naturerscheinungen heraus.

Da gibt es außer dem offenbaren physisch-sinnlichen Naturdasein ein verborgenes geistiges Naturdasein, eine verborgene geistige Umwelt. Und diese Umwelt, von der wir also gewissermaßen nur die Oberfläche in der Sinneswahrnehmung erblicken, trägt des Menschen zukünftige Entwickelung schon heute in ihrem Schoße. So wie wir in unserem Innern die ganze Vergangenheit in mächtigen Bildern tragen und selbst das Ergebnis dieser Bilder sind, so wirkt und webt in der verborgenen Natur das, was, wenn es sich als Weltenentwickelung weiter entfaltet, uns unsere Zukunft bringt. Wir können also die gewichtigen Sätze vor uns hinstellen: In seinem Innern trägt der Mensch die Weltvergangenheit; in der äußeren Welt wird getragen des Menschen Zukunft.

Dies sind die beiden Grundsätze, fundamentale Sätze der Weltevolution und der Menschenevolution. Schon im einzelnen menschlichen Dasein drückt sich das aus. Es ist ein gewaltiger Unterschied zwischen all dem im Menschen, was nach der Kopforganisation und dem, was nach dem übrigen Leibe hin tendiert. Man könnte sagen, wenn man etwas grob die Sache andeutete -— die Dinge sind natürlich feiner -: Vom Herzen aus wirken die Kräfte gegen die Kopforganisation, bewirken, daß der Kopf diese seine besondere Konfiguration bekommt, von der harten Schädeldecke umgeben ist, ausgefüllt ist von dem, was in der Welt überhaupt den größten Wunderbau darstellt: den Windungen und den Verflechtungen des menschlichen Gehirnes und den Einbettungen der menschlichen Sinne.

All das, was in diesen Kräften lebt, all das, was da aus Brust und Herz nach dem Kopf des Menschen hinaufstrahlt, das ist Ergebnis der Vergangenheit. Das konnte so, wie es im Menschen ist, nur dadurch werden, daß, wie gesagt, unzählige göttliche Geistgenerationen durch Weltenkörper-Metamorphosen, durch planetarische Metamorphosen hindurch gearbeitet haben. Und ich habe ja in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» darauf hingewiesen, wie dieser Erdenentwickelung vorangegangen ist eine Saturnentwickelung, eine Sonnenentwickelung, eine Mondenentwickelung, wie dann die Erdenentwickelung, innerhalb der wir leben, gekommen ist. Innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung haben sich zunächst die Saturnentwickelung, die Sonnenentwickelung, die Mondenentwickelung wiederholt. Wir stehen jetzt etwas über der Mitte der eigentlichen Erdenentwickelung hinaus in der Entwickelung des Menschen auf der Erde.

All die Kräfte, die sich durch lange Zeiträume hindurch unter dem Einflusse von göttlichen Geistgenerationen allmählich entwickelt haben, alle.diese Kräfte leben im Erdenmenschen selbst im physischen Leibe, strahlen vom Herzen nach dem Kopfe hinauf. Was Sie in Ihrem physischen, ätherischen, astralischen und IchWesen fortwährend in sich tragen, als ausstrahlend vom mittleren Menschen nach dem Kopfmenschen, das haben Göttergenerationen durch unermeßliche Zeiträume hindurch vorbereitet und gearbeitet. Und das letzte, was in diesen ausstrahlenden Kräften lebt, unbewußt für den heutigen Menschen noch lebt, das ist das, was sich ausspricht als sein Karma, seine eigene Ich-Vergangenheit während des Erdenlebens.

So daß man sagen kann: Dringt man ein in diese kosmischen Erinnerungskräfte, dann schaut man zuerst auf das Karma, dann auf die verschiedenen Stadien der Erdenentwickelung, dann aber auf die Metamorphosen, auf die planetarischen Umgestaltungen, die die Erde durchgemacht hat, bevor sie selber Erde geworden ist. Denn bevor die Erde entstehen konnte, mußte erst ein solcher Weltenkörper entstehen, der nur aus feiner Wärme bestand: Saturn. Der mußte sterben und im neuen Dasein als Sonne aufgehen, als Sonne, deren letzter Rest die Sonne ist, die wir draußen im Weltenraume sehen. Das war ein nur aus Luft bestehender Weltenkörper, der wiederum sterben mußte, damit ein aus mehr wäßriger Substanz bestehender Weltenkörper, der Mond, entstehen konnte. Der mußte sterben, damit die in fester, in mineralischer Substanz erschienene Erde kommen konnte, auf welcher sich erst der Mensch entwickeln konnte, so wie er heute als Erdenmensch ist.

Aber ebenso, wie wir diese aufwärtsstrebenden Kräfte haben, so tragen wir in uns abwärtsstrebende Kräfte, welche im Herzen eine Art Mittelpunkt haben, durch welche beiden Kräfte der Blutzirkulationsstrom dann einströmt in die Bewegungen unserer Gliedmaßen (siehe Zeichnung S. 265).

Das, was an diesen Kräften vorhanden ist, lebt in jeder Handbewegung, wenn Sie etwas ergreifen, wenn Sie irgendeine äußere Erdentätigkeit vor sich gehen lassen, lebt in jedem Schritte, den Sie unternehmen, um Ihre Erdentaten zu vollenden. Das aber sind Kräfte, die der verborgenen Umwelt angehören. Die gehören nun nicht der Vergangenheit an, die gehören der verborgenen Umwelt an. Die werden erst in den Schoß einer Vergangenheit, die aber eine zukünftige Vergangenheit sein wird, aufgenommen werden, wenn der Mensch durch die Todespforte geht und sein Erdendasein vertauscht mit dem Sternendasein. In diesen Kräften bereitet sich die Zukunft des Menschen vor.

Und diese Zukunft entsteht durch die Wechselwirkung dieser Kräfte mit denjenigen Kräften, die draußen in der verborgenen Natur vorhanden sind. So trägt die Welt des Menschen Zukunft in ihrer eigenen Evolution in sich. Und der Mensch ist in bezug auf diese oberen Kräfte und in bezug auf diese unteren Kräfte in sich ja stark differenziert. Diejenige Erkenntnis, die erworben werden kann, wenn man an dem Hüter der Schwelle vorbeigekommen ist, die zeigt, wie stark der Mensch eigentlich in bezug auf diese beiden Kräfterichtungen differenziert ist.

Für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein bleibt ja alles dasjenige, was unter dem Herzen liegt, unbewußt. Aber weil es für den Menschen unbewußt ist, deshalb ist es nicht minder von einem Bewußtsein erfüllt, von einem Bewußtsein aber, zu dem der Mensch nur in der Gegenwart noch nicht dringt. Daher ist der Mensch in seinem Erleben anders innerlich gestaltet als in seinem Bewußtsein. In seinem Bewußtsein erlebt er ja sozusagen nur dasjenige, was da an der Oberfläche wie eine Insel herausragt aus all den Erlebnissen, die er sonst hat. Das kann man sehen, wenn man den Menschen durchschauen kann, wie er mit diesen, man möchte sagen, heute noch unterbewußten Kräften ausgestattet ist.

Da kann man sehen, wie der Mensch diese oder jene Tat vollbringt, die ihm für den unmittelbaren Erdenaugenblick, in dem er lebt, Wohlgefallen verursacht, Befriedigung verursacht. Sein Kopf ist befriedigt. Der Mensch vollbringt vielleicht aus diesem oder jenem Grunde eine recht böse Tat: Sein Kopf ist befriedigt. Dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein entziehen sich die Zusammenhänge. Aber es kann der Kopf eines Menschen sehr stark befriedigt sein — und die Hand, die die betreffende Tat begeht, in dem Unterbewußten, das aber trotzdem ein Bewußtes in der Welt ist, die Hand erzittert. Und wenn jene Erzitterung auch nicht immer äußerlich sichtbar ist, im ätherischen und astralischen Leibe wird sie ein Beben. So daß man innerlich sehen kann, wie der Mensch an einer vollbrachten Tat im Haupte seine Befriedigung haben kann, wie diese Befriedigung im Unterbewußten ein Erzittern wird, ein Erzittern wird entweder in denjenigen astral-ätherischen Organen, die mit den Armen, oder denjenigen, die mit den Beinen zusammenhängen. In demjenigen, was im Kopfe Befriedigung ergibt an einer bösen Tat, in dem, man möchte sagen, erstirbt das Bewußtsein; aber ein anderes Bewußtsein geht auf in demjenigen, was in dem unteren Menschen erzittert über eine Tat.

