Turning Points Spiritual History
GA 60
9 March 1911, Berlin
IV. Moses
When we study the great historical individualities of the past, such as those who have already claimed our attention during these lectures, namely, Zarathustra, Hermes and Buddha, we are brought face to face with incidents and facts which are of interest to us as human beings, because we feel that our whole soul life plays a part in the collective evolution of humanity. It is only when we look back to those great spiritual characters of by-gone times, who have helped to bring about the conditions in which we now live, that we can truly comprehend our present circumstances.
With regard to Moses, however, whose personality we are about to consider, the matter presents a wholly different aspect; for here we have the feeling that there is no limit to that direct influence exerted by all those events connected with his name, which yet continue to affect the spiritual content of our souls. We still feel, in our very bones, as it were, the workings of those impulses which emanated from this great outstanding patriarch. It seems to us that Moses is even now a living force in our thoughts and feelings, and as if when we analyse our ideas and motives according to his doctrine and sentiments, that we are in truth arraigning and searching our very souls. It is for this reason that all that persistent tradition which is directly associated with Moses, seems to us more vivid, more actually present, than that which is connected with those other great personalities to whom I have referred. It is therefore in a certain sense, less difficult to deal with this outstanding individuality, for through the Bible we are all familiar with this mighty figure, whose influence has endured even to the present time.
Although the conscientious researches which have been conducted by science during the past ten years and more, have to a certain extent touched upon the surface and here and there thrown new light upon the history of Moses—in so far as it can be gleaned from the Bible—nevertheless, when we look more deeply into the matter, we must admit that very little indeed has been altered with regard to the general impression which we have received from our own personal study of the Scriptures.
Whenever we refer to any matter connected with Moses, or to the great patriarch himself, we speak as if we were mentioning some subject well known throughout the widest circles; this fact somewhat simplifies the contemplation of the historical features. But on the other hand there are certain difficulties which arise, because of the manner in which the Bible tradition concerning Moses is expressed. This we at once realize when we call to mind the vicissitudes which accompanied the Biblical researches of the nineteenth century.
There is scarcely a single branch of human knowledge, or sincere scientific endeavour, even when we include the natural sciences, which claims in so high a degree our deep admiration and reverence, as do these investigations; and I feel that this point should be repeatedly emphasized. The industry, the discrimination, the devoted and unselfish scientific application, expended upon separate sections of the Bible, in order to educe from their character and style a definite knowledge of their alleged origin, is considered by those who have followed these researches closely as a work which has had no parallel during the nineteenth century.
All this investigation of the past hundred years has, however, a tragic side, for the further the researches were carried, the more did they tend to place the Bible beyond the reach of the people. Anyone who will consult the current literature concerning the results of these exhaustive studies can convince himself of this fact. The difficulty arose because the Bible was dissected and split up, particularly in the case of the Old Testament, in an attempt to show, for instance, that a certain passage occurring in one part of the Bible owed its origin to a different current of tradition to that of a passage in another part. Also, that during the course of time the whole subject matter had gradually become welded together, in a form which made it necessary for it to be first separated out in this scholarly manner, in order that it might be understood. Hence, in a certain sense, the outcome of these investigations must be looked upon as tragic, since they were fundamentally wholly negative in character and contributed nothing toward the continuance of that vivifying influence which the Bible is capable of exerting, and which has lived in the hearts and souls of mankind for thousands of years.
That movement towards true spiritual development, which we have termed Spiritual Science, is chiefly concerned with constructive activities and is not interested in mere criticism, as is so often the case with other sciences. In our time its most important task is to bring about once again an accurate and proper understanding of the Bible, and in this relation it puts forward the following question:—‘Is it not essential that we should first penetrate into the very depths of the import and significance which underlies the whole character of the ancient Biblical traditions, and then, only after these are fully and clearly understood, inquire as to their origin?’ Such a procedure is however, not easy, especially with reference to the Old Testament, and is particularly difficult in regard to those sections which deal with the great outstanding figure and personality of Moses.
We would now ask:—‘What is it that Spiritual Science has to say regarding the peculiar nature of those ancient Biblical descriptions?’ It tells us that those external events which are associated with this or that personality or nation, have been chronicled in the order and manner in which they actually occurred, as viewed from the stand-point of external history. Following this method, the personality of Moses is so depicted that his experiences in the physical world are represented just as they took place in relation to space and time.
It is only when we have made a profound study of the Bible through the medium of Spiritual Science, that we realize that a Biblical description concerned with external happenings and experiences may become merged in one of quite another nature; and it is often with difficulty that we can distinguish this change in fundamental character. We are told, for instance, of journeys and other worldly events which we accept as such; then, all unnoticed, as the account continues, we find ourselves confronted with a graphic narrative of a wholly different order. It seems to us that a certain journey is represented as continuing from one definite place to another, and as if we were expected to look upon the account of events depicted in the latter part of the narrative in the same light as the external physical happenings described at the beginning. In reality, however, the latter part of such an account may be actually a figurative portrayal of the soul-life of the particular personality to whom the story has reference. It then has no connection whatever with external worldly events, but depicts the soul experiences, struggles and conquests, through which this especial being is raised to a higher degree of soul development, greater enlightenment, a more advanced stage of activity, or to a mission concerned with the world’s evolution. In such case, descriptions of outside events pass over without any noticeable change directly into pictorial representations, which although remaining similar in style and character, have absolutely no significance with regard to external physical happenings—but refer only to the inner experiences of the soul.
The above assertion will always remain ‘a mere assertion’ to those who are unable to utilize the methods of Spiritual Science and thus enter gradually and understandingly into the strange and unusual features associated with many of the graphic narratives found in the Bible; more particularly will this be the case with regard to those sections which deal with the patriarch Moses. When, however, we study this strange method of representation deeply, we notice that when at some certain point in a story the description of external physical events changes into one of soul-experiences, the whole style and fundamental character of the account alters, while a new element suddenly makes its appearance. If we ask ourselves:—‘How does it come about that we are able to perceive this change?’ we can only answer that we realize it because of a conviction that comes to us from the soul. This curious descriptive method, which we have just characterized, lies at the base of ancient religious historical narratives, more especially when they are concerned with personalities who have reached a high standard of discernment and understanding of the soul’s action and inner workings.
The further we advance, and the more deeply we become immersed in the study of Spiritual Science, the greater is our faith in this singular style of representation; but just because of the strangeness of this method it is, in some ways, far from easy to gain a clear comprehension of the true meaning of certain passages which occur in the graphic delineation of Moses. On the one hand, we have the Bible with its apparently straightforward narrative, but on the other, there are difficulties due to the curious way in which the account is presented, when the subject matter is of an especially profound character. This fact has resulted in the customary interpretations being much too liberal in many cases.
When, for instance, we consider the conception of ancient Hebrew history, as advanced by the philosopher Philo, who lived at the time of the founding of Christianity, we realize at once that he endeavoured to portray the whole record of the old Jewish nation as if it were an allegory. Philo aimed at a figurative representation in which the entire history of this ancient race becomes a sort of symbolical account of the soul-experiences of a people. In so doing, Philo went too far, and for this reason: he did not possess that judgment and insight, born of Spiritual Science, which would have enabled him to discern and to know when the descriptions concerning external events glided into portrayals relative to soul-life.
As we proceed it will be realized that in Moses we have a personality who influenced directly the active course of human evolution, and whose mission it was to enlighten mankind concerning matters of the utmost import and significance. When we experience that deep sense, so pregnant with meaning, through which we become aware that his deeds even yet touch a chord within our souls, then do we feel that a full and clear comprehension of the Moses-Impulse is to us a necessity. We will, therefore, without further preamble, enter at once upon the question of his great Mission. The true object of his life’s work cannot, however, be fully understood unless we presuppose that the Bible narrative was based upon actual and specific knowledge of a certain fundamental change in man’s psychic condition, to which we have already referred when considering the individualities of Zarathustra, Hermes and Buddha. We then drew attention to the fact that during the course of evolution the soul-life of man has gradually undergone a definite modification, from a divine primordial clairvoyant state to that of our present-day intellectual consciousness.
I must once again bring back to your minds a statement made in previous lectures, namely, that in primeval times the soul of man was so constituted that during certain intermediary conditions between that of sleeping and being awake, he could gaze upon the Spirit-World, and that things thus observed, and which were truly of the spiritual realms, manifested as pictures or visions; and it is these visions that in many cases have been perpetuated in the form of mythological legends of by-gone times.
In reply to the question:—‘How can the reality of this ancient clairvoyant consciousness be proved externally, and without the aid of Spiritual Science?’ we would say that the answer is to be found in the results of certain precise and painstaking investigations which have been carried on even in our time, but which have not as yet received general recognition. We would point out that comparatively recently some of our mythologists during their researches into the origin of ancient mythical visions, legends, etc., which have arisen among certain separate and distinctive peoples, have been forced to assume the existence of an altogether different conscious state in order to account for these ancient myths and concepts.
I have often referred to an interesting book, entitled The Riddle of the Sphinx, by Ludwig Laistner, a mythologist who must be ranked as the most prominent among the modern investigators in this field of research. The Riddle of the Sphinx is regarded as one of the most important works of its kind. Laistner draws attention to the fact that certain myths appear to form a sequel to events typical of experiences in a dream world. He did not advance so far as the study of Spiritual Science, and he was quite unaware that he had in reality laid the foundation stone of a true knowledge and understanding of the Ancient Mythologies. We ( annot, however, regard Myths and Legends merely in the light of transfigured typical dreams, as Laistner has done, but we must recognize in them the products of a by-gone condition of human consciousness in which man could apprehend the Spirit-World in pictorial visions, that later found expression in mythical imagery.
It is impossible to comprehend the old fables and legends, unless we start with the hypothesis that they were evolved from a different form of conscious state; and it is just because this basic assumption has been lacking that they are so little understood. This prehistoric soul-state has now given way to our present intellectual consciousness, which latter may be briefly characterized as follows:—We alternate between a condition of sleeping and of being awake. In our wakeful state we seize upon those impressions which come to us from the external world, through the medium of our senses; these ideas we group together, combining them by means of our intellect. This material form of intellectual consciousness, which acts through our power of understanding and intelligence, has now superseded the ancient clairvoyant soul-state. We have thus characterized a particular episode of history, and presented it in the aspect which it assumes when we make a profound study of the evolution of mankind.
There is yet another factor which underlies the manner in which Bible narratives are expressed. It appears that a special mission was assigned to each nation, race and tribe in connection with the evolution and development of man; and that the ancient clairvoyant forms of consciousness manifested in different ways according to the capacity and temperament of the various peoples. It is for this reason that we find fundamentally among the mythologies and pagan religions of divers nations such uniformity of tradition concerning this old clairvoyant state.
We thus realize that we are not dealing with just one abstract idea, or unit, in this ancient conception of the world; for the most varied missions were assigned to Nations and to Peoples who differed very greatly from one another; and thus it came about that the universal consciousness found expression in many and varying forms. If we would indeed understand all that the evolution of mankind implies, then we must take into consideration the fact that it does not merely consist of a meaningless succession of civilizations, but that throughout the whole course of man’s progress and development there is found interwoven both significance and purport. Hence we find that a certain order of conscious-state may reappear and be found active in some later civilization because, like a fresh page, or a new-born flower, it has something to add to that which has gone before; for the whole meaning and purpose of human evolution implies ever recurrent and successive forms of manifestation.
We can best understand the people of a nation from the stand-point of Spiritual Science when we realize that all races, be they Ancient Indians, Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, or Romans, had a definite mission to fulfil, and that each nation gave expression in some special and distinctive manner to that which was active and could live in man’s consciousness. We cannot rightly comprehend these different peoples unless we are in a position to apprehend and to realize the nature of their mission from their individual characteristics. The whole evolution of mankind proceeds in such manner that to each nation a certain time is apportioned and when this period draws to a close, the nation’s work is done. It is as if the hour had struck, the seeds had brought forth their fruit, and the task was ended. It may, however, happen that with this or that race certain peculiarities of temperament, or natural disposition, corresponding to a former period may persist. In such a case this particular nation has, as it were, overpassed the appointed time when a new mission should be entered upon, and take the place of that which was before. Thus it is that certain singular and distinctive national traits may endure and become active at a later period, the while the objective course of human evolution substitutes some fresh purpose for that which was previously determined.
A course of events of this nature is especially noticeable with the Egyptians, and we have already become acquainted with their peculiar characteristics during the lecture devoted to Hermes. The Egyptians had been assigned a lofty mission in connection with the collective progress and development of humanity; and all that was embodied therein was perfected and fulfilled, while the seeds of that which was to follow had been laid in the Egyptian civilization. The people of this great nation, however, retained their original temperament and singular characteristics and were therefore not of themselves capable of formulating and undertaking a new mission. Hence it came about that the control and government of the succeeding community passed into other hands. The source out of which the fresh movement evolved was fundamentally Egyptian, but the mission itself was destined to assume a different character.
Here we note something akin to a change of tendency in the whole purport of man’s evolution, and in order that we may understand the circumstances, it is necessary that we immerse ourselves deeply in the study of all that pertained to the growth and development of the Egyptian mission. When Moses had acquired all the knowledge and information possible concerning this matter, he pondered deeply and the souls of his people were stirred. It was, however, not his task to carry on the ancient Egyptian mission; he must evolve therefrom some entirely new plan which he might instil into the course of human evolution. It is because his concept was so mighty, so comprehensive and so penetrating in its nature, that the personality of Moses exerted so powerful an Influence upon the whole history of mankind. The way in which the Moses Mission was evolved out of the past evolution of the Egyptian people is even in our day of the greatest interest, while its example and study yet bear abundant fruit. That knowledge and understanding which came to Moses from the Egyptians, and which was enhanced through his contact with the lofty and eternal course of spiritual development has ever reached outward, until it has now become active in our soul-life.
Hence, the impression we have gained of Moses is that of a personality not directly dependent upon any particular period, or upon any special mission, for that wisdom which was his to impart to humanity. We regard him as one whose soul must have been stirred by those eternally surging waves of Divine influence, that ever find new channels through which to reach deep down into the evolution of mankind, so that man may be productive and bring forth goodly fruits. It is as if the ever-lasting germ of wisdom implanted in the soul of Moses, found its fitting soil, and ripened, in the light of that knowledge which came to him from the Egyptian civilization.
The Bible account of the finding of Moses enclosed in an Ark, shortly after his birth (Ex. ii. 5), is a symbolical description according to the ancient mode, from which we are to understand that in Moses we are concerned with a soul that drew upon eternal sources for the most lofty of those concepts which it proffered to humanity. Anyone who understands the singular form in which such religious narratives are developed, knows that this particular style is always indicative of some matter of deep significance. During former lectures of this series, we have learnt that when man desires to raise his capacity of apprehension to the higher level of the spiritual spheres he must pass through certain stages of soul development, during which he completely shuts himself off from the external world, and also from that ever wakeful call emanating from the lowest forces of the soul.
Let us suppose that we wished to express figuratively, that at birth some personality entering upon earth life came upon the world endowed with certain Divine gifts which would later raise him to great heights in his relation to mankind. We might well indicate this concept by developing a narrative telling us that it was essential that this being should, shortly after birth, pass through some material experience of such nature as to cause all his sense perceptions and powers of external apprehension to be for a time entirely shut off from the physical world.1The underlying suggestion here involved is, that the fact that it is necessary that the perceptual faculties be held in abeyance for the time being, indicates that this particular personality, already possessed other faculties of a spiritual order, which being thus freed would become operative. [Ed.] Viewed in this light the Bible story concerning the discovery of Moses becomes quite intelligible.
We read that the daughter of the Egyptian King Pharaoh [sent her maid to the river to fetch the Ark, in which was the child] and that she herself named him Moses—‘Because,’ she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’ (Ex. ii, 10.) Those who are aware of the true meaning of the name ‘Moses’, know that it signifies this act, as is indicated in the Bible. From this graphic narrative we are to understand that the daughter of Pharaoh, who is here symbolical of Egyptian culture, guided the influx of external life into a soul touched with the attributes of eternity. At the same time we find intimated in a wonderful manner that the imperishable message which Moses was destined to bring to humanity was as one might say, enfolded and lay within an outer shell encompassed and enveloped by the old Egyptian culture and mission.
Next follow descriptions of external events which occurred during the life-development of Moses; and we realize once again from the form in which they are presented, that they have reference to actual outer happenings. All that we read concerning the vicissitudes of Moses, especially where mention is made of his grief and distress over the bondage of his people in Egypt, may be regarded as an actual account of mundane events. As the story continues, it merges almost imperceptibly into a graphic portrayal of his inner soul-life and soul-experiences. This occurs at that place where it is stated that he fled away and was finally guided to a priest of Midian whose name was Jethro or Ruel. (Ex. ii, 15 to 20.)
Anyone having the knowledge and discernment necessary in order to discover the existence of a story of this nature underlying what, at first sight, would appear to be an ordinary spiritual narrative, would at once realize from the very names alone that the account changes its whole character at this point and passes over to a description of soul-events. We do not mean to suggest that Moses did not actually set out upon a journey to some temple sanctuary or abode of priestly learning; but rather that the whole narrative has been most ingeniously developed and told in such manner that external happenings are deliberately intermingled with the soul-experiences of the great patriarch. Thus do we find that all outer life-experiences mentioned at this point are suggestive of the trials and tribulations against which Moses struggled in order to attain to a more exalted soul-state.
What, then, is the actual significance of Jethro? From the Bible we learn that he was one of those mysterious individualities whom we meet again and again when we study the evolution and development of the human race. Beings who stand supreme in having won their way through toil and effort to that lofty standard of knowledge and discernment which can only be acquired, slowly and gradually, through veritable experience of the soul’s inner conflicts. It is in this wise alone that man may gain true understanding of those grand spiritual heights where lie the paths ever traversed by such exalted ones. Moses became, to a certain extent, a disciple of Jethro, and through this association his mission was destined to receive a direct impulse. Now, Jethro was one of those incomprehensible beings who withhold their innermost nature from the apprehension of mankind, though acting on occasion as teachers and leaders of men. In these days there is much doubt and incredulity regarding the reality of such mystic personalities, but that they have indeed existed becomes evident to every earnest student of the historical development of humanity.
