The Forming of Destiny and Life after Death
GA 157a
20 November 1915, Berlin
3. The Subconscious Strata of the Soul-Life and the Life of the Spirit After Premature Death
Those days in which we have been able to meet together we have devoted to throwing light from one point of view or another on the connection between the life of man here on the physical plane and the life he leads between death and rebirth, as well as on the connection between the individual successive earth-lives through which man passes. We have seen that when the attempt is made to go deeper into these relations the investigation becomes very complicated; but, in reality, only then does it become fruitful for us, for it can then give many conclusions concerning the details of the riddles and questions of Life. We wish to go further into these considerations; in order to do this, we must to-day begin by penetrating a little into the structure of man, with which we are already acquainted, but which we must go over once again with reference to certain qualities necessary for the following considerations.
Now you will have seen from the various cycles, lectures and books, that we live here on earth as human beings in a quite definite epoch of the earth's evolution; and from the whole spirit of our consideration we have been able to gather that there is an inner purpose, a certain inner significance in the fact that we carry our souls through all these different epochs of the earth's evolution. From the descriptions which have been given, you will already have seen that not merely the external life, but the whole life of man here on earth is naturally different in the various epochs. We shall for the present only consider the life of the soul. The life of the soul was different—if we consider only the Post-Atlantean epochs—in the old Indian, old Persian, Egypto-Chaldean or the Greco-Latin age, and it is again different in our time. We carried our souls through all these epochs. In all of these epochs our souls sought bodies (most of us more than once in the same epoch) which gave them the possibility of taking up the world in the way best adapted to the forces of that particular epoch. If you remember what has been said about the peculiarities of the soul-life in the various epochs, you will be able to acquire a still more accurate insight. For example: when we regard the life of the first Post-Atlantean epoch, we find that the human soul during its life on earth was then chiefly occupied in working out the interaction of its own being with the etheric body; thus, as it were, experiencing in the right manner that which can be experienced here in the earth-life by a soul interacting chiefly with the etheric body. Then in the second Post-Atlantean period the soul went through everything which can be experienced through the interchange with the astral body. In the third Post-Atlantean epoch of civilisation the soul lived through everything that can be experienced through interaction with the sentient soul; in the fourth epoch of civilisation it experienced the interaction with the rational or intellectual soul, and we in our time go through everything which can be experienced by means of the interaction with the conscious or spiritual soul. The soul, according to its experience while working in the different epochs on the various principles of human nature, makes a greater or less individual progress in the general development of the world. Man has completely different experiences during these different epochs; as regards the relation of his soul to the entire Cosmos, he changes absolutely. We must already have some idea of this, from what has previously been said. Thus we, in our epoch, are living in the conscious or spiritual soul, and the whole civilisation of our fifth epoch is devoted to teaching the whole human soul, the entire human Ego, to form such connections with the world as are possible with a self-conscious soul. In our epoch we gain our experience through adapting our forces to the conscious or spiritual soul.
Now, it is possible to look at the whole matter from another point of view. By what means does it come about in the general cosmic relations that one lives in the conscious or spirit-soul? As man, one naturally lives, not only in the spiritual soul, but also in the other principles of the human nature. In a narrower sense, in our age we build chiefly those capacities which humanity is at present acquiring—by our life in the spiritual soul—for through the medium of that principle we live in our Ego, in the physical life between birth and death. The Greek in the fourth Post-Atlantean period was not so entirely dependent on his physical body as we are. The Greek lived still more of an inner life in his body. This caused him to work in the rational or intellectual or mind-soul, (*Mind-soul in the old English sense: ‘I have a mind to do this.’) and he was thus in a position to fill out his physical body in quite a different manner than is possible to us. Each movement of the hand, for instance, produced a much stronger inner feeling in the Greek than in the body of to-day. External science cannot enter into these things, but they exist nevertheless. When he bent his arm the Greek felt the swelling of each single muscle, he felt the angle it formed. That is why the Greek as a sculptor was in a position to create quite differently. The present-day sculptor works from a model. He beholds the model and works accordingly. Not so the Greek. He had an inner feeling of the form of the arm, of the physiognomy, etc., and this to him was inner experience. But man when he lives in the consciousness soul is now torn out of that which can be experienced in the physical body. He has, as it were, penetrated more deeply into his physical body, he has become more closely united with it than the Greek could be, but he has, through this, become insensible to all that the physical body gives. He makes use of the organs of the physical body in a higher sense than did the Greek. The Greek could not see certain shades of colour, as we see them to-day, because he was not so much within the physical body as we are to-day. If you re-read Homer you will be able to notice that he mentions few colours. Everything is changed in like manner. Man allies himself more closely with his physical body, but he does not experience so much his own inner being in this physical body. Rather must one say that instead of perceiving his inner being in the physical body, he contacts the external world more. In short, there is a struggle for the capacities of the physical body, whereas in Greece there was rather a struggle for form. Thus we can say: we build up the consciousness soul because with our Ego we bring about a certain inner relation with our physical body, because we work our way so deeply into the physical body. In this way the time has come in which we no longer know very much of spiritual processes and things; the time of materialism, because man has urged himself so deeply into his physical body.
Now, within the physical body there naturally lies the etheric body. The Greek still knew much more of his etheric body. He dimly perceived, even though only as a reminiscence, that the etheric body always echoes the movements of the physical body. He still felt that it is not merely the physical hand which moves, but that the etheric hand moves with it, and lies at the basis of the physical movement. All this is now forgotten, but man, while he lived in the Greek age, so experienced it all that he felt himself much more intensely in this etheric body than he does now, and that knowledge is not utterly lost. As soul-beings, we have all gone through it, and it remains in our etheric body. It all remains there as preserved thoughts, and when we leave the world in which we dwell between death and rebirth, we leave behind, as if forgotten, everything which we were previously very well able to dominate in our etheric body. We now thrust ourselves so deeply into our physical body that we leave behind all we acquired in the Grecian epoch. From this you see that man's etheric body really contains much more than he now realises. At present he evolves his consciousness chiefly within his physical body, and in so doing he covers up what is in his etheric body. If he only possessed all the knowledge of the inner human organisation which is concealed in his etheric body, he could know infinitely more than he does now. For this etheric body has acquired a certain perfection, greater than man is at present aware of. In regard to it especially, much is driven back because it cannot be brought to consciousness in a suitable manner. Man knows very little of his etheric body.
Among other things in the etheric body—the astral body, as you know, is also at work there. Everything which the etheric body accomplishes must naturally be thought of as permeated by the astral body. If we could suddenly bring to the surface all that the etheric body contains we should be infinitely cleverer than we are at the present epoch, in which we have to struggle on with nothing but the physical body. For this etheric body contains much (naturally the astral body also shares in this), it contains infinite treasures of wisdom. These lie in the depths of our soul, within the etheric body. There we find a host of dexterities, a mass of information. For instance, in reference to Geometry. I have once before mentioned how much we all unconsciously know of Geometry. This is actually a fact. For when we learn Geometry we do not learn it from outside things, it is reached by bringing that which is in the etheric body to consciousness. If we draw external figures, they merely serve as an inducement. If I draw a triangle, of which I know that the angles = 180o, I have the knowledge of this through the etheric body. We only draw figures in consequence of human laziness. In reality we know everything that can be learnt of Geometry. We know it unconsciously, it rests below in the depths of the unconscious soul-life. We have no idea how clever we are in the subconscious depths of the soul. Could we but know it! The evil in human evolution does not lie in man having little wisdom within him, but in his powerlessness to extract that wisdom out of his own soul. All educational development consists in bringing out the concealed wisdom lying in the depths of the soul. Now, if we were not obliged to bring up these things in this difficult way, we could not properly advance our evolution. Just think! If we were not to acquire such a relation to our physical body as we now have, we should really be born as terribly clever children, and it would not take much to bring out at a relatively early age that which lies within the etheric body. But man would then take far too little trouble to acquire wisdom, and it would thereby be too little his own, he would be too much a mere copy of wisdom. A personal assimilation arises through our having such a relation to the physical body as is ordained for this fifth epoch of culture. This personal assimilation causes knowledge to become our very own possession. When we delve for it in this fashion, our knowledge is then our own: we have it for ourselves. This holds good with reference to the etheric body.
With reference to the astral body something quite different holds good, and that is as follows: If we were able to draw forth everything lying in the astral body, everything which the astral body knows, in all its details, that would be of no advantage for our present life. For we should then really live amongst our fellow-men as automatons. Indeed, our astral body knows, though our consciousness does not, the relation in which, as astral body, it stands to all the individual persons it contacts in life. Our astral body has such a consciousness. So that if we could make use of everything the astral body knows, we should be absolutely aware for instance, that with this or that person we shall have trouble; and this person or the other will be a kind friend. Such knowledge would naturally change life utterly, but for our present earthly relations, not in a good sense. Now, I could relate still more concerning what the astral body knows (and unconsciously it does already use its knowledge), but it is a knowledge that really is very little noticed in the connections of human life. Suppose a man perishes through an accident. In ordinary human life it appears to us as if the accident had overtaken the man, for according to our present consciousness, man does not seek an accident. But if we investigate the astral body, we shall find no single accident which man, in so far as he is in the astral body, has not sought. That which is necessary for ordinary consciousness, is sought by the astral body out of a free inner choice. It is thus willed, actually willed by the astral body. Even if a man is run over by a railway train, that is brought about by the astral body, with regard to the whole connections of his life. It is not something which merely happens by accident. Thus we not only have our connection with our fellow-men as wisdom in our astral body, but in reality our connection also with the entire outer life, with that which runs its course as natural events, or other social happenings in which we are implicated. It is good that all this is purposely hidden from us, otherwise we should learn nothing for our further evolution: but there exists in the astral body a true thought, I mean a kind of knowledge of everything, which shows our connection with the events and human elements in which we are involved. Man takes little heed of this in ordinary life. For when anything happens to us, we say, ‘This has just occurred,’ and, as a rule, that is the only thing observed. We do not really consider what would have happened if that particular event had not occurred. I will bring forward a striking instance. At a particular time in his life a man is wounded. In ordinary life one merely thinks: Yes, he has been wounded, and that ends the matter. What would have happened if he had not been wounded? To this, one pays no attention, but through a wound the whole life may be altered, everything that follows may be different. Now, the astral body beholds the entire connection, before the wounding of the man. One may say the astral body is clairvoyant.
And the true Ego, which rests still deeper in the subconsciousness, and which dwells in the inner depths of our being, is much more clairvoyant still. As you already know, we built up our physical body on old Saturn, our etheric body on the Sun, and our astral body on the old Moon. Our Ego is the baby among the human principles, it is the youngest. Not till the Vulcan period, after the Jupiter and Venus evolutions are completed, will the Ego be formed, as the physical body is fashioned now—but this Ego rests the whole time in the bosom of the spiritual world. Then, during the Vulcan epoch, an inconceivable knowledge of the connections of life will stream out of the Ego. But this knowledge is already now within us and the evolution on Jupiter and Venus will consist in drawing out the capacity for using it.
Thus, while we regard these depths of the soul's life, we see in a wonderful manner our connection with the spiritual world. We men in ordinary human life are only given what we are able to receive, because the Ego is reflected in the physical body: but behind this rests a widely extended earthly knowledge, which is in the etheric body. Behind this again rests a clairvoyant knowledge which is already in the astral body, and a still more clairvoyant knowledge which is in the true Ego. It is good to place these things before the mind, before going on to what I now have to say. Let us consider the case which at the present time is speaking so deeply to the soul in such manifold ways, of a man who in early youth is led through the gates of death from the battle-field. It then happens that the more deeply-lying principles of human nature (etheric body, astral body, and Ego), are torn out of their connection with the physical body, in quite a different way from what occurs when one becomes old and slowly dies in bed. A quicker separation from the physical body often takes place—I have already spoken of the prophetic nature of the etheric body. We have said that even in dreams if we were able in a sense to interpret the pictures we see, we should know that in our etheric body, through the dream which arises because the astral body turns to the etheric body, which then receives as a reflection what the astral body is experiencing—that in these pictures there is something which indicates our future life, something of a prophetic nature.
Now for the spiritual investigator who has to investigate those things, an important question arises out of such considerations. He has first to place this question before himself. And the posing of the question is then a kind of introduction to the answer which must then arise from the clairvoyant observation. For example; one must say: Here on earth, according to the normal course of life Man is destined to reach old age and to use up his life slowly. To this end his etheric body, astral body, and Ego are adjusted. This would occur, if the course of life were normal: but now, through a shell that suddenly strikes a man, the whole connection is disturbed. Through this, a certain faculty of the etheric body (I will for the present limit our consideration to the individual man), that force which would have been able to work as if prophetically through the entire life, which would have been able to lead him through many other relations in life—that force is torn out of life; it is separated from the physical plane. Just suppose that the shell had not struck the man. (We can put this hypothesis and not consider the fact that all this is of course karmic). Well, he would then have gradually used up that force in his etheric body, perhaps during many years. That force is nevertheless in the inner part of his soul. It does not cease to exist, and it may be perceived when the man, who has been killed by a shell, gazes on his life-tableau, looks back in the etheric body. I have already indicated that this life-picture has a quite special characteristic. It has the characteristic of seeming to come from the outer world, rather than of having to be produced from within.