In diesem Erzittern bereitet sich das kommende Karma vor. Denn dieses Erzittern ist das Erzittern vor den Kräften der verborgenen Natur, der verborgenen Welt. In diesem Erzittern fühlt der Mensch voraus, was er erleben wird als Sternenurteil, wenn er von der Erdeninsel in den weiten Ozean des Sternenwesens kommt.

So können wir sagen: Im Menschen lebt Vergangenheit der Welt und Zukunft der Welt in verschiedener Weise. Diese Vergangenheit der Welt und diese Zukunft der Welt leben aber auch selbst in der äußeren Gestalt des physischen Leibes. Dasjenige, was der Mensch als Kopforganisation an sich trägt, was das Wunderbarste, Vollkommenste ist, das aus der Weltenentwickelung hervorgeht, das zerbricht zum großen Teile, indem der Mensch durch die Todes-. pforte geht, auch in seinem geistig-inneren Inhalte. Dagegen das, was der Mensch in seiner unteren Organisation hat, wenn Sie es auch nur physisch anschauen, zeigt Ihnen im Physischen das Bild dessen, was da lebt als Geistig-Seelisches in Armen, in Händen, in der ganzen Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselorganisation. In dieser Gliedmaßen-Stoffwechselorganisation lebt ja nicht nur dasjenige, was man sieht als Fleisch und Blut; da leben Kräfte darinnen. Und hinter manchem, was Sie da sehen als Fleisch und Blut zu Armen und Händen physischer Natur geformt, leben die geistigen Kräfte. Diese geistigen Kräfte strömen gegenwärtig durch Ihre Arme, durch Ihre Beine. Im künftigen Erdenleben werden sie strömen durch diejenigen Organe, welche die Kiefer auf- und abwärtsbewegen in der Verlängerung des Ober- und Unterkiefers nach hinten. Die Kopfknochen werden in ihrer plastischen Bildung in dem nächsten Erdenleben sein die umgestalteten Arm- und Beinknochen - natürlich der geistige Teil derselben; das Physische fällt ab. Dasjenige, was Sie heute als Arme und Beine an sich tragen, tragen Sie in der nächsten Erdeninkarnation als die Konfigurationen des Kopfes in sich, den Kräften, der Dynamik nach gesagt. So daß selbst die physische Organisation ein Abbild davon gibt, wie der Mensch durch die Erdenleben durchgeht. Derjenige, der in der richtigen Weise die künstlerische Plastik des menschlichen Hauptes beim heutigen Erdenleben betrachtet, sieht darin die Gestalten, die der Mensch geformt hat durch dasjenige, was er im gewöhnlichen Leben im Behandeln der Menschen und der Erdenwelt durch seine Arme und Hände im vorhergehenden Erdenleben getan hat. Die Taten der Arme und Beine der einen Erdeninkarnation leben in der Formung des Kopfes der nächsten Erdeninkarnation fort. Die gewöhnliche Phrenologie ist darinnen dilettantisch, denn sie macht allerlei intellektuelle Interpretationen der Kopfformung. Aber dahinter steckt eine tiefe okkulte Phrenologie, welche bei jedem Menschen individuell ist und daher nicht in allgemeinen Regeln gelernt werden kann, die aber aus Intuitionen heraus aus den Formen des Kopfes sich enträtseln kann das, wozu der Mensch sich vorbereitet hat in dem, was er im Gehen, im Handeln, im Tun eines vorhergehenden Erdenlebens vollbracht hat.

So hängt Vergangenheit und Zukunft in der Weltentwickelung und in der Menschenentwickelung zusammen.


So steht in dem gegenwärtigen Erdendasein der Mensch vor uns, vor sich selbst, und er zeigt in dem, was er geworden ist, die Arbeit von göttlichen Geistgenerationen, die durch unermeßliche Zeiträume hindurch gewirkt haben. Man kann natürlich nur immer, ich möchte sagen, skizzenhaft nachzeichnen, wie die Bilder, die das gegenwärtige Menschendasein zeigt, hinweisen auf das, was diese Göttergenerationen durch die Metamorphose der Erdenevolution, Saturn, Sonne, Mond, für die Gestaltung des Menschen, für das ganze Leben des Menschen geformt haben. Nehmen wir zunächst drei bedeutsame Impulse im menschlichen Erdenleben, die wir als besonders bezeichnend für den Menschen herausgreifen wollen. Wenn man nur mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein hinsieht auf das Wunderbare, das sich enthüllt, wenn ein Menschenwesen von den ersten Tagen seines Daseins an immer weiter und weiter sich entfaltet - wenn man einen Blick dafür hat, so ahnt man wenigstens die ungeheuren Tiefen, aus denen sich da ein Seelisch-Geistiges heraus ringt, um die unbestimmte Form des Kindes in den ersten Tagen und Wochen in immer bestimmtere zu bilden, in der weiteren Zeit dann die chaotischen Bewegungen der Arme und Beine in geregelte Bewegungen umzuwandeln. Wir ahnen, wie sich da etwas offenbart, was in den unendlichen Tiefen des verborgenen Naturdaseins drinnensteckt als ein Geistiges, das sich im Leibe ausdrückt. Man kann sagen: Es gibt ja nichts Wunderbareres auf der Erde anzuschauen als diese Entfaltung des inneren Menschen im äußeren Menschen, während sich ein Kind in den allerersten Jahren seines Lebens entwickelt. Weiß man diesen Anblick zu durchdringen mit einem wirklich künstlerisch-religiösen Sinn - in Demut, in die man verfallen kann gegenüber dem Geistigen, das sich da enthüllt -, dann übersteigt dasjenige, was man da beobachten kann alle künstlerischen, wissenschaftlichen oder religiösen Eindrücke, die man von der Außenwelt empfangen kann.

Heben wir aber aus dieser kindlichen Entwickelung, kindlichen Entfaltung drei Dinge heraus. Wir sagen so im gewöhnlichen Leben: das Kind lernt gehen. Das ist in der Tat etwas Wunderbares. Aber in diesem: das Kind lernt gehen, steckt ja außerordentlich viel von der Bewegung. Mit allen Gliedmaßen richtet sich das Kind aus einer Richtung, die parallel der Erdenoberfläche ist dem Rückgrat nach, auf zur aufrechten Stellung. In diesem Momente, den wir einfach dadurch, daß wir das Auffälligste, das Sinnenfälligste bezeichnen, wahrnehmen, daß wir sagen: das Kind lernt gehen -, in dieser Zeit seines Lebens lernt ja das Kind alle seine Kräfte in einer anderen Weise in die Erde hinein orientieren. Das Kind lernt, sich mit seinem eigenen inneren Gleichgewicht und dem Gleichmaß seiner Kräfte in den ganzen Kosmos hineinstellen. Aber zugleich erblicken wir in dem, was sich uns da zeigt, wie der Mensch über die Tierwelt hinauswächst. Denn das Tier kann das nicht, erlebt diesen Lebensaugenblick nicht. Das Tier bleibt im wesentlichen mit seinem Rückgrat parallel mit der Erde, oder wenn es sich, wie der Affe, aufwärtsrichtet, so ist diese Aufwärtsrichtung im Widerspruch mit seiner Organisation.