The account of the experiences of Moses while a disciple of this great wise priest, opens with a description of his meeting with Jethro’s seven daughters [in the land of Midian. Ex. ii, 15, 16] near-by to a well (a symbol betokening:—source of wisdom). Anyone who would comprehend the deeper significance underlying a graphic narrative of this nature must above all remember that mystical descriptions of every period have symbolically portrayed all such knowledge and power as the soul itself may display in the form of female figures—even down to Goethe, who in the closing words of Faust, alludes to the ‘eternal feminine’. Thus in the seven daughters of Jethro, we recognize the seven human soul-forces, over which that priestly character ever exercised control.2The seven human soul-forces to which reference is here made, are those cosmic-influences which act through the soul in connection with the seven principles of man’s organism. These ‘seven principles’ are as follows:—
(1) The Physical body. (2) The Etheric or Life Body. (3) ‘The Astral Body. (4) The Ego or Body of Consciousness, which sets about transforming the first three by acting upon the psychic principles. Within the Ego is:
(5) Atma. Spirit-man as transmuted Physical Body.
(6) Buddi. Life-spirit as transmuted Etheric or Life Body.
(7) Manas. Spirit-self as transmuted Astral Body.
The latter, Manas, is partly developed; but of Atma and Buddi there is merely a seed.
Vide, Investigations in Occultism by Rudolf Steiner. Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, London and New York. [Ed.]
We must bear in mind that in those ancient times when man’s consciousness was still quickened by the old clairvoyance, other views prevailed regarding the nature of the human soul and its various powers. The only way in which we can form any conception of this primordial consciousness is by starting with our current ideas as a basis. We speak in these days of man’s soul and its powers of thinking, feeling and willing, as if these forces were within us, contained, as one might say, in the very soul itself; and this concept is essentially correct, as viewed from the stand-point of intellectual consciousness. Primeval man, however, under the influence of his gift for clairvoyant vision, regarded the soul and its workings from a different aspect. He was not aware of any centralized system in this connection and did not look upon his powers of thought, feeling and will, as forces whose mid-point of activity is situated in the Ego and which determine the oneness and individuality of the soul, but regarded himself as wholly subservient to the Macrocosm and its several forces; while each separate source of energy within his soul seemed linked with specific and divine spiritual beings. This concept may be compared to one in which we might conceive our thought activities as prompted and maintained by some spiritual soul-power other than that which stimulates and influences the faculties of feeling and will. We would thus picture separate currents of spiritual energy as flowing inward from the Macrocosm, and activating our powers of thought, feeling and willing. Although in these days we form no such conception, it was thus that primeval man regarded his soul, not as a centralized unit in itself, but rather as a theatre in which the divine spiritual powers of the cosmos might unceasingly play their several parts. In connection with Moses, reference is made to seven such forces, which are conceived as ever active upon the stage of soul-life.
We have only to turn to Plato in order to realize that man's outlook upon the evolution of human consciousness changed and became in general ever more and more abstract and intellectual. Plato conceived ‘Ideas’ to be living entities, leading an existence such as in our time could only be thought of in connection with matter; while each separate soul-force is pictured as possessing an attribute which plays its part in the theatre of the soul’s totality. Gradually the conceptions formed regarding the capacity of the soul became increasingly abstract while the Unity of the Ego assumed more and more its rightful place in man’s concepts.
Strange as it may appear, in the medieval conception of the seven liberal arts,3In the Middle Ages, the Liberal Arts (artes liberales) were considered to be seven in number, namely, music, grammar, rhetoric,logic, arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. Plato and Aristotle, distinguished between the practical arts, and the so-called liberal arts, which latter were concerned with progress of an ethical or literary character. [Ed.]
4. Die Zeit, sie ist eine blühende Flur,
Ein grosses Lebendiges ist der Menschheit Werdegang,
Und alles ist Frucht und alles ist Same! we can still recognize in abstract form characteristics typical of the symbolic representation of the seven active spiritual forces of soul-life in the seven daughters of the Midianite priest, Jethro. The manner in which the seven liberal arts were evolved and brought to light was as a last dim echo (touched with a modern trend of thought) of that consciousness which recognized that seven distinct faculties persist, and are ever active in the scenes staged in the theatre of man’s soul.
When we consider the above concepts, we begin to realize that while, from the spiritual standpoint, Moses was confronted with the collective aspect of these seven human soul-forces, nevertheless, his chief mission was to implant one particular soul-influence in the form of an impulse deeply and fully in the course of human evolution. This it was possible for him to do, because it lay in the blood and in the temperament of his people to manifest an especial interest in that outstanding soul-power, the activities of which have been felt right on down to our own time, and which it was his task to instil. We refer to that dominant soul-energy which unites all those forces, previously regarded as separate and detached, in one centralized and homogeneous bond of inner soul-life—the life of the true self—the Ego. We are next told that one of the daughters of Jethro married Moses; this means that within his soul one of these forces became especially active, so much so indeed, that owing to its influence it became for a long period a dominating power in human evolution, reducing all other soul-forces to a unified Soul-Ego.
Statements such as the above must be made with the greatest reserve, for in our present age mankind has no adequate faculty, or organ, wherewith he may realize that many Biblical descriptions which apparently represent external happenings are presented solely for the purpose of drawing attention to the fact that at the time at which the events portrayed took place, a particular soul was undergoing some experience of inner development; in other words, was especially concerned with, and attracted to, its individual mission. It is also apparent that one special attribute which the old Egyptians did not possess, namely, that inspiration which Moses drew from the human Ego-force at the mid-point of man’s soul-powers was for him the criterion [to which he referred his judgment].
We can therefore with reason assert that the true mission of the ancient Egyptian nation was to found a culture based upon the practise and methods of primeval clairvoyance. All that is best of those things which have been handed down to us from the Egyptian civilization, has sprung from the singular nature of those peculiar psychic powers, once possessed by the Egyptian priests and the leaders of the people. But the time came when with regard to the old Egyptian mission, one might say, that the cosmic clock had run down, and the call must go forth to mankind to unfold and develop those soul-forces which it was ordained should, for a long period, supersede that ancient passive clairvoyant condition in the future evolution of humanity.
Ego-consciousness, intellectuality, rationalism, reason and understanding, with their spheres of action in the external perceptual world were destined to replace the old clairvoyant consciousness in the human race yet to come. I have already stated how, in the future of mankind, the clairvoyant power, and the intellectual consciousness, will be found united. Even now, humanity is advancing toward a time when these two conscious states will be universally interwoven and co-active throughout the human race.
The most important element in human culture, regarded from our modern stand-point, received its first impulse through Moses; hence, that sense of persistency in connection with the Moses-impulse which still exists in our soul-life and power. To Moses was granted a certain capacity for intellectual thought and action, controlled by reason and understanding; and this ability [and his wisdom] were instilled into him in a singular and unusual manner; because all those concepts and ideas which came to him and were destined to manifest and bear fruit in some particular way at a later period, must first be implanted in a fashion conforming with the peculiar methods in vogue in those ancient times. Here we come upon a remarkable fact, namely, that later generations of mankind were directly indebted to Moses for their power of expanding and developing their understanding and intellect through the medium of their Ego-consciousness; so that they might reason and ponder upon the world, and gain enlightenment through inner intellectual contemplation while yet fully awake.
The manner in which a consciousness of intellectuality came to Moses must have been through flashes of intellectual awareness, similar in nature to the old clairvoyant manifestations. He was indeed the recipient of that first initial impulse toward the new order of reasoned judgment and understanding, while at the same time he possessed the old clairvoyant power, being in fact, under the influence of the last of its promptings. All that knowledge and enlightenment which was acquired by later generations independently of clairvoyance was accessible to Moses through its aid. His understanding, his discernment and intuition in the sphere of pure reason came to him when his soul passed into that same clairvoyant condition which he had experienced when under the influence of the old Midianite priest. We have the incident of the burning bush, which glowed with fire of such nature that it was not consumed. In this case, the spirit of the cosmos manifested before Moses in an entirely new manner, which was beyond the clairvoyant knowledge of the Egyptians to explain.
Everyone who is acquainted with the essential facts knows that, during the course of development, man’s soul reaches a point when the aspect of external objects gradually undergoes a change, so that they appear interwoven with that mysterious background of archetypes from which they emanate. The spectacle of the ‘burning bush’, so magnificently portrayed in the Bible, is recognized by all who are advanced in spiritual discernment as an instance of man’s apprehension of the Spirit-World.
We now realize that the enlightenment which Moses received in clairvoyant form must have been of the nature of a new consciousness proceeding from the great spirit of the cosmos, that spirit which is ever active and weaves throughout the whole material world. Ancient peoples believed in a plurality of cosmic forces, these they conceived as operating in man’s soul in such manner that the soul’s power did not represent a unit, for the forces were manifold in nature, while the soul was regarded merely as the scene of their active expression. It was for Moses to recognize a cosmic spirit of a very different order—one that did not manifest as a soul-power owing its origin to divers spirit influences which, although exhibiting a certain similitude, find ultimate expression in varied form. That spirit of the cosmos, which it was ordained that Moses should apprehend, was of wholly other character, for its revelation can alone take place in the innermost and holiest mid-point of soul-life, the Ego. There works the spirit of the universe—in the place where man’s soul is conscious of its very centre.
When the human soul feels that the Ego is linked with the weaving and the life of the spirit, in the same way as the people of old realized that their being was truly related to the cosmic forces, then can it apprehend those things which were first revealed to Moses through his clairvoyant powers. And these revelations must be regarded as forming the cosmic basis from which came the great impulse he gave to mankind. That primal impulse enabling humanity through its reasoning faculties and understanding alone [unaided by the old clairvoyance], to associate and compare physical phenomena, and to recognize in them factors underlying all continuity in the material world.
In these days, if we consider the centre of our soul-life, it appears to be of extremely poor content, in spite of the fact that this content represents our most intense life experiences. Certain people, especially those of a highly gifted and talented character, as for instance, Jean Paul, have felt, sometime during the course of earthly existence, that they were actually confronted with their true centre of being. Jean Paul, in his autobiography, tells this story:—‘Never shall I forget an inner vision which I once experienced and which I have not as yet described to anyone. In this vision I was present at the birth of my true conscious self, and I clearly recollect both the time and the place of this occurrence. It was one morning when I was a very young child; I was standing in the doorway of our house, and as I looked toward the left, in the direction of the wood-shed, there suddenly came to me an inner vision flashed down as lightning from Heaven, of the words:—“I AM AN I” (Ich bin ein Ich)—and these words remained for a space shining brightly. In that moment, and in that place, my Ego had looked upon itself for the first time, and the gaze would endure forever. Illusion due to defect of memory is hardly conceivable in this case, since no outside incidents on topics could mingle extraneous matter with an event which could only take place in the secret and most holy seclusion of man’s innermost being, and the very novelty of which caused minor details to be deeply impressed upon my memory.’
This ‘secret and most holy seclusion’ appears to be the most intense and powerful condition of our soul-life, but mankind cannot be so aware of this particular soul-state as of many another, for it is lacking in [conscious] plentitude. When man withdraws himself to this central point, then does he indeed realize that through those wondrous words—‘I AM’—so earnest and so forceful, but withal so meagre in actual word content, there ever resounds the dominant tone of his innermost soul-being.
That spirit from the cosmos, which Moses clearly apprehended as an homogeneous unity, is unceasingly active in that abode of ‘secret and most holy seclusion’. No wonder, when this cosmic essence was first revealed to Moses that he cried out:—‘If I am appointed to the task of standing before the people in order to inaugurate a new civilization based upon the consciousness of self—who will believe me?—In whose name shall I proclaim my mission?’ And the answer came:—‘Thou shalt say “I AM THAT I AM.”’ This profound asseveration signifies that the name of the Divinity Who reveals Himself in the ‘secret and most holy seclusion’ of man’s nature, cannot be otherwise proclaimed than with words which designate the consciousness of self-being. In the phenomenon of the burning bush, Moses discerned the Jahveh, or Jehovah-nature, and we can well understand that from the moment when the name—Jahveh—broke in upon his consciousness as ‘I AM’, there came a new current, a new element into the course of human evolution, and which was destined from that time on to supplant the old Egyptian civilization. The ancient culture had merely served to develop the soul of Moses, in order that he might be in a position to truly appreciate and to cope with those most exalted personalities and difficult situations which it would be his lot to encounter during the course of his life experiences.
We next come to the conference between Moses and Pharaoh. It is easy to see that when these two came together, they could not understand one another. The account is intended to convey the idea that all those things regarding which Moses spoke proceeded from an entirely changed order of human consciousness, and must, therefore, have been quite unintelligible to Pharaoh, in whom the old clairvoyant Egyptian culture alone continued active. That such was the case, is evident from the way in which the records are expressed—for Moses spoke a new language. He clothed his speech in words which emanated from the Ego-consciousness of the human soul, and were, therefore, incomprehensible to Pharaoh, who could only follow the old train of thought.
Up to that cosmic hour, the Egyptians had had a mission to fulfil, based upon the powers of a by-gone clairvoyant conscious state—but the time allotted to that mission had passed. Henceforth, the race, if it should continue to live on, would still remain endowed with the same temperament and national characteristics which it had heretofore possessed. It had found no means whereby it might raise itself and cross the sheer boundary which separated the old epoch from the new. But at this very time it was ordained that the Hebrew people would arise, and that Moses should point out a way. In remembrance of the events connected with the ‘passing over’ by Moses and his people from that period which was ended to that which was to come, there has ever since been celebrated The Feast of the Passover, and this festival should constantly remind us that it was Moses who was blessed with the understanding and the wisdom that made possible the transition from the old order of consciousness to the new. The Egyptians could not span this gulf, and while as the nation tarried, the waves of time swept onward. It is in the manner outlined above, that we must regard the relation of Moses to the Egyptians, and to his people.
The Hebrew race was by nature thoroughly adapted to receive that great enlightenment which it was the Mission of Moses to impart. What was its actual character? It was ordained that the old clairvoyant state should give place to an intellectual reasoning consciousness. It has been pointed out in previous lectures that clairvoyant consciousness is in no way connected with our external corporeal nature, and that it unfolds freely just at those times when man, through his soul training, has released himself from his external bodily instrument in order that he may be active and untrammelled in his soul-life. The intellectual consciousness is associated with the brain and the blood, and its means of expression lies in the human organism.
The continued spiritual development of that conscious state which had previously hovered, as it were, over the physical structure had, up to the time of Moses, been brought about solely through the relation existing between master and pupil; but it must now accommodate itself to a new condition in which it would be directly connected with, and confined to, the physical organism, and to the blood which would flow in the veins of the people from generation to generation. It was for this reason that the enlightenment which Moses was destined to give to humanity, so as to bring about an impulse toward an intellectual culture, could only be instilled into a nation in which the blood of the race would continue to flow vigorously throughout future generations, and therefore of such nature was the instrument chosen to receive the basal principles of the new cognitive faculty.
The new reasoning consciousness, the seeds of which were implanted by Moses, was not destined to live on merely in the spirit, for it had been ordained that the people thus chosen should be taken away from the Egyptian nation, in the midst of which they had been made ready, and that henceforth isolated and as a separate race they must develop through centuries to come those external methods and means which would in future form the basis of an intellectual culture, that should continue on throughout all coming ages.
We thus realize that the world’s history is full of significance and purport, and that the spiritual element is closely related to all external physical agents. It is clear that the author of the Bible narrative is at great pains to present the account of the transition of the ancient Egyptian culture to that of Moses in its true light and meaning as an episode in the history of the world. We have, for instance, the story of the passing of the Children of Israel through the Red Sea. Concealed beneath this narrative lies a wonderful truth relative to the evolution of mankind, but which is only to be understood by those who clearly comprehend the whole nature of this incident.
In connection with the Egyptians, we find proof of that link which necessarily exists between the soul-powers and that which is termed the clairvoyant faculty. We obtain the clearest insight into this matter when we take the animal organism as our starting-point, but I am sure you will not assume that by so doing, I would suggest that man’s nature resembles that of the animal kingdom. We must first imagine that the whole outlook and soul-life of the brute creation is dreamy and torpid, compared with the intellectual soul-state of man. Now, although primeval human clairvoyance most certainly cannot be directly compared with the soul-life of animals, from which it differs radically, nevertheless, we can clearly trace a definite relation between the instinctive existence and soul-life of the brute creation and that of the ancient soul-life of man. Although often exaggerated, there is a certain amount of truth underlying those stories which tell of animals leaving districts subject to earthquakes and volcanic disturbances, days before an eruption takes place. It has certainly happened, in some cases, that while human beings who regard and apprehend all things through the medium of their intellect have remained unmoved, the animals in the neighbourhood have been aroused. Anyone who has a knowledge of Spiritual Science knows that brute nature is so closely interwoven with all life in its immediate environment, that we can, in a sense, assert that animals possess a measure of instinctive understanding, which through its rudimentary powers controls and regulates their existence. This faculty is no longer found in man, because he has developed a higher intellectual quality, through which he is able to form reasoned concepts and ideas concerning all things which come within his cognizance; but this very logical capacity has, in effect, torn asunder that close tie with Nature herself, which he once enjoyed.
We must picture that in primeval times man was the possessor of a similar instinctive cognition to that above mentioned, in connection with the old clairvoyant state and also in conjunction with his relation to the external phenomena of Nature—a kind of intuition—whereby the ancients were enabled to say:—‘Such and such events are about to occur, hence we must take certain steps to prepare ourselves in advance.’ Just in the same way as some people, who are suitably constituted, raise themselves through striving of soul to a higher power of discernment and attain to an order of apprehension concerning matters connected with Nature for which no cause or reason can be assigned.