In short, that energy, that force, which is then cut off, remains in the man. Observation reveals the fact that the force is there and transforms the entire life following after death. It is just the same with the force in the astral body. This, too, would have been used during the whole life. This also is still there. In short, a man goes in quite a different way through the gates of death, if he is violently torn out of physical life. If he has perhaps been struck by a shell, and loses his life in that manner, it is not the same as if he dies slowly in his bed. Now for the spiritual investigator there arises a great question: What is the actual significance of this? What does it mean for his epoch when a man, as in the case quoted, really brings something quite different into the spiritual world from what he would have brought if he had lived his life out? For such an epoch as the one in which we live, this question is of infinite importance, for much of what has just been described is being carried up into the spiritual world. What does this signify for the spiritual world? This is a tremendously significant question! When one studies a little the relation of the spiritual world to the physical world (as one can in the Vienna cycle: ‘Inner Being of Man and Life Between Death and Rebirth’), something becomes important which for a long time has not been believed, but which reveals itself clearly to spiritual investigation. It is the following. In reality all our conceptions and ideas change on entering the spiritual world; not only on entering the spiritual world through initiation, but also on entering it through the gates of death. You see, here on earth, man really evolves more and more in a definite direction. One might call it that of the so-called ‘concept of being.’ And to-day people are already greatly taken with this idea of ‘the concept of being.’ What do I really mean by this? Nowadays hardly anything is regarded as of value unless it is conceived as actually existing. When anyone comes who does not speak of something palpable, he is considered a dreamer. Men go about speaking of ‘reality,’ and compared to this, mere thought is nothing. Countless men do not value thought to-day because they cannot lay hold of it. ‘Existence’ means the forcible realisation of that which is perceived; one has nothing to do with bringing about the existence of a thing, its existence is obvious. And anything which cannot in this way be proved to exist, is held by man in ever decreasing regard.
In the evolution of the spiritual world the reverse is the case. There, that which exists and makes an impression, such as a physical object, is for the man in the spiritual world something inimical, something disturbing, something of which he knows that it pertains to the ‘nothingness,’ and that it is destined to disappear into nothing. And if one enters without further ado into a spiritual region in which there are perhaps rather undeveloped souls (souls who to the spiritual world are just as simple as many souls appear to be in the earthly world), then one finds the opposite opinion prevailing even there. Anything to which these dead souls attach value should not exist, as one speaks of existence here on the earth. Existence here, as such, is of no value to these souls. In the spiritual life it really is the case that one confronts pure spiritual beings. They affect one. But one must first acquire perception for them. It is thus: one stands in the spiritual world; behind one stand souls belonging to the spiritual hierarchies, Angels, Archangels, and so on. One knows they are there. But if a man is to perceive them, he must first arouse them into that which one here calls ‘existence.’ That which in the spiritual world works on one, must be brought into an ‘Imagination.’ That which is ‘non-awakened being,’ to which man does nothing, which simply exists of itself, that is of no value in the spiritual world. Here man stands on the earth, and is surrounded by nature. But the spiritual world demands that man should raise himself up to it, for it is not there without further ado. To have nature around one requires no special trouble. It exists, as it were, of itself. Therefore the materialistic love to have nature around them. But in the spiritual world nature is no longer there. For man, there only exists in the spiritual world that which he himself continuously works at. There he has to be continually active. That which is there, is the other world, that world which man has forsaken, to which he continually looks back, as though to a world of existence. The world, which carries the transitory within itself, continually battles with the non-existent. If for one moment the world so beloved by the materialists were to disappear, if men were to know nothing of their bodies, but first had to create the ‘imagination’ of them, if they were to know nothing of the table until they had created it for themselves in thought, but could instead see the spiritual world—then they would have in this life here below what they have there in the spiritual world. Those in the spiritual world can only bring it to perception by their own activity. The ‘other world’—our own world here below—is always present. Whereas here the heaven is hidden and only the world which is round us is always present, there the surrounding world is hidden unless we ourselves bring it into vision by our own efforts. For one who can have immediate cognisance of it, it is easy there to believe in the ‘world beyond,’ which is our present one. But consider from the standpoint of the spiritual that which makes this world of ours, I might almost say, disagreeable, is its permeation with existence. It is a disturbing fact that it is permeated with existence—that really is disturbing. Many say: ‘A spiritual world indeed!—I would willingly believe in one if I could only see it! If I could see it while here!’ We may compare that remark with what the souls in the spiritual world say: ‘We might endure that physical world continually existing down there if only it was not permanently present. If only it were not so permeated with being. We cannot look down on to the earth without seeing in every part of it this terrible existence.’
And if here someone is a practical materialist and does not believe in idealism, then he loves existence only. But in order that this conviction of the merely obvious existence may not spread, there continually arise from time to time the Idealists, who lead humanity to believe in ideals and their efficacy, in the power of Idealism in the progress of history. These ideals of the ethical, the beautiful, the religious, are carried into the world. Certainly the absolute materialists will have nothing to do with them; at most they dispose of them in a few words. But just that which in the material sense does not seem to exist, is carried into the physical plane as the most precious thing in life. And if the evolution of humanity on the earth be considered from a higher human point of view, then one may say: Certainly nature is there, great and significant. But what would this whole human life be if existing nature alone were there, be it ever so beautiful: if man were not capable of having ideals, if he could not be spurred forward, not by that which does not exist, but by that which ought to exist, the ethical, religious, artistic, and educational life. It is the non-existing, we might say, that presses in on us from a spiritual world, as the ideals of humanity, that which does not exist but that ought to exist, that alone makes life valuable. Everyone who is not utterly submerged in the swamp of materialism feels this very strongly. And so those who in the course of history are in a special sense the bringers of ideals appear as those who alone give value to the life of existence, out of that which ought to exist. And now to the spiritual investigator the following appears. From the spiritual world one looks back in like manner at the earthly life, but in such a way that, as a higher soul, one longs that everything on the earth should not merely exist; but that among the things on the earth there should be something which is not earthly, in the strictest sense of the words. Something else must be mingled with the earth-existence, which in the earth-sense has no existence. This appears as something infinitely significant, when the spiritual investigator perceives it in connection with those people who were destined for a long life, and were forcibly cut off. So that there is a portion of their life which from the spiritual standpoint was really destined for existence, and which has not lived it out. Let us take the case of a man who has lived in the world only to his twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth year instead of to his seventieth or eightieth, for which he had the necessary life forces. Then, let us say, he is struck by a shell. The principles of his human nature are suddenly sundered from one another. The etheric body, astral body and Ego would still have been able for a long time to develop the faculty of maintaining the physical body. That which would have been able to continue but for the shot, was intended for the earth existence. It has not passed into existence. From the spiritual this appears so that one can say, ‘Down there is something which does not merely exist.’ Something else is mingled with the earth existence, something that was destined for existence, but which has not lived through it. It is existence, but merely in germ. Yet in a sense it is something that ought to exist. Therefore those whose life is thus ended at an early stage through an external happening, are to the spiritual world, when they go through the gates of death, in a similar yet not the same sense, spiritual messengers, as are the Idealists who come here on the earth, to mix with the existing that which ought to exist. Those who go early through the gates of death, ascend in order to announce to the heavens that on the earth there is not only mere existence, but also that which ought to exist.
An infinitely deep and significant discovery can be made on coming to this chapter of spiritual investigation, when one learns to know these idealists impelled to the heavens, who become what they are, by going through the gates of death in the manner indicated here. And in the present time it is very fitting that we really unite such a thought with our souls.
On entering the domain of spiritual life it is necessary that besides those who, as it were, accomplish their task in the spiritual life, there should be also those who point to the earth, who have really woven something into the earth evolution, but have taken it out earlier than should have been done according to plan. Thus we may say that those who go early through the gates of death become in many respects for the human souls in the spiritual world just those who make it possible to believe in the heights of earth-life. They make it possible for those yonder to believe that earth-life really contains something spiritual which is of value; for these souls adopt a similar position there to the idealists here on earth.
We must always bear in mind that we should not imagine men living on in the spiritual world as they last were, when here. The trivial ideas that people hold, as, for instance, that those who die as children continue to live on as children, are naturally incorrect. The imagination may picture the dead as we last saw them here, but that is not their true form; it is rather the expression of it. A child may die, but the human entity incarnated in the child may be a highly evolved soul, and continue its life after death as a highly evolved soul. I have often mentioned this. Thus we see something is carried up into the spiritual world which, being bound up with earth existence and nevertheless not consumed by it, should, in a sense not ‘be’ there. That works in the evolution which the human soul passes through between death and rebirth. Those men who have thus gone through death so pass through the intervening stage, between death and rebirth, that they there represent the humanity of the earth in a much richer and more comprehensive sense than one can do who has gone through a normal earth life. That has nothing to do with what is laid down for man through Karma. If one lives to be old, that is Karma. If one dies young, that is Karma. But just as on earth a man cannot make himself arbitrarily into this or that individuality which his consciousness on this side of the veil might select, neither can he determine from the earth-consciousness how the life between death and rebirth is to be fashioned. If one is taken forcibly from physical existence into the spiritual world, he then has a much more intense imaginative vision of everything human than one who enters the spiritual world in a different fashion. We say that those who pass thus through the gates of death, stand especially near, during their life between death and rebirth, to that which happens on the earth, as far as humanity is concerned. That can be seen by investigating the lives of persons who have accomplished something of a very special importance at a particular time of their life, something which could perhaps only be done by them. Suppose a man accomplishes something of great importance in a certain direction, at a definite epoch of his life, for example, in his forty-ninth year. (Naturally this can only be investigated occultly). If one traces this back, one finds that in an earlier incarnation, and perhaps just in his forty-ninth year, this man died a more or less violent death. He acquires this strong tendency towards the ideal evolution of the earth by having carried up ‘that which should exist’ into the spiritual world. Thereby he incorporated into his whole physical being the strong force wherewith to accomplish something definite in a definite year. We can again see from this, as I pointed out in the last lecture, that men who have to effect many things, especially through their will, and who thus live more for universal humanity, have carried up in some form, from some earlier incarnation, such life ‘which ought to exist.’
It is indeed specially difficult, while one only wishes to conceive of life in the spiritual as a somewhat more refined earthly life, to reconcile oneself to acquiring the following idea of the spiritual: Here on earth, physical life is always known of itself; while over there is the life which is unknown; and that in the spiritual, things are reversed. People do not take the trouble to understand that actually, unless one does something oneself, everything is dark and gloomy in the spiritual life; that one must first bring everything to light. Everything which is visible is on this side (the physical), but seen from that side. Also the most significant thing that is intermingled there consists in ‘something that should exist.’ This is a conception which one has to acquire if one wants to perceive aright the connection of physical life with the spiritual life.
In our time it is really a good plan to acquaint ourselves with such conceptions for, as I have said, suffering souls so frequently ask themselves to-day: Why must so many men be called into the spiritual world in the flower of their age? Why cannot they complete their life here? And wonderful as it sounds (though, as I have said, the spiritual truths may sometimes seem cruel) it is nevertheless true, that there must be carried into the spiritual world the possibility of so looking at the earth that this earth itself can be permeated by the spirit. If all men reached old age normally, if there were no martyrs, no men able to sacrifice themselves in youth, then would the earth, regarded from above, lapse into worthless existence. That which is here mingled with the earth as Ideal, is at the same time that which continually brings from out of the past something better for the future. That is connected with what is here sacrificed. Suppose a man at the age of twenty-six sacrifices his whole future life, which he otherwise would have employed in his external work, and would have devoted it to the progress of humanity. This lives further. In the forces of progress there live the lives that men have sacrificed, the lives which they would have been able to live here. The evolution of the earth needs this sacrifice of life. We can thus see how that which is otherwise merely an abstract idea in our materialistic age, becomes extremely concrete. In yet another sense than I developed it here in July, we can say, ‘Not only do these etheric bodies work in the entire connection of human progress, but the work of those who have gone early through death also lives on.’
The work of these individualities is such that we can ask: Who then are those who principally labour for the good of humanity in general, and who set themselves universal tasks in later incarnations? They are those who in earlier incarnations, have in some way or other died a death of sacrifice. The devotional natures, those given up to the spiritual here on the earth, owe this to their life of martyrdom in a previous incarnation. The earth could not progress unless people sacrificed themselves.