Wer den Menschen beurteilen will, muß das Gehenlernen des Kindes im richtigen Lichte sehen können. Die Naturforscher haben die Knochen der Menschen verglichen mit den Knochen der Tiere und haben gefunden, daß sie veränderte Tierknochen sind, die Muskeln veränderte Tiermuskeln sind und so weiter. So sei es mit allen Organen. Aber auf diesem Wege findet man ja gar nicht den Unterschied des Menschen vom Tier; sondern den Unterschied des Menschen vom Tiere findet man erst, wenn man den Menschen in dem Augenblicke erfaßt, wo er von demjenigen, was ihm tierhaft anhaftet in den ersten Zeiten seines Lebens, sich aufrichtet, seine Gleichgewichtslage hineinorientiert in die Gleichgewichtslage der ganzen Welt. Zu dieser Kunst in seinem Leben hätte der Mensch niemals kommen können, wenn sie nicht schon vorbereitet worden wäre in urältester Zeit. Diese Kunst ruhte im menschlichen Wesen im Keime schon während des Saturndaseins. (Während der folgenden Ausführungen wird an die Tafel gezeichnet. Siehe Schema S. 269 + 271). Während des Saturndaseins haben göttliche Geister den Keim zu demjenigen gelegt, was sich zeigt, wenn das Kind, wie wir sagen, gehen lernt. Da waren noch gar keine Tiere da; die sind erst später während des Sonnendaseins gekommen. So daß der Mensch in seiner Anlage älter ist als das Tier. All dasjenige, was in diesem unsichtbar Kraftenden liegt, was den Menschen zum Gehen bringt, weist in seiner Abstammung zurück bis zum Saturndasein.

Das zweite, was im Kinde auftritt, ist, daß sich aus seinem Orientieren im Raume die Kräfte nach innen drängen. Und die Kräfte, die sich nach innen drängen, die kommen wiederum in einer anderen Weise zum Vorschein. Ich ergreife die Kreide. Da geht eine Kraft nach außen. Aber eine Gegenkraft geht nach innen, die entlädt sich in den inneren Organen. Diese von der Orientierung in die Bewegung durch die Glieder kommende, nach innen gerichtete Kraft, die kommt dann in der kindlichen Entwickelung zum Vorschein, wenn das Kind sprechen lernt. Das ist das zweite, was das Kind lernt: sprechen. Zuerst kommen die Kräfte nach außen: das Kind lernt sich orientieren im Raume. Es kommen dieselben Kräfte nach innen: das Kind lernt sprechen.

Die Naturwissenschaft weiß von dem nur einen kleinen Teil. Sie weiß ja nur, daß der Rechtshänder das Sprachzentrum in der linken Gehirnhälfte und der Linkshänder das Sprachzentrum in der rechten Gehirnhälfte hat. Aber alles dasjenige, was im Gehirn überhaupt ist von der Sprachentwickelung, das wird von den Gliedmaßen erst in das Gehirn hineingearbeitet, während das Kind gehen, greifen, sich bewegen, die Dinge umfassen lernt. Das sind die nach innen gehenden Kräfte, die dann übergehen vom Gehirn aus in die Sprachorgane.

Wiederum haben die göttlich-geistigen Wesen seit unermeßlichen Zeiten vorbereitet, daß die menschliche Organisation so ist, daß sie im Kinde zur Sprache werden kann. Daß der Mensch die Sprache erlernen konnte, das rührt davon her, daß die göttlichgeistigen Wesen an dem Menschen, den sie vorbereitet haben für das Gehen seit der Saturnzeit, daß die göttlich-geistigen Wesen gearbeitet haben auf der Sonne, um im Menschen die Sprache zu erzeugen.

Und das dritte, was das Kind aus der Sprache heraus entwickelt, was auch die Menschheit aus der Sprache heraus entwickelt hat denn erst lernten die Menschen in der Erdenentwickelung sprechen, dann erst denken -, was die Menschen herausentwickeln, was das Kind herausentwickelt aus der Sprache, das ist der Gedanke. Und der Gedanke, der ist vorbereitet von göttlich-geistigen Wesen seit der Mondenzeit. Das ist des Menschen Entwickelung innerhalb der vergangenen Welt, daß göttlich-geistige Generationen an ihm vorbereitet haben Gehen, Sprechen, Denken: Saturnentwickelung, Sonnenentwickelung, Mondenentwickelung.

In der Weltentwickelung kam dazu während der Sonnenzeit die Tierheit, natürlich in einer anderen Gestalt als heute. Heute müssen sie Pflanzen fressen, das haben sie damals nicht gebraucht; sie waren bloß in der Luft vorhandene Wesen, aus Luftmaterie bestehende Wesen. Während des Mondendaseins kamen die Pflanzen dazu.

Nun geht die Entwickelung über nach dem Erdendasein. Da erst entwickelt der Mensch das, worinnen die Kräfte des Gehens, des Sprechens, des Denkens sichtbarlich leben, die Gestalt, die Figur. Mit der Gestalt zu gleicher Zeit tritt auf das Mineralreich. In den Menschen gliedert sich das Mineralreich dann auch ein. Damit charakterisiert man die Vergangenheit des Menschen.

Will man auf die Zukunft des Menschen sehen, dann muß man, wenn man etwas Gegenwärtiges auf der Erde nehmen will, vom Alter aus charakterisieren. Da muß man dasjenige, was sich in der heutigen Menschheit außerordentlich undeutlich beim Altern, beim Altwerden ausdrückt, charakterisieren. Während dasjenige, was sich bei der Entfaltung des Kindes offenbart im Gehen, Sprechen, Denken, offenbar ist, weil es sich nach außen ankündigt, so sieht man dasjenige, was gewissermaßen gegen das Alter zu im Menschen immer geistiger und geistiger wird, heute noch wenig, wenn man nicht mit einem geistigen Blick den Menschen anschaut. Ich sagte, es ist das Wunderbarste, wie im Körper nach und nach das Seelisch-Geistige zur Offenbarung kommt, und es ist, wenn man das richtig anschaut, das tiefste religiöse Gefühl vor der bedeutsamsten Kunst, das einen da überkommen kann. Aber wiederum ist es etwas ebenso Bewundernswürdiges, zu sehen, wie das, was der Mensch nun durch Gehen, Sprechen und Denken während seines Erdendaseins in seinem ganzen Wesen erlebt hat, wie das nach und nach wiederum ins Geistige hinein verschwindet, um dann durch die Pforte des Todes zu gehen, wie die Gedanken, wie die Worte, wie alles das, was der Mensch errungen und erarbeitet hat mit den Händen, ins Geistige hinein verschwindet, und der Mensch dann dieses Geistige, das er empfängt aus Denken, Sprechen und Gehen, hineinträgt durch die Todespforte wiederum ins geistige Leben. Und geradeso wie uns hinweist das, was im Kinde als Gehen, Sprechen, Denken zum Vorschein kommt, auf die Vorstadien der Erdenentwickelung, Mond, Sonne, Saturn, so weist uns das, was der Mensch in seinen Gedanken erlebt, zunächst hin auf seine nächsten Erdenleben, von da aus aber in die große Epoche der Erdenentwickelung.

Von da aus aber weist uns die Entwickelung, die Entfaltung der Welt und des Menschen auf jenen Zustand hin, der aber erst erlebt werden kann, wenn die Erde wiederum gestorben ist und in einem neuen planetarischen Dasein, dem Jupiterdasein, wieder aufgegangen ist; auf das weisen uns die Menschengedanken hin. Denn diese Menschengedanken selber werden dann nicht als fluktuierende Gedanken im Menschen leben, sondern selber gestaltet sein. Und auftreten wird der gestaltete Gedanke in der Gestalt des Menschen.

Heute können wir unsere Gedanken verbergen in uns, und unser Antlitz trägt unter Umständen höchst unschuldige Gestalt, während wir im Innern schuldig sind. Das werden wir während der nächsten Metamorphose des Erdendaseins, im Jupiterdasein, nicht können. Da werden wir das Antlitz an uns tragen, das der Gedanke erzeugt. Denn unsere menschliche Gestalt wird nicht so fest sein, mineralisch fest, sondern sie wird selbst innerlich beweglich sein, aus einer ganz weichen Materie bestehen. Und wenn einer einen falschen Gedanken im Innern hegt, so wird dieser Gedanke in der augenblicklichen Formung seines Antlitzes vor seine Mitmenschen hintreten. Alles, was Gedanke ist, wird im Augenblick Gestalt werden. Und als das, was dauernder Gedanke ist, was Temperament ist, als das werden die Menschen herumgehen. Man wird einem gleich ansehen, wenn einer ein Bösewicht ist, oder wenn er nur animalische Triebe hat, während des Jupiterdaseins. Das ist das erste Stadium der Menschenzukunft.