He who uses the forces of his soul and through its attributes and its virtues wins power to utter statements which are beyond the scope of his intellectual consciousness, feels uncomfortable when people come to him and say:—‘Why is that so? Give us proof of your assertions.’ Such persons never realize that knowledge of this nature comes by quite a different path from that which is born of logical reasoning. It is a striking and pertinent fact that Goethe, when he looked out of a window could often predict, hours in advance, what kind of weather was in store. If we conceive faculties of this nature as existing among the ancients and manifesting in such a way that through direct contact with the Spirit-World, the people of old were enabled to be closely associated with creation and the Phenomena of Nature (but in a manner entirely different from that which is the case to-day), then, we can realize and picture at least one fundamental feature of the old clairvoyance relative to the practical conduct of life. In olden times mankind did not possess meteorological observatories, there were no weather-forecasts published in newspapers or in other ways, as there are to-day; but the ancients were endowed with a sense of perception which clearly foretold what would occur, and they governed their actions in accordance with the impressions received.
This was especially the case with the old Egyptians, among whom the faculty of sense-perception was developed to a very high degree. They had no knowledge of our modern science or of our analytical methods, but nevertheless they knew how to comport themselves so as to be in living harmony with the whole surrounding world. But because the cosmic hour had struck for the Egyptian culture, this faculty, once so prominent, fell into decadence, and the Egyptian people became ever less and less capable of understanding and dealing with the facts and realities of Nature, and could no longer foretell from the grouping and interaction of external elements and factors, what should be their attitude and mode of conduct. But humanity was now destined to learn how to investigate and to study the arrangement and interrelations of these external elements, and it was Moses who would impart the impulse, but the impulse that he gave came even then from his old clairvoyant consciousness.
While Moses and his people stood upon the shore of the Red Sea, he realized, through an understanding somewhat similar to our own, but which still unfolded clairvoyantly, that exceptional natural circumstances, namely, an unusual combination of an East Wind and ebbtide together with a channel-like passage, made it possible at the right moment, for him to lead the Israelites across shallow waters. This historical fact has been graphically portrayed in order that we may realize that Moses was indeed the founder of a new and universal mode of intellectual apprehension that is still active in our day, and through which mankind will once more learn to bring the practical affairs of life into harmony with the existing order of Nature, even as was done by that great patriarch.
The Egyptians were a nation whose hour was spent; they could no longer foretell what would come to pass. The power of the old instinctive faculties which were theirs in by-gone times had waned, and they found themselves once more in a position as in the past when a decision must be made. In by-gone times they would have cried out:—‘It is too late! We cannot now make the passage.’ But that innate gift of discernment which they had so long enjoyed had all but vanished, and they knew not how to live in the new intellectual conscious state. Therefore they stood before the Red Sea helpless and bewildered, the old clairvoyant consciousness could no longer be their guide [they followed] and disaster overtook them. Here we find the new Moses-element in direct contrast with the old, and we see that the ancient clairvoyant faculty had so far declined that it could no longer be relied upon; and because it was unsuited to the new age it was the forerunner of calamity.
When we look beneath the surface of such apparently external graphic narratives as the above, and come upon the matter which the narrator really has in mind, we find that the stories oft-times characterize great turning-points in the evolution of mankind; and we realize that it is no light task to deduce from the peculiar descriptions found in the ancient writings, the true significance of the various personalities mentioned, such for instance, as Moses in the circumstances we have just quoted.
It is clear from what follows later in the account that at that time when it had to be decided whether Moses should, or should not, lead his people to Palestine, he still relied entirely upon the old clairvoyance, and that in his case, his intellectual enlightenment was fundamentally dependent upon this faculty. It was because the blood that flowed in the veins of the Jewish people made them by nature especially suitable to the task of laying the foundation of the impending movement toward intellectuality, that it was ordained that they should be led forth and guided to the Promised Land. The knowledge and wisdom which Moses acquired through his clairvoyant powers sufficed to impart the necessary impulse—but could not be of itself of the new culture; for this new cultural faculty was destined to manifest in ways which would be the antithesis of the old order of clairvoyant consciousness.
From the Bible account it is evident that Moses felt that his call was merely to lead his people to a certain place; he was not to take them into the Promised Land; the last stage of the journey must be left to those who were destined to embrace the new order of intellectual development.
Although Moses was the prophet of the Lord, who manifests in our very Ego-being, we are nevertheless given to understand that it was only in virtue of his clairvoyant faculty that he could become conscious of the Mighty Word of the Great Spirit of the cosmos. When at last he was left to himself with the task of succouring his people, he fled to his tent in order that through his clairvoyant powers he might once more be in the actual presence of his God. Then it was that a Voice said:—‘Because thou canst not carry out all that is betokened by those thoughts which come to thee with visions, henceforth must another be the leader of thy people.’ The words of this decree shed a radiance around the great patriarch, for they implied that Moses with his clairvoyant faculty, was a prophet the like of whom would no more be seen in Israel. We are to understand that Moses was the last among the ancients to be endowed with the old order of psychic discernment. Henceforth would a form of intellection wholly independent of this gift spread its influence among all fitting peoples, and man’s actions and cognition be based on power to reason and tradition alone. Thus might the Ego, the verity of which had already become recognized by those who had understanding of the fundamental factors of the new culture, be made ready that it might absorb a new principle.
It was through the Mission of Moses that mankind was first led to realize that the most positive feeling which man can experience of the absolute reality of the all-pervading cosmic Spirit, that Divine Principle which is ever active and interwoven throughout the whole earth, is centred in the ‘I AM’—the very mid-point of the human soul. But in order that these two simple words may be fraught with the uttermost import, the ‘I AM’ must first store within itself full measure of a content that shall once again embrace the world. To compass this end necessitated yet another mission, which mission is expressed in those deeply significant words of St. Paul:—‘Yet not I, but Christ liveth in Me’ (Gal. ii, 20). Now, Moses had brought humanity up to the point of establishing a true culture of man’s Ego. This new-born intellection was destined to live on throughout the ages yet to be, a gift from above, a form of civilization, a ‘receptacle’, so to speak, for the coming content. It was essential that the centre of our being should first unfold in the bosoms of the ancient Hebrew people. Henceforth, would this divine ‘receptacle’ be filled with all that springs from a true understanding of The Mystery of Golgotha, and the events which took place in Palestine. Thus would the Ego receive its new content, which itself would be a creation of the Spirit-World. We can most easily recognize all that came of that fresh in-pouring, and that owed its origin to the preparation and development of the Hebrew people, when we refer to the book of Job. We cannot, however, rightly understand the wonderful tragedy therein portrayed, unless we take into account the peculiar characteristics of the Jewish race.
We are told that Job, albeit he was a righteous man who believed in his God was, nevertheless, convinced that the Almighty was actually the true source of all his afflictions. He experienced disaster after disaster to his property, his family, and his own person. So that the Lord appeared to manifest in such a manner that Job might well have doubted whether indeed the Great Spirit of the cosmos was really active in man’s Ego. Matters went to such a length that Job’s wife could not understand why her husband, in spite of all that had befallen him, should continue to trust in the Almighty. She therefore spoke to him in words of paramount import, thus:—‘[Dost thou still retain thine integrity?) curse God, and die.’ (Job ii, 9.) What is the underlying meaning of this significant allegorical tragedy, and of the words:—‘Curse God, and die’? It is here implied that,—If the God Whom you regard as being the very source of your existence visits you with sorrow and adversity, you may turn from Him; but of a verity death will be the lot of the one who would do this thing, for he who turns away from his God, places himself without the pale of the living course of evolution. The friends of Job could not believe that he had committed no transgression, for surely in the case of a righteous person should equity prevail. Even the narrator himself cannot make clear to us the justness of the circumstances, for he can only say that Job, who was thus stricken with misery and distress, nevertheless received compensation in the physical world for all that he had lost and suffered.
Throughout this deeply significant allegory as depicted in the book of Job there is, as it were, an echo of the Moses-consciousness; and in the story it is made clear that the Spirit brings to us enlightenment and ever manifests in man’s innermost being. But during the course of earthly existence, the Ego must live in contact with physical things. Hence it is that there are moments of transgression in which man may weaken, and lose his feeling of unity with the vital source of life. From the Christ-Impulse, humanity has learnt that compensation for suffering and affliction is not to be sought in the physical world alone. We now know that in every case when man is overcome by bodily distress—in sorrow and in pain—then, if he but remain steadfast, he may indeed triumph over that which is material. For his Ego is not merely illumined by the ultimate source of all that is spread throughout space and time, but is of a verity so conditioned that it may yet absorb the mighty power of the eternal.
We find the same uplifting thoughts underlying St. Paul’s words:—‘Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’ (Gal. ii, 20). Moses had brought humanity so far that it could realize that all things that live and weave throughout the cosmos, manifest in deepest and most characteristic form in the Ego. Man may comprehend the world, if it be pictured as a simple unit proceeding from some great universal Ego centre. If we would indeed receive the eternal spirit within our being, then must we not regard temporal things; nor take heed only of the Jehovah-Unit hidden and beyond all that is of space and time; but look also to that spontaneous and glorious benefaction—The Christ-Source—which underlies and is concentric with all unity.
Thus do we recognize in Moses the personality of one who paved the way for Christianity; and we have learnt in what manner he instilled into humanity a consciousness of self, a consciousness which throughout the development of all future generations would be as a store-house to be filled with the substance of eternity; which means that it was yet to become a fitting receptacle replete with the essence of the Christ-Being. It is in this way that we picture the patriarch Moses in his relation to the progress and evolution of mankind. History ever reveals its deepest truths when subject to thought and reflection of the above nature.
In a previous lecture devoted to Buddha, we drew attention to the fact that from time to time some outstanding personality arises, through whose agency the eternal fount of wisdom springs once more into life, thus causing humanity to advance yet another step in its growth and development; and when we ponder upon the circumstances connected with this or that great figure, there comes to us a sense of his true relation to the collective evolution of mankind.
When we regard the development of the human race from this stand-point, we find that we are involved in its progress in a vital sense, and it is at once apparent that the Spirits of the cosmos have some fixed and definite purpose associated with our existence, the object of which becomes more and more discernible as life proceeds. It is through the earnest consideration of the example and works of lofty spiritual individualities, together with profound meditation concerning outstanding events in the world’s evolution and the history of mankind, that we may gain that sense of power, confidence of soul and unswerving hope, through which alone we may take our proper place in the totality of human evolution. If we regard the history of the world in this manner, we feel anew the beauty of Goethe’s words, and we realize that the greatest benefit which can accrue to us through the study of universal history is the awakening of our enthusiasm. But it must be an enthusiasm which is not mere blind admiration and wonder, for it should prompt us to implant in our souls the seeds which are borne to us from the past, so that they may bring forth goodly fruits in the time yet to come.
The words of the great poet live again, in somewhat modified form, when, through the contemplation of those grand outstanding personalities and events of olden times we realize this glorious truth:—
‘The age is as a field in flower,
Where wondrous growth and life proceed;
Fresh buds unfold with every hour—
Lo! all is fruit and all is seed.’4
Moses
Bei der Betrachtung jener großen geschichtlichen Individualitäten, mit denen wir es in den vorhergehenden Vorträgen zu tun hatten, bei Zarathustra, Hermes, Buddha, standen wir Erscheinungen gegenüber, welche uns als Menschen interessieren, insoweit wir fühlen, daß wir Anteil haben mit unserem ganzen Seelenleben an der Gesamtentwickelung der Menschheit und die Gegenwart nur dann verstehen können, wenn wir auf diejenigen geistigen Größen der Vergangenheit zurückblicken, die mitgebaut haben an dem, was in unsere Gegenwart hereinragt. Bei Moses, dessen Persönlichkeit wir heute zu betrachten haben, steht die Sache noch ganz anders. Bei alledem, was sich an den Namen des Moses knüpft, fühlen wir, daß Unendliches davon noch unmittelbar fortlebt in dem, was Bestandteil, geistiger Inhalt unserer eigenen Seele ist. Wir fühlen gleichsam in unseren Gliedern noch immer die Impulse nachwirken, die von Moses ausgegangen sind. Wir fühlen, wie er noch hereinlebt in unsere Gedanken und Empfindungen, und wie wir gewissermaßen, wenn wir uns mit ihm auseinandersetzen, uns mit einem Stück unserer eigenen Seele auseinandersetzen. Daher ist uns auch die fortlaufende Überlieferung, welche an Moses sich anfügt, in einer ganz anderen Weise gegenwärtig, steht uns unmittelbarer vor Augen als die fortlaufende Überlieferung, die sich an die anderen betrachteten Größen anschließt. Das macht es auf der einen Seite leicht, die Persönlichkeit des Moses zu behandeln, denn ein jeder kennt heute aus der Bibel diese mächtige, in die Zeiten hineinragende Gestalt. Wenn auch die gewissenhafte Forschung, die ernste Wissenschaft in den letzten Jahrzehnten und Jahren so manches an die Oberfläche geworfen hat, was in gewisser Beziehung dieses oder jenes neue Licht auch auf die Geschichte des Moses werfen kann, insofern wir sie aus der Bibel entnehmen, so müssen wir doch sagen, wenn wir genau zusehen: An dem Gesamtbilde des Moses, das wir in uns tragen und aus der Bibel gewonnen haben, hat sich eigentlich ungemein wenig geändert. Wir sprechen daher, wenn wir über ihn sprechen, wie über etwas in weitesten Kreisen Bekanntes. Das macht die Betrachtung gewissermaßen leicht. Auf der andern Seite aber dürfen wir wieder sagen, daß gerade durch die Art und Weise der Überlieferung, die wir in der Bibel über Moses haben, diese Betrachtung wieder schwierig gemacht wird. Das kann man schon an dem Schicksal der Bibelforschung im neunzehnten Jahrhundert sehen. Es darf ja immer wieder und wieder betont werden, daß — selbst wenn wir die Naturwissenschaften ins Auge fassen — uns kaum irgendein Zweig menschlicher Gelehrsamkeit, menschlichen ernsten wissenschaftlichen Wollens eine so tiefe Achtung, einen so heiligen Respekt abfordern kann wie die Bibelforschung des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Jenem Fleiß, jenem Scharfsinn, der darauf verwendet worden ist, um zum Beispiel die einzelnen Partien der Bibel in bezug auf ihren Stil, auf das, was man über ihre Herkunft vermeint wissen zu können, kennenzulernen, — jener selbstlosen wissenschaftlichen Hingabe, wie sie geübt worden ist, kann sich eigentlich für den, der die Bibelforschung genauer kennt, nichts an die Seite stellen. Dennoch kann man etwas Tragisches in dieser Bibelforschung des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts sehen. Denn je weiter sie es gebracht hat, desto mehr hat sie uns eigentlich — wenn man so sagen darf — die Bibel aus der Hand genommen. Denn sie hat uns gewissermaßen — davon kann sich jeder überzeugen, der nur die landläufigen Bücher über die Resultate der Bibelforschung in die Hand nimmt — die Bibel, vor allem das Alte Testament, zerstückelt, um uns zeigen zu wollen, wie das eine Stück einem andern Strom der Überlieferung gefolgt ist als das andere, wie alles das gewissermaßen im Laufe der Zeit zusammengebracht worden ist zu einem Ganzen, das die Gelehrsamkeit erst wieder zerlegen müßte, um es zu verstehen. Und in gewissem Sinne ist das Resultat dieser Forschung deshalb ein tragisches zu nennen, weil es eigentlich im Grunde genommen ganz negativ ist, weil es nichts beigetragen hat zum Auflebenlassen dessen, was die Bibel aufJeben lassen kann, was sie durch Jahrtausende aufleben ließ in den Herzen und Seelen der Menschen.