When we think of this, we can look away from the present into the future. Such an immense number are now being sacrificed and are sacrificing themselves. Painful as this is considered from many a personal standpoint, yet if we look at it from the standpoint of the wisdom of the Cosmos we may console ourselves. For in proportion to what is now sacrificed will the forces of progress be given to the future. Humanity requires such forces of progress. This is not considered deeply enough today, but it will be, when a sufficient number not of centuries but of decades, have come and gone in the present materialistic evolution. The consequence of materialism will follow with incredible rapidity. The zenith of materialism was really attained in the Nineteenth Century, and man would be swamped by it unless something occurred to arrest it. This conversion should be brought about by Spiritual Science. And this can only be done by strong forces, working for the ideal to be really worked into earth life. Many who are now called away will help to prevent the earth from falling a prey to materialism and being dominated by it.
Just read the course of lectures on the Apocalypse, in which this is indicated in broad outlines. You can then form some idea how great is the fruit of the sacrificial deaths that will be required by the earth in the future, to redeem it as far as possible from sinking into materialism, and the strife, hate and enmity, connected with it; so that it can pursue its further course in the Cosmos. Such a time as ours demands, more than other epochs that we should think, not only on what is taking place, but on the fruits of these happenings. And we can only recognise these fruits if we bear in mind the two sides of Cosmic existence, which shows us that we really experience two completely different poles of life: one here between birth and death and the other there between death and rebirth. Here, we are, in a certain sense, passive in our innermost being, and if we wish to raise ourselves to the perception of the spiritual world, we have to work so hard that many find it impossible. There, it is necessary to be active in order to have with us our vision of the immediately present spiritual world in which we find ourselves; on the other hand we always have, as a reminder, the existing world beneath. Here in this earthly world, the Idealists bear ‘that which should exist,’ which makes existence of value. Into that world to which men pass through the gates of death, which those enter whose life has run its regular earth course, come those who die more or less early as martyrs. And there they are: the witnesses, that below on earth, not merely the material exists, not merely that which is given over to the nothingness, to the transitory, and decaying—but that on this earth is also intermingled that which is retained by those who did not complete their life, whose life was indeed forcibly taken from them.
We must take such things not only intellectually but unite them deeply with our feeling, then may things become comprehensible. Certainly our present epoch contains many riddles, but some of them can be solved if we connect the present suffering with the great wisdom of the Cosmos. And this again is a chapter which if we apply what has now been said to our own times, may be embodied in the great truth:
From the fighters' courage,
From the blood of battles,
From the mourners' suffering,
From the people's sacrifice,
There will ripen fruits of Spirit
If with consciousness the soul
Turns her thought to Spirit Realms.
Dritter Vortrag
Wir haben die Tage, die wir jetzt hier zusammensein konnten, dazu verwendet, um nach der einen oder nach der anderen Seite Lichter zu werfen auf den Zusammenhang der Leben der Menschen hier auf dem physischen Plan und der Leben, die zugebracht werden zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, und auch einiges über den Zusammenhang der einzelnen aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben, die der Mensch durchmacht. Sie haben gesehen, daß wenn versucht wird, genauer ins einzelne dieser Verhältnisse einzugehen, die Untersuchung allerdings kompliziert wird, aber sie wird dann im Grunde genommen erst recht fruchtbar, da uns erst eine solche, ins einzelne gehende Untersuchung gewissermaßen über Einzelheiten auch der Lebensfragen und Lebensrätsel manchen Aufschluß geben kann. Wir wollen in einer solchen Betrachtung etwas fortfahren, müssen dazu allerdings heute damit beginnen, ein wenig einzugehen auf die Gliederung des Menschen, die wir ja kennen, die wir aber wiederholentlich besprechen wollen im Hinblick auf solche Eigenschaften, die uns für die folgende Betrachtung wichtig sein werden.
Nun, meine lieben Freunde, so wie wir als Menschen hier auf der Erde leben, so leben wir ja, wie Sie aus den verschiedenen Zyklen, Vorträgen und Büchern wissen, in einer ganz bestimmten Epoche der Erdenentwickelung. Und wir haben ja entnehmen können aus dem ganzen Geist unserer Betrachtungen, daß es einen inneren Sinn hat, eine gewisse innere Bedeutung hat, daß wir unsere Seele hindurchtragen durch diese verschiedenen Epochen der Erdenentwickelung. Aus den Darstellungen, die gegeben worden sind, werden Sie schon ersehen haben, wie nicht nur das außere, sondern das ganze Leben des Menschen hier auf der Erde selbstverständlich verschieden ist nach den verschiedenen Epochen. Anders war das ganze Leben der Seele schon — wir wollen zunächst ja nur auf das Leben der Seele sehen -, wenn wir nur die nachatlantischen Epochen betrachten, in der altindischen, anders in der urpersischen, anders in der ägyptisch-chaldäischen, anders in der griechisch-lateinischen, anders in unserer Zeit. Durch alle diese Epochen trugen wir unsere Seelen hindurch. In allen diesen Epochen suchten unsere Seelen, die meisten Menschen wiederholt in einer Epoche, Körper, welche der Seele ermöglichen, die Welt so aufzunehmen, wie man gerade mit den Kräften einer solchen Epoche die Welt aufnehmen kann.
Wenn Sie sich erinnern, was gesagt worden ist über die Eigentüumlichkeiten des Seelenlebens in den einzelnen Epochen, so werden Sie noch einen genaueren Einblick gewinnen können. Sehen wir uns zum Beispiel das Leben in der ersten nachatlantischen Epoche an, so finden wir, daß die menschliche Seele vorzugsweise während des Erdenlebens damit beschäftigt ist, die Wechselwirkung ihres eigenen Wesens mit dem Ätherleib auszuwirken, also sozusagen dasjenige so recht zu erleben, was erlebt werden kann, wenn man hauptsächlich hier im Erdenleben in Wechselwirkung steht als Seele mit dem Ätherleibe. Dann in der zweiten nachatlantischen Epoche lebte die Seele alles das aus, was ausgelebt werden kann, wenn man so recht in Wechselwirkung steht mit dem Astralleibe. In der dritten nachatlantischen Kulturperiode lebte die Seele alles das aus, was ausgelebt werden kann durch die Wechselwirkung mit der Empfindungsseele; in der vierten Kulturperiode lebte die Seele aus die Wechselwirkung mit der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele, und in unserer Zeit wird ausgelebt alles das, was ausgelebt werden kann, wenn man in Wechselwirkung steht mit der Bewußtseinsseele. Je nachdem die Seele, die sich in diesen einzelnen Epochen bewegte in diesen Gliedern der menschlichen Natur, dieses oder jenes erlebte, rückte sie im allgemeinen Weltenfortschritt weiter. Es ist grundverschieden dasjenige, was man in diesen verschiedenen Epochen an Verhältnissen der eigenen Seele zur ganzen Welt erlebt. Davon muß man sich ja schon eine Vorstellung machen können nach dem, was bisher gegeben ist. Nun, in unserer Zeit lebt man also in der Bewußtseinsseele, und die ganze Kultur unserer fünften Kulturperiode besteht ja darinnen, daß die ganze menschliche Seele, das ganze menschliche Ich zur Welt solche Beziehungen anknüpft, die durch das Verhältnis zur Bewußtseinsseele gegeben sind. Was man erleben kann, wenn man in die Bewußtseinsseele seine Kraft hineinschickt, das erlebt man in unserer Epoche.
Nun können wir aber auch die ganze Sache von einem anderen Gesichtspunkt fassen. Wodurch geschieht es denn im allgemeinen kosmischen Zusammenhange, daß man in der Bewußtseinsseele lebt? Man lebt ja natürlich als Mensch nicht nur in der Bewußtseinsseele, sondern auch in anderen Gliedern der menschlichen Natur. Im engeren Sinne bilden wir in unserer Zeit die Fähigkeiten, die die Menschheit jetzt gerade ausbildet, vorzugsweise dadurch aus, daß wir mit unserem Ich auf dem Umwege durch die Bewußtseinsseele so recht in der Organisation unseres physischen Leibes hier leben zwischen Geburt und Tod. Der Grieche in der vierten nachatlantischen Epoche lebte noch nicht so stark in Abhängigkeit von seinem physischen Leibe wie wir. Der Grieche lebte im Leibe selber noch auf eine innerliche Art. Das bewirkte, daß er in der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele arbeitete. Dadurch war er in der Lage, seinen physischen Leib in ganz anderer Weise auszufüllen, als wir es können. Der Grieche zum Beispiel hatte von jeder Handbewegung eine viel stärkere innere Gefühlsnuance als der heutige Mensch. Auf diese Dinge kann keine äußere Wissenschaft eingehen, aber sie sind vorhanden. Der Grieche fühlte, wenn er einen Arm bog, wie die einzelnen Muskeln anschwollen, wie sich ein Winkel bildete. Dadurch war der Grieche als Bildhauer in der Lage, ganz anders zu schaffen. Der heutige Bildhauer arbeitet nach dem Modell. Er schaut das Modell an und arbeitet danach. Nicht so der Grieche. Er hatte ein inneres Gefühl von der Form des Armes, der Physiognomie und so weiter. Das war bei ihm inneres Erleben. Jetzt ist der Mensch in gewisser Weise herausgerissen aus dem, was er erleben kann im physischen Leibe, wenn er in der Bewußtseinsseele lebt. Er ist zwar gleichsam tiefer in seinen physischen Leib hereingegangen, er ist näher verwandt geworden damit, als es der Grieche sein konnte, aber dadurch auch ist er für all dasjenige, was der physische Leib gibt, unempfindlich geworden. Er bedient sich der Organe des physischen Leibes in einem höheren Sinne als der Grieche. Der Grieche konnte gewisse Farbennuancen nicht sehen, wie wir sie heute sehen, weil er noch nicht so im physischen Leibe drinnensteckte wie wir heute. Wenn Sie bei Homer nachlesen, so können Sie sehen, wie wenig Farben er anführt. Das ändert sich also in dieser Weise. Der Mensch macht sich verwandter mit seinem physischen Leibe, aber damit spürt er auch sein Inneres nicht so im physischen Leibe. Man müßte vielmehr sagen, er spürt am physischen Leibe nicht mehr sein Inneres, er stößt mehr nach der Außenwelt. Kurz, es ist ein Ringen mit den Fähigkeiten des physischen Leibes, während es im Griechentum vielmehr ein Ringen mit der Form war. So daß wir sagen können: Wir bilden die Bewußtseinsseele gerade dadurch, daß wir mit unserem Ich eine gewissermaßen innere Verwandtschaft mit dem physischen Leibe eingehen, daß wir uns so recht in den physischen Leib hineinstemmen. Dadurch ist die Zeit gekommen, in der man nicht mehr viel weiß von den spirituellen Vorgängen und Dingen, die Zeit des Materialismus, weil man sich so sehr hineingestoßen hat in den physischen Leib.
Nun liegt aber natürlich im physischen Leibe wiederum der Ätherleib. Der Grieche wußte viel mehr noch von seinem Ätherleibe. Er spürte, wenn auch nur in einem leisen Anklang, wie der Ätherleib immer nachklingt den physischen Bewegungen des Leibes. Er verspürte noch, daß nicht bloß die physische Hand sich bewegt, sondern daß die Ätherhand sich mitbewegt und zugrunde liegt der physischen Bewegung. Das also ist verlorengegangen. Nun hat der Mensch aber, während er in dieser Griechenzeit war, das alles so durchgemacht, daß er viel intensiver sich in seinem Ätherleibe fühlte als jetzt. Das ist ihm nicht verlorengegangen. Wir haben das ja alle durchgemacht als Seelen, das steckt in unserem Ätherleib darinnen. Das steckt alles darinnen in konservierten Gedanken. Und wenn wir aus der Welt, in der wir sind zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, heraustreten, so lassen wir wie in einem Vergessen zurück alles dasjenige, was wir eigentlich vorher recht gut in unserem Ätherleibe haben beherrschen können. Indem wir jetzt so tief in unseren physischen Leib hineinstoßen, lassen wir das zurück, was wir uns in der Griechenzeit erworben haben. Sie sehen daraus schon, daß unser Ätherleib eigentlich sehr vieles enthält, wovon der Mensch jetzt nur kein Bewußtsein hat. Der Mensch entwickelt sein Bewußtsein jetzt hauptsächlich im physischen Leibe. Dadurch deckt er zu dasjenige, was in seinem Ätherleibe ist. Wäre dem Menschen all das Wissen von der inneren, menschlichen Organisation, das er in seinen Ätherleib hineingeheimnißt hat, bewußt, so würde er unendlich viel mehr wissen als jetzt. Denn dieser Ätherleib hat sich eine gewisse Vollkommenheit erworben, die größer ist, als der Mensch sich jetzt bewußt ist. Überhaupt ist in bezug auf den Ätherleib vieles zurückgedrängt, weil wir ihn eben nicht in der entsprechenden Weise zum Bewußtsein bringen; wir wissen vieles nicht von diesem Ätherleibe.