Das zweite Stadium ist dasjenige, was der Mensch nun entwikkeln kann aus seinem Sprechen. Das Sprechen ist ja heute etwas, was aus dem Inneren eben nur durch das Medium der Luft nach außen dringt. Dieses Sprechen wird ein Schöpferisches in der Zukunft werden. Das ausgesprochene Wort wird nicht nur verfallen in der Luft, sondern das ausgesprochene Wort wird vorhanden bleiben. Der Mensch wird gestaltenschöpferisch werden durch das Wort.

So daß der Mensch durch den Gedanken schon von der Jupiterzeit an sich selber formen wird. Durch das Wort wird er seine Umwelt formen während des Venusdaseins, denn dann wird dieses eintreten: Wird der Mensch während des Venusdaseins ein böses Wort aussprechen, so wird während dieses Venusdaseins, das im wesentlichen in einer so feinen Materie, wie die Luft ist, existieren wird, in der Luft etwas entstehen wie eine häßliche Pflanzengestalt. Der Mensch wird also die Geschöpfe seiner eigenen Sprache um sich herum haben.

Und das, was lebt im Gehen, im Bewegen der Arme, wird während der letzten Metamorphose der Erde entwickelt, während des Vulkandaseins. Schöpferische Gefühle treten auf, schöpferische Sprache, und die Gefühle, in der Sprache schöpferisch, treten während des Venusdaseins auf.

Heute gehen wir zu unseren Taten, wir verrichten unsere Taten mit unseren Armen. Allein, das bleibt nicht. Ich gehe dahin, habe irgend etwas zu tun. Es kann natürlich auch etwas Komplizierteres sein, ich kann in eine komplizierte Sache gegangen sein oder dergleichen, kann auch meinetwillen einen Krieg geführt haben. Wir gehen wieder weg. Dann ist nichts da in der äußeren Welt.

Während des Vulkandaseins wird alles bleiben. Da wird der Mensch nicht nur gehen und greifen, sondern alles dasjenige, was er geht und greift, ist hineingezeichnet in das Vulkandasein. Seine Taten sind selber verwirklicht im Vulkandasein. So daß wir im Vulkandasein das verwirklichte, realisierte Tun des Menschen haben.

Sie sehen, welch ein gewaltiger Einschnitt da ist mit dem Erdendasein zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft der Welt- und Menschheitsentwickelung. Alles das, was bis zur Erde gegangen ist, haben göttliche Geistgenerationen gemacht. Das, was folgen wird, wird der Mensch selber machen. Das ist das Eintreten der Freiheit in die Menschenwesenheit innerhalb des Kosmos. Der Mensch ist von Göttern hereingesetzt in die Welt, bekommt sein freies Dasein; er hat sein Gehen, Sprechen und Denken von den Göttern erlangt, selbst seine Gestalt. Er wird in Gehen, Sprechen und Denken dasjenige hineinfügen für die Evolution der Welt in der Zukunft, was er selbst ist. Und jetzt ist der Mensch eben daran, sich erst einzuleben aus der Vergangenheit heraus in die Zukunft hinein. Er hat ja ein Stück Vergangenheit in dem, was in seinem eigenen Karma liegt, und er hat ein Stück Zukunft in dem, was er für das Karma von sich selbst für die Zukunft wollen wird. Der Mensch ist gewissermaßen jetzt in der Lehrzeit zwischen Vergangenheit und Zukunft.

Das bewirkt auch, daß die Dinge sich nicht ohne weiteres so genau vollziehen können, wie ich sie gestern als das Vorgezeichnete dargestellt habe. Ich sagte, diese 2160 Jahre müßten eigentlich verlaufen zwischen zwei Inkarnationen. Aber der Mensch nimmt ja weitaus nicht alles dasjenige auf während seines Erdenlebens, was er aus dem Erdenleben herausziehen könnte. Daher stellen sich natürlich heute noch in Wirklichkeit die Zeiträume zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt für viele Menschen ganz anders heraus, für keinen Menschen übrigens noch 2160 Jahre, sondern wesentlich kürzer.

Menschen, die ganz und gar sich nur dem Erdenleben hingegeben haben, die etwas Kriminelles in ihrem Wesen haben, die haben wenig Möglichkeiten in sich aufgehäuft, um auf den Ozean des Sternendaseins hinauszusegeln; sie kommen sehr bald wiederum zum Erdenleben zurück, nachdem sie eine kurze Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchgemacht haben. Andere haben das, was sie schon als ein Geistig-Seelisches während des Erdenlebens ausgebildet haben, in einer längeren Zeit zu verfeinern, zu vervollkommnen. So daß man sagen kann: namentlich aniimalisch gerichtete Menschen, die sich leicht ihren Trieben, ihren Leidenschaften hingeben, sie kommen bald zurück. Diejenigen, die eine geistig normale Entwickelung durchmachen, sie kommen nach späterer Zeit zurück. Aber es können auch Menschen, die aus dem Erdenleben selber heraus zum Beispiel die Anregung schöpfen können durch tiefere Einsicht in das, was im gegenwärtigen Zeitalter gelingt, in sich Impulse aufnehmen und den Opferwillen haben - gerade weil sie tief und geistig in die Welt hineinsehen -, zurückzukommen, sobald sie wiederum mitwirken können an der Erdenentwickelung. Denn man kann, indem man dem Geiste Liebe entgegenbringt schon im Erdenleben, man kann die drei bis sechs Durchgänge, die ich gestern beschrieben habe — durch das Mars-, Jupiter-, Saturnwesen -, beschleunigen, schneller machen. Wer mit niederen Trieben ausgestattet durch die Todespforte geht, der bebt vorher zurück, vollendet nicht die Kreise, wird namentlich von der Planetoidenregion zurückgestoßen. Wie die Menschen heute in allerlei Kreise hineinkommen dadurch, daß sie sich gewissen Einflüssen der Welt hingeben, im persönlichen Leben, im nationalen Leben und so weiter, davon will ich noch morgen sprechen.

Derjenige Mensch, der richtig bis zu der Planetoidenregion kommt, der vollbringt heute, man kann sagen, sieben- bis achthundert Jahre zwischen einem Erdenleben und dem anderen. Das ist für diejenigen Menschen, die nicht gerade niedere Naturen sind, das Normale. Aber durch ein tieferes Hineinblicken und durch eine Liebe zur geistigen Welt kann auch bewußt das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt abgekürzt werden. Dann können gerade solche Naturen verhältnismäßig bald wieder erscheinen, die aus diesem Erdenleben viel gewinnen, damit sie möglichst gut bald wiederum zur Umgestaltung der Erdenzivilisation und der Erdenkultur arbeiten können.


Ich mußte Sie in Gedanken aus der irdischen Welt in die Welt der Sterne, in die Welt der Bewohner der Sterne führen, um in einer in der Gegenwart wirklich angemessenen Weise hinauszuweisen aus der Welt, in der im allgemeinen der Mensch in der Gegenwart befangen ist, in diejenige Welt hinein, in die er eintreten muß durch innere Erkenntnis, wenn er seine Zukunft in der richtigen Weise erleben will.

Nun ist im allgemeinen der Mensch heute aber weit davon entfernt, sich von der materiellen Welt loszulösen, in der uns unmittelbar umgebenden, sinnlich-physischen Welt schon das Geistige zu suchen. Es ist heute die Zeit schon etwas spät geworden, um auf die Hindernisse hinzuweisen, die dem Menschen in der Gegenwart gegenüberstehen, wenn er, wie zum Beispiel in der Psychoanalyse - ich werde morgen darauf hinweisen - eindringen will wenigstens in die menschliche Geisteswelt. Ein richtiger Weg gerade aus der unmittelbaren Beobachtung des Sinnlich-Physischen wird sich aber ergeben auch für diejenigen Kreise, welche ganz aus der Wissenschaft der Gegenwart heraus arbeiten wollen, wenn sie eben schon im Physisch-Sinnlichen versuchen, das Geistige zu finden. Das kann man. Und ein gewisser Beweis dafür, daß man das kann, ist gegeben in der eben erschienenen Broschüre unseres Physiologisch-Biologischen Institutes in Stuttgart. Da hat Frau Dr. Kolisko jetzt die Ergebnisse einer sehr schönen Untersuchung veröffentlicht unter dem Titel: «Physiologischer und physikalischer Nachweis der Wirksamkeit kleinster Entitäten». Sie wissen, daß die Homöopathie wirken will durch starke Verdünnungen der physischen Materie. Man kommt auf diese Weise, indem man die physische Materie zu starker Verdünnung bringt, schon, indem man über die Wirksamkeit starker Verdünnung der Materie geht, ins Geistige hinein. Nun ist es gelungen, tatsächlich nachzuweisen, daß man auf exaktem Wege finden kann, wie kleinste Entitäten, stärkste Verdünnungen wirken. Frau Dr. Kolisko hat die Anweisungen, die ich nach dieser Richtung gegeben habe, mit größter Gewissenhaftigkeit durch lange Zeiten durchgeführt, und es ist uns gelungen, auf diese Weise Verdünnungen zu erzeugen im Verhältnisse von 1:1 Trillion.