Da ist es in einer gewissen Weise in unserer Zeit die Aufgabe jener Geistesrichtung, die wir die Geisteswissenschaft nennen müssen, welche gegenüber den anderen Wissenschaften in unserer Zeit oftmals die Aufgabe des Aufbauens hat, nicht nur der bloßen Kritik, daß wir vor allem die Bibel selber wieder verstehen lernen, vor allen Dingen der Bibel gegenüber die Frage aufwerfen: Ist es denn nicht nötig, erst einmal in den Gesamtsinn der Überlieferungen in ihrer ganzen Tiefe einzudringen, und dann erst, nachdem man sie voll verstanden hat, nach ihrem Ursprung zu fragen? Das ist nun keineswegs leicht, insbesondere dem Alten Testament gegenüber, und besonders schwierig auch denjenigen Partien des Alten Testamentes gegenüber, die von der Persönlichkeit, von der großen Gestalt des Moses handeln. Denn was zeigt uns die Geisteswissenschaft als eine Eigentümlichkeit der biblischen Schilderungen? Sie zeigt uns, daß äußere Geschehnisse, äußere Tatsachen, die sich an diese oder jene Persönlichkeit, an dieses oder jenes Volk knüpfen,so dargestellt werden, wie sie eben verlaufen für die äußere geschichtliche Betrachtung, so daß wir also die Persönlichkeit des Moses in der Bibel so dargestellt erhalten, daß uns seine Erlebnisse in der äußeren physischen Welt, wie sie sich im Raume und in der Zeit abspielen, vorgeführt werden. Dann aber zeigt sich — und es kann im Grunde genommen nur die geisteswissenschaftliche Vertiefung in die Bibel dieses Resultat ergeben —, daß eine Schilderung, die zunächst von äußeren Vorgängen und Erlebnissen in der äußeren Welt handelt, sich in der biblischen Darstellung unmittelbar fortsetzt in eine Schilderung ganz anderer Art, die man nur schwer von dem unterscheiden kann, was vorhergeht. Es werden Reisen und sonstige äußere Erlebnisse erzählt, die wir einfach als solche zu nehmen haben. Dann wird so fortgesetzt, daß wir zunächst gar nicht merken, daß wir mitten im Weiterlesen in einer Schilderung ganz anderer Art drinnen sind, als ob eine Reise weiterginge von einem Orte zum andern, und als ob die weiteren Erlebnisse geradeso wie äußere physische Erlebnisse zu nehmen wären wie die vorhergehenden. Und dann sind wir mitten drinnen in einer Schilderung des Seelenlebens der betreffenden Persönlichkeit, in einer Schilderung, die sich gar nicht auf äußere Ereignisse bezieht, sondern auf innere Seelenkämpfe, Seelenüberwindungen, Seelenerlebnisse, wodurch die betreffende Persönlichkeit dann zu einer höheren Stufe der Seelenentwickelung, der Erkenntnis, zu einer höheren Stufe der Tatkraft oder zu einer Mission in der Weltentwickelung hinaufsteigt. Es laufen gewissermaßen die Schilderungen der äußeren Ereignisse unvermittelt über in sinnbildliche Darstellungen, die ganz im Stile der früheren äußeren Ereignisse gehalten sind, die aber gar nicht äußere Erlebnisse meinen, sondern innere Seelenerlebnisse. Es muß gesagt werden, daß diese Behauptung für jeden so lange eine Behauptung bleiben wird, als er sich nicht an der Hand geisteswissenschaftlicher Darstellungen immer mehr und mehr in die Eigentümlichkeit der Schilderungen der Bibel hineinlebt, insbesondere auch der Partien, die von Moses handeln. Wenn man sich aber in diese Eigentümlichkeit hineinlebt, lernt man fühlen, wie an solchen Punkten, wo eine äußere Schilderung physischer Erlebnisse in eine Schilderung seelischer Erlebnisse und Entwickelungen übergeht, allerdings der ganze Stil, der ganze Grundton sich ändert, daß plötzlich ein neues Element der Darstellung auftritt, demgegenüber wir uns fragen: Warum ist das? Dieses Warum läßt sich dann in keiner anderen Weise beantworten als durch die Überzeugung, die aus der Seele selbst gewonnen werden kann. Wir haben es mit jener Eigentümlichkeit der Darstellung zu tun, die eben jetzt charakterisiert worden ist. Das findet man im Grunde genommen bei allen alten religionsgeschichtlichen Darstellungen und besonders dann, wenn Persönlichkeiten geschildert werden sollen, die eine gewisse Höhe des Erkennens, des Seelenwirkens erreicht haben, und man macht sich vertraut mit einem solchen Stil, wenn man sich immer mehr und mehr in die Geisteswissenschaft einlebt. Das macht es sozusagen wieder schwierig, aus der biblischen Darstellung heraus ein volles Verständnis dessen zu gewinnen, was an den einzelnen Stellen bei der Schilderung des Moses gemeint ist.
So haben wir gewissermaßen die Bibel auf der einen Seite — so haben wir aber auch auf der andern Seite Schwierigkeiten durch ihre Art der Darstellung, wo sie in besondere Tiefen eindringt. Das hat es gemacht, daß man in bezug auf die Auffassung der Bibel zuweilen recht schr zu weit gegangen ist. Wenn man zum Beispiel ins Auge faßt die Auffassung der althebräischen Geschichte durch jenen Philosophen, der in der Zeit der Begründung des Christentums gelebt hat, Philo, dann sieht man, wie er die ganze Geschichte des althebräischen Volkes als eine Allegorie darstellen will. Eine symbolische Darstellung der Geschichtsauffassung will er geben, so daß die ganze Geschichte eine Art Symbolik der Seelenerlebnisse eines Volkes sein würde. Das wäre zu weit gegangen. Philo ging darum so weit, weil ihm der geisteswissenschaftliche Takt fehlte, um zu wissen, wo die äußeren Erlebnisse einlaufen in die seelischen Erlebnisse.
An Moses soll nun gezeigt werden, wie in den lebendigen Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung eine Persönlichkeit eingreift, die etwas Allerhöchstes, Allerbedeutsamstes der Menschheit zu bringen hatte. Wenn wir von diesem Bedeutsamen fühlen, daß wir mit ihm noch immer Verwandtes in unserer Seele haben, so wird uns das volle Verständnis des Moses-Impulses zu einer ganz besonderen Notwendigkeit. Daher können wir gewissermaßen ohne weitere Umstände gleich eingehen in die Mission des Moses. Aber man kann diese Mission des Moses nicht verstehen, wenn man nicht voraussetzt, daß im Grunde genommen der biblischen Darstellung zunächst das Bewußtsein einer Tatsache zugrunde liegt, welche wir bei Betrachtung der Individualitäten des Hermes, des Buddha und des Zarathustra schon ins Auge fassen konnten: daß die Menschheitsentwickelung in bezug auf das Seelenleben des Menschen im Laufe der Zeiten einen Übergang von einem alten hellseherischen Zustand zu dem heutigen Zustande unseres intellektuellen Bewußtseins durchgemacht hat. Noch einmal sei es erwähnt, daß in uralten Zeiten die Menschenseele in gewissen Zwischenzuständen zwischen Wachen und Schlafen in eine geistige Welt hineinschauen konnte, daß das, was auf diese Weise in der geistigen Welt geschaut wurde, in Bildern dargestellt worden ist, und daß uns diese Bilder in den Mythologien und Legenden der alten Zeiten erhalten geblieben sind. Wenn jemand fragt: Wie kann man das alte hellseherische Bewußtsein auch äußerlich beweisen ohne die Geisteswissenschaft?, so kann er sich die Antwort auf diese Frage durch gewissenhafte Forschungen verschaffen, die auch schon in unserer Zeit gepflogen worden sind, die aber nur noch nicht ihre volle Anerkennung gefunden haben. Da ist darauf zu verweisen, daß gewisse Mythenforscher in bezug auf mythenähnliche Bildungen, Sagen und so weiter, die sich noch in verhältnismäßig später Zeit bei einzelnen Völkern herausgebildet haben, sich in die Notwendigkeit versetzt fühlten, eine ganz andere Art und Weise des menschlichen Bewußtseinszustandes für die Entstehung solcher Mythen anzunehmen. Ich habe in früheren Zeiten öfter auf ein interessantes Buch hingewiesen, das von einem Mythenforscher herrührt, der als solcher der bedeutsamste Mythenforscher der neueren Forschung genannt werden muß: ich meine Ludwig Laistner und sein Buch «Rätsel der Sphinx». Dieses Buch gehört zu den bedeutendsten auf seinem Gebiete. Darin wird gezeigt, daß sich gewisse Mythen ausnehmen wie Fortsetzungen der Ereignisse der Traumwelt, die typisch erlebt werden. Laistner ging nicht bis zur Geisteswissenschaft, er hatte kein Bewußtsein davon, daß er die ersten Bausteine lieferte zu einem wirklichen Erkennen der alten Mythologien. Aber man kann die Mythen und Sagen nicht so begreifen als die Umgestaltung typischer Träume, wie Laistner sie aufgefaßt hat, sondern man muß sie verstehen als hervorgehend aus einem früheren menschlichen Bewußtseinszustand, der in Bildern die geistige Welt sah und sie deshalb auch in Bildern zum Ausdruck brachte. Niemand kann die alten Sagen, Mythen und Legenden wirklich verstehen — deshalb geschieht auch so wenig zum Verständnis der alten Sagen und Mythen! — der nicht voraussetzt — zunächst wie eine Hypothese —, daß die alten Mythologien aus einem andern menschlichen Bewußtseinszustande heraus geschöpft sind. Dieser alte vormenschliche, oder wenigstens vorgeschichtliche Zustand der Seelenverfassung ist in den jetzigen Bewußtseinszustand übergegangen, der kurz dahin charakterisiert werden kann, daß man sagt: Wir wechseln in bezug auf unser Bewußtsein ab zwischen Wachen und Schlafen. Im Wachbewußtsein bemächtigen wir uns der Wahrnehmungen der äußeren Welt durch unsere Sinne und verknüpfen die Wahrnehmungen, kombinieren sie durch unsern Intellekt. Das sinnlich-intellektuelle Bewußtsein, das durch unseren Verstand, durch unsere Vernunft wirkt, hat die alte hellseherische Seelenverfassung abgelöst. So haben wir einen Zug der Geschichte damit charakterisiert, wie sich die Geschichte darstellt, wenn man die Menschheitsentwickelung in ihren Tiefen betrachtet.
Aber noch etwas anderes liegt solchen Darstellungen zugrunde, wie sie in der Bibel gegeben sind. Das ist, daß einem jeden Volke, einem jeden Stamme, einer jeden Menschenrasse, wie sie im Laufe der Menschheitsentwickelung auftreten, sozusagen eine gewisse Mission zuerteilt ist. Die alten hellseherischen Bewußtseinsformen traten in verschiedenen Arten, in den verschiedensten Gestalten auf, je nach den Begabungen, dem Temperament der einzelnen Völker. Daher haben wir die Einheit des alten hellseherischen Bewußtseins in den verschiedenen Mythologien und heidnischen Religionsbekenntnissen der einzelnen Völker überliefert. So können wir sagen: Es ist nicht bloß eine abstrakte Einheit dieser alten Auffassung der Welt da, sondern es sind verschiedensten Völkern und Rassen die verschiedensten Missionen übergeben worden, und dadurch ist das gemeinsame Bewußtsein in der verschiedensten Art ausgestaltet. Dann aber müssen wir dabei darauf Rücksicht nehmen, wenn wir diese Menschheitsentwickelung verstehen wollen, daß sie nicht eine sinnlose Aufeinanderfolge von Kulturen ist, sondern daß ein Sinn durch den ganzen Werdegang der Menschheit durchgeht, so daß irgendeine Bewußtseinsform sich in einer bestimmten Kultur später auslebt, weil das Spätere etwas wie ein neues Blatt, eine neue Blüte zu dem Früheren hinzuzufügen hat, weil sich der Gesamtsinn der Menschheitsentwickelung in aufeinanderfolgenden Ausgestaltungen auslebt. So begreifen wir im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne ein Volk am besten dadurch, daß wir uns sagen: Diese betreffenden Völker — seien es die alten Inder, Perser, Babylonier, Griechen oder Römer — haben alle eine bestimmte Mission gehabt; auf eine ganz besondere Art hat sich das, was im Menschheitsbewußtsein leben kann, bei ihnen ausgestaltet. Wir verstehen diese Völker nicht, wenn wir nicht ihre ganz besondere, individuelle Eigenart als ihre Mission aufzufassen in der Lage sind. Nun aber geht die Gesamtentwickelung der Menschheit so vor sich, daß sozusagen einer jeden solchen Mission eine Zeit zugeteilt ist. Wenn diese Zeit abgelaufen ist, ist diese betreffende Mission erfüllt. Die betreffende Mission war einem Volke zugeteilt. Es kann sozusagen die Stunde abgelaufen sein für die betreffende Volksmission. Was in ihr keimhaft enthalten ist, hat seine Früchte getrieben, hat sich ausgelebt. Dann kann aber der Fall eintreten, daß dieses oder jenes Volk die entsprechende Eigenart, das, was in seinem Temperament, in seinen sonstigen Anlagen liegt, weiterbehält. Dann überspringt sozusagen das betreffende Volk den Zeitpunkt, in dem eine neue Mission eintreten soll an die Stelle der alten, lebt sich hinüber mit seiner Eigenart in die spätere Zeit, während der objektive Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung etwas Neues an ihre Stelle gesetzt hat.
So etwas kann man besonders betrachten bei den Ägyptern, deren Eigenart wir kennengelernt haben in dem Vortrage über Hermes. Die Ägypter hatten eine hohe Mission im Gesamtwerdegang der Menschheit. Aber diese Mission hat alles, was in ihr lag, einmal aus sich herausgebildet. Was weiter kommen sollte, war zwar keimhaft in der ägyptischen Kultur gelegen, aber das ägyptische Volk als solches behielt sein Temperament, seine Eigenart, war nicht imstande, aus sich selbst heraus die neue Mission zu formen. Daher mußte die Lenkung und Leitung der Menschheit an ein anderes Menschheitselement übergehen. Das mußte zwar herauswachsen aus dem ägyptischen Element, aber es mußte doch ein anderes sein. So sehen wir denn etwas wie eine Richtungsänderung im Gesamtsinn der Entwickelung der Menschheit. Man muß sich dazu in den Werdegang der ägyptischen Mission hineindenken. Was aus derselben herausgeholt werden konnte, das ließ Moses zunächst auf seine Seele wirken. Das wirkte auch hinein in die Seelen seines Volkes. Aber er hatte den Beruf nicht, die alte ägyptische Mission fortzusetzen, sondern aus ihr heraus etwas ganz Neues der Menschheitsentwickelung einzuimpfen. Und weil dieses Neue so gewaltiger, so umfassender und so einschneidender Natur war, deshalb ist die Persönlichkeit des Moses eine so mächtige für den Gesamtgang der menschlichen Geschichte, und deshalb ist die Art, wie die Mission des Moses sich aus der abgelaufenen Entwickelung des ägyptischen Volkes hervorentwickelt hat, so interessant und so fruchtbar zu betrachten noch für unsere Zeit. Denn was Moses aus dem ägyptischen Volke herausgeholt hat, was er dann wie aus ewigen Höhen der Geistesentwickelung dazugetan hat, das wirkt fort bis in unsere Seelen herein. Daher wurde Moses als eine Persönlichkeit empfunden, welche gewissermaßen das, was sie der Menschheit zu geben hatte, nicht aus irgendeiner Zeit, nicht aus irgendeiner Spezialmission unmittelbar zu nehmen hatte, sondern es wurde Moses als eine Persönlichkeit aufgefaßt, die in ihrer Seele berührt sein mußte von den Wogen des Ewigen, das immer wieder und wieder durch neue Kanäle sich in die Menschheitsentwickelung hereinsenkt, um dieselbe zu befruchten. Was gleichsam als der ewige Kern in des Moses Seele vorhanden war, das mußte seinen Boden finden und ausreifen auf dem, was er herausbekommen konnte aus der ägyptischen Kultur.
Daß man es mit Moses zu tun hat als mit einer Seele, die das Höchste, was sie zu geben hatte, aus ewigen Quellen heraus zu bieten hatte, das wird uns nach der Art alter Darstellungen symbolisch angedeutet in dem Eingeschlossensein des Moses in dem Kästchen bald nach seiner Geburt. Wer solche Darstellungen in der religiösen Entwickelung kennt, weiß, daß sie immer auf ein Bedeutsames hindeuten wollen. Aus früheren Darstellungen dieses Vortragszyklus wissen wir, daß der Mensch, wenn er zu höheren, geistigen Welten sein Erkennen hinaufbringen will, gewisse Stadien seiner Seelenentwickelung durchzumachen hat, indem er sich völlig von aller Umwelt abschließt und die elementarsten geistigen Kräfte seiner Seele wachruft. Wenn nun dargestellt werden soll, daß ein solcher Mensch sich bereits durch die Geburt jene geistigen Güter mitbringt, die zu den Höhen der Menschheit hinaufführen, so kann das nicht besser dargestellt werden, als daß gesagt wird: Für diese Persönlichkeit war es notwendig, sozusagen bis ins Physische hinein ein Erlebnis durchzumachen, wodurch ihre Sinne, alles, was sie an Auffassungsgaben hat, gleichsam abgeschlossen ist von der physischen Welt. — Es klingt uns dann verständlich, wenn wir hören, daß die ägyptische Königstochter, die Tochter des Pharao, selber den Knaben aus dem Wasser holte und ihn «Moses» nannte, weil sie sagte: «Denn ich habe ihn aus dem Wasser gezogen.» Das liegt für den, der den Namen Moses versteht — wie es auch die Bibel andeutet —, schon in dem Namen selber. Es sollte damit gesagt werden, daß die Vertreterin der ägyptischen Kultur, die Tochter des Pharao, hineinlenkte das Leben in eine Seele, die mit Ewigkeitsgehalt angefüllt ist. So wird uns wunderbar angedeutet, wie das Ewige, das Moses der Menschheit zu bringen hatte, in die äußere Hülle der ägyptischen Kultur und Mission eingehüllt wird.
Dann werden uns dargestellt in der Entwickelung des Moses äußere Erlebnisse. Da sehen wir wieder, wie die Bibel ihre Darstellung so gibt, daß sie äußere Erlebnisse meint. Was wir in der Bibel über die Schicksale des Moses lesen und über alles, was er an Schmerzen über das Geknechtetsein seines Volkes im Ägypterlande erlebt, das können wir als eine Darstellung äußerer Verhältnisse ansehen. Dann geht aber wieder die Darstellung — man muß sagen unvermerkt — über in eine Schilderung innerer Seelenerlebnisse des Moses. Das geschieht da, wo Moses die Flucht ergreift und zu einem Priester geführt wird, zu dem midianitischen Priester Jethro oder Reguel. Wer eine solche Darstellung aus der Gepflogenheit alter geistiger Darstellungen erkennen kann, der findet bis auf die Namen hin heraus, daß hier die Schilderung in die Beschreibung von Seelenerlebnissen des Moses übergeht. Das ist nicht etwa so gemeint, als wenn Moses nicht wirklich eine solche Reise nach einer Tempelstätte, einer priesterlichen Lehrstätte angetreten hätte, aber die Darstellung ist kunstvoll so gegeben, daß das Außere verwoben wird in die Erlebnisse, die des Moses Seele durchmacht. So sind die äußeren Erlebnisse, die uns da gegeben werden, an dieser Stelle, überall Andeutungen von dem, wozu Moses sich durchkämpft, um zu einer erhöhteren Stellung der Seele hinaufzugelangen. Was ist in Jethro angedeutet? Man kann aus der Bibel leicht entnehmen, daß es eine der Individualitäten ist, zu denen wir immer wieder und wieder geführt werden, wenn wir das Menschheitswerden durchgehen, die sich in hohem Grade zu einer überschauenden Erkenntnis durchgerungen haben, zu einer Erkenntnis, die man nur gewinnen kann, wenn man sich langsam und allmählich und durch innere Seelenkämpfe in das einlebt, was erst jenen Geisteshöhen Verständnis geben kann, auf denen solche Menschen wandeln. Angeregt werden sollte Moses zu seiner Mission dadurch, daß er gewissermaßen der Schüler einer solchen geheimnisvollen Gestalt wurde, die sich mit ihrem Sinnen für die übrige Menschheit zurückziehen und nur die Lehrer der Führer der Menschheit sind. Ich weiß wohl, daß hiermit etwas gesagt wird, was bei vielen Menschen heute Anstoß findet. Aber es ist etwas, was jedem tieferen Betrachter des geschichtlichen Menschheitswerdens schon äußerlich auffallen sollte, daß es solche Geheimnisse und geheimnisvolle Persönlichkeiten gibt.