Unter anderem arbeitet im Ätherleib, wie Sie wissen, wiederum der Astralleib. Alles dasjenige, was der Ätherleib so arbeitet, muß natürlich durchdrungen gedacht werden vom Astralleibe. Wenn man alles das plötzlich heraufbringen könnte, was der Ätherleib enthält, so würde man unendlich viel gescheiter sein, als man es in der jetzigen Epoche ist, wo man ben mit seinem physischen Leibe kämpft. Denn dieser Ätherleib enthält zum Beispiel — natürlich ist der Astralleib daran beteiligt -— unendlich viele Weisheitsschätze. Die sind unten in unserer Seele, in dem Ätherleibe. Da sind vor allen Dingen eine Menge von Geschicklichkeiten, eine Menge von Wissensstoff. Zum Beispiel in bezug auf Geometrie: Ich habe schon einmal hier ausgesprochen, wie viel Sie unbewußt von Geometrie wissen. Es ist dies wirklich eine Wahrheit; denn wenn Sie Geometrie kennenlernen, so können Sie sie nicht außen von den Dingen her kennenlernen, sondern es holt sie der Mensch herauf, indem er das, was im Ätherleib ist, zum Bewußtsein bringt. Wenn er äußerlich Figuren aufzeichnet, so dienen sie nur als eine Anregung. Wenn ich ein Dreieck aufzeichne, von dem ich weiß, daß es 180 Grad hat, so weiß ich das aus dem Ätherleibe. Daß man die Figur aufzeichnet, das ist nur eine Spekulation auf die menschliche Faulheit. In Wahrheit wissen Sie alles, was Sie an Geometrie lernen können, unbewußt; das steckt da unten in den Tiefen des unbewußten Seelenlebens. Überhaupt, man glaubt gar nicht, wie gescheit man ist in den unterbewußten Seelentiefen. Wenn man es nur wüßte! Das Unheil der menschlichen Entwickelung liegt nicht darin, daß die Menschen wenig Weisheit in sich haben, sondern darin, daß sie die Weisheit nicht heraufholen können aus der eigenen Seele. Alle erzicherische Entwickelung beruht darauf, daß man die verborgene Weisheit heraufholt aus den Tiefen der Seele. Nun würden wir aber, wenn wir diese Dinge nicht so heraufholen müßten, doch unsere Entwickelung nicht fördern können, wie wir sie fördern sollen. Sehen Sie, wenn wir nicht zum physischen Leibe ein solches Verhältnis bekommen würden, wie wir es jetzt bekommen haben, so würden wir als furchtbar gescheite Kinder geboren werden, und es würde gar nicht viel kosten, verhältnismäßig früh dasjenige, was im Ätherleibe steckt, heraufzuholen. Aber der Mensch würde dann viel zu wenig Muhe darauf verwenden, die Weisheit zu erlangen. Dadurch würde sie zu wenig sein Eigentum sein, er wurde zu sehr ein Abklatsch sein der Weisheit. Die persönliche Aneignung erfolgt dadurch, daß wir ein solches Verhältnis zum physischen Leibe haben wie jetzt in der fünften Kulturperiode. Diese persönliche Aneignung macht erst, daß das Wissen zu unserem eigenen Wissen wird, und dann haben wir es für uns, wenn wir es auf diese Weise heraufholen. Das gilt in bezug auf den Ätherleib.
Mit Bezug auf den Astralleib gilt aber noch etwas ganz anderes, da gilt das Folgende: Wenn wir alle Einzelheiten heraufholen könnten, die im Astralleibe liegen, alles, was der Astralleib weiß, dann ware das eigentlich für unser gegenwärtiges Leben kein Gewinn. Denn wir würden dadurch wirklich wie Automaten innerhalb der Menschheit leben. Unser Astralleib weiß zum Beispiel in der Tat — nicht unser Bewußtsein, aber der Astralleib — wie er als Astralleib zu all den einzelnen Menschen steht, mit denen er sich im Leben begegnet. Unser Astralleib hat ein solches Bewußtsein. So daß, wenn wir könnten — derjenige, der es will, kann es nicht, und derjenige, der es kann, macht es nicht, weil das zur Ausbildung eines okkulten Egoismus schlimmster Art führen würde -, aber wenn man alles das, was der Astralleib weiß, bewußt machen könnte, so würde man zum Beispiel genau wissen: Mit dieser oder jener Persönlichkeit erwirkst du dir Unannehmlichkeiten, mit dieser oder jener wirst du Freundlichkeiten erleben. Solches Wissen würde das Leben natürlich ganz verändern, aber für unser gegenwärtiges irdisches Verhältnis nicht im günstigen Sinne. Nun könnte ich noch viel erzählen, was der Astralleib weiß, aber der übt unbewußt sein Wissen auch schon aus, nur ein Wissen, das wirklich im Zusammenhange des Menschenlebens wenig beachtet wird.
Nehmen Sie einmal an, ein Mensch kommt durch ein Unglück um. Das erscheint uns so, nicht wahr, wenn wir das gewöhnliche Menschenleben betrachten, daß dieses Unglück den Menschen getroffen hat. Denn ein Unglück sucht der Mensch, so wie sein gegenwärtiges Bewußtsein beschaffen ist, nicht. Würde man den Astralleib prüfen, so würde man kein Unglück finden, das der Mensch, insofern er in dem Astralleibe ist, nicht sucht. Was da notwendig ist für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein, das ist aus freier innerer Wahl gesucht vom Astralleibe. Das ist so gewollt, richtig gewollt vom Astralleibe. Selbst wenn man von einem Eisenbahnzuge überfahren wird, ist das von dem Astralleibe eigentlich für den ganzen Lebenszusammenhang in Erwägung gezogen, es ist nicht etwas, was bloß zugestoßen ist.
Also nicht nur, daß wir unseren Zusammenhang mit den übrigen Menschen in unserem Astralleibe haben als Weisheit, wir haben auch wirklich unseren Zusammenhang mit dem ganzen äußeren Leben, mit dem, was sich als Naturereignisse oder sonstige soziale Ereignisse abspielt, in die wir verwickelt sind. Was uns da verschlossen ist und sein soll, ist gut, sonst würden wir nichts lernen für die weitere Entwickelung. Aber im Astralleibe ist ein wirklicher Gedanke vorhanden, das heißt eine Art von Wissen für alles dasjenige, was unser Wesen in Zusammenhang zeigt mit den Ereignissen und Menschenelementen, in die hinein wir verwickelt sind. Die Menschen, sage ich, achten das im gewöhnlichen Leben eigentlich ziemlich wenig. Denn wenn uns irgend etwas zustößt, von dem man sagt, «es stößt uns eben zu», dann betrachtet man in der Regel dasjenige, was uns da zugestoßen ist, nur danach, daß es uns eben zugestoßen ist. Man zieht wirklich nicht in Erwägung, was geschehen ware, wenn einem das nicht gerade zugestoßen wäre. Ich will einen eklatanten Fall herausgreifen. Ein Mensch wird verwundet in einem Augenblick seines Lebens. Nicht wahr, im gewöhnlichen Leben denkt man: Nun, er ist verwundet worden. — Da schließt man ab. Was aber geschehen wäre, wenn der Mensch nicht verwundet worden wäre, darauf sieht man nicht. Denn, nicht wahr, durch eine Verwundung ändert sich das ganze Leben, alles Folgende geschieht anders. Aber der Astralleib durchschaut den ganzen Zusammenhang, indem er vor der Verwundung steht. Man kann sagen, der Astralleib ist hellsehend.
Und das wahre Ich, das noch tiefer im Unterbewußtsein ruht, das wir im Tiefsten haben, das ist noch hellsehender, viel hellsehender. Nicht wahr, Sie sind sich ja klar darüber, meine lieben Freunde, daß wir unseren physischen Leib schon auf dem alten Saturn gebildet haben, daß wir unseren Ätherleib auf der Sonne gebildet haben und daß wir unseren Astralleib auf dem alten Mond gebildet haben. Unser Ich ist das Baby unter den menschlichen Gliedern, es ist am jüngsten. Dieses Ich wird so, wie jetzt der physische Leib gebildet ist, erst auf dem Vulkan gebildet sein, also nachdem die JupiterEntwickelung und die Venus-Entwickelung vorüber sein wird. Aber dieses Ich ruht zugleich im Schoße der geistigen Welt. Dann, während der Vulkanzeit, wird ein ungeheures Wissen von dem Zusammenhang des Lebens von dem Ich ausstrahlen. Aber dieses Wissen ist schon jetzt in uns, und die Jupiter- und Venus-Entwickelung wird darin bestehen, daß die Fähigkeit dazu heraufgeholt wird.
Wir erblicken also, indem wir auf diesen Untergrund des Seelenlebens blicken, in einer wunderbaren Weise unseren Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt. Uns Menschen ist ja im normalen Menschenleben zunächst nur das gegeben, was wir empfangen, indem das Ich sich spiegelt im physischen Leibe. Aber dahinter ruht ein weit ausgebreitetes Erdenwissen, das im Ätherleibe ist. Dahinter ruht wiederum ein hellsichtiges Wissen, das im Astralleibe schon ist, und ein noch hellsichtigeres Wissen, das im wahren Ich ist. Diese Dinge sich vorher zu überlegen, ist gut, bevor man auf das eingeht, was ich nun eigentlich besprechen will.
Nehmen wir den Fall, der uns ja jetzt in so tausendfältiger Weise so tief zur Seele spricht, den Fall: Ein Mensch wir im jugendlichen Alter, wie es jetzt oft geschieht, auf dem Kriegsschauplatz durch die Pforte des Todes geführt. Sehen Sie, was da eintritt, das ist, daß in ganz anderer Weise die tieferliegenden Glieder der menschlichen Natur, Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich, aus dem Zusammenhang mit dem physischen Leibe gerissen werden, als wenn der Mensch alt geworden ist und langsam in seinem Bette stirbt. Ein schnelleres Trennen von dem physischen Leibe findet da oftmals statt. Ich habe schon gesprochen von dem Prophetischen des Ätherleibes. Wir haben gesagt, daß selbst in den Bildern des Traumes — der ja dadurch entsteht, daß sich der Astralleib nach dem Ätherleibe hinneigt und daß der Ätherleib gespiegelt bekommt dasjenige, was der Astralleib erlebt -—, wenn wir diese Bilder in gewisser Weise auslegen könnten, etwas von prophetischer Art liegt, was uns auf unser künftiges Leben hinweist.
Für denjenigen, der nun als Geistesforscher diese Dinge zu erforschen hat, entsteht aus solchen Erwägungen heraus eine wichtige Frage. Man muß sich allerdings die Frage zunächst einmal vorlegen, aber dann ist dieses Vorlegen der Frage eine Art Leitung zu der Antwort hin, die sich dann aus der hellsichtigen Beobachtung ergeben muß. Man sagt sich zum Beispiel: Der Mensch ist ja doch bestimmt, hier auf der Erde, wenn das Leben normal abläuft, das Patriarchenalter zu erreichen, das Leben langsam aufzubrauchen. Dafür ist sein Ätherleib und sein Astralleib und sein Ich eingerichtet. Das kann im normalen Lebensablauf geschehen. Nun wird plötzlich durch eine Kugel, die den Menschen trifft, der ganze Zusammenhang gestört. Damit aber wird eine Fähigkeit, zum Beispiel die Fähigkeit des Ätherleibes - ich will jetzt die Betrachtung auf den einzelnen Menschen richten -, die Kraft, die nun durch das ganze Leben hindurch hätte wie prophetisch wirken können, die den Menschen hätte hindurchführen können durch viele Lebensverhältnisse noch, herausgerissen aus dem Leben; sie wird getrennt von dem physischen Plan. Nehmen Sie an, die Kugel hätte nicht getroffen wir können die Hypothese stellen und absehen davon, daß es ja selbstverständlich Karma ist -, dann würde der Mensch diese Kraft nach und nach verbraucht haben in seinem Ätherleibe, vielleicht durch viele Jahre hindurch. Diese Kraft ist trotzdem in seinem Seeleninnern da; sie ist «nicht nicht da», diese Kraft. Daß sie da ist, das sieht man schon, wenn nun ein solcher Mensch, den eine Kugel getroffen hat, auf sein Lebenstableau zurückblickt, zurückblickt im Ätherleibe. Ich habe es schon angedeutet: Dieses Lebenstableau hat einen ganz anderen Charakter. Es hat den Charakter, als ob es von der Außenwelt herankomme, nicht so sehr von der Innenwelt erzeugt werden müßte. Kurz, diese Energie, diese Kraft, die da abgeschnitten wird, die ist im Menschen. Und die Beobachtung ergibt auch, daß sie da ist, daß sie verändert das ganze folgende Leben nach dem Tode. Ebenso ist es mit der Kraft, die im Astralleibe ist. Die wurde ja auch verwendet worden sein während des ganzen Lebens. Die ist auch noch da. Kurz, der Mensch tritt ganz anders durch die Pforte des Todes, wenn er gewaltsam aus dem physischen Leben herausgerissen wird, wenn er etwa durch eine Kugel getroffen wird und dadurch das Leben verläßt, als wenn er langsam im Bette gestorben wäre.