Wenn man irgendeinen Stoff vollständig auflöst in einem Wasserglase, dann die Hälfte wegschüttet, und das was man übrigbehalten hat, wiederum auflöst in der Menge des Wassers eines ganzen Wasserglases, so hat man eine Verdünnung von 1:2 erreicht; wenn man die Hälfte wiederum wegschüttet, das wiederum im ganzen Glas hat, hat man 1:4, und so geht es fort. Nun sind in unserem Biologischen Institut in Stuttgart durch gewissenhafte, exakte Methoden Möglichkeiten herausgekommen, um eben wirklich genaue Verdünnungen zu erreichen von 1:1 Trillion; dadurch erreicht man die sogenannten höheren Potenzen. Und Sie werden finden in dieser Arbeit, was erreicht wird auf diesem Wege, sagen wir, gerade bei dem Antimon, über das ich ja auch gesprochen habe in diesen Tagen im medizinischen Vortrag. Da findet man, daß sich das Pflanzenwachstum, zum Beispiel das Wachsen eines Weizenkeimes, gegen die 21. Potenz zu am langsamsten, dagegen bei den Potenzen gegen die 29., 30. Potenz zu am schnellsten vollzieht. So daß man also in einer Flüssigkeit irgendeine Substanz verdünnt hat in hohen Potenzen — wie gesagt, wir haben die Potenz erzeugt, die der Verdünnung entspricht 1:1 Trillion -, und man sieht nun, wie niedere Potenzen, Verdünnungen, den Pflanzenkeim anders wachsen lassen, wie die höchsten Verdünnungen gerade den Pflanzenkeim am schnellsten wachsen lassen, das heißt die Lebenskraft am meisten anregen. Auf diese Weise ist es also gelungen, das bloß Materielle zu zerspalten, so daß in dem bloß Materiellen das wirklich Geistige zum Vorschein kommt. Denn wenn Sie das Materielle nicht, wie der Atomist es macht, in Atome zerspalten, sondern es in seinen Funktionen, Kräften zur Wirksamkeit bringen, dann zeigen Sie den guten Willen, ich möchte sagen, die Materie selber mit Geist zu durchsetzen, um ins Geistige überzutreten.

Nun können Sie sich denken, was das bedeutet für das exakte Anschauen von Heilmitteln in ihrer Wirkung auf den menschlichen Organismus; denn man sieht ja die Wirkung. Man erzeugt die Verdünnung, hat sie im Laboratoriumgläschen, läßt darinnen bei dieser Potenz einen Weizenkeim keimen, bei der nächsten Potenz einen Weizenkeim keimen und so weiter. Man hat nun diese Weizenkeime. Allerdings, bei dieser exakten Untersuchung waren ganze Zimmer angefüllt mit Keimen von Weizenkörnern, an denen sich zeigte, wie die verschiedenen Verdünnungen die Erde beeinflußten, aus der das Weizenkorn heraus keimt. Das, sehen Sie, ist dasjenige, was aus der heutigen Wissenschaft heraus gemacht werden muß, um schon das materielle Wissen ins Geistige hineinzutreiben. Sie wissen, es bestand immer zwischen Homöopathie und Allopathie ein gewisser Streit über die Wirkung kleinster Entitäten unter großen Verdünnungen. Die ganze Angelegenheit war bisher im Grunde genommen mehr die Sache eines Glaubens. Der eine bekannte sich mehr zu dem, der andere mehr zu dem. Nun handelt es sich hier nicht darum, für die Homöopathie Partei zu ergreifen, sondern nur exakt wissenschaftliche Tatsachen festzustellen. Es wird selbstverständlich in der Zukunft so sein, daß man nun wissen wird, wo man Substanzen unmittelbar allopathisch anwenden muß, wo man sie verdünnt anwenden muß, damit sie in der richtigen Weise auf den Menschen, namentlich den menschlichen Ätherleib Einfluß haben, der ja die Lebenskräfte darstellt, und wie stark man sie verdünnen muß. Man wird also in der Zukunft genau die Grenzen ziehen können: Da mußt du allopathisch vorgehen, da mußt du homöopathisch vorgehen, denn geradeso wie man sonst wissenschaftliche Versuche mit aller Exaktheit macht, so ist in dieser Broschüre von Frau Dr. Kolisko: «Physiologischer und physikalischer Nachweis der Wirksamkeit kleinster Entitäten», eben in unserem Stuttgarter Biologischen Laboratorium der Nachweis geliefert darüber, wie kleinste Entitäten wirklich wirken. Dasjenige, was bisher also bloßer Glaube sein konnte, ist damit wirklich auf einem wichtigen Gebiete zur Wissenschaft erhoben. Aber noch etwas anderes zeigt sich.

Sehen Sie sich einmal in dieser Schrift die exakt ausgearbeiteten Kurven an, in denen gezeigt ist, wie die Wachstumskräfte auf- und absteigen, sehen Sie da, wie die Kurven gezeichnet sein müssen bei geringen Verdünnungen, und wie bei größeren Verdünnungen. Sehen Sie, wie Sie bei gewissen Verdünnungen Minima, bei größeren Verdünnungen Maxima des Wachstums bekommen. Dann geht es aber wiederum auf ein Minimum zurück, wiederum zum Maximum und so weiter. So daß Sie an den außerordentlich gewissenhaft hingezeichneten Kurven unmittelbar eine Einsicht in einen in aller Materie wirkenden Rhythmus bekommen, in den Rhythmus, der überall im Materiellen schon das Geistige ausdrückt. Wir gehen beim Menschen von dem Stoffwechselsystem über zu dem rhythmischen System. Wir können aber auch in der Natur das rhythmische System auf ganz exakt wissenschaftliche Weise finden. Das sehen Sie gerade an dieser Arbeit, die, wie ich glaube, tatsächlich ein wichtiger Markstein sein könnte, gerade auch in der medizinischen Frage zwischen Homöopathie und Allopathie, so überhaupt was die Einsicht in die Natur betrifft. Man wird in der Zukunft, wenn man diese Forschungsresultate in der richtigen Weise würdigen wird, nicht mehr bloß auf dem Wege des Messens, des Wägens, also bloß auf atomistische Weise die Naturgesetze suchen, sondern man wird erkennen, wie in aller Materie sich schon ein Rhythmus zeigt, wie daher in dem Rhythmus des Naturgeschehens sich abdrückt der Rhythmus des Kosmos.

Darauf wollte ich nur aufmerksam machen als auf einen Weg, der aus der ganz exakten Wissenschaft heraus eingeschlagen werden muß. Morgen werde ich fortfahren, zu zeigen, wie zum Beispiel in der Psychoanalyse und dergleichen etwas wie eine Art theoretische Aversion vorhanden ist, diese Wege, die vom Physisch-Natürlichen zum Geistigen führen, wirklich zu beschreiten.

Will aber die Menschheit aufwärts, und nicht abwärts in der Zivilisation kommen, so muß sie die geistigen Wege beschreiten.

The evolution of the world in connection with the evolution of man

Let us first consciously summarize the observations that have been made about the world and man, and we will come to how man carries within himself, albeit in image, the past of the world, and how man can gradually lift up these images of the world's past. In the ordinary consciousness of the day there is nothing of all this but the memory that points man back to the experiences he has had in earthly life. But when man then leads this ordinary consciousness along the paths I have indicated, then, as the spiritual consciousness becomes brighter and brighter, more and more of the past of the world's development emerges in him. And we have seen how the human being has to experience this world past again between death and a new birth.