Was Moses nun als Schüler dieses großen Priesterweisen erleben sollte, wird uns so dargestellt, daß er zunächst an dem Orte, wo er den Priester aufsucht, bei einem Brunnen — wieder ein Symbol, ein Symbol für den Weisheitsquell — die sieben Töchter des Priesterweisen trifft. Wer verstehen will, was in einer solchen Schilderung Tieferes liegt, muß sich vor allem daran erinnern, daß in aller mythischen Darstellung immer, zu allen Zeiten, das, was die Seele an höheren Erkenntnissen und Seelenkräften überhaupt in sich entwickeln kann, durch das Symbol von weiblichen Gestalten dargestellt wird — bis herunter zu Goethe in seinen Worten am Schlusse des «Faust» vom «Ewig-Weiblichen». So erkennen wir in den «sieben Töchtern» des Priesters Jethro die sieben menschlichen Seelenkräfte wieder, über welche die Weisheit des Priesterweisen zu verfügen hatte. Da muß man bedenken, daß in jenen alten Zeiten, die noch durchaus von dem Bewußtsein des alten Hellsehens belebt waren, andere Anschauungen über das herrschten, was die Menschenseele mit ihren einzelnen Kräften ist. Wir können uns über dieses Bewußtsein nur eine Vorstellung bilden, wenn wir von Begriffen ausgehen, die wir heute selber haben. Wir sprechen heute von der menschlichen Seele und ihren Kräften, dem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen, in der Weise — und es ist richtig vom Standpunkte des intellektualistischen Bewußtseins aus so zu sprechen —, daß wir in uns haben dessen Kräfte, daß sie gleichsam Einschlüsse der Seele bilden. Anders dachte der alte Mensch unter dem Einflusse der hellseherischen Begabung. Er fühlte zunächst einmal in seiner Seele kein solches einheitliches Wesen und in seinem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen nicht solche Kräfte, die aus dem Zentrum des Ich wirken und einheitlich die Seele organisieren. Sondern der alte Mensch fühlte sich wie hingegeben an den Makrokosmos und die einzelnen Kräfte, und die einzelnen Seelenkräfte fühlte er wie im Zusammenhange stehend mit besonderen göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten. Wie wir — was wir aber nicht tun — uns vorstellen können, daß unser Denken befruchtet wird, getragen wird von einer anderen geistigen Weltenkraft als unser Fühlen und unser Wollen, so daß sich verschiedene Strömungen, verschiedene geistige Kräfte aus dem Makrokosmos in unser Denken, Fühlen und Wollen hineinergössen, und daß wir mit diesen in Beziehung stünden — so fühlte der alte Mensch nicht die Seele als ein Einheitliches, sondern der Mensch sagte sich: Was in mir ist, das ist nur der seelische Schauplatz, und geistig-göttliche Kräfte aus dem Universum sind es, welche sich ausleben auf diesem Schauplatz.
Sieben solcher Seelenkräfte waren es, die bei Moses gegeben sind, die hereinwirkten auf den Schauplatz des SeelenJlebens. Wenn wir sehen wollen, wie überhaupt für die Entwickelung des menschlichen Bewußtseins die ganzen Anschauungen abstrakter und abstrakter, intellektueller und intellektueller wurden, so können wir zum Beispiel auf Plato hinschauen, dessen Ideen lebendige Wesen sind, die ein Dasein führen wie für den heutigen Menschen nur die Stoffe. Und die einzelne Seelenkraft hat etwas, was sich auswirkt auf dem Schauplatze der gesamten Seele. Aber immer mehr und mehr werden die Fähigkeiten der Seele zu abstrakten Begriffen, und die Einheit des Ich tritt immer mehr und mehr in ihre Rechte. Wir können — so sonderbar es klingt — in einer abstrakten Form das, was uns die sieben Töchter des midianitischen Priesterweisen symbolisieren sollen, als die sieben lebendigen Geistkräfte, die auf dem Schauplatz der Seele wirken sollen, noch in den mittelalterJichen sieben freien Künsten erkennen; wie da die sieben freien Künste aus der menschlichen Seele sich hervorleben, das ist der letzte abstrakte Nachklang des Bewußtseins, daß sieben Fähigkeiten sich in dem Seelischen ausleben, daß diese sieben Fähigkeiten eben die Seele zu ihrem Schauplatz haben.
Wenn wir dies berücksichtigen, werden wir vor die Tatsache geführt, daß Moses mit seinem Seelischen vor dem Gesamtaspekt der sieben menschlichen Seelenkräfte stand, daß er aber vorzugsweise die Aufgabe hatte, eine einzige derselben ganz und gar wie einen Impuls der menschlichen Entwickelung einzuimpfen. Das konnte er dadurch, daß es der besonderen Blutanlage und dem Temperament seines Volkes gegeben war, dieser Seelenkraft, die in ihren Wirkungen bis zu uns herunterreicht, ein besonderes Interesse entgegenzubringen. Das war die Seelenkraft, welche die übrigen, vorher getrennt gedachten Seelenkräfte in ein einheitliches inneres Seelenleben zusammenschließt, in ein Ich-Leben. Darum wird erzählt: Eine der Töchter des Jethro heiratet Moses. Das heißt: in seiner Seele machte sich insbesondere eine der Seelenkräfte wirksam, machte sich so wirksam, daß sie unter seinem Impulse für eine Jange Zeit der Menschheitsentwickelung die tonangebende Seelenkraft wird, welche die anderen zu einer einheitlichen Ich-Seele zusammenfaßt.
Man muß solche Darstellungen in unserer heutigen Zeit mit aller Reserve geben. Denn unsere Zeit hat sozusagen kein rechtes Organ, um einzusehen, daß diejenigen Schilderungen, die wie äußere, physische Erlebnisse sich ausnehmen, gerade deshalb gegeben werden, um zu zeigen, daß in der Zeit, für welche das geschildert wird, die betreffende Seele eine innere Entwickelung durchmacht, das heißt zu ihrer Mission besonders herangezogen wird. So sehen wir, wie das, was die alten Ägypter nicht hatten: diese Inspiration des Moses mit der menschlichen Ichkraft, mit dem Mittelpunkt der menschlichen Seelenkräfte, gerade für ihn das Maßgebende ist. Wir dürfen daher sagen: Es lag in der Mission des altägyptischen Volkes, eine Kultur mit der Mission des alten Hellsehens noch zu begründen. Alles, was uns als ihr Bestes die ägyptische Kultur überliefert hat, ist noch aus der besonderen Art hellseherischer Kräfte entsprungen, welche die ägyptischen Priesterweisen und die Führer des ägyptischen Volkes hatten. Aber es war gleichsam die Weltenuhr für diese Mission abgelaufen, und die Menschheit sollte zur Entfaltung derjenigen Seelenkraft aufgerufen werden, die für eine lange Zeit der Menschheitsentwickelung das alte dumpfe Hellsehen ersetzen soll. Ich-Bewußtsein, Intellektualität, Rationalismus, Vernunft und Verstand, die auf die äußere Sinneswelt gerichtet sind, sollten an Stelle des alten Hellsehens hineingesetzt werden in die Menschheit. Ich habe aber auch schon erwähnt, daß für die Zukunft sich die beiden Arten verbinden werden: die hellseherische Kraft mit dem intellektuellen Bewußtsein, so daß die Menschheit einer solchen Zukunft entgegengeht, wo eine von hellseherischer Kraft durchwobene Intellektualität für die Menschen allgemein sein wird.
Was wir also heute als das wichtigste Element für das Kulturleben betrachten, hat seinen ersten Impuls durch Moses erhalten, daher das Fortwirken-Fühlen des Impulses des Moses noch in unserer eigenen Seelenkraft. Das intellektualistische Denken, das Wirken in Verstand und Vernunft war es, was dem Moses gegeben war. Ihm aber war es noch in ganz besonderer Weise gegeben. Denn alles, was später in seiner besonderen Eigenart auftreten soll, muß vorher in der Eigenart der alten Zeiten gegeben werden. Hier liegt nun eine wunderbare Tatsache vor uns ausgebreitet. Was die spätere Menschheit dem Moses verdankt, ist die Kraft, Vernunft und Intellekt zu entfalten, aus dem Ich-Bewußtsein heraus im vollen Wachzustande intellektuell über die Welt zu denken, über die Welt sich intellektuell aufzuklären. Dem Moses mußte das Bewußtsein von der Intellektualität so gegeben werden, daß in ihm selber das intellektuelle Bewußtsein noch auf die Art der alten Hellseher aufleuchtete. Das heißt also: Moses hatte zwar den ersten intellektualistischen Impuls, aber bei ihm war er noch ein Hellsehen. Bei ihm war er der erste der neuen und der letzte der alten Impulse. Was die spätere Menschheit außerhalb des Hellsehens hatte, das hatte er innerhalb desselben. Die Erkenntnis für die reine Vernunft und den Verstand war ihm gegeben, indem seine Seele in hellseherische Zustände durch den Einfluß versetzt wurde, den er bei dem midianitischen Priester erhalten hatte, so zum Beispiel bei dem Erlebnis vor dem «brennenden Dornbusch», der aber in solchem Feuer erglühte, daß er nicht dabei verbrannte. Da offenbarte sich in neuer Art der Weltengeist vor Moses, wie er sich für die hellseherische Erkenntnis der Ägypter nicht hatte zu erkennen geben können.
Wer mit den Tatsachen bekannt ist, der weiß, wie im Verlaufe der Entwickelung die Menschenseele dazu kommt, die äußeren Gegenstände allmählich verändert zu erblicken, so daß sie auf dem Hintergrunde durchwoben erscheinen von den Urbildern, aus denen sie hervorsprossen. Und das Bild, das uns grandios in der Bibel mit dem «brennenden Dornbusch» entgegengestellt wird, erkennt jeder, der zu einem geistigen Erkennen aufrückt, als erwas wieder, wodurch man hineinsieht in eine geistige Welt. So begreifen wir, wie das, was dem Moses auf hellseherische Art gegeben werden mußte, ein neues Bewußtsein von dem Weltengeiste sein mußte, der die Welt durchwebt und durchlebt. Während die früheren Völker zu der Mehrheit der Weltenkräfte so aufgeschaut haben, daß diese in die menschliche Seele in der Weise hereinwirken, daß die einzelnen Seelenkräfte nicht eine Einheit, sondern eine Mannigfaltigkeit darstellen, und die Menschenseele nur ihr Schauplatz ist — so sollte Moses nun einen solchen Weltengeist erkennen, der sich nicht bloß für eine einzelne Seelenkraft offenbart, der nicht neben Geistern gleichen Wertes steht, die in andere Seelenkräfte hereinwirken; sondern jenen Weltengeist sollte Moses erkennen, der sich nur offenbaren kann im tiefsten, allerheiligsten Mittelpunkte des Seelenlebens, der sich nur auslebt in dem Ich selber, wo die menschliche Seele sich ihres Zentrums bewußt wird. Wenn die menschliche Seele fühlt, daß sie in dem Ich so in dem Weben und Leben des Geistigen steht, wie die Völker einst gefühlt haben, daß sie mit ihrem Wesen in den geistigen Weltenkräften stehen, dann fühlt die Seele, was sich dem Moses zuerst durch hellseherisches Erkennen offenbarte und was als der Weltengrund beachtet werden sollte, von dem die Völker durch Moses den Impuls bekamen, und den man mit dem Verstande, der die Erscheinungen der Welt kombiniert, begreifen kann als das, was als eine Einheitlichkeit der Welt zugrunde liegt. Wenn der Mensch heute auf den Mittelpunkt seines Seelenlebens blickt, so ist dieser selbst noch etwas, was ihm recht arm an Inhalt erscheinen muß, trotzdem es das Stärkste ist, was der Mensch erleben kann. Auf diesen Mittelpunkt ihres Seelenlebens haben sich insbesondere hochbegabte Naturen im Verlaufe ihres Lebens hingewiesen gefühlt, so zum Beispiel Jean Paul, der in seiner Selbstbiographie erzählt: «Nie vergeß’ ich die noch keinem Menschen erzählte Erscheinung in mir, wo ich bei der Geburt meines Selbstbewußtseins stand, von der ich Ort und Zeit anzugeben weiß. An einem Vormittag stand ich als ein sehr junges Kind unter der Haustür und sah links nach der Holzlege, als auf einmal das innere Gesicht ‹ich bin ein Ich› wie ein Blitzstrahl vom Himmel auf mich fuhr und seitdem leuchtend stehenblieb: da hatte mein Ich zum ersten Male sich selber gesehen und auf ewig. Täuschungen des Erinnerns sind hier schwerlich gedenkbar, da kein fremdes Erzählen sich in eine bloß im verhangenen Allerheiligsten des Menschen vorgefallene Begebenheit, deren Neuheit allein so alltäglichen Nebenumständen das Bleiben gegeben, mit Zusätzen mengen konnte.» — Was das «verhangene Allerheiligste» ist, erscheint dem Menschen zwar als das Stärkste, als das Kraftvollste des Seelenlebens, aber er kann sich dessen nicht so bewußt werden wie der mannigfaltigen anderen Seelenerlebnisse: es ist nicht so reich. Wenn sich der Mensch auf diesen Mittelpunkt zurückzieht, so fühlt er, daß in dem wunderbaren Worte «Ich bin» mächtig und intensiv, aber eben mit geringem Wortinhalt, dieser Mittelpunkt seines Seelenlebens erklingt.
Bis hinein in dieses verhangene Allerheiligste wirkt derjenige Weltengeist, der dem Moses als der einheitliche Weltengeist klar wurde. Was Wunder, als dieser Weltengeist sich ihm offenbarte, daß Moses sich sagte: Wenn ich die Aufgabe erhalte, hinzutreten vor das Volk, um eine Kultur zu inaugurieren, die auf Selbstbewußtsein begründet sein soll, wer wird mir glauben? Auf welchen Namen soll ich meine Mission stiften? Zur Antwort bekam er: «Du sollst sagen: Ich bin der ICH-BIN!» — Das heißt: Du kannst den Namen jenes Wesens, das sich im innersten Allerheiligsten des Menschenwesens ankündigt, nicht anders ausdrücken als mit dem Worte, welches das Selbstsein bezeichnet! So erblickte Moses in der Erscheinung des brennenden Dornbusches die Jahve- oder Jehova-Natur, und wir begreifen, daß in der Stunde, da in Moses der Name des Jahve aufging als «Ich bin», eine neue Strömung, ein neues Element in die Entwickelung der Menschheit hereintrat, daß abgelöst werden sollte die alte ägyptische Kultur, an der Moses nur seine Seele heranzubilden hatte, um das zu verstehen, was ihm im Leben als Höchstes begegnen sollte.
Dann haben wir die Unterredung des Moses mit dem Pharao. Der können wir leicht ansehen, daß sich Moses und Pharao gegenüberstehen und sich nicht verstehen können. Die Schilderungen sollen darstellen, daß alles, was Moses aus einem vollständig gewandelten Menschenbewußtsein zu sagen hat, dem Pharao unverständlich bleiben muß, in dem nur die Fortwirkungen der alten hellseherischen ÄÄgypterkultur leben können. Das wird uns anschaulich in der Art dargestellt, wie hellseherische Urkunden reden. Denn Moses redet eine neue Sprache, kleidet das, was er zu sagen hat, in Worte, die aus dem Ich-Bewußtsein der menschlichen Seele entspringen, die ganz unverständlich bleiben mußten gegenüber dem, was der Pharao nur denken konnte. So war das ganze ägyptische Volk bis zu jener Weltenstunde mit einer Mission bedacht, die es auf Grundlage des alten hellseherischen Bewußtseins vollbringen konnte. Aber die Uhr dafür war abgelaufen. Wenn das ägyptische Volk weiterlebte, so lebte es weiter mit den Volkseigenschaften, mit dem Temperament und so weiter, die es vorher hatte, aber es fand nicht den Übergang aus dem Abgrund, der zwischen der alten Zeit und der neuen, für die gerade das hebräische Volk bestimmt war, sich auftat. Diesen Übergang von der alten in die neue Zeit fand Moses. Daher wurde das Andenken an das, was Moses mit seinem Volke gefunden hat, zur Erinnerung des Überganges von der alten in die neue Zeit, das Passah, fortgefeiert. Denn dieses Passah sollte daran erinnern, daß mit Moses die Möglichkeit gegeben war, den Abgrund von der alten in die neue Zeit zu überbrücken. Die Ägypter konnten diesen Abgrund nicht überbrücken, während sie als Volk stehenblieben und die Zeit über sie hinwegging. So haben wir uns das Verhältnis des Moses zu den Ägyptern und zu seinem eigenen Volke zu denken.