Nun entsteht die große Frage für den Geistesforscher: Was bedeutet das denn eigentlich? Was bedeutet es für eine Epoche, daß der Mensch durch dasjenige, was ich angeführt habe, eigentlich etwas ganz anderes hineinbringt in die geistige Welt, als er hineinbringt, wenn er das Leben ausgelebt hat? Für eine solche Epoche, wie die ist, in der wir leben, ist das von unendlich großer Bedeutung, denn vieles von der Art des Geschilderten wird in die geistige Welt hineingetragen. Was bedeutet denn das für die geistige Welt? Das ist eine ungeheuer bedeutungsvolle Frage. - Wenn man sich ein wenig ansieht das Verhältnis der geistigen Welt zur physischen Welt, wie Sie es nachlesen können in dem Wiener Zyklus: «Inneres Wesen des Menschen und Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt», dann kommt das näher, was man so lange nicht glauben kann, was sich aber der geistigen Forschung ganz klar darstellt: daß sich wirklich alle Begriffe und Vorstellungen ändern, wenn man in die geistige Welt kommt. Und so ist es nicht nur, wenn man durch Initiation hineinkommt in die geistige Welt, sondern so ist es auch bei dem Durchgang durch den Tod.
Sehen Sie, hier entwickelt sich eigentlich die Menschheit im Grunde immer mehr und mehr nach einer bestimmten Richtung, man kann sagen, des sogenannten Seinsbegriffes. Und heute ist schon ein gewaltiges Versenktsein in die Vorliebe für den Seinsbegriff vorhanden. Was meine ich eigentlich mit dem Seinsbegriff, mit dem Begriff des Seins? Nun, es laßt ja heute kaum einer noch etwas gelten, was sich nicht gibt als ein «Sein». Wenn irgendeiner kommt, der nicht von etwas spricht, was handgreiflich ist, so wird er für einen Phantasten gehalten. Die Menschen gehen umher und reden von dem «Wirklichen», und demgegenüber ist ein bloßer Gedanke nichts. Es gibt heute unzählige Menschen, die achten den Gedanken deshalb nicht, weil sie nicht von ihm angebissen werden können. «Sein» bedeutet für sie: man bekommt knüppeldick dasjenige, was wahrgenommen wird. Man hat nichts dazu zu tun, daß irgend etwas ist, sondern es gibt sich als seiend. Und was nicht in dieser Weise sich als seiend gibt, das wollen die Menschen immer weniger gelten lassen.
In der Entwickelung der geistigen Welt ist das Umgekehrte der Fall. Dasjenige, was seiend ist, was einen Eindruck macht wie physische Gegenstände, das ist für den Menschen im Geistigen etwas Feindliches, etwas Störendes, etwas, wovon er weiß, daß es zum Nichtigen gehört, daß es verurteilt ist, in das Nichtige zu verschwinden. Und kommt man so ohne weiteres in ein geistiges Gebiet, wo nicht sehr weit entwickelte Seelen sind, Seelen, die also, ich möchte sagen, für den Geist noch ebenso naiv sind, wie viele Seelen für die Erde naiv sind, so findet man für die verstorbenen Seelen dort das entgegengesetzte Urteil. Etwas, worauf sie Wert legen, das darf nicht «sein», wie man hier auf der Erde von «sein» spricht. Dasjenige, was hier Sein ist, das ist nicht wertvoll für diese Seelen. Im geistigen Leben ist es ja so, daß man lauter geistigen Wesen gegenübersteht. Die wirken auf einen. Die muß man erst zur Anschauung bringen. Es ist da so: Man steht in der geistigen Welt; hinter einem stehen Seelen der geistigen Hierarchien, Angeloi, Archangeloi und so weiter. Man weiß, sie sind da. Aber wenn sie für einen da sein sollen, so muß man sie erst auferwecken zu dem, was man hier das Sein nennt. Das, was in der geistigen Welt auf einen wirkt, das muß man zur Imaginierung bringen. Was nichterwecktes Sein ist, wozu man nichts tut, was so knüppeldick einfach vorhanden ist, das ist dort nicht wertvolles Sein.
Hier auf der Erde steht man und ist umgeben von der Natur, und die geistige Welt, zu der muß man sich erheben, die ist nicht so ohne weiteres da. Es kostet keine besondere Mühe, die Natur um sich zu haben. Sie ergibt sich von selbst als ein Sein. Deshalb lieben es die Materialisten, die Natur um sich zu haben. Die ist aber nicht mehr da in der geistigen Welt. Es ist nichts da in der geistigen Welt, als was man sich immer erarbeitet. Da muß man immerfort tätig sein. Das, was da ist, das ist die andere Welt, die Welt, die man verlassen hat; auf die blickt man immer hin als auf eine seiende Welt: diese Welt, die das Vergängliche in sich trägt, die fortwährend kämpft mit dem Nichtigen.
Wenn für einen Augenblick die Sache so wäre, daß die Welt, welche die Materialisten lieben, verschwinden würde, daß die Menschen nichts wissen würden von ihrem Leibe, daß sie sich die Imagination erst schaffen müßten, wenn sie nichts von dem Tisch wissen würden, bis sie ihn sich selbst denkend erschaffen würden, dafür aber die geistige Welt sehen würden, so hätten sie für das Leben hier, was sie dort haben in der geistigen Welt. In der geistigen Welt ist die Welt eben nur durch die eigene Tätigkeit zur Anschauung zu bringen. Die jenseitige Welt, also unser Diesseits, ist dort immer da. Während hier der Himmel verborgen ist und nur die Welt, die um uns ist, immer da ist, ist dort die Welt eigentlich verborgen, wenn man sie nicht tätig erst zur eigenen Anschauung bringt. Das Jenseits, unser Diesseits, das ist eine Welt, an die man nicht bloß glauben kann, sondern von der man wissen kann unmittelbar. Aber das, was diese unsere Welt hier, vom Gesichtspunkte der anderen Welt betrachtet, ich möchte sagen, fatal macht, das ist, daß sie mit dem Sein durchdrungen ist. Das stört, daß diese Welt mit dem Sein durchdrungen ist, wirklich, das stört. Wenn viele sagen: Ich wollte schon an eine geistige Welt glauben, wenn ich sie nur hier sehen könnte!, so kann man das vergleichen mit dem, was die Seelen in der geistigen Welt sagen: Ja, diese fortwährend da unten vorhandene physische Welt, man wollte sie schon ertragen, wenn sie nur nicht fortwährend «wäre», wenn sie nur nicht das Sein so aufdringlich in sich hätte. Man kann gar nicht hinunterschauen auf die Erde, ohne daß sie in allen ihren Punkten das furchtbare «Sein» hat.
Und wenn hier jemand praktischer Materialist ist und nicht an Ideale glauben kann, dann liebt er nur das Sein. Aber damit nicht sich die Gesinnung von dem bloßen knüppeldicken Sein hier ausbreite, erstehen immer von Zeit zu Zeit die Idealisten, die die Menschen an die Kraft der Ideale und ihre Wirksamkeit im geschichtlichen Fortschritt glauben machen. Diese Ideale des Sittlichen, des Schönen, des Religiösen, sie werden hineingetragen in die Welt. Gewiß, die grobklotzigen Materialisten, die geben nichts darauf; höchstens tun sie sie ab mit ein paar Worten. Es wird das, was nicht knüppeldick im materiellen Sinne seiend ist, gerade als das Wertvolle des Lebens auf den physischen Plan hereingetragen. Und wenn man von einem höheren menschlichen Gesichtspunkte aus die Entwickelung der Menschheit über die Erde betrachtet, so sagt man sich: Gewiß, die Natur ist groß, ist bedeutend; sie ist «da». Aber was wäre dieses ganze menschliche Leben, wenn nur die seiende Natur wäre - und wäre sie noch so schön -, wenn der Mensch nicht Ideale haben könnte, wenn er nicht angespornt werden könnte, nicht von dem Seienden, sondern von dem Sein-Sollenden des sittlichen, des religiösen, des künstlerischen, des pädagogischen Lebens? Das Nicht-Seiende, möchte ich sagen, das hereindringt aus einer geistigen Welt als die Ideale der Menschheit — das NichtSeiende, aber Sein-Sollende, das macht das Leben erst wertvoll. Das empfindet jeder gut, der nicht ganz im Sumpfe des Materialismus untergegangen ist. Und so erscheinen die, die im Laufe der Geschichte auftreten und im besonderen Sinne Träger der Ideale sind, als diejenigen, die das seiende Leben aus dem Sein-Sollenden erst wertvoll machen.
Und für den Geistesforscher stellt sich nun heraus: Von der geistigen Welt sieht man in einer ähnlichen Weise zurück auf das irdische Leben, aber so, daß man als höhere Seele Verlangen trägt danach, daß nicht alles auf dieser Erde bloß «ist», daf} es unter dem, was auf die Erde getreten ist, auch etwas gibt, was nicht im eminentesten Sinne nach Erdenart «ist». Es muß etwas beigemischt sein dem Erdensein, was nicht im gewöhnlichen Erdensinne ist. Und dies stellt sich heraus, ich möchte sagen, als etwas unendlich Bedeutungsvolles, wenn es sich dem Geistesforscher ergibt, bei denjenigen Leben, die veranlagt waren für ein langes Leben und gewaltsam abgeschnitten worden sind, so daß wir einen Teil eines solchen Lebens haben, der vom jenseitigen Standpunkte aus angesehen eigentlich für das Sein bestimmt war und dieses Sein nicht ausgelebt hat. Nehmen wir an, ein Mensch hat, statt bis zum siebzigsten, achtzigsten Jahre nach seinen Lebenskräften, nur bis zum fünfundzwanzigsten, sechsundzwanzigsten Jahre in der Welt gelebt. Dann wurde er, sagen wir, von einer Kugel getroffen. Seine Glieder der Menschennatur wurden plötzlich auseinandergelöst. Der Ätherleib, der Astralleib und das Ich hätten noch lange die Gabe entwickeln können, den physischen Leib zu erhalten. Das, was da noch hätte folgen können nach dem Schüsse, das ist für das Erdendasein bestimmt gewesen; es ist nicht im Sein aufgegangen. Das nimmt sich aber von jenseits aus gesehen so aus, daß man sieht: Da unten ist nicht bloß Seiendes, da unten ist dem Erdensein auch etwas beigemischt, was zum Sein bestimmt ist, aber nicht das Sein durchlebt hat, Sein, das bloß der Anlage nach vorhanden ist. Auch Sein-Sollendes im gewissen Sinne. Daher sind diejenigen, die ihr Leben also früh endigen durch eine äußere Veranlassung, indem sie durch die Todespforte gehen, für die geistige Welt in einem ähnlichen Sinne - nur in einem ähnlichen Sinne, nicht im gleichen Sinne — geistige Boten wie die Idealisten, die hier auf die Erde kommen, um dem Seienden das Sein-Sollende beizumischen. So steigen herauf diejenigen, die früh durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, um dem Himmel Kunde zu bringen, daß da unten auf der Erde auch Sein-Sollendes, nicht bloß Seiendes ist.
Es ist eine unendlich tiefe, bedeutsame Entdeckung, die man machen kann, wenn man auf dieses Kapitel der Geistesforschung kommt, indem man kennenlernt jene dem Himmel zugekehrten Idealisten, die Idealisten werden dadurch, daf3 sie hier auf der Erde in der angedeuteten Weise durch die Pforte des Todes gehen. Und solch einen Gedanken wirklich mit unserer Seele zu vereinigen, es geziemt uns das in der jetzigen Zeit sehr wohl.
Betritt man eben die Gefilde des geistigen Lebens, so ist es nötig, daß neben denjenigen, die dort sozusagen ihre Aufgabe im geistigen Leben verrichten, auch solche sind, die hinweisen auf die Erde, so daß sie eigentlich etwas in die Erdenentwickelung hineinverwoben haben, aber es früher herausgenommen haben, als es der Anlage nach hätte heraufgebracht werden sollen. Daher kann man auch sagen: Diejenigen, die also durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, sie werden in vieler Beziehung für die Menschenseelen der geistigen Welt diejenigen, die an das Hohe des Erdenlebens glauben lassen, die glauben lassen im Jenseits, daß das Erdenleben wirklich auch Geistiges als Wertvolles in sich enthält. Sie nehmen dort eine ähnliche Stellung ein wie die Idealisten hier auf der Erde.