We can say: When in the imagination that which remains imperceptible to the senses gradually becomes visible for the earthly existence, then man already looks back into all that which has taken place in his present course on earth not only as images of memory, but which has shaped him himself, which has formed him from within as forces of growth, as forces of nourishment, but which all emanate from the spirit.

Further on, in inspiration, man looks into the pre-earthly existence, but not only into the pre-earthly existence of his own being. We have seen how he reaches out, one might say, from the cosmic earth island into the free cosmic sea of worlds in which the stars are embedded, but which now become for him the dwelling places of spiritual beings.

And then, when intuition arises, the human being looks back to past earthly lives. With these past earth lives, however, the entire life of the world in its past simultaneously emerges before his gaze. Man is indeed born out of the whole universe, and this whole universe lives in his physical, etheric and astral body, and during his earthly existence least of all in the ego. But all this is contained in the human being. All this works and weaves within him. As human beings, we carry within us the entire past of world development, on which countless divine spirit generations have worked. We carry all this work of divine spirit generations in the structure of our organs; we carry it in the forces that weave and live through our organs; we carry it in us when the forces of our organs blossom into our sensations and thoughts. We carry within us the workings of the whole world evolution, in so far as it belongs to the past.

When we now look out into the world that forms our environment here on earth, after we have sharpened our view of the past, at least in our thoughts, then in our ordinary consciousness we only see of this world what the senses present and what the intellect can process on the basis of sensory observations. But that is basically the very least. Behind the existence of the senses lies the far-reaching spiritual existence, that spiritual existence which is also active in all colors that appear in nature, in all sounds that can be heard from nature, in all perceptions of warmth and cold, in everything that can have an effect on man from natural phenomena.

In addition to the obvious physical-sensual existence of nature, there is a hidden spiritual existence of nature, a hidden spiritual environment. And this environment, of which we thus only see the surface, so to speak, in sense perception, already carries the future development of man in its bosom today. Just as we carry the whole past within us in powerful images and are ourselves the result of these images, so that which, when it continues to unfold as world development, brings us our future, works and weaves in hidden nature. We can therefore place these weighty sentences before us: In his inner being man bears the world past; in the outer world is borne man's future.

These are the two principles, fundamental propositions of world evolution and human evolution. This is already expressed in individual human existence. There is an enormous difference between all that in man which tends towards the head organization and that which tends towards the rest of the body. One could say, if one were to indicate the matter somewhat roughly - things are, of course, more subtle - that from the heart the forces work against the head organization, cause the head to acquire its particular configuration, to be surrounded by the hard skullcap, to be filled with that which in the world represents the greatest miracle structure of all: the convolutions and the interweaving of the human brain and the embedding of the human senses.

All that which lives in these powers, all that which radiates up from the chest and heart to the human head, is the result of the past. It could only become what it is in the human being because, as I said, countless divine spirit generations have worked through world-body metamorphoses, through planetary metamorphoses. And in my “Secret Science” I have pointed out how this earth evolution was preceded by a Saturn evolution, a sun evolution, a moon evolution, and how the earth evolution, within which we live, came about. Within the earth evolution, the Saturn evolution, the sun evolution and the moon evolution were first repeated. We are now somewhat beyond the middle of the actual earth evolution in the development of the human being on earth.

All the forces that have gradually developed over long periods of time under the influence of divine spirit generations, all these forces live in the earthly human being himself in the physical body, radiating upwards from the heart to the head. What you continually carry within you in your physical, etheric, astral and ego being, as radiating from the middle man to the head man, has been prepared and worked on by generations of gods through immeasurable periods of time. And the last thing that lives in these emanating forces, that still lives unconsciously for man today, is that which expresses itself as his karma, his own ego-past during his life on earth.

So that one can say: If one penetrates into these cosmic powers of memory, then one looks first at the karma, then at the various stages of the earth's development, but then at the metamorphoses, at the planetary transformations which the earth went through before it became earth itself. For before the earth could come into being, a world body had to come into being that consisted only of subtle warmth: Saturn. It had to die and rise in its new existence as the sun, as the sun whose last remnant is the sun we see outside in outer space. This was a world body consisting only of air, which in turn had to die so that a world body consisting of more watery substance, the moon, could arise. This had to die so that the earth, which appeared in solid, mineral substance, could come, on which only man could develop as he is today as earth man.

But just as we have these upward-striving forces, so we carry within us downward-striving forces, which have a kind of center in the heart, through which two forces the blood-circulation current then flows into the movements of our limbs (see drawing p. 265).

What is present in these forces lives in every hand movement when you grasp something, when you let some outer earth activity take place, lives in every step you take to complete your earth deeds. But these are forces that belong to the hidden environment. They do not belong to the past, they belong to the hidden environment. They will only be received into the bosom of a past, which will be a future past, when man passes through the gate of death and exchanges his earthly existence for a starry existence. In these forces the future of man is being prepared.

And this future arises through the interaction of these forces with those forces that are present outside in the hidden nature. Thus the human world carries the future within itself in its own evolution. And man is highly differentiated in himself with regard to these upper forces and with regard to these lower forces. The knowledge that can be acquired when one has passed the Guardian of the Threshold shows how strongly man is actually differentiated in relation to these two directions of forces.

For the ordinary consciousness, everything that lies below the heart remains unconscious. But because it is unconscious for man, it is no less filled with a consciousness, a consciousness, however, which man does not yet reach in the present. That is why man is inwardly formed differently in his experience than in his consciousness. In his consciousness he experiences, so to speak, only that which stands out on the surface like an island from all the other experiences he has. You can see this if you can see through the human being, how he is equipped with these, one might say, still subconscious powers today.

There you can see how man accomplishes this or that deed which causes him pleasure and satisfaction for the immediate moment on earth in which he lives. His head is satisfied. For this or that reason man may perform a rather evil deed: his head is satisfied. The connections elude the ordinary consciousness. But a man's head can be very strongly satisfied - and the hand that commits the deed in question, in the subconscious, which is nevertheless a conscious being in the world, the hand trembles. And even if this trembling is not always visible externally, in the etheric and astral body it becomes a tremor. So that one can see inwardly how man can have his satisfaction in a completed deed in the head, how this satisfaction becomes a trembling in the subconscious, a trembling either in those astral-etheric organs which are connected with the arms, or those which are connected with the legs. In that which in the head gives satisfaction from an evil deed, in that, one might say, the consciousness dies; but another consciousness arises in that which trembles in the lower man over a deed.

In this trembling the coming karma prepares itself. For this trembling is the trembling before the forces of the hidden nature, the hidden world. In this trembling, man senses in advance what he will experience as a star judgment when he comes from the earth island into the vast ocean of the star being.

So we can say: In man lives the past of the world and the future of the world in different ways. This past of the world and this future of the world also live in the outer form of the physical body. That which the human being carries in himself as a head organization, which is the most wonderful, most perfect thing that emerges from the development of the world, also breaks up to a large extent in its spiritual-inner content when the human being passes through the gate of death. On the other hand, what man has in his lower organization, even if you only look at it physically, shows you in the physical the image of what lives there as spiritual-soul in arms, in hands, in the whole limb-metabolic organization. In this metabolic organization of the limbs lives not only that which you see as flesh and blood; forces live in it. And behind some of what you see there as flesh and blood formed into arms and hands of a physical nature, spiritual forces live. These spiritual forces are currently flowing through your arms and legs. In your future life on earth they will flow through those organs that move the jaws up and down in the extension of the upper and lower jaw towards the back. In their plastic formation in the next earth life, the head bones will be the reshaped arm and leg bones - naturally the spiritual part of them; the physical part will fall away. That which you carry with you today as arms and legs, you will carry in the next earth incarnation as the configurations of the head, according to the forces, according to the dynamics. So that even the physical organization gives an image of how the human being passes through the earth lives. He who looks in the right way at the artistic sculpture of the human head in the present life on earth, sees in it the shapes which man has formed by what he has done in ordinary life in dealing with men and the earth-world through his arms and hands in the previous life on earth. The deeds of the arms and legs of one earthly incarnation live on in the shaping of the head of the next earthly incarnation. Ordinary phrenology is amateurish in this, for it makes all kinds of intellectual interpretations of the formation of the head. But behind this lies a deep occult phrenology, which is individual to each person and therefore cannot be learned in general rules, but which can unravel from intuitions out of the forms of the head what the person has prepared himself for in what he has accomplished in walking, in acting, in doing in a previous earthly life.