Was Moses seinem eigenen Volke zu geben hatte, das war ganz begründet in der Natur des althebräischen Volkes, Was war es? Es sollte das alte Hellsehen von dem intellektuellen Verstandes-Bewußtsein abgelöst werden. Nun ist in den vorhergehenden Vorträgen dargestellt worden, wie hellseherisches Bewußtsein nicht an die äußere Körperlichkeit gebunden ist, wie es sich frei entfaltet gerade dann, wenn der Mensch durch seine Seelenübungen frei wird in dem Seelenleben von dem äußeren körperlichen Instrument. Das intellektuelle Bewußtsein aber hat gerade zu seinem Instrument und Werkzeug den menschlichen Organismus, wie er an das Gehirn und an das Blut gebunden ist. Was früher gleichsam über der physischen Organisation schwebte und seine Fortentwickelung jenseits der Organisation durch die Beziehung zwischen Lehrer und Schüler gefunden hat, das mußte sich einleben als gebunden an eine physische Organisation, das heißt gebunden an das, was mit dem Blute des Volkes von Generation zu Generation weiterfloß. Daher konnte das, was Moses geben sollte, weil es der Impuls war zu einer intellektuellen Kultur, nur einem Volke gegeben werden, das streng hielt auf das Fortströmen des Blutes durch die Generationen. An dieses Instrument war zunächst das Wesen der neuen Kultur gebunden. Es mußte sich so ausleben, daß es sich nicht bloß an dem Geistigen auslebte, sondern so, daß das Volk herausgeholt wurde aus dem anderen Volke, innerhalb dessen es seine Vorbereitung genossen hatte, und dann rein für sich in getrennter Generationenfolge, in getrennter Blutströmung durch die Jahrhunderte hindurch das äußere Werkzeug entwickelte, das der intellektuellen Kultur für alle Zukunft die Grundlage schaffen sollte.
So zeigt sich uns, wie die Weltgeschichte sinnvoll wird und wie das Geistige an das äußerliche physische Werkzeug des Blutes geknüpft ist. Wir können in der Bibel sehen, wie der Darsteller bemührt ist zu zeigen, daß der Übergang von der alten Kultur der Ägypter zu der Kultur des Moses in seiner weltgeschichtlichen Bedeutung dargestellt sein sollte, so zum Beispiel bei dem Durchgang durch das Rote Meer. Hinter dem Durchgehen der Israeliten durch das Meer und dem Ertrinken der Ägypter verbirgt sich eine wunderbare Tatsache für die Entwickelung der Menschheit. Diese Tatsache wird uns nur erklärlich, wenn wir diese Ereignisse verstehen.
Da sehen wir an dem ägyptischen Volke sich bewahrheiten, was für die Seelenkräfte notwendigerweise mit dem zusammenhängt, was man hellseherische Kultur nennt. Sie werden nach dem, was bis jetzt in diesen Vorträgen vorgebracht worden ist, nicht voraussetzen, daß ich den Menschen nahe an die Tiernatur heranbringen will. Aber was hier klarzumachen ist, das ist am besten einzusehen, wenn wir den Ausgangspunkt von der tierischen Organisation nehmen. Wir müssen uns denken, daß das ganze tierische Vorstellen und das tierische Seelenleben ein traumhaftes, ein dumpfes ist gegenüber dem menschlichen, namentlich gegenüber dem intellektuellen Seelenleben. Obzwar das alte menschliche Hellsehen durchaus nicht an das tierische Seelenleben herangebracht werden darf und sich radikal von ihm unterscheidet, so dürfen wir uns an dem tierischen Seelenleben, an dem Instinktleben des Tieres doch einen Zug verdeutlichen, den das alte menschliche Seelenleben auch hatte. Wenn es auch in den betreffenden Schilderungen oft übertrieben ist, so liegt doch etwas Wahres dem zugrunde, daß dort, wo Erdbeben, Vulkanausbrüche und so weiter geschehen, die Tiere tagelang vorher Reißaus nehmen, die Flucht ergreifen. Während die Menschen, die alles aus ihrem Intellekt heraus begreifen, sitzenbleiben, werden die Tiere aufgerüttelt. So sehen wir an das dumpfe Instinktleben des Tieres ein Verwobensein mit dem Naturleben gebunden und sehen, wie es wirkt. Die Schilderungen sind oft übertrieben. Aber wer die Geisteswissenschaft kennt, der weiß, daß die tierische Natur so hineinverwoben in das ganze umliegende Naturleben ist, daß wir beim Tier gewissermaßen von einem «Wissen» reden können, das in seinen elementaren Kräften das Leben des Tieres regelt und das der Mensch deshalb nicht hat, weil er seinen höheren Intellekt entwickelt, der ihn befähigt, die Dinge durch Begriffe zusammenzufassen, der ihn aber auch wieder aus dem Verwobensein mit der Natur selber herausgerissen hat.
Nun müssen wir uns mit dem alten Hellsehen ein solches instinktives Verwobensein auch des Menschen mit den Naturtatsachen verbunden denken, ein instinktives Erkennen, das dem Menschen sagte: Dies und das geschieht; es bereitet sich dies oder jenes vor, — wie ja auch bei Menschen, die sich durch die Anstrengungen der Seele zu einer höheren Erkenntnis hinauferheben, wenn ihre ganze Anlage dafür günstig ist, ein solches Hineinschauen in die Naturtatsachen möglich wird, ein Hineinschauen, für das man keine «Gründe» angeben kann. Wer an seiner Seele arbeitet und aus der Konfiguration der Seele heraus manches zu sagen weiß, was das intellektuelle Bewußtsein nicht zu sagen weiß, der fühlt sich unbehaglich, wenn man dann überall fragt: Warum ist das so? Beweise mir, was du zu sagen hast! — Man merkt nicht, daß ein solches Wissen ganz andere Wege einschlägt als das Wissen, das aus der Verstandeslogik heraus gewonnen ist. Es ist durchaus treffend, daß Goethe, wenn er zum Fenster hinaussah, oft fürStunden voraussagen konnte, was für ein Wetter eintreten würde. Denken wir uns das bei den alten Menschen so vorhanden, daß sie durch Eintreten in die geistige Welt die Möglichkeit hatten, mit der Natur und ihren Tatsachen ganz anders verwoben zu sein als die heutigen Menschen mit ihrer Wissenschaft, dann werden wir einen der Grundzüge des alten Hellsehens für die Lebenspraxis begreifen. Die alte Menschheit hatte keine meteorologischen Anstalten und Berichte, wo aus Zeitungen und so weiter die Witterung vorausgesagt werden konnte, aber sie hatte ein Empfinden, richtete sich nach ihrem Blick, der ihr in anschaulicher Weise darstellte, was eintreten wird. Das war ganz besonders in einem hohen Grade bei den alten Ägyptern der Fall, ohne daß sie unser zerlegendes Wissen und unsere Wissenschaft hatten; sie wußten sich so zu benehmen, daß es dem lebendigen Zusammenhange mit der ganzen Umwelt entsprach. Aber gerade weil die Weltenzeit für die ägyptische Kultur abgelaufen war, deshalb war immer mehr und mehr diese Fähigkeit der Ägypter in Verfall gekommen, und sie waren immer weniger und weniger imstande, sich in die Tatsachen der Natur hineinzufinden, wußten nicht mehr aus den Konstellationen der äußeren Elemente anzugeben, wie sie sich verhalten sollten. Denn die Menschen sollten die Konstellationen der äußeren Elemente mit dem Verstande durchschauen lernen, und Moses sollte dafür den Impuls noch aus dem hellseherischen Bewußtsein heraus geben.
Da sehen wir Moses mit seinem Volke hingestellt vor das Rote Meer, Durch ein Wissen, das dem unsrigen ähnlich ist, das bei ihm ins Hellseherische noch übersetzt ist, erkennt er, wie durch die natürlichen Zusammenhänge — durch eine besonders kombinierte Verbindung von Ostwind und dem ebbe- und flutartigen Gang des Meeres — eine Möglichkeit besteht, sein Volk zur günstigen Stunde durch das Meer hindurchzuführen. Dazu wird uns die Tatsache geschildert und gezeigt: Moses steht da als der Begründer der neuen, intellektualisierten Weltanschauung, die durchaus noch nicht abgelaufen erscheint, die den Menschen erst wieder lehren wird, die Lebenspraxis in Einklang mit den Naturverhältnissen zu bringen, wie es Moses getan hat. Die Ägypter waren ein Volk, dessen Stunde abgelaufen war; sie konnten nicht mehr wissen, was in später Stunde geschieht. Die alten Naturinstinkte waren bei ihnen verfallen. So standen sie an derselben Stelle wie in den alten Zeiten. Aber in den alten Zeiten hätten sie sich gesagt: Wir können jetzt nicht mehr hinüber! — Dieses alte, instinktive Naturfühlen war bei ihnen in Dekadenz gekommen, und in das neue, intellektuelle Bewußtsein konnten sie sich nicht hineinleben. Daher standen sie vor dem Roten Meere ratlos und beirrt da durch ihr nicht mehr maßgebendes Bewußtsein und verfielen dem Unglück. So sehen wir, wie das neue Element des Moses recht kontrastiert mit dem alten Element, sehen das alte Hellsehen so in Verfall gekommen, daß es an sich irre werden muß und sich durch das Nicht-mehr-Hineinpassen in die neue Zeit den Untergang bereiten muß. Wenn wir durch solche scheinbar äußeren Schilderungen auf das durchblicken, was der Darsteller eigentlich sagen will, so finden wir in solchen Angaben die großen Wendepunkte der Menschheitsentwickelung charakterisiert und begreifen, daß es gar nicht leicht ist, aus der ganzen eigenartigen Darstellung der alten Schriften die Bedeutung solcher Persönlichkeiten — wie zum Beispiel Moses — herauszufinden. Daß Moses ganz auf einem alten Hellsehen fußte, daß bei ihm die neue intellektuelle Kultur noch hellsehend war, das wird uns auch noch später da gezeigt, wo es sich entscheiden soll, ob er nun wirklich sein Volk nach Palästina hinüberführen soll. Dieses Volk sollte ja hinübergeführt werden als das, welches durch die ganze Blutart die intellektuelle Kultur begründen sollte. Was Moses als Hellsehen hatte, das konnte den Impuls geben, konnte aber selbst diese Kultur nicht sein. Denn hellsehend sollte diese Kultur nicht sein; sie sollte gerade als ein Neues gegenüber dem alten Hellsehen auftreten. Daher sehen wir, wie Moses sich berufen fühlte, sein Volk bis zu einem gewissen Punkte zu führen, es selber aber nicht in das neue Land führen konnte. Das sollte er denen überlassen, die zu der neuen Kultur berufen sind. Klar wird uns das in der Bibel gesagt. Während Moses der Verkünder des Gottes ist, der bis in die Ich-Wesenheit hinein sich verkündet, wird uns aber auch angedeutet, daß Moses nur imstande ist, durch seinen hellseherischen Blick die Wortgewalt dieses Weltengeistes zu vernehmen. Und als er in einer Lage ist, wo er — sich selbst überlassen — seinem Volke helfen soll, da flieht er zum Zelte hin, wo er hellseherisch seines Gottes wieder ansichtig werden könnte. Da wird ihm aber gesagt: Weil du nicht fortführen konntest, was dir im hellseherischen Denken gegeben ist, so muß ein anderer dein Volk fortführen. — Daraus spricht etwas, wodurch er uns aber auch wie in einem Glanze erscheint, der sagen will, daß der, der hellseherisch ist, als ein Prophet wie keiner mehr in Israel aufgetreten ist. Damit ist angedeutet, daß er der letzte war, der ein solches Hellsehen hatte, und daß die neue Kultur ohne Hellsehen, auf bloße Überlieferung hin und auf bloße Intellektualität bei den entsprechenden Völkern weiterwirken sollte, damit vorbereitet werden konnte, daß das Ich, dessen sich die Menschheit jetzt auf dieser neuen Kulturgrundlage bewußt geworden war, in sich aufnehmen konnte ein neues Element.
Durch die Mission des Moses war die Menschheit bis dahin geführt worden, wo sie einsehen konnte, daß der die Welt durchwebende und durchlebende Weltengeist sich am deutlichsten, am menschlichsten fühlen läßt im Ich-bin, im innersten Mittelpunkt der menschlichen Seele, daß aber erst das Ich-bin sich mit einem Gehalte anfüllen muß, der nun wieder die Welt umfassen kann, so daß das arme Wort Ich-bin reichsten Inhalt erhalten kann. Dazu war aber eine andere Mission notwendig, die Mission, die dann mit dem bedeutungsvollen Wort des Paulus ausgesprochen werden konnte: «Nicht ich — sondern der Christus in mir!» Bis zur Begründung einer Ich-Kultur hatte Moses die Menschheit geführt. Einzuleben hatte sich nun die Ich-Kultur wie eine Gabe von oben, wie eine Volkskultur, wie ein Gefäß, das neuen geistigen Inhalt aufnehmen sollte. Es sollte das Ich sich zunächst im Schoße des althebräischen Volkes entwickeln, und hineinfallen sollte in das Gefäß dasjenige, was von einem wirklich echten Verständnis der palästinensischen Ereignisse des Mysteriums von Golgatha ausgehen konnte. Da sollte das Ich wieder einen neuen Inhalt bekommen, einen Inhalt, der nun selber aus der geistigen Welt geschöpft war. Was aus der vorbereitenden Menschheitsentwickelung des althebräischen Volkes Neues in das Ich hineingegossen wurde, das können wir am besten ersehen, wenn wir die wunderbare, aber nur aus der Eigenart des althebräischen Volkes verständliche Tragödie des Buches Hiob uns vor Augen führen.
Da wird uns erzählt, daß Hiob — trotzdem er als ein Gerechter festhält an seinem Gotte und sich bewußt ist, daß alles, was er hat, von seinem Gotte stammt — Unglück über Unglück erfährt an seinem Eigentum, an seiner Familie, an seiner Person selber, so daß an den Offenbarungen seines Gottes etwas ist, was ihn irre machen könnte, daß nun wirklich jener Weltengeist, von dem wir eben gesprochen haben, sich auslebt im menschlichen Ich. So weit geht es, daß das Weib des Hiob nicht begreifen kann, warum ihr Mann noch an seinem Gotte festhält, und ihm daher das bedeutungsvolle Wort sagt, das von einer unvergleichlichen Bedeutung ist: «Sage deinem Gotte ab — und stirb!» Was heißt also im Sinne dieser bedeutungsvollen allegorischen Tragödie dieses Wort: «Sage deinem Gotte ab und stirb»? Nichts anderes als: Wenn der Gott, der der Quell deines Lebens sein soll, dich so behandelt, so sage ihm ab. Aber gewiß ist es dann, daß der Tod das Los ist der Absage an Gott, so daß der, welcher dem Gotte absagt, sich heraushebt aus dem lebendigen Werdegang. Die Freunde des Hiob können es nicht begreifen, daß er keine Sünde auf sich geladen habe, da sich doch die Ergebnisse an der gerechten Persönlichkeit ausleben müßten. Ja, der Darsteller selbst kann uns nicht anders begreiflich machen, daß die Weltgerechtigkeit dennoch besteht, als dadurch, daß der tiefgebeugte, ins Elend geworfene Hiob dennoch einen Ersatz bekommt in der physischen Welt für alles, was er verloren hat.
So klingt durch schon in der bedeutungsvollen Allegorie des Buches Hiob das Moses-Bewußtsein, so daß wir sehen: Es ist der Mensch gewiesen bis zu seinem Ich. Aber in dem Augenblick, wo er irren kann, da das Ich sich ausleben kann im Physischen, da verliert er — oder kann verlieren — das Bewußtsein des Zusammenhanges mit dem Lebensquell. Daß aber nicht bloß Ausgleich sein soll in der Welt des Physischen, sondern daß bei allem Verfall in das Elend des Physischen, in das Leid und in den Schmerz des Physischen der Mensch Sieger sein kann über alles Physische, weil in sein Ich nicht bloß der Urquell alles in Zeit und Raum Ausgedehnten hereinscheint, sondern weil in sein Ich herein die Macht des Ewigen aufgenommen werden kann — daß der Mensch dies verstehen lernt, das war mit dem Christus-Impuls gegeben. So war mit dem Worte des Paulus «Nicht ich — sondern der Christus in mir» gesagt: Bei Moses wurden die Menschen bis dahin geführt, daß sie begriffen: Alles, was die Welt in Raum und Zeit durchlebt und durchwebt, spricht sich in tiefster Eigenart im menschlichen Ich aus. Man begreift die Welt, wenn man sie in ihrer Einheit wie aus einem solchen Ich hervorgehend begreift. Willst du aber das Ewige in das Ich aufnehmen, so mußt du nicht bloß die Zusammenfassung des Zeitlichen, nicht bloß die Jahve-Einheit hinter allem in Raum und Zeit Ausgebreiteten erkennen, sondern den konzentrisch hinter aller Einheit selbst gegebenen Christus-Quell!
Damit sehen wir die Persönlichkeit des Moses als die wahre vorbereitende Persönlichkeit für das Christentum; sehen, wie dem menschlichen Selbstbewußtsein durch Moses gleichsam das Gefäß eingepflanzt worden ist, das nun in aller künftigen Menschheitsentwickelung durch die ewige geistige Substantialität, das heißt — im rechten Sinne verstanden — durch die Christus-Wesenheit ausgefüllt werden soll. So verstehen wir, wie Moses hereingestellt ist in den menschlichen Werdegang. Gerade durch eine solche Betrachtung gewinnt alles Anschauen in der Geschichte den tiefsten Sinn. Daß in diesem oder jenem Zeitpunkt diese oder jene Persönlichkeiten auftreten, daß durch dieselben jene ewigen Quellen für die Menschheit fließen, welche die Menschheit in ihrem Werdegange vorwärtsbringen, das erzeugt in uns das Gefühl von dem echten Zusammenhange des Einzelnen mit der ganzen Menschheitsentwickelung, auf den schon im vorigen Vortrage über Buddha aufmerksam gemacht worden ist.