Wir müssen uns ja schon einmal bekanntmachen damit, daß wir uns die Menschen, indem sie weiterleben in der geistigen Welt, nicht so vorstellen dürfen, wie sie zuletzt hier gewesen sind. Die triviale Vorstellung, die sich die Menschen machen, zum Beispiel, daß die, die als Kinder sterben, weiterleben als Kinder, ist selbstverständlich nicht richtig. Die Gestalt, die die Toten zuletzt hatten, kann bildhaft in der Imagination so erscheinen; das ist aber nicht die Gestalt, sondern der Ausdruck. Es kann ein Kind sterben, aber das Menschenwesen, das in dem Kinde verkörpert war, kann eine sehr entwickelte Seele sein und fortleben nach dem Tode als eine sehr hoch entwickelte Seele. Das habe ich schon oft erwähnt.
Nun aber sehen wir, daß in die geistige Welt etwas hinaufgetragen wird, was als ein mit dem irdischen Sein verbundenes und doch nicht in demselben aufgehendes, ein gleichsam jenseitiges SeinSollendes ist. Das wirkt in der Entwickelung, welche die Menschenseele nun wiederum zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmacht, mit. Menschen, die durch die Todespforte gegangen sind, sieht man dann das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt so durchmachen, daß sie gewissermaßen das menschliche der Erde in einem viel reicheren, viel umfänglicheren Sinne jenseits zur Vorstellung bringen, als man es zur Vorstellung bringen kann, wenn man ein normales Erdenleben ausgelebt hat. Nicht wahr, das soll nichts darüber entscheiden, was dem Menschen vorgezeichnet ist durch das Karma. Wenn man alt wird, es ist Karma. Wenn man jung stirbt, es ist Karma. Aber gerade so, wie man sich nicht willkürlich auf der Erde zu dieser oder jener Individualität machen kann nach dem diesseitigen Bewußtsein, so kann man auch nicht bestimmen vom Erdenbewußtsein aus, wie sich dieses Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt gestalten soll. Wenn man also gewaltsam vom physischen Dasein in die geistige Welt hinaufgeht, so hat man ein viel intensiveres Anschauen, imaginativ, von allem Menschlichen, als man es hat, wenn man eben auf eine andere Weise in die geistige Welt eingetreten ist.
Man kann sagen: Diejenigen Menschen, die also durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, die stehen während ihres Lebens zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt insbesondere demjenigen nahe, was auf der Erde geschieht im Sinne des Allgemein-Menschlichen. Man kann das sehen, wenn man Menschen prüft, die etwas ganz besonders Wichtiges in irgendeinem Abschnitt ihres Lebens tun, so daß es darauf ankommt, daß dieser Mensch das Betreffende tut. Sagen wir, ein Mensch tut im neunundvierzigsten Jahre etwas - es ist das selbstverständlich nur nach okkulter Anschauung zu sehen -, was ungeheuer bedeutsam nach irgendeiner Richtung hin ist. Das prüft man zurück. Dann findet man den Menschen in einer früheren Verkörperung so, daß er dazumal vielleicht gerade in seinem neunundvierzigsten Lebensjahr eines mehr oder weniger gewaltsamen Todes gestorben ist. Das heißt, er hat dadurch eben diesen starken Zusammenhang mit der ideellen Entwickelung auf der Erde hier erlangt, daß er das aufgenommen hat, dieses Sein-Sollende für die geistige Welt. Dadurch hat er die starke Kraft gehabt, daß er einverleibt hat seinem ganzen seelischen Wesen, das Bestimmte gerade in einem bestimmten Jahre zu vollbringen. Man kann auch daraus wieder ersehen — ich habe das letztemal ja darüber gesprochen -, daß Menschen, welche namentlich durch ihren Willen mancherlei zu bewirken haben, die also mehr für die allgemeine Menschheit leben, in irgendeiner Weise solch sein-sollendes Leben mit hinaufgenommen haben in irgendeiner früheren Inkarnation.
Es ist ja besonders schwierig, wenn man sich das Leben im Geistigen nur so vorstellen will wie ein etwas verdünntes irdisches Leben, sich mit dieser Vorstellung auszusöhnen, die man vom geistigen Leben erlangt: daß hier das physische Leben fortwährend bekannt ist von selbst; daß jenseits das Leben ist, das unbekannt ist; und daß auch davon das Gegenteil gilt im geistigen Leben. Man pflegt sich nicht gleich richtig vorzustellen, daß eigentlich, wenn man nicht etwas dazu tut, alles dunkel und finster ist im geistigen Leben, daf man alles erst zum Licht heraufholen muß und daß alles, was diesseits ist, von jenseits aus sichtbar ist — jenseits, das aber unser Diesseits ist —, und daß das Bedeutungsvolle, das beigemischt ist, in einem Sein-Sollenden besteht. Dies ist eine Vorstellung, die man sich erwerben muß, wenn man in richtiger Weise den Zusammenhang des physischen Lebens mit dem geistigen Leben einsehen will.
Ich sagte: Es ist wirklich ganz gut in unserer Zeit, sich mit solchen Vorstellungen bekanntzumachen. Denn die schmerzbewegte Seele fragt sich so sehr häufig heute: Warum müssen denn so viele Menschen im blühendsten Lebensalter in die geistige Welt abgerufen werden? Warum können sie ihr Leben hier nicht ausbilden? Und so sonderbar es klingt — wie gesagt, die geistigen Wahrheiten sind ja zuweilen etwas, was grausam scheinen kann -, so ist es doch wahr: In die geistige Welt muß die Möglichkeit hineingetragen werden, auf die Erde so zu blicken, daß diese Erde selber vom Geiste durchdrungen werden kann. Würden alle Menschen ihr normales Lebensalter erreichen, kein Mensch als Märtyrer, kein Mensch im frühen Alter sich zu opfern in der Lage sein, dann würde die Erde von drüben als dem wertlosen Sein verfallen aussehen. Das, was der Erde hier beigemischt ist an Ideellem, ist aber auch zu gleicher Zeit dasjenige, was immerzu aus dem Vergangenen ein besseres Zukünftiges hervorbringt. Und das hängt auch zusammen mit diesem, was da hingeopfert wird. Ein Mensch, der mit sechsundzwanzig Jahren sein ganzes folgendes Leben opfert, der gibt dieses ganze folgende Leben, das er sonst an seine äußere Arbeit gewendet hätte, dem Fortschrittsprozeß der Menschheit. Es lebt weiter. In dem, was jetzt an Fortschrittskräften da ist, lebt das, was Menschen hingeopfert haben an Leben, die sie hätten hier noch durchleben können. Die Erdenentwickelung braucht die Lebensopfer. Da kann man sehen, wie das, was sonst in unserem materialistischen Zeitalter eigentlich nur mehr ein abstrakter Begriff ist, wie das unendlich konkret wird.
Noch in einem anderen Sinne, als ich es im Juli hier entwickelte, können wir sagen: Nicht nur diese Ätherleiber wirken sozusagen im ganzen Zusammenhang des Menschheitsfortschrittes, sondern auch die Arbeit der früh durch den Tod Gegangenen. Die Arbeit dieser Individualitäten ist eine solche, daß wir sagen können: Wer sind denn diejenigen, die vorzugsweise für das Allgemeine der Menschheit arbeiten, die sich allgemeine Aufgaben stellen in späteren Inkarnationen? Es sind diejenigen, die in einer früheren Inkarnation in irgendeiner Weise einen Opfertod durchgemacht haben. Die hingebungsvollen, dem Geistigen hier auf der Erde zugeneigten Naturen, die verdanken das ihrem ein Martyrium zu nennenden Leben in einer vorhergehenden Inkarnation. Die Erde könnte nicht fortschreiten, wenn sich nicht Menschen opfern würden.
Und wenn man dies bedenkt, meine lieben Freunde, dann kann man von der Gegenwart in die Zukunft einen Blick tun. So unendlich viele werden jetzt geopfert, opfern sich. So schmerzlich dieses ist, von den persönlichen Gesichtspunkten aus betrachtet, so kann man sich damit versöhnen, wenn man es vom Gesichtspunkte der Weisheit der Welt betrachtet. Ebensoviel, als jetzt geopfert wird, wird der Zukunft an Fortschrittskräften gegeben. Die Menschheit braucht solche Fortschrittskräfte. Man bedenkt das heute noch nicht in genügendem Sinne, aber man wird es bedenken, wenn nicht einmal Jahrhunderte, sondern genügend viele Jahrzehnte über die materialistische Entwickelung der Menschheit hingeflossen sind. Der Materialismus wird in rasender Eile seine Konsequenzen ziehen. Innerlich war der Höhepunkt des Materialismus im neunzehnten Jahrhundert, aber die Menschen würden versinken im Materialismus, wenn nicht eine Umkehr gegeben wird. Diese Umkehr, sie soll gegeben werden durch die Geisteswissenschaft. Aber sie kann nur dadurch gegeben werden, daß starke Kräfte arbeiten, daß wirklich das Ideelle in das Erdenleben hineingearbeitet werde. Viele, die jetzt abgerufen werden, werden dazu dienen, daß die Erde nicht verfällt dem Materialismus, daß der Materialismus nicht allein herrschen wird.
Lesen Sie es, meine lieben Freunde, in dem Vortragszyklus über die Apokalypse, wo es nur in großen Zügen angedeutet worden ist, nach, und machen Sie sich daraus einen Begriff, wie viele Früchte des Opfertodes die Erde in der Zukunft brauchen wird, damit sie vom Versinken im Materialismus und dem, was damit verbunden ist, Streit, Haß, Feindschaft, wenigstens soweit erlöst wird, als sie erlöst werden muß, damit sie ihren weiteren Weg im Kosmos durchmachen kann. Es ist schon so, daß solche Zeiten wie die unserige mehr als andere dazu auffordern, nicht nur zu denken an das, was geschieht, sondern auch zu denken an die Früchte dessen, was geschieht. Und diese Früchte können wir nur erkennen, wenn wiir die zwei Seiten des Weltendaseins ins Auge fassen, diese zwei Seiten, die uns zeigen, daß wir wirklich zwei völlig verschiedene Pole des Lebens durchmachen, hier zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, und dort zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Hier sind wir in gewissem Sinne mit unserem innersten Wesen passiv und müssen arbeiten, wahrhaftig so, daß es vielen viel zu viel wird, wenn wir zur Anschauung einer geistigen Welt uns aufschwingen wollen. Dort ist es notwendig, daß wir aktiv sind, tätig sind, um das, in dem wir sind, um die unmittelbar gegenwärtige Welt in unserer Anschauung zu haben. Dagegen haben wir immer, wie eine Mahnung, die «seiende» Welt drunten vor uns.
Hier herein in diese irdische Welt tragen die Idealisten das, was das Sein-Sollende ist, was das Seiende wertvoll macht. In die Welt, in die die Menschen gehen durch die Pforte des Todes, in die diejenigen eintreten, die ihr Leben ausgelebt haben, um in regelmäßigem Gang das irdische Leben fortzuführen, treten auch jene ein, die mehr oder weniger früh als Märtyrer sterben, und sind dort die Zeugen davon, daß da unten nicht bloß Materielles, nicht bloß dem Nichtigen, dem Vergänglichen Verfallenes ist, sondern daß} beigemischt ist dieser Erde auch das, was da zurückbehalten diejenigen, die ein Leben nicht voll auslebten, sondern denen es gewaltsam zerstört worden ist.
Man muß schon solche Dinge nicht nur verstandesmäßig nehmen, sondern tief mit seiner Empfindung durchdringen, dann klärt sich einem manches auf. Es sind gewiß viele Rätsel in der Gegenwart enthalten, aber einige davon klären sich auf, wenn man also das Schmerzliche, was geschieht, im Zusammenhang mit der großen Weisheit der Welt betrachtet.
Auch das ist wiederum ein Kapitel, das uns, wenn wir das eben Ausgesprochene auf unsere Zeit anwenden, die wichtige Wahrheit verkörpern kann:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht—
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
Third Lecture
We have used the days we have been able to spend here together to shed light on one aspect or another of the connection between the lives of people here on the physical plane and the lives that are spent between death and a new birth, and also to say something about the connection between the individual successive earthly lives that human beings go through. You have seen that when we try to go into these relationships in more detail, the investigation becomes complicated, but then it becomes all the more fruitful, because only such a detailed investigation can give us some insight into the details of the questions and mysteries of life. We want to continue with this kind of consideration, but today we must begin by going into a little detail about the structure of the human being, which we are familiar with, but which we want to discuss again with regard to those characteristics that will be important for the following consideration.