Thus past and future are connected in the development of the world and in the development of man.


So in the present earthly existence man stands before us, before himself, and in what he has become he shows the work of divine spirit generations that have worked through immeasurable periods of time. Of course, one can only ever trace, I would say sketchily, how the images that the present human existence shows point to what these generations of gods have formed through the metamorphosis of earth evolution, Saturn, Sun, Moon, for the shaping of man, for the whole life of man. Let us first take three significant impulses in human life on earth which we would like to single out as particularly characteristic of man. If we only look with ordinary consciousness at the marvelous things that are revealed when a human being unfolds further and further from the first days of his existence - if we have an eye for it, we can at least sense the immense depths from which a soul-spiritual being struggles to form the indeterminate form of the child in the first days and weeks into ever more definite ones, and then in later times to transform the chaotic movements of the arms and legs into regulated movements. We can sense how something is revealed here that is hidden in the infinite depths of nature as a spiritual being that expresses itself in the body. One can say: There is nothing more wonderful to behold on earth than this unfolding of the inner man in the outer man, while a child is developing in the very first years of its life. If one knows how to penetrate this sight with a truly artistic-religious sense - in humility, into which one can fall towards the spiritual that is revealed there - then what one can observe there surpasses all artistic, scientific or religious impressions that one can receive from the outside world.

But let us single out three things from this childlike development, childlike unfolding. We say in ordinary life: the child learns to walk. That is indeed something wonderful. But in this: the child learns to walk, there is an extraordinary amount of movement. With all its limbs, the child straightens up from a direction parallel to the surface of the earth along the spine to an upright position. At this moment, which we perceive simply by designating the most conspicuous, the most obvious to the senses, by saying: the child learns to walk - at this time of its life the child learns to orient all its forces in a different way towards the earth. The child learns to place itself in the whole cosmos with its own inner balance and the equilibrium of its forces. But at the same time, we see in what is shown to us how the human being grows beyond the animal world. For the animal cannot do this, does not experience this moment of life. The animal essentially remains with its backbone parallel to the earth, or if, like the ape, it straightens upwards, this upward direction is in contradiction with its organization.

Those who wish to judge man must be able to see the child's learning to walk in the right light. Naturalists have compared the bones of man with the bones of animals and have found that they are modified animal bones, the muscles are modified animal muscles and so on. It is the same with all organs. But in this way one does not find the difference between man and animal; rather, one only finds the difference between man and animal when one grasps man at the moment when he straightens up from that which clings to him in an animal-like way in the first times of his life, when he orients his equilibrium into the equilibrium of the whole world. Man could never have arrived at this art in his life if it had not already been prepared in the most ancient times. This art was already dormant in the human being during Saturn's existence. (During the following explanations drawings are made on the blackboard. See diagram p. 269 + 271). During Saturn's existence divine spirits laid the germ of that which appears when the child, as we say, learns to walk. There were no animals then; they only came later during the solar existence. So that man is older in his disposition than the animal. All that which lies in this invisible force, which makes man walk, points back in its descent to Saturn's existence.

The second thing that occurs in the child is that from its orientation in space the forces push inwards. And the forces that push themselves inwards appear in a different way. I grasp the chalk. A force is moving outwards. But a counterforce is moving inwards, discharging itself in the inner organs. This inwardly directed force, which comes from the orientation in the movement through the limbs, comes to the fore in the child's development when the child learns to speak. This is the second thing the child learns: to speak. First the forces come outwards: the child learns to orient itself in space. The same forces come inwards: the child learns to speak.

Natural science only knows a small part of this. It only knows that the right-handed person has the speech center in the left hemisphere of the brain and the left-handed person has the speech center in the right hemisphere. But everything that is in the brain in the development of language is first worked into the brain by the limbs, while the child learns to walk, grasp, move and grasp things. These are the inward forces that then pass from the brain into the organs of speech.

On the other hand, the divine-spiritual beings have prepared since immeasurable times that the human organization is such that it can become language in the child. The fact that man could learn language stems from the fact that the divine-spiritual beings have worked on man, whom they have prepared for walking since the time of Saturn, that the divine-spiritual beings have worked on the sun in order to produce language in man.

And the third thing, what the child develops out of language, what also mankind has developed out of language because first men learned to speak in the earth development, only then to think - what men develop out, what the child develops out of language, that is thought. And thought has been prepared by divine-spiritual beings since the time of the moon. This is man's development within the past world, that divine-spiritual generations have prepared walking, speaking, thinking in him: Saturnian development, solar development, lunar development.

In the evolution of the world, during the time of the sun, the animal kingdom was added, naturally in a different form than today. Today they have to eat plants, they did not need to do that then; they were merely beings existing in the air, beings consisting of air matter. During the moon's existence, the plants were added.

Now the development goes over to the earth existence. Only then does man develop that in which the powers of walking, speaking and thinking visibly live, the form, the figure. The mineral kingdom appears at the same time as the form. The mineral kingdom then also integrates itself into the human being. This characterizes the past of the human being.

If we want to look to the future of man, then we must, if we want to take something present on earth, characterize it from the age. We must characterize that which expresses itself extraordinarily indistinctly in today's humanity as we age, as we grow old. While that which manifests itself in the development of the child in walking, speaking, thinking, is obvious because it announces itself outwardly, that which becomes more and more spiritual and intellectual in man towards old age is still little seen today if one does not look at man with a spiritual gaze. I said that it is the most marvelous thing how the soul-spiritual gradually comes to revelation in the body, and if you look at it correctly, it is the deepest religious feeling before the most significant art that can come over you. But again, it is something equally admirable to see how that which the human being has experienced in his whole being through walking, speaking and thinking during his earthly existence gradually disappears into the spiritual in order to then pass through the gate of death, how the thoughts, how the words, how everything that man has acquired and worked out with his hands disappears into the spiritual, and how man then carries this spiritual, which he receives from thinking, speaking and walking, through the gate of death back into spiritual life. And just as that which appears in the child as walking, speaking and thinking points us to the preliminary stages of earthly development, moon, sun, Saturn, so that which man experiences in his thoughts points us first to his next earthly lives, but from there into the great epoch of earthly development.

But from there the development, the unfolding of the world and of man points us to that state, which however can only be experienced when the earth has died again and has risen again in a new planetary existence, the Jupiter existence; to this the thoughts of man point us. For these human thoughts themselves will then not live in man as fluctuating thoughts, but will themselves be formed. And the formed thought will appear in the form of the human being.

Today we can hide our thoughts within ourselves, and our countenance may take on a highly innocent form, while we are guilty within. We will not be able to do this during the next metamorphosis of earthly existence, in the Jupiter existence. There we will wear the face that thought creates. For our human form will not be so solid, mineral solid, but it will itself be inwardly mobile, made of a very soft matter. And if someone harbors a wrong thought within, this thought will appear before his fellow human beings in the instantaneous formation of his face. Everything that is thought will become form in an instant. And that which is permanent thought, that which is temperament, is what people will walk around as. It will be seen at once if one is a villain, or if he has only animal instincts, during the Jupiter existence. This is the first stage of man's future.

The second stage is that which man can now develop from his speaking. Speech today is something that penetrates from the inside only through the medium of air to the outside. In the future, this speech will become something creative. The spoken word will not only decay in the air, but the spoken word will remain present. Man will become creative through the word.

So that man will form himself through thought already from the time of Jupiter. Through the word he will form his environment during the Venus existence, for then this will occur: If man utters an evil word during the Venus existence, then during this Venus existence, which will essentially exist in such a fine matter as air is, something like an ugly plant form will arise in the air. Man will thus have the creatures of his own language around him.

And that which lives in walking, in moving the arms, will be developed during the last metamorphosis of the earth, during the volcanic existence. Creative feelings emerge, creative language, and the feelings, creative in language, emerge during the Venusian existence.