Wenn wir so die Menschheitsentwickelung überblicken, sagen wir uns: Wir lernen uns in einem lebendigen Sinn der Entwickelung drinnenstehend erkennen. Wir lernen erkennen, wie sozusagen die Weltengeister mit unserem Dasein etwas gemeint haben, und wie das, was sie gemeint haben, im Leben immer mehr und mehr zum Vorschein kommt. Ja, gerade die Betrachtungen der größten Geister und der größten Ereignisse der Weltentwickelung und der Menschheitsgeschichte statten uns mit jenem Kraftbewußtsein, jener Zuversicht in unserer Seele aus, mit jener Hoffnungssicherheit, mit der wir dadurch allein in der gesamten Menschheitsbestimmung drinnenstehen können, daß wir die Weltgeschichte so überblicken und aufs neue das schöne Goethe-Wort empfinden, daß «das Beste», was die Geschichte in uns erzeugen kann, «der Enthusiasmus» ist. Jener Enthusiasmus aber, der nicht bloß tote Bewunderung bleibt, sondern der darin besteht, daß wir die Samen der Vorzeit in unsere Seele aufnehmen und die Samen für die Zukunft zu Früchten entwickeln. Und des Dichters Wort belebt sich in einer etwas veränderten Form, indem wir aus der Betrachtung der größten Persönlichkeiten und der größten Ereignisse die Wahrheit gewinnen:
Die Zeit, sie ist eine blühende Flur,
Ein großes Lebendiges ist der Menschheit Werdegang,
Und alles ist Frucht, und alles ist Same!
Moses
When considering those great historical individuals we dealt with in the previous lectures—Zoroaster, Hermes, and Buddha, we were confronted with phenomena that interest us as human beings, insofar as we feel that we are involved with our entire soul life in the overall development of humanity and can only understand the present if we look back on those spiritual greats of the past who helped build what has come down to us in the present. With Moses, whose personality we are to consider today, the situation is quite different. In everything connected with the name of Moses, we feel that something infinite still lives on directly in what is part of the spiritual content of our own soul. We feel, as it were, the impulses that emanated from Moses still reverberating in our limbs. We feel how he still lives in our thoughts and feelings, and how, in a sense, when we engage with him, we engage with a part of our own soul. Therefore, the ongoing tradition associated with Moses is present to us in a completely different way, more immediately apparent to us than the ongoing tradition associated with the other great figures we have considered. On the one hand, this makes it easy to deal with the personality of Moses, for everyone today knows this powerful figure, who towers above the ages, from the Bible. Even though conscientious research and serious scholarship in recent decades and years have brought to light many things that may shed new light on the history of Moses in a certain respect, insofar as we derive it from the Bible, we must nevertheless say, if we look closely: Very little has actually changed in the overall picture of Moses that we carry within us and have gained from the Bible. Therefore, when we speak of him, we speak of something that is widely known. This makes it easy to consider him, in a sense. On the other hand, however, we must say that the very nature of the tradition we have about Moses in the Bible makes this consideration difficult again. This can already be seen in the fate of biblical research in the nineteenth century. It cannot be emphasized enough that—even when we consider the natural sciences—hardly any other branch of human scholarship, of serious scientific endeavor, commands such deep esteem and sacred respect as nineteenth-century biblical scholarship. The diligence and acumen that were devoted, for example, to studying the individual parts of the Bible in terms of their style and what we think we know about their origin—the selfless scientific dedication that was practiced—cannot really be matched by anything else for those who are more familiar with biblical research. Nevertheless, there is something tragic about this nineteenth-century Bible research. For the further it has progressed, the more it has actually—if one may say so—taken the Bible out of our hands. For it has, in a sense—as anyone who picks up the popular books on the results of Bible research can see for themselves—taken the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in order to show us how one piece followed a different tradition than another, how everything has, in a sense, been brought together over time into a whole that scholarship would first have to dismantle in order to understand it. And in a certain sense, the result of this research can be called tragic because it is actually quite negative, because it has contributed nothing to reviving what the Bible can revive, what it has revived for millennia in the hearts and souls of people.
In a certain way, it is the task of that school of thought in our time, which we must call spiritual science, which often has the task of building up, not merely criticizing, in contrast to the other sciences of our time, that we learn to understand the Bible itself again, above all, that we raise the question with regard to the Bible: Is it not necessary first to penetrate the overall meaning of the traditions in all their depth, and only then, after fully understanding them, to ask about their origin? This is by no means easy, especially with regard to the Old Testament, and particularly difficult with regard to those parts of the Old Testament that deal with the personality, the great figure of Moses. For what does spiritual science show us as a peculiarity of biblical descriptions? It shows us that external events, external facts connected with this or that personality, this or that people, are presented as they unfold in external historical observation, so that we receive the personality of Moses in the Bible in such a way that his experiences in the external physical world, as they unfold in space and time, are presented to us. But then it becomes apparent — and, in fact, only a spiritual-scientific deepening of the Bible can yield this result — that a description that initially deals with external events and experiences in the external world continues directly in the biblical account into a description of a completely different kind, which is difficult to distinguish from what precedes it. Journeys and other external experiences are recounted, which we simply have to accept as such. Then the narrative continues in such a way that we do not initially notice that we are in the middle of a description of a completely different kind, as if a journey were continuing from one place to another, and as if the further experiences were to be taken as external physical experiences just like the previous ones. And then we find ourselves in the middle of a description of the inner life of the personality in question, a description that does not refer to external events at all, but to inner soul struggles, spiritual triumphs, spiritual experiences, through which the personality in question then ascends to a higher level of spiritual development, of knowledge, to a higher level of energy or to a mission in world development. In a sense, the descriptions of external events suddenly merge into symbolic representations, which are kept entirely in the style of the earlier external events, but which do not refer to external experiences at all, but to inner soul experiences. It must be said that this assertion will remain an assertion for everyone as long as they do not use spiritual scientific representations to immerse themselves more and more in the peculiarity of the descriptions in the Bible, especially the parts that deal with Moses. But when one becomes familiar with this peculiarity, one learns to feel how, at such points where an external description of physical experiences merges into a description of soul experiences and developments, the whole style, the whole basic tone changes, and a new element suddenly appears in the description, causing us to ask ourselves: Why is that? This “why” can then be answered in no other way than by the conviction that can be gained from the soul itself. We are dealing with that peculiarity of presentation which has just been characterized. This is found, basically, in all ancient religious-historical presentations, especially when personalities are to be described who have attained a certain level of knowledge, of soul activity, and one becomes familiar with such a style as one becomes more and more attuned to spiritual science. This makes it difficult, so to speak, to gain a full understanding from the biblical account of what is meant in the individual passages describing Moses.
So, on the one hand, we have the Bible, but on the other hand, we also have difficulties with its style of presentation, where it delves into particular depths. This has meant that, in relation to the interpretation of the Bible, people have sometimes gone too far. If, for example, we consider the interpretation of ancient Hebrew history by Philo, a philosopher who lived at the time of the founding of Christianity, we see how he wants to present the entire history of the ancient Hebrew people as an allegory. He wants to give a symbolic representation of the view of history, so that the whole history would be a kind of symbolism of the soul experiences of a people. That would have gone too far. Philo went that far because he lacked the spiritual scientific tact to know where external experiences flow into soul experiences.
Moses is now to be shown how a personality intervenes in the living course of human development who had something supreme and most significant to bring to humanity. If we feel that we still have something related to this significance in our souls, then a full understanding of the Moses impulse becomes a very special necessity. Therefore, we can, in a sense, go straight into the mission of Moses without further ado. But one cannot understand this mission of Moses unless one assumes that, basically, the biblical account is based on the awareness of a fact that we have already been able to grasp when considering the individualities of Hermes, Buddha, and Zarathustra: that human development in relation to the soul life of human beings has undergone a transition over time from an ancient clairvoyant state to the present state of our intellectual consciousness. Let us mention once again that in ancient times, the human soul was able to look into a spiritual world in certain intermediate states between waking and sleeping, that what was seen in this way in the spiritual world was represented in images, and that these images have been preserved for us in the mythologies and legends of ancient times. If someone asks: How can one prove the ancient clairvoyant consciousness externally without spiritual science? The answer to this question can be found through conscientious research, which has already been carried out in our time, but which has not yet found full recognition. It should be noted that certain mythologists, with regard to myth-like formations, legends, and so on, which developed in individual peoples at a relatively late stage, felt compelled to assume a completely different kind of human state of consciousness for the emergence of such myths. In the past, I have often referred to an interesting book by a mythologist who must be considered the most important mythologist in recent research: I am referring to Ludwig Laistner and his book “Rätsel der Sphinx” (The Riddle of the Sphinx). This book is one of the most important in its field. It shows that certain myths appear to be continuations of events in the dream world that are typically experienced. Laistner did not go as far as spiritual science; he was not aware that he was providing the first building blocks for a real understanding of ancient mythologies. But myths and legends cannot be understood as the transformation of typical dreams, as Laistner understood them; rather, they must be understood as arising from an earlier state of human consciousness that saw the spiritual world in images and therefore also expressed it in images. No one can truly understand the ancient legends, myths, and tales—which is why so little is being done to understand them—unless they assume, initially as a hypothesis, that the ancient mythologies were created from a different state of human consciousness. This ancient pre-human, or at least prehistoric, state of mind has transitioned into the current state of consciousness, which can be briefly characterized by saying that we alternate between waking and sleeping in terms of our consciousness. In waking consciousness, we take possession of the perceptions of the outer world through our senses and link the perceptions, combining them through our intellect. Sensual-intellectual consciousness, which works through our mind, through our reason, has replaced the ancient clairvoyant state of mind. We have thus characterized a phase of history as it appears when we look at the depths of human development.
But there is something else underlying such representations as they are given in the Bible. That is that every people, every tribe, every human race, as they appear in the course of human development, is assigned a certain mission, so to speak. The ancient clairvoyant forms of consciousness appeared in different ways, in the most diverse forms, depending on the talents and temperament of the individual peoples. Therefore, we have handed down the unity of the ancient clairvoyant consciousness in the various mythologies and pagan religious beliefs of the individual peoples. So we can say: there is not just an abstract unity of this ancient view of the world, but the most diverse peoples and races have been given the most diverse missions, and through this the common consciousness has been shaped in the most diverse ways. But then, if we want to understand this development of humanity, we must take into account that it is not a meaningless succession of cultures, but that a meaning runs through the entire course of human development, so that a certain form of consciousness later lives itself out in a particular culture, because the later has something like a new leaf, a new blossom to add to the earlier, because the overall meaning of human development lives itself out in successive forms. Thus, in the spiritual scientific sense, we best understand a people by saying to ourselves: These peoples in question — be they the ancient Indians, Persians, Babylonians, Greeks, or Romans — all had a specific mission; in a very special way, what can live in human consciousness has developed in them. We cannot understand these peoples unless we are able to perceive their very special, individual character as their mission. Now, however, the overall development of humanity proceeds in such a way that, so to speak, a time is allotted to each such mission. When this time has elapsed, the mission in question is fulfilled. The mission in question was assigned to a people. The hour may have passed, so to speak, for the mission of that people. What was contained in its germ has borne fruit and lived itself out. But then the case may arise that this or that people retains the corresponding idiosyncrasy, that which lies in its temperament and other dispositions. Then, so to speak, the people in question skip the point in time when a new mission is to take the place of the old one, living on with their characteristics into the later period, while the objective course of human development has replaced them with something new.
This can be seen particularly in the case of the Egyptians, whose characteristics we learned about in the lecture on Hermes. The Egyptians had a high mission in the overall development of humanity. But this mission once developed everything that lay within it. What was to come next was indeed germinally present in Egyptian culture, but the Egyptian people as such retained their temperament, their idiosyncrasy, and were unable to form the new mission out of themselves. Therefore, the guidance and leadership of humanity had to pass to another element of humanity. This had to grow out of the Egyptian element, but it had to be something else. So we see something like a change of direction in the overall sense of human development. To understand this, we must consider the course of the Egyptian mission. Moses first allowed what could be gleaned from it to work upon his soul. This also worked upon the souls of his people. But his calling was not to continue the old Egyptian mission, but to instill something entirely new into human development. And because this new thing was so powerful, so comprehensive, and so decisive in nature, the personality of Moses is so powerful for the overall course of human history, and the way in which Moses' mission developed out of the past development of the Egyptian people is so interesting and fruitful to consider even in our time. For what Moses brought out of the Egyptian people, what he then added as if from the eternal heights of spiritual development, continues to have an effect on our souls. That is why Moses was perceived as a personality who, in a sense, did not have to take what he had to give to humanity not directly from any particular time or special mission, but Moses was understood as a personality whose soul must have been touched by the waves of the eternal, which sinks into human development again and again through new channels in order to fertilize it. What was present as the eternal core in Moses' soul had to find its ground and mature on what he could extract from Egyptian culture.
That Moses is a soul who had to offer the highest that he had to give from eternal sources is symbolically indicated to us in the manner of ancient representations in the confinement of Moses in the box soon after his birth. Anyone familiar with such representations in religious development knows that they always point to something significant. From earlier presentations in this lecture series, we know that if a person wants to raise their consciousness to higher, spiritual worlds, they must go through certain stages of soul development by completely shutting themselves off from their surroundings and awakening the most elementary spiritual powers of their soul. If we now want to show that such a person already brings with them at birth those spiritual gifts that lead to the heights of humanity, there is no better way to do so than to say: it was necessary for this personality to undergo an experience, so to speak, into the physical realm, whereby their senses, everything they have in terms of perception, are, as it were, cut off from the physical world. — It then makes sense to us when we hear that the Egyptian king's daughter, the daughter of the Pharaoh, herself took the boy out of the water and named him “Moses” because she said, “For I drew him out of the water.” For those who understand the name Moses — as the Bible also suggests — this is already contained in the name itself. It was meant to say that the representative of Egyptian culture, the daughter of Pharaoh, steered life into a soul filled with eternity. In this way, we are wonderfully shown how the eternal, which Moses had to bring to humanity, is enveloped in the outer shell of Egyptian culture and mission.Then we are presented with the external experiences in the development of Moses. Here we see again how the Bible presents its account in such a way that it refers to external experiences. What we read in the Bible about the fate of Moses and about all the pain he experienced through the enslavement of his people in Egypt can be seen as a representation of external circumstances. But then the account—it must be said, unnoticed—transitions into a description of Moses' inner soul experiences. This happens when Moses flees and is led to a priest, the Midianite priest Jethro or Reguel. Anyone who can recognize such a depiction from the conventions of ancient spiritual representations will discover, except for the names, that here the depiction transitions into a description of Moses' inner experiences. This is not meant to imply that Moses did not actually undertake such a journey to a temple site, a priestly teaching center, but the depiction is artfully rendered in such a way that the external is interwoven with the experiences that Moses' soul undergoes. Thus, the external experiences presented to us at this point are everywhere hints of what Moses is struggling through in order to attain a higher position of the soul. What is hinted at in Jethro? It is easy to see from the Bible that he is one of the individualities to whom we are led again and again when we go through the process of becoming human, who have struggled to a high degree to attain a comprehensive knowledge, a knowledge that can only be gained by slowly and gradually, through inner soul struggles, living into what can give understanding to those spiritual heights on which such people walk. Moses was inspired to his mission by becoming, in a sense, the disciple of such a mysterious figure, who withdraws with their senses for the rest of humanity and are only the teachers of the leaders of humanity. I am well aware that this is saying something that many people today find offensive. But it is something that should be obvious to anyone who takes a deeper look at the historical development of humanity, that such mysteries and mysterious personalities exist.
What Moses was to experience as a disciple of this great priest-sage is presented to us in such a way that he first meets the seven daughters of the priest-sage at a well — again a symbol, a symbol of the source of wisdom — at the place where he seeks out the priest. Anyone who wants to understand the deeper meaning of such a description must first of all remember that in all mythical representations, at all times, what the soul can develop in itself in terms of higher knowledge and soul forces is always represented by the symbol of female figures — right down to Goethe in his words at the end of Faust about the “eternal feminine.” Thus, in the “seven daughters” of the priest Jethro, we recognize the seven human soul forces over which the wisdom of the priest-sage had power. It must be borne in mind that in those ancient times, which were still thoroughly animated by the consciousness of ancient clairvoyance, different views prevailed about what the human soul is with its individual powers. We can only form an idea of this consciousness if we start from concepts that we ourselves have today. Today we speak of the human soul and its powers, thinking, feeling, and willing, in such a way—and it is correct to speak this way from the standpoint of intellectual consciousness—that we have these powers within us, that they form, as it were, inclusions of the soul. Ancient man thought differently under the influence of clairvoyant gifts. At first, they did not feel such a unified being in their soul, nor did they feel such powers in their thinking, feeling, and willing that work from the center of the I and organize the soul in a unified way. Instead, ancient people felt themselves to be devoted to the macrocosm and the individual powers, and they felt the individual soul powers to be connected with special divine-spiritual beings. As we can imagine — but do not do — that our thinking is fertilized and carried by a spiritual world force other than our feeling and our will, so that different currents, different spiritual forces from the macrocosm pour into our thinking, feeling, and willing, and that we are connected to them — the ancient human being did not feel the soul as a unified whole, but said to himself: What is within me is only the soul's stage, and it is spiritual-divine forces from the universe that play out on this stage.
There were seven such soul forces given to Moses, which had an effect on the stage of soul life. If we want to see how, in general, the whole of human consciousness became more and more abstract and intellectual, we can look, for example, at Plato, whose ideas are living beings that exist in a way that only matter does for people today. And the individual soul force has something that has an effect on the whole soul. But more and more, the soul's abilities become abstract concepts, and the unity of the I comes more and more into its own. Strange as it may sound, we can still recognize in an abstract form what the seven daughters of the Midianite priest are supposed to symbolize, namely the seven living spiritual forces that are supposed to work on the stage of the soul, in the medieval seven liberal arts; just as the seven liberal arts emerge from the human soul, this is the last abstract echo of the consciousness that seven abilities are lived out in the soul, that these seven abilities have the soul as their arena.If we take this into account, we are led to the fact that Moses, with his soul, stood before the total aspect of the seven human soul forces, but that he had the task of instilling one of them completely as an impulse of human development. He was able to do this because the special blood constitution and temperament of his people enabled him to take a special interest in this soul force, the effects of which extend down to us. This was the soul force that unites the other soul forces, previously thought of as separate, into a unified inner soul life, into an I-life. That is why it is said that one of Jethro's daughters married Moses. This means that one of the soul forces became particularly effective in his soul, so effective that, under his impulse, it became the dominant soul force for a long period of human development, uniting the others into a unified I-soul.