Now, my dear friends, as we live here on Earth as human beings, we live, as you know from the various cycles, lectures, and books, in a very specific epoch of Earth's development. And we have been able to gather from the whole spirit of our considerations that it has an inner meaning, a certain inner significance, that we carry our soul through these different epochs of Earth's development. From the descriptions that have been given, you will already have seen how not only the outer life, but the whole life of the human being here on Earth is naturally different in the different epochs. The whole life of the soul was already different — let us first consider only the life of the soul — if we look only at the post-Atlantean epochs, in the ancient Indian, different in the ancient Persian, different in the Egyptian-Chaldean, different in the Greek-Latin, and different in our time. We carried our souls through all these epochs. In all these epochs, our souls, most of them repeatedly in one epoch, sought bodies that would enable the soul to perceive the world in the way that the forces of that epoch made it possible to perceive the world.
If you remember what has been said about the peculiarities of the soul life in the individual epochs, you will be able to gain a more precise insight. If we look, for example, at life in the first post-Atlantean epoch, we find that the human soul is primarily occupied during its earthly life with working out the interaction of its own being with the etheric body, that is, with experiencing, so to speak, what can be experienced when one is mainly in interaction here in earthly life as a soul with the etheric body. Then, in the second post-Atlantean epoch, the soul lived out everything that can be lived out when one is truly in interaction with the astral body. In the third post-Atlantean cultural epoch, the soul lived out everything that can be lived out through interaction with the sentient soul; in the fourth cultural epoch, the soul lived out its interaction with the intellectual or emotional soul, and in our time, everything that can be lived out is lived out when one interacts with the conscious soul. Depending on whether the soul, moving in these individual epochs, experienced this or that in these members of human nature, it advanced in the general progress of the world. What one experiences in these different epochs in terms of the relationship of one's own soul to the whole world is fundamentally different. One must be able to form an idea of this from what has been given so far. Now, in our time, we live in the consciousness soul, and the whole culture of our fifth cultural epoch consists in the fact that the whole human soul, the whole human I, establishes such relationships with the world as are given by its relationship to the consciousness soul. What one can experience when one sends one's power into the consciousness soul is what one experiences in our epoch.
Now, however, we can also view the whole matter from another point of view. How does it happen in the general cosmic context that one lives in the consciousness soul? As human beings, we naturally live not only in the consciousness soul, but also in other members of the human nature. In a narrower sense, we develop the abilities that humanity is currently developing, primarily by living here between birth and death with our ego in the physical body, via the detour through the consciousness soul. The Greeks in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch did not live as strongly dependent on their physical bodies as we do. The Greeks still lived in their bodies in an inner way. This meant that they worked in their intellectual or emotional souls. This enabled them to fill their physical bodies in a completely different way than we can. The Greeks, for example, had a much stronger inner feeling for every movement of the hand than people today. No external science can explain these things, but they exist. When the Greeks bent an arm, they felt how the individual muscles swelled and how an angle was formed. This enabled the Greeks to create sculpture in a completely different way. Today's sculptor works from a model. He looks at the model and works from it. Not so the Greek. He had an inner feeling for the shape of the arm, the physiognomy, and so on. For him, this was an inner experience. Now, in a certain sense, human beings are torn away from what they can experience in their physical bodies when they live in the consciousness soul. They have, as it were, entered more deeply into their physical bodies and become more closely related to them than the Greeks could be, but as a result they have also become insensitive to everything that the physical body provides. He uses the organs of the physical body in a higher sense than the Greek. The Greek could not see certain shades of color as we see them today because he was not yet so deeply embedded in the physical body as we are today. If you read Homer, you can see how few colors he mentions. So this is how things change. Man becomes more closely related to his physical body, but in doing so he also feels his inner self less in the physical body. One would have to say rather that he no longer feels his inner self in the physical body, but pushes more toward the outer world. In short, it is a struggle with the abilities of the physical body, whereas in Greek culture it was more a struggle with form. So we can say: We form the consciousness soul precisely by entering into a kind of inner relationship with the physical body through our I, by really pushing ourselves into the physical body. This has brought about a time when people no longer know much about spiritual processes and things, a time of materialism, because they have pushed themselves so far into the physical body.
But now, of course, the etheric body lies within the physical body. The Greeks knew much more about their etheric body. They sensed, even if only in a faint echo, how the etheric body always resonates with the physical movements of the body. They still sensed that it was not only the physical hand that moved, but that the etheric hand moved along with it and was the basis of physical movement. This has been lost. However, during the Greek period, human beings went through all this in such a way that they felt themselves much more intensely in their etheric bodies than they do now. They have not lost this. We have all gone through this as souls; it is contained in our etheric body. It is all contained there in preserved thoughts. And when we step out of the world in which we are between death and a new birth, we leave behind, as if in a state of forgetfulness, everything that we were actually able to control quite well in our etheric body. By plunging so deeply into our physical body, we leave behind what we acquired in Greek times. You can see from this that our etheric body actually contains a great deal of which human beings are now completely unaware. Human beings now develop their consciousness mainly in the physical body. In doing so, they cover up what is in their etheric body. If human beings were conscious of all the knowledge of the inner human organization that they have hidden in their etheric body, they would know infinitely more than they do now. For this etheric body has acquired a certain perfection that is greater than human beings are now aware of. In general, much has been suppressed with regard to the etheric body because we do not bring it to consciousness in the appropriate way; we do not know much about this etheric body.
Among other things, as you know, the astral body works in the etheric body. Everything that the etheric body does must, of course, be permeated by the astral body. If we could suddenly bring forth everything that the etheric body contains, we would be infinitely wiser than we are in the present epoch, where we struggle with our physical bodies. For this etheric body contains, for example — and of course the astral body is involved in this — infinite treasures of wisdom. These are down in our soul, in the etheric body. Above all, there are a great many skills and a great deal of knowledge. Take geometry, for example: I have already mentioned here how much you know about geometry unconsciously. This is really true; for when you learn geometry, you cannot learn it from outside things, but rather the human being brings it up by bringing what is in the etheric body into consciousness. When he draws figures externally, they serve only as a stimulus. When I draw a triangle that I know has 180 degrees, I know this from the etheric body. Drawing the figure is merely a speculation based on human laziness. In truth, you know everything you can learn about geometry unconsciously; it is hidden deep in the depths of your unconscious soul life. In general, you would not believe how clever you are in the depths of your subconscious soul. If only you knew! The misfortune of human development does not lie in the fact that people have little wisdom within themselves, but in the fact that they cannot draw wisdom from their own souls. All spiritual development is based on drawing hidden wisdom from the depths of the soul. However, if we did not have to draw these things up, we would not be able to promote our development as we should. You see, if we did not have the same relationship to the physical body as we now have, we would be born as terribly clever children, and it would not take much effort to bring forth relatively early what is contained in the etheric body. But then human beings would put far too little effort into acquiring wisdom. As a result, it would not be sufficiently his own; he would become too much of a copy of wisdom. Personal appropriation occurs through our having such a relationship to the physical body as we do now in the fifth cultural period. It is this personal appropriation that makes knowledge our own, and then we have it for ourselves when we bring it up in this way. This applies to the etheric body.
With regard to the astral body, however, something quite different applies, namely the following: If we could bring up all the details that lie in the astral body, everything that the astral body knows, then this would actually be of no benefit to our present life. For we would then really live like automatons within humanity. Our astral body, for example, knows — not our consciousness, but the astral body — how it relates as an astral body to all the individual human beings it encounters in life. Our astral body has such a consciousness. So that if we could — those who want to cannot, and those who can do not, because it would lead to the development of occult egoism of the worst kind — but if we could make conscious everything that the astral body knows, we would know, for example, exactly: With this or that personality you will cause yourself inconvenience, with this or that you will experience kindness. Such knowledge would naturally change life completely, but not in a favorable sense for our present earthly relationship. Now I could tell you much more about what the astral body knows, but it already exercises its knowledge unconsciously, only it is knowledge that is really little regarded in the context of human life.
Suppose a person dies in an accident. When we look at ordinary human life, it seems to us that this accident has befallen the person. For human beings do not seek misfortune, given the nature of their present consciousness. If one were to examine the astral body, one would find no misfortune that the human being, insofar as he is in the astral body, does not seek. What is necessary for ordinary consciousness is sought by the astral body out of free inner choice. This is willed, rightly willed, by the astral body. Even if one is run over by a train, this is actually considered by the astral body for the whole context of life; it is not something that has merely happened.
So not only do we have our connection with other people in our astral body as wisdom, we also really have our connection with the whole of external life, with what happens as natural events or other social events in which we are involved. What is closed to us and should remain so is good, otherwise we would learn nothing for our further development. But in the astral body there is a real thought, that is, a kind of knowledge of everything that our being shows in connection with the events and human elements in which we are involved. People, I say, pay very little attention to this in ordinary life. For when something happens to us that we say “just happened to us,” we usually consider what happened to us only in terms of the fact that it happened to us. We really do not consider what would have happened if it had not happened to us. Let me pick out a striking example. A person is wounded at a moment in his life. In ordinary life, one thinks: Well, he has been wounded. — And that is the end of it. But you don't see what would have happened if the person hadn't been wounded. Because, you see, a wound changes your whole life; everything that follows happens differently. But the astral body sees the whole connection, because it stands before the wound. You could say that the astral body is clairvoyant.
And the true self, which lies even deeper in the subconscious, which we have in our deepest depths, is even more clairvoyant, much more clairvoyant. You are well aware, my dear friends, that we formed our physical body on ancient Saturn, that we formed our etheric body on the sun, and that we formed our astral body on the ancient moon. Our ego is the baby among the human limbs; it is the youngest. This ego will only be formed on the volcano, just as the physical body is now formed, that is, after the Jupiter and Venus evolutions are over. But this ego also rests in the womb of the spiritual world. Then, during the volcanic period, an immense knowledge of the connection between life and the I will radiate forth. But this knowledge is already within us, and the Jupiter and Venus evolutions will consist in bringing this ability to the surface.
Thus, by looking at this foundation of the soul life, we see in a wonderful way our connection with the spiritual world. In normal human life, we humans are initially given only what we receive through the reflection of the ego in the physical body. But behind this lies a vast store of earthly knowledge that is contained in the etheric body. Behind this, in turn, lies clairvoyant knowledge that is already present in the astral body, and even more clairvoyant knowledge that is contained in the true ego. It is good to consider these things beforehand, before going into what I actually want to discuss now.
Let us take the case that speaks so deeply to our souls in so many ways, the case of a person who, as often happens now, is led through the gates of death on the battlefield in his youth. You see what happens there: the deeper members of human nature, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, are torn from their connection with the physical body in a completely different way than when a person grows old and slowly dies in their bed. A quicker separation from the physical body often takes place there. I have already spoken about the prophetic nature of the etheric body. We have said that even in the images of dreams — which arise when the astral body inclines toward the ether body and the ether body reflects what the astral body experiences — if we could interpret these images in a certain way, there is something prophetic that points to our future life.
For those who, as spiritual researchers, have to investigate these things, an important question arises from such considerations. One must first ask oneself the question, but then asking the question is a kind of guide to the answer, which must then emerge from clairvoyant observation. One says, for example: Human beings are destined, here on earth, if life proceeds normally, to reach patriarchal age and slowly use up their life. Their etheric body, astral body, and ego are designed for this. This can happen in the normal course of life. Now suddenly, a bullet hits the person and disrupts the whole context. But this also tears away a capacity, for example the capacity of the etheric body — I want to focus on the individual person here — the power that could have worked prophetically throughout the whole life, that could have guided the person through many life circumstances, is torn out of life; it is separated from the physical plane. Suppose the bullet had not hit — we can hypothesize and disregard the fact that it is, of course, karma — then the person would have gradually used up this power in his etheric body, perhaps over many years. This power is nevertheless present in his soul; it is “not not there,” this power. That it is there can already be seen when such a person who has been hit by a bullet looks back on his life tableau, looks back in his etheric body. I have already hinted at this: this life tableau has a completely different character. It has the character of coming from the outside world, not so much of being generated from the inner world. In short, this energy, this force that is cut off, is within the human being. And observation also shows that it is there, that it changes the whole life after death. The same is true of the force that is in the astral body. It has also been used throughout life. It is still there. In short, a person passes through the gate of death quite differently when they are violently torn from physical life, for example when they are hit by a bullet and thereby leave life, than when they die slowly in bed.
Now the great question arises for the spiritual researcher: What does this actually mean? What does it mean for an epoch that, through what I have described, human beings actually bring something completely different into the spiritual world than they bring when they have lived out their lives? For an epoch such as the one in which we live, this is of infinite importance, because much of what has been described is carried into the spiritual world. What does this mean for the spiritual world? This is an immensely significant question. If you look a little at the relationship between the spiritual world and the physical world, as you can read in the Vienna cycle, “The Inner Being of Man and Life Between Death and a New Birth,” then you come closer to what you cannot believe for so long, but which is quite clear to spiritual research: that all concepts and ideas really change when you enter the spiritual world. And this is not only the case when one enters the spiritual world through initiation, but also when passing through death.