Today we go to our deeds, we do our deeds with our arms. But that does not remain. I go there, I have something to do. Of course it can also be something more complicated, I can have gone into a complicated matter or something like that, I can also have waged a war for my own sake. We go away again. Then there is nothing in the outer world.

While being a volcano, everything will remain. There man will not only walk and grasp, but everything that he walks and grasps is drawn into the volcanic existence. His deeds are themselves realized in the volcanic existence. So that in the volcanic being we have the actualized, realized action of man.

You see what a tremendous incision there is with the earth existence between past and future of the world and human development. Everything that has come down to earth has been done by divine spirit generations. What will follow will be done by man himself. This is the entry of freedom into the human being within the cosmos. Man is placed into the world by the gods, receives his free existence; he has acquired his walking, speaking and thinking from the gods, even his form. He will put into walking, speaking and thinking that which he himself is for the evolution of the world in the future. And now man is in the process of settling in from the past into the future. He has a piece of the past in that which lies in his own karma, and he has a piece of the future in that which he will want for the karma of himself for the future. In a sense, man is now in the apprenticeship period between past and future.

This also has the effect that things cannot easily take place as exactly as I presented them yesterday as the pre-drawn. I said that these 2160 years should actually elapse between two incarnations. But man does not absorb everything during his life on earth that he could extract from it. For this reason, the periods between death and a new birth are of course still quite different for many people today, for no human being, by the way, 2160 years, but much shorter.

People who have completely given themselves over to earthly life, who have something criminal in their nature, have accumulated few possibilities within themselves to sail out into the ocean of star existence; they very soon return to earthly life after having gone through a short time between death and a new birth. Others have to refine and perfect over a longer period of time what they have already developed as a spiritual soul during their life on earth. So that one can say: namely aniimally oriented people who easily give in to their drives, their passions, they soon return. Those who undergo a spiritually normal development will return later. But people who, for example, can draw inspiration from earthly life itself through deeper insight into what is successful in the present age, can also take up impulses within themselves and have the will to sacrifice - precisely because they see deeply and spiritually into the world - to come back as soon as they are able to participate again in earthly development. For by showing love to the spirit already in life on earth, one can accelerate the three to six transitions that I described yesterday - through the Mars, Jupiter and Saturn beings. Those who pass through the gate of death equipped with lower instincts will tremble back beforehand, will not complete the circles, will be pushed back from the planetoid region in particular. How people today get into all kinds of circles by giving themselves over to certain influences of the world, in personal life, in national life and so on, I will talk about that tomorrow.

A person who properly reaches the planetoid region will today, one could say, accomplish seven to eight hundred years between one life on earth and the next. This is normal for people who are not exactly of a lower nature. But through a deeper insight and a love of the spiritual world, the life between death and the new birth can also be consciously shortened. Then precisely those natures can reappear relatively soon who gain much from this earthly life so that they can work as well as possible to reshape earthly civilization and earthly culture.


I had to lead you in thought from the earthly world into the world of the stars, into the world of the inhabitants of the stars, in order to point out in a way that is really appropriate in the present from the world in which man is generally caught up in the present, into that world into which he must enter through inner realization if he wants to experience his future in the right way.

Now, however, man today is generally far from detaching himself from the material world, from already seeking the spiritual in the sensual-physical world immediately surrounding us. It is a little late in the day to point out the obstacles that man faces in the present if he wants to penetrate, for example in psychoanalysis - I will refer to this tomorrow - at least into the human spiritual world. However, a correct path will also emerge from the direct observation of the sensory-physical for those circles that want to work entirely out of the science of the present, if they are already trying to find the spiritual in the physical-sensual. You can do that. And a certain proof that it can be done is given in the brochure just published by our Physiological-Biological Institute in Stuttgart. Dr. Kolisko has now published the results of a very beautiful investigation under the title: “Physiological and physical proof of the effectiveness of the smallest entities”. You know that homeopathy wants to work through strong dilutions of physical matter. In this way, by bringing the physical matter to a strong dilution, one enters into the spiritual by going beyond the effectiveness of a strong dilution of matter. Now we have succeeded in actually proving that it is possible to find in an exact way how the smallest entities, the strongest dilutions work. Dr. Kolisko has carried out the instructions I have given in this direction with the greatest conscientiousness over a long period of time, and we have succeeded in producing dilutions in a ratio of 1:1 trillion in this way.

If you dissolve any substance completely in a glass of water, then pour half of it away and dissolve what you have left in the amount of water in a whole glass of water again, you have achieved a dilution of 1:2; if you pour half of it away again and have it in the whole glass again, you have 1:4, and so it goes on. Now, in our Biological Institute in Stuttgart, through conscientious, exact methods, possibilities have emerged to achieve really exact dilutions of 1:1 trillion; in this way one achieves the so-called higher potencies. And you will find in this work what is achieved in this way, let us say, especially with antimony, which I have also spoken about these days in the medical lecture. There you will find that plant growth, for example the growth of a wheat germ, is slowest towards the 21st potency, but fastest in the potencies towards the 29th, 30th potency. So that one has diluted some substance in a liquid in high potencies - as I said, we have produced the potency that corresponds to the dilution 1:1 trillion - and one now sees how lower potencies, dilutions, make the plant germ grow differently, how the highest dilutions make the plant germ grow fastest, that is, stimulate the life force the most. In this way we have succeeded in splitting up the merely material, so that in the merely material the truly spiritual comes to light. For if you do not split the material into atoms, as the atomist does, but bring it to effectiveness in its functions and powers, then you show the good will, I would like to say, to permeate matter itself with spirit in order to enter the spiritual.

Now you can imagine what this means for the exact observation of remedies in their effect on the human organism, because you can see the effect. One produces the dilution, has it in a laboratory jar, lets a wheat germ germinate in it at this potency, at the next potency a wheat germ germinates and so on. You now have these wheat germs. However, during this exact examination, whole rooms were filled with germs of wheat grains, which showed how the different dilutions influenced the soil from which the wheat grain germinated. This, you see, is what has to be done from today's science in order to drive material knowledge into the spiritual. You know that there has always been a certain dispute between homeopathy and allopathy about the effect of the smallest entities under large dilutions. The whole matter was basically more a matter of faith. One professed more of this, the other more of that. Now this is not about taking sides in favor of homeopathy, but simply stating exact scientific facts. It will of course be the case in the future that we will now know where substances must be used directly allopathically, where they must be used diluted so that they have the right influence on the human being, especially the human etheric body, which represents the life forces, and how strongly they must be diluted. It will therefore be possible to draw the exact limits in the future: You have to proceed allopathically, you have to proceed homeopathically, because just as scientific experiments are otherwise carried out with the utmost precision, so in this brochure by Dr. Kolisko: “Physiological and Physical Proof of the Effectiveness of the Smallest Entities”, proof is provided in our Stuttgart Biological Laboratory of how the smallest entities really work. What could previously have been mere belief has now been elevated to the status of science in an important field. But something else is also apparent.

Look at the precisely worked out curves in this writing, in which it is shown how the growth forces ascend and descend, see there how the curves must be drawn at low dilutions, and how at higher dilutions. See how you get minima of growth at certain dilutions and maxima at larger dilutions. Then again it goes back to a minimum, again to a maximum and so on. In this way, the extraordinarily carefully drawn curves give you an immediate insight into the rhythm at work in all matter, the rhythm that expresses the spiritual everywhere in the material. In the human being we pass from the metabolic system to the rhythmic system. But we can also find the rhythmic system in nature in a very precise scientific way. You can see this in this work in particular, which I believe could actually be an important milestone, especially in the medical question between homeopathy and allopathy, in general as far as insight into nature is concerned. In the future, if we appreciate these research results in the right way, we will no longer seek the laws of nature merely by measuring, by weighing, i.e. in a purely atomistic way, but we will recognize how a rhythm is already evident in all matter, how therefore the rhythm of the cosmos is expressed in the rhythm of natural events.

I only wanted to draw attention to this as a path that must be taken from the very exact science. Tomorrow I will continue to show how, for example, in psychoanalysis and the like, there is something like a kind of theoretical aversion to actually treading these paths that lead from the physical-natural to the spiritual.

But if humanity wants to move upwards, and not downwards in civilization, it must tread the spiritual paths.