Such descriptions must be given with great reserve in our time. For our time has, so to speak, no real organ for understanding that those descriptions which appear to be external, physical experiences are given precisely to show that in the time for which they are described, the soul in question is undergoing an inner development, that is, is being specially called to its mission. Thus we see what the ancient Egyptians did not have: this inspiration of Moses with the human ego force, with the center of the human soul forces, is precisely what is decisive for him. We may therefore say that it was the mission of the ancient Egyptian people to establish a culture with the mission of ancient clairvoyance. Everything that Egyptian culture has handed down to us as its best still springs from the special kind of clairvoyant powers that the Egyptian priest-sages and the leaders of the Egyptian people possessed. But the world clock for this mission had run out, so to speak, and humanity was to be called upon to develop the soul power that was to replace the old, dull clairvoyance for a long period of human development. Self-consciousness, intellectuality, rationalism, reason, and understanding, directed toward the external sensory world, were to be introduced into humanity in place of the old clairvoyance. But I have also already mentioned that in the future the two types will combine: clairvoyant power with intellectual consciousness, so that humanity is moving toward a future where intellectuality interwoven with clairvoyant power will be commonplace for people.
What we today regard as the most important element in cultural life received its first impulse from Moses, hence the continuing effect of Moses' impulse can still be felt in our own soul power. Intellectual thinking, working with understanding and reason, was what was given to Moses. But it was given to him in a very special way. For everything that is to appear later in its special character must first be given in the character of ancient times. Here we have a wonderful fact spread out before us. What later humanity owes to Moses is the power to develop reason and intellect, to think intellectually about the world from the consciousness of the I in a fully awake state, to enlighten oneself intellectually about the world. Moses had to be given the consciousness of intellectuality in such a way that the intellectual consciousness still shone in him in the manner of the ancient clairvoyants. This means that Moses had the first intellectual impulse, but for him it was still clairvoyance. For him, it was the first of the new impulses and the last of the old ones. What later humanity had outside of clairvoyance, he had within it. The knowledge for pure reason and understanding was given to him when his soul was put into clairvoyant states by the influence he had received from the Midianite priest, for example, in the experience before the “burning bush,” which glowed with such fire that it did not burn. There the world spirit revealed itself to Moses in a new way, as it had not been able to reveal itself to the clairvoyant knowledge of the Egyptians.
Those who are familiar with the facts know how, in the course of development, the human soul gradually comes to see external objects as transformed, so that they appear interwoven with the archetypes from which they sprang. And the image that is presented to us in the Bible in the form of the “burning bush” is recognized by everyone who advances to spiritual knowledge as something through which one can see into a spiritual world. Thus we understand how what had to be given to Moses in a clairvoyant way must have been a new consciousness of the world spirit that interweaves and permeates the world. While earlier peoples looked up to the majority of the world forces in such a way that these forces act upon the human soul in such a way that the individual soul forces do not represent a unity but a multiplicity, and the human soul is only their stage — Moses was now to recognize a world spirit that does not reveal itself merely to a single soul force, that does not stand alongside spirits of equal value who influence other soul forces; but Moses should recognize that world spirit which can only reveal itself in the deepest, most sacred center of soul life, which lives out only in the I itself, where the human soul becomes conscious of its center. When the human soul feels that it stands in the weaving and life of the spiritual in the I, as the peoples once felt that they stood with their being in the spiritual world forces, then the soul feels what was first revealed to Moses through clairvoyant knowledge and what should be regarded as the foundation of the world, from which the peoples received the impulse through Moses, and which can be understood with the intellect that combines the phenomena of the world as that which underlies the unity of the world. When human beings today look at the center of their soul life, it is still something that must appear to them to be quite poor in content, even though it is the strongest thing that human beings can experience. Highly gifted individuals in particular have felt drawn to this center of their soul life in the course of their lives, for example Jean Paul, who recounts in his autobiography: "I will never forget the phenomenon within me, which I have never told anyone about, when I stood at the birth of my self-consciousness, the place and time of which I can specify. One morning, as a very young child, I was standing under the front door and looking to the left toward the woodpile when suddenly the inner face ‘I am an I’ struck me like a bolt of lightning from the sky and has remained shining ever since: there, for the first time, my I had seen itself, and forever. Deceptions of memory are hardly conceivable here, since no foreign narrative could add to an event that took place in the veiled inner sanctum of man, whose novelty alone gave permanence to such everyday circumstances. — What the “veiled inner sanctum” is appears to man as the strongest, most powerful part of his soul, but he cannot become as aware of it as he can of the manifold other experiences of the soul: it is not as rich. When man withdraws to this center, he feels that in the wonderful words “I am,” powerful and intense, but with little verbal content, this center of his soul life resounds.
The world spirit that became clear to Moses as the unified world spirit works its way into this veiled holy of holies. No wonder that when this world spirit revealed itself to him, Moses said to himself: If I am given the task of standing before the people to inaugurate a culture based on self-awareness, who will believe me? In whose name shall I found my mission? The answer he received was: “You shall say: I am the I AM!” — That is to say: You cannot express the name of that being which announces itself in the innermost sanctuary of the human being other than with the word that denotes selfhood! Thus Moses saw in the appearance of the burning bush the nature of Yahweh or Jehovah, and we understand that at the hour when the name of Yahweh dawned in Moses as “I am,” a new current, a new element entered into the development of humanity, that the old Egyptian culture, in which Moses had only to educate his soul in order to understand what was to be the highest thing he would encounter in life, was to be replaced.
Then we have Moses' conversation with Pharaoh. We can easily see that Moses and Pharaoh stand opposite each other and cannot understand each other. The descriptions are intended to show that everything Moses has to say from a completely transformed human consciousness must remain incomprehensible to Pharaoh, in whom only the after-effects of the old clairvoyant Egyptian culture can live on. This is vividly illustrated in the way clairvoyant documents speak. For Moses speaks a new language, clothing what he has to say in words that spring from the ego consciousness of the human soul, which must remain completely incomprehensible to what Pharaoh could only think. Thus, until that moment in world history, the entire Egyptian people were entrusted with a mission that they could accomplish on the basis of the old clairvoyant consciousness. But the time for that had passed. If the Egyptian people continued to live, they continued to live with the characteristics, temperament, and so on that they had before, but they did not find the transition from the abyss that opened up between the old time and the new, for which the Hebrew people were destined. Moses found this transition from the old to the new time. Therefore, the memory of what Moses found with his people was celebrated as a reminder of the transition from the old to the new era, the Passover. For this Passover was to remind us that with Moses, it was possible to bridge the abyss from the old to the new era. The Egyptians could not bridge this abyss, while they remained as a people and time passed them by. This is how we should think of Moses' relationship to the Egyptians and to his own people.
What Moses had to give his own people was entirely based on the nature of the ancient Hebrew people. What was it? The old clairvoyance was to be replaced by intellectual consciousness. Now, in the previous lectures, it has been shown how clairvoyant consciousness is not bound to the outer physicality, how it unfolds freely precisely when the human being, through his soul exercises, becomes free in his soul life from the outer physical instrument. Intellectual consciousness, however, has the human organism as its instrument and tool, as it is bound to the brain and the blood. What used to hover, as it were, above the physical organization and found its further development beyond the organization through the relationship between teacher and student, had to become established as bound to a physical organization, that is, bound to what flowed on from generation to generation with the blood of the people. Therefore, what Moses was to give, because it was the impulse for an intellectual culture, could only be given to a people who strictly adhered to the flow of blood through the generations. The essence of the new culture was initially bound to this instrument. It had to live itself out in such a way that it did not merely live itself out in the spiritual, but in such a way that the people were brought out from among the other people within whom they had enjoyed their preparation, and then, purely for themselves, in a separate succession of generations, in a separate flow of blood through the centuries, developed the external tool that was to create the foundation for intellectual culture for all future generations.
This shows us how world history becomes meaningful and how the spiritual is linked to the external physical instrument of blood. We can see in the Bible how the author is concerned to show that the transition from the ancient culture of the Egyptians to the culture of Moses should be presented in its world-historical significance, for example in the passage through the Red Sea. Behind the passage of the Israelites through the sea and the drowning of the Egyptians lies a wonderful fact for the development of humanity. This fact only becomes clear to us when we understand these events.
Here we see in the Egyptian people the truth of what is necessarily connected with the soul forces in what is called clairvoyant culture. Based on what has been said in these lectures so far, you will not assume that I want to bring human beings closer to animal nature. But what needs to be made clear here can best be understood if we take the animal organization as our starting point. We must imagine that the whole animal imagination and animal soul life is dreamlike and dull compared to the human, especially the intellectual soul life. Although ancient human clairvoyance cannot be compared to animal soul life and differs radically from it, we can nevertheless identify a trait in animal soul life, in the instinctive life of animals, that was also present in ancient human soul life. Even if it is often exaggerated in the relevant descriptions, there is some truth in the fact that when earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and so on occur, animals flee days in advance. While humans, who understand everything through their intellect, remain seated, animals are shaken up. Thus we see in the dull instinctive life of the animal an interweaving with the life of nature, and we see how it works. The descriptions are often exaggerated. But those who are familiar with spiritual science know that animal nature is so interwoven with the whole of surrounding natural life that we can, in a sense, speak of a “knowledge” that regulates the life of the animal in its elementary powers and that humans do not have because they have developed their higher intellect, which enables them to summarize things through concepts, but which has also torn them away from their interweaving with nature itself.
Now, with the help of ancient clairvoyance, we must imagine such an instinctive interweaving of humans with the facts of nature, an instinctive recognition that told humans: This and that is happening; this or that is being prepared — just as with people who, through the efforts of the soul, rise to a higher level of knowledge, when their whole disposition is favorable for this, such insight into the facts of nature becomes possible, an insight for which no “reasons” can be given. Those who work on their soul and, based on the configuration of the soul, know how to say things that intellectual consciousness cannot say, feel uncomfortable when people ask everywhere: Why is that so? Prove to me what you have to say! — People do not realize that such knowledge takes a completely different path than knowledge gained from intellectual logic. It is quite fitting that Goethe, when he looked out of the window, could often predict for hours what kind of weather would come. If we imagine that ancient people had this ability, that by entering the spiritual world they had the opportunity to be interwoven with nature and its facts in a completely different way than people today with their science, then we will understand one of the basic features of ancient clairvoyance for practical life. Ancient humanity had no meteorological institutions or reports where the weather could be predicted from newspapers and so on, but it had a sense of perception, guided by its gaze, which presented it with a vivid picture of what was to come. This was particularly true of the ancient Egyptians, who did not have our analytical knowledge and science; they knew how to behave in a way that corresponded to their living connection with the whole environment. But precisely because the world time for Egyptian culture had come to an end, this ability of the Egyptians had increasingly fallen into decline, and they were less and less able to find their way into the facts of nature, no longer knowing how to behave based on the constellations of the outer elements. For human beings were to learn to understand the constellations of the outer elements with their minds, and Moses was to give the impulse for this from his clairvoyant consciousness.
There we see Moses standing with his people before the Red Sea. Through knowledge similar to ours, which in his case is still translated into clairvoyance, he recognizes how, through natural connections — through a particularly combined connection of the east wind and the ebb and flow of the sea — there is a possibility of leading his people through the sea at the favorable hour. To this end, the fact is described and shown to us: Moses stands there as the founder of the new, intellectualized worldview, which does not yet appear to have run its course, which will teach people once again to bring their way of life into harmony with the conditions of nature, as Moses did. The Egyptians were a people whose time had passed; they could no longer know what would happen in the future. Their ancient natural instincts had decayed. So they stood in the same place as in ancient times. But in ancient times they would have said to themselves: We can no longer cross over! — This ancient, instinctive feeling for nature had fallen into decadence among them, and they could not live their way into the new, intellectual consciousness. Therefore, they stood before the Red Sea, perplexed and confused by their no longer authoritative consciousness, and fell into misfortune. Thus, we see how the new element of Moses contrasts sharply with the old element, how the old clairvoyance has fallen into such decay that it must become confused and, by no longer fitting into the new era, must bring about its own downfall. When we look through such seemingly external descriptions to see what the author actually wants to say, we find in such statements the great turning points of human development characterized and understand that it is not at all easy to discover the significance of such personalities — such as Moses, for example — from the whole peculiar presentation of the ancient writings. That Moses was based entirely on an ancient clairvoyance, that in his case the new intellectual culture was still clairvoyant, is also shown to us later, when it is to be decided whether he should really lead his people to Palestine. This people was to be led over as the one that was to establish intellectual culture through its entire bloodline. What Moses had as clairvoyance could give the impulse, but could not itself be this culture. For this culture was not to be clairvoyant; it was to appear as something new in contrast to the old clairvoyance. Therefore, we see how Moses felt called to lead his people to a certain point, but could not himself lead them into the new land. He was to leave that to those who were called to the new culture. This is clearly stated in the Bible. While Moses is the herald of the God who proclaims himself into the I-being, we are also given to understand that Moses is only able to perceive the eloquence of this world spirit through his clairvoyant gaze. And when he finds himself in a situation where he is left to his own devices to help his people, he flees to the tent where he can clairvoyantly see his God again. But there he is told: Because you could not continue what was given to you in clairvoyant thinking, another must lead your people on. This speaks of something that also makes him appear to us as if in a halo, as if to say that no one else in Israel has ever appeared as a prophet with such clairvoyance. This indicates that he was the last to have such clairvoyance, and that the new culture, without clairvoyance, based on mere tradition and mere intellectuality among the corresponding peoples, was to continue so that the ego, of which humanity had now become conscious on this new cultural basis, could take in a new element.
Through the mission of Moses, humanity had been led to the point where it could understand that the world spirit that permeates and animates the world can be felt most clearly, most humanly, in the I am, in the innermost center of the human soul, but that the I Am must first be filled with content that can now encompass the world again, so that the poor word I Am can receive the richest content. But this required another mission, the mission that could then be expressed with Paul's meaningful words: “Not I — but Christ in me!” Moses had led humanity to the establishment of an I-culture. The I-culture now had to take root like a gift from above, like a folk culture, like a vessel that was to receive new spiritual content. The I was to develop first in the womb of the ancient Hebrew people, and what could spring from a truly genuine understanding of the Palestinian events of the Mystery of Golgotha was to fall into the vessel. There the I was to receive new content, content that was now drawn from the spiritual world itself. We can best see what was poured into the ego as something new from the preparatory human development of the ancient Hebrew people when we consider the wonderful tragedy of the Book of Job, which can only be understood from the peculiarity of the ancient Hebrew people.There we are told that Job — despite being a righteous man who holds fast to his God and is aware that everything he has comes from his God — suffers misfortune after misfortune in his property, his family, and his own person, so that there is something in the revelations of his God that could confuse him, that now the world spirit we have just spoken of is truly living out its life in the human ego. It goes so far that Job's wife cannot understand why her husband still clings to his God, and therefore says to him the meaningful words that are of incomparable significance: “Renounce your God — and die!” So what does this phrase, “Renounce your God and die,” mean in the context of this meaningful allegorical tragedy? Nothing other than: If the God who is supposed to be the source of your life treats you this way, then renounce him. But it is certain then that death is the fate of renouncing God, so that those who renounce God remove themselves from the living process. Job's friends cannot understand that he has not sinned, since the consequences must be lived out by the righteous personality. Indeed, the author himself can only make us understand that world justice nevertheless exists by showing that Job, deeply bowed down and thrown into misery, nevertheless receives compensation in the physical world for everything he has lost.
Thus, the Moses consciousness resounds through the meaningful allegory of the Book of Job, so that we see: Man is guided to his ego. But at the moment when he can err, when the ego can live itself out in the physical, he loses — or can lose — the consciousness of his connection with the source of life. But that there should not only be balance in the physical world, but that in all the decay into the misery of the physical, into the suffering and pain of the physical, man can be victorious over all that is physical, because not only does the original source of all that extends in time and space shine into his ego, but because the power of the eternal can be taken into his ego — that man learns to understand this was given with the Christ impulse. Thus, with the words of Paul, “Not I — but Christ in me,” it was said: With Moses, people were led to understand that everything that the world experiences and weaves through space and time expresses itself in its deepest essence in the human I. One understands the world when one understands it in its unity as emanating from such an I. But if you want to take in the eternal into the I, you must recognize not only the synthesis of the temporal, not only the Yahweh unity behind everything spread out in space and time, but also the Christ source given concentrically behind all unity itself!
Thus we see the personality of Moses as the true preparatory personality for Christianity; we see how, through Moses, the vessel has been implanted, as it were, into human self-consciousness, which is now to be filled in all future human development by eternal spiritual substantiality, that is, understood in the right sense, by the Christ being. In this way we understand how Moses is placed in the course of human development. It is precisely through such a view that everything we see in history gains its deepest meaning. The fact that this or that personality appears at this or that moment in time, that through them flow those eternal sources for humanity which advance humanity in its development, creates in us the feeling of the genuine connection of the individual with the whole of human development, which was already pointed out in the previous lecture on Buddha.
When we look at the development of humanity in this way, we say to ourselves: We learn to recognize ourselves as being part of a living sense of development. We learn to recognize how, so to speak, the world spirits have meant something with our existence, and how what they have meant is becoming more and more apparent in life. Yes, it is precisely the contemplation of the greatest spirits and the greatest events in world development and human history that endow us with that awareness of strength, that confidence in our soul, that certainty of hope, with which we can stand within the entire destiny of humanity solely by surveying world history in this way and feeling anew Goethe's beautiful words that “the best” that history can produce in us is “enthusiasm.” But this enthusiasm is not merely dead admiration; rather, it consists in our taking the seeds of the past into our souls and developing the seeds for the future into fruit. And the poet's words come to life in a slightly modified form as we gain truth from our contemplation of the greatest personalities and the greatest events:
Time is a blossoming field,
The course of humanity is a great living thing,
And everything is fruit, and everything is seed!