You see, humanity is actually developing more and more in a certain direction, one might say toward the so-called concept of being. And today there is already a tremendous immersion in the preference for the concept of being. What do I actually mean by the concept of being, by the concept of existence? Well, today hardly anyone accepts anything that does not present itself as “being.” If someone comes along who does not speak of something tangible, they are considered a fantasist. People go around talking about “reality,” and compared to that, a mere thought is nothing. There are countless people today who do not respect thoughts because they cannot be grasped. For them, “being” means that you get exactly what you perceive. You have nothing to do with the fact that something is, but it simply presents itself as being. And what does not present itself as being in this way, people are less and less willing to accept.
In the development of the spiritual world, the opposite is true. That which is, that which makes an impression like physical objects, is something hostile to the human being in the spiritual realm, something disturbing, something that he knows belongs to nothingness, that is doomed to disappear into nothingness. And if one enters a spiritual realm where souls are not very highly developed, souls that are, I might say, just as naive to the spirit as many souls are naive to the earth, one finds the opposite judgment for the souls there. Something they value must not “be” in the way we speak of “being” here on earth. What is here is not valuable to these souls. In spiritual life, one is confronted with nothing but spiritual beings. They have an effect on you. You must first bring them into view. It is like this: you stand in the spiritual world; behind you are souls of the spiritual hierarchies, angeloi, archangeloi, and so on. You know they are there. But if they are to be there for you, you must first awaken them to what you call being here. What affects you in the spiritual world must be brought to imagination. What is unawakened being, what you do nothing about, what is simply there, is not valuable being there.
Here on earth, you stand surrounded by nature, and you have to rise up to the spiritual world, which is not readily available. It takes no special effort to have nature around you. It presents itself as a being. That is why materialists love to have nature around them. But it is no longer there in the spiritual world. There is nothing in the spiritual world except what one always works for. One must be constantly active. What is there is the other world, the world one has left behind; one always looks at it as a world that exists: this world, which carries transience within itself, which is constantly struggling with nothingness.
If for a moment it were the case that the world which materialists love would disappear, that people would know nothing of their bodies, that they would first have to create their imagination when they knew nothing of the table until they created it themselves by thinking, but in return would see the spiritual world, then they would have for life here what they have there in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, the world can only be perceived through one's own activity. The world beyond, that is, our world here, is always there. While here the sky is hidden and only the world around us is always there, there the world is actually hidden unless one first actively brings it into one's own perception. The hereafter, our here, is a world that one cannot merely believe in, but one can know directly. But what makes this world of ours, viewed from the perspective of the other world, fatal, I would say, is that it is permeated with being. It is disturbing that this world is permeated with being; it really is disturbing. When many people say, “I would believe in a spiritual world if only I could see it here,” this can be compared to what souls in the spiritual world say: “Yes, we would be able to endure this physical world that is constantly present down there if only it were not constantly ‘there,’ if only it did not have being so intrusively within itself.” One cannot look down at the earth without seeing the terrible “being” in all its aspects.
And if someone here is a practical materialist and cannot believe in ideals, then he loves only being. But in order that this attitude of mere being does not spread, idealists arise from time to time who make people believe in the power of ideals and their effectiveness in historical progress. These ideals of morality, beauty, and religion are brought into the world. Certainly, the coarse materialists do not care about them; at most, they dismiss them with a few words. That which is not thick in the material sense is brought into the physical realm as the valuable thing in life. And when one views the development of humanity on earth from a higher human point of view, one says to oneself: Certainly, nature is great, it is significant; it is “there.” But what would all this human life be if only nature existed — however beautiful it might be — if human beings could not have ideals, if they could not be inspired, not by what is, but by what ought to be in moral, religious, artistic, and educational life? That which does not exist, I would say, which penetrates from a spiritual world as the ideals of humanity—that which does not exist, but ought to be—is what makes life worthwhile. Everyone who has not completely sunk into the mire of materialism feels this deeply. And so those who appear in the course of history and are, in a special sense, bearers of ideals, appear as those who make existing life valuable out of what ought to be.
And for the spiritual researcher, it now becomes clear: from the spiritual world, one looks back on earthly life in a similar way, but in such a way that, as a higher soul, one longs for everything on this earth not to merely “be,” but for there to be something among the things that have come into being on earth that is not “earthly” in the most eminent sense. There must be something added to earthly existence that is not in the ordinary earthly sense. And this turns out, I would say, to be something infinitely significant when it becomes apparent to the spiritual researcher in the case of those lives that were predisposed to a long life and were violently cut short, so that we have a part of such a life that, viewed from the standpoint of the beyond, was actually destined for existence and did not live out this existence. Let us assume that a person, instead of living to the age of seventy or eighty according to his life forces, only lived to the age of twenty-five or twenty-six in the world. Then he was, let us say, struck by a bullet. His human limbs were suddenly torn apart. The etheric body, the astral body, and the I could have continued to develop the ability to sustain the physical body for a long time. What could have followed after the shot was destined for earthly existence; it did not come into being. But seen from the other side, it appears as if there is not only being down there, but also something mixed in with earthly existence that is destined for being but has not lived through being, being that exists only in potential. In a certain sense, it is also that which ought to be. Therefore, those who end their lives early through external circumstances, by passing through the gates of death, are, in a similar sense—only in a similar sense, not in the same sense—spiritual messengers for the spiritual world, like the idealists who come here to earth to add that which ought to be to that which is. Thus, those who have passed through the gate of death early ascend to bring tidings to heaven that down here on earth there is also what ought to be, not merely what is.
t is an infinitely profound and significant discovery that one can make when one comes to this chapter of spiritual research, by getting to know those idealists who are turned toward heaven, who become idealists because they pass through the gate of death here on earth in the manner indicated. And to truly unite such a thought with our soul is very fitting for us in the present time.
When one enters the realms of spiritual life, it is necessary that, alongside those who are, so to speak, carrying out their task in spiritual life, there are also those who point to the earth, so that they have actually woven something into the development of the earth, but have taken it out earlier than it should have been brought forth according to its nature. Therefore, one can also say that those who pass through the gate of death become, in many respects, those who enable the souls of the spiritual world to believe in the high value of earthly life, who enable them to believe in the hereafter that earthly life truly contains something spiritual that is valuable. They take on a similar position there as the idealists here on earth.
We must first familiarize ourselves with the fact that we cannot imagine human beings, as they continue to live in the spiritual world, as they were here at the end of their lives. The trivial idea that people have, for example, that those who die as children continue to live as children, is of course not correct. The form that the dead had last can appear pictorially in the imagination; but that is not the form, only the expression. A child may die, but the human being who was embodied in the child may be a highly developed soul and live on after death as a highly developed soul. I have mentioned this many times before.
Now, however, we see that something is carried up into the spiritual world which is connected with earthly existence and yet does not disappear into it, but is, as it were, a transcendent being. This has an effect on the development which the human soul now undergoes between death and a new birth. People who have passed through the gates of death are then seen to go through life between death and a new birth in such a way that they bring the human aspect of the earth into the beyond in a much richer, much more comprehensive sense than can be imagined by someone who has lived a normal earthly life. This is not meant to decide what is predestined for a person through karma. When one grows old, it is karma. When one dies young, it is karma. But just as one cannot arbitrarily make oneself into this or that individuality on earth according to the consciousness of this world, so one cannot determine from the earthly consciousness how this life between death and a new birth should be shaped. So if you ascend violently from physical existence into the spiritual world, you have a much more intense, imaginative view of everything human than you would have if you had entered the spiritual world in a different way.
One can say that those people who pass through the gate of death stand during their lives between death and new birth, particularly close to what happens on earth in the sense of what is common to all human beings. One can see this when one examines people who do something particularly important in some phase of their lives, so that it is important that this person does what they do. Let us say that a person does something in their forty-ninth year—this can of course only be seen from an occult point of view—that is immensely significant in some way. We examine this. Then we find the person in a previous incarnation, where they perhaps died a more or less violent death at the age of forty-nine. This means that he has attained this strong connection with the ideal development on earth precisely because he has taken on this task for the spiritual world. This has given him the strong power to incorporate into his entire soul nature the determination to accomplish something specific in a specific year. One can also see from this — I spoke about this last time — that people who have a lot to accomplish through their will, who therefore live more for humanity in general, have in some way taken on this ideal life in a previous incarnation.
It is particularly difficult, if one wants to imagine life in the spiritual world as merely a somewhat diluted earthly life, to reconcile this idea with the understanding one gains of spiritual life: that here, physical life is continually known of itself; that beyond, there is life that is unknown; and that the opposite is also true in spiritual life. One does not immediately imagine correctly that, unless one does something about it, everything in spiritual life is dark and gloomy, that one must first bring everything up into the light, and that everything that is on this side is visible from the other side—the other side, which is our this side—and that the meaningful element that is mixed in consists in a potentiality. This is a concept that must be acquired if one wants to understand the connection between physical life and spiritual life in the right way.
I said: It is really quite good in our time to become acquainted with such ideas. For the pain-stricken soul so often asks itself today: Why must so many people be called to the spiritual world in the prime of life? Why can't they develop their lives here? And as strange as it may sound — as I said, spiritual truths can sometimes seem cruel — it is nevertheless true: the possibility must be brought into the spiritual world of looking at the earth in such a way that the earth itself can be permeated by the spirit. If all people reached their normal age, if no one were a martyr, if no one were able to sacrifice themselves at an early age, then the earth would appear from the other side as a worthless existence. But what is mixed in with the earth here in the form of ideas is also what constantly brings forth a better future from the past. And this is also connected with what is sacrificed. A person who sacrifices his entire future life at the age of twenty-six gives this entire future life, which he would otherwise have devoted to his external work, to the progress of humanity. It lives on. In the forces of progress that now exist, there lives what people have sacrificed of the lives they could have lived here. The development of the earth needs the sacrifice of lives. Here we can see how what is otherwise only an abstract concept in our materialistic age becomes infinitely concrete.In yet another sense, as I developed here in July, we can say: Not only do these etheric bodies work, so to speak, in the whole context of human progress, but so does the work of those who died early. The work of these individualities is such that we can say: Who are those who work primarily for the good of humanity as a whole, who set themselves universal tasks in later incarnations? They are those who in a previous incarnation underwent a sacrificial death in some way. The devoted natures inclined toward the spiritual here on earth owe this to their life in a previous incarnation, which can be called a martyrdom. The earth could not progress if human beings did not sacrifice themselves.
And when you consider this, my dear friends, you can look from the present into the future. So many are now being sacrificed, sacrificing themselves. As painful as this is from a personal point of view, it can be reconciled when viewed from the perspective of the wisdom of the world. Just as much as is being sacrificed now will be given to the future in the form of forces of progress. Humanity needs such forces of progress. People do not yet consider this sufficiently today, but they will consider it when not even centuries, but enough decades have passed since the materialistic development of humanity. Materialism will reap its consequences with breakneck speed. Inwardly, materialism reached its peak in the nineteenth century, but people would sink into materialism if there were no reversal. This reversal must come through spiritual science. But it can only come through the working of powerful forces, through the actual incorporation of the ideal into earthly life. Many who are now being called will serve to ensure that the earth does not fall into materialism, that materialism will not reign alone.
Read about it, my dear friends, in the lecture cycle on the Apocalypse, where it has only been outlined in broad strokes, and form your own idea of how much fruit the earth will need in the future from the sacrificial death of these people, so that it may be redeemed from sinking into materialism and all that is connected with it—strife, hatred, enmity—at least to the extent that it must be redeemed so that it can continue its journey through the cosmos. It is true that times such as ours call upon us more than others to think not only about what is happening, but also about the fruits of what is happening. And we can only recognize these fruits if we look at the two sides of worldly existence, these two sides that show us that we are really going through two completely different poles of life, here between birth and death, and there between death and a new birth. Here, in a certain sense, we are passive with our innermost being and must work, truly in such a way that it becomes too much for many when we want to rise to the contemplation of a spiritual world. There, it is necessary that we are active, that we are busy in order to have what we are in, the immediately present world, in our contemplation. In contrast, we always have the “existing” world below us as a reminder.Here into this earthly world, idealists bring what ought to be, what makes what exists valuable. Into the world through which people pass through the gate of death, into which those enter who have lived out their lives in order to continue their earthly life in a regular cycle, there also enter those who die more or less early as martyrs, and there they are witnesses to the fact that down there is not merely the material, not merely that which is futile and transitory, but that} mixed in with this earth is also that which is retained by those who did not live a full life, but whose lives were violently destroyed.
One must not only take such things intellectually, but penetrate them deeply with one's feelings, then many things become clear. There are certainly many mysteries in the present, but some of them become clear when one considers the painful things that happen in the context of the great wisdom of the world.
This, too, is a chapter that, when we apply what has just been said to our own time, can embody an important truth:From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of the battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
The fruit of the spirit matures—
Souls guided by the spirit
Direct their minds to the realm of the spirit.